Observations From the Final Four

Florida is pretty darn good at basketball. Greg Oden is a man. Corey Brewer is the man.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure those things out. It probably doesn’t even take watching the Final 4 too closely to figure those things out. But after sitting through two exciting days of basketball—though the games themselves left a little bit to be desired—here are some of my other observations from the Georgia Dome, this year’s site for college basketball’s grandest stage:

1. How did Florida lose at Vanderbilt? How did Florida lose at Tennessee by 10? And how did Florida lose by double digits to a Glen Davis-less LSU team?

2. No player emerged out of the shadows — specifically Greg Oden's long shadow — quite like Mike Conley, Jr. did on Saturday night. This kid is the real deal. Conley scored 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting, grabbed 5 rebounds, and dished out 6 assists. Eleven of his points came in the first half, when the Buckeyes needed them most with Oden on the bench. Perhaps most importantly, Conley turned the ball over just once in 39 minutes of play. While Oden dominated the second half, Conley was hands down Ohio State's MVP against Georgetown.

3. Corey Brewer is the man. He is 6'8'' and plays much taller due to his giant wingspan. I'll refrain from gushing over just how good this guy could be at the next level and instead focus on how good he was Saturday night.

I'm sure it's hard to imagine just how a game that was such a blowout (and that's what the Florida/UCLA game was, despite the final score being just 76-66) could have been decided by one player. UCLA would not necessarily have won the game playing against a Brewer-less Gator squad, but Brewer won the game for Florida. Throughout the first seven minutes the game, UCLA's vaunted defense positively dominated the Gators offense. Florida managed few good looks at the basket, and the ones they did get were Lee Humphrey three-point attempts that resulted in uncharacteristic bricks.

With Humphrey ice-cold and UCLA doubling down Al Horford and Joakim Noah every time the ball entered the paint, Brewer became Florida's primary offensive option. He responded to the challenge. Brewer poured in 15 of Florida's 29 first-half points and dialed up three trey-balls in the opening 20 minutes of play. How's this for efficiency: Brewer finished with 19 points on just seven field goal attempts?

Brewer, one of the most revered defenders in the nation, also hounded Arron Afflalo on the other side of the floor during the brief moments in which the foul-riddled Afflalo saw playing time. Finally, Brewer put Afflalo on the bench midway through the first half by drawing a foul on a strong drive to the basket.

Most of Florida's stars do one or two things outstandingly. Corey Brewer does it all.

4. The Georgia Dome is the worst basketball venue of the handful of sites in the Final Four rotation. In fact, it's one of the worst basketball venues, period. Now obviously, it's not the Georgia Dome's fault or anyone's fault. To use a time-honored cliché in sports, it is what it is. The Georgia Dome is a football stadium. To say it is not conducive to watching basketball games would be an understatement.

I honestly think there were several hundred occupied seats from which no more than half of the basketball court was visible. Even at times when play was visible from those stratospheric seats, from so far away I doubt the occupants could distinguish Greg Oden from Lee Humphrey.

It's too hard to explain the exact setup of the Dome to someone who was not there, so I suggest doing a quick Georgia Dome Final Four Google search, or perhaps a simple seating chart will suffice. There were plenty of fans stuck all the way up in sections 306 and 311. Now as you can imagine, that's already abysmal to begin with. But that's not all. Keep in mind those fans line of sight was hindered by the makeshift mass of stands on the floor of the Georgia Dome extending across the sideline opposite the benches.

I initially wanted to trek all the way up to 306 or 311 and see for myself the ratio of basketball court to black wall that those people were experiencing, but I decided such a voyage would exhausted me to the point of being unable to enjoy the basketball games.

Even the "good" seats are not immune to some issues. Each seat, of course, is angled such that it would be facing the center of the Georgia Dome floor, what would normally be a Falcons logo on the 50-yard line. In basketball mode, that space is a huge media area. Personally, I'd rather be looking at the basketball court instead. What it boils down to is that in two of the would-be "corners" of a basketball arena, fans are sitting in seats facing straight ahead, if not even partially away from the court.

Now obviously, this not a life-or-death issue and there are much more important basketball matters to get to. But still, if you're going to just throw people senselessly into the Georgia Dome, you might as well go ahead and sell tickets for the entire place and set a Final Four attendance record that would instantly become the most unbreakable record in sports.

5. Refs, not surprisingly, played a decisive role in the course of the National Semifinals. The Roy Hibbert/Greg Oden clash was one the most highly-touted NCAA big-men matchups in a long, long time. What did we get? Hibbert and Oden were only on the court at the same time for eight of the game's first 33 minutes. Both of them picked up some dumb, cheap fouls, but there's no doubt that the officials were way too whistle happy.

