Rush The Court

We’d like to apologize for our coverage yesterday. We had some technical/communication issues regarding the post yesterday, but I’ll be back covering the games today so everything should be back to normal. Here’s a quick rundown of the games we’ll be covering today:

Early Games

• 12:15 PM: #14 Stephen F. Austin vs. #3 Syracuse
• 12:25 PM: #9 Tennessee vs. #8 Oklahoma State
• 12:30 PM: #11 Utah State vs. #6 Marquette
• 12:30 PM: #14 North Dakota State vs. #3 Kansas

Afternoon Games

• 2:45 PM: #11 Temple vs. #6 Arizona State
• 2:55 PM: #16 East Tennessee State vs. #1 Pittsburgh
• 3:00 PM: #14 Cornell vs. #3 Missouri
• 3:00 PM: #11 Dayton vs. #6 West Virginia

Evening Games

• 7:10 PM: #16 Morehead State vs. #1 Louisville
• 7:10 PM: #12 Arizona vs. #5 Utah
• 7:20 PM: #10 USC vs. #7 Boston College
• 7:25 PM: #13 Portland State vs. #4 Xavier

Late Night Games

• 9:40 PM: #9 Siena vs. #8 Ohio State
• 9:40 PM: #13 Cleveland State vs. #4 Wake Forest
• 9:50 PM: #15 Robert Morris vs. #2 Michigan State
• 9:55 PM: #12 Wisconsin vs. #5 Florida State

Quite frankly, today’s slate looks a lot more interesting than what was on yesterday. There are 3 games in each of the 4 groups that seem like they will be entertaining except for the afternoon set where only the 6/11 match-ups really catch my eyes. Feel free to leave your thoughts or questions on any of these games or the ones from yesterday in the comment section. I’ll be back around noon to cover the day’s action.

12:15 PM: Ok. We’re about to get underway. I was a little delayed by the fact that the bus to RTC East decided to pick up 3 people in wheelchairs, which slowed down my trip significantly (had to get them in/out during 6 stops). Is anybody rooting for Stephen F. Austin just because they can’t stand Eric Devendorf?

12:20 PM: “The best look the Lumberjacks have had so far”? That was only their 2nd possession of the game. The crows is awful in Miami. I know its early, but there is nobody there. I have to say the NCAA did a pretty poor job with their pod placement. I’ll have to double check, but Miami is probably the worst pod location in terms of distance from the participating schools (and the fact that they don’t care about sports in Miami).

12:30 PM: Rough start for Stephen F. Austin in Miami. Already down 10-2. Hopefully they can keep it close although this was probably the game that was the most likely to be a blowout in this group.

12:35 PM: Did anybody pick upsets in this group of games? I have North Dakota State and Utah State.

12:40 PM: Good game in Dayton (Ok State 14, Tennessee 13 with 12:20 left in the first half). In Boise, Lazar Hayward is up 7-5 on Utah State.

12:45 PM: North Dakota State is keeping it close with defending national champion Kansas (19-17 with 12 minutes left in the first half). I’m hoping for a big game from Ben Woodside. What do you guys think ND State has to do to win today?

12:55 PM: You guys might want to check out an excellent preview of today’s games in the East Region that Dave Zeitlin and Steve Moore put together. I think that 3 out of the 4 games could be good.

1:00 PM: Cole Aldrich might be the key to this game. The Bison don’t have anybody who can match-up with him. Kansas has opened up a 7-point lead with 4:41 left in the first half.

1:15 PM: Kansas closes with a 16-7 run to take a 9-point lead going into half. Marquette goes into halftime with a 26-18 lead.

1:30 PM: Sorry for the lack of updates, but Syracuse is doubling up Stephen F. Austin with 15 minutes left and that’s not really worth discussing. I’ll have more when the other games come out of halftime.

1:40 PM: Out of curiosity, how bad would the economy have to be for CBS to try to pull something like ESPN (it was them , right?) did a few years ago when they had the announcers back in the US calling an international event?

1:43 PM: The Cowboys are holding onto a 3-point lead with 15:52 to go despite having 8 turnovers. This looks like it could be a good one.

1:45 PM: Speaking of good games. . .Does anybody have any thoughts about the finish of the VCU–UCLA game yesterday? I thought that Darren Collison did a great job on Eric Maynor on the last possession, but VCU had some issues with floor spacing when the guy who set the screen got a little too close to midcourt (Maynor may have even stepped on the line).

1:50 PM: Kansas-ND State is a 3-point game with 15 minutes left. It looks like we are going to get our 3 good games that I promised earlier in the day.

