Picture this: A 10-year-old kid on at his first baseball game going up to ask his favorite player for an autograph.
This was 100 times better.
Watching Hirsch go up to his idol Gus Johnson for an interview and come back with both phone number and e-mail address was priceless. Too bad he can't work that magic at Smoke's.
Anyway, media day in Lexington was fantastic.
We put in about 12 hours of work from interviews to observations at practice to yelling at Wheeling to finish his story. Then, when the work was done at roughly quarter to 11, it was time to hit the town.
Thing is, being a Wednesday night, being Lexington and being Spring Break, there were ZERO restaurants open. We ended up at a place called the Pita Pit, where we enjoyed booming techno music and the service of a tattooed hipster-dude with a bare midriff.
Then, it was time for the adventure. We sought the George Costanza-like trifecta. However, except for sandwiches, sex and TV, it was ice cream, bourbon and UK girls that we were looking for. The results: no, yes and sadly, no.
So with the Derby staple in hand, it was back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep in preparation for the game.
Here are your top 10 media day phrases:
10. Go out there and compete
9. Stick to our gameplan
8. Inside-outside balance
7. They're a very good team
6. We have to work hard
5. We've got to play our game
4. They're a very smart team
3. Take that one day at a time
2. We don't ever look past a team
1. "I like to bang. Steve likes to bang." -- Mark Zoller
Speaking of recycled phrases, it's good to see that clich's have made their way across the pond.
When Antanas Kavaliauskas was asked the following question.
You and a lot of your teammates have big size advantages over Penn. Do you plan to try to exploit that?
Here was the answer he gave:
We're just going to play our game how we've played before. That's how we're playing is play like we play.
Basketball games watched: 9, including one classic in the Association that was somehow still unwatchable
Stat of the day:
9: Steve Bilsky's over-under bet for number of questions the DP would ask in the Penn press conference
10: Questions actually asked by the DP, so if you had the over, congratulations you're a winner
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- It's been a busy day for the Quakers, just one day before their matchup with 3-seed Texas A&M.
After press conferences at noon, the team had a 40-minute practice open to media (very many) and fans (very few, and even fewer in Red and Blue).
The Quakers ran some passing and layup drills and engaged in a brief scrimmage, but most importantly, there were no injuries.
Steve Danley, still questionable tomorrow looked as mobile as he's ever going to look. So we'll wait and see on that one.
After the open workout, it was on to Transylvania University for the real closed-door practice.
For answers to these questions just pick up your DP tomorrow.
How do you defend a Texas A&M team with the nation's best three-point shooter?
What's plan B if Steve Danley can't go?
Why are the Quakers so loose just 24 hours before the biggest game of their lives?
Why does Jim Calhoun still have four reasons to watch the NCAA tournament, and what's up with his incestuous coaching tree?
When was the last time an Ivy League team beat a ranked opponent, and why the heck has it been so long?
And how does tomorrow's play-by-play man Gus Johnson tie into that history?
All that plus previews from both sides in a packed sports section. And stay tuned for plenty more from The Buzz as well.
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- In a world of schools of smart kids, you guys are supposedly the smarter kids. So you should understand the title of this week's travel blog. If you don't, you would probably lose on that FOX show about fifth graders.
Anyway, it's been a long day for us, getting on a 10:25 flight to Cincinnati. Those of you familiar with the Philadelphia airport know that things there don't often run very smoothly. So as we are waiting in a huge line on the taxiway, a nearby passenger says to the stewardess that he has some sort of flight to catch in Nashville (as a private pilot) and that he wanted them to fly there or cut the line so that he could get there.
The stewardess tries to tell him that this will be impossible and that he should be able to get there in time -- it turns out she's right, the guy was pretty much making up some of the details of his flights.
Then he says this great line to her: "Sit down, you've been very helpful." And when she tries to counter him, he repeats the line. And then she leaves. More from this guy later.
After a very bumpy landing, we have about 30 minutes to kill in Cinci's airport, which is actually in Kentucky. After a literally 14-minute flight (in the air), we arrived in Lexington.
It took a while to figure out that we actually had a hotel reservation, but we eventually got rooms, and then went out to explore the city for tomorrow's paper. The biggest problem is that the University of Kentucky is on spring break right now, so the campus is kinda dead. Too bad. We did have a good dinner though, and saw the first trickles of A&M fans coming into the city.
Incidentally, the "we" in all of this is one man short of our full crew. That one man is Josh Wheeling, who as you all undoubtedly know, had a midterm this morning. He was supposed to arrive around 8 tonight, from Philly via Charlotte.
But at that time, we get a call and a text message from Mr. Wheeling. He calls the situation a "deezaster" and says that he took off from Charlotte only to turn around and land again. He hoped to get here eventually. We later find out that the altitude sensors on the outside of the plane did not have heat or something like that, so they needed to fix some stuff.
Josh finally arrived at about 10:30, so don't worry about him.
Anyway, we hope to get you some more interesting stuff tomorrow.
Quote of the day: "That wasn't a landing, it was an arrival." -- The guy who was sitting near us and complained earlier, on our rather bumpy landing in Cincinnati.
Basketball games watched today:4 -- 2 NIT games, 1 Play-in game, 1 Weber State over North Carolina on ESPN Classic, and 3 bonus hockey games (a lot of flipping and a Slingbox).
Stat of the day:
Temperature when we left Philadelphia: 47 degrees Farenheit
Temperature when we arrived in Lexington: 79 degrees Farenheit
Zachary's post about Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli's clever retort to a Howard Eskin question reminded me to mention his slick-ness at the Atlantic 10 Tournament this past weekend. (Need a break before 15-seed Josh takes on 2-seed econ midterm at 11:00)
First, you must know that Martelli is known around Philadelphia as an expert prognosticator. He is often on radio shows, and when asked to pick the Eagles score he gets the games correct at an alarming rate. At one point a few years ago (I believe when the birds went 11-5) he went through almost the entire season not missing an Eagles result.
