Michigan State's Lucious set to fill in for Lucas
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Korie Lucious is enjoying his newfound fame, relishing the buzz he created on Michigan State's campus with his buzzer-beater against Maryland.
"I'm soaking it all up," Lucious said Tuesday. "I'm happy I made it, but I can't dwell on that shot. We have to move on because there's more games to win.
"I'm trying to get to the Final Four."
The fifth-seeded Spartans will have to beat ninth-seeded Northern Iowa on Friday night in the Midwest Regional semifinals and Ohio State or Tennessee Sunday to advance to college basketball's showcase for the sixth time in 12 years.
The Spartans are not a popular pick to pull off the feat.
Lucious has to replace star guard Kalin Lucas, who ruptured an Achilles' tendon during Sunday's win that ended with Lucious' 3-pointer, while Chris Allen (right foot) or Delvon Roe (right knee) will play banged up in St. Louis.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo - whose .750 winning percentage in the tournament ranks third among active coaches - says the injuries have created his greatest challenge during his streak of 13 straight NCAAs.
"I know nobody is picking us for much right now," Izzo said. "I don't blame anybody, either."
If the Spartans get past Northern Iowa, though, it wouldn't be wise to count them out because they're 15-3 in the NCAA tournament's second-, fourth-round and championship games under Izzo.
"History says if we can get to the second game of a weekend, we've got a chance," Izzo said.
A lot of the doubt stems from the quantum leap Lucious has to make, replacing a two-time All-Big Ten player and 2009 conference player of the year.
Lucious has averaged five points - seventh on the team - and three assists in nearly 22 minutes this season.
Lucas led the team in scoring, 14.8 points a game, assists and playing time as a seasoned junior.
Izzo acknowledges he isn't sure how Lucious will fare, but the head coach and the assistant who recruited him out of Milwaukee are confident the sophomore won't be timid.
"He has no conscious," assistant coach Dwayne Stephens said. "He's not afraid to take a big shot."
Michigan State is trying to quickly find a way to harness Lucious's "playground mentality," - as Izzo called it - so that he can calmly set up plays as the on-the-court leader and avoid a slew of turnovers.
Lucious is confident he can make the transition.
"I need to focus more on the type of passes I make," he said. "And to not settle for home runs, but to try to go for singles."
Lucious said skipping a single class kept him home when Michigan State traveled to Penn State last month and thinks the suspension ended up being a blessing.
"After that incident, I've been playing the best basketball since I've been here, making a lot shots, getting people involved more and my defense has picked up," he said. "That incident helped me mature as a person and as a basketball player."
Copyright 2010 by STATS LLC and The Associated Press.
Illinois 76, Stony Brook 66
STONY BROOK, N.Y. -- Illinois felt the sting of being left out of the NCAA tournament.
Then, the Fighting Illini were forced to hit the road to start the NIT despite being a top seed in their bracket because Cirque du Soleil was playing at Assembly Hall.
Despite all that, Illinois still was able to beat eighth-seeded Stony Brook 76-66 in front of a loud sellout crowd of 4,423 at Stony Brook Arena on Wednesday night.
"We're still disappointed, obviously," Illinois' Mike Davis said. "But Coach has been talking all week about making something happen in the NIT, just move on to next year as far as getting ready for next year. Just win a championship and learn how to win championships because hopefully next year we can make a run."
Davis led Illinois (20-14) with 17 points, and Demetri McCamey barely missed a triple-double with 16 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. D.J. Richardson also contributed 16 points and Mike Tisdale added 15 for the Fighting Illini, who had been knocked out in the Big Ten semifinals.
Next up in the second round is fourth-seeded Kent State on Monday at Assembly Hall. Illinois is two victories away from the NIT's version of the Final Four at Madison Square Garden.
