Long Beach State men's volleyball coach Alan Knipe is the new head coach USA Men's Volleyball program, the Press-Telegram has learned.
His appointment will officially be announced by USA Volleyball Wednesday morning.
Among his duties with the program will be in serving as the head coach of the men's team that will participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Knipe will take a three-year leave of absence from LBSU following the conclusion of this season.
From start to finish this afternoon the North Carolina Tar Heels played as well as any team has in the NCAA Tournament, dominating an Oklahoma team that was led by Blake Griffin -- arguably this generation's best college player.
So the Final Four is complete.
In the first game next Saturday in Detroit's Ford Field, Michigan State will take on Connecticut at 3:07 Pacific Time, with North Carolina and Villanova following at 40 minutes following the conclusion of the Spartans-Huskies clash.
If you're projecting a Connecticut-North Carolina finale on April 6 . . . you're not going to be alone.
The Tar Heels are in front at halftime, 32-23, and have done an especially solid job defensively.
Blake Griffin has 11 points and nine rebounds for Oklahoma but the Sooners haven't hit a 3-pointer. Based on the way UNC is committing its defense to limiting his touches and then surrounding him when he does catch the ball, the Sooners are going to have to hit a bunch of jumpers in the final 20 minutes if they're going to have a shot at winning this game.
Danny Green, with 14 points, has been by far the Tar Heels' best offensive player so far.
Michigan State turn things into a 47-foot game very quick and then proceeded to grind up Louisville, possession by possession, en route to its 64-52 Midwest Regional final victory in Indianapolis.
So the Spartans earn a slot in the Final Four, just 75 miles form their East Lansing campus at Ford Field in Detroit, next Saturday against the University of Connecticut Huskies.
Even playing so close to home, thought, the Spartans are going to find getting into the championship game much more difficult than it was getting to Detroit.
The Huskies beat Louisville by 17 points -- in Louisville -- during the Big East play and are much, much more comfortable playing the style of basketball that the Cardinals failed miserably at today.
Next up: North Carolina-Oklahoma . . .
The Spartans have got things going the way they needed them while holding a three-point advantage (at 30-27) over Louisville at intermission of the Midwest Regional final in Indianapolis.
Coach Tom Izzo's team had made it a half-court game and its half-court defense is taking away any Louisville post offense and preventing the Cardinals from any kind of real "penetration and kick (to jump shooters)" attack as well.
It will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments Cardinals' coach Rick Pitino makes for the second half, and how Izzo counters them.
OK, for those wanting a really dramatic ending to a regional final . . . Villanova and Pittsburgh and provided end -- and Villanova provided more of it.
Guard Scottie Reynolds' driving layup with .5 seconds to go in regulation gave the Wildcats' a 78-76 victory over Jamie Dixon's top-seed and Big East rival Panthers.
All in all . . . it was as well-played a game as there has been in the tournament so far. Both teams are good enough to win the national title but the Wildcats are the only one that still has a chance to prove it.
As for those of you -- like me -- who wondered why Villanova wasn't hit with multiple technical fouls with players and others from their bench rushed the floor after the shot, it's because the game clock hit "0". Anyone leaving the bench and going on the floor during live play is subject to a technical.
But they weren't given techs since the clock ran out after the shot. The officials later reset the clock after watching the replay from a courtside monitor.
Villanova clearly outplayed Pittsburgh for most of the half (leading twice by 10 points) but the Panthers closed strongly and hold a two-point advantage -- 34-32 -- at intermission.
Pittsburgh's defense really tightened over the final six or seven minutes of the half and Villanova seemed a bit out of sync, offensively, at times.
DeJuan Blair has two fouls for Pitt and the Panthers need him on the floor for the bulk of the final 20 minutes if they're going to Detroit.
Connecticut became the first of the Final Four entrants with its 82-75 West Regional victory over Missouri.
Props to the Tigers -- they were in the thing until the last couple of minutes.
For all of the outstanding juniors and senior Coach Jim Calhoun has at his disposal, it was a freshman -- point guard Kemba Walker -- who was his team's best player this afternoon.
Without him, Missouri is playing in Detroit next Saturday, not the Huskies -- who are now just two victories away from the program's third national title since 1999.
Connecticut leads Missouri, 44-38, after a pretty entertaining and well-played first 20 minutes.
The Huskies jumped out to a 13-2 advantage by pounding the ball into the lane repeatedly but the Tigers got back into the thick of things by forcing 11 turnovers and spreading Connecticut's defense in half-court settings.
If Connecticut takes relatively good care of the ball in the next 20 minutes, it should win by 12 to 15 points.
If it doesn't, then this game is going to the wire.
The Tar Heels blew out Gonzaga (98-77) while Michigan State came from 13 points down to edge Kansas (67-62) to round out the Elite Eight field.
If your bracket has the four No. 1 seeds advancing to the Final Four . . . you're probably pretty proud of yourself about now.
Friday night we saw why, a) Louisville was the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament; and, why, b) Blake Griffin will be the unanimous national Player of the Year; and, finally, why, c) North Carolina was the overwhelming preseason favorite to win the 2009 national title.
Anyone else getting mildly annoyed by Gus Johnson's play-by-play style during the CBS broadcast of the Kansas-Michigan State game?
I'm not surely why -- maybe it's his attempt to inject so much drama on every description.
I know . . . I could be nit-picking.
You like fast-paced offense that includes a healthy dose of jump shots?
Then, assuming you're watching the game, you must be enjoying the North Carolina-Gonzaga contest.
