Gators arrive at Final Four amid key questions
March 30, 2007
ATLANTA (AP) -When the Florida Gators arrived at the Final Four, they were greeted by a police escort, about a hundred fans, autograph-seekers, and two key questions:
Will they become the first team in 15 years to repeat as national champions? And will Billy Donovan be their coach next season?
Both will be answered soon.
On the court, Florida (33-5) plays UCLA (30-5) in the semifinals Saturday night, a rematch of last year's title game. Off the court, Donovan's future whether with Florida or Kentucky has become a distracting sideshow during the final step in the quest for another national championship.
The Gators need two more victories to become the first team since Duke in 1992 to win consecutive titles, the big reason Corey Brewer, Al Horford and Joakim Noah returned for another season.
"This is what we came back for," Noah said. "We came back to play in this situation. This is the big stage."
Donovan's future has taken center stage, too.
Since Tubby Smith left Kentucky to take the head job at Minnesota, speculation has grown that Donovan is the Wildcats' top choice to replace him.
Florida players shrugged off talk about Donovan's future, saying they expect him to stay put.
"Anybody in their right mind knows he's probably not leaving," Brewer said. "But you never know. I don't think (he'll leave). I hope not. That would be crazy."
Donovan has spent 11 years in Gainesville, putting down roots with his wife and four children. His dad also lives there and coaches Donovan's oldest son's high school basketball team, and the Donovans have been instrumental in getting the new school up and running.
Oh, and Donovan also turned a mediocre basketball program into a national power, at a place where football used to be king, defying the conventional wisdom held by his mentor, Rick Pitino, his predecessor, Lon Kruger, and dozens of other naysayers around the country.
"He made all this possible," Noah said. "Why would you want to be in a position where if you don't win a national title it's a disappointment? (Kentucky) is a great program, but you have to be realistic. The expectations there are unrealistic."
Donovan, an assistant under Pitino in Lexington, has had several opportunities over the past week to take his name out of consideration for the Kentucky job.
But all Donovan said was that the search "has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with Kentucky. I'm not in control of any their decision-making process. The only thing I'm focused on right now is our basketball team."
Donovan added Wednesday that he hoped the rumors wouldn't be a distraction in Atlanta.
"I think there's been distractions all year long for our basketball team," Donovan said. "If I were to address this right now, My focus is on our team, our program and this great opportunity to play in the Final Four. To me, there is nothing more to address. I think I've already addressed it."
Florida fans would like more.
University of Florida president Bernie Machen offered some reassurance last week when he said, "We're not going to lose him to anybody."
Machen and athletic director Jeremy Foley have been working on a new contract for Donovan since last year. Negotiations began during Florida's title run, but Donovan postponed signing a deal worth about $2 million because he didn't want to send the wrong message to the players who turned down NBA riches to stay in school.
Donovan has two years remaining on a contract that pays him $1.7 million a season. His next one could be worth considerably more, especially if the Gators win it all again and if Kentucky comes calling as expected.
"I think he's fine where he is right now," Horford said. "Nobody really wants that Kentucky job. That's the way I look at it."
Whether Donovan wants the job remains to be seen. Much like Florida's shot at history, it won't be answered until after the team's final game.
"When you've got a great coach, you've got to expect it," guard Walter Hodge said. "Hopefully he'll stay."
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Smith never considered Minny job until Wednesday
Tubby Smith said Saturday on ESPN Radio's GameDay that he had no knowledge that his agent, Ricky Lefft, and Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi were discussing the possibility of Smith leaving Kentucky for Minnesota the past six weeks.
Maturi told ESPN.com on Thursday night that he approached Lefft six weeks ago when he got word through a search firm that Smith might have interest.
"I was shocked when Ricky brought that to me, to be honest with you, I was like everybody else. I think he felt looking at me from the outside. He said, 'Tubby this is the best thing for you; you don't seem to be as happy.' Those are the areas that he came to me with," Smith said.
Smith said he was at Clemson University watching his son Brian, who plays for Ole Miss, in an NIT game Monday night. He said he drove back to Lexington on Tuesday. And it was Wednesday, he said, that he met with Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart and said he was "concentrating on my job and that's the honest truth."
Smith said he didn't even consider the Minnesota job until Wednesday, and he wanted to delay going to Minnesota but couldn't.
