Thursday Thrillers

Have you exhaled yet? College basketball at its highest level was on display last night with three down-to-the-wire thrillers out of the four total games. SI's Grant Wahl put it best in an article from today, saying, "Are you starting to see why a rash of opening-week upsets aren't always the greatest thing?" Amen. Now we get the best teams playing against each other, and yesterday, that produced three classic games. Some of my quick thoughts from last night:

- The Ohio State-Tennessee game encapsulates the Volunteers' season. They're capable of looking like world beaters when they're on their game, forcing their frenetic pace on the opponent and draining 3s. That's what happened in the first half when they raced out to a 20 point lead. But that hyper-aggressive style can also let teams back, and sure enough, the Buckeyes worked their magic for the second consecutive game, making it a workable margin very early in the second half.

- I have to come clean and admit it. I never thought Memphis would get so far, and I was very wrong. They've certainly got plenty of talent, and are determined to prove the many doubters out there. I think the win against Texas A&M shut up most of those doubters, myself included. And to do it in what essentially amounted to a road game in front of a throng of Aggie supporters in San Antonio made it all the more impressive. With Ohio State looking vulnerable, the Tigers have a great shot to make the Final Four.

- On the other hand, my opinion on Pittsburgh was confirmed with yet another Sweet 16 exit for Jamie Dixon's crew. For some reason, year in and year out, they have not had the ability to win the really big game. They're consistently at a level where you consider them one of the very good teams in college basketball, but they're struggling to reach the elite status.

- Kansas showed they were capable of winning a close game against a defensively smothering team in Southern Illinois, a huge statement for a team that likes to get up and down the floor and score a lot of points. This was about as great a preparation as they could have had in advance of playing another defensive-minded team in UCLA in the Regional Final.

Four more games tonight!

Georgetown vs. Vanderbilt
North Carolina vs. USC
Oregon vs. UNLV
Florida vs. Butler

final four
ucla
kansas
ohio state
memphis
sweet 16

The NCAA Race is Wide Open

This is what's great about college basketball that you don't get in any other sport: the closer you get to the postseason, the more teams that have hope (unfounded hope in some cases, I grant you) for a berth in the NCAAs seems to increase exponentially. And this year takes that uncertainty that makes the sport so exciting this time of year to a level we haven't seen in quite a while. Not only do you have a crowd of teams trying to squeeze in to the field of 65, but this year, you have a host of teams that that have a real chance at making a championship run. The across the board parity along the college basketball landscape that has prevailed this year, in addition to the lack of a dominant team gives a bigger group of teams legitimate hope for reaching the Final Four.

Today was a perfect example of why there is no clear favorite. The #1 and #2 teams in the polls, Wisconsin and Ohio State played an underwhelming game for a matchup of such prominence, with neither team able to crack 50 points. The thing is though, this is the first big win of the year for the Buckeyes, who will likely be #1 in both polls as of tomorrow. They've been thumped by two other top 5 teams this year, Florida and North Carolina, both of whom will continue to be ranked behind Ohio State in the new polls.

Florida, the national champs, have struggled as of late, and while they will probably respond to Coach Billy Donovan lighting into them following their embarrassing loss to SEC bottom feeder LSU on Saturday, I don't believe the Gators will repeat. They've got the talent and the experience, but there's a reason why schools rarely repeat in college hoops - it's too hard to get through the pressure cooker of a 6 game single-elimination tournament two years in a row. Look at the last team that had a profile that was very much like the Gator team now - the 1997-98 Arizona Wildcats, led by Mike Bibby and Miles Simon. That was a team that won the championship a year ahead of schedule the season before, and was considered the odds-on-favorite entering the tournament the following year. But they ended up getting whacked by a streaking Utah team in the regional final that came in prepared and hungry. I think it's very possible that we could have a similar situation with Florida in this tournament.

In my opinion, the most solid team in the country, the one that should be considered the favorite among a muddled field, is UCLA. They were #1 in the polls for a number of weeks earlier in the season, and have no alarming losses. They lost by 2 to a very dangerous Oregon team, by 7 to a good Stanford team, and by 5 at West Virginia in a game they did well to get back into following a horrendous start. They have two of the best players in the country in Aaron Afflalo and point guard Darren Collison, and you know that with Ben Howland as their coach, they're going to play good defense. The cherry on top is their hunger to finish the job they got so close to last season when they got ambushed in the national championship game to the Gators.

