NCAA Moving From Domes To Arenas In All But Final Four

Cowboys Stadium is hosting this year's Final Four, but will no longer be the site for regional
NCAA Tournament games. (gamedayr.com)

The college basketball atmosphere might soon be returning to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, at least leading up to the Final Four.

Football stadium domes — with often unfilled 70,000 seats with some vantage points so bad it makes 7-foot giants look like ants fighting over a piece of bread — had been the go-to home for the tournament from the Sweet 16 to the national championship game. Now both Andy Katz at ESPN and Matt Norlander at CBS Sports have reported the NCAA is cutting back on its dome fetish.

From now on, any rounds not named the Final Four will no longer be played in domes, unless a dome has never hosted a regional. So for example, Cowboys Stadium in Dallas and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis were regional sites last year and will no longer be eligible to host a non-Final Four round again.

So what's the big deal? Well, for one it should help the quality of play during those four rounds. It's been talked about at length throughout the past few years how the vastness of the background in the domes throws of players' depth perception and makes it harder to hit long shots. Not to mention the raised courts that are asking for players to fall off the floor going for a loose ball.

More importantly for the fans, the smaller arenas (20,000+ seats as opposed to 70,000) make for a louder, more intimate environment that mimics what fans see during the regular season at the great arenas around the country and makes for a better experience. Why not try to get an atmosphere that feels more like Assembly Hall or Cameron Indoor Stadium with the stakes and intensity of a single-elimination tournament game? Instead, teams are playing in front of semi-empty domes that automatically takes away from the spectacle. Cowboys Stadium can hold roughly 80,000 people, yet only 40,000 attended the Sweet 16 and 36,000 saw the Elite 8 in the dome this year.

It was a smart move by the NCAA to not think about dollar signs and make a decision that bettered the game. The NCAA makes a killing off TV revenue and if the domes are not selling out for the regional rounds, then lose 15,000 people and raise ticket prices slightly to account for the difference. The product and atmosphere will be better and worth the extra money.

The next step of bringing the Final Four back to the arena like the good old days seems like a long way off, if it ever happens. The difference is the Final Four will bring in 70,000 people, and it is unlikely the NCAA would say no to losing that kind of cash from ticket sales. And to give domes credit, they are better at capacity.

But this is a victory for the little guys, the 20,000-seat arenas who get to provide the intimate, loud and intense atmosphere that makes college basketball a popular sport.

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NCAA Alumni Bracket Part II: The Second Half Of The Sweet 16

The second part of our alumni bracket takes a look at right side of this year's Sweet 16 bracket: Kansas, Michigan, Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Indiana, Syracuse, Marquette and Miami. 

Each team is gathering their alumni to suit up one last time in an attempt to figure out which school has the greatest all-time team.

If you missed part one, you can catch up here.

Once again, I asked writers Alex, Kyle and Dakota to vote on which team they feel would win if they faced off.

Kansas:

Point Guard: Aaron Miles ‘01-’05

Shooting Guard: Kirk Hinrich ‘99-’03

Small Forward: Paul Pierce ‘95-’98

Power Forward: Danny Manning ‘84-’88

Center: Wilt Chamberlain ‘56-’58

________________________________________________________________

Michigan:

Point Guard: Jalen Rose ‘92-’94

Shooting Guard: Cazzie Russell ‘63-’66

Small Forward: Glen Rice ‘86-’89

Power Forward: Chris Webber ‘92-’93

Center: Juwan Howard ‘92-’95

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Kansas:3

Michigan: 0

Chamberlain (Via http://www.jakestakeonsports.com)

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Florida:

Point Guard: Andrew Moten ‘84-’87

Shooting Guard: Joe Hobbs ‘55-’58

Small Forward: Ronnie Williams ‘81-’84

Power Forward: Al Horford ‘05-’07

Center: Neal Walk ‘66-’69

_____________________________________________________________

Florida Gulf Coast:

Point Guard: Brett Comer ‘13

Shooting Guard: Bernard Johnson ‘13

Small Forward: Sherwood Brown ‘13

Power Forward: Chase Fieler ‘13

Center: Erik McKnight ‘13

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Florida: 3

Florida Gulf Coast: 0

Neal Walk (via. gatorzone.com)

