ESPN March To Motown Blog

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- What did we learn from Sunday's South Regional final at FedExForum?

Oklahoma sophomore Blake Griffin is indeed the best player in college basketball.

But, more importantly, North Carolina might be the best team in the country.

The No. 1-seeded Tar Heels routed the No. 2-seeded Sooners 72-60 at FedExForum, earning UNC an NCAA-record 18th trip to the Final Four. North Carolina will play East Regional champion Villanova in Detroit on Saturday.

How good are the Tar Heels? Even with four-time All-American Tyler Hansbrough scoring only eight points after being saddled by foul trouble in the first half, the Tar Heels pretty much ran the Sooners off the floor.

UNC point guard Ty Lawson scored 19 points with five rebounds and five assists. Forward Danny Green scored 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting, and forward Deon Thompson had 10 points.

The Tar Heels, who will be trying for their fifth national championship and first since 2005, simply had too much depth and balance for Oklahoma.

The highly anticipated matchup between Hansbrough and Griffin never really developed.

Griffin is expected to be the No. 1 pick in June's NBA draft if he leaves school after his sophomore season. He more than lived up to the hype against UNC, scoring 23 points with 16 rebounds. Griffin made 9 of 12 shots and went 5-for-8 from the foul line.

Hansbrough scored eight points on 2-for-4 shooting, after playing only nine minutes in the first half after he picked up two early fouls. Hansbrough also had six rebounds and three assists.

But Hansbrough won the game, which is what mattered most to both players.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- North Carolina is about another 3-pointer away from burying No. 2 seed Oklahoma in the South Regional final at FedExForum.

Point guard Ty Lawson came out hot in the second half, making a pair of 3-pointers to help put UNC ahead 57-40 with about 10½ minutes to play.

Oklahoma's Blake Griffin is clearly the best player on the floor, with 21 points and 13 rebounds on 8-for-11 shooting.

But UNC has a much better team, at least today. Lawson has 16 points, Danny Green has 16 and Wayne Ellington has nine.

The Tar Heels have too much depth for Oklahoma, which isn't getting anything from guard Tony Crocker and very little from Willie Warren.

Griffin, as good as he might be, can't do it alone.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- No. 1 seed North Carolina has a 32-23 lead over No. 2 seed Oklahoma at halftime of Sunday's South Regional final at FedExForum.

Here's a few observations from the first 20 minutes:

• Oklahoma's Blake Griffin is probably winning the All-America battle against UNC's Tyler Hansbrough, but he isn't getting enough help from his OU teammates. The Tar Heels are doing a great job defending Griffin, denying him the ball in the post with constant double- and triple-teams. UNC coach Roy Williams is throwing an assortment of big men at Griffin, including Deon Thompson, Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis.

• Griffin scored 11 points in the first half, but took only four shots from the floor. He went 5-for-7 on foul shots, which drew some boos from the pro-Carolina crowd. Now they know what most UNC opponents feel like when Hansbrough goes to the line seemingly every trip.

• Hansbrough picked up two early personal fouls and sat on the bench for 11 of the 20 minutes. He scored four points on 2-for-3 shooting and grabbed one rebound in the first 20 minutes.

• I don't know that I've ever seen a better rebounder at the college level than Griffin. He has nine of the Sooners' 18 rebounds in the half and gets great position to pull the ball down. Still, UNC is hanging with OU on the boards; the Sooners have an 18-15 advantage in rebounds.

• If Oklahoma is going to come back, it's going to have to start making some 3-pointers. The Sooners were 0-for-9 from beyond the 3-point line in the first half. Guard Tony Crocker, who scored 28 points against Syracuse in the Sweet 16, never got in a rhythm in the first half against UNC. He picked up two early fouls and went scoreless on 0-for-3 shooting in seven minutes.

Freshman Willie Warren is also going to have to shoot the ball better in the second half, after going 1-for-5 and 0-for-3 on 3-pointers.

• OU point guard Austin Johnson is holding his own against UNC's Ty Lawson. Johnson didn't score in the first half, but he didn't turn the ball over once. Lawson scored four points on 2-for-6 shooting. OU has to do a better job of taking care of the ball, though; the Heels scored 13 points off nine turnovers.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- After North Carolina threatened to blow Oklahoma off the floor with a 15-4 run to start the game, the Sooners are making a move to get back into it.

All-America forward Blake Griffin is leading the way, grabbing seven of his team's eight rebounds. In fact, the sophomore is outrebounding UNC, 7-5.

Twice the Tar Heels picked up personal fouls while battling Griffin for a rebound. UNC All-American Tyler Hansbrough picked up his second personal foul while going over Griffin's back, sending him to the bench with 13:08 to play in the half.

UNC reserve Bobby Frasor picked up three personal fouls in less than five minutes on the floor. He's also sitting on the bench.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Not a good start for Oklahoma.

The Sooners are behind 7-2 at the first media timeout, and guard Tony Crocker is already on the bench with two personal fouls. Crocker had a career-high 28 points in OU's victory over Syracuse in the Sweet 16 on Friday night.

All-Americans Blake Griffin of OU and Tyler Hansbrough of UNC were matched up against each other on both ends of the floor for the first few possessions. Hansbrough, a senior, got the best of Griffin on the first couple of possessions. Hansbrough beat Griffin for a rebound on the first possession, and Griffin missed his first shot.

Griffin and his brother, Taylor, are doing a nice job defending Hansbrough, though. The four-time All-American hasn't taken a shot in UNC's first six possessions.

Taylor Griffin picked up Hansbrough on defense a couple of trips into the game, and he might stick with him after Blake Griffin picked up a silly personal foul after Ty Lawson stole the ball from him.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Seeing Jason Capel wearing a crimson Oklahoma shirt behind the Sooners' bench has to be a strange sight for North Carolina fans inside FedExForum.

But that's where Capel, the former UNC starter, is sitting for today's South Regional final between No. 1 seed UNC and No. 2 seed Oklahoma. Capel will be cheering for his older brother, Sooners coach Jeff Capel.

Jeff Capel played at Duke from 1993 to '97. Jason played at UNC from 1998 to 2002, when he was one of only 10 players to start all four years for the Tar Heels. He was UNC's leading scorer as a senior.

But Jeff Capel said he expected nothing less from his younger brother.

"As far as my brother, he's going to have on a red shirt tomorrow," Jeff Capel said Saturday. "It will be a red OU shirt, and he'll be cheering for us, which he should. I know a lot of Carolina people may not like that, but he was my brother before he was a Tar Heel. And he'll always be my little brother. He'll be cheering hard for us tomorrow."

Jason Capel appears to be sitting next to his mother, Jerry. His father, Jeff Capel II, is an assistant coach on Larry Brown's coaching staff with the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats and isn't believed to be in attendance here.

Jason Capel has nervously been chewing gum for about 20 minutes. He didn't stand clap when the OU band played the school's fight song, but he did cheer for the Sooners as they left the court for their locker room after warm-ups.

The Sooners need all the fans they can get. A quick glance of the stands shows UNC fans outnumber their OU counterparts by at least 50 to 1. It really looks like a UNC home game back at the Dean Dome.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Sunday's South Regional final between No. 1 seed North Carolina and No. 2 seed Oklahoma at FedExForum is being billed as a heavyweight fight.

Oklahoma All-American Blake Griffin will square off against UNC forward Tyler Hansbrough, a four-time All-American.

A trip to next week's Final Four in Detroit is on the line.

But the battle between two of the smallest players on the court, point guards Ty Lawson of UNC and Austin Johnson of Oklahoma, might have as much bearing on the game's outcome.

Lawson, the ACC Player of the Year, has averaged 21 points in two NCAA tournament games after missing his team's previous three games with a sprained right big toe. Lawson had 15 assists and one turnover combined in UNC's victories over LSU in the second round and Gonzaga in the Sweet 16.

Even with the toe injury, Lawson has looked as fast as any player in the NCAA tournament.

"Their program is known for having very, very good point guards," said Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, who faced a few UNC point guards during his playing days at Duke. "He's following right in line with the tradition of that. As far as speed, it's tough to gauge speed on tape. [Friday night's game against Gonzaga] was the first time I'd ever seen him play live, and he's really, really fast. I think [Syracuse's Jonny] Flynn is fast. We had a kid in our league last year, [Texas'] D.J. Augustin, who was pretty fast. [Kansas'] Sherron Collins is pretty fast. How does he measure up against those guys? I'm not sure. But he is really, really fast with the ball."

Johnson will be charged with trying to slow down Lawson. Johnson, a senior from Amarillo, Texas, is more of a natural shooting guard. In three NCAA tournament games, Johnson has averaged 9.3 points with 12 assists and eight turnovers.

"He's had a really good year this year," Capel said. "And in the past, when he's played well, we've won. I think one of the things that helps is that he has better players around him this year. So it takes a little bit of pressure off of him. But he's not the traditional sense of a point guard, where he's a guy that's going to break you down. He's not like a Flynn or a Lawson, one of those guys. He's a guy that gets you into your stuff and hasn't really made a lot of mistakes. And when he's knocking down open shots, then he gives you a different weapon."

Slowing down one of UNC's biggest weapons will be Johnson's primary task Sunday. He struggled to slow down Flynn in Oklahoma's 84-71 victory over the Orange in the Sweet 16 on Friday night. Flynn scored 22 points on 9-for-16 shooting but also had five turnovers.

Lawson, a junior from Clinton, Md., might be even faster than Flynn. Johnson hopes to compensate with his height advantage -- he is about 4 inches taller than the 5-foot-10 Lawson.

"He's a great, great guard, probably the best we've played against this year so far," Johnson said. "And it's not just going to be me. I think the post players have to help corral him, and [we have to play] team defense. But I'm just going to try to use my length to my advantage and stay in front of him and try to contest shots when I can."

Johnson knows he also has to avoid turnovers. He had six assists and four turnovers against the Orange.

"Turnovers is kind of what fuels them," Johnson said. "It will speed the game up and get them easy baskets. They're great in transition. So turnovers will just get open shots for them or easy baskets for them."

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- Enough with Ty Lawson's toe.

Given how much time has been spent the past three weeks discussing the UNC point guard's injured right big toe -- and how the ACC Player of the Year responded in each of the past two NCAA tournament games -- opponents have to be wondering whether Lawson even has a right toe anymore.

A day after UNC coach Roy Williams said Lawson told him his injured toe was about a "six" on a scale of one to 10, Lawson played nearly flawlessly in the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels' 98-77 rout of No. 4 seed Gonzaga in Friday night's South Region Sweet 16 game at FedEx Forum.

Lawson scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half and had nine assists and only one turnover in 27 minutes. He shot 7-for-9 from the floor, including 3-for-4 on 3-pointers.

"I know that yesterday morning I was very concerned," Williams said. "He didn't have very much time at all to get his foot in the pool. We have found that has been the one thing that's helped him more than anything. Because of everything that was going on Thursday, he almost had no chance of getting in there. Last night we were able to get him in the pool. We got him in there this morning, and that was really helpful to him."

Lawson played pretty well in UNC's 84-70 victory over LSU in the second round of the NCAA tournament after he missed the team's previous three games. He scored 23 points with six assists and two steals against the Tigers.

But Lawson told Williams the toe was throbbing after the Tar Heels flew to Memphis from North Carolina on Wednesday.

"The flight and the air pressure when you're up in the plane, I think that added a little bit of swelling to it," Williams said.

The Tar Heels spent most of Thursday practicing and fulfilling their media requirements, so Lawson didn't get to spend any time in the pool. Once Lawson did, Williams said his toe felt much better. Williams said UNC trainers had to get Lawson out of the pool because he nearly sprained his left ankle.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few said the toe injury might have helped Lawson in a strange way.

"In some instances, I think the toe injury might have helped Ty," Few said. "He's playing at a great pace right now. He's not forcing anything."

Lawson didn't have to force anything against the Bulldogs because so many of the Tar Heels were knocking down shots.

All-America forward Tyler Hansbrough scored 24 points on 8-for-10 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds. Guard Wayne Ellington scored 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting, and Danny Green had 13 points on 5-for-11 shooting. Green made three of the Tar Heels' 11 3-pointers.

"When Danny's hitting from the perimeter, we've got all our pieces and we're rolling," Ellington said. "They have to respect me and Danny from the perimeter and it gets us easier shots inside."

It probably won't be easy Sunday, when the Tar Heels play No. 2 seed Oklahoma with a trip to the Final Four in Detroit on the line.

The game will pit Hansbrough against Oklahoma sophomore Blake Griffin, the favorite for national player of the year.

"I think when you go against a player who obviously has done a lot, I just have to play my part within this team and not force anything," Hansbrough said. "I'm not looking at it as a matchup between me and Griffin. You see him play a lot on TV. I don't watch a lot of college basketball and I really don't know a lot about other players' games. Obviously, Griffin is getting a lot of hype. He's deserving and he's a great player."

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- The game everyone hoped to see in the South Region has come to fruition.

No. 1 seed North Carolina blasted No. 4 seed Gonzaga 98-77 in Friday night's semifinal, setting up a showdown for the Tar Heels against No. 2 seed Oklahoma in Sunday's Elite Eight final.

Of course, the final game of the South Region will be a showdown between Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin, the favorite for national player of the year, and UNC forward Tyler Hansbrough, the first four-time first-team All-American in ACC history.

Gonzaga couldn't slow down the Tar Heels from the opening tip, and UNC blew open the game shortly after halftime. Hansbrough scored 24 points on 8-for-10 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds. Guard Wayne Ellington scored 19 points with seven rebounds, and point guard Ty Lawson had 19 points with nine assists and four rebounds.

Lawson, who complained of throbbing pain in his injured right toe earlier this week, showed no signs of problems against Gonzaga. He shot 7-for-9 from the floor, including 3-for-4 on 3-pointers. He had only one turnover in 27 minutes.

The Tar Heels made 11 of 19 3-point attempts in the game.

Gonzaga cut UNC's lead to 11 points with about eight minutes to play, but UNC guard Bobby Frasor made 3-pointers on consecutive possessions, and then Ellington made a 3-point play to push the Tar Heels' cushion back to 20.

Oklahoma routed No. 3 seed Syracuse 84-71 in the earlier game Friday night, with Griffin scoring 30 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

Posted by Andy Katz

BOSTON -- Villanova's players had no idea about the history of the Spectrum. But Wildcats coach Jay Wright did.

He knew once the old home of the Sixers and Flyers got rockin', the Wildcats were in the midst of something special. This was the last game ever to be played at the Spectrum. And Villanova was on the verge of finally breaking through with a significant win.

Nova beat Pitt by 10 on that late January night, a game that saw DeJuan Blair become shackled by foul trouble and limited to just seven points and eight boards in 20 minutes, along with key reserve guard Brad Wanamaker fouling out after scoring 13 points in 22 minutes.

Wright said he has never coached in a hotter environment, sweating throughout the evening.

"The place was packed," said Wright, who grew up in the area and knew the history of the Spectrum quite well. "Everybody is fired up."

The game had been promoted in Philadelphia, and Wright said at the end of the game "the whole place was standing. There was a huge banner, the last game ever played, Pitt versus Villanova. For them it was a regular-season game. For us and everybody in Philadelphia it was a big, big event."

The game seemed to give the Wildcats instant credibility. They ripped off wins at Providence, over Syracuse and Marquette at home, and, but for a blip at West Virginia where their defense collapsed and a flat two-point loss at home to Georgetown, the Wildcats have been flying high. The only other defeat was a loss to eventual champ Louisville in the semifinals of the Big East tournament.

"I said to our staff after that [Pitt] game, 'Thank God we played them in here on this night and we don't have to see them again.' That was exactly what I said to our staff after the game," Wright said. "I really didn't think we were going to see them. But here they are. And they are good."

With the Wildcats and Panthers meeting in Saturday's Elite Eight game at TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, it's certain that at least one Big East team will be in the Final Four. Two others could follow if Connecticut beats Missouri in the West Regional final in Glendale, Ariz., and Louisville beats Michigan State the Midwest Regional final Sunday in Indianapolis.

"As the year went on, now as we go in the postseason play, to be in this position is quite remarkable," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "Usually you beat each other up, but somehow we've had some teams survive it. And to be in this position, however it ends up, I think [the conference] did what is very hard to do, live up to coaches' lofty proclamation."

Blair said picking up two quick fouls in that Nova game prevented him from getting into any sort of rhythm. He said he has the motivation to ensure that doesn't occur Saturday. It might sound obvious, but Blair has to stay on the floor, said Pitt senior Sam Young. Not turning the ball over against Villanova's perimeter pressure is also paramount for a Pitt win.

"I think if we win the boards and collect on the turnovers and keep DeJuan on the floor," Young said, "then we're in pretty good shape."

There is a common respect between these two teams. They didn't play twice this season. There was no nastiness in the one meeting. Villanova is on a roll, while Pitt is grinding out wins. The Panthers were projected to get to the Elite Eight, while Villanova was not. Pitt has a co-Big East Player of the Year winner in Blair, while Nova has a player in Dante Cunningham, who along with Louisville's Terrence Williams, could have argued for the POY honor to be split four ways. Pitt starts three seniors, a junior and a sophomore. Nova starts three seniors and two juniors. The rosters are dominated by Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore.

Wright summed up his admiration for Pitt senior guard Levance Fields, who has the same makeup as many of the Nova guards who are from the same New York metropolitan area.

"We've coached those kids, those New York kids, those New York guards," Wright said. "What we respect about them is they are fearless. They do not fear losing a game."

Fields made the 3-pointer to beat Xavier on Thursday night. Wright likened Fields to another former Pitt-New York-area guard in Carl Krauser, who would make money shots late in the game, even if he struggled earlier.

"Levance does the same thing," Wright said. "We had guys like that. We had Speedy Claxton [when Wright coached at Hofstra), we had Randy Foye and Allan Ray [at Nova]. When the game is on the line, they love to have the ball in their hands. What you don't realize is sometimes when you lose a close game, those are the guys that miss the shot. But they don't remember that. They want to hit the big one."

Who will hit the big one Saturday if it's a close game at the end? Who knows? But with big-shot players like Fields, Young, Blair, Cunningham, Reggie Redding and Scottie Reynolds, there are certainly plenty of good options to go around.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel knew he'd get another All-America performance from forward Blake Griffin in Friday night's South Regional Sweet 16 game against No. 3 Syracuse.

But Capel had a feeling his team would also get a good outing from guard Tony Crocker, which hadn't happened for the No. 2-seeded Sooners in nearly a month.

"I had a feeling coming into this game that he was going to play well and he was going to shoot the basketball well," Capel said.

Capel's prediction proved prophetic on Oklahoma's very first possession in its 84-71 rout of the Orange at FedEx Forum.

Crocker, who had made only one of his past 15 3-point attempts, fired a 3-pointer from the top of the key -- barely over the outstretched arms of Syracuse guard Eric Devendorf -- and nailed it for a 3-0 lead.

"It meant a lot," Crocker said. "When you're struggling, after a while, making that first shot always makes it better. The zone gave us a lot of spots to have open shots, so we just tried to take advantage of that."

No Sooner took more advantage of the soft spots in the Orange's 2-3 zone than Crocker, who scored a career-high 28 points. The junior from San Antonio shot 6-for-11 on 3-pointers, after making only five in his previous nine games.

"When you're marked as a shooter, you have to keep shooting," Crocker said. "If you're missing, you've just got to think it off and just go to the next shot and keep going. You can't just not shoot when you're wide open."

