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Mike DeCourcy is one of the preeminent college writers in the nation. This is GREAT press for the kats.
Sam Houston doesn't need to apologize for being unbeaten
Posted: December 14, 2007
A lot of the names on the list of remaining unbeaten teams would surprise no one: North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis, Georgetown. Each is expected to seriously contend for the NCAA championship.
Duke's Blue Devils have been here before, and they will be here again. Perfection is not new to any of them. Pitt has been the scourge of preconference opponents ever since Ben Howland got the program going a half-dozen years ago.
Who among us, though, expected such a thing from Sam Houston State?
Even more humble than he is accomplished as a coach, Bob Marlin found himself almost apologizing for his presence in such elite company. "Our schedule put us in a good position for this," he said in his booming baritone. "We've played a lot at home."
Well, no one should hate the Bearkats for playing beautifully.
So what if they've played frequently at home? Hey, that's an upset in itself. Usually teams in the Southland Conference and similar leagues spend November and December performing like touring Broadway shows. They travel from town to town, their only home being the local Comfort Inn and whatever stage they're playing on that night.
More to the point, you do not hear coaches like Bill Self or Mike Krzyzewski apologizing for playing at home. It's one of the perks of operating a big-time program. It's one of the tricks, honestly, by which major-conference powers are able to build up the kinds of records that make them attractive to the NCAA selection committee. When the Missouri Valley Conference figured that out a few years back, they went from a solid mid-major league to a media darling routinely earning multiple tournament bids.
There are 14 remaining unbeaten teams in Division I. Collectively, they have played only 20 percent of their games in hostile road environments.
Of the 24 road wins they've compiled, only three were of the sort to make national headlines: Texas at UCLA, Washington State at Gonzaga and Kansas at Southern California.
Otherwise, Pitt had to cross the country to squeeze out a win at Washington. Clemson and Miami both won at Mississippi State, which isn't bad. North Carolina took out big-name, low-octane teams from Ohio State and Kentucky in the same week. Vanderbilt need not apologize for it road win at DePaul, especially after coming from 18 down to get it. It's not a long list of overwhelming achievements.
Sam Houston got a lot of attention for one of its home victories -- against Texas Tech -- because it's still big news when a Bob Knight team is upset. There also was a home victory over Fresno State and two on the road, against UW-Milwaukee and Saint Louis. It's true, though, that four of Sam Houston's victories are against non-Division I opponents, and therefore of no consequence to the selection committee.
The Bearkats still are going to have to win the Southland's automatic bid, fighting for that with fellow unbeaten UT-Arlington, Stephen F. Austin (7-1) and Central Arkansas (8-2), among others.
Marlin will give that his best shot. His team is among the most balanced in the nation. He doesn't have a single player in the top 10 in his conference in either scoring or minutes played. Guard Shamir McDaniel leads Sam Houston in both categories, at just 28.4 minutes and 11.6 points. There's so much balance, in fact, that McDaniel is accompanied in the scoring lead by forward Ryan Bright. Both players have scored exactly 93 points through eight games.
Marlin rotates 10, 11, sometimes 12 players who share the basketball (they're fourth nationally in assists, at better than 20 per game) and rebound with passion (they're sixth in rebound margin, at plus-11.6).
"We're better defensively than we were at any time last year," Marlin said. "I could have said that after the first two practices. We played with two power forwards last year, but now we have three centers. It makes a difference."
Sam Houston has been Division I since 1987 and before this had never been better than 3-0. That's true even though there is a nonconference homecourt winning streak that stretches back to 1998, a span of 42 games. Well, doesn't that tell you everything about why Marlin shouldn't apologize for his team's success? There've been only 42 nonleague home games in nearly a decade of SamHou basketball.
Then again, Sam Houston only needs to look to its next opponent to see how wise it was to play at home as frequently as it has. Saturday, the Bearkats will visit Texas Southern and try to extend their unbeaten run to nine. It will be Texas Southern's home opener.
Mike DeCourcy is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at
decourcy@sportingnews.com
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