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Indiana:

Point Guard: Isiah Thomas ‘80-81

Shooting Guard: Calbert Cheaney ‘90-’93

Small Forward: Scott May ‘74-’76

Power Forward: Alan Henderson ‘92-’95

Center: Don Schlundt ‘52-’55

_____________________________________________________________

Syracuse:

Point Guard: Sherman Douglas ‘86-’89

Shooting Guard: Gerry McNamara

Small Forward: Carmelo Anthony ‘02-’03

Power Forward: Derrick Coleman ‘85-90

Center: Rony Seikaly ‘84-’88

_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

Indiana:3

Syracuse: 0

 

Isiah Thomas (via spokeo.com)

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Marquette

Point Guard: Doc Rivers ‘80-’83

Shooting Guard: Dwyane Wade ‘02-’03

Small Forward: Don Kojis ‘58-’61

Power Forward: Maurice Lucas ‘72-’74

Center: Walter Downing ‘85-’86

________________________________________________________________

Miami

Point Guard: Dick Hickox ‘59-’61

Shooting Guard: Don Curnutt ‘67-’70

Small Forward: Tim James ‘95-’99

Power Forward: Rick Barry ‘62-’65

Center: Tito Horford ‘87-’88

________________________________________________________________ 

________________________________________________________________

Marquette:3

Miami: 0

Dwyane Wade ( Via. http://www.dwyane-wade-flash.com)

The winners will be moving on as we continue our quest to crown the greatest alumni team. Keep checking back during the next few days for the next round.

Agree or disagree with our writers? Let us know in the comments below.

NCAA Title Game Sends College Basketball Out On High Note

Louisville won a national championship Monday night in a game college basketball needed to see. (washingtonpost.com)

All year the discussion has been the product of college basketball has been down. The game lacked a truly dominant team. Scoring had been down all season. Officiating has been as big of a topic as the actually play on the court.

The college basketball season ended last night with the national championship game between Louisville and Michigan and with all the negative talk around what's wrong with college basketball, this game took the season out on an extremely high note.

The season still lacked a 2012 Kentucky-like team and officiating, even in the title game, was questionable at best. Aside from that, the championship game had everything fans love about college basketball.

In a season where games have looked to be in slow motion and teams were happy to score 70 points a game, Monday's game was played at a fast-paced tempo with enough plays to pack a highlight reel and offenses that were not missing in action. Both teams shot at least 45 percent from the floor - Michigan actually had the better percentage at 52 percent - as Louisville held on to win 82-76.

While an underdog team was missing, two bench players, Spike Albrecht for Michigan and Luke Hancock for the Cardinals, took on that role and were the talk of the first half, scoring 17 and 16 points respectively. Neither player was highly recruited, and it is these stories of players getting their chance making the most of the big moment that draws fans to the college game. Then it was the stars' turn to shine at the end, as Peyton Siva and Trey Burke traded blows and crucial shots in a highly contested game that came down to the final minutes.

It wasn't error-free basketball, but it was competitive, intense and it was obvious from the stands or TVs at home these two teams were leaving all they had on the court in this final game. Louisville climbed back from an early double-digit deficit in the first half to trail by just one at halftime. The Cardinals and Wolverines exchanged leads throughout the first part of the second half before Louisville pulled away for good. Aggressive defense, high flying dunks and clutch 3-pointers will be remembered, not the sloppy play, horrible passes and bad offensive sets that we've seen before.

Plenty of ugly games have taken place throughout this basketball season, and the NCAA has plenty of changes to think about in the offseason for next year. That is still true. But Monday night's championship game showed how beautiful, entertaining and intense college basketball can be; a friendly reminder that the product so many love is not completely lost.


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Friday Roundtable: Final Four Team Most Likely To Repeat Next Season

Can the Louisville Cardinals, or any of the other three Final Four teams, return next year? (yahoo.com)

BDD's Friday Roundtable is a weekly discussion among a group of our writers on a trending NBA or college basketball topic.

This week's question: Which Final Four team is most likely to return to the Final Four next season?

