NCAA Basketball Tournament

Winners and Losers

Ray Holloman — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:45:00 EST

Filed under: Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

It is as the sports Almighty intended it. For every winner, there is a loser (take that and your nil-nil ties, soccer!). For every Tiger Woods, there is a Detroit Lion. For every Isiah Thomas as a player, there is an Isiah Thomas as a general manager, league owner, boss and suspected poor Parcheezi player. And for every North Carolina with its win for the program's ring, there is a Wake Forest, which now hasn't made the Final Four since Carolina coach Roy Williams entered puberty. Check out FanHouse's breakdown of the winners and losers of the NCAA tournament, other than those five-time national champion Heels.

The Winners | The Losers

Ty Lawson -- The last time a digit got this kind of press, it was detached in a cup of chili at Wendy's. That Lawson managed to beat back the press clippings of Tyler Hansbrough, a fella whose fawning press coverage President Obama and Tim Tebow probably have a Facebook page set up to decry, is impressive. That he managed to out-do his own toe was a show in one-upmanship. Lawson deserved every glowing word, handing out 34 assists against just seven turnovers, numbers that would make John Stockton be glad he hung up the short shorts. And besides, we're told one of those seven was the toe's fault.

Tyler Hansbrough -- Hansbrough now has every trophy handed out this side of the VIBE Awards. Knock him for his goofier-than-an '80s sitcom antics, but the senior laid down a royal flush for his career at North Carolina.

Missouri -- Coach Mike Anderson knows everything there is to know about heat, from the blast-furnace defense his team runs to the warm seat he found himself on to start the year. Needless to say, after Missouri's upset of Memphis and fantastic showing in the Elite Eight, Anderson doesn't have to worry about packing his bags against his choosing anytime soon. Anderson may have a problem replicating this success, as his 10-man deep, 40-minute long car crusher of a defense was a matter of calculus more than simple arithmetic, but in a tournament with no Cinderella, Missouri was the darling.

Cleveland State -- For one night, at least, Cinderella wore a Viking helmet. There was so much positive to say about the Vikings' win over fourth-seed Wake Forest that if you started listing everything that went right that night at tip-off, the Deacons' season would've been finished long before you were. Gary Waters earned a helping of redemption after unceremoniously resigning from Rutgers in 2006, capping a three-year turnaround in Cleveland. And the school itself returned to March Madness in the same Cinderella manner it's known for, following its 1986 upset of Indiana with a fitting encore and neatly bridging its legacy over an embarrassing scandalized past.

Durrell Summers' Dunk -- Your highlight of the tournament. Not only did the Michigan State guard slam over Stanley Robinson, he carried the Connecticut forward's palm into the rim, kind of in the way a bug meets the grill of a Mack truck. " I kind of like my chances with a guy back-pedalling and me going straight up," Summers said the next day. "He got a little piece of the ball. I just kind of instinctively tried to overpower it a little bit." Yeah, instinctive. Only if he was a lion and Robinson was a raw side of beef.

NCAA Tournament Action

GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 21: Wayne Ellington #22 of the North Carolina Tar Heels drives against Garrett Temple #14 of the Louisiana State University Tigers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum on March 21, 2009 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Wayne Ellington;Garrett Temple

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: A Washington Huskies cheerleader performs during a break in the action against the Purdue Boilermakers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Manny Harris #3 of the Michigan Wolverines jumps to the basket for a lay up against Taylor Griffin #32 of the Oklahoma Sooners in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Manny Harris

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Zack Novan #0 and Zack Gibson #32 of the Michigan Wolverines vie for the loose ball with Blake Griffin #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Zack Gibson;Zack Novak;Blake Griffin

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Willie Warren #13 of the Oklahoma Sooners makes contact as he goes to the basket with Zack Gibson #32 of the Michigan Wolverines in the first hafl during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Willie Warren

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Taylor Griffin #32 of the Oklahoma Sooners goes up for the short jump shot against DeShawn Sims #34 of the Michigan Wolverines in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Taylor Griffin;DeShawn Sims

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: JaJuan Johnson #25 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a shot over Jon Brockman #40 of the Washington Huskies in the second half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** JaJuan Johnson;Jon Brockman

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Taylor Griffin #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners and Zack Novak #0 of the Michigan Wolverines vie for position to the loose ball in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Zack Novak;Taylor Griffin

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Head Coach Jeff Capel of the Michigan Wolverines yells from the sideline during their game against the Oklahoma Sooners in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jeff Capel

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: Lewis Jackson #23 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a layup as Quincy Pondexter #20 of the Washington Huskies looks on during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Lewis Jackson;Quincy Pondexter

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Arizona -- The Wildcats were winners simply by making the field, their 25th consecutive NCAA tournament, and they now trail North Carolina by just two for the record all-time run. Making a Sweet 16 run, before losing in biblical proportion to Louisville, may have just re-affirmed that the talent was there all along, but in a season of turmoil, the Wildcats still outlasted all of the Pac-10.

Trent Johnson -- The LSU coach's success may be slightly inflated - he inherited a senior-laden team and a healthy Tasmin Mitchell, who missed all but three games of John Brady's final season on the bench - but he's already proved himself to be an infinitely more skilled bench boss than his predecessor. Credit him too, for giving North Carolina its toughest contest. The Tigers were tied with the Heels with eight minutes to play before Lawson switched to a gear no one in college can defend. But putting a scare into the behemoth of this year's tournament is a little like making Clark Kent think twice before hitting the phone booth.

Villanova -- It had been 24 years since the Wildcats last set foot in the Final Four and toppled brawny, undershirt-wearing Georgetown in an upset for the ages. Now Jay Wright has his own shining moment and a program that may be on the way to a continuous apex even Rollie Massimino didn't reach. More impressive was the blue-chip pelts Villanova collected on the way, routing UCLA by 20, Duke by 23 and withstanding Pitt in the best NCAA tournament game in years.

Scottie Reynolds - So long as there are montages, the Dash for Detroit will always have a place among them. If Summers had the highlight of this tournament, Reynolds had the play, a near halfcourt drive through more defenders than it seemed legal for Pitt to play and that ended with the juniro draining the game-winning shot ato send Villanova to the Final Four for the first time since 1985. There was a half second remaining when the ball went through the hoop, the first half second of the sports eternity that shot will be remembered.

Big East - Everything said about this conference turned out to be as real and brutal as a DeJuan Blair elbow. A record five teams made the Sweet 16 and half of the Elite Eight hailed from the league. A Big East team didn't cut down the nets (in fact, only Villanova cut down any nets as Connecticut bypassed the tradition after winning the West), but there should be no doubt which conference was the nation's best, particularly in its top tier.

Honorable Mention: Chief Kickingstallionsims. The Alabama State center had an awful play-in game, scoring zero points as his counterpart, Morehead State's Kenneth Faried, scored 14 points to go with 21 rebounds, but he'll always have a spot in the NCAA tournament all-name bracket alongside Fennis Dembo, Harold Arceneaux and others. And this time, he won't be in the play-in game.

Also, North Dakota State's Ben Woodside, who scored 37 points in the Bison's loss to Kansas.

Click Here to Continue to the Losers

Winners and Losers originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Villanova Can't Hit 3-Pointers

Chas Rich — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:43:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, South Region, East Region

Whether it was an off night, the size and length of North Carolina's defense bothering the smaller Villanova guards, it all added up to the same thing: a crate load of bricks. When the Wildcats shoot a hideous 5-of-27 on 3-pointers (18.5 percent), they do not have much of a chance. There is not much to decipher.

Villanova gave up size all over the court, so they needed to hit some of their jump shots to have a chance, to open up lanes for penetration to the basket and to give Dante Cunningham a little space inside to work.

It never happened.

Scottie Reynolds was 3-of 11 on 3-pointers. Dwayne Anderson, Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes combined to miss all 13 of their attempts from the outside. The Wildcats were held to their lowest shooting performance of the season, going 26-of-79 from the floor (33 percent).

Instead, it was UNC that jumped all over Villanova on the perimeter. Wayne Ellington for North Carolina drained several threes in the first half, and that only accelerated the need by Villanova to shoot threes.

The Wildcats had to get some offense to stay with North Carolina. That never occurred. The longer the game went, the more desperate Villanova became to get some scoring. That never happened. But the bricks certainly did. Again and again.

Villanova Can't Hit 3-Pointers originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:43:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Live Updates from Carolina Country

Pat Lackey — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:07:00 EST

Filed under: Tourney Fans, South Region, East Region

I'm here at a bar deep in Tar Heel country surrounded by powder blue and tangible energy. The packed masses here hope to see UNC defeat Villanova in this Final Four contest and advance to the NCAA tourney final. Win or lose, I'll be providing on-site updates and commentary. Join me after the jump.

