The Chat House

Sports News

Welcome to another edition of The Chat House where Post columnist Michael Wilbon was online Tuesday, April 4, at 1:30 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the NCAA tournament, other sports news and his recent columns.

Michael Wilbon's NCAA Bracket

Tourney Tracker

Printable Bracket

A Few Choice Picks: Tony Kornheiser

The transcript follows.

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washingtonpost.com: Please stay tuned. Michael Wilbon will be with us shortly ...

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washingtonpost.com: This discussion is delayed until further notice -- please stay tuned for further details (it could still happen this afternoon). Thank you very much.

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Michael Wilbon: Okay, the only thing I've ever been any good as it communicating, but today not even that. I presumed we were chatting Tuesday, after the NCAA Championship game and not before it. I did this, of course, without first telling washingtonpost.com, which is pretty dumb as dumbness goes. I apologize to all those who set aside time to chat, mostly about GeorgeMason I'm sure ... If you'll forgive my knuckleheadedness and join us Tuesday at 1:15 I'd be might grateful. We'll do an hour-plus wrapping up the NCAA Tournament, a bit of baseball for you seamheads and maybe an NBA questionor two. Sorry for the goof and we'll get at it Tuesday ... same time, same channel. Mike Wilbon

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washingtonpost.com: The previous messages were posted on Monday, April 3, when Michael Wilbon's discussion was originally scheduled. See below beginning at 1:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 4, to read along in the Chat House. Thank you for sending your questions to Michael Wilbon...

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Alexandria, Va.: Are you going to check out the Lady Terps in action tonight???

It may not have the same marquee as the men's team playing Duke, but this Maryland/Duke matchup is probably just as important as the 2004 matchup for the ACC Title.

Michael Wilbon: Not only will I check out the University of Maryland women's hoopsters tonight, but I watched the semifinal game and the regional finals...and not just of the Terrapins, but the entire tournament...and let's not try to compare women's basketball to men's basketball in importance or popularity...Why? Neither needs it.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: Are you going to make any appearances with your PTI partner in crime on MNF this fall, or is Mr. Tony scared of you taking away his job?

Michael Wilbon: Tony and I will be doing PTI from the Monday Night Football venue each week, so I'll be there...If you mean, will I be in THE BOOTH with Tony and Joe and Mike? Uh, no.

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Baltimore, Md.: How are you going to live with the fact that Tony picked UCLA for the championship game on his bracket, and you didn't have any of the final four?

Michael Wilbon: Kudos to Mr. Tony for getting UCLA in the title game...I had LSU, UCONN, Pitt and Boston College. So what did I know? The only thing I got right was my prediction on Selection Sunday, in Monday's editions of The Post, that this tournament would be filled with upsets and the top seeds would go away...So, I salvage that...but not the results of my pool picks. $%^&*#@$%&!

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Brooklyn, N.Y.: Yo Mikey. How could you deny Ewing his NCAA Championship?? He won't it in 1984. Come on man, that's Bush league!

Michael Wilbon: What are you talking about. I covered the team. I know he won a championship. Don't come to the Chat House with blind questions. If you've got something specific to ask, have the background ready and ask it.

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Reston, Va.: So did Tony actually get on a plane last week?

Michael Wilbon: Yes sir...he sure did. Took that 23-hour train ride to the NFL owners meetings in Orlando...AND FLEW BACK! Wow. Can't wait to see how long this lasts. But I hope it does. He'll have much more time to work on his long irons and he'll be a whole lot less grumpy.

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Washington, D.C.: "But Noah does have something Ewing has and Olajuwon doesn't: an NCAA championship"

Michael Wilbon: HELLO! Something that Ewing HAS (a national title) and that Olajuwon doesn't. HELLO! Olajuwon never won. Ewing did. WAKE UP!

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Alexandria, Va.: A co-worker of mine say Noah isn't ready for the NBA, I say he is. What do you say?

Michael Wilbon: That he's ready to contribute...That he can play and help a team right now, like this week if he was allowed. He's 7 feet, blocks shots, plays defense, rebounds, sets screens, steals the ball...Is he polished? No. Does he have any offensive game whatsoever? No. But he's better right now than Kwame Brown after four-plus years in the league.

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Chicago, Ill.: What'd you think about Juan Pierre and the Cubs yesterday??

Michael Wilbon: They won, right? I couldn't see the game because I was involved with the Basketball Hall of Fame press conference with the new members (Barkley/Dumars/Auriemma/Wilkins/Gavitt/the Italian national coach)....but I did see some highlights and Pierre got, what, three hits. I'm happy...for today. I'm even wearing a Cubs road jersey. Let's play two!

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Alexandria, Va.: How are your Cubs going to do this year with even more injuries to Wood and Prior??

