The College Game Today

[Bosco]

This was a little too predictable to be enjoyable. You could see it coming from a month away.

The Connecticut Huskies, nearly everyone's pick to win college basketball's national championship, avenged their early-season loss to Georgia Tech and won the national title 82-73 Monday night inside the Alamodome.

As expected, the Huskies dominated, taking a 15-point lead at halftime and leading by double-digits for nearly two-thirds of the game. We'd heard since February that coach Jim Calhoun's Huskies were the best team in the land … when All-America center Emeka Okafor is healthy.

Okafor's back didn't trouble him Monday night. He had no problem outplaying Georgia Tech 7-footer Luke Schenscher, and the Nigerian post man erased the memory of his poor showing in UConn's 16-point loss to Georgia Tech in the preseason NIT. Okafor dropped in 24 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked two shots. He's ready to take his act to the NBA.

As dominant as Okafor and the Huskies were, you didn't leave the Alamodome believing you'd witnessed greatness. This wasn't Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony and UNLV running over the Duke Blue Devils by 30 points in 1990. The Rebels made you feel as if you were watching a special team on a special night.

Monday night was business as usual. Monday night was a good team whipping a solid team that had run out of miracles, gas and answers. We knew what would happen from the opening tip.

Okafor is a good athlete. He plays a solid game. He's not the next Hakeem Olajuwon or Alonzo Mourning or even the next Chris Webber. You don't have to be great to dominate the college game anymore. An 18-year-old kid, Carmelo Anthony, dominated college hoops last year. Anthony was a far better college player than Okafor, a 21-year-old junior.

But we knew Okafor would run wild Monday night. How could he not? There was no one to stop him. Schenscher is a poor man's Rik Smits. Remember Rik Smits, the former Indiana Pacers center from the Netherlands? Smits played at Marist. Schools like Marist used to be training grounds for scrawny, fundamentally sound 7-footers from overseas. Now college basketball is so watered down that Schenscher, a native of Australia, is a force in the ACC, the world's most elite college basketball conference.

The game has changed. Monday's game was nearly unwatchable in the first half.

UConn led by 15 points at the break despite shooting 40 percent from the field. The Huskies turned the ball over nine times in the opening 20 minutes. They were sloppy and undisciplined. Rashad Anderson repeatedly took unwise three-pointers with lots of time on the shot clock. He missed four of his first five three-pointers.

As bad as UConn was, the Yellow Jackets were worse. Tech's top scorer, B.J. Elder, remained in his ankle-sprain funk. He moved more effortlessly Monday night than he had in Tech's two previous contests, but his shots just wouldn't fall. No one coach Paul Hewitt put in the game could find his shooting touch. Three-point bomber Marvin Lewis couldn't connect. Point guard Jarrett Jack, the star of Tech's win over Kansas, shot poorly. So did reserve Isma'il Muhammad.

You could credit UConn's defense, but that would be posturing. Georgia Tech's players missed open looks.

It was an ugly game. The Yellow Jackets rallied late when the Huskies missed some free throws and Elder and Will Bynum threw in some late three-pointers. The final score was no indication of what happened most of the night.

Unfortunately the night was predictable. There is no way to fix the college game. We just need to lower our expectations. We just need to celebrate the coaches. They're the stars. Jim Calhoun is a star now. He's won his second national title. He's advanced to two Final Fours and has won titles both times.

I don't know Calhoun well enough to tell you what makes him great. There's nothing all that innovative about UConn's style of play. The Huskies don't run a particular offense or defense that sets them apart from everyone else. Calhoun recruits good players and coaches them well.

I'd love to lie to you and tell you we saw something special Monday night. We didn't. The truth is I'm mad I wasn't at Kauffman Stadium on Monday. Wow. That sounded like magic.

[Philliesfan980]

Well written. I'm surprised that more people didn't comment on your post.

I'm tired and just got home from a long day of work, but I'll comment that I agree 100% about the current state of college basketball. The fact that Schenscher did as well as he did in the tourny is a complete joke. Calhoun is becoming one of the elite, and its well deserved.

