The Perfect Storm (1 + 1 = 1)

There is, or was, a famous soldier who once fought for, and was a member of our nation’s military. He was a man, who by his actions, has done much to help protect our nation’s freedom – by fighting for his country, by risking his life on the battlefield, by being a role model for our youth. Like all of the soldiers who fight in our military forces, that man was a true American hero. The name of that soldier, by the way, is, or was, Private Gomer Pyle, of the United States Marine Corp. You might have heard of him..

Pyle was famous, not only for his courage on the battlefield, but for some of the things he said. One of the things he said really applies to the Final Four Semifinal Playoff game between Kentucky and Wisconsin.

“Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!”

Kentucky got beat. After 38 straight wins against ZERO losses, Kentucky, with the perfect record, and on the verge of being crowned as one of the greatest teams in NCAA college basketball history, was defeated by Wisconsin 71 to 64. They, of course won’t be crowned as the greatest team of all time, because now they won’t even be considered the best team this season. That title will go to the winner of the Wisconsin vs. Duke game on Monday night.

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The Games

Michigan State vs. Duke

In the first game of the semi-finals, Duke, the other number one seed to make the Final Four, thumped the Michigan State Spartans 81 to 61. Michigan State had lost 11 times earlier in the season prior to this game, and they played like a team that overachieved to get this far and were only in the game for the first four minutes, at which point they actually led 14 to 6. They were then outscored the rest of the way by 28 points (75 to 47). Can you say, they got an ass whuppin’?

But, it’s easy to slam a team that just got their lunch handed to them in a setting like the Final Four, but, after the dust settles and the wounds heal, I think a lot of Michigan State people should look back at their season like, “hey, we weren’t even that good of a team all year, and we STILL made it to the Final Four. What does that say about the state of Michigan State basketball?” The rest of college basketball (other than the two teams in the finals and Kentucky, who really did have a great regular season) only WISHES they could have it so good.

Duke, on the other hand, is playing like a team that is ready to hunt bear. They’ve got ALL of the characteristics of the teams that win these championships. Great coach? ChecK (note the capital K for Coach K). Really effective big man, who can play defense, block shots and rebound, not to mention score effectively in the post on offense? CHECK (with capital

letters across the board, as Jahlil Okafor will likely be the Number One draft pick in the next NBA draft). Really effective point guard? Check (Duke’s backup point guards are good enough to satisfy that requirement). Go to scoring guy? Check (with forward Justice Winslow, and many other really good perimeter shooters, this is a team that can score anytime it has to. Depth? Check (this is Duke basketball, they always have depth).

Duke makes free throws well enough to win a championship (although Okafor does have a flaw in his stroke). They are

pretty much injury free. They play a fundamentally solid game. ALL of the things that champions usually have, Duke has them up the ying yang. If not for the Kentucky regular season, people would probably be talking about this year’s Duke team being the one to beat this tournament. Going into Monday night, for at least a couple of nights, they WILL be.

Kentucky vs. Wisconsin

This was the game Wisconsin would be playing against a team (Kentucky) that was so talented, so good, it probably shouldn’t have been able to have been beaten by anyone in the country, other than a select couple of teams that had the talent, coaching and discipline to at least stand up to them. Unfortunately for Kentucky, Wisconsin was one of those teams with that capability. Notre Dame, in their previous week’s loss to Kentucky, kind of showed that Kentucky DID have a weakness that could be exploited, and Wisconsin took advantage of the Wildcat flaws perfectly. The clouds were shifting and the waves on the water were choppy, and the circumstances that would set up that “perfect storm” for an upset were starting to assemble.

You see, Kentucky had their great pair of seven footers Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein, but Wisconsin had one player, their own seven-footer, the college basketball player of the year Frank Kaminsky, to neutralize them. The rest of the Kentucky team fed off of the dominating play of their two big men, but Wisconsin was one of just a couple of teams that had the necessary stud in the middle to play them head up. The rest of the Kentucky team didn’t know what to do when their aces in the hole were played even up. As good as the team was, the rest of the team outside of their big two was
NOT any better than the accomplished players from Wisconsin.

Wisconsin’s one big man was as good as Kentucky’s two. Kentucky would need to win this game from the guard position. It would need to have an all around, disciplined game from the entire rest of the team to match the all around, disciplined game of Wisconsin. It would NOT succeed at either of those tasks.

The highly disciplined Wisconsin team out-rebounded the much taller and more athletic Kentucky 34 to 22. That in itself is worthy of mention. In college basketball now, there is a growing lack of the fundamental basketball skill of “boxing out” on rebounds. If the ball goes up, and you the defensive player put your body between the basket (where the ball is) and the opponent trying to offensively rebound, and you “bump” him away with your butt and effectively make that opponent have to go through YOU to get the rebound, YOU the defensive player will win that battle and get the rebound. It takes
work to box out. It takes discipline to get into position to box out. Sometimes, YOU boxing out the other guy doesn’t allow YOU to get the rebound, but it keeps THE OTHER GUY from getting that rebound, and it allows your teammate, who also was boxing out, to get it.

