NBA's one-year rule not designed to help players

The NBA’s new age limit might have helped North Carolina gain the services of forward Brandan Wright for one year, but Tar Heel coach Roy Williams hardly sounded grateful Monday.

"The NBA is not our partner," Williams said. "They can act like that all they want to, but they view college basketball as competition. And every rule they make is what’s good for them. They don’t make rules for the good of the kid. I mean, give me a break."

Wright announced Monday that he was leaving North Carolina after his freshman season for the NBA draft. He was part of the first high school class affected by the new NBA collective bargaining agreement, which stipulates that players must be at least one year past the graduation of their high school class and at least 19 years old by the end of the calendar year in which they enter the draft.

Williams said he supports Wright’s decision, but lashed out at the NBA’s new rule. He said he would prefer that players be required to attend college for two or three years before the NBA allows them to be drafted.

Another year or two in college would allow Wright to put more muscle on his skinny, 6-foot-9 frame, Williams said. Having players spend one year in college merely shields NBA scouts from making poor evaluations of players, Williams said.

"The rule that they changed, everyone goes to school for one year, that gives them the opportunity to evaluate Brandan Wright against great competition," Williams said. "So they’ll make better evaluations. They don’t have to evaluate Brandan against five guys that are 5-11 surrounding him in the post like he had to play a couple of games in high school."

The rule has sparked concern among college coaches and administrators that players with no intentions of pursuing a degree will make a mockery of college athletics by doing just enough to stay academically eligible, then bolting for the NBA as soon as possible.

Wright, who said he plans to continue pursuing his degree, apparently won’t do that. Neither did the Atlanta Hawks’ Marvin Williams, who left North Carolina in 2005 after his freshman season but has returned for classes during the offseason.

Williams said he won’t stop recruiting players who might only stay for one season, as long as they display the same character as Wright and Williams.
"I don’t mind being a conduit to some other place for some youngster’s dreams, as long as they give everything they have while they’re here," he said.

But that doesn’t diminish Williams’ disdain for the NBA rule he believes primarily suits the NBA’s interests. – Ken Tysiac

Donovan: No time to talk Kentucky job

ATLANTA - Florida coach Billy Donovan hugged athletics director Jeremy Foley on Monday night on the floor at the Georgia Dome after the Gators won their second consecutive NCAA title with an 84-75 defeat of Ohio State.

"He was certainly an integral part of having a belief that Florida’s program could do this," Donovan said of Foley.

Now Foley probably will have to try to prevent SEC rival Kentucky from taking his coach. Donovan declined to address the speculation about Kentucky’s job after the game.

He said "all that stuff" will get addressed later.
"I just got off the court," he said. "Right here at the University of Florida, I’m going to enjoy it right now."

Gators inspire Oden?
Donovan said he hopes the decisions of Al Horford, Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer to return to defend their title as juniors will inspire other underclassmen to return if that’s what they want to do.

"If Greg Oden is out there and really in his heart he wants to go back to Ohio State, he should do what he wants to do," Donovan said.

Oden is projected as a top-two pick in the NBA draft if he decides to leave college. Donovan said he doesn’t know what the future holds for Horford, Noah or Brewer.

Tip-ins.
Florida now has two NCAA titles in basketball and two Associated Press national titles in football (1996 and 2006). The only other school with multiple wire service national championships in football and two NCAA basketball titles is Michigan State. . . .Donovan is the fourth active coach with multiple NCAA title wins, joining Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (three), Texas Tech’s Bob Knight (who won three with Indiana) and Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun (two). . . .Florida seniors Lee Humphrey and Chris Richard finished with a school-record 111 victories. - Ken Tysiac

Ohio State postgame notes

ATLANTA - Some odds and ends after the championship game about Ohio State, where at least the basketball players can be consoled by the football players, who know what it feels like to finish in second place to Florida:

