OCR Text |
Show DAILY Ci HERALD Monday, April 2007 2007 NCAA BASKETBALL MEN'S AND WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR Power programs monopolize spotlight in football, hoops Eddie Pells ASSOCIATED THE ATLANTA It's no accident that they are meeting again for a championship. Calling it pure coincidence might not be totally right, either. Florida and Ohio State are dominating marquee college sports like no two programs ever have. Their meeting today for the basketball title comes three months after they played for the football championship. Regardless of the outcome, the Gators already go down as the first program to hold the men's basketball and football titles at the same time. The programs are products of two mega-sizeathletic departments awash in money, fan support, strong decision makers at the top and good throughout their respective campuses. "When you have resources, that usually means you have the wherewithal to have good facilities," said Chuck Neinas, the leader of a search firm that finds football coaches e and athletic directors for programs. "You build a tradition of success that attracts talent, and that allows you to pay for good coaches." Though the schools operate in different sections of the country, these power programs have more things in common than not. Most notably, these are schools or at least once were where football was king. d coaches-intersperse- big-tim- Litke Continued from C2 player who was great in college becomes an NBA star. So future considerations don't count; otherwise, the 1982 UNC champions with Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Sam Perkins win every argument hands down. Since it's our list, the only qualification is that a team won at least one title. We're also making allowances for different eras, since teams from the past would have trouble bringing the ball across midcourt against the bigger, faster, stronger and more experienced kids playing these days. The top five: I.Indiana (1975-76- ) The Hoosiers lost one game seasons when the Big Ten was the toughest conference in the land. That was a decision to Kentucky in the Mideast Regional in 1975, mostly because star Scott May had rushed back from a broken arm. The following year, Indiana clocked league rival 8 in the national Michigan championship game to answer doubts about what might have been. These Hoosiers were a team with roles. They had a classic post player (Kent Benson), power forward (May), small forward (Tom Abernethy), shooting guard (Bobby Wilkerson) and one of the best floor generals ever (point guard Quinn Buckner). Plus, they had the other general. Bob Knight in his prime. "Every time somebody comes up to me, the '76 team is the one they talk about," Buckner recalled a while ago. "But every time somebody brings up 76, 1 make it a point in two 92-9- 0 86-6- d Any II Hi" PRESS II Today'sgame NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP Ohio State vs. Florida 7 p.m., TV: CBS Nothing against the basketball programs, but success in football drives success in everything else at most universities. It's the sheer fact of numbers. With the exceptions of a few elite basketball programs, there's simply more money to be made by filling 105,000 seats in the Horseshoe, or 90,000 at the Swamp, than by filling a basketball arena h their size. "The correlation between 105,000 people on a Saturday afternoon in the Shoe definitely helps all programs," Ohio State coach Triad Matta said. "I think it 's helped us through the recruiting process. The notoriety of the football program is something we try to work with" Thanks in large part to revenue from the football program, Ohio State led the NCAA in revenue last year, bringing in nearly $ 105 million. Florida brought in $78 million. Both programs made enough money that they were able to donate to their schools instead of having the one-fift- hand-in-han- d to mention '75. We shot better. We were deeper. We played better defense. There wasn't anything that team couldn't do. That's why I try to keep that memory alive." 2. UCLA 1968 No list would be complete with one and possibly two of coach John Wooden's dynastic teams. Every time the Wizard is asked his favorite, he says, "Which one of your children do you like the best?" We like this edition because the team featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbamaybe the best college player ever, and four Lucius Allen, other starters Mike Warren Jr., Lynn Shack-lefor- d and Mike Lynn who scored in double figures. These Bruins were called "pretty" because they were graceful, but they could be gritty, too. They avenged a midseason loss to Houston and Elvin Hayes with a win in the NCAA semifinal, then crushed Carolina by 23 points. r, 101-6- 3. Duke (1991-92- 9 ) These teams had talent (see above), all but one starter both years, and collected three votes from the current Buckeye squad. The 1991 championship came over defending champion UNLV, which had trounced the Blue Devils by 30 points in the final a year earlier. The second came after 3 overtime win over a Kentucky in the regional final the greatest college game ever. Then throw in Mike Krzyze-wski'- s four straight Final Four appearances, and seven in nine years, an accomplishment that might be almost as impressive as Wooden's reign, given the changes between the two eras. "You can't do it," said coach 104-10- FILEOrlando Sentinel and Associated Press from Ohio State's Jamario O'Neal in the first half during the BCS national on Jan 8, 2007. Center, Florida's Al Horford (42) and Corey Brewer share a moment against UCLA on Saturday. Right Ohio State center Greg Oden points to a teammate after scoring against Georgetown on Saturday. Left, Florida's Cornelius Ingram runs away championship game in Glendale, Ariz., school supplement them. The days of basketball coaches defending their programs' status on these campuses are long gone. Instead, they bask in the football teams, taking recruits to games and bringing those coaches in for motivational speeches to their teams. "It's everything at Florida that's good," Gators coach Billy Donovan said. "Certainly the football program is terrific. As I said earlier, I think where there's problems on campuses with coaches is when all the focus is totally just on one sport." And Matta: "My goal is not to make Ohio State a basketball school. I think my goal is to make it the best basketball pro Steve Fisher, whose "Fab Five" Michigan team lost the 1992 title by 20 points, "but they do it." 4. UNLV (1990-91- ) Runnin' Rebels coach Jerry Tarkanian said after losing the 1991 semifinal to Duke, "I'll never have a group like this again," and no other program has come close mid-maj- since. Florida coach Billy Donovan put these UNLV teams right near the top of his list and with future NBAers Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony at the core, it's no surprise. Tarkanian's only failure in building an empire in what had been anything but a basketball hotbed was timing. 