There is a selflessness to the teamwork concept of teams that box out well. There is an aspect of good coaching that teaches the importance of it, and even more, shows how the players on the team are buying into the hard work the coach is demanding. And there is an aspect of it that sometimes shows up in games where one team boxes out well and another team (even one with taller and more talented players) doesn’t. And that can be seen in games where one team out-rebounds the other 34 to 22, as such was the case Saturday night. Wisconsin had IT. Kentucky didn’t.

For all of the breakdowns of the game, it was still tied 60 to 60 with just a couple of minutes to play. A few plays down the stretch would decide the game, and those few plays showed just how the team coached by John Calipari was out-coached by the team led by Bo Ryan. Coaching (remember, coaching also includes each team’s practices conducted all season long,
which helps teams get in condition, teaches them fundamentals, and helps establish their game playing habits) would determine who would play well at this critical time, and who would not. Who would win this game, and who would lose.

During nearly every possession in the last few minutes, Kentucky did NOT have a structured enough offense to fall back on to enable them to get off good shots down the stretch. They would pass the ball into their good offensive big man Towns and Wisconsin would double team him and NOT allow him to beat them. The ball would eventually go back out to a guard (one of the Harrison twins). With ten to fifteen seconds left on the shot clock, instead of just working an offensive play, Harrison would stall around until the clock was down to just a few seconds left, then he would drive the basket. The entire Wisconsin defense would know that there wasn’t enough time on the clock, and they’d collapse on the driver, and the result would be a forced, off balance shot that most of the time would miss. Wisconsin, as they did all game, would box out and get ALL of the key rebounds. One time, Kentucky’s lack of an offense caused them to force up about a thirty footer at the end of the shot clock that didn’t even draw iron. Champions don’t put up air balls in close games.

Wisconsin’s trips down the court during these key moments would be through their more structured offense, featuring passing, screens and cutters, which allowed their shooters to get better looks at the basket, and they would hit those couple of key shots down the stretch that Kentucky did not hit. Wisconsin got off better shot attempts because they played team offensive basketball, and Kentucky got off lousier shot attempts because they played individualistic, undisciplined offensive basketball. Disciplined Wisconsin would play good team defense, make all of the key fundamentals plays on
offense, and Kentucky did none of that and at the end seemed more like a team that was flailing away then one that could pull out the win.

The final score was Wisconsin 71, Kentucky 64. The game was actually much closer than that, until the team with the discipline down the stretch beat the other, more talented team, that was, plain and simply, out-played and out-coached when the game really mattered. That’s two straight NCAA finals where Kentucky was there with a chance to win a championship, and each
time the opposing team (UCONN last year) was better coached and won out.

Might Kentucky start thinking that Calipari, the great recruiter, but the not-so-great strategy coach in the big games, does NOT have the right stuff? There are coaches who wear nice suits and can recruit the hell out of the high school signing pool, but when the critical point of the game arrives, if that coach’s team can’t execute plays down the stretch, it’s going to be tough for that team, as talented as it might be, to actually WIN national championships.

It’s on to the final game with Wisconsin and their well coached and highly disciplined team having a puncher’s chance against Duke’s more athletically talented, but also well coached team. (Be glad this basketball tournament isn’t run like college football’s BCS system. THAT would somehow have still had Kentucky in the finals, because they would have had a computer telling them they should still be number one, even ahead of the Wisconsin team that just beat them) At least the two teams that deserve to be there and have survived the NCAA tournament will be playing for the championship.

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What’s up with this title? I know the movie “The Perfect Storm.” Cute. What’s with this 1 + 1 = 1?

Is it that one number one seed will soon be playing another number one seed, with the team that wins the championship game being this season’s final number “one?”

Is it that a Kentucky team that could beat up on teams all season in their relatively weak SEC schedule to be a number one “team,” and then have to finally go up against another number one “seed,” and face the possibility that finally, they were playing a team that had the chance to beat them, that only ONE of them would survive?

Or, is it that when one number one seed (that being Wisconsin) played another number one seed (that being Kentucky), the final result would equal one of those teams getting stuck with LOSS number one?

Whatever the case, the perfect storm had to happen to have the “perfect” team with the perfect record get its first, and only, and season ending, and season destroying loss. The mighty Kentucky Wildcats have fallen.

To that, a famous soldier, and true American hero, would say, “Gawl-awwwllly, Sergeant Carter.”