HOUSTON - Memphis wins it 92-74 and will meet Texas on Sunday at 1:20 local time.
Rose finishes with 27 for Memphis, CDR has 25. Suton with 23 and Allen with 20 for State.
We'll be back with you from interview day, tomorrow (Saturday) in the early afternoon.
HOUSTON - Despite missing much of the second half with an eye injury, Derrick Rose leads all scorers with 25 points and Memphis is up 83-66 with 1:56 left.
We're being assured by the NCAA that this game will actually end at some point.
. . . Tip for Sunday's South region championship game was just announced as 1:20 CT (2:20 ET). That's slightly odd because we thought with Billy Packer and Jim Nantz at this site, they would have had the natural lead-in to "60 Minutes" and be able to set the complete Final Four field. Instead, it will be Cinderella Davidson and Kansas that get the fill the final spot.
. . . Neitzle hit his first field goal of the game with 1:45 left. He is 1 of 7 from the field., with all but one attempt a 3-pointer.
HOUSTON - If this game were a candy, it'd be a Gobstopper.
Michigan State has, much to Tom Izzo's credit, been able to extend this one and wring out every last second. With 3:58 left in the game, Memphis leads 78-62 and the parade to the free-throw line is going to continue.
Neitzel has still not scored for State.
. . . There's no way you can blame Memphis for its second half lapse. It's too hard to keep up the kind of intensity they brought in the first half and with a 30 point lead at halftime, there's a certain expectation that the game is over, even though 20 minutes still needed to be ticked away.
That said, Calipari will gladly use the second half as further motivation for his Tigers as he tries to convince them that the world is against them on Sunday. And few do such motivtaional games better than the Tiger mentor.
HOUSTON - With 6 minutes left, it appears that Tom Izzo will foul on every Memphis possession.
Calipari has said he will have his players try and run away and hide, but so far the technique has led to two trips to the line for Rose and Kemp. Rose missed one, Kemp made two.
HOUSTON - It's not a game, but State has done it's best to make it one after Memphis dozed off for the past ten minutes of game time.
Memphis leads 69-48with 7:39 left in the game.
. . . Drew Neitzel still has not scored in the game. He is 0 of 5 from the field and 0 of 4 from 3-point land.
. . . Rose returned for Memphis with 8:45 left in the game. He is sporting a bandage over his right eye. He score four straight points. Guess they missed him a bit.
HOUSTON - Memphis is having a hard time creating a flow in this latter portion of the game, understandably so. But Calipari is not happy despite a 61-39 lead with 11:55 left in the game.
Derrick Rose is nowhere to be found and has definitely left the bench area.
. . . Text Message of the night, received at 10:23 CT with Memphis up 61-36, from a weisenheimer friend of Posting Up (FOPU): "Geez, I hope Memphis's free throw shooting doesn't hurt them down the strecth of this one."
Why can't I come up with gold like that?
. . .Memphis Media Moron is now eating my media room-procured Snickers and M&Ms. The chewing seems to keep him quiet, which is nice. Wish they had Laffy Taffy.
. . . Every game tonight has the potential to be double-digit blow-outs. Not exactly what the mothership of CBS was looking for to boost sagging ratings.
HOUSTON - We're not going to insult your intelligence by continuing to post at every media timeout. If the game gets below 20, we'll check in. Otherwise just assume the Tigers are maintaining a helathy double-digit lead. It's now 61-29 with 15:56 left in the game.
. ..Derrick Rose got poked in the eye and was taken out of the game when the official stopped play. He doesn't appear to be on the bench - not sure where he is currently.
. . . Tigers went up 34 within first minute of half.
. . . Attendance for this session was 32,931. There were approximately 43,000 seats available, but thhe bulk of those remaining 10,000 are way up in the eaves.
. . . Dozier picked up his third foul of the game a minute into the half, but remained in the game.
. . . A moron media member from Memphis is trying to get his wife to see where he's sitting by waving his hand in the air each time the camera comes down this end of the court. He may need to be beaten. By Joey Dorsey. And Pierre Niles.
. . . Calipari is going to use the rest of the half to get some rest for his starters in preparation for Sunday against Texas.
HOUSTON - Michigan State could not get anything going in the first half and the stats don't lie in this one:
Memphis won the board battle, 22-6.
Memphis shot 20 of 32 from the field (63 percent).
State shot 9 of 23 (39 percent).
Memphis hit 4 of 10 from 3-point land.
State hit 1 of 6 from beyond the arc.
Suton led State with 11 points.
Rose led Memphis with 12 and four assists (Neitzel led State with four assists).
Just four State players scored (two with 2 points each).
Eight Tigers scored.
Memphis had 3 turnovers.
State had 9.
Memphis had 6steals.
State had 1.
Memphis scored 24 points in the paint to 12 for State.
Memphis netted 16 points off turnovers to 2 for State.
Memphis has 13 second-chance points (10 offensive boards), State has zero.
. . . Tough night for the Big Ten with Wisconsin falling to team from a mid-major conference and State looking at a 30-point deficit to a team from a Mid.
. . . State's last field goal of the half came with 6:17 left in half.
MEMPHIS - Memphis beat writers are already finished with their game stories. Columnists will have no trouble meeting deadline. This one is a joke. Memphis leads 50-20 at half, a score that was punctuated by a breakaway, between the knees dunk by Derrick Rose.
Michigan State may be boarding the bus right now for all we know.
. . .Big fella Pierre Niles checked in for Memphis with a little over two minute sleft in the half and proceeded to take an alley-oop and lay it in for two. if this thing goes this way and Memphis meets texas, we're proposing a sumo match at halftime on Sunday between Niles and Texas's Dexter Pittman.
. . . Back with stats when they get to us.
HOUSTON - Playing their best half of basketball in the NCAA Tournament, Memphis has taken a commanding 41-20 lead with 3:46 left in the half.
Drew Neitzel looks especially frsutrated and has yet to score for the Spartans. Memphis is lead by CDR's eight points.
. . . Incredibly, Memphis is shooting 67 percent (16 of 24) and State is shooting 9 of 19 (47 percent). But the difference has been on the boards, where Memphis has 14 rebounds to just 4 for State.
. . . A Joey Dorsey steal and tomahawak slam with 5:41 left in the half put Memphis up 37-20. It also started chants of "Joey, Joey, Joey" from the Tiger faithful.
. . . Raymar Morgan picked up his second foul with 7:05 left in the half.
HOUSTON - Memphis has built up a 13 point lead with 7:32 left in the half and now lead 31-18.
Goran Suton has half of State's points with nine, while Memphis has seven players with at least two points, led by Dozier and Rose with seven each.
. . . Willie Kemp with two early 3-pointers for Memphis. The Tigers are 4 of 7 from beyond the arc.
. . . The Tigers have so many student managers that five of them have been relegated to auxiliary seating in the abandoned Stanford band section.
. . . The Memphis mascot is in its Elvis costume, a personal favorite of ours.
. . . With Anderson out, Rose picked up Neitzel on defense for Memphis.
. . . The video board that had been distracting Memphis players during yesterday's shoot around gets turned off during free throws.
. . . Robert Dozier picked up his second foul with 7:32 left in the half.
HOUSTON - The Tigers lead 19-13 with 11:42 left in the half. Both teams are shooting well with Memphis at 7 of 10 and State at 6 of 12. Memphis holds a slight 5-2 rebounding edge. Rose has 7 points to lead Memphis and Chris Allen has 5 to pace the Spartans.
. . . State is in a 2-3 zone to start.
. . . A trey by Rose gave Memphis a 10 point lead right around the 15-minute mark. Biggest of the game.
. . . Idong Ibok picked up his second foul with 13:58 left in the half.
. . . Texas players have just entered the arenadium and are sitting down to scout their next opponent. Big cheers all around.
HOUSTON - Memphis leads 11-6 with 15:36 left in the half. Michigan State has already committed four fouls to zero for the Tigers. Four different Tigers have scored in the first 4-plus minutes, led by freshman Derrick Rose.
. . . Antonio Anderson starts out defending Drew Neitzel as expected. Anderson hit his first 3-point attempt. Neitzel missed his.
. . . John Calipari is utilizing the stool provided by the NCAA. Tom Izzo is too. Neither coach in the first game was a stool sitter.
. . .Joey Dorsey became the first player to run off the side of the stage/court when he saved a ball from going out of bounds. It led to a breakaway from Chris Douglas-Roberts, who travelled as he made his lay-up.
. . . The building has lost some energy for sure after the first game despite the fact that most of the burnt-orange rooters have remained.
HOUSTON - On our way back to the media room, we passed by Tom Izzo's good friend, Steve Mariucci, the ex-NFL head coach of the San Franccisco 49ers and Detroit Lions. Nice support for his pal.
. . . The officials for the second game will be Karl Hess, Bert Smith, Tom O'Neill.
. . . Probable starters look like this:
Michigan State
Kalin Lucas
Drew Neitzel
Goran Suton
Raymar Morgan
Drew Naymick
Memphis
Antonio Anderson
Chris Douglas-Roberts
Derrick Rose
Robert Dozier
Jey Dorsey
. . . Slightly more blue in the crowd than green, but we're guessing all those burnt orange fans are going to be Green Teamers.
. . . Okay, we'll give you a prediction in this one - close throughout and Memphis wins by five or less.
DETROIT - While the Hoops Odyssey boys are off doing the postgame rounds, let me clean up some garbage from the last game.
Davidson came back on the boards to finish within 3. It seemed worse than this, but the turnover margin was only +5 for Davidson, but they had nine steals.
We don't get info like second-chance points.
Now, the lineups for game two, which is five minutes away.
Kansas starts:
G: Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Russell Robinson
F: Darnell Jackson, Darrell Arthur
Nova counters with:
G Scottie Reynolds, Cory Stokes
F Antonio Pena, Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham.
Our ref, Doug "Show of" Shows (pardon me for channeling Berman for a moment), Pat Evans and TV Teddy Valentine, who I may have to report for stalking me. He's like Visa, everywhere I go.
Danny Manning just came out onto the court. His famed championship run in 1988 came through Detroit. Back then, they played in the Pontiac Silverdome. They beat Vanderbilt and Kansas St to get to the Final Four. The 4th team in that regional was Purdue, which is why I was there. The Boilers were the top seed, but lost to Mitch Richmond and KSU.
Not that I'm bitter.
DETROIT - Davidson comfortably finished off Wisconsin 73-56 and will play the winner of Kansas-Villanova on Sunday. I wonder if they thought to bring the white unis, which they would need if Nova wins.
How do they look in white?
Curry was spectacular with 33, but unlike Davidson's other games in this tournament, he wasn't really the story.
The story was Wisconsin's gross incompetence at the offensive end, where they didn't do, and rarely even tried to do, what they do best. They were sloppy with the ball (and Davidson forced some problems there to be sure), but the real crime was failing to try to take advantage of their size inside. Wisconsin did some of that in the first half, but as soon as they got down in the second half, that part of their game was done.
And when they did get shots, they didn't fall. Wisconsin was a woeful 5-20 in the second half, 1-6 from long range, and even 9-16 from the line.
Tom O'Connor, the George Mason AD, just congratulated Davidson's AD, who was sitting in front of me.
This game was so bad, even LeBron left early.
If there are any other final stats of note, I'll pass them along.
Meanwhile, our "luxury porta johns" have, um, crapped out here. Water is flowing down the ramp. It's not quite like the pictures you saw from the Georgia Dome during the SEC tournament, but no less unpleasant.
Not caused by a leaky toilet.
Back with Game two in a bit.
DETROIT - McKillop finally gave Curry a break after a three point play on a reverse layup with the Wildcats up 63-46 and about 9 minutes left. He can sit him the rest of the night. Wisconsin is done. They will not score 63 points.
The Badgers can't hit a layup, can't hit a free throw, can't run an alley oop, can't hardly complete any pass, can't defend, can't tie their shoes, etc. I'm worried they'll get lost going back to the locker room after the game.
It's so bad, that if Davidson left the floor, Wisconsin still wouldn't score 63.
Of course, now they need 65, because it's 65-48 Wildcats at the 8-minute timeout.
DETROIT - Wisconsin has no idea what it's doing. They can't handle the ball. On the rare occasions they do, they can't shoot. They can't defend, but it's gotten so that even when they do, Davidson is outhustling them for the rebounds. we'll see how much resilience they have, but they aren't showing much so far.
Michael Flowers went down hard on an out-of-bounds play, and came up rubbing his elbow, but he stayed in.
LeBron was showed on the screen, and boos rained down. I didn't know that many locals were here.
It's a 12-point Davidson lead with 11:16 left.
DETROIT - I guess the refs got their whistles back from the shop. After calling a total of eight fouls in the first half, they have already called 13, and both teams were in the bonus with 13:51 to go.
There have been so many fouls, that there was a foul on a free throw attempt, and Davidson committed four on one Wisconsin possession.
However, due undoubtedly to fatigue, the refs failed to blow a whistle for 50 consecutive seconds, which allowed Curry to bury back-to-back threes and extend Davidson's lead to nine.
It is not looking good for the Badgers at the moment.
DETROIT - Davidson has come out strong to start the second half even though Curry hasn't done much himself. He missed four of first five shots, but the Wildcats lead by six with 15:57 left.
Wisconsin's first half problem getting back on D hasn't fixed. Davidson beatsUW down floor twice already, although they failed to convert one of them.
UW has another problem. They have six fouls already, meaning Davidson is shooting from here on out. The Badgers only had two in first half.
Wisconsin also has four turnovers already, so it's been pretty much a disaster so far.
On top of that, Trevon Hughes hasn't played much and looks a little gimpy out there.
McKillop pulled Lovedale out after a minute or so and read him the riot act for blowing a defensive assignment. Davidson got the stop anyway. He's back in now.
I asked LeBron why he came, and he said it was to see Curry. I asked if he had ever played with him before, he said no, but that he just wanted to see him because, "he's good."
Yes, he is.
We have waitress service here apparently. Someone walked by with water and snacks.
DETROIT - Butch hit one of two, so we're tied at 36 at the half. That's a lot of points for UW to give up in a half, but that can be chalked up to some hot shooting. Davidson was 14 for 26 for 53.8%, and that's only because they went cold at the end, missing five of their last six. The Wildcats are 8-14 from long range, and four different players have threes. Curry leads them with 11 points, his best first half total of the tournament so far. Keeping him under 25 after the break will be a key for Wisconsin.
Flowers has 11 also for UW, which shot 48% (12-25) and almost matched Davidson with 7 threes. Butch has nine and Bohannon has 8, but Trevon Hughes has yet to score.
Another problem for Wisconsin is that they got beat down the floor on at least four occasions for easy baskets, which will not please Bo Ryan. I have to believe he will spend most of the halftime break addressing defensive breakdowns.
...
The stats have finally arrived. Wisconsin is killing Davidson on the boards, not surprisingly, with a 17-7 lead. The Badgers have 8 offensive rebounds. Davidson is winning the turnover battle 5-2, but most of those Wisconsin turnovers came in the first few minutes.
When I walked up to go get some pop (which I didn't get because I have to go up to the second floor to get it, and there's no time for that trip - I'd never get a cab), I saw the Badger mascot walking around with his head off, and all I can say is it must be really in there because he was a puddle of sweat.
We got no halftime entertainment. No dance teams, no stupid pet tricks, nothing.
LeBron James has disappeared for now. If I get a chance, I'll ask him why he's here.
The teams found their way to the floor, so we must be close to second half action.
DETROIT - We just got our last media timeout of the half with four seconds left after Butch got away with another walk and was fouled going up for a shot.
It was about time he went inside. He's been playing on the perimeter too much in the first half. The biggest guy on the floor needs to post up some. He can shoot the three, but he's hunting it too much.
Bryant Barr's three is the only made shot for Davidson in its last five, which include misses by Curry on a layup and a forced three.
We'll have a tight game at the half either way.
DETROIT - Brian Butch got slapped in the face, switched pivot feet, found Krabbenhoft inside for a layup to tie the game, at which point, we finally got our 8-minute media timeout with 2:43 to go.
The refs are generally letting them play. Besides Butch complaining about getting hit in the face, UW players complained at the last timeout about getting pushed in the back in the post. I don't have as good a look at the other end of the floor, but I'm sure stuff isn't being called there either.
This place is so open that sound just sort of disappears. The UW band at the opposite corner of the floor from us is barely audible here.
DETROIT - Davidson is pretty hot from the floor so far, shooting 10/17, but Wisconsin is matching them blow for blow and leads 28-25 with 6:02 left. By my count, we already have 11 made threes in the game between the two teams.
Davidson coach McKillop is a pretty animated guy. Recently, when Landry was posting up on Boris Meno, McKillop kept yelling, "Don't let him push you Boris!" over and over. He's always up and yelling something, or turning to the bench to shout instructions there.
Davidson has, like many smaller schools, a pretty cheesy looking mascot. They are the Wildcats, but the mascot looks like a dog, with some glued on whiskers.
Wilddogs?
DETROIT - Davidson's letting it all hang out, but it's not quite enough for their coach yet. After an offensive rebound, the one area in which Wisconsin is excelling at the moment, Bob McKillop turned to his bench and screamed at his players, "GET THE LOOSE BALLS!!!!"
Already a player has flown off of the raised floor in pursuit of a ball. Michael Flowers went flying off the end by the UW bench a moment ago.
It's 13-10 Davidson at the 12 minute timeout thanks to three long balls, two by Curry. The Wildcats have done a good job of pressuring the ball defensively and not giving UW too many good looks.
The Wildcats would do well not to awaken the ferocious, sleeping Badgers, lest the knaw their faces off.
DETROIT - Wisconsin's ball security has been pretty questionable in the first four minutes. We don't have live stats, but I'd say they have three or four turnovers already, at least two of which came because of quick hands by Davidson players. That's why the Wildcats lead 7-5.
Here's how close I am to the Davidson huddle:
Davidson players getting last minute instructions.
Wisconsin players shook hands with the UW scorer before taking the floor. Must be some kind of tradition.
Guess who just sat down behind me.
Not as good as his picture on the cover of Vogue, but LeBron is taking in tonight's action.
DETROIT - The starting lineups have been presented for game one, so here they are.
For the Badgers:
G Michael Flowers, Trevon Hughes
F Marcus Landry, Joe Krabbenhoft
C Brian Butch
Davidson starts:
G Jason Richards, Stephen Curry
F Max Paulhus Gosselin, Thomas Sander, Andrew Lovedale
Our refs are David Hall, Tom Eades and Paul Faia.
If you get a look at the Davidson pep band (I tried to take a picture with my cheesy phone camera, but it didn't turn out so well), you'll see a lot of graybeards in the group. I asked the director about that, and he told me that the school is so small that they can't field a pep band, so they recruit some local pros to fill in. I'd say it's about 1/3 pros, 2/3 joes. And janes.
HOUSTON - Welcome to Reliant Stadium for the South Regional games, being hosted by Rice University and the Univeristy of Houston. This is one mammoth stadium and it sits next to the building that used to be called the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Houston Astrodome. Reliant, by that logic, is the Ninth Wonder.
The set-up for this regional is a first-time experiment by the NCAA (also being used at Ford Field in Detroit, where Jerry Palm will describe the action for Posting Up and CSTV.com). The court is elevated and placed in the middle of the football field with seating brought down close to the court. The endzones have been draped off with black curtains, but the rest of the seating under the retractable roof (which is closed, wiseguy) is available for fans and tickets still remain for the three games on Friday and Sunday.
Interviews start shortly with Stanford going at 1 p.m. CT, followed by Texas, Michigan State and Memphis. Stanford has just finished its open practice in front of a small crowd and they are being followed by Michigan State, Texas and Memphis (3:10-4 p.m.)
We'll try and liveblog the latter two open practices after we work some of the interviews.
. . . In the official regional media guide, there is a reference to Memphis as "Memphis State University," a moniker they have not used in some time. Very old school.
Continue reading "Houston: Interviews and Open Practice Day" »
Welcome to the South Regional, an experiment in both seating and seeding.
Reliant Stadium (in addition to Ford Field) will be guinea pig sites in the NCAA's latest plan to get more fannies into the game. That seating issue - no matter how the experiment in "Hoops in the Round" goes over - is quite secondary to the seeding issue.
No. 1-seed Memphis is suddenly the least liked 1-seed in the history of 1-seeds - taking slings and arrows from all sides. No. 2-seed Texas finds itself with a decided homecourt advantage. Even if Texas coach Rick Barnes doesn't it see that way.
"The bottom line is that in the two games we played in San Antonio (en route to the 2003 Final Four), we had to fight for our lives," said Barnes of his team's wins over UConn and Michigan State. "At this point and time in the season, (playing in Houston) is probably going to be made a bigger deal that it really is."
Still, there is evidence that Everything's Bigger and Better in Texas for the Longhorns. They are 9-4 in NCAA Tournament play in the state of Texas and are undefeated in such games under Barnes(6-0, twice in Dallas and once in S.A.). In fact, Barnes is .500 (9-9) in NCAA games outside the friendly borders, as the Texas head man.
In other Houston seeding intrigue the site also gives us the slightly under-seeded duo of Michigan State (5) and Stanford (3). The Spartans are more of a "4" and Stanford feels like a "2.5." Both - at the very least - are playing their best ball at the most opportune time and quite deserving of playing on the next-to-the-last weekend of the season.
After the jump, some South Regional tidbits that will help you pass the time between now and Friday night's tip from the Texans' home.
Be sure to join us for live-blogging from Media Day on Thursday afternoon from Houston (as well some open practice live-blogging) here at Posting Up.
Continue reading "South Regional: The Day Before the Day Before Preview" »
DETROIT -- The Detroit regional features two of the three double-digit seeds remaining in the tournament. It's not likely either will still be there when the dust clears on Friday.
Continue reading "Midwest Regional: The Day Before Preview" »
DENVER, Colo. - It took six games, but we finally got a competitive one. Michigan St beat Pitt 65-54 to move on to the South Regional in Texas where they will face the winner of Memphis and Mississippi St.
Neitzel led the Spartans with 21 points and hit 5 of 8 from three point range. Kalin Lucas also had a great game with 19.
Pitt got 19 from Levance Fields, who shot 6-12 from the floor. The rest of the team was ice cold, shooting a combined 11-42. Sam Young did mange to squeeze out 15 points though.
So much for me being Pitt's lucky charm. I hadn't seen them in person all year before the Big East tournament, but they had won five straight in my presence.
Meanwhile, our attention turns to UCLA and Texas A&M. UCLA came back to win, much to the head-shaking relief of Dan Guerrero. I caught up with him after the game and asked if he got to see much of the game here. He told me he watched each game with one eye. He also wasn't surprised to see UCLA come back to win. They have done a lot of that kind of thing this year.
Also, our attention turns to the regionals in Detroit, where I will be next week. But first, tomorrow I'll have my bests and worsts of Denver.
DENVER, Colo. - Drew Neitzel has scored the last eight Michigan St points and the Spartans are now up 55-50 with 3:38 to go.
Dixon got into it with the referees when two of them called fouls on different guys when two ran into each other. After a conference, the call went against Pitt and Dixon, not surprisingly, got hot.
DENVER, Colo. - The Spartans have pulled back ahead by three at the 8-minute timeout.
On press row, the attention is on the UCLA game. No place does that seem to be more true than across the way from us, where UCLA AD and committee member Dan Guerrero seems engrossed in something on a monitor in front of him. I'm guessing he's not watching Dancing with the Stars.
A couple of minutes ago, Neitzel tried to take credit (is that the right word) a foul that was on Morgan. The ref blew the whistle, and Neitzel's hand went up in the air immeidately, yelling after the ref, "that's on me!" It wasn't.
