Some ideas on winning at tournament time

IF YOU CRUNCHED hundreds of numbers and tried to quantify what wins in the NCAA Tournament, the answers still probably would be the obvious - talent and coaching, in that order.

The game has changed so much over the last generation that it makes it even more difficult to come up with specific attributes. Back in the day, experience would have been at the top of the list. Once upon a time, senior guards often equated to winning.

With the top freshmen now hardened by hundreds of AAU games, you get champions like Syracuse (2003) with freshmen Carmelo Anthony and Gerry McNamara playing starring roles against a much more experienced Kansas team. You get freshmen Greg Oden and Mike Conley putting Ohio State in the 2007 title game.

Imagine what this 68-team tournament would be like if we had seniors Derrick Rose (Memphis), Kevin Love (UCLA), Michael Beasley (Kansas State) and O.J. Mayo (USC). Alas, those days are history.

So what wins in the tournament today?

We have two active coaches in this city who have won a combined 18 NCAA games. Villanova's Jay Wright has 12 of them, including two Sweet 16s, a Final Eight and a Final Four. Saint Joseph's Phil Martelli has a Sweet 16 and a Final Eight on his resume.

ESPN's Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas have seen hundreds of NCAA games. Bilas played in the tournament for Duke.

So?

"You've got to be able to defend and rebound," Wright said. "If you're relying on making shots, there's going to be some game in the tournament where you're bound to come out and miss some shots. You've got to find a way to win those games when you're not making shots. So that would be No. 1, I think.

"Then I think you have to define yourself, on how you want to win. You've got to have had some success, and understand how a game has to go for you, how you get things done. It might not be the same way another team gets it done. But you have to know yourself, and what works best for you. You have to be able to look at teams and say, 'Hey, how do we get this game to be our game?'

"In the regular season, you can kind of go into the game and adjust. But when all the pressure's on, your guys have to be comfortable, playing your style. So you just try to do everything you can to keep things as simple as possible for the players. There's so much going on around you, everything you can do to keep it the same as a regular-season game, that's a challenge."