Mar
7
Nizoral Online
Buy Propecia
Lotrisone Online
Buy Topamax
Seroquel Online
Buy Ultram
Amoxil Online
Buy Inderal
Synthroid Online
Buy Glucotrol
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Hoops 4 the Soul Southeast Regional Breakdown
#1 2006-2007 Florida Gators vs. #4 1997 Arizona Wildcats
* Florida’s 2006 and 2007 championship teams have been combined into one team. This does not give the Gators any noticeable competitive advantage; the Gators returned all five starters from the 2006 title. 2006 senior and bench player Adrian Moss moves onto the 2007 team. Florida’s stats in parentheses are from the 2006 title team (click on the pictures).
(remember to click on pictures)
Point Guard:
Florida Taurean Green (13.3 ppg, 184 assists) vs. Arizona Mike Bibby (13.5 ppg, 178 assists)
Both sons of former NBA players, Green and Bibby look like they grew up around the game. The sophomore Green can be a bit erratic and lose interest at times, but he brings his best for the biggest games. Fantastic at breaking the press, Green is a speedster who loves to step into and knock down the big three ball. Only a freshman, Bibby is equally quick and a much better shooter than Green. For a 6’2’’ guard, Bibby is a very underrated rebounder. Both of these guys can get hot for extended periods at a time and consequently carry a team and change the flow of a game. Both enjoyable players to watch, Bibby gets the edge. Advantage: Arizona
Shooting Guard:
Florida Lee Humphrey (10.9 ppg, 46% from 3) vs. Arizona Miles Simon (18.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg)
A battle of a deadly shooter and an erratic shooter. Leave Humphrey open – and let him get his feet seat—and the Tennessean will kill you all night long. Not very athletic, Humphrey can not create his own shot but is a surprisingly solid defensive player for his lack of quickness. Simon says that when Miles is hitting the outside shot, he’s tough to control. Simon’s outside shooting comes and goes, but the junior from California simply knows how to score. Simon is adept at splitting double teams, weaving into the lane and burying soft floaters over the outstretched hands of the defense. As Billy Packer has said, Simon and Bibby seem to be on a same wavelength, knowing where each other is at all the time. While a shooting guard, Simon is like a point guard, penetrating into the lane and kicking out to Bibby, who is automatic when his feet are set and he has some space. Humphrey and Simon are both competitors, but Miles is the better athlete and better player. Advantage: Arizona
Small Forward:
Florida Corey Brewer (12.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg) vs. Arizona Michael Dickerson (18.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg)
Brewer is a match up nightmare who can guard all five of Arizona’s starters if he has to. Next to UNLV’s Stacey Augmon and Duke’s Shane Battier, Brewer is one of the best defensive players in this tournament. Brewer’s herky-jerky offensive game may seem out of control, but don’t be fooled, this guy can kill you going baseline or filling the wing on the fast break for the three ball. What may surprise many, Dickerson led this Arizona title team in scoring during the regular season. Dickerson is an explosive player whose confidence wavers in and out. He can pop off and easily go for 30 when on; he can also be nonexistent when struggling with his game. With Brewer’s defensive ability, here’s guessing that the very talented Dickerson struggles. Advantage: Florida
Power Forward:
Florida Joakim Noah (14.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg) vs. Arizona Bennett Davison (9.7 ppg, 6.4 rpg)
Just as Simon is the personality that drives Arizona, Noah beats to his own drummer. For all his idiosyncracies, Noah has game. He can put it on the deck and hit the open man for the three bounder, crash the boards with abandon and leak over with excellent help side defense. While Noah is the face and hair of the two-time NCAA champs, he plays each game as if it’s last. The kid is a major competitor – love him or hate him, you’ve got to respect him. As for Davison, the former number-one player out of junior college is an amazing leaper, who makes his impact getting garbage points and rebounding on the defensive end. At only 6’7’’, the athletic Davison could struggle with the length of Noah. However, Davison can give Noah some problems if he uses his lateral quickness to his advantage. Noah is so savvy though that he doesn’t even need to score that much to have a major impact. This Florida team thrives on unselfishness and for being the big man on campus, Noah does whatever it takes so his team can win. Advantage: Florida
Center:
Florida Al Horford (11.3 ppg, 7.6 rpg) vs. Arizona A.J. Bramlett (8.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg)
