NCAA Tournament: West Regional Preview

Wesley Johnson has taken it to the rack many times for Syracuse since transferring from Iowa State, and has also propelled the Orange to the top seed in the West regional, the same regional they came out of in 2003 to win the national championship. (Photo courtesy of New York Daily News)

Continuing on with our preview of the NCAA Tournament, let's take a look at the West regional.

Teams & Seeds: (1) Syracuse, (2) Kansas State, (3) Pittsburgh, (4) Vanderbilt, (5) Butler, (6) Xavier, (7) BYU, (8) Gonzaga, (9) Florida State, (10) Florida, (11) Minnesota, (12) UTEP, (13) Murray State, (14) Oakland, (15) North Texas, (16) Vermont

Players to Watch: Wes Johnson, (Syracuse) Andy Rautins, (Syracuse) Jacob Pullen, (Kansas State) A.J. Ogilvy, (Vanderbilt) Matt Howard, (Butler) Matt Bouldin (Gonzaga)

Highlight Matchup: The first-round clash between Xavier and Minnesota. Tubby Smith has always had his teams ready to pounce in the big dance since his days at Georgia, and the Golden Gophers come in off an inspiring showing at the Big Ten tournament, which was in Indianapolis, site of the Final Four.

Upset Special: Minnesota over Xavier. Even though the A-10 was a pleasant surprise this year, something tells me Minnesota will get over the hump against the Musketeers.

Marquee Coaches: Jim Boeheim, (Syracuse) Billy Donovan (Florida) and Smith. (Minnesota) Don't forget about Jamie Dixon, (Pitt) Brad Stevens, (Butler) or Mark Few (Gonzaga) either.

Winner: Syracuse. Even if the Orange do not have big man Arinze Onuaku for the opening weekend of the tournament, their 2-3 zone should stifle any opponent in what is an easy regional to play in.

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NCAA Tournament: Midwest Regional Preview

Player of the Year candidate Evan Turner leads No. 2 seed Ohio State into action in the Midwest regional, starting against Cal-Santa Barbara. (Photo courtesy of The Sporting News)

As we ready ourselves for the 2010 edition of the NCAA Tournament, I'll be profiling each regional, as well as the highlight matchups and players to watch. We'll start with the Midwest, where overall No. 1 seed Kansas is the odds-on favorite to represent the regional in Indianapolis for the Final Four.

Teams & Seeds: (1) Kansas, (2) Ohio State, (3) Georgetown, (4) Maryland, (5) Michigan State, (6) Tennessee, (7) Oklahoma State (8) UNLV, (9) Northern Iowa, (10) Georgia Tech, (11) San Diego State, (12) New Mexico State, (13) Houston, (14) Ohio, (15) Cal-Santa Barbara, (16) Lehigh

Players to Watch: Sherron Collins, (Kansas) Cole Aldrich, (Kansas) Evan Turner, (Ohio State) Greg Monroe, (Georgetown) Greivis Vasquez, (Maryland) Kalin Lucas (Michigan State)

Highlight Matchup: The potential second-round clash between Maryland and Michigan State, which will feature the aforementioned Vasquez and Lucas in an intriguing battle of the point guards that will be fun to watch.

Upset Special: Georgia Tech over Oklahoma State. The Yellow Jackets have won several big games this season, and freshman Derrick Favors is has one of the best inside games in the nation.

Marquee Coach: Take your pick from Bill Self, (Kansas) Gary Williams, (Maryland) and Tom Izzo, (Michigan State) all of whom have won national championships. Steve Fisher (San Diego State) has also won a national title, while Thad Matta (Ohio State) and Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech) have been to the national championship game in the past.

Winner: Ohio State. Kansas may be the most talented team, but the Elite Eight matchup out of this regional will come down to a last-second possession, and in that scenario, no one is better than Player of the Year frontrunner Evan Turner, who will lead the Buckeyes into Indy.

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'Hawks Rock Their Way To No. 1 Overall Seed

Led by Sherron Collins, Kansas enters NCAA Tournament as the #1 overall seed in the field of 65, and will play its first game against Lehigh in the Midwest Regional. (Photo courtesy of New York Daily News)

Two years removed from their first national championship since 1988, Kansas is once again the prohibitive favorite to cut down the nets on the first Monday in April, as the Jayhawks were installed as the top overall seed in this year's NCAA Tournament. Kansas was revealed as the first team in just over an hour ago on this "Selection Sunday," and will kick off the tournament against Patriot League champion Lehigh in their first-round matchup out of the Midwest regional. Kentucky, (East) Syracuse, (West) and Duke (South) are the other three top seeds, the Blue Devils receiving the last vote over Big East tournament champion West Virginia, the No. 2 seed in the East. The Mountaineers are one of eight Big East teams in the field of 65, once again the most of any conference participating in the tournament.