Capel said he never considered benching Crocker because he had endured shooting slumps during his playing days at Duke.

"Not only played his position, but had slumps," Capel said. "So I know what it's like. I know what Tony was going through, and it wasn't because of lack of effort or he didn't want to. Crock's a kid who wants to play really well. He wants to be good."

With Crocker scoring from the perimeter again, Oklahoma is as good as it has been all season. The Orange were unable to focus entirely on Griffin, who scored 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Griffin increased his season rebound total to 488, the most by a Division I player since Houston's Akeem Olajuwon grabbed 500 in 1983-84.

"It makes our job so much easier when [Tony] is playing like he did today," Griffin said. "You know, they can't sink down in the zone, and they had to respect him all game long because he was hitting shots all game long. I think it takes our team to another level when he plays like he did today."

The Sooners moved a step closer to the Final Four. They'll play the winner of Friday night's South Regional semifinal between No. 1 seed North Carolina and No. 4 seed Gonzaga. The winner of Sunday's game will go on to Detroit for the national semifinals.

"We've been pretty good in this tournament," Capel said. "Hopefully, we can be good one more time here in Memphis. And if we are pretty good, then we get a chance to be pretty good next weekend, too."

The Sooners will be better if Crocker is good again.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- North Carolina seems close to doing to Gonzaga what Oklahoma did to Syracuse in the first game.

The Tar Heels have a 53-42 lead over the No. 4-seeded Bulldogs at halftime of their South Regional Sweet 16 game at FedEx Forum, and Gonzaga's deficit would have been worse if not for its mini run at the end of the half.

The game is being played at a frantic pace, which clearly favored UNC in the first 20 minutes. Point guard Ty Lawson, who was supposed to have some serious pain in his right toe, scored 17 points on 6-for-7 shooting in the half. He had four rebounds and two assists, and was off and running on quite a few breaks.

Senior Tyler Hansbrough played well in the first half, scoring nine points on 3-for-5 shooting, but UNC's guards were the players doing most of the damage. Wayne Ellington scored 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting, and Danny Green scored 5 points, with 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots.

The Bulldogs trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half, but sophomore guard Steven Gray came off the bench and scored seven consecutive points to make it a game again late in the half.

Bad news for Gonzaga: Guard Jeremy Pargo picked up three personal fouls in the first half. Starters Josh Heytvelt, Austin Daye and reserve Demetri Goodson have two fouls each. Guard Micah Downs led the Bulldogs with 10 points in the first half.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach provides instant analysis from Oklahoma's 84-71 win over Syracuse in Friday's South Regional Sweet 16:

GAME ANALYSIS: The Sooners were worried about cracking Syracuse's vaunted 2-3 zone. But the Orange couldn't handle Oklahoma's one-two punch of All-American forward Blake Griffin and suddenly hot-shooting guard Tony Crocker, who combined to score 58 points. The Sooners grabbed momentum from the start and were patient against the Orange's 2-3 zone. After Syracuse cut Oklahoma's lead to 18-17 in the first half, the Sooners went on a 10-2 run to make it 28-19. Oklahoma then scored the last six points of the first half and the first nine of the second to go ahead 48-26 with 17:46 to play.

To read the rest of this game analysis, click here.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- Gonzaga and North Carolina have come out firing, and the Bulldogs don't look like they're capable of slowing down the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels.

North Carolina made eight of its first 10 shots to take a 19-12 lead at the first media timeout with 14:44 to play.

Good news for UNC fans: Point guard Ty Lawson doesn't look as though his right toe is bothering him too much. Lawson, who got off to a slow start against LSU in the second round, made a 3-pointer to give UNC a 15-9 lead over the Bulldogs.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- Is a Big East team finally going to lose in the Sweet 16?

Oklahoma opened the second half with a 9-0 run and is threatening to blow Syracuse off the floor with a 53-29 lead with less than 16 minutes to play at FedEx Forum. The Orange turned the ball over on their first three possessions of the half and didn't score until Jonny Flynn made a 3-pointer with 17:30 to play (Syracuse's first 3-pointer of the game).

But Oklahoma junior Tony Crocker answered with his fourth 3-pointer of the game, making it 53-29 with 16½ minutes to play. Crocker has scored 20 points, shooting 5-for-7 on 3-pointers. His recent shooting slump is over.

Blake Griffin is one rebound away from a double-double, scoring 18 points with nine boards with more than 15½ minutes to play.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- Oklahoma found a one-two punch to answer Syracuse's 2-3 zone.

Sooners All-American forward Blake Griffin scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and junior guard Tony Crocker rediscovered his shooting touch in the first half, as No. 2 seed Oklahoma took a 39-26 lead over the Orange at the half of Friday night's South Regional semifinal at FedEx Forum.

Crocker, who had been mired in a monthlong shooting slump, scored 14 points in the first half. He shot 3-for-5 on 3-pointers, including one from the left wing that gave the Sooners a 13-point lead with only four seconds left in the half.

Griffin hasn't been bothered too much by Syracuse's relentless double- and triple-teams in the paint. He shot 6-for-8 from the floor in the first half.

In the final minute, Griffin drove to the basket and collided with Orange point guard Jonny Flynn, who is about 70 pounds lighter than the husky forward. Griffin made a layup, and Flynn was called for the foul. Flynn lay on the court for a few seconds, and later limped to the Syracuse bench during a timeout.

The Orange went 0-for-10 on 3-pointers and made only 11 of 31 shots from the floor. Flynn missed his first three shots, but led the Orange with nine points on 4-for-7 shooting. Guard Eric Devendorf, who had been red-hot in his team's first two NCAA tournament games, shot 1-for-7, including 0-for-4 on 3-pointers. Sharpshooter Andy Rautins was 0-for-6 from the floor and 0-for-5 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- Oklahoma couldn't have asked for a better start against No. 3 seed Syracuse.

Junior guard Tony Crocker, who has been mired in a month-long shooting slump, knocked down a 3-pointer on the Sooners' first possession. Crocker had made only three of his last 21 3-point attempts.

The Sooners also are playing pretty patiently against the Orange's vaunted 2-3 zone. On Oklahoma's second possession, point guard Austin Johnson banked in a jumper at the shot-clock buzzer for a 5-0 lead.

I think Oklahoma All-American Blake Griffin has to be surprised at the strength of Syracuse junior Arinze Onuaku. Griffin scored on an alley-oop dunk to give Oklahoma an 8-2 lead at the first media timeout, but Onuaku isn't being pushed around.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- Mike Slive, SEC commissioner and chairman of the NCAA men's basketball committee, has been a busy man this week.

Slive stopped by press row about 30 minutes before No. 2 seed Oklahoma and No. 3 seed Syracuse were scheduled to tip off at FedExForum. I told Slive I thought I saw him on TV sitting courtside at another NCAA tournament game on Thursday night.

"Phoenix," Slive told me. "We flew in this morning."

Slive said he and a few other NCAA committee members are flying to Boston tonight to attend Saturday's East Region finals. They'll be in Indianapolis on Sunday for the Midwest Region finals, and then they're off to Detroit for the Final Four.

• FedExForum was more than half empty about 10 minutes before tipoff. It's either a late-arriving crowd, or there's going to be plenty of empty seats on TV. Most of the tickets were probably gobbled up by North Carolina fans, who are apparently watching the early game in bars on Beale Street. The NCAA released about 2,000 remaining tickets for the South Region games on Wednesday.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

MEMPHIS -- When Gonzaga senior Josh Heytvelt played North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough the first time, it seemed that Heytvelt was the player on his way to earning multiple All-America honors.

In the semifinals of the 2006 preseason NIT at Madison Square Garden in New York, Heytvelt scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the Bulldogs' 82-74 upset of the No. 2-ranked Tar Heels.

Hansbrough, who, like Heytvelt, was a sophomore at the time, scored only nine points on 2-for-5 shooting.

"They just played better than us that night," Hansbrough said Thursday. "And, of course, Josh had a good game. He was hitting some shots and got in the groove of things. I didn't really have my best game. They just beat us."

Heytvelt and Hansbrough will meet again in Friday night's semifinals of the South Regional at FedEx Forum. It's only the second meeting between the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels and No. 4-seeded Bulldogs, and it seems as if neither team has forgotten many of the details of their first encounter.

"We had a lot of underclassmen back then, and right now we have a lot of motivation going into this game," UNC junior Wayne Ellington said. "They got us pretty good last time we played them. We're definitely looking forward to the challenge."

Of course, Hansbrough became one of the most decorated players in North Carolina history over the past three seasons. He is the first four-time first-team All-American in ACC history and is the league's all-time leading scorer.

Heytvelt's career has been marked by injuries and off-court problems. Heytvelt, a 6-foot-11 native of Clarkston, Wash., redshirted during the 2004-05 season and then broke his left ankle only four games into the next season.

Heytvelt was finally healthy again for the start of the 2006-07 season. And his performance against Hansbrough early that season suggested he might blossom into another star player at Gonzaga, following in the footsteps of former Bulldogs such as Dan Dickau, Ronny Turiaf and Adam Morrison.

"It was definitely a big game," Heytvelt said. "Tyler's had a whole bunch of hype his entire career. He's one of the best players in the entire country, and he's shown that over the past four years. That game was definitely one where I had to go in with a little chip on my shoulder, knowing that he is and plays like one of the best players in the entire country. I had to try and match that."

More than anything, Heytvelt's performance against the Tar Heels gave him the confidence to play against anyone.

"I think it probably reinforced to him that he could play with anybody in the country," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "Obviously, if you're successful against North Carolina, with as good a job as they do, I think it gave him the confidence he could play with anybody."

Heytvelt averaged 15.5 points and 7.7 rebounds in the first 25 games of the 2006-07 season. He was considered the front-runner for West Coast Conference Player of the Year.

But on Feb. 9, 2007, Heytvelt nearly threw his entire career away. He and freshman Theo Davis were arrested during a traffic stop for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and felony possession of psychedelic mushrooms. They were indefinitely suspended from the team, a day before the Bulldogs played WCC rival Saint Mary's at home.

Heytvelt didn't play for Gonzaga the rest of the season. The Bulldogs still won the WCC tournament without him, but they lost to Indiana 70-57 in the first round of the 2007 NCAAs.

"The immediate thought, at least with me, was anger," Few said. "It was a no-brainer with what we had to do immediately. But the most convincing and compelling part of it for me was to watch how it played out over the next couple of months, with how Josh changed, how he grew as a person."

To be reinstated to the team, Heytvelt had to complete 240 hours of court-ordered community service, among other requirements. He worked in a soup line for the homeless and with sick children at a Ronald McDonald House.

Few said he was also concerned about whether Heytvelt's teammates would welcome him back, after he had abandoned them the season before with his careless behavior.

"The biggest thing that I was most concerned with -- and anybody that's ever been on a team, I think, can relate to this -- was when were his teammates ready to accept him back?" Few said. "Because I think there was some hurt there. I mean, we were rolling right along."

With his life seemingly back on track, Heytvelt rejoined the Bulldogs before the 2007-08 season.

"I was just happy to get the second chance to be able to prove to the guys that nothing was going to happen from it and I wasn't going to mess up again," Heytvelt said.

But Heytvelt missed the first 11 games of his junior season after having surgery on his injured right ankle. When he finally returned to the court, he wasn't as effective as before, averaging 10.3 points and 4.9 rebounds. Heytvelt even lost his starting job late in the season. Gonzaga fans didn't know his ankle was broken again.

Finally, with both ankles healed this season, Heytvelt blossomed into the player many thought he would become. He averaged 14.9 points and 6.7 rebounds and was named All-WCC.

In many ways, Heytvelt's career comes full circle when he faces Hansbrough again.

Even though Hansbrough became the four-time All-American, Few said his star player has accomplished just as much.

"It's one of the neatest things I've seen evolve probably the whole time I've been coaching," Few said. "I mean, he's graduated now. He's working on his master's [degree]. He's going to play somewhere for some money, and he's just so much more engaged in conversation when you have him in the office. He's very enjoyable to talk with."

No. 2 seed Oklahoma (29-5) vs. No. 3 seed Syracuse (28-9)

Playing in the rugged Big East, Syracuse has faced its share of dominating big men this season.

Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair had 20 points and 12 rebounds against the Orange in the Panthers' 78-60 rout Jan. 19.

Villanova's Dante Cunningham burned Syracuse twice, scoring 43 points and grabbing 21 rebounds combined in the Wildcats' two victories over the Orange in February.

And Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet had 30 rebounds and 13 blocked shots combined in two games against Syracuse this season, including the Orange's 127-117 victory in six overtimes in the Big East tournament quarterfinals earlier this month.

But Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said none of them is as good as Oklahoma All-American Blake Griffin, who will lead the No. 2-seeded Sooners against No. 3-seeded Syracuse in Friday night's South Regional semifinals at FedEx Forum.

"He's a better player than those guys, though they're pretty good players," said Boeheim, who will be aiming for his 800th career victory Friday. "Obviously, they're different. Thabeet is different. He's a shot-blocker. Blair is an offensive rebounder. That is what he does, better than anybody, almost.

"Blake Griffin is more. He can do both, offensive rebounds and he can score without offensive rebounds. He's a better passer than those guys. So he's unique. He's a different kind of player. Clearly, I don't think anybody has any [doubt] that he's the best player in the country."

And no player was better in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament than Griffin, who averaged 30.5 points and 15 rebounds in victories over No. 15 seed Morgan State and No. 10 seed Michigan in Kansas City.

"He's a different type of big man," Syracuse forward Arinze Onuaku said. "He's great. The other guys in the Big East, everybody's a little bit different. He's the best we've seen. It's going to be a tough battle from the beginning."

Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel expects Syracuse to defend Griffin the same way other teams have tried to stop him this season: with relentless pressure from double- and triple-teams.

Syracuse's vaunted 2-3 zone was very effective in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, holding No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin and No. 6 seed Arizona State to 31 percent shooting combined.

Michigan tried to defend Oklahoma with a zone defense for much of the game, and Griffin scored 33 points and grabbed 17 rebounds.

"Their 2-3 zone is really good," Capel said. "You have to find different ways to attack it, and we've worked on some different things. We've seen some zone this year. So hopefully, we'll be good at attacking it tomorrow."

If Syracuse is effective in slowing down Griffin, Oklahoma's perimeter players will have to pick up the slack. Freshman Willie Warren scored 16 points in each of the first two NCAA games, but junior Tony Crocker has been mired in a monthlong shooting slump. Crocker, who is second on the team with 53 3-pointers, went 3-for-21 from beyond the 3-point arc in the past seven games.

"In the Michigan game, we had a lot of guys step up and play really well," Griffin said. "I feel like as a team, we have more guys than people kind of give us credit for."

The Sooners will need more than Griffin against the Orange.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

Throw out the seedings.

The 2009 NCAA tournament is down to 16 teams. And from where I stand, as many as eight schools have a legit shot at cutting down the nets in Detroit.

Who's playing the best heading into the Sweet 16? Let's rank them 1 to 16 before the festivities begin again Thursday in Boston and Glendale, Ariz.

1. North Carolina
The Tar Heels struggled to pull away from LSU in their second-round game, but point guard Ty Lawson more than answered questions about his lingering toe injury. Unless Lawson re-injures his right toe, the Tar Heels might be the team to beat the rest of the way. No other team has as much inside-outside balance or overall depth.

2. Connecticut
The Huskies were another team that entered the NCAA tournament with lingering concerns, but perhaps no team played better in the first two rounds. Jeff Adrien has stepped up his game after the Huskies lost Jerome Dyson to a season-ending knee injury, and A.J. Price is capable of scoring 30 points per game.

3. Louisville
The Cardinals had a tough time getting past upstart Siena in the second round, but they stood up to the challenge and are battle-tested heading into the Sweet 16. Terrence Williams continues to show why he's one of the best players in the country. But will Louisville's guards hold up the rest of the way?

4. Memphis
The Tigers are as deep and talented as any team left in the field. They can lock down opponents on defense, and run up and down the court with almost anyone. Forwards Shawn Taggart and Robert Dozier are effective inside scorers, and reserve Roburt Sallie has emerged as another threat beyond the 3-point line.

5. Oklahoma
The Sooners might have been the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament if All-American forward Blake Griffin hadn't suffered a concussion against Texas in mid-February. Now that Griffin is healthy again -- and dominating opponents like never before -- Oklahoma is going to be a tough out in the Sweet 16. But can Tony Crocker and Willie Warren make enough perimeter shots against Syracuse's 2-3 zone?

6. Pittsburgh
Something just seems to be missing from the Panthers, who beat No. 16 seed East Tennessee State by 10 points in the first round and No. 8 seed Oklahoma State by eight in the second round. That being said, is there another team in the field with a trio like Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields?

7. Syracuse
Everybody keeps waiting for the Orange to get tired, but they keep getting better. Few players are doing more for their teams than point guard Jonny Flynn, and Eric Devendorf is as hot from beyond the 3-point line as he's ever been. But can Paul Harris, Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson slow down Blake Griffin?

8. Michigan State
If there were any doubts about the Spartans' athleticism or ability to play outside the Big Ten, they were answered in the victory over USC. Michigan State still needs more from Raymar Morgan to advance past Kansas.

9. Duke
I think this might be Mike Krzyzewski's best coaching job. Gerald Henderson is an All-ACC player. So is Kyle Singler, but he's not as good as a lot of the other players in that league. The Blue Devils don't have a traditional point guard and don't have a post player who's really going to intimidate. I think Duke's lack of frontcourt punch and depth will catch up with it eventually, maybe against Villanova.

10. Villanova
The Wildcats benefited greatly from playing the first two rounds in Philadelphia. Now Villanova has to play Duke in Boston. The Wildcats struggled mightily against American in the first round but then beat up UCLA in the second. They have a chance to win any game with Scottie Reynolds and Dante Cunningham on the court.

11. Kansas
The defending national champions keep surprising everyone. Sherron Collins is the only regular contributor back from last season's team that beat Memphis in the title game. Sophomore Cole Aldrich is playing as well as any big man in the tournament, and other players such as Tyshawn Taylor are starting to contribute. Can we go ahead and name Bill Self the national coach of the year?

12. Missouri
This probably isn't the Sweet 16 matchup Memphis coach John Calipari or Missouri coach Mike Anderson would have preferred. The programs are familiar with each other because Anderson used to coach at UAB and faced Memphis twice per season. Memphis is equipped to run up and down the court with Missouri. Can Missouri slow down Memphis?

13. Gonzaga
This might be the best team Gonzaga has sent to the NCAA tournament. Josh Heytvelt is big enough and strong enough to battle UNC's Tyler Hansbrough inside. Jeremy Pargo is fast enough to stay in front of Ty Lawson some of the time. But Matt Bouldin is the player who makes the Bulldogs go, and if he plays well, they'll have a chance to shock the Tar Heels.

14. Arizona
The Wildcats aren't your typical No. 12 seed. They might have been the last at-large team invited to the NCAA's 65-team field, but they're playing as well as any team left in the tournament. Arizona has two potential NBA lottery picks, Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill, and point guard Nic Wise is a budding star. Interim coach Russ Pennell might have worked his way into a full-time job somewhere.

15. Xavier
The team that couldn't beat A-10 opponents Temple and Richmond at the end of the regular season defeated Portland State by 18 and Wisconsin by 11 in the first two rounds. Sean Miller has proved he's one of the best coaches in the country, and the Musketeers are patient enough to give Pitt problems. But the top three Musketeers -- B.J. Raymond, Derrick Brown and C.J. Anderson -- will have to play well.

