Thompson takes lead as Tar Heels reach NIT semifin
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- North Carolina will have to settle for a trip to the Big Apple instead of the Big Dance.
Deon Thompson had 14 points and 12 rebounds to lead the stingy Tar Heels to a 60-55 victory over UAB on Tuesday night in the National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals.
The Tar Heels (19-16) held UAB without a field goal for nearly 10 minutes down the stretch to earn their first trip to the NIT semifinals since 1973. They will face either Virginia Tech or Rhode Island in New York's Madison Square Garden.
"We're very happy to still be playing another day," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "The first half we killed ourselves with 11 turnovers. The second half we only had four ... and that's the kind of play that you have to have."
Larry Drew, whose basket with two seconds left sealed a second-round win at Mississippi State, scored on an uncontested layup and two free throws in the final 46 seconds to help put UAB away.
The Blazers went without a field goal from the 10:21 mark until Dexter Fields' putback with 35 seconds left cut North Carolina's lead to 54-51. North Carolina hit six straight free throws after that.
The defending national champions are seeking a consolation prize after missing the NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels' only NIT title came in 1971.
Freshman John Henson tied his career high with 14 points for the Tar Heels, who ended UAB's five-year, 33-game home nonconference winning streak. Drew scored 11 to go with seven rebounds and six assists.
Elijah Millsap scored UAB's first 13 points in the second half and finished with 18 points and seven rebounds. He was coming off a 27-point, 15-rebound performance against North Carolina State but scored only three in the first half.
Jamarr Sanders had 17 points and made 4 of 8 3-pointers for UAB, which shot just 26.9 percent (15 of 52).
Fellow UAB starters Howard Crawford, Kenneth Cooper and Aaron Johnson were a combined 1 of 20 shooting with 10 points and eight turnovers.
"I thought we had a great season," said UAB coach Mike Davis, who had won his first 26 home nonconference games. "I thought we got beat by a more talented team. They wore us down. We were really tired down the stretch."
Bigger North Carolina made it hard for UAB to score around the basket, forcing turnovers and batting away shots when the Blazers managed to push it inside. Seven-footer Tyler Zeller blocked five shots and altered plenty more.
UAB did have 14 offensive rebounds.
"They missed some shots, but they kept getting the dadgum rebound," Williams said. "One time they got three rebounds in a row. I think we played defense for a minute-and-a-half. In the second half, their offensive rebounding was the one thing that hurt us. Our inability to rebound the defensive board. But other than that, we did some nice things."
The Tar Heels built a 45-38 lead midway through the second half after scoring seven straight points.
The Blazers managed to tie it up 47-47 when Sanders was fouled on a 3-point attempt and hit all three free throws with 4:25 left. It took them awhile longer to end a string of 10 straight missed shots, though.
"I don't think they really did anything that was out of the ordinary," Johnson said. "They played good defense, but we just missed some open looks I think we would normally make."
UAB hadn't trailed in the NIT until North Carolina hit the game's first basket. But the game went into the half tied at 25 with the teams shooting a combined 17 of 55.
The Blazers were 5 of 10 from 3-point range and 2 of 16 closer to the basket before the half.
"The first 5 minutes of the game we just played too fast," Davis said. "Then we settled down but we got right back into shooting too quick again."
Thompson is hoping to finish his college career in New York after a rough start there; the Tar Heels fell to Gonzaga in the Preseason NIT when he was a freshman.
"There's definitely some unfinished business there," he said. "To have another chance to go back there and maybe come out with a NIT championship would be a good way to go out."
Copyright 2010 by STATS LLC and The Associated Press.
Purdue offense inept without Hummel
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Purdue's offense is in disarray without Robbie Hummel, and the Boilermakers have run out of time to get it figured out.
Hummel tore the ACL in his right knee on Feb. 24, and 10th-ranked Purdue hasn't been the same since. With him, the Boilermakers were 24-3, averaged 73 points per game and shot 46 percent from the field. Without him, they are 3-2, average 59 points per game and shoot 38 percent from the field.
Purdue (27-5) plans to improve those numbers against Siena (27-6) in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday in Spokane, Wash.
Coach Matt Painter acknowledges that Purdue is much different without Hummel, the team's No. 2 scorer and rebounder and primary offensive facilitator. The junior forward averaged 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.
"Take Demetri McCamey off Illinois' team, do you think they would be more confident?" Painter said. "Rob makes plays, and Rob makes shots. You have to learn to score different ways."
Purdue hasn't done that consistently. The Boilermakers scored a season-low 42 points in a Big Ten tournament loss to Minnesota, and their 11-point first half produced the fewest points in a half since the school began keeping records in 1950.
Painter said after the loss to the Golden Gophers that he doesn't expect his offense to struggle like that often.
