The Official "Is you NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

[Rollie_Fingaz]

The Official "Is your NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

Tampa had its day so what's on tap this weekend?
Katz

By Andy Katz
ESPN.com

Updated: March 22, 2008

DENVER -- Thank you, Tampa. The NCAA tournament had been a bit dry, save Belmont's near-miss against Duke in Washington D.C. on Thursday night prior to the turnaround by the Bay on Friday.

Tampa, a city not known for its sports drama save a run here or there by the NHL's Lightning and the NFL's Buccaneers, provided the drama that the first round always seems to deliver in some fashion. You want close games? Well, it's a safe bet that fans in other cities might have wanted to trade their tickets for ones in Tampa. No one in the stands can argue they didn't get their money's worth.

Four double-digit seeds winning? Has that ever happened before at the same site? The answer is no. How about the only game that wasn't down to the final possessions was No. 13 Siena over No. 4 Vanderbilt? Plenty of unpaid bracketologists probably had that as an upset but who had the 21-point margin?

Western Kentucky's Ty Rogers had his lifetime moment by draining a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat the surprise team of the season in Drake in a thrilling overtime game. Rogers' trey might not have come against a high-major like Valpo's Bryce Drew (over Ole Miss) or had as much meaning like Duke's Christian Laettner's over Kentucky for a Final Four berth, but it will still go down as one of the most memorable for some time.

San Diego took advantage of Connecticut losing lead guard A.J. Price to a knee injury early in the game, then lost its two best scorers Brandon Johnson and Gyno Pomare to five fouls each before a supposedly non-shooter, De'Jon Jackson, buried a step-back jumper with 1.2 seconds left in overtime for the No. 13 seeded Toreros to beat the No. 4 Huskies. (Who knew the Huskies would go 0-2 against the WCC and the Bill Grier-Mark Few tandem this season after losing to Gonzaga in Boston in December too?)

Siena then crushed Vandy. Villanova, a No. 12 seed but hardly a party crasher, dispatched Clemson by holding on for a 75-69 victory despite a near colossal technical foul on Nova coach Jay Wright.

So, the first round is over but before we move ahead to Round 2, let's reflect on the first two days:

Signature moments
• Rogers' buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lead Western Kentucky over Drake in overtime.
• Duke's Gerald Henderson splitting the gut of the Belmont defense for a game-winning layup with 11.9 seconds left to lift No. 2 Duke to a 71-70 victory over No. 15 Belmont on Thursday night in D.C.
• De'Jon Jackson's jumper with 1.2 seconds left to lead San Diego over Connecticut.
• Stephen Curry burying a 3-pointer to break a tie with Gonzaga with a minute left to send No. 10 Davidson to an 82-76 victory over No. 7 Gonzaga in Raleigh on Friday.

Round 1 Duds
All four No. 1 seeds obliterated the No. 16 seeds: UNC beat Mount Saint Mary's 113-74; Memphis took out Texas-Arlington 87-63; Kansas beat Portland State 85-61 and UCLA dispatched Mississippi Valley State 70-29.

Last few at-large teams
• No. 11 Baylor lost by 11 to No. 6 Purdue.
• No. 10 Saint Mary's lost by 14 to No. 7 Miami.
• No. 10 South Alabama lost by 20 to No. 7 Butler.
• No. 10 Arizona, No. 11 Kentucky, No. 11 Saint Joseph's, No. 9 Oregon all lost, as well.

The only potential late additions to the bracket that won in the first round were: No. 12 Villanova over No. 5 Clemson, No. 9 Texas A&M over No. 8 BYU, No. 11 Kansas State over No. 6 USC.

Signature performances
• Davidson's Stephen Curry -- 40 points vs. Gonzaga.
• Miami's Jack McClinton -- 38 points vs. Saint Mary's.
• Kentucky's Joe Crawford -- 35 points vs. Marquette.
• Mississippi State's Charles Rhodes -- 34 points vs. Oregon.
• Western Kentucky's Tyrone Brazelton -- 33 points vs. Drake.

Big East dominance
The Big East will have seven of the 32 teams in the second round. The only loser was Connecticut.

Who knew?
That UNLV could be so dominant in a 71-58 win over Kent State; that USC would be over-run by Kansas State; that Siena could crush Vanderbilt; that Indiana would go 1-4 in its last five games and bow out in the first round.

OK, now onto the good stuff.

So, Tampa had its day. But here's the spin for round two.

The headline games in Tampa for Sunday are No. 13 San Diego vs. No. 12 Western Kentucky and No. 12 Villanova vs. No. 13 Siena.

For all of the vanilla business going on in Anaheim, Little Rock and here in Denver, the second round looks to be a blockbuster weekend.

Here in Denver on Saturday, there should be a shooting fest between No. 4 Washington State and No. 5 Notre Dame. While the winner could get No. 1 North Carolina in the East, getting to the Sweet 16 will be quite a treat for either program. Meanwhile, in the nightcap, No. 4 Pitt plays No. 5 Michigan State in a likely grinder with the winner having a legit shot to topple No. 1 Memphis in the South.

No. 1 UCLA and Kevin Love will have to try to work around No. 9 Texas A&M's DeAndre Jordan and Joe Jones in Anaheim on Saturday. The other headline game is a classic contrast in styles with the No. 2 Stanford trees in Robin and Brook Lopez going against the guard-dominated threesom of No. 6 Marquette.

No. 1 Memphis won't have a walk against No. 9 Mississippi State (See Rhodes' day above) and No. 2 Texas should be in a for quite a guard showdown against No. 7 Miami with D.J. Augustin going against McClinton on Sunday. Interestingly, these pods are both in the South but different ends so the winners Sunday won't meet unless they reach the Elite Eight.

Omaha will be all about the Sunflower State with the fans getting another look at Michael Beasley and Bill Walker as No. 11 Kansas State goes against No. 3 Wisconsin on Saturday. No. 1 Kansas against suddenly hip No. 8 UNLV could provide some drama, too. OK, so it's not as sexy as the above three regions but K-State-Wisconsin is suddenly a trendy game. Just like Little Rock, these regional pod winners wouldn't meet until the Elite Eight.