16. Purdue
The Boilermakers won close games over Northern Iowa and Washington to advance to the Sweet 16, but they might not have enough firepower to beat Connecticut. JaJuan Johnson has played well so far, but he'll get a major test from Hasheem Thabeet. Robbie Hummel will have to play better for Purdue to advance.

As for this round of games, here are some fearless predictions:
(Writer's warning: Do not bet real money on these)

Thursday
Villanova 72, Duke 69
Pittsburgh 73, Xavier 68
Memphis 88, Missouri 80
Connecticut 68, Purdue 59

Friday
Louisville 70, Arizona 60
Kansas 68, Michigan State 64
North Carolina 87, Gonzaga 73
Syracuse 81, Oklahoma 80

Posted by Mark Schlabach

After two rounds of the 2009 NCAA tournament, we can finally put the ACC-Big East debate to rest.

The Big East was the best college basketball conference in the country this season, and the next two weeks will ultimately decide whether this version of the 16-team league is one of the best of all time.

For the first time in the history of the NCAA tournament, five teams from one league advanced to the Sweet 16. Big East members Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Villanova will play in the region semifinals, making up nearly one-third of the remaining field when games begin again on Thursday evening.

Surprisingly, the Big East's best team had the most difficulty in advancing.

Louisville, the NCAA's overall No. 1 seed after winning both the Big East regular-season and tournament titles, survived a mighty scare from No. 9 seed Siena on Sunday. The Cardinals blew a 12-point lead and actually trailed the Saints 63-59 with 7:20 to go.

But Louisville forward Terrence Williams scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds the rest of the way, leading the Cardinals to a 79-72 victory in Dayton.

Louisville advanced to play No. 12 seed Arizona in the Midwest Region semifinals in Indianapolis on Friday. The Wildcats, who were probably the last at-large team invited to the NCAA's 65-team field, beat No. 13 seed Cleveland State 71-57 in Miami on Sunday.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino, the only coach to take three different schools to the Final Four, said the Cardinals' arduous Big East schedule, in which they played eight nationally ranked teams, prepared them for the pressure they faced from Siena.

Big East teams went a whopping 11-2 in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

"I'm real proud of the guys, because this Big East was tough this year," Pitino told reporters in Dayton on Sunday. "But it prepared us. As I look back on it, it prepared us for everything. Tonight Villanova and Marquette prepared us for Siena. And I'm sure the next game, when we play [Arizona], I'm sure Pittsburgh and teams like that will get us ready. That's what's great about the Big East, you get ready for so many styles."

Pittsburgh, the No. 1 seed in the East, had to work hard through each of its first two NCAA games. After beating No. 16 seed East Tennessee State by 10 points in the opening round, the Panthers were tied at 49 at halftime of Sunday's game against No. 8 seed Oklahoma State.

But Pittsburgh forward Sam Young scored 32 points and forward DeJuan Blair added a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, and the Panthers pulled away for an 84-76 victory in Dayton.

Pittsburgh will play No. 4 seed Xavier in the East Region semifinals in Boston on Thursday. The Musketeers beat No. 12 seed Wisconsin 60-49 in Boise on Sunday.

The Sweet 16 will feature some serious chalk, including the remaining Big East teams, which are each seeded No. 3 or better. For the first time since the NCAA expanded the tournament field in 1985, each of the 12 teams seeded Nos. 1-3 advanced to the Sweet 16 (all of the 1s and 2s hadn't even made the round of 16 since 1995).

In fact, this season's combined seeding total of 49 is the smallest ever in the Sweet 16.

The ACC, which rivaled the Big East as the sport's best conference this season, had seven teams in the NCAA's 65-team field. But only traditional powers Duke and North Carolina advanced to the Sweet 16. ACC teams went 5-5 in the first two rounds, with Boston College, Clemson, Florida State and Wake Forest losing their opening games.

The Big 12 has the second-most teams in the Sweet 16, with defending national champion Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma advancing.

The Jayhawks, the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region, got a triple-double from sophomore center Cole Aldrich in Sunday's 60-43 rout of No. 11 seed Dayton in Minneapolis. Aldrich recorded only the sixth triple-double in NCAA tournament history, finishing with 13 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.

Kansas will play No. 2 seed Michigan State in the Midwest Regional semifinals in Indianapolis on Friday. The Spartans -- one of two Big Ten teams left in the tournament -- defeated No. 10 seed Southern California 74-69 in Minneapolis on Sunday.

Missouri cost the Big East a sixth Sweet 16 team when it beat No. 6 seed Marquette 83-79 in a West Regional game that featured a bizarre finish in Boise. With the score tied at 79 in the final seconds, Missouri's J.T. Tiller injured his right wrist while being fouled. Tigers coach Mike Anderson took advantage of an NCAA rule that allowed him to substitute an injured foul shooter, and freshman Kim English calmly made two free throws for an 81-79 lead with 5.5 seconds to play.

On the ensuing in-bounds play, Marquette's Lazar Hayward stepped on the baseline, turning the ball over to the Tigers. The Golden Eagles were forced to foul, and Leo Lyons made two foul shots for a four-point victory.

While Big East teams dot the remaining brackets, you won't find an SEC team in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1989. LSU, Mississippi State and Tennessee went a combined 1-3 in NCAA games. Arizona is the Pac-10's lone remaining team, after USC, Washington, UCLA and Arizona State each lost in the second round.

While the Big East teams seem to be the ones to beat, Williams knows you're still capable of losing on any given night.

Just like during the nine weeks of Big East play.

"We underestimate no team," Williams told reporters in Dayton. "That's why it's called March Madness -- you can lose any given night. And coming from the Big East, we know we could lose any night playing 18 games."

Posted by Mark Schlabach

A few observations from Sunday's set of early-afternoon games in the NCAA tournament:

1. I first saw Kansas center Cole Aldrich when he took the floor for the first time as a Jayhawk at Midnight Madness in Lawrence in 2008. At the time, I honestly wondered whether the McDonald's All-American from Bloomington, Minn., could walk and chew bubble gum at the same time.

Aldrich looked uncoordinated and unsure about his abilities and even looked stiff for a 6-foot-11 prospect who had been so highly recruited. At the very least, he looked like a three- or four-year project that might become a contributor as a junior or senior. Aldrich averaged only 8.3 minutes, 2.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per game for the 2008 national champions.

A year later, Aldrich is one of the most dominant big men in the NCAA tournament. On Sunday, he recorded the first triple-double of his career -- and the sixth in NCAA tournament history -- with 13 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocked shots in the No. 3-seeded Jayhawks' 60-43 rout of No. 11 seed Dayton in the second round of the Midwest Regional in Minneapolis. It was the first 20-rebound, 10-block game in tournament history.

The Jayhawks, who will play in the Sweet 16 for the third straight season, will play the USC-Michigan State winner in Indianapolis on Friday.

Aldrich's development has been meteoric -- he averaged 14.8 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.4 blocks this season. Aldrich had 23 points, 13 rebounds and two blocked shots in the Jayhawks' 84-74 victory over No. 14 seed North Dakota State in Friday's first round.

Give some of the credit to Kansas assistant Danny Manning, who has helped develop former Jayhawks big men Wayne Simien, Julian Wright, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Sasha Kaun.

At this pace, Aldrich might end up being better than any of them.

2. One of the sure signs of a team that's capable of winning a national championship? A team that can make half-time adjustments.

Oklahoma State scorched the nets against No. 1 seed Pittsburgh in Dayton on Saturday, making 10 3-pointers and scoring 49 points, the most the Panthers had allowed in the first 20 minutes this season.

But the Panthers locked down the perimeter in the second half, holding the Pokes to only 2-for-12 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc. As a result, Pitt survived with an 84-76 victory to move to the semifinals of the East Regional.

The Panthers will play No. 4 seed Xavier in Boston on Thursday.

3. Wondering why Arizona State forward Jeff Pendergraph was still on the court with four fouls midway through the second half of Sunday's game against Syracuse?

Sun Devils coach Herb Sendek might take some flak for the decision after the Sun Devils lost to No. 3 seed Syracuse 78-67 in Miami on Sunday. Pendergraph, the team's second leading scorer, fouled out with 10:19 to play. But the Sun Devils were getting nothing from Pac-10 Player of the Year James Harden, so Sendek decided to leave Pendergraph on the floor.

Harden scored 10 points -- all in the second half -- on 2-for-10 shooting.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood's decision on who will be his next full-time basketball coach gets more interesting with every victory.

Interim coach Russ Pennell has now taken Arizona into the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005. There have been a bunch of big names mentioned as the possible successor to legendary Lute Olson -- but Pennell's name might be budging into the conversation, the farther he takes the Wildcats.

"I have not thought today about that," Livengood said after listening to Pennell and the Arizona players address the media following their 71-57 victory over gutty Cleveland State. "This morning I did, but this afternoon I'm doing what I told these guys, 'Live in the moment.'"

The moment has been pretty remarkable for Arizona. Arguably the last at-large team in the field, the Wildcats have justified their inclusion with two double-digit victories here in American Airlines Arena.

Pennell and assistant Mike Dunlap have done some very solid coaching along the way. One of their best moves Sunday came with less than four minutes left, with Cleveland State still hanging around, down 61-54. Coming out of a timeout, Arizona dialed up a sideline trip out of its 2-3 zone defense -- a classic Dean Smith/Roy Williams call out of a timeout. It produced a turnover and a transition dunk for Jamelle Horne.

Game over. Arizona marches on to Indianapolis as the lowest seed left in the Dance.

The Wildcats' chances to continue busting the bracket will depend as always on their big three of Chase Budinger, Jordan Hill and Nic Wise -- and lately, Wise has been the biggest weapon. He tore through Utah on Friday for 29 points, then added a game-high 21 points, eight assists and five rebounds against the Vikings today. Wise has made all 17 of his free throws this tournament.

On the losing side, it's time to say a respectful farewell to Cleveland State guard Cedric Jackson. Nobody played with more heart and gusto the first two rounds than Jackson, who keyed CSU's stunning upset romp over Wake Forest on Friday and then was treated with IVs for dehydration afterward. On Sunday, Jackson had nothing going from the outside (0-for-5 from 3-point range, part of a 3-for-23 calamity for Cleveland State) but still willed his way to 15 points, five rebounds and five steals.

Jackson's run is done but it won't be forgotten.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Arizona is 20 minutes from going to bubble survivor to Sweet 16 crasher.

The Wildcats are up 35-25 at halftime on a Cleveland State team that is finding the offensive going much more difficult against the Wildcats than it was Friday against Wake Forest. Against the Demon Deacons, the Vikings made six 3-pointers, shot 47 percent from the field and had 15 assists. At halftime today, the Vikings are 0-for-7 from 3-point range, shooting 30 percent and have zero assists.

Hard to win with zero assists.

In addition to 28 points from their big three of Chase Budinger, Nic Wise and Jordan Hill, Arizona has gotten a seven-point, two-block lift from forward Jamelle Horne.

Cleveland State lost its engine, guard Cedric Jackson, for part of the first half after he was hammered by Fendi Onobun on a breakaway layup. Jackson returned in the final minutes of the half but his left eye was barely open. It's also hard to shoot with one eye.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- A pair of Eric Devendorf daggers might have finally ended this one.

The Syracuse shooting guard nailed 3-pointers on consecutive possessions after Arizona State was within five points with five minutes to play. The first was set up by a Jonny Flynn slash to the basket and kick-out to the wing. The second came from the corner and was followed by a long Devendorf pose.

That turned a five-point lead into 11 in a hurry. With less than four minutes to play, it will take a miracle for ASU to come back.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Arizona State pulled a free-throw switcheroo on Syracuse and the officials, and the Sun Devils got away with it.

Orange forward Kristof Ongenaet fouled ASU guard Jamelle McMillan, a 58 percent foul shooter. But forward Rihards Kuksiks, a 75 percent shooter, stepped to the line. He swished both -- a rarity Sunday for the Sun Devils, who have hurt themselves at the foul line.

Just one more way ASU is somehow rope-a-doping its way through this game. The Devils are down 10 points, 57-47, with less than 11 minutes to play. Jeff Pendergraph is back on the floor, playing with four fouls.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Arizona State's hang-around hopes just took a big hit. Center Jeff Pendergraph, the Sun Devils' only useful size, picked up his fourth foul at the 15:56 mark of the second half.

Pendergraph will have to sit, perhaps for quite a while. Eric Boateng, big but raw, will take his place. Pendergraph had just gotten going a bit offensively, scoring five of ASU's first eight points in the second half.

The Syracuse lead is nine, 49-40. We'll see whether the Sun Devils can maintain contact while Pendergraph is out.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Amazing that this game is even close at halftime.

Syracuse leads Arizona State by nine points, 41-32. It feels like 19.

The Orange have dominated inside with wide-bodies Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku combining for 16 points. They've shot 64 percent from the field and have outrebounded the Sun Devils by four. They've committed only two turnovers.

And ASU leading scorers James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph have combined for four points.

So how are the Sun Devils hanging in the game? Three-point shooting, especially from Latvian bomber Rihards Kuksiks. He has made five 3s and scored 15 points.

Eric Devendorf has scored 11 points to lead Syracuse, but a couple of ill-advised shots have helped stop the Orange's momentum. Nobody ever accused Devendorf of being the most judicious player.

After being blanketed by the Syracuse zone every time he touched the ball, Harden at least made a couple of plays late in the half. He drove to the foul line and found Kuksiks for a corner 3, then flashed to the post to take a pass and again deliver an assist to Kuksiks in the corner.

Harden is very conscious about not forcing things, but it's now-or-never time for ASU. He needs to get something going toward the basket -- all four of his first-half shots were 3s -- or in transition. If Harden doesn't get untracked, a deceptively close game won't be close for much longer.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Paging James Harden. Come in, James Harden.

For the second game here, Arizona State's All-American guard has been a complete nonentity at the start. On Friday against Temple, Harden didn't make a field goal until the final five minutes. Through the first 8½ minutes against Syracuse, Harden has an all-zeroes stat line. No points, no shots, no rebounds, no assists, no nothing.

Harden finally launched a pair of 3s on ASU's first possession after the media timeout with less than 12 minutes to play at the half. He missed both. If Harden doesn't get involved, this game will get ugly for the Sun Devils.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- So much for the vaunted zone defenses.

Most of the pregame talk Saturday about this Syracuse-Arizona State game centered on the teams' zone defenses. But so far, it's been all offense at American Airlines Arena.

At the media timeout with less than 16 minutes to go before halftime, Syracuse is up 11-7 after scoring on its first five possessions. Arizona State turned the ball over on its first possession but then hit three straight shots.

The Orange are shooting 62 percent, the Sun Devils 60 percent. ASU's only rebound is a dead-ball carom off a Jonny Flynn air ball. Otherwise, bigger and stronger Syracuse has grabbed everything that has come off the rim.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson played through the throbbing pain from his injured right toe.

Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin's cloudy head finally cleared.

And Connecticut learned how to play the rest of the season without one of its best players.

The three teams that appeared to be among college basketball's elite back in February finally hit their stride again in Saturday's second round of the NCAA tournament.

Top seeds North Carolina and Connecticut, No. 2 seed Oklahoma and five other teams claimed their Sweet 16 tickets Saturday. Eight more teams will advance to next week's regional semifinals Sunday.

Was there any team more impressive in the first three days of the tournament than Connecticut, the No. 1 seed in the West Region? The Huskies lost three of their last seven games after losing guard Jerome Dyson to a season-ending knee injury against Syracuse on Feb. 11.

Connecticut even brought a two-game losing streak into the NCAAs, after falling at Pittsburgh as the country's No. 1-ranked team on March 1 and then losing to Syracuse in a six-overtime epic in the quarterfinals of last week's Big East tournament in New York.

But the Huskies were simply sensational in two games in Philadelphia, routing No. 16 seed Chattanooga 103-47 on Thursday -- the third-largest margin of victory in NCAA tournament history -- and blasting No. 9 seed Texas A&M 92-66 on Saturday.

"This should be a message sent, showing we are a good team," Connecticut guard A.J. Price told reporters in Philadelphia. "We've had a great year thus far. Throughout the year we've proved that we are a good team. For anyone to question [why] we were a No. 1 seed, I think we answered those questions."

There are no more lingering questions about North Carolina, either. The Tar Heels, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, finally got back Lawson, after the ACC Player of the Year missed the past three games with a jammed right toe.

And North Carolina certainly needed its point guard on Saturday, as the lightning-quick junior scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half of an 84-70 victory over No. 8 seed LSU in Greensboro, N.C.

Lawson looked a little rusty at the start of Saturday's game and even spent some time at the end of the Tar Heels' bench after he appeared to reinjure his toe.

But in the second half, Lawson showed why he might be the most important player left in the tournament. Along with his 23 points, Lawson had six assists, no turnovers and two steals.

"You take his 23 away," LSU guard Bo Spencer told ESPN.com in Greensboro, "and it's a blowout."

If you take Lawson out of the Tar Heels' starting five, they're a team that might be good enough to get to the Final Four in Detroit. With Lawson on the floor, though, UNC might indeed be the team to beat the rest of the way.

"That kind of, I guess, made a statement for him that he was back," UNC senior Danny Green told reporters.

Griffin is back to full strength, too, after he nearly watched his All-America season be derailed by a concussion suffered in a 73-68 loss at Texas on Feb. 21. The Sooners lost four of their last six games heading into the NCAAs, including a 71-70 loss to rival Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals of last week's Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City.

But Griffin was dominant in the No. 2-seeded Sooners' first two NCAA games, scoring 61 points and grabbing 30 rebounds in victories over No. 15 seed Morgan State and No. 10 seed Michigan in South Region play.

Griffin had 33 points and 17 rebounds in Oklahoma's 73-63 win over the Wolverines in Kansas City on Saturday. He even threw down a dunk over Michigan's Zack Novak, as if to take out weeks of frustration in one thunderous moment. Griffin flexed his muscles after the dunk and held the pose for several seconds.

"I don't think it was out of frustration," Sooners coach Jeff Capel told reporters in Kansas City. "I think it was out of excitement. That it was a heck of a play. You know, if you made that, you probably would yell or do something, too. I know I would have."

Griffin and the Sooners might be staring down an Elite Eight showdown against the Tar Heels, who are led by one of the country's other dominant frontcourt players, senior Tyler Hansbrough.

First, Oklahoma will have to beat the winner of Sunday's game between No. 3 seed Syracuse and No. 6 seed Arizona State in Friday's South Region semifinals in Memphis. The Tar Heels will play No. 4 seed Gonzaga in Memphis on Friday.

Gonzaga had plenty to yell about Saturday night after it reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006. The Bulldogs beat No. 12 seed Western Kentucky 83-81 after freshman guard Demetri Goodson made a running, 6-foot bank shot with 0.9 of a second left in Portland.

Ironically, Gonzaga coach Mark Few said Goodson was in the game because of his defensive prowess. The Bulldogs were trying to find someone to slow down Hilltoppers guards A.J. Slaughter and Orlando Mendez-Valdez, who combined to score 49 points and make 10 3-pointers.

"[Goodson] has a knack," Few told reporters in Portland. "He is easily our best finisher around the rim as a guard. This kid has a knack for making shots over bigger guys. From day one in our program, it's something we've noticed."

Other things we noticed in Saturday's second-round games:

• There's a reason Memphis has won 27 games in a row -- and it's not because it plays in Conference USA.

