Mid Major Hoops

And Then There Was Chalk

Davidson played valiantly, but in the end it was the Kansas defense that was too much for the Wildcats as Jason Richards long three pointer hit off the side of the backboard at the buzzer and the Jayhawks moved onto the Final Four with a 59-57 win.  This now means for the first time ever in NCAA Tournament history, all four #1 regional seeds are in the Final Four.

It was a back and forth surprisingly defensive tussle with several lead changes and no team having a bigger lead than six points. The first half saw Davidson establish Stephen Curry with 15 points on 5 of 12 shooting from the field on several assists from Jason Richards, who had 9 for the game.  Davidson shot out to a 9-6 lead, and the Wildcats would be either mostly ahead or tied for the better part of eight minutes until Darnell Jackson put the Wildcats up 25-23.  Mario Chalmers helped give the Jayhawks a 30-28 halftime lead by scoring 11 of his 13 points in the first half. 

In the second half, Curry came right out and scored the first five points to put Davidson up 33-30.  Kansas would then go on 13-4 run as Brandon Rush caught on fire, scoring six of the thirteen points to give Kansas its biggest lead 43-37 with 12 minutes left.  But as Davidson always does, they came back, this time from an unlikely hero.  Seldom used reserve Bryant Barr came off the bench and nailed three three pointers and Stephen Curry added a jumper as Davidson went on a 14-4 run and went up 51-47 8:48 left. 

But as the Jayhawks stared at another possible NCAA Tournament failure, their four guard defensive rotation was finally starting to wear Curry down.  After hitting his first two shots of the second half, Curry would shoot two for his last eleven including the aforementioned jumper that put the Wildcats up four.  Curry would mention after the game that he was definitely fatigued from the Jayhawk guard rotation.  Over the nearly next eight minutes, Curry would go scoreless and the Wildcats would only score two points on a Barr jumper. Meanwhile, Rush and the inside play of Kaun and Darrell Arthur took over.  The Jayhawks went on a 12-2 run to go up six, 59-53 before Thomas Sander hit the first of two free throws (more on that in a little bit).  Then after Sander missed the second free throw, Davidson got the rebound and Curry finally hit his first shot in eight minutes, a big three pointer to cut it to two.

The Jayhawks got the ball and after both teams called timeout, the Jayhawks, pulled a Hofstra and ran the clock down and got off a terrible missed shot.  Davidson got the ball and called timeout with 16 seconds left.

Then the play that will have lots of people talking for a while was setup.  Davidson coach Bob McKillop had Curry dribble the ball up the court instead of his point guard Richards.  Curry tried desperately to break free from a double team, but with no shot available, passed it back to Richards who took a long range desperate three that bounded off the backboard. 

I am not going to fault McKillop necessarily because the usual train of thought is that you want to have the ball in the hands of your best player during the last play.  However, It was a curious play in that Davidson is so proficient in having Richards run the offense and Curry work off a screen.  I would have thought that if Curry was double teamed, that would leave someone else open for Richards to pass the ball to. To me that should have been the play.

Another problem in the game for the Wildcats was their unusually bad free throw shooting.  The Wildcats who led the Southern Conference in free throw shooting at 72 percent shot a miserable 5 of 12 from the line. In fact, take away Curry's 3 for 3 shooting from the line, the Wildcats were 2 of 9.  That was another big difference in the game (mind you Kansas wasn't much better going 8 of 14 from the line). 

Finally, the size difference between Kansas and Davidson was a big factor at the end. On the boards, Kansas held a 38-30 rebounding edge, blocked five shots and altered many others.  Still, the Wildcats kept in there by forcing 14 Jayhawk turnovers.

Kansas now faces North Carolina in one semfinal after Tyler Hansborough's dominating 28 point 13 rebound performance held off a game Louisville team 83-73.  Meanwhile UCLA, after Kevin Love and company dominated Xavier 76-57, will face Memphis, who did their own version of domination, crushing Texas on basically a home Longhorns Court in Houston, 85-67.  In their wins, UCLA and North Carolina each shot 53 percent in the field, while Memphis shot 50 percent from the field and shot 30 of 33 from the line (somewhere Fred Sanford after watching that, is holding his heart saying "I'm coming Elizabeth")

So you have a 37 win team (Memphis), a 36 win team (North Carolina) and two 35 win teams (UCLA and Kansas) playing in the Final Four.  Can't remember anything like that.  Mind you, it would have been nice to have a midmajor such as Davidson crash the party, but hey, they gave us a great game. 

Alas, now its all about the chalk...

