General

New York City Is Well Represented at the Final Four, Just Never By Any Local Teams

Mar 29, 2010, 7:00 PM UTC

Chris Littmann wrote a post last week about the number of players with Indiana Hoosier connections in the NCAA tournament. The post featured a photo of West Virginia forward Devin Ebanks, who originally committed to Indiana before getting out of his letter of intent to sign with Bob Huggins at WVU.â†µâ†µThis weekend, I was reading Dan Wetzel’s column about West Virginia basketball – the one in which Wetzel wrote the line, “[i]t’s not coal that is West Virginia’s greatest export. It’s people.” – about how this Mountaineer basketball team is playing on behalf of a state that really could use a win. The story was framed inside Bob Huggins’ success in leaving then returning to his home state to try and win a championship. â†µ

â†µâ†µThe story did, however, spend an awful lot of time talking about the people of West Virginia. And it got me to thinking: guys like Ebanks aren’t from West Virginia, or Indiana for that matter. They’re from New York City. In fact, there is just one kid on the entire West Virginia roster – redshirt sophomore Cam Payne – who is from West Virginia. But there are six kids from the New York City metropolitan area.â†µ

â†µâ†µWhile Littmann’s piece should have properly depressed Indiana basketball fans, this post can do the same for fans of New York area basketball. Four area coaches were fired this year, including both head coaches at the two closest Big East schools to New York City, St. John’s and Seton Hall. Add to that the realization that a major reason Freddie Hill kept his job at Rutgers – the third-closest Big East school to NYC – is an enormous buy-out in his contract for the cash-strapped state university of New Jersey. Paying Hill to coach is a better option than paying him not to, especially if you consider how much it would cost to pay his replacement on top of the buyout. â†µ

â†µâ†µRemember that none of the New York-area teams made the NCAA tournament. In fact, the closest team to New York City to make the NCAA Tournament this season was Lehigh, which is about 50 miles closer to Manhattan than Siena and still more than 100 miles away. â†µ

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â†µIt's not just Huggins who pilfered the NYC area. If you add in Duke's Lance Thomas (pictured), who picked Duke over Rutgers during his recruiting process, and Brian Zoubek, a South Jersey product (closer to Philly) who eschewed his state school for Duke as well, and junior Casey Peters, that's nine players in the region who decided that going elsewhere gave them a better shot at making a Final Four. They aren't alone, as last year's Final Four featured six kids from the New York City area. â†µ

â†µâ†µFran McCaffery reportedly turned down Seton Hall before they hired Kevin Willard away from Iona. Seemingly everyone has turned down St. Johns – reports are that Steve Lavin may come out of the broadcast booth to take the job – and Hill’s clock for success is ticking louder and louder heading into next season. The talent is obviously there, they just don’t want to stay.â†µ

â†µâ†µHere is a state-by-state breakdown of the number of players in this year’s Final Four from the official school athletic websites (60 players), with the home states of each school in bold:â†µ
â†µIndiana – 12â†µ
â†µMichigan – 9â†µ
â†µNew Jersey – 5 â†µ
â†µNew York – 4â†µ
â†µOhio – 4â†µ
â†µGeorgia – 3â†µ
â†µIllinois – 3 â†µ
â†µPennsylvania – 3 â†µ
â†µMaryland – 2â†µ
â†µNorth Carolina – 2â†µ
â†µAlabama – 1â†µ
â†µArkansas – 1 â†µ
â†µColorado – 1â†µ
â†µFlorida – 1â†µ
â†µKentucky – 1â†µ
â†µMinnesota – 1â†µ
â†µOregon – 1â†µ
â†µRhode Island – 1â†µ
â†µTennessee – 1 â†µ
â†µVirginia – 1â†µ
â†µWest Virginia – 1â†µ
â†µWisconsin – 1â†µ
â†µOther Country (Turkey) – 1â†µ