Final Four Week Thoughts

Cannon Beach Weekend
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

The Pac 10 is seeing some major turnover in coaches and more dominoes could conceivably fall with the Final Four being a de-facto coaches convention with guys lobbying for jobs . It appears as if Billy Grier will end up in Corvallis if he wants to – if in fact Ernie Kent is replaced after next year by Mark Few this makes for an interesting scenario. Both guys grew up just south of Eugene, both attended the U of O but didn’t play basketball their and both have a long history of working with each-other in Gonzaga. There were whispers over the years that Grier was the man behind the scenes at Gonzaga heading up the amazing recruiting success and had more to do with the Zags success than Few. We shall see but it seems there may be some type of rivalry between the two coaches brewing which would really get heated if they both ended up in the Willamette Valley. I think Ben Braun at Cal is a quality coach but it was his time to go, that’s a very good job but the Bears need to get a big name in there but got a no from Jamie Dixon. Randy Bennett would be a good hire there but his St Mary’s team has a legit Sweet 16 run in them next year. Lute Olson is back and Kevin O’Neil is out in Tucson, I think this makes sense in the short term as people didn’t like O’Neil much and the guys dome resembled an eggplant during games but Olson needs to set a date for his retirement and get out, his style isn’t really meshing with the current defensive minded Pac 10 coaches and the Cats have been living on brand name for the last five years. He might luck out and keep Buddinger and Bayless for a year but then they might leave. Either way this Arizona team will be hurting defensively next year. As for the games in San Antonio I think we have the potential for the best Final Four ever. I am pulling for a Carolina win over UCLA because I will win two bracket pools and $700+ if that happens but my head is telling me we are going to see a Memphis/Kansas final. I like the Jayhawks and Tigers because of their depth. Carolina doesn’t have the depth of KU and if Roy Williams wants to win I think he needs to slow the game down which I don’t think he will do, Kansas has the depth to out run Carolina. Memphis will win as long as they hit free throws and don’t self destruct, UCLA has the better coach and the players at UCLA have a higher basketball IQ but Memphis is loaded, playing dominant ball and have a huge size advantage. The Bruins need a huge game from Shipp and Love and need to hope that the refs keep giving them the benefit of the doubt. UCLA has been playing with fire for over a month now and it is going to catch up with them soon. In the finals I like Kansas over Memphis in a game played in the high 80’s.