So it should come as no surprise he knew the result of the A-10 Tournament before it was over. After his Hawks lost to George Washington, he said this:
"We're going to be a multiple bid league, the office deserves a lot of credit for that."
This wouldn't be that out of line before the Tournament, but he made this prediction after (2) Massachusetts lost, but before (1) Xavier fell in the next round. UMass, with an RPI then in the 50s, was the only team other than Xavier which had any shot of an at-large bid. GW's RPI of 80 at the time was the next highest of a team still alive, so by saying this Martelli essentially guaranteed that Xavier was going to lose to either Rhode Island (which it did) or the winner of (3) GW vs. (7) Saint Louis, and then get an at-large bid to go along with the conference winner.
URI beat Xavier, and GW beat them to get into the Tourney as an 11-seed, and Xavier grabbed a 9-seed despite the loss. Well done, Phil, well done.
If you can't make it to Lexington for the Quakers' first- and potential second-round matchup, never fear. You'll be hearing one of the best on CBS.
And by one of the best, I mean one of the most excitable.
In an event nearly as anticipated as Selection Sunday, CBS released its coverage team for the opening weekend of March Madness. The Lexington pods landed Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner.
Johnson, you may remember, was responsible for this epic call of UCLA's win over Gonzaga in last year's tournament. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
Or for your viewing pleasure you can check out his "The slipper still fits" call in the 1999 Florida-Gonzaga game.
And if the Quakers come down to the wire with A&M, here's hoping for a similar outburst.
Snuck into this week's Madness is the news that the Quakers have hired former UAB tight ends and running backs coach Bill Schmitz to be their new offensive coordinator, to replace the fired Shawn Halloran.
Stay tuned to the DP this week for more details.
My morning at the Big 5 Coaches vs. Cancer breakfast was cut short by Professor Brownlee's Modern Architecture class, but I still got some good material out of it.
The most striking thing was how little love the Quakers were getting in their home gym. As a fairly good number of the coaches and pundits predicted a Villanova trip to the Final Four, Penn was seen as roadkill on Texas A&M's path to Atlanta.
To his credit, Glen Miller did a fine job remaining composed as Howard Eskin of WIP said he didn't give Penn much of a chance from across the podium.
But it got me thinking. Which is more likely: A Villanova run to the Final Four or a Penn win over A&M? Pinnaclesports.com now lists Penn as 10-1 to beat A&M. Villanova, a pick-em to get out of the first round against Kentucky, is 36-1 to reach the Final Four and would likely have to beat Kansas and Southern Illinois or Virginia Tech and Pitt, UCLA or Duke to get there.
I'm with Vegas (or should I say, offshore) on this one. We've all seen an upset or even two. But to say that Villanova, which has been known to disappear on offense for long spans, is more likely to reach the Final Four than Penn is to the Round of 32 sound ridiculous. Especially with Kansas looming in the second round.
The best quote of the morning comes from Phil Martelli, who tried to protect Jay Wright from an uncomfortable shot from Eskin.
Eskin, waking up the rumors that Wright is a candidate for the Sixers job, asked who Larry Brown would be rooting for in a Kansas/Nova game. For background, Brown, now a Sixers adviser, led KU to the title in 1988, but has been seen courtside at multiple Villanova games.
As for why Brown has been hanging out at the Pavilion rather than with the Sixers, now winners of seven straight, here's Martelli.
Seven in a row? What kind of a league is this? They couldn't win seven in a row in the Big East.
Update: For the record, Penn is going to be playing at around 3 p.m. -- the second game of the day session. Which means Penn should probably root for Louisville so that Cardinals fans will stick around to root for them. (End update)
I'm only going to complain about two things with today's announced field of 65, and leave the other issues to other people.
First, I understand that Penn could have been a 14, but I don't understand how the Quakers are a 14 because they were passed by Albany. Here's a tale of the tape:
Record: Penn: 22-8, 13-1 Ivy (1st), Albany: 23-9, 13-3 America East (2nd)
NCAA official RPI (as of 3/5) -- Penn: 87, Albany: 88
ESPN RPI (as of 3/11) -- Penn: 88, Albany: 80
ESPN Strength of Sched. -- Penn: 177, Albany: 174
ESPN Non-conf. Sched. -- Penn: 173, Albany 131
Pomeroy ratings -- Penn: 102, Albany: 150
Pomeroy conference ratings: Penn (Ivy): 20, Albany (America East): 24
Pomeroy Strength of Sched. -- Penn: 195, Albany: 166
Pomeroy best win: -- Penn: No. 84 Drexel, Albany: No. 116 Bucknell
Pomeroy worst loss: -- Penn: No. 189 Yale, Albany: No. 232 Binghamton (also lost to No. 201 Sacred Heart by 19)
Sagarin ratings -- Penn: 110, Albany: 124
Sagarin SOS -- Penn: 202, Albany: 241
Sagarin conference ratings: Penn (Ivy): 21, Albany (A-East): 24
Basically, the two teams are very even, with it looking to me like Penn played a better schedule, and most importantly, WON THEIR CONFERENCE OUTRIGHT! Albany finished second in an inferior (by all accounts) conference, and was placed above the Quakers. I just don't get it. I don't support an Ivy League tournament at all, but I can't help but think that a tournament would have bumped Penn above the Danes, mostly because the committee year after year overvalues conference tournaments. Maybe Albany's thrilling win against a Vermont team that basically gave them the game was enough, but it hardly looked like Albany was the better team that day.