TCU is Truly Now a Christian Team and the A10 "Shines"

Couldn't resist the headline after Texas Christian hired Jim Christian as their new head coach.  Christian led Kent State to the NCAA Tournament this season. Christian was 138-58 at Kent State the past six seasons. The Golden Flashes won at least 20 games each of those seasons, including a 28-7 mark this season.  They lost to UNLV in the first round of the tournament this year.  It was the fifth time that Christian took Kent State to the postseason in six years (3 NIT, 2 NCAA tournaments).  This was the second time this week a mid major coach changed jobs.  Matt Brady took over at James Madison after coaching Marist for the past four seasons.

Rumor has it that South Carolina will go after Davidson coach Bob McKillop after the Wildcats' NCAA tournament run has completed.  One of the other possible candidates for the South Carolina position, current Oklahoma coach and former VCU head coach Jeff Capel just signed a contract extension with the Sooners, raising his annual salary to over $1 million a year.  The contract extension was in part to keep Capel from potentially moving back near his home with the Gamecocks.   

It will be interesting to see what offers the 19 year head coach of the Wildcats will get.

I will be at MSG on Tuesday where UMass squares off against Florida and Ohio State will take on Mississippi in the semifinals of the NIT.   Tom Kemp in a text message to me this morning correctly pointed out that "Xavier and UMass are making the A10 shine".  Xavier obviously has had an excellent run in the NCAA tourney and UMass has been very solid, including their stunning 19 point comeback win over Syracuse.  They have made sure that Jim Boeheim will be seeing the Minutemen in his nightmares after UMass beat them twice in the Carrier Dome this season.

You could even say Dayton with Chris Wright also had a good postseason run in the NIT including their second round impressive road win at Illinois State.  Those three teams were really the best A10 teams this season.  Had Wright not got hurt and UMass had won one game against St Joe's, those two teams most likely would have been in the NCAA tournament instead of the not ready for NCAA prime time Hawks or Temple Owls. 

Xavier, who I picked to reach the Elite Eight, has an excellent chance to beat UCLA with their guard play.  I think Lavender, CJ Anderson, and B.J Raymond can give Collison, Westbrook and Shipp all they can handle.  How Xavier will deal with Kevin Love and the UCLA frontcourt is another matter. Josh Duncan and Derrick Brown must have big games for the Musketeers. 

Still at the end of the season, the A10 wasn't quite as strong as people thought they were most of the year.  But to have eight teams in the postseason; three NCAA teams and five NIT teams, is a very nice year for the A10.  But as I keep telling Tom and all of you, they still aren't a mid major conference.  They are at least one level above along with Conference USA and the Mountain West.

Do You Believe Now?!

In my previous posting, I finished my prediction of Davidson vs Wisconsin with the following;

"I think Wisconsin has not seen anyone like Curry and I think the Wildcats have an excellent shot vs. Wisconsin."

Well, the Badgers had never seen anything like Stephen Curry scoring 22 second half points and scored 33 overall as Davidson not only upset Wisconsin but thrashed them in the second half, winning 73-56.  The game was tied 36 all at half, but Davidson outscored Wisconsin 37-20 in the second half as the Wildcats throttled the Badger offense.   The first half, though even, was a pace that favored Davidson as both teams seemingly traded threes.  Wisconsin was 7 of 17 from beyond the three point arc in the first half while Davidson was 8 of 14 from beyond three.   However it seemed that Wisconsin was content to shoot from three while ignoring the size advantage they had inside.  This came back to haunt them in the second half as Wisconsin would only shoot 1 of 7 the rest of the way from three, while Curry would have his trademark big second half.

In the second half of his three tournament games, Curry has scored 30,25, and now 22 points.  As noted in a previous posting, the Wildcats constant motion offense wears down opponent defenses, which allows Curry to eventually get open looks and drives to the basket.  After nailing three three pointers, several of which were assisted by Jason Richards, Curry again was setup by Richards for a really pretty reverse scoop layup and drew the foul for the three point play. How pretty was it ?  CBS focused a camera on LeBron James who was in the front row for the game, and you could see James mouth "Wow" after the layup. 

But again Davidson is not just Curry. Richards had a magnificent game with 11 points and 13 assists and more importantly, zero turnovers.  And again, Andrew Lovedale had a big second half for the Wildcats, scoring 8 of his 12 points in the second half.  Finally, the Davidson defense clamped down on Wisconsin, holding the Badgers to 37 percent shooting from the field.  Trevon Hughes, who had 25 points vs. Kansas State, was held scoreless by the Wildcats on only three field goal attempts due to an injury.  Brian Butch only had nine field goal attempts, with only four coming in the second half.  And as predicted by me, the Badgers also didn't help themselves from the free throw line, shooting only 9 of 16 in the second half from the line and only 63.6 percent overall.  Also, Wisconsin had 11 turnovers vs only 5 for the Wildcats.