"I wanted to delay it to the next day, but I assumed that they felt like this is what we need to do, because it would be out there as quickly as it could be," Smith said. "After showing up there, I was like, 'This is all right, they really have everything in place, they are excited about it, let's do it,' and that's how it happened."
Smith said he saw former Minnesota coach Clem Haskins at the Kentucky high school tournament Wednesday at Rupp Arena by chance and told him he was "serious about Minnesota."
"All of a sudden we're talking, and I said, 'Can I talk to you, Clem?' And all he could do was rave nothing but great things about the program," Smith said. "It happened so quickly, to be honest with you, and sometimes you get swept off your feet. But again, you are going through a decompression time because you just lost a game [to Kansas last Sunday], and that's tough because you think your team is pretty good and won 22 games, and you feel like you had a successful season and you're hoping that people have confidence in you to get things going.
"We've had some things happen to us in the last couple of seasons that probably put us in a position that we did not win the SEC, but we've been hanging around here and we aren't a bad ball team and it will be a very good team next year. But those are the things that you look at, and sometimes you can make things in haste, but this was a good move for me and my family at this time."
Smith wouldn't bite on how much weight is off his shoulders, but ...
"Certainly, we've won our share here. We won five SEC championships outright, tied for the East Division [title] ... we've either won a regular season title, tied for regular season, won a tournament eight out of 10 years I've been here, so to be honest with you, I never really felt there was pressure," Smith said. "This job is a job that's 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year -- it really is!
"It can wear on you. It can wear you out, to be honest with you, so you have to be real careful. But I don't think that's pressure, I just think that you work as hard as you can work. My wife and I, we don't go on vacations -- we just don't. If I'm not coaching, I'm with the NABC board, USA Basketball Committee, or if I'm not doing something with Tubby's Clubhouses or if I'm not, [I'm] doing something to promote the basketball program here at Kentucky. It's a hard job that you have to work extremely hard at, and every job is that way."
But how much did it wear on his wife, Donna?
"Well, I think Donna's a trooper. We've moved a lot places; we've been around," Smith said. "To be honest with you, we love this place. We'll probably come back here to stay. She loves the horses. She loves the racing commission. She's very involved with everything in the committee. I don't know how it affected her, but it would probably have more effect on her as far as the negative than it would on me."
How appreciated was he at Kentucky?
"There's a certain element in every program that you're going to have to face," Smith said. "There's a certain group of people who wanted this coach, a certain group wanted that coach, and your critics are always going to be there. You have to concentrate on what you do best and who you are, and if you're secure in who you are then you can last a long time. In this day and time, there's not many coaches that are going to make like Jim Boeheim or even Dean Smith [and stay in one place for two decades or more]. I'm just looking around the country now and guys that have been in places for years, there's not many. I don't know any that have been in a place more than 10 to 12 years now."
So, what would Smith's advice be for the next Kentucky coach?
"Well, I'd just tell him that you've got the greatest fans in the world, you really do," Smith said. "You are going to be supported, there will be people willing to do things for you, they're rabid. There's an element that's gotta be, you know, whatever the score is, they are worried about the score, not necessarily wins and losses. That's something you have to overcome; it's a challenge on a regular basis.
"We just built a $35 million practice facility; it's unbelievable. Rupp Arena is sold out and you don't have to sell tickets to games -- they've been sold out for 20 to 30 years, maybe longer than that. Financially, you're going to be set for life. The SEC is the toughest conference, you're going to be on TV. There's no real drawbacks, except you're on the stage all the time."
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Winthrop knocks Notre Dame from NCAA Tournament
March 17, 2007
By PA SportsTicker
The team nobody wanted to play showed it was not mere hype.
Winthrop, with a history of close calls against the powers of college basketball, finally delivered on the biggest stage by ushering Notre Dame out of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
Craig Bradshaw scored 24 points as the 11th-seeded Eagles regrouped after blowing a second-half lead to jolt the sixth-seeded Fighting Irish, 74-64, in a Midwest Region first-round game.
The champions of the unheralded Big South Conference, Winthrop has had a pair of near-misses in the NCAA Tournament the past two years, including a heartbreaking loss to No. 2 seed Tennessee on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer last season.
With four starters back from that squad, the Eagles (29-4) tore through the Big South with a 14-0 mark and swept through the conference tournament to earn their seventh NCAA bid. Winthrop had lost all previous six appearances.
Winthrop proceeded to tear through Notre Dame, building a 54-34 lead with just over 13:15 remaining, only to see the Irish fight back and go ahead, 62-62, with 2:21 to play.