My second gripe comes from the other half of Penn's pod -- Louisville vs. Stanford. If the Cardinals win, and Penn somehow loses to A&M, then the 6-seed will be playing the 3-seed only 80 miles away from Louisville, compared to 1,000 miles from College Station, Texas.
This line is from the NCAA's rules on seeding rules:
"To ensure equitable competitive opportunities, the committee shall not place teams seeded on the first five lines at a potential "home-crowd disadvantage" in the first round."
While this is not in the first round, the fact is that there will be a lot of Louisville fans in Rupp Arena, and you can bet that they will be cheering hard for the Quakers to pull the upset. This pod could have been in New Orleans, which is 443 miles from College Station and 705 miles from Louisville. It would have been swapped with Memphis' pod. Memphis is 396 miles from New Orleans and it is only 26 miles more to Lexington. The closest opponent to the Tigers in their pod is North Texas, which is 558 miles from New Orleans and 890 miles from Lexington.
Again, this makes no sense to me. But I guess I'm not Gary Walters for a reason.
...not in Penn's favor.
The sports gambling site Pinnaclesports.com has listed the Quakers as 13-point underdogs to the Aggies Thursday. Penn is a 9-1 shot to win the game.
If you're looking for the real cash, Penn is 1500-1 to win the whole thing and 200-1 to reach the Final Four in Atlanta.
One thing to note, however, is that the Quakers could have a pretty strong cheering contingent.
Louisville, which is 79 miles from Lexington will have its fans cheering hard for the Quakers to knock off A&M. Cardinals fans will make up much of the building and will play the winner of the Penn-A&M game if they beat 11-seed Stanford.
Acie Law IV, meet Ibrahim Jaaber I.
The 14-seeded Quakers will, for the second straight year and the third in their last four tournament appearances, take on a Big 12 team, when they play 3-seed Texas A&M Thursday.
The game will be a South Regional matchup in Lexington, Ky., with the time to be determined later.
The winner gets the winner of Louisville-Stanford Saturday.
It's the second straight time playing a team from Texas for the Quakers, who lost 60-52 to Texas last season.
Much more on this matchup later tonight at dailypennsylvanian.com.
Whether Penn gets a 13 or a 14 seed in about three hours, there are only a handful of teams that the Quakers could draw. Here's a quick rundown, with record, CBS Sportsline RPI and strength of schedule.
Penn vs. Southern Illinois (26-6, RPI 6, SOS 37)
I only got the chance to watch one Salukis game this year, their loss to MVC champ Creighton in the conference finals. But they are about defense, defense and defense. The key to beating Southern Illinois is to force them to score on three-pointers, because even the talented starting five can't always shoot well enough to win the game on their own. Center Randal Falker has played poorly as of late, but forward Matt Shaw could pose matchup problems as a good outside shooter.
Penn vs. Texas A&M (25-6, RPI 15, SOS 54)
The Aggies play a low-scoring style, but with athletes like Acie Law -- a great choice for national player of the year -- this matchup wouldn't bode well for Penn. The Aggies struggle on the road, which could be big come Tourney time. But I like A&M as a No. 2 seed anyway.
Penn vs. Oregon (26-7, RPI 23, SOS 72)
The Ducks worry me more than most. Oregon looked great in beating Southern California to win the Pac-10 title. Tajuan Porter already has the conference record for three-pointers by a freshman and enters the Tournament on a hot streak. The Ducks' injury concerns also appeared to be overblown, considering their performance in the past two weeks. Throw in Aaron Brooks as an athletic scorer, and Penn would have little hope.
Penn vs. Pittsburgh (27-7, RPI 5, SOS 6)
I didn't think Pitt would be a possibility until that embarassing loss to Georgetown in the Big East finals. The Panthers will still be no worse than a No. 3. Optimist point out that Georgetown's Roy Hibbert completely shut down Pitt star center Aaron Gray in that game. I point out that Stephen Danley is not 7-foot-2.
Penn vs. UNLV (27-6, RPI 10, SOS 42)
Kevin Kruger, Wink Adams and Wendell White lead the Rebels' attack, and the offense flows almost entirely through them. Kruger, the son of Rebels coach Lon Kruger, is a solid point guard who doesn't give up the rock. And if you think Penn could turn this one into a defensive struggle, think again. UNLV is 17-2 this season when holding opponents under 70 points.
Penn vs. Washington State (25-7, RPI 29, SOS 91)
The Cougars are having their best season in over 60 years, and I don't feel good about Penn playing such a feel-good story. Aside from that, I'd worry about shooter Derrick Low and center Aron Baynes. Neither is terribly consistent, but only one would need a good day to knock Penn out. On the flip side, Washington State's overall inside game is nothing to marvel at.
There are other possibilities too -- Notre Dame or Marquette come to mind -- but I'm done speculating for now. We'll just have to manage without knowing for sure for just a few more hours.
It takes 13 teams to be seeded below you to get a 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament these days, and Penn may have finally gotten the help to do that yesterday, with thrilling wins by Albany and Miami-Ohio.
With 30 automatic bids given out so far, there are currently nine teams that are certainly below Penn (ESPN RPI No. 87 as of Saturday), and four teams that might be. The four teams to root against at 6 p.m. are Albany (No. 91), Long Beach State (No. 86), Oral Roberts (No. 89) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (No. 82).
TAMU-CC isn't in the Big Dance yet, though. They still have to win their Southland Conference final today against last year's cinderella 14-seed, Northwestern State, at 2 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). A Demons win (No. 166) would eliminate one of the four maybes.
Right now, ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi has Penn ahead of these four teams, and if you put a gun to my head, I would say Penn would get a 13. But I am really not confident at all.