The No. 2-seeded Tigers shook off their lackluster effort against No. 15 seed Cal State-Northridge in the first round and routed No. 10 seed Maryland 89-70 in Kansas City on Saturday.

The Tigers looked as deep and talented as any team left in the NCAA field, with five players scoring at least 13 points. Memphis shot a whopping 70 percent in the first half and finished with a season-high 58 percent from the floor.

The Tigers ran the Terrapins off the floor after Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez took a verbal jab at Conference USA the day before, predictably suggesting the ACC was much tougher.

"We're not in the ACC, so we don't know," Memphis senior Antonio Anderson told reporters in Kansas City. "We're in Conference USA and love it. That's our conference."

Memphis will carry the Conference USA flag at least once more, when it plays the winner of Sunday's game between No. 3 seed Missouri and No. 6 seed Marquette in the West Region semifinals in Glendale, Ariz., on Thursday.

• Duke is also headed back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006, after beating No. 7 seed Texas 74-69 in Greensboro, N.C.

The No. 2-seeded Blue Devils will play No. 3 seed Villanova in Boston on Thursday.

The Wildcats blasted UCLA 89-69 in Philadelphia on Saturday, using a Bruins-like defense and a 19-2 run early in the first half to quickly turn the game into a rout. The Wildcats advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in five seasons.

The Blue Devils continue to survive despite their dearth of imposing frontcourt players and a traditional point guard. Star players Gerald Henderson, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler continue to carry Duke, though, as the trio combined to score 54 points in the victory over the Longhorns.

• The best shot-blocker in the NCAA tournament not named Hasheem Thabeet? How about Purdue sophomore JaJuan Johnson? He blocked consecutive shots on one possession in the final minutes of the No. 5-seeded Boilermakers' 76-74 victory over No. 4 seed Washington in Portland.

Johnson, who averaged only 5.4 points as a freshman, scored 22 points against the Huskies, helping Purdue reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000.

Johnson, a 6-foot-10 native of Indianapolis, will square off against Thabeet when the Boilermakers play Connecticut in Glendale, Ariz., on Thursday.

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Both teams have now hit 8 of 17 3-point attempts.

But here's a statistical curiosity.

WKU is 1-of-7 from ... the free throw line.

In a tight game, that could become an issue.

Posted by Andy Katz

KANSAS CITY -- Blake Griffin had been flipped, popped, prodded and tugged the past two games here.

The national player of the year favorite had enough.

He caught a pass off a Tony Crocker steal, had the angle on the break and needed to flush his frustrations. So he powered a one-handed dunk over Michigan's Zack Novak to give Oklahoma a 13-point lead after a free throw.

Before he got to the line, though, he did pose. He flexed his guns. Griffin held the position for a few moments.

"We needed it," Griffin said of a momentum shift play. "The biggest part of that was Crock's steal. That turned everything for us."

Griffin finished with 33 points and 17 rebounds in Oklahoma's Sweet 16-bound 73-63 win over the Wolverines on Saturday at the Sprint Center.

The last player to go for 33 points and at least 15 boards in the NCAA tournament was Kansas' Nick Collison, who put up 33 and 19 boards in a win over Duke in the Sweet 16.

"That [dunk] extended the lead and got the crowd back into the game," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "It energized our guys. It was one of those plays where everyone says, 'Wow.' I haven't seen him flex and I didn't see it [Saturday]. I wasn't looking."

Griffin's brother, Taylor, a senior on the Sooners, said the dunk was a typical Blake Griffin play. The frustration let loose from this weekend was released.

"He's really having fun now and enjoying this part of the season, enjoying the tournament now," Taylor Griffin said. "He takes care of business."

Blake Griffin said the dunk made him feel like he was "in practice, playing a pickup game or just messing around."

The Sooners were no joke in the second half. Michigan made the game tense for the Sooners, who were desperate to get to the Sweet 16 after bowing out to Louisville in the second round a year ago. Crocker defended Michigan's Manny Harris well, limiting him to 3-of-9 shooting in an 11-point outing. OU's guards, led by Willie Warren's three 3s and Austin Johnson's dozen points, provided some balance.

"[The guards] were solid and we need them to be solid, not turn the ball over and defend," Capel said.

Capel said he didn't feel the pressure on himself to get the No. 2 seed Sooners to the Sweet 16. But he did feel some angst for Griffin.

Capel said he would have been sad if Griffin didn't at least get to the Sweet 16.

"He has a chance to do something that some of those guys like [Kansas State's Michael] Beasley and [Texas' Kevin] Durant didn't in leading their teams to the Sweet 16," Capel said. "The way he responded was tremendous. He played with determination. He was a warrior on the floor, like he's been all year long."

Blake Griffin said reaching the Sweet 16 "feels good. It would have been disappointing after missing out last year. But at the same time the teams are only going to get tougher and the basketball will get more intense. But I'm ready for that."

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Orlando Mendez-Valdez and A.J. Slaughter scored 28 of Western Kentucky's first 31 points, while eight Gonzaga players scored between two and seven points in the first half.

Six or half a dozen, right?

Bottom line is that these two different routes have us at 37-35 at halftime, the Hilltoppers leading in large part because Mendez-Valdez ripped a stunning five of six 3-pointers to start the game.

How even was this first half? Both teams shot 52 percent from the field -- WKU at 51.7 and the Zags at 51.9 -- and both teams had 14 rebounds. Gonzaga did have one more turnover, though.

The question in the second half will be whether Gonzaga's balance and scoring options will wear down the Hilltoppers, who likely will need at least one more scoring option -- Jeremy Evans? Sergio Kerusch? -- to advance to their second consecutive Sweet 16.

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Western Kentucky's Orlando Mendez-Valdez has hit five of his first six 3-point attempts and has scored 17 of the Hilltoppers' 23 points against Gonzaga.

The technical term for that kind of start is "good."

Posted by Mark Schlabach

A few observations from Saturday's late-afternoon games in the NCAA tournament:

1. If there is one player in the NCAA tournament capable of carrying his team to the Final Four in Detroit, it might be Oklahoma All-America forward Blake Griffin.

Griffin scored 33 points on 14-for-20 shooting and grabbed 17 rebounds in the No. 2-seeded Sooners' 73-63 victory over No. 10 seed Michigan in the South Region in Kansas City on Saturday.

It was Griffin's second 30-point game after he suffered a concussion at Texas on Feb. 21, and the sophomore from Oklahoma City finally looks fully recovered from the head injury. In this decade, there's only been one other 30-15 performance in the NCAA tournament: Nick Collison of Kansas pulled it off against Duke in the 2003 Sweet 16.

The Sooners advanced to play the winner of Sunday's Arizona State-Syracuse winner in Friday's region semifinals in Memphis. Neither the Sun Devils nor Orange have one player capable of handling Griffin, so it would take a group effort from either team.

Oklahoma also has to be encouraged by the play of freshman Willie Warren, who scored 16 points against the Wolverines. The Ft. Worth, Texas, native has shot 50 percent or better in two NCAA tournament games, with eight assists and three turnovers.

Like Memphis point guard Tyreke Evans, Warren is showing few nerves on college basketball's biggest stage.

2. If North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson played at only 80 percent in the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels' 84-70 victory over No. 8-seed LSU on Saturday, then opponents will hate to play him when he's back to 100 percent.

Lawson showed a little bit of rust in the first half against the Tigers, after missing his team's previous three games with a bruised right toe. But Lawson scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half and had six assists and no turnovers.

Few players change the pace of a game like Lawson, and it doesn't take a racehorse long to hit its stride once it's back on the track.

3. Purdue is playing in the Sweet 16 because star forward Robbie Hummel returned from a nagging back injury in mid-February.

But the Boilermakers might actually have a chance to beat No. 1 seed Connecticut in the West Region semifinals because sophomore JaJuan Johnson is one of the most improved players in the country.

The 6-foot-10 forward from Indianapolis averaged only 5.6 points per game as a freshman in 2007-08. But he nearly tripled his production this season, averaging 13.2 points and 5.6 rebounds.

In the No. 5 seed Boilermakers' 76-74 win over No. 4 seed Washington in Portland on Saturday, Johnson more than held his own against 255-pound bruiser Jon Brockman, scoring 22 points on 9-for-16 shooting.

In his last four games, Johnson has made 30 of 59 shots and averaged 18 points per game.

But he'll face his biggest test in Glendale, Ariz., on Thursday, when he goes against Huskies center Hasheem Thabeet, a 7-foot-3 shot blocker.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- This might be more than man-to-man zealot Bob Knight can bear to watch. It certainly will be more than Bill "Manaman!" Raftery can bear to announce.

But the Syracuse-Arizona State second-round game here Sunday (12:10 p.m. ET) probably will be all zone, all the time.

Like, every single possession.

Besides Louisville, these two teams might be the foremost practitioners of zone defense in college basketball -- but they go about it in very different ways. Syracuse plays Jim Boeheim's timeless 2-3, famous for active hands up top and length everywhere. Arizona State plays a more esoteric zone, a matchup 3-2 that morphs and moves in relation to the offense it's facing.

Somebody's going to need to hit some outside shots, and to find some gaps.

"We've got the best zone," Syracuse forward Paul Harris said.

"I definitely agree," teammate Andy Rautins said. "I think we've shut down a lot of offenses."

On Sunday, the Orange will attempt to shut down an Arizona State offense that ranks sixth nationally in efficiency and second in effective field goal percentage, according to numbers guru Ken Pomeroy. The Sun Devils don't play terribly fast, but they're productive with the ball -- and they have had success against a 2-3 zone look before.

Rival Arizona plays quite a bit of it, and the Devils won all three meetings this season -- shooting better than 52 percent from the field in two of those games. Syracuse has watched tape of those games. Without coming right out and saying it, the Orange are convinced that their zone will be another matter entirely.

That's because Syracuse has improved on the defensive end considerably as the season has gone along. This might not be a zone on par with the 2003 national champions or the 1996 runner-ups, but it's causing problems.

"Our knowledge and activity are better," said associate coach Mike Hopkins. "A zone is just like good man-to-man -- you're only as good as your weakest link. Our weaker links have gotten better."

When Herb Sendek got to Arizona State, he saw nothing but weak links defensively. That's when a lifelong man-to-man coach decided to try this 3-2 matchup thing.

"Out of desperation," said assistant Scott Pera. "With our personnel, we weren't going to guard anybody in our league man to man. None of us had ever taught it. We went in some ways by the seat of our pants."

Arizona State suffered through a 20-loss season, but the funky defense kept the Sun Devils in several games. In the offseason ASU tinkered with it and has steadily gotten better over the past two years.

"Over time it has just evolved, and now it's something that we've decided to stick with and play," Sendek said.

May the best zone win.

No. 12 Arizona (20-13) vs. No. 13 Cleveland State (26-10)
You cannot get through a conversation with the Cleveland State Vikings without hearing the word "toughness" come up. They live it, breathe it and espouse it on the court, manifested in their tenacious defense and ability to compete with teams that tower over them.

The living proof of Cleveland State toughness Saturday was the chipper presence of guard Cedric Jackson in the interview room. Roughly 14 hours earlier, in the aftermath of walloping Wake Forest, Jackson looked like walking death after taking IVs for dehydration.

"I'm good to go for tomorrow," Jackson said.

One word you rarely hear in connection with the Arizona Wildcats is toughness. That's a holdover from some of the talented Lute Olson teams that occasionally were soft defensively and did not handle adversity well -- but does it apply to the current Cats?

No, they say.

"It bothers me," Chase Budinger said. "We're trying to be more aggressive out there, more assertive on the defensive end, going to the boards. Just the little things like that."

From an NBA perspective, talent skews heavily in favor of Arizona. Budinger, center Jordan Hill and point guard Nic Wise all are considered NBA draftees -- with Hill perhaps the leading prospect.

Nobody is lining up to draft three Vikings anytime soon. But they faced a similar situation Friday night against lavishly talented Wake Forest and didn't just beat the Demon Deacons, they destroyed them.

The difference this time could be that Arizona has its eyes wide open. Watching Wake Forest walk into an ambush should eradicate any chance of underestimating the Vikings.

"I was in shock, to tell the truth," Hill said when he saw what Cleveland State did to the Demon Deacons.

"We can't take them lightly like Wake Forest did," Wise said.

Even if Arizona brings it's A game, there's no guarantee the Wildcats win. The Vikings once again passed the pregame eyeball test -- they do not appear happy to merely still be playing. And they certainly won't be in awe of their opponent.

"Our goal wasn't just to make it to the NCAA tournament," coach Gary Waters said. "It goes far beyond that."

Waters declined to specify where the Vikings' goals end -- but it's clearly not on a Sunday afternoon in Miami. At this point, it would be dangerous to bet against them.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Yes, Ty Lawson does make a difference, and he proved it in the second half of North Carolina's 84-70 win over LSU.

It was an exciting, back-and-forth game until late in the second half, when the Tar Heels used a 16-2 run to go ahead 80-65 and finally put some distance between themselves and the SEC champs. Lawson scored seven points during that stretch. After a shaky start that included a seat on the bench so the team trainer could check out his toe, Lawson came alive in the second half, scoring 21 of his 23 points.

He raised his arms in the air to get the crowd into it, but he didn't need to. They were already on their feet. And for the first time in four games, Lawson got a standing ovation and a pat on the back from coach Roy Williams as he left the court with one minute left to play.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- There were times when Ty Lawson looked 100 percent, like when he zipped down the court off a steal from Danny Green for an uncontested layup that put the Tar Heels ahead 29-22 and was the peak of a momentum swing. Then there were times when he simply looked like he was in pain. With 10:36 left in the first half, the right shoe came off. Then it was back on. Then it was off. Lawson took a seat at the end of the bench while the UNC staff checked out his injured right big toe. He winced, and covered his head with his towel. Minutes later, though, in the midst of UNC's 8-0 run that elicited a deafening roar from Tar Heels' fans, Lawson pounded his chest with confidence and seemed invincible.

The difference in the game that UNC led 38-29 at the half, though, has not been Lawson. It's been UNC's ability to score in the paint and dictate the pace, and their relentless pursuit of every loose ball. The Tar Heels have picked the ball off five times, and LSU has eight turnovers. The shots just aren't falling for the Tigers, who shot 40 percent in the first half (12-of-30). Guard Marcus Thornton is 3-of-9 from the field for seven points, and Tasmin Mitchell is the lone scorer in double figures with 10. If LSU is going to stay within 10, they're going to have to do exactly what coach Trent Johnson had planned: "Run like hell."

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Life just got more difficult for the LSU Tigers. A North Carolina school spokesman recently made the rounds and confirmed that ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson will start instead of Bobby Frasor.

The question is: How rusty will he be, and how long will he last? He injured his toe on March 6 and has missed the past three games. He is averaging 15.9 points, and has made 93 assists and 31 turnovers in his past 14 games. UNC is 14-1 during that stretch. If he's in top form, Lawson will be a difference-maker in the game. UNC coach Roy Williams said on Friday that in all of his years coaching, he's never seen a player accelerate like Lawson can and push the ball up the floor.

Frasor has played well in Lawson's absence, but will be the first to admit he wasn't blessed with Lawson's speed. Don't forget, though, that LSU guard Garrett Temple has been there, defended that. He was on the 2006 LSU team that went to the Final Four, and he was the one who sent J.J. Redick home. LSU prepared as if Lawson were starting.

Sea of blue
UNC obviously has a home-court advantage, and LSU knew it would be that way. The Coliseum isn't quite filled, but there is an overwhelming majority of Carolina blue in the stands. Just how much of a home-court advantage is it? UNC is 4-0 in NCAA tournament games played in Greensboro and 26-1 in tournament games played in the state of North Carolina.

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Sitting at breakfast this morning, I heard a woman named Belinda talking about her son "posterizing" someone with a dunk in a first-round game.

Turns out Belinda is the mother of Western Kentucky sophomore guard Sergio Kerusch.

And Belinda's son did "posterize" an Illinois player during the Hilltoppers' first-round victory, on his way to 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

"And that was Obama's team," Belinda noted to her family.

The 6-foot-5 swingman, a transfer from Itawamba CC who led WKU with 7.4 rebounds per game, wants to beat Gonzaga in Saturday's Rose Garden nightcap for more reasons than the obvious.

It means a return trip home for the Memphis native in the Sweet 16, said Belinda.

Kerusch is known for his positive attitude and quick smile. Let's just say the apple doesn't fall far from Belinda's tree.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- And then there were two.

Welcome to the Greensboro Coliseum, the mecca of ACC basketball, where Duke and North Carolina remain the league's two best hopes at advancing in the NCAA tournament.

That's right, even Virginia Tech got shellacked by Baylor in the NIT today, and Maryland is in the process of eating guard Greivis Vasquez's words against Memphis. Boston College, Florida State, Clemson and Wake Forest -- ooh, that was a bad one -- all lost.

It's up to the ACC's top seeds and most storied programs to take care of business here in order for the league to avoid complete embarrassment with nobody from what was supposed to be the second-best league in the country advancing past the second round.

Duke was already facing some pressure to do that, considering the Blue Devils haven't made it that far in each of the past two seasons. They face Texas in the second game, and it should be a tougher challenge than many people might think. The Longhorns will present a lot of mismatches, particularly down low. And if UNC doesn't have starting point guard Ty Lawson, who is a game-time decision with a jammed right big toe, LSU's chances automatically increase.

North Carolina and Duke finished the regular season as the ACC's best teams, with North Carolina winning the regular-season title and Duke winning the tournament title. Now the rest of the conference better hope they're that much better. Otherwise, it's on to spring football here on Tobacco Road.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- ESPN.com has arrived at the Greensboro Coliseum before LSU. How do I know? As I was waiting for the elevator to leave the hotel, LSU coach Trent Johnson shuffled out of his room -- apparently we happen to be on the same floor -- and he wasn't quite ready yet. Shirt untucked, sandals over dress socks, he muttered hello as he walked by another room.

LSU and Duke are in the same hotel and they, along with their fans, have taken over the lobby the past few days. A few of the LSU staff members were also working out with the other mere mortals in the hotel gym this afternoon.

One thing learned in the gym -- LSU would rather see injured point guard Ty Lawson play for UNC today. Why? The Tigers want to beat the best when the best is at full strength. There's no change in status, though, according to a UNC spokesman. We'll all find out about Lawson when the starting lineups are handed out. LSU players said on Friday they've prepared for UNC as if it will have the ACC Player of the Year in the starting lineup.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

After 36 hours of mostly predictable results, the 2009 NCAA tournament had its cork popped with a half-dozen upsets Friday.

The carnage was especially heavy in the Midwest Region, where the Nos. 4-7 seeds were upset by lesser seeds. No result was more shocking than No. 13 seed Cleveland State's 84-69 rout of No. 4 seed Wake Forest in Miami. The Demon Deacons, who were ranked No. 1 in the country at one point this season and have a roster chock full of NBA prospects, trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half and never threatened.

More than two decades after Cleveland State stunned Bobby Knight's Indiana team in the 1986 NCAA tournament (its only other appearance on college basketball's biggest stage), the Vikings advanced to play No. 12 seed Arizona in Sunday's second round. The winner will earn a surprising trip to next week's Sweet 16 games in Indianapolis.

The Wildcats, who were perhaps the last at-large team invited to the NCAA's 65-team field, upset No. 5 seed Utah 84-71 in Miami on Friday.

