Ryan Pravato of College Fast Break is the RTC correspondent for the Summit League.
Tourney Preview (Sioux Falls Arena)
Saturday Games:
(1) North Dakota St. vs. (8) Centenary
Centenary was outrebounded in their last meeting with NDSU by 22. Although Redus had a strong game, Adams and Stallings combined for just 16 points. Expect the same defensive play from the bigger, better guards of NDSU.
(2) Oral Roberts vs. (7) South Dakota St.
Home state advantage could make this a much tighter game than it is on paper. Jackrabbit forwards Anthony Cardova and Kai Williams, the only players taller than 6’5 to see regular minutes, must come up with huge games on the glass. If Ford and Lewis are not accounted for, it’s over.
RTC Aftermath will come to you each night where our correspondents are at the conference tournament games as a part of RTC Live. Michael Vernetti is in Las Vegas all weekend covering the WCC Tournament for RTC.
San Diego, riding strong performances from its front court tandem of Gyno Pomare (18 points) and Roberto Mafra (14 points) toppled Loyola 62-56 to move into tomorrow’s quarterfinal game with Santa Clara. Mafra, notching his career high, and Pomare teamed up to overshadow a strong performance by Loyola freshman Kevin Young, who scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds. RTC Live was there covering this game.
In tonight’s second game, Pepperdine prevailed 93-85 over San Francisco in a freewheeling affair featuring strong performances by Dior Lowhorn of USF (32 points) and Mike Hornbuckle (25 points) of Pepperdine. The Waves advance to play Portland on Saturday night following the conclusion of the San Diego-Santa Clara game beginning at 6 p.m.
RTC Live will be covering the San Diego vs. Santa Clara game at 6pm Saturday evening. Stop by and leave your questions and comments.
RTC Aftermath will come to you each night where our correspondents are at the conference tournament games as a part of RTC Live. Patrick Marshall is in St. Louis all weekend covering the MVC Tournament for RTC.
Today you experienced our live blog of the Bradley-Southern Illinois game in the quarterfinal round of the MVC tournament. This game was up and down for both teams. Both teams were ready to go:
Bradley won this game by hitting timely shots and wearing out the Salukis. The Salukis shot only 35% from the field and Kevin Dillard, one of SIU’s bigger scorers was held scoreless in playing all 40 minutes of the game.
RTC asked its legion of correspondents, charlatans, sycophants, toadies and other hangers-on to send us their very favorite March Madness memory, something that had a visceral effect on who they are as a person and college basketball fan today. Not surprisingly, many of the submissions were excellent and if you’re not fired up reading them, then you need to head back over to PerezHilton for the rest of this month. We’ve chosen the sixteen best, and we’ll be counting them down over the next two weeks as we approach the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
The Mario Miracle (submitted by Ryan ZumMallen of LBPostSports.com)
The Kansas Jayhawks had let me down too many times before. Even as they romped through the 2008 NCAA Tournament field to face Memphis in the title game, visions of Arizona in 1997, Hakim Warrick’s freakish length in 2003 and Bucknell in 2005 danced in my head. I mean, I was expecting national championships in those years. Mike Bibby single-handedly made me question the meaning of life at the age of 12.
From This...
I’d been scorned too many times to get my hopes up as Kansas continued to win last season. And win, and win. I was cautiously optimistic heading into the title game, even after the Jayhawks’ romp of UNC in the game prior. I thought we’d need a miracle. Sure enough, Memphis gave us that by bricking free throws like it was in fashion. Down three, I watched in horror as Sherron Collins dribbled down the court (his ball-handling has always terrified me) and found Mario Chalmers, who launched an impossible three-pointer from twenty-five feet out. This was the point where Memphis was supposed to grab the rebound and celebrate. But the universe felt my pain, it too had suffered long enough from the Jayhawks’ constant teasing.
...to This.
The shot went in, and I screamed like a banshee. I didn’t care that the game was about to go into overtime. We beat fate. We’d already won.
Hello CAA fans, and welcome to RTC Live’s ongoing coverage of the CAA Tournament from Richmond, Virginia. Our correspondent, Ryan Kish from George Mason Basketball, will be live-blogging and reporting from the Richmond Coliseum throughout the weekend. If there’s any news that the fans need to be apprised of from Richmond, Kish will be all over it. The Tournament begins Friday afternoon with four first round games, so he has already published his CAA Tourney Preview for your viewing pleasure.
We’ll also be live-blogging select games throughout the weekend, starting Saturday afternoon with the quarterfinal matchup between Hofstra and Old Dominion. If you’re new to the site, the live-blog box will show immediately below this paragraph, and Ryan will be taking comments and questions throughout the game. Particularly insightful questions will be chosen for him to take into the media press conference and/or locker rooms afterwards. So if you really want to know how Eric Maynor still feels about his game-winner against Duke two seasons ago, here’s your opportunity. Afterwards, we’ll post takes from the day’s other games in the CAA Tourney and give you, the fans, a chance to select Sunday’s semifinal game that we liveblog.
Ray Floriani of College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the MAAC and NEC Conferences.