The other game today that might have an effect on Penn is the ACC final at 1 p.m., featuring Penn opponent North Carolina against upstart NC State. And it's a real conundrum. The Wolfpack have an RPI of 97 right now, but I cannot believe that the committee would seed them below Penn, and that a win in the ACC tourney, playing four games in four days would earn NC State an 11 or a 12 seed. The committee has shown a tendency in the past to overvalue conference tournaments. A UNC win would also give the Quakers a tiny RPI boost, and would keep a spot open in the field for a team like Drexel, which Penn (and all of Philadelphia, I think) would like to get in the Tournament.
If you really want to root in the other three games today, here's the most Penn-centric thing I can come up with.
Take Florida over Arkansas (SEC final, 1 p.m.). Neither team has played one of Penn's opponents this year, so their RPI effect is 0. But a Razorbacks win might also steal the Dragons' spot, so hope the Gators keep their once-again-found stride going.
Root for Kansas over Texas (Big 12 final, 3 p.m.). KU's opponent's opponent score is 2-1 over Texas, but that makes no difference in practice and because the game is so late. But in my slightly convoluted logic, Texas might possibly fall to a 4-seed if they lose, which might possibly bump Penn up to a 12, because the Quakers are not allowed to play the Longhorns two years in a row. Of course, that could also bump Penn down to a 14, but who knows.
Finally, root for Wisconsin over Ohio State (Big Ten final, 3:30 p.m.). The Buckeyes have played one Penn opponent, and the Badgers have not (utterly irrelevant), and a Wisconsin win might hurt UNC's 1-seed chances (doesn't mean anything to Penn at all). So root for Wisconsin because Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor played Penn the Palestra their freshman year (and then demolished the Quakers the next year in Madison). It's completely arbitrary, I know, but it's the best I got.
Only eight hours from the real madness. I hope you've enjoyed The Buzz's coverage of this week for you.
If for some reason you're reading The Buzz right now instead of watching Midnight Madness on ESPN, here's some validation for your decision. Check out this post by Penn's own Stephen Danley on the Tournament blog of The New York Times. (Danley also went on the record earlier this year to dispel wrongful notions about Ivy League basketball, albeit in a publication with a more modest circulation.)
Danley was hampered by injury this year and didn't put up the huge senior-year stats that his fellow captains did. But for a guy who really turned it around towards the end of the conference season, a bigger forum for his thoughts was probably in order anyway.
The only comment I can make is about the team's effort to get the phrase "break bread" into articles as a joke. As far as I can tell -- using a less-than-stellar search engine -- the DP never used one of those quotes in a basketball article. But I may have found the source. Glen Miller actually used the phrase last April when he was introduced as Penn's head coach.
Coincidence, or not?
I'll have the answer for you later this week.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Welcome to the Atlantic 10 Championship game, where (3) George Washington faces (4) Rhode Island. 1-seed Xavier has an RPI good enough to get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but neither GW (73 RPI) or URI (RPI 104) will get anything other than the automatic bid.
This means that Penn is clearly rooting for Rhode Island -- a squad that even with a win here would probably take up a 14-seed, possibly pushing Penn to a 13.
George Washington 78, Rhode Island 69 FINAL
The Colonials are clutch on the free throws, and a missed Mbang three (looking for the foul) will just about do it.
Baron misses a three (in and out) and Mbang misses a dunk, and the party has started for George Washington.
Maureece Rice throws his jersey 20 feet in the air (man, he's big), and the fans rush the court. One fan even drops his phone -- battery goes flying -- but he keeps on running.
One player lies on the ground, hands over his face, and the fans jump on top to help him celebrate.
George Washington 75, Rhode Island 69 0:37.5 2nd Half
Ellliott dribbles off his foot in the backcourt, but the refs are looking for a foul, and call one. He hits the two free throws.
Baron again keeps the dream alive for URI with a three off a pump fake.
George Washington 73, Rhode Island 66 0:50.3 2nd Half
Bitee starts the fouling for the Rams. A little early down 6. King hits one.
Baron comes up way short on his three-point attempt. That is a surprise, he's a 49-percent shooter from behind the arc.
Bitee drives to the hoop to keep the game alive.
George Washington 70, Rhode Island 64 1:23 2nd Half
GW grabs yet another steal, and Rice goes to the line the other way, hitting two.
Daniels gets to the line as well, and is equally clutch.
George Washington 68, Rhode Island 62 2:16 2nd Half
As the Colonials try to keep it a two-possession game as they have done throughout, Akingbade picks up an offensive foul, and Keith Cothran drains a baseline jumper.
Akingbade comes back with a tough layup.
George Washington 46, Rhode Island 60 3:37 2nd Half
Just as GW was getting all the loose balls, Daniels takes a steal the other way for a dunk. He's got 27 points, already 15 this half.
GW fans singing loudly along with a band song, and the URI faithful chant louder to disrupt it.
George Washington 66, Rhode Island 58 4:20 2nd Half
Seawright and King trade quick baskets.
GW is finally slowing it down a bit, and it's working.
George Washington 62, Rhode Island 56 6:45 2nd Half
Daniels gets an NBA-style continuation (still probably a good call though) for an and-1. URI is finally ball-faking and passing the ball very well. The 15 1st-half turnovers were a real eye-opener.
Bitee throws a pass into the top of the 1-3-1, but gets it back on a TO, and gets it to Daniels for a sick hanging jumper. Rice had a nasty crossover, but missed the long jumper.
It's a four-point lead, and the crowd on both sides gets loud.
Daniels finally misses two shots, though, and GW has a tiny bit of breathing room.