Oden had two fouls before the first media timeout, and none were productive. His fist came on an illegal screen during Ohio State's first trip down the court, and the big man lowered his shoulder while driving to the basket for a charge just moments later. That was the end of Oden's first half. With Oden out of the game, Hibbert quickly began to exert himself, but I'm pretty sure NBA scouts — not to mention fans — would have preferred to see Georgetown's giant do so at Oden's expense rather than against Buckeye backups Othello Hunter and Matt Terwilliger.

Oden returned at the start of the second have and showcased his incredible talent throughout the final 20 minutes with seemingly relative ease. He finished with 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 9 rebounds. But again, just as Hibbert did his damage when Oden was not on the floor, Oden found the going a lot easier when Hibbert, plagued with foul trouble of his own, sat on the bench.

Whistles also dominated Saturday night's second contest, but this time the foul trouble was a one-sided affair. UCLA star Arron Afflalo was called for two fouls before the first two minutes had elapsed. Coach Ben Howland dared to put him back in later in the half, and that proved to be nothing short of disastrous. Before the 12-minute media timeout, Afflalo was out of there with his third foul. He ended up playing just 22 minutes in the game and although he finished with 17 points, zero of them came before the outcome was decided.

Forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute did not fare much better. The sophomore scored four points in only 17 minutes of play, and he fouled out with nine minutes left in the contest. Center Lorenzo Mata joined Afflalo and Mbah a Moute to make it a trio of Bruins who were disqualified from the semi-final loss.

There's probably not much UCLA could have done, however, even with their full arsenal of players for the entire night. When Brewer and Humphrey are connecting from long range, the Gators are close to invincible. Brewer was on fire in the first half, and Humphrey's second-half hot streak slammed the door emphatically on the Bruins. Still, UCLA most likely would have made things interesting had it not been for foul trouble. Instead, the nation was deprived of what would have been an exciting 40-minute clash of styles.

6. Walking around the Georgia Dome people-watching was probably more exciting than the Florida/UCLA game. Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, and Dean Smith, all of whom were honored for their contributions to college basketball. were in attendance. Ralph Sampson was there, and very easy for all to see from a mile away. Falcons running back Warrick Dunn was there, and very difficult for anyone to see from a foot away. Comedian and former "Monday Night Football" commentator Dennis Miller made an appearance.

Coaches were all over the place. It seemed like every ACC basketball coach — all noticeably absent from the Final Four proceedings this year — was on the grounds. Former Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins and Jim Larranaga, of last year's George Mason fame, made the trip. Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel was on hand, and it must have taken him hours to greet all of the Buckeye faithful who lined up to talk to him while hanging out in the concourse.

Patrick Ewing and John Thompson, of course, were there on Saturday. Ewing was obviously not there on Monday. Thompson stuck around simply because of TV duties.

7. What goes on in the stands after the semifinal games is what the Final Four is all about. The joy of victory and the agony of defeat are as clear as day. As a neutral bystander, watching Ohio State hawks pester demoralized Georgetown fans for Monday tickets never got old. Then again, it must have been even worse for UCLA supporters. They were probably getting hounded for tickets with 10 minutes still to go in their loss to Florida.

8. Give me tickets to the Championship game and you can keep yours for the National Semi-finals. I initially thought Saturday would be the day to go if you had a choice, but now I’m convinced otherwise. Sure there’s a chance I would think differently had Florida-UCLA turned out to be a classic rather than a snoozer, but I doubt it.

There’s just nothing like the atmosphere of the final game. The slogan touted all over the city of Atlanta was “the road ends here.” It ends on Monday night, not on Saturday. Well, maybe it did end for Georgetown and UCLA on Saturday, but not for the rest of us.

Saturday just doesn’t have that same kind of mano-a-mano intensity. Georgetown and Ohio State treated us to a rather entertaining game, but that half of the stadium spent the entire nightcap bagging z’s, as the Gators drubbed UCLA.

On Monday, the once-formidable Hoya and Bruin fans had been whittled down to a few die-hards, the rest giving way to rapid Buckeyes and Gators. The result? A much more polarized Georgia Dome. At the National Championship, you’re either for one team or the other team. Not for this team and that team or that team and this team. You were either Florida, or you were Ohio State. Either you won, or you lost. You couldn’t be satisfied with one outcome and disgruntled over the next.

Semi-final Saturdays don’t produce Lorenzo Charles’s, Michael Jordans, or Keith Smarts, and they don’t produce Chris Webbers. Saturdays don’t create dynasties. Championship Mondays, however, do all of that.

Don’t get me wrong, the National Semi-finals are nothing short of awesome. But they just aren’t quite the same. I’ll take Monday any day of the week.

9. Just how did this Florida team ever lose a basketball game, period?