Featuring a chiseled body and a soft touch, Horford looks like a man among boys at times. When he’s locked in, Florida is nearly impossible to beat. Horford can beat you inside with his sheer strength and even take you to the free throw line extended and hit the jumper. A skinny and lengthy 6’10” center, Bramlett is like Davison—not much of a scorer, but a very effective and capable player out there to benefit from garbage created by Arizona’s outstanding perimeter attack. Bramlett will need to use his length to affect Horford, who surely isn’t too concerned. Advantage: Florida
The Bench:
This combined Florida team of the 2006 and 2007 championship seasons throws some big men off the bench, with the nasty Chris Richard (5.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg) serving as the primary means of enforcement for Noah and Horford. 2006 senior Adrian Moss (3.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg) and 2007 freshman Maureese Speights and Dan Werner are also options down low for the Gator Chomp. Walter Hodge (3.8 ppg, 1.1 rpg) is a strong defensive guard who doesn’t mind attacking the basket for the Gators. Arizona’s bench is anchored by fantastic guard Jason Terry (10.6 ppg, 157 assists), who is stuck behind three really good players but has no problem living with his role and coming into the game to drain three pointers. Terry’s the most explosive bench player in this game, giving Arizona a huge edge. The Wildcats also throw out sophomore big man Donnell Harris (5.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg) and freshman Eugene Edgerson (2.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg) to eat up minutes in the paint and contribute with fouls. Edge: Arizona
Coaching:
Like his mentor Rick Pitino has done with the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats, Billy Donovan has assembled one of the better teams in recent memory. Donovan does an excellent job of getting this eclectic group to focus in as one and can serve as a calming presence and motivator whenever needed. Lute Olson has also been able to get amazing talent at Arizona; the question is always whether that talent will come together. This 1997 Arizona team came together but wasn’t able to do what Florida did in 2007; that is repeat with the same starting five. Olson can make some questionable decisions at time…but he has a real good feel with this team. Advantage: Florida
Prediction:
Don’t be fooled by this game. Florida may be the overall number three seed in this tournament; however, the 14th seed Arizona matches up well. Next to the 2000 Michigan State and 2002 Maryland game, this should be a competitive and fun one to watch. In winning the championship in 1997, Arizona knocked off three number-one seeds. Can it begin a similar quest by knocking out the number-one seed in the Midwest Regional, the Florida Gators?
The answer is no with Brewer taking out Dickerson and Green at least being able to give Bibby a challenge. Florida’s frontline is too good and focused for Arizona, despite the Wildcats amazing guards. Expect a tight win for Florida.
Share and Enjoy
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Related Posts
Comments
Both sons of former NBA players, Green and Bibby look like they grew up around the game. The sophomore Green can be a bit erratic and lose interest at times, but he brings his best for the biggest games. Fantastic at breaking the press, Green is a speedster who loves to step into and knock down the big three ball. Only a freshman, Bibby is equally quick and a much better shooter than Green. For a 6’2’’ guard, Bibby is a very underrated rebounder. Both of these guys can get hot for extended periods at a time and consequently carry a team and change the flow of a game. Both enjoyable players to watch, Bibby gets the edge. Advantage: 
A battle of a deadly shooter and an erratic shooter. Leave Humphrey open – and let him get his feet seat—and the Tennessean will kill you all night long. Not very athletic, Humphrey can not create his own shot but is a surprisingly solid defensive player for his lack of quickness. Simon says that when Miles is hitting the outside shot, he’s tough to control. Simon’s outside shooting comes and goes, but the junior from 
Brewer is a match up nightmare who can guard all five of 
Just as Simon is the personality that drives 
Featuring a chiseled body and a soft touch, Horford looks like a man among boys at times. When he’s locked in, 
This combined 
Like his mentor Rick Pitino has done with the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats, Billy Donovan has assembled one of the better teams in recent memory. Donovan does an excellent job of getting this eclectic group to focus in as one and can serve as a calming presence and motivator whenever needed. Lute Olson has also been able to get amazing talent at 
Don’t be fooled by this game. 