The Tar Heels led by as many as 17 points. The Bulldogs cut the deficit to nine points before UNC's Tyler Hansbrough muscled his way for a off-balanced layup with a second to play. Hence, UNC 53-42 at halftime.
Michigan State is making a nice move against Kansas in Indianapolis and now trails by just two points three minutes into the second half . . .
The Jayhawks lead Michigan State at intermission (36-29) in Indianapolis and the Tar Heels are in front even more comfortably (45-32) with about five minutes to go in the first half in Memphis.
Kansas is playing very good half-court defense and scoring just enough in transition to stay in front of the Big Ten Conference's regular-season champion.
The Tar Heels are scoring with too much ease. If Gonzaga doesn't begin playing better defense (especially in transition) North Carolina will score 100-plus and win by 20-plus.
. . . is on tap for the remainder of the first two regional semifinals of this evening.
Arizona trails Louisville by 34 points . . . Syracuse trails Oklahoma by 24 . . .
The real basketball should start in about an hour, when North Carolina hooks up with Gonzaga in Memphis and Michigan State battles Kansas in Indianapolis.
Talk to you then . . .
Suddenly, Oklahoma is leading Syracuse by 13 points at halftime (39-26) and is 20 minutes away from being just 40 minutes away from the Final Four.
And I'm about 40 minutes away from dinner, if I want to go into the kitchen something and whip something up.
I thought Louisville would beat Arizona by a reasonable comfortable margin.
I did think the Wildcats would be a bit closer than within 21 points, though. They trailed in the Midwest Regional semifinal in Indianapolis, 49-28, at intermission.
The Cardinals have too many good players, play with too much energy at both ends of the floor and are doing too good of a job of exploiting a defense that many coaches considered the Pacific 10 Conference's worst during the conference season.
The other semifinal, in the South Regional in Memphis, is a lot tighter, although Oklahoma is almost to extend its lead to 10 points late in the first half if the best player in college hoops, Blake Griffin, converts this free throw attempt.
The Memphis Tigers are down 19 points two minutes into the second half. This is thorough domination so far, guys . . .
I really thought John Calipari's team would handle this challenge a lot better than it has. Things are going to have to change, radically and quickly, if Memphis is to overtake Missouri.
The 3s (Missouri and Villanova) are beating the 2s (Memphis and Duke) so far.
And the Missouri Tigers are sticking it to their Memphis counterparts by 13 at intermission. Their pressure defense and attack style on offense has Memphis out of sync, to say the least.
Villanova is up five with 1:16 to play. Both teams are struggling a bit offensively. The Wildcats definitely have a quickness edge on Mike Krzyzewski's squad.
Connecticut was more dominant in doing so, but Pittsburgh -- thanks to senior point guard Levance Fields -- joined the Huskies just now in Saturday's Elite Eight games.
I don't the Panthers played particularly well and, in fact, trailed Xavier most of the game.
But Fields, with a 3-point heave that swished and then a steal and layup for a three-point advantage, snatched the game away from the Musketeers, 60-55.
Be it against Duke or Villanova, Pitt is going to have to play a whole lot better in order to get to its first Final Four Saturday after advancing to its first Elite Eight round.
FYI: If you've picked Connecticut to win the national title, you should be feeling pretty good about things.
The Panthers are down eight points (37-29) against Xavier and the Musketeers have clearly outplayed them over the first 20 minutes.
Their defense hasn't step up since last weekend (vs. East Tennessee State and Oklahoma State) like I assumed it would.
Purdue is staying close but I would be startled -- OK, maybe "shocked" is a better word -- if Connecticut loses this game, which stands at Huskies 30-25 at intermission.
The Boilermakers are going to have to hit a lot of jump shots, and the Huskies are going to get sloppy with the ball, for Connecticut to lose this game.
If you didn't know beforehand, while watching Xavier-Pitt you would be hard-pressed to identity which is the No. 1 seed.
Connecticut jumped out to an 8-0 advantage in its West Regional game with Purdue in Glendale, Ariz., but hte Boilermakers are within five points (28-23) with about three minutes to go in the first half.
PIttsburgh, after falling behind 9-4 to start its East game with Xavier, now trails, 14-12, with 12 1/2 minutes to go in the first half.
The Boilermakers are doing a pretty good job, offensively, trying to spread UConn's defense get the ball to open jump shooters instead of challenging the Huskies inside.
The Trojans lost a very winnable game with Michigan State (74-69), as I think Tim Floyd made an ill-advised decision putting Taj Gibson back into with about six minutes to play and four fouls, with his team playing well with him on the bench -- and Gibson fouled out less than a minute later. The Trojans were also victimized some shaky calls (and non-calls) by officials down the stretch, and they took a few ill-advised jumpers when they were down four points in the final minute.
All in all, though, a nice final three weeks of the season by the Trojans, who were dead in the water before the Oregons came to the Galen Center on the final weekend of the regular season.
Louisville wasn't impressing in edging Siena, 79-72. The Cardinals are joined in the Sweet 16 by the Spartans and Missouri, which edged Marquette, 83-79, in a very wild, helter-skelter game.
CBS play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson just said that freshman forward Leonard Washington of USC is "expected to play for (football coach) Pete Carroll next season"
That might be news to both Carroll and USC hoops' coach Tim Floyd -- and Washington.
How about those Arizona Wildcats?
Mocked in many corners only a week ago when they got into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection as 12 seed, the Wildcats -- unless USC upsets 2 seed Michigan State in a Midwest Region game in Minneapolis about to tip in a few minutes -- will be the Pac 10's only representation into the second week of the NCAA Tournament.
