There are several teams back in the mix this season that the college game has sorely missed over the last few years. It’s not quite a true renaissance, especially because UCLA and Kentucky, two of the premier programs in the country, aren’t yet the world-bashers of old (though both have a lot of young talent), but it’s nice to see some familiar faces once again.
St. John’s, which hasn’t received a bid to the NCAA Tournament since 2002, had completely lost the attention of New York (which is downright inexcusable considering how bad the Knicks have been for the last decade) until this season.
Under former UCLA head coach and TV analyst Steve Lavin, St. John’s has Red Stormed into fourth place in the best conference in the country.
The addition of Carmelo Anthony to the New York basketball scene might overshadow the job Lavin and his team have done, but Red Storm games have still become appointment television.
The group has added five huge wins onto its tournament resume (Duke, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Connecticut and Georgetown) improving its record to 9-5 in the Big East.
Dwight Hardy has turned into one of the premier scorers in the conference, if not the country, with recent performances of 28 points against Marquette, 33 points against Connecticut and 32 against UCLA. Kemba Walker finally has some competition for Big East player of the year.
As far as the Red Storm’s postseason chances go, it’s really anyone’s guess. But it has far removed itself from the precarious bubble.
Madison Square Garden, almost unarguably basketball’s finest showplace, finally hosts the exciting and meaningful basketball it has gone without for the last 10 years.
The Arizona Wildcats had also fumbled away the limelight several years ago but have recently regained some of the success it saw with its teams of the late ’90s and early 2000s. Remember those Lute Olson-led groups with Mike Bibby, Damon Stoudemire, Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Jason Terry and many others?
After Olson’s departure, however, it seemed as though the air was squeezed out of the program.
New head coach Sean Miller has breathed life back into the once successful basketball school. Only after a few months on the job, Miller had produced a top-15 recruiting class, which included current Wildcat star forward Derrick Williams (19.7 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game) and Lamont Jordan, who is second on the team in scoring.
Granted, the Pac-10 is a down conference this year, and Arizona has had the opportunity to rack up the W’s against some bad basketball teams. But don’t ascribe the word lucky to a team with a 23-4 record, regardless of the competition.
The Wildcats are a quality basketball team with a very bright future, one that might shine sooner rather than later.
The Florida Gators have also discovered, and thrived through, a youth movement of their own. The Gators will reach 20 wins for the 13th-straight year this season (an accomplishment only matched by Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas and Syracuse), so their success can’t aptly be described as overdue.
But since winning back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007, the Gators haven’t drummed up much thunder in the business end of the NCAA Tournament. This year, there’s a good chance that trend might change.
Head coach Billy Donovan has found a really nice mix of players that is beginning to resemble that of his championship rosters. Vernon Macklin and Chandler Parsons, who remind some Florida fans of Al Horford and Joakim Noah of recent Gator-vintage, have stabilized the frontcourt, which had recently been a problem for them.
When Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton hit the threes they love to take, the team becomes multifaceted in its scoring attack and very difficult to defend.
The Gators might run into problems in the tournament if they don’t shoot well from the perimeter (really like most college basketball teams) as they don’t yet have that guy who can get his team a big basket when it desperately needs one, but don’t be surprised if the Gators are playing on Sunday in the second weekend of the tournament.
The truth is the big dance is always better when the power programs vie for top seeds. Cinderellas like Gonzaga, George Mason and Butler are nice stories, but the general public wants to see the big names in the important games when it all comes down to it.
Just take a look at the ratings.
There’s no telling what’s in store once the curtain comes up on this year’s NCAA tournament. A group of unknown ball players could easily spring up and shock the world, even if only for a weekend or two.
However, the highest quality of basketball still emanates from the top programs in the country, and several of them, who may have recently lost their way, are back once again to add to their school’s storied traditions.