There were a few other things to note about the game.  First, CBS went away from the Wildcats/Badgers game when there were about 5 minutes left in the game to go to the Texas/Stanford game which had about 10 minutes left.  So even though I was at the Main Event sports bar in Bethpage, all the feeds went to the Longhorns/Cardinal game.  Very frustrating when you are seeing a major upset.  It was also noted during the radio and television broadcasts that Davidson offered any student a bus ride, hotel, meal money and a ticket for anyone who wanted to go to tonight's game.  There is a great article on this on ESPN.  Finally, they asked Stephen Curry after the game on if he learned how to come off screens in high school or college. Curry answered that he was a point guard in high school when he came to Davidson and he learned at Davidson how to come off screens.  Further proof of how good a coach Bob McKillop is.

So Davidson has knocked off #7 Gonzaga, #2 Georgetown and now #3 Wisconsin.  Can they knock off #1 Kansas (who right now is thrashing Villanova at the half of the second game in Detroit 41-22)?   Here's some insight into that answer.  During the Texas/Stanford broadcast, Billy Packer talked about Texas coach Rick Barnes discussing a preseason scrimmage the Longhorns had vs. Davidson.  Barnes told Packer that Davidson "took it to us" during that scrimmage.  Thus, the answer is yes.  But Kansas will be the best team the Wildcats have faced in this tournament.

In the other games this evening, Texas pulled away in the second half and beat Stanford 82-62.  They will be playing Memphis, who looks absolutely awesome, beating Michigan State 50-20 at the half.  50-20 at the half.  I think I underrated Memphis just a little bit.

As for last night, Western Kentucky had a heroic second half comeback but fell short losing to UCLA.  However the Hilltoppers comeback exposed a weakness in UCLA's backcourt as they are susceptible to pressure combined with a good shooting backcourt.  Xavier's talented set of guards will give the Bruins fits but Kevin Love is soo good, it will be hard for the Musketeers to contend inside in the West Regional final.  As for the East Regional final, its a collision course matchup between two teams on major dominating runs.  North Carolina just dominated the Cougars, beating Wazzou at their own game.  Meanwhile, Louisville did the same thing to Tennessee, beating the Volunteers at their own pressure game.  Should be a great final there.

And Then There Were Two...

As in two mid major teams left in the Sweet Sixteen.  I think, along with many others, had two mid major teams going to the Sweet Sixteen; Butler and Drake.  So, having two left now, is not a surprise.  Who those mid major teams are, Davidson and Western Kentucky, well that's the surprise. 

Davidson, though a #10 seed, is less a surprise than Western Kentucky.  After coming off a NCAA tournament bid and a close first round loss to Maryland in the tournament, then their close loss to North Carolina at the beginning of the season, the Wildcats were ranked in the top 25.  After several close losses to Duke, UCLA, and NC State among others, the Wildcats fell out of the Top 25, and mid major teams like Butler, Drake, and St Mary's caught the national media's eyes.  The Wildcats then began their perfect run through the Southern Conference.  The Wildcats returned to the Top 25 at the end of their run through the regular season of the Southern Conference, punctuated by a big win over Winthrop during a Friday night ESPN Bracket Buster game at Winthrop (an eventual fellow NCAA tourney team). This was due in large part of their early schedule and due to  Stephen Curry being among one of the top leaders in scoring in the country.  Davidson of course went on to win the SoCon tournament, then top Gonzaga and Georgetown in two of the best games during this NCAA tournament (and two games to have been proud to be in attendance).

As for Western Kentucky, their road to the Sweet Sixteen was much less known.  Though well known through mid major circles, the 29-6 Hilltoppers are probably more well known for their mascot, Big Red, who is often seen on the Capital One and ESPN Sportscenter commercials.  The Hilltoppers, though they played a tough non-conference schedule with close losses to Gonzaga, Southern Illinois and Tennessee, did not have a signature non conference win.  Their best win was over Nebraska, who did make the NIT (along with the Salukis).  The Hilltoppers had a strong conference record, going 16-2.  But again due to their two conference losses to the more ballyhooed South Alabama Jaguars, again Western Kentucky was not getting much love and needed to win the Sun Belt conference, which would be held on the Jaguars' home court.  However, the Hilltoppers caught a break when Middle Tennessee State upset the Jaguars in the semis, and the Hilltoppers did the rest with a win over the Blue Raiders in the championship game.
The Hilltoppers also possess a strong NBA prospect in guard Courtney Lee, a 6 foot 5 senior guard who averages 20.85 points per game, nearly 5 rebounds a game and shoots 40 percent from three.  He has a partner in crime in Tyrone Brazelton, who torched Drake for 35 points in the Hilltoppers exciting two point overtime win in the first round.