George Washington 57, Rhode Island 49 10:23 2nd Half
Hollis picks up his fourth foul, but Koundija hits a three to keep the lead at seven.
Daniels is the only one who is doing anything against the 1-3-1 zone of the Colonials. He turns a drive to the hoop into two points from the line.
Now Koundija fouls out on a loose-ball foul, and the URI crowd loves it.
Rice finally scores to make it 51-44, but you have to feel the Rams are playing better basketball right now.
Seawright hits one off an o-reb, and they go zone, but Rice finally hits a three. That's a big one.
Now Travis King adds to the lead, but downtown specialist Baron comes back with one. This is the most entertaining game yet this tournament.
George Washington 46, Rhode Island 42 15:50 2nd Half
Daniels continues on his tear with an open three, but Elliott responds with one of his own. Seawright had a shot sitting on the rim that got swatted out. Shoulda been two points.
Daniels his yet another triple against the shifting zone, and we've got a ballgame.
Halftime:
The Philadephia natives are a combined 3-for-14, but GW is still managing 43.2-percent shooting, slightly better than URI's 40.7 percent. (Oddly enough, Rice's shoes are light-blue and black, almost the same as his opponents' colors.)
Akingbade leads the Colonials with 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting, while star swingman Daniels paces the Rams with 12.
The key stat separating these teams is the turnovers -- GW has three, URI has 15. Yup, and it's only halftime.
George Washington 44, Rhode Island 36 HALFTIME
The refs have now determined that it was a flagrant foul, and Mbang and Baron each shoot two, and hit three in total. The way Mbang landed it seems like a good call.
URI is now going against a zone, and passing well, but couldn't finish on the last contested layup.
Bitee's long pass to Baron is too far, and the GW defense is starting to get to the Rams.
Wilmore misses a pair of threes, but gets himself a steal and runner for two back.
URI is really turning it over, three in three possessions.
George Washington 40, Rhode Island 31 3:38 1st Half
Rice has an open layup, but Mbang pins him against the basket, and the URI crowd at that end goes nuts.
Mbang then goes hard to the hoop for a layup and gets laid out by Koundija. Mbang is pissed and the teams come together in the lane. It's getting heated, though nothing goes down.
Boardwalk Hall is about 70 percent full (6,000 fans maybe), which outside of the St. Joe's -- Temple game on Wednesday is by far the largest crowd yet.
George Washington 38, Rhode Island 31 4:19 1st Half
Daniels, who was quiet in yesterday's upset of Xavier, is having a great game. He muscles his way to an offensive rebound and a layup.
But two quick Elliott baskets -- one off of a steal -- and GW takes back the lead.
Akingbade takes a pass for a wide open two-handed dunk, and the lead is five for the 3-seed. He now twists through the defense for a layin.
George Washington 26, Rhode Island 27 7:59 1st Half
Diggs just got hit in the nose with an elbow from Mbang, and was bleeding profusely. It was no Tyler Hansbrough nosebleed, but a pool of blood on the ground. (We now know he broke his nose)
Daniels drains a three, and the Rams are on top. Daniels, usually more of an offensive threat, gets a nasty block on Elliott, but the GW guard was fouled down low.
On the other end Hollis gets called for a foul on another block. He takes a lap around the three-point line in frustration.
In all, the URI offense is great. The Rams are knocking down the outside shots, and penetrating only a little, but much more that GW's opponents the last two days (St. Joe's and Saint Louis) could.
George Washington 20, Rhode Island 20 10:53 1st Half
Both teams are in a little three-quarter-court press. The Rams are in their usual 2-3 zone, while the Colonials go man.
Now URI goes to a man defense, but is still pressing. The tempo is nice and fast.
Noel Wilmore stuffs a guard trying for some penetration. Wilmore, a Philadelphia native along with teammate Rice, is helps to keep GW's inside defense particularly stingy. They only let St. Joe's big men Ahmad Nivins and Rob Ferguson hit three combined shots in their round two matchup.
Mbang drains a three from way out, and we're tied. The forward has made more outside shots than GW as a team. Rob Diggs, though, gets the best of Mbang on the other end.
George Washington 14, Rhode Island 11 15:43 1st Half
Maureece Rice starts it off with a trey from the corner, but coach's son Jimmy Baron responds.
What the heck, Damian Hollis hits another three to make it three on three combined possessions.
Akingbade beasts Daniels for an easy layup, and all of a sudden the Colonials have a nine-point lead.
GW is pressing and trapping with two guards in the backcourt.
It was doing some good, but now Parfait Bitee hits his fellow Cameroon native Joe Mbang for an open three.
Starters:
URI:
G Parfait Bitee 6-2
G Jimmy Baron 6-2
F Will Daniels Jr 6-8
F Kahiem Seawright 6-8
C Darrell Harris 6-10
GW
G Maureece Rice 6-1
G Damian Hollis 6-8
G Carl Elliott 6-4
F Regis Koundija 6-8
F Dokun Akingbade 6-9
Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Penn games might move from WXPN to a commercial radio station next year. Can't imagine why that might be. It seemed like a good idea to me to keep your games on a station which preempts you for the polka hour a few times a season.
Time lapse
I just listened to Princeton A.D. and NCAA Tournament selection committee chair Gary Walters say something a little shocking on CBS' studio show. While it doesn't directly affect Penn, Walters admitted that with the Big 12 championship game starting at 3 p.m. and the Big 11 at 3:30, the committee has to make some decisions -- potentially affecting those teams -- before the games end.
And while Penn's seed won't be affected by this travesty (why can't the selection show be at 8 or 9 instead of 6?) its opponent certainly could.
Penn, Villanova and...