1:55 PM: I see we have a few Syracuse/Devendorf fans here. Seriously though, if he played for Duke don’t you think he would need a security detail at games?

2:00 PM: Kansas might start getting tight here. It’s a 3-point game with 10:20 left.  Right now we have 3 games with a combined margin of 6 points midway through the 2nd half. This should be a phenomenal 30 minutes.

2:10 PM: Aldrich goes to the line and sinks a pair. ND State is in trouble now. It’s a 10-point game with 5:47 left. They need to start making a run now.

2:25 PM: It looks like ND State is going down (trailing by 9 with 1:15 left). Tennessee-OK State are tied at 72 with 1:54 left and Marquette trails Utah State by 1 with 3 minutes left.

2:27 PM: Dumb foul by ND State. Fouling Sherron Collins who is having a big day today. Frantic action in Dayton. Tied with a minute to go.

2:28 PM: Tyler Smith responds to Byron Eaton‘s jumper with an “and 1”. He’s going to the line (9/9 FT) with 24 seconds left with the game tied. Utah State is up by 1 with 1:47 left, but Jared Quayle (18 points) just fouled out.

2:30 PM: WOW. Huge play by Eaton. Driving lay-up and 1. Going to the line with 6.7 seconds left with a chance to give the Cowboys a 2-point lead.

2:32 PM: Jerel McNeal gives Marquette a 3-point lead. Tai Wesley just fouled out with 34.1 seconds left. It looks like the Aggies might be done here. Apparently Wesley knows what a rectangle is (“the geography of the lane”). Eaton sinks the FT. 2 point lead with 7.2 seconds. Tyler Smith comes up short on a 3 and the Vols are going back to Knoxville. Utah State cuts it to 2 with 23 seconds left on a banked 3. Crazy stuff.

2:38 PM: 26-year old Gary Wilkinson comes up short. 1-point margin. Great game. Two phenomenal finishes. Best stretch so far. I almost got dizzy with CBS cutting between so many games.

2:42 PM: Agree with Jersey. Awful defense by the Vols. Also did Smith even look at anybody else on that play. On the replay it looked like he had somebody open on the nearside of the court behind the 3-point line.

3:20 PM: Relatively slow start to all the games so far. I haven’t seen anything that interesting, which is why I haven’t posted much. Arizona State is leading Temple by 9 with 37.8 seconds left. Pittsburgh is only up by 2 midway through the first half.

3:40 PM: Agree with the CBS guys. That was a ridiculous call on DeJuan Blair. He could have landed on his back like that kid did in the NIT.

3:45 PM: e could have something developing here. All 3 of the favorites (Pittsburgh, Missouri, and West Virginia) are struggling right now. I expect the favorites to win at least 2 of these games, but there might be an upset (our first legit one of the tournament?) Interesting foul by Sam Young there playing the bounce.

3:48 PM: If you’re wondering why the posts have been sporadic it has been because I just put up an interview I did with Bill Laimbeer where he took some shots at Digger Phelps among many other things.

3:55 PM: Pitt is only up by 3 going (the last shot was a fraction of a second late). They’re going to need to step it up or their late season failures might start creeping into their heads pretty soon.

4:05 PM: Temple is hanging in there against the Sun Devils. It’s just a 6 -point game with 9:42 left and Dionte Christmas going to the FT line.

4:15 PM: Just a heads up for our fans, rtmsf will be on ESPN 1040 in Tampa at 5:20 PM ET. You can listen to him by following this link.

4:20 PM: Pitt and ETSU are tied at 26 with 19:30 left in the game. Young hits a pair of FTs to put the Panthers up by 2. Young and Blair need to take over and give the Panthers a double-digit cushion or this could get very interesting. . .

4:30 PM: Huge block by Greg Hamlin on Levance Fields. Pitt is in trouble right now as is another team from the Big East, West Virginia, that is down by 6 to Dayton. Only the Missouri lead looks safe right now.

4:35 PM: Jersey, thanks for the update. I was about to check out that game on MMOD because CBS isn’t switching from this Pitt choke. They’re just getting outworked.

4:50 PM: Jamie Dixon is going to have to ride Blair because he’s the only one playing well for thr Panthers today. Keep an eye on that WVU-Dayton game. The Mountaineers are down by 4 with 7:49 left.

5:00 PM: Down to a 2-point game with 4:14 left. ETSU ball, but an ugly possession leads to a turnover. An easy lob to Blair (must have had a 6 inch and 70 pound advantage) leads to an “and 1” with the FT coming when we come to back from the break.