How will each team do in the Sweet Sixteen?  Well Davidson's opponent, Wisconsin is one of the toughest defensive teams in the country.   And all I hear is that Badger guard Michael Flowers will shut down Stephen Curry.  Well everyone thought Gonzaga would key on Curry and they stopped Curry..for 20 minutes. Then everyone thought Georgetown's ferocious defensive guards led by Jessie Sapp and Jonathan Wallace among others would certainly stop Curry..and they did..for 25 minutes.  And the Badgers best beware that the Wildcats are more than Curry.  Point guard Jason Richards did a lot of damage on drives to the basket with 20 points and Andrew Loverdale is very capable on the inside. 

The key to beating Wisconsin may very well be competing with them on the boards and keeping it close until the end.  The Badgers have not had to play a very close game in their first two rounds and if they have one weakness in close games, it is free throw shooting.   Though the Badgers shoot 70.7 percent from the line, but with the exception of their second loss during the season against Purdue where they shot 30 of 33 from the line, in their other losses, they shot 7 of 13 vs. Duke, 15 of 25 vs Marquette and 12 of 19 vs Purdue.  Even in their win over Kansas State in the second round of the tournament, they only shot 62 percent from the line.   

I think Wisconsin has not seen anyone like Curry and I think the Wildcats have an excellent shot vs. Wisconsin.

As for Western Kentucky vs. UCLA, the task is much more difficult.  The strengths of the Hilltoppers, Lee and Brazelton, will be definitely challenged by Darren Collison, Russell Westbrook and Josh Shipp.  Shipp, a great defensive guard, will be assigned to cover Lee.  As for upfront, UCLA has a clear advantage with Kevin Love, the Double Double Mountain of Love, with his 17 points and 10 rebounds a game (Roy Hibbert, you should take notes on how hard this kid plays).   The Hilltoppers are small up front with their best rebounding forward, Jeremy Evans, who averages 5 rebounds a game, being a svelte 190 pounds at 6 foot 8.   Love and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute are just too big and too physical up front for the Hilltoppers.  UCLA will win this game.

One last thing, though there is a great article in the Onion spoofing the NIT, I have been very impressed with the crowds the NIT is getting at Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Syracuse among other places.  They have been loud, especially the Buckeye home crowd last night vs Dayton and the final four at MSG looks really good.  It will be interesting to see if Mississippi can continue their undefeated non-conference run (their 10 losses all came in SEC play). 

Finally, the MAAC women's postseason ended Monday night when Marist lost to LSU in the second round of the NCAA tournament, while Iona lost at St John's in the second round of the NIT.  This was the second year in a row that both teams were in their respective postseason tournaments and the second year in a row that each won a game in their postseason tournament - Marist beat Ohio State and Middle Tennessee State in the NCAA tournament last year and beat DePaul this year, while Iona beat LIU last year in the NIT and Quinnipiac this year.  Both coaches, Brian Giorgis and Tony Bozzella deserve a great amount of praise for the coaching work they do.  And both, Marist and Iona are bringing in a talented recruiting class for next season.

UMass spoils C.M. Newton's Plans

You heard it here first as James Madison has hired Marist head coach Matt Brady as the new coach of the Dukes.

After the first half of the Syracuse-NIT semifinal game, which had the Orange leading the Minutemen 43-24, C.M. Newton and the boys were probably lighting up cigars figuring they had the Cuse and their  legion of fans heading to MSG.   But those cigars must have set off the sprinkler system in their box suite because those cigars got doused in the second half as the Minutemen charged up the hill and looked like North Carolina.  UMass, much to Tom Kemp's chagrin, scored FIFTY SEVEN second half points as the Minutemen edged Syracuse 81-77 and moved on to the NIT Semis at the Garden.  UMass won the earlier meeting at the Carrier Dome as well, 107-100.  The Minutemen have managed to set two records on Syracuse this year.  First, UMass's 107 points in the first win marked the most points ever scored on Syracuse at the Carrier Dome since it opened in 1980.  Second, no team had ever beaten Syracuse twice in the Carrier Dome in the same season. There's a couple of nice recruiting tools for coach Travis Ford.

The second part of C.M.'s plan went according to schedule as Florida surprised Arizona State on the Sun Devils' home court 70-57.  So MSG gets the former two time defending NCAA national champ Gators as well as the Minutemen.  Tonight, C.M. and the boys are hoping for Ohio State at home to knock off Dayton, though that will be a bigger challenge now with Chris Wright back for the Flyers.   Meanwhile, C.M is probably neutral with the #1 seed Virginia Tech Hokies home to face C.M's old fellow SEC foe Mississippi. 

And its not too often you get to see in the same postseason where the same two schools men's teams and women's teams face each other.  In the quarterfinals of the CBI, Virginia at home downed Old Dominion Monday night, while in the second round of the NCAA women's tournament last night, the Lady Monarchs on their home court gained revenge and won on a three pointer in overtime to defeat the Cavaliers.  Somehow, I think the Lady Monarchs' win was more important and much sweet revenge. :-)

Thoughts From the First Two Rounds

Here are some thoughts from the first two rounds.

