The Key to NCAA Tournament Success

You can talk about match-ups and strategy all you want, but success in the NCAA tournament comes down to one simple fact: teams will solid guards advance in March.

There are numerous close games in the tournament. Often it comes down to a bounce here or there late in the game. Sometimes it’s pure luck. Sometimes it’s pure fortune. But more times than not, guards are involved in the deciding action.

It helps to have veterans ones particularly at the point. Not essential, but important. Mid-major teams do well at this time of the year because they possess upperclassmen including at the guard spots.

Guards particular point ones (the basketball quarterback) win games this time of year in a number of ways. Often they are outstanding free throw shooters. Many can shoot a deadly three ball. Penetration is also important to either take it to the basket or dish to an open teammate.

So watch the guards in this year’s tournament. The teams with good ones have an advantage and the ones with poor ones will struggle. You can take it to the bank including the bank shot.

The Tale of Three Coaches

Butler’s Brad Stevens, Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart and Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall were this year’s so called hot coaches.

All three had major success in the recently completed season. Steven’s took the Bulldogs to their second straight championship game. Smart led the Rams to the Final Four. Marshall helped the Shockers to the NIT championship. Yet, all three decided to remain at their mid-major schools.

I find that somewhat hard to believe.

Conventional wisdom says a coach should use postseason success as a springboard to more pay and a BCS job. But just maybe these guys didn’t want to go to the bright lights and start over. Generally, the reason the job is open in the first place is because of lack of success from the previous coach. And why leave a successful program for the unknown?

Just maybe these guys have learned from the bad experiences of other mid-major coaches.

We have two examples here in the state of Iowa.

Keno Davis led Drake to the NCAA tournament in his first season as coach. He cashed in on that success and moved on to Providence. The trouble was Davis lost his job at the end of this season after only three years.

Greg McDermott was laboring at Iowa State after leading Northern Iowa to three straight NCAA tournaments. The talk was Iowa State would give him one more year. But this had a happy ending for McDermott. Before Iowa State could pull the plug, Creighton offered McDermott a 10-year deal.

So maybe Stevens, Smart and Marshall subscribe to the theory that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

No Cinderella Matchup

Some are the calling the Butler-Virginia Commonwealth Final Four game a Cinderella affair. But that isn’t the true picture.

Yes, we do have one true Cinderella team in Virginia Commonwealth. The Rams barely got an invitation to the tournament and were seeded No. 11. They have awakened the college basketball world with five straight tournament wins and knocked out No. 1 seeded Kansas in the Final Four qualifier. Fans are learning all about a school that very few basketball fans know about before the tournament. Yes, Cinderella is Virginia Commonwealth.

Butler is not a Cinderella story, however. Maybe the Bulldogs were in the past, but not this year. They are a veteran NCAA tournament team. Remember last year when they matched Duke toe-to-toe in the championship game? These players know the drill and expect to do well in the tournament. It’s no real surprise that Butler is where the Bulldogs are at this time of year. They did have some hiccups during the season, but once the tournament began, the games faces came on and Butler went into high gear.

What we do have here is a wonderful game between two mid-major schools. It brings rich freshness to the Final Four. Maybe this will force the NCAA brass to invite more mid-majors to the NCAA party. Maybe they can drop some power conference .500 record teams and give the smaller boys a better chance.

Let’s hope they receive the memo.

Stevens and Butler: a Great Marriage

The feel good story about the Butler basketball team continues to grow.

Butler announced yesterday that coach Brad Stevens has agreed to a long-term contract extension.

This is obviously great news for Butler and good for college basketball.

The deal ended any speculation that some big boy school would come in and take away the coaching darling of this year's NCAA tourney.

Stevens values his Butler job and appreciates the fit. He believes the grass is pretty green on his side of the fence and doesn't need to go looking for better grass and a much bigger paycheck.

I say good for him.

It's a victory for mid-major programs across the country. It says that even a successful coach at a smaller program will not always take the big money and run to the big school and the big conference.

College basketball benefits because outstanding coaches at the mid-major level increases further underdog success at NCAA tourney time. And America loves this type of story.

I hope Butler and Stevens remain a competitive program for many seasons. Hopefully this marriage will serve as a model when other mid-major coaches consider the big money, bright lights and big lure of a major program. True success is often relative and it can be found at a smaller school.