5:10 PM: Asthon Gibbs got away with one there. Is there anybody who doesn’t have Pitt at least into the Final 4? It’s a 5-point game with 90 seconds left.

5:17 PM: Pitt hangs on to win by 10, but West Virginia is about to go down. Dayton is up by 7 with 34 seconds left.

5:30 PM: Just listened to rtmsf get on ESPN 1040 in Tampa. Some good stuff. We’ll be back around 7 for the games tonight. And yes we’ll actually be here (I’ll be here so I’m sure of it. If anything changes, I’ll leave a note.)

7:10 PM: And we’re back (and here to stay tonight) with the Louisville-Morehead State game (until they switch us over to the Arizona-Utah game). One interesting fact from the intro. This is the first time Louisville has been a #1 seed since 1983 or when I was 1 month old.

7:22 PM: Correction–I’ll be watching the USC-BC game. I should have figured since I live less than 10 miles from Chestnut Hill.

7:25 PM: I’m going with USC in this one. I think they’re on a hot streak right now and BC can’t guard DeMar Derozan or Taj Gibson.

7:30 PM: Arizona already has a big lead (16-6) just 8 minutes into the game. What does it say about Utah’s seeding that the last team in the tournament and the most controversial team was widely predicted to beat them (a #5 seed)?

7:32 PM: “Young fella! Don’t hurt ’em!” – Gus Johnson’s call on Derozan’s throwdown. I think he could be playing his way into a top 10 spot.

7:35 PM: Interesting USC fact: They have only had all of their starting lineup for 5 games this year. That might explain their poor play this year. Any thoughts from people who have seen the Trojans play a lot htis year.

7:40 PM: I noticed this earlier, but didn’t mention it. Taco Bell Arena? Really? I guess I can’t make that much fun of it because at least they won’t be using bailout money to have their name on a stadium.

7:45 PM: It’s been an ugly day for the Big East so far. Syracuse won by 15 over Stephen F. Austin in a game that I didn’t see after they got a 20-4 lead so I’m assuming they just cruised after that. WVU lost to Dayton. Pitt almost became the first #1 seed ever to lose its first round game and Louisville is threatening to do the same (down by 2 with 6:18 left in the first half).

8:00 PM: It looks like we might have 4 good games tonight, but Louisville-Morehead State will be the story of the night if this keeps up.

8:15 PM: Quick check of halftime scores: Louisville up by 2, Arizona up by 5, BC up by 4, and Xavier up by 7. Not a bad set of games. Terrence Williams needs to step it up. 1 FG in the first half isn’t going to cut it for the best player on a potential national champion.

8:20 PM: Out of curiosity, is anybody reading this right now? There haven’t been many comments today and it’s a Friday night. If nobody is reading this, I’ll probably finish up with this set of games and call it a night.

8:30 PM: Sloppy play by Morehead State (running the endline on the inbounds) early in the 2nd half. Hopefully they don’t fall apart adn can keep this one close.

8:35 PM: It looks like BC-USC will be our go-to game tonight. Louisville is up by a baker’s dozen while Arizona has a 9-point lead.

8:45 PM: What was that? Daniel Hackett must have thought Derozan (who can get up) was LeBron James jumping on a trampoline to catch that alley-oop.

8:50 PM: USC has started to pull away in this game. They’re up by 8 with 9:50 left, but Rakim Sanders responds with a 3 to cut it to 5. It seems like BC doesn’t have the athelticism to keep USC. This almost seems like a Big 10 vs. SEC match-up in football.

9:00 PM: Two good games here: Arizona-Utah and USC-BC. I’ll be doing the big screen vs. MMOD from here on out.

9:05 PM: Something to watch for. Taj Gibson is 10 FTs away from pulling a Christian Laettner, but he has 4 fouls. USC looks like they are in control here. Wow. I just saw the wideshot of the Metrodome. The lower level is about 80% full. The upper level. . .not so much. I would be surprised if there were more than 100 people up there.

9:12 PM: Scott, you’re right. It looked like a promising set of games at halftime, but the teams that won certainly dominated the 2nd half. I’m sort of sad to see BC go. They were the first school to give me media credential and it’s kind of cool to see someone you have met and (sort of) know on TV.

9:20 PM: Just a heads up for you guys. I’ll be slowing down the frequency of my posts for the final set of games tonight. I’ll probably post about every half hour unless something big happens or we have a tight game down the stretch in which case I will go back to normal BGtD format. I have to say that I’m surprised by the lack of shocking upsets so far. I can’t say I have been stunned by anything yet. Dayton knocking off West Virginia was surprising, but not something that will be remembered outside of Ohio or West Virginia by the time April rolls around. Any thoughts about the potential Michigan State-USC match-up?