Live Updates from Carolina Country originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:07:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Four Live Blog

Chas Rich — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:10:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

This is what we have been waiting all week for, through non-stories like Ty Lawson legally playing craps, through analysis beaten into the ground, through the cycling of the coaching carousel. Well, Michigan State and UConn tip off at 6:07 PM EST. We will start the live blog at 6 PM ET. Join us after the jump.

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Final Four Live Blog originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In Detroit, Question Is Who to Cry For?

Kevin B. Blackistone — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Tourney Fans, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

DETROIT -- In an earlier journalistic life, Friday would've been a really big day for me. The reason: the government, each first Friday of the month, issued its most-important piece of economic news -- the unemployment report -- and I covered economics. The report it issued this Friday was an instant Page 1 story, which is what they called the first thing you saw on this thing I worked at forever called a newspaper. Friday's report revealed the recession we're in pushed the unemployment rate to its highest mark in a quarter century, 8.5 percent.

Ground zero of the misery, the report indicated, was Michigan -- 12 percent unemployment -- where I arrived Thursday for the Final Four. I'm staying in a hotel next door to GM headquarters, a poster company for our worst economic collapse since maybe the Great Depression.

It is enough to make me want to violate one of the rules of my current journalistic life as a sportswriter and root from press row Saturday night for the Final Four participant from Michigan, Michigan State. What a nice balm, no matter how temporary, a national title for one of Michigan's state schools would be for economically suffering Michiganders. Unless you're from any part of North Carolina except Durham, or from the Philadelphia area, or Connecticut, I began to think, you'd be hard pressed not to root for the home-state team in this weekend's Final Four.

But not only would doing so be against the rule of no cheering in the press box, it also would be insensitive. North Carolina is represented here, too, and it is like Michigan, one of seven states with a double-digit unemployment rate, just over 10 percent. How about cheering for the Tar Heels to provide some salve for its hurting home-state fans?

Upon closer review, there is so much misery around that it is impossible to pick one team to cheer for -- or cry for -- more in this Final Four. Villanova hails from the Philadelphia area where unemployment is just under 10 percent. Connecticut just suffered its largest job loss since the recession officially was called four months ago.

What played out Friday in Detroit at Ford Field when the home-state team came out for practice, and what played out afterward in Troy, Mich., where Michigan State held a pep rally, probably would've been replicated in North Carolina, Philly and Connecticut , too, if this Final Four was in those locales. Everybody could stand a little feel-good in these times.

Someone said the Michigan State crowd that turned out for the Spartans' practice at Ford Field numbered at least 30,000, the largest crowd one reporter familiar with Michigan State said he'd ever seen. Undoubtedly, some of them were there because, sadly, they hadn't anything else to do in the middle of a workday at the end of a work week.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Spartans sophomore guard Durrell Summers from Detroit was asked whether anybody close to him had been hurt by the recession.

"Oh, yeah," Summers said simply. "My mom, my dad, my uncles. I could go on. I know a lot of people who've been touched by it.

"They got laid off and had to get smaller jobs for the time being, looking for other jobs and still trying to support families and things like that," Summers explained. "My dad used to work at General Motors. He's working at a post office. My mom used to work at Receiving Hospital as a lab assistant, and she's also at the post office."

"They're trying to see when the next thing is coming in," he continued. "Even through the bad times, they're constantly excited and cheering me on, telling me not to worry about it and keep doing what I'm doing. I've been kind of helping them through it as well, but this is big for them. They were just speechless and in tears, [with my team] making it this far.''

After their 50-minute practice and interview session, Summers and his teammates headed from Ford Field to Somerset Collection, a mall in Troy, where of upwards of 7,000 Michigan State fans in green crowded every inch of an atrium on three levels for a pep rally to spur on their Spartans. The Detroit News reported that Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon called Somerset Collection "Spartan Land" for the day and praised the Spartans as examples in rebounding that the state of Michigan could emulate as it tries to get back on track economically.

Of course, there is nothing a college basketball team can do to stem the hemorrhaging of jobs and money in this hardest-hit state or anywhere else in the country. But if sports can ever be a diversion, this is the time and this is the place.

All you had to do was hear coach Tom Izzo address the pep rally crowd in his typical late-season raspy voice, which this time cracked with undeniable emotion.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would be able to put on a show like this for all of you," Izzo told the crowd. "You made this the proudest day of my life, no matter what happens tomorrow."

Moments later a television reporter pulled Izzo aside and asked him about the afternoon.

"This is a dream come true for me," the Michigan-tough coach said before he wiped away his tears.

This can be a momentary awakening from a nightmare for so many here and elsewhere, too.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.

In Detroit, Question Is Who to Cry For? originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Casinos and Nosebleed Seats

Jay Mariotti — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:15:00 EST

Filed under: Tourney Gambling, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

DETROIT -- If Jim Nantz utters even one mushy word about the innocence of the Final Four, please muzzle him. As it is, the games will be contested inside a bubble of greed, a football dome that wraps 72,000 mostly bad seats around a basketball court positioned at midfield. As it is, the NCAA has joined marketing hands with the International Management Group, a firm that represents college coaches and pro athletes and only invites conflicts of interests. As it is, the idea of "student-athletes " playing in an amateur environment is farcical.

But all assertions of purity officially vanished the other night. That's when North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson, maybe the most important player left in the tournament, wandered into one of downtown Detroit's three casinos and won $250 playing craps for an hour. I realize Lawson did nothing illegal because he's 21. I realize he's technically not violating any NCAA rules. Yet I wonder with considerable alarm why he was in a casino when the poisonous bane of college sports always has been gambling, specifically point-shaving. The NCAA fears such scandals like nothing else, to the point of regularly issuing stern warnings to athletes, asking past point-shaving violators to speak to teams and coining a slogan -- "Don't Bet On It " -- that sums up its sweeping anti-gambling stance.

Apparently, no one told North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who has been in the sport forever and really should know better. He gave his team a 1:30 a.m. curfew -- not the smartest plan, either, in a troubled city that isn't exactly Charlottesville, Va. -- and didn't warn his players about the casinos. Seems Williams doesn't have much of a handle on his team; Lawson, for one, says he gambles in casinos often and added that his UNC teammates previously joined him for a gambling adventure in Reno, Nev., where the Tar Heels didn't fare as well as they did in winning the South Regional last weekend.

"We got in last night, and Coach gave us a curfew of 1:30," Lawson revealed Thursday. "I went over to Greektown and won about $250. So I already had my time there. It's probably the last time I go there before the games start."

Probably, he said.

"The only time I lost was in Reno; that's when everybody on the team lost," Lawson continued. "It's the only place I lost. The other five or six times I did gamble, I won at least $500."

Well, congratulations on that, Ty.

As for Williams, he hopped on his elitist horse Friday, choosing to mock anyone who didn't see Lawson's wagering as harmless fun. Never mind, of course, that the Carolina program is supposed to represent all things classy. When pushed into a corner, Williams simply reinvents the mission statement.

"Didn't talk about it before we came," he said of the casinos. "We had two of our guys go to the casino, Ty Lawson and Marc Campbell. I talked to them. They're both old enough; it is legal. I find it humorous that somebody would want to ask. It's strange, if we don't want those kids doing it, don't put the Final Four in a city where the casino is 500 yards from our front door. And they've got a great buffet in there. I mean, come on.

"The other thing is, you know when we got here? Wednesday. I mean, I'm not gonna tell my guys they got to stay in the room and watch Bill Cosby reruns for four days, c'mon. Those two kids, we talked to them. One of my video coordinators went over there with them, not that he needed to. I would not have any problem with it. I just told the kids, If you think you're going to do something questionable, talk to me about it first. I have zero problems with Ty doing it. I went and gambled myself."

NCAA Tournament Action

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Here is where Williams' explanation devolved into attempted folksy humor. "The reason I did was not the same reason that Ty did," he said. "When I came here this year to play Michigan State, we stayed at MGM (in Detroit). And I went down and shot craps, we lost, and we won the game. I go to Reno to play Nevada-Reno, and I stayed in a casino, and I went downstairs and shot craps and we lost, and my team won. So you got to be a halfway idiot if you think I'm not going to go gamble and lose money before this game. I have gambled and I have lost. I'm doing every daggum thing I can do to win the game, including give Detroit my money. "

Yuks aside, can we at least try to preserve whatever smidgen of youth and morality remains in collegiate sports? It's as if 2009 was chosen as the year to remind America that the Final Four is a hideously big business. As usual, Tom Izzo gets it, saying Friday that he warned his team about casinos. "I think I was a step ahead," the Michigan State coach said. "I think when you look at them on some NCAA committees, you look at the problems everybody is worried about with sports in general. Let's face it: This is an image tournament to a certain extent. There will never be this many media that kind of come together for one event in any other athletic event they'll participate in. So that's what I try to talk to my guys about."

