NCAA final a clash of classes

By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service

NEW ORLEANS — Two teams and one game left. Maybe, now, it is down to a matter of class.

Perhaps it will be Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich, the Kansas veterans who have won 113 times and carried Roy Williams to the brink of a title he has cried and bled for, in what might be his last game as Jayhawks' coach.

"We've been talking about this forever," Collison said. "It would be the best way imaginable to go out."

"To explain what it would mean in words," Hinrich said. "I don't think I can do that. ... This is why I came to Kansas."

But then it might be Carmelo Anthony, the Syracuse teenager who has seized the imagination of this Final Four with his inexorable talent, and 33 points against Texas. And Gerry McNamara, another freshman who helped gun down the Longhorns with 19 points.

"At this point in the year, we're not freshmen," McNamara said yesterday. "We haven't played like it. We didn't expect to play like it. If we play like freshmen tomorrow night, we're in a lot of trouble."

Collison added: "They've proven they can beat a lot of good teams with freshmen. They're not intimidated by this scene at all."

In this, his 22nd tournament run, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim might have finally hit the jackpot with kids.

"You have to have special freshmen," he said. "We do."

"It would be big for him," Anthony said. "But it would be even bigger for me."

In his fourth Final Four trip, Williams might finally be ready to break down the door. If so, he'll do it with Collison and Hinrich. They are both sons of high school coaches, and Williams felt so close to them as newcomers three years ago, he turned down the North Carolina job he had often dreamed about.

"At the time, it didn't really sink in," Collison said. "Ever since, it's meant a lot. I've always remembered that."

This time, Williams might take North Carolina's offer, leaving a long-sought national championship — his first, Kansas' third — as his calling card.

Boeheim, in his third championship game, has waited a long time, too. It is a match of hugely successful coaches who know what it is like to be jilted in the spring.

"It's probably an understatement," Williams said, "but perhaps it makes you a little more hungry."

"It's not going to be the end of the world for me if it doesn't happen," Boeheim said. "I'll feel bad, but I'll feel worse for the players."

It could be fiery. Syracuse scored 95 points in the semifinals, Kansas 94. There would seem to be two main points of conflict.

One is the Kansas transition game, which buried Marquette with quick outlet passes that led to easy baskets.

"That's not going to scare Syracuse," Williams said.

But if the Jayhawks (30-7) can push the ball up quickly, they could make it difficult for Syracuse to get into its zone defense. Kansas has had some tough moments against zones this season.

"It's not that we're any faster than anyone else," said Kansas' Keith Langford. "It's just that we're going to do it every time.

"We're probably going to have to crank it up a gear."

Anthony added: "We know they're going to try to push it down our throat."

And if the Orangemen (29-5) can't slow the Jayhawks ...?

"We'd be in trouble," Boeheim said.

The other is what Kansas can do against Anthony, the hottest teen in the land, even counting LeBron James.

The freshman wrecked Texas not only with his scoring, but also his rebounding (he had 14) and passing and leadership. It was a most unfreshman-like performance.

"Something I was born with," he said. "Leadership."

Langford said, "Carmelo Anthony could be the exception to experience."

Funny he should mention that, for it is Langford who will probably start against the 6-foot-8, 225-pound Anthony, giving away four inches.

"It's the kind of thing where you want to challenge yourself," Langford said. "He's almost a prodigy."

If Anthony has another big game and Syracuse wins, he could be the first freshman to be MVP of the Final Four since Louisville's Pervis Ellison in 1986.

Kansas likely won't resort to a zone to stop Anthony. Williams said if there was a line of all coaches, Boeheim would be at one end as the best zone coach and he'd be at the other as the worst.

"I'm not being humble," he said. "I'm just being truthful."

Langford has a superstition where he changes his shoes at halftime if the first half goes badly. He'll have three pairs at the Superdome tonight.