Drexel will make the NCAA Tournament. In an era of college basketball when teams like Syracuse and Connecticut don't take their shows on the road until conference season starts, the committee will reward the Dragons for having one of the nation's best road non-conference slates.
Drexel has road wins over three tournament teams in Villanova, Syracuse and Creighton as well as a team that would have been in if it could make its free throws in Vermont. Blemishes on the resume include losses to Rider and Penn.
But the committee will see those road wins as well as victories at Temple and St. Joe's and give the Dragons an 11 or 12.
Hello from Albany, N.Y., home of the Albany Great Danes, who just gave Penn quite a bit of help in their quest for a 13 seed.
The Danes won a thriller, knocking off would-be 12 or 13-seeded Vermont to win America East. Albany will almost surely be behind Penn, pushing them up, perhaps, to a 13.
Not much else to root for today, with most teams playing this afternoon decidedly in and ahead of Penn (ESPN RPI 87).
Root for Miami of Ohio (102), over Akron (61) in the MAC championship.
Rhode Island (104) over George Washington (73) in the A-14.
And in the nightcap, Penn fans should root for Cal Poly (137) over Long Beach State (86).
Another reason Penn fans should be happy with Albany's win is that Danes coach Will Brown began his playing career with the Quakers. Brown played less than one season for the Quakers before returning home to play for Dowling College on Long Island.
Yesterday was miserable. The teams Penn wanted to win of the 14 I put up went 2-12, with the only wins coming from Wyoming (over Air Force) and Boise State (over Fresno State).
The 13 seed slips further away every day.
Here are today's games that might matter:
Florida State vs. North Carolina, 12 p.m.
Bucknell vs. Holy Cross, 4:30 p.m. -- same situation as Wright State/Butler a few days ago. Bucknell might end up below Penn or it might not, but Holy Cross will definitely be above Penn.
Rice vs. Houston, 4:30 p.m. -- Houston might threaten Penn if it were to win C-USA
Rhode Island vs. Xavier, 6:30 p.m. -- See what you can do Mr. Wheeling
Tulane vs. Memphis, 7 p.m.
Miami (OH) vs. Toledo, 7 p.m.
Wyoming vs. BYU, 9 p.m.
McNeese State vs. TAMU-CC, 9:30 p.m. -- just to be safe
UC Irvine vs. Long Beach St., 9:30 p.m. -- just to be safe also
Colorado State vs. UNLV, 11:30 p.m
It's more upsets to root for today, but they have to come eventually, right? It's supposed to be March Madness!
(3) George Washington 58, (6) St. Joe's 48 FINAL
It's down to three. The A-10 half of the Philadelphia teams -- La Salle, Temple and now St. Joe's are unofficially out of the NCAA Tournament. Penn and most likely Villanova are in, while Drexel gets to sweat it out on Selection Sunday.
The Hawks just couldn't hit anything down the stretch. No fault can go to Nivins, who got to the line with amazing regularity, but the three pointers that had to go in were all bricks.
(3) George Washington 57, (6) St. Joe's 48 0:11.6
Govens, like most players attempting three free throws late in the game, misses the first, but makes the next two after getting fouled on a three. GW is winning the FT battle, also like most teams leading late in games do.
Some fans chant "the Hawk will never die."
(3) George Washington 56, (6) St. Joe's 46 0:44 2nd Half
St. Joe's will have to hope it can win it by fouling, and GW is now in the double bonus.
Nivins misses a free throw and GW is in control.
(3) George Washington 52, (6) St. Joe's 43 1:05 2nd Half
Williamson gets a steal, but loses it himself, and the Colonials score the transition layup.
(3) George Washington 50, (6) St. Joe's 43 1:58 2nd Half
Nivins makes two, but the Hawks need a stop real bad.
They get one, but turn it over themselves.
Martelli's starting the offense-defense subs with Calathes and Williamson, respectively.
A Govens three rims out. Ferguson finally scores, off of his own offensive board.
(3) George Washington 48, (6) St. Joe's 39 3:46 2nd Half
Rice gets back into the scoring with a mid-range jumper, followed by a tough layup.
Two free throw misses in four hurt for St. Joe's.
It's all man-to-man now, as finally the Hawks get a stop.
On the 3-on-2 break Rivera hits Nivins with a sweet behind-the-back pass, and the big man gets fouled, as his shot rolls out.
(3) George Washington 43, (6) St. Joe's 37 7:26 2nd Half
Travis King's layup makes the lead double-digits, as Carter's pass just slips out of his hands. Calathes' pass goes awry, and now Diggs banks one in in the lane. Gw's trapping is creating some bad giveaways.
How do you stop a good halfcourt defense? Williamson takes a pass in transition for an and-1 layup, and then Rivera pushes the ball to draw another foul.
Rivera misses the second, but an offensive rebound and a Nivins deuce and all of a sudden it's back to six.
Ferguson still hasn't scored for the Hawks.
(3) George Washington 37, (6) St. Joe's 31 11:46 2nd Half
DeMayo calls a reach-in on Nivins that looked clean. DeMayo was the furthest away official, but his superior abilities must make up for it.
A fan taunts "Joey blank-in DeMayo", but his assistant makes the reach-in call that upsets the fans.
(3) George Washington 34, (6) St. Joe's 31 15:48 2nd Half
Calathes gets the half started off right with a three and a floater.
A block on one end and a drawn foul on the other and Ferguson and Nivins are starting to play a lot bigger.
Govens hits a three in front of the St. Joe's bench, and coach Phil Martelli calmly pumps his fist.
As you can no doubt tell from the scorelines, the Hawks are on a 10-1 run.