Next up for the Wildcats of interim coach Russ Pennell: the tournament's No. 1 overall seed, Louisville, in Indianapolis on Friday night -- unless, of course, the Cardinals are upset by 9 seed Siena in another game about to tip in a few minutes in Dayton.
Syracuse's perimeter marksmanship, the skill of point guard Jonny Flynn and the Orange power inside the lane enabled Jim Boeheim's team to stay comfortably in front most of the way while knocking off Arizona State, 78-67, in Miami.
Here's how difficult a time ASU had with the Syracuse zone: Thirty-five of the Sun Devils' shot from the field came from behind the 3-point arc (where ASU was 13 of 35).
The zone also all but neutralized Jame Harden's scoring ability as he was two of 10 from the field and scored only 10 points.
So it's 3 seed Syracuse vs. 2 seed Oklahoma Friday night in a South Region Sweet 16 game Friday night in Memphis. It should be a good one -- the Syracuse zone trying to surround Oklahoma's Blake Griffin.
There are now just two Pac 10 teams still alive in the tourney: Arizona leads Cleveland State by 12 points late in the first half in Miami and USC will tip off against Michigan State in an hour and a half in Minneapolis.
Syracuse is shooting lights out against both Arizona State's half-court zone and in transition and lead by 15 points late in the first half of their second-round game in Miami.
James Harden hasn't scored for ASU. He's got to take charge, and now, if the Sun Devils are to have any hope of getting back into this thing.
I won't even begin to describe the ending to the Gonzaga-Western Kentucky game because, if you watch ESPN, you'll see it about a dozen times in the next couple of hours. Amazing . . .
And Duke got just about every bounce and roll of the ball down the stretch to hold off Texas.
To the victors go North Carolina (Gonzaga gets the Tar Heels Friday night in Memphis) and Villanova (Duke gets the Wildcats in Boston Thursday night).
Duke is knocking in 3s and now leads Texas by 10 points with a shade less than seven minutes to go.
If the Blue Devils hang on, they get Villanova Thursday night in Boston.
Gonzaga, on the other hand, is struggling to not fall victim to 12 seed Western Kentucky, which is only down six with less than six minutes to go.
The Washington Huskies had a nifty comeback but fell just short of Purdue, 76-74, meaning it will be "Boilermakers-Huskies" instead of "Huskies-Huskies" as Purdue, and not Washington, will take the West's top seed, Connecticut, in the regional semifinal Thursday night in Glendale, Ariz.
So, after the Huskies and UCLA have bitten it, the Pacific 10 Conference is down to Arizona State, Arizona and USC, which takes on Syracuse, Cleveland State and Michigan State, respectively.
Blake Griffin -- what a stud! He went for 33 points and 17 rebounds in Oklahoma's 73-63 South Regional win over Michigan in Kansas City.
He is so much the best player in the country that I couldn't come up with an obviously choice for second best. The Sooners get Syracuse or Arizona State Friday night in Memphis. Either zone is going to have a tough time slowing him down.
Ty Lawson played for North Carolina despite he sore right toe. He didn't play in the ACC Tournament and missed the team's tourney opener against Radford Thursday. The Tar Heels wouldn't have beaten LSU without him today. Tyler Hansbrough demonstrated all of the limitations today that will hurt him on the NBA level: He can't guard people away from the hoop (Tasmin Mitchell dominated him out on the floor) and he struggles to score against "length" inside.
Washington trails Purdue by 11 points at intermission. The Boilermakers have been in control the entire 20 minutes.
North Carolina leads LSU by nine at halftime. Point guard Ty Lawson is playing for the Tar Heels (sore right toe) but he seems in considerably discomfort.
The best game of the day so far has been Michigan and Oklahoma. The Sooners lead by a point at halftime. The Wolverines' John Beilein is a heck of a coach.
Connecticut is up 20 points at halftime against Texas A&M and Memphis leads by 20 with about 12 minutes to go against Maryland.
Are we going to see any close games today?
There were enough moments in the game in which Villanova appeared to be trying to let the Bruins make a run (for example, when UCLA cut is deficit to 12 points late in the first half only to allow three consecutive offensive rebounds to the Wildcats, who capitalized with a 3-pointer).
But UCLA never played with any consistency, defensively or offensively, and the Bruins let the Wildcats dictate play at both ends of the floor as well en route to Villanova's 89-69 win.
I expected Villanova to win this game, especially since it was played, virtually, on the Wildcats' home court.
But I also expected it to be much, more competitive than it was. They could have played this game in Pauley Pavilion and Villanova would have won it, if the Bruins had come through with the very same effort.
The Bruins had a chance to go into half down less than 10 points but, trailing by 12 points, allowed three consecutive offensive rebounds to Villanova and Scott Reynolds answered with a 3-pointer.
It's Wildcats 44-31 at intermission after a layup and free throw by Josh Shipp with three seconds to go.
The only chance UCLA has of making it competitive in the second half is if the Bruins do a better job of guarding the Wildcats off the dribble, box out better on the defensive boards and execute better offensively.
It's a longshot, I know.
UCLA is down by 15 points late in the first half against Villanova and is in real trouble with Alfred Aboya already with three fouls.
It's hard to believe Las Vegas odds makers only had the Wildcats a 1 1/2 point favorite.
Barring a near complete 180, UCLA's season is over in less than two hours.
Wake Forest, a team with three first-round NBA Draft choices (all of them possible lottery choices), is losing by 17 points to Cleveland State, a team that might not have a player who will play in the NBA's Development League.
Nah . . . coaching doesn't matter.
Another ACC team, Florida State, is playing its game with Wisconsin at the Badgers' pace -- slow and methodical -- and trails by three points early.
