Words of coaching wisdom, as relayed by King Kaufman:

The ambush interviews as a tem heads to locker room are an absolute horrible innovation, but every once in awhile, televsion gold happens.

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LaToya Pringle and Erlana Larkins, both seniors, were drafted 13th and 14th by the Phoenix Mercury and the New York Liberty, respectively. The Mercury won the WNBA title last year, and look forward to Pringle donning the purple, red, and chartreuse[*].

What? Are there other UNC players whose draft status you may be interested in?

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(Nobel Prize-winning Dr. Oliver Smithies in an ad for UNC scheduled to run tomorrow in the New York Times, News & Observer and Charlotte Observer. Click to see the entire ad.)

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So I've been thinking it over, looking for a reason as to why UNC came out as poorly as they did, only to surge back and then collapse again down the stretch. Sure, you could chalk it up to a superior Kansas defense, their ability to spread the floor on the offensive end, and their talent in capitalizing on turnovers. But that's all crazy talk. No, there's only one explanation for this. It's the fact that winning a championship alone wasn't enough motivation for the Heels. They had another goal in mind.

They had to fuck with Billy Packer.

That's the most sensible explanation. The Heels started the game so poorly simply to bait Packer. To lead him down the primrose path until he declared, with seven and half minutes to play in the first half, that the game was over. Only then could Carolina start playing their game.

Now you may as if it was really worth it digging a twenty-eight point hole solely to mess with the mind of a curmudgeonly CBS announcer. It's areasonable question, especially given the end result. But I believe, that we, as American can all agree on this: Yes. Yes, it was.

UNC tonight, in the parlance of the youth of five years ago, punked Billy Packer.

Anything you'd like to add, cartoon Dean Smith?

Wise words. Wise words indeed.

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I'm not sure where the Heels had their pre-game meal, but could we get the Board of Health to look into that place? Because Carolina came out sluggish, clumsy and stupid, and the effects don't seem to be wearing off.

Update [2008-4-5 21:45:18 by TH]: On the bright side, the refs just invented an entirely new hand motion - a blocking call with the left hand and a charge motion with the right, while desperately looking for someone else ot make the decision. I call it the "blarge."

UNC has scored the last seven. They definitely need to draw more blarges.

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It'll be Memphis playing the winner of UNC-Kansas.

To be honest, there wasn't much Love in this game either. He was held to 12 points and nine rebounds, more by his own team than the Memphis defense. The Bruins never adjusted to the Tigers' tempo, and didn't run their slowdown offense as effectively as they should.

With no Hansbrough-Love matchup to play for tonight, he'll just have to motivate himself with this "championship" thing I keep meaning to learn more about. Must be tough.

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Update [2008-4-9 8:47:44 by TH]:And naturally, Hansbrough did win the Naismith. Wikipedia knows the future! Ooo-wee-ooo!

Update [2008-4-5 22:1:58 by TH]: Since at the halftime of the UNC-Kansas-I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it game is still trolling for votes for the Naismith, I'm going to assume Wikipedia lies. Shocking, I know.

You can add the Naismith Award to the list, at least according to Wikipedia. (I ran out to get dinner during halftime.) The last time a Nasmith Award winner played for a national championship was 2001, when Shane Battier helped Duke win it all.

Hansbrough is the third UNC player to win the Naismith, after Michael Jordan and Antawn Jamison.

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There's one sure way to tell the generations of Carolina fans apart - when they get the most nervous in the tournament. Those who came of age in the '70s remember Dean Smith's frustration in the championship game, losing in 1977 and 1981 before finally breaking through the following year. Those of us who better remember the years following have nightmares about the stretch of the '90s with Saturday night losses in 1991, 1995, 1997, 1998, and 2000. I definitely fall into the latter category, and it's all the more exacerbated by the fact I was in Indianapolis and San Antonio for two of the dome losses and Carmichael for another pair. Final Four games scare me.

This one is made worse by my belief that Kansas is best team outside of UNC in San Antonio this weekend. But I'm learning to relax. This team is more well-rounded and experienced than a lot of the ones of the nineties. If anything, they remind me more of the 1993 squad. I firmly believe the Heels should win this game, and the one on Monday.

But don't call me until the game is over, OK?

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Rock Chalk Talk runs down Carolina for the benefit of Kansas fans. Most of it's what you would expect - great offense, their offensive rebounding should give the Jayhawks fits, good free throw shooting, suspect defense, random dig for losing to Maryland - although I think he greatly underestimates UNC's depth.

Kansas was the only team I was more concerned about than Louisville. They're a more talented Clemson, with a powerful front court to push around Hansbrough and company, and quick defensive guards that nets them plenty of steals. This team has the offensive and defensive numbers of the 2005 Tar Heel team, and stat-wise they've been far and away the best team all season.

That being said, there are a few things mentioned as asides in the Kansas preview that puts my mind at ease. Namely:

• The Jayhawks Tempo Problems. Namely, that Bill Self wants to play slow, and his players want to run the ball. The end result of this tension seems to be that Kansas lets their opponent dictate the pace, which bodes well for UNC. Kansas didn't play too many running teams, the most notable being the Kansas State team that split their two games and a surprisingly difficult Baylor team. Kansas has the depth to keep up with Carolina's personnel, but it's a difficult adjustment to make if you're unfamiliar with it.

• Kansas's Three-Point Defense Kansas encourages their opponents to shoot the three, and are only average at defending it. Now, UNC shoots less threes than practically everyone in the country, but that doesn't mean they can't. THey hit over 40% in most of their games in March, and Ellington and Green in particular have become terrific judges of when to use the shot to crush any nascent runs from their opponents. With a defense overly focused on Hansbrough, a good perimeter offense could stymie the Jayhawks.