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, in hot water over a recruiting scandal, didn't hesitate to comment on how he's handling his team this week. "Our curfew has been tight, number one. Number two, we told them (the casinos were) off-limits," said Calhoun, who said the NCAA has issued a gag order and isn't allowing him to comment on his own in-house issue. "I'm sure if (Lawson) had it to do over again, just like some other things in life, you do them over."

Williams is right about one thing: Hypocrisy is everywhere in Detroit, starting with the NCAA itself. When asked about the local casinos before the Lawson news broke, NCAA president Myles Brand expressed concern about the gambling issue. "Well, I warn against that slippery slope. It's a fair question," he said. "We do not permit anyone connected with intercollegiate athletics to gamble on sports, pro or college sports. What a student does, plays bingo in his church, for example, while we discourage that, we prefer not to try and regulate that particular kind of activity. But it's highly discouraged."

So tell me, Dr. Brand. Why did the NCAA place a Final Four in a city with casino gambling? Hmmm? "Detroit is a wonderful venue. It's really, truly outstanding," he babbled on. "And the city has turned out for it. We're very pleased with the reception we've received. Everyone has not only been kind, but they've been very helpful and professional. We're very pleased to be in Detroit. We think this is a privilege for us to be here, particularly at this time that Detroit is going through some difficult financial times itself. We're happy to help and we're happy to leave something behind, as well."

How convenient of Brand to shift his course when he was sitting inside Ford Field, the first in a new wave of Final Four cash-cow, maximum-attendance stadiums that will bring unprecedented profits to the NCAA. In recent years, to avoid the appearance of too much greed, Final Fours were played in domes with large curtains drawn to divide the stadium in half -- such as last year in San Antonio, where 43,000 fans watched. But from this point on, through 2016, the court will be placed at midfield in monster buildings, which robs an eye-pleasing, athletic sport of its unique intimacy. And while no one is forcing fans at gunpoint to buy tickets, the enticement of being at the Final Four led to the usual sellout -- and an inevitable groundswell of anger when 50,000 reach their seats Saturday and realize they need binoculars.

Maybe some will be so thrilled to be at the Final Four that they don't care. My guess is, in a horrible economy, more will wonder why they spent $100 a ticket to get a nosebleed and watch the games on a big-screen TV. The timing is terrible for a 72,000-seat Final Four. For basketball itself, the timing never would be good for an arena on steroids. The participants, of course, are respectful of the configuration, simply happy to be here. No one is happier about Ford Field than Izzo, who knows the majority of seats will be filled with Spartans fans driving short distances.

"You could argue there are not as many great seats," Izzo said, "but I think a lot more better seats, good seats."

Leave it to a coach who isn't here to be more honest. "I don't think it's a good basketball venue, " Kansas coach Bill Self told the Associated Press, not recalling Ford Field fondly even though it was part of his road to a national championship last year. "It's no comparison to San Antonio in terms of the crowd being involved. Ford Field is nice; it's just not a good basketball venue "

The NCAA's response? If you don't like it, deal with it. "If you're coaching, playing or watching a game here for the first time, the vastness might seem awkward because it's not something anybody is used to, " said Bill Ryan, boss of the local organizing committee. "As time goes on and this becomes the norm, I think people will like it."

And to think the NCAA Tournament started 70 years ago in a little dive on Sheridan Road in Evanston, Ill. Patten Gymnasium, it's called, and 5,500 people watched Oregon beat Ohio State for the national championship. It illustrates how out of control the NCAA has become. In addition to allowing IMG in its domain, the powers-that-be are allowing casino advertising, too. Brand has a problem with casinos ... and not casino advertising? Money, money, money turns intelligent men into flip-floppers. "The dunk contest last night, three-point shot contest. Who is it sponsored by?" Williams asked. "A casino. What a great country we live in. "

But just because the NCAA has sold out doesn't mean North Carolina can loosen its morality code. Simply, a 21-year-old point guard playing for a national title should not be gambling in a casino in a Final Four city.

A good bet: Jim Nantz won't be talking about this on the telecast.

Casinos and Nosebleed Seats originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Final Debate

Matt Snyder — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:05:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Tourney Coaches, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

All eyes are on Detroit as we're less than one week away from crowning the national champion and moving on to 2010. So with only four teams still standing in the Big Dance, NCAA Basketball FanHouse got together for a FanHouse Roundtable to discuss what we can expect. Find out why the only thing we love more than the Heels are the head coaches.

Matt Snyder: I don't think anyone can handle North Carolina right now. They didn't even need a decent game from Tyler Hansbrough to stomp a very tough Oklahoma team. Ty Lawson appears to be healthy, and he'll get some additional rest this week. They are easily the team to beat, and it would appear Roy Williams is going to do something for the second time that he couldn't do once at Kansas.

I do think Michigan State will take down UConn in the semifinals -- obvious Big Ten bias plays a role. They can adapt their game to win at any tempo, as they showed against Kansas and Louisville. Plus, they have a dude named Idong Ibok. That alone gives them an advantage at something.

If the Spartans and Tar Heels do advance, we'll get to see a rematch of the 35-point massacre from the ACC/Big Ten Challenge -- in the same venue. This time, though, Goran Suton will suit up for Michigan State. He can't make a 35-point difference, but perhaps the Spartans have improved enough over the course of the season to close the gap a bit and give us an exciting championship.

Dan Graziano: I have a Big East bias, and a memory of a really good-looking North Carolina team that showed up at last year's Final Four and got obliterated by Kansas. So I'm thinking Carolina's next game is no pushover. Villanova may not win, but I think they'll do more than anybody else has so far to make UNC earn it, and the result may be a worn-out bunch of Tar Heels two nights later.

Biases aside, though, my pick before this tournament started was Michigan State, and I see no reason to go off of it now. I agree with Matt's assessment that they can adjust their game to win in any style. The reason is rebounding. They're better at it than anybody in the country, and it's one of the few consistents in this game. Hasheem Thabeet's banged up, and on top of that MSU is the kind of team that will probably frustrate and annoy him -- and he doesn't play well when annoyed; he kind of gets moody and disappears a little, like in the last game, when Stanley Robinson had to take over inside on defense.

I give Michigan State the rebounding and coaching edge over everybody left in this tournament, and that's why I think they'll beat UNC in the title game. Suton is playing like a guy who won't accept losing, and I think MSU has the toughness edge over UNC too.

Plus, as Snyder mentioned, they have Ibok, who's bound to make an impact before it's all said and done.

Chris Burke: I've been reluctant to give Tom Izzo heaps of praise in the past because MSU went through a longer-than-it-should-have-been conference title drought, but it's pretty clear that he's right up there in terms of the best tournament coaches in the country. Still, to assume that the Spartans have a coaching advantage now is kind of a disservice to Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams and even Jay Wright. I don't know that Rick Pitino got outcoached, so much as his team got out-toughed, and those are two different things.

Michigan State's probably not going to go in and bully Connecticut, and it certainly won't push around North Carolina or Villanova. At least the Tar Heels and Wildcats are as mentally tough as MSU, though it is fair to debate if UConn can match State in that regard. Certainly, playing in Detroit will play to State's advantage.

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Thabeet can go into one of his shells, sure, but he could also completely force Suton and Michigan State's guards to the perimeter. Suton's been red hot, but UConn will take its chances with him shooting from the the outside all day. In the other semi, I just think Carolina's going to have way too much for Villanova. I thought Pitt would be a difficult matchup for Carolina because of how Pitt can get after it on defense sometimes, but I'm just not sure that 'Nova can slow UNC down enough to win that game. They might match the Heels basket-for-basket for a long time, but not over 40 minutes.

I personally think UConn and Carolina are going to the finals, with Carolina taking that one by 7-10 points. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see Michigan State in there, though I can't imagine the Spartans being good enough to beat UNC -- Villanova, maybe, but not North Carolina. So the Tar Heels are the pick here.

Ray Holloman: I still like North Carolina, but I think Villanova will give them one heck of a test in the Final Four. The big question about the Tar Heels all year has been how well can they hold together their perimeter defense without Marcus Ginyard available, and thus far in the tournament they've done pretty well. They did a great job against Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin (albeit Pargo had three fouls midway through the first half) with Gonzaga and they sealed up Oklahoma, after a few consecutive lapses against Willie Warren after the Heels initial burst in the first half anyway. Oklahoma helped by missing a lot of open shots in the second half, but North Carolina did a good job in the first 20 minutes. Almost every look was contested in the first half.

But Villanova doesn't just have one guy that can penetrate and hurt you, they've got four on the court at any given time. And they've got Dante Cunningham, who can work inside or outside and will be a tough matchup problem. If you've got both Deon Thompson and Hansbrough in the game, one of those guys will be getting driven by. Villanova is also a much better rebounding team than they're given credit for. The Wildcats are a better team on the offensive glass than the Heels are on the defensive glass, so don't expect to see Jay Wright's team be one-and-done every possession. They're also a great free throw shooting team and really get to the line. (In fact, Villanova gets there more than North Carolina as a percentage of field goals attempted). They shoot 76.5 percent from the charity stripe and against both Duke and Pitt those free throws were a killer.