After the first round of play, one thing is clear: Top seed Louisville's path to the Final Four in Detroit is a heck of a lot easier, thanks to a boatload of upsets in its region. With Wake Forest, Utah and Ohio State falling Friday, the Cardinals won't face an opponent seeded higher than No. 9 until the Elite Eight in Indianapolis -- if they make it that far.

The Cardinals, the tournament's No. 1 overall seed, pulled away from feisty No. 16 seed Morehead State in the second half for a 74-54 victory in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday night. The Big East champions advanced to play No. 9 seed Siena in Sunday's second round.

The Saints, who beat Vanderbilt by 21 points in the 2008 NCAA tournament, helped the Cardinals avoid having to play Ohio State in its home state in the second round.

Siena, a Catholic liberal arts school of about 3,000 undergraduate students in Loudonville, N.Y., pulled an upset for the second season in a row, beating the No. 8-seeded Buckeyes 74-72 in double overtime in Dayton.

Saints point guard Ronald Moore made a 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in overtime to tie the score, then nailed another 3-pointer with 12 seconds to play in double overtime to win the game.

Moore, a junior from Conshohocken, Pa., is known more for his passing abilities than his shooting. But Moore's pedigree suggests he was destined to make the game-changing shots: A cousin, John Salmons, plays for the NBA's Chicago Bulls; his uncle played for the ABA's Kentucky Colonels; and his older brother, Chuck, played at Vanderbilt and now plays overseas.

Wisconsin's point guard, Trevon Hughes, made the No. 12 seed Badgers' big shots in their 61-59 upset of No. 5 seed Florida State in an East Region game in Boise. Hughes scored five straight points to help the Badgers erase a five-point deficit in the final four minutes of regulation, then made a three-point play with two seconds left in overtime to win the game.

Wisconsin became the third No. 12 seed to beat a No. 5 in this year's tournament (Western Kentucky defeated Illinois 76-72 on Thursday night), and advanced to play No. 4 seed Xavier in Sunday's second round. The Musketeers were an easy 77-59 winner over No. 13 seed Portland State on Friday night.

East Region No. 1 seed Pittsburgh struggled for much of its game against No. 16 seed East Tennessee State before finally pulling away with a 72-62 victory in Dayton. The Panthers led by only three points at halftime, and it seemed for a while as though a No. 16 seed might finally have a chance to win in the men's NCAA tournament. But Pitt forward DeJuan Blair flexed his muscles in the second half, finishing with 27 points and 16 rebounds, and No. 16-seeded teams fell to 0-100 since the NCAA field was expanded in 1985.

The Panthers will play No. 8 seed Oklahoma State in Sunday's second round. The Xavier-Wisconsin winner is Pitt's potential Sweet 16 opponent in Boston, and the bottom of the East bracket might present some roadblocks, too, after it held true to form Thursday.

North Carolina, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, plays No. 8 seed LSU in Greensboro, N.C., on Saturday. The Tar Heels' chances of advancing will be better if point guard Ty Lawson returns from a toe injury, but his status remains a game-time decision. UNC would face the Gonzaga-Western Kentucky winner in Memphis in the Sweet 16, and No. 2 seed Oklahoma and No. 3 seed Syracuse are still alive in the bottom of the South bracket.

Connecticut, the No. 1 seed in the West Region, was a 56-point winner over No. 16 seed Chattanooga on Thursday. But the Huskies might face the most difficult road among the top seeds because the top six seeds in the West are still playing after the first round.

Connecticut plays No. 9 seed Texas A&M in Philadelphia on Saturday. The Washington-Purdue winner would await the Huskies in next week's regional semifinals in Glendale, Ariz.

Of course, if the second round is anything like Friday night's action, everything can change between now and then.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

A couple of observations from Friday night's early set of games in the NCAA tournament:

1. Arizona and USC were two of the last teams to make the NCAA's 65-team field, but you hardly knew it watching those teams play Friday night.

Arizona, which was a controversial at-large choice after it finished 9-9 in Pac-10 play, blasted No. 5 seed Utah 84-71 in a first-round game of the Midwest Region in Miami. USC, which had to win last weekend's Pac-10 tournament in Los Angeles to secure an automatic bid, routed No. 7 seed Boston College 72-55 in a first-round game of the Midwest Region in Minneapolis.

The results should hardly come as a surprise if you look at those teams' rosters.

USC has a couple of future NBA players, including forward Taj Gibson, who scored 24 points on 10-for-10 shooting. Gibson matched the second-best shooting performance in an NCAA tournament game; Kentucky's Kenny Walker went 11-for-11 in 1986. Dwight Lewis added 20 points, and the Trojans did a good job of locking down BC guard Tyrese Rice, who scored only nine points on 4-for-11 shooting.

USC was a perplexing team this season, to say the least. The Trojans didn't do much of anything during their nonconference schedule, even losing to Seton Hall, then fell off the NCAA tournament bubble by going 1-6 in February. But the Trojans have won six games in a row and seem to be playing with a lot of confidence and purpose.

USC coach Tim Floyd teaches defense as well as any coach in the country, and he'll figure out a way to give the Trojans a chance in future rounds. USC will meet the winner of Friday night's game between 2-seed Michigan State and 15-seed Robert Morris in Minneapolis on Sunday.

Arizona's early-season struggles -- the Wildcats lost five of their first 14 games and five of their first seven Pac-10 contests -- were understandable after coach Lute Olson retired unexpectedly in late October. But interim coach Russ Pennell did a fantastic job of keeping the Wildcats intact, and they won seven games in a row midway through the Pac-10 schedule.

But after Arizona lost five of its last six games before the tournament, many college basketball pundits questioned whether the Wildcats were worthy of an at-large bid. They extended their streak of NCAA appearances to 25 seasons in a row, then proved against the Utes that they were more than worthy of inclusion in the NCAA field. The Wildcats won because they have two future NBA players in the frontcourt: forwards Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger. They combined for 37 points and 21 rebounds against the Utes, who didn't have an answer.

The Wildcats are big enough and talented enough to give No. 4 seed Wake Forest problems Sunday -- if the Demon Deacons beat No. 13 seed Cleveland State on Friday night.

2. After 4-seed Xavier beat 13-seed Portland State 77-59 in a first-round game of the East Region on Friday night, the Atlantic 10 has twice as many teams (the Musketeers and Dayton) left in the NCAA field as the SEC (LSU). Neither A-10 team came in looking as if it would stick around long in the NCAAs; they were a combined 4-8 in March.

But Xavier shot 8-for-19 on 3-pointers and did a good job of protecting the 3-point line on defense. At some point in the tournament, Xavier's lack of success at the foul line -- it went 11-for-18 against the Vikings -- will catch up with it. The Musketeers shot only 67.5 percent from the foul line this season, which was 219th among 330 Division I teams.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- LSU's game plan for keeping pace with North Carolina is simple:

"We're going to run like hell," coach Trent Johnson said, smiling.

The Tigers will also try to copycat what Boston College did in the Eagles' 85-78 win over UNC on Jan. 4, when BC guard Tyrese Rice worked his way into the lane and scored at will. They've studied the film closely, and LSU guard Marcus Thornton said it will be important for the Tigers to get in the lane, and get UNC's post players into foul trouble.

Danny Green said UNC is a different team now, and the Tar Heels have matured on defense.

"We've just got to come together and make some sacrifices, play better defense and challenge shots and box out, do the little things, and play the flex a lot," Green said. "We know they're going to try to throw that at us because they think we're not as good guarding the flex than other teams are. But I feel confident in our team that we'll be able to do what we're supposed to do."

One key matchup will be 6-foot-11 LSU center Chris Johnson against 6-9 UNC forward Tyler Hansbrough.

"Tyler Hansbrough is one of the greatest players in the conference today," Thornton said. "If Chris can't step up to the plate like he needs to, he doesn't need to be playing. But I have faith in him. He stepped up big yesterday. He was a big part of our team yesterday, and I feel he'll do it again tomorrow."

Texas vs. Duke
The knock on Duke this year (again) has been that the Blue Devils lack a legitimate inside post presence -- a player like Texas' beefy yet agile 298-pound center, Dexter Pittman. He's a tough matchup for anyone, and Texas coach Rick Barnes said it's important Pittman establishes his position.

"It wouldn't surprise me to see them try to get up and down the floor," Barnes said. "Again, get him away from the basket some on the defensive end. … But I'm sure they know that that's an area we're going to try to go after."

Over the last six games, Pittman is averaging a team-best 16.8 points and nine rebounds in 26.8 minutes per game.

"Oh yeah," said Duke forward Lance Thomas. "It's going to be a handful. They're a very big team. Pittman's a great post player. We just have to basically do everything in our power to try to keep him off the boards -- be relentless, going up for rebounds with two hands, making them run, things of that nature."

It would also help to increase 7-foot-1 center Brian Zoubek's minutes in the rotation. He played just four minutes in Thursday's 86-62 romp of Binghamton. It's not just Pittman the Blue Devils have to worry about, though. Mike Krzyzewski called A.J. Abrams "one of the most dangerous shooters" in college basketball, and said he reminded him of J.J. Redick. That's an area Duke can counter, though. Since moving to point guard, Jon Scheyer has had seven straight games with at least three three-pointers.

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A couple of quick, amusing exchanges from the day's news conferences.

Lots of folks can sympathize with Purdue forward Robbie Hummel, who has struggled with a lower-back injury this year. Who hasn't had lower-back issues? And everyone's got their own theories on potential cures. Hummel admitted that perhaps all Boilermakers fans who have had a bad back have volunteered theirs to him.

Some were strange.

"This one guy got my phone number, called me, I don't know how he did, and left me a voicemail about some eucalyptus oil that would magically cure my back," Hummel said.

Meanwhile, Gonzaga coach Mark Few was amused when a radio reporter announced he was from the "Big Red Radio Network."

"Is that sponsored by the chewing gum company?" Few quipped.

No, it's Western Kentucky's official radio network.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

Here are some observations from Friday's late afternoon set of NCAA tournament games:

1. College basketball fans spent most of the season arguing about which conference was better: the ACC or the Big East? But through the first 1½ days of the NCAA tournament, the Big 12 has stolen the show.

Big 12 teams are a combined 6-0 in NCAA first-round games after Missouri routed Ivy League champion Cornell 78-59 on Friday in the West Region in Boise, Idaho.

At least three Big 12 teams have a pretty good shot of reaching the Sweet 16, too. South Region No. 2 seed Oklahoma plays No. 10 seed Michigan in the second round in Kansas City on Saturday, and Midwest Region No. 3 seed Kansas takes on No. 11 seed Dayton in Minneapolis on Sunday. Missouri, the No. 3 seed in the West, faces No. 6 seed Marquette on Sunday.

And don't be surprised if Texas, the No. 7 seed in the East, gives No. 2 seed Duke all it can handle in Greensboro, N.C., on Saturday. Even though the Blue Devils are playing very close to home, I'm not sure their frontcourt players can handle supersized big man Dexter Pittman. But I'm betting Longhorns guard A.J. Abrams won't have as many open looks from behind the 3-point line as he did in Thursday night's 76-62 win over Minnesota, either.

Oklahoma State, the No. 8 seed in the East, will be a big underdog against 1-seed Pittsburgh in Dayton on Sunday, even after the Panthers struggled against Atlantic Sun champ East Tennessee State in the first round. And No. 9 seed Texas A&M would need a pretty remarkable effort to upset 1-seed Connecticut in the West Region in Philadelphia on Saturday. The Huskies were a 56-point winner over Southern Conference champ Chattanooga on Thursday.

2. Here's a perfect example of why Arizona State forward James Harden is one of the best players in the country. He shot the basketball miserably in the No. 6 seed Sun Devils' 66-57 victory over No. 11 seed Temple in the South Region in Miami on Friday. Harden, who averages more than 20 points per game, scored only nine on 1-for-8 shooting.

But Harden didn't force the issue, dishing the basketball to his teammates with hotter hands. Harden finished with seven rebounds, three steals and three assists. Harden has endured a few tough outings this season, but usually bounces back strong. He scored only nine points in a one-point win over IUPUI on Dec. 14, but then scored 30 in a 76-75 victory over BYU six days later. Harden scored only four points in a 61-49 loss at USC on Jan. 15, but had 24 in a 61-58 win at UCLA two days later.

Arizona State coach Herb Sendek will find ways to get Harden open for shots against Syracuse on Sunday, too. Many college coaches will tell you Sendek is one of the toughest matchups in postseason play because he doesn't need much time to come up with varied game plans.

3. What will the Atlantic Sun champion have to do to avoid a No. 16 seed? Last year, No. 15 seed Belmont nearly stunned No. 2 seed Duke, before losing 71-70 in the first round. On Friday, the No. 16-seeded Buccaneers gave Pittsburgh all it could handle in the first round.

The Panthers aren't the first team to avoid a first-round scare from ETSU, either. The Bucs lost to Cincinnati 80-77 in the first round in 2004 and fell to Wake Forest 76-73 in 2003. The Bucs have won one NCAA tournament game since 1969, beating Arizona 87-80 in the first round in 1992.

4. Dayton might have scored the biggest win in terms of bragging rights Friday. The Flyers had been 1-13 against Bob Huggins-coached teams, with most of the damage coming in his days as Cincinnati's coach. But the Flyers, who limped into the NCAAs having lost four of their past eight games, took a 4-3 lead and never trailed in a 68-60 victory over West Virginia.

5. Dayton officials were smart to reach an oral agreement with coach Brian Gregory for a five-year contract extension before the NCAA tournament started. The new deal would keep Gregory with the Flyers through the 2017-18 season. I'm guessing that oral agreement will become a written deal if the Flyers keep winning.

Another coach who will be a hot name for openings at Alabama and Georgia: Missouri's Mike Anderson. And Virginia Commonwealth's Anthony Grant didn't hurt his stock by nearly leading the No. 11 seed Rams to an upset of No. 6 seed UCLA on Thursday night.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- James Harden was, by and large, terrible Friday afternoon.

Until it was win-or-lose time.

That's when the Arizona State guard became the kind of player who made first-team All-America teams and is projected as a lottery pick in the June NBA draft. He took over a game that he had played very little part in for the first 35 minutes.

Harden took the ball in his hands, took over the Sun Devils' offense and directed the No. 6 seed past a determined Temple team. He scored only nine points in the game -- less than half his season average -- but seven of them came in the final 4:44. So did three of his seven rebounds. And that's why Arizona State is still playing after a 66-57 victory in a largely deserted American Airlines Arena.

It's nice when your 6-foot-5 shooting guard can become your break-a-defense-down point guard at crunch time.

"It's a tremendous asset and gift," Arizona State coach Herb Sendek said. "At the end of the game, as much as it may not have been his afternoon, he made a number of plays that allowed us to win. ...

"When the game was on the line, he was still able to have the presence of mind to reset himself and play the last home stretch exceptionally well. That's not easy to do when you're not having your day, to rest yourself mid-streak and then step up and make a number of plays that your team needs you to make."

The first play Harden made was a 3-pointer off a screen at the top of the key with 4:02 left and ASU up 53-49. At that point he was 0-for-6 and being massively outplayed by Temple shooting guard Dionte Christmas, who had 27 points. But after scraping off a Jeff Pendergraph screen and seeing the Owls' defense hesitate, Harden didn't hesitate a second. He rose up and smoothly stroked the biggest shot of the game. After that it was never closer than five points the rest of the way.

On the ensuing possessions, Harden kept working the high screen and driving to the basket, either drawing fouls or dishing to open teammates. Temple had no answer -- not defensively and not offensively, as Christmas took his last shot around the five-minute mark.

That's the biggest difference between the two stellar 6-5 guards: Harden can create for himself and others, while Christmas needs more help from a table-setting point guard.

But occasionally the laid-back Harden needs help getting his motor revved. That's where teammate Derek Glasser came in Friday.

"James, you've got to snap out of it," Glasser told him with about 10 minutes left in the game. "Let's go."

Harden did not snap back.

"He's not one of those guys who's going to say, 'F you, get outta here,'" Glasser said. "He's going to say, 'OK, let's go.'"

Glasser has played with Harden for years, dating to their days growing up in Southern California. He knows Harden's talent, and the occasional reticence that comes with it.

"It's frustrating, just because if there's anybody who knows what he's capable of, it's me," Glasser said.

Glasser had a career scoring game, racking up 22 points, and forward Jeff Pendergraph had 22 of his own.

"Credit to my teammates -- they picked me up," Harden said. "That's why we're still playing on Sunday."

If Arizona State is going to play beyond Sunday, it cannot afford another 35-minute no-show performance from its star player.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- James Harden has finally made a field goal.

The timing could not have been better for Arizona State.

With ASU leading 53-49 over hard-charging Temple, Harden worked over a screen at the top of the key and fired a 3-pointer that swished with 4:02 left. He tugged at his jersey and exhaled as he ran back downcourt, relieved to have ended a 0-for-6 skid. Harden added two more foul shots at 3:21 to give ASU a 58-51 lead. He has scored the Sun Devils' past six points.

Prior to that it was Christmas in March at American Airlines Arena.

Dionte Christmas had led a dogged Temple rally to within three points, 52-49, with 6:47 left to play. Christmas has been an unstoppable offensive force, scoring 27 of the Owls' 49 points. He has also won in a landslide in the individual matchup with Harden.

This is Harden's second straight poor scoring game, after being held to only 10 points by USC on 3-of-9 shooting in the Pacific-10 tournament final. Not the stuff lottery picks are made of.

But at least Harden has had the help of teammates Jeff Pendergraph (20 points) and Derek Glasser (17, all in the first half). Glasser, who has been a one-man M*A*S*H unit the latter half of the season, was banged up early in the second half and appeared to have hurt his back. He sat out quite a while and has attempted only one shot this half.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

Here are some observations from Friday's early set of NCAA tournament games:

1. There might not have been a bigger enigma in college basketball this season than Tennessee. OK, maybe Georgetown or Notre Dame.

With Tyler Smith, J.P. Prince and Wayne Chism, the Volunteers were talented enough to advance to the Sweet 16 (or maybe even the Final Four). Instead, the No. 9 seed Volunteers lost to No. 8 seed Oklahoma State 77-75 in an East Regional first-round game in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday.

Tennessee's latest loss was pretty much a microcosm of its season. After taking a 75-74 lead on Tyler Smith's three-point play with 24 seconds left, Vols guard Josh Tabb, who had been suspended from playing in the first half by coach Bruce Pearl for an undisclosed violation of team rules, allowed Byron Eaton to drive straight to the basket for a layup. Eaton was fouled and made the free throw for a two-point victory.

For whatever reason, Pearl was never able to persuade his team that its best chance to score was inside the paint. The Vols shot a whopping 33 3-pointers (out of 56 shots) and never went to Chism and Smith enough down the stretch.

2. For all of those college basketball fans who worried about No. 3 seed Syracuse having tired legs after last week's remarkable run in the Big East tournament, the Orange seemed to be just fine against No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin in Miami on Friday.

At least Syracuse wasn't tired on defense. The Orange used their vaunted zone defense to hold the Lumberjacks to only 24.7 percent shooting, including 2-for-21 on 3-pointers.

But if the Orange are going to survive the second round, they'll have to get better shooting from their guards. Eric Devendorf went only 3-for-11 from the floor, and Andy Rautins was scoreless after going 0-for-6 on 3-pointers.

That's good enough against a team like Stephen F. Austin. It won't be good enough against a team like Arizona State or Temple.

