Colaianni: March may reveal weakness

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

With selection Sunday less than two weeks away, it is not to early to look ahead to who Kansas does NOT want to play in March.

I understand that if Kansas want to make the Final Four, it is going to have to play and beat tough teams, but there are a select few teams that would pose matchup problems, and potentially may even be more talented than Kansas.

The first team that Kansas should hope it doesn’t see is North Carolina. Sure, the Tar Heels have lost some games to average teams, but if there is a team that is more talented than Kansas, it is North Carolina. But I am still not sold on Tyler Hansbrough. Maybe that is because I think he has yet to learn how to master the task of running and closing your mouth at the same time. Watch him sometime. He plays the entire game with his mouth open.

Back to serious thoughts. CBS would love this matchup and so would many KU fans. But, if you go down the UNC roster, it is filled with talented player after talented player. Much like Kansas, it is a young team, with three freshman and one sophomore who average more than 10 points a game.

nutgraf

Kansas does not want to play Florida again, even though it has played poorly for the past two weeks.

Kansas does not want to play Florida again, even though it has played poorly for the past two weeks. Everyone hates Joakim Noah, and I think he is my most hated college player since I hated Ray Allen when he played at Connecticut in the mid-1990s. Problem is, he is pretty good, even though he thinks he can do whatever he wants, like try to steal the ball from Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings. Sure, Kansas squeaked by Florida in Las Vegas, but Noah loves being hated on and he seems to use it to his advantage. He would use that November loss as motivation. Remember the UCLA cheerleaders that called him ugly throughout the Final Four. Well, he certainly shut them up by destroying the Bruins in Indianapolis last year.

Florida will be the most experienced team come March. Taurean Green is one of the best guards and Lee Humphrey can hit threes from anywhere on the floor.

Finally, Kansas does not want to play Georgetown. It is the hottest team in the country, winners of 11 straight going into last night’s contest against rival Syracuse. The Hoyas provide more matchup problems than any team in America. It runs the Princeton offense. You know, the one with all the cuts. Except Georgetown runs the offense with athletes, not just some disciplined smart kids in New Jersey. Someone once called it the “Princeton offense on steroids.” Jeff Green, Georgetown’s star 6-foot-9-inch forward may be the most versatile player in the country. He can rebound, block shots, and hit threes. If he is not Big East player of the year it is because fellow Hoya Roy Hibbert got the award. Hibbert is the 7-foot-2-inch center who makes 70 percent of his shots and alters anyone who tries to take the ball to the lane on the defensive side. Coach John Thompson III has turned the program around much like Billy Gillispie has at Texas A&M. The entire starting lineup can hit shots, and they play great defense.

So who should Kansas hope to play? Kansas would love to play anyone from the Big Ten conference, even Ohio State led by Greg Oden. That conference does not impress me and I don’t know how it impresses recruits. The game scores are usually in the 40s or 50s and it must be difficult for the fans to get excited for 15 straight possessions of passing the ball around the perimeter, leading to a clanked three. There are some great coaches in that league, just not good players. If you watched Ohio State’s 49-48 win over Wisconsin on Sunday, you were probably just as bored as I was.

Colaianni is a McLean, Va., senior in journalism and political science.

— Edited by Sharla Shivers

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