Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCEastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCSouthregion and @RTCWestregion.

Three Key Takeaways:

Miami’s Sheldon McClellan finishes a dunk in the first half. (Credit: Charles Krupa/AP)

1. Buffalo’s Lamonte Bearden should walk away with his head held high. On Wednesday, Bearden talked briefly about his struggles and the disappointment of last year’s NCAA Tournament loss to West Virginia. He tallied just eight points and committed seven turnovers a year ago, but today he delivered a mature performance in defeat, scoring 19 points along with only four turnovers. Bearden is only a sophomore and the Bulls should return four starters from this year’s team, so don’t be surprised if you hear his name again at future NCAA Tournaments down the line.
2. Miami’s length is a great defensive asset. The Hurricanes rank 25th in the country in effective height (a statistic that measures a team’s size per minute played), which makes them one of the longest rotations on the country. That length can be really effective on the defensive end, as shown by Miami holding the Bulls to 39.4 percent shooting from two-point range (with Kamari Murphy registering four blocks). If they stay engaged, Miami is a very effective defensive team.
3. A consistent Angel Rodriguez is key to Miami’s success. At his best, Miami’s point guard is a darting slasher who operates the pick-and-roll with precise passing and creative finishes at the rim. At his worst, Rodriguez is an inefficient scorer who turns the ball over too often. He showed flashes of both against Buffalo this evening, finishing with 24 points (many on late free throws) on 6-of-15 shooting and three turnovers. For Miami to make a run to subsequent weekends, it will need Rodriguez at his best to facilitate one of the country’s top offenses. If he’s not, the Hurricanes might have to take their talents back to South Beach a bit earlier than they’d hoped.

Star Of The Game: Sheldon McClellan. Miami’s leading scorer delivered big once again, scoring 20 points to lead the ‘Canes to victory. While McClellan didn’t make any outside shots in this game, he showed off an impressive slashing game that has helped him climb up NBA Draft boards.

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1. Yesterday was the 12th anniversary of one of the most horrifying days in American history. You undoubtedly read, heard, or watched many individuals discuss their experiences during that day and afterwards. While most of the coverage focused on first responders and people directly affected by the attack the events of that day affected people in this country in all walks of life including college basketball. Jeff Eisenberg was able to speak with several coaches about their memories of that day. In many ways, we have moved on from the events of that day (for better and worse), but as anybody who is old enough to remember the events of that day will tell you it is something we will never forget.
2. Over the past month USC has picked up several transfers. Yesterday, Andy Enfield picked up his first significant high school recruit as Jordan McLaughlin committed to play for the Trojans. McLaughlin, the #4 point guard and #18 overall recruit in the class of 2014 [Ed. Note: He is #43 according to Rivals], chose USC over UCLA, Indiana, and Kansas. Given the dearth of backcourt talent at USC, McLaughlin should be able to step right into the role of starter for the Trojans. The one issue this will raise for USC is with Katin Reinhardt, who transferred from UNLV to play point guard to increase his chances of playing in the NBA. The arrival of McLaughlin–an actual point guard–might affect the team’s chemistry if Reinhardt is unwilling to accept a subordinate role in the backcourt.
3. With McLaughlin committing, there is one less elite point guard recruit available and according to reports another one–Tyler Ulis–is on the verge of committing too. Ulis is said to be deciding between Iowa, Kentucky, and Michigan State. Ulis will make his announcement on Friday at 8:20 PM ET with the live coverage being provided by High School Cube News. The addition of Ulis would be big for any of the three programs, but is considered particularly important for Kentucky who lost out on Emmanuel Mudiay and will likely lose Andrew Harrison to the NBA Draft after this season.
4.  The team that Bobby Hurley inherited at Buffalo contained some excellent building blocks, but the Duke legend also appears to be quite adept at recruiting as he managed to land Lamonte Bearden, a 4-star point guard out of Wisconsin. Hurley managed to convince Bearden to come to Buffalo over Oregon State, Saint Louis, and San Francisco although there are some reports that his grades may have cooled his recruitment by those schools. If Hurley is able to get Bearden to campus and eligible to play, it would be one of the more impressive recruiting jobs for this year’s class that we have seen.
5. Sports Illustrated released the second part of its five-part investigative series on Oklahoma State‘s football program yesterday. This part focused on the questionable academic standards required of the team. The series has managed to inspire the expected outrage from Cowboy fans, but as we mentioned on Twitter yesterday the outrage seems to be much less than it was for Miami and almost seems muted. As for our overall reaction to this series and others like it is that while we can appreciate the amount of work that goes into it, we feel as though the work and outrage is incorrectly directed at the programs when instead we as a society should be focusing on the culture around these institutions and society at large that allows this type of behavior to happen.