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ – Times Union Center in Albany is the site. The women’s tournament started Thursday for the MAAC and the men get things going tonight with the champion crowned on Monday evening. The schedule…
RTC asked its legion of correspondents, charlatans, sycophants, toadies and other hangers-on to send us their very favorite March Madness memory, something that had a visceral effect on who they are as a person and college basketball fan today. Not surprisingly, many of the submissions were excellent and if you’re not fired up reading them, then you need to head back over to PerezHilton for the rest of this month. We’ve chosen the sixteen best, and we’ll be counting them down over the next two weeks as we approach the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
Adam Morrison Bawls at Midcourt (submitted by Sam Wasson of bleedCrimson.net)
Back in 2006 I had to travel for work during the NCAA Tournament. I was not pleased, I missed a bunch of the first and second round games. I happened to still be out on travel in Georgia and it was Thursday night. I came back from dinner with my co-workers and settled in to watch the game that was being shown on CBS in that region. That game happened to be UCLA vs. Gonzaga. Since I traditionally participate in a bracket or two during March Madness, and being the dumb mid-major loving guy that I am, I had picked Gonzaga to advance and of course was rooting for the Zags. Everyone knows what happened in the game, but I distinctly remember standing – not sitting – but standing in front of the t.v. in my hotel room as Gus Johnson screamed, WHAT A GAME!!!, WHAT A GAME!!!! Even though Gonzaga lost, that game was a quintessential example of why college basketball and March Madness will always be better than anything pro team sports can offer up.
Dave Zeitlin is the RTC correspondent for the Ivy League.
Right now, the Ivy League is a mess. Somehow, heading into the final weekend of conference play, a Cornell team that is superior to any other in the league has yet to clinch its berth in the Big Dance (remember there’s no conference tournament in the Ivies). Somehow, Princeton – the same Princeton that started 2-8 with losses to mighty teams like Maine, Central Connecticut and Lafayette on its resume – controls its own destiny. And somehow, Yale and Dartmouth – yes, Dartmouth! – are still mathematically alive with two games to play.
Here’s the deal in simplest terms: If Cornell (9-3 league) takes care of business and beats Penn tonight and Princeton tomorrow night at home (where they are undefeated this season), then they win the league. They can also win the league if they beat Penn while Princeton loses at Columbia tonight. But if Princeton (7-4) is able to sweep Columbia and Cornell this weekend, then the Tigers’ game Tuesday against Penn – the final game of the Ivy League season – could either make or break their chances of winning at least a share of the league title. (In the case of a tie at the top, there would be a one-game playoff between the co-champs with the NCAA berth on the line).
Game of the Night.Penn St. 64, Illinois 63. It was nice to see a team turn the tables on Illinois after they had pulled off a furious comeback win in the last five minutes against Northwestern. PSU was down ten pts with five minutes remaining, but the Lions stormed back and when Talor Battle’s feathery soft leaner dropped through with 0.3 remaining on the clock, the “white house” of fans went wild and quickly RTC’d the court. Now, THAT is how you RTC, friends! Quick, no hesitation, straight to the middle of the floor. Immediate bedlam. We have two clips here – the first will show the tv version of the winning shot by Battle (scroll ahead to the 6:00 mark); the second is a user-generated clip of the RTC. Enjoy. (btw, PSU is IN if they win at Iowa this weekend)
The Rest of Tonight’s Key Games.
UCLA 79, Oregon St. 54. The Bruins kept their Pac-10 title hopes alive with a blowout win over Oregon St. tonight. If they beat Oregon this weekend and Washington loses to Wazzu, then they’ll both be tied at 12-6, where the Bruins would presumably win the tiebreaker. What’s up with Josh Shipp’s line tonight? 27 pts, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks, 0 steals, 0 turnovers, 0 fouls, 1 block. He really didn’t do anything other than shoot tonight, did he?
Villanova 97, Providence 80. Villanova picked up its second strong win of the week as it continues to make its case for the coveted double-bye in the Big East Tournament. Scottie Reynolds had 23/4/4 stls as Nova finished off a perfect home slate. Providence has a #69 RPI but finished at 10-8 in the Big East – what to do with the Friars?
USC 80, Oregon 66. USC shot 59% behind Demar DeRozan’s 19 pts and Taj Gibson’s 18 pts as the long nightmare continues for Ernie Kent’s Oregon team. USC is a classic bubble team, sporting a mid-40s RPI and what will likely be a 9-9 Pac-10 record come Saturday night.
California 83, Arizona 77. Arizona really didn’t need to lose another home game, but they’ve fallen apart the last two weeks. Tonight’s loss to Cal was their fourth in a row, and they absolutely need to get the game against Stanford this weekend to turn this around. Cal’s Jerome Randle had eight threes on his way to 31 pts.
Temple 68, St. Joseph’s 59. This Big Five matchup had A10 ramifications as Temple moved into a two-way tie for the #3 seed in the conference (tied with Dayton), as well as kept their bubble chances alive.
Tennessee 86, South Carolina 70. Tough home loss for SC, while Tennessee captured the top seed in the East Divison of the SEC behind Tyler Smith’s 22/6/7 assts. The Vols are coming on lately, having won at Florida and SC in their last two games.
Stanford 74, Arizona St. 64. ASU is slumping lately, having lost their last three games. James Harden had 22, but was only 2-10 from three, and it doesn’t appear if either of the Arizona teams have much interest in playing deep into March at this point.
QnD Conf Tourney Update. Tomorrow the America East, CAA, MAAC, SoCon and WCC begin. Here’s what happened tonight.
A-Sun. The two higher seeds, #3 Belmont and #4 Lipscomb advanced, meaning the top four seeds will be in the semis starting tomorrow.
Big South. VMI will play Radford (the top two seeds) on Saturday for possibly the first NCAA automatic bid this year.
MVC. Indiana St. and Wichita St. advanced to the quarters.
NEC. The top three seeds (Robt. Morris, Mt. St. Mary’s, Sacred Heart) + Quinnipiac advanced to the semis on Sunday.