"I think you're going to have to get to New York to get over what happened," coach Bruce Weber said. "You dream of being in the NCAA. You dream of that goal. At least we still get to play. I kind of said before that it might be better to go on the road. I was still nervous as heck, but it might have got them a little bit of a jump start, a shock treatment, get the juices going."
Bryan Dougher made five 3-pointers on the way to a 21-point effort for the Seawolves (22-10). The America East regular-season champs were playing the first postseason game in their 11-year Division I tenure.
It was the first time the Seawolves had hosted a Big Ten team, and it was only their third home game against a BCS conference team. It was also their first game on national television.
Stony Brook Arena, which has been scheduled for renovation, was used to accommodate more fans. The team had played its home games in the same complex, but at Pritchard Gymnasium, which holds 1,680 fans. But the bigger arena was rocking for this game.
"We've got a good program here," Seawolves coach Steve Pikiell said. "People are starting to take notice. This isn't a lacrosse town anymore, I hope. We're trying to make it a basketball town."
After McCamey hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to give the Fighting Illini a 38-36 lead, the All-Big Ten first-team guard drilled another 3 to start the second half and launch a 10-2 run. Tisdale and Richardson also made 3s in the burst, helping Illinois open a 48-38 advantage.
The Seawolves cut it to 48-43 and later trimmed a 12-point deficit to 59-54 with seven minutes left, but they never got closer than that five-point margin.
Illinois, which had fallen behind 7-0 at the start of the game, went 8 of 8 from the line in the final minute to clinch it.
Stony Brook got hurt by the Fighting Illini on the boards, getting outrebounded 38-25.
"I thought we were the tougher team today," Pikiell said. "I just thought we were a little undersized and outrebounded by a big margin. We played a great team, great program, great coach."
Copyright 2010 by STATS LLC and The Associated Press.
March Madness: The Final Four Teams Who Get To Ind
Rewind to just 11 and a half months ago.
The North Carolina Tar Heels were the heavy favorites to win the National Championship—and they did, in impressive fashion, by rolling over Goran Suton and the Michigan State Spartans 89-72.
Was it destiny?
Well, that all depends on what you consider destiny to be. Of course, the Heels had the talent, drive and coaching to be crowned the best team in the land.
Was it a surprise that it happened?
No.
A closer look would indicate that not only were the Tar Heels the favorite to cut down the nets, but it would have been a more of a shock if they didn't win the title.
Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green and Deon Thompson were not going to be denied.
Plain and simple.
That was then and this is now.
The Kansas Jayhawks are the 2009 North Carolina Tar Heels—destiny and all.
There is a familiar roadblock standing in Sherron Collins' and Cole Aldrich's way this March, and its name—the Michigan State Spartans. Same with the Roy Willliams' Heels—just like last year.
Collins, now a senior, has the it . That it makes champions.
Lawson had that it—he was a champion, nearly a year ago.
After being clipped by Suton and Lucas in 2009, the revenge and redemption factors come in to play for Kansas.
As destiny would have it, the Jayhawks could have a chance to dole out a little payback to the Spartans, if the two teams should tangle in the Sweet 16.
How's that for a fairy tale?
History tells us that a national champion has to had put together at least one 10-plus game win streak.
Well, Kansas has that covered. So did Carolina.
The 2009 North Carolina Tar Heels had two 10-plus game winning streaks, 13 and 12. The 2010 Kansas Jayhawks have two as well, 14 and 13.
All-Americans, well, the birds have that covered, too.
Coaching?
The Jayhawks and Tar Heels have two of the best to ever grace the courtside. Bill Self of Kansas and Williams of North Carolina.
A national championship-caliber team has to have a dominant guard. Collins fits the bill, just like Lawson did.
A national championship-caliber team has to have an aggressive big man. Aldrich, anyone? Hansbrough was ultra physical, too. Bloody face, busted nose and missing teeth.
Sound familiar?
March Madness benefits from the Cinderella stories. Everyone enjoys predicting upsets. Everyone waits through the tournament to see if the Gonzagas, Vermonts and George Masons can pull of the impossible.