• Oklahoma State. As in, team-that-embarassed-the-Kansas-offense-on-their-way-to-a-late-February-win Oklahoma State. Say what you will about Maryland, at least they didn't fire their coach after the season.

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That's Bill Self, after his reserve guard Roderick Stewart broke his leg attempting a dunk at the end of the open practice. Stewart was 8th in playing time at Kansas, and probably corresponds most closely to Bobby Frasor, pre-injury.

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Sean Sutton has resigned under pressure at Oklahoma State after two years and a 39-29 record. The announcement comes complete with some of the dickish comments I've ever heard from an athletic director:

This is a school that prior to father Eddie Sutton's arrival had three postseason appearances since joining the Big Eight conference.

I bring this up becuase one of my first posts, reprinted here was about how unfair this situation was to both Sutton and OSU. I think Sutton will land on his feet - he's a good coach who turned around a horrible season this year to upset Kansas, so he's obviously got the chops for this job. I also don't expect much success from Oklahoma State in the future, considering people are already lining up to reject the position.

Sutton got me thinking about OSU's crosstown rival Oklahoma though, who just finished their second season under Jeff Capel. There are obvious similarities between the two coaches - both are the son of coaches, and both played guard for pretty impressive schools. Sutton was at Kentucky and OSU from 1988 to 1992, and Capel at Duke from 1993 to 1997. It wasn't the contrast between Capel and Sutton that jumped out at me though. It's the difference between Capel and his fellow Duke alums on the bench in Cameron.

I was surprised when I first heard Capel was taking the OU job, primarily because he's about my age, and I'm not really ready for my contemporaries to be leading basketball teams. And true, when he started is head coaching career at VCU, he was the youngest coach in D-1 ball. But as soon as I realized Capel's age, I thought of Johnny Dawkins.

Dawkins has twelve years on Capel. He was winding down a nine year pro career when Capel first hit campus, and joined the coaching staff a year after the guard graduated. And yet Dawkins' name never seems to come up in coaching searches. Chris Collins (joined Duke in 2000) doesn't really seem to either, except for the Illinois State job last year. (Collins father, Doug Collins, is the best basketball player to come out of ISU.) I assume Dawkins hasn't tried for many jobs, since being the associate head coach under Krzyzewski is probably good enough to get folks to check out your resume, and it's quote possible he's comfortable in a Bill Guthridge or Joe Holladay role, but I don't think so. And with Krzyzewski's limited coaching disciples (Amaker and Snyder are right out, leaving only Mike Brey and perhaps Bob Bender as successful major coaches) there's a good chance he'll be tappedfor the head chair when Krzyzewski retires.

And if he hasn't struck out on his before then, his tenure will be a disaster.

I can understand the desire to stay at Duke. Hell, Roy Williams had to be given a good swift kick to convince him to consider the Kansas job all those years ago. But I can't see him having nearly the success he would be experiencing now if he'd just stuck around waiting for a vacancy in Chapel Hill. No matter how great the guy you're learning under is, there's no substitute for running your own program. Not being an associate coach, not being a designated successor, not running the JV squad. It's being a head coach.

Which is why Capel, who entered coaching at the same time as Chris Collins, has had much more success. He spent a year under his father at Old Dominion, a year as an assistant at VCU, then four seasons as a head coach there, and now two at Oklahoma. Capel's played or coached under three different head coaches - Collins, only one.

Which brings up another question. What's the benefit of hiring assistant coaches who all played under you? It's seems to greatly limit the perspective your assistants can provide, as after all, they learned everything from you to begin with. Not to mention the chaos it can cause in bizarre situations like what's currently happening at Arizona.

Dean Smith hired a fair number of former players (Larry Brown, Phil Ford, and Pat Sullivan come to mind) but Ford aside, most of their tenures were brief, and far more former players found coaching jobs outside of Chapel Hill on his recommendation than spent time on his bench. Williams has begun to fill his coaching ranks with folks who played under him at Kansas, so maybe the UNC bench is going the way of their neighbors down the road, but wouldn't a larger talent pool and some different opinions and philosophies make for a healthire basketball department in Durham?

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Ken Pomeroy, the man who coined the term "Doomsday Scenario" for four seeds in a Final Four, looks at the Final Four and sees, well, doom:

There's a simpler explanation for the preponderance of high seeds in the Final Four of late - the selection committee is getting better at seeding teams. Conferences have coagulated into larger and larger collections, there are more non-conference meetings of the upper eschelon teams, and it's all broadcasted to the entire country. You just can't be a flawed team and slip into a number one seed anymore; the big conferences throw too many high quality opponents at you.

This is not a bad thing. Really. Somewhere along the line, people started thinking the Madness part of March Madness was the only selling point, leading to absolute idiocy like, well, Matthew Yglesias. Upsets are a feature, but not the end-all be-all of the sport. Consider that in this, the chalkiest tournament ever, had two number two seeds dropped in the second round and a ten seed that came within a last second shot of being the second-lowest seed to ever make the final weekend.

Having the teams everyone consider ed the best fight it out for the championship is not a bad thing. You want to spend column inches arguing whether Kevin Love or Tyler Hansbrough should be player of the year? Now there's a decent chance you can see them match up against one another. The two most efficient offenses in the nation face off on Saturday. You get three of the top five defenses. It's good basketball. We like good basketball! Honest! That the top overall seed has made the Final Four three times in the last six years is not a cause for emergency. If the game survived UCLA winning every year for a millenium, it will survive this. Trust me.

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