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. Kenny Ocker is covering the Spokane pods of the South and West regionals this week.

Three Key Takeaways.

Maryland Survives the Bakersfield Push (USA Today Images)

1. South Dakota State knew what was coming, but it didn’t matter: Jackrabbits coach Scott Nagy said Thursday that the key to his team’s defense was collapsing around Maryland star sophomore guard Melo Trimble because he knew there wasn’t one player who could stop him on their own. Trimble tore up that defense for 15 points in the first half before foul trouble limited his second-half minutes somewhat. A 34-22 deficit was too much to overcome for an SDSU team that neither had the length nor the athleticism of the Terrapins. Trimble also drew a foul late in the second half and made both free throws to stop a Jackrabbits run that had closed a 17-point deficit to five at one point. (Man, fouling out with a minute left on a dumb play isn’t a good look though…)
2. If Maryland’s Jake Layman plays this well…: The senior stretch forward picked up the slack after the troubles with Trimble, scoring 17 of his 27 points after halftime. He was unafraid to take the shots that came to him and his shooting punished South Dakota State whenever it sagged. If Layman is able to pull opposing big men from the lane, Trimble will get more space to work with, which should in turn also bring more easy buckets to freshman center Diamond Stone. Layman is the matchup problem that can make Maryland go far in the NCAA Tournament, especially now that fourth-seeded California is out of the way.
3. This won’t be Mike Daum’s only trip to the tourney: The Jackrabbits’ freshman forward, who comes off the bench, has been one of the most efficient scorers in the country this season despite using more than 30 percent of SDSU’s possessions. He is among the top 10 players at drawing fouls and shoots 82 percent from the free throw line, plus he shoots 58 percent from two-point range and 45 percent from behind the arc. Oh, and he’s an excellent rebounder on both ends of the court, too. Daum finished with 16 points and six rebounds Friday.

Star of the Game: Maryland forward Jake Layman. His two free throws with 43 seconds to go gave Maryland a two-possession lead when the Terrapins sorely needed it, and he did it again. And that was a microcosm of Layman’s performance in the second half. Layman finished with 27 points on 7-of-11 shooting (5-of-8 from three-point range) and was a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line.

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Over the course of the last two nights, four more teams made their Big Dance dreams a reality. As each of the 31 automatic qualifiers plays their way into the Dance over the next week, we’ll take some time to give you an analytical snapshot of each team that you can refer back to when you’re picking your brackets next weekend.

LIU-Brooklyn

It’s An NEC Tournament Three-Peat For The Blackbirds. Welcome Back To The Big Dance!

• NEC Champion (20-13, 15-6)
• RPI/Pomeroy/Sagarin = #178/#184/#162
• Adjusted Scoring Margin = +0.2
• Likely NCAA Seed: #16

 Three Bruce Pearls of Wisdom.

1. While it might be a bit of hyperbole to announce the Long Island Blackbirds as a NEC dynasty, three conference tournament titles in a row will get that conversation started. LIU may have found the transition under new coach Jack Perri to be slightly rougher than expected – they were just 5-10 before winning 10 of their final 13 games – but a familiar destination has appeared at the end of the road – the NCAA Tournament. And while the Blackbirds haven’t completely embarrassed themselves in the past two NCAA Tournaments (losing by 15 and 22 points, respectively), can this year’s team make the next step and put a real scare into one of the field’s top teams?
2. Normally, a team playing at the 29th quickest tempo in the nation would be lauded for their freneticism, and yes, LIU does play fast. But after back-to-back years of holding a top three spot in the metric, things have slowed down a bit in Brooklyn. The offensive personnel on this team is impressive. Junior point guard Jason Brickman is the nation’s leader in assists at 8.5 per contest, while his backcourt mate CJ Garner has been on a scoring tear, going for 30+ in three of the Blackbirds last four. Neither is the team’s most talented player, however; senior Jamal Olasewere plays power forward for LIU at 6’7”, but would seamlessly fit in on most any power conference team at the two or the three. A phenomenal athlete who can both put the ball on the deck and score with his back to the basket, Olasewere is a match-up problem waiting to happen.
3. It’s fun to watch LIU play offense. Too often though, it’s just as fun to watch their opponents play offense. LIU ranks 318th nationally in defensive efficiency, and gave up at least 89 points to each of their three power conference foes this season — Kentucky, Maryland, and Seton Hall (yes, the same Seton Hall that managed a total of 81 regulation points during its two-game Big East Tournament run.) None of those three games were particularly close. The offensive firepower gives the Blackbirds more bite than your typical #16 seed, but their profound inability to get stops is the reason they will likely be in that slot. LIU might have a little bit of fun at the Big Dance – maybe 20 minutes or so – but nothing they have done so far suggests they are capable of hanging with the nation’s elite for the full 40.

