Making a little sense out of the most exciting time of the year, amidst the craziness.
It is the most beautiful time of the year.
For the next few weeks, sports fans (and non-sports fans) in office pools will be glued to televisions and ripping up pieces of paper that held so much hope just a few days earlier.
With all the craziness, what works in this crazy thing called the NCAA Tournament?
1. Talent (in some cases, overwhelming): I’m going to have to call this the “Kentucky Clause.” If a team has NBA talent on its bench, it’s poised to make a run in the tournament. Kentucky might not necessarily be at its all-time great, but its all-time deep. Depth and talent overall bodes well in the tournament.
2. Coaching: Think about all the teams that have a storied history of success in tournament: UCLA with the late great John Wooden, Bob Knight at Indiana, all the great Big East coaches at the conference’s height, Duke with Coach K, Michigan State with Tom Izzo, and then Rick Pitino and John Calipari at multiple schools.
Coaching is significant advantage for the teams that have really good ones. Well-coached teams are consistent, make great in-game adjustments and rarely get blown out. There’s a reason the same teams keep making deep runs.
3. Guard play: Late in games, teams need to have the guys who are involved in the game most be steady. At the very least, teams want their guards to take care of the basketball, find gaps in the defense and then play defense at the other end. If they can drop 25 and carry their team in the process, such as Kemba Walker and Shabazz Muhammad, then more power to them.
4. Defense: Teams that play defense extremely well are never out of games. Although outstanding defense isn’t a necessary condition to make a good run, making situational stops is key.
If teams can’t guard, they don’t have a shot. It’s one thing when a team has a hot shooting night, it’s another thing when a 43 percent shooting team becomes a 52 percent team because the opposition can’t guard.
Jimmy Watkins is a freshman studying journalism and is a sports writer for The Post. Let him know what you think are the keys to victory in the NCAA Tournament on Twitter @JAjimbojr or through email jw331813@ohio.edu.