(3) George Washington 33, (6) St. Joe's 21 HALFTIME
A dissappointing last few minutes for St. Joe's. The Colonials' opportunistic perimeter defense created 10 turnovers, and the inside shut down a usually-dominant Hawks frontcourt. Rice and Diggs lead the Colonials with 10 and 11 points, respectively, each on 4-for-7 shooting. The Hawks have three assists.
(3) George Washington 31, (6) St. Joe's 21 1:41 1st Half
The crowd is getting a lot quieter, though a drunk fan still tries to clap along with the cheerleaders (though he's a half-second late).
Going for a board Elliott lands awkwardly on his ankle. Some good news for them though, as Koundija is back in for the newly-injured player.
(3) George Washington 30, (6) St. Joe's 20 2:39 1st Half
Rice is tearin' it up, hitting another triple and dropping Diggs a dime in transition.
(3) George Washington 25, (6) St. Joe's 18 3:35 1st Half
Diggs throws one down to keep the lead. Ferguson with a great box-out. I sure miss that at the Palestra.
Ref Joe DeMayo enthusiastically points to Nivins way out of the paint as he committs a foul on an and-1.
Koundija is hurt for GW, looks like it could be a shoulder.
Diggs blocks Jawan Carter's layup. The inside is owned by GW.
A Rice three, and the lead's back to seven.
(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 15 7:20 1st Half
After two FTS, the Hawks come out in a 3-2 zone and get a stop, but then go right back to man, and Govens gets a steal and goes coast-to-coast.
As the crowd livens up, Rice tries to quiet it with a baseline dunk, but the 6-10 Calathes throws him off and he misses.
(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 11 9:29 1st Half
The Hawks are now getting it going. They finally force a turnover, and Govens hits a transition three.
Quickly the other way Diggs has an open layup, but Nivins comes out of nowhere for a nasty block.
A Nivins dunk on the other end and we have a ballgame.
(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 6 11:19 1st Half
The Hawks are having real trouble scoring inside against GW, which normally starts three guys 6-foor-8 or taller.
Rice and company are running all over the Hawks in transition as well.
Govens throws a terrible pass, and the Hawks give it up again.
There are a lot of fans here, mostly for the Hawks. No one showed up for the first three games, so it's nice to see a real crowd.
(3) George Washington 13, (6) St. Joe's 4 13:20 1st Half
D.J. Rivera hits a rainbow, but Elliott comes right back with a three
(3) George Washington 8, (6) St. Joe's 2 16:08 1st Half
Philly native Maurice Rice starts off the scoring for the Colonials. Along with Noel Wilmore, he's one of two local players on GW.
The Hawks start with all bricks, and a few transition baskets and it's 6-0 GW.
Starters:
St. Joe's:
G Garrett Williamson
G Darrin Govens
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins
George Washington:
G Maurice Rice
G Carl Elliott
G Damian Hollis
F Dokun Akingbade
F Regis Koundija
(2) Massachusetts 71, (7) Saint Louis 74, FINAL
The Billikens come off of a one-point win over Duquesne, and are looking sharp in the early going. UMass comes in as the 2-seed, and at 56th in the RPI probably needs to win the whole thing to make it to the NCAA Tournament.
A-10 Player of the Year Stephane Lasme hasn't done much so far, and his blocks count is at zero. Lasme averages over five per game, good enough for second in the nation. He swatted 10 against La Salle last week for his fourth triple-double of the season. He has the highest shoulders-size-to-leg size I've ever seen.
I have to congratulate myself, I just made a sick catch off of a ball that SLU's Luke Meyer tried to save. He flipped it (with some good english) in the air, and I snagged it after about 3.5 seconds hangtime before it landed on the table next to me.
A guy from the crowd just hands bracketologist Joe Lunardi a pack of cookies, and says he must try them even though they're sugarfree. Lunardi offers to pass them around on a sampler platter. I'm not sure whether he actually knows Joe.
Lasme rejects 6-foot-10 Ian Vouyoukas. It should have been a jump ball, but the center gets it back and scores.
The Gabon man is also the A-10's leading rebounder at 9.4 per game
Halftime show:
I don't know how to describe this, but a guy is doing this puppet (almost a ventriliquist) show, dancing with four puppets connected to him (two in front, two in back) that mimic anything he does by poles and wires.
The hilarious part is that the guy, a pretty well-built African American, is dressed as a Native American, with a headdress, underwear-size shorts and boots. He's naked besides that. His puppets are a cop, a guy in all leather, a construction worker and a cowboy. They dance to classic American songs, it's absolutely ridicullous.
Slowly, the Billikens have creeped back into it, and now have taken the lead. Thanks to a methodical offense, they have practically doubled their score from the first half in less than 10 minutes.
Vuoyoukas and 7-footer Bryce Husak are doing some good work down low.
Yet another 7-footer, 7-1 Luke Bonner, gets an offensive rebound and goes to the line.
The other freak of nature, Husak, gets an and-1 for Saint Louis to take the 55-52 lead. Starting forward Rashaun Freeman has fouled out for UMass.
James Life hits yet another trey to tie it at 57.
Up by two now, UMass begins to press. Gary Forbes tries to pump up the crowd as it starts to get loud.
Justin Johnson's jumper ties the gamee at 63 with two minutes to go.
Bonner hits two from the line to take back the lead, but the Billikens tie it right back up with an inside layup.
UMass runs down the clock, but Life gets a violation with 4.7 seconds to go, and Saint Louis takes over with a chance to win.
Lisch's three is off the side of the rim and we go to OT
OVERTIME:
Five seconds in Lasme gets his fourth foul, and SLU goes up two on the FTs.
Lisch drains a jumper and Bonner airballs a three the other way.
A UMass turnover, and airball and a SLU turnaround, and the 2-seed is down 6 and in deep trouble.
A miss off of a five-footer, and the deficit is seven.
