Graduation rates for NCAA basketball teams is abysmalThere is something terribly wrong when a college fails to graduate 40 percent of its basketball players. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is asking the NCAA to ban these schools from participating in its postseason tournaments. It's a fair call.
Under Duncan's proposal, 12 schools that earned a berth in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament would have been prohibited from playing. For instance, at New Mexico State, the graduation rate for basketball players is 36 percent; at University of California, only 20 percent of basketball players graduate. The University of Maryland is even more abysmal - a mere 8 percent graduate.
The statistics for black players are more horrifying. According to a study released by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics and Sports at the University of Central Florida, white males on tournament teams graduated at a rate of 84 percent, while the rate for African-American players was 56 percent. The rate for black males at Maryland and California during the six-year study: zero.
With graduation rates like these, the schools and the NCAA should have called foul on those teams long ago.
(c)2010 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC
Vivian Frieson leads Gonzaga women against Xavier in Sweet 16 matchupPlopped in the middle of a former cow pasture, Sacramento's Arco Arena is the perfect setting for the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 duel between first-timer Gonzaga and Xavier.
You can almost hear the classic hit from "Annie Get Your Gun" cued as the teams take the court. "Anything you can do, I can do better; I can do anything better than you ... "
If the matchup plays according to statistics, it'll be big-stage shooters Vivian Frieson for seventh-seeded Gonzaga squaring off against third-seeded Xavier's Amber Harris.
The Zags, like the Musketeers on a 20-game winning streak, became the Cinderella of the Sacramento Regional, defeating second-seeded Texas A&M to join Xavier as one of three non-BCS schools to advance to the Sweet 16. Coincidentally, both Frieson and Harris drained last-second shots to help their teams advance.
But it was the Musketeers (29-3) who provided Gonzaga (29-4) with the glass slipper, losing to the No. 12 seed Bulldogs as a fifth seed in the 2009 opening round.
Confident, Frieson and her teammates are aiming to prove it's not the size of the school but the play on the court that determines a champion.
"Some people get caught up in the program's name," Gonzaga junior point guard Courtney Vandersloot said. "You have to focus on the program and where they're going. It's not the conference or size of school, it's the success they're building and type of program they're creating."
Julien Washington, Frieson's mother, knew for her daughter to grow she had to leave their native Seattle. But the player's freshman season at Gonzaga was rough, and the evening phone calls were nearly unbearable for her mother.
Frieson had starred at Garfield High, helping the Bulldogs win a state championship in 2005. Frieson was the cockiest of the group and had a game as inconsistent as her city's weather.
"She played on great high-school teams, but I flew to Portland to watch her and I think she had two points, one rebound and looked completely disinterested," said GU coach Kelly Graves of recruiting Frieson. "Then the next game she goes for 25 against Roosevelt. That's the kind of player she was."
Still, Graves, who envisioned his program being competitive on a national scale like the Gonzaga men, knew he needed a player like Frieson. At 6 feet, she was undersized to play in the post, but had the solid ball-handling skills, jump shot and aggressiveness on defense for Graves' developing run-and-gun style. Plus, Frieson had the infectious bravado you want in the locker room.
It was just getting through her freshman season. Graves was hard on Frieson, encouraging her to make the most of her potential. Playing behind West Coast Conference co-player of the year Stephanie Hawk and newcomer of the year Heather Bowman, Frieson averaged 10.6 minutes in the Bulldogs' run to their first NCAA berth, losing to Middle Tennessee State as a No. 12 seed.
"I wasn't getting minutes and it was hard for me because I'm a competitor," said Frieson, who also had trouble academically. "School wasn't going the way I wanted it to and basketball wasn't going the way I wanted it to, so there was a time where I was feeling really down and wanted to give up. My mom and my coaches really helped push me through it."
Frieson also dealt with deaths in her family and not having a relationship with her father, who was in jail in Ohio.
Her athletic breakout came her sophomore season. Frieson missed seven games because of a broken finger, but when Bowman (fractured hand) couldn't start in a matchup against No. 1 Tennessee, Graves inserted Frieson.
She scored a career-high 21 points in the 93-76 road loss.