It was noted in today's USA Today that the Butler vs. Tennessee game yesterday marked the earliest time in NCAA Tournament history that two 30 win teams faced each other in the tournament.  I will say this again, it is an absolute crime to have seeded Butler #7 in the tournament and have them face Tennessee in the second round.  The Bulldogs deserved a #5 seed at least.  However too many missed layups and free throws did them in (I can't believe they missed so many free throws, unButlerlike..is that a word?..should be).

All the talk from the Raleigh regional is about Davidson and rightly so.  But North Carolina is really good.  As in really, scary good.  They have tied a NCAA mark for two 100+ point games in the first two rounds of the tournament.  They can go eight or nine deep easy and their only senior is their backup point guard Quentin "Q" Thomas, who everytime he made a basket an incredibly loud long "Q" came from the crowd of Carolina blue.  They absolutely dominated the Arkansas game.  It was over at 9-0.

Curry and Richards get all the press, but Andrew Loverdale is an important key for the Wildcats.  Without Loverdale, Davidson may not win that game vs. Gonzaga and Loverdale played exceptionally well down the stretch in both the win vs. the Zags and the win over Georgetown.  He gives them size and athleticism in the frontcourt and he can hit the jumper at the top of the key when teams play zone against the Wildcats.

Louisville is flying under the radar.  Two games, two blowouts.  Pitino has his gang going.  Will be a really good game vs. Texas. 

Courtney Lee and Tyrone Brazelton may be the most underrated duo in the tournament.   Ty Rogers may have beaten Drake with the buzzer winning three, but it was Brazelton's 35 points that caused the Bulldogs such grief.  Then Lee nails 25 points against San Diego.  If one won't get you, the other will.  Here's hoping they give the Bruins all they can handle.

No offense to Mississippi State, but lucky for Memphis they weren't playing a Sweet Sixteen quality team, otherwise they would have gone home.  You can't keep going 15 for 32 from the line in the tournament and expect the rest of your game to put you over the top.  And don't give me this bull about the free throws down the stretch count the most.  Missed free throws pile up whether its the beginning, middle or the end of the game.  You have to hit your free throws no matter when.  I have the feeling Michigan State is going to teach the Tigers a lesson.

One last thing to the NCAA committee.  Next time, schedule mid majors vs. majors in the first round of the tournament.  And don't tell me you can't do it.  What's wrong with having Nova take on Drake and Clemson take on Western Kentucky in the first round and Butler face Arizona and West Virginia take on South Alabama.  Its the only way to really see how good the mid majors are.

And oh, one final thing.  Eric Gordon, stay in school. You have a lot to work on, young man, most importantly giving your teammates 40 minutes of effort.  No, Mal, I'm not letting up on Gordon.

I may have some more thoughts later.  But its now time to head to St John's to watch Tony Bozzella's Lady Gaels take on the Red Storm in the second round of the Women's NIT.

One More Posting from Raleigh

Its 4:00 am on Monday morning, heading out to the airport shortly to fly back to Long Island.  its been a fun trip.  I'd say of the six games I witnessed, only two, the two games with Davidson were really good games.  Yes, North Carolina looked awesome in their two wins, but the two Davidson games, they were special (yesterday's Arkansas game was over when NC started out 9-0).  There are certain things you can say you have done in your life, outside of the special things with your family which are obvious, that you will be able to look back on when they are mentioned that you can say, "Yes, I was there".  But to be able to say that you did this with two longtime friends (and your friend's wife who is terrific) on a great trip, that's extra special.

Well, yes, I was there to see Davidson come back in both their games to beat higher seeded opponents.  But the Georgetown game was extra special.  Being a life Long Island native (I was originally going to use boy instead of native, but alas at 42, that doesn't work anymore), I have watched a lot of Big East games in my day, live or on TV.  I can't ever recollect any team coming back from a 17 point deficit to the mighty Georgetown Hoyas (I have to go and do some homework on that).  Yet, I witnessed Davidson do exactly just that. 

Its a tribute to Bob McKillop's philosophy of ball movement that basically wore down two teams, Gonzaga and Georgetown. Its because the Wildcat players continually move, continually pass, look for weaknesses that eventually the other team just basically wears out on defense.   Yes, Georgetown had 20 turnovers, but much of that credit should go to an underrated Wildcat defensive effort,  And yes, Georgetown was abysmal in free throw shooting.  But remember, Georgetown shot 63 percent for the game. But if you watched the game yesterday for the first 25 minutes (at least), Georgetown's swallowing defense contained Stephen Curry, Jason Richards and friends.  Curry only had 5 points after the first 25 minutes of the game.  But basically in those last 15 minutes, Davidson started getting Curry open, and Curry started hitting those shots.  And we got to witness one of the most amazing performances at the end of a game that you will ever see...by a sophomore no less. 