[Noop]

Good Stuff!!!



noop

[Easy Mac]

I'd like to say that Schensher was not a force this season. He scored 10 points against ACC teams 7 times in 16 games, thats hardly a force. In the tourney he averaged 10 points and 7 boards a game, thats not setting the world on fire. I'd expect the 7 footer on the runner up to have a tourney like that.

And Anthony was a great player for a month, not all year. That's like saying Jarrett Jack dominated college ball this season, even though he only played really well for a month.

I will say Okafor had great stats (I, like most of America, didn't watch the game, mainly b/c I was "studying" for a test.) though and I hope he was at least the final four MVP (though Gordon was probably the tourney MVP, though I thought John Lucas came up big a hell of a lot).

[Bosco]

I didn't write it, Jason Whitlock did. I posted it because I think its the biggest piece of shit ever written. A completely negative take on college basketball.

Anthony did dominate college basketball anyone who watched him last season knew he was special and more talented than anyone in the country. He averaged 22 points and 10 boards a game in the regular season. Anyone who thinks he didn't dominate college basketball last year shouldn't even bother discussing the game as they obviously don't watch it enough. He's proving it by being the second best rookie in the NBA. How is the game today terrible if the best player in college is still a 18+ scorer in the NBA his rookie?

Whitlock is so biased, he just is pissed Kansas continues to choke year in and year out. A few days earlier he wrote an article about how GT was clearly superior to Kansas in every way, but now that completely suck. The guy is an absolute joke.

[lynchjm24]

Monday night was terrible. Why didn't he write a glowing article on Sunday about how great Saturday night was?

[Bosco]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

Monday night was terrible. Why didn't he write a glowing article on Sunday about how great Saturday night was?

He wrote an article titled "No matter how you spin it, tonight's title game is a dud" after the Saturday's games. And it included such brilliant statements as:

"My point is that college basketball isn't as healthy as ever. We can hype tonight's game and Saturday's semifinals until our laptops and microphones go dead, but the games aren't as good."

And

"There's nothing we can do about it. As many as a dozen high school kids will turn professional this season. Another dozen of college basketball's best non-seniors, including Okafor, will jump to the league. Meanwhile, we'll be left to watch games like tonight's and pretend as if we're watching greatness."

Personally, I feel the parity that has come to the college game has made it more fun to watch.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by Bosco

Personally, I feel the parity that has come to the college game has made it more fun to watch.

I don't know about more fun, but I will say that the parity has made the game as exciting as ever to watch.

And Anthony did dominate the entire season last year. He was the best player in the country all year.

[Radii]

Whitlock is annoying, but I have to agree with:

""There's nothing we can do about it. As many as a dozen high school kids will turn professional this season. Another dozen of college basketball's best non-seniors, including Okafor, will jump to the league. Meanwhile, we'll be left to watch games like tonight's and pretend as if we're watching greatness.""

I'm an ACC homer, so that's where my focus is. The ACC was considered by most the best conference in basketball this year, and other than Duhon there were virtually no seniors in the league. If there is no exodus to the pros, the ACC could be truly great again starting next year, and I am sure the rest of college basketball is in the same situation. But I think that's a bit too optimistic.

Duke has Luol Deng. NC State has Julius Hodge. UNC has Felton/May/McCants. Will they all stay?

18 of the top 100 HS players in the country are coming to the ACC next year, not counting anyone those crappy new ACC teams might have picked up(I am still bitter about this whole expansion thing). But will Duke and UNC's top recruits actually come or will they go to the draft instead?

I focus on the ACC b/c its what I know best, its so close to being at an elite level again, but all of those hopes will probably be crushed in the next month or two.


Outside of that one statement, Whitlock is an idiot. The NCAA tournament is great, the talent in the NBA is great but the play is total shit 99% of the time.

Schensure never dominated the ACC, and he's the extremely rare 7 footer in college(seems like they all assume 7 feet tall = guarenteed millions and bolt straight for the NBA these days). He should be dominating, but he isn't(maybe that's why he's still in college and hasn't bolted yet).

I know the money is there, and its pretty hard to fault anyone for taking the millions, but as a college fan, its frustrating.