{"id":149,"date":"2008-04-04T13:18:53","date_gmt":"2008-04-04T18:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=149"},"modified":"2008-04-05T10:30:33","modified_gmt":"2008-04-05T15:30:33","slug":"how-successful-was-ohio-states-season-and-other-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"How successful was Ohio State’s season? …and other stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHAT’S THE VALUE OF AN NIT TITLE?
\n<\/strong>Ohio State played an strong game last night, topping off a pretty impressive run to an NIT title.\u00a0 They beat a game UMass team 92-85, in which the Minutemen got the tempo they wanted and still could not beat the\u00a0youthful Buckeyes.<\/p>\n

This raises the question:\u00a0 How successful of a season is one where you win the NIT?\u00a0 A lot of people call the NIT champ the 66th best team in college basketball.\u00a0 That is obviously not the case because there is no doubt that Ohio St. (or any season’s NIT champ) is better than, at the very least, a dozen automatic qualifiers, and probably quite a few more.\u00a0 So, is it the equivalent of an Arizona (a first-round loss)–a sort of vindication of being left out of the field, so that you can say to yourself, “See, we should have been in?”\u00a0 Or, because you won five straight games against quality opponents, can you say it is better than that?\u00a0 Is it as successful as a UNLV-type team, that made the tournament and won a first-round game before bowing out to a much better team?<\/p>\n

There is much to be said about setting\u00a0the ultimate goal as getting to the Dance, and anything short of that (especially for a defending Final Four team in a major conference) is a disappointment.\u00a0 So, even an Arizona or a St. Joe’s, who squeaked into the tournament and then got beat soundly in the first round, had better seasons than Ohio St.\u00a0 I do not completely disagree with this argument, but I am not so sure that I completely agree.<\/p>\n

To clarify my forthcoming answer, I think we need to clarify the question.\u00a0 If the question is:\u00a0 “Is it a more successful season to make the Big Dance than to win the NIT?”\u00a0 Then, I agree, somewhat, on that premise.\u00a0 But, if the question is:\u00a0 “What is better for the health of a program, a NCAA berth or an NIT championship?”\u00a0 Then, I would say, without a doubt, a major conference school (particularly one with young players) is better served winning the NIT than bowing out unceremoniously in the first round of the tournament.\u00a0 In fact, for a young big conference team, I think winning the NIT may even come close to\u00a0equalling a Sweet 16 appearance, as far as breathing life and health into a program–just look at the success of past NIT champs and what they went on to do in the next couple of seasons.<\/p>\n

In short, I think if you asked the Ohio St. athletic director or any Buckeye fan whether they would trade their season for UNLV’s, they would quickly say refuse.\u00a0 And, if you asked Thad Matta, he would also tell you he would take the UNLV season.\u00a0 But deep down, I would be willing to bet that Thad sees the benefits of this run and probably believes that over the course of this class’s future at OSU, the Buckeyes are better served with this title then, maybe even, the Sweet Sixteen run of Villanova–or at least better than Big Ten rivals Purdue and Indiana.
\nANOTHER ILL-DEFINED QUESTION
\n<\/strong>The AP named their National Player of the Year and National Coach of the Year yesterday.\u00a0 This is also a matter that needs to clarify the question at hand before a clear answer can be given.\u00a0 Let us start with the “player of the year.”\u00a0 Is it the “best” college player?\u00a0 Is it the “most valuable” player?\u00a0 Is it the “most talented” player?\u00a0 Is it the\u00a0player that “most defines the ’07 – ’08 season?”\u00a0 What is it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The award was given to Tyler Hansborough, which is very difficult to argue with no matter how you define the award, but let’s give it a try.\u00a0 In my college basketball preview, I basically said that Hansborough was\u00a0a “lock” to win this award.\u00a0 Doogan disagreed and said that he would not be surprised to see a freshman win it.\u00a0 Well, the reason I am not gloating right now is because it did not take me long to switch my opinion and side with Doogan.\u00a0 I believe that Michael Beasley should have been the player of the year.\u00a0 He was the inarguably the “best” player and arguably (very arguably, I admit) the “most valuable” player as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Has anyone looked at the numbers Beasley put up?\u00a0 Per game averages:\u00a0 26.2 points, 12.4 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, 1.3 steals, and 1.1 three-pointers.\u00a0 Uh…wow!\u00a0 Now, the naysayers will point to Hansborough’s slightly similar numbers (22.8 & 10.3), but these people fail to realize that the Tar Heels run-and-gun style led to their team averaging 89 points and 44 rebounds per game.\u00a0 Kansas State, as a team, only averaged 78 points and 41 rebounds per game.\u00a0 The next argument you will hear is that Hansborough’s numbers are only lower because the opposing defenses have several other quality players on which they must focus.\u00a0 Well, I think this only strengthens Beasley’s case, in that all he had was Bill Walker and a cast of mediocre college players, so he had to do everything<\/em>.\u00a0 Beasley was consistently putting up games of 30-15 against double- and triple-teams.\u00a0 He was better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One more quick point for all the Hansborough supporters:\u00a0 does anyone believe that UNC would not have made the tournament without Tyler?\u00a0 In fact, I think they may have still won the ACC.\u00a0 Admittedly, they would not have been a #1 seed, and probably would not still be playing right now, but they still would have been a nationally-ranked, top 4-5 seed in the tournament.\u00a0 Now, how is K-State without Beasley?\u00a0 .500?\u00a0 Worse?\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 They certainly are not even in the discussion for an NCAA bid.\u00a0 With Beasley:\u00a0 the second round.<\/p>\n