But it wasn't just Curry. Richards had 20 points on several drives to the basket.  Andrew Lovedale had another solid game with 11 points and 5 rebounds.  And Davidson took Roy Hibbert out of the game and was able to rebound with the Hoyas.  It wasn't a one man show, but one man did stand out.  Curry is an amazing talent.  Its not that he is just able to shoot, he can drive to the basket. He can find the open man (Curry had 5 assists).  And he works hard.  He is in constant motion. 

It was a pleasure to watch this game.  Well, time to go catch another flight.  I'll talk more about the other games from Sunday probably tomorrow. 

Quick Post on Yesterday's Second Round Action

Please make sure after reading this to check my previous post below on a big development in the CAA coaching ranks.

It wasn't a good day picks wise for me.  After a stellar Friday night evening session, I went only 4-4.  After watching Duke barely beat Belmont, I had a feeling that West Virginia would beat Duke.  They just pounded the Blue Devils on the boards, outrebounding Duke by a whopping 45-19.  Joe Alexander had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Joe Mazzula had 13 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists for the Mountaineers.  West Virginia now faces Xavier in the Sweet Sixteen.

Trevon Hughes scored 25 points, more than double his season average, as Wisconsin shot 52 percent from the field downing Kansas State 72-55.  Michael Beasley and Bill Walker combined for 41 points on 15 of 30 shooting from the field, but the their teammates were held by the Badgers to 6 of 23 from the field. 

Purdue did its best to hang with Xavier, but the Musketeers balance was too much for the Boilermakers as CJ Anderson and Drew Lavender each had 18 points to lead Xavier over Purdue 85-78.  Xavier shot 54 percent from the field and went 26-33 from the line.  Here is the amazing thing about Purdue. Their entire starting five, which consists of two freshmen, two sophomores, and a junior returns next year. The Boilermakers will be good for the next several years.

Washington State' smothering defense held Notre Dame to 24.6 percent shooting as the Cougars hammered the Fighting Irish 61-41.  Big East player of the year, Luke Harangody, who averages shooting 50 percent from the field, was held to 3 of 17 shooting in the game. The Fighting Irish were held to about 39 points under their season average by the stingy Cougars.

In the best game of the day, Marquette did everything it could against Stanford, including outrebounding the much taller Cardinal, but in the end, it was too much Brook Lopez.  Lopez had 30 points, including the game winning basket with 1.3 seconds leading the Cardinal over the Golden Eagles 82-81.  Stanford coach Trent Johnson was ejected in the first half of the game for stepping onto the court before time had been officially called after his first technical foul.  Johnson admitted later he was out of line.  There was a major disparity in the free throw attempts as Marquette had only 12 compared to Stanford's 28.

Kansas showed the country how well they can play defense as the Jayhawks held UNLV to 26 percent shooting from the field and pulled away from the pesky Runnin Rebels in the second half, winning 75-56.  The Jayhawks also shot 58 percent from the field, led by Mario Chalmers with 17 points. The Rebels kept the score as close as it was by shooting 27 of 34 from the foul line.

Michigan State outplayed Pitt at its own game as the Spartans downed the Panthers 65-54.  The Spartans held the Panthers to 32 percent shooting and outrebounded the Panthers 32-20.  Pitt had no answer for Spartan guards Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas who combined for 40 points.  Lucas repeatedly drove by the Panthers guards who could not keep up with the freshman's quick drives.  And if it wasn't Lucas driving by them, it was Neitzel burying one of his six threes.  Pitt stayed in the game by shooting 18 of 19 from the foul line.  Levance Fields led the Panthers with 19 points.

Finally, in the second most exciting game, despite being outplayed for most of the game by an inspired Texas A&M team, UCLA managed to comeback and beat the Aggies 53-49.  Kevin Love and Drew Collison, combined for 40 of the Bruins 50 points and made huge baskets at the end.  The Bruins were down as many as 10 points in the second half 36-26 as Texas A&M' Josh Carter scored the first five points of the second half.  However, UCLA chipped away at the lead cutting it to 44-43 with 5:25 left. The next two minutes were crucial in that the Aggies had a chance to extend the lead but missed on three of four free throw attempts and were only up 45-43 with 3:20 left.  Kevin Love then hit two turnaround jumpers to put the Bruins up 47-45. The Aggies would tie the game up at 47, then again at 49, until Collison hit his second layup in a row to put the Bruins up two, 51-49.  Then the Bruins' Josh Shipp  blocked Donald Sloan's shot attempt and Russell Westbrook picked up the loose ball and ended the game with an emphatic jam.

New JMU Coach, Marist Women's Comeback

I will have my thoughts on the second round games that occurred yesterday later this morning.

