Mercer Hits Stride - And 3s

Ron Mercer, basketball prodigy, saw what Felipe Lopez was enduring as the top-rated recruit at St. John’s, and said, “No thanks.” He imagined what the weight of immense expectations would be like, and said, “I’ll pass.”

A year ago, Mercer was a 6-foot-7, 208-pound high school wunderkind, as sought after as any player around. He decided on Kentucky, precisely because he knew he would be joining a stable full of Rick Pitino thoroughbreds, and would be free to develop at his own pace.

The plan worked splendidly, and the proof was all there Monday night, when Mercer had a career-high 20 points and shot 8 of 12 from the floor, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range. He did this all in 24 minutes, wrecking Syracuse with his quickness and his touch.

“Mercer was the one guy who came in and hurt us,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said.

“There was no doubt in the coaches’ mind, (after) meeting for about 55 hours and another 50 hours of tapes, that Ron Mercer was going to come up big against the zone,” Pitino said.

It’s raining, it’s pouring

Water from the arena’s ceiling dripped on the court during the NCAA championship game.

The drips brought a slight delay at the start of the second half.

The leak was caused by condensation forming on an air vent. At first, authorities thought the water came from the heavy rain in the area. But engineers found condensation had formed in air diffusers in the upper ceiling.

The engineers placed a towel around the diffusers and that stopped the drip.

Pitino knew

Kentucky Pitino said some people warned him not to recruit Antoine Walker when he was a McDonald’s All-American at Mt. Carmel High in Chicago. Walker was supposedly interested in his points and little else, but Pitino said Walker, the sophomore power forward who may be the Wildcats’ best NBA prospect, now has an all-around game to match his talent.

“Antoine came in very similar to (Jamal) Mashburn, with defensive liabilities and not an understanding of what the game is all about,” Pitino said. “Right now, Antoine is an excellent defensive player. He’s become very much a leader.”

Firing from downtown

In 40 minutes against Massachusetts, Kentucky took nine 3-pointers. In the opening 20 minutes against Syracuse, it took 15, and made eight. Tony Delk had seven of them.

The Wildcats wound up firing 27 3s in all, and made an NCAA title-game record 12 of them.

This was the same Delk who agreed with Pitino that shooting 3-pointers against a zone is equivalent to fool’s gold, that it can work short-term, but never more than that.

Addition through subtraction

Syracuse cites Lazarus Sims’ work at the point as one reason it got this far, but he might not have gotten the chance to start if Michael Lloyd hadn’t left Syracuse after last season.

Lloyd, a shooting guard, was out of position at the point. Sims was supposed to be a question mark this season, but he had a better than 2-to-1 assists-to-turnover ratio and let his teammates know quite clearly who was running the show.

Kentucky fans celebrate

Kentucky fans overturned a television station’s vehicle, tossed people over their shoulders and climbed utility poles in celebration of their team’s first national championship in 18 years.

Police estimated 10,000 people crowded into the area north of the school’s campus within minutes after Kentucky beat Syracuse.

Police said there had been no arrests early today, and one injury report, for a possible broken ankle.

“Most of them seem to be in a joyful mood,” assistant police chief Bob Sewalls said.