Freshmen Durant, Oden on AP All-America team
March 26, 2007
If Kevin Durant and Greg Oden play only one season of college basketball, it will have been as All-Americans.
The freshmen were voted to The Associated Press All-America team Monday, the first members of their class so honored since 1989.
The 6 foot 9 Durant, who led Texas to the Big 12 title game, was the only unanimous choice of the 72 member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25.
Oden, the 7-footer who helped Ohio State to its first No. 1 ranking in 45 years, was joined on the team by seniors Alando Tucker of Wisconsin and Acie Law IV of Texas A&M and junior Arron Afflalo of UCLA. The voting was conducted before the NCAA tournament.
Since freshmen became eligible to play in 1972, the only ones selected to the first team had been Wayman Tisdale of Oklahoma in 1983 and Chris Jackson of LSU in 1989.
Durant, the first Texas All American since T.J. Ford in 2003, averaged 25.6 points and 11.3 rebounds, but it was his all around game and penchant for big shots in the clutch that had people ranking him as one of the best freshmen ever.
"There's no question Kevin deserves every individual accolade that he will receive," Texas coach Rick Barnes said, "but the one thing I respect most about Kevin is that he is the ultimate team player. He really doesn't care about the individual numbers and awards. All he cares about is the success of his team. When you're around a guy like that, it makes coaching him a joy."
Durant, the Big 12 player of the year, backed up his coach's sentiments.
"I am not very big on individual honors, but I am very humbled to be included on the Associated Press All America team," he said. "When you look at the other four guys who are on the team, I am honored to be mentioned with them. I have so much respect for how each one of them has led their respective teams and handled themselves, both on and off the court. I look up to each one of them."
Oden, the first Ohio State All American since Jim Jackson in 1992, missed the first seven games as he recovered from offseason surgery on his right wrist. As he rehabilitated from the injury he learned to shoot free throws left-handed and didn't miss a beat when he returned to the Buckeyes, averaging 15.5 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.5 blocks while shooting 61.4 percent from the field.
"I'm very surprised," Oden said of being selected. "Just with how things went, I didn't really play a whole season, and I know there are a lot of other guys with better numbers than me. I'm just surprised, but I'm honored and the best I can do is keep on playing."
His Buckeyes face Georgetown on Saturday in the Final Four.
Oden had a quick answer when asked about the success of himself and Durant in their first seasons in college.
"It's just younger guys coming in and just playing basketball, not worried about age or anything," he said.
Both played in college in large part because of the new rule that prohibits the NBA from drafting players until they turn 19 and are out of high school for one year.
"I'm not sold that the rule is right or wrong, but I think it shows you the impact and the influx of how many great players are out there," said Ohio State coach Thad Matta. "I think that's why there's so much parity nowadays in college basketball."
Tucker and Law were Wisconsin's and Texas A&M's first All America selections, while Afflalo was UCLA's first since Ed O'Bannon in 1995.
The 6-6 Tucker, the Big Ten player of the year who helped the Badgers to their first No. 1 ranking, averaged 19.9 points and 5.4 rebounds.
Law led the Aggies resurgence from an 0-16 Big 12 record in 2003-04 to this season, when they ranked as high as sixth in the country. The 6-3 guard averaged 17.9 points and 5.3 assists while shooting 51 percent from the field.
"It doesn't get any bigger than that as far as individual accolades," he said. "Your team can do more, but first-team AP All-American? That's unbelievable. I'm very excited and happy."
Afflalo submitted his name to the NBA draft last season after leading the Bruins to the national championship game, but returned and averaged 16.7 points and was selected Pac-10 player of the year.
"First and foremost team goals are always most important, but when it comes to the All America team it's a positive thing," Afflalo said. "It shows that other people who know the game of basketball understand my contributions and importance to my team."
Durant s 72 first-team votes gave him 360 points. Tucker received 64 first-team votes and 344 points, followed by Law (59, 320 points), Afflalo (52, 304), and Oden (34, 263).
The second team consists of seniors Nick Fazekas of Nevada and Jared Dudley of Boston College, juniors Chris Lofton of Tennessee and Joakim Noah of Florida and sophomore Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina.
The third team has seniors Aaron Brooks of Oregon, Al Thornton of Florida State and Aaron Gray of Pittsburgh and juniors Jeff Green of Georgetown and Al Horford of Florida.
The preseason All-America team was Hansbrough, Noah, Ronald Steele of Alabama, Glen Davis of LSU and Brandon Rush of Kansas.
Last year's first team was J.J. Redick of Duke and Adam Morrison of Gonzaga, both unanimous selections, Shelden Williams of Duke, Randy Foye of Villanova and Brandon Roy of Washington.