And it happens—ocassionally, but seldom does it happen in the big game. It's not 1983, and there's no Jimmy Valvano-led North Carolina State Wolfpack Cinderella team that can crash Kansas' party.
In April of 2010, expect the Kansas Jayhawks to answer destiny's call—and cut the nets down in Indianapolis.
Copyright © 2010 Bleacher Report, Inc.
March Madness: The Final Four Teams Who Get To Ind
Arinze Onuaku’s injury has forced me to turn this year’s bracket prediction into a “Multiple Endings” story. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not hyper-geeks playing Dungeons and Dragons here. We may be wasting billions of dollars in worker productivity, but we’re not killing Orcs with plus-10 vorpal swords of magic.
So, in the West, I’m sorry to say I’m crawfishing a bit. I think Syracuse is clearly the class of the region, when healthy. Even when they’re not at full strength, I like the Orangemen to come out of the opening weekend, giving Onuaku enough time to heal up and play in the round of 16 and the Elite Eight game.
If he’s not healthy by the Elite Eight, I’m betting on Kansas State to take down the Orange of Syracuse.
My Midwest Bracket was fairly predictable with teams playing to seed until the regional final where I’ve got Ohio State, riding the hot hand of Evan Turner , over the Kansas Jayhawks.
Do I think the Jayhawks are the best team in America? Yes. But I don’t think Kansas has an answer for talented wing Evan Turner. In a tournament one-and-done setting, give me the team with answers.
This means I’ve got Syracuse and Ohio State in Game One in Indianapolis.
Syracuse vs. Ohio State
First a primer on Syracuse . They run zone, but it’s the type of zone that allows opponents to get into the lane as much as they’d like. The premise of such a counter-intuitive defensive strategy is based on taking away the two easiest shots in college basketball, the 3-ball and the dunk/layup.
Syracuse harasses offenses around the arc with perimeter size and length with this premise in mind. They’re effective in contesting most every 3 because they really aren’t defending penetration in the traditional sense. They actually funnel dribblers to their back-line fly swatters, betting that guards and wings aren’t good enough to finish over Onuaku, Jackson, and Johnson. So, offenses can have all the mid-range they can eat, and most dribble penetration.
This is where Ohio State becomes such a bad matchup for the Orangemen. Lighty, Turner, and Buford are all 6′ 4″ or taller, and athletic. They all have pretty decent touch from mid-range, especially Evans. All three are good finishers at the rim.
Jon Diebler is the sniper beyond the arc, so he’ll get plenty of attention considering he shoots well over 40 percent distance. He also goes 6′ 5″ and can handle a bit.
These four players couldn’t be any more of a tonic to counter Syracuse’s zone if you were able to hand pick personnel.
On defense, the Buckeyes may have some trouble with Syracuse’s double post look with Onuaku and Jackson on both blocks. The Orangemen like to run their 3-2 double post offense with plenty of block to block screening and ball reversal to find mismatches inside. Rarely do defenses have two solid post defenders, so Syracuse’s offense is designed with this likelihood in mind.
When you throw in Wes Johnson, Andy Rautins, and Scoop Jardine on the perimeter, it’s tough to find enough help to allocate to your mismatched post defender.
Ohio State has outs on defense, however, in the form of their 2-3 zone. It’s a credible zone the Buckeyes have run all year, so it’s not something they’re throwing together at the last minute. Teams that zone on short notice typically suffer from an avalanche of busted assignments. Not the Buckeyes.
Plus, every player on the floor is at least 6′4″, so Ohio State can make ball movement difficult and still rebound out of their zone without blockout assignments.
For these reasons, I like the Buckeyes to win and advance against the ‘Cuse or the KSU Wildcats if you can tolerate some hedging.
West Virginia vs. Baylor
This game is tougher to predict because there’s a variable that is impossible to know until the game begins. How is the game going to be officiated?
