Due to the lack of games, plethora of teams, and conference play, NCAA sports are the place in the American arena for matchups of relative unknown styles. For the major programs, the first half of the season usually contains a couple of games against strong non-conference opponents and a bunch of filler games against local smaller schools. Once conference play kicks in, the teams that play each other every year will play each other up to three times before entering the NCAA tournament. Because in-conference games make up the bulk of the season, teams have to be built to play and win inside of their conference. A successful tournament team, however, has to be able to adapt and succeed against a variety of styles that they may have never seen inside of their particular conference.

Some teams are dominant within their conference, but continually lose in the NCAA tournament to teams that they appear to outmatch on paper. Focusing on the Big Ten, where the in-conference games are played at an unusually slow and grinding rate in comparison to the other BCS conferences, there is a large variance between the team that has dominated the conference over the past seven years and the teams’ success in the NCAA tournament. Since Bo Ryan became their coach seven years ago, Wisconsin has won the big ten three times and finished second twice. The farthest Wisconsin got as the Big Ten champion was the Sweet Sixteen, and when placing second in the conference, they only reached the second round of the national tournament. The Badgers have made the elite eight under Bo Ryan, and at times looked dominant when their shots were falling, but outranked athletic teams consistently have run them out of the tournament. Wisconsin can play in the Big Ten, and even dominate the league, but they have failed to show the versatility to make a legitimate run at the NCAA title.

Michigan State, however, is consistently a lethal threat who yearly provides upsets of teams that outseed them in the tournament. Tom Izzo’s Spartans have gone to the Elite Eight and Final Four in the last seven years, without ever representing the Big Ten as its champion. It’s true that the Spartans have lost their first game, and been upset before, but their in-conference records are usually 10-6 compared to Wisconsin’s dominant 13-3, 12-4 and last year’s 16-2 mark. Going back some to the four years when Michigan State was the dominant team in the Big Ten, the Spartans put on an incredible run through the tournament making three straight Final Fours and taking home a National Championship. In the five seasons when Izzo’s Spartans won at least 13 games in the Big Ten, they made four Final Fours. Ryan’s Badgers have won 13 games in the Big Ten twice, but only reached as far as the Sweet Sixteen in the process.

Michigan state’s teams always have a few athletic players who can play enough with the athletic players of an unseen ACC opponent to replicate their in-conference dominance on the national level. Bo Ryan’s Badgers haven’t had that player since Devin Harris went to the draft, and consistently lack an athletic threat to keep them in games when another team is running and playing out of the Big Ten’s mold.

During March Madness, we see teams who are used to playing particular styles for their final 18-20 games forced to switch gears in the national tournament, then learn and adapt to different tempos and defensive zones. The only professional sports competition that offers a similar situation is the UEFA Champions League competition (and UEFA cup, but for now I’ll ignore that as soccer’s equivalent to the NIT). The top teams of Europe spend an entire season competing in their respective countries, with their own referees and tempos, then play against each other in a competition that brings in foreign teams and styles, foreign referees and a new sense of tournament urgency that is lacking in the season-long pennant race that is league play.

Playing in a conference, or league, naturally leads to teams being built around the styles that work within the conference. For example, Big Ten basketball is historically a slow, half court game, where the ACC has more teams that like to run and play a more uptempo style. In the soccer world, the English league promotes methodical drives as opposed to the high speed styles of the Spanish league. It’s understood that referees in the English League are less likely to blow their whistles, where in the continental countries the slightest touch by a defender can draw the official’s eye. In a sport with such little scoring, one call can have a larger effect on the game than in any other sport. In this year’s Champions League Liverpool has advanced against what were supposed to be two superior opponents in Inter and Arsenal, however in both draws the English side used key flops to take advantage of the European whistles.

In the last four competitions Liverpool has both won the Champions League trophy and finished as a runner-up, consistently outperforming its Premiership brothern in international competition. Earlier in this season, while Liverpool was beating European teams in early Champions League games, they were struggling to obtain the fourth position in the Premier League to assure that they would return to the Champions League competition. In fact, Liverpool finished no higher than third in their domestic standings while making their recent runs at the International trophy. I believe it to be more than a fluke that Liverpool’s been successful where Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal have not been.