I have it on very good authority that the new head coach of James Madison will be current Marist head coach Matt Brady.  Brady, who just finished his fourth season coaching the Red Foxes, led Marist to an 18-14 record this year.  The previous season, Brady coached Marist to a school record 25 wins, including a 67-64 win over Oklahoma State in the NIT.  Jared Jordan who was on that team, was drafted 45th overall by the San Diego Clippers.  Brady is 74-50 in his four years at Marist. 

Before taking over at Marist, Brady was the top assistant at St Joseph's for 11 years and was responsible for recruiting top Hawks players, including current NBA players Jameer Nelson and Delonte West. 

The Poughkeepsie Journal is reporting that he is interviewing there on Monday.  Brady when interviewed said he had no comment on that.  My source says he will get the job.

Speaking of Marist, I was at the McGregor Draft House in Raleigh last night and watched an absolutely terrific comeback by the Red Foxes who outscored DePaul 32-2 down the stretch for a 76-57 win over the Blue Demons in the first round of the NCAA Women's Tournament.  Rachele Fitz led the Red Foxes with 23 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Juliane Viani had 16 of her 18 points in the second half. The Red Foxes now face #2 seed LSU on LSU's home court in the second round.

By the way, if you are ever in Raleigh, I highly recommend the McGregor Draft House.  Great burgers, great location for sporting events, with a the bar covered with many Samsung 40 inch HD TVs (I have the same model at home).  The owner and the staff are very friendly, courteous and provide great service.  And on Saturdays, $2.75 pints all day.  Needless to say, I had several. :-)

Thoughts on the First Two Days of the Tourney

There wasn't much in doubt last night in Raleigh as the two higher seeds won, but that doesn't mean it wasn't entertaining.  On the contrare, watching North Carolina and Mount St Mary's run a track meet in the first game was very enjoyable.  And of course, basically being in their backyard, the arena was filled with Carolina Blue.  Everyone knew, including the Mountaineers, that North Carolina was going to win.  The Tar Heels on offense are like a good NBA team, and you got the feeling that Hansborough, Lawson and company would have easily beaten the Knicks last nignt, let alone a 17-15 team that won the NEC championship.    The game was basically over in the first half as the Tar Heels went up 60-41 at the half.  However, you got a great sense from the Mountaineers that they weren't intimidated and were out there to play their game, no matter what.  They ran up and down the court with the Heels, playing a run and gun style that played to the Tar Heels superior athleticism.  They were able to score 41 first half points on the Heels (who are not a very good defensive team).  And the Heels crowd was into it, as I found out that the local Bojangles restaurants offer two for one sausage biscuits if the Heels score 100 in a game, which happened with about 7 minutes left.  But at the end of the game, the Mountaineers pulled their starting lineup and their head coach was high fiving all his players for their effort.

In between games, many of the fans like us, gathered around the TVs to watch the end of the St Joe's/Oklahoma game, and the comeback of Mississippi State as the Ducks of Oregon shot brick after brick from the field late in the second half, as if they were building a house.   The amazing thing, and typical of CBS, was that they had an amazing upset with #13 Siena clocking #4 Vanderbilt, they never went to the end of the game, despite several minutes left in the Oregon-Miss State game.  So, I had to give a couple of people updates on my cell phone of the Saints-Commodores game.

Then it was onto the end of the first day, as Indiana took on Arkansas.  First it was clear to the three of us (Mal, Tieff and me) that outside of DJ White and Armon Bassett (who combined for 43 points), the Hoosiers were just not putting that much of an effort on the court.  If the Hoosiers gave the effort that the Mountaineers did in the first game, it might have been a different story.  But "star guard" freshman Eric Gordon had an absolutely miserable game.  Gordon shot 3 of 15 from the field, 2 of 6 from the line and his effort was completely lacking.  He better not even think of applying for the NBA draft.  He is simply not ready.  Its a shame that White and Bassett had to deal with that kind of game from the supposed best player on the team.

Now it takes a lot to make me look like a genius (and ask my wife, Chelle would say "A Lot!"), but I went 8 for 8 in the evening sessions last night, including my picks of Oklahoma State, Miss State and my upset specials of Villanova and Siena, where I made my friend Mal lots of money, and re-established my street cred on college basketball.   

Now for my awards for the first two days of the first round of games.

Most Disappointing First Round Performance - Kent State.  Its not even close.  I watched the Golden Flashes several times this year, including four games at the end of the season and I thought Jim Christian's group had poise, athleticism, basketball smarts and the physical play to give teams fits in the tournament.  Then they went out, played absolutely scared ball, where they had by far more turnovers, 17, to points 10.  They shot miserably and just looked unprepared.  Just amazing.

Most Inspirational Performance - San Diego's Brandon Johnson.  Despite being clearly hurt, Johnson played through the pain, kept his Toreros going and gave them the motivation to pull off the upset of UConn in the first round.