• Ohio State coach Thad Matta was asked after Florida's 84-75 title-game win whether he thought Buckeye star freshman center Greg Oden would be returning for his sophomore season. Matta said he couldn’t put a percentage on whether Oden would stay or go, but that the two would talk about it after returning to campus.
• Oden afterward said of his 25-point, 12-rebound performance: "It really doesn’t matter." Oden, for once, was very good at staying out of foul trouble Monday night and played a team-high 38 minutes.
  "We had guys come in fighting and hitting shots," Oden said, "but they had an answer for everything."
• Ohio State is now 1-4 in NCAA championship basketball games. The only win? 1960.
• Ohio State had trouble the entire tournament defending the three-point shot. In six NCAA tournament games, including Florida’s 10-for-18 performance on treys Monday, the Buckeyes allowed opponents to shoot 43.3 percent from beyond the arc.
• Brick city: The Buckeyes’ 4-for-23 three-point shooting performance Monday night was the worst by a team in the NCAA final since Michigan shot 1-for-11 in its 1992 title-game loss to Duke.
• The last word, from Ohio State coach Thad Matta: "I thought we fought about as hard as we could. We just couldn’t turn the corner on them, which is what teams like that do to you…. They [Florida] have really got everything, you know…. We made some major, major mistakes defensively, and great teams make you pay." -- Scott Fowler

NCAA finals at the half

ATLANTA - Observations from the first half of the NCAA championship game in Atlanta:

• If you’re an Ohio State fan, you’d probably rather have center Greg Oden in foul trouble than point guard Mike Conley.
  Oden is the first-team All-American who might be the best American-born, teen-age center in the last 15 years, but the Buckeyes were fine without him for 17 minutes in the first half of the national semifinal against Georgetown.
  But when freshman point guard Conley went to the bench with two fouls in the first half, Florida immediately took advantage.
  "White back to two," coach Billy Donovan called from the bench, signaling the Gators to press on made baskets.
  Ohio State’s Jamar Butler immediately turned it over, giving up a fast-break three-point play to Walter Hodge.




• Florida forward Joakim Noah might have the most unorthodox shooting delivery in college basketball.
  The ball spins sideways out of his hands when he’s shooting free throws or a jump shot, a flaw that certainly will have to be corrected when he gets to the NBA.
  His poor shooting is one reason there’s a chance teammate Al Horford – who has improved his perimeter shooting – could be drafted ahead of Noah if both players enter the draft after this season.




• Noah, Horford and Lee Humphrey get more publicity than Corey Brewer, and they have been excellent players in their own right the last two seasons. But Brewer has been by far the most outstanding player in the Final Four.
  Brewer made three 3-pointers and scored 11 points in the first half as Florida grabbed a 40-29 halftime lead. He led the Gators with 19 points in the national semifinal victory over UCLA.
  And at 6-foot-9, he moves his feet quickly enough to defend opposing guards. He held Ron Lewis – who averages 12.7 points per game but is five inches shorter than Brewer – to two points on 1-for-3 from the field in the first half.




• Duke and North Carolina fans may differ in their opinion of the selection of Karl Hess to referee his first NCAA championship game Monday night. Hess was the lead official on the crew that ejected Duke’s Gerald Henderson for the flagrant foul that broke North Carolina center Tyler Hansbrough’s nose March 4.
  Whether you agree with that call or not, Hess is one of the ACC’s best officials and deserved his position in this game. Edward Corbett and Tony Greene, who both worked their third NCAA title game Monday night, also are excellent referees. - Ken Tysiac

NCAA finals pre-game notes

ATLANTA, Ga. - We are about two hours from tipoff of the Florida-Ohio State NCAA final as I write this from the Georgia Dome – which is surprisingly empty at the moment but about to fill up with 53,500 fans. While we’ve got a few moments, here are a few of my favorite things about this Final Four so far:

