Chaos or Progress

Tipoff

The pace of change this offseason - for the vast majority of teams that have stopped playing in men’s college basketball - has been stunning. Players are entering the transfer portal at record numbers. Others are declaring for the NBA draft. Coaches are being fired while others are hired. The news that North Carolina’s Roy Williams was retiring from the sport stood out among the noise. It shouldn’t be that surprising that a 70 year-old man is retiring from his profession, one he has excelled at for more than 30 years. One of the reasons he gave for this decision stood out, as reported by Ross Martin at Inside Carolina: “I can't stand in front of progress, whether I believe it's progress or not. It doesn’t make any difference.”

Roy Williams was part of an institution, running the famed Carolina fast break that he learned from his coach, Dean Smith, while a player at UNC. He did it with great success, winning the National Championship three times in 18 years as head coach in Chapel Hill, most recently in 2017. The game has not passed him, although he alluded to aspects of being a head coach that have been difficult. The progress that Williams alluded to might have to do with the decision of standout freshman Walker Kessler to transfer to another program.

Williams’s system, and the one that Dean Smith ran before him, is predicated on players fitting within defined roles. As more players moved on from college to the NBA sooner, this system suffered. UNC’s 14-19 record in 2020 was followed by a slightly better 2021 campaign, but a blowout loss to Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament first round. Then, an exodus of players leaving the program, including Kessler. Williams was faced with rebuilding his team yet again with a few holdovers from a top freshman class. That is the progress Williams referenced in his final press conference. Coaches no longer have to just recruit the next group of players; they have to recruit the underclassmen to stay another year. Catering to players, the ones that have the least power in the sport, is a form of progress. His quote is a litmus test for all of us connected to college basketball. Do we think this is progress, too?

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Tournament Tracker

It’s The Big Dance! Let’s take a look at NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament action and what lies ahead.

NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four

• #1 Baylor vs. #2 Houston (5:14 p.m. EDT on CBS)

• #1 Gonzaga vs. #11 UCLA (8:34 p.m. EDT on CBS)

NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship

• #1 Stanford vs. #3 Arizona (Sunday, April 4th at 6:00 p.m. EDT on ESPN)

The Mixtape

The Field of 68 team puts out lots of great content each week. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

• The star of Friday night was Arizona’s Aari McDonald. She shut down Paige Bueckers and disrupted the UConn Huskies in the women’s Final Four. McDonald finished with 26 points and 7 rebounds in the 69-59 upset. The redshirt senior came back after the season was cancelled for a chance to reach this point and she is one win away from the ultimate goal of cutting down the nets on Sunday night. McDonald joined Christy Winters Scott on the Christy’s Court podcast before the NCAA Tournament began. Check out this interview to get acquainted with one of the biggest stars of March (and April).

• It’s the men’s Final Four! Who better to talk about the matchup between Houston and Baylor than Oklahoma assistant coach Kellen Sampson? He joins Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman on the Best Bets podcast to talk about life in the bubble, Houston’s run to the Final Four, his father and head coach, Kelvin Sampson, and the big game tonight.

• In the nightcap, UCLA will take on unbeaten Gonzaga for the right to play on Monday night. Rob and Jeff talk Bruins and the Bulldogs with former UCLA player and current ESPN analyst Sean Farnham. Farnham has a sandwich named after himself in Spokane, Washington. Who better to preview the game tonight? Can Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez stand up the juggernaut that is Gonzaga? If they can, how will it happen?

• On the Sic ‘Em 365 Podcast, Jason King and Ashley Hodge were joined by a very special guest, forward Mark Vital. Vital talks about his Baylor career and motivations for reaching the Final Four, a recap of the Elite 8 matchup against Arkansas, and a preview of the game against Houston tonight. In addition to playing, Vital also talks about his biggest wish while in the bubble, to go to the Indianapolis Zoo.