"That night, with Candace Parker and the whole group, I thought Vivian was the best player on the floor," Graves said. "She's never left the starting lineup since. She's one of those players that has a knack for coming up big in some of the biggest games."
It's odd, but Frieson, a public-relations major, has had to shut down the multimedia outlets this week.
ESPN, Twitter, Facebook, cellphone — it all had to be managed in an effort not to get ahead of the game.
"For her to have such a great game in Seattle where everybody could see her was wonderful," said Frieson's mother. "Sometimes with big games when she was younger, she'd get over-excited. But she's kept her composure and has a team that can back her up."
Frieson has Gonzaga being talked about nationally. Her stat-sheet-filling performance against the Aggies is garnering WNBA talk. And her winning jumper with 18 seconds remaining is the rave on campus.
"Growing up, you always see those people making the shot that wins the game to send them into an even bigger game," said Frieson, who also made the defensive stop against Texas A&M post player Danielle Adams to ensure the win. "It's so surreal that it was me for my team."
Many point to the size difference inside as an edge for Xavier on Saturday. They're forgetting Bowman (6-1) and Frieson have already teamed to pass huge assignments like North Carolina's Chay Shegog (6-5) and Laura Broomfield (6-1) and Texas A&M's Adams and Damitria Buchanan (6-2).
"She's a tough matchup," Aggies sophomore Adaora Elonu (6-1) said of defending Frieson. "She had us on our heels."
Frieson and Bowman gave each other high fives after the second-round game when told they did it without recording a foul. Bowman, the WCC's all-time leading scorer, will have her teammate's back, again, on Saturday.
And if the Zags' transition game clicks, Frieson should shine.
"It's going to be fun to watch those two get after it," said Graves of Frieson and Harris. "Vivian is one of those players that I'll remember forever. She's just so polished now as a human being and made the most of her life."
Copyright (c) 2010 The Seattle Times Company
KU’s season goes kaboom
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Northern Iowa's 69-67 victory over top-ranked Kansas shocked the college basketball world, ruined millions of NCAA tournament brackets and devastated a group of players who left the court in tears.
But those who follow the Jayhawks closely could see it coming all season.
It's been clear since early fall that something was missing with Kansas. With five future NBA players and two All-Americans in the starting lineup, the Jayhawks - at least on paper - seemed like a squad built for a national championship.
Still, even as they amassed a 33-2 record, the Jayhawks rarely played like it.
Their talent helped them eke out close wins against mediocre teams and only on a few occasions did Bill Self's squad exhibit that mean, aggressive style that helped Kansas capture the title two years ago.
Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur weren't happy unless they won by 20 points. Those guys threw down tomahawks and laughed in people's faces and took pride in slaughtering their opponents.
This year the Jayhawks settled for layups and squeaked by Colorado in overtime.
Although it was surprising that it hadn't happened already, everything caught up with the Jayhawks on Saturday. Kansas fans probably should've seen this coming back in September, when the Jayhawks opened their NCAA title quest with a walk.
More specifically, a perp walk.
That's certainly what it looked like when Sherron Collins, the Morris twins and others were escorted out of an academic building on Kansas' campus following a brawl with members of the football team. No one was arrested, but as news cameras captured the Jayhawks covering their faces as they climbed into a waiting van, they hardly resembled guys capable of leading a team to college basketball's promised land.
The clash with the football team muddied the Jayhawks' image, and Tyshawn Taylor took things a step further when he posted racial slurs on his Facebook page along with cryptic messages about his frustrations over playing time.
Brady Morningstar was suspended for the first semester following his arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol, and the Morris twins - who were among the key players in the aforementioned fights - already had a bad reputation for shooting a pedestrian with pellets from an air rifle the previous year.
Kansas fans will always support their teams but, under their breath, most of them will tell you they didn't love this group as much as the 2008 squad that won the national title. Frankly, who could blame them?
The one player who garnered undying affection was Collins, the team captain who ended his career as the all-time winningest player in school history. Off the court, Collins made a lot of strides as a person during his four years at Kansas and should be commended for it. But he also had shortcomings as a leader that contributed to the Jayhawks' failure to attain their goal of a second championship in three years.
Collins gained nearly 30 pounds during the offseason and spent most of the fall trying to lose weight. Instead of helping his teammates steer clear of the fights with the football team, Collins was right in the middle of them.
