— Idaho 77, Montana 66
Idaho is in the NCAA’s for the first time since 1990.
Vandals had lost their last nine games vs Montana.
Idaho had 42-28 edge on the boards.
— McNeese State 76, Stephen F Austin 59
McNeese wins Southland tournament for third year in a row.
Cowboys won their semi-final game in triple OT, over Rio Grande Valley.
Good news for bubble team Santa Clara, which beat McNeese by 12.
— Lehigh 74, Boston U 60
Lehigh was 9-19 on the arc, Terriers were 1-16.
Lehigh started season 4-15; they’re 14-5 since then.
Mountain Hawks are in NCAA’s for first time since 2012, when they upset Duke as a 15-seed, behind star CJ McCollum.
— Italy 9, Mexico 1
Vinny Pasquantino hit three solo home runs.
Pasquantino had been 0-12 in the WBC before this game.
Aaron Nola threw five shutout innings.
Italy’s win gets Team USA in the quarter-finals; USA plays Canada next.
— Dominican Republic 7, Venezuela 5
First four guys in Dominican Republic order all homered.
Dominican Republic plays Korea Friday.
Venezuela plays Japan Saturday.
— Famous birthdays, March 12th:
Barbara Feldon, 93
Jake Kupp, 85
Liza Minnelli, 80
Mark Moseley, 78
Dale Murphy, 70
Darryl Strawberry, 64
Titus Welliver, 64
Steve Finley, 61
Grant Long, 60
Aaron Eckhart, 58
JP Losman, 45
Nick Kurtz, 23
— One of the most underrated athletes of the last 40 years is Charlie Ward, who won the 1993 Heisman Trophy as a QB at Florida State. Ward didn’t play in the NFL, but he did play 12 years in the NBA, mostly with the Knicks, and these days he’s the basketball coach at Florida A&M in the SWAC. His Rattlers finished 11-7 in the SWAC this year, won their SWAC tourney game 70-60 Wednesday night.
— Indianapolis Colts signed QB Daniel Jones for two years, $88M, with $50M of that money guaranteed. Jones is recovering from a torn Achilles, but is expected to be ready for the start of the regular season; he was 8-5 as the Colts’ QB last year, after going 25-45-1 in six years with the Giants.
— QB’s Kirk Cousins/Kyler Murray both got released Wednesday; one of them is expected to wind up as the Vikings’ QB this coming season, the other one could wind up in Las Vegas as a bridge to rookie QB Fernando Mendoza, likely the Raiders’ #1 pick in the draft.
— When Orioles’ catcher Adley Rutschman was in college at Oregon State, he was a kicker for the Beavers for one year— he specialized in kickoffs. Oregon State recovered two of the three onside kicks he tried.
When Rutschman was in high school, he once made a 63-yard field goal.
— Movie of the Day: Love Happens (2009)- A best-selling author becomes a motivational speaker, talking about dealing with grief. Aaron Eckhart plays the author, Jennifer Aniston plays a florist he meets in the hotel where his seminars are. Martin Sheen plays the father of the author’s wife, who died in a car accident.
This is a nice movie; we need more nice in the world.
— Big XII tournament
Iowa State 91, Arizona State 42
Cyclones forced 23 turnovers, led 45-16 at the half.
Iowa State plays Texas Tech on Thursday.
After the game, ASU fired Coach Bobby Hurley, after 11 years.
Central Florida 66, Cincinnati 65 OT
UCF scored the last eight points of regulation to force OT
Bearcats led by 12 with 9:24 left in the game.
UCF won despite shooting 3-24 on arc, 13-23 on foul line.
— SWAC tournament
Prairie View 71, Bethune-Cookman 67
#8-seed Prairie View upsets top-seeded Bethune-Cookman
Prairie View outscored Wildcats 13-4 over the last 3:33 of the game.
— C-USA tournament
Missouri State 77, Liberty 69
Liberty won C-USA regular season by four games, loses its tournament opener.
Missouri State shot 58.8% inside the arc.
Bears were 8-16 on the arc, Liberty 9-31.
— Big East tournament
Providence 91, Butler 81
Butler led 27-11 midway thru the first half.
Providence shot 14-27 behind the arc.
Friars play St John’s in the first game Thursday.
— Big 18 tournament
Northwestern 74, Indiana 61
Damaging loss for bubble team Hoosiers, who lost six of last seven games.
Indiana led by 9 at halftime, 37-36 at the half.
Northwestern plays Purdue Thursday.