3. It's a shame there weren't more at-large teams from smaller conferences in the 65-team field. No. 11 seed Utah State more than showed that its 30-4 record going into the NCAA tournament wasn't a fluke, losing to No. 6 seed Marquette 58-57 in the West Regional. And No. 14 seed North Dakota State more than held its own against defending national champion Kansas in an 84-74 loss in the Midwest.

The Bison invested the past five seasons in getting ready for its first NCAA tournament appearance, and the wait was more than worth it. Guard Ben Woodside showed he could play for any team in the country, scoring 37 points in 40 minutes.

I'm betting the NCAA tournament's opening round would have been more exciting with guys like Davidson's Stephen Curry and St. Mary's Patty Mills.

4. I'm still not sure how far Marquette can go without injured guard Dominic James. Its three starting guards against Utah State -- Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews and Maurice Acker -- shot a combined 7-for-30, including 2-for-13 on 3-pointers. The Golden Eagles' guards will have to play better if Marquette is going to win again.

5. The biggest development for Kansas in Friday's 84-74 win over North Dakota State? The play of sophomore center Cole Aldrich, who scored 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting with 11 rebounds.

Guard Sherron Collins is good enough to carry the No. 3-seeded Jayhawks for a couple of rounds. But if Aldrich continues to play well, Kansas might have a good chance to reach the Sweet 16 again. The Jayhawks might be difficult for anyone to stop with that kind of inside-outside game.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Derek Glasser finished one of the greatest first halves of his life writhing on the American Airlines Arena floor.

On the final play, the Arizona State guard drove into Temple's zone defense and fired a pass to the left wing, but before it got there, a Temple defender hit him in the eye and sent him sprawling to the court.

Glasser was attended to by the ASU medical staff while everyone else left the floor. Ultimately he got up and jogged off, still wincing.

The Sun Devils certainly hope he'll be OK, after he strafed the Owls for 17 first-half points as ASU staked itself to a 35-26 lead. That doubled his season scoring average and was one point off his career high for an entire game.

Glasser, normally more of a set-up man for primary offensive weapons James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph, was left open repeatedly on the perimeter, and he made Temple pay for it.

He swished four 3-point shots and made two other field goals and his only foul shot. Add in three assists, and he was the best Sun Devil on the floor in what was billed as a showdown between Harden and Temple's Dionte Christmas.

Harden had only two points and missed all three of his shots. But he did contribute four rebounds and three steals.

Christmas had 13 first-half points on 4-of-9 shooting and was the only Temple player with more than five points.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- How tireless are Syracuse Orange guards Johnny Flynn and Eric Devendorf?

We're going to find out.

Last week they were pushed to the edge of endurance during Syracuse's epic, 195-minute stay in the Big East tournament. This week they opened the NCAA tournament by playing 38 minutes (Flynn) and 39 minutes (Devendorf) in a blowout of Stephen F. Austin.

That's way too many in a game the Orange controlled from the opening tip, leading 20-4 after 9 minutes and 40 seconds. But Cuse coach Jim Boeheim has left himself almost no options.

Boeheim has never had much use for depth. He has gone with a seven-man rotation all season, and that was reduced Friday by the pregame sickness of forward Kristof Ongenaet. He suited up but didn't play, and backup guard Justin Thomas -- Ongenaet's roommate -- was so sick he never even left the team hotel.

Truth be told, nobody from sick-and-tired Syracuse looked or sounded overly robust after the game.

"Everyone's got a little cough or something," Flynn said in the postgame locker room, where they should have handed out surgical masks to all entering reporters.

Given that, Boeheim's decision to tax his two most important players Friday seemed a dubious strategy. Even Syracuse's end-of-the-bench walk-ons couldn't have coughed up the game-long lead the Orange held over the outmanned Lumberjacks.

It will be a different story Sunday in the second round. All hands will need to be on deck, and Syracuse had better have its shooting legs back underneath it.

Perhaps owing to the Big East grind, the Orange were 2-for-16 from 3-point range. Andy Rautins was 0-for-6, Devendorf 1-for-5 and Flynn 0-for-3.

"A lot of our shots weren't falling, but that'll be a different story Sunday," Devendorf said.

As for the team health?

"I don't think that's really going to be a factor," Devendorf said. "Everybody's good."

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Sometimes the stat sheet lies. Sometimes it tells you everything you need to know.

At halftime of the Syracuse-Stephen F. Austin game, the stat sheet is the truth.

SFA shot even worse than anticipated against the Syracuse zone, going 0-for-11 from 3-point range. The Lumberjacks were 9-for-33 overall (27.3 percent), and thank goodness for reserve forward Benson Akpan's 4-for-4 shooting, or it would have really been ghastly.

Meanwhile, the Orange shot 62.5 percent from the field and brutalized SFA on the glass, 24-11.

Predictable result: Syracuse 38, SFA 22 at halftime.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- This looked like a bad matchup on paper -- sketchy shooting team with a limited inside presence against big, zone-playing power -- and it has lived down to expectations.

Skittish Stephen F. Austin has missed layups, dropped sure alley-oops and generally failed in every way possible to get the ball in the basket against Syracuse. The Lumberjacks are 1-for-12 from the field while Syracuse is 8-of-12. Score: Cuse 20, SFA 4.

Viewers are free to find another game to watch.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- The Stephen F. Austin lumberjack mascot is an absolute monster -- a guy with huge guns bulging out of his sleeveless plaid shirt, mutton-chop sideburns and a flattop.

Easily the most intimidating mascot in the Big Dance. He looks like he should be at Dallas Cowboys minicamp instead of swinging a pretend axe at a basketball game. This has to be the first time ever that Syracuse Adonis Paul Harris does not have the most impressive physique on the court. He looks puny compared to Lumberjack Man.

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- The first sign of trouble for Syracuse came during pregame warm-ups.

Kristof Ongenaet, a backup forward and part of the Orange's thin seven-man rotation, was missing from the layup line.

Word started to circulate that Ongenaet is ill and unlikely to play. Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard reported that he came out for stretching but did not return to the floor with the team for warm-ups.

Ongenaet tardily jogged out to join his teammates on the court during the national anthem, looking pale. When the team made its last entry to the floor before tipoff, he was with them. We'll see if he ever gets around to taking off his warm-up top.

He averages only 3.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game but was playing especially well of late. He averaged 7.8 points, 7 rebounds and 2.5 steals during the Big East tournament.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

It wasn't the kind of opening day we've grown accustomed to seeing -- or hope to watch -- in the NCAA tournament.

Only four of Thursday's 16 games were won by lower seeds, and none of them -- No. 9 Texas A&M over No. 8 BYU, No. 10 Maryland over No. 7 California, No. 10 Michigan over No. 7 Clemson and even No. 12 Western Kentucky over No. 5 Illinois -- was the kind of result that really gets the blood flowing.

No, the first day of the 2009 NCAA tournament was pretty predictable (and even boring). White shirts and chalk ruled the day. Clemson lost in the first round again.

Top seeds Connecticut and North Carolina rolled. The Tar Heels made easy work of No. 16 seed Radford, winning 101-58 in Greensboro, N.C. The Tar Heels were so dominant it seems they won't even need injured point guard Ty Lawson until the Final Four begins in Detroit in two weeks.

The Huskies didn't miss coach Jim Calhoun, either, as he watched his team's 103-47 rout of No. 16 seed Chattanooga -- the third-largest rout in NCAA tournament history -- from a hospital bed. Calhoun was admitted to a Philadelphia-area hospital Thursday and treated for dehydration, according to a news release from the school. The release didn't say whether Calhoun took an official sick day (if watchdog reporters were wondering).

The best drama of the day came from upsets that nearly happened. West Region No. 2 Memphis, which argued that it deserved a No. 1 seed, trailed No. 15 seed Cal State Northridge by six points with about 10 minutes to go in Kansas City, Mo., before closing with a flurry and an 81-70 victory. Sophomore guard Roburt Sallie, who came into the game averaging 4.5 points, scored a career-high 35 and made 10 3-pointers.

Villanova, the No. 3 seed in the East Region, was supposed to have one of the easier first-round games. The Wildcats played No. 14 seed American University in their hometown of Philadelphia. But Villanova trailed by 10 points at the half. The Wildcats outscored the Eagles 49-26 in the second half for an 80-67 victory.

South Region No. 4 seed Gonzaga played close to home, too. The Bulldogs played No. 13 seed Akron in Portland, Ore., and were figured to have a home-court advantage. But the Zags trailed the Zips 52-51 with less than 10 minutes to play. Gonzaga used a 19-1 run to finally pull away for a 77-64 win.

The best action of the day came in Thursday's final games. UCLA, the No. 6 seed in the East, nearly blew a nine-point lead against No. 11 seed Virginia Commonwealth. But Rams guard Eric Maynor, who beat Duke on a buzzer-beater in the NCAA tournament two years ago, missed a 17-footer at the buzzer in the Bruins' 65-64 victory.

A headline-worthy upset finally came as the clock neared midnight. South Region No. 12 Western Kentucky, which advanced to the Sweet 16 in the 2008 NCAA tournament, upset No. 5 seed Illinois 76-72 in Portland. It was the 19th time in the past 21 years that a No. 12 seed toppled a No. 5. The Illini tried to mount a furious comeback in the final minutes, but even that game lacked the drama of the Hilltoppers' buzzer-beating overtime win over No. 5 seed Drake in Tampa, Fla., last year.

If you were reaching for your TV remote Thursday night, take out the batteries before Friday's games. The 2008 NCAA tournament began in very similar fashion. Only two of the first 16 games were won by lower seeds, and that included a No. 9 taking down a No. 8.

But the next day, six underdogs won, including four in the same city.

So beware, higher seeds in Boise, Dayton, Miami and Minneapolis.

History suggests the fun is about to begin.

Posted by Andy Katz

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Blake Griffin might be the fittest player in the country. He also might be the most acrobatic.

He needed to be to avoid a serious injury late Thursday night when Morgan State's Ameer Ali flipped him over his shoulder. Ali was ejected immediately as Griffin tucked his head and landed on his back. The gymnastic move saved the national player of the year favorite from landing on his neck as his back braced the fall.

"I tried to land on my feet, but it didn't work out too well," said Griffin after the No. 2 seeded Oklahoma Sooners beat the No. 15 Morgan State Bears 82-54 at the Sprint Arena.

"I'll be fine if we just give it time," said Griffin, who went to the sideline later in the game and stretched out his back. Griffin said the contact with Ali had been "pretty bad before the ref had to talk to him."

Ali's flip was reminiscent of Pitt's DeJuan Blair's hurling of Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet last month. But Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said there was a difference.

"I saw that one on TV, and that didn't look intentional," Capel said. "This looked intentional to me. Things like that shouldn't be in our game."

Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman said he told Ali, "You don't want to go out like that." He added, "What was I going to do, berate the kid right there? Wasn't going to do that. He was thrown out of the game. That's his punishment. Go to the locker room. I told the team in the huddle, let's the keep the game clean; we don't want to hurt anybody, nor do you want to get hurt. Play the game."

Capel said he saw the flip out of the corner of his eye and was ready to run onto the far side of the court before Griffin popped back up. He said he might hold Griffin out of Friday's practice in advance of Saturday's second-round game against Michigan. This isn't the first time someone has been chippy with Griffin. Capel said that Griffin was hit in the groin by USC and that a player at Utah did a "foot sweep" on him.

Capel said he's frustrated that plays like that happen throughout the game but sometimes it takes a repeated action for attention to be drawn to what's happening to Griffin.

"I've said it's difficult to officiate him, and you have to be physical to guard him," Capel said. But Griffin continues to keep his emotions in check and doesn't retaliate.

"He's smart and selfless and understands why they're doing it," Capel said. "They're doing it to get a rise out of him, but he's not going to get ejected because he knows it would hurt our team."

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Western Kentucky might be ready to become the Bluegrass State's answer to Gonzaga.

Those two will square off Saturday with a Sweet 16 bid on the line, the 12th-seeded Hilltoppers trying to reach their second in a row after surviving a late rally to notch a 76-72 victory over No. 5 Illinois.

The Hilltoppers, the 32nd 12th seed to take down a 5 since 1985, took the lead just over seven minutes into the game and never gave it up, running the margin to as many as 17 points. When the Illini cut the gap to nine points with 12 minutes left, WKU answered with consecutive tomahawk slam dunks from Sergio Kerusch and Jeremy Evans.

The message? We aren't finessing you.

Illinois fought back late, making things very interesting in the waning moments when it cut the deficit to three points twice in the final 45 seconds, then to two on a Trent Meacham layup with eight ticks remaining, the shots finally falling for the Illini after a frustrating evening from the field.

After going 1-for-9 from 3-point range in the first half, Illinois hit 4 of 9 in the second half, with Meacham hitting four of those to finish with a game-high 24 points.

Posted by Andy Katz

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Terrence Oglesby was alone, praying, watching, hoping that Clemson would come back from 16 points down and beat Michigan.

He sat in the locker room at the Sprint Center, staring at the television, and as the Tigers got to within three points with 13 seconds left, he knew that he probably would have been the one to take a potential game-tying shot. Forget that Oglesby had struggled, going 1-for-8 overall, 1-of-7 on 3s in 13 minutes. The sophomore guard had made 91 3s on the season, ranked second in the ACC at 39.6 percent.

"He's a threat when he touches the ball from everywhere," Michigan freshman guard Stu Douglass said.

K.C. Rivers barely got one off in the corner. He missed. Clemson's season ended with a thud, a 7-seed out to No. 10 Michigan 62-59 in the first round of the South Regional, the Tigers' third straight loss.

Oglesby was long gone by the time Rivers attempted his shot. He was ejected with 17 minutes and 20 seconds remaining in the second half after he was coming off a screen near the 3-point line. Douglass said the call could have gone either way. But Oglesby didn't argue.

"I was coming off a screen. I didn't even think about it; I just reacted, I hit him and I caught him with my elbow," said Oglesby, his orange warm-up jersey raised over his head. Oglesby was slumped forward, his emotions becoming audible in a deathly quiet locker room.

"It was the most embarrassing sequence I've ever been a part of," said Oglesby, who couldn't hold back the tears anymore. "I lost my head. I was coming off a screen and I caught him pretty good."

Official Thomas Eades released a statement saying, "We had an intentional foul on [Oglesby]. What we saw was a push off to the forehead. We came out immediately with an intentional foul. By rule, just to make certain it was an intentional foul, we can go to the monitor to review. When we looked at it there was no doubt there was an intentional act to the forehead. In my opinion, when you take a forearm to somebody's head, it's a flagrant foul."

Oglesby had to pause to collect himself to continue speaking in the locker room. Oglesby is a game-changer who can create his own run by making multiple 3s. But in this instance the attention was on him for the wrong reason.

"I embarrassed my team. I embarrassed my coach. I embarrassed my family. I wish I could go back. You know I'm not that type of kid," Oglesby said. "I was sitting back here praying they would make a comeback and hoping they would. I'm sorry."

Oglesby couldn't go on. His sobbing was the only noise in the locker room as freshman Bryan Narcisse comforted him.

Oglesby's absence wasn't the reason the Tigers lost. Clemson's defense created havoc for Michigan. But the game changed when Oglesby went out.

"If it was a good call, it's a bad play at a bad time," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "We didn't see 12 possessions of zone after Christmas, and one of the big reasons why is [Oglesby]."

Clemson finished 5-of-22 on 3s.

"It took away another shooter, another person who was a threat," Rivers said. "They would have had to honor that."

Michigan's Manny Harris knows the feeling. He was ejected during a road game at Purdue for a flagrant elbow while trying to clear space in front of Purdue's Chris Kramer.

"From the moment you're sent to your seat to when you walk out and everyone is booing, it's very frustrating," Harris said.

Michigan coach John Beilein is sensitive to the subject. The Wolverines were tagged for two elbows in a week; the first one he didn't dispute when Zack Novak elbowed Ohio State's P.J. Hill at the free-throw line. But he had an issue with Harris' ejection. Seeing Oglesby out of the game changed the plan for Michigan.

"It allowed us to play some zone," Beilein said. It didn't matter that Oglesby had been off earlier, because if he stayed in the game, Beilein was convinced "he would heat up real soon."

Oglesby's ejection and the Tigers' early exit didn't sit well. Rivers said Clemson started out strong but faded, adding "that's been the story." Clemson started out 16-0 but finished 7-9.

"I told the guys that they accomplished good things but that's not good enough, and they can't be satisfied with that," Purnell said. "If they're going to win at a high level in the NCAA tournament, then you have to be more consistent than that."

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- If Western Kentucky is still a Cinderella, it's more like Florence Griffith-Joyner as Cinderella, at least in the first half against Illinois.

The 12th-seeded Hilltoppers, who rolled to the Sweet 16 a year ago, rode an 18-5 first-half run to a 37-28 halftime lead over the fifth-seeded Illini.

They ran the break. They played tough D. And they hit five of their first eight 3-pointers, a .625 clip that should be hard to duplicate in the second half.

Think Illinois would like to have point guard Chester Frazier -- an All-Big-Ten defensive player -- helping on the perimeter defense? He's stuck on the bench nursing a hand injury.

Fair to say the Illini are lucky to be as close as they are. They shot just terribly in the first half, hitting just 12 of 31 from the field, including an even more miserable 1 of 9 from 3-point range. That's a cool 11 percent success rate.

Further, the Hilltoppers own a 22-16 advantage on the boards.

Is that hustle, or is WKU just that much better at rebounding?

Posted by Pat Forde

MIAMI -- Quick previews of the four games here Friday:

No. 3 Syracuse (26-9) vs. No. 14 Stephen F. Austin (24-7)
Shock the world? Yes, this would qualify. The Southland Conference has only won two NCAA tournament games since 1985, both by Northwestern State. SFA is the eighth different Southland champ in the past eight years, and while the Lumberjacks play admirably tenacious defense, they might lack the firepower to score against the Orange's problematic zone defense. They shoot just 31.8 percent from 3-point range and are not a powerful offensive rebounding team.

But this is a program that has won 50 games the past two seasons, including upsets last year of Oklahoma and San Diego. And Syracuse has had some memorable first-round pratfalls, most recently in 2005 against Vermont. If the Lumberjacks are ever going to catch Syracuse sleepy or still a bit rubber-legged from its epic journey through the Big East tournament, a 12:15 p.m. tipoff would seem like the time to do it.

And it might cut down on nerves for the team making the first NCAA appearance in school history.

"We get up, we play, and that's probably better than not," said SFA coach Danny Kaspar. "I'd rather be playing that game at 12:15 than the 9 o'clock game or 9:30 at night."

No. 6 Arizona State (24-9) vs. No. 11 Temple (22-11)
NBA scouts and all basketball fans should enjoy the matchup of two 6-foot-5, multi-tooled players: Arizona State's James Harden against Temple's Dionte Christmas. Both figure to be in the draft come June: Harden as an early-entry sophomore, Christmas as a senior who has scored 2,000 career points.

Harden leads the Sun Devils in scoring (20.8 points per game), assists (4.2) and steals (1.7) and is second in rebounding (5.5).

"He's the motor to their vehicle, man," Christmas said. "He makes those guys go. Depending on how he plays, that's how those guys play."

Christmas leads the Owls in scoring (19.2 points per game) and steals (1.5) and is second in rebounding (5.8) and assists (2.9).

"I think Dionte has been a catalyst these last couple years now," said Temple teammate Semaj Inge. "I don't think we're going to win a lot of big games if Dionte doesn't have a great game. … I've been playing basketball for a long time now, played with a lot of great guys, played against a lot of great guys, but as far as shooting the basketball, Dionte has to be up there with the best."

