THE WEEKLY 5-COUNT

By Chris Datres

1 Last week, I lamented the fact that it seemed no one wanted the #1 ranking. That now pales in comparison to this week where nobody seems to want to cement themselves for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. In the last four days alone, Providence, South Carolina, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Florida, Kentucky, Miami, Maryland, and Utah coughed up opportunities to make themselves look really good. Keep in mind that the NCAA will have to put 65 teams into this tournament so one or two of the aforementioned teams may still get into the draw but they’re not making life easy. On another branch of the same topic, I understand that all the talking heads need something to babble about but with nine days still to go until Selection Sunday, it’s pointless to try to predict the future. Anyone could go on a hot streak and get to the championship game of their conference tournament. Big favorites in the smaller conferences (Memphis, Butler, Gonzaga, for example) could get upset, thus closing the door to an at-large bid. And we all know that everyone needs to win. It’s a pretty obvious statement. So please, just stop it. Let’s not start speculating until next Thursday or Friday when we start getting some resolutions. By the way, I’ll be playing the role of selection committee on the morning of Selection Sunday. I’ve had a decent record the last four years that I’ve done it, admittedly, though, not as good as Joe Lunardi (a.k.a. Joe Lunatic) of ESPN.com who I’m convinced gets inside information so he gets all the teams correct.

2 It’s time for some awards since the regular season is pretty much complete. With apologies to Stephen Curry, Jodie Meeks, Sherron Collins, Patty Mills, A.J. Price, and Eric Maynor, the best guard in the country is North Carolina’s Ty Lawson. He is the fastest person I’ve seen with the ball in his hands…anywhere. All he’s done in his Tarheel career is lead them to a 93-13 record in his three years there, including a Final Four appearance last year. His expert navigation of Roy Williams’s fast-breaking system has benefitted Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, and Danny Green. That’s the key to a great point guard - he makes his teammates better. Lawson makes the clutch shots (see Florida State buzzer beater) and he uses his quickness at the defensive end to harass his opponents into 2.1 steals per game. There’s no one else I want handling my offense, especially in crunch time. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get as much press because the scribes are in love with Hansbrough and have been for four years. But if Lawson has to miss any appreciable amount of time, the Tarheels offense would be irrevocably broken.

3 The battle for best big man is a little bit tougher. Hansbrough certainly gets a lot of attention but I think Carolina could survive without him. I extolled the virtues of Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin last week but even with him in the lineup, they got plastered on the road at Missouri (so much for the Tigers not having an answer for him at the defensive end). And for all of his blocks and dunks, I’m really not all that impressed with UCONN’s Hasheem Thabeet. At some point, he’ll polish his offensive skills and he’ll make a lot of money in the NBA because of his “upside”, but as a college player, an experienced big man will take him out of the game every time. And the person I think is the best big man this year is Pitt’s DeJuan Blair. Blair grew up just a half-mile from Pitt’s campus in the Schenley neighborhood. He’s averaging 15 points and 12 boards per game, which includes seven games of over 20 points with over 15 boards. And if he’s out for any stretch of time, Pitt suffers. The Panthers have lost three games this season. In two of those, Blair fouled out. In those three losses, he averaged just 11 points per game. He also poses a huge matchup problem. Marquette had no answer for him on Wednesday night. He ate up Thabeet in Pitt’s win over UCONN two weeks ago. And I think he’ll eat up Thabeet again on Sunday. For all of the success in the last ten years of Pitt basketball, they have never advanced past the Sweet 16. I’d love to see Blair face off with Griffin or Hansbrough somewhere down the line. I think he’d get the better of those matchups.

4 The last three weeks, I’ve spotlighted teams who are a bit under-the-radar and may cause some problems should they get into the NCAA Tournament. And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I call attention to them, they go in the tank. VMI lost two straight to drop in the Big South standings and will now have to win the tournament on Radford’s home floor if they want to get in. Siena ran into a purple brick wall in Niagara, yielding 100 points in a loss to the Purple Eagles. That won’t bode well if those two face off again in the MAAC title game. Utah State pretty much killed any chance of an at-large bid when they lost on the road to Nevada on Saturday. And it’s not good news with the conference tournament being played on Nevada’s home floor either. Stew Morrill’s crew had better sweep that tourney. So this week, I’m going to shine the light on a team who could get knocked out of their conference tournament as early as Saturday. The Virginia Commonwealth Rams have a history in the Big Dance, knocking off Duke in the first round a couple of years ago. Led by red-hot young coach Anthony Grant (who’s rumored for just about every open job right now), the Rams play an up-tempo style quarterbacked by senior point guard Eric Maynor, who made the shot to beat the Dukies in 2007. Inside, they’ve resurrected an HBO series to clean up the glass. Larry Sanders grabs 8 rebounds per game and gobbles up a couple blocks per night at the defensive end. VCU’s problem is that they don’t have any marquee wins outside a tepid Colonial Athletic Association. Remember, this is the same conference that gave the world George Mason. Unfortunately, the CAA isn’t sneaking up on anyone anymore, thus VCU was beaten in four of five “big games” outside the conference. Given the right matchup, they could spring a repeat of their 2007 upset but it would have to be a team that plays slow and doesn’t like to be sped up, like a Big Ten team.

5 Not to go off on a mini-rant here but I’m getting sick and tired of watching games and seeing players get away with more traveling violations than the executives in the automobile industry. I admit that now that I’ve been a high school official for four years, I watch games a little bit differently and I’ve seen too many missed walk calls. College basketball has quickly become the NBA in the sense that the officials either let it go or are just too blind to see it.

BONUS
Here’s the last 3-point viewer’s guide of the year since I don’t recommend watching NIT games and I don’t need to tell you where to find the NCAA Tournament games.
UCONN at Pitt (Saturday, Noon, CBS): Don’t look now but if Louisville gets hot and sweeps through the Big East Tournament, the loser of this game might get their #1 seed snatched away.
Duke at North Carolina (Sunday, 4pm, CBS): It’s senior day at Chapel Hill and they’re honoring Tyler Hansbrough. How long will that standing ovation last? Five minutes? Ten? I really don’t see any way that the Dukies spring the road upset here.
Pick a game (Thursday, all day, about 7 different networks): If you have some extra leave time to burn, use it here and on Friday. The Big East, ACC, Conference USA, SEC, Big Ten, Pac 10, Mountain West, Big XII, and Atlantic Ten will be playing all day beginning at noon and going until about 2am (there’s a guaranteed overtime game in the Pac 10, you know it). Call Domino’s, stock up on the beer, and sack out all day on the couch with the remote and maybe two or three TV’s.

Got any questions or comments? Feel free to e-mail me at gopens24@aol.com. Who knows, maybe I’ll include your “mailbag” comment in a future 5-Count.