DENVER, Colo. - Pitt has gone on a 10-2 run to cut the Spartans lead to two at 42-40. Levance Fields had four points during the run.
Despite the run, Pitt fans are sitting on their hands, while Michigan State's fans behind us are up and active. They should have plenty of energy since they didn't use any up on Thursday.
We have Texas A&M-UCLA on the monitor next to us as pretty much everyone hopes for their brackets' sake that UCLA makes a comeback.
DENVER, Colo. - Jamie Dixon's timeout after Michigan St scored the first four points didn't work. The Panthers turned the ball over again, and the Spartan run got to 8-0 before Blair pounded home a couple of layups.
Goran Suton has a couple of baskets for Michigan St inside. He's been very effective today, but he's out of the game right now.
DENVER, Colo. - Michigan St has scored the first four points of the second half. The first few possessions were empty for each team, but Suton cleaned up some garbage and Morgan went baseline for a dunk to put the Spartans up six.
Here's a picture of Neitzel and Lucas making a plan right before inbounding the ball to start the half. Whatever it was, it didn't work.
DENVER, Colo. - MSU sent six players onto the floor coming out of a time out right before the break, then promptly threw the ball away for a game-tying layup by Fields. However, Kalin Lucas went coast to coast right after that to give the Spartans a 30-28 lead at the half.
Pitt has hung in there in spite of pretty miserable shooting. They are 9-31 from the floor for 29%. The Spartans are shooting 50% even. Pitt still has an 8-point lead at the free throw line though.
Lucas has 10 points to lead MSU, while Fields' 11 leads the Panthers.
Our halftime entertainment was the Michigan St band. MSU has a dance team, but they didn't perform. Pitt had a dance team on Thursday, but they haven't been seen tonight.
For a while, I didn't think I'd make it back for the second half. I had to wait quite a long time to wash my hands in our small bathroom as the sinks were occupied by one guy scrubbing for surgery and another guy fixing his makeup. Someone fixing their face is something you don't see much in a men's room. He said he was a TV guy. Yeah, right.
DENVER, Colo. - Neitzel just hit his third three-ball of the half to put Michigan St five and Jamie Dixon has called timeout.
Goran Suton also has six points for MSU.
Ronald Ramon is still having trouble finding the hole, as are his teammates. They are only 5-19 from the floor, but have hit eight free throws.
DENVER, Colo. - I think you can tell that the PA guy may not watch a lot of college hoops. He just mispronounced Drew Neitzel's name as "NEET-zel" instead of "NEYET-zel'
Raymar Morgan already has two foul for Michigan St, and Pitt already has six points at the line.
Young got a break away dunk, and was still whooping it up when he got back down the floor to play defense.
Michigan St is ahead though 13-12 with 10:20 left in the half. The Spartans have two shot clock buzzer-beating baskets.
It looks like the Michigan St coaching staff got together and decided on pastel ties. Izzo is sporting a light blue, while two of his assistants opted for lavender.
DENVER, Colo. - It's taken a lot of shots, but both teams are finally on the board here. MSU leads 4-2 at the first TV timeout. Neitzel and Morgan have tried and failed from the floor for MSU, and Ramon is 0-3 for Pitt.
At least it's not a blowout. Yet.
DENVER, Colo. - We have the lineups for the Michigan St-Pitt game.
The Spartans start
G Drew Neitzel , Kalin Lucas
F Raymar Morgan, Goran Suton
C Drew Naymick
Pitt counters with
G Levance Fields, Ronald Ramon
F Keith Benjamin, Sam Young
C DeJuan Blair
On Thursday, Ramon was listed as a forward in the lineup, and Benjamin was a guard.
Our refs are Dick Cartmell, Scott Thornley and Michael Eades.
Meanwhile, we're all transfixed on the Stanford-Marquette game, which is in OT. We never did get the CBS feed, but the local affiliate switched to it. They also inform us that a local highway is closed due to heavy smoke from a haystack fire. We don't even have that in Indiana.
WASHINGTON -- Here are post-game quotes from the Purdue side:
WASHINGTON -- Postgame quotes from Xavier follow:
Sean Miller:
I want to commend Purdue for not only a great season but its amazing what they were able to do with that many freshmen playing the roles they did. ... Two similar teams in that we take pride in our defense.
These three seniors a year ago went through a very difficult loss in this same game. Its been a motivating game for us to see if we could get back to this point....
[Points to C.J. Anderson as the difference for this year's team.]
Very very happy for Xavier University.
OMAHA, NE.--Kansas State had the better players. Wisconsin had the better team.
The Badgers used a steady, pass-first offense and its usual suffocating perimeter defense to bury Michael Beasley University here in the first game of the Omaha Regional's second round 72-55.
Continue reading "Omaha Regional- Wisconsin constricts the Cats, 72-55." »
WASHINGTON -- Xavier made enough of their free throws down the stretch to come away with a seven-point win over Purdue. C.J. Anderson and Drew Lavender each scored 18 for the Musketeers, while Josh Duncan added 16 in the win. Walking off the court, Xavier looks to be showing an appropriate mixture of joy and confidence. There is no one play you can point to in this one and say that is why Xavier one; there isn't really a player you can say that about either (though Lavender was so steady at the point). Really, this one came down to consistency, the ability to hit a shot when it mattered, and fundamentals, whether that was rebounding, foul shooting, or what have you.
That Xavier-West Virginia matchup next weekend will be a good one.
WASHINGTON -- The last minute here at Verizon Center is going to take us about 20 minutes to play, with Purdue fouling every time Xavier touches the ball and the referees doing their best to add to the confusion by reviewing just about anything they can review. Xavier just threw their inbounds out of bounds, so Purdue has the ball with 44 seconds and a five-point deficit.
WASHINGTON -- Drew Lavender has made a floater and single-handedly broken the Purdue press in the last minute, the press break leading to a dunk for Josh Duncan. Keaton Grant just drilled a three for Purdue, but the margin is still six. During the last timeout, Xavier fans started cheering "Father Graham" in honor of their university president, Michael Graham (who was not the Michael Graham on Georgetown's 1984 title team, in case you were wondering).
WASHINGTON -- Chris Kramer, Purdue's best defender and the definition of a glue guy, just fouled out. Purdue Coach Matt Painter let the referees have it, to no avail. Kramer finished with six points, three boards, and at least two steals.
After a pair of free throws by Keaton Grant, however, Purdue is within four.
WASHINGTON -- The sense I've gotten all afternoon is that both of these teams here are pretty good teams but neither has quite enough firepower to go into that next gear and put the other away. After a C.J. Anderson floater just now as the shot clock expired, Xavier got about as fired up as the Muskateers have been all day, throwing up crossed arms in the shape of an X and screaming towards the bench. Perhaps the momentum from that play can help Xavier pull away from the Boilermakers, who as pesky as they have been, simply don't seem to be able to make enough baskets to win. They've been good enough to keep it close....but have not shown they can seize the game.
Xavier by 6 with 3:25 to go.
WASHINGTON -- Drew Lavender, on an out-of-bounds play along the baseline, just threw a sweet ally-oop to Derrick Brown for the flush and the eight point lead. Xavier now leads by 10 after two free throws from Josh Duncan. As an aside, Gilbert Arenas is watching this one from the tunnel. If he had played for West Virginia earlier, he'd have scored 84 or 85, I'd guess. Gilbert is sporting some absurd looking red and white checkered capris. From the looks of it, he's trying to get someone to let him into the Wizards locker room, where I hope he'll throw on something a little more reasonable if he is going to come out here and watch the game.
OMAHA, NE.-- As you can tell by this picture, the blood-loving media just LOVE when there's an injury. Notice all the cameras pointed at Kansas State's Bill Walker as he lay on the floor?
(What is this, Princess Di or something? Tame your cameras paparazzi)
Wisconsin does what they like to do, squeeze the life out of people. They bled the clock down to the four minute mark and hold an insurmountable 72-53 lead. That loud slamming sound you just heard was the sound of a door slamming.
WASHINGTON -- Stanley Burrell, a 6-foot-3 senior guard from Indianapolis, spent his first two seasons at Xavier as the team's leading scorer. Now, though, Burrell has taken a back seat offensively and settled into his role as a defensive stopped and role player.
WASHINGTON -- Xavier shot 50 percent in the first half and leads by 3.
OMAHA, NE.-- As an unbiased observer in the game, I gotta say, it looks like Kansas State is getting the shaft on a handful of calls in this second half so far. They've been whistled for eight fouls, while Udub has just four.
But I will say that double-technical call was warranted, Bill Walker appeared to be innocent, but I've noticed he's been hacking and hand-checking a bit more than should be allowed. Still, these calls need to even out a bit for the Cats.
(Bill Walker giving the zebra the business after a questionable double-technical)
WASHINGTON -- Drew Lavender spent 19 minutes and 58 seconds of the first half scoreless, but as the clock was set to expire, he nailed a three to give his team a three-point victory heading into the break.
OMAHA, NE.-- Apparently the governor of the great state of Kansas, Kathleen Sebilius, is a K-State fan, as you can tell by her purple attire for today's game:
(the governor of Kansas getting interviewed by a writer that just won't leave her alone to enjoy the game)
My guess is that she'll be changing to a blue blazer for game two today.The honorable gov is sitting in the first row right behind the two rows of press peeps.
It's now Wisconsin 49-35 on the strength of a 3-point jumper by Trevon Hughes. He's making up for that last ill-advised rush at the end of the first half.
WASHINGTON -- Just like on Thursday against Georgia, Xavier fell behind early, stuck with what they were doing, and clawed its way back into the game.
WASHINGTON -- Drew Lavender, Xavier's explosive point buard, has been checked for much of the early going by Purdue's Keaton Grant. The reason thats notable is that Lavender is 5-foot-7 and Grant is 6-foot-4.
OMAHA, NE.-- As the Badgers were exiting through the bowels of the stadium, one of the UW players said this to another player regarding Trevon Hughes' length-of-the-court drive and subsequent three-point attempt at the end of the first half.
(Coach Ryan, so angry his eyes are devil red, consults with Hughes about his last second shot to end the half)
At the half it's Wisconsin 39, Kansas State 33. But really, it's Udub's three-point shooter 21, Beasley 17. THAT'S the story of the first half of the game. Overall, the Badgers are 7-for-15 from beyond the arc while KSU is 0-for-4, choosing to pound the ball inside instead. State has 24 points in the paint, UW has just 10. KSU is also leading the rebounding at 17-12.
Wisconsin has to like the pace of the game so far, however.
WASHINGTON -- Purdue came out with a ton of energy and scored the first nine points. Keaton Grant has five of those, including a nice transition three. Xavier, meanwhile, has been careless with the ball.
OMAHA, NE.-- It's now 26-18 at the 6:36 mark .
But during the previous timeout, while the Cats were huddling, Michael Beasley was way down at the end of the bench getting his left ankle re-taped. He hasn't looked gimpy or anything - to say the least - but it's something to keep in mind as the game goes on.
(Beasley getting a quick tape job during a timeout)
Meanwhile, Beasley is 4-for-9 with 10 points and the rest of the Cats are 2-for-10. Wisky is now 4-for-10 from three point land and their ball movement has been incredible. If Bohannon heats up, look out.
Also, there have been some huge ovations from the Badger fans for Krabbenhof, Stiemsma and Butch every time they've come out of the game. Their fans are saavy enough to know they are the key to containing Beasley.
OMAHA, NE.-- Wisconsin either seems alright with Michael Beasley getting his points or they can't stop him, because he's slashed, dashed aand fallaway jumpered to eight of his teams points and taken seven of the Cats' 13 offensive shots.
But UW just hit another and got an old school three-point play by Greg Stiemsma to surge ahead 16-12.
(Look at all the different types of shoes that K-State players wear. Does Nike approve?)
OMAHA, NE.-- Today is day two of the Omaha Regional and the two biggest questions going into today's action have to be...
1- Will K-State revert to typical freshman form and play great one day, but awful the next?
When you consider they'll be going against the best defensive team in the country in Wisconsin, this could be the case.
2- Will Kansas be pushed at all by the much-shorter, matchup-challenged UNLV Walkin' Rebs?
Judging by the looks of things, my guess is that Kansas will come out looking better than anybody in today's action. Just my hunch of course.
DENVER, Colo. - Today has been a day of rest at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Well, not for the teams. They had closed practices and press conferences.
At other sites today, we've had riveting basketball. We had exactly the opposite of that here on Thursday, and we're hoping for better tomorrow.
Our first game, which starts at 4:40 Mountain time, features #4 seed Pittsburgh and #5 seed Michigan St. There are a lot of similarities between these teams. Both are pretty physical teams, rebound well, and get good play from their guards.
Pitt happens to be on fire at the moment. The Panthers won the Big East tournament, then stomped Oral Roberts on Thursday.
Michigan St has generally not played well away from home this year, but you wouldn't know that judging from the pounding they gave Temple.
Both teams play essentially three guards, although Michigan State's Raymar Morgan is a little big for a guard. That is the matchup that will likely be key for Michgan St. They need production from the guards, but Morgan in partcular.
Drew Neitzel did not have a particularly good game against Temple, but he wasn't needed. He will be be tomorrow.
Levance Fields of Pitt had a huge game against ORU with 23 points. It's probably not reasonable to expect that again, but if the team has the balance that they had the other night, with five players in double figures, that will be the omen of a good night.
The matchup that might be the toughest for MSU is Sam Young. Young had a quiet 14 against the Eagles, but his size and ability to play inside and out could cause problems for the Spartans.
Say what you want about MSU, they will be prepared. They toughened themselves up by, "beating ourselves up with game film," according to coach Tom Izzo. That has to hurt.
I like the hot Panthers in this game.
Game two will have another Big East team, Notre Dame taking on Washington St from the Pac 10.
WSU shut Winthrop down completely in the second half of their game on Thursday, which is befitting their top 5 ranking in scoring defense.
Notre Dame will provide some challenges. It will be up to Aron Baynes to try to contain Luke Harangody, while Derrick Low and company on the perimeter try to slow down Kyle McAlarney.
Notre Dame averages about 80 points a game, but WSU gives up less than 55 and only gave up 80 once all year.
On the other end, Low needs to find a way to get his offense going before the halftime break. He was 0-5 against Winthrop in the first half, but 4-5 in the second.
Good offense vs good defense. I'll take good defense and the Cougars.
Tonight, I am watching games from the Blake St Tavern, just north of Coors Field in Denver.
There have been a lot of competing interests here today. I've seen shirts from Purdue, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio St, Kansas, UCLA, Georgetown, Oklahoma and Oregon, Everybody has a dog in the fight. Except Ohio St.
WASHINGTON -- Here are some final stats and a few thoughts from Purdue's 90-79 win over Baylor:
WASHINGTON -- Despite Curtis Jerrells' 27 points, Purdue wins easily, 90-79, in a game that was not as close as the score indicates. I'll try and get back with you later with some stats, quotes, and closing thoughts.
WASHINGTON -- Curtis Jerrells: good. The rest of Baylor: Not that great.
WASHINGTON -- The same woman donning a Purdue No. 3 jersey is letting the refs have it over what she perceives is some one-sided officiating.
WASHINGTON -- Baylor's LaceDarius (not a typo) Dunn doesn't want to go quietly.
WASHINGTON -- Chris Kramer just blocked a Baylor shot at one end, ran the break, got an offensive rebound, and scored the putback.
WASHINGTON -- With Purdue up 16, it's time to take a look at their fans.
WASHINGTON -- I haven't seen any of the games at the other sites, but this half by Purdue had to be the most impressive half of basketball thus far in the 2008 tournament.
WASHINGTON -- First of all, I realized the headline I gave this entry is a pretty forced PUN. I fully intend to make more of them whenever possible. That aside, Purdue cannot, will not miss.
WASHINGTON -- Welcome back to Verizon Center. The problem with these NCAA first round sites is that to get four games in in one day, the second game of a session and the interviews from the first game basically coincide. But i;m finally back with the Boilermakers leading by 10 with about 10 minutes to go in the first half.
DENVER, Colo. - Heeding the words of their coach, MSU finished the job, winning 72-61. Press row must be on fire as everyone is trying to get out and watch the end of Xavier and Georgia.
Temple didn't quit, but just never found an answer for Michigan state's defense. Late in the game, after an over-and-back call on MSU, Inge comes over by us to pass the ball in, claps and says, "we still got life!" They didn't, but you have to like that optimism.
With 44 second to go, Michigan St fan finally get on their feet to salute the Spartans. Or maybe they were just stretching. It was hard to tell.
Izzo is doing the requisite CBS interview, while Drew Naymick is taking care of the folks at Westwood one.
Meanwhile, Pitt and Oral Roberts are warming up for game two. Back with that in a bit.
DENVER, Colo. - Drew Naymick, in an effort to draw a foul, made on of the worst flops of all time. He threw himself onto the floor face first and body surfed about five feet. Then, he had the gall to get up and complain. The refs got a good kick out of that.
I'm getting hungry already and I have another game to go. Fortunately, pretzels are the snack du moment in the press room.
Temple has cut the lead to 10 with 3:21 left on four straight run outs because MSU is just going through the motions on offense (as opposed to running a motion offense). Izzo just called a timeout to have a four-letter word with his charges on finishing the game.
DENVER, Colo. - Michigan St seems to have sucked the will out of Temple as they continue to lead 52-38. The Owls haven't quit, but they keep taking one step forward and two steps back.
Temple is now zone pressing full court, but Michigan St is breaking it with ease.
The teams for the next game have left the arena to go get dressed.
Andy Katz just got up and said, "I'm projecting a winner. I'm going to watch Georgia and Xavier in the press room." We may see a lot of that.
The Temple cheerleader girls are still positive and perky. The guys look like they have been watching the game. Maybe the want to go watch Georgia and Xavier also.
The crowd muttered when the Georgia-Xavier score was announced (now tied at 49). I don't think I've ever seen 18,000 more disinterested people at a basketball game. It's so quiet that I can hear almost everything the refs say, and even the coaches from across the way.
DENVER, Colo. - Michigan St has scored the first seven points of the half to run their lead to 16, and Temple was forced to call timeout.
Dionte Christmas is just trying to do too much. He's forced a shot that was an airball, then forced a pass that turned into points at the other end.
Temple's owl mascot has a strange looking head. It's flat, and I always thought owls had round heads. It has bright yellow eyes and a silver beak. It's like an alien owl.
DENVER, Colo. - Michigan St leads Temple 35-26 at the half. After struggling through most of the first part of the half, MSU finally got hot with about seven minutes to go.
Drew Neitzel has three points, which he picked up on a long ball with 51 seconds left. However, he committed his second foul with 0.8 seconds left, which earned him a lecture from coach Tom Izzo (looking sharp with his electric purple tie).
Temple could build one with the bricks they layed in ths first half. They shot 8-27 for just short of 30%, and few of those 19 misses were close. Christmas and Tyndale both airballed threes and then complained about being fouled. Christmas was right. Not so sure about Tyndale. Those numbers would have been a lot worse, but Ryan Brooks hit three baskets for eight points late, and he leads the Owls with 10. Christmas hasn't scored and Tyndale only has 2.
Nine different players scored for the Spartans, led by six each from Kalin Lucas and Raymar Morgan. MSU backdoored the Owls for layups or dunks three times as Temple lost guys on defense. That play seems to be there whenever MSU wants it.
I don't want to harp on this, but this crowd would fit in well in a library. Even the Spartan fans aren't too geeked up. The place is filling up though.
In the press area, folks are gathered around the TV watching Georgia leading Xavier. The Temple folks were not too happy, with one guy in particular repeating, "they better wake up."
DENVER, Colo. - Temple is now shooting below 25%, which isn't going to get it done if it expects to pull this upset. MSU has used a 13-2 run to go ahead 28-17 with 3:41 left.
Dionte Christmas got hacked on a three-point attempt that wasn't called. However, when the ball sailed out of bounds without hitting anything, the MSU fans didn't even bother with the airball chant. That's how dead this crowd is.
Christmas has both of Temple's fouls and hasn't scored. Tyndale finally got on the board with 5:32 left, and that's the Owls' 2 points in this Spartan run.
DENVER, Colo. - Michigan St leads 17-15 at the 8-minute timeout as the stars for each team continue to struggle. Morgan's four points is all there is. Neitzel, Christmas and Tyndale still have nothing.
Lavoy Allen and Sergio Olmos have stepped up for Temple, with 9 of their 15.
Michigan State's offense is spread out with five guys in the books, besides Morgan.
Temple's offense seems to be happy with a lot of dribbling and not much passing. MSU is getting much better ball movement and better shots, but they aren't falling.
The Owls are doing a good job keeping MSU off the glass though. All things considered, Temple has to be happy with where they are.
DENVER, Colo. - Michigan St has been pretty physical with their defense against Temple, and it seems to be causing problems for Christmas and Tyndale.
The Owls 7-footer, Olmos, has been pretty aggressive and has four points, but he's out for the moment. As soon as he went out, the Spartans got their first put back of the game.
On the floor now for Temple is 5'8" Chris Clark, who looks some of the MSU front line guys right in the navel.
It's been a pretty clean game so far. Only two fouls have been called, both on MSU.
DENVER, Colo. - The stars of the respective teams in this game are not off to a scintillating start. Raymar Morgan posted up for the first basket of the game, but walked in transition, giving away a dunk. Neitzel has missed his first two threes also.
For Temple, Christmas has taken one shot and it was forced. Tyndale hasn't put it up yet, but Temple leads 7-6.
MSU has three unforced turnovers, a trend that must stop.
The arena is maybe half full, and the crowd isn't really into it yet.
DENVER, Colo. - I made my way up to the concourse to see what sort of food choices I have if I get the munchies during the game. One thing I remember from last year is that the quality of the food the media gets is hit and miss, and they won't be slopping us pigs until after the first two games.
There are a lot of choices, but beer isn't one of them. No alcohol is sold at NCAA tournament games, so the mojito stands are also closed.
They have the usual stadium fare; hot dogs, pizza, popcorn, etc. The hot dogs are $4.50 for a little one and $6.75 for a footlong. Pizza is six bucks a slice.
Also, the pop being sold is Pepsi, natch, so while those of us in the media are given Dasani cups (Coke's water brand), the fans are all holding Pepsi cups.
They also have things like fish and chips, BBQ turkey sandwich, and my favorite, sausage on a stick. I think all food should be sold on sticks. Pudding on a stick. Eh, that idea still needs some work.
They also have a cheesesteak stand, but one of the things they sell is chicken cheesesteaks. I think I saw a pack of Temple fans picketing.
Michigan St just took the floor led by a cheerleader carrying a big Spartan flag that was so dirty, it looked like it had been vandalized. You would think a school like MSU could get a new flag once in a while, or at least wash the current one.
Hank Nichols seat has been abducted by a woman who is a friend of the Brands. I warned her that some coach might accost her thinking she was in charge of the officials, but she says she's ready. I think she'd give what for if they tried it.
The National Anthem was performed by the Michigan St pep band, under the direction of John Madden. Instead of cymbal crashes, he just yells, "BOOM!"
DENVER, Colo. - It's 9:30 AM local time, and the sound of the bouncing ball is ringing through the Pepsi Center in Denver, even though many of us are still not fully caffeinated. OK, mostly I'm talking about me.
Michigan St and Temple are warming up for the first game and the crowd is starting to file in. The bands are still setting up, so it's relatively quiet.
I'll be curious to see what kind of crowd we have. There isn't a team here that is anywhere near local. Oral Roberts is the only team that traveled less than 600 miles to get here, and Washington St is the only team for which this site is the closest. Notre Dame obviously has fans everywhere, they tend to show up more for football than hoops.