"The ball is going to go in for us a lot better than it did tonight, and it is one of these games you have to learn from," he said. "Hopefully, it doesn't happen again."
Purdue also has rebounded poorly since Hummel went down, getting outworked 46-20 against Michigan State and 50-26 against Minnesota.
The Boilermakers want to remember the emotions they had following the Minnesota game.
"We've got to move forward from this," guard Chris Kramer said. "Keep this in the back of our minds, remember how this felt, that solid taste in our mouths, and use that as motivation in practice and try to flip everything that Minnesota did against us and put it on somebody else."
The players aren't concerned that most of the national media is looking past their team after having considered the Boilermakers a strong Final Four contender with a healthy Hummel.
"Everyone is doubting us," Kramer said. "The only people that really believe in our team are the people in our locker room. We've just got to come together and have a big-time effort every time we step on the court from here on now because at this point in the season it's win or go home."
Though the Boilermakers have struggled to score, they still feel they can succeed in the NCAA tournament. Their defense has remained solid, allowing 59.6 points in five games without Hummel.
"In our last game, we didn't do anything real well," Painter said. "We struggled in all facets of the game. But defensively we can still be a very good team."
With Hummel out, E'Twaun Moore and center JaJuan Johnson have been asked to and score more, with mixed results. They combined to shoot 7 for 27 in a loss to Michigan State on Feb. 28. In the Big Ten tournament opener, Moore tied a career high with 28 points, and Johnson scored 22 in a 69-61 win over Northwestern. In the quarterfinals loss to Minnesota, Johnson had 17 points, but Moore scored two points on 1-for-14 shooting.
"E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson have to be patient," Painter said. "The other guys have to take their shots, they have to take open shots and shots they can make and you have to have balance."
Purdue's offensive struggles were the reason the Boilermakers fell to a No. 4 seed. NCAA selection committee chairman Dan Guerrero said Purdue wasn't the same team without Hummel, and it affected its placement.
The Boilermakers have been answering Final Four questions all season because it will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium, 65 miles from their West Lafayette, Ind., campus. Those questions are a distant memory, and the players now are focused on short-term goals.
"I think we're just hungry and eager to play a game," Moore said. "I think our approach to this game should be excited and be happy to play in the tournament."
Moore expects Purdue to be ready on Friday.
"We'll bounce back probably," Moore said. "If we just stay together and stay together we'll be fine. It's just how you respond to it is the big thing."
Copyright 2010 by STATS LLC and The Associated Press.
USF making strides in rugged Big East
TAMPA, Fla. --- Be humble, stay hungry.
The gauntlet that is the Big East schedule makes it difficult for surprising South Florida to take any other approach to a stunning, middle-of-the-season turnaround.
The Bulls (15-7, 5-5) have won four straight following an 0-4 conference start, including confidence-bolstering upsets of No. 17 Pittsburgh and No. 7 Georgetown that seemed unfathomable two weeks ago.
Before beating Providence and Seton Hall in overtime to begin the surge, USF had never won consecutive Big East games.
"We knew we always had it in us. It's just the process of getting it out," said high-scoring junior guard Dominique Jones, who's averaged 35 points and 7.5 rebounds during the winning streak.
"We go into these games and no matter what number people have in front of them, we know we can play with them. We know we have a good chance of beating them. ... We're just trying to push ourselves to a point where we have a number in front of our name."
Coach Stan Heath appreciates his star's enthusiasm. He also knows the Bulls' work is just beginning.
It's one thing to dig your way out of last place. It's another to avoid sliding back into the basement in the deep, talent-rich Big East, which has four teams ranked among the top seven in the country.
"There's a lot of games left, and we're in an unsecure position. I told them to enjoy the minute, not the moment," said Heath, who's in his third season at USF after previous stints as a head coach at Kent State and Arkansas.
"It's a learning process for our team because we haven't been here before. But I still feel like we're hungry, I still feel like we're hunters. We're trying to do something we haven't done before, so there's still a chip on our shoulders. We know we could have setbacks. We have to be ready to respond and recover."
South Florida's 72-64 victory at Georgetown on Wednesday gave the Bulls a .500 record in conference play for the first time since joining the Big East in 2005.
They've already set a school single-season mark with five league wins and could play their way into contention for a postseason berth with a strong finish, beginning at Notre Dame on Sunday.
USF hasn't played in the NCAA tournament since 1992. The most recent of its seven NIT appearances came in 2002.
"Dominique and myself make sure the younger guys understand we're winning, but it's not the final destination," senior guard Chris Howard said.
"We want to make it to the NCAA tournament and compete when we get there, not just make it or be happy with 15, 16 wins. Let's get a 20-win season. Let's try to win every game."