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AP Sports Writers Stephen Hawkins and Jaime Aron in Dallas and Josh Dubow in San Francisco contributed to this report.
AP NEWS
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Copyright 2006-2007, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Almost Princeton powered
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Eleven years ago, America watched a play transform the face of the March underdog. A play that became the beautiful, fitting crescendo to craggily Pete Carril's Princeton coaching career. It was called "center-forward backdoor," the backdoor pass and layup that delivered an improbable NCAA tournament victory over UCLA and glamorized an offensive system that would soon spread across the nation.
John Thompson III, an old Princeton assistant, was on that RCA Dome bench, and "center-forward back" would stay in his playbook, unfolded in the most important moments of his coaching career. And so it was called in the final moments of Friday night's East Regional semifinal, except this time it was Patrick Ewing Jr. making his move on the baseline, faking once, and again, but never fooling the Vanderbilt defense, the way the play had tricked UCLA a decade ago.
"Right out of our bag of tricks," Ewing laughed later.
This is the beauty of blending the precision of the Princeton offense with the athletes of the Big East. Ewing couldn't break free for Jeff Green to make the pass, and so the Big East player of the year had to make a play. Vanderbilt had him smothered, with one and then two defenders clamping down.
Near the basket, he had lost his dribble and bobbled the ball, the seconds ticking ( five,four) as he spun right and left lifting his pivot foot for a travel that went uncalled then letting this shot fly, high and arching over the defenders without ever getting his eyes to the rim.
The Princeton system had been stifled, all hell had broken loose, but there was Green bouncing the winning shot into the basket in a stirring 66-65 victory that thrust the Hoyas into the East Regional final on Sunday against North Carolina.
Georgetown had fought back from a 13-point deficit in the first half, and kept coming and coming against the dogged Commodores. Once Hoyas center Roy Hibbert fouled out with just under four minutes left, it was Green's breathless three-point play on a tip-in and free throw that brought the Hoyas back to 60-60 with 3:38 left.
In the end, Green found a way for these Hoyas to advance within a game of the Final Four. He was the kid who sacrificed so much of his individuality to conform to Georgetown's system, the kid who won the conference player of the year despite never needing to impress people with stats.
"It's bad that a lot of people thought he shouldn't get it because he only averaged 13 points when you've got people averaging over 20 points," Thompson said. "Well, that doesn't make an MVP. Jeff does everything. He's carried us on his back all year."
That's a testament to Thompson's program, to the vanquishing of stereotypes that people wanted to attach to the system before it was unleashed in the big time. "A lot of people said that athletes can't run this, that it's more of a quote un-quote, white man's offense," Ewing said. "We've been proving them wrong every day."
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Calvin, Richmond named basketball players of the year
Published on Sunday, March 18, 2007
South View sophomore Amber Calvin and Southern Lee sophomore Akeem Richmond are this year's Fayetteville Observer All Cape Fear region girls' and boys' basketball players of the year.
George Allen, the former football coach for the Washington Redskins, popularized the phrase, "The future is now."
That definitely applies in basketball at South View and Southern Lee high schools. A pair of sophomores, South View's Amber Calvin and Southern Lee's Akeem Richmond, are this year's Fayetteville Observer All Cape Fear region boys' and girls' basketball players of the year.
Coaching honors for the season also went to those two schools as South View's Brent Barker is the girls' top coach while Southern Lee's Chris Cherry won the honor among boys' coaches.
Barker's South View girls finished one of the best seasons in North Carolina high school girls' basketball history last weekend. They defeated Greensboro Grimsley 69-64 in the 4-A title game at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
They became the first 4-A girls' basketball team since 1987 to finish the year with a perfect record, 32-0.
"There is no way I could have predicted we would be where we are now," Barker said. "The undefeated thing is really tough to pull off."
Barker said something many people around the state may not appreciate is how tough it was for South View just to get out of the Cape Fear region and advance to the regionals and state tournament.
The previous two seasons, the Tigers were beaten in the sectional finals by county rival Westover. This season they had to travel to Westover to beat the Wolverines for the right to go to Greenville and the regionals.
South View is the sixth Cape Fear region girls' team to reach the regional finals since 2000 and the third to bring home the state title. The other regional finalists include Terry Sanford, Lumberton, Seventy-First, Westover and E.E. Smith, with Lumberton and Seventy-First earning state titles.
"There were many years before the playoffs started when the speech was, I promise you, we are the best No. 3 team in the East," Barker said. "When we were No. 3 to Seventy-First or Lumberton or Terry Sanford, those teams were incredible those years."
Barker loses four starters to graduation this year, but with Calvin returning he is optimistic about the future. "The sophomores on this team played a lot, as many minutes as some of the seniors," he said. "Going through the sectionals and the regionals is going to benefit them."