My seat, in case you are looking for me on TV, is basically right at center court behind Mike Montgomery, the former Stanford coach, who is doing radio for Westwood One. To my left is the CBS crew of Gus Johnson and Len Elmore.
My seat is so good that I'm closer to center court than Andy Katz, who has a seat directly to my right. In fact, press row is a pretty tight squeeze. Andy may have to sit in my lap. Or vice versa. He's bigger than me.
To my left is Hank Nichols, who will be retiring as the National Coordinator of Men's Basketball Officials from the NCAA at the end of this tournament. As a former ref, I'm pretty excited to be sitting by him. Next to him is a seat for Myles Brand, the Grand Poobah of the NCAA (possibly not his real title, but I'm too lazy to look it up).
Meanwhile, I have just been handed the starting lineups for game one.
Michigan St will start Kalin Lucas and Drew Neitzel at guard, forwards Raymar Morgan and Goran Suton, and C Drew Naymick.
For the Owls, they start guards Luis Guzman and Dionte Christmas, forwards Mark Tyndale and Lavoy Allen, and center Sergio Olmos.
Our officials are Mark Whitehead, Ken Ditty and Michael Eades.
Stop me if you've heard this one before -- the internet connection is down at the NCAA tournament site in Denver.
Last year St Louis had significant internet connectivity issues as well.
Then, on top of that, I had trouble connecting back in my hotel room, although you can tell by the fact that this is posted that I got that worked out. Not so sure about the arena.
The Pepsi Center seems like a nice place although its a bit strange to be drinking Coke here. Coke is one of the corporate partners of the NCAA. I wonder if they will give the building another name for the duration of our stay.
Here is a little preview of what we will see here tomorrow.
INDIANAPOLIS - All Wisconsin does is win.
That was evident this season as the Badgers swept both Big Ten Conference titles, winning the regular season and tournament championships.
Wisconsin captured the tournament title Sunday with a 61-48 victory over upstart Illinois at Conseco Fieldhouse.
"All we care about is winning, " said Brian Butch, who scored 12 points against the 10th-seeded Illini.
INDIANAPOLIS - No doubt which team was the best in the Big Ten this season.
Wisconsin pulled off a double championship, winning the regular season title and now the tournament championship.
The Badgers beat Illinois 61-48. Nice run by the Illini but Wisconsin was just too much.
INDIANAPOLIS - Bo Ryan's next big decision is when does he empty his bench? It should be soon.
Wisconsin is in control, leading 57-39 with under four minutes to play.
Known for their inside game, the Badgers are 9 of 18 from 3-point range.
INDIANAPOLIS - Under eight minutes to play and Wisconsin has a 53-35 lead. It's all but over right now.
Illinois looks tired and can't do anything to stop the Badgers. Another Brian Butch 3-pointer and a dunk have brought Wisconsin's fans to their feet.
INDIANAPOLIS - The Badgers have come out scoring in the second half, building a 39-26 lead on a Michael Flowers 3-pointer.
Illinois is trying to pick up the pace but is losing ground.
INDIANAPOLIS - Best decison of the day belongs to Wisconsin Bo Ryan.
Sophomore Trevon Hughes suffered an ankle injury on Saturday and was favoring that same ankle today. Ryan left the guard in the game.
Hughes beat the halftime buzzer with a jumper, giving the Badgers a 29-22 lead.
Could the Illini be running out of steam, playing their fourth game in four days?
INDIANAPOLIS - For someone who stands 6-foot-11, Brian Butch can stroke the 3-point shot.
His 3-pointer has Wisconsin on a 14-4 run and an 18-12 lead. Butch started the season 1 of 23 from beyond the arc but coach Bo Ryan told hm to keep shooting.
INDIANAPOLIS - Wisconsin is known for defense but Illinois has four steals already.
We're tied at 10 at the second media timeout.
INDIANAPOLIS - Typical Wisconsin game so far. Low scoring.
It's warm in Indiana today but the shooting is cold. More shots have missed the rim than gone through the basket. Wisconsin and Illinois are a combined 3 of 13 shooting through the first media timeout. The Illini lead 4-2.
Gotta love Illinois coach Bruce Weber's orange jacket.
INDIANAPOLIS - Welcome to the Big Ten Conference championship. It's top-seeded Wisconsin and No. 10 seed Illinois.
The Badgers are in the NCAA tournament. The Illini need one more victory to secure a berth and knock a bubble team out.
Illinois is the surprise team, beating Penn State, Purdue and Minnesota. Coach Bruce Weber's team also has two tournament titles, winning in 2003 and 2005. They need one more to cap an improbable journey.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin is playing in the championship game for the fourth time in the last five years. The Badgers won the title in 2004.
We're about 20 minutes from the start.
INDIANAPOLIS - Wisconsin's Michael Flowers chased Michigan State's Drew Neitzel all day with little success.
Flowers finally slowed down the senior guard and put the Badgers in the Big Ten Conference tournament championship game.
A steal and a layup by Flowers was the difference as top-seeded Wisconsin rallied to nip the fourth-seeded Spartans 65-63 at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Badgers will face Illinois in Sunday's title game. The 10th-seeded Illini knocked off sixth-seeded Minnesota in the other semifinal.
INDIANAPOLIS - After battling through some clock issues, Illinois advanced to the championship game with a 54-50 victory over Minnesota.
The Illini, the tournament's 10th seed, will face top-seeded Wisconsin in Sunday's title game.
Illinois opened up a 10-point lead with two minutes to play and hung on to knock off the sixth-seeded Gophers. Sunday will be the Illini's fourth game in four days.
Shaun Pruitt led Illinois with 16 points. Lawrence McKenize had 13 for the Gophers.
INDIANAPOLIS - It didn't take long for Illinois to open up a 10-point lead (50-40).
Shaun Pruitt made two free throws, added a dunk and Brian Randle scored a layup. There's 2:30 to play.
INDIANAPOLIS - Illinois is up 44-40 with 3:54 remaining but Shaun Pruitt is shooting free throws.
The Illini have been a bad free throw shooting team all season but they're 12 of 15 today.
INDIANAPOLIS - After scoring just three points during the first 9:51 of the second half, Illinois' offense showed some life.
Breaking away from 32-all tie, the Illini scored seven straight points to open up a 39-32 lead. Freshman Demetri McCamey's 3-pointer was the spark.
Minnesota has come back to pull within 41-35 with 6:55 to play.
INDIANAPOLIS - We're tied at 32 with 11:19 to play between Illinois and Minnesota.
The Gophers have rallied from a 29-23 halftime deficit. Both teams are now shooting under 40 percent and points are becoming difficult to come by.
First one to 40 wins?
INDIANAPOLIS - The six-point lead Illinois held at halftime has been reduced to four. The Illini are up 32-28 with under 15 minutes to play.
Not much has happened in the first five minutes.
INDIANAPOLIS - Illinois is trying to keep its run in the tournament going. The Illini are leading Minnesota 29-23 at halftime.
Big man Shaun Pruitt has 12 points on 4 of 5 shooting and Illinois is an impressive 9 of 11 from the free throw line.
Senior Dan Coleman leads the Gophers with six points. Minnesota is shooting just 34 percent from the field and also has missed six free throws.
We'll see if Tubby Smith can rally his Gophers in the second half.
INDIANAPOLIS - Cold shooting dominated the start but now the pace has picked up.
Illinois is leading 22-15 with six minutes left until halftime. The Illini are shooting 50 percent and are 7 of 7 from the free throw line (a weakness all season). The Gophers are shooting just 35 percent but that's an improvement from the start.
INDIANAPOLIS - Through the first eight minutes, it looks like two teams who are playing their third game in three days.
Illinois is leading Minnesota 9-5 but both teams are a combined 5 of 20 shooting.
INDIANAPOLIS - Today's winner between Minnesota and Illinois will have the right to earn their way into the NCAA tournament.
The Gophers have a good overall record (20-12) but finished sixth in the league and feature a poor RPI. The Illini have no other choice but to win the tournament to advance to the NCAA. Illinois is 15-18 overall. In fact, one more loss and the Illini will set a school record.
We're at the first media timeout with Illinois leading 7-4.
INDIANAPOLIS - The surprise teams of the Big Ten tournament are set to tip off in a few minutes.
Sixth-seeded Minnesota, which beat Northwestern and Indiana, will face 10th-seeded Illinois, which advanced with victories over Penn State and Purdue.
For both teams, this will be their third game in three days.
Wonder if the Gophers thought they would be wearing white uniforms during this tournament?
INDIANAPOLIS - Wisconsin's Michael Flowers didn't win the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year honor but he came up with a big steal against Michigan State.
Flowers' steal and layup broke a 63-all tie and helped the top-seeded Badgers subdue the Spartans 65-63.
Flowers stole a pass intended for Drew Neitzel and scored with 27.2 seconds on the clock. After a timeout, the Spartans couldn't find Neitzel and freshman Kalin Lucas had a layup attempt blocked.
Wisconsin, though, missed both free throws and Neitzel's 3-point attempt bounced off the back of the rim.
The Badgers will face the winner between Illinois and Minnesota in Sunday's championship game.
INDIANAPOLIS - Michigan State just lost its fourth player to fouls.
This time, Raymar Morgan takes a seat after picking up his fifth foul.
Wisconsin's Joe Krabbenhoft hits both free throws bringing the Badgers within 60-59 with 3:02 to play.
INDIANAPOLIS - Remember when I mentioned that foul trouble could haunt Michigan State?
It's happening now. The Spartans have lost three players to fouls in a span of one minute. Drew Naymick, Idong Ibok and Goran Suton have all fouled out and there's a lot of time left.
Wisconsin has just pulled within 55-54 on a 3-pointer by Brian Butch with 4:23 to play.
INDIANAPOLIS - Could a four-point play spark Wisconsin, just like a four-point play ignited Michigan State in the first half?
The Badgers hope so. Jason Bohannon completed the play with a free throw, bringing top-seeded Wisconsin within 53-45 at the 7:52 mark.
INDIANAPOLIS - Since Bo Ryan's technical, the Badgers have gone the other way.
Michigan State opened up a pair of 10-point leads, the last one at 45-35 with 12:38 to play. Drew Neitzel, who has 20 points, is back in the game.
Bad news for Wisconsin: Trevon Hughes left the game with an ankle injury.
MSU is up 45-37 with 11:31 to play.
INDIANAPOLIS - Bo Ryan received a technical.
The Wisconsin coach almost got one in the first half and became angry over an offensive foul call early in the second half.
We're at the first media timeout of the second half with Michigan State ahead 35-29. The Spartans will be shooting two free throws on the other side.
INDIANAPOLIS - In its last three games, Wisconsin never trailed.
Today, the Badgers have only led for 58 seconds against Michigan State in the semifinals at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Behind senior guard Drew Neitzel, the Spartans are ahead 29-27 at halftime. Neitzel has 15 points.
MSU's big men experienced foul trouble in the first 20 minutes but survived with the lead.
Brian Butch has nine points for the top-seeded Badgers.
INDIANAPOLIS - I know I keep writing about Drew Neitzel but this kid is special.
He just faked Wisconsin's Brian Butch out of you know what on a sweet baseline move, giving Michigan State the lead at 27-25. There's 1:19 remaining until halftime and Neitzel has 13 points.
INDIANAPOLIS - Drew Neitzel strikes again for Michigan State.
This time, he converted a four-play from the left wing to give the Spartans a 20-16 lead. The left-handed shooting guard has 11 points as the Spartans now lead 22-18 with 7:46 left until halftime.
MSU, though, is experiencing foul problems. Starting big men Drew Naymick and Goran Suton each have two fouls and reserve Idong Ibok has three fouls
INDIANAPOLIS - On Friday, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan was whistled for a technical in the first half.
Today, Ryan has already been warned by the officials. He's close to getting another T.
Michigan State is looking sharp right now, leading 15-11 with 11:22 left until halftime.
INDIANAPOLIS - Michigan State's Drew Neitzel is at it again.
The hot shooting senior guard has seven of the Spartans' first nine points with four minutes expired in our first semifinal. Neitzel had 28 points against Ohio State in Friday's quarterfinal victory.
Michigan State is ahead 9-5.
INDIANAPOLIS - Welcome to the Big Ten semifinals at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The first game is top-seeded Wisconsin and No. 4 Michigan State, followed by two surprises, No. 6 Minnesota and No. 10 Illinois.
It will be hard to top what happened Friday night in the evening session when the Gophers won on a last-second shot and the Illini upset No. 2 seed Purdue in overtime.
Much of this town was expecting a Purdue-Indiana semifinal rematch but will watch Minnesota and Illinois instead.
Plenty of good seats available.
INDIANAPOLIS - How about four missed free throws, two questionable calls and one game-winning shot.
All that in just 3.4 seconds.
Minnesota continued its wild ride through the Big Ten Conference tournament with a thrilling 59-58 victory over third-seeded Indiana in quarterfinal action at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Gophers, the tournament's sixth seed, will face another surprise, 10th-seeded Illinois in Saturday's second semifinal. Wisconsin and Michigan State face off the in the opener.
But what a wild finish to Friday's nightcap.
INDIANAPOLIS - Just when Minnesota thought a victory was taken away, Blake Hoffarber brought the Gophers a miracle.
Hoffarber, a freshman, tossed in an off-balanced left-handed shot as time expired to give Minnesota a thrilling 59-58 victory in the Big Ten tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.
With 1.5 seconds to play, Hoffarber took a long pass from Travis Busch. Hoffarber turned to his left and let go the game winner.
The Hoosiers had taken a 58-57 lead when D.J. White made the second of two free throws.
Minnesota, the tournament's sixth seed, will face Illinois in Saturday's second semifinal.
INDIANAPOLIS - Did Lawrence McKenzie give Minnesota the breathing room it needs down the stretch against Indiana?
McKenzie's 3-pointer with 3:52 to play pushed the Gophers' lead to 53-48 lead. There's 3:24 remaining in regulation.
The Hoosiers need a rally.
INDIANAPOLIS - Give Minnesota's Lawrence McKenzie a lot of credit.
He took a charge against Indiana's DeAndre Thomas, who weighs nearly 300 pounds. It was Thomas' fifth foul.
Indiana took the lead at 44-42 for the second time when D.J. White hit two free throws. White is stepping up in the second half, scoring 13 of his 20 points.
There's 7:43 to play.
INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana can't seem to take the lead against Minnesota, which is still on top 38-36.
The Gophers keeping find a way to stay tied or ahead of the Hoosiers. Both teams can't shoot in this half, missing 15 of 19 attempts during the first eight minutes.
INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana has cut into Minnesota's seven-point halftime lead, pulling within 34-32 with 15:51 to play.
The Gophers haven't scored in the second half. Not a good sign
INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana made a run but Minnesota heads into the locker room with a 34-27 lead.
Minnesota ran out to a 22-8 lead but the Hoosiers stormed back, pulling within 26-22.
Here's the question: Did the Gophers give Indiana their best shot in the first half?
Lawrence McKenize leads Minnesota with 12 points. Eric Gordon, who picked up two early fouls, has nine points for the Hoosiers.
The winner faces Illinois, which upset Purdue in the previous quarterfinal game.
INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana has cut a 14-point deficit to 28-22 at the final media timeout before halftime.
The Hoosiers, who trailed 22-8, responded with defense, rebounding and free throws. The large crowd is back in the game in support of Indiana with 3:31 remaining until halftime.
INDIANAPOLIS - How about these Gophers?
They've run out to a 19-8 lead with 11:12 left in the first half on Indiana, which has all the fan support at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Lawrence McKenzie is Minnesota's star right now with eight points. IU coach Dan Dakich put freshman Eric Gordon back in the game, despite two fouls.
INDIANAPOLIS - It's early but Minnesota is giving Indiana all it can handle through the first four minutes.
The Gophers have built a 9-4 lead and are missing regular starter Spencer Tollackson, who suffered an ankle injury in Thursday's win over Northwestern.
IU freshman Eric Gordon has picked up two fouls already. Not a good sign for the Hoosiers.
INDIANAPOLIS - It's our last game at Conseco Fieldhouse with Indiana and Minnesota ready to start in about 10 minutes.
Can Indiana avoid a similiar fate as its in-state rival? Minnesota needs wins to get in the NCAA tourmament.
INDIANAPOLIS - Despite missing five free throws in the final 38 seconds, Illinois hangs on and upends second-seeded Purdue 74-67 in overtime in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The 10th-seeded Illini didn't allow the Boilermakers to score a field goal in the extra session. Meanwhile Demetri McCamey was a stud for Illinois, scoring 26 points. McCamey, who tied the game at the end of regulation with a 3-pointer, had the game-winner on a backdoor cut with 2:19 remaining.
E'Twaun Moore led Purdue with 22 points.
INDIANAPOLIS - Without Demetri McCamey, Illinois would be loading up the bus by now.
The freshman guard has scored the Illini's last seven points to give his team a 67-66 lead over Purdue with 1:52 to play in overtime. McCamey has 26 points.
INDIANAPOLIS - Free basketball at the Big Ten tournament as Purdue and Illinois are tied at 63.
Demetri McCamey's 3-pointer with 18 seconds left tied the game. Purdue's final shot came from Chris Kramer, whose 15-footer bounced off the rim.
McCamey has 22 points, including 14 in the second half.
INDIANAPOLIS - If Purdue hangs on and wins this game, and its leading 57-52 with 3:18 to play, all credit goes to the defense.
The Boilermakers have converted numerous steals into layups, blocked a handful of shots and made it difficult for Illinois to score throughout most of the second half.
INDIANAPOLIS - Back and forth we go in the Big Ten tournament.
Illinois is on top now, leading Purdue 47-44 with 7:49 remaining.
Center Shaun Pruitt was just called for a questionable offensive foul that would've given the Illini a five-point lead. Illinois needs to go inside to Pruit more often if it was wants to win.
INDIANAPOLIS - Boy, how things can quickly change.
A steal and a layup by Chris Kramer. A steal and layup by Tarrance Crump and the Boilermakers have the lead.
Purdue is ahead 42-41 with 10 minutes to play.
INDIANAPOLIS - If Purdue could find someone else besides E'Twaun Moore to score, the Boilermakers might move ahead of Illinois.
The Illini are hanging tough with Purdue, leading 41-38 with 11:59 to play.
Moore has been the Boilermakers' offense with 15 points, including seven of their eight points in the second half.
Meanwhile, Illinois is fighting for loose balls and controlling tempo.
INDIANAPOLIS - Purdue can't shake Illinois, which leads 37-36 at the first timeout of the second half.
E'Twaun Moore continues to shine for the Boilermakers with 13 points.
INDIANAPOLIS - Purdue can't shake Illinois, which leads 37-36 at the first timeout of the second half.
E'Twaun Moore continues to shine for the Boilermakers with 13 points.
INDIANAPOLIS - Shaun Pruitt's tip-in late in the first half brought Illinois even with Purdue at 28 in quarterfinal action at the Big Ten tournament in Conseco Fieldhouse.
The second-seeded Boilermakers had a 26-17 lead, thanks to eight points from freshman E'Twaun Moore, but the 10th-seeded Illini came back to tie the game.
It's a full house in Conseco, with a majority of the crowd rooting for Purdue and Indiana, which plays in the nightcap against Minnesota.
INDIANAPOLIS - Purdue's E'Twaun Moore likes playing in Conseco Fieldhouse.
Moore's high school team, East Chicago Central, beat Indianapolis North Central in last year's Indiana Class 4A title game. In that game, Moore had 28 points.
The freshman guard has hit two 3-pointers to help Purdue build a 21-13 lead against Illinois with 7:33 left until halftime.
INDIANAPOLIS - It's not by much but Illinois is leading 13-11 with 11:49 left until halftime.
The Illini outscored Purdue 13-2 during one stretch to go ahead by five points. But Purdue's Marcus Green drained a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two.
Did you know Purdue coach Matt Painter was an assistant under Illinois coach Bruce Weber at Southern Illinois? Both worked for former Boilermaker coach Gene Keady.
INDIANAPOLIS - Purdue scored the first six points on a pair of 3-pointers by Robbie Hummel and Nemanja Calasan.
Illinois responded with seven straight points, including a 3-pointer by Demetri McCamey.
That's where we stand at the first timeout, Illinois leading 7-6.
INDIANAPOLIS - We're minutes away from the final two quarterfinal games and the hometown teams will be featured.
Purdue plays the first game against Illinois and Indiana takes on Minnesota on the nightcap.
It looks like a sellout at Conseco Fieldhouse. I overheard an offical saying they were selling standing room only tickets.
Should be a fun evening.
INDIANAPOLIS - What else can you say about Drew Neitzel?
Michigan State's senior guard came up big at the right time for the Spartans, who put away Ohio State 67-60 in Friday's quarterfinal action of the Big Ten Conference tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Neitzel's 3-pointer with 1:21 remaining pushed MSU's lead to 61-55. It was the last of his game-high 28 points and advanced the Spartans into Saturday's semifinal matchup against top-seeded Wisconsin.
INDIANAPOLIS - Ohio State had just cut the lead to three when Michigan State's Drew Neitzel canned a long 3-pointer with 1:18 to play.
That was the difference as the Spartans came away with a 67-60 victory over the Buckeyes.
Neitzel finished with 28 points, including six from 3-point range.
Ohio State placed four players in double figures but didn't have an answer for Neitzel.
INDIANAPOLIS - Last Sunday, Michigan State had a 10-point lead at Ohio State but lost 63-54.
Can the Spartans hang on this time?
It's the final media timeout and MSU is leading 54-48. I
INDIANAPOLIS - Just when you think Ohio State is ready to take control, Michigan State comes right back.
The Buckeyes pulled within 47-45 but the Spartans answered with five straight points, including a 3-pointer from Durrell Summers.
It's 52-45 with 6:24 to play.
INDIANAPOLIS - Through the first 10 minutes of the second half, a total of 21 points have been scored between Michigan State and Ohio State.
That doesn't there hasn't been action. Three fouls were called on OSU's Kosta Koufos in about a minute. A technical was called on OSU's Othello Hunter. Lots of boos from the fans, on both sides.
MSU is up 43-40.
INDIANAPOLIS - Michigan State and Ohio State are tied at 30 at halftime, thanks to Jamar Butler's 3-pointer with four seconds on the clock.
Butler now has six points but the offensive star for the Buckeyes is 7-foot freshman Kosta Koufos, who has 13 points. Drew Neitzel is leading the Spartans with 14 points, including three 3-pointers.
So far, it's the best game of the Big Ten tournament.
INDIANAPOLIS - What a block by Michigan State's Travis Walton and then Drew Neitzel drains a long jumper on the other end.
The Spartans lead 27-22 with 3:25 left before halftime.
INDIANAPOLIS - Drew Neitzel and the Spartans have gone cold and Ohio State's 7-foot freshman center Kosta Koufos is heating up.
Koufos has seven points and the Buckeyes have pulled within 20-16 at the eight-minute media timeout. Koufos is shooting two free throws when action resumes.
INDIANAPOLIS - Michigan State's Drew Neitzel could have one of those big games.
The senior guard has eight of the Spartans' 16 points through the first nine minutes. MSU is up 16-11.
INDIANAPOLIS - Fast start for both Ohio State and Michigan State in our second quarterfinal matchup at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Spartans lead 9-7 and Drew Neitzel has five points, including a long 3-pointer just 30 seconds into the game. MSU fans loved that and there are plenty of people dressed in green.
INDIANAPOLIS - These two teams just played Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, with the Buckeyes winning 63-54.
The Spartans had a season-high 21 turnovers, leading to 28 points for Ohio State.
Michigan State has been a strange team this season. Coach Tom Izzo's team either looks really good or really bad. There's usually no middle ground.
