Mega March Madness: The Tournament

The Extremely Little Dance.

Quick, how many of last year's Final Four can you name? I can name them all, because I have spent way too much time looking at postseason basketball for the last month or so. Now, how many of the last four teams in the NIT can you name? Can you name four teams that played in the CBI? Do you know what the CIT is, or when it was held? The point is that there's a lot of postseason college basketball out there, but not all of it is relevant. Heck, the only think I know about the NIT is that Dayton gets to go every year. The point is, college basketball is in danger of slipping into an endless morass of Insight.com Bowl-type Duquesne-v.-Montana matchups that nobody cares about because they have no bearing on the eventual national champion. Until now.

First off, it's everybody in the pool. There are 346 D-1 NCAA teams, and they're all participating. There are several successful tournaments around the world that take this approach, from the Kentucky and Delaware high school basketball tournaments to the FA Cup in English soccer. I see no reason that, properly executed, this couldn't work for the NCAA as well. Obviously, the NIT, CIT, and CBI will all be eliminated. The conference tournaments remain intact, with some scheduling adjustments. I've had to make the start dates on most of the conference tournaments a little earlier, but I took pains to keep the formats intact.

Around the A-10

Harper in his natural habitat.

The NBA Draft - not usually a huge occasion for the conference - has come and gone another year. The most highly rated A-10 player to head for the lockout this year was Justin Harper, Richmond's silky smooth 6'10" forward, who went 32nd to the Cavs before being traded to Orlando. Despite his size and potential as a match-up nightmare, he only ever had one good game in a win against Xavier (20/8 on 6-8/6-6/2-2 as a sophomore), which is probably why I don't remember him with any animosity. That and he was playing next to the loathsome Dan Geriot, the Matt Howard of the A-10.

Harper developed from averaging just over 3 points and 1 rebound per game as a freshman to going for 18/7 in 31.8 MPG as a senior. His shooting touch was on display, with a line of .534/.448/.797. He probably bolstered his draft stock with not only a great senior season but also a Sweet 16 run with Richmond in which he averaged 18 and 6 and went 6 of 6 from behind the arc. Unlike Kevin Anderson - who still hasn't returned Jordan Crawford's A-10 Player of the Year trophy - it's not too difficult to wish Harper all the best in his career as a professional.

Living the Dream Pt. 4

That's still money

The last installment of Living the Dream will be a bit different than the others in that it will focus on the select Xavier players currently playing their trade at the very highest level. No matter what you think of the NBA, and I can't stand it, there is no question that it is the most prestigious and developed basketball league in the world. Even the very best European talent leaves home to come play here, in the United States. Xavier players are scattered the world around, but four remain right here, at the top level.

Tu Holloway Tweets his work

Joel's look at the possible upcoming point guard dilemma this morning got me to wondering what Xavier's current point was doing with his summer. Joel mentioned in the Summer Camp series that what Tu needed to work on this summer, if anything, was his jumpshooting. Probably not spurred by our suggestion, Tu has been doing just that. What follows is the summer in workout related Tweets from Tu.

What's in a Point Guard?

Dude looks either bored or angry in every pic I could find.

Word around the scouting world has Xavier in and possibly leading on Brooklyn point guard Kareem Canty. Canty is a former class of 2011 player who reclassified to 2012 so as to accommodate a year at prep school. ESPN.com is impressed with him, rating him a 92 overall, four-star player who is in the top 100 of his class.  Scout.com is similarly flattering to the young man, calling him the 7th best PG in his class. Despite that, I'm not so excited about the idea of Xavier landing him.

Canty has the potential to be a good player; I'm not doubting that. Game reports can be glittering, like this one from the Rumble in the Bronx in June, or this one from the same tournament last year. When things are going well, he is a big-time point who apparently can get the ball to his teammates or score it himself. Kareem also has a body strong enough that it helps him out on the glass and as a defender. He's also reputed not to be afraid of contact in the lane.

Mega March Madness: The Approach

There are several hurdles that any tournament expansion plan has to clear before it can be put in place. (It should here be noted that, though I think my plan is amazing, I also recognize that it doesn't stand the slightest hope of being incorporated. Just thought you should know that this was a mental exercise for me, not a proposal that I'm hoping the NCAA will stumble across.) One is of simple logistics. Two teams can't play each other if they are in different gyms. A single team can't play two games at the same time. Playing on consecutive days is eventually going to take a toll on a team and the quality of basketball that they're going to play, and thus should be avoided.

This isn't the answer to anything.

Another is that of the valuation of the regular season. If you've ever talked to someone who is a fan of college football but not of college basketball, you've heard someone go on about how great it is when losing even one game at the very beginning of the year could torpedo the whole thing. While I don't buy into that mindset (get a tournament already, college football), it does bear keeping in mind that a team's accomplishments in the regular slate of games shouldn't just be thrown out once tournament time rolls around.

Know Your Non-conference Opponent: Vanderbilt

Why is this guy not on their logo?

The ties between Xavier and Wake Forest run deep, thanks in large part to the Skip Prosser coaching tree from which Chris Mack and the dear, departed Pat Kelsey sprung. When Coach Prosser passed away, XU and Wake agreed on a 10-year slate of games to honor his memory. This all makes the fact that Wake couldn't find room in its schedule to honor the commitment this season feel a little more like a shiv to the collective kidneys, especially considering that Xavier has been the more successful of the two programs of late. Despite all that, Mario Mercurio and his staff shrugged off the setback and added a road test against Vanderbilt to the non-conference schedule.

From a basketball perspective, this is a serious upgrade. While Wake was dreadful last year, Vandy was rock solid and made the tourny as a five seed. The Commodores have been working under Coach Kevin Stallings since 1999, he has had them in the tourny as a six seed or better in four of the last five years. Stallings does an admirable job changing his style to fit the personnel rather than trying to fit players into his preconceived plan: in the last five years alone his offense has been anywhere from 66th to 163rd in tempo, 26th to 244th in percentage of shots attempted from three, an 11th to 265th in free throw rate. His changes have been effective though; his team hasn't fallen below 88th in adjusted offense or defense in that time period, and his offense is usually in the top 25.