Kyle:

I actually would be surprised if any of the teams in this year's Final Four returned next year. Every team is losing key talent and the one-and-done rule evens out the playing field on a yearly basis (except for Kentucky this year, who needed a dreadful season by their standards to return some players to Lexington to mix with this insane recruiting class and be stacked). The fact that this is Louisville's second straight Final Four is impressive.

But I won't take the easy way out and say none.  The question was which is most likely, and while I would love to say Wichita State, because that would make a tremendous storyline, the team is Louisville. If this happens, Louisville would be the second team in quite a while (UCLA 2006-08) with three straight Final Four appearances. Peyton Siva will graduate and even if Russ Smith and Gorgui Dieng go pro, both are juniors, the Cardinals have Chane Behanan, Wayne Blackshear, and Luke Hancock most likely back. Couple this talent with the No. 8 recruiting class coming in, according to ESPN, and a Hall of Fame coach in Rick Pitino and Louisville should still find plenty of success in 2013-14.

Alex:
Michigan. Trey Burke is heading for the NBA, in all likelihood, but the Wolverines' run to the Final Four has showcased a rebuilt program ready to compete as a whole rather than as a vehicle for one star.

Replacing Burke is essential, but the other core players like Tim Hardaway, Jr. and Glenn Robinson III (presuming they don't declare for the NBA draft) and a supporting cast with Mitch McGary and Nick Stauskaus will make the transition easier. After McGary's freshman year, though, things are only going to get tougher for opposing teams, in tournaments and otherwise.

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Wichita State Is Better Than A Cinderella

Wichita State is in the Final Four as a No. 9 seed, but don't confuse them with a Cinderella. (usatoday.com)

The Wichita State Shockers are a No. 9 seed in the Final Four, but don't call them Cinderella. This is more a goal than a fairy tale for the Shockers.

Sure, not many were picking Wichita State to be in Atlanta, but this is not a team that came out of nowhere from a no-name conference to steal the spotlight and pull a few upsets.

The Missouri Valley Conference has a great track record of getting teams into and winning games in the NCAA Tournament. Wichita went overlooked in the regular season because the MVC also has a mid-major powerhouse and national player of the year candidate with Doug McDermott at Creighton. The Shockers also didn't play the toughest schedule, but did beat VCU on the road and Creighton when the Blue Jays were ranked No. 12.

Still, if this is the first you're hearing of them, you weren't paying close enough attention.

No, this isn't a Cinderella. This is a team built for success in March. 

This is a team that expects to win and will come out hitting teams in the mouth, which is evident in its strong, tough play. The physicality is most notable in the rebounding category, where the Shockers ranked No. 27 in the country this year with 38.4 per game, yet the two forwards logging the most minutes are only 6-foot-8. Carl Hall is the leading board grabber on the team, averaging 7.2 rpg, and Cleanthony Early is second with just over five, only accounting for about 31 percent of the team's average rebounds. Head coach Gregg Marshall has made rebounding a team effort and fundamental instilled in every player.

This is a team with senior leadership from Hall and Malcolm Armstead – who paid his own way to WSU by working at a car dealership – a junior in Cleanthony Early, who made the most of his junior college days getting better. Also logging key minutes are a pair of freshmen, Fred Van Vleet and Ron Baker, who have shown no fear of the big stage in the tournament. Armstead was the third-leading scorer on the team during the regular season, averaging 10.9 ppg, yet has been the leading scorer in three of the four NCAA Tournament games.

This is a team that has been efficient on offense, not shooting less than 35 percent from the field since the tourney began and not turning the ball over more than 15 times in a game. The Shockers will need that efficiency against Louisville, which will be by far the toughest defense the Shockers have faced this season.

This is a team that, like fellow Final Four contenders Louisville and Syracuse, had a three-game losing streak at some point in the regular season, yet regained momentum toward the end of the season and never lost faith. The schedule is long and the play of the first part of the season is almost irrelevant. What matters is now, and the Shockers are as good as anyone in the country.

This is not a team like many high seeds that find success; it's not an undersized, scrappy group that relies on making a ton of 3-pointers to stay in the game. Wichita State has strong players that will battle inside but can score in a variety of ways and can suffocate opponents on the defensive end.