A tight game favors Baylor because a bevy of foul calls will prevent them from being bullied on the boards. On offense, quick whistles on drivers and cutters will open up the floor for Baylor’s quick guards because WVU will have to play softer.
That’s important because as long and as athletic as Baylor is, they don’t have the wide bodies along the frontcourt necessary to withstand dislodging and chicken fighting under the glass. On offense, the Bears will have a hard time screening a more physical WVU bunch that will be switching some of these screens to boot. The bane of all dribble penetration is handchecking, which is pretty common when WVU is playing.
Even if the officials call a tight game, the Bears are going to have a tough time rebounding out of their zone against the Mountaineer brawlers. It’s one thing to force a miss, it’s entirely another thing if you’re a slightly built Anthony Jones and you’re trying to keep Devin Ebanks off the glass. WVU puts four of these type players on the floor; guys that can jump out of the gym with you, and bench press twice as much as you
If the Mountaineers dominate both backboards, they need only shoot in the high 30s or low 40s to win the game, giving them a big margin for error. Baylor doesn’t have that luxury. They need to shoot it well, and the game needs to be officiated tightly. That’s almost too much to ask.
I like WVU to advance.
Finals prediction up next.
Copyright © 2010 Bleacher Report, Inc.
Will March Madness be super-sized?
If the NCAA expands its men's basketball tournament to 96 teams, Paul Hewitt probably will cheer. "We have [347] Division I teams now, and only 65 are going," the Georgia Tech coach said. "We've increased it by one since 1985. That just doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
Mark Fox sees the situation differently, saying that any substantial addition to the field would dilute the "magical" event. "To reach the tournament should be a very special accomplishment," the Georgia coach said. "There are not 96 teams that are deserving to go."
The debate is on.
The controversial issue of enlarging the tournament -- of tinkering with the national spectacle known as March Madness -- has come up as part of potential TV negotiations.
University of Georgia president Michael Adams, a member of the NCAA Division I board of directors, expects to be briefed on the matter at the board's next meeting. Until then, he said, he will take no position.
"I haven't heard the presentations," Adams said. "I'm told we're going to hear them at the April board meeting, and I want to wait until I can evaluate all of that."
In a request-for-proposal (RFP) issued to TV networks and obtained by Sports Business Journal, the NCAA said it is considering expanding the field to as many as 96 teams. The RFP also included the possibility of a modest expansion to 68 teams.
A 68-team field would add three play-in games to the one already held and would not alter the tournament's basic framework. But a larger expansion, while likely bringing in more TV money, might alter the rhythm of what has become one of America's favorite sporting events.
Georgia's Fox favors the modest approach.
"Having come from a school [Nevada] where we looked at that process very closely, I think the NCAA tournament would be best served and most easily adjusted by going to 68 teams," Fox said. "You would not have to add any more TV weekends. You wouldn't have to change the basic structure of the tournament.
"Usually there are not many more than one or two teams that have a legitimate argument about being left out. I don't think you should dilute the tournament by going much bigger than that."
A 96-team field, Fox said, would be seriously dilutive.
"There are not 96 programs," he said, "that schedule in the non-conference in a way that says they're dying to get to the NCAA tournament and are willing to do what it takes."
Tech's Hewitt noted that even under the most aggressive proposal, a smaller percentage of Division I basketball programs would reach the tournament than the percentage of I-A football teams that reach bowl games.
"It should be expanded," Hewitt said of the tournament. "The obvious cry is going to be, ‘Well, coaches are just trying to save their jobs.' I look at the bowl season, and I see that 50 percent [actually 56.7 percent] of the teams play in bowl games. And I see the emotion those kids have after they win a bowl game, how good they feel about themselves. That should be a part of college basketball. I think you should have more kids participate in the NCAA tournament."
A 96-team tournament would provide berths for 27.7 percent of the 347 Division I teams. The 34 bowl games last season provided spots for 68 of the 120 I-A football teams.