The Buckeyes probably need one more win to feel secure about their NCAA chances.
Look for a fun matchup between MSU's Drew Neitzel and OSU's Jamar Butler.
INDIANAPOLIS - Top-seeded Wisconsin prevailed over Michigan 51-34 in the first quarterfinal game at the Big Ten tournament.
It wasn't pretty but that's how the Badgers play. Their defense shutdown the Wolverines from the start. Michigan made 10 of 50 field goals, including 6 of 24 from 3-point range. The Wolverines only scored 16 points in the second half.
Joe Krabbenhoft led Wisconsin with 12 points. Anthony Wright had 11 for Michigan.
Up next is Michigan State and Ohio State.
INDIANAPOLIS - With about 10 minutes left, Michigan has yet to reach 30 points.
The good news is Wisconsin only has 38, and the Wolverines trail by nine points.
INDIANAPOLIS - Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan picked up a technical in the first half.
Michigan coach John Beilein was warned by the officials early in the second half. Beilein was on the verge of picking one up but received a warning instead.
We're at our first media timeout with the Badgers leading 31-23.
INDIANAPOLIS - No wonder the Big Ten doesn't receive a lot of respect from the national media.
This first quarterfinal game is ugly. Lots of missed layups, lots of physical play and very little action.
That's why top-seeded Wisconsin is leading ninth-seeded Michigan 26-18 at halftime.
The Wolverines were down 25-13 but Zach Gibson's 3-pointer brought them within nine points. Gibson leads Michigan with eight points.
Wisconsin's leading scorer is guard Jason Bohannon, who has seven. Can't wait for the second half.
Actually, the halftime show of muscial chairs has been more entertaining than the first 20 minutes.
INDIANAPOLIS - After Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan was whistled for a technical, the Badgers have played better.
Although Michigan pulled within 15-13, Wisconsin has scored seven straight points to go ahead 22-13 at the last media timeout before halftime.
INDIANAPOLIS - Now, we have some fireworks.
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan just received a technical. After the timeout, Michigan will be shooting free throws. The Badgers are leading 15-9.
INDIANAPOLIS - Both Wisconsin and Michigan have gone long periods without making a field goal.
That's why the score is 13-7 with 10 minutes left in the first half.
On Thursday, Michigan and Iowa combined to miss 26 straight field goals. Could we see more of that today?
INDIANAPOLIS - If Michigan had trouble scoring against Iowa, how will the Wolverines handle Wisconsin's defense?
Based on the first five minutes not very well.
Wisconsin scored the first 10 points before Manny Harris drained a 3-pointer to put Michigan on the scoreboard.
It's still early but the Wolverines had better get going.
INDIANAPOLIS - It's Day 2 of the Big Ten tournament in Conseco Fieldhouse.
Michigan, which knocked off Iowa on Thursday, will face top-seeded Wisconsin in about 15 minutes.
The Badgers lost two conference games during the regular season, both times to Purdue. The Wolverines are coming off a less-than-thriling 55-47 victory over the Hawkeyes in the first round. Michigan did play the Badgers tough in Madison, losing by three points.
Our second game will feature the 4/5 matchup between Michigan State and Ohio State.
INDIANAPOLIS - It was almost a great day for the lower seeds at the Big Ten Conference
tournament.
Instead, the underdogs will have to settle for two out of three wins.
Ninth-seeded Michigan and No. 10 seed Illinois pulled off upsets but sixth-seeded Minnesota
rallied from a 16-point first-half deficit to put away No. 11 seed Northwestern in the nightcap at
Conseco Fieldhouse.
INDIANAPOLIS - Dan Coleman saved Minnesota from going home early.
The senior scored the go-ahead layup with 1:34 to play, collected a key steal and hit two free throws with 3.9 seconds to play to give the Gophers a 55-52 victory over Northwestern.
In the first half, Minnesota trailed by 16 points.
The sixth-seeded Gophers will face Indiana in Friday's quarterfinals.
INDIANAPOLIS - Dan Coleman's steal and dunk with 4:11 to play has given Minnesota a 48-47 lead.
We're at the last media timeout and Northwestern hasn't scored since taking a five-point lead with 9:21 to play.
There's a reason why the Wildcats have won just once against Big Ten opponents this season.
Should be an exciting finish.
INDIANAPOLIS - Did Northwestern take Minnesota's best shot to open the second half?
The Gophers used a 21-8 run to tie the game at 42 but now the Wildcats are back in front at 47-42, thanks to five straight points Craig Moore.
INDIANAPOLIS - That had to be some halftime speech by Tubby Smith.
Minnesota has come back to trail 42-39 at the 13-minute mark. Looks like we have a game
INDIANAPOLIS - If you're a Northwestern fan, pinch yourself.
The Wildcats are leading 34-21 at halftime against Minnesota. Yes, a big upset in the Big Ten.
Sophomore Kevin Coble has 13 points for Northwestern, the tournament's 11th seed. The Wildcats have made 11 of 17 shots.
Tubby Smith's team is in big trouble right now.
INDIANAPOLIS - You've got to like Northwestern right now.
The Big Ten's 11th seed is taking it to Minnesota 31-18 at the last media timeout before halftime.
Kevin Coble is the story, scoring 13 points. The Wildcats have made 10 of 16 field goals, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range to build a big lead.
INDIANAPOLIS - I'll say one thing about Northwestern's offense; it's fun to watch.
The screens, the backcuts and the ball movement. That's the Princeton-style offense.
How long can the Wildcats keep it up against Minnesota? They lead 21-11 at the eight-minute timeout.
INDIANAPOLIS - Kevin Coble is keeping Northwestern ahead of Minnesota at the Big Ten Conference tournament.
The sophomore has nine points for the Wildcats, who lead 14-9 with 11:59 before halftime.
INDIANAPOLIS - The final game of the Big Ten Conference tournament has a surprise element to it.
Northwestern, the 11th seed, is leading sixth-seeded Minnesota 12-5 at the first timeout.
Still a long way to go.
INDIANAPOLIS - Do you think rebounding will be important to Minnesota coach Tubby Smith
in this game against Northwestern?
The Gophers were outrebounded 45-19 - that's right - in their loss at Illinois to close out the
regular season. Smith and his staff kept football equipment on the sidelines to motivate his team
during practice this week.
Minnesota is the No. 6 seed and needs some wins to receive any consideration for an at-large bid
to the NCAA tournament. Only two of the Gophers' 18 wins have come against teams currently
with a winning record.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats won once during the Big Ten regular season.
INDIANAPOLIS - Illinois built a 10-point lead and watched it quickly disappear.
Junior Chester Frazier saved the Fighting Illini from an early exit in the Big Ten Conference tournament, converting a layup with 3.8 seconds to play for a 64-63 victory over Penn State at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The seventh-seeded Nittany Lions had one last attempt but Talor Battle's 3-pointer was off the mark as time expired.
"The play wasn't designed for me to get the ball," said Frazier, who finished with seven points. "I thought I was going to get it blocked and that's why I went up on the other side."
Illinois led 62-52 but Penn State reeled off 11 straight points to go ahead 63-62 on two free throws by Andrew Jones with 2:04 to play.
"Like all year, we've had these droughts scoring," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "Someone has to make a play. I'm just happy for Chester. It's been along time since we've won a close one."
Brian Randle led the 10th-seeded Illini with 17 points and Trent Meacham added 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Battle totaled 17 points and five rebounds for Penn State, which finished 15-16.
The Nittany Lions had beaten the Illini twice during the regular season by a combined five points.
The Illini, a poor free throw shooting team, made 13 of their first 14 attempts but missed their last three.
Illinois will face second-seeded Purdue in Friday's quarterfinals.
INDIANAPOLIS - Illinois did it.
After being outscored 11-0, Chester Frazier's layup with 3.8 seconds to play lifted the Illini to a 64-63 victory over Penn State. Talor Battle's 3-point attempt at the buzzer was off the mark.
Illinois, the tournament's 10th seed, will face second-seeded Purdue in Friday's quarterfinals.
INDIANAPOLIS - Illinois did it.
After being outscored 11-0, Chester Frazier's layup with 3.8 seconds to play lifted the Illini to a 64-63 victory over Penn State. Talor Battle's 3-point attempt at the buzzer was off the mark.
Illinois, the tournament's 10th seed, will face second-seeded Purdue in Friday's quarterfinals.
INDIANAPOLIS - Penn State has scored 11 straight points to go ahead 63-62 on two free throws by Andrew Jones.
The Nittany Lions have the ball with 51.2 seconds to play. Back after the timeout.
INDIANAPOLIS - It appeared Illinois was ready to pull away, building a 62-52 lead.
But Penn State is right back in the game at 62-59, thanks to the Illini's poor free throw shooting. They've missed their last three attempts after going 13 of 14 to start the game. We're at the final media timeout.
INDIANAPOLIS - What was an up and down track meet has slowed down to a slugfest between Penn State and Illinois. The Illini lead 53-49 at the eight-minute timeout.
Those early transition baskets and hot shooting have been replaced by halfcourt offense. It will be interesting to see which team can prevail down the stretch playing this way.
INDIANAPOLIS - Illinois goes up 51-44 but Penn State comes right back with a 3-pointer by Danny Morrissey to pull within four points.
With 11 minutes remaining, this one is going to be close all the way.
INDIANAPOLIS - Although Penn State trails 45-41 at the 16-minute media timeout, guards Talor Battle and Stanley Pringle are keeping the Nittany Lions in the game.
Battle and Pringle have combined for 22 points and are becoming a tough matchup for the Illini. Illinois did miss its first free throw after eight attempts.
INDIANAPOLIS - With four freshmen in the starting lineup, Penn State only trails 39-37 to Illinois at halftime in the Big Ten Conference tournament.
The Illini led 28-17 at one point but the young and inexperienced Nittany Lions fought their way back into the game. Talor Battle has 12 points to lead Penn State, which is shooting 57 percent from the field.
Illinois started out on fire but has cooled off to shoot 41 percent. Trent Meacham had 11 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead the Illinois.
Impressive free throw shooting by the Illini, who are 7 of 7. Remember Illinois shot 60 percent from the line during the regular season.
INDIANAPOLIS - Trent Meacham has three 3-pointers through the first 12 minutes to help give Illinois a 31-25 lead.
Overall, the Illini are 6 of 11 from 3-point range against Penn State's zone defense. The Nittany Lions did hit back to back 3-pointers to cut into a 10-point deficit.
INDIANAPOLIS - Look out: Illinois is 3-for-3 at the free throw line.
As long as that keeps up, the Illini are in good shape, especially after shooting 60 percent from the line this season. They're leading 23-17 with 10 minutes left in the first half.
INDIANAPOLIS - Unlike the first game, Penn State and Illinois are hitting shots. And lots of them.
After five minutes, the two teams are a combined 10 of 17 from the field. Illinois has a 13-12 lead, thanks to one more 3-pointer right now.
INDIANAPOLIS - The second of three games in the Big Ten Conference tournament is almost ready to start.
No. 7 seed Penn State and 10th-seeded Illinois are warming up at Conseco Fieldhouse. The winner faces second-seeded Purdue in Friday's quarterfinal action.
The Nittany Lions beat the Fighting Illini twice during the regular season, winning 68-64 in Champaign, Ill., and escaping with a 52-51 thriller in State College, Pa.
Penn State has been bad on the road, losing seven straight. Its last win was at Illinois. The Nittany Lions feature one of the youngest teams in the country with five first-year players in the starting lineup.
The Illini have the best Big Ten tournament winning percentage (18-8, 69.2). But in order for Illinois to advance, coach Bruce Weber's team must hit free throws. The Illini shot a dismal 62.2 percent from the line in conference play this season.
INDIANAPOLIS - One team went 10 minutes without a field goal. The other 16 minutes.
The first game of the Big Ten Conference tournament wasn't a work of art. Thanks to freshman Manny Harris, eighth-seeded Michigan generated enough offense to get past No. 9 seed Iowa 55-47 at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Harris scored 12 of his 19 points in the first half as the Wolverines built a 34-25 halftime lead. After Michigan scored two quick baskets to open the second half, to go ahead by 14 points, this game was basically over.
The Wolverines' defense limited the Hawkeyes to 31.9 percent shooting (15 of 47) and held them without a field goal for 16 minutes. Iowa also made just 2 of 17 from 3-point range.
Michigan also forced 15 turnovers, resulting in 17 points.
"We came in with the mindset that we had play to defense in order to get a victory," Harris said. "We did a good job of defending the 3."
The Wolverines shot just 37.3 percent from the field but relied on their defense to win this game. Michigan will face top-seeded Wisconsin in Friday's first quarterfinal.
"We went out and played tenacious defense," said sophomore DeShawn Sims, who finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. "We held ourselves accountable for our man."
Cyrus Tate led the Hawkeyes, who finished 13-19, with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
INDIANAPOLIS - Michigan advances to the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Conference tournament with a 55-47 victory over Iowa at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Next up for the Wolverines is top-seeded Wisconsin on Friday.
Freshman Manny Harris led Michigan with 19 points and sophomore DeShawn Sims added 14 points and 10 rebounds. Cyrus Tate had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Hawkeyes, who end their season at 13-19.
INDIANAPOLIS - With about five minutes to go, Michigan is still leading 46-36. The Wolverines, though, are not in control.
Although Iowa hasn't made a strong run, Michigan can't seem to pull away. Both teams are spinning their wheels, one reason why the Big Ten hasn't received a lot of respect nationally.
INDIANAPOLIS - Not much has changed at the Big Ten tournament. Michigan is still ahead, leading 44-30 at the 12-minute media timeout.
Sophomore DeShawn Sims has come on strong for the Wolverines with seven points and five rebounds in the second half. That gives Sims a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Hawkeyes can't seem to get anything going.
INDIANAPOLIS - Not even a minute has expired in the second half and Iowa was forced to call a timeout after Michigan scored two quick baskets.
The Wolverines now lead 39-25. It doesn't look good for Iowa at this point.
INDIANAPOLIS - It's halftime of our first game in the Big Ten Conference tournament and Michigan is leading 34-25.
The Hawkeyes, who trailed 25-11, pulled within 32-25 on Justin Johnson's 3-pointer with 19 seconds on the clock. However, Zach Gibson's rebound basket at the buzzer pushed Michigan's lead to nine points.
Super freshman Manny Harris leads the Wolverines with 12 points, including 10 during the first eight minutes.
The winner advances to face top-seeded Wisconsin on Friday in the quarterfinals.
MADISON, Wis. -- Even after the No. 13 Wisconsin Badgers had built up a healthy 20-point lead with under 13 minutes remaining, this game opposing two top Big Ten teams was far from over.
Indiana fought back furiously from that deficit, making up 15 points in a five minute span, but came up short at the Kohl Center, where the Badgers handed the Hoosiers their first league loss of the season, 62-49.
"If we didn't have that cushion, it might not have turned out this way," Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said after the win, the Badgers' 35th in their last 36 in Madison.
Both teams struggled mightily from the field. Indiana, the highest-scoring team in the Big Ten, shot 33.3 percent and converted on only 3 of 21 three-point attempts. The Badgers were marginally better, shooting 34.5 percent and making 3-20 from behind the arc.
"Both teams played tough," Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson said afterward. "Neither team could get many shots to go down."
The two-headed offensive attack of Eric Gordon and D.J. White was probably good enough for the Hoosiers to win on another night, but they had little to no support from the rest of their teammates. White had another double-double, his 13th in his last 16 games, posting 22 points and 17 rebounds. But he also had four turnovers, including three in the first half as the Hoosiers fell behind by ten points.
Gordon, playing with a left-wrist injury that he reportedly sustained in practice this week, finished with 16 points, but only got to the line for two free-throws, a number that Sampson said was too low for the conference's leader in free throw attempts and makes.
"He had a tough time going to his left, obviously, and they kept sitting on his right hand," Sampson said. "But I thought Eric played hard. He had to work for just about everything he had."
The Badgers, coming off their first Big Ten loss of the season to Purdue, took Indiana's best punch on an otherwise punchless night. They built their 20-point lead on the strength of a balanced attack and big offensive rebounds by junior guard Joe Krabbenhoft, who led the team with 12 rebounds, six coming on the offensive glass.
Ryan spoke to the energy that Krabbenhoft brings on a nightly basis.
"In life there are just some people who come and give a great effort every day, and that's Joe," he said. "Sometimes the result can look varied, but the energy will never vary."
For the Badgers, forward Marcus Landry finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, and guard Trevon Hughes had 16 points. Michael Flowers, playing a bit under the weather, added 10 points and a solid defensive effort against Gordon, the leading scorer in the Big Ten.
"I really liked our defensive effort -- trying to get them to take shots that they weren't as comfortable with," Ryan said.
The Badgers' win put them at 7-1 in the Big Ten and suddenly shifted the picture in the standings. Indiana came in the lone team atop the conference, but fell to fourth. The Badgers are now tied with No. 8/7 Michigan State and Purdue in first place.
Indiana returns home next for a Sunday game against Northwestern, while the Badgers will play the same day at Minnesota. In only two weeks, these two teams will meet again in Bloomington, Ind.
That's all from Madison, Wis., where the Wisconsin survived a major scare from Indiana. Good night.
MADISON, Wis. -- Amid chants of "overrated" directed at the No. 11 Indiana Hoosiers, the Wisconsin Badgers weathered a major storm from their opponent and handed IU its first Big Ten loss of the season, 62-49.
Indiana trailed by as many as 20 points, but fought back with a furious run to within five. The Hoosiers could not inch any closer.
D.J. White finished with 22 points and 17 rebounds for Indiana. Eric Gordon, after a poor showing in the first half, finished with 16 points.
Trevon Hughes had 16 points for UW. Marcus Landry added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
We'll be back with post-game thoughts and quotes after coaches and players speak to the media here at the Kohl Center.
MADISON, Wis. -- Indiana, down 20 points with 13 minutes to play, made a furious attempt to get back in the game and cut the lead to 48-43 moments ago.
But the Badgers, after a big putback from Joe Krabbehoft, have built back up an eight-point lead.
With 3:10 left to play, it's 53-45.
MADISON, Wis. -- A three-point play by D.J. White gives him 18 points and 13 rebounds.
It also cuts the lead to 48-41, UW.
It is getting tense at the Kohl Center, where we have a timeout on the floor.
7:53 remains on the clock, and it's suddenly anybody's game...
MADISON, Wis. -- Indiana was on the ropes only a few minutes ago, down 20. Since then, they have gone on 10-0 run to put themselves right back in the game.
Eric Gordon just drilled a three-pointer from five feet beyond the line, prompting a UW timeout.
With 9:29 remaining, it's 46-36, UW.
MADISON, Wis. - A put-back from Greg Stiemsma has ballooned the Badger lead to 20 points at the Kohl Center.
The way things are looking right now, Indiana is going to be hard-pressed to come back in this game. Almost nothing has worked for them tonight. On offense they are still shooting under 30 percent, and they can't buy a three-pointer (1-11).
With 12 minutes to go, it's 46-28, Badgers.
MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin Badgers and Indiana Hoosiers have walked off the court at halftime with UW holding a 10-point lead in a sloppy first half.
Neither team is hitting a high percentage from the field. The Badgers are at 35 percent, and IU sits at 31 percent.
The Eric Gordon watch stands with this halftime line: four points (2-for-7 FG, 0-3 3PT), two rebounds and one assist. Gordon's teammate D.J. White has been a much bigger factor through 20 minutes. White is on pace to put up yet another double-double. He's at nine points and eight rebounds.
But White is not the leading scorer. The holder of that is Badger sophomore Trevon Hughes, who's scored 10 points on 10 field goal attempts. Marcus Landry has seven points and six rebounds for the Badgers.
If you're looking for a reason why the Badgers hold this 10 point lead over the Big Ten's top team, check the turnover department. Indiana has committed far too many, with 11 in the first half, to the Badgers' three. White has made three himself.
In the meantime, Badger fans at the Kohl Center got a kick out of one man's performance in the singing contest. In his rendition of "My Girl," he managed to put in the name of ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews. A cursory check showed her not to be on the floor.
The second half is about three minutes away. Will Indiana put together a run and keep the unbeaten Big Ten record? Check back for updates...
MADISON, Wis. -- After he didn't get a call on the offensive end, Eric Gordon made a silly foul on Trevon Hughes, who hit one of two free throws from the line.
Gordon, playing with a taped left wrist, came right back and hit off the glass, making him 2-for-7 tonight.
With about one minute to play in the first half, Indiana trails by eight after a D.J. White offensive foul.
MADISON, Wis. -- The Hoosiers are down to 30 percent shooting through the first 15 minutes of the first half. Fortunately for them, the Badgers are only at 38 percent.
D.J. White's free-throw and put-back dunk on an offensive rebound has made the score 25-15, Badgers, with under four minutes to play. Indiana has gained an edge in rebounding after going down early.
We'll see what happens in the last 3:26, a critical period for the Hoosiers before they go into halftime. So far, though, the tempo of this game belongs to the Badgers.
MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin's leading scorer, Brian Butch, was really struggling in the early going, missing his first four shots, all coming in the paint.
But he brought on the din of the Kohl Center crowd after hitting a three-pointer with 7:40 remaining in the first half.
Indiana was moments ago showing signs of climbing back into the game, cutting the lead to 16-12 as D.J. White picked it up a bit. But it seems the Badgers have weathered the first punch from the Hoosiers. Trevon Hughes leads all scorers with seven points.
With 7:38 remaining in the half, it's 21-12, Wisconsin.
MADISON, Wis. -- No. 13 Wisconsin has overwhelmed Indiana early, jumping out to a 14-6 lead with airtight defense and strong rebounding. Indiana is clearly making a conscious effort to go inside, but isn't converting early on.
Both Trevon Hughes and Marcus Landry have five points for the Badgers, who have six more shots attempted than the Hoosiers. The Badgers are shooting 40 percent early on, while Indiana is struggling from the field, at 33 percent.
Coming out of a timeout with 11:43 remaining, it is 14-6 at the Kohl Center.
MADISON, Wis. -- The Badgers' Marcus Landry has started hot in Madison, with five points in the first three minutes. He made a jump fade away from the paint to put the Badgers up, 4-2, and then converted a three-point play on a lay-in to make it 7-2.
Meanwhile, Eric Gordon of Indiana missed his first shot, a lean-in from the right side of the basket. With 15:48 left in the first half, it's 7-4 at the Kohl Center, where a packed house is LOUD tonight.
MADISON, Wis. -- Good evening from Madison, Wis., where, for the first time in more than a year, two ranked teams will oppose each other on the Kohl Center court. In about 20 minutes, we'll tip between No. 11 Indiana, looking to stay unbeaten in the Big Ten, and No. 13 Wisconsin, which is coming off its first league setback of the season.
The Hoosiers (6-0 Big Ten, 17-2 overall) face a big litmus test here tonight. The Kohl Center is one of the more intimidating venues in the country. In seven seasons under head coach Bo Ryan, the Badgers are 103-6 at home, the second best over that span. In Big Ten games, the Badgers (6-1, 16-3) are a sterling 50-2 under Ryan.
IU, of course, is looking to rebound from a improbable 68-63 loss to UConn on Saturday. That defeat brought an end to a 13-game winning streak overall and a string of 29 straight wins at Assembly Hall.
A big reason for the Hoosier's success in the first half of the season is the oft-talked about freshman, Eric Gordon. He's leading the Big Ten with 21.7 points per game. Not only is Gordon capable of hitting the three-ball, but he also gets to the line more often than any player in the conference. We'll be keeping an eye tonight on Gordon's left wrist, which he reportedly injured in practice earlier this week. Gordon's father said earlier this week that his son would be wearing a protective pad on the wrist for the game tonight.