With the amount of available shooters the Cavaliers had, Brown’s team should have always had their very capable gunners shooting with fresh legs. It’s amazing the Cavs lasted as long as they did, when they really looked like a train wreck at times. I know the team was shaken up late in the year, but the additions were all complimentary pieces necessary for LeBron. The Cavs could have used Larry Hughes to slow down Paul Pierce, but without Wallace and Smith, who would have kept Garnett scoring in the teens? Sure the roster isn’t unstoppable, but it wasn’t a piece of magic that they made the Finals last year out of a pathetic Eastern Conference. When the best player in the league is playing in a conference filled with mediocrity it’s logical that they would advance to the Finals or at least be an annual contender. When the Broncos were making the Super Bowl in the 80s it was in a joke of a conference, and those teams never would have beaten the Giants, 49ers or Bears to get to the Super Bowl if they were an NFC team. To claim Brown is a great coach for advancing through mediocre competition than getting demolished by a real opponent, is just east-coast media ignorance.

This year’s game seven was a very winnable game for the Cavs, especially the way LeBron was playing. With the Cavs holding the ball in the final minute there was no timeout called and instead the game was left up to LeBron James’ improvisation. This of course ended with him being triple teamed as he drove to the lane and threw up some sort of prayer hoping for a whistle AND the basket to go in? In the final minute I think the Cavs forgot you can shoot a three-pointer, and don’t have to earn them the old-fashioned way.

Brown’s situation right now reminds me of Brian Billick’s a couple years ago. His defense is solid, but the offense is performing at an unprofessional level. Would it be possible for the Cavaliers to bring in a big-time offensive assistant coach like a Don Nelson, that wouldn’t undermine Brown’s status with the club? I’m not sure it’s the right idea to fire Brown right away, but to defend him for taking the Cavs to the finals is a weak defense. This team isn’t LeBron James and the Timberwolves’ roster, there are some decent players around James. There is no Pippen, or a Gasol, but the roster was enough to have a shot at the Eastern Conference finals. To be a legitimate contender to actually winning the title, and not just upsetting the Pistons, the Cavaliers will need another all-star. I agree with that, but that doesn’t make Brown any less responsible for not having some offensive plays against the Celtics this weekend.

Brown is coaching the league’s best player in a conference where the third seed would barely make the playoffs in the Western Conference, and yet all I read about is how tough his situation is. When any coach is in that situation, and they don’t win, they have to be ready to hear this sort of criticism. it comes with the territory, and if Brown is smart, he’ll heed his offensive weaknesses at this point in his career and adjust them in the off season.

I was initially in the Memphis blew it camp-I mean, they missed free throws, hung their heads and didn’t show up for overtime. After giving it some thought, and watching the replay last night, I have to say Kansas won this game because they were a better overall team. The knock on Memphis before the tournament was they couldn’t hit free throws at a decent enough rate to win the close games against good teams. That’s exactly what happened.

Free throws are part of the game, just like rebounding, and perimeter shooting. If they were a team that couldn’t rebound and lost, no one would have called it a choke. The problem with Memphis was that their achilles’ heel is so often associated with choking. The choke is to underperform under pressure, but if Memphis shot free throws this way the entire season, then how can we consider this to be a choke. Memphis just lost the game, just as Kansas won it.

It wasn’t a surprise that Mario Chalmers hit his open three pointer for Kansas to send the game into overtime. Kansas shot three pointers well all year. We need to start rethinking what we call a choke, or what we refer to as a blown game. A nine point lead with two minutes left should be sealed up as a win, but if your team has only made about half of its free throws all year, you could easily be looking at a loss.
Wouldn’t it have been more unbelievable if Memphis continued to hit their free throws as they had in the two games prior, rather than missing a few down the stretch as it happened in the final?