Overlooked

Why coaches miss.

On the NCAA tourney expansion debate

In the NYT:

But a small segment of coaches have said that bigger may not be better.

“It takes away from the special nature of it,” said Steve Donahue, who has coached Cornell to the N.C.A.A. tournament for three straight years. “It’s supposed to be an incredible award for a great, great season. If you expand it, it’s not that. Everyone thinks more is better. It’s not.”

Davidson Coach Bob McKillop went a step further.

“Isn’t this whole thing a window into society?” he said. “We’ve diminished so many other things. We’ve diminished test scores. We’ve diminished admission policies. We diminish so much for reasons that are not accentuating excellence and performance. It’s almost too inclusive.”

Probably not a coincidence that these comments come from two smart men who coach smart kids in programs that are more than just preprofessional way stations masquerading as institutions of higher education.

The Rossiters in the NYT

Pete:

“We know how much they care about us,” his son Steve said in a phone interview from Davidson. “But they really like coming to Davidson and Siena. They enjoy it as much as we do.”

From going to Steve’s Davidson games, the Rossiters befriended a local couple, Bob and Barbara Hoffman, whose house they stayed at on their visits. They met them at the Brick House, a restaurant where the crab cakes are tasty and the elder Rossiter enjoys a few Brick Lights.

“Now that my career is sadly over, I can join him with some Brick Lights and watch my brother play,” Steve Rossiter said.

Reading the Sunday NYT

Pete on the Gators:

Meyer identified a fundamental tension of what he was facing when a reporter asked him why the pain from a loss outweighed the joy of a victory.

“That’s a great question,” he said. “That’s one I’ve got to figure out.”

Don’t we all. Expectations.

TCU vs. Boise

Pete Thamel: This reminds me a little bit of the justified grumbling when two mid-major teams are matched up in the first round of the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament -- Creighton-Nevada, Butler-South Alabama, Davidson-Gonzaga ...

May 20, 2008

Don Hogan on the phone from Florida: “Bob had been my high school coach at Holy Trinity High School. Any time I was coasting a little bit, that voice, that booming voice. He’d call you out.”

Matt McKillop in Atlanta: “I had to outwork everybody. I had to hit people.”

Len Kosmalski on the phone from Florida: “Landry wants to be around toughness and competitiveness.”

Pete Thamel on the phone from Boston: “The academic side jumped out at me. George Mason can get in pretty much whoever they want.”

‘The new Davidson’

Pete Thamel:

Siena is the new Davidson. That means that the Saints star Kenny Hasbrouck is the new Stephen Curry. While he cannot shoot like Curry, who had 128 points in four tournament games last year, Hasbrouck is the best scorer on a deep and talented Siena team that beat Vanderbilt in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament last year.

The difference between Hasbrouck and Curry is that Hasbrouck is not a one-man show. Davidson’s struggles this season can be traced to Curry’s not having a strong enough supporting cast. Hasbrouck can score -- he led Siena with 14.8 points a game -- but the Saints have three others averaging double figures and six over all who score more than 8 points a game.

The Davidson debate

Thamel on the NYT’s Quad blog:

Could Curry’s rainbow jumpers end up in the N.I.T.? Would you rather see Davidson or, say, Providence? Be prepared for a week of debates, starting now.