The Eagles wouldn't fold, scoring eight of the ninth points to secure their first NCAA Tournament victory.
"It's been a long time coming," Winthrop coach Gregg Marshall said. "It was huge for the college, the Big South and the state (of South Carolina) as a whole. The Eagle has landed."
Next up for Winthrop is a second-round match on Sunday against No. 3 seed Oregon (27-7), which held off upset-minded Miami of Ohio, 58-56, behind 18 points from Aaron Brooks.
Top seeds Florida and Kansas showed why they are considered among the top contenders for the national title with dominating performances.
The Gators (30-5) opened defense of its national championship with a 112-69 dismantling of overmatched Jackson State.
Florida led by just six points (41-35) at halftime but then ripped off an astounding 81 points in the second half, hitting their first seven 3-pointers en route to the blowout.
Corey Brewer scored 21 points to lead six figures in double figures for the Gators, who set an NCAA Tournament record for single-game rebound margin with a 62-19 edge on the backboards.
"I think we were a little amped up," Brewer said. "You have a lot of energy going through you because it's the NCAA Tournament. We were ready to go, but it turned out we were a little too ready. We settled down, and I think we'll be fine now."
Florida faces ninth-seeded Purdue (22-11), a 72-63 winner over Arizona, in Sunday's second round.
Kansas (31-4) settled in nicely as well, getting 19 points from Mario Chalmers in taking apart Niagara in the West Region.
After getting bounced by Bucknell and Bradley in the first round the past two seasons, the Jayhawks didn't leave anything to chance against the Purple Eagles, racing to a 25-point halftime lead in a 107-67 rout.
Kansas shot 53 percent (40-of-75) in recording its most points in the NCAAs since a 108-76 rout of Arizona State in the second round in 2003.
"From my standpoint, trust me, we didn't approach this as a No. 1 vs. No. 16 after what's happened to us the last two years," Jayhawks coach Bill Self said. "We placed a lot of emphasis and spent a lot of time on the scouting report and really emphasized this game, so to speak.
"There was maybe more emphasis on this game for us than maybe what there is from other No. 1 vs No. 16s."
Kansas will face eighth-seeded Kentucky (22-11) on Sunday in a matchup of two of college basketball's most storied programs.
In what was shaping up as one of the more shocking upsets in NCAA Tournament history, second-seeded Wisconsin rallied for a 76-63 victory over 15th-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a Midwest Region game.
Kammron Taylor scored all 24 of his points in the final 10:42 for the Badgers (30-5), who trailed, 25-7, in the first half against the Islanders, a team in just their eighth season in Division I.
Wisconsin takes on seventh-seeded Nevada-Las Vegas (29-6) on Sunday. The Runnin' Rebels ousted 10th-seeded Georgia Tech, 67-63.
In the South Region, No. 2 Memphis rolled to its national-best 23rd straight win with a 73-58 victory over North Texas.
The Tigers (31-3) advanced to the second round for the third straight year to play seventh-seeded Nevada (29-4), which needed overtime to get past Creighton, 77-71.
There was little suspense in the other South Region matchups as No. 5 Tennessee (23-10) won a track meet with Long Beach State, scoring 64 second-half points in a 121-86 victory.
That sets up the Volunteers for a second-round date with fourth-seeded Virginia (21-10), which coasted to an 84-57 triumph over Albany.
In the West Region, fifth-seeded Virginia Tech (22-11) averted a first-round exit by holding Illinois scoreless for the final 4 1/2 minutes to steal a 54-52 victory.
The Hokies advance to play fourth-seeded Southern Illinois (28-6), which eliminated Holy Cross with a 61-51 victory.
With the field having been reduced to 32 teams, second-round play begins on Saturday with eight games.
Talk Tournament basketball with fellow fans in the HP Courtside 2007 Group. Or find the group for your favorite school at the College Basketball Fan Zone.
Updated on Saturday, Mar 17, 2007 5:34 am EDT
Copyright @ 2007 PA SportsTicker. All Rights Reserved
Moser fired as Illinois State basketball coach
March 5, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. (AP) -Illinois State University fired basketball coach Porter Moser on Monday, citing a lack of progress in his four seasons at the school.
Moser, who had three years remaining on his contract, was 51-67 since taking over at Illinois State in 2003. His teams had a losing record in three of his four years at ISU.