No. 5 Utah (24-9) vs. No. 12 Arizona (19-13)
Throw seeding out the window here. At least that's Las Vegas' take on this game. They rate this matchup of fifth-seeded Utah and 12th-seeded Arizona as a tossup.

"I don't think the country is used to a Mountain West team being a fifth seed," Utah coach Jim Boylen said. "So they're assuming that maybe because our conference doesn't get the exposure that other ones do, that we're not worthy of a fifth seed. And therefore when you play a team like Arizona that has tradition and a national kind of following, they assume that it's a game maybe we should not be picked in.

"You know, we've been facing that stuff all year. All I can tell you is we'll be ready to play."

This game will feature an intriguing low-post matchup between Arizona's Jordan Hill (18.5 points, 11 rebounds, 1.8 blocks per game) and Utah's Luke Nevill (16.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.7 blocks). May the best big man win.

No. 4 Wake Forest (24-6) vs. No. 13 Cleveland State (25-10)
This is Cleveland State's first NCAA appearance since the 1986 Cinderella squad led by Mouse McFadden and coached by Kevin Mackey stunned Indiana and went to the Sweet Sixteen. The current players have heard about that run but certainly don't remember it.

Wake Forest, meanwhile, got its own history lesson on that subject before leaving Winston-Salem. Guard Ishmael Smith said a police officer debriefed him on it before the team left campus.

"They upset Bobby Knight's Indiana team," the cop told Smith. "Don't let it happen to you guys."

Easier said than done, perhaps. This game has upset potential.

If it's going to happen, the strategic issue could be how the Vikings guard the Demon Deacons. The smart play says to pack it in and let their inconsistent perimeter shooters heave it up. But Cleveland State isn't much of a zone team and loves to extend its relentless man-to-man defense out to guard in the half court.

"Coach [Gary Waters] always says we're one of the best defensive teams in the [Horizon] league," guard Cedric Jackson said. "So you know we just want to do our best to get dirty. If we get cuts, we get cuts. If we bleed, we bleed. But our makeup is to play the best defense we can and go hard and take nothing easy."

The question is whether that defensive strategy might open up the interior to Wake Forest mismatches: Jeff Teague off the dribble, plus James Johnson and Al-Farouq Aminu inside.

SFA's Bell standing tall

The first time Stephen F. Austin guard Girod Adams stepped on the court to play with teammate Eric Bell, he had the same reaction as everyone else.

"They told me he was little," Adams said. "But when I stood next to him I was like, 'Are you serious?' "

Bell isn't just little. He's littlest. The Lumberjacks senior point guard is 5-foot-3, making him the smallest player in this NCAA tournament. He is emblematic of the little-guy charm that helps make this tourney so appealing.

In a sport that discriminates by height (with good reason), Bell has broken down a lot of barriers to get here. OK, he's gone under the barriers. Without stooping.

"He is the most remarkable guard I've ever played with or against," Adams said. "There are no two players who can double-team him. On defense, he's a pest, like a little bug you can't get rid of. It's just amazing how quick he is."

Bell is quick enough to have shot up the SFA career assist list despite playing only two seasons after transferring from McLennan Junior College. The guy who grew up idolizing Muggsy Bogues is fifth in the school's D-I history in assists for the Southland Conference champions.

Bell dished out 21 dimes in three Southland Conference games to help SFA score its first NCAA tournament bid ever. Now the kid who stopped growing around seventh grade will take the court against Syracuse and point guard Jonny Flynn -- who will fairly tower over Bell at 6 feet.

Nothing new there.

"I've grown accustomed to it," Bell said. "It doesn't affect me at all."

Being a shrimp certainly has never affected Bell's confidence, which he said was instilled by his parents, Anthony and Wendy.

"They always made me feel like I was good enough," Eric said.

And, as usual, they'll be in the stands Friday when the Lumberjacks tip off at 12:15 ET in American Airlines Arena in the first game of the second day of the tournament. Anthony and Wendy Bell and their 4-year-old daughter, Erin, were driving 20 hours Wednesday and Thursday from DeSoto, Texas. They've put a ton of miles on their Ford Explorer following Eric's Division I career.

"His parents are at every game," said SFA leading scorer Matt Kingsley, "no matter where we play."

Bell is keenly aware of his parents' presence in every gym. Last year the Bells got lost on their way to SFA's game at Nicholls State, an understandable mishap when you're trying to find Thibodaux, La. They missed the first half, and Bell played poorly. When he saw them in the stands, Bell's play improved in the second half.

Clearly, the Bells will need to be in the stands by tipoff Friday. They won't have much company from the campus in Nacogdoches, Texas. School officials estimate that they sold roughly one-seventh of their 350-ticket allotment.

Prep work

Arizona State coach Herb Sendek is a preparation freak, and it shows in his record. Over the past two years, the Sun Devils are 8-1 when they've had at least five days between games.

That's not good news for the Temple Owls, who play the Sun Devils on Friday here.

"Coach has probably watched more film on Temple than the rest of the teams in the Atlantic 10," Arizona State center Jeff Pendergraph said. "That's just how he is. He works to make sure every base is covered. No surprises."

That hearkens back to Sendek's days as an assistant to Rick Pitino at Kentucky. Pitino is murder in first-round and third-round NCAA tournament games -- a combined 19-2 during his career -- when there is maximum prep time. Sendek, a Carnegie-Mellon graduate who brings a brilliant analytical mind to the film room, is 5-1 in first-round games himself.

"His intelligence is out of this world," Pendergraph said. "It's really pretty intense, how brainy he is. He's a brainiac-type guy."

Lack of buzz

The joy of the blue curtains is back.

This is my 20th straight NCAA tournament, and you always know you're there when you walk into the media workroom and see the NCAA-issue blue curtains and blue carpet that surrounds everything: the interview room, the walkway to the court, the walkway to the locker rooms, etc. It's sterile and unattractive, but it's kind of the traditional welcome-to-Madness motif.

The curtains will be with us every step of the way, to and through Detroit. They're the same curtains everywhere, at every site, which makes me wonder whether the NCAA has some massive blue-curtain-storage room in Indianapolis.

Outside the curtains there is absolutely zero buzz in America Airlines Arena for the open practices. Why Miami was awarded a site, I have no idea. The city annually ranks near the bottom of metro areas in TV ratings for the NCAA tournament, and the apathy showed Thursday afternoon. Stephen F. Austin practiced in front of virtually nobody in the first open drills of the day.

Back behind the blue curtains, the usual Thursday conflict arose: how to balance the need to sit in on interviews with the overwhelming desire to watch the games ongoing at other sites. So far diligence is winning out. Barely.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

Here are some thoughts from Thursday's evening first-round games in the NCAA tournament:

1. Are we going to go through an entire day of opening-round games without a major upset? No. 2 seed-Memphis survived a big scare from Cal State-Northridge, before pulling away 81-70 in the West Region in Kansas City. No. 3-seed Villanova trailed No. 14-seed American by 10 points at the half, but then out-scored the Eagles 49-26 in the second for an 80-67 win in the East Region in Philadelphia.

South Region No. 4 seed Gonzaga seemed to be in trouble against No. 13-seed Akron, too, but the Bulldogs eventually pulled away for a 77-64 victory in Portland. The Bulldogs used a 31-6 run to put the Zips away.

There are two more major upset possibilities late Thursday night. No. 11-seed Virginia Commonwealth should give No. 6-seed UCLA all it can handle in an East Region first-round game in Philadelphia. No. 12-seed Western Kentucky also might have a chance to knock off No. 5-seed Illinois in a South Region first-round game in Portland.

2. Give American U., a Patriot League school in Washington, D.C., some credit. The Eagles faced the Wildcats in their hometown of Philly and had them on the ropes for much of the game. American attempted a whopping 30 3-point attempts and only five foul shots (Villanova went 26-for-29 at the foul line). American guard Garrison Carr scored 22 points and went 6-for-14 on 3-pointers.

Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunnigham each scored 25 points for Villanova, shooting a combined 18-for-26.

3. Texas senior guard A.J. Abrams found his shooting touch again in the No. 7-seed Longhorns' 76-62 victory over No. 10-seed Minnesota in Greensboro, N.C., on Thursday night.

Abrams, who had scored 10 points or fewer in four of his past six games, went 9-for-19 from the floor and scored 26 against the Gophers. He shot 8-for-15 on 3-pointers, his highest total from beyond the arch this season. At one point in the second half, Abrams made three 3-pointers in less than a minute to help Texas pull away for good.

Texas also got 18 points and nine rebounds from Damion James, and 17 points and 11 rebounds from Dexter Pittman.

The Longhorns advanced to play the winner of Thursday night's game between No. 2-seed Duke and No. 15-seed Binghamton in Saturday's second round.

4. Another NCAA tournament, another disappointing first-round exit for Clemson. The No. 7-seed Tigers lost to No. 10-seed Michigan 62-59 in a South Region first-round game in Kansas City on Thursday night. The Tigers were upset by No. 12-seed Villanova in the first round in Tampa, Fla., last year. Clemson has lost in the first round in four of its last five NCAA appearances.

Guard Manny Harris led the Wolverines with 23 points, six assists and seven rebounds. Michigan held Clemson to 32.8-percent shooting from the floor, including 5-for-22 on 3-pointers.

Thursday night's loss to the Wolverines probably shouldn't have been a surprise. Clemson had lost four of its past five games, including an 86-81 defeat against Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament in Atlanta last week.

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Gonzaga coach Mark Few just produced what might become the best description of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

"Spurtability."

That neologism is how Few described his team -- after briefly drawing a blank -- when reporters asked him for his take on the Zags decisive 19-1 run in the second half of their 77-64 victory over Akron.

Few's point is his team, sometimes viewed as a scrappy, disciplined bunch, can go nuts in transition, score points in bunches and transform a game quickly. Gonzaga's spurtability transformed a 52-51 deficit into a blowout in its favor. Forward Josh Heytvelt scored 10 of his game-high 22 points during the decisive blitz and he drew an offensive foul that would have made an Italian soccer player blush.

The Zips led most of the way in a game that saw neither team lead by more than six until the Zags decisive run. They hit eight of their first 13 3-pointers before going cold and connecting on just two of their final 10 behind the stripe.

The Bulldogs hit 11 of 19 from the field in the second half and committed just four turnovers, their superior size and athletic ability eventually wearing down the Zips.

Gonzaga now awaits the winner of the final game of the first round, No. 5 Illinois vs. No. 12 Western Kentucky.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

Here are some thoughts from Thursday's afternoon first-round games in the NCAA tournament:

1. Is there really that much separation between the No. 15 seeds and No. 16 seeds? After No. 15 seed Cal State-Northridge gave No. 2 seed Memphis fits early Thursday, top seeds North Carolina and Connecticut easily dispatched No. 16 seeds Radford and Chattanooga, respectively. The Huskies more than doubled the Mocs, winning 103-47. The Tar Heels won, 101-58.

2. UNC coach Roy Williams had to be encouraged by the performances of Danny Green and Wayne Ellington. Green, who shot a combined 3-for-25 in the ACC tournament, had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Ellington shot 11-for-16 for 25 points.

If the Tar Heels get back Ty Lawson, they'll be tough to stop in the South Region.

3. Not quite sure what to make of Radford coach Brad Greenberg's quote regarding UNC All-American Tyler Hansbrough, who became the ACC's all-time leading scorer on Thursday.

"I don't think he played so great today," Greenberg told reporters in Greensboro, N.C. "Everyone's getting crazy about him. He's great, don't get me wrong, but he shot 5-for-16. So it's not like he had a Bill Walton NCAA experience out there."

Greenberg is the brother of Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg and also is a former Hokie assistant.

4. Purdue is playing awfully well right now, but coach Matt Painter can't be too excited about how the Boilermakers have closed their last two games. Purdue nearly squandered a late lead against Ohio State in the Big Ten tourney finals, and then almost squandered a 14-point lead in a 61-56 win over No. 12-seed Northern Iowa on Thursday.

5. Give Maryland coach Gary Williams credit. He was under fire all season, and his Terrapins were one of the last at-large teams in the NCAA field.

But instead of just being happy to be there, the Terps won rather easily against No. 7-seed California on Thursday, pulling away for an 84-71 victory.

Maryland hadn't defended the 3-pointer very well all season, but held the country's best 3-point shooting team to only 7-for-24 from behind the arch.

6. I know Mississippi State wouldn't have made the 65-team field if it hadn't won the SEC tournament. But I think the No. 13-seed Bulldogs still got a raw deal getting shipped to Portland to play No. 4-seed Washington in a Thursday game. The Bulldogs didn't get a break, when teams such as USC and Syracuse did.

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Akron doesn't look like a team that hasn't played in an NCAA tournament since 1986.

The Zips lead 38-35 at the half in a tight affair, the biggest lead before the break being five points (Akron).

Akron has hit 4 of 8 3-pointers -- Gonzaga is 2-of-6 from behind the stripe -- making up for the Zips' 18-11 rebounding deficit.

Also, the Zips, with just two turnovers, are protecting the ball -- Gonzaga has six miscues.

One significant concern: Nate Linhart, the MAC tournament MVP and conference Defensive Player of the Year, has three fouls at the break. His 10 points also leads all scorers.

The Zips, just like Gonzaga coach Mark Few predicted, have the Bulldogs' attention.

The Zips are much smaller, though. Gonzaga figures to keep pounding inside with Josh Heytvelt, with the expectation that the Zips won't continue to hit 50 percent of their treys.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough thought about waving to the crowd that had just given him a standing ovation for breaking the ACC career scoring record and then thought better of it.

"No disrespect to anybody," he said, "but I just wanted, again, to stay focused on the game."

Hansbrough broke the record with the first of two free throws at the 15:43 mark. He finished the game with 22 points, giving him 2,789 for his career. Hansbrough tied former Duke star J.J. Redick's record of 2,769 points with a short bank shot 3:32 into the first-round game against Radford.

"You know, I look back and think of all the players that I've watched when I was young and in the ACC," said Hansbrough, who was also 12-for-12 from the free throw line. "All of those, and for me to top all of the scorers in that league, it's special. It's an honor. But still, at the same time, you know, I came here to win the game today, and I didn't want to focus on individual goals."

A UNC spokesman said Redick had asked for Hansbrough's number last week and planned to call him the day he broke the record. Hansbrough was also given the game ball, and coach Roy Williams joked it's probably an NCAA violation, but that he can "handle that one."

"I do think that he said it best," Williams said of Hansbrough. "When you think of the players in this league, the caliber of the players and understand that he scored more points than anybody that's played here, that's as big as it can be. But as he said, he was trying to focus on winning a game. Tyler Hansbrough, from the first day he stepped on our campus, has tried to be the best player he can possibly be."

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- There were conflicting reports Thursday as to whether or not UNC point guard and ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson will play Saturday against LSU. In the locker room, Lawson, who has been out with a jammed right big toe, said he's "pretty sure" he will play.

"Coach [Roy Williams] even said something after the game about us adding a new player to our team on Saturday," Lawson said. "He's talking about me, so I'm kind of excited to play on Saturday if he lets me. It feels real good right now and I was able to run around and jump on it."

Williams didn't sound as convincing, though, in his postgame news conference.

"I have no idea about Ty," he said. "That's just the best answer I can give you guys. If we practice tomorrow, if he's able to practice and do some things in practice, I'll probably play him. But if he's like he was yesterday, then I'm not going to play him."

No. 1 seed UNC clearly didn't need Lawson in its 101-58 romp of No. 16 seed Radford in the first round, but the Tar Heels' chances should improve if he's on the court against LSU's stingy defense.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Yawn.

Even North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough zoned out for a few minutes in the second half, staring off into space with a towel around his neck as the backups mopped up against Radford in a 101-58 win. It was your typical No. 16 seed versus No. 1 seed matchup -- it turned into a practice session for both teams.

Ty Lawson didn't play and he didn't need to. That might be a different story Saturday, when the Tar Heels take on a much-improved LSU team that won the SEC regular season and defeated a gritty Butler team in the first round. The one player who seemed to have the most fun was UNC forward Danny Green. Shooting slump? Not anymore. After making 3 of 25 field goal attempts last weekend in the ACC tournament (two of which were tip-ins, coach Roy Williams reminded everyone Wednesday), Green couldn't stop smiling Thursday.

Early in the second half he made a breakaway layup off Bobby Frasor's steal and just couldn't stop smiling. Green was 6-of-14 from the field against Radford and finished with a double-double -- 10 rebounds and 15 points. He'll need a similar output Saturday -- especially if Lawson is out again.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- LSU coach Trent Johnson has instilled in his players that "defense wins championships; offense wins games." The Tigers had both in their 75-71 win over Butler in the first game, but it was hard not to notice how the defense took over in the latter stretch of the game.

LSU used its size advantage and had eight blocks to Butler's one. It also had 11 steals.

"Coach came in, his first day at LSU he talked to us, and he told us the defense will be our M.O. the whole year, and if you don't play defense, you don't get in the game," said guard Marcus Thornton, who complemented his 30 points with four steals and six rebounds. "It's as simple as that. So we all came together as a team and tried to play team defense. … And we locked up at the end of the stretch."

Six-foot-11 center Chris Johnson made four of those blocks, despite playing with three fouls.

"The Xavier game, I really took it personally, because guys were scoring on me at will, and doing whatever they wanted to," Johnson said of the Jan. 24 80-70 loss to Xavier. "I just wanted to take pride in my defense a little bit more. … I still have some work to do."

He'll get a chance to go back to work Saturday in the second round, most likely against No. 1 seed North Carolina.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Li'l ol' Radford -- a school with about 9,000 students in Virginia -- was hanging with bad boy North Carolina. It lasted about 14 minutes. Then UNC went on an 8-0 run to pull ahead 44-27 with 3:25 left and it looked like a No. 16 seed versus a No. 1 seed. UNC leads 53-34 at the half.

Radford doesn't look overwhelmed -- the Highlanders are a scrappy team giving all they've got -- but they're clearly overmatched, and the Tar Heels are playing a home game. Yes, it's in the Greensboro Coliseum, but it's also about an hour away from the UNC campus, and with the amount of Carolina blue from the court to the rafters, it may as well be in Chapel Hill.

Radford came out and played with a purpose, seemingly unfettered by the atmosphere, but the Highlanders can't score when they're giving the ball away. UNC has 15 of its points off of 12 turnovers so far, and is beating Radford 12-4 on fast-break points. Bobby Frasor is looking good running the offense for UNC in place of injured starter Ty Lawson, who hasn't been ruled out entirely for the second half.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- It was just two routine free throws, but UNC fans cheered and roared as if it were already time to cut down the net.

Cameras flashed here in the Greensboro Coliseum as Tyler Hansbrough set the ACC scoring mark early in the first half when he made the first of two free throws.

He reached 2,770 points with 15:43 left to play in the first half against Radford. Hansbrough entered the first round of the NCAA tournament with 2,767 points, two shy of the record set by Duke guard J.J. Redick.

Posted by Mark Schlabach

Here are some thoughts from Thursday's early first-round games in the NCAA tournament:

1. Despite its struggles in its first-round game against No. 15 seed Cal State Northridge, I still think No. 2 seed Memphis might be the team to beat in the West Region.

A handful of the Tigers' best players -- point guard Tyreke Evans and forwards Shawn Taggart and Robert Dozier -- were hampered by foul trouble in the first half. As a result, the Tigers never seemed to get into offensive rhythm.