Come on, who isn't waiting to see if No. 2 Duke has a hangover against No. 7 West Virginia after the Belmont escape in Washington D.C. And while No. 3 Xavier-No. 6 Purdue doesn't have national appeal, this should be a tight game with star quality.

Sunday's Birmingham matchups are also all high-level with No. 3 Louisville vs. No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 7 Butler vs. No. 2 Tennessee. Digest those games for a second and at any time of the year you'd want a ticket.

And to think No. 1 North Carolina would walk over No. 9 Arkansas after watching the Hogs pull away from Indiana is a mistake. So, too, is thinking that No. 10 Davidson is done with its magic just because its going against No. 2 Georgetown in Raleigh on Sunday.

The lower-profile conferences have five teams left: Davidson (Southern), San Diego (WCC), Butler (Horizon), Siena (MAAC) and Western Kentucky (Sun Belt). One thing is certain, at least one is getting to the Sweet 16 since USD and WKU play each other. As long as chalk gets to the second weekend, having at least one Cinderella makes the 16 certainly Sweet.

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

Re: The Official "Is your NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

Siena upsets Vandy, becomes first MAAC team to make second round since '04

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Privately, some Siena players wondered in recent days whether their counterparts on the Vanderbilt roster knew any of their names.

If the Commodores didn't, they surely do now.
A Dandy vs. Vandy

Kenny Hasbrouck and Tay Fisher personally saw to that, and the Saints have another colossal upset to add to their tiny school's NCAA tournament legacy.

Hasbrouck scored 30 points and Fisher added 19 on 6-for-6 shooting from 3-point range as 13th-seeded Siena stunned 4-seed Vanderbilt 83-62 Friday night in the first round of the Midwest Regional. The Saints (23-10) never trailed, became the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team to reach the second round since Manhattan in 2004, and will play either Villanova or Clemson on Sunday.

"I really don't consider it an upset," Fisher said. "I have confidence in my team, and I knew we could hang with anybody in the country."

Until now, Siena's program was best-known for a first-round upset of Stanford in 1989 -- a 14 seed over a 3. This one might have been just as shocking, considering it came against an SEC team that reached the round of 16 last year and had aspirations of doing at least that much this year.

But this might not have been a surprise.

After all, it was in Tampa, which might have gained a reputation as a bracket-busting sort of town. Earlier Friday, two other unheralded underdogs pulled off upsets on the same floor where Siena won: 12th-seeded Western Kentucky beat fifth-seeded Drake, and 13th-seeded San Diego ousted fourth-seeded Connecticut.

Turns out, everything did not go according to the Saints' plan.

"Actually, we wanted to be the first upset of the day," Hasbrouck said.

They'll gladly settle for this, though.

"It's been a long journey to get here," Siena coach Fran McCaffery said.

A.J. Ogilvy scored 18 points for Vanderbilt (26-8), which got 13 from SEC Player of the Year Shan Foster -- who became the 22nd player in SEC history to eclipse 2,000 points -- and 10 from Ross Neltner. The Commodores came into the tournament more than a little miffed that they were widely picked to be a first-round upset victim and insisted they wouldn't look past Siena.

Vanderbilt simply couldn't stop Siena, either.

"All season long, I didn't get this team to play defensively the way it had to play on a consistent basis for us to win, the way we wanted to win," Vandy coach Kevin Stallings said. "Again, 26-8 is not a terrible year. But we just never were consistent defensively, and again, that's my responsibility. Completely my responsibility. I just wasn't able to push the right buttons."

The Commodores got two straight baskets from Keegan Bell and drew within 50-43 with 13:20 to play, but never got any closer the rest of the way. Vanderbilt never got its perimeter game going, shooting 4-for-20 from 3-point range, and didn't exploit its size advantage inside.

When Alex Gordon air-balled a 3-point try with 1:25 left and Vandy in a 19-point hole, the Commodores knew it was over and stopped fouling, allowing the celebration to begin in earnest.

After the final buzzer, McCaffery picked Fisher up in a hug at midcourt, hoisted him in the air and held him there for several seconds. More than 30 minutes later, when the Saints returned to courtside to watch Villanova-Clemson, their fans lauded them with another standing ovation as players snapped photos and took video, as if any of them would forget this moment.

"You better believe it," forward Josh Duell said. "We knew what we were coming here for."

A team that was 6-24 three years ago when McCaffery arrived is now in the round of 32, a timetable even the coach finds mildly surprising.

"We were not in awe of what we were going to face," he said. "I think we proved that."

Foster didn't get his first shot until 15:55 remained in the first half, and by then, the Saints were already off and running.

Moore hit a 3-pointer and Franklin scored inside for a quick 15-6 Siena lead, prompting the green-and-gold-clad backers who made their way from New York's capital region to start roaring.

Then Fisher -- who hit six 3-pointers in the MAAC championship game, which was Siena's ticket to the NCAAs -- began coming up big.

The smallest player on either roster, generously listed at 5-foot-9 and 162 pounds, hit three straight 3s in a span of 3:45 to stretch Siena's edge to 26-13, and when he made a free throw with 8:15 left in the half, the Saints had a 31-15 lead.

"We were well prepared for what they were going to do," Foster said. "Our defense just wasn't up to par today. And anytime you don't play well defensively in the NCAA tournament, you get beat."

Vanderbilt kept finding ways to draw closer.

Siena kept finding ways to seem unfazed.

The Commodores peeled off five straight points to get their crowd into it; Hasbrouck silenced them with a three-point play. Neltner and Foster scored consecutive baskets; Hasbrouck answered with a 3-pointer, steal and dunk in a 13-second span. When Vanderbilt drew within nine on a pair of free throws by Ogilvy with 40 seconds left in the half, Siena answered yet again.

Naturally, it was Fisher. Siena's only senior hit his fourth 3 of the half -- on as many attempts -- with six seconds left, and the Saints marched into intermission with a 46-34 lead.