South Dakota State

Next Stop For The Jackrabbits: The Big Dance

• Summit League Champion (25-9, 16-3)
• RPI/Pomeroy/Sagarin = #65/#103/#94
• Adjusted Scoring Margin = +4.6
• Likely NCAA Seed: #13-#14

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Brian Goodman is an RTC editor. He filed this report from Municipal Auditorium, home to more Final Fours (nine) than any other NCAA site, and where Nate Wolters continued his high-level play as one of the country’s top guards Thursday night.

South Dakota State head coach Scott Nagy lined up a challenging non-conference schedule for his Jackrabbits with road games at Minnesota, New Mexico, Alabama, Belmont, and Hofstra this season. Senior guard Nate Wolters shined through it all, scoring and assisting in nearly every way imaginable despite steep competition and big audiences. While the start of conference play means more nationally meaningful games for power league teams, the opposite is true for the toiling Summit League in which SDSU plays, a perennial one-bid conference, but that isn’t an excuse to let Wolters return to obscurity for the 10 weeks between now and March Madness. In fact, if his recent play is any indication, he may be nearing the peak of a storybook career worthy of more attention than ever.

Wolters Is Still Recovering From An Injury, Which Should Scare Opponents (Credit: thesummitleague.org)

Wolters came into Thursday’s game against UMKC on the heels of two 25-point games, a win at New Mexico and a loss to North Dakota State. He continued his high-efficiency play with a marvelous night against the Kangaroos. The Jackrabbits led wire-to-wire and left Municipal Auditorium with a 77-61 win that wasn’t even that close, and it was during a big run in the final minutes of the first half when Wolters went to work on his nightly highlight reel.

The Jackrabbits ignited an 18-0 run over the last 5:28 of the first half, with Wolters having a hand in all but three of those points. Whether it was finishing through contact, turning defense into offense with steals and dishes in transition, threading the needle, hitting set shots from the perimeter, or converting from the line, he made all of it look easy. Perhaps most impressive was Wolters’ demeanor. The arena’s sparse attendance made sneaker squeaks, bench banter, and coaches’ instructions easily audible, but there was hardly a peep by Wolters all night despite the fact that he plays a position where communication is hugely important. He let his game do all the talking, and it roared on Thursday night. By the time the game was finished, Wolters had a sterling, stat-stuffing line: 23 points, seven assists, six rebounds, four steals, and just one turnover in 36 minutes of action.

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Charlie Parks is the RTC correspondent for The Summit League. You can also find his musings online on Twitter @CharlieParksRTC.

Reader’s Take

The Week That Was:

• How Far Can Oral Roberts Go?: In their final season as a member of the Summit League, the Golden Eagles are enjoying one of their best runs in the past 30 years. The Golden Eagles are on a seven-game winning streak that started with the trashing of Xavier. They have dismantled the Summit League on their way to a top-50 RPI, and depending on how they fare in the ESPN BracketBuster, could even position them for the unthinkable—an at-large bid.  Don’t laugh, Oral Roberts could potentially be a 25+ win team with another top-50 RPI win (depending on the BracketBuster), hell, why not shoot for a an 11-seed? ORU’s play has gotten national attention from the talking-heads of college basketball, and it’s time we give them their due here as well. Scott Sutton has had his squad in this position before, and it hasn’t panned out they way they hoped. This one looks different. Beware, Cinderella is on the loose.
• League Growing In Respectability: The Summit League is rising fast thanks to Nate Wolters and Alex Young turning NBA-heads, coupled with ORU’s nearly flawless play and strong seasons from the rest of the teams in the Summit. The conference is now ranked #12 in the Collegiate Basketball News RPI (rpiratings.com) and #15 in the Sagarin Ratings—that’s about six places higher than it was last season. I expect the Summit League may take a big hit in the rankings next season when ORU departs, but for now, they are one of the top mid-major conferences in 2012.

