NMSU ousts Nevada in WAC tournament
Reno, Nev. -- Jahmar Young earned himself a place in New Mexico State history. The junior guard lifted the Aggies to an 80-79 win over Nevada on Friday night with a 15-foot jumper with 3.8 seconds remaining.
As a result, NMSU advances to tonight's Western Athletic Conference title game against Utah State at 8 p.m. MST at Lawlor Events Center.
Troy Gillenwater led New Mexico State with 21 points and eight rebounds.
With the win, New Mexico State and Utah State will play for a third time this season and continue what has turned into a heated rivalry. In an 82-65 win over NMSU last Saturday, Stew Morrill and Young got into a verbal altercation, a run-in that led to Morrill being reprimanded by the WAC for foul language.
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Princeton wins Ivy League title
Princeton (25-2, 13-0) clinched the Ivy League title and a first-ever spot in the NCAA women's basketball tournament last night with a 78-66 victory over Harvard (19-8, 10-3) in Cambridge, Mass.
"Winning the Ivy League is a very difficult thing to do," Tigers coach Courtney Banghart said. "To do it by sweeping Dartmouth and Harvard on their courts is a testament to how far this team has come."
Freshman Niveen Rasheed had 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Tigers, who can finish with a perfect league record when they host Penn in Jadwin Gym at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Amy Donovan and Jess Knapp each scored 12 points as Penn beat host Dartmouth, 44-31, in Hanover, N.H.
Notre Dame 89, Louisville 52 - Erica Williamson scored 16 points as No. 6 Notre Dame (26-4) thumped the Cardinals (14-17) in the second round of the Big East tournament in Hartford, Conn.
In other games, Erica Morrow scored 24 points to lead Syracuse past Providence, 76-71, while Katherine Harry had 17 as DePaul beat Marquette, 64-54. Brittany Ray poured in 21 points as Rutgers demolished Cincinnati, 70-44.
Tennessee 68, Vanderbilt 49 - Alyssia Brewer scored 15 points and the No. 4 Vols (29-2) rolled over the Commodores (22-10) in Duluth, Ga., to advance to the Southeastern Conference tournament title game.
The Vols will play Kentucky (25-6), winners over Mississippi State, 76-65.
Duke 67, Georgia Tech 55 - Jasmine Thomas scored all 10 of her points in the second half and the No. 9 Blue Devils (26-5) used a late 20-7 run to reach the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title game by beating the Yellow Jackets (22-9) in Greensboro, N.C.
Nikitta Gartrell scored 25 points to help North Carolina State rally past Boston College, 63-57, sending the Wolfpack (20-12) into today's final against Duke.
Iowa 59, Michigan State 54 - Kachine Alexander had 14 points and 10 rebounds, helping the Hawkeyes (19-12) beat the No. 25 Spartans (22-9) in the Big Ten tournament semifinals in Indianapolis.
The Hawkeyes advance to today's championship game, where they will play No. 10 Ohio State, who got 29 points from Samantha Prahalis and 27 from Jantel Lavender to beat Wisconsin, 82-73.
Stanford 63, California 48 - Nnemkadi Ogwumike had 22 points as the second-ranked Cardinal (28-1, 18-0 Pac-10) slammed the Golden Bears (17-12, 11-7) in Berkeley, Calif.
Nebraska 82, Kansas State 72 - Kelsey Griffin's 36 led the No. 3 Cornhuskers (29-0, 16-0 Big 12) over the Wildcats (13-17, 5-11) in Manhattan, Kan.
Iowa State 59, Colorado 41 - Kelsey Bolte scored 19 points as the No. 13 Cyclones (23-6, 11-5) locked up the No. 2 seed in the Big Twelve tournament with a win over the Buffaloes (13-16, 3-13) in Ames, Iowa.
Texas A&M 78, Kansas 54 - Danielle Adams led the Aggies (22-7, 10-6) in a Big Twelve rout of the Jayhawks (15-14, 5-11) in Lawrence, Kan.