As usual, the selection committee threw quite a few curves in this year's edition of the "Big Dance," namely making Villanova a 2 seed in the South regional despite the Wildcats losing six of their last ten games after starting 9-0 in Big East play. Also, the Big Ten has a legitimate gripe this year, with Purdue (ranked fifth in the country going into today) being relegated to a 4 seed in the South, and Michigan State (ranked 11th) a 5 in the star-studded Midwest. The Spartans face a potential second-round matchup with Maryland, not to mention Kansas and either Georgetown or Ohio State in the regionals should Tom Izzo's team advance that far.

The selection was also filled with surprise entries, namely former two-time national champion Florida, back in the field for the first time since repeating as champions in 2007. The Gators join Wake Forest as unlikely participants in the tournament, bursting the bubbles of teams such as Illinois and Mississippi State after those two teams made valiant efforts in their conference tournaments, the Bulldogs almost defeating Kentucky in this afternoon's SEC championship game. Virginia Tech is also on the outside looking in despite having a better record than fellow ACC schools Wake Forest and Clemson, both of whom are among the six ACC programs in the tournament.

Check back for detailed previews of each regional between now and tipoff of Tuesday night's play-in game between Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winthrop, with the winner of that contest advancing to face Duke in the South regional.

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A Departure From The Norm

After a heartbreaking loss to Marquette in yesterday's second round Big East tournament matchup, Norm Roberts may be addressing the media one last time as the head coach at St. John's, as he is widely expected to be replaced in the offseason. (Photo courtesy of redstormsports.com)

Nice guys really do finish last, and in this instance, it is extremely unfortunate when you consider the story of a man who returned to his home area to restore a program that had been decimated by a scandal from which many believe it has yet to emerge. For six years, Norm Roberts had taken St. John's from what he personally described as "rock bottom playing in the best league in America," and rebuilt a scarred program that was once among the nation's elite.

Now, seven may not be lucky for Roberts, who is reported by the New York Post's Lenn Robbins as being out at St. John's, effectively ending a six-year tenure that saw Roberts guide the Johnnies to an 81-100 record, but simultaneously restoring dignity and a positive image to the once-mighty basketball power in Queens. Robbins also wrote that Roberts is expected to take a buyout of at least $700,000, as the 44-year-old coach still has three years left on his revolving five-year deal. Although the Red Storm (17-15) are eligible for the NIT, sources close to the program are not expecting the Johnnies to be part of that field, as there are four Big East teams that finished ahead of them, namely NCAA bubble teams South Florida and Seton Hall, as well as Cincinnati, who plays West Virginia tonight at Madison Square Garden in a Big East tournament quarterfinal game. Connecticut, who was soundly defeated by St. John's in the conference tournament on Tuesday, is also in the running for an NIT bid, but coach Jim Calhoun has said that the decision to accept would be made by athletic director Jeff Hathaway.

After St. John's came back from down 20 to beat DePaul on the road in triple overtime, followed by a dominating win over UConn, the Johnnies nearly stole one from Marquette after being down 14 in the first half. St. John's had one last chance to win at the buzzer yesterday, but were double-teamed in the backcourt. Once they recovered, Malik Boothe could only manage an air ball from half court, enabling Marquette to hold on by the final of 57-55. These last three games should be enough for Roberts to return, but St. John's president Rev. Donald Harrington and athletic director Chris Monasch may have other ideas, considering that St. John's will have nine seniors (barring any transfers) next season; and should Roberts return and not be successful, the case to dismiss him will only be exponentially magnified, and a new coach would have to fill nine scholarships just weeks after being introduced as the head man.

Roberts does not deserve this fate. As the play-by-play announcer for St. John's basketball from 2007-2009 on WSJU Radio, the student radio station at St. John's, I had gotten to know Roberts quite well, and can tell you from personal experience that he is truly one of the nice guys of the industry, a class act that knows how to conduct himself on and off the court. Roberts also never hid from the truth during his time in Queens, and always put the other team over in postgame press conferences regardless of the end result. Many a time I would be at the St. John's media room waiting for Roberts to walk in, and his first words would usually be "Give (insert team name here) a lot of credit."