The Badgers also face a serious challenge on the low block tonight by the name of D.J. White. The senior has posted 12 double-doubles in his last 15 times out. His work on the boards could give Wisconsin fits. White leads the league in rebounds (10.2) and is a scoring threat, to be sure (16.8 points per game). He and Gordon are key components of the conference's highest scoring team, at 79 points per game.
Meanwhile, the Badgers' continued theme, as seems to be the case every season under Ryan, is stifling defense. No team in the Big Ten is more stingy on defense. The Badgers have held league opponents to under 55 points per contest, and they're scoring this year, too. Senior Brian Butch leads in both points (13.2) and rebounds (7.8). Sophomore guard Trevon Hughes also averages 13 points a game.
Wisconsin has bested Indiana in six of the last nine match-ups between the two teams and will surely be seeking some measure of revenge from last year's loss. That Hoosier win, exactly one year ago today in Bloomington, ended the Badgers' school-record 17-game winning streak.
Indiana, in their fashionable red-and-white striped pants, has just taken the court and started the lay-up line. Gordon's wrist is indeed taped. But if it's any indication of how that will affect him, he drilled his first three-pointer taken in warm-ups.
We'll have more once the game gets underway from Madison!
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Here are some notes and quotes from Michigan State's big victory over Texas this afternoon at The Palace:
* To say that Texas got nothing from its bench would be overrating it. Five guys played a total of 16:19 (including two seconds from Ian Mooney) and took only one shot, a made three-pointer by J.D. Lewis.
After the game, Longhorns coach Rick Barnes was obviously concerned.
"This week in practice, we didn't even play the first five much," he said. "We practiced the back ups a lot to try to get those guys going, because we know we are going to need more production from them.
"One of the bad things about our schedule right now is that it hasn't given us a lot of chances to play our bench. We haven't had too many games where those guys can play much."
* As I write this, Oakland leads Oregon by three at 15-12.
* Barnes also felt like his guys helped out Michigan State -- a lot. "Michigan State doesn't need a lot of help to beat you three times," he said.
Barnes was talking about defensive lapses and perhaps bad shooting. The Longhorns only had nine turnovers (Michigan State only had six) and out-rebounded the Spartans, 36-31.
* Damion James had a monster game with 15 points and 16 rebounds. Connor Atchley chipped in with 10 rebounds. On the scoreboard, Abrams totaled 24 and Augustin finished with 22. Thirteen of Abrams' points came in the last minute of each half. Augustin also had six assists and no turnovers.
* Obviously, Tom Izzo was pretty pleased with his team's performance. He thought the six turnovers were "probably a low in my 13 years here. We tend to throw the ball around a lot."
* Oakland is now up 25-17. Quick, someone pull the fire alarm!
* I mentioned before that the teams shot roughly the same percentage from long range, but Texas was 11-for-29, while Michigan State was only 3-for-8.
* Kalin Lucas' night was just outstanding on the stat sheet. He also had six assists and only one turnover. Not bad for a freshman. He wasn't the best point guard on the floor, but he wasn't a distant No. 2.
* The press room here was as poorly equipped as press row. There were only 12 chairs, although twice as many would have fit easily. As a result, while Izzo was talking, about 30 of us were jockeying for position against the wall, out of the way.
* After Augustin and Abrams addressed what was left of the media after Izzo had already left the press room, the SID with them told them to "keep drinking." How many college students really need to be told that?
* Oakland is now up 11 with 4:34 left in the half. I think I'll go check a little of that out before heading home.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- No. 10 Michigan State put on a stifling defensive performance in the second half and defeated No. 5 Texas, 78-72.
Texas scored two quick baskets to start the second half, but only hit three more buckets in the next 14 minutes. Several late baskets, including three A.J. Abrams three-pointers in the final minute, upped the Longhorns shooting for the half to 12-for-33. Texas ended up shooting 39.3 percent for the game.
The only play Michigan State had trouble defending was penetration by D.J. Augustin. The Spartans fouled Augustin seven times (by my count) on his forays into the lane. Izzo really let Travis Walton have it after one of those was his fourth foul. Izzo told him to go ahead and give him the layup rather than take his fourth foul with so much time left (about eight minutes).
Kalin Lucas and Raymar Morgan had 18 each for the Spartans, which shot 49.1 percent from the floor. The shooting difference was nearly all from two-point range though. Michigan State was worse than Texas on threes, shooting 33 percent to the Longhorns' 39.3. Neither team did much from the free throw line, as both shot about 65 percent.
Both teams are now 11-1 on the season. I'll be back in a little bit with some notes and quotes.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- I knew my battery was bad, but it was worse than I thought. I didn't even make it to tipoff.
MSU came out of the eight-minute timeout, went on an 11-0 run and leads 41-33 at halftime.
Both teams were sloppy at first, but Michigan St finally found their shot and ended up hitting 53.6 percent for the half. Texas never found a rhythm and shot 42.9 percent.
D.J. Augustin went out after getting his second foul early in the Spartans big run, and he was really the only thing working for Texas in the first half. He had nine points and showed a variety of moves on the floor, both to get his own shot and to create for others. Damion James had 10, but shot three of the worst free throws I've seen this year. A.J. Abrams has seven on 3-for-8 shooting. Augustin also shot 3-for-8, but for some reason, Abrams looked worse.
The Spartans got a spark from freshman Kalin Lucas, who came off the bench when Travis Walton got in some quick foul trouble. Lucas leads MSU with 11 points on 5-for-10 shooting.
Halftime Notes:
* Izzo is fun to watch on the bench. He ripped into Marquise Gray on the bench for not going after a loose ball (a mortal sin in Izzo's world), pounded the scorers table when Lucas passed up an open three early in a possession during the big run late in the half (when was the last time you saw a coach complain that a guy didn't shoot quickly enough?) and lament that he team was "givin' 'em points" at the line. That was before Abrams ever got there.
* The guy I thought was Jud Heathcote wasn't. I don't know who he is.
* The crowd has filled in nicely and it's a near sellout.
* The Izzone (student section) boos any time Texas fans are shown on the scoreboard.
* I missed about three minutes of the game when the Michigan State bench stood up in front of me. They have me crammed into an auxiliary press table, which is right up against the stands. For a guy my size (6-foot-1, all leg), it's pretty cramped. The guy next to me (6-foot-8) will need to have his knees surgically removed from his shoulders after the game, though.
* The stat sheet is in. Texas leads by one in rebounds and turnovers.
I see that the half has started. Better get back to my seat. More after the game.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- The good news is that I made it to Auburn Hills for the Spartan Clash, a double header featuring No. 10 Michigan State against No. 5 Texas in the opener. Oregon plays Oakland in the nightcap, but I will not be sticking around for that.
The bad news is that if I had planned my day better, I could have caught No. 8 UCLA at Michigan earlier this afternoon.
The worse news is that my seat here, which is right behind the MSU bench, does not have a place to plug in my computer, so I may only be blogging until the first timeout or until my battery dies.
Tom Izzo, Jud Heathcote and Bill Raftery are chatting in front of me as the teams warm up before the start, which is 15 minutes away. I can't hear them, though.
This game features one of the more pleasant surprises nationally in Texas, which is 11-0 despite losing Kevin Durant from last year's team. D.J. Augustin and A.J. Abrams make up arguably the best backcourt in the country. They combined for 38.5 ppg and Augustin averages 6.4 assists.
Michigan State is led by senior Drew Neitzel and his 14.5 points and five assists, and Raymar Morgan, who averages 16.7 points and 7.4 boards from his small forward position. As always, the Spartans are one of the top rebounding teams in the nation with a plus-11 margin.
Michigan State's only loss this year is to UCLA in the finals of the CBE classic in Kansas City.
The Palace isn't quite, but it is pretty nice. It seems newer than it is. The place holds just over 22,000, but there isn't more than 15 here -- yet anyway. It's pretty much a Michigan State crowd, as you might imagine. The Spartan band, cheerleaders (complete with Santa hats on the girls) and dancers are all here.
That's all for now. Maybe for good.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Rick Pitino was in relatively good spirits despite today's loss. He admitted his team is struggling to keep things going for 40 minutes because they have such a short bench. Essentially, he said, they are playing four guards almost all the time, and that's been an adjustment, especially on offense.
Purdue totally took what was left of Louisville's inside game, Earl Clark, away from them. He only scored two points, both from the line and shot 0-for-7 from the floor. That left the Cards to settle for a lot of threes, but their legs gave out at the end of the game and the shots just wouldn't fall.
Louisville ended up shooting 19-for-59 for 32 percent from the floor and only 7-for-30 (23 percent) from three-point range. Terrence Williams had a good game, though, with 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting before fouling out.
Purdue was led by Robbie Hummel's 15, but Chris Kramer added 14, Keaton Grant scored 12 and Scott Martin added 11.
After the game, Hummel talked about learning from the Missouri experience last week, when Purdue blew a late lead and lost. He said the coaches told him that losses hurt, "but if we don't learn from a loss, it's a waste."
Purdue coach Matt Painter was pleased with his guys' response to last week's loss. He talked about how he doesn't believe in just putting a loss behind you and moving on.
"I think you need to sit in it a bit and think through what went wrong," he said.
His guys did that this week, working pretty much exclusively on attacking the press and attacking the zone, something Purdue did poorly at the end of the Missouri game.
I though it was curious that Painter had E'Twaun Moore in the game at crunch time instead of Tarrance Crump, who had played well, especially when it came to breaking the press. Moore really seemed to struggle with that aspect of the game and didn't play all that much because of it.
I asked Painter about the decision to play Moore, and he gave kind of a long winded explanation that ended up with, "Sometimes you just have to let guys play through stuff and learn. It was one of those things, where sometimes I just have to guess what's going to work, you know?"
Painter then says to me, kind of surprisingly, "You watched the game! Sweet!"
I think he meant that as a compliment, although what was I supposed to be doing?
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- It wasn't an elegant finish to the game, but Purdue's young guns finally finished a tough one and beat Louisville, 67-59. The Cards missed their last seven three-point attempts down the stretch, which allowed Purdue to get away with some spotty free throw shooting. The Boilers only hit 9-of-14 freebies in the last few minutes, but it was good enough.
I'll have more stats, notes and quotes in a bit. Also, the Butler-Florida State game comes up in about half an hour.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Against Clemson and Missouri on the road, Purdue was in the same spot: a small lead at the last timeout. In those games, they didn't finish. The crowd isn't as hostile here (although Louisville has more fans), but Purdue's inexperience will be tested again. On the floor for Purdue is three freshmen and two sophomores.
Purdue's lead is 57-53 with 3:56 to go and freshman Scott Martin is going to the line for a one-and-one. Martin is only 2-for-4 from the line today, and in both his previous trips, he missed the first of two tries and hit the second.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Keaton Grant, who hurt his shoulder a few minutes ago, has now left the game because he's cramping up.
Meanwhile, Robbie Hummel, who cramped up earlier is back in.
Purdue has a couple of fast break scores and the lead is back to eight with six minutes left.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- This one is going to the wire. Purdue leads by four with 7:32 left after the teams traded fast-break dunks. Louisville's Jerry Smith, who has really been a spark for the Cardinals off the bench, beat the Boilermakers down the floor for the first dunk. Smith now has nine points for the Cards.
Then, Chris Kramer returned the favor for Purdue. Kramer is 6-foot-3 and can dunk but can't shoot threes.
Kramer also has the hustle play of the game so far with a steal on a Louisville fast break, and then a pass to Terrence Crump at half court as he's falling out of bounds with the ball. That turned into a layup.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Just when it looked like Louisville was going away quietly, the Cardinals went on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 44-38. Preston Knowles hit a three from the corner and Sosa got a layup on a breakaway after a Purdue turnover.
The Cardinal fans are back in the game and Louisville's defense is feeding off of it.
As I write this, another Cardinal fast break has cut the lead to four at the second TV timeout (only! this has been a slow half).
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- With 14:24 left, things are starting to come apart a little for Louisville. Purdue just had a three-shot possession that ended with a little hook in the lane by Marcus Green to put the Boilers up 13. That came after Will Scott, the Cardinals best offensive player today, picked up his fourth foul. Terrence Williams also has three fouls, and he's been the only other real threat for Louisville offensively.
On Purdue's side, Hummel came back in, but after one possession, limped off again with the cramps.
Now, a referee is limping on the baseline. Rough game.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Purdue came back with a pair of three-pointers sandwiched around an Edgar Sosa free throw to extend the lead back to 11 at 42-31 at the first TV timeout.
Keaton Grant and Chris Kramer did the damage for the Boilermakers. The three by Kramer was only his third of the year and 16th of his career. For a little guy (Kramer's only 6-foot-3), he doesn't shoot a lot of outside shots. Grant on the other hand has four three-pointers in this game.
Sosa is trying to take over for Louisville, but he's trying too hard. He's doing way too much dribbling and not enough passing. Louisville gets better looks when they move it by passing than by dribbling around the perimeter.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- After missing their first three shots of the half, Louisville has scored five straight on a three-pointer and a long two by Will Scott. The three-pointer came after Edgar Sosa got all the way to the hole on a drive but passed up the layup to send it out to Scott. That looked like a dumb move before Scott's shot fell.
Purdue has helped Louisville's cause by forcing some tough shots that weren't really necessary.
Robbie Hummel is out of the lineup for Purdue at the moment because of cramps.
Purdue is up, 36-30, with just over 17 minutes left.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Keaton Grant buried a three-pointer with two seconds left to put the Boilermakers up nine at the half against Louisville. The Cardinals made a bit of a run in the last couple minutes of the half when Terrence Williams hit a three and a pair of free throws, but the Boilers came back on a layup by Hummer after Purdue broke the Cardinal press and then Grant's three.
Louisville is shooting a miserable 27 percent from the floor, while the Boilers are hitting at a 50-percent clip. That's really the whole story of the half. The Cards are settling for shots that aren't as good as the ones Purdue is getting and aren't turning the Boilers over enough to get easy shots. Purdue has nine turnovers, which is a lot for a half, but the Cardinals have seven of their own.
The Louisville dance team is now on the floor, and they're huge. Not the individual girls, but the group. There must be 30 of them.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Chris Kramer (he's fine, by the way) and Terrance Crump have stoked Purdue on a 9-3 run to put the Boilermakers up seven with 2:43 left in the half. Crump's penetration led to a three-pointer by Robbie Hummel and a jumper of his own, while Kramer had a steal that led to two free throws and a penetration layup of his own.
Louisville's cold shooting continues, and it was best exemplified when Keaton Grant fell down, allowing a Cardinal player (I think Sosa, but the numbers are hard to read), miss a layup and Louisville also missed the put back. A Will Scott three is about all Louisville has managed offensively in about six minutes.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Purdue's Scott Martin has gotten loose inside the Louisville defense the last few times down the floor and has turned that into three points to help the Boilermakers to a 17-16 lead at the eight-minute timeout.
The Boilers have adjusted their defense to do more switching on the perimeter to try to counteract Louisville's weave. That's helping some, but the Cards are still getting inside and either kicking it out for jump shots or getting fouled inside. Louisville is still shooting poorly though and Purdue isn't giving them too many second chances.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Louisville called a timeout after Purdue went on a 7-0 run fueled by some cold Cardinal shooting. Purdue has turned some rebounds into quick strike opportunities at the other end.
The Boilermakers lead, 12-9, with just over 12 minutes left in the half, but Chris Kramer, Purdue's tough guy, just limped off the floor.
Purdue fans are getting a little frustrated with the officiating because they have called four hand-checks way away from the basket on the Boilers so far. Purdue is going to have to adjust to those calls because the refs have been consistent.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Louisville's full-court, zone press is giving Purdue problems bringing the ball up. The Boilermakers have been a little sloppy with the ball with three turnovers already. The Cards lead, 9-5, at the first break.
Louisville's offense is basically a weave around the perimeter until someone finally gets bored and drives to the hole. That has worked reasonably well. The Cards have already drawn three fouls on the Boilers.
Purdue has already played eight different guys and is currently going with a smaller lineup where all five guys are decent ball handlers.
* Before the game, when the starting lineups were introduced, Louisville's players did not come out of their huddle and onto the court. Last week at Missouri, Purdue was apparently not introduced at all.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- A few more thoughts right before we tip.
* Looks like it'll be a late arriving crowd here at Indianapolis. That's no surprise given the weather outside. If and when this place fills up, it looks like Louisville may end up having the most fans here, although Purdue fans are here in pretty big numbers too. The red that the Cards fans are wearing stands out more than the black that Purdue fans tend to wear, especially since black is also one of Louisville's colors.
* We just had the national anthem. The singer was an older guy named Everette Greene. I've never heard of him, but he did it beautifully, especially if you like low voices. This guy's voice made James Earl Jones sound like Pee Wee Herman.
* Even though Rick Pitino is going for win No. 500, there isn't unanimous love for the coach. One Cardinal fan I saw had a sign that said "Bring Back Denny Crum."
* Usually, the school pep bands get seats behind a basket, but both Purdue and Louisville's pep bands are up in the corners across from where I'm sitting.
* Beer at the Conseco Fieldhouse costs $6.50 a glass. I don't think I paid that much at Wrigley Field this summer.
* I saw some employee walking around with a shirt that labeled her as the "Alcohol Consumption Supervisor." I'm not really sure what that job entails. It could be watching for drunks, making sure people get carded, or maybe she just offers advice on drinking techniques. She was busy, so I couldn't ask her.
* You can get souvenirs for just about anything, but nobody is selling snow shovels yet.
* An author was signing books in the concourse. The book was about Indiana HS basketball legends. Only here does that kind of thing happen.
* When the teams were warming up before the game, Pitino was standing at center court watching his team warm up. Usually, for the early warmups, the head coaches aren't around. Pitino also stole a couple of glances at Purdue warming up behind him.
* Press row security is non-existent here. I hope some drunk walking behind me doesn't spill his beer on my computer. That would ruin my day.
* There is someone sitting in press row with a seeing-eye dog. Not sure who the dog is rooting for.
INDIANAPOLIS -- I'm writing today from the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where the Wooden Tradition will take place starting in about an hour.
The first game features Purdue, the de facto host of this event, taking on Louisville. John Wooden was a three-time All-American at Purdue from 1930-32. Purdue ended the 1932 season ranked No. 1, which was before the days of post-season tournaments. This is the eighth edition of the Wooden Tradition and the Boilers have appeared in all but one of them.
Matt Painter's squad boasts one of the top freshman classes in the country, and those guys play a lot. Guard E'Twaun Moore and forwards Robbie Hummel, Scott Martin and JaJuan Johnson are all expected to start today, along with sophomore Keaton Grant. Another sophomore, Chris Kramer is arguably Purdue's best player, but he hasn't started since taking a header off the standard at Clemson two and a half weeks ago and suffering a concussion. Purdue is deep, with nine guys averaging at least 14.6 minutes per game.
The Boilers are off to a 5-2 start, with both losses coming on the road. Purdue's youth really showed up In the games at Clemson and Missouri, where it led late but couldn't finish. Louisville will be the first ranked team the Boilers have played this season.
Louisville is also 5-2, but in the Cardinals' case, that's a disappointing start. The Cards were ranked in the Top 10 in the preseason polls but have fallen to 22nd in the AP poll and 20th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll.
There has been a lot of attrition on the Louisville front line. The latest forward to hit the bench is freshman Derrick Caracter, who is out for not living up to his name. He was suspended indefinitely by the team last week. Caracter joins center David Padgett and forward Juan Palacios, both of whom have knee injures and center Clarence Holloway, who is recovering from open heart surgery performed in September.
This leaves the Cards with only seven scholarship players. This week, Josh Chichester, a 6-foot-8 wide receiver on the football team, joined the basketball squad.
Fortunately for Louisville, Terrance Williams and Earl Clark are still on the team. Williams, a preseason All-American candidate, is averaging 11.6 points and 8.4 rebounds per game and posted a triple-double against Hartford. Clark is averaging a double-double with 14.1 points and 11.9 rebounds per contest.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino will make his second attempt to win his 500th collegiate game. Pitino's record currently stands at 499-184 in 22 seasons at Boston University, Providence, Kentucky and Louisville. Louisville lost to Dayton at home in his first try at No. 500.
* It's snowing here in Indianapolis. A lot. Current forecasts call for 4-6 inches of snow this afternoon, followed by a period of freezing rain (half an inch or so of that), and then beginning around midnight, another 4-6 inches of snow. There's already an inch or two on the ground. The bad weather might keep the crowds down a bit, although a lot of Purdue and Butler people will be locals. Any Florida State fans making the trip are probably already here, so maybe Louisville fans would be most affected. Louisville is about 120 miles south of here and they are expecting bad weather there as well.
* I stepped out into the arena to find my seat (halfway up in a corner) and watch Purdue shoot around a little bit. The seven or eight guys out there were wearing their uniforms, with a warm-up shirt over the top, but E'Twaun Moore was fully accessorized. He was wearing one of those portable music players on a lanyard around his neck and had earphones on. Isn't technology great? In my day, you'd have had to strap a boom box around your waist and wear big, tin-can headphones to do something like that. That would have made it hard to practice your shot.
I wonder what Moore was listening to. Perhaps some nice Christmas music or the latest from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Maybe he has some Matt Painter motivational speeches on there. "Get back on D!" "Pass the bad word ball!"
Nah, it's probably stuff by that rapper, Half Dollar.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Michigan State boarded its flight back to East Lansing a happy team while BYU boarded its bus back to Provo a solemn bunch.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - BYU may be haunted by its free-throw shooting when this thing is over.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - BYU junior Trent Plaisted was bleeding from his nose during a timeout with 9:17 remaining.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Now we have a game.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - So much for Drew Neitzel's shooting slump.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - BYU has a 35-25 lead over Michigan State at halftime at Energy Solutions Arena.
Continue reading "BYU Leads, But Morgan Presents Problems" »
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - BYU has found its range from the outside and started raining down jump shots on Michigan State.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - BYU has jumped out to an early 5-2 lead over Michigan State on the strength of a Trent Plaisted hook shot and 3-pointer by Lee Cummard.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge is in attendance to watch the BYU-Michigan Stage matchup at Energy Solutions Arena.
CHICAGO -- Arizona hit just enough free throws down the stretch to beat Illinois 78-72 in overtime. Ineptitude at the line did the Illini in. After a bad 6-for-10 effort in the first half, they followed that up with miserable 4-for-12 second half, including two missed front ends of bonuses.
Shaun Pruitt had a big game for Illinois with 24, and Trent Meacham chipped in 16. Jordan Hill answered Pruitt for Arizona by scoring 23. Jerryd Bayless added 20, including a couple of key jumpers in OT.
After the game, Kevin O'Neill talked about how his team is showing more tenacity and fight. That was a big problem last year, and it was evident in the NCAA tournament when Purdue beat them up and knocked them out. This year's team has already come back from way behind against good teams and won and today was another example of that. O'Neill would prefer it not always go that way.
"Our plan is not to get behind big early," he said. But he is encouraged by the fact that the team doesn't quit when that happens.
CHICAGO -- Arizona leads by four with 51 seconds left in overtime. Brian Randle fouled out on a charge hitting a shot that would have tied the game. Then Jerryd Bayless hit a jumper in the lane, which he followed up by posing and preening -- something he apparently does after every made basket no matter how routine. You would think guys 6-for-17 from the floor would be more humble.
Arizona has missed a few free throws in the OT, which has made it harder to put Illinois away.
Pruitt has just scored to cut the lead to three.
CHICAGO -- A Jordan Hill put back with seven seconds left is sending us to OT at the United Center. After Illinois came down and had the ball stolen, the Arizona player (it's hard to see who they are from here because their numbers and uniforms are both dark) clearly signaled timeout with the ref looking right at him, but the ref ignored it.
