Year of the Big Man

For the last ten years or so it has been quite apparent that college basketball is guard-dominated. It has been about having perimeter players who can extend a defense with their ability to shoot and, just as importantly, about having guards who can drive and get to the rim or dish it to a teammate. This year, though, I have been astonished by the unmistakeable reestablishment of the low post player, better known to casual basketball fans as the "big man."

Today specifically, the third day of the tournament and first day of the second round, the dominance of low post play, as opposed to perimeter play, has been evident. I have just watched Stanford feed the ball into Brook (not to be confused with twin Robin) Lopez virtually every possession for the last five minutes. Brook finished off the game with 30 points, including the game winning basket with 1.3 seconds left. He was unstoppable. The next game in Anaheim, UCLA vs Texas A&M, Kevin Love had a similar impact. In three of the key possessions in the final three minutes, Love (a 6-10 freshman center) got the ball on the block and scored each time to give UCLA the win.

If you look across the country, this has been an enormous year for power forwards and centers everywhere. Michael Beasley at Kansas State averaged 26.5 points and 12.5 rebounds en route to becoming the consensus best player in college basketball. Tyler Hansbrough will win the National POY and willed UNC to the overall number one seed. Luke Harangody had a fantastic season at Notre Dame (22 points 10 rebounds per) and won Big East POY. DJ White came back for his senior season and had quite a year at Indiana.

Ok, the college game is still heavily guard-oriented, but at least this year the big men were shown some "Love" (no pun intended). I have seen more so this year than any other year a team dump it down to their low post presence during an important possession. This was personified in the Stanford-Marquette game today. Marquette plays three guards at all time. Stanford starts two seven foot centers. In the last ten minutes of the game each team did what they do best. Marquettte had their guards handle the ball and create shots, while Stanford dumped it down to Brook every possession and ran their offense through him. Needless to say, Stanford won.

So there is hope for all you young centers out there. Instead of stepping out to the 3 point line and jacking up low percentage shots, get down to the block. Find a move and a counter. Judging by the change in play this year, there will be plenty of chances for you to touch the rock near the basket. Just look at Kevin Love or Brook Lopez.