"Obviously, Tay was phenomenal," McCaffery said.

The Saints came in oozing confidence, in large part because they knew the Commodores just aren't the same away from home.

On its own floor this season, Vanderbilt was 19-0, averaging 85.1 points and outscoring opponents by 11.7 per game. Away from home, Vandy dropped significantly in every department -- with a 7-7 record and a 74.4 scoring average and actually getting outscored by 1.2 points per outing.

The road jinx struck Vandy again Friday.

And now the Commodores are heading home for the season.

"We congratulate Siena," Stallings said. "They were the much better team today."

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

Re: The Official "Is your NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

Jackson's jumper with 1.2 seconds left in OT knocks out No. 4 UConn

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- San Diego's Rob Jones didn't even bother leaving his feet when the ball was tossed up to start the game.

The 6-foot-6 forward knew he didn't have a chance against Connecticut's 7-foot-3 center Hasheem Thabeet.

When the same thing happened to begin overtime, Jones jumped so high he nearly got the tip -- a clear indication of how confident the Toreros had become. They were even more fearless in the final seconds.

De'Jon Jackson hit the biggest shot in school history -- a long jumper with 1.2 seconds left in overtime -- and 13th-seeded San Diego beat No. 4 seed Connecticut 70-69 Friday in the first round of the NCAA's West Regional.

"The thing I put on the board: Don't let them get a sniff that we're two equal teams," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. "We allowed them to believe that it wasn't going to be what everybody said it was going to be."

Instead, UConn is heading home much earlier than expected. The Huskies (24-9) hadn't lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament since 1979 and never during Calhoun's 22 seasons.

San Diego, meanwhile, got its first tournament victory in four tries. The Toreros (22-13) advanced to play No. 12 Western Kentucky in the second round.

And if Brandon Johnson and Gyno Pomare play like they did against Connecticut, the small, Southern California school known mostly for its scenic ocean views could be in for an extended tournament stay.

Johnson had 18 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Pomare had 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting.

Together, they gave UConn all it could handle, especially after leading scorer A.J. Price left the game with a knee injury.

But both of San Diego's stars fouled out in overtime.

Jackson picked up the slack. He drove right on Jerome Dyson, stopped a step inside the arc, then sank the biggest shot of his career.

The celebration had to wait, though.

UConn had one final chance, but Jackson intercepted the inbound pass. The Toreros rushed the court, mobbed their hero and then celebrated in front of a small group of fans who traveled cross-country to see them make history.

Ole! Ole! Ole!

"This feeling right now, I can't even explain it," Jackson said. "It's like the best feeling I've had in my life."

Jeff Adrien had 18 points and 12 rebounds for UConn, which ended an inconsistent season with another up-and-down performance.

The Huskies had an excuse in this one. They played most of the game without Price, who Calhoun said may have torn his anterior cruciate ligament.

The junior point guard landed awkwardly on his knee while driving to the basket with 9:39 to play in the first half. He was carried off the floor, examined on the bench and then helped to the locker room for more tests.

He briefly returned to the bench on crutches, but wasn't around for the start of the second half.

The game was tied at 16 when Price fell. Without him, San Diego pulled out to an 11-point lead early in the second half and UConn was left without its top playmaker in overtime.

The Huskies turned to Dyson down the stretch and in the extra frame.

He sank two free throws with 10.4 seconds to play in regulation, tying the game at 60 and sending it to overtime. He finished with 14 points.

"Jerome was fearless," Calhoun said.

Thabeet added 14 points, six rebounds and four blocks for the Huskies.

Some thought San Diego might get pushed around in this one, especially since Pomare and Jones were giving up at least 7 inches to Thabeet.

But there was just one embarrassing moment for the Toreros.

It wasn't when the 6-foot Johnson walked to center court during pregame introductions and shook hands with Thabeet, who was 15 inches taller. Johnson came away laughing.

And it wasn't when Thabeet swatted two of Johnson's shots into the front row early in the game.

It came when San Diego's dance team ran lined up to perform early in the game and waited more than a minute for the music to start.

When it finally began, it wasn't the right track, so the dancers sheepishly stood up and started chanting, "Go San Diego."

The players certainly answered the call, adding UConn to their growing list of upset victims that includes Kentucky, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's twice.

"This group has been very tough here these last two months," coach Bill Grier said. "We've won a lot of close games. They know how to win. ... This group has found a way to get it done."

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

Re: The Official "Is your NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

Rogers' desperation 26-foot 3 in OT lifts No. 12 W. Kentucky past No. 5 Drake

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- It was the shot of his life, the shot of the tournament and maybe even one for the ages.

"It kind of worked out good," Ty Rogers said, in the understatement of the day.

Rogers' Hoist Huge For Hilltoppers

Kentucky native Ty Rogers dreamed of playing at Western Kentucky and hitting a game-winning shot in the NCAA tourney. Dreams do come true, writes Mark Schlabach. Story

Rogers hit a desperation 26-foot 3-pointer with three defenders in his face and no time on the clock as 12th-seeded Western Kentucky turned in the upset of the NCAA tournament, beating Drake 101-99 in overtime Friday in the first round of the West Regional.

The fifth-seeded Bulldogs (28-5) overcame a 16-point deficit in the final eight minutes of regulation and led 99-98 after Jonathan Cox's two free throws with 5.7 seconds to play. But Tyrone Brazelton raced across midcourt and kicked it to Rogers, whose 3 from the wing gave the Hilltoppers (28-6) their first tournament victory since 1995.

"I think what you just saw out there is why this is the greatest show on earth," Western Kentucky coach Darrin Horn said.

"I can't say enough about Drake. Unbelievable character, toughness, heart. They played so hard. They countered everything. What a great team."

Brazelton finished with a career-high 33 points for the Hilltoppers, delivering nearly every big shot they needed until finding Rogers camped out well beyond the 3-point arc for the game winner.

"We tried to slow down the ball handler as much as possible," Drake's Adam Emmenecker said. "I thought we played pretty good defense. He pitched the ball back to a guy shooting from 26 feet or whatever it was. He just stepped up and made a big play ... not much else we could have done."