East Tennessee State 63, North Florida 62 -TaRonda Wiles hit a baseline jumper in the final seconds as the Buccaneers (23-8) survived an upset bid by the Ospreys (12-20) to win the Atlantic Sun championship in Macon, Ga.
Austin Peay 69, Eastern Illinois 60 - Nicole Jamen scored 19 points, and the Govs (15-17) beat the Panthers (23-10) in Nashville to win the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.
Nyack 45, Holy Family 43 - Catherine Carr missed a 15-foot shot with four seconds left and the Tigers (28-2) lost to the Purple Pride (21-11) in the Central Atlantic Athletic Conference title game in Caldwell, N.J.
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Northern women at Augie Wednesday
Mar. 1--The Northern State women's basketball team will be the seventh seed in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament.
NSU will play at No. 2 Augustana College in Sioux Falls on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the first round.
Other first round pairings for the NSIC women's tournament include: No. 8 Minnesota State, Mankato at No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul, 7 p.m.; No. 5 Winona State at No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth, 7 p.m.; No. 6 Minnesota State-Moorhead at No. 3 Wayne State, 7 p.m. The highest remaining seed following the first round will host both the semifinal games and championship on Saturday and Sunday.
The winner of the conference tournament earns an automatic qualification to the 2010 NCAA Division II women's basketball Central Regional tournament on March 12-13 and 15 at a site to be determined.
The Northern State men's basketball team did not qualify for the conference tournament. The first round pairings for the NSIC men's basketball tournament include: No. 8 Southwest Minnesota State at No. 1 Minnesota State, Mankato, 7 p.m.; No. 5 University of Mary at No. 4 Winona State, 7 p.m.; No. 7 Concordia-St. Paul at No. 2 St. Cloud State, 7 p.m.; No. 6 Wayne State at No. 3 Augustana College, 8 p.m. The highest remaining seed following the first round will host both the semifinal games and championship on Saturday and Sunday.
The winner of the conference tournament earns an automatic qualification to the 2010 NCAA Division II men's basketball Central Regional tournament on March 13-14 and 16 at a site to be determined.
Copyright 2010 Ultio, LLC
USC's O'Neill expects rematch with UCLA to be much closerLOS ANGELES - USC defeated UCLA last month by its greatest margin since the 1945 season, but Trojans coach Kevin O'Neill expects tonight's contest at the Galen Center to be far closer than 21 points.
"It will be down to the last second, I assume," O'Neill said Saturday. "This time it won't be easy. Obviously it won't be the same margin as last time."
Forward Marcus Johnson said the Trojans will play with more motivation because there are only seven games left in the season, thanks to self-imposed sanctions that will keep USC out of postseason play.
"All these last few games have extra emotion, these are my last games," Johnson said. "Definitely, you can't come into this game expecting (UCLA) to do the exact same thing the last time we played."
Despite the expected boost from that big victory in Westwood, USC (14-9, 6-5) is only 3-3 since it defeated UCLA.
"We've blown some leads in the second half," O'Neill said. "We need to make some transition baskets against UCLA."
Keeping healthy
The Trojans are relatively injury-free this season, which is helpful because O'Neill usually only uses seven players.
"We've been lucky with injuries," he said. "We only practice hard once a week. If we had any major injuries, we're done."
Recruit watch
Larry Lewis, a 6-2 sophomore guard from Arcadia High School in Phoenix who averages 22 points per game, was at USC on Saturday. Shabazz Muhammad, a sophomore guard at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas and one of the top players in the country for his class, is expected to attend tonight's game. His father is former USC basketball player Ron Holmes.
Getting noticed
USC forward Nikola Vucevic scored a career-high 19 points in last month's victory over UCLA. O'Neill said the 6-foot-10 sophomore is attracting attention from NBA scouts.
"I think everybody thinks he is a year off, maybe two depending on his progress," O'Neill said. `I have said this many times to Nikola every day, once he learns how to play hard every single day he is going to be a very good player. The games that he does not particularly play well in stretches is not because he is lazy.