But the Heels just have so much going for them. Ed Davis may be the best big man NBA prospect left in the tournament and he's third in the rotation behind Hansbrough and Thompson (and gives up minutes to Tyler Zeller, too). And yeah, they got staggered last year, and I suppose it's valid to question why Roy Williams does what he does at times, but I don't think its necessarily fair to hold the sins of last year's team against this one. They really talk about that collapse against Georgetown two years ago and Kansas last year as learning experiences. Williams talked about it going into the Sweet 16, Ty Lawson and Danny Green talked about Kansas after beating Oklahoma. But that transition offense is just so unstoppable. How many times Sunday did Oklahoma score what felt like a pivotal bucket in the first half only to have Ty Lawson dart down court before the scorer's name was announced and draw a foul or find Danny Green for a dunk? I think Villanova will break out that 1-2-2 press to disrupt the timing of the Heels offense, but I just don't know that the Wildcats will be able to do it.

Michigan State and UConn, I like the Huskies, but I'm buying stock in Johnson & Johnson before that game starts. One team is going to have to bleed to win that game. And I like North Carolina to run from Connecticut in the final, but those are going to be two dog-tired teams by the time Monday night wraps up.

Adam Papagiorgio: I had Michigan State winning the tournament in all of my pools. Mainly because of Izzo and what he brings to the table. I agree that maybe Izzo didn't necessarily out-coach Pitino, but Michigan State is certainly playing some of its best hoop.

That being said, I don't know what more can be said about North Carolina. I didn't realize that the Heels were that good. Make no mistake, Gonzaga is a really good team. And that butt-whooping was more about how good Carolina is, and not an idictment on the Bulldogs. I was actually relieved that the Heels punked the Sooners so soundly because that helped to take away some of the sting of the Gonzaga game.

So right now, I have to figure that North Carolina wins this thing going away.

Jacob Wheatley-Schaller: I'm normally more of a stats-based guy, but man, whenever I watch this UNC team play with Lawson in there, and I'm rooting against them (almost always), it's just such a helpless feeling. It's really come full circle from the preseason, where they were clearly the best team, to the second half of the season where that title changed from week to week, to now where it's pretty obvious that you'd have to expect them to win a game on a neutral floor against any team in the country. That offense ... well, it's as good as you would've expected when everyone announced they were coming back, and that's really saying something.

They could lose, of course. Really, if Oklahoma had shot even competently from three (they finished 2-for-19, and I believe they were 0-for-14 at one point), that could've been a game on Sunday. I think I figured if they were shooting 33 percent from deep at halftime, the game probably would've been tied, or at least within one possession. I think if 'Nova is going to have a chance, they'll need Stokes to get hot, and Scottie Reynolds to be hitting his shots. And they'd better hope that Lawson and the rest of the perimeter guys go cold, because when they're shooting like they were on Friday night it's game over. Gonzaga is pretty good. They obliterated Gonzaga.

I like UConn in the other game, although not nearly as much. That's a great defense, obviously because of Thabeet, but they never turn you over. And there's always the chance you get Thabeet out of the game with fouls, which really changes the whole dynamic; it actually didn't in the Mizzou game, since the Tigers never bothered to go to the rim even with him out of the game (they much preferred shooting 15-footers, always a good strategy), but in general it makes a big difference. Anyway, I think UConn probably takes it, Walker really adds a whole new dimension to their offense.

Shane Bacon: I just can't see North Carolina losing this Final Four. They are hitting their stride at the most opportune time, playing some incredible basketball against a really tough run through their bracket. Gonzaga was sneaky tough, Oklahoma might have been able to take down any of the other three teams heading to Detroit and UNC wiped the floor with them.

It's all about who is playing the best basketball at the end of March and right now the Heels are (get ready for it) head over heels better than the rest of the field.

Chas Rich: I'm very torn on the MSU-UConn game, beyond any obvious Big East bias. There is no question that Tom Izzo is a fantastic coach who finally has this team healthy and contributions going deep into the bench.

But I like the starting talent on UConn better and the Huskies don't play a pace too differently from what MSU plays, so that won't be an issue of frustration. Plus, Jim Calhoun is not exactly a slouch in preparing his team for big games.

On the other side, it will be closer than expected (I think UNC is favored by eight right now), but Villanova will just not be able to beat UNC. Again, as important as depth can be, in games at this point, it's about the starting five and only a couple players off the bench. That is so clearly in favor of UNC.

The Final Debate originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Four Not What You Think

Ray Holloman — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:24:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

Take everything you think you know about this Final Four and toss it in the waste bin with the scrap paper that was once your brackets. The brackets that had Pittsburgh meeting Louisville for the national title. The brackets that were oh so certain Michigan State of the overrated Big Ten would, exactly like IKEA furniture, collapse after one week. The brackets that said Wake Forest was underrated and Arizona's bid was a career achievement award.

Forget it all, because like your brackets, this Final Four will be all about what you didn't know.

Start with the Spartans, the mixed martial basketball-tough team that sent overall top seed Louisville home for spring break. Tom Izzo teams have a reputation for toughness but with the aesthetics of an offensive line taking up ballet. Believe that until you see Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas two-step through three defenders and kiss one off the glass. Go ahead and believe that until big man Goran Suton steps back and drills a 3-pointer right in some poor defender's eyeballs. The Bosnian big man is averaging 8.1 rebounds per game, but he's also a 42 percent 3-point shooter. If that sounds impressive, it should. That's better than 3-point king J.J. Redick managed in three of his seasons at Duke.

Feel free to think the Spartans are all smash and no sizzle until they dribble right through your defense. Michigan State only coughed the ball up once against Louisville's tighter-than-Bob Knight's sweater full court press. Believe that defensive stopper Travis Walton, who made Terrence Williams disappear Sunday, can only play defense, and then watch him slip by your teams for eight points and two assists, like he scored against the Cardinals or the five assists he dropped against Kansas.

You're not wrong to think the Spartans take a page out of the Red Wings' playbook every now and again, shooting the ball on goal and hoping the scrum in front of the net can bang it in. The Spartans are fifth in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage, but they're also the 23rd most efficient offense. And while you've been cracking Big Ten jokes, Michigan State has been tightening the gears on offense. The Spartans were a superior offensive team against Louisville and its blast-furnace defense, scoring 113.5 points per 100 possessions, compared to what offensive-standard North Carolina was against Oklahoma (111.5).

So go ahead, make your football jokes, but only if you're comparing Michigan State to Oklahoma.

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Fill out your Final Four assuming Connecticut can survive only with Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 Sequoia that has to check height restrictions to walk through highway tunnels, and then watch Stanley Robinson's double-wide frame bounce you out of the paint. Call the Huskies soft, then watch them bail out Johnson & Johnson's stock with all the Band-Aids they press into use. Don't gameplan for Kemba Walker, then watch him shed that freshman label and your defenders all at once.

Think the Huskies' hearts aren't in it and they're biding their time till the NBA calls, but then remember that when Missouri took a second-half lead, Connecticut dug so deep that it probably had to file for a permit. Pretend they won't win without help a monstrous free-throw differential (the Huskies are eighth in the nation in free throw-to-field goal ratio and first in that same metric defensively) and then realize they squashed Texas A&M while on the wrong side of the charity battle. And that free-throw differential comes from discipline the Marines would be proud of, even if it's something their coach's mouth might not always have.

Pick against Uconn because of the looming cloud of an NCAA investigation, but only if you don't talk to the Huskies, who are as concerned about that as the color of Jim Calhoun's necktie.

Then there's Villanova, a team you probably think will be happy just to be there. But is Scottie Reynolds really going to stop when he just got started with a mad dash for Detroit against Pitt? Think they're a soft perimeter team but then watch them wrestle Duke and UCLA to the ground and grab 42.6 percent of their offensive rebounds against Pitt's big-bodied glass crew. Place a bet on who has more double-doubles in the NCAA Tournament, Dante Cunningham or Tyler Hansbrough. If you picked Hansbrough, you'd be just as wrong as those who thought Duke was destined to March through the Wildcats to Detroit.

Pick North Carolina over Villanova because you don't think anyone can stop Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington, but consider that Wildcats all but taped Gerald Henderson's hands behind his back as the athletic wing hit just 1-of-14 shots. Villanova ended Darren Collison's All-American career, humbling the UCLA point guard into five turnovers against only one assist.

Assume coach Jay Wright will have no way to defend against North Carolina's 21 feet of brute down low, but can Hansbrough, Deon Thompson and Ed Davis do something that DeJuan Blair, a man contained only by his bicep bands, couldn't? Think of them as Big East lite, but remember they played against a team whose starting guard, Jermaine Dixon, popped his groin and checked back in. Don't worry about them out-toughing Ty's toe.