Cox had a career-high 29 points and 16 rebounds for Drake, which was making its first tournament appearance since 1971.

Rogers' final shot was the 30th successful 3-pointer of the game, breaking the NCAA mark set by West Virginia and Louisville two years ago. Western Kentucky and Drake combined for 70 3-point attempts, also breaking the record of 66 set by UCLA and Cincinnati in 2002.

Rogers danced his way back to the other end of the floor, where he was mobbed by teammates across from the dejected Drake bench. The celebration moved back to the other end, where the senior reserve pounded his chest before the Hilltoppers faithful.

Brazelton said the winning play was designed to get the ball to the rim -- as the Hilltoppers trailed by just one. But coming out of the timeout, Rogers told Brazelton he had a slightly different plan in mind.

"He said, 'Don't be afraid to kick it to me,'" Brazelton said.

And he wasn't. Brazelton crossed half court, zigged to his right and threw a perfect pass right to Rogers' hands.

"At one point today, I thought everything was going well and we had all the momentum in that overtime," Drake coach Keno Davis said.

"But you have to give them a lot of credit. They made the last shot, and it looked like it was going to go that way, the team with the last chance in their hand was going to win."

The irony was that Drake did everything it wanted to do defensively on the last possession.

During the final timeout, Davis said, he was having visions of some historic NCAA buzzer-beating, game-winning drives, a la Danny Ainge for BYU or Tyus Edney for UCLA. So he told his players to stop the drive, extend the defense and make a Hilltopper shoot from deep if at all possible.

"Even though it might be easier to lose by 20 and not play your best game and not do anything right, you want to go out with your best effort," Davis said. "And I think we did today."

Western Kentucky rejects the notion it is just another mid-major team trying to make a name for itself in the NCAA tournament. The Hilltoppers have a history of success that proves they belong.

Although it was their first victory on college basketball's biggest stage since a six-point overtime win against Michigan in the opening round in 1995, the Sun Belt tournament champs are in the NCAAs for the 20th time. On Sunday, they'll try for their first trip to the round of 16 since 1993.

Brazelton led a dazzling display of 3-point shooting, and the Hilltoppers were beating Drake at its own game while building a 76-58 lead with eight minutes to go. They finished 14-of-28 from beyond the arc, with Brazelton going 6-for-10.

Skeptics questioned how Drake, which had a 21-game winning streak from Nov. 14 to Feb. 13, would hold up under the pressure of such a high seed in its first NCAA appearance in 37 years.

For 32 minutes, not so well.

The Bulldogs trailed 74-56 before pulling themselves out of a funk that began during a stretch in which they missed eight consecutive 3-point shots and watched the Hilltoppers pull away to a nine-point halftime lead.

Cox keyed Drake's comeback, capping a 30-14 run with a 3 that made it 88-88 with 30 seconds to go. Josh Young also heated up at the right time for the Missouri Valley Conference champions, making three straight 3s to help the Bulldogs catch up and take a 96-92 lead in overtime.

Klayton Korver scored 21 and Young finished with 18, but they combined with Drake's other big scorer, Leonard Houston, to go 11-of-35 on 3-pointers.

Emmenecker, the MVC player of the year, also struggled from the field, going 0-for-10, although none of those shots was among the 42 3s Drake took. The former walk-on went 11-of-12 from the foul line and had 14 assists.

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

Re: The Official "Is your NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

Reynolds, Villanova complete Tampa's day of upsets, clip Clemson

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Villanova coach Jay Wright figures someone has to come up with a name for what happened Friday in Tampa.

He even offered one up: "It's got to be Tampa Turmoil or something," he said.

Scottie Reynolds scored 21 points, Corey Fisher added 17 and 12th-seeded Villanova gave this NCAA tournament pod its fourth upset in as many games with a 75-69 victory over No. 5 seed Clemson in the first round of the Midwest Region on Friday night.

"I'm sure this is going to be talked about," Wright said. "It's incredible what happened here today."

The Wildcats, who have more wins as a lower-seeded team in the tournament than any program since 1979, overcame an 18-point deficit in this one.

It was the perfect ending for a crazy day in Tampa, the bracket-busting town that should be called Upset City after Friday's opening round. It was the first site in NCAA history to have four 12 or lower seeds win. In fact, no other place had even had two in one day.

First, No. 12 seed Western Kentucky knocked off fifth-seeded Drake in overtime with a desperation 26-footer at the buzzer. Then, 13th-seeded San Diego upended No. 4 seed Connecticut, hitting a long jumper with 1.2 seconds left in overtime. And No. 13 seed Siena led from the start to send fourth-seeded Vanderbilt home earlier than expected.

For Villanova's shocker, Reynolds and Fisher were at the center of it all.

"We didn't want to let this time slip away," Reynolds said.

The Wildcats trailed 36-18 with 5 minutes to play in the first half. But they started hitting from 3-point range -- Reynolds made his first three 3s after the break -- and slowly sliced into the big lead.

Fisher was 2-for-3 from behind the arc and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line.

Reynolds' biggest shot was an off-balance 3-pointer with Cliff Hammonds in his face just before the shot clock expired. Hammonds fouled him on the play, then dropped his head in disbelief after the ball banked off the backboard and through the hoop.

Reynolds missed the free throw, but his bucket gave Villanova its first lead of the game, 50-49 with 11:56 remaining.

"He's good, there's no doubt about it," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said.

The Tigers nearly folded from there, looking every bit like a team that hadn't been in the NCAA tournament in 10 years.

But Villanova helped them get back in it.

Clemson trailed 64-57 with 3:44 remaining, but Terrence Oglesby made five consecutive free throws -- three after he was fouled on a 3-pointer and two more after Wright was whistled for a technical.

"I deserved it," Wright said. "It's like you tell the players all the time, 'You've got to forget about it,' But in the back of my mind, I'm hoping it doesn't cost us."

