I consider myself a minor authority on Ben Howland, if only because I really like to be well-informed about things or people I despise.  While Howland didn’t really burst onto the national scene until his first of three Final Four runs with the Bruins in 2006, my friends and I had been following his teams well before then when he was at Pittsburgh.  Howland-coached teams are steadily consistent, especially when it comes to their NCAA tournament ousters: someone on the other team gets extremely hot, to the point no manner of defense can stop them, and Howland’s guards have an awful game.

The classic cliché is "Defense wins championships," and while it’s true very few teams have won titles without defending (the ’99 Rams are the only team popping into my head at this time), you also don’t win many titles without a good offense either, especially when you consider, great offense will always trump great defense.  There’s a reason that guys who hold Jordan, Kobe or LeBron to 29 points "but make them work for it" have their night considered a great success, because whether it’s on one play, in one quarter or in one game, a transcendent offensive performance will always prevail over even the best defensive effort.

I don’t want to bash Howland’s teams in 2006 and 2007, who lost to what was essentially a NBA team-in-training with the Florida Gators, but you can see the problems in guard play flaring up, although the transcendent offensive performance wasn’t necessary because Billy Donovan’s crew was both so balanced and so damn good.  But going back to Pitt’s Sweet Sixteen game against Kent State in 2002, you get the same problems:

2003: Dwyane Wade hits the most ridiculous shots you’ll ever see, including one where he’s falling down, scoring 22 points on 10-for-19 shooting.  The Julius Page-Brevin Knight backcourt goes 11-of-24, which is actually the best you’ll see from a Howland team in these losses.

2006: Arron Afflalo and Jordan Farmar go 11 for 31, Darren Collison goes 0-for-3 with three turnovers in 21 minutes off the bench.  Al Horford and Joakim Noah are 12 for 17 for 30 points and 16 boards.

2007: Darren Collison and Arron Afflalo go 8 for 28.  Florida is just awesome again, with Chris Richard and Corey Brewer combining for 35 points on 12 of 14 shooting while Noah and Horford get 28 boards.  (Seriously, people really don’t give these Florida teams enough credit because they blew so many people out and played in a couple boring Final Fours.  They were amazing.)

2008: Darren Collison is 1 for 9 with 5 turnovers, although backcourt mate Russell Westbrook did go 10 for 19 for 22 points.  The future NBA backcourt of Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose light up the Alamo to the tune of 16 for 33 for 53 points.

(And if you want to, you can include or ignore 2004, which was Jamie Dixon’s first season coaching the Panthers, who still had Howland’s recruits playing in Howland’s system with his style of play.  This time Tony Allen went off, hitting 8 of 14 for 23 points, while Julius Page (2 for 11) and Carl Krauser (6 for 17) struggled in a 63-51 loss.)

What am I trying to say by showing that really good teams with really good, future NBA players give Howland’s teams – and pretty much every other team – a lot of trouble?  Basically, that while defense is great and essential, to micromanage and suffocate your offense like Howland does really makes your team incapable of winning a shootout.  Nearly all great teams are capable of succeeding at different paces, even if they’d prefer one over others,  but Howland’s teams are not, simply because his offense is too restricting to put up a lot of points, and if the opposing team is playing offense at such a level no defense – and Howland’s is great, for all its clutching and grabbing – can stop them, the game is over.  

At some point, Howland may recruit enough transcendent offensive talent that he can let them play his defense while doing whatever they want on offense (which Collison and Kevin Love did at times this season), but until then, he’ll have to hope that he manages to avoid great opposing offensive players, something that is somewhat difficult to do from the Sweet Sixteen on.  As depressed as it would make me, I would be utterly unsurprised to see the Bruins playing on the final Saturday of the collegiate basketball season again next year, but until Howland loosens the reins on offense and stops playing such ghastly, ugly basketball, they will not win the final two games.

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But seriously, I really underrated Memphis.  It’s not that I disrespected them – I had them losing in the Elite Eight in what was essentially a road game to Texas – but as I’ve written here and told my friends at an annoying rate, "Why didn’t anybody tell me Derrick Rose was this good?".  After the Acie Law IV debacle of last season, (where I had Texas A&M projected to my final simply because of their point guard’s clutch play all season, then he missed a lay-up against Memphis), I wasn’t willing to trust my bracket to one crafty veteran who seemed unwilling to lose, but Chris Douglas-Roberts makes me wish I’d reconsidered.  Rose says he has "old man moves," but they seem to work just fine in the 2008 version of the game.  When you throw in a front line that can defend and rebound – literally, that might be all they can do, as Dozier and Dorsey combined for 18 rebounds, 6 points (all Dozier’s) and 5 blocks – a good coach and some perimeter players that can knock down shots and pressure the opposition, it just seems so simple.

Not saying that Kansas will be an easy win, but it’s very, very possible that UCLA lost to the NCAA champion three years running, and that Rocky Top’s skin-of-their-teeth win back in February will be the only mark against the Tigers.

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Did North Carolina watch film of how Davidson gave the Jayhawks so much trouble?  Pressure their guards to make entry passes and alley-oops tough, then get back in transition.  If Kansas gets caught in a half-court game where they can’t just throw lobs up to their bevy of freak athletes, they start shooting a lot of threes, which they were doing when North Carolina cut the lead down and Rock Chalk just couldn’t seem to shake them until Brandon Rush started getting loose.  You’re telling me that Davidson was considerably more athletic than the Tar Heels, because they had significantly better transition defense last Sunday than North Carolina did last night.  The fact the Wildcats actually took care of the ball and didn’t have really stupid turnovers also helped out, but yeesh, heart from the Tar Heels in coming back, but ugly play in getting down that much.

As a neutral observer – I had North Carolina as my champion, but my bracket blew up with the Davidson and Texas losses anyway – I wish the Tar Heels had come back just so we could all call it the most probable 28-point comeback of all-time while the ESPN analysts freaked out until Monday.  What would your level of surprise had been if you’d missed the game and a friend had told you, "Yeah, Bill Self’s team blew a 28-point lead in the Final Four."  1?  2, maybe?  Or just a nod and an acknowledgement that "Yeah, that makes total sense."  

A fond farewell this season to Love and Tyler Hansbrough, who actually deserved most of the hype showered upon them by the media with their play this March.  Maybe someday ESPN will be able to find a hard-working black player to thrust this love upon, but for the media’s sake – and for the sake of the game, but mainly their sake- hopefully both guys come back next year.  Hansbrough’s got closer and closer the last two seasons, so I think he’ll want to make one last run at it, while Love might benefit from just a little more polish and another season for NBA scouts to dismiss because of his eventual poor workout.

(For a slight, nowhere near perfect Love comparison, how about Luke Walton?  Both are bigger guys played in the PAC-10 and are great passers, capable of both putting their back to the basket or hitting the outside shot.   NBA GM’s underrate them, while Bill Simmons adores both of them.  Obviously Love is a little bigger and more of a post player, but as I haven’t heard a good comparison of Love to a current pro, I’m just throwing that out there as a rough gauge.)