And there are the Heels. You may have penciled them in for a Shining Moment already, but admit that you think of them as a team who couldn't find a little D even if they've spelled Detroit. Yet those Heels are 18th in the nation in defensive efficiency, ahead of supposedly defense-first teams like Duke, Wake Forest and UCLA. Their perimeter, which was buzzed by Tyrese Rice and Jeff Teague in regular-season losses, has tightened up just in time to stroll into the home of tuneups. They kept Jeremy Pargo in check and held Gonzaga's best perimeter passer, Matt Bouldin, to zero assists. Against Oklahoma, only two players managed to break double digits and the Sooners didn't hit a single shot from 3-point range until well after the game was in the books.

Pick against them because someone on that team has to slump, but realize they've got more weapons than an NFL entourage. Neither Hansbrough nor Ellington cracked double digits Sunday and the Heels still had such an easy afternoon Sunday they might've caught a nap in the locker room.

So go ahead, pick all these teams based on what you think you know, then remember in the season of chaos, this will be the Final Four of the unknown.

Final Four Not What You Think originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10 Shining Moments, Day 8

FanHouse Newswire — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:50:00 EST

Filed under: Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region, Shining Moments

From broken hearts to clipped nets, join FanHouse for the best images from Day 8 of the NCAA tournament.

10 Shining Moments - Day 8

This tournament was no time for Cinderella, but another year for the kings of college basketball to be crowned in nets. Here, North Carolina's Danny Green tries twine on for size.

Click through for other great photos from Sunday's action.

Joe Murphy, Getty Images

The agony of defeat always shows through even if you try and hide your face. Louisville's Earl Clark buries his head in his jersey as the Cardinals' season ends at the hands of Michigan State.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

The battle of the big men turned out to be a small matter. Oklahoma's Blake Griffin scored 23 points and pulled down 16 rebounds while North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough managed just eight points and six rebounds in limited time.

Lance Murphey, Reuters

North Carolina's Deon Thompson skies for a rebound but the ball bounces away as Oklahoma's Griffin brothers look on.

Jeff Roberson, AP

Oklahoma didn't get many easy looks at the basket, but when it did, the Sooners made them count. Here Willie Warren tomahawks the ball and his arm through the hoop in a rare second-half breakaway.

Chris Keane, Reuters

Louisville's Terrence Williams was the most dynamic player in the nation over the final two months of the season, but that was until he met Michigan State's defensive clamp Travis Walton. Williams hit just 1-of-7 field goals and scored five points.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

Edgar Sosa strikes a mid-air pose right out of "The Matrix," but no amount of special effects could keep Michigan State's Goran Suton, left, from a cardinal day. The Spartan senior scored 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Jeff Haynes, Reuters

Each time Griffin caught the ball, two North Carolina defenders caught up with him. Despite the double teams, Griffin still managed a fitting farewell in what was likely his last collegiate game.

Matt Slocum, AP

Louisville's defense swarmed the Spartans, but it couldn't keep Suton and the tough-as-nails Spartans from scoring.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

The Cardinals endless guard rotation couldn't stop Michigan State or Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas, who blows by Jerry Smith here.

Darron Cummings, AP

10 Shining Moments, Day 8 originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's a Reynolds Wrap

Jay Mariotti — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:50:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, East Region

BOSTON -- If you felt a shiver or tingle Saturday night, a quaking in your solar plexus, it's because you witnessed an epic basketball game, one of the virtuoso classics of March or any month. I mean, did Bill Raftery need oxygen afterward? This was destined to finish with the boldest, loudest exclamation point possible, given the 15 lead changes, palpable tension and Big East-style physicality in the building.

It was just a matter of who, what and when.
And then, in a magnificent flash, it happened. That the moment would belong to Scottie Reynolds, the embattled Villanova guard, made it grander. In enemy gyms, jerky kids with no lives actually chant, "Scottie doesn't know," what might be intended as a Euro Trip reference but almost certainly is meant as a savage reference to how Reynolds was put up for adoption as a baby by an 18-year-old single mother. He never has met the woman, although, with the urging of his adoptive parents, he has done investigative work and figured out who she is. He's waiting for a good time to call her.

I'd say he just gave himself a cool opening conversation piece. Remember Tyus Edney's 4.8-second, court-length romp through the Missouri defense for the game-winning layup, which pushed UCLA toward a national championship in 1995? Reynolds brought back memories with a similar dash, taking a pass near midcourt, winding upstream, sifting through the lane past Pitt's football-like bodies, then flipping up a shot with barely a second remaining as he fell to the floor. Every fan in the arena was standing. Security guards ringed the court in TD Banknorth Garden, sensing an emotional explosion and a rushing of the court by fans. America stopped what it was doing and stared at the TV. How would it end?

With a coating of Reynolds Wrap, ziplocked for posterity. The shot floated through the hoop with a mere 0.5 left, a shocker that gave Villanova its first Final Four berth since 1985, when Rollie Massimino and the Wildcats stunned Georgetown for a national championship in the ultimate college basketball miracle. There was a rush of joy, followed by a pause because time remained and Levance Fields, Mr. Madness, plays for Pitt. When Fields heaved a 65-foot prayer that would have won the game, as he often wins games in the final seconds, every soul in Villanova blue was paralyzed by fear. The ball smacked off the glass, bounced to the floor and vanished in the gathering celebration, which found Reynolds racing over to his coach, Jay Wright, and weeping on his shoulder for almost a minute.

"I didn't even see the ball go in," Reynolds said. "Everybody just rushed the court, and then Coach is pulling everybody by the neck and saying, `The game is not over. There's time left.' And then something crazy could happen, which we've seen before. When the ball left Levance's hands, it was right on target to go in. A little less off the shot and we could be in another position now."

He was asked to describe the play, which involved him taking a pass from Dante Cunningham, who caught the inbound pass from Reggie Redding -- the same inbounder, by the way, who'd thrown a wild, ill-advised, court-length long ball that resulted in a turnover and allowed Pitt to tie the game at 76-76. "It's something we do every day in practice at the end," Reynolds said. "They face-guarded me, and when that happens, Dante makes a flash to the middle of the floor and I make a second cut away from him, going toward the basket. We had a stagger going on the opposite end ..."

Wright cut him off, amazed at the hero's coach-speak and why he was giving up trade secrets. "You can coach with me when you're done playing. You got the job," he told Reynolds as laughter filled the interview room. "You don't have to interview."

"Oh, my goodness," Reynolds said. "Well, I just made a layup."

The mother of all layups, actually.

"In that situation, you have four dribbles and a shot," he said. "That's five seconds. All that goes in your head. That's why we practice that, so we can make an instinct play. It worked tonight. Only has to work once."

We'll never forget this game, this 78-76 masterpiece. Put it on the all-time list with the long lob to Christian Laettner, Keith Smart's jumper, Bryce Drew's catch-and-shoot, Lorenzo Charles' "What's this?" winner and Edney. But the hero's personal story might be better than the game.

"He has struggled in college and he has fought through some adversity," Wright said of Reynolds. "We go on the road and people chant, `Scottie doesn't know' and it never bothers him. He's amazing. I have as much respect for him as anyone I've ever coached."

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During the post-game celebration, Reynolds received the love that often has eluded him. A star as a freshman -- he once scored 40 against Connecticut -- he has endured ups and downs in his Villanova experience, in part because Wright employs a system that downplays individuals and emphasizes team. He didn't arrive on campus as a happy camper, having been burned when Kelvin Sampson bolted Oklahoma for Indiana, forcing Reynolds to vacate his original commitment to OU and sign with Villanova. Like a lot of people these days, Reynolds isn't fond of Sampson, who left Indiana amid a recruiting scandal.

"I put my faith in one person and all my eggs in one basket, and I felt like I couldn't trust anybody no matter what they said to me," he told reporters on the eve of the East Regional final. "Having nobody that I knew on the team (at Villanova), I didn't have anybody to talk to. I just stayed in my dorm room and just waited for the next day to come and waited for the next day to get on the court."

In those tough times, when he clashed with Wright over philosophy, he relied on the parents who raised him. He sometimes wonders if he'd be alive without Rick and Pam Reynolds, who made him part of a family with five other kids in a childhood spent in Virginia and Illinois. Who knew he'd grow up to star in a tale that will live in NCAA tournament lore? "Oh, man, it's so many emotions going through my head," he said. "It's something that you think about as a youngster, advancing to a Final Four or winning a championship."

And to think it almost didn't happen. Why oh why did Redding, with a two-point lead and eight seconds left, fire a ball from his own baseline to the other baseline, overthrowing Cunningham? Pitt's Jermaine Dixon retrieved the ball and tossed it to Fields, who was fouled and, of course, made two free throws with five seconds left to tie the game. Wright made it clear that the Statue of Liberty gimmick wasn't his call.