Hewitt said he "would be afraid of extending the season" but suggested the regular season could be cut back, particularly some of the week-day games.
Georgia State coach Rod Barnes said it's "a good idea" to expand the tournament. How many teams should be added, he doesn't know. But he would like it to be enough to accommodate teams in the non-power leagues that have superb regular seasons but are excluded from March Madness if they fail to win their conference tournaments.
"You have teams with great records being left out," Barnes said. "When these kids play on teams that have won 23 and 24 games but don't get in because their team didn't win their [conference] tournament, I just don't agree with that. I just think that if you go out every night and play decent against the teams that are on your schedule and in your conference and you win 23 and 24 games, you should get in."
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski tends to agree with Barnes.
Krzyzewski said last month that he's "all right either way," with the tournament at its current size or super-sized. But he added that if the tournament expands to 96 teams, he would want all regular-season conference champions to get automatic berths along with the conference tournament champs.
"That would give the conferences who don't get more than one bid a chance to get two bids," Krzyzewski said. "If you expand, you would want that to happen."
If the tournament goes to 96 teams, Kryzewski proposed that 32 teams receive first-round byes, "and then after one set of games you're back to the 64."
The issue is on the table because the NCAA is considering whether to opt out of the final three years of its 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS after this season's Final Four. According to Sports Business Journal, the NCAA's request-for-proposal outlines a scenario in which an over-the-air network and a cable network could split the games in a 96-team tournament and alternate years carrying the Final Four. Under that scenario, SBJ said Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting and CBS could make a joint bid for the TV rights.
"The NCAA tournament is a strong property that would fit our brands," a Turner spokesman said Thursday, "but as with any sports rights, an acquisition must make economic sense for our company."
First, the NCAA must decide what makes sense for the tournament.
"I think it's healthy to always explore different options," said Georgia athletics director Damon Evans, a member of the NCAA executive committee. "I think that's what's being done now. I can't say whether I'm in favor of 96 or opposed to 96, because I just don't know enough about it yet. It's a wait-and-see type of deal for me."
(c) 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Let's Go to POTUS for the Play-by-Play
Obama Joins Commentators for Duke-Georgetown Game, Musing About Another Career in "3 More Years or 7".
(CBS) A member of the audience at this afternoon's Duke-Georgetown college basketball game got to join the broadcast commentators in some on-air banter, musing about a possible new career.
Stepping into the three-man booth shortly after halftime, President Barack Obama took a few moments to join CBS Sports commentators Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg for some play-by-play.
The president offered his assessment of the game thus far:
"Listen, obviously two great teams. I have been impressed at least in the first half by the guards for Georgetown - big, strong guys. They have been able to keep [Jon] Scheyer out of, you know, out from having to shoot a lot of threes contested. They have been a little sloppy in the second half and Duke's picked up, so it will be interesting to see how things turn out."
Mr. Obama admitted that despite his passion for the sport, he can't watch a full game. "But I'll kind of tune in and out, and 'Sportscenter' keeps me posted.
"Once it gets to the Final Four, I will watch all the games at that point," he added.
"Is that right?" asked Kellogg. "You're locked in then."
"Once you get to March Madness, absolutely," he said.
Lundquist brought up an anecdote relating to Michelle Obama's brother, a former Princeton player.
"Mr. President, your brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, coaching at Oregon State, I know you got to see them play against George Washington earlier. The guy to my right here, when I mention that, he brings up the fact that 'Yeah, we played Princeton in Madison Square Garden,' right?"
"All I said was the Buckeyes prevailed and the guy wearing number 33 for the Buckeyes did a little bit of work - that's all I said, that's all I said," Kellogg replied, somewhat modestly.
"First of all, if the Buckeyes are bragging about beating an Ivy League team, that doesn't say much," Mr. Obama said. "Number two, Clark's got a few inches on my brother-in-law. It's true that my brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, he will acknowledge that Clark had a pretty good game. I heard it from the source. I can't deny it."