But Forbes comes right back by nailing a three off of a screen at the top of the key. It was the Minutemen's first points of OT.
Liddell, a 75-percent shooter hits one, and UMass misses a few tough layups and gets it back.
Life then hits a huge three from the corner, and UMass is down two. Saint Louis calls timeout.
Lisch throws a pass to Liddell that goes backcourt (barely), but with eight seconds left Lowe gets stripped, and UMass has to foul.
After Liddell hits one, Forbes has a chance for the win ... but his pump fake and three hits the near rim as buzzer sounds.
What a crazy game. It is the fifth out of seven this week where the trailing team had an opportunity to win or tie on the final possession. This was the first upset though.
____________
(4) Rhode Island 73 (5) Fordham 69
In the battle of the Rams, Rhode Island defended its territory with a 73-69 win.
This was not a good result for Penn, as a Fordham win would have boosted the Quakers' RPI.
And while the game looked like it would be a blowout, Fordham made it into yet another A-10 Tourney nailbiter.
The Blue Rams held a 36-20 lead but a few threes later the Burgundy variety cut that lead to six on a 12-2 run.
Shortly after, Fordham looked like it was about to fall way behind again, but with a 14-0 run led by Sebastian Greene driving the lane and capitalized by a Bryant Dunston dunk and a two big threes, it actually took the lead, 49-46. URI was playing a 2-3 zone, but Fordham shot them out of it.
The Fordham defense started to close up inside, but Bryant Dunston fouling out with 4:54 left maimed their inside prescence. Soon after Marcus Stout also picked up his fifth, and with that the Burgandy Rams' two leading scorers were done for the night.
With under a minute to go, a backdoor dunk from Lamonte Ulmer for Rhode Island tied it up at 69.
And with 11.1 seconds to go, Jimmy Baron got into the lane got a hard layup to go taking the two-point lead.
In the final seconds, some great defense gave Brenton Butler -- who hit all of his six attempts from downtown, nowhere to go. Before he could even force up a shot, he picked up his pivot foot, traveled with 0.9 seconds to go to end it.
Unlike the first game of the day, both teams have about equal support in the crowd, though the 9,000-capacity Boardwalk Hall is still only about a third full.
Interesting notes: Rhode Island coach Jim Baron's son Jimmy is the third-leading three-point shooter in the country.
Also two players -- forward Joe Mbang and point guard Parfait Bitee -- are both from Yaounde, Cameroon. Former Quakers forward Friedrich Ebede and these guys woulda made a great 3-on-3 squad.
____________
(1) Xavier 72, (8) Dayton 51
The game started at a torrid scoring pace, but then Dayton just couldn't score. Xavier opened up a nice on a 20-5 run late in the 1st half.
As a goaltending call cuts it to 52-42, the Dayton fans start to get into it.
A few Little drives -- one sailing dunk -- are keeping the Flyers in striking distance.
It was a balanced effort from Xavier, but Justin Doellman was really the leader in the second half. After the break he scored 11 points (19 total) on 3-for-5 shooting, with three assists -- all of which went for three-pointers.
UMass may have the best player, but Xavier clearly looks to be the best team. Doellman, Justin Cage, Stanley (no relation to Pat) Burrell and Drew Lavender all have the potential to take over a game. Cage went 6-for-6 from the field, while Lavender -- the diminutive, former highly touted prospect and Oklahoma transfer -- had nine assists to only one giveaway.
Most of the crowd -- quantity and sound-wise -- was XU fans, who are all obsessed w/ the 'X' in their name. One student shaved an 'X' in his hair, everyone did the intentional foul sign with their arms, and they all cheered "lets go X"
Penn coach Glen Miller gave strong support to the recently-fired Harvard coach Frank Sullivan.
"It's disheartening to me because coach Sullivan is first and foremost a terrific person. I happen to think he's a very good coach, and you never want to see that happen to somebody like coach Sullivan so I wish him nothing but the best of luck. I think it's a poor decision, but they made it, and you just wonder if they game him the support that he needed to be successful there. It's just disheartening from my standpoint."
On the other side, it looked more like a 15-minute proposal for Princeton to keep him as coach than a post-game press conference following a blowout loss to Penn to end the season.
"I'm confident in our younger guys because they're workers," Scott said. "The level of their love to play -- we're going to find all that stuff out. But if you combine the love to play with the work ethic plus the experience that they just went through, that's how you make a jump and do get better."
Well, I guess it's good to be positive, but Scott's advertisement was a 5-point plan for re-election.
1. It's tough to win without your best player
Kyle Koncz's injury, and to an extent the one to Edwin Buffmeir, hurt Princeton all year in the Ivy League. As Scott says, it's not as easy to come in and turn around a team when there are few key seniors. I mean he only had like four when he took over for John Thompson III in 2004.
2. The League will be wide open next year
This doesn't mean the Tigers won't still lose to Dartmouth.
3. His young guys are getting a lot of experience
Well, when you play point guard Marcus Schroeder 38.9 minutes per game he's bound to improve.
4. The team has a lot of talent
This is connected to point number 3. Although apparetly talent and the ability to make layups (five uncontested misses against the Quakers this week) are two wholly different things.
5. Scott's team must be improving
I mean, he was barely hoarse from yelling at his players after Tuesday's game, and didn't sound like a chain smoker like he did following the game at the Palestra.
In a not as sugar-coated, politically correct statement, Scott also disclosed his clear vote for Ivy Player of the Year.
"Jaaber's the best player in the League," he said. "I know Zoller has good numbers, but to me, no knock on Mark the guy's a good player too, to me Jaaber's the most valuable player in this league. Your take Jaaber off that team, and I don't know if it's the same team"
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