Arizona was out of timeouts, so that is a technical foul. The ref does not have the liberty to ignore that signal, but he did. People always say the refs should swallow their whistles and let the players decide the game, but a bad no-call is just as much deciding the game as a bad call, and this was a bad no-call.
Chase Budinger finally hit a shot to give Arizona the lead in OT. Pruitt missed two more free throws to blow a chance at tying it.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- It can't get much better for the first weekend free of college football than a matchup of two ranked 7-1 teams on the hardwood.
That's what fans are going to get here at Energy Solutions Arena this afternoon, when No. 9 Michigan State plays No. 20 BYU.
CHICAGO -- Both teams are getting very sloppy. Illinois has about five turnovers in the last few minutes, but Arizona either gives it back or misses the shot, so we go into the final minute with the Wildcats looking for their first lead of the game.
And they just got it on a dunk by Jordan Hill, who escaped the Illini inside. Arizona now leads 59-58.
CHICAGO -- Illinois' offense has become a bit stagnant over the last few minutes and Arizona has crept back to within two at 57-55 with 3:28 left.
On back-to-back possessions, Illinois just missed a shot clock violation and then picked one up. They've also gotten a little sloppy with the ball, turning it over twice more on bad passes.
They just showed former Illini star Kendall Gill on the screen. As Paul Harvey likes to say, this is "partly personal." Gill is the best player to ever come out of my high school, Rich Central, in south suburban Olympia Fields, IL. Gill was coming in as I was going out, so he didn't play while I was there.
Illinois has just missed another free throw, but Brian Randle hit the second to put the Illini up three.
CHICAGO -- At the eight-minute timeout, Illinois still leads by five, 52-47, but the Illini are killing themselves at the line. They are 0-4 this half, including two misses on the front end of 1-and-1s by Pruitt and Brian Randle. Pruitt even had two chances after a lane violation.
I've always felt that missing the front end should count as 0-2 because of the missed opportunity for the second shot, but I haven't figured out how to track that yet.
Chase Budinger has been a complete non-factor for Arizona. He finally forced up a shot a minute ago from about 20' that had no chance of going in. He's still looking for his first bucket.
CHICAGO -- There has been a Jerryd Bayless sighting. Bayless hit a layup on the fast break and a three in transition to pull Arizona back within seven at the 12-minute timeout.
The cheerleaders are throwing T-shirts into the crowd. Nobody got one up here though. I don't know that Vlad Guerrero could get one up here.
Both teams are shooting a little better this half, but for Arizona, that's not much of a standard.
CHICAGO -- Not much has changed early in the second half at the UC. Arizona is still sloppy with the ball and can't hit a shot. Shaun Pruitt is still dominating inside for the Illini, and the Wildcats have called an early timeout. With 15:14 to go, Illinois has extended its lead to 12 at 44-32. Pruitt scored the first four for Illinois and set up a three-pointer by Calvin Brock by drawing a double team in the post.
The biggest concern for Illinois is fouls. They have already committed four in the early going of this half.
CHICAGO -- Ever since they put in the rule a few years ago that teams had to use a 30-second time out in the first half or lose it, every coach takes it whether they need to or not. Bruce Weber just did that. His team is cruising along just fine with a seven point lead and a chance to take the last shot, a situation his kids know how to handle just fine, but he can't resist. As a result, they end up with a three point attempt by Mike Tisdale, who, needless to say, hasn't hit one all year. He still hasn't.
Illinois is up by a touchdown, 35-28 at the half as we are entertained by the Chicago Boys Acrobatic Team.
Airzona can't hit the broad side of this barn. They are 9-for-26 from the floor, and the Wildcats' two stars, Budinger and Bayless are a combined 1-for-11. Arizona is only 2-9 from three point range, but they have hit the occasional free throw, going 8-for-12.
Illinois is shooting 50 percent from the floor and is doing a lot of damage inside on the bigger Wildcats. Good thing Pruitt showed up, because he's playing great. He leads the Illini with 12 points, while fellow front-courter Brian Randle has eight and G Trent Meacham has seven.
CHICAGO -- At the last TV timeout, Illinois still leads by nine, 29-20. The two teams' cheerleaders are having a competition to see which squad's guys can hold up their girls the longest. It's the only thing Arizona is winning so far.
Glad to see Arizona's cheerleaders and mascot made the trip.
Stats are a mystery here. The scoreboard doesn't give us much, and in fact, the team foul totals only go up to five. Must be a pro thing. It does give us "snapshots of the game" during the timeouts, though, in case you want to read some of the players' tatoos.
For the first time today, surprisingly, the ILL-INI chant has gone up.
CHICAGO -- The game is going back and forth hard, and I'm getting whiplash. Jordan Hill and Nic Wise led Arizona on a 16-2 run to tie the game at 16 after the Wildcats' horrible start, but before I could hardly get anything written about it, the Illini went on a 9-0 run capped off by a Shaun Pruitt layup to go up 25-16. Arizona has just taken its third timeout of the half.
CHICAGO -- Arizona is finally settling down and playing their game. They haven't had a turnover since the last post and they are taking better shots. The Wildcats are on a 7-2 run and have cut the lead to 9 at the second TV timeout.
The Illinois band may not have the Chief to perform with them anymore, but they still play their Indian music that gets the fans up and clapping.
The United Center seats 20,000 and I'd say we have a crowd of about 17-18,000, so it's a pretty good turnout.
CHICAGO -- WIth 14:40 to play in the half, Arizona finally scored and the Illini fans are getting some rest. Illinois leads, 14-2, and Arizona has six turnovers already.
CHICAGO -- Arizona has just taken its second timeout of the first three and a half minutes because nothing is going right for the Wildcats. Illinois leads 10-0 and has already forced four turnovers. Arizona has only managed to get off one shot, and it was forced.
Most of the fans in front of us are standing, but one guy is complaining about it. He was instructed that, "We can't sit down until Arizona scores." They may get tired. Arizona just turned it over again.
CHICAGO -- Shaun Pruitt is in the starting lineup for Illinois and scored the first two points. We'll see how long he can go.
CHICAGO -- Illinois is hosting Arizona today at the United Center in Chicago. This is the 14th consecutive year that Illinois has scheduled a "home" game at the UC, which is also the home of the Chicago Bulls. The games actually count as neutral court games in the RPI, but there will be nothing neutral about the crowd. There are roughly 100,000 Illinois grads in the Chicago area and this place will be mostly full today. Illinois is 31-7 at the UC over the years, which includes games in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, and has won 15 of its last 16 here.
The Illini may be without starting C Shaun Pruitt, which means coach Bruce Weber may have to go with a dough nut lineup. Pruitt is the only healthy, legitimate big man on the Illinois roster. Brian Carlwell hurt his knee last week, so he's out, which means that 7'1" freshman Mike Tisdale may see a lot of time. He played a career high 15 minutes and scored 8 points against Weber St last Saturday.
Pruitt's absence will be felt in this game in particular because Arizona starts two big guys, 6-foot-10 Jordan Hill and 6-foot-11 Kirk Walters, although Walters is still getting back into game shape after missing last season with mono.
Arizona coach Lute Olsen announced this week that his leave of absence will cause him to miss the entire season. He is going through a divorce with his second wife. His first wife died in 2001. Former Northwestern and Tennessee coach Kevin O'Neill is coaching the team this season.
O'Neill and Illinois coach Bruce Weber are familiar with each other from O'Neill's coaching days at NU while Weber was an assistant to Gene Keady at Purdue.
The Wildcats are ranked 22nd in the AP poll and 24th in the coaches' poll entering the game. Freshman G Jerryd Bayless is off to a good start in his college career. He is leading the team in points and assists with 19.9 and 4.9 respectively. Sophomore F Chase Budinger is averaging 18.4 per game.
Illinois offense is more balanced, with six guys averaging between 7-11 ppg. The leader is Trent Meachem at 10.9.
My seat is about five miles away in the press box across from the Illinois bench. Fortunately, I have good eyesight.
Before the game in the press room, all the talk was about the Rose Bowl. I'm one of the few people here who has been to one (Illinois hasn't been in 23 years), so there were more questions about that than basketball stuff. Illinois fans are pretty fired up about that. There's a lot of garish orange Rose Bowl gear in the house.
We're just minutes from the tip.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Though the final minutes have yet to tick away, many of the alumni faithful have already begun their mass exit after a tough defeat to the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Buckeyes fell 66-55 despite generating a 32-29 halftime lead, but in the end it was a streak of 17-straight misses from the floor that doomed them in the non-conference loss.
"We just had that 10-minute stretch in the second half where we couldn't score points." Ohio State's John Diebler said. "Against a team like that, you just can't do that."
Continue reading "No. 1 UNC Avoids Upset, Knocks Off Ohio State, 66-55" »
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- You know how I said the Buckeye faithful desperately needed something to cheer about? Well, they found it, and it was in the form of Diebler. Diebler and Lighty connected on back-to-back three-pointers to draw within eight points, then Diebler proceeded to take a breakaway all the way down the court and throw an emaphatic one-handed dunk to send the crowd into a frenzy. After the two traded buckets to draw a timeout, it's the Tar Heels 59, OSU 53 with just under four minutes left.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Bad just doesn't explain the Buckeye's shooting woes this second half. Much like in their game against Texas A&M, they can't buy a basket. Ohio State has missed it's last 17 shots from the floor this half. Yes, I said 17. Ouch.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Midway through the second half, it appears to be all UNC. The Tar Heels have come out of the half shooting the ball extremely well, while the Buckeyes have struggled to drain even the simplest of layups. With 11:31 left in the contest, UNC has a 49-40 lead.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Before I could get a chance to update my last post on Jon Diebler, he went and did it again. And then again. Ohio's leading scorer in high school drained two more treys to close out the first half, including a bank shot at the buzzer to hand the Buckeyes a 32-29 halftime lead.
Continue reading "At Halftime, It's Diebler Time: OSU 32, UNC 29" »
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- After miss firing on 31 of his first 35 shots from the floor this season, Ohio State freshman John Diebler couldn't have picked a better time to snap out of his slump. After nailing a trey to pull within one at 21-20, Diebler proceeded to fire off yet another basket on the Buckeyes' next possession, this time another deep trey on a fast break started by a Butler rebound. Instead of driving to the hoop for an easy layup, Diebler pulled up from 5-feet beyond the arc to hand Ohio State a 23-21 lead. The crowd at this arena is absolutely deafening, I've never heard it this loud before. Ever.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- What was expected to be an offensive display has been anything but in the early going of this contest. This is largely due to the fact that neither team has shot well from the floor, but especially the Buckeyes. Ohio State is shooting just 20-percent from the floor at the mid-point of the opening half.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In front of the largest crowd all season, the Buckeyes have stormed out of the opening moments of the game with great defense and solid play from sophomore David Lighty, on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Now the game is over.
Michigan State walks away with a 81-58 beat down that was never really even that close.
Here are my game awards.
Continue reading "Michigan State-N.C. State Post-game Recap" »
EAST LANSING, Mich. - There's a minute left, and the fans are filing out of the Breslin Center.
All of the starters are now out of the game for Michigan State, and the Spartans have picked up a convincing win at home in ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Well, I guess it isn't technically over yet...
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Suton just got a little too excited.
After forcing a steal on the defensive end, Suton got the ball on the wing. He rose for the dunk, but forgot to dribble before he took two quick steps to the basket.
Pretty much the only thing Suton's done wrong this game.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Izzo might be the only person in the Breslin Center still taking this game seriously.
He just called a timeout looking disgusted after N.C. State's Dennis Horner hit a wide open three pointer in the corner.
And he added another timeout with just under six minutes left after the Wolfpack just converted on a rare fastbreak after Neitzel went an even rarer 0-for-2 from the line.
It's 71-49, but that's too close for Izzo.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Tar Heels' Ty Lawson will not be in the starting lineup tonight, replaced by junior Bobby Frasor. Frasor has averaged 3.8 points this season in UNC's five wins.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State has to go and put it back out of reach.
Spartan freshman guard Chris Allen just hit a three pointer to stem the short and sweet N.C. State run. The Wolfpack had cut the 28 when Allen hit a three as the shot clock expired to extend the Michigan State lead to 31 with just more than eight minutes left.
Really, it's hard to find interesting aspects of this game at this point. N.C. State may not be as good as its 4-1 record indicates, while Michigan State may be the team to beat in the Big Ten.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Any chance the Wolfpack had at getting some momentum after the break is officially over.
N.C. State is trailing 66-35, which pretty much puts this game out of reach for the visitors from the ACC.
Still, there is 11:43 left on the clock, and Lowe's squad needs to find some cohesiveness while the Spartans tear through them even with Neitzel getting some rest on the bench.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - This is exactly the kind of game the Spartans needed from Drew Neitzel.
The star point guard isn't lighting it up on the scoreboard - he does have 13 points - but he's being the captain of the team.
He's made all of the right passes. He's pushed the ball up court and sliced the N.C. State defense in transition. And when he needs to, he'll show the flashes of the scorer he is, like when he hit a beautiful baseline floater a minute ago.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Sidney Lowe is probably trying to find some kind of positive to motivate his team at the first media timeout of the second half.
He can try this one out if he can't think of any.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Suton is pretty much doing it all for the Spartans.
After he airballed a jumper from the top of the key, he hustled and threw the ball off an N.C. State defender. Michigan State converted on the hustle play with a Neitzel three pointer, and Sidney Lowe had to take a timeout.
The Wolfpack are down 53-26 with 16:04 left in the game. This isn't going to get any better for N.C. State.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- It's been a brutal first half if you're a N.C. State fan.
Sidney Lowe's squad has 19 points at the break, seven of which came in the last four minutes. The Wolfpack trail 41-19 and were simply rattled by the speed of Michigan State and raucious environment in the Breslin Center for most of the first 20 minutes, and they allowed the Spartans to dictate the pace of play.
Michigan State has looked impressive if not dominant with 41 points on the scoreboard and a relentless transition offense.
Both Neitzel and fellow guard Travis Walton have pushed the ball whenever possible, and Suton, among others, has been the recipient of beautiful passes to convert for easy lay-ups.
Right now, Lowe has to convince the Wolfpack that they do need to dribble when they plan on moving with the ball. Turnovers, mainly in the form of traveling, have stymied any kind of flow N.C. State could establish on the offensive end.
For the Spartans, they just need to keep on doing what they're already doing. Keep up the pace and continue to pound the key and the offensive glass.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Spartans are running N.C. State out of the Breslin Center.
Suton has 14 points, the latest four coming off the fastbreak. He's simply trailing the ball and getting the dish for an easy lay-up.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It may not have the same hype as last season's No. 3 Ohio State - No. 6 UNC matchup, but make no mistake about it, this year's ACC/Big Ten Challenge clash has the potential to be yet another high scoring affair. Both teams enter with high scoring offenses, and both are led by an abundance of talented youth.
Continue reading "Bucks Look To Avenge Last Year's 98-89 Loss" »
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Hey, N.C. State finally broke into double digits.
It only took the Wolfpack 16 minutes to do it. They trail, 31-12, with 4:04 left in the half.
Oh yeah, and N.C. State was called for another traveling violation a few minutes ago. Really, it's not that hard to dribble.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Suton is simply killing N.C. State in the post.
The forward already has 10 points against an undersized Wolfpack team, and Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has kept the ball going into the paint to feed his big man.
N.C. State won't have any chance of making this a game if it can't get defensive rebounds and push Michigan State's forwards out of the key.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Apparently, the Wolfpack forget they have to dribble when they have the ball.
N.C. State has already been called for four traveling violations, and the first half is barely halfway done. Simply unacceptable when you're playing on the road, and Lowe can't be too happy about that statistic.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - I guess it could be worse for N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe.
His team has had no offensive flow. The Wolfpack haven't gotten back on the defensive end in transition. And Michigan State is getting open looks at the basket nearly every time down the court.
But...
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Good news for N.C. State. Suton finally missed after hitting his first three shots.
Bad news is the Wolfpack don't look like they have a clue out there. Maybe they're intimidated by the hostile and loud Breslin crowd, but they've taken a couple of ill-advised deep three-pointers and haven't had any open look at the basket since N.C. State took a 2-0 lead.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- At the first media timeout, Michigan State has started what has the makings of a real blowout.
The Spartans are up, 10-2, and Marquis Gray is on the line, hoping to convert an and-one attempt.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State forward Goran Suton has dominated the early minutes of this game. He's scored the first eight Spartan points of the game to give Michigan State a 8-2 lead just four minutes into the game.
The Spartans are pushing the tempo and getting out in transition, where Suton has been the recipient of several nice dishes by Neitzel and Travis Walton.
N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe was forced to call a timeout to calm his team down and get them to get back on the defensive end.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Well, it's about two minutes to tipoff, and the Breslin Center here at Michigan State is already getting pretty loud.
The crowd is filing in hoping the Spartans can put another 'w' on the board for the Big Ten this year.
Michigan State will need its floor general Drew Neitzel to have a good game and manage the flow of the ocntest in order to take care of a feisty N.C. State team.
DURHAM, N.C. -- With less than five minutes to go in the game, the crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium started a chant of "A-C-C." By that time, it was already more than clear that seventh-ranked Duke was going to continue its dominance in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on the way to a 82-58 win against No. 20 Wisconsin.
DURHAM, N.C. -- With just two and a half minutes to go and a 21-point lead, the crowd here at Cameron has started a chant of "our house" and it sure looks to be true. The Devils are just running clock now and will have an easy double-digit win. The only drama here is a Duke official asking the Crazies to return a Wisconsin shirt that a fan was forced to take off before the game started. No word on if they've located the shirt in question.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Not much really to report here in the Duke-Wisconsin game. The Blue Devils have maintained a steady 18-20 point lead throughout the entire second half, and now it looks like Coach K is trying to get some of his younger players hands-on experience running plays, as he shouts instructions from the sideline. Not that 20 points is insurmountable, but the last eight minutes of this one might be nothing more than a glorified practice for the Blue Devils.
DURHAM, N.C. -- As if the Badgers didn't have enough problems down 52-29, Brian Butch just picked up his fourth foul less than three minutes into the second half.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Apparently, Mike Krzyzewski wasn't happy with the energy at the start of the second half. During a lull one minute into the second half, Coach K stood up and waved his arms, imploring the crowd to get fired up with a shout of "Let's go!"
DURHAM, N.C. -- Just before the half, the Cameron Crazies were chanting about how the Blue Devils were doubling up the Badgers. While a few more points got scored after that, it was pretty close to being a 2-for-1 at the break.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- D.J. White had a career high 14 rebounds tonight to help IU out rebound the Yellow Jackets, 34-32. Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson said that he felt it would be important to win the rebounding battle.
IU only played seven players tonight, and one, D'Andre Thomas, only played two minutes. Eric Gordon played all 40, as the Hoosiers were shorthanded tonight at guard with an injury to A.J. Ratliff, the suspension of Jordan Crawford and an illness to Brandon McGee.
As a result, Mike White made his first appearance of the season and played 20 minutes. It had been thought that he would redshirt, but Sampson decided he needed him tonight.
Paul Hewitt talked about how pleased he was with his team's effort. He had felt that they had been inconsistent in that area. Then, he went off on a sermon on how players (not his specifically) are all about themselves. He talked about how everyone wants to play, but that they don't understand the responsibility that comes with playing. He said it was "epidemic" in the sport, and not just at this level, but at the high school and pro levels as well.
And then, he left.
My chair has been removed, so I'm typing this standing up. That's not the best thing for my carpal tunnel, so I'm headed home.
DURHAM, N.C. -- A brief unrelated-to-the-game side note here, but it appears as if Duke's hated rival, North Carolina has a couple of players in the house tonight. Football players, that is. Mike Paulus, a quarterback who redshirted this season for the Tar Heels, is the younger brother of Duke point guard Greg Paulus. And it looks like Mike brought along another UNC freshman, Greg Little. Little is keeping a low-profile, it appears, no doubt because last weekend he ran for 154 yards and two touchdowns, including a game-winning 25-yarder, to beat Duke in overtime. Meanwhile, Duke has opened up a 20-point lead with less than four minutes to go in the half.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Turnovers are starting to become a problem for the BAdgers, and Duke is quickly taking advantage. Freshman Taylor King turned an errant inbounds pass into a 3-pointer to put Duke up 33-18. A minute later, he buried another one to make it 36-18. The Badgers are starting to get back on their heels a little bit here, which is only feeding the fans' frenzy.
DURHAM, N.C. -- After a completely ridiculous blocked shot by Gerald Henderson -- he skied up to palm the top of the ball -- Greg Paulus hit a three, and then the Devils got another quick bucket to fire up the crowd here with a 25-14 lead. So far, Wisconsin has answered each time Duke looked like it was about to blow things open, so we'll see how they respond to this.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana salted away the end of the game and won, 83-79. There is no question the key stat of the game was free throws. Indiana was 28-38 from the line, while Tech was only 11-20.
Eric Gordon had 29, including 13-16 from the line to lead a sort of balanced attack for IU. D.J. White scored 18 and Lance Stelmer and Jamarcus Ellis had 15 apiece. For those of you who don't want to do the math, that's 77 of Indiana's 83 points.
Georgia Tech got 18 from Lewis Clinch and 17 each from Gani Lawal and Anthony Morrow.
It was a game effort by the Yellow Jackets, but not enough. I'll be back with any interesting post-game tidbits in a bit.
Oh, and I can't figure out how to get pictures off my phone, so I won't be able to post it. I'm so technically inept. There's never an eight-year-old around when you need one.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Wisconsin guard Trevon Hughes made a quick impact on the Blue Devils fans in the game's opening minute, burying a 3-pointer from so far away that the Crazies behind me remarked, "Man, that's J.J." -- a reference, obviously, to former Duke sharpshooter J.J. Redick. But the Blue Devils have recovered since then, despite some poor shot choices, to lead 10-7 four and a half minutes in.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A 12-4 run keyed by two Lance Stelmer threes has helped put Indiana up eight at the last media timeout. Georgia Tech's habit of losing guys on defense hurt as Stelmer sat behind the line on the wing, while the other nine players were on the other side of the floor. Twice, his teammates found him, and twice he buried the shot.
Gordon is up to 21 points, but once again, other than the dunk in the first half, it's a quiet 21. Part of the reason for that is because he gets to the line so much. He has eight points there.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The last four minutes of basketball here at Indiana were not what you would call elegant.
In one sequence, Jeremis Smith of Georgia Tech fumbled the ball out of bounds going up for a fast break layup. Then, Jamarcus Ellis walked off the spot on the throw in to turn it back over. Tech gave it right back and the Hoosiers' Mike White missed a breakaway layup by about 10 feet. Another Tech turnover and another Hoosier miss on the fast break was followed by Gani Lawal bricking a layup. Then, when Tech finally got to the line, D'Andre Bell nearly airballed a free throw.
Two Jamarcus Ellis free throws and a runner in the lane have given IU a 56-54 lead at the eight-minute timeout. If that kid ever learns to pass, he'll be pretty good. However, Ellis just picked up his fourth foul.
DURHAM, N.C. -- We're almost ready for tipoff at Cameron Indoor Stadium in a battle of two unbeaten teams, Duke and Wisconsin, in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Blue Devils have never lost a game in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, but they could have their hands full with the Badgers.
Wisconsin is 5-0 for the first time in coach Bo Ryan's seven years at the helm (perhaps because of Ryan's uncanny ability to crank dat).
In the first four games of the season, the Badgers have had seven different players score at least 10 points in a game, which will make things challenging for a Duke defense that is coming off a win in which it held Eastern Kentucky to 12 first-half points.
