COVID-19 can’t derail NCAA tourney this year

T he college basketball season has ended. Considering all the problems caused by Covid-19, it was not that bad of a season. 

Coaches and players had to adapt to a number of situations which I would imagine, they might never have to do again or at least I hope they don’t. 

Interrupted practice time, multiple weeks of no games and then maybe multiple games in a short period of time. 

When it all ended in Indianapolis with the NCAA tournament, it was almost like a normal year with a lot of good games, exciting finishes and upsets. 

There were a number of teams that made it to the Big Dance that it was hard not to root for in their games—Oral Roberts, Loyola of Chicago, Grand Canyon, just to name a few.

I had a couple of teams that I wanted to win in Creighton and KU but Creighton met up with Gonzaga in the third round and lost and KU lost to USC in the third round also. Both of the teams had good seasons and you hate to lose but getting to the Sweet 16 isn’t all that bad!

A lot of good games, but the one most people will remember is the Gonzaga and UCLA game. 

That was a Final Four game where both teams played really well. 

Even though only one team can move on to the finals, it wasn’t like UCLA lost the game—Gonzaga just made the last shot in a tie game.

Was Gonzaga lucky? Anytime a player takes a shot from 30-plus feet or so and it goes in, there is some luck involved. 

I read one article that said it was a 50-foot shot to win the game. It was deep but a court is only 94 feet long. A 50-foot shot would have to be launched in the back court, so the shot was not 50-foot, but it was deep and banked. 

Losses still vivid

I was kind of glad to see Gonzaga win just to see if there would be an undefeated national champion this year, but I also immediately felt bad for UCLA. 

As an old coach, I experienced a couple of games that meant a lot and we lost. 

Those games sometimes crowded out all the good things that happen to you in a career. 

In two of those games, we were undefeated. One of them was in the state finals and the other kept us from going to the state tournament. 

One of those games was 28 years ago and one was 30 years ago, and they are still etched in my head!

Championship game not that great

The final game in the NCAA then turned out to not be what a lot of people thought it might be. 

The two best teams in the nation–Gonzaga and Baylor–were going to fight it out for the national championship. 

Gonzaga was the favored team by the betting boys in Vegas, but it just didn’t work out that way. 

Baylor started strong, played extremely well, was strong on defense, offense and rebounding and never let Gonzaga make a comeback in either half. 

Baylor never trailed in the game. Baylor outrebounded Gonzaga 38-22 and 16 of those rebounds were offensive rebounds that lead to a number of scoring opportunities. 

If these two teams played a best-of-five for the championship, maybe the results would have been different. 

But you don’t play the best of five, you play the best of one and that night Baylor was the best team on the floor.

Can Nebraska up its game?

Now Nebraska has to find a way to get to the level of just getting to the NCAA tournament. 

I saw a report that the Huskers had a 7’, 220-pound, three-star big man out of Lithuania that had committed to Nebraska. 

The first article I read said a 6-10, 205-pound player but two others said 7’ and 220 pounds, so the kid must be getting a growth spurt about now.

The recruit is Oleg Kojenets and has been described as a low-post big man with terrific hands and touch and can score with a variety of moves with his back to the basket. 

His frame is continuing to develop, and he should fill out well as he gets in a college weight room. 

He moved to the United States last year and played at the Hudson Western Reserve Academy and at one point was ranked in the 24/7 Sports Top 100 as a four-star recruit. 

It would be nice to see the Huskers have a big guy to compete with the other teams in the Big 10 that have those kinds of players.  I hope that sometime soon, the Huskers get into the NCAA tournament and do something they have never been able to do and that is win a game in the tournament.