The Shockers do have one quality in common with typical Cinderellas; they don't see themselves as underdogs. This team knows it can beat you and that kind of confidence can go a long way.

But no, this isn't Cinderella. This is a Wichita State team that has dominated its run to the Final Four by playing like the power teams.

This is a team built for success in March and has proven it.

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NCAA Alumni Bracket: This Year's Sweet 16 All-Time Teams Part 1

We're finally getting close to figuring out who the best college basketball team of the year is as we move into the Final Four. No doubt the alumni of each team still in the tournament are anxiously watching to see how the tournament unfolds.

But what if those alumni that are feverishly watching were able to, for just one weekend, regain their youthful body and lace up their shoes just one last time to compete in the ultimate alumni bracket? Watching the greatest players duke it out one last time would make for one exciting weekend.

I've compiled some of the greatest alumni for the first half of this year's Sweet 16 teams below and have asked Alex, Kyle, and Dakota to vote on who they feel would move on for each match up. Here are the results:

Louisville:

Point Guard: LaBradford Smith ‘88-’91
Shooting Guard: Darrell Griffith ‘77-’80
Small Forward: Billy Thompson ‘83-’86
Power Forward: Pervis Ellison ‘86-’88
Center: Wes Unseld ‘65-’68 
_____________________________________________________

Oregon:

Point Guard: Aaron Brooks ‘04-’07
Shooting Guard: Ron Lee ‘73-’76
Small Forward: Luke Jackson ‘01-’04
Power Forward: Greg Ballard ‘74-’77
Center: Blair Rasmussen ‘82-’85

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Result -
Louisville: 3
Oregon: 0

Darrell Griffith (Via. uoflcardbook.com)

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Michigan State:
 

Point Guard: Magic Johnson ‘78-’79
Shooting Guard: Steve Smith ‘88-’91
Small Forward: Greg Kelser ‘76-’79
Power Forward: Johnny Green ‘56-’59
Center: Paul Davis ‘03-’06

_____________________________________________________

Duke:

Point Guard. Bobby Hurley. ‘90-’93
Shooting Guard: JJ. Redick ‘03-’06
Small Forward: Shane Battier ‘98-’01
Power Forward: Christian Laettner ‘89-’92
Center: Mike Gminski ‘77-’80

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Result -
Duke: 3
Michigan State: 0

Laettner (Via. buffalosportshalloffame.com)

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Wichita State:

Point Guard: Warren Armstrong ‘65-’68
Shooting Guard: Cleo Littleton ‘52-’55
Small Forward: Xavier McDaniel ‘82-’85
Power Forward: Cliff Levingston ‘80-’82
Center: Dave Stallworth ‘62-’65

_____________________________________________________

La Salle:

Point Guard: Larry Cannon ‘66-’69
Shooting Guard: Tom Gola ‘52-’55
Small Forward: Lionel Simmons ‘87-’90
Power Forward: Michael Brooks ‘77-’80
Center: Larry Foust ‘47-’50

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Result -
Wichita State: 2
La Salle: 1

 

Xavier McDaniel (Via. blogs.kansas.com)

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Arizona:

Point Guard: Mike Bibby ‘96-’98
Shooting Guard: Miles Simon ‘95-’98
Small Forward: Sean Elliott ‘85-’89
Power Forward: Chris Mills ‘89-’93
Center: Bob Elliott ‘74-’77

_____________________________________________________

Ohio State:

Point Guard: Robin Freeman ‘53-’56
Shooting Guard: Jim Jackson ‘90-’92
Small Forward: John Havlicek ‘60-’62
Power Forward: Gary Bradds ‘62-’64
Center: Jerry Lucas ‘60-’62

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Result -
Ohio State: 2
Arizona: 1

Havlicek (Via Ohio State Athletics)

In the coming days we will be taking a look at the other half of the Sweet 16 as we continue our mission to crown the alumni bracket champions.

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Louisville Rallied Together After Kevin Ware's Injury

Louisville players advanced to the Final Four in honor of Kevin Ware, who broke his leg during the game. (boston.com)

The country shuttered at the sight of it. CBS stopped showing replays, and for good reason. It was the kind of sight that makes your stomach churn and your body hurt at the thought of it.