Collins also had a mildly disappointing season on the court. He shot just 38 percent from the field in Big 12 play, when his weight problem became an issue once again.
Nearly a year after crumbling in the waning minutes of a Sweet 16 loss to Michigan State, Collins turned in another brutal performance in Saturday's setback against Northern Iowa, missing 11 of his 15 shots - including all six of his 3-point attempts - while committing five turnovers.
"This was it," Collins said. "I can't come back next year and get another chance at it. It hurts so bad."
As much as it stung the Jayhawks, Saturday's loss was also devastating for Self, whose legacy will certainly be tarnished by the setback. The first-round loss against Bucknell in 2005 was bad and so was the opening-round defeat to Bradley the following year.
But make no mistake: Saturday's loss was the worst of Self's career, mainly because this team boasted so much more talent than the 2005 and 2006 squads.
Self has only himself to blame.
He made a questionable decision during the offseason to sign wing Xavier Henry, who made Self look terrible by stringing him along during the recruiting process before finally committing to the Jayhawks late last spring. A few months later Henry threatened to change his decision when he and his father, Carl, became upset because of a less-than-flattering newspaper article on the Henry family.
Self had to fly to Henry's native Oklahoma and practically beg him to stay. It was a bad look for Self - and it got worse Saturday when Henry missed the front end of a one-and-one during a key moment down the stretch.
Henry will likely enter this summer's NBA draft, making him the first one-and-done player in school history. His legacy will be remembered as one big headache for Self, who may not be so quick to grovel over the next touted recruit with a stage dad.
Those kinds of players put up nice statistics, win a few games and end up making millions in the pros.
But - unlike Rush, Chalmers, Darnell Jackson and Russell Robinson - they're not cut out to win national titles. Not unless they have a strong supporting cast of leaders around them, which Henry didn't.
The bottom line with this Kansas team: The Jayhawks had the talent, but not the intangibles. That was the elephant in the room all season. It's not anymore.
Self is as good of a coach as there is in America. He built a national champion from scratch two years ago and will likely do it again. Until that time he'll work to enhance a reputation that was damaged in Saturday's loss.
The Jayhawks have the deepest team in the country, with 10-12 players who are capable of contributing quality minutes. But throughout the season he refused to employ a full court press.
"Only in an emergency," Collins said.
One would think that Saturday would've been one of those "emergency" situations, with Kansas falling behind by eight at halftime. It trailed by as many as 12 points after intermission.
Still, the Jayhawks didn't turn on their press until the 12-minute mark of the second half. The switch helped Kansas get back into a game it likely would've won had it revved up its defensive intensity earlier.
Instead the Jayhawks faltered Saturday and looked bad doing it. Collins got in an official's face at halftime and complained until assistant coach Brett Ballard tugged him away. He continued to gripe during a free throw with less than a minute remaining and Kansas still in the game.
In some ways the season was ending just as it had began back in September, during that perp walk, when the flaws that would eventually spell doom for this team were there before our very eyes.
Anyone who didn't see it then certainly had to recognize it after Saturday's game, which included a rather telling moment as the final seconds ticked away. With 19 seconds remaining and Kansas trailing 67-62, the Jayhawks ran the exact same play that led to Chalmers' famous 3-pointer against Memphis in the 2008 national title game.
Taylor dribbled to the wing and then handed off to Collins as he streaked behind him. Just like Chalmers two years earlier, Collins pulled up for a shot that would've kept his team in the game.
The difference was that Chalmers' shot swished through the net. Collins' - much like Kansas' 2009-10 season - was just a little bit off.
Copyright (c) 2010 Yahoo!
Expansion would be good for SoCon and college basketballMarch Madness is here! The NCAA men's basketball championship is my personal favorite among the great sporting events in our country. It features amazing performances, genuine drama and interesting stories, but adds a David vs. Goliath aspect that is difficult for other events to duplicate.
It seems everybody loves an underdog and the NCAA tourney has plenty.
Over the past few months, the NCAA has undertaken a conversation about whether this outstanding event should change through expansion. Many of the fan blogs and media comments that I have read on the subject are against expansion. Their perspective seems to be that the current 65-team NCAA Tournament is perfect. It is a fabulous event, but is it the best it can be?
