Predictions for Saturday:
Louisville and Michigan State.
Champion: Doesn't matter, I'll win $50 dollars.
Paul Rogers reported that UL used the SLU facilities to practice before dinner time.
Rick Pitino's take on the three-point line
Add college basketball coaches to the long line of guys who can't stand prosperity.[...]
From most coaches' vantage point, 19 feet, 9 inches is still too close. It needs to be a size 9 sneaker - about 9 inches - farther back.[...]
The debate over where to paint the arc has been raging since the NCAA legislated it into being for the 1986-87 season. Some additional kindling was piled on only Wednesday when Louisville's Rick Pitino and Illinois' Bruce Weber, whose teams launched an average of 24 and 22 treys this season, weighed in on pushing it back to the international distance of 20-6 - still a good two feet closer than the NBA's.
"It's always been too close," Pitino said.
That's the exact same thought he had 18 years ago, when Pitino was a rising star in the business at his second stop in Providence, and he walked out on the court after arena officials finished striping the floor. Standing behind the line, Pitino felt as if he'd been granted a glimpse into the future. He already had three exceptional shooters on that squad - Delray Brooks, Ernie "Pops" Lewis and Billy Donovan, who would go on to coach Florida - and their long-range bombing validated that vision and carried the unheralded Friars all the way to the national semis.
Considering how many coaches are control freaks, not everybody bought into the 3 quite as quickly or as thoroughly. But by season's end, even old-school disciple Bob Knight reluctantly joined the parade. His Indiana team survived UNLV in the semis, despite Fred Banks' single-game record of 10, then beat Syracuse for the national championship as Steve Alford knocked down an incredible 7 of 10 treys.
On his way into the news conference afterward, Knight saw the late Dr. Edward Steitz, then chief of the NCAA rules committee, standing in the hallway. The two had been arguing, with genuine affection, about the 3-point shot all season long and Knight couldn't resist having the last word. With a wide grin and his index finger pointed at Steitz like a lecturer, he simply said, "You happy now?"
Steitz died in 1990, but chances are good that if he were still around, the answer would be a resounding "yes."
The 3-point line was designed to create more space on the floor by stretching defenses and lessening the pounding in the post - and that was before the days of serious weight training. It serves that same purpose today.
But Pitino and the rest of the push-it-back crowd not only believe the international line would create more space; it would give the coaches more control over who does the launching. The Illini took 35 3-pointers in their win over Arizona and Louisville's overtime win over West Virginia came only after a combined 55 attempts beyond the arc.
The first thing that came to mind watching those games, North Carolina coach Roy Williams admitted, is where the nearest exit was located. His team shoots the 3 just enough to create space under the basket for Sean May, and like Calhoun he wouldn't mind if the temptation were a little easier to resist.
"We always try to look for a great balance, and sometimes we get it," Williams said, "and sometimes we don't."
Calhoun was so stunned by West Virginia's use of the three against Louisville - they made a staggering 18 of 27, some that looked as if they'd been launched from the stands - that he called Mountaineers coach John Beilein for the inside story.
"I told him I'd never seen anything like it," Calhoun recalled, "and he said, 'Jim, in 30 years of coaching, neither have I.'"
And chances are good we won't see it again anytime soon. The combined 3-point shooting percentage for the regional finals last weekend was 47 percent - a dozen percentage points better than the average at midseason and for all of 2003-04.
On top of that, guys like Pitino and Calhoun have become a clear majority. The last survey circulated by the NCAA put the number of coaches favoring the international distance at 65 percent.
"That way, only the guys who can make them for us," Calhoun said, "will take them for us."
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