"He is still young. It's his first year of really playing in this situation and sometimes his maturity level does not allow him to play hard all the time."
Trash talk
Tonight's game could allow USC to sweep UCLA for the first time since 2004. It also would be USC's first victory over the Bruins at the Galen Center. The Trojans are 0-3 against UCLA.
Johnson said comments from UCLA fans will decrease if USC earns a sweep.
"When I'm in 'SC gear, I've heard, `We're going to kill you' and `You're going to lose' from UCLA fans," Johnson said. "You try to tune it out. But UCLA fans are always going to do that."
Copyright (c)2008 Los Angeles Newspaper group
NCAA still looking at tournament expansion, but not past discussion stage yetKANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The NCAA has met with conference commissioners, university presidents and athletic directors about the possibility of expanding the men's basketball tournament.
So far, it's slow going.
The NCAA started talking about expansion in the fall, along with numerous topics in all 88 championships, and hasn't gotten past the discussion stage yet.
"It's still a work in progress, so there's no further developments or status from (the fall)," NCAA senior vice-president Greg Shaheen said. "It's just a series of ongoing dialogues with interested parties, but nothing definitive to even analyze at this point."
It certainly hasn't stopped the conversation.
Many coaches and administrators like the idea of expansion and believe its a necessary step to accommodate a growing game. There are more teams than ever - 347 in Division I - more depth in the bigger conferences and more talent at the mid-major level.
Whether it's increasing the tournament field to 68 (four play-in games instead of one) or enveloping the NIT to make it a 96-team field, more teams are bound to add up to more excitement, the thinking goes.
"If you're talking about adding more teams, I don't think the games would change a bit," Texas Tech coach Pat Knight said. "They'd be just as competitive and I think you'd see more Cinderella stories, more teams people didn't think had a chance and there'd be a lot more upsets if the NCAA expanded the tournament."
Another argument is that a larger field would give teams from smaller conferences a better chance of getting in. Giving automatic bids to the regular-season and conference tournament champions would reward consistency while still allowing for surprise.
"That would add more relevance to the regular season, instead of just having big games being bracket busters and things like that," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I could see it going to 96, but if they do, I would like to see the regular season champs rewarded. That would give the conferences who don't get more than one bid a chance to have two bids. If you expand, you would want that to happen."
In the current format, 18 per cent of the teams get into the NCAA tournament and another 9 per cent receive invites to the NIT. That's far below the number of teams that get post-season berths in football: 68 of 120 teams, or 56 per cent. By comparison, 53 per cent of NHL and NBA teams get into the playoffs, 37 per cent in the NFL and 26 per cent in baseball.
But to some, that low percentage is part of what makes the NCAA tournament special.
The NCAA tournament, in a way, is like The Masters in golf. Because it's such a small field, just getting there is an honour and adding to the field could cheapen the accomplishment. Expanding the tournament also could devalue interest in the regular season, reduce drama in post-season conference tournaments and possibly weaken the NCAA field.
"I think it makes it a really special tournament when only 64 get in," Washington State coach Ken Bone said. "I really like the way it is right now."
The heart of the issue is, as is always the case, money.
The NCAA has an 11-year, US$6 billion contract with CBS, but can opt out after this season. It has already consulted with several networks and isn't likely to pull the trigger on expansion without a green light from TV. CBS has a strong interest in keeping the tournament and other networks are reportedly putting together bids.
"I'm sure what's best for TV is what's probably going to happen and we all have to understand that," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "We wouldn't have the following we do in college basketball if it weren't for TV. As coaches and players, we're just playing games, and we'll be fine with whatever it is."
Expanding the NCAA tournament would not be simple. The NCAA would have to figure what to do with the NIT, how the brackets would be set up, how to handle byes, if it means the athletes will be away from school longer, how the money will be divided up.
"I'd like to take a look at all that before I pass judgment on whether it's a good thing," Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw said. "The 64-team tournament has been special."
The counter argument? If it is so special, why not let more teams and players feel it, too?