• Joakim Noah’s hair. Greg Oden saying he wanted to "tear the rim down" on that ferocious missed dunk Saturday. Thad Matta’s odd resemblance to Gene Hackman.
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this one. There was supposed to be this great Final Four party thrown by a couple of high-society artists on Saturday night, March 31. "Backs were stabbed to get on the guest list," the newspaper wrote, because the guest of honor was going to be actor George Clooney. At 12:01 a.m., the party hosts rolled out a large cardboard cutout of Clooney. It was April Fools’ Day by then, you see.
• Atlanta’s Olympic Centennial Park. On a sunny day like Monday, it is always filled with kids, happy and getting wet in the fountain.
  (bullet) Ohio State’s colors – one of the best combinations in the college game.
• The fact that Florida is only four hours away from an unprecedented trio of national championships – basketball-football-basketball in a 12-month period – if the Gators win tonight. That’s astounding, and gives this game a little more weight. -- Scott Fowler

Guards key for Georgetown vs. UNC

Thoughts on the NCAA tournament and Final Four following North Carolina’s 96-84, overtime loss to Georgetown in the East Regional final:

• I’m a big critic of the cliché that great guards win in March, because I believe it’s far more important to have great big guys. Ohio State (Greg Oden), Florida (Joakim Noah and Al Horford) and Georgetown (Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert) support my theory. But I believe North Carolina post players Tyler Hansbrough and Brandan Wright were just as good as Green and Hibbert on Sunday, and the superior play of Georgetown’s guards won the game.

• Throughout the season fans questioned whether North Carolina coach Roy Williams was going too deep into his bench and should have kept his best players on the floor more. But that wasn’t a factor Sunday. Point guard Ty Lawson played a season-high 40 minutes and North Carolina still didn’t win. In fact, if Williams hadn’t taken great pains to develop his bench, the Tar Heels might have never defeated a thinner Southern California team in the East Regional semifinals.

• Presuming that Wright leaves for the NBA and Hansbrough and Lawson return (just a guess there), the Tar Heels still will be a top-five team in the national rankings to start next season and the preseason favorite to win the ACC.

• Tar Heel fans’ list of wishes for next season should read something like this: 1. More touches in the post for Hansbrough and fewer jump shots. 2. Bobby Frasor’s return to good health. 3. Lawson and Wayne Ellington learn to defend as well as Marcus Ginyard. 4. Hansbrough develops a mid-range jump shot but rarely has to use it.

• Watching Florida guard Lee Humphrey against Oregon was like watching Duke guard Greg Paulus late in the season. Both struggled to stop opposing guards from penetrating. But both were so accurate from 3-point range that their teams could live with their defensive shortcomings.

• Ohio State’s Oden should get the best of Hibbert in the meeting of 7-foot centers in the national semifinals. Georgetown’s patient offense might lull Oden to sleep and leave him vulnerable to fouls. But Oden is by far the superior player athletically.

• UCLA is the least appealing Final Four team from an aesthetic standpoint. The Bruins play the most physical style – bumping cutters, nudging the dribblers while showing off ball screens – of the national semifinalists. Basketball was not meant to be played with that much contact.
• Another sign ACC basketball has slumped in basketball: This is the first time the conference has failed to get a team to the Final Four for two straight years since 1979-80. - Ken Tysiac

Ginyard starts but Terry in uniform

Sophomore Marcus Ginyard was a last-minute insertion into North Carolina's starting lineup in place of Reyshawn Terry in Friday night's regional semifinal game against Southern California. Terry dressed for the game, but is battling strep throat. - Ken Tysiac

Reyshawn Terry expected to start

Senior forward Reyshawn Terry, who has been bothered by strep throat for almost a week, is listed as a starter for North Carolina against Southern California on Friday night, according to pre-game information distributed to media members at Continental Airlines Arena.

A North Carolina team spokesman said Terry "probably" will start, but the final decision won't be made until 12 minutes before tipoff.