Michigan State (vs. Robert Morris) and fellow Big Ten member Ohio State (vs. Siena) hold three-point advantages late in the first halves of their games.
USC and Arizona both pulled away to win comfortably against Boston College and Utah for "seed upsets".
Barring upsets in the next couple of hours, the Trojans will get 2 seed Michigan State and Arizona gets 4 seed Wake Forest. Both should be very good games and two golden opportunities to demonstrate that the Pac 10 was much underrated, nationally, this season.
The Trojans are playing at a nice pace, offensively, and now dominating things at both ends of the floor against Boston College. They've got a nine-point lead with about seven minutes to play. This might be about the time for the Eagles to get out of their zone defense. But what can they do offensively?
The Trojans have been much too sloppy with the ball, and with their decision making and are down, 34-30, at halftime to Boston College. It's a highly "winnable" game for Tim Floyd's team but only if it does a much better job taking care of the ball after intermission.
No. 1 overall seed Louisville leads 16 seed Morehead State by two points at intermission. Should Morehead somehow win the game we'd be talking . . . maybe the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history.
Or something like it . . .
Utah has stablized the game with Arizona a bit and cut its deficit to five points at halftime. If 7-footer Luke Nevill stays on the floor for the Utes, they can knock off the Wildcats.
USC jumped out to a seven-point advantage on Boston College but now trails by five points.
B.C. is doing an excellent job of getting quality shot attempts out of its half-court offense. The Trojans are now struggling against the Eagles' zone.
Arizona is vastly superior, athletically, to Utah, but the Utes -- after being down by a dozen -- have cut their deficit to seven points in Miami.
Portland State is hanging tough against 4 seed Xavier in Boise. Why, when I think of Boise to I think of french fries and baked potatoes?
Louisville was actually down to 16 seed Morehead State a few minutes ago but is now up five.
It wouldn't have taken a lot different happening for Pittsburgh to have become the first-ever 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed during its East Regional game with East Tennessee State this afternoon in Dayton.
That 72-62 final is the most deceptive score in the tournament so far. If ETSU had done a better job at the free-throw line and been just a bit more prudent with its shot selection, a shocker of shocker could have taken place.
Arizona State was also fairly fortunate to hold off Temple (66-57) in Miami in a game in which its All-America, James Harden, was something like 1 of 8 from the field. He -- and his teammates -- will have to play several notches better Sunday in order to knock off 3 seed Syracuse.
I kept waiting for West Virginia to catch and finally overtake Dayton during their Midwest Regional game in Minneapolis. It never happened and the 11 seed Flyers scored a mild upset (68-60) over a Mountaineers club I thought had a reasonable chance to beat Kansas in the second round Sunday. So much for reason(able) . . .
Kansas held off a pretty good North Dakota State in what might have been the best-played off the first eight games completed so far today. Ben Woodside of the Bison is the best player most general sports fans probably never heard of until today.
I hope Kansas fans are coming to the grips with the likelihood that junior guard Sherron Collins and sophomore center Cole Aldrich could be NBA Draft-bound. They looked the part of high draft choices today, although, at 5-10ish, Collins forces a few too many shots for my tastes.
Props to the Big 12, whose six entries went 6-0 in the first round . . .
Oh, well . . . time to psyche up for the likes of USC-Boston College and Arizona-Utah . . .
Pittsburgh is only in front of 16 seed East Tennessee State by two points early in the second half in Dayton. A 1 seed has never lost to a 16 seed in the first round. How shocking would that one be?
ASU's lead has been cut to three points with about six minutes to go against Temple. James Harden doesn't have a field goal yet for the Sun Devils. Who would have thunk it?
The Sun Devils are leading Temple at intermission in Miami, 35-26.
A former Artesia High standout leads the way for ASU with 17 points.
No, it's not future NBA lottery selection James Harden. It's junior point guard Derek Glasser, who has continued to play as well as he did last weekend during the Pacific 10 Conference Tournament.
No upsets in the first set of four games this morning, although Utah State nearly did pull off the "6-11 upset" I'd forecast before falling to that 6 seed, Marquette, 58-57, in Boise.
So far the Big 12 is 5-0 after wins Thursday by Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M, and Kansas and Oklahoma State today.
OK . . . this is the Utah State team I thought had a chance of knocking off 6 seed Marquette. The Aggies have settled down and are now within three points early in the second half.
Oklahoma State holds a three-point advantage over Tennessee . . . Kansas is up 5 on North Dakota State . . . Syracuse is going through the motions in closing out S.F. Austin.
Day 2 has gotten off to a nice start.
Syracuse is handling 14 seed S.F. Austin (in its first-ever NCAA tournament). So much for any post-Big East Tourney Zillion OT sluggishness.
Marquette is up 10 on Utah State and looking vastly quicker than the Aggies. This is another upset pick I'm regretting making.
Kansas and North Dakota State, with the Jayhawks up by a deuce with 6:47 to go in the first half, are playing a very entertaining game.
Tennessee holds a seven-point advantage over Oklahoma State. Neither team guards well.
In a nutshell:
North Carolina, Texas A&M, Duke, Connecticut, Washington, Western Kentucky, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas: Very impressive!
UCLA, Memphis, Gonzaga: Very fortunate.
Maryland, Purdue, Michigan, Gonzaga, Villanova: Played just well enough to advance to Saturday's games.
A.J. Abrams (Texas), Blake Griffin (Oklahoma), Quincy Pondexter (Washington), Grevis Vasquez (Maryland), Bryan Davis (Texas A&M), Roburt Sallie (Memphis), Marcus Thornton (LSU): Were Thursday's best players.