"The magnitude of the NCAA tournament now is so big that it's just a great experience for a kid to have that opportunity to play," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "Most guys in college don't go on to play professionally, so if you can say you played in the NCAA tournament, that really kind of changes your career as a college basketball player."
For now, it's all speculation. The NCAA isn't sharing details of its plan - to the chagrin of some coaches - and doesn't seem close to making a decision.
"It's worth discussing, but I'm not sure I've seen anyone who's come up with what would be the best formula," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "Football can't figure it out and they deal with a lot less teams. Just adding a few, there's a pro and a con with everything, so I don't know what the suggestion or the formula is. But I do believe it will be expanded in the next decade and I do have feelings that somebody will figure it out."
Copyright (c) 2010 The Canadian Press
NCAA basketball tournament isn't broken, so why fix it?The scrum of big-time sports may be adding to the pile soon. March Madness may become March Insanity.
The NCAA is pondering adding to its 65-team men's basketball tournament, making it a 96-team field. It is locked into the current format only through this year's championship game. After that, it can re-negotiate its $6-billion contract with CBS.
The 96-team field is a dumb idea, based on greed.
So expect it to happen.
If you give somebody more product, they have to pay more. It's a simple theory, and since big-time college sports is pretty much a product these days, 31 more packages filled with potential story lines should make CBS raise the ante and/or take in cable partners. One of the likely cable partners would be ESPN, the sugar daddy of American sports these days.
Is there no God? Expanding the tournament by 15 more games means that a network has paid for just that many more opportunities to subject viewers to three people sitting at a table analyzing what is going to happen before it happens, followed by three people sitting at a table analyzing what happened after it happened. How much more can we wallow in televised cliches and belabor the obvious?
The truth is there are already 97 teams that play in NCAA-owned postseason tournaments. It's just that 32 of them currently take part in the NIT (National Invitation Tournament), which should be called the TOL -- Tournament of Leftovers. It's only good for the coaches, who can tell their administration and alums that they got their team "into the postseason."
NCAA officials say that adding those teams to the big tournament would elevate their profile, and they're probably right. Can you imagine UCLA's Ben Howland talking to a group of Bruins boosters in the off-season and starting his speech with, "Well, last season was a success because we got to the NIT"? At least he wouldn't have to cite a junior tournament.
Coaches such as Howland and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke would have an understanding for the 96-team proposal, if it truly did the one thing Coach K advocated recently in his support of the expansion. That being put more emphasis on the regular-season conference race.
This year's Pacific 10 Conference is a prime example. The teams are so closely matched -- another way to say none of them are very good -- that whoever wins the conference title may not go to the NCAA tournament.
The Pac-10's automatic berth goes to the winner of its postseason tournament. The regular-season conference champion wins out over 18 games. The conference tournament champion wins out over four at the most, usually three.
Taking care of the regular-season champion is a good thing, but only in the current 65-team NCAA format. That means there would be no need for conference tournaments, which would mean doing away with another of college basketball's cash cows.
Which means that's not going to happen.
The NCAA is a business, but not a business of widget makers. It is supposed to be guided by its higher calling: the advancement of the education of our college students through athletics. It provides the raw material for the pros, but that doesn't mean it has to do business like them.
If it goes ahead with this plan to reach deeper into television's pockets, in return for the rights to televise another round of games matching the likes of 15-13 Washington State against 14-16 Northwestern, it should at least consider being right up front in its approach. Hire Tom Cruise, put him in his "Jerry Maguire" wardrobe and have him stand up in front of CBS executives, pound on the table and yell,"Show me the money!"
At least that would be honest.
If it isn't broken, don't fix it. And the NCAA basketball tournament is closer to being perfect than broken.
Instead of taking the Jerry Maguire image into contract talks with CBS, the NCAA would be best served by sitting down, pointing out the massive success and branding value this event brings to the network, and negotiating a reasonable increase.
When all the papers are signed, leave the meeting, meet the media and present an outline of how this additional money will be used. We should assume that it will further educational aspects of each member school.