Heath led Kent State to the round of eight in the NCAA tournament eight years ago. He took Arkansas to the NCAAs twice in five seasons, but was fired following a first-round loss in 2007.
A week later, he landed at South Florida, which had dropped 28 of 32 conference games in its first two seasons in the Big East.
"I came in with my eyes wide open. I knew I had a lot of challenges in front of me," Heath said.
"Our program hadn't had much success at all, especially in the Big East, and we didn't have much of a history or tradition of NCAA tournaments or Final Fours or anything like that to sell either."
The 45-year-old arrived with a reputation as a strong recruiter. As an assistant, he helped Michigan State's Tom Izzo assemble the talent that carried the Spartans to a national championship and three Final Four appearances during a five-year span.
He has South Florida on the rise with a mixture of high school recruits, such as Jones, the Big East's third-leading scorer (22.4); 6-foot-11 former junior college standout Jarrid Famous (11.3 points, 7.7 rebounds), and a trio of transfers from other major conferences -- Mike Mercer (Georgia), Augustus Gilchrist (Maryland) and Anthony Crater (Ohio State).
The 6-10 Gilchrist, out since early December with a sprained right ankle, will travel with the team to Notre Dame. He was averaging 18.8 points and 7.4 rebounds before his injury left the Bulls short-handed.
The sophomore's return is one of the reasons Heath thinks his team can be even better down the stretch.
"We're not necessarily at the same talent level as everyone (in the Big East), but I do like our chemistry and our intensity level has improved a lot over the last three or four weeks," Heath said.
Of course it helps having a player such as Jones, who's on his way to leading the team in scoring for the third straight season. He's been hard to stop, averaging 29.4 points over the past nine games.
"He's come a long way. And, it's really not about scoring. It really and truly is about winning, and he's doing it within our team concept," Heath said. "He's getting points, rebounds and assists, and he's playing very good defense as well."
Although the schedule is tough, Jones doesn't feel there are any limitations on what USF can accomplish the remainder of the season.
In addition to Notre Dame, the Bulls face Marquette, No. 2 Villanova and DePaul on the road. Home games remain against Cincinnati, St. John's, Providence and Connecticut.
"You can call it whatever you want to, but I don't see a team on the schedule that we can't beat," said Jones, whose 46-point performance two weeks ago at Providence was just two off the Big East single-game record.
"But I know teams are not going to give us wins. We've got to come to practice, work hard and go out there and take wins. Take respect. Take it all."
(c) 2010, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Chicagoans need DePaul right where it is - in the Big East
Too many around here suggest that DePaul leave the Big East basketball conference.
The point is moot. The Blue Demons can't trade down to some mid-major league. I won't allow it.
Fortunately, neither will school administrators. Though they don't always look like they know how to make it happen, they want the Demons to compete at the highest level.
Thank goodness.
Do you think DePaul could produce Saturday's spectacle if it joined Loyola and UIC in the Horizon League or Northern Illinois in the MAC?
The Demons extended fourth-ranked Syracuse to the limit before losing 59-57 in Allstate Arena.
Regardless of whether DePaul won or lost or even competed well against Syracuse, Chicago needs the struggling Blue Demons to keep on keeping on.
You see, DePaul remains our last best chance to enjoy the best of college basketball.
I say that with all due respect to Northwestern, the only other local school playing in a major conference. (Illinois is not part of this discussion because the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Champaign prohibits most fans from seeing them on a regular basis).
The Wildcats of the Big Ten haven't been to the NCAA Tournament since, well, forever. They're inching closer but have a ways to go.
Loyola did win a national championship in 1963 but retreated to mid-major status and onto a heap that includes UIC and NIU.
DePaul has been to the Final Four. It has been No. 1 in the country during a couple different regular seasons. It has established one of the sport's deepest traditions.
Why does any of this matter? Don't we have the Bulls and Blackhawks to occupy our winters? Who needs DePaul specifically or even college basketball generally?
I do, folks. I like college basketball and assume a lot of other Chicagoans do, too. I like the energy and enthusiasm generated when the game's elite come to visit.
Saturday was a great example with Syracuse, a highly ranked team, and Jim Boeheim, a Hall of Fame coach, providing the opposition.
If Chicago truly is a world-class sports town, as if there's any doubt, it needs that kind of team and that kind of coach to routinely play here.
The Big East offers other prominent coaches like Connecticut's Jim Calhoun, Louisville's Rick Pitino and West Virginia's Bob Huggins.
Currently it offers six teams in the top 20 and three - Villanova, Syracuse and Georgetown - in the top seven.
That's even better than the powerful Big Ten offers. Anyway, why shouldn't teams and coaches from both these conferences come here regularly?
