After four days, too many beignets to count, and countless "got tickets?" posed by scalpers on the streets of New Orleans, it's time to call this a wrap. Here's the final edition of "the view from the (Super) dome" for this 2012 edition of the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament.
- The two teams which beat Kentucky this season--Indiana and Vanderbilt--successfully shot the ball from outside. Outside shooting is not a Kansas strength and thus they struggled in the half-court against a Kentucky defense which made it difficult for the Jayhawks to feed the post. Both Elijah Johnson and Tyshawn Taylor hit threes but KU needed more from behind the arc on Monday night and thus was unable to pull off an upset.
- Did you know that this is the first team, in the latest NCAA rule of "at least one year," to win a national championship with at least one one-and-done player? While it's not official, Anthony Davis of Kentucky will surely come out as will Michael Kidd Gilchrist, thus making the Wildcats the first team to have successfully used a one-and-done strategy to win a national title.
- A severe thunderstorm in New Orleans made entry into the Superdome a wet affair on Monday night. A steady rain then awaited fans as they exited the dome after the Kansas-Kentucky game.
- Kentucky won the fan battle by clearly having the most fans in attendance. But, the Kansas crowd swelled appreciably between Saturday's semi-final game versus Ohio State and Monday's national championship event.
- The KU-UK game reminded me of the 1991 Kansas loss to Duke in the NCAA final. In that game, Duke jumped out to a commanding lead but Kansas chipped away and made it close at the end before losing by seven.
- Kentucky not only benefited from a stellar recruiting class but also the threatened NBA lockout, which enticed Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb to stay in school.
- Did I say I'm not a fan of the NCAA seating configuration which places the court squarely in the middle of the floor?
- In five out of the last six years, Kansas has finished with over 30 victories. This year's team finished 32-7. Kansas is the winningest program of the past 25 years.
- What can we look forward to next season for Kansas? Jeff Withey, now the record holder for most blocks in an NCAA Tournament, returns as does Elijah Johnson and Travis Releford. Withey, Johnson and Releford form a solid starting five foundation which will be complemented by Ben McLemore and newcomer Perry Ellis. Kevin Young returns and will fight for minutes with Jamari Traylor who, along with McLemore, sat out this year but practiced with the team during the second semester.
- Kentucky will be good again next year, even with player defections, given the recruiting class being built by John Calipari. Indiana has already been picked pre-season number one by Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn. And, down in Waco, Baylor once again will feature a top ten recruit (Isaiah Austin) thus placing the Bears firmly in the preseason top five. (Baylor's place in the preseason rankings also will depend upon the status of Perry Jones III and Quincy Miller.) Winn picks Kansas 17th but I suspect that most will have them in the top 10-12 teams when preseason rankings come out late this summer.
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