One would no doubt expect Roberts to say the same regarding his successor, who could be Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg, a native of Long Island and two-time ACC coach of the year that is atop the Johnnies' hypothetical wish list. Hofstra's Tom Pecora is also an intriguing possibility, as is Siena's Fran McCaffery. Ask the St. John's players, however, and almost all will tell you unequivocally that they want none other than Roberts leading them out of the locker room in the 2010-11 season. "Once you've got a family going like this, it would be kind of dumb to break the family up," said junior forward D.J. Kennedy, the Johnnies' leading scorer, who feels that Roberts should return, "especially with all these veterans coming back."

No matter what happens, or who is at the helm of the Red Storm next season, only one thing can be said for what has transpired in Queens over the last six years, and how far the program has come since that infamous night in Pittsburgh during the 2003-04 season that cost then-coach Mike Jarvis his job.

Give Norm Roberts a lot of credit.

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Gonzo, Pirates Look For Buried Treasure At Garden

After fellow New York metro area programs Rutgers and St. John's were eliminated in Big East tournament, it's up to Bobby Gonzalez and Seton Hall to give the Big Apple something to pump their fists over as the Pirates face Notre Dame in what amounts to a play-in game for Seton Hall's NCAA Tournament chances. (Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated)

Say what you want about Bobby Gonzalez's disposition and on-court antics, but don't discredit the Seton Hall head man's talent or the players that have now made it into the second round of the Big East tournament.

After nearly blowing a 29-point lead at Madison Square Garden against Providence last night only to survive the Friars by the final of 109-106, Seton Hall now faces Notre Dame in tonight's second round in just a matter of minutes in a game that will, for better or worse, dictate the Pirates' immediate future. Some believe that Seton Hall (19-12, 9-9 in the Big East) has already done enough to lock up an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, with big wins over Pittsburgh, Louisville and the Irish team that they square off against at the "World's Most Famous Arena" tonight, but many experts and fans alike feel that the Pirates need one more victory to cement their status as a participant in this year's edition of the "Big Dance."

"We have 19 wins and we have no bad losses," said Gonzalez during last night's postgame press conference when asked to surmise his team's chances to be one of the 65 that contends for the national championship. "We beat Notre Dame at our place (February 11th at the Prudential Center by the final of 90-87) and a lot of people say they are in."

The Pirates are usually a bubble team, but not by choice, as they have just so happened to have faced the top teams in the Big East during the early portion of the conference season in each of the last two seasons. However, Seton Hall has held it together thanks in large part to the play of junior guard Jeremy Hazell, the conference's second-leading scorer; as well as transfers Jeff Robinson and Herb Pope, the latter posting 27 points and 11 rebounds in last night's victory over Providence before fouling out late in the second half.

With Rutgers being eliminated last night by Cincinnati, coupled with St. John's heartbreaking loss earlier today against Marquette, the Pirates are the last New York-area team remaining in the Big East tournament, something that is sure to bring a smile to Gonzalez's face, as he has taken great pride in being the top program in the New York metropolitan area. In fact, his team went 3-0 against the Scarlet Knights and Red Storm during the regular season.

However, Gonzalez, who took Manhattan into the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2004, has intentions of expanding his success, and a victory against Notre Dame tonight will go a long way in determining just how far Seton Hall has come since the 46-year-old took over the reins of the Pirates from Louis Orr in 2006.

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A Sort Of Homecoming

After his Louisville Cardinals fell to St. John's last night, head coach Rick Pitino was asked about potentially leaving to coach the New Jersey Nets. In another subplot, Pitino has also been mentioned as a potential hire for the Johnnies should Norm Roberts not return. (Photo courtesy of Chicago Sun-Times)

The boy from New York has been around many cities and states in his day, from coaching stints at Boston University and Providence to the NBA's New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, only to return to the college ranks at Kentucky and Louisville, taking the Wildcats to a national championship in 1996. Lately, there has been talk of the Rick Pitino express making another stop, perhaps in the New York metropolitan area where the 57-year-old coaching icon was born and raised.

Currently in his ninth season as head coach of Louisville, who lost to St. John's at Madison Square Garden last night by the final of 74-55, Pitino's name has been mentioned by both SNY and the New York Daily News as a candidate for the New Jersey Nets job. Pitino vehemently denied rumors of his return to the NBA on several occasions during last night's postgame press conference and Big East coaches' conference call, stating that the rumors had "just zero truth" to them, even asking why people would print such a story. The coach later poked fun at the situation when told of the Bergen Record's report that Duke head man Mike Krzyzewski was the first choice for the gig. "He would be a great choice, great choice. Matter of fact, I'm gonna call his recruits tonight," quipped Pitino.