"We have to be (OK with it) because we put him in that position," he said. "It's easy to watch film and criticize and critique, but it's hard to be the guy that's in the battle and make the decision. So we always tell them in those end-of-game situations, we have to trust your decisions. If that would have cost us the game, we would have applauded Reggie for the guts to make the play. Now, as a sensible basketball person, I can say it probably wasn't a great decision. But within our team, and we did talk about after the game, he knows we trust him on that and we would have been there to pick him up if that would have cost us."

I'd call him a coach I'd want to play for. The family atmosphere is why Wright and Villanova have become the darlings of March, finally breaking through to the Final Four after several flirtations. You might say Pitt choked, having led by four points with three minutes left before committing two quick turnovers, one when the talented but maddening big man, DeJuan Blair, inexplicably traveled after playing a high-risk game with foul trouble in the first half. Jamie Dixon will continue to hear criticism about why he can't reach the Final Four, which will become doubly difficult next season without seniors Fields and Sam Young and possibly without Blair, who might declare for the draft and take his sizable butt to the NBA. Pitt is now 1-7 against top-five seeds in the big tournament.

"Obviously, it's a game that I guess people will talk about as far as a great game," Dixon said. "But right now, all we're reflecting on is a disappointment. But I'm not disappointed at all in the effort or character we displayed."

And Pitt's defensive effort on the last play? "We did a pretty good job of what we did," he said. "They floated (the pass to Reynolds) up there, and it was really a jump ball and could have gone either way. I don't know if that was exactly what they had planned. I would doubt it. But as far as the kid, he made a tough shot. Scottie Reynolds made a tough shot."

The better and smarter team won the game. The team that hit 22 of 23 free throws -- five of six in the final minute -- won the game. Now, prepare yourself for a week of comparisons to the '85 Villanova team. This team was seeded third in the East, much higher than Massimino's outcasts. But a story line is a story line, as Wright knows.

"It's kind of eerie how this is playing out. I hope to God history repeats itself (laughter)," said Wright, who was in Lexington when 'Nova pulled off the shocker. "I worked Rollie Massimino's camp, I was there like a hanger-on. I was part of that family. The thing with Rollie was, if you worked his camp, you might as well have been the top assistant -- everybody was in the family. And my wife was a cheerleader there; she had just graduated.

"(At the time), that was kind of the greatest year in the Big East history, and we've had discussions whether that year was better than this year. So that was similar. Villanova was a great team, but St. John's and Syracuse and Georgetown were the teams that year. Villanova kind of sneaks in. And then it's all happening the same now. I'm not a superstitious person or anything, I don't care. I'm worried about the next game. But if history repeats itself, I'll take it."

I don't know if history is repeating itself. But I do know history was made Saturday night in a sports town rich in legends.

It's a Reynolds Wrap originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wild Win

FanHouse Newswire — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:47:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, East Region

Villanova is heading to the Final Four and the Wildcats need all 40 minutes to get there.

Or at least all but five tenths of a second.

Scottie Reynolds takes a pass and goes the length of the floor in five seconds, hitting a leaner in the paint to send Villanova back to the Final Four for the first time since its 1985 national title with a 78-76 win over top-seed Pitt.

Levance Fields' desperation heave with five tenths of a second crashed off the backboard.

Dwayne Anderson scored 17 for the third-seeded Wildcats, who responded to Pittsburgh's physical play by sinking 22 of 23 free throws in the East Regional final.

Villanova (30-7) will play the winner of the South Regional championship between North Carolina and Oklahoma. The Wildcats are the lowest-remaining seed in the NCAA tournament, though not quite as big an underdog as the eighth-seeded '85 team - the lowest seed ever to win it all.

Sam Young scored 28 and DeJuan Blair had 20 points and 10 rebounds for Pittsburgh (31-5), the first No. 1 seed to lose.

Wild Win originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:47:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reynolds Dashes to Detroit

Dan Graziano — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:42:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, East Region

Scottie Reynolds has hit a lot of shots for Villanova, but never, ever, ever one quite like this.

Ladies and gentlemen, we may have just witnessed the last Big East game of the 2008-09 season. If Louisville wins Sunday and Villanova wins again next Saturday, we get two more, but there's no guarantee. It's possible that this down-to-the-last-half-second classic, in which Villanova beat top-seeded Pitt to reach the Final Four, was the last game of the year between Big East teams.

And if it was ... dear god, what a finale.

No. 3 Villanova 78, No. 1 Pittsburgh 76: Recap | Box Score | View Bracket
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Nobody who's been watching this conference all year can possibly be surprised at what we just saw. Just think back over the final 10 minutes -- brilliant play after brilliant play at each end of the court. Swarming pressure defense. Brutally contested rebounds. Impossibly clutch free-throw shooting.

This year's Big East was the toughest conference of all time, and the NCAA tournament has proven that. The Big East teams are battle-tested and impossible to out-tough. Neither one of those teams we just watched was going to accept a loss. They left their hearts and assorted other vital organs on the court. The kid, Jermaine Dixon, tore his groin muscle in the first half and played half of the second.

The heart breaks for Pitt, which was a dominant team all year, took a couple of turns as the No. 1 team in the country, beat UConn twice and fully expected to be playing next weekend in Detroit. Had they not run into another Big East-hardened team in the regional final, the Panthers may well have made it. They couldn't have played any better than they did, and the emotion they displayed in their postgame press conference was that of a team that knew it.

But what a story Villanova's year is. Villanova was the team that muscled its way into what appeared to be an impenetrable Top Four in the Big East. By late January, it appeared that UConn, Pitt, Louisville and Marquette were the class of the conference. But Nova kept winning (this is the second time they beat Pitt), Marquette slumped down the stretch and lo and behold, there were the Wildcats, waltzing into Madison Square Garden with the No. 4 seed in the conference.

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>Then they hit the NCAAs and ripped through the first three rounds, absolutely slaughtering Duke in the Sweet 16 to set up the Big East rematch, and ... really there's no other way to say it, outlasting Pitt in a game for the ages.

Nobody's who's watched Scottie Reynolds' career can possibly be surprised that it was he who hit the game-winner. But this team has grown up around him, with stars like Dante Cunningham and Corey Fisher emerging to help Reynolds turn Villanova into something they haven't been since the last time the Big East was this dominant -- a Final Four team.

And with Rollie Massimino in the stands, you had better believe this year's group knows which team came out on top back in 1985. And you can bet their current coach, their friends, their families and pretty much the whole country is going to remind them of it over the next week.

Reynolds Dashes to Detroit originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:42:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motoring to Detroit

FanHouse Newswire — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:22:00 EST

Filed under: West Region, East Region

The first ticket to Detroit has been issue, but it didn't come easy. UConn withstands Missouri's intense defensive pressure to survive 82-75 and move on to the Final Four in Detroit.

Freshman Kemba Walker scores 23 points, hands out five assists and makes a series of big plays down the stretch to send Jim Calhoun to his third naitonal semifinals.

Final : UConn 82, Mizzou 75 | Preview: Villanova vs. Pitt
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Motoring to Detroit originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:22:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCAA Bans DeJuan Blair's Bicep Bands ... Or Maybe Not

Chas Rich — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:52:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, East Region

Update: Blair is wearing the bands during the Panthers' Elite Eight game against Villanova. The earlier report from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said the bands would be banned if there wasn't a medical reason for their use. So we can only assume Blair has some ailment solved by the medical treatment of looking like a bad ass.

In the first half of Pitt's win over Xavier, DeJuan Blair had been held to only two points and four rebounds in the first half. When Pitt came out for the second half against Xavier, Blair was lacking the bands that he has had around each bicep all year long. Blair subsequently had a big second half, grabbing 13 more rebounds and adding eight more points, meaning yet another double-double.

He did not shed the arm bands to change his luck, though. The NCAA made him shed them.

Apparently, after 34.5 games, the NCAA finally noticed them. At that point, they decided they were not permissible because they served no medical purpose. There's no clear reason for the sudden need for going strict. Maybe the NCAA just hired someone from the NFL to enforce ridiculous uniform codes.