Some of the other teams may be flashier and have bigger name stars, but the Bruins deserve the mantle of favorites in a crowd of flawed teams.


aaron afflalo
ucla bruins
ben howland
billy donovan
final four

Yet Another Take on a College Football Playoff

In the aftermath of this weekend's round of games in college football and the subsequent BCS rankings, there's been a firestorm of debate surrounding who should face Ohio State in the national championship game in Glendale, AZ. As it is right now, Michigan remains #2 in the BCS with their one loss, but has a slim lead over #3 USC, who will likely pass the Wolverines if they end up winning their final two games over Notre Dame and UCLA. All the while, fans around the country are putting in their two cents over who should play the Buckeyes in the title game. That all seems a little pointless to me - regardless of who you may want to see in the game, or which matchup might bring in the best ratings, you are going to see the #2 team in the rankings in Glendale. That's why the whole computerized BCS ranking system was put together: to mitigate, at least to a degree, the bias of human subjectivity in determining a national champion. And for the most part, the system in place gets it right.

But there is room for improvement. This year, there is a legitimate argument that Michigan might be a more worthy opponent to Ohio State than USC, which is exceedingly valid given the showing they put up last Saturday in Columbus. The Trojans would say that with only one close loss in their season, why should they be any less entitled to the spot than Michigan is? And the same goes for the SEC champion, whether it be Florida or Arkansas, which will likely end up with only one loss on the season. In my opinion, no other teams this season, merit a discussion. That assumes however that USC beats Notre Dame. If the Irish beat the Trojans, they would replace USC in that foursome deserving a discussion.

My solution: this muddled mess could be cleared up by having a two-round playoff. Having only a pair of semifinals in addition to the championship would remove any gray area around who is worthy enough to have a shot at the title game. In the era of the BCS, there hasn't been a year in which you could legitimately argue for more than four teams (though usually it's no more than three) deserving a shot in the championship game. When unbeaten USC and Oklahoma battled for the title a few years ago, undefeated and #3 Auburn was left in the lurch. With a semifinal game, any debate about Auburn would have been resolved.

Logistically, it's not unreasonable either. It would only be one additional game, so it's not an overwhelming burden on the players as student athletes, especially since the timing of the game would coincide with the start of a new semester, where some leeway is allowable. And think of the ratings bonanza for the TV networks if they had another big-time game to be able to broadcast.

And while a playoff would expose the top team to the possibility of an upset, it's no different than the danger that a top team in any other sport on any level would have to face. And besides, top college football teams are essentially playing in a charged playoff atmosphere every week, where one loss puts you in real jeopardy, and two losses are fatal. With the number of one-loss teams in the mix this year, I think a simple system like this would provide some real clarity.

Recapping a Busy Football Weekend

Now, things are starting to get interesting. If you're a football fan, of both the college and pro game, this is when you can really start discussing the battle for postseason positioning in earnest. With the college football season approaching its final couple of weeks and the NFL season rounding the bend into its final stages, there's hardly a more interesting time to speculate about who'll get in to the desired postseason spots and who'll be left out. With that said, here are some of the biggest stories of the weekend:

- We don't have to speculate about one thing. Ohio State will be playing in the national championship game in January. And boy, good luck stopping that offense. Michigan came into the game riding its reputation as one of the staunchest defensive teams in the country, with a unit full of potential future pros. Whole lot of good that did them on Saturday, when Troy Smith and his arsenal of weapons carved up the Wolverine defense to the tune of 42 points. The offense is so explosive and so varied in its attack, and they have the ideal quarterback in Smith acting as maestro. Another reason why you have to like the Buckeyes' chances regardless of who they play: Ohio State is 4-1 in bowl games under Jim Tressel. He will have his team prepared to play under the brightest of lights.

- The BCS rankings that were released today have Michigan still at #2 over USC, a bit of a surprise. However, don't go thinking that a rematch is certainly in the works. The Wolverines hold a slim .075 margin over USC for the #2 spot, and while Michigan's season is complete, the Trojans still have games against Notre Dame and UCLA. If they win both, they'll likely leapfrog Michigan for #2 and earn the chance to play Ohio State in the title game.

And in the NFL.....

- The Colts were bound to lose some time, and better for them to lose on the road to an NFC opponent, than to a team in their own conference. And while they still have the inside track on homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, they need to figure out a way to improve their rush defense between now and the playoffs, because if they don't, they will be toast, Peyton Manning or not. Looking down the road, they need to hope that they don't face the Chargers in the playoffs because LaDainian Tomlinson could make short work of the Colts defense the way he's playing now.

