NCAA Tournament: Round of 64 Day 2 Recap

No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast had the win of the night by knocking off No.2 Georgetown. (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)

This is more like it. Anyone still feeling good about your bracket? Yeah, I didn't think so. Except for maybe one of our writers, Fred, who somehow picked Harvard and La Salle. Showoff. The tournament balanced a day of blowouts and chalk Thursday with nail-biters and  Cinderella's in training Friday. So naturally the major talking point after Friday is …

Who Wants A Slipper?
Today proved upsets are still alive and well in March. For the second day, a No. 1 was tested before closing out a narrow victory as Kansas held off Western Kentucky. Kansas City didn't see a No. 16 win, but it did see two double-digit seeds pull off victories back-to-back as No. 12 Ole Miss defeated No. 5 seed Wisconsin before No. 13 La Salle blew an 18-point lead to Kansas State before coming back to win. Other notable upsets were No. 11 Minnesota over UCLA, No. 10 Iowa State crushing Notre Dame, No. 9 Temple (upset in name only). Oh and then there was …

The biggest win of the day goes to No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast, a school that wasn't founded until 1991, who outplayed No. 2 Georgetown all game to move on to the next round. This is the second consecutive year a No. 15 has defeated a No. 2 (Leheigh and Norfolk St. last year), and before that it hasn't happened since 2001 (Hampton over Iowa St). The increasing trend of No. 15 seeds winning makes a No. 16 victory seem more likely.

Hot and cold
Don't tell the A-10 it isn't a power conference. Teams from the A-10 are 5-0 (VCU, La Salle, Butler, St. Louis andTemple) and most have a good chance of advancing to the Sweet 16. No BCS conferences can show that kind of record. The Big Ten's only loss has been Wisconsin, and the ACC's was North Carolina State, but the Big XII is 2-3, Pac-12 is 2-2 and the Mountain West has been disappointing with both New Mexico and UNLV falling in the first round.

Milestone for Ol' Roy
UNC's second-round victory over Villanova earned Roy Williams 700th career victory. His reward? Having to face his former school and No. 1 seed Kansas in the third round. Roy has faced KU twice before since he left, both times being in the NCAA Tournament, and Roy is 0-2. Still, 700 wins is a incredible accomplishment for a Hall of Fame coach.

High Transfer Numbers Show 'Me First' Culture

UCONN's Alex Oriakhi was one of the most highly-touted transfers this offseason (ctpost.com)

The days of watching your college team’s athletes wear their school’s jerseys for four years are gone.

Many of them follow the money to the NBA before their four years in college, but there is another epidemic sweeping college basketball. It’s one thing for a player to leave for the NBA when the potential and buzz surrounding his game is the greatest, but college programs also have to worry about players just looking for a change of scenery.

CBS Sports basketball writer Jeff Goodman posted a transfer list back in April that included more than 445 players. That number means, on average, more than one player on every team in NCAA Division I basketball will transfer this year. Unfortunately this isn’t new, and the elite programs are not exempt from players wanting to leave. Duke, UCONN, Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan all had players transfer from their programs this offseason.

Some cases can’t be helped. A player doesn’t always mesh with their coach or fit in with the program or university. Sometimes, it’s better to part ways and let him try again somewhere else. But more likely it seems that players transfer because they want to play right away. That is what Virginia head coach Tony Bennett believes and told the Washington Post last April.

“It’s an epidemic, without a doubt,” said Bennett in an interview with the Washington Post. “I think players have always been anxious to play, I really do. But when they thought, ‘I don’t know if this is the right place,’ the advice was always ‘Wait your turn. Stay put.’ But the times of waiting and being patient, well, it’s a different time.”

It’s the new culture of college basketball. Players want to show off their skills with the hopes of being noticed by an NBA scout, and to do that you have to be on the court. But what about using your first year or two to play behind a great player at your position to study and learn from him? The value of learning and battling for positions is lost in today’s game.

It’s hard to pinpoint the cause in the culture change. The rise of AAU basketball, where players flood to the spotlight and personal stats are more important than team victories, most likely played a factor. John Calipari and Kentucky’s method of winning with freshmen has probably played a role as well. If underclassmen see other underclassmen playing right away, and having success, then they strive for that too.

Another rule that contributes to the high number of transfers each year is the one that allows players who will graduate from their university to transfer, and play right away, with one year of eligibility remaining. This offseason, 28 of the transferring players on Goodman’s list have graduated and are transferring to use their remaining year. This is a rule that new Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has recently come out to share his opposition while touring Big 12 schools before the football season starts.

“Not one of my favorite rules,” said Bowlsby in a Kansas City Star article last week when visiting the University of Kansas. “I think it kind of has the taste of a hired gun. And … more often than not, there’s somebody that’s been there for three or four years, that’s been waiting for their chance to play. And now they’re gonna be taken out by somebody that’s playing a last year from another school.”

Bowlsby made these comments during football season, but his words can easily be applied to basketball.

Regardless of which is the biggest factor, the high number of transfers doesn’t look to be declining anytime soon. School pride and prestige ranks lower than personal stats in a player’s hierarchy, and until that changes, hundreds of athletes will find new homes each year.

So when you see a player finish his four years of playing at one university, cherish it. He is a dying breed. 


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