That's the NCAA's reason to exist. Orchestrating disproportionately bigger and richer TV shows is not.
Copyright (c) 2010, The Los Angeles Times
UConn knocks off No. 1 Longhorns
Jerome Dyson scored a career-high 32 points and Connecticut (13-6) overcame a 10-point second-half deficit to upset top-ranked Texas 88-74 on Saturday in Storrs, Conn.
UConn coach Jim Calhoun missed his second game on a doctor-ordered leave of absence. Texas is 17-2.
No. 2 Kentucky 101, Arkansas 70 - Darius Miller had a career-high 18 points as the host Wildcats (19-0, 4-0 SEC) coasted by the Razorbacks (8-11, 1-3).
No. 3 Kansas 84, Iowa State 61 - Cole Aldrich tied a season high with 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and the visiting Jayhawks (18-1, 4-0) topped the Cyclones (12-7, 1-3).
No. 4 Villanova 81, St. John's 71 - Scottie Reynolds scored 19 points and the Wildcats (18-1, 7-0 Big East) matched the 1950-51 team for the best start in school history, defeating the host Red Storm (12-7, 2-5).
No. 5 Syracuse 76, Marquette 71 - Wes Johnson had 22 points and 15 rebounds for the host Orangemen (19-1, 6-1 Big East). Marquette is 11-8, 2-5.
No. 6 Michigan State 65, Minnesota 64 - Kalin Lucas scored 22 points and the visiting Spartans (17-3, 7-0 Big Ten) rallied to beat the Gophers (12-7, 3-4).
No. 7 Duke 60, No. 17 Clemson 47 - Nolan Smith scored 22 points and the visiting Blue Devils cruised.
Georgia 78, No. 8 Tennessee 63 - Trey Thompkins scored 21 points and the host Bulldogs (9-8, 1-3 SEC) led by double digits most of the way to top the Vols (15-3, 3-1).
Oklahoma St. 73, No. 10 Kansas St. 69 - James Anderson scored 30 points and Obi Muonelo hit two key 3-pointers in the final minutes to boost the visiting Cowboys (15-4, 3-2 Big 12) past the Wildcats (16-3, 3-2).
No. 11 West Virginia 71, No. 21 Ohio State 65 - Da'Sean Butler scored 21 points and the host Mountaineers (15-3) rallied from 14 points down to beat the Buckeyes (14-6).
No. 12 Georgetown 88, Rutgers 63 - Greg Monroe finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds as the host Hoyas (15-3, 6-2 Big East) topped the Scarlet Knights (9-10, 0-7).
No. 13 Purdue 69, Michigan 59 - JaJuan Johnson scored 21 points as the host Boilermakers (16-3, 4-3 Big Ten) topped Michigan (10-9, 3-4), which played without the conference's top scorer, guard Manny Harris, who'd been suspended for unsportsmanlike conduct during practice Friday.
No. 14 BYU 71, San Diego St. 69 - Jimmer Fredette had a game-high 33 points as the Cougars won at San Diego St.
No. 15 Gonzaga 85, Loyola Marymount 69 - Elias Harris had 22 points as the host Zags (16-3, 5-0 West Coast Conference) topped the Lions (10-11, 1-4).
No. 16 Temple 62, Fordham 45 - Juan Fernandez scored 13 points as the Owls (17-3, 5-0 Atlantic 10) topped the Rams (2-16, 0-6).
No. 22 Mississippi 73, LSU 63 - Chris Warren scored all 14 of his points in the last nine minutes as the visiting Rebels (14-4, 3-2 SEC) held off the Tigers (9-10, 0-5).
Alabama 62, No. 23 Mississippi St. 57 - Anthony Brock and JaMychal Green each made two free throws in the final 18 seconds to lift the host Crimson Tide (12-7, 2-3 SEC) over the Bulldogs (15-4, 3-1).
No. 25 Baylor 71, Massachusetts 45 - Ekpe Udoh and Tweety Carter each scored 23 points to lead the host Bears (15-3) past the Minutemen (7-12).
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