Are these freshmen more than Fab?

Are these freshmen more than Fab?

Young cats compared to Michigan's five in '90s
By Jerry Tipton / jtipton@herald-leader.com

Freshmen accounted for all 11 of Kentucky's points in the overtime victory over Mississippi State in the Southeastern Conference Tournament finals Sunday. Players that UK Coach John Calipari likes to say were playing AAU basketball less than a year ago scored 27 of the team's final 29 points.

In a highly charged atmosphere and against an opponent playing for its NCAA Tournament life, freshmen executed down the stretch. An intentional free throw miss. A clutch steal to ignite a late rally. A putback at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. Seven makes in 10 free-throw attempts in the final three minutes of regulation and five-minute overtime.

"Even though we're young, we're a different type of freshmen," said DeMarcus Cousins, who scored the clutch putback. "It shows."One of the big questions hanging over Kentucky heading into the NCAA Tournament concerns the freshmen. Are the kiddie Cats too young to win a national championship?

"I don't think youth has anything to do with it," said Billy Donovan, who guided a sophomore-laden Florida team to the 2006 national championship game. "The type of season they've had, it's for a reason."

Like many observers, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas considers Kentucky a prime contender to win the NCAA Tournament.

"They're the most talented team out there," he said. "But it's more than talent."

The victory over Mississippi State was only further evidence of a team blessed with intangibles. Miami (Ohio), Stanford, Connecticut and Mississippi State twice are among the opponents who can testify to the quality Calipari seems to prize most highly: a will to win.

"They're resilient, and they're tough-minded," Bilas said. "And they're winners.

"Does that mean no one can beat them? No. But does it mean they've accomplished something you just don't see very often? They've accomplished something that I've not seen quite that way since the Fab Five in the early '90s."

Ah, the Fab Five. The iconic all-freshman starting five that played Michigan to the 1992 Final Four as first-year players. Their coach, Steve Fisher, who guided San Diego State to a NCAA Tournament berth this year, agreed with Donovan: Age is irrelevant.

"It seems as if at winning time, really good players step up and make plays," he said Monday. "It doesn't matter the age. It's not by accident that these players are making those kind of plays that win."

Fisher also saw intangible strengths that Kentucky's freshmen possess.

"They're unafraid," he said. "They expect to win. They walk that line with a kind of confidence they have that makes their opponents want to punch them and makes their teammates want to throw them the ball when they need to make an important play."

Earlier this season, Calipari suggested Kentucky might be the youngest team to ever realistically aim for a national championship. Of course, the Cats start three freshmen, bring another freshman off the bench as the first front-line reserve and use a first-year sophomore as a three-point specialist.

In 1991-92, Michigan's top four scorers were freshmen. The Wolverines' two veteran regulars were juniors Eric Riley and Michael Talley, who averaged 15.5 and 18.2 minutes, respectively.

Jalen Rose, the primary ball-handler and decision-maker for Michigan, said this Kentucky team had several advantages over the Fab Five. One is junior Patrick Patterson, an All-America candidate and an established all-league player.

Another was the SEC Tournament. "A great chance to get more experience," Rose said.

Calipari agreed, noting the value of experiencing the single-game elimination pressure. Still, the UK coach frets. "There's an anxiety with the first time you do this," he said of the NCAA Tournament.

After watching the Selection Sunday show, Calipari suggested freshmen might have an advantage in not knowing that a long season exacts a toll.

"The good news is they don't know that," the UK coach said. "If they were juniors and seniors they would probably be like, 'Oh my gosh, now we have to do this?' "

But Rose scoffed at the notion of ignorance being bliss.

"You're too young and dumb to know any better," he called it while laughing. "I don't believe that at all. You know better.

"Before the game, the coach always tells you the scenario. Who you're going against. You understand what it's for. You turn on the TV, you know it's one and done. So there's no secrets. There's no hiding it."

En route to the 1992 Final Four, the Fab Five had to grind out victories in possession-by-possession games. Four of the five victories preceding the championship game were by margins of seven or fewer points. In the region finals, Michigan beat archrival Ohio State 75-71 in overtime.

Rose, who declined an invitation to compare UK's team to the Fab Five, said a championship run should get easier the further Kentucky advances.

"The better they play each session, each quarter, each half, each game, it's going to be like going downhill," he said. "They're going to continue to get more confident. You're going to see a different bounce. You'll see it in their step.

"What's always a key, especially for a young team, is to get off to a good start. So they can feed off that momentum."

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/03/16/1183402/freshmen-hold-keys-to-uks-title.html#ixzz0iRI5Dg12