— If I was a kid now, I’d fail Geography class.
Big EAST Conference has 11 teams in it. All in the EAST, right? Umm…..no
Big EAST Conference has teams in:
Illinois (DePaul)
Indiana (Butler)
Ohio (Xavier)
Nebraska (Creighton)
Wisconsin (Marquette)
Does this matter in the conference tournament, which is always in Madison Square Garden in New York City?
DePaul is 6-18 in the Big East tournament
Butler is 4-12 in the Big East tournament
Xavier is 10-13 in the Big East tournament
Creighton is 11-12 in the Big East tournament
Marquette is 17-19 in the Big East tournament (won tourney in 2023).
In fairness, since 2012, St John’s, the host team, is 11-12 in the tournament, but they are also 5-1 since Rick Pitino became coach.
— Big XII tournament
Kansas 78, TCU 73
Jayhawks were 30-37 on foul line, TCU 14-18
Horned Frogs led by 4 with 7:55 left in the game.
Elmarko Jackson was 10-10 on foul line, 1-3 from floor.
Houston 73, BYU 66
BYU led by 7 late in the first half.
BYU shot only 38.2% inside the arc.
Houston won its fourth straight game, scoring 84.3 ppg.
Big XII had a new court for this tournament, an LED glass court that was innovative, but some teams complained that court was slippery, so the league will be using a hardwood court for the rest of the tournament.
— MAC tournament
UMass 87, Miami 83
After a 31-0 regular season, Miami loses their first MAC tourney game.
Miami led by 11 with 8:33 left in the game.
UMass had a 41-24 edge on the boards.
— ACC tournament
Clemson 80, North Carolina 79
Clemson led by 18 with 11:36 left in the game.
First time since 2008 the Tigers won 2+ game in an ACC tourney.
First time since 2014 the Tar Heels lost their first ACC tourney game.
Duke 80, Florida State 79
FSU had ball at the end with chance to win, but missed their shot.
Seminoles shot 65.4% inside arc, scored 1.17 ppp.
Duke had a 46-25 edge on the boards.
Duke really only played six guys; a 7th guy played 8:00.
Miami 78, Louisville 73
Hurricanes are 8-2 in their last 10 games.
Louisville shot 65.5% inside arc, only 6-24 outside arc.
Cardinals split their last eight games, after a 19-6 start.
— Big East tournament
St John’s 85, Providence 72
St John’s never trailed, led 48-27 at halftime.
Red Storm has won 17 of its last 18 games.
St John’s had a 51-30 edge on the boards.
— SEC tournament
Tennessee 72, Auburn 62
Auburn led by 10 with 11:20 left in the game.
From that point on, Tennessee outscored them, 33-13
17-16 Auburn won’t be happy on Sunday, when they go to the NIT.
— Mountain West tournament
Utah State 80, UNLV 60
UNLV beat #1-seed Aggies twice during regular season, but lost here.
Utah State forced 19 turnovers, shot 56.8% inside arc.
MW tournament is held in Las Vegas, but Rebels haven’t won it since 2008.
— QB Kyler Murray signed a one-year deal with the Vikings; Murray was 38-49-1 as a starter in seven years with the Cardinals. Arizona will be paying $35.5M of his salary this season, Vikings will be paying him $1.3M.
Cardinals-Vikings do not play each other this season.
— Some TV network would be wise to hire former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll as a game analyst; he has a lot of positive energy. I think we’d learn a lot from him.
— During one of the college basketball games this week, the analyst kept referring to of the players as “a winner” which bothered me. For every “winner” there is a “loser” and I refuse to believe that anyone is automatically a loser.
— Famous birthdays, March 13th:
William H Macy, 76
Dana Delany, 70
Mariano Duncan, 63
Will Clark, 62
Aaron Cox, 61
Trent Dilfer, 54
Johan Santana, 47
Caron Butler, 46
Byron Young, 28
Mark Leiter Jr., 35
— Big 18 tournament
Wisconsin 85, Washington 82
Badgers were 15-39 outside arc, 16-30 inside arc.
6-4 junior Blackwell scored 34 points, had 10 rebounds.
In two years in the Big 18, Washington is 11-30 in conference games.
— Atlantic 14 tournament
St Bonaventure 63, George Mason 57
Bonnies were 18-25 on foul line, George Mason 3-6
Patriots are 5-8 in last 13 games, after a 13-1 start.
Bonnies’ coach Mark Schmidt is retiring after 19 years in Ocean; he is an outstanding coach. Get a map and find Olean, NY (southern tier of central New York, near the Pennsylvania border). Schmidt getting the Bonnies to three NCAA tournaments is impressive; how the hell did he ever get players to go to school there?
— American Conference tournament
North Texas 74, Florida Atlantic 70
Lot of fouls; North Texas was 27-43 on line, FAU 23-33.
Teams combined to shoot 5-29 on the arc.
Mean Green won seven of their last nine games.
— Conference USA tournament
Louisiana Tech 80, Middle Tennessee 69
Tech never trailed; they were +7 (16-9) in turnovers.
Loss snapped Middle Tennessee’s five-game win streak.
Bulldogs play Missouri State Friday afternoon.
— Big West tournament
Northridge 80, Cal-San Diego 70
Tritons led by nine early in second half.
Larry Hughes Jr was 14-25 from floor, had one assist. His job is to shoot.
Matadors play Cal-Irvine in semis; they haven’t made NCAA’s since 2009.
— WAC tournament
Tex-Arlington 69, Southern Utah 63
Brickfest; teams shot a combined 9-48 on the arc.
Mavericks were 18-23 on foul line, SUU 7-10.
Arlington plays Utah Valley in semifinals Friday.