- Speaking of Tomlinson, there is no doubt that he is the front runner for league MVP at this point in the season. He has 20 touchdowns already, only 10 games into the season, on pace for 32, which would easily surpass the record of 28 TDs set by Shaun Alexander of the Seahawks just last year. The amazing thing is that everyone knows he's going to get the ball in the red zone and he still scores 3 or 4 touchdowns per game. Amazing how 6 years ago, everyone blasted the Chargers for trading the top overall draft pick and the chance to take Michael Vick. Well, all they ended up with was a Hall of Fame-to-be running back in Tomlinson, while Vick is now scrutinized ad nauseum for his quarterbacking style.

- While he won't win the award, it might be time to include San Francisco running back Frank Gore in discussions for league MVP. In the biggest game of the year for the 49ers, he came up huge with 212 yards in a 20-14 upset of the Seahawks. Don't look now, but the young Niners are only a game out of first place and can be considered serious contenders for a playoff spot in the NFC. Gore is leading a talented offensive nucleus that is getting better by the week. He is already over 1,000 yards for the season and is impressively averaging over 5 yards per carry.

And it only gets better from here - 3 games on Thanksgiving and more big-time rivalry games in college football this weekend in addition to the normal NFL action on Sundays.

Schembechler Raised both Michigan and Ohio State

As if the attention devoted to the Ohio State-Michigan game couldn't get any greater, the hype machine blew a gasket with the passing of the legendary former Wolverines' coach Bo Schembechler. In addition to being a one-of-a-kind coach, Schembechler was also by all accounts a classy and principled man. Out of all the stories I heard yesterday in the coverage of his death, my favorite was one that came not in his role as head football coach, but rather as the athletic director of the school. On the eve of the 1989 NCAA basketball tournament, coach Bill Frieder announced that he had accepted an offer to coach at Arizona State, effective at the end of the tournament. In retrospect, knowing the kind of man Schembechler was, Frieder might have been wise to put off negotiations until after the tournament. Schembechler dismissed Frieder before he got to coach a game in the tournament, saying, ""A Michigan man will coach Michigan, not an Arizona State man." As a result, Steve Fisher was installed as interim coach, and the Wolverines went on to win the title, beating Seton Hall in the final. How many athletic directors put in that situation, knowing how lucrative a deep run in the NCAA Tournament can be, would have made a principled move like that? I can bet that even if the Wolverines had been upset in the first round of the tournament, Schembechler would have been convinced that he had made the right move because loyalty and devotion to Michigan comes before all else.

That episode is indicative of why the school will miss him so much. The man bled Wolverine maize and blue, and was the greatest force behind carving out the identity of Michigan sports, as the powerhouse we know it as today. But lest you think that Ohio State is unaffected by this untimely death, think again. Schembechler started his career as an assistant to another legend, Ohio State's venerable Woody Hayes, and between them, formed a great personal rivalry that added significantly to the luster of the big game.

My feeling is that today, both schools will show the due respect and restraint that is owed to the passing of such a larger-than-life figure. Michigan of course, but I would argue that Ohio State needed Schembechler nearly as much as Michigan did.

The annual Ohio State-Michigan game is one of the truly special events in the pantheon of college sports. We toss around the word "rivalry" often, but with these two foes, the meaning of the word is taken to a whole different level . Every Ohio State and Michigan student is thankful that their two teams have built one of the handful of rivalries that stand out as annual holidays. It is the ultimate showcase for competition and school pride, but that wouldn't have materialized if there wasn't an equally worthy opponent on the opposite sideline. Through their rivalry, each of these schools has been lifted up in a way that would not have been possible otherwise. Any memorable character in literature needs a worthy foil to do battle with, and it's no different in this case. Hayes and Schembechler are the primary men responsible for lifting this game to the holy day of obligation it has become, and for that, every Buckeye and Wolverine should be grateful.

Radio Show tomorrow 6-7pm

Tomorrow, Saturday the 17th, I'll be doing my second broadcast of my sports talk radio show, also conveniently entitled, "Going Deep," from 6-7pm. How can you listen? Go to ivnet.tv , go to the English language page, and that'll take you to the main broadcast page. To listen, click on the box on the left-hand side that says, "IVNET Radio."

Tomorrow's topics include:

- The Ohio State-Michigan epic
- Longtime Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler's death
- Previewing Sunday's NFL games
- The effect of the Daisuke Matsusaka sweepstakes on the balance of power in the AL East
- Some offbeat stuff, including Emmitt Smith's "Dancing with the Stars" victory

Email me at sami.ghazi@gmail.com if you want to chime in on any or all of these subjects during the show