10:00 PM: Yikes. Awful start by Wake Forest. They already down 14-4 to Cleveland State just 5 minutes into the game. Nothing else that notable thus far in the late night games.

10:05 PM: Jersey, was that Smith or Raferty? I assumed it was the latter but I was trying to follow multiple games at once. If it was Smith, that is definitley a Gilbert Arenas move. Unfortunately, like Agent Zero we won’t be seeing Tyler in the 2nd round.

10:25 PM: Ok. It loosk like we have 2 interesting games right now: Cleveland State beating down Wake Forest and Robert Morris hanging tough against Michigan State. I know that rtmsf called the Cleveland State upset on ESPN Radio at 5:20 PM, but I don’t know many people who had Michigan State going down to Robert Morris. Or is this another tease like then Pitt and Louisville games?

10:30 PM: Jersey, if Jeff Teague and Al-Farouq Aminu are told they are certain lottery picks I don’t see why they wouldn’t go. I mean I can certainly see areas they can improve on, but it’s hard to pass up that kind of money particularly with this economy and the relatively weak draft. I’m also not sure what effect any new collective bargaining agreement might have. Depending on the year, it might make sense for them to leave early to save a year or two and get out of their rookie contracts before a more owner-friendly CBA goes into place. As for James Johnson, I think that outside of a Final 4 run I can’t see him getting into the lottery so I would stay in school if I were him.

10:40 PM: Just a notice for everyone, we’ll be doing a BGtD tomorrow, but that will start at 3:20 for the 2nd set of games. We have a correspondent in Philly who will be doing a live blog from the UCLA–Villanova game. We’ll be doing our regular BGtD after that, but we figure it would just be canibalizng each other’s posts to do them at the same time so check there first (it will be at the top of the page and then we’ll go to BGtD afterwards.

11:20 PM: It looks like we will have 3 interesting games as the Spartans blew open their game against Robert Morris soon after I wondered whether or not they would go down. Wake Forest is still struggling against Cleveland State and right now they are down 9 with 11:22 to go. The other two games are essentially tied. Did anybody have Wake going far in their bracket?

11:40 PM: Wake is barely hanging on. They’re down by 14 with 6:15 left. This would be the first major upset of the tournament. We’ll be doing regular BGtD the rest of the way.

11:41 PM: That’s why Aminu will go pro. There are only a handful of guys in the NBA that size who could do that. Wow. The lead is down to 12 with 5:03 left.

11:43 PM: Meanwhile in Columbus Dayton, Ohio State is up by 4 with 1:18 left. It’s ridiculous that Ohio State will have such a big homecourt advantage against a #1 if they win this game.

11:45 PM: Wake is down by 15 with 3:54 left. Unless Cleveland State chokes this one is over, I would expect a full scale meltdown on the Wake boards pretty soon. I’m predicting 12:10 PM (ugh, these games take so long to finish).

11:47 PM: Great finish in Dayton. Kenny Hasbrouck of Siena with 2 FTs down by 1. He misses the first and . . .sink the 2nd. Tie game with 8 seconds left. Ohio State ball.

11:49 PM: Evan Turner misses a driving lay-up and a follow 3 is wide left and we’re going to OT! The first of the tournament, right?

11:51 PM: And the Wake game is officially over. The announcers are already talking about Skip Prosser. Not a good sign. 18-point lead with 2:35 left.

11:53 PM: Switching over to the FSU game, which is in Boise for some reason (couldn’t they have put them in Miami), where they lead Wisconsin by 1 with 1:29 left. Toney Douglas has 21 of the Seminoles’ 50 points.

11:55 PM: ONIONS!!! Huge shot by Jason Bohannon nails a deep 3 just before the shot clock expired to put the Badgers up by 2. Awful possession by Wisconsin, which became wonderful with that shot.

11:58 PM: Nice play by Douglas who drew the foul on Trevon Hughes by driving to the basket. He sinks both. Wisconsin should get what is essentially the last shot of the game.

Midnight: Wow. The much-maligned B.J. Mullens may have saved the Buckeyes season with a flip to Turner when the ball would have went to Siena. Turner is at the line with a chance to give the Buckeyes a 3-point lead.

12:05 PM: Turner held up his end, but Ronald Moore responded with a 3 with 2.5 seconds left to force a 2nd OT. I’m not sure if I can handle another 6 OTs.

12:25 PM: Nice wins by Wisconsin and Siena to finish off round 2. We’ll be back with more tomorrow today.