Syracuse and Boeheim reminded of when DePaul was a national power as an independent awhile back.
Louisville would come in with Denny Crum, Georgetown with John Thompson, North Carolina State with Jimmy Valvano and Notre Dame with Digger Phelps.
The best teams and the biggest names were thrilled to play in the nation's third-biggest market and not much in sports was more fun.
Some believe DePaul has to decide what it wants to be. It already has. Athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto declared on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" last week that the Demons want to be consistently among the Big East's six best teams.
Nothing says DePaul can't be, just as nothing says it will be easy.
I say it's sure worth a try.
(c) Chicago Daily Herald.
No. 2 Kentucky tunes up for top ranking by rolling past Razorbacks, 101-70
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) --- Darius Miller had a career-high 18 points and DeMarcus Cousins got his 10th double-double as No. 2 Kentucky coasted by Arkansas 101-70 Saturday.
The Wildcats kept alive the nation's only unblemished record and a near certain return to the top of the college basketball rankings.
Kentucky (19-0, 4-0 SEC) haven't topped The Associated Press poll since 2003, but that streak is almost certain to end Monday courtesy of their dominating victory over Kentucky alumnus John Pelphrey's Razorbacks and top-ranked Texas' loss to Kansas State earlier in the week.
This one was practically over by tipoff. Kentucky scored the game's 10 points, stretched the lead to 30 by halftime, then added the first 14 points of the second half. With that cushion, Kentucky was able to easily withstand an 18-3 second half run by the Razorbacks (8-11, 1-3).
Courtney Fortson led Arkansas with 21 points.
(c) 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
NCAA adds more rules for basketball coaches
The NCAA manual's recruiting section is at 49 pages and counting.
Thursday, Division I's Legislative Council voted to prohibit universities from hiring anyone associated with a basketball recruit during a two-year period before or after the player enrolls at that school.
Recently, the NCAA added seventh-graders as official recruiting prospects and informed schools that chanting recruits' names during official campus visits is prohibited.
A coach may attend a recruit's family member's funeral, but only if no recruiting occurs at the funeral.
Text messaging a recruit now is prohibited. E-mail color attachments are allowed, but only if the information is of a non-recruiting nature.
And how about this one: if a college coach is watching a summer league game in a Las Vegas gym, the coach may not exit through the same door used to exit by a recruit.
While these rules are intended to prevent cheating in today's big-business world that is college men's basketball, it's making life more difficult for student-athletes and Division I coaches.
Purdue's Robbie Hummel is a student member of the NCAA Basketball Issues Committee and said before Thursday's practice that the decision to implement several of these new rules is difficult to comprehend.
"I think there's bigger problems to worry about in college basketball than walking out the same door (of a gym) as a recruit," Hummel said.
"I'm sure that will be discussed at the next meeting we have. I don't see all of the reasoning behind it, but obviously, I don't have all the facts, either. So, maybe there is a good reason for that."
Hummel doesn't understand the harm if a coach attends a recruit's family member's funeral.
"I think a coach should be able to do that if they have a relationship with a guy," Hummel said. "I don't see a problem with that, but once again, maybe there is something they've found that I don't know about."
Hummel would be interested in studying the research data that has led the NCAA to implement further recruiting legislation.
"There's some other things that college basketball could deal with," Hummel said. "(A level playing field) is the biggest thing facing the sport right now ... trying to keep it that way."
Boilermaker senior guard Chris Kramer especially has a problem with dictating what coaches may or may not say if they attend a funeral.
"By going to a funeral, that coach is showing respect to you and consideration for your family," Kramer said. "He is trying to be there in a time of need.
"If somebody is going to try to cheat the system, they are going to find a way to do it with these new rules or without them. I think they just need to keep it the way it was."
(c) Journal and Courier.
Vanderbilt opens SEC play downing Florida 95-87
NASHVILLE, Tenn. --- A.J. Ogilvy scored 24 points, and Vanderbilt opened the Southeastern Conference schedule beating Florida 95-87 Saturday for the Commodores' sixth straight victory.
The Gators (11-4) hadn't lost an SEC opener since 2001 at South Carolina, and that streak included four wins on the road to open league play. Florida also came in having won three straight this season and having dominated this series as winners of 15 of the past 18.
But Vanderbilt (12-3) got the Gators into foul trouble and outscored them 20-8 off turnovers.
Jermaine Beal scored 22 points, Jeffrey Taylor had 14 and freshman John Jenkins added 13.
Kenny Boynton had a career-high 28 points for Florida. Erving Walker also had a career-best 22. Alex Tyus added 12, and Dan Werner 11. Vernon Macklin and Chris Murphy each fouled out with more than six minutes remaining.
(c) 2010, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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