Clemson's Demontez Stitt tied it at 66 with two more free throws with 1:55 to go, but the Wildcats retook the lead by making 9-of-10 from the stripe over the final 1:37.

Stitt led the Tigers with 14 points. K.C. Rivers Jr. added 12, and Oglesby finished with 11.

Clemson said tournament experience was overrated, and players pointed to their run in last year's NIT as something that would help them.

They know now it's not the same.

The Tigers watched the upsets unfold ahead of them, seeing each of the higher seeds fall, and felt it wouldn't happen to them.

"I thought, if anything, what happened earlier today got our guys ready to go," Purnell said.

It did early.

The same guys who got thrown out of practice earlier this week because Purnell felt they lacked effort jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the opening minutes and looked like they might pull away for good.

They had Villanova doubled up, 36-18, late in the first half.

Clemson played with the same energy, poise and determination that got the team to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final.

It just didn't last.

Villanova, which has more NCAA tournament wins than Western Kentucky, San Diego and Siena combined, badly wanted another one.

The Wildcats had hoped to prove to everyone that they deserved to be in the 65-team field. They were one of the last teams to get in, spending several anxious days waiting on the bubble.

When they did hear their name called during the selection show, Wright got concerned whether his players would have a letdown after such an emotional high.

They looked like they might to start the game.

But Reynolds, Fisher & Co. refused to let it happen.

"I really think they grew up today," Wright said.

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

Re: The Official "Is your NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

Curry's reliable stroke good for 40 as Davidson advances to second round
Stephen Curry Leads Davidson Past Gonzaga

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Davidson fans used to have to go back 40 years to the Lefty Driesell era to tell stories of NCAA tournament success. Now they've got to look no further than their baby-faced sophomore star.

Stephen Curry, the guard the big schools didn't want, put Driesell's powerful Davidson teams of the 1960s in the background with a remarkable performance that made the tiny liberal arts school a postseason player again.

Couriers Of Points

Like several players before him, Davidson's Stephen Curry carried his team to victory in an NCAA tournament game with a 40-point spectacle.

The son of former NBA 3-point specialist Dell Curry hit 8 of 10 3-pointers, scored 30 of his 40 points in the second half and hit the tie-breaking 3 with a minute left to lead the Wildcats to an 82-76 victory over bewildered Gonzaga on Friday.

"It was like an opening night, a star performance on Broadway," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "And he was the star, but he had a great cast with him. The audience was sensational. A lot of music, great songs, lots of dancing."

Displaying his lightning-quick release, Curry ran off multiple screens all day and swished one off-balance jumper after another, making 14 of 22 shots.

His two free throws with 14.5 seconds left iced it for the 10th-seeded Wildcats (27-6), who won their first NCAA game since Driesell took the school of 1,700 students to a regional final in 1969 before leaving for Maryland.

"I take every game the same way. I approach it the same way, so this is nothing different for me," Curry said. "I warm up the same way, I shoot the ball the same way. I don't want to get caught up in the atmosphere."

Curry wanted to play for his father's alma mater, Virginia Tech, but the big schools shied away because of his size.

Well, Curry has grown four inches to 6-foot-3 since signing with Davidson, and now has put the Wildcats into the second round of the Midwest Regional against Georgetown.

"It puts Davidson on the map again," Dell Curry said. "Bob McKillop has put him on a stage to be successful, and I don't think any other school could have done that."

Jason Richards added 15 points and nine assists for Davidson, which extended the nation's longest winning streak to 23 games. Andrew Lovedale had 12 points and one of his 13 rebounds came on the offensive glass, which led to Curry's deciding 3-pointer.

Freshman Steven Gray hit seven 3s and scored 21 points for No. 7 seed Gonzaga (25-8), which blew 11-point leads in both halves to make a first-round exit for the second straight year.

Gray was worn down by the end of the game after trying to chase down Curry. The Zags also tried a triangle-and-2 defense and even played some zone at the end.

"Personally, I don't know if I've ever run off that many screens trying to defend someone," Gray said. "And he knows how to use them. He's very knowledgeable in that way."

Curry, who finished one point shy of his career high, won over the crowd with a day that even included a left-handed bank shot. About the only fan not standing during Davidson's comeback was his father.

Dell Curry watched quietly from the front row, while his wife and most of the neutral fans cheered as Davidson took its first lead on Stephen Rossiter's putback with 8:27 left.

It set up a frantic finish, with Davidson taking a 73-72 lead on Max Paulhus Gosselin's 3-pointer with 4:11 to go. But after Lovedale's free throw, Gonzaga tied it on Jeremy Pargo's driving layup 1:45 left.

Lovedale, who had his first career double-double, then tracked down a Davidson miss, setting up Curry's 3 from the right wing.

"A lot of his points come off plays like this," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "It was an offensive rebound or a scramble and he toes up on the line. They're trained to find him in the scramble situation."

Pargo added 18 points and Gonzaga shot 51 percent, but wilted down the stretch in its second straight loss. Austin Daye was 3-for-13 and missed a 3-pointer after Curry put Davidson ahead.

It left Charlotte Bobcats forward Adam Morrison, the symbol of Gonzaga's recent NCAA tournament success, shaking his head behind the bench. And he could only watch as Davidson, playing only 160 miles from campus, celebrated with flare.

Seconds after the final buzzer, Curry and Richards did consecutive chest bumps before meeting their teammates at midcourt. Finally Davidson was able to smile after close losses to Ohio State and Maryland in the first round the past two years.

"He's done it all year for us," said Richards, who leads the nation in assists largely because of Curry. "This game, he showed the whole nation what he's capable of."

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

Re: The Official "Is your NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

Weems' 31, Townes' double-double help Razorbacks snap 5-game tourney skid

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Arkansas' Darian Townes marveled at the big numbers his teammate racked up. Walking off the podium in jubilant disbelief, he turned first to swingman Sonny Weems and then to coach John Pelphrey.

"You only missed two shots," Townes told Weems before repeating that message to his coach.