I have no particular love for Florida sports. They did give us Lon Kruger and Ron Zook, so they can’t be that bad, although it might be different if I lived down there. That being said, they were the perfect college starting 5 and they were rarely challenged over their 12 tournament wins. In ‘06, Georgetown showed a glimpse of their future with a fine showing in a gritty 3-6 game that Corey Brewer won a late 3-point play. In ‘07, Purdue did the same thing and led for some time before Florida outclassed them in the end. Butler put up a decent fight in the Sweet 16, but in the end, Florida knew exactly how to beat the other top teams and did so without mercy.
Looking back at ‘06, it was all about George Mason. The game with UConn is one of the finest college basketball games I’ve ever seen. UConn was the consensus favorite to win the whole thing and played a good game against Mason, but Mason was amazing. Still, Denham Brown had a sick tying layup in regulation and when he somehow got open for a step back 3 at the end of OT, I thought it was going down for sure. With Florida winning that night to make the Final 4, I all but had won our huge pool at work, so I ate hardily at Golden Corral that night!
A lot of people were upset that the Final 4 had 3 bad games and were anointing this the worst tournament ever, but it was far from bad in the early rounds. Let us not forget in the first round, the great NW State win over Iowa, Bradley upsetting Kansas, a nasty Chris Lofton shot to save Tennessee from going to OT with Winthrop, and Murray State missing a late 3 that could have upset defending champ UNC. The 2nd round had LSU’s Darrel Mitchel beating A&M by 1 with a very late 3-pointer, Mason outplaying UNC and Wichita St beating Tennessee. The money round was the Sweet 16, with the aforementioned Florida-G’Town game, a great Texas-WV game with Pittsnogle making a sick tying shot only for Kenton Paulino to win it at the buzzer. UCLA beat Gonzaga in the game that nearly killed Gus Johnson and left Adam Morrison in tears. LSU upset Duke with Tyrus Thomas showing the quality that would make him an NBA star (whoops), Villanova beat BC by 1 in a slugfest in OT a proper goaltending call with 3 seconds left and UConn beat Washington and super Brandon Roy after Rashad Anderson’s filthy 3 sent the game to OT. The LSU-Texas elite 8 game went to OT, but wasn’t very exciting as the tournament quickly went downhill after the amazing sweet 16 round.
It’s not hard to remember last year. There were only 4 upsets by team more than two seeds worse than their opponent (Winthrop-ND, VCU-Duke, UNLV-Wisconsin and Vandy-Wash State) and none of them were really upsets. Without these upsets, we actually got great later matchups and what I thought was a high quality, but unmemorable tournament.
1997 was fascinating if for no other reason that Arizona knocking off three 1-seeds and winning the title as the only non 1-seed in the final 4. From a talent standpoint, there’s no doubt Arizona was really good and must have underachieved during the season.
One trend I see in these recent tourneys is when a non-traditional powerhouse SEC team (not UK or Florida) gets a great seed, they get upset in the first round. It happened twice this year with South Carolina losing easily a 2-15 to Coppin St, who then lost by just 1 to Texas. Chattanooga took out Georgia in a 3-14 game and then upset Illinois in the next game before losing a close game to Providence in the Sweet 16. Providence, just a 10 seed, had Arizona on the ropes, but God Shammgod, Austin Croshere are crew lost in OT. Minnesota made the best of a rare good team with Bobby Jackson and snuck past Clemson in OT in the Sweet 16 and beat UCLA after to make the final 4. But that all got vacated due to Clem’s fine handling of the team’s academics. Iowa State with Kelvin Cato and Dedrick Willoughby played two excellent games, edging Cincy in OT in the 2nd round and losing by 1 to UCLA the next game.
I remember nothing from the semifinal games, but the final was pretty good. Anthony Epps (I think) made a game tying 3 to send the game to OT. But Arizona made a ton of FT’s in the OT to win and keep Kentucky from repeating