It didn't matter what happened up until that point in the Louisville/Duke game because it wouldn't compare to what was witnessed on live TV at the 6:33 mark of the first half.

Louisville sophomore Kevin Ware jumped to contest a shot on a Duke shooter, a standard play, and when he landed, his leg broke in two places and the bone had protruded from his skin. It was a gruesome and horrific sight that is a thankfully seldom but unfortunate consequence of playing sports. Ware was taken off on a stretcher and to a local hospital for surgery. All the while his teammates, coaches and everyone watching had to recover and finish the game.

His teammates and coaches were visibly shook up. Tears ran down faces and the game was far behind the concern for their friend's health in their minds. The game could have unfolded in two ways; either the effect of the injury and nine-minute delay put the Cardinals in an understandable fog and their heads would not come back in the game, or they would come out fighting for the player who could no longer be on the court with them and keep the season alive.

That's what Ware wanted. He kept saying so while lying on the court. His leg was broken in two places and he just kept telling his team to win. Lousiville did win, 85-63, out scoring the Blue Devils 50-31 in the second half after being only up three at halftime. Russ Smith had a team-high 23 points while Gorgui Dieng chipped in 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

Out of a horrific incident came the inspiration that sports can provide. Louisville players saved an open seat on the bench for Ware after he left for the hospital and celebrated with his jersey after the game. Ware's team rallied behind him and did not mask how painful it was for them to see him lying on the court.

The bond of teammates is strong. These guys spend nearly every day together, growing as basketball players and men. Regardless of alliances, it was difficult not to appreciate the Cardinals playing for their teammate who was on everyone's mind in the second half.

Just like their warmup shirts, Louisville rose to the occasion and out of a negative consequence of sport came a powerful benefit of being a team.

When The NIT Was The Premier Tournament

Rhode Island could not stop George Mikan in the NIT. (DePaul/Getty)

March Madness is one of the most exciting times for basketball. The best college athletes get together to play an exciting 68-team tournament where upsets are plentiful. A year without March Madness would be an empty one.

So can you believe that at one time the National Invitation Tournament was actually the premier basketball tournament in the world? The NIT used to host players such as George Mikan, Ed Macauley, Lenny Wilkens and Maurice Stokes.

Before every game was nationally televised, the NCAA Tournament didn’t have the same amount of exposure it does today. The NIT was always held in Madison Square Garden, which boasted crowds of 19,000. Meanwhile, the NCAA was hosted in different areas of the country. Teams had a hard time meeting the travel expenses for the NCAA Tournament and played in smaller arenas.

In 1951, City College of New York was caught in a point shaving scandal which included seven schools in total and sent shock waves throughout the basketball world. New York City as a whole was quickly turned off college basketball.

The point shaving scandal came at a perfect time for the NCAA Tournament. Advances in travel and the development in television allowed the NCAA to quickly ascend to the premier tournament that we are all watching and enjoying this March.

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Point/Counterpoint: Reseeding the Sweet 16

Should the Sweet 16 field be reseeded, forcing Cinderellas like Florida Gulf Coast to play the region's best team? (washingtonpost.com)

A popular topic the week of the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 is whether the tournament field should be reseeded within the regions once the final 16 teams are set. Meaning, if this would take place, the highest seed, in this year's case it could be a double-digit seed, would have to play the lowest seed (usually a No. 1 or 2 seed) in the Sweet 16 instead of who is in their region. Two of our writers each took a side to lay out the points in favor of either reseeding the field of 16 or keeping the regions as they were at the start of the tournament.

Eddie — Pro-reseeding:
The NCAA Tournament has become synonymous with madness because of its 'win or go home' format. Unlike 'best of seven' or 'best of five' scenarios, the better team doesn't always have the opportunity to prove their superiority. This results in highly unpredictable results and, every once in a blue moon, a champion that everyone agrees wasn't the best team in the land. In essence, the tournament is rigged against the better teams because all it takes is one off-night for your season to be over, even if you worked far harder than the other team to succeed throughout the course of the season. Reseeding teams within their regions for the Sweet Sixteen would go a long way toward reaffirming the importance of excelling in the regular season.

