Connecticut has a 7-foot-3 center flanked by two bodyguard forwards. Michigan State trots out a skyscraper from Bosnia. North Carolina's inside game centers around Psycho T and other tall timbers.
And then, at this year's Final Four, there's vertically challenged Villanova, the odd team in.
What chance does a 6-8-and-under team have of winning the national title?
Well, it's four tournament wins down and two to go.
Villanova, technically, has a center, two guards and two forwards.
What the Wildcats really are, though, is amorphous.
Their lineup is a kaleidoscope of shooters, leapers, defenders, floor-divers and bruise makers.
Dante Cunningham is the 6-8 "center," but that's only to give the public address man a position to announce.
The other pieces range between 6-1 and 6-7 and are often interchangeable. Their names are Scottie Reynolds (6-2) and Dwayne Anderson (6-6) and Reggie Redding (6-5) and Shane Clark (6-7). Off the bench are two terrific Coreys: Fisher (6-1) and Stokes (6-5).
On the court, the names and faces become blended blurs of Scottie Anderson and Dwayne Reynolds and Shane Redding and Reggie Clark.
UCLA Coach Ben Howland, whose team lost a second-round TKO against the Wildcats, said of Villanova: "Basically it's like playing against four and five guards at times."
Villanova may not be the best team in the Final Four -- only one Wildcat, Cunningham, earned all-Big East honors, and he was second team.
But Villanova may be the most interesting outfit.
Coach Jay Wright has proven you don't have to have a monster truck at center to make the Final Four.
John Wooden's first national title team at UCLA, remember, won it all in 1964 without a starter taller than 6-5.
What Villanova really is: gum on your shoe, blood on your nose and a poke in the eye.
The Wildcats are wildly relentless and, basically, they defend, harass and rattle you into submission.
They don't go hard for 15 minutes and then break for coffee.
Anderson, a senior guard/forward, says if the other team is playing ugly, Villanova wants to play, pardon his English, "more uglier."
He was asked to describe what brutal means.
"Brutal," he said, "is diving for every loose ball, hard fouls and just getting after it."
Everyone will remember Reynolds' driving basket with half a second left to beat Pittsburgh in the East Regional final Saturday in Boston.