Duke's freshmen big men will also have to keep the Badgers off the glass. Wisconsin has a plus-16.6 per game rebounding edge so far this year. But it will take more than just winning the rebound battle to keep the Blue Devils from staying perfect -- both on the season and in this annual battle of conferences.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A foul has been called on Eric Gordon (say it isn't SO!) and the MBF chant has started up at Indiana. Actually, I think they are saying something else.
The game has gone a bit back and forth since the last timeout. Georgia Tech is about to go to the line leading by one. Both teams are shooting much better this half. Tech is 7-for-11, while IU is 3-for-6 so far. The Yellow Jackets already have seven fouls, though, so IU will shoot the rest of the way. The Hoosiers already have a 13-shot advantage at the line.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Georgia Tech has scored the first seven points of the second half and has taken the crowd out of the game for now. The Yellow Jackets lead, 41-38, at the first timeout.
Coming back out onto the floor, I had to limbo past the band because the trombones sit in the front row. That was going fine until the started going up and down during the fight song. I managed to get away unscathed, but I would have loved explaining that one at the hospital. As an old band jock, I should know better.
The students in front of us have been standing for the whole game, but these three girls like to stand on the bench instead of the floor. Twice an usher has come to tell them to get down. Last time, it was an elderly woman who was pretty stern with them. The girls all had a look on their face like they had been scolded by their grandmother. But, they have stayed on the floor.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana finished the first half on a 20-8 run to go up 38-34 at the break. D.J. White got a layup with 2 seconds left for the last bucket.
Gordon has 11 points and White 14 to lead Indiana. Georgia Tech is paced by 10 each from Lewis Clinch and Gani Lawal.
While Indiana is doing a MUCH better job finding White in the set offense tonight, Gordon is having problems making the connection. He has four turnovers on bad passes directed at White. I don't have turnover stats yet, but I bet the numbers were high.
The teams aren't shooting overly well either. Indiana is at 44.4 percent, which isn't too bad, but Tech is only shooting 40 percent. IU switched to a zone for the last four minutes, and the Yellow Jackets had trouble finding the openings like they were earlier in the half.
Back with the second half in a bit, and I'm going to try to figure out how to post a picture.
BLOOMINGTON, In. -- Bad news for Georgia Tech. Eric Gordon is getting hot. Matt Causey overplayed a pass to Gordon, but didn't get there in time, and Gordon dribbled in for an electrifying dunk that got the crowd roaring. A Jamarcus Ellis 3 then gave the Hoosiers their first lead in a while. Gordon beat Tech down the floor for a layup and now IU is up 33-29 at the last timeout of the half. The current IU run is 15-3.
Gordon now has 11 points to go with White's 10.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Eric Gordon's step back three and breakaway layup were sandwiched around a Lance Stelmer putback to give Indiana a 7-0 run and pull them within one.
Tech has a tendency to lose a guy on defense and IU is starting to do a better job of finding that guy.
Lawal of Georgia Tech is killing the Hoosiers inside with ten points, but he's on the bench right now.
A three ball by Lewis Clinch, his third of the half, has put GT back up, 29-25, at the eight-minute timeout.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- It turns out I don't really need my chair anyway. With the students standing right in front of us, we need to stand to see. We also can't hear the PA where we sit, and the scoreboard is a bit slow, so figuring out who a foul is on isn't always easy if you don't see it. That's especially true at the other end of the floor.
On the court, Eric Gordon missed his first two shots, but has a couple of free throws. The Hoosiers have found DJ White in the offense today and it shows. He's getting open with ease on the inside and has nine points already.
Georgia Tech is also getting good looks inside. Gani Lawal already has a couple of dunks. He also has a couple of blocks off the bench.
It's 17-13 Tech with 11:10 left in the half.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- This game is off to a sloppy start. It's tied at four at the first timeout. Indiana already has five turnovers by my count, and at least three of them are for carrying the ball. Tech hasn't turned it over quite as much but has missed several shots.
DJ White has had his hands on the ball more and has a basket for IU. Aminu and Smith have both scored for Tech and Aminu goes to the line when we restart.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- I'm coming to you tonight from Indiana's Assembly Hall, but if you look for me on TV, you probably won't recognize me. I'm in disguise. I'm afraid I'm too well known as a Purdue fan.
I've lived in Indiana for a long time but have never been in this facility. It's a strange place. It seats just over 17,000, but nearly all the seats are on the sides of the court. The seating area looks like some sort of inverted saddle. There are only about 1000 or so seats total behind the baskets, and the pep band takes up one section.
I climbed up to the top of the balcony to see what those seats are like, and they're pretty high. If you have ever watched a game in a dome, it's about like being halfway up an upper deck in a dome. I took a picture, which if I can figure out how to post, I will.
I also went to the top row of the lower deck, which is tucked under the balcony. Those are actually worse seats, even though they are a little closer because the balcony hangs down too far.
It's the kind of place where I would normally question the sobriety of the designers, but the upper deck ushers told me the place was designed by the Army Corps of Engineers at Bobby Knight's request.
My seat tonight is behind the basket Indiana will shoot at in the first half, directly behind and below the 1987 national championship banner. The press row here is right up against the wall. It's so tight, that I can barely get into my chair if I pull it out to the wall. When I tuck my chair in, I almost don't fit between the back of it and the wall. And I'm not a particularly big guy.
Fortunately, there are plans to replace this facility. It has pretty much outlived its usefulness.
On to the game. Indiana is looking to rebound from a loss to Xavier in the Chicago Challenge last weekend. In that game, Eric Gordon scored 20, but only shot 4-12 from the floor as Stanley Burrell frustrated him all night with his tight defense. Indiana is going to have to get DJ White more involved in their set offense against better teams. That did not happen in Chicago this weekend.
Georgia Tech went 2-1 at the Paradise Jam last week, beating Charlotte and Notre Dame, sandwiched around a loss to Winthrop. Senior Anthony Morrow leads the team in scoring at 19 points per game and is shooting over 48 percent from long range. The front court tandem of Alade Aminu and Jeremis Smith is also very productive, and they will have to have a good game for the Yellow Jackets to have a chance.
This game is part of the annual ACC smackdown of the Big Ten. This is the ninth year of the ACC-Big Ten challenge, and the Big Ten is a big 0-8.
We just had the national anthem, and when I stood up, I about fell over my chair because it stopped, but I didn't.
I was just handed a note that IU freshman guard Jordan Crawford has been suspended three games for violating team rules. Crawford doesn't start, but averages 25 minutes a game backing up Armon Bassett (mostly) and Gordon. He's been averaging 12.6 points per game, so that could be trouble tonight or in the Hoosiers' next game at Southern Illinois.
We're five minutes from the tip, but the crowd is very slow to arrive. I've been told it's a sellout, but it'd say only 2/3 of the seats are full. The student sports information intern sitting by me says IU has a typically late-arriving crowd.
CHICAGO -- Xavier completed the upset, winning, 80-65. CJ Anderson led Xavier in scoring with 19, 12 in the second half. BJ Raymond also had 19.
Eric Gordon had 20 from Indiana but was only 4-for-12 from the field. He was 12-for-12 from the line. DJ White had 16.
As a team, Indiana was a woeful 1-for-15 from three-point range on the evening. Xavier wasn't a whole lot better at 4-for-13.
Gordon, White, Anderson and Josh Duncan were on the All-Tournament Team, and Anderson, who doesn't start for Xavier, was named the MVP. How Burrell wasn't on it is beyond me. He defended Gordon about as well as he will be defended all year.
The Musketeers are accepting their trophy, which is a big cup. The Xavier radio guys next to me, especially Larkin, are pretty excited.
This is a big win for Xavier's at-large tournament hopes. It'll be a real feather in their cap come selection Sunday, and might make the committee folks look the other way at that Miami (Ohio) loss.
That's a wrap from Chicago. Time for some good pizza.
CHICAGO -- Indiana is running out of time, and now, thankfully, they are out of timeouts also. So is Xavier, so maybe the last two minutes won't be as slow as usual. IU is pressing and fouling, trying to get back in, but they still trail by 11 with 2:05 to go.
The result is in doubt only if Xavier can't hit their free throws, which hasn't been a given so far.
CHICAGO -- We have come to the last TV timeout and Indiana isn't closing the gap any. Eric Gordon is scoring, albeit from the free throw line, but Xavier has the answer at the other end. The Muskies are still beating IU down the floor and getting good shots inside. And if they could hit a free throw, this would really be ugly.
DJ White just picked up his fourth foul right before the time out as Josh Duncan hit another layup for Xavier. He'll be at the line when we resume.
CHICAGO -- C.J. Anderson is having a big second half for Xavier with nine points and is causing all kinds of havoc in the paint. With D.J. White backing off some because of foul trouble, Anderson has gotten to the hole with ease and would have more if he could hit a free throw.
Derrick Brown just fouled out taking a charge from Eric Gordon that was called a block on him, so Gordon will go to the line when we get back on the floor. It's 62-49 Xavier with 6:41 to go.
CHICAGO -- Xavier is getting the game played at their pace, which is a bit up and down, and they still lead, 56-43. Eric Gordon is forcing shots and forcing action where it isn't there, and that isn't helping the Hoosiers. D.J. White is being less aggressive in the post trying to avoid his fourth foul, so Xavier is getting some put back chances and taking advantage.
Luke Stempler of Indiana became the third player to pick up his fourth foul since the start of the half. Stempler came in when DeAndre Thomas picked up his fourth foul a few minutes ago.
CHICAGO -- Two guys have picked up their fourth fouls, but neither were D.J. White or Eric Gordon. DeAndre Thomas got his almost immediately after my last post, and Xavier's Derrick Brown picked up two quick ones to give him four.
White and Gordon are trying to bring the Hoosiers back, but Xavier keeps breaking down the IU defense for easy shots. Xavier still leads by 10 at the first TV timeout.
CHICAGO -- Marlen Garcia and I have a bet on who gets their fourth foul first, Eric Gordon or D.J. White.
Right before the half, the ref came over by where we're sitting with the ball and was chatting with a couple of kids. They asked him about his Thanksgiving and where he lived and all that, and he let them hold the ball for a minute. When it was time to get ready, he told the kids, "Now, you can yell at the other two all you want."
DeAndre Thomas just picked up his third foul in the first ten seconds of the half, and Marlen says, "We should have put money on DeAndre."
Note, no actual money is going to change hands.
The IU cheerleaders came out during a Xavier timeout and seem a little more pleading with their cheers. The IU fans aren't responding much.
CHICAGO -- The Hoosiers are hurting at the half, down, 40-29, to Xavier. B.J. Raymond hit a 15-footer at the horn to finish the scoring in the first half. With two second left, Indiana finally passed the ball in to D.J. White on the blocks, but he was called for an offensive foul, his third. He joins Gordon with three, and that could be a problem the entire second half.
After Gordon went out, IU struggled a bit. They scored on their first two possessions, but only scored twice after that. Their offense looks a lot like last night's -- pass the ball around the perimeter and hope a guard hits a shot. The problem is that Gordon isn't there to take the shot.
We were just entertained by the Shamrox Girls dance team. IU fans didn't seem too entertained.
Raymond leads Xavier with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including 2-of-4 from long range. Josh Duncan and Drew Lavender have six each, and Lavender has six assists.
White is Indiana's leading scorer with 10, all of which he created for himself. He also has seven boards. Gordon has four on 1-of-6 shooting. Burrell really harassed him into a frustrating half. Jamarcus Ellis has six points for the Hoosiers and Armon Bassett has five.
CHICAGO -- Xavier switched to a zone as soon as Eric Gordon went out of the game with mixed results. Indiana scored twice quickly to cut the lead to one, but Xavier responded with a little 6-2 run where they just beat the Hoosiers down the floor on offense. The Muskies lead, 31-26, with 2:39 to go in the first half.
The cheerleaders seem unperturbed by these developments. Their level of peppiness never changes.
CHICAGO -- The foul on Eric Gordon that I mentioned in the last post was his second. On the first possession after the timeout, he picked up his third, so he's going to sit the last seven minutes of this half. He has four points so far.
DeAndre Thomas is back in for IU and he has two fouls.
CHICAGO -- A track meet has broken out at the Sears Centre. In the last two minutes, there have been three dunks and a driving layup as we continue to go back and forth. Right now Indiana leads, 20-19, but by the time I'm done typing this, I'm sure it'll change.
There was a call against Xavier that Muskie radio analyst and former player Bryan Larkin didn't agree with and he was waving his arm in disgust. The call was a block on a drive by Eric Gordon to the hoop. They just called a charge on Gordon on the same kind of play and he threw up his arms in celebration. I may need a seatbelt before the night's over.
Oh, look, a Xavier tip and a three, and it's 24-20 Xavier at the eight-minute timeout.
CHICAGO -- This has been a hard-fought game, and things are getting a little feisty. The refs have had to talk to players twice already to calm things down.
Xavier and Indiana are tied at 12, and Eric Gordon isn't on the board yet. Stanley Burrell is doing a good job frustrating him, but he's out of the game at the moment.
D.J. White is being ignored by his teammates on the offensive end still, so he's creating his own offense. He has five points on two putbacks and a free throw.
Xavier guard Drew Lavender, who transferred from Oklahoma, where he used to play for Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson has been forcing things a bit and needs to settle down.
CHICAGO -- A team of surgeons has been called in to try to figure out the problem with the net. I think Hugh Laurie has been spotted.
Meanwhile, I went back for some pizza in the media room. My friend, USA Today Sportswriter and food critic, Marlen Garcia, warned me that it was bad, and she's right. It was awful. Now, we're in Chicago (or close enough). To get bad pizza around here, it almost has to be a goal. There needs to be a task force, meetings, etc. to get something like that done. I can't even make bad pizza, and I can't cook anything tougher than Spaghettio's. Maybe it's imported from Canada. Or New York.
Hey! In the time it took me to write that, they fixed the net, the teams went through a couple of minutes of layup lines, and we're ready to restart the game.
CHICAGO -- Xavier's Derrick Brown just electrified the crowd and damaged the basket with rim-rattling dunk on a fast break to give the Muskies a 4-3 lead. He also got fouled and will go to the line when they fix the net.
IU is manhandling Xavier's smaller front line inside. D.J. White and DeAndre Thomas are throwing their weight around and getting almost any rebound they want.
Stanley Burrell has been given the assignment of guarding Eric Gordon, and so far, he's kept him out of the score book. Of course, we're only three minutes in.
CHICAGO -- The starting lineups are about to be introduced, but the crowd is now here and ready. It's about the same size as last night's crowd, but most of them must be drinking. There is a bit of eau de frat house in the atmosphere.
When Indiana's cheerleaders come out to lead the team on to the floor, they run their big flags down to where the other team warms up and wave them behind their basket. Then, the girls run out with the little flags that spell "Indiana" and do a couple of laps around the other team while they're warming up. I bet that goes over real well. The other team is probably coming up with places they'd like to stick those flags.
Armon Basset is in the lineup for Indiana tonight. He injured his foot last night and there was some concern he might not play today.
The tip is moments away.
CHICAGO -- Kent State finished off Illinois State, 65-59. Without seeing a stat sheet, I'll guess that ISU shot worse and took care of the ball worse. The Redbirds had some moments, but the Flashes were more consistent and that's why they come away with the victory. I'll try to get some stats.
Indiana is taking the floor to warm up, wearing their usual candy striper pants. All they need is those little, paper nurses hats and their costumes would be complete.
Xavier has also entered the arena and started playing a game of hot potato.
Indiana was all Eric Gordon last night, and that's been the case all year. I'm not sure if Xavier has a guy who can check him all night, but I think it behooves the Hoosiers to get DJ White more involved. He was a cipher last night because his teammates ignored him, preferring to play one-on-one ball.
Xavier played well when it played hard last night, but that was only in spurts. The Musketeers will need a full 40-minute effort to stay with IU.
All of a sudden, a Wisconsin football game has broken out. The PA is now exhorting us to jump around. Apparently this crowd does not follow instructions well. We probably won't even have a decent wave.
CHICAGO -- Indiana beat Illinois State, 70-57, and will move on to play Xavier tomorrow night in the championship game of the Chicago Challenge.
Eric Gordon was terrific, scoring 31 points, although his shooting, as well as his shot selection, tailed off in the second half. The only other Hoosier in double figures was Jordan Crawford with 13.
DJ White never really got into the flow of this game and looked a bit lost out there at times. It seems like he's still trying to figure out how to play with his new superstar teammate.
Illinois St was led by Levi Dyer's 18 points and Anthony Slack's 13. Gordon held Osiris Eldridge to seven on 3-of-11 shooting as he was never really a factor. If I can get some quotes or other telling stats, I will, but that kind of thing is hard to come by here.
I'll be back tomorrow night with the consolation and championship games. And a sweater.
CHICAGO -- It looks like the Redbirds have finally run out of gas trying to keep up with Indiana. They have missed several shots in a row from the floor and are getting beat to most of the loose balls now. Indiana has stretched the lead to 11 with 2:33 to play.
CHICAGO -- If Illinois State could just hit a free throw, they would be in this game. The Redbirds are only 9-for-20 from the line, which doesn't count the missed opportunities from missing the front end of a one-and-one.
Gordon just hit a turnaround jumper from about 18 feet to put IU back up nine.
CHICAGO -- Levi Dyer is all set to star in those Southwest Airlines commericals after the last sequence. First, he airballed a wide open three-pointer that would have cut the lead to one. He's a pretty decent three-point shooter otherwise. Then, on the next possession, Boo Richardson stole the ball and fed the 6-foot-11 Dyer as he went down the lane before missing the dunk.
In spite of that, ISU still trails by only four.
CHICAGO -- After a sloppy first seven minutes of the second half, which saw the teams trading mistakes as often as points, Eric Gordon woke everybody up with a drive and authoritative dunk to put the Hoosiers back up 11.
Illinois St is trying to run a motion offense, but Indiana's athleticism is making it tough for them to find good shots. Indiana isn't really running much of an offense at all. They dribble (mostly) and pass the ball around the perimeter, before someone finally makes a one-on-one move and gets a shot. Eventually, the Hoosiers will face a team that will require them to be more disciplined, but Illinois St is probably not that team.
IU leads 50-42 at the 12 minute timeout.
CHICAGO -- Eric Gordon is definitely the star of this game, but he has about as quiet a 20 points as someone can score in one half. He hasn't been so much spectacular as he has been methodical. His most electrifying play of the half was a pass to DJ White after he drove the lane.
Gordon is 8-for-11 from the floor, including 2-for-2 from three-point range and the Hoosiers lead, 38-28, at the half.
Levi Dyer and Anthony Slack have eight points each to lead Illinois State.
I need to find some coffee.
CHICAGO -- Brandon Holtz, Levi Dyer, and Osiris Eldridge all scored in an Illinois St 8-0 run to cut the Indiana lead to five at the last timeout of the first half. Gordon and Armon Basset both forced bad shots at the IU end to help give ISU some momentum.
ISU fans are taunting Gordon with cheers and chants about him reneging on a commitment to Illinois, but so far, none of them have been particularly clever.
CHICAGO -- Eric Gordon is starting to take over. It's not spectacular, but he's beating the Redbirds down the floor and either scoring or getting fouled. He's on a personal nine-point run and has staked the Hoosiers to a 30-17 lead with six minutes left.
Gordon is also starring on the defensive end. He's guarding Osiris Eldridge, and he's been shut out so far.
CHICAGO -- No sooner did I mention that DJ White had not been a factor, then Indiana came out of the timeout and focused on pounding it inside. Three straight possessions, the Hoosiers got it into White in the post, and that resulted in a turnover, a bucket and an assist. Indiana now leads, 21-16, at the eight-minute timeout.
CHICAGO -- Illinois State is still hanging around at the second timeout. Indiana leads, 15-11, behind Eric Gordon's six points. DJ White has yet to be a factor in the game.
Levi Dyer has five off the bench for the Redbirds.
The guy next to me committed a media foul by knocking the draping off our table trying to plug in his computer. That left us feeling exposed. I was very concerned that people watching on TV might see that my shoes were untied. Fortunately, maintenance fixed it at the timeout. I think the net is still a problem, though.
CHICAGO -- Indiana started DeAndre Thomas tonight, a JUCO transfer from Chicago. They list him at 6-foot-8, 295 pounds, but there's no chance he was less than 320. This kid redefines "filling the lane." The game notes mention that he lost 59 pounds in the offesason.
He has two points and a steal as Indiana leads, 8-2, at the first timeout.
I'm also pleased to report that Indiana brought their cheerleaders.
We now return you to round-the-clock coverage of Eric Gordon (4 points).
CHICAGO -- Indiana takes on Illinois State in the nightcap at the Sears Centre, where the have apparently left the doors open, because it's cold and drafty.
The Hoosiers feature freshman phenom Eric Gordon, who is averaging 28 points per game to start the season, but I'm a big fan of C DJ White (well, as much of a fan of an IU player as a Purdue grad can be). White is short for a center, but at 250 pounds, he's a load to defend in the paint.
Illinois State is my sleeper pick in the Valley. They have a new coach in Tim Jankovich and most of last year's team back. They are led by last year's MVC Freshman of the Tear, Osiris Eldridge.
IU should win easily, but you never know.
NEW YORK -- Mark Turgeon came to New York City this week and got exactly what he wanted.
The Aggies are going home as winners of the 2007 NIT Season Tip-off after demolishing Ohio State, 70-47, and the Buckeyes never had a shot in this one after failing to score for the first 12 minutes of the second half. That drought was due to some quality defense from Mark Turgeon's squad, along with some poor shooting from the Buckeyes, who shot a lowly 24.6 percent from the game. And in looking at OSU's shooting after halftime, it's even uglier, with Thad Matta's team making just 5 of 28 shots for a pathetic 17.9 percent in the second half. Three-point shooting wasn't much better with OSU, shooting the ball from deep at a 19-percent clip.
Here's the All Tournament Team that was announced following the Aggies' championship win:
Donte Green - Syracuse
Kosta Koufos - Ohio State
Jamar Butler - Ohio State
DeAndre Jordan - Texas A&M
Joseph Jones - Texas A&M*
*named Most Outstanding Player
I'll have some more commentary on both games in Hang Time, so make sure to check there for more tournament coverage, but until then, here are some key points from tonight's championship game:
-For as poorly as Ohio State played and shot the ball from the perimeter, senior point guard Jamar Butler led all scorers with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting. The Lima, Ohio, native was clearly the one bright spot for the Buckeyes, playing a well-rounded game with three assists, three rebounds and three steals in 32 minutes of action.
-Kosta Koufos was the other Buckeye to score in double figures with 10, but the freshman from Canton, Ohio, never looked comfortable going up against the powerful frontcourt that Texas A&M possesses with both center DeAndre Jordan and forward Joseph Jones.
-The Aggies had four scorers in double figures for the game, with sophomore Derrick Roland topping the state sheet at 15 points. The 6-foot-4 guard really started to light it up in the second half, finishing 6-of-8 from the floor and 3-of-4 from three despite only playing 16-plus minutes tonight.
-Jordan and Jones were two of the other double-digit scorers for Texas A&M, as each scored 10 and 11, respectively, but managed to be even bigger factors on the glasses with 15 rebounds between the two. The Aggies really controlled the boards all night long, outrebounding the Buckeyes, 47-32, for the game.
-Freshman forward Nathan Walkup, a top 150 recruit from the Class of 2007, had a solid game for A&M, contributing 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from three in just 13-plus minutes.
NEW YORK -- Texas A&M has put it on cruise control here at the Garden, as it looks like Thad Matta and Ohio State have conceded this one, bringing in reserves like Dallas Lauderdale, P.J. Hill, Eric Wallace and Matt Terwilliger.
