Monday, February 14, 2005
Michael Tranghese
-- Mike Harrington of the Buffalo (NY) News writes up Syracuse's inside-outside Warrick-McNamara combo, the nation's best. But he agrees with my earlier assessment that for the 'Cuse to return to the Final Four, Jim Boeheim must find a third scoring option.-- Nathaniel Whalen of the Tinley Park (IL) Daily Southtown gets Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese to go on record and all but eliminate a central pundit talking point.
"In my five years in the (NCAA Tournament selection) committee, never, ever was a word spoken about the number of teams from a conference," Tranghese said. "You're not supposed to talk about it. Your charge is to find the 34 best teams and I have been assured that if our seventh, eighth, ninth or 10th teams are among the 34 best in the country, they'll be treated fairly."
-- Mark Tupper of the Decatur (IL) Herald & Review, himself a blogger, notes that Illinois, while tremendous, is not perfect. Hey Tupper, I know John Gasaway is taken, but won't you be his valentine?
-- Josh Hirsch of the Daily Pennsylvanian suggests to his readers that despite a 10-game winning streak, Penn is an unlikely bet for a NCAA Tournament first round upset. Pourquoi? The Quakers have yet to play 40 minutes of high-level basketball, often counting on one or two spurts to ice games against Ivy League foes.