To make it worse, the NCAA made it a virtual cakewalk to get into the tournament by adding four teams to the field and creating a "first round" in 2011. Doing well in the regular season simply doesn't have the value that it used to. At the beginning of March, Baylor was still considered a "bubble team"with an 18-13 record.

This year, the West region offers the best case for reseeding teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Ohio State, as a No. 2 seed, will play No. 6 seed Arizona for a place in the regional final. Meanwhile, No. 9 seed Wichita State goes up against No. 13 seed LaSalle. Ohio State finished second in the regular season standings of one of the best conferences college basketball has ever seen and just happened to win its conference tournament. And what is its reward? It gets to play a Wildcats squad that spent much of the season ranked in the top five and finished second in the Pac-12. On the other end, two mid-majors who didn't accomplish anything noteworthy in the regular season, despite playing in less competitive conferences, are playing one another. It's really a shame that either Arizona or Ohio State will be sitting at home watching either Wichita State or LaSalle play in the Elite Eight.

Opponents will say that reseeding the Sweet Sixteen will give too great an advantage to the higher seeds and "punish" the lower seeds for earning a place in the tournament's second weekend. I would contend that's the entire point.  Conceivably, if Cinderellas like Florida Gulf Coast played well enough to get into the Sweet Sixteen, they should be able to compete with any team in the tournament regardless of seeding. But it could be that they just overachieved the first weekend and aren't actually good enough to play with the big boys. Either way, the regular season should play a bigger factor in determining a team's postseason fortunes.

Kyle — Anti-reseeding:
I agree there are times when the NCAA Tournament, because of seeding or match-up, makes the regular season seem unimportant. Rarely does a committee get every team's seeding correct and sometimes the best team (in this year's case it is Louisville) gets thrown in what many feel is the most difficult bracket. This tournament doesn't always give the championship to the best or most deserving team and neither does any other sport. When the New England Patriots went undefeated into the Super Bowl and lost to the New York Giants, did anyone think the Giants were the better team up until that point or deserved it more? No, but that's the beauty of sport. The Miami Heat "should have" won a championship in 2011, but Dallas had something to say about that. The Detroit Tigers had the fewest wins for a division winner in 2012, yet made it to the World Series. While the regular season is and should be important, it doesn't always translate to the postseason. The beauty of this tournament is when the round of 64 begins, all 64 teams have a shot at a title.

Whether or not it should, I don't think reseeding will happen because of the two reasons that drive fans and money to the NCAA Tournament: upsets and brackets. People love underdogs. More than underdogs, people love brackets. Are people going to start having to only fill out brackets on Selection Sunday only up until the Sweet 16 and then fill out a new one after the reseeding has taken place? And as we've seen, momentum and match-up can make the tournament field crazy. If it is more difficult for the "Cinderellas" to advance, and more and more top seeds breeze through the tournament, the casual fans, who just want to see an underdog, will not be nearly as interested in the tournament.

Why punish teams for playing well now for those who played well months ago? Sure, Wichita State gets to play No. 13 La Salle in the Sweet 16, but that's because the Shockers defeated a No. 1 team. It is not the Shockers' fault Ole Miss or Kansas State couldn't beat La Salle, but Wichita State took care of its business and shouldn't have to face a higher seed because of what the Rebels and Wildcats failed to do. If Ohio State and Arizona are that much better and are reseeded, they would each win and meet in the Elite 8 anyway, delaying the matchup just one round. The team that deserves to move on will find a way to win, no matter the seeding.

The lower seeds are supposed to be the better teams, which is why they have earned those seedings. But at some point they need to go out and win instead of getting favors. It takes six consecutive wins to be champions for everyone and somewhere along the line a team is going to have to beat the other great teams to earn that title.

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Experience Proves Important For NCAA Tournament Run

A group of seniors, including Kenny Kadji (35) and Julian Gamble (45), have led Miami to the Sweet 16. (usatoday.com)

Even in an era of freshmen leaving for the NBA after one year of college, experience still holds an important role in the college game; it translates into deeps runs in the NCAA Tournament.