However, it's not just Jersey that could be rolling out the welcome mat for Pitino. The Bergen Record's Ian O'Connor has also reported that legendary former St. John's coach Lou Carnesecca may use his already powerful clout to lure Pitino to Queens in the event that Norm Roberts, who has been at the helm of the Johnnies for the last six seasons, is not asked to return. In fact, a source close to the situation told O'Connor that he would be "shocked" if Pitino was coaching Louisville in 2010-11.

Let's look at the Pitino to St. John's move for a bit. Along with John Calipari, the Brooklyn-born Pitino is probably one of a scant few coaches in Division I college basketball that would make St. John's nationally relevant before the Johnnies even contested an opening tip. Pitino already has a strong history of getting New York-area high school players to commit to his programs, including Francisco Garcia and Edgar Sosa at Louisville, and the Johnnies have clearly fallen behind in the city landscape over the last few years. Moreover, Pitino has voiced his distress over the sex scandal which implicated him during the offseason, and a move to another program could give him a fresh start. Even though St. John's is a Catholic institution, it is unfortunately no stranger to scandal, as the team fought through a 2003 season that featured the infamous incident in Pittsburgh that cost head coach Mike Jarvis his job and saw several players dismissed from the team. That is still seen in some circles as a blow from which the program has yet to recover.

If Pitino ultimately decides against returning to the Big Apple, either to St. John's or the Nets, both teams have already looked at other candidates. In fact, former St. John's and New York Knicks standout Mark Jackson (who, ironically enough, played for Pitino in his early years with the Knicks) has been mentioned as a potential hire for the Johnnies if Roberts is not retained by president Rev. Donald Harrington and athletic director Chris Monasch. Another interesting name that may (and should) pop up could be Wichita State's Gregg Marshall, who is on the verge of taking the Shockers to the NCAA Tournament, a level he has already succeeded at while at Winthrop. However, if St. John's, which just celebrated the 25th anniversary of its 1985 Final Four team that included the likes of Jackson, Chris Mullin and Walter Berry, along with Coach Carnesecca, want to take the step forward that it so desperately needs to take to become a major player on the national landscape again, it only takes one name. In fact, the immortal Carnesecca even said it in a pregame reception honoring the '85 Johnnies. "Maybe one guy can turn it around. One guy to ignite this thing and turn it around."

Rick Pitino is that guy, and his resume speaks for itself.

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Orange On Their Way To Squeezing 1 Seed

Already in favor of expanding the NCAA Tournament to 96 teams, Jim Boeheim could have something else to exult about, as his second-ranked Syracuse team is 24-1 and on their way to securing a No. 1 seed in this year's edition of March Madness. (Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated)

He has a list of accolades that few colleagues can match: Over 800 career wins, a national championship, a Who's Who of NBA superstars such as Carmelo Anthony and Jonny Flynn; not to mention an Olympic gold medal as an assistant coach for Team USA in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Then there's the statistic that no other college coach possesses, an unprecedented thirty-two 20 win seasons, all consecutive. So, what else does Jim Boeheim need to add to an already impressive resume, one that saw him inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame?

Many college basketball analysts would argue that the 65-year-old Boeheim can retire today, and his legacy at Syracuse University would enable him to go down in history as one of the greatest and most talented people to grace a sideline on the hardwood. However, the legend of upstate New York isn't riding off into the sunset just yet. Boeheim's Orange team is in the midst of their best start in program history, a 24-1 record that has catapulted Syracuse to the second spot in both the AP and coaches' polls. Not bad for a team that lost its three best players (Jonny Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris) this past offseason.

After a 72-67 home win against UConn at the Carrier Dome last night, the Orange welcome Rick Pitino and Louisville into the Dome on Sunday with a No. 1 seed in next month's NCAA Tournament right within their reach. Led by Iowa State transfer Wesley Johnson, who is a candidate for the National Player of the Year award, the Orange are one of the most complete teams in the country with their 2-3 zone featuring Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson up front. Throw in a starting backcourt that can shoot the lights out of any arena in senior Andy Rautins and freshman Brandon Triche, along with a bench led by Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine, and you could be looking at a team playing for another national title in Indianapolis.

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