Yes, it was a pretty lackluster effort for a team that argued it deserved a No. 1 seed. But Memphis also showed how good it can be by wiping out a six-point deficit with about four minutes to go, before running away with an 81-70 victory.

2. I'm guessing Memphis coach John Calipari isn't second-guessing his decision to take juco guard Roburt Sallie late in the recruiting process last summer.

Sallie saved the Tigers' tails against the Matadors, scoring a career-high 35 points. The sophomore from Sacramento shot 10-for-15 on 3-pointers, an NCAA tournament first-round record for 3-pointers made. He had made more than three 3-pointers in only one of his first 32 games this season.

Sallie, who was the California JC Player of the Year after averaging 17 points per game at City College of San Francisco in 2007-08, didn't commit to play for the Tigers until June 16 (the same day Dozier opted to return to school, instead of entering the NBA draft).

Oddly enough, a Big 12 rule prevented Sallie from attending Nebraska. He originally signed with Washington in 2005, but failed to qualify academically and enrolled in a second prep school. He signed with the Cornhuskers the next year and briefly enrolled in classes in Lincoln. But the NCAA Clearinghouse voided Sallie's transcripts and ruled him ineligible for the 2006-07 season.

Sallie headed for San Francisco, where he was recruited by the likes of Kentucky, Cincinnati and Memphis after his only season there. Sallie couldn't return to Nebraska because a Big 12 rule prohibited him from enrolling in the school twice in an 18-month period.

3. I'm wondering if the Matadors showed future opponents how to play the Tigers -- throw a zone at them on defense and attack the rim relentlessly on offense.

4. Coming into the NCAA tournament, I thought there were two players who really had a chance to become household names -- LSU guard Marcus Thornton and FSU guard Toney Douglas.

Thornton and Douglas were perhaps the best players in their respective conferences this season, but for whatever reason, didn't garner as much attention nationally.

Thornton was sensational in No. 8 seed LSU's 75-71 victory over No. 9 seed Butler in a South Region first-round game in Greensboro, N.C. Thornton scored 30 points on 10-for-15 shooting with six rebounds, four assists and four steals.

The Tigers get the UNC-Radford winner in Saturday's second round. If Tar Heels point guard Ty Lawson isn't back from a toe injury, LSU might give UNC some trouble. The Tigers have good inside-outside balance and experience. Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple played on the LSU team that advanced to the 2006 Final Four.

5. Can No. 9 seed Texas A&M give No. 1 seed Connecticut trouble in the second round if they meet in the West Region in Philly? If the Aggies start the way they did Thursday -- making their first 10 shots in a 79-66 rout of No. 8 seed BYU -- they can play with anybody.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The LSU players talked on Wednesday about how they had gotten their "mojo" back after losing three of their past four games, and they needed all of it in a too-close-for-comfort 75-71 win over Butler.

The loss snapped Butler's streak of four straight second-round appearances in the NCAA tournament, but turnovers and a few wasted possessions in the waning minutes prevented any comeback.

LSU will now face the winner of the North Carolina-Radford game, and barring the first No. 16 seed upset of a No. 1 seed, the SEC champs will have to step it up a notch against the Tar Heels in the second round. LSU had plenty of chances to put the game away, but continuously let Butler battle back and eventually take the lead.

The good news for Butler fans is that there isn't a senior on the roster. It's a talented young team led by Brad Stevens, who is one of the country's most promising young coaches. These guys should be back next year.

LSU will be back Saturday.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The starting lineups for the North Carolina-Radford game were just handed out here, and ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson is not listed.

Of course, that isn't unexpected, considering coach Roy Williams said on Wednesday that Lawson was highly doubtful because of his injured right big toe.

This will give Bobby Frasor some more responsibility at point guard, but unlike the ACC tournament last weekend, the Tar Heels have prepared for Lawson's absence.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Just got word that Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg is sneaking away from the NIT to see his older brother, Brad, coach Radford in the second game against North Carolina.

Brad Greenberg is in his second season with Radford since leaving his brother's staff.

Seth will be back in time for the Hokies' 11 a.m. game Saturday against Baylor.

If Brad learned anything from his little bro, whose Hokies pushed UNC to the max before falling 79-76 in the ACC tournament last weekend, coach Roy Williams might get a tougher test than some might think.

Then again, if it did win, Radford would become the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Butler is simply overmatched.

LSU has the Bulldogs beat in height and athleticism and leads 35-29 at the half. The Tigers have done a good job of taking away Butler's strength, which is its perimeter shooting. The Bulldogs didn't even get their first field goal until about six minutes into the game. (And it was a 3-pointer).

Of course, their top 3-point shooter, Gordon Hayward, got the last word of the first half with a long shot from the top of the key.

They went to the locker room having made 4 of 12 3-pointers and are 14-0 this season when they've made at least nine.

LSU has been playing scrappy defense and has seven steals and four blocks already. Every time the Tigers seem to pull away, though, Butler fights back.

This is a young Butler team without a senior on its roster, and that has showed at times here in the first half.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Greetings from the Greensboro Coliseum, which is slowly being taken over by fans wearing Carolina blue as LSU and Butler get things started in the first game.

Both UNC coach Roy Williams and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski have downplayed the fact that the two rivals are under the same roof again, just about an hour from both of their campuses.

ACC commissioner John Swofford has a front-row seat near halfcourt and is watching the opening game. He wasn't at Texas coach Rick Barnes' press conference Wednesday, though, when Barnes -- who grew up in North Carolina following ACC hoops -- said this is where the conference tournament should always be. It hasn't been here since 2006.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Is Danny Green in a shooting slump? Clearly UNC coach Roy Williams hasn't noticed. One reporter at Wednesday's news conference pointed out that Green has been 10-of-40 from the field over the past few games.

"He's 10-of-45," Williams said dryly, "not that I follow those kinds of things."

With point guard Ty Lawson, the ACC's Player of the Year, likely out with a much-publicized injured big toe, the Tar Heels are looking for everyone to contribute more offensively, beginning against overmatched Radford. The No. 16-seeded Highlanders (21-11) are the Big South champions and have won 17 of their past 19, but are in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998 and will face a UNC team that's playing about an hour from its campus.

The knock on the Tar Heels this season has been their lack of defense on occasion, but without Lawson's ability to push the ball, they don't get as many baskets on the break. Heading into last week's ACC tournament, Williams thought Lawson would be ready. This time, they've prepared for life without him.

Binghamton (23-8) vs. Duke (28-6)
Duke isn't a team that's getting a lot of respect in the brackets (President Barack Obama's included), but Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski doesn't want to talk about what his team doesn't have (a legitimate inside post presence) or what the Blue Devils didn't do in the NCAA tournament the past two years (advance past the second round).

"These kids have nothing to make up for," Krzyzewski said.

He told them to forget the past, and it appears to have sunk in. Jon Scheyer said they've already moved on from winning the ACC tournament last weekend. The focus is now on Binghamton of the America East, and Krzyzewski said he doesn't expect the Bearcats to be "in awe" of his program.

"I see a very confident team," Krzyzewski said. "A team that has three perimeter guys that really can match up with a lot of perimeters. [D.J.] Rivera, he can flat-out score the ball. He's not going to be afraid. They have good egos."

Duke has compensated for what it lacks by tweaking the lineup for the past six games. Greg Paulus took a seat on the bench in favor of Elliot Williams, and Scheyer has moved from the wing to point guard on offense. Defensively, Krzyzewski has had Williams guard the opposing point guard, which has made him work harder at getting to the basket. It has also helped Duke cut down on turnovers and improve the spacing and freed up Scheyer on the perimeter.

Butler (26-5) vs. LSU (26-7)
LSU coach Trent Johnson is trying to convince his team "nothing's wrong," even though they lost three of their past four games. The players said they became complacent after clinching the SEC title, but the NCAA tournament has given them "another reason to be hungry," and they've "got their mojo back."

It's LSU's first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2006, when the Tigers went to the Final Four, and much of their success can be attributed to the offensive output of guard Marcus Thornton, who is averaging 20.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

Garrett Temple, the Tigers' top defender, was tasked with slowing down No. 1-seeded Duke's J.J. Redick in 2006, and he'll have another tough assignment Thursday. Temple is expecting to be guarding freshman Gordon Hayward, who is Butler's top perimeter shooter. He makes plays off the dribble and averages 13.4 points.

Sophomore Matt Howard is Butler's lone returning starter from last year, but Butler's résumé belies its age. The Bulldogs play smart, disciplined basketball and make the most out of each possession. Howard leads the team with 14.6 points per game. Coach Brad Stevens has a record of 56-9 in just two seasons at Butler and has gone to the NCAA tournament both years. And he's only 32 years old.

Minnesota (22-10) vs. Texas (22-11)
Texas coach Rick Barnes and Minnesota coach Tubby Smith have been friends for the past 30 years, and both have ties to the North Carolina area.

Their teams are equally similar, which should make for an intriguing matchup.

Minnesota makes good use of its bench and has used as many as 11 players in its rotation, and Barnes said the Longhorns had 11 different lineups on the floor at one point this season. Texas is expecting a strong rebounding and defensive effort from Minnesota, which mirrors how the Longhorns like to play. Texas has been inconsistent, though, in doing what it does best.

"We've had our ups and downs this year," said guard A.J. Abrams, who leads Texas with 16.3 points per game. "But we've had to play a lot of different styles. We've had to play through our big men, play through our guards. Had to switch up styles of play. Doing that is going to benefit us for this tournament. Seeing all those different types of defenses, it makes you better, even though you might struggle in the beginning."

Having advanced to each of the past 11 NCAA tournaments, Texas has the edge in postseason experience but lacks that "wow factor." Abrams will likely be matched up with Minnesota's top scorer, Lawrence Westbrook, who is averaging 12.4 points. Keep an eye on Texas center Dexter Pittman. He averaged a team-best 17.3 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks while shooting 66.7 percent from the field through three games at the Big 12 championship.

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- How did the Pac-10 regular-season champion and the SEC tournament champion get matched in an opening-round game? Just doesn't sound right, does it?

Further, a chief topic during Wednesday's press conferences was which team -- fourth-seeded Washington, which traveled 165 miles to Portland's Rose Garden, or No. 13 Mississippi State, which logged nearly 2,000 miles -- could count on the support of an Oregon crowd?

See, Oregon is Ducks and Beavers country; Huskies aren't exactly popular here.

"I expect to see the headline 'Bulldogs love Ducks!'" MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. "I understand Oregon folks don't like you Washington folks."

Beyond the cheers from the fans, this matchup of major conferences that had down seasons in 2008-09 has an obvious angle.

The Huskies want to run. The Bulldogs want to play defense.

Washington led the Pac-10 with 79.2 points per game. The Bulldogs held LSU and Tennessee to a combined 31 percent shooting in the SEC semifinals and finals.

The matchup inside between Washington's Jon Brockman -- Mr. Double-Double -- and MSU's Jarvis Varnado, one of the nation's premier shot blockers, also is intriguing.

In fact the Bulldogs, who are riding a six-game winning streak after losing five of six, rank second in the nation in blocked shots with more than seven a game. That might bother the freewheeling Huskies.

"I don't think you can change your approach," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "You cannot be tentative. Not that he [Varnado] is a bully at all, but if you are tentative with a bully, he's going to bully you all night."

No. 4 Gonzaga (26-5) vs. No. 13 Akron (23-12)
Gonzaga has played in 11 consecutive NCAA tournaments. Akron went one-and-done in 1986.

Before or after that: Zip.

But the Zips made an impression on Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

"I don't think in 20 years of watching game tape have I seen a team that plays that hard," he said. "So I think that's going to be a real challenge for us, to match their intensity."

Since losing four of five in December, the Bulldogs have rolled up 18 wins in 19 games with the lone loss coming to Memphis, albeit by 18 points.

Still, if there is a question about this squad, it's about standing up to physical teams.

Akron is going to come after the Bulldogs and try to shake them with pressure and see if a few turnovers can make this one interesting.

"[Turnovers] are huge for us," guard Matt Bouldin said. "I think we just really need to slow down. You can't get in any rush."

The Zips' pressure won't be able to focus on just one guy, though. All five Gonzaga starters average between nine and 15 points.

No. 5 Purdue (25-9) vs. No. 12 Northern Iowa (23-10)
Purdue lost three of its final four regular-season games. It then won the Big Ten tournament.

With sophomore forward Robbie Hummel -- the tournament MVP -- finally healthy, perhaps the Boilermakers are the team many thought they were in the preseason, when they were tapped as the conference favorite.

"I think winning the Big Ten tournament was a great momentum-turner for us, because we were definitely struggling coming into that weekend," said Hummel, who had been plagued by a lower-back injury.

Northern Iowa, which won its final five games after losing four of five, led the Missouri Valley Conference in field goal percentage this year (45.5 percent), but the Panthers haven't played many defenses like Purdue's man-to-man.

The Boilermakers held opponents to just 59 points and 38.8 percent shooting this year.

Still, there's that ol' 5-vs.-12 phenomenon, with the 12 winning 31 of 96 since 1985.

Not that the Panthers are embracing the notion of being fitted for a glass slipper.

"You know, in terms of the Cinderella story, that isn't our card, if you will, that I play with our guys," UNI coach Ben Jacobson said. "Our guys know what they're about, and they know what they are made of. They don't need me to remind them what we're up against."

No. 5 Illinois (24-9) vs. No. 12 Western Kentucky
The president picked Illinois so Western Kentucky, one of last season's tournament Cinderellas, has to feel like a real underdog now.

No worries, said Hilltoppers guard A.J. Slaughter, who pointed out that Barack Obama is merely supporting his home state.

"I did see that," Slaughter said. "I can't blame him. That's just a fun little fact to throw out there."

On the other hand, lots of folks think Western Kentucky might be a good pick. For one, there's the tricky 5-12 matchup. Then there's the absence of Illinois floor leader Chester Frazier, who will be out at least this week with a hand injury.

Frazier is the Illini's best defender, and the Hilltoppers are a guard-oriented team that likes to run and gun.

"They have a lot of different scoring weapons," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "The one thing we lose -- Chester was, if not the best defender, one of the best defenders in the Big Ten. And, I think, in the country. So now you don't have him to lock down one of those guards."

Two of those guards are Slaughter and Orlando Mendez-Valdez, who average a combined 30 points per game.

It was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Hilltoppers, who lost the heroes of last year's unexpected run to the Sweet 16: Tyrone Brazelton and Courtney Lee.

But with a win over Louisville -- by 14 points, by the way -- and a run of 12 wins in 13 games to conclude the season on their résumé, the Hilltoppers look suspiciously like a favorite, at least in many brackets.

So maybe Illinois, in a bit of a switcheroo, will be motivated by a "no-respect" angle?

"We have to come out and not worry about what other people are saying," Illini forward Dominique Keller said. "They don't have confidence in us because they don't think we belong."

Posted by Andy Katz

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Morgan State might be back home in Baltimore sometime Friday. But Todd Bozeman is in no rush. He's savoring every moment.

Who thought he'd be back in Division I coaching, let alone leading a team into the NCAA tournament?

Let's see … how about no one but him?

"I can't even think of one guy in coaching that thought I'd be back in coaching," said Bozeman late Wednesday night, as he prepped to play No. 2 seed Oklahoma at the Sprint Center in the final of four games here. "My [late] father is one who believed in me. But everyone else didn't think I'd get back."

It's been 13 years since Bozeman's most recent appearance in the NCAA tournament when he was with Cal. Shortly thereafter he was banned by the NCAA for eight years with a show-cause penalty due to a payment to a former recruit's family. It would take him another two years before he could land a gig once his penalty was up, and then another three before he would finally get Morgan State to the NCAA tournament by winning the MEAC.

"I can't even put into words how good this feels," said Bozeman, who spent most of his time working as a scout and youth basketball coach during his NCAA exile. "To be in the tournament now makes this even sweeter. I feel so good about being back."

Bozeman said the selection committee must have a sense of humor to put him in the same region with Cal, even though they aren't in the same bracket. Cal plays Maryland in a 7-10 game in which the winner will play the winner of Memphis-Cal State-Northridge. The Morgan State-Oklahoma winner plays the winner of Clemson-Michigan.

"It's kind of wild that we're all here," Bozeman said.

In addition to Bozeman's return, what else am I looking forward to seeing here?

• To see how Oklahoma's Blake Griffin performs as the likely national player of the year. Bozeman called Griffin "Superman" and said nobody can "stop that cat." But Bozeman said the Bears won't be intimidated, especially former Cal forward Marquise Kately.

• Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said Monday the guards have to be more consistent for the Sooners to advance. So let's see how Willie Warren handles the big stage.

• Michigan coach John Beilein said Monday he was ecstatic when the Wolverines were selected. He has had a week to prepare for Clemson's pressure. If the Wolverines can run their offense and get backdoor cuts on the pressure, that will give them a chance to win.

• Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said the Tigers have to defend like they did earlier in the season (i.e., causing turnovers) if they're going to advance. How the Tigers do defensively and whether Terrence Oglesby can shoot them deeper into the tournament will be on display Thursday.

• Cal's guards Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher were a confident crew in the lobby of the Marriott late Wednesday. They both said the Bears aren't getting much of a chance against Maryland. That's odd; they are the higher seed at a No. 7. Cal should win with a better shooting team. But actually doing it and getting the shots off against the hard-working Terps will be something to watch.

• The coaching matchup between two potential Hall of Fame coaches in Gary Williams and Mike Montgomery will be a good watch.

• Memphis is the overwhelming favorite against Cal State-Northridge. But the Tigers' offense isn't what will make them advance. Whether the Tigers defend and turn the ball over will be an indicator if this team is ready for prime time this March.

Posted by Ted Miller

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Illinois will face Western Kentucky on Thursday without floor leader Chester Frazier because the hand injury that knocked him out of the Big Ten tournament hasn't healed.

Frazier, a member of the All-Big Ten Defensive Team, hurt the hand in practice March 11.

Frazier's absence means a bigger role for senior Calvin Brock -- a 6-foot-5 wing who stepped into the starting lineup in the Big Ten tournament -- as well as sophomore guard Jeff Jordan.

Posted by Heather Dinich

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Welcome to Toe-bacco road, where the biggest news of the NCAA tournament is North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson's biggest toe. Lawson's right toe has gotten more attention than "Psycho T" this month, and coach Roy Williams said Wednesday he doubts Lawson will play in Thursday's game against Radford.

Until Lawson does play, it will continue to be an ongoing plotline in the NCAA tournament for the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels.

"There's no situation, no story about a toe than I've heard more than this one," said teammate Bobby Frasor. "Maybe, what's that movie, 'The Big Lebowski'?"

Williams opened his news conference with the news of Lawson because he knew it would be the first question he'd get anyway:

"Basically, the opening statement would be that there is a huge, huge probability that Ty will not play tomorrow," Williams said. "We're still trying to wait and see. He was not able to do the things that I wanted him to do in practice. So some things would have to change drastically before I would change my mind on that. So that's what y'all wanted to know; we can probably leave now."

Lawson sat on a chair in the corner of North Carolina's locker room in the bowels of the Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday, trapped by reporters pressing for news and nuggets about his toe. Marcus Ginyard was so impressed with the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd in the locker room he took a picture of it with his cell phone. Frasor said the team hasn't wasted the opportunity to tease Lawson about it.

"We tell him he's a baby, and he's soft, and he's got a jammed toe and he's sitting out all these games," Frasor said, "but it is serious."