Connecticut, Washington, Memphis, North Carolina, Villanova, Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Duke: Should win Saturday.
I'm kidding, of course.
The Bruins lead VCU at intermission, 35-25, after a strong closing final few minutes in Philadelphia.
I think Las Vegas odds makers had UCLA a 7-point favorite. But so many media types (including Greg Anthony and Seth Davis of CBS) and a certain politician were picking VCU, it almost seemed as if maybe the Bruins were the real underdogs.
Gonzaga is overwhelming Akron now . . . sort of the way Villanova (coming from 14 points down early in the second half) did to American U.
Saturday, Gonzaga gets the winner of the next-up clash between Illinois and Western Kentucky in Portland, while Villanova will have a massive home advantage in Philly against UCLA or VCU, up in about 20 minutes on Channel 2, if you're watching.
Michigan did its best to spit up all of a 15-point advantage against Clemson before hanging in its first tourney appearance in 11 years. Another burnout for the Tigers, a la last season.
Jeremy Pargo just had a sweet dunk for Gonzaga . . .
Did any of you catch Texas-Minnesota? A.J. Abrams might be the "purest" jump shooter in college hoops.
American U leads Villanova . . . in Philadelphia . . . by 10 points at intermission.
The Eagles couldn't have played much better in the first half . . . at least that's what I would guess. Great execution . . . nice shot selection . . . nice shooting!
This would be a whopper of an upset, on a day so far when a 10 (Maryland) over a sloppy 7 (Cal), and a 9 (Texas A&M) over an 8 (BYU) have been the only "upsets" so far.
Relative to the caliber of its opponent (a Mississippi State team that won the SEC tournament), I'd have to say Coach Lorenzo Romar's Washington Huskies might have been the most impressive of the first eight winners in tournament action today.
The Huskies are going to have to face another conference tournament winner (Purdue/Big Ten) Saturday afternoon in Portland and it will be a more difficult task than bagging their first win was.
Despite the two fouls that limited Jon Brockman's time in the first half, the Washington Huskies -- led by forward Quincy Pondexter, with 15 points -- lead Mississippi State, 38-27, at intermission.
This was one of those games, like VCU-UCLA later tonight, that had become a popular choice to pick the (seed) underdog.
But the Huskies would have to really come apart in the second half to lose this one.
Twenty more minutes of action and half of the day's 16 first-round games would be completed.
So far . . . there hasn't been a lot of sparks flying.
I didn't see that coming. Within three points at intermission despite playing poorly in the first 20 minutes, I thought Cal would adjust and play much better in the second half and pull away from Maryland.
The opposite happened: The Terps dominated play the final eight minutes and coasted to an 84-71 victory and earn a pop at No. 2 seed Memphis Saturday in Kansas City.
The Pac 10 haters just picked up a bit of ammo after the "upset" of the 7 seed Golden Bears.
Washington and Mississippi State -- the 4 and 13 seeds in the West -- are slugging it out in the early going in Portland. The Huskies are up two points 10 minutes into the game and MSU's Jarvis Varnado just picked up his second foul and will be on the bench for the rest of the half, I would imagine.
Maryland has scored nine points in a row to go up by eight (59-51) with 9:55 to go. The Golden Bears are struggling offensively and now are leaving too many Terps' shooters open.
Purdue held on over Northern Iowa and will give Washington (or Mississippi State) fits Saturday afternoon in Portland.
North Carolina and Connecticut could each win by 50-plus points today. That's what REAL No. 1 seeds do, Memphis.
Cal Coach Mike Montgomery has to feel pretty good about only losing by three points at intermission against Maryland, because the Golden Bears must be shooting about 30 percent from the field.
They are going to have to start converting some of the inside shots they are getting if they are to beat the ACC team and get a pop at Memphis Saturday.
UNC (by 19 at half) and Connecticut (by 28 late in the first half) are rolling and Purdue remains in front by 10 points over a gritty Northern Iowa squad. I promise I won't write "gritty" again today.
And, on the snack front, I'm about to make some popcorn . . .
Jerome Randall is playing well but Cal which trails Maryland by a point late in the first half.
North Carolina (over Radford) and Connecticut (vs. Chattanooga) are cruising and Purdue remains comfortably in front (by 11) over Northern Iowa.
Dare I say that, other than the Cal State Northridge-Memphis tilt, things have been kind of, uh, dull so far?
Cal State Northridge gained some dignity for its program and the Big West Conference in general with a very nice effort during its 81-70 loss to 2 seed Memphis.
Having to sit Tremayne Townsend with his fourth foul with about nine minutes to go, while leading by three points, was a turning point -- in the bad direction -- for the Matadors.
The Tigers' size, depth and the off-the-bench shooting of Roburt Sallie (10 of 15 3's, 35 points), who is from Sacramento and originally signed with the University of Washington a couple of times but could never get eligible, proved the difference.
LSU (75-71 over Butler) and Texas A&M (79-66 over BYU) were much, much more impressive, obviously, than were the Tigers this morning.
Only one other game has started so far and, in Portland, Purdue doesn't appear as if it is going to have much in the way of trouble against Northern Iowa.
The "power conferences" (LSU-SEC, A&M-Big 12 and Purdue-Big Ten) are looking pretty good so far.
The story of the day is brewing in Kansas City . . . I can't believe how well CSN is playing and how sluggish Memphis looks. CSN lead just trimmed to three.
CSN leads by three points with 13:20 to go. Props to the Matadors, who are playing very well at both ends of the floor. Memphis better get its act together or it will become only the fifth 2 seed to lose to a 15.
