Jalen Rose thinks Monday night’s UConn-Kentucky national championship game will be a Fab One.
“I’d love to see the Kentucky kids cut down the nets for so many reasons,” Rose told The Post. “I see it as validation for Coach Cal, because I affectionately call him The Teflon Don, ’cause we know what happened at UMass and at Memphis. Those Final Four banners didn’t kinda go the way he wanted them, and all of a sudden he gets [what is] considered THE, if not one of the, best jobs in the country in Kentucky, and he starts recruiting what everybody considers these one-and-done prospects. And so it’s validating that a young basketball team can not only come together, but also win a championship, to have their shining moment.
“And for UConn, I consider it redemption. Here’s a program that this time last year was literally ineligible for the tournament for their academic progress rate.”
How does Kentucky win?
“On the boards, with their size,” Rose said. “[Julius] Randle has to play like a lottery pick today. James Young has to be a knockdown shooter. I think [Ryan] Boatright and Shabazz Napier’s pressure has a chance to bother the backcourt of the Harrison twins, so I think those players up front — kinda like they’ve been doing the entire tournament —Â just throw it up on the backboard and play volleyball with it, get a lot of offensive rebounds. They do a great job of pounding the backboard.”
Rose sees a much different Kentucky team from early in the season.
“I think early in the season, they needed the Harrison twins to play up to their All-American capabilities,” Rose said. “I think they were playing at a pedestrian pace oftentimes. They weren’t breaking down the defense getting layups and dunks for their bigs down low, like Randle and Willie Cauley-Stein and [Alex] Poythress. And I think, because of that, teams were able to pack in, play zone, and really make ’em a perimeter-oriented team, and when James Young wasn’t making shots, that’s when they struggle.
“But the hardest thing about having five freshmen as your five best players, a couple of things that people don’t realize, the sacrifice that goes with that. No. 1, you’re signing up to win, and to be successful, not just for individual stats. A lot of times people pick a school where they can go be The Guy, and then doesn’t quote-unquote have to share that shine. The other thing is, you get to practice against some of the best players in the country, so it may not play out in games, but it makes you better every day.”
Rose’s Michigan Fab Five lost to Duke in the 1992 title game in a rout.
“The major difference is they’re going against a senior-led team with Shabazz Napier, been one of the best guards in the country, and Boatright, who does a terrific job of pressuring the basketball,” Rose said. “But it’s a different level when you gotta go against Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Bob Hurley and Coach K, the year after they just beat a team that I idolized, UNLV, with Larry Johnson, Stacey Augm0n, Greg Anthony and Anderson Hunt. It’s a total different task (laugh). Leading up to the game, our goal was to continue to play with personality, to continue to give up good shots to get great shots, to try to find a way to make them as uncomfortable as possible with our post doubles, we did a really good job of that in the first half. And just really stick to the game plan.”
Rose remembers no championship-game jitters from his Wolverines.
“The great thing about being freshmen is you’re not experienced enough to be scared,” Rose said. “It’s almost like when you bring a young puppy home — you gotta stop the puppy from running out in the street and get hit by a car. As the dog gets older, then the dog actually knows better. We didn’t know any better.
We weren’t the favorite —Â that’s the other thing. [Kentucky is] the favorite. They came into the season as the No. 1 team in the country. They have seven McDonald’s All Americans, they didn’t come out of nowhere. They were just underachieving. While we were the opposite, we were overachieving.
“If Kentucky loses tonight’s game, they are the more talented, they’re the favorite, they’re considered the better basketball team. My second year? Now we were disappointed, because we were better than [North] Carolina, we should have beaten them. But our freshman year? The best team won.”
How does UConn win it?
“Shabazz Napier has to be the best player in the country tonight on the floor,” Rose said. “There was a time during the season when he led his team in all statistical categories — points, rebounds, assists — I can only imagine being in a meeting with your point guard leading the team in rebounds what the coach has to say. And also, they’re gonna need DeAndre [Daniels] to play big. They need him and his athleticism. He’s a player, that if you look at his body type and his skill set, that would get time, so to speak, or get minutes with the Kentucky bunch, so they need him to play like that tonight.”
Kentucky’s Fab Five has brought Michigan’s Fab Five back into national consciousness.
“I love it — now if we can get back in Ann Arbor’s conscience and they’ll recognize us and put our banners back up, then we’d come full circle, huh?” Rose said, and chuckled. Michigan’s records were vacated in the fallout from a booster scandal involving teammate Chris Webber.
“But in all seriousness, because I get asked the question to compare the two a lot, I say this all the time: There’s a score of the game and there’s the game of life,” Rose said. “If the Kentucky freshmen cut down the nets today, they’re gonna remember the box score, they’re gonna remember the pictures, they’re gonna see the One Shining Monent, it’s gonna be terrific to see Cal get his second championship ring … but in 20 years. I don’t know if they’re gonna have a best-selling book, I don’t know if they’re gonna have the most-viewed documentary in NCAA history, they didn’t change the game with long shorts, black shoes, black socks, and didn’t say, ‘Don’t all wear bald heads.’
“Like I said in the documentary, what the Fab Five brought to the table, it was bigger than the score of the game. And that’s 20 years later, what’s in our social conscience, and that’s what I like about our fan base and our supporters, that they really appreciate what we brought to the table and the sacrifices that we made, at that time.”