Blair isn't happy with the development:

"I was mad," he said. "They made me take them off. I said 'I've been doing this (all season).' "

Latest Tourney Cheerleader Photos

INDIANAPOLIS - MARCH 27: Sparty the mascot of the Michigan State Spartans poses for a photo with the cheerleaders against the Kansas Jayhawks during the third round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Lucas Oil Stadium on March 27, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Sparty

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A cheerleader for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels performs during the NCAA men's South Regional basketball game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in Memphis, Tennessee, March 27, 2009. REUTERS/Chris Keane (UNITED STATES SPORT BASKETBALL)

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INDIANAPOLIS - MARCH 27: Jayhawk, the mascot of the Kansas Jayhawks perfroms along with the Kansas cheerleaders the Michigan State Spartans during the third round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Lucas Oil Stadium on March 27, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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INDIANAPOLIS - MARCH 27: A cheerleader for the Kansas Jayhawks supports her team against the Michigan State Spartans during the third round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Lucas Oil Stadium on March 27, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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MEMPHIS, TN - MARCH 27: A North Carolina Tar Heels cheerleader performs during a break in the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regionals at the FedExForum on March 27, 2009 in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Murphy/Getty Images)

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Connecticut Huskies cheerleaders are reflected on the floor during their NCAA men's West Regional basketball game against the Purdue Boilermakers in Glendale, Arizona, March 26, 2009. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi (UNITED STATES SPORT BASKETBALL)

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BOISE, ID - MARCH 22: A cheerleader for the Missouri Tigers performs during the game against the Marquette Golden Eagles in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Taco Bell Arena on March 22, 2009 in Boise, Idaho. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

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MINNEAPOLIS - MARCH 22: A cheerleader for the Michigan State Spartans performs against the USC Trojans during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on March 22, 2009 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

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Texas A&M's Sydney Carter (4), Skylar Collins (25), La Toya Micheaux (12) and Kelsey Assarian (40) dance with cheerleaders after a 80-45 win over Evansville in a first-round women's NCAA college basketball tournament game in South Bend, Ind., Sunday, March 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

NCAA Bans DeJuan Blair's Bicep Bands ... Or Maybe Not originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:52:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sweet 16 Live Blogging

Chas Rich — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, WCC, Tourney Rumors, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

Last night's action had one tight game, a blowout that tightened near the end, a walloping, and a game that never became a blowout though the outcome was never in doubt.

Tonight, Louisville takes on that, uh, Cinderella team from the desert in Arizona. Syracuse and Oklahoma should be a lot of fun in the early games. Later tonight Kansas and Michigan State looks like it should be gem. Also North Carolina gets Gonzaga, the original West Coast Cinderella that has not been that for some time.

Stop on by around 6:30 PM ET to talk about the action from yesterday and the games tonight. Plus, there is always the coaching carousel and what happens next at Kentucky.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;altcast_code=1f236a6df2&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Round 3 Reaction and Action&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Sweet 16 Live Blogging originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is Duke Done?

Ray Holloman — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:15:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, East Region

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's voice wavered as he spoke of his admiration for his team, his voice heavy with the weight of another early goodbye. To his left, Gerald Henderson wiped both of his hands across his face as if he was trying to push away the whole forgettable night. Next to Henderson, Lance Thomas sat stone-faced.

Each of them looked like they just ran a marathon, only to finish with 10 rounds in the ring and come up losers in both.

And the message was as plain as the scoreboard that read Villanova 77, Duke 54: Even Goliath can get old.

"They were better than we were," Krzyzewski confessed, a strikingly similar admission to the one he offered following Duke's first loss to North Carolina in February. "They played an outstanding basketball game and I want to thank my team for an amazing season and for me, a memorable one."

But as reporters winged questions at the man who has now coached in more NCAA tournament games than any other man, perhaps the most important one went unasked, if it could even have been answered in the first place.

Is Duke done?

For the fifth consecutive year, Duke failed to advance beyond the Sweet 16 and the script seemed oh-so-familiar. The Blue Devils launched a storm of 3-pointers but connected on just five. Two of their top scorers fell into a mathematically improbable funk as Henderson and Jon Scheyer hit just 4-of-32 shots. They were beaten badly on the boards and watched a Villanova layup line blow by again, and again and again.

And it wasn't surprising. Or shocking. Or the kind of headline that needed to scream out from the banner. It was just another Duke loss.

And another moment to wonder if Duke is still Duke.

If it seems like a flawed question after a 30-win season and the school's 17th ACC championship, consider that a testament to how good and how intimidating Duke was in Krzyzewski's first quarter-century on the bench.

If you miss a note in the shower, it's one thing. If Pavarotti can't find the key at the Met, that's another level of disappointment. This was the latter.

"That's also a sign of respect," coach Mike Krzyzewski had said after Duke's second-round win over Texas, responding to the idea that two years was a lengthy absence from the Sweet 16. "They hate talking about what you have done."

Or maybe recently that they've had so little to talk about.

In its heyday, Krzyzewski's Duke was more than just a Goliath. Duke was the guy who took Goliath's lunch money and left the big fella riding the pine. From 1986 to 1994, Duke played in every Final Four except two, winning two national titles. From 1999 to 2004, the Blue Devils went back three times, claiming a title in 2001.

But since 2004, the Devils have entered March like lambs and ended like a sacrifice, no matter how well a season might've seemed to be going. Every year it ended with Krzyzewski bidding his team farewell.

"I'm just disappointed for them, not in them," Krzyzewski said. "They've been a great group of kids."

For the Blue Devils, this dry spell now matches the longest of Krzyzewski's career, dating back to when he still had to give spelling primers on his last name. Only his first five years on the job from 1981 to 1985 featured a bleaker March streak.

So for a program that prides itself on only hanging NCAA banners for Final Four appearances or better, a now historic final weekend drought makes the question all the more relevant..

Is Duke done?

Certainly, the Blue Devils have yet to languish in the way other all-time programs like Indiana and, to a lesser extent, Kentucky have in recent years. But is there any way after the school's lowest offensive output in the NCAA tournament during the shot clock era, during another profound shooting slump, and during the worst postseason loss since UNLV beat Duke by 30 in the 1990 national title game, that Duke is still Duke?

Talk to Krzyzewski long enough and you'll hear the coach refer to his team not as a program but a brand. But even Krzyzewski would admit the Duke brand is at least flirting with the value rack.

"I think we're a brand that has produced good things," Krzyzewski said before the Villanova loss. "And no one has produced a winning championship every year. But really for the most part like we'll play hard. We try to do it the right way."

Effort Duke has, but effort stops being enough somewhere around the time you turn in your little league uniform. Duke is about excellence. And you didn't need to consult the Blue Devils' itinerary to figure out that excellence didn't make the trip to Boston.

Duke's troubles are obvious enough that any sportswriter can diagnose them courtside as the Boston Globe's Bob Ryan did in the press conference, inquiring about the lack of a true post presence. Krzyzewski one-upped him by noting the lack of a true point guard, too.

"It's not like we haven't tried to find them," Krzyzewski said. "A couple of them went to other schools last second. So we were like a three-headed monster on offense. [Henderson, Scheyer and Kyle Singler] sent us a long way, but they played a lot of five against three."

Like his team, Krzyzewski's recruiting problems haven't been from a lack of effort. But Duke's hyper-focused targeting has left the program with hefty roster problems, beginning with its last Final Four appearance in 2004. Before that season, Kris Humphries asked out of his commitment and left for Minnesota where he averaged 22 points and 10 rebounds a game, while Duke lost in the Final Four to UConn after each of its three big men fouled out.

The Blue Devils then watched point guard Shaun Livingston pick the NBA over his Duke commitment, whiffed on Washington native and Husky star Jon Brockman, and brought aboard arguably the school's most disappointing recruiting class in 2005. Ranked second in the nation by Scout.com, that class would feature more players (five) than points scored in Thursday night's farewell (three). Only bench-bound point guard Greg Paulus, ranked No. 1 at his position as a high school senior, scored a bucket -- a lone 3-pointer.

In the following years, Duke would miss on dominant big men Patrick Patterson (Kentucky) in 2007, Greg Monroe (Georgetown) in 2008, as well as elite 2009 point guard Kenny Boynton (Florida).

Somewhere along the way, the Duke brand became less and less exotic.

But there are reasons to think Duke could return to its place atop college basketball even if you don't slap the floor when you wake in the morning. Next year's recruiting class boasts two five-star power forwards with a point guard to follow in 2011. And Krzyzewski has twice lifted his program from much greater depths than a 30-win season, including an even more talent-depleted roster in 1995.

Duke will have to wait another seven months, including an anxious two awaiting Henderson's NBA decision, to see if this recruiting class hits where its 2005 counterpart missed so badly. But the more time passes, the question left unanswered in Boston will only grow bigger.

Is Duke done?

Is Duke Done? originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Postgame Thoughts -- 'Nova 77, Duke 54

Dan Graziano — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:41:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, East Region

Well, you don't have to look too hard to get the point of this night in NCAA Tournament history. The Big East won three of the four Sweet 16 games played tonight -- two of them easily. At this very moment, it's pretty hard to like Oklahoma's or Arizona's chances on Friday night, or Missouri's on Saturday. The Big East is flexing muscles, baring fangs, dropping its collective shoulder and knocking down all of college basketball on its way to history's hoop. The conference is guaranteed one Final Four entrant (either Villanova or Pitt will make it) and still has a chance to grab all four spots. Only one conference has ever had as many as three in the Final Four and that was...yeah. The Big East. In 1985.