Forget about the 2012 Kentucky team. It was an anomaly that a group of freshmen and sophomores were able to gel and perform consistently at a high level without having the normal ups and downs of performance as freshmen and sophomore who are still adjusting to the college game tend to do. This year's Kentucky team proved this much and the average expectation for a team made up mostly of top-rated freshman probably falls somewhere in between the two.

This is not to say teams shouldn't take highly touted freshmen just because they may leave after one year. Many of these teams have a freshman or two starting for them. But as you will see below, what most of these teams have is upperclassmen who have been in situations like this before.

Here's a breakdown of the number of seniors (and juniors) who started in the round of 32 for each Sweet 16 team:

Miami: four

Kansas: four

Florida: three (two juniors)

Marquette: three (one junior)

Duke: three

Oregon: three

Arizona: three

Wichita State: three

Indiana: two (one junior)

Syracuse: two (one junior) 

Florida Gulf Coast: two

Michigan State: one (two juniors)

Louisville: one (two juniors)

La Salle: one (two juniors)

Ohio State: none (three juniors)

Michigan: none (one junior)

The lights are the brightest and the stage is the largest at the NCAA Tournament and both of those get even brighter and larger as the field begins to dwindle and teams advance into the second and third weekends. As great as freshmen can be, it's still unfamiliar territory and the biggest stage they've ever been on. The best of both worlds is pairing one or two of these talented freshmen with a group of upperclassmen that can make them stay focused and not get caught up in the moment, which is familiar for many of these seniors.

Michigan has the fewest upperclassmen and have also been the least consistent in the last month, going 6-6 at the end of the regular season and in the Big Ten Tournament. The Wolverines are extremely athletic and talented, yet the lack of experience and chemistry can be seen at the end of the season. Michigan could still easily advance to Atlanta — that's what talent can provide — but their lack of experience is definitely an outlier in the Sweet 16.

It is not a coincidence most of these teams have juniors and seniors making up more than half of their starting lineups and all but two teams remaining have a senior starting. Talent usually trumps experience, so naturally these players are also very good at the game of basketball. The advantage experience gives is these players have strong chemistry from playing together for multiple years and by now they've seen almost every situation they may face.

We'll see if this trend continues to the Final Four, but at a time where we focus on the best young players to come and leave after one year, this weekend will be a great opportunity to watch some of the best players to take advantage of their college experience and use it to reach this point.

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UCLA/Minnesota Fire Coaches; Shaka Smart To LA?

Ben Howland is out as UCLA's head coach. Who will replace him in LA? (espn.com)

UCLA and Minnesota have more in common than just meeting in the round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins and Gophers fired their respective head coaches, Ben Howland and Tubby Smith, within 24 hours of each other Sunday and Monday.

Howland was with the program for 10 years, reaching three straight Final Fours from 2006-2008, but the final five years have been filled with disappointment and scandal. Smith finished his sixth season and while he won his first NCAA Tournament game with the Gophers (against the Bruins), Smith had a 124-81 overall record and a 46-62 record in the Big 10.

Neither of these moves caught people by total surprise. Questions around Howland and Smith's future have been floating around for a while now, and the biggest question now is who will take their place, and more specifically, can UCLA land a young, established coach like Shaka Smart or Brad Stevens?

Smart seems more likely to head to LA than Stevens as Butler will be heading to a BCS conference in the Big East. And when people are talking about Stevens replacing Coach K at Duke, it would be hard for him to hurt his potential by failing out west.

UCLA would have to shell out a decent about of money for Smart, who's salary was broken down by USA Today at the end of last season, but after seeing what Smart has done at Virginia Commonwealth, it's hard to say he's not worth it. If Smart wants the job, it would seem realistic it is his for the taking. The question is if UCLA could lure Smart away. Illinois couldn't do it last year, but it also doesn't have the history and tradition of UCLA.

Other coaches that national analysts are talking about as possible candidates include Buzz Williams from Marquette, Jay Wright from Villanova and Lorenzo Romar from Washington.

With everything that has gone on in Southern California the past five years, what UCLA needs is stability. A young, but established, coach who can bring a reputable resumé and discipline to a former powerhouse that has lost its way is exactly what the Bruins need.

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