Each prior expansion has improved the tournament. From 1939-1950, eight teams qualified for the tourney. For two years, 16 teams qualified. Then from 1953-1974, the number varied between 22 and 25 teams. During this era only one team from a conference could qualify, a rule that created bitter feelings for many people in the mid-Atlantic region of the country.
In 1970, the South Carolina Gamecocks had a terrific team lead by John Roche, Tom Owens and our own Bobby Cremins. They completed the ACC regular season undefeated, were ranked among the best teams in the nation and were set to host the NCAA East Regionals. A run to the Final Four seemed likely. But a heartbreaking loss in the ACC Tournament championship left the Gamecocks uninvited.
A similar fate struck the 1974 Maryland Terrapins because the eventual NCAA champion from N.C. State was in the same league. The next year (1975) the tournament expanded to 32 teams and improved. The tourney expanded five more times before the most recent expansion to 65 teams in 2001. Does anyone want to suggest going back to 32 teams? 25? 16? 8?
Many of today's so-called "mid-major" teams face a fate similar to that faced by the Gamecocks and Terrapins in the 1970s. Win your conference tournament or stay home from the Big Dance.
During my first Southern Conference Tournament as athletic director at the College of Charleston, Davidson had the best team in our league. That team went on to the Elite Eight and nearly the Final Four. Everyone knows the story. Yet during that SoCon tourney, Davidson AD Jim Murphy confided he was nervous Davidson might be left out without the automatic bid.
I favor expanding the tournament to 96 teams. Post and Courier columnist Gene Sapakoff recently cited statistics showing that a 96-team championship tournament would include approximately the same percentage of teams qualifying for playoffs as Major League Baseball and a lower percentage than the NFL playoffs. Expansion is reasonable.
My support for 96 is based on multiple factors. I believe 96 is good for the mid-major conferences, good for players, good for coaches, good for the major conferences and, if managed correctly, can improve both the college basketball regular season and postseason. One of the ideas being circulated is to guarantee the regular season champion from each of the 31 conferences a bid if the field expanded to 96. For a conference like the Southern Conference, this would be a huge boost.
A 96-team tourney would reduce some of the pressure on coaches by providing more opportunities to be successful. This is true for coaches in mid-major and major conferences.
The expanded tourney may also encourage some of the big-name schools to be more willing to play some regular season non-conference games away from home. And it would give more players an opportunity to play in one of the greatest sporting events in our country.
Ninety-six looks good to me!
Copyright (c) 1995 - 2010 Evening Post Publishing Co
Oregon State post-game analysis
Here's how next week's Pac-10 Tournament at the Staples Center shapes up.
No. 8 Oregon will play No. 9 at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the play-in game. The winner meets top-seed California Thursday in the quarterfinals.
No. 4 Arizona faces No. 5 UCLA in the top half of the bracket and the winner advances to the semifinals to meet the Cal vs. No.8 or No. 9 winner.
The bottom half of the bracket begins with No. 2 Arizona State playing No. 7 Stanford.
Washington is the No. 3 seed and it will face No. 6 Oregon State at 6 p.m. Thursday in a rematch of tonight's 82-70 UW victory.
The Huskies bused to Seattle tonight. They'll practice Monday and Tuesday before flying to Los Angeles Wednesday.
Coach Lorenzo Romar said he's never been involved in a situation where he's had to play a college team in back to back games. Oregon State did it last year in the College Basketball Invitational. In fact, the Beavers played UTEP in three straight games, winning the first and third contests to claim the CBI championship.
Not sure what that experience will mean next week because in the Huskies have had a relatively easy time with OSU twice this season. The scores are misleading. Washington led comfortably in its 76-70 win in the conference opener on New Year's Eve and UW was never seriously threatened in the second half tonight.
"I thought we gelled on both ends of the floor as a team," Romar said. "It was good to see that. Thirty field goals, 18 assists with seven turnovers it makes you feel pretty good about our effort on the offensive end because we were so concerned with their 1-3-1 trap."
MORE OBSERVATIONS:
--- Oregon State's 1-3-1 zone is supposed to bother smaller guards, but 5-foot-8 Isaiah Thomas (above) has scored 19 points on both games against the Beavers. And Thomas was amazing efficient. He sank eight of 12 shots and if not for three missed treys, his percentage would have been even higher.