The most emphatic statement came in the night's final game, in which Villanova completely manhandled Duke. And I mean, completely. Duke shot 27 percent from the field in its 2009 Sweet 16 game. That's appalling. That's a rotten three-point shooting percentage, and in this game it was Duke's number for all shots. The Blue Devils made exactly 16 more shots than you and I did tonight, dear reader. Sixteen. There's no impossibly nasal Mike Krzyzewski explanation that can suffice for a number like that.

Duke started the game with a 5-0 lead before Villanova ended it on a 77-49 run. After those first five points, the Wildcats threw a heavy blanket on the Blue Devils, and the result was suffocating. Nova's defense wore Duke down so badly that the Devils' legs were shot by the midway point of the second half. Their shots were coming up short. They were slow on the boards. They looked tired and confused and worn down long before the final buzzer buzzed, and we're talking about one of the very best teams in one of the other conferences that put seven teams into this dance.

The result was that the game became easy for Villanova. They ran the plays and got the shots they wanted to get on offense, and they just kept on pulling away.

Villanova-Pitt on Saturday? I know I'll be watching. Nova won the game earlier in the year when DeJuan Blair got in foul trouble, and that foul trouble detracted somewhat from the predictive value of the game's result. If Blair plays the whole game...well, just ask Xavier what happens. Nova is playing much better right now, and coming in hotter. But this is a Big East game, and those are tough to pick.

Think about this: Villanova can win the national championship in a scenario in which their last three games are against Pitt, Syracuse and either Louisville or UConn.

There remains a chance that North Carolina or Oklahoma can still crash the party in Detroit and make this year their own. But nothing we saw tonight detracts from the idea that this is a Big East year all the way. And that it's a bad idea to get in the BEast's way.

Postgame Thoughts -- 'Nova 77, Duke 54 originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:41:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sam Young Flips Out in Sweet 16

Ray Holloman — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:30:00 EST

Filed under: Big East, East Region, Shining Moments

Pitt forward Sam Young, he of the pump-fake that would make defensive coaching stalwart Henry Iba bite from his grave, added a little bit of flourish to the Panthers' historic win Thursday night.

He flipped. Backwards.

The Panther senior had promised to do a backflip if he could lead Pitt into the Sweet 16, but after his 32-point hero turn against Oklahoma State, Young was ushered to interviewers who were interested in things other than gymnastics.

So after the Panthers dropped Xavier Thursday night, Young made good on his promise.

Photographic evidence after the jump.

Your move, Alicia Sacramone.

Sam Young Flips Out in Sweet 16 originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Villanova Decks Duke

Ray Holloman — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:46:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, East Region

This seemed all too familiar.

For a fifth straight season Duke bowed out below its seed line while shooting at a rim the size of a golf cup. And for a second straight game, No. 3 seed Villanova leaves a blue-chip basketball program flatter than the hardwood it was wiped off of, blitzing Duke 77-54.

In fact, If there was any surprise after watching the Wildcats' second-half takedown of second-seeded Duke, it was that the Blue Devils didn't just simply turn into 12 diamonds in blue-and-white jerseys from all the pressure the Wildcats applied.

It's tempting to pin the loss solely on Duke's 3-point shooting . Duke made just 5-of-27 attempts from behind the arc, but that's a disservice to the furnace-blast defense Villanova applied. The Wildcats had hoped to turn this into a Big East game, but, by midway through the first half, they had already overshot and turned it into in a Big Ten-styled game -- football, that is.

The Wildcats contested every pass and every jumper. Heck, the Blue Devils probably had to fight through screens just to get to the locker room at halftime.

"We really defended for 40 minutes, even better than the UCLA game defensively," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "We've been good offensively a lot this year and that's won us some games, but the last two games we've played 40 minutes of defense."

And the final numbers were a ghastly reflection of that pressure for Duke. Jon Scheyer hit just 3-of-18 shots, Gerald Henderson just 1-of-14. Even when the Blue Devils managed open looks in the second half, they just wouldn't fall.

"When we did have an open shot, we put a lot of game pressure on when we shouldn't have," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski explained. "But that comes from a good place, a place where they care and want to do it. It's not a seven game series, it's a one game thing. They made their mistakes by trying to do something and I can't fault them."

By that point, the game was long since decided. Early in the second half, Villanova's guards began to take advantage of Duke's inability to slow penetration from the perimeter. Scottie Reynolds, Reggie Redding, Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes turned the second half into a layup line. A 12- 1 run turned a 26-25 Villanova edge early in the second half into all the working margin the Wildcats would need.

"In the second half, we got ball moving more and every guy on the floor was trying to make plays," Redding said. "In the first half, it was all passing and passing. In the second half, we tried to make plays."

So after back-to-back blowouts of Duke and UCLA while Pitt has struggled at the top of the bracket, is there anyway Villanova isn't the favorite in an all-Big East Elite Eight showdown? The Wildcats won the only meeting earlier this season. In the Villanova's 67-57 victory Jan. 28, the Wildcats harassed the Panthers into 17 turnovers, held a foul-plagued DeJuan Blair to eight points and got a career night for Redding.

So how will it play out?

"I just don't want to think about it," Wright said. "I want to enjoy this win."

Certainly the Wildcats hope it'll be much like tonight. Familiar.

Villanova Decks Duke originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:46:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fields Points Pitt to Elite 8

FanHouse Newswire — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:27:00 EST

Filed under: A-10, Big East, East Region

BOSTON --Throughout his team's Sweet 16 game with Xavier, Pittsburgh guard Levance Fields kept trying to take over. Luckily for the Panthers, he finally did just that in the last minute -- and thanks to his heroics, Pittsburgh advanced to its first Elite Eight in 35 years.

Senior guard Levance Fields hit a deep, contested 3-pointer with just less than a minute left, then converted a layup off a Xavier turnover 29 seconds later, turning a one-point Pitt deficit into a three-point lead. The momentum swing was enough to propel the top-seeded Panthers to a 60-55 win over fourth-seeded Xavier on Thursday night.

"We came in expecting to win two games," Fields said before acknowledging the obvious: "It was dramatic."

"It definitely was big for the players, the coaches and the city," said Sam Young, who led Pitt with 19 points. "It's something we've been waiting for, for a long time."

The last time Pitt was in a regional final was in 1974 when it lost to eventual national champion North Carolina State and star David Thompson 100-72.

Fourth-seeded Xavier (27-8) was led by B.J. Raymond with 15 points and Derrick Brown with 14.

Pitt plays Saturday against the winner of Thursday night's second semifinal between Duke and Villanova for a berth in the Final Four.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Pitt plays Saturday against the winner of Thursday night's second semifinal between second-seeded Duke and third-seeded Villanova for a berth in the Final Four.

"We're a confident group," Fields said. "We haven't played our best basketball, but the good thing is we've found a way to make plays when we've needed them."

Fourth-seeded Xavier (27-8) was led by Raymond with 15 points and Derrick Brown with 14.

"I thought the shot Levance Fields hit is all about (the poise of) senior point guards," said Xavier coach Sean Miller, who knows something about that.

He was a star point guard at Pitt from 1987 to 1992 and is second in school history in assists.

Panthers coach Jamie Dixon made it to the round of eight for the first time in his six years on the bench after losing in his other two trips to the round of 16. Xavier fell short in its bid for a third berth in the regional finals in six years.

"They pushed us around in the first half, but we responded in the second half like we usually do," Dixon said. "Like I've said before, I never get tired of seeing Levance take big shots. He's made them year after year."

Trailing 37-29 at halftime, Pitt scored the first nine points of the second half-and Xavier missed its first 10 shots-as the Panthers took a 38-37 lead with 14:33 left.

But the Musketeers recovered and went ahead 54-52 with 1:50 remaining when Dante Jackson cut to the basket for a layup.

Fields then had the ball past midcourt before it went into the backcourt off a defender. Fields retrieved it, dribbled into his own end and fired up the go-ahead shot over Jackson.

"We ran our go-to play," Fields said. "I did a little bit of an in-and-out move, got him on his heels a little bit and took the shot. Once I got him back, I took the open shot. I had confidence in it."

Jackson thought he could stop him.

"I thought I had a pretty good challenge," he said.

Fields was in the right place again when Raymond lost control of his dribble. Fields got the ball, pushed it forward and dribbled ahead of the field to put the Panthers up by three.

Xavier's Terrell Holloway made a free throw with 16 seconds left, but Young hit two just three seconds later. After a missed 3-pointer by Brown, Brad Wannamaker made one more free throw for Pitt with 2.6 seconds left.

The Musketeers went just 7-for-29 from the field in the second half when they were outscored 31-18.

But they were solid late in the first half. With the score tied at 27, Xavier outscored Pitt 10-2 in the last three minutes of the half to take a 37-29 lead. Brown started the surge with a 3-pointer and sank another one that made it 35-29.

Blair struggled offensively inside and finished with just two points and four rebounds in the first half. He had eight points and 13 rebounds after that.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Fields Points Pitt to Elite 8 originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:27:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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