Calvin said she is fully recovered from a separated shoulder suffered three days before last weekend's state title game. She's already practicing with her AAU team, which includes a number of players from the Westover team South View beat to get to the regionals.
"They just congratulated us," she said of her AAU teammates. "They are happy for us."
With two years left in her high school career, Calvin has the potential to be the county's biggest basketball recruit since LaToya Pringle of North Carolina and Shea Ralph of Connecticut. Pringle starred at Seventy-First while Ralph played at Terry Sanford.
Calvin won't give a clue as to which school she might be considering, and only offered vague hints as to what she's looking for in a college.
"I'd like to stay close by, but if it's out of state, as long as I'm happy there, I'll go out of state," she said.
As for the recruiting process, Calvin said she plans to take her time and not rush her decision.
Barker said that so far, East Carolina has shown the most interest in Calvin. He's also heard from Wake Forest and a few other schools.
He doesn't think her poor shooting performance in the state finals (1-for-11), which was caused by the injured shoulder, will hurt her.
"I hope anybody that was semi-interested in her would know by looking at tape of other game films," he said. "She's a special kid shooting the basketball."
So is Southern Lee's Richmond, who started turning heads last year as a freshman, and moved onto a much larger stage this year when his team made it to the regionals in Greenville for the first time.
Richmond averaged 21.2 points for a team that finished 23-6 and reached the semifinals of the state 3-A Eastern Regional in Greenville, falling to eventual Eastern champion Kinston, 74-66.
"You could see right off the bat he was a very gifted player," said Southern Lee's Cherry. "My main concern was his maturity level. You were still dealing with a 14-year-old kid out of middle school."
While shooting was never a weakness for Richmond, Cherry said the sophomore improved his game this year by learning to take care of the basketball. He also became a more confident player.
"He takes the ball to the basket with real aggression, almost a reckless abandon," Cherry said. "He's also become a good defensive player. He can pretty much guard anybody."
Richmond describes himself as a combination guard, who can either shoot or handle the ball.
He plans to play AAU basketball this summer as well as attend some camps.
Like Calvin, he won't name any colleges but he has some thoughts on what he wants. "I'm looking for the academics and the style of play," he said.
He thinks many of Southern Lee's opponents didn't take them seriously because the school was so new. "I knew we were going to be good, but I didn't know we would go as far as we did," Richmond said. "Like Coach Cherry said, maturity had a lot to do with that."
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.
To subscribe to The Fayetteville Observer, click here.
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Jovial Knight holds court
March 9, 2007
Fort Worth Star Telegram
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Bob Knight held a one-sided discussion with Martin Zeno during Texas Tech's game Thursday against Colorado, the gist of which was play better or sit on the bench.
The junior followed the advice.
Whether it was Zeno's response or the fifth-seeded Red Raiders' 81-71 win in the first round of the Big 12 tournament, something put Knight in an unusually jovial and reflective mood during his postgame news conference.
One thing Knight declined to elaborate on was his discussion with Zeno.
"If I wanted you to know about it, I would have called time and invited you to come down here and listen," Knight said. "So when you're sitting up there and I'm on somebody or talking to somebody, you can turn to whoever is beside you and say 'Well, [he] didn't invite me down, I guess he didn't want me to know.'"
Knight didn't mind shedding light on several other things that were on his mind, including preparing for Kansas State, today's quarterfinal opponent at 2 p.m. .
"We just go over our last game with Kansas State and what they have done since and just say 'Here's what we got to do,'" Knight said. "It isn't like we're going to attack Tokyo."
Against Colorado, Texas Tech shot 44 free throws and made 35, 23 more than the Buffaloes.
That got Knight thinking back to a game he played at Ohio State in 1960 in which he was fouled by St. John's Tony Jackson but didn't get the basket.
"I wanted to tell [John] Havlicek so bad that I scored against Tony Jackson," Knight said. "He sat beside me and he said 'That was a big play when you drove and got to the free-throw line and made both free throws.'"
That conversation helped him realize the value of free throws, something he stresses to his players.
At one point, moderator Charlie Fiss attempted to end the news conference.
"We are not going to take any more questions?" Knight said to Fiss. "Are you hungry?
"Has anybody else got a question? To hell with him. You guys better catch me in this mood. It ain't going to happen often."
A loud noise over the speaker interrupted his next answer.
"Was that [Big 12 commissioner] Kevin Weiberg?" Knight said. "Is he not happy with our press conference? Charlie, you want to check on this and see what we're up against here?"
He went on to talk about how Texas Tech and Kansas State should both make the NCAA Tournament. And he had some kind words about Oklahoma.