Despite all of these arguments, I think it is a very, very tough decision, and I am perfectly fine with the result.\u00a0 In fact, I am kind of happy with it because Beasley has a ton of accolades in his future, and Hansborough seems like the type of kid that would really appreciate being named player of the year.\u00a0 But, if I had a vote and a true mission to get it right, I would have voted for Michael Beasley.
\nLIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
\n<\/strong>Dr. Tom\u00a0Davis was the coach of the year in 1987 at Iowa.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday, his son, Keno Davis, was named\u00a0AP National Coach of the\u00a0Year for his terrific season guiding the Drake Bulldogs.\u00a0 Before last season only one first-year coach had ever won this award, but after Tony Bennett won it last year at Washington State,\u00a0Keno Davis makes it two years in row.\u00a0 Even more ironic may be the fact that this is\u00a0the second straight year where a son that took over his father’s program has won it,\u00a0as like Bennett, who followed his father, Dick, at WSU, Keno took over for Dr. Tom at\u00a0Drake.<\/p>\n

All in all, thought there are others that may have equally deserved this award (Trent Johnson, Ben Howland, Rick Barnes, even Coach K), I have no problem with this award going to Davis.\u00a0 He did a terrific job at Drake, and is justly deserving of such an honor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0
\n<\/strong>THE BEST CONFERENCE JUST GOT BETTER
\n<\/strong>The Pac-10 was, in my mind, the undisputed top conference in the country this year.\u00a0 And, though it had a lot to do with the players, it may have even had more to do with the coaches.\u00a0 It is no secret how I feel about Ben Howland, as a coach, but this conference is stacked with great coaching minds.\u00a0 I have also written how I feel about Herb Sendek and Tony Bennett.\u00a0 Tim Floyd is a terrific coach, and Trent Johnson did a phenomenal job with Stanford this year.<\/p>\n

Well, next year, the conference will be even better <\/em>as far as coaching talent.\u00a0 Arizona replaces an overmatched Kevin O’Neil with the return of Hall of Famer, Lute Olson, but that is not to what I am referring here.\u00a0 The University of California may have just hired the conference’s best coach.\u00a0 According to a source close to the team (and reported on ESPN), the Cal Bears are about to name Mike Montgomery as their next head coach.\u00a0 While at Stanford, I always considered Montgomery one of the five best coaches in the country for the program he built and sustained.\u00a0 He made an ill-advised jump to the NBA, but now he’s back coaching kids in California.\u00a0 That Cal team has a bright future with Montgomery at the helm.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the lone scar on the Pac-10’s otherwise lofty collection of basketball programs took one on the chin yesterday, when Billy Grier turned down an offer to coach Oregon State.\u00a0 Apparently, Grier felt that he wanted to stay at the better program–SAN DIEGO.\u00a0 Yes, you know you are bad when you are in the best conference in the country and the coach of a school that no one had ever heard of until their improbable run to the NCAAs this year turns down your vacant coaching position.\u00a0 Ouch!
\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

ANOTHER GREAT HIRE
\n<\/strong>I love Indiana’s choice of Tom Crean to replace Kelvin Sampson as coach of the Hoosiers.\u00a0 Crean is a flat-out winner, and a Midwest guy.\u00a0 His coaching roots extend to one of the best, as he started as an assistant to Tom Izzo at Michigan St.\u00a0 Now, he will be facing his mentor on the hardwood every year, as well as the recruiting trail.\u00a0 He has vowed to close the borders of Indiana to poachers trying to take Hoosier talent away from the Hoosiers (IU fans wonder where he was two years ago, when they lost Oden and Conley to hated rival, Ohio St.).\u00a0 That program is in danger of becoming very stagnant, but I do not think Crean, a fantastic recruiter (Dwyane Wade, Dominic James, etc.) and an outstanding game coach (averaging 20 wins per season in his nine years in the Big East with Marquette), will allow that to happen.\u00a0 Great move for the Hoosiers.
\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

COACH CAL, ALWAYS ABOUT DISCIPLINE AND CLASS
\n<\/strong>You have to credit Coach Calipari for how he handled the Andre Allen situation.\u00a0 He decided on Thursday to suspend his backup point guard, not only for Saturday’s semifinal, but also for the final on Monday, if Memphis can get there without him.\u00a0 Allen, not a starter, but still an important piece of the puzzle (14.1 minutes per game as the only pure PG to backup Rose), apparently pulled the ‘ole “undisclosed violation of team rules” at the worst possible time.\u00a0 And Coach Cal did not waver, did not succumb to the pressure of winning, did not brush it under the rug (like probably happens quite often, but, by definition, we do not know about it).\u00a0 He handled it with class and positive emotion.\u00a0 Always a master of sports psychology, Calipari did what he felt he had to do, and used his famous mind games to try and minimize the impact of the loss<\/a>.\u00a0 Good for you, John.\u00a0 Coach Chaney would be proud!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHAT’S THE VALUE OF AN NIT TITLE? Ohio State played an strong game last night, topping off a pretty impressive run to an NIT title.\u00a0 They beat a game UMass team 92-85, in which the Minutemen got the tempo they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[270,267,271,231,215,269,274,264,41,237,266,260,261,272,273,268,265,263,262],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-hoops","tag-andre-allen","tag-billy-grier","tag-california","tag-drake","tag-indiana","tag-john-calipari","tag-john-chaney","tag-keno-davis","tag-memphis","tag-michael-beasley","tag-mike-montgomery","tag-nit","tag-ohio-st","tag-oregon-st","tag-san-diego","tag-tom-crean","tag-tony-bennett","tag-tyler-hansborough","tag-umass"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}