5. Tie: Kentucky (1996) and Florida (2006-07?- ) Donovan's mentor, Rick likely would have taken his 1996 Wildcat team to Boston and the NBA two years later and taken his chances there. Off that team, Antoine Walker, Derek Anderson, Walter McCarty and Tony Delk went to the pros as o, rs and reserve Ron Mercer would follow in short order. First, though, Mercer took the 1997 team to the NCAA final with help from several more future pros Jamal Magliore, Scott Padgett and Nazr Mohammed where it was beaten by Arizona. Let Donovan get past Ohio State come Monday night and he'll have one more title than Pitino, plus a repeat, to break the tie. in 1997, Game on. I Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org recruit, which helped land the Buckeyes on probatioa The probes led to the departure of embattled athletic director Andy Geiger, who said he was burned out from all the turmoil Despite that, he laid much of the groundwork for the current success, and his replacement, Gene Smith, has overseen a smooth transition for what is largely regarded as the country's biggest athletic department. "Certainly, you'd have to put Jeremy Foley and Gene Smith in the finalists of the most respected athletic directors in country," Neinas said. Foley runs a department that is not so lovingly known by some as "The Firm," for its gram that we possibly can." Harmony aside, this isn't to say these programs are perfect. It's just that their solutions to the problems, when they arise, are better. . The OSU football program has moved on from the Maurice Clarett imbroglio. The star of the 2002 national championship team, Clarett created problems while he was in school by accusing administrators of not caring about him and caused even more drama afterward when he lied about receiving thousands of dollars in improper benefits. In basketball, Matta was hired to clean up the program after former coach Jim O'Brien was fired for giving $6,000 to a dispassionate ability to make problems go away. Of late, the NCAA hasnt been a problem. But when Florida hired Ron Zook to replace Steve Spurrier and that experiment started spiraling out of control Foley pulled the plug on The Zooker, his good friend, after 2 Vi years and did everything he could to land Urban Meyer. Many feel Florida will pay whatever it takes to keep Donovan if Kentucky comes calling after tonight's game. Rumors are circulating that Foley is willing to pay $1 million for a new women's basketball coach in an attempt to rebuild the only program in the department. g Rutgers, Tennessee win way into women's title tilt THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - C. Vivian CLEVELAND Stringer is just one win away from that elusive championship she's been chasing for 25 years, with a Rutgers team even she didn't believe would make a run to the Final Four. Rutgers' improbable tournament continued with a domi5 nating victory over LSU on Sunday night in a national semifinal that earned the Scarlet Knights their first trip to the championship game. v "We're not supposed to be here, but that's all right," Stringer said. "This team isn't looking for accolades. We got none. We just play together as a team." The Scarlet Knights have a chance to make history for a school that last earned an NCAA team championship in 1949 sharing a fencing title with Army. "It's a dream come true," Stringer said. "Work hard, get some rest and see what we can do in this next one." Swarming defense and a hot touch behind the arc blew out LSU, which scored the fewest points ever in the Final Four Louisiana Tech had 44 vs. Tennessee in '87 title game. Matee Ajavon scored 16 points and hit four to help Rutgers build an insurmountable first-hal- f lead. The Scarlet Knights (27-8- ) hounded Sylvia Fowles, who appeared aggravated by the relentless defenders. She was held to five points, which tied a season low, and seven rebounds. 5 59-3- 1 ) " f. Associated Press photos Above, Rutgers' Kia Vaughn, left, Heather Zurich, center, and Matee Ajavon celebrate the Scarlet Knights' win over LSU in the semifinal basketball game at the Final Four on Sunday. Below, Tennessee's Shannon Bobbitt (00) weaves between North Carolina's Ivory Latta (12) and Alex Miller during the first half Sunday in Cleveland. away from North Carolina's Alex Miller in the final minute and the Lady Vols rallied to I Tennessee 56, North Carolina beat North Carolina in a na- 50: At Cleveland, with Candace tional semifinal, setting up a Parker making the biggest NCAA title date with Rutgers. The Lady Vols (33-3- ) set a Fisteal, Tennessee snuck back into the NCAA championship. nal Four record with 20 steals Parker wrestled the ball and outscored the Tar Heels 20-- 2 over the final 8:08 to earn their 12th trip to the title game but only their first since 1998. It was sweet revenge for Tennessee, which had lost the Cleveland Regional final on the same floor one year ago to the Tar Heels (344). one merchandise item valued under $1000 Includes: ' photo 4 lines of text 7 days in the Daily Herald 7 days on heraldextra.com to advertise call FfcrM HURRY,!lSAl!ElENDS)Afflll!.3RD!l 373-645- 0 i: 'Off fpUM f prtvttt psrtitt only. Ududft tut butt k4 Automttn I n ill '.v Wii ' 0flily$Hcvfll& ttwvheraldextraiwn fi'i'fi ' -- .7 'inn ii- (v. 34434370 mm it trwm hmiihrowtHiuto com |