Mark Turgeon's team is up by 30 with three minutes to go in this one, and the Aggies can celebrate all the way back to College Station, Texas, after beating two quality teams in Washington and Ohio State on the big stage of New York City.
NEW YORK -- Despite being up by 16 with 11 minutes left to go, no one in particular has really stood out for No. 16 Texas A&M in tonight's championship game against unranked Ohio State.
Freshman forward Nathan, though, has started to found his groove from the three-point line along with Derrick Roland as the Aggies have run up on the Buckeyes now, leading 54-30 with 9:29 remaining.
Kosta Koufos hasn't been able to get any of his shots from the perimeter to go down, and the Canton, Ohio, native hasn't challenged DeAndre Jordan or Joseph Jones much in the post.
NEW YORK -- The second half of our championship game has gotten started at Madison Square Garden, and No. 16 Texas A&M has run out to a nine-point lead, 36-25, within the first couple minutes of the game.
Josh Carter has just hit a three-pointer from the left sideline to extend the Aggies' leadto 38-26, and Thad Matta has been forced to take a timeout with his team down by its biggest deficit of 12.
Kosta Koufos has really been absent in our first 23 minutes of action after having a stellar 24-point performance against No. 21 Syracuse on Wednesday night in the semifinals.
Jamar Butler has continued to be the one guy that the Buckeyes can count on right now, and if I'm Matta, I'm calling a play for my point guard out of this timeout to get OSU back on the right track.
NEW YORK -- No. 16 Texas A&M is seeing just how tough of an opponent Ohio State really is, as the Aggies have gone up by three, 23-20, with four minutes left in the first half.
Both teams have taken a break in the action, and while I'm looking at the crowd, I'm noticing that this finals matchup between two pretty good ball clubs sure didn't attract any more fans than the first game. It's certainly a disappointing way to end the tournament with a quarter-full arena, but with a 7 p.m. ET start time and today being the biggest day of the year for Christmas shopping, it's understandable that not more have made their way to Madison Square Garden to witness this tintillating contest.
NEW YORK -- Press conferences from the consolation game between No. 21 Syracuse and Washington ran a little long as usual, but we're courtside again to see No. 16 Texas A&M and Ohio State battle in the finals of the NIT Season Tip-off.
The first half between the Aggies and Buckeyes has been closely contested, as both teams have gone back and forth with the lead. But Jamar Butler is the one player who has seemed to find his rhythm early from the perimeter, knocking down two threes to put his team up by two, 17-15, with just less than seven minutes remaining.
The Texas A&M dance team has taken the floor once again after a few appearances during Wednesday night's semifinal game against Washington, and they're dancing at center court to "We've Got The Funk" with their pom-poms. Interesting choice with the song by the Texas A&M pep band conductor.
NEW YORK -- Ohio State has pulled off what some might consider an upset in handing No. 21 Syracuse a 79-65 loss here at the Garden, but from the way the Buckeyes played tonight, I would put money on Thad Matta's team being ranked in the Top 25 starting next week.
But first we'll have to see how they play Friday in the finals against No. 16 Texas A&M in a game that will feature plenty of frontcourt power between the Aggies' DeAndre Jordan and Joseph Jones and OSU's Kosta Koufos and Othello Hunter.
I'll have plenty more commentary in Hang Time, but before that, I'll leave you with a few quick nuggets from this exciting second semifinal:
-As Jim Boeheim repeated several times in his post-game press conference, Syracuse really struggled shooting the ball from the perimeter all night. Jonny Flynn finished the game with a big goose egg on 0-for-6 shooting from the field, and the Orangemen shot just 36.2 percent from the field and a measley 20 percent from three-point range.
-A couple questions posed to Boeheim during the post-game press conference got the Syracuse coach a little ticked off. When one reporter asked, "You guys missed 20 threes today. Do you think that NBA three-point line had anything to do with that, forcing some shots?" Boeheim responded with this:
"Yeah, it must have been too big. It must have been getting in our way. When lines on the court have something to with what you're doing, you've got real problems."
Following another question, one reporter asked Boeheim, "Do you think being in Madison Square Garden had any effect on the young players playing, particularly Jonny Flynn?" to which the Syracuse coach offered:
"I didin't take psychology courses in college, so I don't know. I cannot answer that. I'm not qualified to answer that question. It didn't seem to bother Koufos at all."
In hearing those answers, it was pretty clear that the Boeheim was ready to leave, but the questions kept coming, and the 32-year coach did everything he could to answer them as quickly and thoroughly as possible before stepping down from the podium.
-Despite shooting 45 percent from the field and an impressive 48.3 percent from beyond the arc, Ohio State was outrebounded, 45-36, by Syracuse, which saw both Donte Greene and Paul Harris tally double-figure rebounds for the Orange. Greene, in particular, had a quality game at both ends of the floor, dropping in a team-high 21 points and grabbing 10 boards.
-Thad Matta was really pleased with the way his team played tonight, praising his entire team while most of the reporters filling the press conference room continued to spew out questions on Kosta Koufos, who looked like the best player out on the floor in just his third collegiate game, finishing with a game-high 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting and nine rebounds.
NEW YORK -- Syracuse fans are already heading for the exits with 3:50 remaining, and it looks like unranked Ohio State is going to upset the No. 21 team in the country to advance to the NIT Season Tip-off finals against No. 16 Texas A&M on Friday night.
Kosta Koufos has really been the difference at both ends of the floor, shooting the ball well from the perimeter and finding openings in Jim Boeheim's patented 3-2 zone to get easy dunks and putbacks under the hoop.
Syracuse has gone to a full court trap in order to force Ohio State into some careless turnovers, but it doesn't seem to be working right now as the Buckeyes lead, 76-65, at the three-minute mark.
NEW YORK -- The Syracuse faithful that has filled the Garden tonight is starting to get a little uneasy with the No. 21-ranked Orangmen falling behind big, 67-52, to unranked Ohio State with eight minutes remaining in our second semifinal.
And while Ohio State became the second team earlier this month to lose to a Division II team in an exhibition game at home (a 70-68 defeat to Findlay), the Buckeyes sure don't look like the same team that they did back on Nov. 6. Jamar Butler, in particular, has been impressive all game, knocking down shots from three after scoring five points in the first half.
Jim Boeheim's team, meanwhile, has been as cold as ice from the perimeter despite getting some good looks from the corner and wing spots. Syracuse is going to need to make a run very soon if it wants to have any chance of winning this game.
NEW YORK -- We're five minutes into the second half between No. 21 Syracuse and Ohio State, and the Buckeyes are holding on to a 50-44 lead at the moment.
Kosta Koufos is continuing to dominate the paint for OSU, while Syracuse has been settling for perimeter jumpers for most of the night while it's frontcourt seems to have disappeared.
And after shooting just 43.3 percent in the first half, getting easy baskets down low and in transition is going to tell the tale for the Orangemen in this second half if they hope to make a comeback and advance to the finals against No. 16 Texas A&M.
NEW YORK -- The pace is picking up between No. 21 Syracuse and Ohio State, as both teams are forcing each other into mistakes and fast breaks in this high-scoring affair.
Thad Matta's Buckeyes are staying right with a young yet talented opponent, leading 42-34 at halftime, but one of the biggest factors for Syracuse has been the inabliity of freshman point guard Jonny Flynn to get on track in this first half.
Ohio State freshmen Kosta Koufos and Jon Diebler, meanwhile, are two of the biggest reasons why the Buckeyes are staying in front right now, and senior point guard Jamar Butler has done a solid job of taking care of the ball and the game for Matta.
Koufos, for one, has been dominating at the outset, leading both teams with 15 points and three rebounds, but Donte Greene has been almost as good for Syracuse, tallying 12 points and grabbing three boards in 15-plus minutes of action.
NEW YORK -- Seven-foot freshman center Kosta Koufos is slowly starting to take over this game, knocking down a three-pointer in the right corner and then coming back with a three-point play on a lob from fellow teammate Jon Diebler.
Diebler, also a freshman, has looked active for Thad Matta and company, sparking the offense with dribble penetration and crashing the boards along with freshman guard-forward combo Evan Turner.
With just less than four minutes remaining before halftime, it's the Buckeyes who are controlling this one, 33-28.
NEW YORK -- We're midway through the first half of our second game tonight, and it's No. 21 Syracuse who is holding a 18-13 lead over last year's NCAA runner-up Ohio State.
And while I'm pearing over my computer to watch this game, it's interesting to note the drastic differences in coaching styles between OSU's Thad Matta and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim.
At one end of the court, you have Matta, who's as animated and fiery as ever and has already received a coaches box warning -- one of the principles set out in the NCAA's new bench decorum rules this year.
And at the other end, there's Boeheim, the 32-year head coach, with his hands behind his back, cool, calm and collected, never getting himself too much in a tizzy over any one particular play or call from the officials.
And with eight minutes remaining here before halftime, it's now Ohio State that's taken over the lead with a 25-22 advantage as we take a timeout.
NEW YORK -- With press conferences from the first game taking a little longer than expected, we're underway here in Game #2 at Madison Square Garden, and it's No. 21 Syracuse leading Ohio State early, 10-7, with 16 minutes to go in the first half.
Kosta Koufos has knocked down a jumper from the top of the key and has the Buckeyes staying with the Orangemen, but two misses from the free throw from David Lighty has OSU trailing in the early going of this thrilling semifinal matchup.
The Syracuse faithful has shown up in big numbers tonight to support their Orangemen, while Ohio State has brought its cheerleading squad and pep band into the The World's Most Famous Arena.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Luc Mbah a Moute hit a three from the corner with 28.6 seconds left to give UCLA the lead.
Drew Neitzel missed his three-point attempt with 11 seconds left and now Michigan State is reduced to fouling.
The Bruins who looked unimpressive for most of the game got hot at the right time and showed they had the toughness to gut out the victory.
UCLA is up, 68-65, and is looking to hold on to that score for the victory. Michigan State didn't play a bad game or make mistakes. UCLA just finally got their shots to fall. It only took 35 minutes, but it happened.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Michigan State looked to have the game in hand, then Kevin Love gets a three-point play and UCLA gets a steal and a breakway dunk. The game is tied, and if I'm Tom Izzo, I want the ball in Drew Neitzel's hands.
Josh Shipp is guarding Neitzel, who misses the three. It's UCLA ball with 55.5 seconds left, and UCLA coach Ben Howland just called a timeout. If you are UCLA, do you give the ball to Shipp or do you send it into Love to put up the shot and try and draw the foul?
I would go with Love.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As soon as UCLA ties up the game, it has a shot-clock violation, and Michigan State gets a two-handed jam by Marquis Gray. Then Gray commits his first foul of the game.
Lorenzo Mata-Real shoots two from the line for UCLA and gets nothing. Michigan State takes a timeout up two and with the ball.
My money is on getting the ball to Drew Neitzel, possibly off a double screen. And what do they do!!! Neitzel for a killer three, but Kevin Love answers with a field goal and the foul.
63-60 Michigan State.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- UCLA had a chance to pull within one, but Russell Westbrook and his artistic mohawk missed the free throw after the made basket and foul.
Michigan State got the lead back to four after Drew Naymick hit a 17-footer. Westbrook drove the lane and got the foul and has pulled UCLA to within two. Michigan State hasn't broken down defensively at all, and UCLA's shots have just started falling. Westbrook just stole the ball and tied the game.
Strap in folks.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Michigan State has a never-ending supply of guys over 6-foot-8 that can guard Kevin Love. They may not seem like they are doing the job considering he has 18 points, but it could have been a lot worse.
Love has had to work for every single one of those 18 points. UCLA has settled into a rythm and is looking better, and then they give up a hook shot to Idong Ibok, who then blocks a shot at the other end.
Michigan State is keeping the the lead in control at six points. Ibok has just fouled out, so bring in the next big guy, Izzo.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Both teams have started to trade baskets. Drew Neitzel is starting to take his open looks, but the bad news for the Spartans is that Josh Shipp is starting to hit his shots.
Shipp has 16 points and has pushed the Bruins to within four at 48-44. Other than Kevin Love and Shipp, UCLA hasn't had much offensive production.
Michigan State has had players in all the right spots, much like Marquis Gray, who was there to put back Drew Neitzel's airball with one second left on the shot clock. Lorenzo Mata-Real answered to keep UCLA hot, but Josh Shipp just committed his third foul wth 10:40 left.
Now the question is, will Ben Howland sit Shipp with three fouls? Who else will step up offensively for UCLA? Michigan State seems to have an answer for everything UCLA throws at them. The way that Tom Izzo has been rotating his big men has been impressive.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- UCLA has gotten hot. Two straight dunks, one by Josh Shipp and Alfred Aboya, has pulled UCLA to within five of Michigan State.
Drew Naymick had an answer, though, with a baby hook. Kevin Love is looking like a bull in a China shop right now. That guy is a wrecking ball in the lane, but he still has the finesse game, which he didn't just show by traveling on the next possession. He also gets the calls, as if the refs love the fundamentals.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As the second half begins, we will see which team has made the necessary adjustments to win the game.
UCLA came out on the opening possesion of the second half and got the ball to Josh Shipp, who immediately took the shot. He made it and got the foul, but he just keeps chucking it up.
Lucky for him, Kevin Love can get postion down low and rebound. It's all for nothing, though, when you let Drew Neitzel take it coast to coast on you. Neitzel is starting to take more control, which could spell trouble for UCLA if he gets hot.
Right now it's Michigan State 40, UCLA 32.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Michigan State looks like it is playing a Division II school in an exhibition game, not one of the top teams in the country. The Spartans are getting everything, with little-used centers like redshirt 7-foot freshman Tom Herzog getting back door dunks.
Drew Neitzel just got fouled while shooting a three with 13 seconds left in the first half. UCLA has been knocked off its game and they are just playing individual ball. Whenever Josh Shipp gets the ball he automatically puts up the shot.
Kevin Love is the only one getting decent looks, and that's only because he is directly under the basket. UCLA has really unravelled from last night. I would not want to be in the UCLA locker room at halftime with Coach Ben Howland.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- UCLA just can't seem to put a run together. Michigan State has an answer every time. More often than not it has been a tip in or the ball just bounced the right way, but it has been working.
Kevin Love has just been getting harassed. Michigan State still leads by a score of 27-17. Kevin Love is dangerously close to getting called for a moving screen, I think I just saw him throw three on the last possesion. Michigan State answered a UCLA field goal with a wide open alley oop. Izzo keeps shuttling in these 6'10" players to harass Kevin Love. With 2:47 left in the first half Michigan State is in the driver's seat, 30-19.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- How do you defend a 6-foot-10 freshman that is already one of the most skilled players in the country?
Idong Ibok, thats how.
Ibok, the 6-foot-11 junior for MIchigan State has been constantly battling Kevin Love, and while he may not necessarily be stopping him, he is definitely slowing him down. He may just be fouling him, but he is wreaking havoc under the basket for UCLA.
Michigan State is still leading 20-11, but Kevin Love keeps getting the ball underneath, fighting his way up and getting the bucket plus the foul. Ibok just got his third foul, so I guess Izzo figured he had five fouls to guard Love with in the first half.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In order for UCLA to even have a chance in this game someone has to step up. Kevin Love is showing that he wants it. He is battling double teams from Michgan State at the free throw line, taking defenders off the dribble and rebounding. He only has one field goal, but he seems to be more in tune to the pace of the game than the rest of his teammates.
Michigan State is definately in control of the game, although the score is only 10-4 in favor of the Spartan. Drew Neitzel just drained a three-pointer and then took a seat on the bench. Love certainly is getting the love from the officials, getting several foul calls while battling for position.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- UCLA has made seven trips down to the offensive side of the floor...and done nothing. Drew Neitzel ending the specualtion that he was hurt by entering the game with 14:36 left in the first half.
UCLA hasn't been getting bad looks, it just seems like there is a lid on the basketball. Josh Shipp scored UCLA's first points at the 14:21 mark. Shipp has been trying to put the bulk of the offensive load on his shoulders.
I will tell you what, though, at 18-years-old, Kevin Love is one of the best rebounders I have ever seen. He plays as a freshman like Tyler Hansborough of North Carolina plays now. Two consecutive travels by each team leaves us with a score of 8-2 in favor of Michigan State.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Both Ben Howland and Tom Izzo preach defense, and thats what it has been so far. That and bad decisions by UCLA on the offensive end.
Michigan State has been going right at freshman phenom Kevin Love and have a 4-0 lead. Drew Neitzel is on the bench for the Spartans, and Kevin Love is preparing to check back in after a short breather. Michigan State looks very dominant defensively. Ben Howland has called a timeout after going scoreless in the first four minutes.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- You wouldn't know that two Top 15 teams are about to tip off. The Sprint Center is slowly emptying out after the Missouri game.
The high school bands that are substituting for the schools marching bands aren't doing much to help pump up the remaining crowd though. As it nears 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night, many casual fans have opted out of staying to watch the final game. Bumping the Kanye isn't even doing anything.
This should prove to be an impressive match up between two very fundamentally strong teams. And of course, the UCLA dance squad is always worth staying up late for.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two Drew Neitzel free throws sealed the win for Michigan State. In what could have been a very interesting finish, Missouri just missed the halfcourt heave-ho shot that would have sent the game into overtime.
Missouri showed heart and toughness, staples of Mike Anderson's style, and almost gutted out a win against a very fundamentally strong Michigan State team.
Final score: Michigan State 86, Missouri 83.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Missouri has once again pulled to within two. It's Michigan State's ball with 20 seconds left. Missouri goes to the full court press and.....it fails, sort of.
The Tigers are looking for the steal but their defense was no match for Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas, breaking the press and finding Goran Suton, who layed the ball in for a three-point lead. Missouri, however, drove down and scored with three seconds left to pull within one.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Just when you think the game is over, Stefon Hannah comes down and nails a three to pull MIssouri to within two with 30 seconds left. I want to hold up a sign for Tom Izzo that says "GIVE NEITZEL THE BALL!!"
Missouri fouled Raymar Morgan on the inbound pass, and the sophomore made both free throws to put Michigan State up, 82-78. Matt Lawrence has checked in for Missouri to chuck up three-pointers.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Planning and execution, that is what it takes to win close games. With 1:36 left we will see who has it, Michigan State or Missouri.
Michigan State leads 77-75 and has the ball. Goran Suton just nailed a baby hook as the shot clock expired to put MIchigan State up by four, and Marshall Brown was called for traveling violation. It's Michigan State's ball with 49 seconds left.
Now we get into foul-fest, which I think Missouri has been in all night.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Marshall Brown lost the ball to Drew Naymick on what could have been the go-ahead score for Missouri, but Michigan State couldn't capitalize.
Drew Neitzel just drilled a three, which could be a dagger in the heart of Missouri's comeback hopes. Michigan State leads, 77-72, with 2:14 left. If I am Tom Izzo, I keep the ball in Neitzel's hands.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- WIth five minutes to go, Michigan State leads by one, and the crowd is a player. Kalin Lucas hit a field goal from the top of the key to put Michigan State up by three and then Drew Naymick fouled Missouri's Marshall Brown, who hit one of two from the free throw line.
Michigan State failed to convert on the their ensuing possesion and lost the offensive board out of bounds, leaving the door open for Missouri to take the lead with 3:46 left. Right now, it's Michigan State 74, Missouri 72.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The crowd reached a fevered pitch as Drew Neitzel coming off a double screen had his shot blocked.
Missouri pressed it down the floor and botched the layup. However, the unsung hero for the Tigers, DeMarre Carroll, was there to clean it up.
The Vanderbilt transfer's putback pulled the Tiger's to within three and gave Carroll 12 points on the night. Michigan State has been saved by its free throws. The Spartans went 16-for-18 in the first half and have been on the money in the second half.
Everything gets lost, though, when you allow Missuori to drive the lane and score. 68-66, in favor of Michigan State.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- You lose focus for one minute and everything changes. A couple quick turnovers on Michigan State and suddenly Missouri is back in the game.
Michigan State is clinging to a five-point lead, but the crowd has woken up. The fans went crazy as Stefon Hannah stole the ball on the press and passed it forward to DeMarre Carroll for the breakway dunk.
I was questioning Missouri's small line up with DeMarre Carroll being the tallest palyer on the floor for the Tigers at 6-foot-8. The faster lineup worked, though, as the press broke down Michigan State. Missouri is within three, 67-64.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Always be wary of freshman point guards. Kalin Lucas almost lost the ball for Michigan State in the full court press. The disruption, though, allowed Missouri to put some momentum together and pull to within seven, 65-58.
Michigan State tried to go low post but lost the ball. Unfortunatley, Missouri doesn't know how to do anything on the block but foul. Michigan State ball with 9:30 left.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Missouri finished the first half on a frenzy, pulling within 10, but the Spartans came out at the half and extended the lead back to 11. Drew Neitzel has re-entered the game for Michigan State, adding four points to bring his total to 16 so far.
Missouri's leading scorer and sparkplug Stefon Hannah only has eight points for the game. The Tigers have just put up a 4-0 run and gone into the full court press, firing up the crowd. It's Michigan State 65, Missouri 56.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Missouri is showing some life on the low post, Marshall Brown just had his second block on a Spartan driving to the hoop. The Tigers are running into foul trouble though, Darryl Butterfield, one of their more physical inside players is on the bench with three fouls.
Drew Neitzel is still on the bench for MIchigan State, but things seem fine without him. MIchigan State leads by 12 with one minute left in the half.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Michigan State's zone has shown to be extremely effective, especially with Missouri's reluctance to establish a low post game. Marshall Brown just fired up his fellow Missouri Tigers with a block, but the momentum was soon lost by a TV timeout.
Michigan State leads by 13, with sophomore Raymar Morgan picking up the offensive slack scoring 11 points for the Spartans during Neitzel's absence.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Drew Neitzel seems to be playing in some pain, but that didn't stop him from draining two free throws. MIke Anderson just got T's up after Missouri was whistled for another offensive foul. The crowd, which is primarily made up of Missouri fans, has been booing loudly for the past two minutes.
Missouri's press hasn't slowed MIchigan State down at all, and Missouri has been whistled for another foul, putting Michigan State in the double bonus. Michigan State leads, 46-30, with six minutes left in the first half.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Stefon Hannah drained a three, and Darryl Butterfield followed it up with a field goal to pull MIssouri to within six, 36-30. Kalin Lucas just made two free throws for Michigan State to push the lead back to eight, 38-30.
Michigan State seems to find a way to stop any sort of Missouri run. Missouri also seems helpless on the boards. Michigan State is already in the one-and-one bonus.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Drew Neitzel just went to the bench with his 2nd foul, 9:55 left in the first half. Missouri has fallen back out of the full court press, but the crowd is back in the game. Missouri doesn't seem to be looking to the low post game much. The Tigers are mainly driving the lane or putting it up from three.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It didn't take Mizzou long to switch into the full court press, Michigan State had minimal trouble breaking it but did so without Neitzel. Missouri is playing at a frantic pace, almost seemingly out of control. Neitzel has re-entered the game to provide Michigan State with some offensive firepower and ballhandling.
Michigan State switched into a zone defense, but then immediately gave up a 3 pointer. Missouri has pulled to within 7 points, 30-23 advantage Michigan State.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Mike Anderson's version of the 40 minutes of hell has suddenly put Missouri back into the game. After two offensive fould against Michigan State and two unanswered baskets by Mizzou, Michigan State finds its lead at eight, 26-18, at 11:45 in the first half.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The marquee match up for the local fans has gotten off to a less than rousing start. Michigan State leads Missouri, 19-8, five minutes into the game. Drew Neitzel leads all scorers with 12 points.
