Category Archives: TSR

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Before I sat down to watch my alma mater late Friday afternoon, the only madness the Big Dance had produced to that point was the scare Carolina-Asheville put into Syracuse.

That was a sixteen with a near take-down of a one.

Never has a sixteen knocked off a one in NCAA tournament history.

The respective credentials Norfolk State and Mizzou brought into their opening round matchup gave it the feel of a sixteen vs. one. The Tigers were 21 point favorites. The automatic bid Norfolk State used to get into this tournament came from a conference that had gone 0 for 41 this year against the top six basketball leagues in the land.

The NCAA selection committee very easily could have put LIU on the 15 line and dropped Norfolk State down to the 16 slot. There was also great debate about whether Mizzou (ranked third nationally to end regular season) should have been the final one seed.

That said, forget that a 15 had knocked off a 2 four times before (and would do it again a few hours after Mizzou lost). What Norfolk State did to Mizzou was mind blowing for its improbability.

Most of the contentious whistles went Mizzou’s way and if you look at the score sheet, you’d think the Tigers would have won by 20. They shot 53-percent from the field and 45-percent from downtown. They only turned it over only eight times.

What the box score doesn’t reveal is that the Tigers played a complacent, sit-back defense that allowed wide open perimeter shots and expansive passing lanes for all but the last couple minutes of the game.

On the season, Norfolk State had shot only 31-percent from behind the arc. With that in mind, Mizzou basically dared State to fire long balls. Early conversions and Mizzou’s refusal to adjust the strategy as the game went on allowed Norfolk State to make 10 of 19 shots from deep. State also got huge put-backs on the offensive glass when they missed. Norfolk State ’s size advantage and game-long devotion to be being the tougher, scrappier unit produced a 37-25 advantage on the boards. It was a glaring 14-7 difference on the offensive pane.

The killer moment in the game came with the Tigers in possession down three. Walking out of a team huddle with 34.9 seconds left, State players appeared to be warning each other against fouling the shooter. I fully expected Mizzou coach Frank Haith to order up a coast-to-coast dribble drive from Denmon or Dixon . State looked ready to concede that play with the idea they’d try to use a short clock to their advantage up one.

Turns out Haith must have drawn up some kind of wing screen to get an open three. As the play unfolded, Denmon got bottled up and chucked up a 25-footer with 20 seconds to go. A straight dart to the basket would have produced an easy two and a better comeback scenario.

After it was over, Norfolk State senior center Kyle O’Quinn met TNT’s Craig Sager at half-court for a post-game interview. His dominance in the paint had just helped Norfolk State ’s hoop team get on the map in their first ever NCAA tournament appearance. When Sager brought up the fact O’Quinn’s lone scholarship offer coming out of high school was from Norfolk State, O’Quinn’s eyes lit up. “God knows where I’d be without these coaches here,” he said.

O’Quinn attended high school at Campus Magnet in the Queens, NY neighborhood of Cambria Heights.  Just a few minutes from Belmont Park , Magnet is a cluster of four distinctively-named smaller schools on property that once held one big school. Students pass through a metal detector to enter.

At six-feet-ten, 240 pounds, O’Quinn was a 16 and 10 guy for Norfolk this season. He was the star of the team when he wasn’t in foul trouble.

How did such a big, talented guy from the big city end up at a small, historically black school in Virginia?  My hunch is that it’s probably not at all unusual for kids playing hoops at lesser known New York City public high schools to escape attention.

As much as I was pulling for Mizzou in this tournament, it’s hard not to like the Norfolk State team for its effort as such a huge underdog.  With an enrollment of about one-fifth the size of Missouri ’s main campus, Norfolk State never acted rattled.  Their reserve players got on their knees and slapped the floor when their starters played defense.  It was a wild scene as the clock wound under two minutes.

Thousands of Kansas fans in the crowd at Omaha cheered extra hard for Mizzou’s opponent.  Mizzou fans would have done the same thing in the same kind of situation.

I’m not sure why, but the thing that bothered me most about the game was when TNT play-by-play man Marv Albert mispronounced Mizzou point guard Flip Pressey’s last name. Marv repeatedly called him “Press-LEE.” I love Marv but c’mon.

It was Flip who launched a decent desperation three at the buzzer.  It almost bailed the Tigers out of this one.  Instead, it bounced off the rim.  And then “Presley” left the building.

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Since explanations surrounding Mike D’Antoni’s sudden departure as head coach of the Knicks were so convoluted the last 24 hours, let’s try to lay down some truth as we know it and saw it.

Carmelo Anthony came to the Knicks a year ago at a steep price in a trade that both D’Antoni and then-GM Donnie Walsh opposed.  The transaction was forced on them by team owner Jim Dolan.

The dopey son of a cable TV magnate, Dolan knew what was better for a team gifted to him than two respected basketball lifers trying to rebuild the mess left by Dolan yes-man Isiah Thomas.

Mike Francesa calls it “revisionist history” to say there was an outcry when the Knicks acquired Melo.  That’s not true.  Plenty of Knick fans feared Walsh’s methodical effort to clear cap space would be harmed by adding a max-contract guy who was seen as interested only producing max-contract stat lines.

D’Antoni quietly worked with what he had and tried to contain frustration with Melo’s tendency to pitch a tent on the wing and demand that the ball run primarily through him.

When the bottom hit rock for D’Antoni and the team six weeks ago, there was an out-of-nowhere happenstance that played out.  Melo put on street clothes to rest nagging pains and Jeremy Lin put on a superman’s cape.  A Lin-led comeback win at home against Jersey likely saved D’Antoni’s job.  The ensuing seven-game win streak that brought Linsanity proved that an old school point guard leading an offense that rewarded hustle with inclusiveness was both an entertaining and effective style of playing the game.  A broad smile appeared on D’Antoni’s face.  It was a form of basketball that was pleasing to the fan’s eye and one that could finally be embraced by other Knick players who had grown tired of suiting up for roles that were mostly confined to getting out of the way of Melo.

When Melo returned from injury to join Linsanity already in progress, the team went into a tailspin.  Yeah, the schedule during that 2-9 stretch was tougher, but it was easy to see that the plug-in of a me-first superstar shot-taker didn’t mesh with a blossoming motion offense.  Melo’s shots clanked way more than they swished and Linsanity went down with it.  So did D’Antoni’s smile.

Howard Beck of the Times said the team’s nucleus enjoyed the style of play during Linsanity so much, there was building resentment over Melo’s disruption of it.  Said Beck in Thursday’s newspaper:  “Anthony never fully bought into D’Antoni’s system and frequently broke plays to create shots for himself.  The tension between Anthony and D’Antoni – and more broadly between Anthony and the rest of the team – was undermining the Knicks’ cohesion and morale.  Most of the team preferred to keep playing the way they were during the so-called Linsanity streak.”

With the trade deadline looming and this bad-apple dynamic infecting the team, D’Antoni had a chat with his immediate boss Glen Grunwald (who it should be said has a ridiculous interim tag on his GM title) Wednesday.  Grunwald called Dolan.  And then Dolan dragged his droopy self in for a pow-wow that ended with D’Antoni packing up his stuff along with his brother and other trusted assistant.  They walked out the door and agreed to call it a “resignation.”

Melo stayed because Dolan said so.  It was Melo’s way or the highway. Melo and the team owner now have the peace in knowing Melo can clank all the shots he wants while Linsanity goes back into a box for safe keeping until he and the others interested in a team game are freed from this mess.