LSU (up six over Butler) and Texas A&M (holding a 12-point lead over BYU) have, for the most part, played very well in the first half of their games.
But the stunner so far is that Cal State Northridge trails No. 2 seed Memphis by just two points at the half (34-31) in Kansas City.
My guess is that the Tigers should have done a better job of preparing for the Matadors' 2-3 zone instead of stewing over not getting a No. 1 seed.
I've been impressed with the poise that Bobby Braswell's CSN team is playing with against Memphis. The Matadors are down only 5 with 3:12 remaining. The CSN zone has been effective, for the most part.
A&M (vs. BYU) and LSU (vs.Butler) have played very well, although Butler just hit a 3 at the buzzer to cut its halftime deficit to six points.
So far, so much for my pick of Butler over LSU. The Tigers scored the first nine points and are up, 13-6.
The very big underdogs from Northridge jumped out to a 9-2 advantage over Memphis but the Tigers are creeping back and just tied the score at 11.
A&M is jamming down the BYU Cougars' collective throats to the tune of an 11-3 edge.
The Sun Devils got a 6 seed (about right) and takes on 11 seed Temple in Miami while 4 Gonzaga gets 13 seed Akron in Portland.
It was not good news moments ago for UCLA.
The Bruins only got a 6 seed (I had them a 5) and must go to Philadelphia (East Region) for a game against a touch VCU team, an 11 seed with a very good point guard in Eric Maynor, who led his team to a first-round win over Duke two years ago.
And who does Ben Howland's team get in the second round, if they survive VCU? VIllanova, a 3 seed playing in its backyard. The Wildcats will blast 14 seed American U in the first round.
If the Bruins somehow survive Philly it's on to Boston where, barring upset 2 seed Duke will be waiting.
Get by the Blue Devils, Bruins, and Pittsburgh almost assuredly will be waiting.
The road to a fourth consecutive Final Four is really, really, tough for UCLA.
All three of those teams are in the West Region, where Connecticut is the top seed and Memphis is the 2 seed.
Washington is a 4 seed and will play 13 Mississippi State Thursday in Portland.
Cal is a 7 seed and plays 10 seed Maryland Friday in Kansas City, where CS Northridge plays Memphis Friday.
The Trojans, surprise winners of the Pac 10 tourney, will be in Minneapolis Friday as the No. 10 seed in the Midwest where they will meet No. 7 Boston College.
As I projected (and not many others did, mind you!), Arizona did make the tourney as a 12 seed and will play 5 seed Utah in a Midwest game Friday in Miami.
Louisville, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Connecticut are the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, it was just revealed.
No surprise there!
USC's come-from-behind (15 points' worth of deficit at intermission) 66-63 victory over Arizona State just now in the Staples Center served a double purpose.
It gives Trojans' Coach Tim Floyd's team the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament -- the only way the Trojans were getting in.
And it means one of the precious 34 at-large bids will go to Arizona State . . . taking it away from, perhaps, Creighton, Arizona, Penn State, St. Mary's or, perhaps, Auburn.
We'll know for sure about 22 hours from now when CBS announces the 65-team field and bracket.
The final score was Cal State Northridge 67, UC Santa Barbara 60
The final turnovers rundown was Cal State Northridge 26, UC Santa Barbara 22
OK, after me: "One . . . two . . . three . . . UGLY!"
It looked pretty sweet to the Matadors, though, who will play the winner of the next game up, Long Beach State vs. Pacific, Saturday night for one of the 31 automatic bids to the NCAA tourney.
It has been a pretty entertaining first half of Big West Conference semifinal action in the Anaheim Convention Center Arena, especially if you like turnovers (30 of them . . . 15 apiece) and small crowds (I'm not sure there are 500 folks in here).
It's tied at halftime as the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos came from nine down (25-16) with eight minutes to play.
I've got to think the crowd will grow considerably by the time Long Beach and Pacific get after it at 7:45ish.
It got a bit sluggish at the end but UCLA held on to beat Washington State, 64-53.
So it's UCLA vs. USC Friday night in semifinal for the second year in a row. The Bruins won both regular-season games, a very tight affair in the Galen Center and a blowout in Pauley Pavilion.
By the way . . . I'm exhausted thinking about that six-overtime game Syracuse and Connecticut played in Madison Square Garden . . .
The Cougars have pared their deficit to 12 points (33-21) at intermission.
That's a lot easier sell at halftime for WSU Coach Tony Bennett to his team that a 20-plus deficit would have been.
The Bruins misfired on several transition opportunities or their advantage would have been deeper into double figures.
This is a ball game afterall . ..
By the way, is anyone out there watching Syracuse-Connecticut? The game is into its third OT!
UCLA came out sizzling . . . and leads, 23-5, just 9 1/2 minutes into the game with Washington State.
The Cougars have missed a handful of close-in shots and it's hard to believe that those won't start going down eventually.
But this is as good as UCLA has looked all season.
The Tigers knocked off UC Davis, 67-60, in a Big West quarterfinal that was just a wrap in Anaheim.
That means Long Beach State will play the Tigers in the second semifinal Friday night, at about 7:45 or so.
The 49ers beat the Tigers twice in the regular season but my gut feeling is that Las Vegas oddsmakers -- who follow the sport pretty closely, FYI -- will probably establish UOP as a slight (1-2 points) favorite.
Well, that was easily the best game of the day and the Trojans are now just two more upsets away from getting the Pacific 10's automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.
Yep, I'm getting a bit head of myself.
But that was a whopper of a college hoops game. Taj Gibson and Daniel Hackett were the fellows who won it for Tim Floyd's crew.