Because of Weems' deft scoring touch, and because Townes always seemed to be there to clean up those rare misses, the Razorbacks are sticking around in the NCAA tournament at least a little longer than usual -- and Indiana's turbulent season is over.

Weems scored a career-high 31 points, Townes added 17 points and 12 rebounds and the ninth-seeded Razorbacks beat eighth-seeded Indiana 86-72 on Friday night in the first round of the East Regional.

"When Sonny is hot, he gets everybody going," Townes said.

Weems hit 12 of 14 shots to break out of a slump -- he was a combined 17-for-56 in his previous five games -- for Arkansas (23-11), which shot 54 percent and made 68 percent of its attempts in the second half. The Razorbacks snapped a five-game losing streak in NCAA tournament games dating to a first-round victory against Siena in 1999.

"Those games are behind me," Weems said. "I just kept my confidence. The guards did a great job ... of finding me in the open court, and I just knocked down shots."

The Razorbacks' reward for finally making the second round: a date with No. 1 seed and top-ranked North Carolina on Sunday in a virtual home game for the Tar Heels, playing roughly a 30-minute drive from their Chapel Hill campus.

The schools met twice in the postseason during a three-year period in the 1990s, with North Carolina beating Arkansas in the 1993 regional semifinals on its way to its third NCAA tournament title. Two years later, the Razorbacks knocked the Tar Heels out of the 1995 Final Four before falling to UCLA in the national championship.

"They're a resilient bunch," Pelphrey said of his team. "They've been given up for dead two or three times, and they bounced back. ... The challenge for them is to have some repeat success, in terms of their effort, their focus, their level of play, [because] this is the NCAA tournament and our next opponent is unbelievable.

"So, that's the challenge for these guys," he added. "They've had success a lot of times on a given night, a given day, a given game. We need to do it back to back now."

D.J. White had 22 points in his third straight 20-point game and Armon Bassett snapped out of a slump with 21 points and five 3-pointers for Indiana (25-8).

The Hoosiers lost their tournament opener for the first time since 2001, went one-and-done in both the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments and ended its once-promising season on a free fall.

Ranked No. 7 as recently as two months ago, Indiana finished the year by losing four of seven since coach Kelvin Sampson's scandal-tainted resignation and former Hoosiers guard Dan Dakich was named interim coach. Now, with a committee starting its nationwide search, the focus at Indiana turns to finding Sampson's permanent replacement.

"I've never seen anything like it. And it's probably not over, to tell you the truth," Dakich said. "The season's over, the games are over. But there are a lot of things that have to occur within Indiana basketball, or a lot of things are going to occur with Indiana basketball that need to occur here in the springtime. It's far from over."

Despite the evidence to the contrary, the Hoosiers insisted there were no lingering distractions down the stretch by the absence of their coach.

"I don't think it really had [anything] to do with it," forward Lance Stemler said. "We've been working hard in practice the last couple of weeks and have been playing good defense. We've been working hard toward this. We really weren't thinking about it. We were focusing on this game. We just couldn't get it done."

Especially Eric Gordon. The Big Ten's freshman of the year and its leading scorer fizzled in his first tournament appearance. He was 3-of-15 shooting, missed all six of his 3-pointers and finished with just six points -- more than 15 below his average.

He capped his first -- and perhaps only -- season in college by going a combined 19-for-63 shooting in his final four games.

"It's been frustrating, it's been tough, because these teams, they wanted to take my drive away," Gordon said. "Having that big 7-foot guy [Steven Hill] in the middle to take away my opportunities to score on the inside. That's what I tried to do. You couldn't really get inside that zone, so you had to figure out other ways to penetrate."

The Razorbacks never trailed after halftime and gave themselves plenty of separation midway through the second half. After Stemler pulled Indiana to 49-47 by hitting a 3 with the shot clock winding down, Arkansas took control.

Hill's dunk started the decisive 12-3 burst, Townes twice stuck back missed 3-pointers for layups, and Weems knocked down a 3 while drifting into the Arkansas bench before his basket with 7:40 left stretched the lead to 61-50.

"I just thought, collectively, they were playing harder than" Indiana was, Bassett said.

Weems surpassed his previous high of 28 points set against South Carolina in January, while Townes finished one point shy of his season high reached four times, most recently last week against Vanderbilt.

"Sunny days when Sonny Weems plays the way he plays," said guard Patrick Beverley, who added 12 points for the Razorbacks.

Arkansas improved to 12-0 this season when scoring at least 80 points.

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

Buh-Bye Duke...lol

WVU mirrors Huggins' toughness en route to surprising Sweet 16

By Dana O'Neil
ESPN.com

Updated: March 22, 2008

WASHINGTON -- On the first day Bob Huggins held practice at West Virginia, he dragged a treadmill to the side of the court, plugged it in and left it there.

No one thought much about it. Treadmills and stationary bikes are commonplace for injured players who need extra workouts and still want to watch practice.

Then John Flowers messed up. No one remembers the exact infraction, but he did something Huggins didn't like and the coach told Flowers to hit the treadmill.

"It's on 15 miles per hour for at least 45 seconds," Joe Alexander explained. "And you can't hold on to anything, so if you don't run fast enough, you just fall off."

Everyone except Darris Nichols has hit the treadmill this season -- "and he should have been," Alexander said -- punching tickets to sprint for anything from not boxing out to not listening to not playing hard enough in Huggins' estimation.

"You're pretty dead when you get off," Flowers said. "Then you have to go right back into the drill, and if you mess up again, you're back on the treadmill. But no one has been on it that much lately."

No doubt. On the heels of its surprise run to the Big East tournament semifinal, West Virginia -- a team barely on the NCAA radar as recently as February -- is in the Sweet 16. Combining a second-half defensive swarm with an offensive clinic, the 7-seed Mountaineers steamrolled No. 2 seed Duke 73-67.

Less dramatic than the Mike Gansey-Kevin Pittsnogle Elite Eight dash of 2005, this West Virginia push to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament is no less unexpected. When John Beilein bolted to Michigan, he left behind a team used to playing a finesse game.