"There you go!" said Kellogg. "I appreciate that, Craig."
Mr. Obama even handled some color commentary himself on a replay: "This was a terrific spin move and he didn't get any help coming back."
"That's well done," said Kellogg. "You can handle this job if you need to. Obviously, you've got one that's requiring a lot of your time and attention."
"After retirement, I'm coming after your job, partner," Mr. Obama said. "Just to let you know. You either have three more years, or seven, I'm not sure which, but you need to plan accordingly, since I'm going to do some play-by-play."
Mr. Obama was also treated to a replay of himself on the court. Let's go to the videotape: "That's heartbreak right there, oh," he sighed.
Verne Lundquist asked if the president, a left-hander, had any problems going to his right.
"I went to the Republican House Caucus just yesterday to prove that I can go to my right once in a while," he said, "but there is no doubt that I've got a stronger left hand."
Before leaving, Mr. Obama pointed out his assistant, Reggie Love ("a Duke guy") was suffering the worst case of nerves this afternoon. "He's a little stressed at the moment."
(c) MMX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
March Madness in San Jose won't have a West Coast feel
March Madness comes to the Bay Area in two months with first- and second-round games at HP Pavilion, but don't expect many familiar names. Given the sorry state of West Coast basketball, the eight-team San Jose field will have a decidedly Eastern flavor.
Instead of UCLA and Arizona, which have played many tournament games in the Bay Area but are struggling this season, we will get the Georgia Techs and Ohio States.
Instead of Nevada, which is no longer the Western Athletic Conference kingpin, the midmajor team in San Jose might hail from Conference USA or the Missouri Valley.
And the odds of a No. 1 seed playing here are just this side of zero. The top seeds are placed as close to home as possible, and there isn't a No. 1 within 1,500 miles of HP Pavilion.
(Is this a good time to mention that tickets are still available?)
None of this means that the West Coast will be shut out of the tournament. The champions of each conference are guaranteed bids, and there could be one or two at-large teams from the region.
But if Cal and Saint Mary's make the field, for instance, they probably wouldn't be seeded high enough to earn what the NCAA calls geographically "protected seeds." The Bears and the Gaels would be more likely to play in New Orleans or Milwaukee than in San Jose.
Gonzaga is the closest thing the West Coast has to a tournament lock, but the Zags could very well play at Spokane Arena, which isn't their home court.
And don't count on the San Jose field including at-large teams from the Pac-10, because there might not be any.
"There's no question that we lack a legitimate high-powered, top-10 team out West," said San Jose State coach George Nessman, whose school is hosting the games at HP Pavilion. "When the Pac-10 isn't performing at a high level, most of the West will be ignored. And they've had so many kids drafted that they haven't had time to replace them yet."
The Pac-10 has produced 13 first-round draft picks in the past two years, more than any other conference. Many of them were underclassmen (Stanford's Brook and Robin Lopez, Cal's Ryan Anderson and UCLA's Kevin Love), and the pipeline has not been adequately restocked.
The result is the league's worst season in at least a quarter century, with no powerhouses, a soft middle and several horrendous nonconference losses. (The team with the best resume, USC, is ineligible for the NCAAs.)
Intraleague play won't provide much of a power-rating boost for tournament hopefuls such as Cal, Arizona State and Washington. Eating your own does no good if the meat is rotten.
"I don't remember a year like this," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "(The NBA departures) are certainly a big part of it. If we had all those guys, there would be four or five teams in the top 20."
The regional slump starts with the Pac-10, but it doesn't end there. Only one team (Gonzaga) is ranked in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll, while projections show just a handful of West Coast players as candidates for the 2010 NBA draft.
"I think it's cyclical -- a couple years ago, the ACC was down," Nessman said. "But it's precarious in the short term."
Especially for the HP Pavilion field.
(c) 2010 - San Jose Mercury News.
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