If they play that way Friday night (against the winner of the UCLA-Washington State clash that is about to unfurl) and then Saturday (vs. the Friday semifinal winner between Washington and Arizona State) . . . the Trojans will be in the NCAA tourney for the third year in a row under Floyd.
By the way . . . I've a hunch that Washington State is going to knock off the Bruins in front of a crowd that appears to be on the verge of becoming largely pro-Bruin.
The Trojans still lead by five points with a media timeout and 6:47 to play. Taj Gibson and Daniel Hackett are keeping USC's NCAA tourney hopes going by themselves.
By the way . . . it's cold in here!
This game has suddenly turned, with Cal -- led by Jerome Randall, offensively and defensively -- trimming USC's lead to five points (54-49) with the ball.
USC has gotten stagnant on offensive and Cal's defense is starting to force turnovers.
The Trojans just played as good of a 20-minute stretch as anyone has today in the Staples Center.
USC is in front at intermission, 42-27, and it was 18 until Cal's Jerome Randall hit a 3 with four seconds to play.
Football coach Pete Carroll is sitting about 20 feet behind the USC bench, in case you were wondering.
Jerry Tarkanian, the greatest basketball coach to never be elected into the Hall of Fame, is also courtside.
If USC can string together five more of those halves, the Trojans will be in the NCAA tournament!
The Trojans have busted out to a nice lead over Cal in Semifinal #3 in the Staples Center.
Here's the real news, though: Kansas (by Baylor) and Oklahoma (by Oklahoma State) were beaten in the Big 12 tourney and Pittsburgh just got knocked off by West Virginia.
It's looking as if the Big East will have three No. 1 seeds: Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Louisville with North Carolina getting the fourth.
Stanford took a lot of bad shots and Washington eventually pulled away for an 85-73 victory, putting them into the semifinals against Arizona State Friday night.
The Huskies swept the Sun Devils during the regular season, rolling in Tempe and winning in overtime in Seattle.
It should be a good one.
Next up in a bit more than an hour: USC vs. Cal.
The top-seed University of Washington Huskies haven't played particularly well but still lead Stanford by three points at intermission, 38-35, in today's second quarterfinal.
Freshman Elston Turner came off the bench to hit three 3s for the Huskies down the stretch.
Back to my Long Beach State advance . . .
With the coach (Lute Olson) who made the program what it is -- better yet, was -- in the stands looking on a 100 or so feet from its bench, the University of Arizona was bounced from the Pac 10 tournament just minutes ago by Arizona State, 68-56.
A whole lot of dominoes would have to come tumbling down in the Wildcats' favor in order for them to get an at-large believe on Sunday, I do believe.
I wonder who the next UA coach will be?
Anyway, the Sun Devils got 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists from James Harden to throw a lot of water into the faces of any last holdouts who can't understand why he's considered one of the five best players in the country.
The Sun Devils seemed to have gotten things under control. The game is being played at a bit of a methodical half-court pace which definitely isn't what the Wildcats want. Hill is the only real scoring threat the the Wildcats have right now and he is keeping ASU from pulling its lead into double digits. It's ASU 48-43. Chase Budinger only has five points for the U of A and he'll need to finish strong to keep his team playing Friday.
I suddenly could use a good hour-long nap, by the way . . .
I'm in the Staples Center and it's halftime of the first Pac 10 Tournament hoop-it-up affair, with the University of Arizona leading Arizona State, 32-30.
It's hard to envision either of these teams pulling away from the other. And the U of A Wildcats need this worse than I need a good lead for the advance I'm about to write on Long Beach State's Big West semifinal Friday night in Anaheim.
If the Wildcats don't win this one, I'd say that their at-large hopes for the NCAA tourney would be tickling "zilch" status.
There are lots of NBA types here, including Denver Nuggets' General Manager Mark Warkentien and Eric Gordon of the Clippers.
By the way, U of A junior power forward Jordan Hill continues to help his NBA stock. He's lottery-bound, baby.
Have I ever mentioned what kind of a jump shooter Josh Akognon is?
He lit up UC Riverside tonight for a Big West tourney-record 37 points, hitting nine 3's en route to a 14 of 22 shooting performance. And the cat didn't even attempt a free throw in the Titans' 59-46 victory.
There isn't a college player in the west with a quicker release on his jump shot.
Anyway, all in a all a nice night of hoops just across the street Disneyland . . . or whatever used to be called just "Disneyland".
Thursday night we're looking at Pacific vs. UC Davis at 6 o'clock followed (30 minutes after the conclusion of the UOP-UCD game) by Josh Akognon State vs. UC Santa Barbara.
My bad . . . earlier I said that UC Davis' Thursday night opponent will be determined by the result of the Fullerton-Riverside tilt that is going on as we (figuratively) speak.
Actually, UC Davis will play Pacific regardless of who wins this won because it is it a lower seed (8) than either the Titans (7) or Riverside (5), and UOP gets the lowest remaining seed out of tonight's games.
UC Santa Barbara will play the winner of this one in the second game Thursday night.
The ball was ripped from Jacques Streeter with two seconds to go but teammate Ray Miller picked it up and slung down a dunk to give Cal State Fullerton a two-point edge (28-26) after one half of the second Big West first-round game being played tonight.
UC Riverside led by seven points (23-16) but seven-point advantages aren't much when they come against a team with Josh Akognon on it.
The Titans' Big West Player of the Year has hit seven of 11 shots (including a trio of treys) for 17 points.
Once more, this game is following the script of "every game is going to be a gut-cruncher" for the tournament.