Terry missed practice all week, and has suffered from headaches, fever and a sore throat. But North Carolina sports information director Steve Kirschner said Terry was able to begin eating again Thursday night and particpated in the Tar Heels' shoot-around practice early Friday.

The top-seeded Tar Heels (30-6) are playing No. 5 seed USC (25-11) in the NCAA tournament's East Regional semifinals. - Ken Tysiac

Coaches bolting for lower profile jobs

Some observations on college basketball while waiting for Friday night’s East Regional to begin:

• Turns out Herb Sendek was a trend setter. Last year he left N.C. State for a lower-profile job at Arizona State, escaping an angry contingent of fans who weren’t satisfied with five straight NCAA tournament appearances. Under similar circumstances, Tubby Smith left Kentucky for Minnesota and Steve Alford bolted Iowa for New Mexico. All three moves illustrate the toll angry boosters can take on a coach when the media provide fans an opportunity to gripe 24 hours a day.
• Leaving Duke for the NBA after his sophomore season was not a bad move for 6-foot-10 Josh McRoberts. His ball-handling and passing ability will make him an attractive pick somewhere between No. 10 and No. 20. Sure, he’s not an outstanding scorer, but most NBA teams have plenty of scorers who would be thrilled to play with a big man who takes pleasure in assists. McRoberts would fit perfectly with Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.
• Ohio State can’t keep getting away with sleepwalking through the start of its games and winning with frantic rallies at the end. The strange thing about the Buckeyes is that their perimeter defenders should be able to pressure opponents more when 7-foot Greg Oden is in the game to block shots if opposing guards penetrate. But the Ohio State guards defend better when Oden is on the bench, which leads you to believe they just play lazy defense when he’s on the court.
• Here’s why John Calipari failed as an NBA coach. With eight seconds left on the shot clock, Texas A&M was inbounding from under its own basket following a near turnover. The one thing Memphis couldn’t give up was a long pass. Memphis pressed anyway and allowed Acie Law to catch a pass over halfcourt behind the entire defense. Law missed the layup, but you’ve got to wonder about Calipari’s X’s and O’s.
• It’s painful listening to Bill Raftery do color commentary. He’ll provide good analysis in an even tone for a minute, then punctuate the end of a sentence with a growl of contrived enthusiasm. If I wanted to be growled at while I’m watching basketball, I’d get a dog. - Ken Tysiac

ACC fails to make case for greatness

After just one of the three weekends of NCAA tournament play completed, one of the biggest losers already is obvious.

All season long, ACC coaches talked about how their conference was the best in the nation. The inability of highly ranked North Carolina to separate from the pack in the ACC standings supported their argument.

So did the ACC’s high RPI, which remains No. 2 (behind the SEC’s) according to Realtimerpi.com. But shortly before the NCAA tournament started, North Carolina coach Roy Williams said the conference needed to prove its strength in March.

That didn’t happen.

North Carolina, the top seed in the East Regional, is the lone representative to reach the Sweet 16 among the ACC’s seven NCAA tournament selections. ACC teams are 3-4 against “mid-major” opponents in the tournament.

The Big Ten is hurting, too, as top-seeded Ohio State needed an overtime win over Xavier to become that conference’s only team left in the tournament. (The Pac-10 and SEC lead all conferences with three Sweet 16 teams apiece).

But the Big Ten wasn’t as celebrated as the ACC heading into this postseason. And after the ACC failed to get any team into a regional final in 2006 in its first season as a 12-member conference, it will take a national championship run by North Carolina to mute talk over the next two weeks that expansion has softened the ACC in basketball.

That might be unfair. Coaches often complain that because the NCAA tournament has become so popular, an entire season’s worth of accomplishments is forgotten if a team stumbles in March.

But there’s no way to change that. Like it or not, the ACC probably won’t be remembered as the nation’s best conference this season because of its failures over a four-day period in the NCAA tournament.

– Ken Tysiac