The Run Jim Molinari (right) Is Putting Together With The Leathernecks Doesn't Go Unnoticed. (AP/Tony Ding)

Power Rankings

1. Oral Roberts (14-4, 6-0) — You expected ORU to eventually take its place at the top, but how the Golden Eagles have done it was unexpected. The way they grabbed the #1 spot from South Dakota State and North Dakota State was just dominant, and it has propelled them into the national spotlight. They won’t be giving up first any time soon, and they made that abundantly clear. There are a lot of factors that have gone into the Golden Eagles’ success this season. For one, they are relatively healthy for the first time in three years. Dominique Morrison, as reliable as he is, has played at a level no one has ever seen him, and I cannot help but think the addition of Sean Sutton as an assistant coach has not factored into this as well. But what is the biggest difference about this year’s team? One name—Mike Craion. The senior forward redshirted last season for medical reasons, and the Golden Eagles struggled without him. He is not the best player on the team, that honor goes to Morrison, and he may not be the flashiest player, but he is the most important piece on the ORU squad. Craion is a defensive rock that has great vision. He has the ability to outrebound bigger players and score when it is needed. His stats don’t accurately tell the story (11.1 PPG/6.7 RPG). He doesn’t need the ball, and his maturity on the floor brings that team together. He has single-handedly won games with his defense and big plays. If he is not a first-team All Summit League selection it will be a crime. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Mike Krzyzewski said on his XM radio show on Wednesday that he expects Kyrie Irving will be out of action for “a long time.”  He didn’t specifically elaborate on what that might mean, but given the relative gloom and doom coming out of Durham over the last week, we’re leaning toward not seeing him in a Duke uniform again this season.  Coach K has been called many things in his career over the years, but one of the things we’ve not heard about him is that he’s an embellisher or BSer — he pretty much tells you what he thinks to be true.  With that in mind, we believe him when he says Irving may not play again this season.
2. Well, it’s not the Nobel Peace Prize, but maybe that’s next…  Bill Self, John Calipari, Ron Hunter, Mike Sutton and Scott Nagy have been nominated for the first United Nations Nongovernment Organization Positive Peace Awards in the coach category.  Yes, there actually is a coach category.  Self and Sutton were nominated for work with other charities, but the other three were honored as a result of the work they’ve done with Samaritan’s Feet, a charity that provides footwear to needy children around the world.  The article actually says that two of those places were “Haiti and Detroit,” which is rather depressing that an American city has such inherent structural and poverty problems that it appears in the same sentence as a third-world country.
3. Luke Winn is back with his weekly power rankings, a compendium of information where if you don’t walk away after reading it having learned sixteen new things, then you’re smarter than the average bear.  This week is particularly insightful because he talked with numerous assistant coaches to get the insider scoop on all of his ranked teams and their best players.
4. Kansas’ Mario Little has been suspended indefinitely by Kansas for a late-night altercation on Wednesday involving his girlfriend that resulted in his arrest for battery, criminal damage and criminal trespassing.  Without reading too much between the lines, it appears that Little got upset when he found another man at his girlfriend’s residence, and things escalated to a bad place from that point.  Regardless of the reason, it’s clear that Bill Self and KU are taking this seriously, especially in the light of the past year-plus of poor decisions by KU athletes.  The 6’6 Little was averaging 6/4 in around sixteen minutes per game, but certainly Kansas has plenty of depth at the guard position especially with Josh Selby debuting on Saturday against USC.
5. In this article at the Omaha World-Herald, Lee Barfknecht writes that former UTEP, Texas A&M and Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie could be a candidate for the Texas Tech job if things don’t turn around for Pat Knight there soon.  From the entire blogosphere to TTU brass, we believe that such a move would be a great hire — Billy Clyde needs to be back in college basketball somewhere (big grin).