"This isn't about wins and losses from a particular season," athletic director Sheahon Zenger said in a statement. "This is about a program, and the management of that program. I have talked this over with President (Al) Bowman and he concurs with the decision."
Illinois State finished 15-16 this year, losing 68-65 last week in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Under Moser the Redbirds were never higher than a No. 6 seed in the conference's postseason tournament.
Moser said he was disappointed after rebuilding a program he said was in "shambles" when he took over, with no scholarships available his first year.
"I thought we were really poised to make the jump next year where you could see the improvement in the win column," he said.
Moser's winning percentage was the third-lowest by an Illinois State head basketball coach and lowest by a head coach with more than two seasons on the job, the school said in a statement.
The contracts of assistant coaches Chris Jans, Daniyal Robinson and Brian Barone also were terminated.
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Feature: Back in the saddle
Feb. 23, 2007
By Amy Farnum Novin
NCAAsports.com staff writer
Two heads are better than one at least that is what the Mississippi College men s basketball coaching staff is out to prove.
Mike Jones very successfully served 14 years as head coach of the program before stepping down in 2002 to become the school s full-time athletics director. During his tenure, Jones led the squad to 14 straight winning seasons, five NCAA appearances and two American Southwest Conference titles, while compiling a 285-99 .750 record, but he still felt it was time to move on.
"I had been coaching for a long time, and the school had always wanted to have a full-time AD," said Jones. "I thought at that particular point in time that it was a good opportunity for me and I might be able to help our athletic program. It was the best thing for me at the time."
Jones knew when he left the basketball program there was only one man for the job, his loyal assistant of 14 years Don Lofton.
Lofton assumed head coaching duties in 2002-03 and more than maintained program s level of success, making his own mark in Mississippi College basketball history. He guided the team to a 92-23 .800 record over the last four years, and if he had a fifth season to qualify for the NCAA record books, he would rank second in winning percentage among coaches in all divisions.
Last year s team set a school record with 29 victories, advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the last four years, and winning their second ASC Championship during Lofton s tenure. He knew he had a great team returning this season, but things got interesting in the off-season when Lofton s assistant decided to leave.
Lofton decided to approach the first person he thought of for the job his mentor and friend that was sitting in the athletics director s office next door Jones.
"I would not have had a problem finding an assistant coach, but I felt like Coach Jones missed coaching, and his battery had been recharged," said Lofton. "I felt that if I could talk him into coming back to be the head coach, I would rather be the assistant coach under him."
Jones first balked at the idea, but after a lot of prayer and thought, he decided to take the offer. He took the reigns once again, while Lofton moved into the associate head coach position.
"I can assure you that he could have done exactly what we are doing now, and that would not have been a problem," said Jones. "He does a lot more as an associate head coach than most people would think. I just think that we have two head coaches, and not one, and that is a positive thing."
The arrangement is surely not one that happens very often in athletics, but the two have a strong friendship at the root of their success, and have put their egos aside for the good of the program. "I knew we had a great team coming back, and I knew he was a better coach than me to be honest," said Lofton. "I wanted him to coach this team. I felt like the two of together could have a great year and we have, and hopefully we can continue to have some success."
Lofton s prediction was correct. No. 5 Mississippi College has put together a 25 to 2 record, including a 19 to 1 mark in the ASC, and the conference tournament championship, this season. They are also the top team in the NCAA South Regional rankings.
"I think he is even a better coach now than he was before because I think he does a great job of teaching," said Lofton. "When you are not involved coaching your own team, you have got time to look at what other people are doing. He was able to watch more games, and continued to grow as coach during that time. It is paying dividends for him."
Jones believes the best thing he learned during his coaching hiatus was how much of an impact a coach can have on a young player s life. "The biggest thing that I learned was to be positive with players," said Jones. "I think that is the most important thing coaches can do -- be positive and understand what kind of impact they can have on a kid s life. The X s and O s are really important, but what you can do to help those kids in other areas of their lives is, too."
Jones also acknowledges the rigors of having two full time jobs, and says it has been challenging to do both. He is not sure what the future holds for his coaching career, however, he is not worried about the team if he does decide to leave.
"I can certainly say that I have enjoyed coaching again," said Jones. "I will have to make some decisions down the road, but I do not know what they are going to be. I certainly know that the program will always be in good shape as long as Coach Lofton is here."
Mississippi College received an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship, and will host the first and second rounds on March 2 and 3.
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