The best tournament I have ever seen.

Because they were a team filled with head cases, pouting and bickering more than playing, and Dale Brown spent the season in denial about the situation. Because Shaq was an extremely talented but still quite raw freshman and very often a bull in a china shop. Because Stanley Roberts was an overrated stiff. And because Chris Jackson was an absolute nonentity in the loss to Tech. He might as well not have even shown up. He as not in the game down the stretch because he had fouled out. He announced he was going pro immediately after the game, and played like he that's all he was thinking about while it was going on.

My recollection is that team, with all that talent, didn't even win the SEC. I remember watching them practice the day before the NCAA tournament and hearing a kid ask his father, ``Dad, how did they ever lose?'' A classic underachieving group.

 

LSU was only a No. 5 seed that year, so I'd be stunned if they won the SEC that year.

 

They were a 5 with No. 1 seed talent. They were a 5 because they pissed away too many game. I want to say Auburn, which shouldn't have even been in the same gym with them, beat them in the SEC tournament. Again, it's off the top of my head -- don't have the time to look it up right now.

 

I like college basketball because the players all play the right way. And they don't play for money or accolades . . . they play for love of the game.

 

And they don't bring guns in the locker room.

 

First sentence has nothing to do with the second, of course.

 

Seriously, you guys don't get that Piotr was being facetious? I'll freely admit I'm wrong if he wasn't, but I'd put money on the fact that he was.

 

But they kept their guns at home, not the locker room.

 

Two things:
1 -- I was so focused on covering LMU that I guess I was pretty much oblivious to what was happening around the rest of the tournament. I missed a bunch of that stuff.
2 -- I did a phone interview with Dale Brown, I think, 4 years later, about the program, etc. It was a great interview for about 20 minutes. Then I brought up that team and he hung up on me.

 

Boeheim is at his best when he does something monumental -- you know -- coaching. He's a great coach, he's just not a great game coach.

This year though, he's doing something right.

 

"I was worried about losing until I looked down the floor and saw Dale Brown. Then I knew we had a chance."