Chat Transcript
CBS SportsLine.com
March 19, 2001

Walton has been doing game commentary during the NCAA Tournament. (Allsport)

CBS commentator Bill Walton was back for another round of chats. He answered your questions regarding the past weekend's games and previewed the tourney games to come.

Previous chat 3/12

Bill Walton: I don't know about you, but what Greg Gumbel said at 7pm as he signed off, "Have you had enough basketball yet?" I have not and I am ready to rock. We got our assignments. Jim Nance and Billy Packer to Philadelphia, Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner to Anaheim, Verne and Bill to Atlanta, Dick and I are the luckiest on earth, we're going to San Antonio; the center of the basketball universe for the next week! SO much to talk about, SO much to do, SO little time, lets get going!

Question: rebelfan: Bill after two rounds have passed, which team do you think has played the best and will make the most noise in the upcoming rounds?

Bill Walton: The fun and games are over. This is serious business. About dreams coming true for the underdogs. About holding on to your proven and established reputations. This is about the Championship. Young men standing tall. Stanford and Cincinnati, the teams I am most familiar with, have played VERY well. Duke and Jason Williams have been on top of everything and Williams has been the best individual player I have seen so far. Penn State has to be playing well to beat the opponents they have. But one of the problems with saying who has been playing the best so far is that if you leave someone out at this point, they feel slighted. As a broadcaster it is hard and unfair to say who will win a game. But there is so much basketball coming up this weekend! MSU would appear, from a casual glance, to have the easiest road to the Final Four. On a national level, the Midwest regional in San Antonio has the toughest teams who have proven themselves all season long. The East has the historical teams. And in Anaheim you have the team who has had the best regular season. But the beauty of basketball is that it is not what has already happened, it is what is GOING to happen. For teams like PSU, Gonzaga, Temple, Mississippi, USC. For teams like Maryland, which have not had the historical success as some of the others, we are look at a chance. A chance of greatness. A chance of immorality. A chance to change your life forever. That is all you can ever ask for.

Question: dylan1: What keys will determine the outcome of the Illinois/Kansas game?

Bill Walton: Kansas is playing on top of their game this year. This is a team who struggled, they only lost 6, but for a team like Kansas, to say they are struggling, that is a testament to how good they are. They are getting great play from a lot of different people. You can ride one star through a game, but it is difficult in a tournament this deep to have a lot playing well at the same time. That is what Kansas has. Illinois has proven itself to be one of the best in all of college basketball. Beaten a lot of top teams including Maryland, MSU, and Arizona. They are tough. Physical and enjoy being physical. With all big games, and this is a huge one, (Illinois/Kansas, Duke/UCLA, etc are all big Sweet 16 games) with everyone coming in on a roll, to win big games you have to control tempo, get to the free throw line and be the dominant rebounding team. Your defense has to be rock solid, no time for gimmicks. And you have to feel it offensively. Throw all those in and you have to see which comes through.. Cook, Bradford, the inside presence of Gooden, the explosive scoring of Gregory, the ball handling Heinrich. So many big games are decided by quickness to the ball and the anticipation that comes from a lifetime of dreams of doing your best at the championship level. And the willingness to be very agressive and mentally tough. When you get to this level you see more balance between the opponents. No game in this round will showcase these elements more than the Kansas/Illinois game.

Question: karl: I think MARYLAND is a dark horse any comments?

Bill Walton: Hard to think, at this time of the year, that they would be a dark horse. They displayed such brilliance at the beginning of the year and after a leap back from the abyss after midseason, they are playing as well as anyone. They have some demons from the past they have to exorcise. With talent players like Juan Dixon, Terrance Morris and Lonnie Baxter and the confidence they developed from big, late-season victories in the ACC (At Duke for example) this is a team that can certainly make it to the final four. Steve Blake is a player who is a favorite of mine. One of those guys who, when he gets it going, who is going to stop him? Maryland certainly has a daunting task. They have basically a cross-town rival with a championship legacy in Georgetown. Then, if they get past them, they have to get past a Stanford/Cincy winner who has bigger, more powerful front lines. With the team speed Maryland has, their approach has to be more like Arizona and Duke. My favorite game. Quickness, execution and skill in a team speed game. One of the real keys to the success in the tournament is overcoming adversity and putting distractions aside, disregarding things that have no impact on the here and now. With the breaking -rumor- that Gary Williams may have met with UNLV officials regarding their vacancy, the players, no matter what happen, have to be able to move beyond distractions they have no control over. While the whole story regarding Williams is mind boggling, regarding the timing of it all, I am always leery (thanks to my association with Abby Hoffman) that this story came from the halls of Georgetown athletic department. And that is how the players have to address it.

Question: rambleon: What's going to be the key to the Ole Miss and Arizona game?