Enter Huggins, a man who has about as much finesse as John Goodman in a tutu.

The Mountaineers were picked to finish 10th in the Big East.

"Some people were predicting we'd go to the NIT," Nichols said. "They were wondering how far we could go in that. Nobody thought about the NCAAs for us."

Much of the credit deservedly will go to Huggins, but the players merit equal helpings. Coaching changes are awful, fraught with personality conflicts and awkward getting-to-know-you phases. Coaches complain about dealing with players they didn't recruit; players grow frustrated playing for a guy they'd never even met before.

Arizona went from a team loaded with talent to a dysfunctional family as soon as Lute Olson passed the torch to Kevin O'Neill, and if Indiana players didn't arrange an all-out boycott of Dan Dakich, they sure did a good job of staging a sit-in. The Hoosiers stopped playing on Feb. 22, the day Kelvin Sampson left town. Both teams lost in the NCAA first round.

Players at West Virginia were no less wary of Huggins, a man whose demanding personality surely precedes him. They heard he was difficult and even cruel, heard his practices were more difficult than military boot camp.

"The only thing harder than practicing for Coach was when I worked with my dad pouring cement," Nichols said.

Alexander, playing like one of the best players in the country the past month, got earful after earful from Huggins as he tried to become -- in his junior year of college -- a low-post player for the first time in his career. Flowers ran more sprints than Justin Gatlin, and Wellington Smith remembers "just getting yelled at."

But rather than balk at Huggins, they embraced him. Impressed that Huggins didn't come in and overthrow everything, instead incorporating parts of Beilein's more familiar game plan with his own style, the players assumed Huggins' personality. And along the way, they earned his respect.

"Jamie [Smalligan] texted me last night and said, 'Coach, it's a better matchup if I don't start,'" Huggins said. "How many teams have guys like that? Here's a senior, a guy who said basically, 'Coach, I just know it's a bad matchup for me,' and he's started every game of the year."

These might not be Huggins' players; he didn't recruit them. But these players are Huggins. They are not McDonald's All-Americans or basketball bluebloods, but chip-on-the-shoulder scrappers who fit perfectly a man who grew up in a tiny town in West Virginia with "two stoplights and nine bars," was shocked back to life three times after a heart attack and was all but run out of Cincinnati.

Smith balked at the notion that the Mountaineers were in any way intimidated by Duke.

"It's just a name on the front of a jersey," he said. "It's not like they have Jason Williams or Carlos Boozer anymore."

And Alexander all but sneered at the suggestion that beating Duke was an upset -- "People act like we're a mid-major or something. We play in the Big East" -- and giddily shared an exchange he had after snuffing DeMarcus Nelson.

"I told him, 'You shouldn't shoot it anymore,'" Alexander said.

Asked what Nelson said back, Alexander replied, "He was actually very nice to me the rest of the game." Nelson was 2-for-11 from the floor for six points.

Nelson wasn't the only one who had more than he could handle from West Virginia. After playing what Smith called "the worst half of the season," which ended with the Mountaineers trailing by five at the break, the team staged a ferocious rally that turned into a rout.

After Gerald Henderson badly missed a 3-pointer, Nichols drained one right in front of his bench to cut Duke's lead to 37-34. Nelson was whistled for a travel on Duke's next possession and with the shot clock fading to the buzzer, Alex Ruoff nailed a falling-away 3-pointer to tie the score.

From that point on, the Mountaineers kept on the gas. Feisty guard Joe Mazzulla came off the bench to take it down the Devils' gut, narrowly missing a triple-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. And Alexander, despite double-teams every time he touched the ball, finished with 22 and 11.

The Mountaineers schooled the much smaller Devils on the boards, beating them 47-27 overall, including 25-11 in the second half, and put a defensive clamp on Duke. The Devils missed their first nine 3-pointers and managed just nine field goals in the second half, four of them in the final minute when the West Virginia faithful already had started the party.

"Once we got behind, we tried to gamble a little bit," Duke sophomore Jon Scheyer said. "They got in the lane, and we overhelped a little bit, so they got open looks."

The loss sends the Blue Devils to a second consecutive first-weekend NCAA exit and continues a trend that seems to afflict Duke when it leaves the North Carolina borders. Since their last national championship in 2001, the Devils are 8-0 in NCAA tourney games played in their home state and 5-7 in games anywhere else.

"I'm proud of our guys," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "And we lost to a team that's playing really good basketball and is a good group of kids and played their butts off."

Maybe West Virginia plays like that because of the treadmill. Huggins has used it with other teams.

It's a great conditioning tool, he said, good for the legs.

It's also a great educational tool, in that after you're on it once, you learn quickly that you never want to go back on it.

Never, though, has the treadmill been more symbolic or meaningful. It's just a piece of machinery. It can be good for a Sunday stroll or an all-out sprint.

Just depends how tough you want to be.

"I don't know how tough we are," Huggins said. "But we're definitely a lot tougher than we were at the beginning of the season."

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

Re: The Official "Is your NCAA Bracket as fucked up as mine" Thread..

Neitzel, Lucas score 21 of Spartans' final 25 to lead Michigan St. over Pitt

DENVER (AP) -- All this talk about brawn and brute force gets old. Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas let everyone know these Michigan State guys can dribble and shoot it, too.

The Spartans guards went on a late ballhandling and scoring spree to help Michigan State pull away from Pittsburgh for a 65-54 victory Saturday night in the South Regional.

Lucas and Neitzel combined for 21 of the final 25 points for the fifth-seeded Spartans to help them win a battle of the bullies -- a rough-and-tumble game between two Rust Belt teams who brought their show to the Rocky Mountains.

Neitzel led the Spartans with 21 points, and Lucas finished with 19.

Levance Fields had 19 points for fourth-seeded Pitt (27-10), which had won six straight.

Leading by one, Neitzel scored eight straight points -- including an amazing shake-and-bake move to get shooting room in front of Ronald Ramon -- to give Michigan State (27-8) a five-point lead with 4 minutes left.

