Packer: : Hoyas Should Win It Easily, but the ACC and Others Will Rise Again

Some people, not to mention any names, are ready to jump to conclusions in regard to the Big East’s dominance of collegiate basketball in this particular season.

I, for one, congratulate it on a super year, but I don’t believe that a dynasty is on the horizon.

League strengths go in cycles, and the Big East Conference has hit a peak of a great four-year cycle. The senior class--Ewing, Mullin, Martin, Pinckney, McClain, etc.--are high-caliber kids who played out their entire careers.

In other words, they not only developed as players but they also delayed the move to pro ball to get their degrees. But the balance of power is so slim that if a Mullin or a Ewing or a Pinckney had gone pro last year, we might have been talking about an entirely different Final Four now.

So expect the Big East to remain one of the best conferences in America, but it’s my opinion that it will begin next season with only one team ranked in the Top 10 and will be regarded as only the third--or fourth--best conference in the country.

Now Al, don’t get on my case about this, but the Atlantic Coast Conference ought to be even stronger next season. Likewise the Southeastern, the Big Ten and the Metro. The dynasty teams that fell on hard times this season--Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana and UCLA--all should bounce back.

And instead of worrying about breaking up the East, I’d be concerned about beefing up the West. No team west of Oklahoma made it to this season’s Sweet 16.

By the way, whatever happened to all those theories about UCLA’s dynasty being because of all the kids who play basketball year-round in the L.A. area?

I’m really happy to see Rollie Massimino get into the championship game. I ran into him at a Lexington restaurant the other night and he jumped on me again about a dumb remark I made on the air about his son a couple of years ago.

We like to kid each other, but I want to seriously congratulate him and wish him the best of luck. He’ll need it, you know. Not many coaches ever have faced a task as big as the one Rollie faces tonight.

Can the Wildcats do it?

Hey, I’m the guy who gave N.C. State no shot to beat Houston two years ago, so I know that anything is possible. But to win, it would take a perfect game for Rollie’s club in the following respects:

--The Wildcats from Philadelphia protect the ball very well and can’t turn it over. The absence of a shot clock definitely works to their advantage.

--Their shot selection must be absolutely perfect because they can’t expect to get many second shots. There were three or four times against St. John’s Saturday when Georgetown scored on its fourth or fifth shot.

--For the first time in the last couple of games, Dwight Wilbur will need to have a good perimeter game.

--Villanova’s matchup zone, which has been superb in the tournament, must continue to hold on. But the Wildcats will need some help in the form of an off-shooting night by Georgetown’s perimeter shooters.

Obviously, everyone is hoping for the perfect game to end an outstanding season, but it’ll take a dream game for Villanova--and I don’t think we’ll see it tonight. My pick is Georgetown, solid.

In fact, it has to be time to rank the Hoyas with the all-time great teams. I’ll go along with Al on the UCLA team of Lew Alcindor’s junior year. I also think the 1975-76 Indiana team proably is the best to ever play college ball.

The other great teams were San Francisco in Bill Russell’s senior year and UCLA in Bill Walton’s junior year. But I believe this Georgetown team could play with any of them. And if it plays as I expect tonight, I’ll go so far as to say that this is the best college team I’ve ever seen.

The blend of talent, discipline, quickness, unity, shooting ability, mental toughness and the desire to win is excellent.