They scored a lot of runs yesterday, but something tells me they may not even finish ahead of the Pirates this season!

Michael Wilbon: They'll finish, oh, 5th...4th if we're lucky. I have zero expectations.

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Washinton, D.C.: What happens to the losing team's "National Champions" t-shirts?

Michael Wilbon: They're left in a box in the dressing room of the arena. Seriously, I have one from the 2003 Cubs fiasco...Have it framed in my home-office as a painful reminder of what might have been.

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Germantown, Md.: After LSU knocked off Duke, ESPN had folks saying the JJ Reddick had basically played his way in the tourney out of a lottery pick.

Do you think that's true?

I can see where they are coming from. NBA drafts on potential. The kid will get bigger or stronger or develop his game in a certain way.

Michael Wilbon: I think some scouts were already looking to push Reddick down a little in the draft. But it's not that Duke lost that will hurt Reddick...It's just the WAY Reddick was defended. The moment he ran up against some really athletic, really long defenders he had trouble getting his shot off. The pros wonder whether Reddick can play against physical players, and whether he can handle the ball well enough to play some point guard. Reddick was a great, great, great college player. In the NBA he could be a solid player on a good team, or incidental (but with a higher scoring average) on a great team. For Reddick's long-term future, he ought to hope he slides down in the draft...all the way, to say, Cleveland, where he could have open jumpers the rest of his life if he plays with LeBron...or for that matter, with Kobe...Get the point? Reddick can be an effective pro if he plays with a dominant player who draws double-teams every night. But Reddick doesn't want to join some bad outfit and have to play straight up every night.

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VA Beach, Va.: What's up with Dickey V not making the HOF? I mean when you think college basketball you think Dickey V...he deserves to be in!

Michael Wilbon: I think be belongs, without question. I love Dick Vitale...and Vitale has done more for the popularity of college basketball than any one person out there...I mean, seriously. What the hell was college basketball in the 1970s? It was a niche sport...People loved it in the northeast (where they didn't have college football) and in spots like Tobacco Road, Indiana/Ohio/Illinois/Michigan, and southern California. In the south, it was just a way for tight ends and receivers to keep in shape for football season. Okay, I'm exaggerating...but not by a whole lot. College basektball exploded with ESPN and Dickie V in the early 1980s. Cable TV gave life to college hoops. He should be in the Hall of Fame.

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Ashburn, Va.: Mike, I've been sitting here since yesterday waiting for ya!! Just kidding. How do you think the other schools in the area will react to Mason's run in the tourney? Do you see Maryland or G'Town playing them during the season or even possibly getting a city series set up similar to the Big 5 series in Philly. Now that would be some fun.

Michael Wilbon: Great question...I don't think the locals, absent some huge local TV money, will play each other. Too much in-fighting, old feuds and petty junk. I'd love to see it, but I don't think it will happen. And yes, I think Mason's run will make the other local teams redouble their efforts, all of them. Georgetown is already on that upswing. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to see Georgetown make a run to the Final Four next year.

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Chicago, Ill.: You guys doing anything special for the World Cup? If Tony's that into flying, maybe he can head to Germany to cover the team with his boy Bruce Arena, a fellow Long Islander...

Michael Wilbon: Here's what we'll be doing special for the World Cup: watching.

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Bethesda, Md.: Any prediction for the lady's game tonight?

Michael Wilbon: No prediction...but I must admit I'd like to see Maryland win...though Monique Currie is a Bullis grad and a D.C. kid so I have no trouble rooting for her either.

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Augusta Wannabe: Mike, any opinion on the state of Tiger's game and psyche going into the Masters? And is Augusta National as pretty as it looks on TV?

Michael Wilbon: The only question about Tiger is really about Earl Woods. How is his father's condition? Well, we know it isn't good, but I'm wondering how bad Earl is. Tiger is exceptionally close to his dad...incredibly close. People can say all they want that he should just go out and play for his dad. But my father died of cancer when I was 27. You don't just put that out of your mind. It was on my mind 24/7. I went ahead and worked the Final Four the week after he died because he told me that's what he wanted. We loved basketball, watched it together growing up, and he more or less ordered me back to work a few days before he died...But that's not competing. That's not trying to be at your best against the best in the world. And I know I could barely concentrate at times.

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Chicago, Ill.: If your boy Boeheim gets his wish and more teams in the tourney, does that mean the NIT goes away? How would that work in terms of practical timelines - opening round games on Tuesday after Selection Sunday? Are those games played on campus sites? Would you go up by 16, 32 or what? Personally, I hate the "65th" team concept and play-in game, especially when they give it to teams that qualified for the tournament (not at-large selections) - those kids on both teams earned the right to play in the tournament, not a Tuesday night game in Dayton.