A bit later, Lucas drove to the basket for a layup, then the two combined when Neitzel picked up a loose ball and fed it ahead to Lucas for an uncontested layup -- one of the very few easy scores in this hotly contested game -- for a 59-50 lead.

On the next possession, as if to prove these guys really do make their living playing defense, the guards combined on the final blow. Neitzel reached in to redirect Fields -- who found himself slamming directly into Lucas. The ref called a charge and, cruelly and almost appropriately, Fields found himself on the ground writhing in pain.

The 11-point margin wasn't indicative of how close this game was for a long time.

Pitt trailed 40-30 with 15 minutes left, but went on a 14-2 run to take a lead.

It was brief.

Lucas followed with a three-point play to put the Spartans back ahead. Then, Neitzel went off with eight straight points to help Tom Izzo's team start pulling away.

Neitzel struggled in MSU's first-round win over Temple, shooting 2-for-11, but said after practice Friday that he shot well and wouldn't let one bad game get him down.

His line in this one: 6-for-13 from the field, but 5-for-8 from 3-point range. He also had four rebounds and four assists, and Michigan State's quest for a fifth trip to the Final Four remains alive and well.

The Spartans will play the winner of Sunday's game between Memphis and Mississippi State next week in Houston.

The Panthers, meanwhile, watched a nice season and a string in which they were considered among the hottest teams in the country, come to a sudden end. It wasn't for lack of effort.

Pitt shot 32 percent, and got the number that high only because it warmed up toward the end. The fight back from 10 down in the second half was impressive, as was the effort by Fields, who penetrated, found room for open jumpers and put together a gritty effort typical of what he's been doing since returning from a broken foot about seven weeks ago.

Sam Young finished with 15 points and four blocked shots for the Panthers. DeJuan Blair had 10 points and four blocks, as well.

Goran Suton kept Michigan State in it early. Heeding Izzo's pleas to stay tough and consistent, he bodied up with Pitt's big men to finish with 14 points and nine rebounds.

The game was, as advertised, a slugfest.

The first takedown came at 1:17 of the first round -- make that half -- when Michigan State's Raymar Morgan swung Keith Benjamin to the floor. No foul was called.

They grappled and banged throughout, though it never got too out of control. And what people will remember most was the fantastic guard play from the Spartans -- the factor that swung this game late, and something that sometimes gets overlooked with all the talk of their toughness.

 

[Rollie_Fingaz]

..my bad. I'm behind on this. My apologies:

Curry's sweet touch continues as Davidson eludes Wisconsin

Heavens yes, Davidson is marching on.

Curry scored more than 30 points for a third straight game, and the 10th-seeded Wildcats pulled off another stunner Friday night, rolling over third-seeded Wisconsin 73-56 to advance to the Midwest Regional finals.

Davidson (29-6) extended the nation's longest winning streak to 25. The Wildcats will play the winner of the Villanova-Kansas game on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four.

Yes, add another defensive powerhouse to Curry's list of victims. A week after shredding Gonzaga and Georgetown's vaunted defenses, the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry dismantled the Badgers and defensive specialist Michael Flowers.

Curry outscored the Badgers all by himself in the second half, 22-20.

Wisconsin (31-5) was holding opponents to 53.9 points, best in the nation, and hadn't allowed Kansas State a single 3-point basket in the second round.

But instead of being intimidated by the big stage -- not to mention the monstrous Ford Field venue -- Curry and Davidson played with such ease and attitude they may as well have been in their cozy little gym back home.

And it did feel a little like home with Davidson's rowdy cheering section. The Board of Trustees popped for the trip -- bus fare, tickets and a hotel room -- for students who wanted to make the 11-hour ride from North Carolina, and a few hundred took them up on the offer.

The Wildcats shot 49 percent, including 12-of-24 from 3-point range. Curry finished with 33 points on 11-of-22 shooting, including six 3-pointers. Jason Richards had 11 points and 13 assists.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Davidson fans bounced up and down and a few chanted, "Rock, chalk, Jayhawk!" in reference to top-seeded Kansas. The Wildcats, meanwhile, calmly shook hands as if they expected to be here all along. And why not, when they have someone as sensational as Curry.

This marked the second time in three tournaments that a double-digit seed got this far. In 2006, 11th-seeded George Mason reached the Final Four. This is the farthest Davidson has advanced since Lefty Driesell's squad reached the regional finals in 1969, where the Wildcats lost to North Carolina.

The big, brawny Badgers were supposed to overpower Davidson, but it was Wisconsin that looked overmatched. Despite four players in double figures, the Badgers never found their rhythm offensively. And the defense that was so fearsome all year never materialized.

Time and again Wisconsin would score only to have Davidson race down the court and make a basket of its own a mere seconds later.

Still, the Badgers were within 48-45 with 13:48 to play on Marcus Landry's jumper. That's when Curry took over.

He made a 3, and Richards stole the ball on the other end. Racing upcourt, Richards found Curry camped in the corner all by himself and dished off. Joe Krabbenhoft -- a member of the Big Ten's all-defensive team -- sprinted toward Curry and jumped, hoping to block the shot.

But Curry calmly waited until Krabbenhoft flew by him and then, with that silky smooth shot that's becoming a signature of this year's tournament, made another 3 to put Davidson up 54-45 with 13:03 to play.

As his teammates cheered, Curry thumped his chest and pointed high. The basket gave him 23 points -- twice as many as anybody else on the court -- and was his fifth 3-pointer of the night.

And he wasn't done yet.

Davidson had run the shot clock almost all the way down, looking for something. Curry finally took an off-balance shot from NBA 3-point range, falling as he released the ball. No matter. It was good, just like almost everything else he did Friday night.

And a minute later, he scored on a sweet inside reverse, drawing a foul and the admiration of everybody in the arena -- including LeBron James.

The NBA star had praised Curry earlier this week and, on the eve of a game against the Detroit Pistons, was parked a few rows behind the Wildcats bench with the rest of the exuberant Davidson fans.

Flowers led the Badgers with 12. Brian Butch and Jason Bohannon added 11 each.