When Thomas wasn't scoring, he was setting up teammates for easy scoring opportunities. Thomas had five assists. He's had at least four assists in four of the past eight games. We've noted it before, but the Huskies are 9-1 when he has at least four assists.
--- While we're tracking statistics, consider this one. UW is 2-0 when Matthew Bryan-Amaning has a double double. Okay, that's not as enlightening, but it goes to show Bryan-Amaning can be a force. Obviously the Oregon game was a hiccup and everyone's favorite Brit continues a late-season resurgence that mirrors the Huskies turnaround.
Bryan-Amaning has scored in double figures in seven of the past eight games. We raved about him last week when he had 17 points and 12 rebounds at Washington State and tonight's performance (20 and 11) was just as spectacular considering he added two blocks and two steals.
--- After the game Quincy Pondexter had a sore throat when he met with the media and he said he's been battling an illness. Pondexter said he felt awful and I asked if he would have played if this game were in December.
"I don't like missing games, but who knows," he said. "I have no idea. I just wanted to come out and play today."
Pondexter said there's no way he'll miss Thursday's game.
He talked about his Player of the Year chances, saying he's done everything he could to make his case. After a 34-10-6 outing Thursday, Pondexter could win the Player of the Week award for a record fifth time.
"It depends on how you vote. Does the No. 1 team, do you have to have the guy from that team? If you use any other criteria, there's no way he doesn't get it. ... What he's done for our team has been nothing short of phenomenal. I don't know you could try real hard to not give it to him if you don't want to, but I think he deserves it."
The only other serious POY candidate is Cal's Jerome Randle and in his final game tonight he had 11 points on 2-for-10 shooting, five rebounds, four assists and four turnovers.
--- When did Venoy Overton become a three-point specialist? Maybe I missed that one, but the junior guard looked deadly efficient behind the arc knocking down 3 of 3 treys. It's a season high for Overton, who finished with 11 points and four assists, just two turnovers.
--- Abdul Gaddy had his best game in a long time. The OSU statistician nearly robbed Gaddy of two points and gave them to Bryan-Amaning. After some checking after the game, the points were rewarded to Gaddy who had seven on 3-for-4 shooting. He also had two assists.
I noted it in the game thread, the most impressive play from Gaddy came early in the second half when he drove hard to the basket for a layup. He was fouled in mid-air, absorbed the contact from Jared Cunningham and still finished at the rim.
"Early in the season, I don't know if I would have done that," Gaddy said. "I've worked hard. I've gotten stronger. I feel stronger. And I've grown. Now I'm being a lot more aggressive."
Said Romar: "He got to play extended minutes tonight and he was one of the guys that did a great job on top of that zone."
--- Justin Holiday didn't shoot well (0 for 4), but he chipped in four assists and had two steals. Tyreese Breshers also had six rebounds.
--- And finally, Romar believes UW, which is now 4-7 on the road, is ready for tournament in LA. The Huskies have a four-game winning streak and they've won 9 of the past 11 games.
"What's happened before our eyes is our team has become a decent road team and learned to withstand those come backs and those crowds," he said. "The jeering and the taunting and whatever it is that comes along with the road."
Copyright (c) 2010 The Seattle Times Company
Coach Wins 923 Games, and That's the Easy Part
Herb Magee, the coach at Division II Philadelphia University, received accolades last week for passing Bob Knight on the N.C.A.A. men's basketball career list with his 903rd victory.
But another accomplished coach with even more career wins than Magee has quietly exited the stage. The coach, Don Meyer of Division II Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D., has 923 victories. Meyer won 665 of those games at Lipscomb when it was an N.A.I.A. university. He coached the final game of his career Saturday, a 56-51 loss to Southwest Minnesota State.
The number of games he has won may not be the most remarkable part of Meyer's career, however. In 2008, a car he was driving was hit head-on by a truck that was hauling corn. Meyer lost part of his left leg, and while he was being operated on that night, it was discovered that he had cancer.
"It is time for someone with more energy and time available to deal with the unique challenges of a basketball program like Northern State," Meyer said in a statement last week announcing his retirement.