Bill Walton: I am much more familiar with the Arizona team. Obviously it is a PAC-10 school and I have a son on the team. I have attended many games as a fan and proud parent. My association with UCLA and the Pac 10 have given me more exposure to Arizona. I do however, follow the SEC some and am good friends with announcer Tom Hammond. So I am fully aware of the great capacity of Miss to play wonderful basketball and make a run all the way to Minneapolis For Mississippi the keys will be to use their inside game with Rahim Lockhart. The dynamic play of Jason Harrison, who is in the great tradition of the minute point guards of Spud Webb, Muggsey Bogues and Earl Boykins. He will have to have another great game as did against Notre Dame yesterday Rod Barnes has done a terrific job of continuing the tradition of Rob Evans. This has been a team on the rise even after Evans left for the Pac 10. They are poised for greatness. The factors are experience. Do they have enough depth? Will they be fast enough to match up with Arizona? Are they big enough to match up against Woods and Wright? While Arizona is a more nationally known team, this is a team that lost a lot of games, for them. Mississippi will look at the losses at Connecticut, at UCLA, at Oregon and realize the keys to those games were getting tough and physical, which took Az out of its streamlined, graceful game. With Mississippi's willingness to get physical, Az will have to be very ready. Because Mississippi is a very good team. The match up between Jason Gardner and Jason Harrison, Lockhart against Wright. Will freshman Justin Reed be able to match up with Loren Woods? He is giving up years and 4" inches to Woods. And you have the perimeter play with Holmes and Flannigan against Arenas and Jefferson. Mississippi learned a lot about championship performance, toughness and brilliance when they got hammered by Kentucky. But the structure is that you can come back late in the season and still get the ultimate prize. And Mississippi had a good run that started against Iona and continued with the thrilling last minute victory with Notre Dame One of the things that helps Arizona a lot the last few games is that Gardner is back on the move. He doesn't seem to be walking the ball up the court any more. Walking up the court is for the big guys, when you are Jason's size you better get running. That applies all the Jason's that are running the point for these great teams. Arizona, Duke, Mississippi. The only Jason who can get away with walking the ball up the court is Jason Collins at Stanford.

Question: franco: Every year now we see a Butler, Gonzaga, Kent St. etc. make a splash in the early rounds of the tourney. It's apparent they can play with the bigger schools. The problem seems to be that they don't get a break in their seeds. They don't get a break in seeding because their RPI isn't high enough. Their RPI isn't high enough because they only get to play big schools on the big schools floor. Here's my question - Do you think the NCAA should set some scheduling guidelines, so that the mid-majors and majors HAVE to mix it up?

Bill Walton: Obviously the lesser known schools need the opportunity. The Big 10 (which has 11) and the Pac 10 and all, along with the conference tournaments, there is not much time in the schedule. I would be all in favor of adding more from the NCAA allotment they already get. But to keep the start to finish time and throw in a couple more games with the understanding these are not to be scheduled against the Sisters of Mercy, how you would implement the plan is something the NABC needs to address. The program I am most familiar with is UCLA and we talked about this last week.. with teams like Duke, Arizona, Illinois, and Temple who always play difficult schedules from top to bottom, should be the model for the more well known schools to follow. As opposed to that block around Christmas time when schools seems to schedule opponents just to rack up statistics which do no good. Elimination of those game will be getting the schools a taste of what it is like to be on the top.

Question: rebelfan: Bill what do you think about the Cincy/Stanford game? How do you see those teams matching up?

Bill Walton: Cincinnati has come alive. It is going to be tough because Stanford has every going for it with the exception of depth in the front court. With Bob Huggins doing a remarkable job in developing men in a short period of time, it is there for Cincinnati. Unlike St. Joes, Cincinnati's front line has size and depth to battle with the Collins twins. And out in front you have Satterfield and Logan who exhibit great competitiveness. And the swing guys like Stoke and Davis, they took Kent State out of their game. A key for Stanford is Teyo Johnson and how they are able to work him into an already set rotation. This guy is a freshman and can be a major force in the championship. Stanford's Justin Davis' injury is a problem. They can look at their lofty 30-2 record and say we've done it. But they have a lot on their hands. Satterfield and Logan are the type who believe they are the best guards in college basketball. Whether it is true or not, they believe it. When they are on their game like they are right now they Bearcats are hard to beat.

Question: nuthin_but_net: What chance does UCLA have against top ranked Duke?

Bill Walton: UCLA has a chance and that is all they can ask for. They had a good run late after early adversity. They have good point guards like Clark Kellogg has said. They have Gadzuric and when he stays out of foul trouble, good things happen. They have Jason Kapono who struggles to get his own shot and has difficulty at times getting open. If the Bruins get in a transition game and get him good looks, he will knock it down. Barnes, underutilized at first, has come alive and may be the key to the turnaround in the team. They got over the selfishness and the agendas that plagued them early and are pressing and plying that trapping D that has helped them. Now Duke, with Jason Williams who has brilliance in his hands. Battier, you could not ask for more as a person and a player than Shane Battier. You've got many UCLA players who are talented players and Duke as well. And if that is not enough for Lavin to worry about, there is a chance Carlos Boozer might be available for Duke. Although, from afar, Duke either has the best sports medicine program in the history if western civilization or a confused sports information director. Because the ability to come back from a broken foot in 2 weeks is mind boggling and will someone please send me the phone number of that doctor! Duke should not rely on Boozer. He has to earn his way back into the rotation. Nothing should be handed to him, that would only slow down the momentum they have. Duke's team is reminiscent of Coach Wooden's 64-65 team, Erickson, Goodrich, an endless list of memories for me. A team whose tallest was 6'5" and won back to back championships. The first game I saw on TV. We had no television at home. I knew it was going to be on and I asked a friend if I could watch it there. Michigan - with Robinson, Russell..great big powerful athletes. The UCLA team came on the floor and were all scrawny, skinny guys like me. The game started and precision execution, exquisite shooting, UCLA routed Michigan and Goodrich had a record 42 points. I fell in love with basketball. I said I want to do that and play that. I got to go to UCLA, and play for Coach Wooden. Dreams coming true. That is what it is all about.

Bill Walton: Who is going to see a hoop as big as a corn silo? What more can a man ask for and Dick Enberg and I will be there courtside in San Antonio. Which couldn't be a better break for Arizona, with great weather and great mexican food.. and we'll be there on the road to the Final Four! We'll see you there!