Texas is not Syracuse of 03'

Well the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is now complete. My bracket is in the waste basket. The first two rounds there weren't any real upsets. Winthrop over Notre Dame is not something I would call an upset. Winthrop played great basketball all year challenging teams like North Carolina on their home floor and Texas A&M. Those two teams right now could potentially be in the Final Four. Today Winthrop was throttled by a very athletic Oregon Ducks team. Oregon I think has the tools to win a National Championship. They have a senior point guard Aaron Brooks who's probably one of the most underrated guards in the nation. Then you have the young diaper dandy Tayjuan Porter, at 5 foot 6 he's tough to guard and a pest on defense. My favorite player on that team however is Maarty Leunen, a 6 foot 8 forward. He has great post moves and can rebound like the best of them. Also, the Ducks have another tremendous guard in Bryce Taylor. He was absolutely lights out in the Pac-10 Title Game against UCLA and he hasn't stopped tearing the ball through the nets since. It should be interesting on how they do against Lon Kruger's UNLV Runnin' Rebels. They are a team that squeaked out a win against Georgia Tech but defeated one of the best teams in the Nation Wisconsin Badgers. However, I thought Wisconsin was extremely overrated. They relied too much on Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor, Wisconsin was very vulnerable coming into this tournament and it showed. Not having Forward Brian Butch in the lineup didn't help either.

Now lets go back to my topic. The Texas Longhorns. They had such a wild and exciting regular season that I didn't see them letting down in the NCAA Tournament. They had the best freshman in the nation Kevin Durant. The kid does it all, scores, rebounds, runs the floor, and is a leader. They had freshman DJ Augustin, who is regarded as one of the best point guards in the nation as well. They were also followed with Damion James who is a grinder and also provides scoring help. The dark horse on that squad was AJ Abrams, although small he could penetrate and shoot the three ball. However something seemed to be missing today in the game against the University of Southern California. Texas met their match today and never got in a rhythm at all. The difference between Texas and 03' Syracuse is simple. Jim Boeheim is one of the best coaches in the nation, they had Carmelo Anthony and Gerry McNamara but Syracuse also had a senior leader in Kueth Duany. Duany was a fan-favorite for the Orange and provided an inspirational boost for them. They also had a big man freshman in Craig Forth. Forth provided an inside presence, something Texas lacked. Conor Atchley is a solid center for the Longhorns but his body isn't as physical as what Forth's was. The Orange also had freshman Hakim Warrick, a lanky 6 foot 10 forward that could block shots and score. I thought Texas had the tools, but the more I think about the 2003 Syracuse squad...I was wrong.