. . . and barely, as UCI guard Michael Hunter's jump shot from about 15 feet along the right baseline was just an inch or two long at the buzzer with the Aggies prevailing in their first-ever Big West tourney game, 69-68.
It was a marvelous game . . . or as marvelous as a game can be between teams with 12-18 records.
I would think nearly all of the seven games played in this event are going to be comparably competitive.
Davis plays Thursday night in a quarterfinal against Pacific or UC Santa Barbara, based on the outcome of the next game (Cal State Fullerton vs. UC Riverside).
UCI came out warm to start after intermission and leads, 42-38, with 14:41 to go after a "media" timeout.
No, I wasn't the media member who demanded a stoppage of play . . .
The Aggies are up 20-19 . . . 6:51 to go in the first half. They have played a lot better offensively than the one-point lead would indicate.
LBSU head coach Dan Monson is now in the building as well . . .
. . . among the folks jamming the building (well, not quite jamming) in the past few minutes: high school coaches Matt Ruiz (Lakewood) and Russ May (Los Alamitos), all of the Long Beach State assistants (Rod Palmer, Vic Couch and Eric Brown) and former UCLA coach Jim Harrick (who lives in the south Orange County community of Dove Canyon).
Where else can you get this kind of stuff?
The UC Irvine and UC Davis men's basketball teams are warming up in front of for the start of their Big West Conference first-round tournament game.
I think there are a lot more people in front of me (on the floor) than there are in back of me (in the stands).
I'm not anticipating a whopper crowd for this game or the second one between Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside.
But they a nice meal in the media room in the Anaheim Convention Center Arena: catered by the old Spaghetti Factory!
The Big West Conference just announced its men's basketball individual awards.
Here are some of them:
Larry Anderson, T.J. Robinson and Casper Ware of Long Beach State were selected to the All-Freshman team, with Anderson selected as the Freshman of the Year.
Senior Donovan Morris (hurt most of conference play), junior Stephan Gilling and Robinson were honorable mention all-conference choices for the 49ers.
Anderson, a Jordan High graduate, became only the second freshman in conference history to be a first-team all-conference selection.
Player of the Year was Josh Akognon of Cal State Fullerton and Coach of the Year was Bobby Braswell of Cal State Northridge.
I just checked out my Gahr vs. Harvard-Westlake game story in the on-line edition of the Sunday Press-Telegram and realized there is a typo in it.
The score in Harvard-Westlake's victory was 87-75, not 87-65.
Many apologies to may alma mater's team, which opens regional play Tuesday night.
After losing a share of the Big West Conference regular-season championship on a 3-point shot at the buzzer at UC Santa Barbara a few hours ago, Coach Dan Monson's Long Beach State men's basketball team will not play again until Friday night in a semifinal of the conference tournament in the Anaheim Convention Center.
The 49ers are the No. 2 seed, behind Cal State Northridge's top-seeded Matadors.
Who will Long Beach play? That depends on what takes place during Wednesday's first-round games (No. 8 seed UC Davis vs. No. 5 UC Irvine, and No. 6 UC Riverside vs. No. 7 Cal State Fullerton) and Thursday's quarterfinals (when No. 3 seed Pacific and No. 4 UC Santa Barbara) hook up with the winners of Wednesday's games.
Regardless of who the 49ers play . . . and if the highest seeds win on Wednesday and Thursday, Long Beach takes on No. 3 UOP and CSN faces No. 4 UCSB . . . they will tip off at about 8 o'clock Friday night.
The championship game, with the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line, will tip off at about 9 o'clock Saturday night.
Gahr was, 63-60, two minutes into the fourth quarter . . . and was promptly outscored the rest of the way, 27-12, to lose to Harvard-Westlake.
Well, at least the Gladiators got to Anaheim, right?
Spoken like a true alum.
Gahr was up by six, down by three and now takes a two-point lead (58-56) into the fourth quarter.
It's been a wild, helter-skelter kind of a game, folks.
The Gahr Gladiators lead Harvard-Westlake, 25-23, with 6:28 to go in the second quarter here in the Honda Center in Anaheim in the CIF Southern Section boys' IIIA basketball title game.
The opening tip-off was delayed about 15 minutes while the malfunctioning scoreboard clock was coaxed into working.
Parking at the Honda Center in Anaheim Saturday for the six CIF Southern Section boys' basketball championship games will cost $15 per vehicle.
And I only wish that I was kidding about it.
My guess is that there will be a Southern Section record established for car-pooling on Saturday.
Long Beach State's men's basketball team may have struggled to beat the worst team in the Big West Conference Thursday night while edging host Cal Poly, 63-60.
But the 49ers didn't need style points to get themselves a bye into the semifinals of the conference's tournament next week in Anaheim.
The win improved their conference record to 10-5 and leaves them a game behind conference-leading Cal State Northridge going into Saturday's games, when the 49ers are at UC Santa Barbara and Northridge visits third-place Pacific in Stockton.
Even if Long Beach loses to the Gauchos and Pacific beats CSN, leaving both at 10-6 and tied for second, the 49ers would get the second seed, and bye into the March 13 semifinals, because they beat UOP in both of their regular-season meetings.
That being said, the 49ers are going to have to play much, much better than they have in recent weeks in order to win Saturday night or next Friday evening in the Anaheim Convention Center.
The CIF Southern Section office just released the tip-off times for its boys' and girls' basketball championship games this week.
The Poly High girls will face Cajon in the IAA game Friday night (8:30) at Mater Dei High.
The Gahr High boys take on Harvard-Westlake in the IIIA game at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Honda Center.
You can find the sites, dates and times for the other games at www.cifss.org.
