Sports fodder for a Friday morning ... On second thought, maybe the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team should have tried wearing elevator shoes or growing a beard. This simply was a team, that could not overcome its youth and lack of height. The lack of altitude forced 6-foot-9 freshman Luke Babbitt to battle guys under the basket that outweighed him by three dozen pounds and, well, the kid ended the season with a sore back and enough bruises to warrant a sympathy card from a hockey goalie. The youth issue, though, was the biggest problem. This was a team that never learned that college basketball games were 40 minutes long. In every game there were long stretches of a lack of focus, energy, enthusiasm and intensity. They rarely pressed teams on defense and they never learned how to play with a lead. All those things will be corrected next year.
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Like all young teams, this Wolf Pack team allowed its offensive production to affect it too much on the defensive end. The Pack was an amazing club when it started to hit a few shots on offense. Remember those first 10 minutes against North Carolina? Their energy and intensity level picked up dramatically, they blocked shots, flooded the passing lanes on defense and attacked the basket on offense. But as soon as a few shots clanged off the rim, the Pack's energy would drop like a rock, they'd get lazy on defense, heads would start to hang and frustration would set in. The biggest thing a young basketball team has to learn is that you need even more energy and intensity, especially on the defensive end, when the shots aren't falling.
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All things considered, 21 victories by a too-short, too-young team is all that anyone could expect. Coach Mark Fox did a wonderful job squeezing 21 wins out of this season with a bunch of small forwards and shooting guards on the roster. It was like trying to play a baseball season all year without a true catcher and shortstop. And take away a ridiculous 21-4 deficit at the start of the Western Athletic Conference title game and this team would be playing in the NCAA Tournament right now. So the future looks bright.
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Armon Johnson only has two years left in his college career and Babbitt has just three and the two of them have yet to go to the Big Dance. Don't forget that Nick Fazekas and Ramon Sessions never failed to bring their Wolf Pack teams to the NCAA Tournament in seven combined seasons. If you know anything about Johnson and Babbitt, you know how driven they are to succeed. Neither one of them will allow their season to end in front of 3,000 fans at home in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational ever again.
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Why, exactly, do we have the College Basketball Invitational? For that matter, what is the point of the National Invitation Tournament and the CollegeInsider.com Tournament? They are the Humanitarian Bowls of college hoops. Nobody wants to be there. Fans don't buy tickets. The players are disinterested. And coaches would rather be off recruiting or working the crowds at NCAA Tournament games looking for their next job. Enough with the bogus made-for-TV tournaments.
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Don't you just love how everybody turns into a college basketball expert this time of year? These are the same people who have only seen SportsCenter highlights and weren't even aware that they pushed back the 3-point line this year. Everybody loves to come up to you and tell you who they have going to the Final Four in their NCAA office bracket. It's like the guy who insists on telling you about his latest round on the golf course. Who cares? Here's the deal: Nobody knows anything. It's a bunch of 19, 20 and 21-year-old kids playing basketball. Not even their own coach knows what to expect from game to game.
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The World Baseball Classic is the College Basketball Invitational and CollegeInsider.com tournament of major league baseball. The players don't want to be there, fans barely know it's going on and only teams like Idaho (Netherlands in baseball) are excited to be involved. If the WBC is so important and such a big deal, then why are Matt Thornton and LaTroy Hawkins always on the mound for the United States?
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What, exactly, is going on with the NCAA? Why do they hate the mid-majors so much? In football, they created the Bowl Championship Series which prevents mid-majors from even competing for a national title. And, now, they pick just four mid-majors for at-large berths in the NCAA basketball tournament. The bias against mid-majors has even dropped down to the NIT, a tournament the NCAA took over a year ago. The Wolf Pack, with 21 wins and an appearance in their league title game, should have been in the NIT this year. College is supposed to be about creating opportunities for everyone. The NCAA, though, constantly reminds us that not all opportunities are created equal.