Friday, March 24, 2000
Parity saps star power from NCAAs
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
AUSTIN, Texas — Greetings from the South Region, Bracketville's Baltic Avenue. A message to UC, Ohio State and especially you, Stanford:
Thanks a lot.
Anybody can win it all, you bet. The 2000 NCAA Tournament doesn't reward much of anything but a couple of hot weeks and a full team of healthy players. They can talk about reduced scholarships and stud underclassmen bolting pedigreed programs for the NBA. That still doesn't explain Wisconsin.
“There's not a nickel's worth of difference now between the players in the WAC and the players in the ACC,” according to Bill Self, coach of Tulsa, whose team is in, you guessed it, the WAC.
Parity is good, to a point. I like a little milk in my coffee. But not the whole state of Wisconsin. Too much of anything is bad for you, and that goes double for the Tennessee Volunteers.
The Vols are here, partly because Khalid El-Amin is not. The UConn point guard ratcheted his ankle in his team's first-round win. Without a decent point guard in March, you are dead. Even if you are playing Tennessee, which did a fair impression of dead in losing in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, and again in its first-round NCAA win over Louisiana-Lafayette.
The Sweet 16 is a reward for that?
Not seeing stars
Anybody can win. “You can take 16 teams that have been eliminated from the NCAA and have a heck of a tournament,” North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge said. “Some of the teams in the NIT could still be winning in the NCAA.”
No doubt. But who'd want them to?
It's fun, in a man-bites-dog kind of way. But the pleasure comes and goes like a sugar buzz or an Adam Sandler movie. Would you rather watch Seton Hall and Oklahoma State slog it out in the East, or Duke and Temple playing for a trip to Indy?
I want to see stars. Bless Eric Coley, Tulsa's self-proclaimed “best player you've never heard of.” But give me the best players I've ever heard of. Come back, Scoonie Penn. All is forgiven.
The South rises again tonight, with the Nos. 4, 6, 7 and 8 seeds. Tulsa may be the best of that motley crew, but even its players aren't sure what to make of that. “If I didn't know who we were,” said center Brandon Kurtz, “I'd be awfully surprised.”
Having watched Tulsa spurt past UC last week, I can vouch for the Golden Hurricane. But would they have beaten the Bearcats with Kenyon Martin? Would the 6-foot-5 Coley have plucked 16 rebounds?
Perpetual parity
North Carolina arrives after losing 13 regular-season games, then deciding a week ago it was time to play. That's like giving the Yankees a pass into the World Series for going 80-82.
What caused the turnaround, someone asked Guthridge.
“I don't really know,” the coach said. Well, there you have it.
We're going to see more of this, not less. Beginning next year, you can fill out your bracket in invisible ink. Duke was the last bastion of four-year loyalty. It fell last year without a fight. With Elton Brand, Corey Maggette and William Avery, the Blue Devils would be NBA-good this season; without those three, they're on the Good Ship Parity with the rest of us.
I don't mind seeing the Gonzagas of the world shine. But I'd prefer them to be comets, not houseguests for a whole month. Anything different dims the integrity of the event. For a few short weeks, even the Bengals could get hot.
“Once you get past the (No.) 4 seeds playing the 13 seeds, I don't think there's (much) difference between all the teams,” Self said.
Great. Next year, we'll put every team's name on a sheet of paper, stuff the papers in a box and toss the box down some stairs. The ones closest to the bottom get the best seeds.
Said Self, “I can see Tulsa coming out of here” this weekend. “I can also see Miami, Carolina and Tennessee.”
I can see the UC-Stanford winner coming out of here. In my dreams.
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454. Fair Game, a collection of his columns, is available at local bookstores.
