RTC Region by Region Tidbits: 03.26.10
Posted by rtmsf on March 27th, 2010Each day this week during the regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament we’re asking some of our top correspondents to put together a collection of notes and interesting tidbits about each region. If you know of something that we should include in tomorrow’s submission, hit us up at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.
Midwest Region (Tom Hager)
- Kalin Lucas, who has a torn ACL, had his jersey hung from the cieling of Michigan State’s locker room.
- According to Durrell Summers of Michigan State, Lucas is still motivating his teammates and giving Korie Lucious advice on playing point guard. Lucas has put off surgery in order to stay with the team.
- The key for Michigan State was their second-half rebounding where they dominated the glass 22-9. The Spartans average over 39 rebounds per game.
- Tennessee’s J.P. Prince is convinced that his block on Ohio State’s Evan Turner was clean. The block helped the Vols advance to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. Turner, who along with his other teammates did not shake hands with the Tennessee players, said that he can’t dwell on the call any longer.
West Region (Andrew Murawa)
- The “Hoosiers” comparison to Butler is being made everywhere, but this Bulldog team is talented enough that it needn’t be considered a Cinderella. But when you’ve got a 6’3 guy like Willie Veasley who is unafraid to match up with the opposing center defensively, they aren’t exactly your typical college powerhouse.
- Butler is coming off an emotional win over top-seeded Syracuse, but their regional final opponent, Kansas State, is also coming off a wild win, one being measured against the best college basketball games ever. Both teams are ready for more. It should be a game of conflicting tempos, with Butler wanting to play slow and the Wildcats wanting to get out and run, and whoever gets the pace their way will have a significant edge.
South Region
- ESPN’s Dana O’Neil writes that Duke is comfortable playing ugly, defensive-oriented basketball, as they did tonight in their win over Purdue. SI’s George Dorhmann takes a similar stance about this year’s version of the Devils — they’re much tougher than recent vintages. It was a sad end to Purdue’s season, but they put up an amazing fight to make the Sweet 16.
- Duke’s Jon Scheyer struggled with his shot in tonight’s game (5-15 FGs), but that didn’t stop him from contributing in other ways to help his team win the game.
- Baylor’s shutdown of Omar Samhan was only part of the story of tonight’s game against St. Mary’s; as Ekpe Udoh said, “we let the scoreboard do the talking.” To continue with the quotes here is Scott Drew’s tweet to Baylor Nation.
- Despite the result of tonight’s game, this was definitely a St. Mary’s season for the ages, one that will not soon be forgotten. Although the Gaels didn’t put up much of a fight against Baylor in their Sweet 16 matchup, the fans will welcome them home from Houston. The Gaels fans actually came in large numbers to Texas to see the game, and we could tell they were ready to erupt but they had nothing to cheer about.
East Region (Ryan Restivo of SienaSaintsBlog)
- Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson will take on his home state team. The Wildcats have history on their side to make a case for the championship. Coach John Calipari said two #1 seeds will meet in Syracuse for the final four berth.
- West Virginia did something they don’t normally do to beat Washington: slow the game down. Coach Bob Huggins keeps coming back, Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel says.
