Veterans stealing the spotlight in NCAA tournament

On the eve of the NCAA tournament, Tim Floyd surveyed the college basketball landscape and commented: "If we're going to look back on this year, we're going to say it was the year of the freshmen."

The USC coach wasn't just referring to his own young star, O.J. Mayo. A bumper crop of newcomers — UCLA's Kevin Love, Michael Beasley and Bill Walker at Kansas State, the "Baby Boilers" of Purdue — commandeered the spotlight this season.

But in the high-pressure atmosphere of March Madness, with the field whittled down to the Sweet 16, upperclassmen are having their say.

Mayo? Gone in the first round.

Beasley and Bill Walker? They lost to a veteran Wisconsin squad.

The Baby Boilers? They fell to more experienced Xavier.

"Everything kind of changes a little bit at this time of year," Wisconsin center Brian Butch said. "And as a senior, you've been through it."

UCLA is the lone survivor with a freshman as its top producer on offense. Juniors and seniors lead 13 of the 16 remaining teams in essential categories of scoring or rebounding.

Among the recently named finalists for the Naismith Award, juniors Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina and Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis still have their teams in the hunt.

Seniors such as Derrick Low of Washington State and Drew Lavender of Xavier also led their teams to victories over the weekend.

Western Kentucky coach Darrin Horn pointed to his older players as the difference in Sunday's victory over San Diego. His senior guard and top scorer, Courtney Lee, explained: "In the huddle, we had every senior speaking and being vocal out there leading the team along the way. The younger guys, they listened and just followed."

The benefits of veteran leadership can reverberate all the way back to fall practice, when teams first gather in the gym. Kansas State coach Frank Martin talked about having to teach his new players the intricacies of the college game.

"The first time we did a scouting report meeting, they [thought] it was a joke," Martin said. "They found out it wasn't a joke. When they made a mistake because they didn't know the scouting report, they didn't get back in the game."

Veterans such as Wisconsin's Butch and DeMarcus Nelson of Duke recalled that they needed time to learn their teams' systems, the nuances of spacing and angles, and what coaches expected from them.

Social maturity is also at issue. With the lure of the NBA calling to so many young players, coaches appreciate the chance to work with what Western Kentucky's Horn calls "talented guys that are seniors that have great toughness and great character."

"I don't think you see it as much with kids going pro early," he said.

The value of experience is amplified when tournament time arrives and players must deal with cross-country travel, heightened media attention and packed arenas.

Even before Kansas State lost, Michael Beasley wondered if his team faced a disadvantage.

"We were all at our high-school prom last year," he told reporters. "You've got to expect immaturity from kids like us. We're still young."

Not so long ago, players such as Beasley and Mayo might have jumped directly from high school to the pros, but a recent NBA rule change has forced them to play in college for at least one season.

Some observers of the game are troubled by the idea of young talent using college basketball as a mere stopover.

At USC, Floyd acknowledged such concerns and said that, in the best of worlds, players would stick around for at least two or three years. The coach worries that if O.J. Mayo leaves at a point when he is not academically eligible, it will cost the program a scholarship.

"That would be something that would make me review whether or not to give another guy like this an opportunity," Floyd said.

But he also noted that average attendance for games at the Galen Center surpassed 8,400 this season.

"My hope is that people have come into the building to watch O.J. and in the meantime have fallen in love with SC basketball and will come back again," he said. "So has it been good for our program? Yes."

The upperclassmen don't seem to begrudge the attention devoted to players who arrived on campus only a few months ago, not when the newcomers are scoring 20 points a game and grabbing rebounds.

"Anyone who does that deserves all the recognition in the world," Lavender of Xavier said. "That doesn't bother us."

However, the influx of freshman talent has made some of the older guys feel, well, older. Kentucky forward Joe Crawford, a senior, said he noticed the difference in age when he stretched before games.

"You see the younger guys and how easy it is for them to get warmed up," he said.

But this time of year, the veterans have the experience, the maturity and perhaps a little extra motivation.

Crawford served as an example in Kentucky's first-round loss to Marquette, scoring 35 points, then breaking into tears afterward. A loss in the NCAA tournament marks the final game of a senior's career.

"It definitely brings a sense of urgency," said Western Kentucky's Lee, who will be facing UCLA on Thursday in Phoenix. "Any day can be our last game, and we're just going out there and fighting."

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