OBSERVATIONS ON
COLLEGE SPORTS
-----
Nuggets of Gold
Thursday, April 10, 2008
----------
By Adam Gold
----------
Adam Gold is
program director of the Triangle's "850
the Buzz" and host of "The G-spot with Adam Gold"
mornings from 6-10 a.m. |
|
•
SEND
A MESSAGE TO ADAM GOLD
• DIG INTO ADAM GOLD'S ARCHIVES
And there it went.
By Adam Gold
©2008 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
OTHER RECENT ITEMS |
Myatt: Sad song in home of
the blues |
Gold: And there it went. |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
12, Elon 7 |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
4, ODU 2 |
Bailey: Holtz looking for a
few good leaders |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
11, USM 3 |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
4, USM 2 |
BVL Box Score: USM 6, East
Carolina 5 (13) |
Myatt: Part Two: Spring
football tourl |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
11, Campbell 2 |
BVL Box Score: N.C. State 4,
East Carolina 3 |
Bailey: Important time for
spring football |
O'Brien: Football can't
replicate hoops frenzy |
BVL Box Score: ECU 10,
Central Florida 1 |
BVL Box Score: ECU 10,
Central Florida 2 |
BVL Box Score: Central
Florida 3, ECU 2 |
Bradsher: Epiphany: It's
more than a game |
Myatt: Foes gearing up for
football season |
|
Conference USA had its
chance to win a national championship in San Antonio. Memphis, the lead dog
in a conference full of schnauzers, was gnawing at the trophy, up nine
points with a shade over 2:12 on the clock.
Poof.
Out of nearly nowhere,
facing yet another Final Four failure, the blue-blooded Kansas Jayhawks hit
a shot here, forced a turnover there, rebounded a missed free throw or four
and forced overtime with an 11th hour 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Kansas closed regulation
on a 12-3 run, forcing the gassed Tigers to wheeze through another five
minutes to get what they thought they’d earned over the first 40.
Nice try.
Teams that watch a
9-point lead evaporate in the closing two minutes, in large part due to
their own “deer-in-the-headlinghts” experience, don’t often regroup to
handle the pressure of overtime.
Yet, there was Memphis,
the lone representative of Conference USA in the NCAA Tournament, going
through the motions of a game they knew they had just given away.
The Tigers managed a 5-1
record in post season play, or five times more wins than the combined total
of the other two league members that reached the post season, and they
should be proud of the accomplishment.
And, that would be a
whole lot easier had they not been so unbelievably close to closing the
deal.
Don’t turn the ball over
near your own basket, make one more free throw, successfully prevent the
game-tying three-pointer, either through good defense or by fouling before
the shot — we can debate the merits of either — and the game is over,
Memphis cuts down the nets and Conference USA becomes the conference of
champions.
No kidding, I was
prepared to go with that as my lead.
I was going to put Chris
Douglas-Roberts on the Wheaties box and talk about the first national title
for the league in 42 years.
Quick, name the only
other current conference member to win a national championship.
Conference USA is never
going to have a better chance to win a title. This isn’t to say that John
Calipari won’t have Memphis back in the mix in future years, but there is
just no guarantee at all that another kick at the can is right around the
corner.
Duke’s only been back to
a Final four one time since winning the title in 2001; Kentucky hasn’t been
back since winning it all in 1998; and Georgetown reached back-to-back Final
Fours in 1984 and ’85 only to disappear from the national elite until taking
advantage of a North Carolina meltdown last season.
It’s hard just to get
back to a Final Four, let alone be good enough and play well enough to win
two more games amid the madness. Add to this the reality that the Tigers
will be extremely different next year in terms of personnel. Their best
three players, Derrick Rose, Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey are all
targeted for the NBA draft this June.
Even if a crop of
up-and-coming Tiger stars begins to mature next season, to expect Memphis to
reach that level again in the near future is unrealistic.
Honestly, Kansas is going
to feel the same pinch. There’s a great chance that six of the eight players
it used Monday night in San Antonio will have their names in the draft as
well.
Not even the Jayhawks can
recover from that. Florida certainly didn’t, missing out on the NCAA
Tournament after winning back to back championships with the same players in
2006 and 2007.
OTHER RECENT ITEMS |
Myatt: Sad song in home of
the blues |
Gold: And there it went. |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
12, Elon 7 |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
4, ODU 2 |
Bailey: Holtz looking for a
few good leaders |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
11, USM 3 |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
4, USM 2 |
BVL Box Score: USM 6, East
Carolina 5 (13) |
Myatt: Part Two: Spring
football tourl |
BVL Box Score: East Carolina
11, Campbell 2 |
BVL Box Score: N.C. State 4,
East Carolina 3 |
Bailey: Important time for
spring football |
O'Brien: Football can't
replicate hoops frenzy |
BVL Box Score: ECU 10,
Central Florida 1 |
BVL Box Score: ECU 10,
Central Florida 2 |
BVL Box Score: Central
Florida 3, ECU 2 |
Bradsher: Epiphany: It's
more than a game |
Myatt: Foes gearing up for
football season |
|
So, considering the
overall lack of stick in Conference USA, with only one other league school
playing a meaningful post-season game (no, the CBI Invitational doesn’t
count), the league’s chance for a national championship dissolved in a
litter of late-game mishaps and clutch Kansas shots.
C-USA was this close to
being the conference of champions, now it's back to being too big, too
spread out and too geographically unmanageable.
Oh, the answer to the
question: Texas-El Paso, or UTEP, or — as it was known then — Texas Western.
The Miners beat Kentucky to win the 1966 title. But, even this doesn’t
really count as they played as an independent.
Will it ever happen for a
Conference USA team? The odds are against it.
[E-MAIL ADAM GOLD]
[ADAM GOLD ARCHIVES]
04/10/2008 03:27:12 AM |