"I want to stop there," Knight said. "There are some things about Oklahoma that have displeased me from time to time."
As he got up to leave, Knight threw out one more comment.
"If I'm all [mad] tomorrow and don't feel like talking, just remember we had a nice time today," Knight said.
TEXAS TECH MEN 81, COLORADO 71
IN THE KNOW BREAKDOWN Why Texas Tech won: Martin Zeno scored 13 straight points, turning a three-point lead into a 79-71 lead.
Why Colorado lost: Texas Tech was 35-for-44 from the free throw line. Colorado was 12-for-22.
Up next: Texas Tech vs. Kansas State, 2 p.m. today, KTXA/21, ESPNU For more news or to subscribe, please visit http://www.dfw.com
Georgia Tech 84, No. 8 North Carolina 77
March 1, 2007
ATLANTA (AP) -Georgia Tech hardly resembled the team that North Carolina blew out six weeks ago in Chapel Hill.
Thaddeus Young scored a career-high 25 points and Javaris Crittenton handed out 11 assists to help Georgia Tech beat No. 8 North Carolina 84-77 on Thursday night.
"We played much more physical," said Young, a freshman forward. "We came out timid up there, and they got a big halftime lead on us."
Losing consecutive road games in the Atlantic Coast Conference for the first time in three years, the Tar Heels (24-6, 10-5) missed a chance to hold onto a share of first place in the league following Virginia's win over Virginia Tech.
"We were just so bad defensively in the first half, but I still go back and say that just because you're open doesn't mean you make shots, and they made shots," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "At halftime, I felt we were extremely lucky to be down seven."
Anthony Morrow added 18 points for Georgia Tech,
Brandan Wright had 22 points to lead North Carolina. Tyler Hansborough added 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels.
Wayne Ellington finished with 14 points, but missed a 3-pointer in the final minute that led to a pair of free throws by Mario West which put Georgia Tech ahead 80-73 with 55.5 seconds remaining.
Young drove the left baseline for a short runner at the 8:07 mark, matching Georgia Tech's biggest lead at 73-59.
But the Yellow Jackets (19-10, 7-8 ACC) failed to make a field goal after Zach Peacock's 12-footer from the right baseline made it 75-65 with 6:19 left.
"We kept talking to one another," Young said. "We let each other know that if we kept fighting out there we could win the game."
The closest North Carolina got in the second half was 77-73 on a pair of Hansborough's free throws with 1:55 remaining.
Ty Lawson's layup at the 4:44 mark cut the lead to 75-70, but was the Tar Heels final field goal.
Crittenton, who finished with 13 points, was 5-for-6 on free throws in the final 4:17. Though he committed a game-high five turnovers, the freshman point guard clearly was more calm than his first game against North Carolina, which forced him into seven miscues and allowed only three assists.
"This is a big win because they beat the mess out of us at their place," Crittenton said. "We came out of here with another huge ACC win."
North Carolina, attempting to secure a top seed in the NCAA tournament, was coming off a two-point loss at Maryland, where they led by 12 with seven minutes remaining before collapsing down the stretch.
Hansborough, who scored a career-high 40 points in a 77-61 win over Georgia Tech last season, hit a combined 28-for-34 free throws in his previous two games against the Yellow Jackets. He was 8-for-12 on Thursday.
Williams, whose team hosts No. 18 Duke to end the regular season this weekend, missed a chance to win his 100th game with North Carolina.
"Hopefully this will get us fired up for the Duke game," Tar Heels guard Marcus Ginyard said. "I mean, that's what everybody wants."
Georgia Tech gave its NCAA tournament hopes a boost in beating an opponent with the nation's third-best RPI. The Yellow Jackets, at No. 51, had dropped two of three after failing to hold a seven-point lead with 3:41 remaining in a 75-69 loss at Virginia.
"There's always a need to finish the stretch of the season like that," Tar Heels forward Reyshawn Terry said of Georgia Tech. "And to beat a team very high in the rankings can only help."
Yellow Jackets coach Paul Hewitt was pleased to see his big players maintain a physical presence in the paint. Ra'Sean Dickey and Jeremis Smith both fouled out, but the strategy worked.
In committing a season-high 28 fouls, Georgia Tech limited the Tar Heels' effectiveness on the glass to out-rebound North Carolina 35-29.
"The rebounding thing is a big issue for us," Hewitt said. "When we lost games earlier, we lost them because we didn't block out. We have been setting some lofty goals in terms of our defensive rebounding over the last month. ... The fouls? We don't have any other way to play. We have to play tough, physical defense, and if they call fouls on us, they're going to call fouls on us. We're not going to finesse people."
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