Michael Wilbon: The NIT would not go away and we're talking only one more play-in game from what I heard this morning in a conversatino with someone who would know...for sure.

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Wheaton, Md.: Was Geoge Mason's run this year a fluke, or is this a program on the rise nationally?

Michael Wilbon: You can be on the rise, become a really good program in the top 25 or so but still not get to the Final Four. Look at a program like Temple, which is a nationally respected program but hasn't gotten as far as George Mason just did. A lot of the answer to this depends on whether Coach Jim Larranaga stays or goes.

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Arlington, Va.: Sorry, but as someone who teaches writing, I must say that the sentence alluded to above my vindicate your sports knowledge but is awfully sloppy. Shame on your editor. You are clearly suggesting a contrast between Noah, on the one hand, and Ewing and Olajuwan, on the other. The fact that the contrast doesn't hold for one, Ewing, destroys the premise.

Michael Wilbon: What? First of all, look back at this sentence that you wrote, which is sloppy. Second, Noah has something that Ewing has but Olajuwon does not is perfectly plain...And I'll disagram a sentence with anybody! Take that. (I'm popping my jersey right now)!

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Denver, Colo.: Did you catch any of the McD's AA game last week? The announcing team had already carved out a bust for Greg Oden in the HOF. What do you think his impact will be for the Buckeyes next year? And do you think he is serious when he says he isn't one and done to the NBA?

Michael Wilbon: It's too early for Noah to make any declarations that matter...and he's only got two weeks to make up his mind. So we KNOW it's too early for Oden to know. But Ohio State is going to be a monster, and not just because of 7-foot Oden, who like Noah, is a kid who doesn't think he's anywhere near as good as he really is. Mike Conley is going there and some other big-time recruit whose name I can't think of.

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Seattle, Wash.: "College basektball exploded with ESPN and Dickie V in the early 1980s. Cable TV gave life to college hoops."

Not to take anything away from Dick Vitale, who is great, but did the big Michigan State-Indiana State matchup not have something to do with this too? I'm too young to be sure myself.

(Also, I don't care for him much, but I think it's "JJ Redick," not "JJ Reddick.")

Michael Wilbon: Magic and Bird were a one-time deal, one game. Yes, that game was enormous. But the night-after-night pounding into the sports culture of college hoops by ESPN and Dick Vitale was some kind of follow up, was it not? And look how long that lasted. That Bird vs. Magic game was 27 years ago. You'd have to be 36, 37 years old to have even vague memories of it.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: Reddick is going to go the way of Trajan Langdon, a great shooter who just couldn't cut it in the NBA. The game against LSU proved that he can't take it inside against quality big men, and he still can't create his own shot on the outside without coming off three or four staggered screens.

Do you really think Noah can top the NBA draft this year? I know it's the first year without high schoolers, but I think Adam Morrison, aside from his crying and porn mustache, is the next Dirk Nowitzki in the making. Also, Tyrus Thomas, Glen Davis, and Sheldon Williams have more polish than Noah demonstrated in 6 games. 6 good games on national TV does not make a #1 pick...MJ watching high school pickup games does (Kwame Brown)!

Michael Wilbon: Sheldon Williams over Noah??? Sorry, not in a million years. Sheldon Williams is a nice player. Let's see if they both come out this year, which goes higher. No question, if you ask any NBA scout. Williams doesn't block six and seven shots a game...and in the championship game? Are you kidding me. The kid blocked 29 shots in six games. That's an average of almost five a game. And that's only one element. Sheldon Williams can't handle the ball like Noah, or pass it like Noah. And Reddick's success will depend, to a great degree, on the system he will play in...

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Kensington, Md.: In response to a previous question, you said Noah was "ready to contribute." This morning you seemed to be saying if he comes out, he should be the first pick? Has your enthusiasm waned since last night?

Michael Wilbon: No, I never said he'll be a star in the NBA. Ready to contribute is big. Kwame Brown was taken No. 1 and he's barely able to contribute now. Contribution shouldn't be taken for granted. You think the Wizards couldn't use a 7-footer who was ready to contribute right away?

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Ithaca, N.Y.: Any chance of Gerry McNamara getting drafted? If Steve Blake is successful, can't G-Mac be too?

Michael Wilbon: Drafted? No, I don't think so. But he'll get a serious look. Mac could be better for a good team with a specific need: off-the-bench shooting.

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Michael Wilbon: Okay, gotta run now to prepare for PTI. Those of you who are asking how I forgot that Ewing didn't win a title need to actually stop and read the column again. In the meantime, I'm being screamed at by Mr. Tony to get into the conference here...so I will. Until next week, Monday for sure, when we discuss The Masters and a bunch of stuff.

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