Most Amazing First Round Regional First Day Bracket EVER - The Tampa regional.  Four games, four much higher seeds gone.  Two overtime games that came down to a buzzer beater.  Another game, where the 12 seed, Nova, came back from an 18 point deficit.  Another game where the #13 seed, Siena played like the #4 seed and completely, demolished the real #4 seed, Vanderbilt. 

You Saw This Coming, But It Was Still an Amazing Train Wreck - Siena over Vanderbilt.  I predicted this on Sunday as soon as I saw the bracket and it was my best bet of the tourney (and it made Mal lots of money).  However, still, to see Siena completely outplay Vandy is really amazing.

Best Performance by a Player -  Tie - Jack McClinton - Miami and Stephen Curry - Davidson.  Talk about two great performances. First, McClinton simply put the Canes on his back and scored 32 points in the second half to lead Miami over St Mary''s.  Second half score McClinton 32, St Mary' 32.  Problem is that the rest of Miami's team scored an additional 18 points.  As for Curry, he was just amazing to watch live.  Every time he shot the basketball, it was like "Bang, its going in".  And Bang, its going in.  There was one play at the end of the game where Gonzaga was trying to desperately trap Curry with two players. Curry puts on this sick crossover dribble which causes the two Zags to run into each other.  A collective "oh" came from the arena.  It was that impressive.

Best Performance by a Team - There were many teams that had terrific performances such as Siena, Western Kentucky, Notre Dame, among others, but Butler's thorough beating of South Alabama despite Mike Green only having 5 points on 5 field goal attempts stands out.

Best Game - Tie - Belmont -Duke/Western Kentucky-Drake -  I watched the Belmont-Duke game and it was a great game throughout, despite the disappointing end (disappointing for non Duke fans).  As for the Hilltoppers and the Bulldogs, you kept looking at the score wondering "When will Drake make a run?"  Well they did, setting up an exciting overtime end of a game that many fans will remember for a long time.

Most Heartbreaking End - Had to be the Drake -Western Kentucky game.  The Bulldogs were down 16 points in the second half against the Hilltoppers, who played a great game and shot the lights out.  However, Drake, as they have all year, made an amazing comeback and briefly went ahead at the end of regulation, only to have Western Kentucky tie the game.  Then in the overtime, as the Bulldogs went ahead at the end of the game and looked to have it won, Ty Rogers nailed a 26 foot three pointer with three Bulldogs in his face.  It was a sad end to such a great season for Drake.

Most Disappointing Performance By a Supposed Great Player - Eric Gordon.  Wasn't even close.  Whoever gets that coaching position at Indiana needs to have a long talk with that kid, because he played like that for me, he'd be gone.  Felt bad the Hoosier fans who had to witness that.

Player That Looks Most Like a Movie Character - Steven Hill, Arkansas.  I've seen Hill play before and never realized until Hill came off the bench last night, when a fan yelled "Its Teen Wolf", that it became so apparent.  With the head band, the long scruffy hair and equally scruffy beard, Steven Hill IS Teen Wolf.  And get this, there was full moon last night, so Hill was in his element!  Give Hill credit though. He played 18 solid minutes with great hustling effort, unlike the much more talented, ballyhooed Eric Gordon.  No, I am not letting up on Eric Gordon.

Best Conference - Big East.  The Big East got a lot of flack for having eight teams in the tourney.  Well, they went 7-1, including the last team in the tourney, Nova, taking out one of the hot picks of the tourney, Clemson. Had it not been for an AJ Price injury, UConn might have made it a perfect 8-0.

Worst Performance by a Conference - A-10.   Xavier's late second half comeback spared the A-10 the indignity of having all three teams exit out of the first round of the tournament.  Temple and St Joe's non conference schedule showed that they were not ready for prime time and their play, sans St Joe's late second half spurt, clearly showed it.  But a lot of prognosticators made St Joe's and Temple the sexy picks due to the A-10's seemingly deep number of competitive teams.   However, I was not surprised by this as I had both teams gone after the first round due to the aformentioned non-conference play.  Temple hadn't beat anyone non-conference, what made people think they would beat an experienced Michigan State team.  And don't get me started on St Joe's.

Second Round Game I Wish I Could See Live - Butler vs. Tennessee.   That's going to be lots of fun

Second Round Game I Am So Glad I Get to See Live - Davidson vs. Georgetown.  People don't realize how well Gonzaga played against the Wildcats, only to see the Stephen Curry show explode onto the national scene (by the way, met his dad, former NBA great Dell Curry during the second game, great honor).   The   Wildcats need to do a better job rebounding though against a much bigger Hoyas team, because they were dominated on the boards by the Zags.  If Coverdale and friends can hold their own there, it will be close.

That's it for now.  And oh yeah, at noon today on ESPN, its the MAC vs. the A-10, as Akron takes on UMass.  Lets see if Tom Kemp's boys can shoot their free throws and send another A-10 team home for Easter.