1) Oregon State wins the PAC tournament and gets into the Big Dance as a result...
2) Josh Pastner, of AU-Mayberry fame, guides the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to the Big Dance by winning the ACC tournament...
3) Nate Oats, who was an assistant under Bobby Hurley, wins the SEC tournament in only his second year on the job at Alabama and is now a #2 Seed in the NCAA tournament...
4) Grand Canyon wins the WAC tournament and advances to the Big Dance with a 17-6 record...
As you will recall, the Beavers were picked by the preseason media to finish last in the PAC and, in the tournament, they beat the #4 seeded UCLA Bruins, the #1 seeded Oregon Ducks and the #3 seeded Colorado Buffs to win the tournament and advance to the Big Dance...
The Yellow Jackets were a #4 seed in the ACC tournament and beat #2 seed Florida St to advance to the Big Dance with an overall record of 17-8...
Alabama was picked by Lindy's Basketball, in the preseason, to finish 7th in the SEC, so climbed the expectations ladder quite a bit under Nate Oats...
Grand Canyon almost beat the Sun Devils during the season and were good enough to capture the WAC title in coach Bryce Drew's first year at the school that got them into the Big Dance...
Obviously, all of the teams mentioned far exceeded expectations, while some, like Oregon St, exceeded far more than the others, but they all fit the Cinderella story line as far as I'm concerned...
And, as we all know, our Sun Devils "underachieved" perhaps more than just about any other team in the country given the very high expectations Bobby, the media and us fans had of them entering the season...
I brought up Josh Pastner because Hansen had an article about him this morning in the newspaper down here and because I met him once in a Tucson post office around 2002 and was able to talk to him a little bit about our respective programs, after he had become an assistant coach to Lute and Rob Evans was our coach...
Josh is an awe-shucks kind of man who would fit right into the Andy Griffith Mayberry world, in my estimation...I wondered how he could be a great recruiter with that sort of demeanor but he was really connected to the basketball world, seemed to know everyone that mattered in it, and worked 24 hours a day to enhance Wildcat basketball...
When I asked him what ASU needed to do to elevate our program, he hemmed and hawed, trying to be diplomatic, and while beating around the bush and complimenting Rob Evans, he let slip, in not so many words, that the Sun Devils probably weren't committed enough to their program (the way the Cats were to their program)...
He was not considered ready for the big time at age 30 when Lute was on the way out but Memphis hired him and he has had a pretty good career to date but not a great one, yet...
Some may wonder why the Sun Devils didn't hire Nate Oats instead of Bobby but the answer is really simple...BH was a head coach, while Nate was only an assistant, before taking over Buffalo when BH left and, then as a head coach, who had shined at Buffalo, got the Bama head coaching job...
Some may wonder what it would take to elevate our BB program significantly and I think the answer probably lays in what Pastner had said about our program almost 20 years ago...lack of commitment from our administration...
One wonders what would happen if Ray Anderson approached basketball the way he approached our football program...??
For there are only two money making sports in any athletic dept and they are football and basketball which pay the way for the entire athletic dept...
I think I'll be rooting for all of the Cinderella stories going on in the Big Dance and hope that some day our dreams will come true like the Beavers did this year...
Go Devils!!!
2) Josh Pastner, of AU-Mayberry fame, guides the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to the Big Dance by winning the ACC tournament...
3) Nate Oats, who was an assistant under Bobby Hurley, wins the SEC tournament in only his second year on the job at Alabama and is now a #2 Seed in the NCAA tournament...
4) Grand Canyon wins the WAC tournament and advances to the Big Dance with a 17-6 record...
As you will recall, the Beavers were picked by the preseason media to finish last in the PAC and, in the tournament, they beat the #4 seeded UCLA Bruins, the #1 seeded Oregon Ducks and the #3 seeded Colorado Buffs to win the tournament and advance to the Big Dance...
The Yellow Jackets were a #4 seed in the ACC tournament and beat #2 seed Florida St to advance to the Big Dance with an overall record of 17-8...
Alabama was picked by Lindy's Basketball, in the preseason, to finish 7th in the SEC, so climbed the expectations ladder quite a bit under Nate Oats...
Grand Canyon almost beat the Sun Devils during the season and were good enough to capture the WAC title in coach Bryce Drew's first year at the school that got them into the Big Dance...
Obviously, all of the teams mentioned far exceeded expectations, while some, like Oregon St, exceeded far more than the others, but they all fit the Cinderella story line as far as I'm concerned...
And, as we all know, our Sun Devils "underachieved" perhaps more than just about any other team in the country given the very high expectations Bobby, the media and us fans had of them entering the season...
I brought up Josh Pastner because Hansen had an article about him this morning in the newspaper down here and because I met him once in a Tucson post office around 2002 and was able to talk to him a little bit about our respective programs, after he had become an assistant coach to Lute and Rob Evans was our coach...
Josh is an awe-shucks kind of man who would fit right into the Andy Griffith Mayberry world, in my estimation...I wondered how he could be a great recruiter with that sort of demeanor but he was really connected to the basketball world, seemed to know everyone that mattered in it, and worked 24 hours a day to enhance Wildcat basketball...
When I asked him what ASU needed to do to elevate our program, he hemmed and hawed, trying to be diplomatic, and while beating around the bush and complimenting Rob Evans, he let slip, in not so many words, that the Sun Devils probably weren't committed enough to their program (the way the Cats were to their program)...
He was not considered ready for the big time at age 30 when Lute was on the way out but Memphis hired him and he has had a pretty good career to date but not a great one, yet...
Some may wonder why the Sun Devils didn't hire Nate Oats instead of Bobby but the answer is really simple...BH was a head coach, while Nate was only an assistant, before taking over Buffalo when BH left and, then as a head coach, who had shined at Buffalo, got the Bama head coaching job...
Some may wonder what it would take to elevate our BB program significantly and I think the answer probably lays in what Pastner had said about our program almost 20 years ago...lack of commitment from our administration...
One wonders what would happen if Ray Anderson approached basketball the way he approached our football program...??
For there are only two money making sports in any athletic dept and they are football and basketball which pay the way for the entire athletic dept...
I think I'll be rooting for all of the Cinderella stories going on in the Big Dance and hope that some day our dreams will come true like the Beavers did this year...
Go Devils!!!