According to The Associated Press:
The NCAA considers Meyer the winningest men's college basketball coach, even though his career was split between the NAIA and NCAA. The NCAA's statistics department counts all of a coach's victories at four-year U.S. colleges if there's a minimum of 10 years at NCAA schools.
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Coaches going overseas to fill tall order
LINCOLN, Neb. - The realities of recruiting for a men's basketball program such as Nebraska roll off coach Doc Sadler's tongue.
"You have to have good big guys in this league. There aren't that many over here. To get a good one is difficult," he said. "That's the reason I went over there."
"Over there" is overseas. The Huskers have lost seven of their last eight games and are last in the Big 12, but Sadler is counting on three international players in the program and a fourth on the way to be the foundation for better days.
Nebraska is among 214 Division I programs with at least one non-American player, a 71 percent jump from the 125 schools just 15 years ago, according to STATS LLC. Among players who have appeared in at least one game this season, 8.4 percent are foreign-born - and if you're talking about players 6-foot-10 and taller that number increases to 31 percent.
Big men from Europe, South America and Australia tend to have better skill sets than their American counterparts, coaches say, largely because they spend more time practicing. Coaches on those continents also tend to be less likely to accommodate a player who wants to experiment at other positions.
"In America, they've been taught it's cool to be 6-10 and shoot threes," Sadler said. "Last time I checked, the most important position on the floor, if not the point guard, is the guy who's going to play close to the basket. A good inside player is worth every penny that the NBA pays.
"Overseas guys are more traditional. If you're a low-post player, you're a low-post player. You don't try to be a wing."
The pool of big men, by nature, is shallow. Fewer than 5 percent of American males grow to be taller than 6-2, government health statistics show.
And the best of the U.S.-born big men aren't going to choose Nebraska, a fact Sadler readily acknowledges.
In the past two years, defending national champion North Carolina, for example, has landed five McDonald's All-Americans who are 6-9 or taller.
Kentucky, Duke, Kansas and the other power programs get their share, too.
Foreign frontcourt players began to gain traction in college basketball in the 1980s, when Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria led Houston's "Phi Slama Jamma" to three straight Final Fours. In the '90s, Dikembe Mutombo of Zaire was playing for Georgetown on his way to becoming a seven-time NBA All-Star.
Fans don't blink anymore when they see a hard-to-pronounce name on the roster.
One of the best big men in the country this season is Radford's Artsiom Parakhouski of Belarus. The 6-11 center ranks among the nation's top 10 scorers at better than 22 points a game, and he's second in rebounding at almost 13 a game.
Bosnian center Adnan Hodzic is scoring 21 points a game for Lipscomb, and 7-footer Hamady Ndiaye of Senegal, one of a increasing number of Africans in college basketball, is blocking almost four shots a game for Rutgers.
Northeastern University has a nation-leading six foreigners on its roster. Gonzaga, Hawaii, New Mexico State, St. Mary's, Stetson, TCU and Valparaiso have five apiece.
At Nebraska, it started with Australian center Aleks Maric, who finished his career two years ago as the third Big 12 player with 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds.
Sadler's staff has made six overseas recruiting trips in three years. This season the Huskers start 6-11 freshman center Jorge Brian Diaz of Puerto Rico, and one of their top reserves is 6-8 freshman forward Christian Standhardinger of Germany. Another German, 6-11 center Christopher Niemann, is rehabbing his knee and will join the Huskers next season, as will 6-11, 315-pound Brazilian center Andre Almeida.
Five of the bottom six teams in the Big 12 - Oklahoma is the exception - have at least one foreign-born big man. Colorado is breaking in 6-11 freshman Shane Harris-Tunks, who joined fellow Australian guard Nate Tomlinson to Boulder.
"In our case, we're not established yet in the Big 12, and you can't fight the top dogs for the recruits here," said Colorado assistant and chief recruiter Derrick Clark. "You have to think outside of the box and go places where the powers aren't normally. If you're in the Top 25, there are plenty of big men over here. There aren't enough of them for everyone stateside."
Though coaches are prompted to go overseas by outstanding centers and power forwards, they always are on the lookout for players at the other three positions as well.
Copyright (c)2010 Los Angeles Newspaper group
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