Stanford Beats Oklahoma to Set a Date With UConnSAN ANTONIO -- Stanford's Nnemkadi Ogwumike was thrilled the Final Four was in her home state, in front of family, friends and her favorite pastries.
Thanks to her, the Cardinal are going to be sticking around the Lone Star State for a few more days -- and playing for the national championship.
Ogwumike was strong from start to finish, putting up 38 points and 16 rebounds while leading Stanford past Oklahoma 73-66 in a national semifinal Sunday night. It was the second-most points ever scored at a women's Final Four and sent the Cardinal into the title game against Connecticut on Tuesday night.
"She was a monster down low," teammate Kayla Pedersen said.
Playing before dozens of fans who made the 3-hour drive from the Houston area, Ogwumike got things going by scoring Stanford's first eight points and the last four of a 13-1 run that broke the game open. She added eight during a 12-4 run after Oklahoma had tightened things up midway through the second half.
And she was still just getting revved up.
Ogwumike scored Stanford's final seven points, all in the last 51.3 seconds. The biggie was a layup off an inbound pass after the Sooners somehow forgot to cover her after they'd gotten within three with 16 seconds left.
Ogwumike actually slipped away from the defenders on a designed play. She didn't think it would work, but ended up calling it "an awesome play to run."
"A great coaching decision," she said. "We executed it right and it worked."
Next up for Stanford (36-1) is another crack at UConn, the only team the Cardinal have lost to since Jan. 18, 2009, having fallen to the Huskies in last year's Final Four and early this season.
hen again, the Cardinal also are the last team to beat the Huskies, in the 2008 NCAA tournament semifinals.
This will be Stanford's second NCAA final in three years. The Cardinal are seeking their first championship since 1992.
"We're excited to be playing on Tuesday night," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "This is just great."
The extended stay could mean a chance for Ogwumike to treat her teammates to some kolaches, the donut-like snack she can't find in northern California. She talked a lot about them Saturday, but said Sunday she hadn't gotten any yet.
Oklahoma (27-11) was knocked out in the Final Four for a second straight season, although just getting this far was quite a feat. OU came into the season trying to replace Courtney and Ashley Paris, then five games in lost Whitney Hand, the previous season's conference freshman of the year, to a knee injury. Oklahoma also endured the nation's toughest schedule.
Coach Sherri Coale's Sooners kept up that attitude in this game. They were down 17 in the first half and trailed by 16 with 8:31 left, yet kept rallying.
Sparkplug point guard Danielle Robinson was a big part of OU's slow start and a big part of its recovery. She, too, could've used more help.
A big reason Oklahoma made it to the final weekend was because someone different always stepped up. The Sooners spent most of this game looking for someone to do so, and never really found it. They were especially hurt by missing 26 of their first 32 shots; they got back into the game by making 50 percent in the second half.
"It was too little too late," Coale said.
Robinson led the Sooners with 23 points and six assists.
Abi Olajuwon -- playing in front of her father, Hakeem Olajuwon, for the first time in her four-year college career -- had 12 points and nine rebounds. Nyeshia Stevenson added 15 points.
What they lacked most was someone who could disrupt Ogwumike, the Pac-10 player of the year. Her 38 points was second in Final Four history, trailing only the 47 scored by Texas Tech's Sheryl Swoopes in the 1993 national championship game.
"She's just very explosive and bouncy and does a great job of getting fouled, obviously, and then converting free throws," Coale said.
Ogwumike might not have had to be that good if her teammates had been more accurate. The guards were a combined 4 of 18 from the field. Good thing the frontcourt came through -- Jayne Appel had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Pedersen added 12 points and nine rebounds.
This was the second straight close call for the Cardinal, who needed a buzzer-beating layup to get past Xavier in the regional final. It would've helped had players made more than 1 of 15 3-point attempts.
"They'll make 10 against us, I guarantee you," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said, smiling. "Mark it down. They'll make 10. That's the way it works."
(c) 2010 FOX News Network, LLC
'Cats play them as they come; KSU's tournament run has not included an opponent from six major conferencesSALT LAKE CITY -- They've already heard the comments. Four games into the NCAA Tournament, Kansas State has yet to play what some would call a big-name opponent.
As they prepare to face the Butler Bulldogs in today's West Regional final, the Wildcats have not faced a team from the six major conferences -- no Big East power, none of the ACC's best, not one of the SEC's finest or a Big 10 bully.
They opened with North Texas out of the Sun Belt, then knocked of Mountain West runner-up Brigham Young to advance to the regional semifinals. Thursday's double overtime victory came against Xavier, co-champion of the Atlantic 10, and now the Wildcats face the Horizon League champion for a potential berth in the Final Four.
The only answer the Wildcats can give when asked: "When are you going to play somebody?" is when is "somebody" going to win.
"Maybe some people think we just get the luck of the draw," said K-State junior guard Jacob Pullen. "I've seen things that say we haven't played a team from a power six conference. That's not our fault.
"We're just trying to win a game at a time. We can't worry about who we have to play until we have to play them."
It's not like setting up a football or basketball schedule. The one thing K-State coach Frank Martin and his players have no control over is which team advances in the bracket opposite them.
Despite their label as a mid-major, Butler -- much like Xavier on Thursday night -- has proven itself when playing with the big boys outside of conference play.
The Bulldogs (31-4) made their third Sweet 16 appearance in the last eight years on Thursday and have won eight NCAA Tournament games since 2003. Butler has not lost a game in 2010, reeling off 23 straight wins since a Dec. 22 loss against Alabama-Birmingham.
"They're one of the best teams in the country," K-State sophomore Jamar Samuels said. "I don't care what league they play in -- 23 games in a row is a lot."
Martin understands why teams outside the power conferences are considered mid-majors. He witnessed firsthand the limitations placed on some of the smaller programs as an assistant coach for four seasons at Northeastern.
"I think that whole mid-major thing is maybe a reference to schools that don't spend as much money in basketball as compared to other schools," Martin said. "I can tell you at Northeastern, we didn't consider ourselves a mid-major. We didn't speak about that.
"We went in and beat West Virginia, beat Boston College. We never once addressed our team as being inferior to anybody else in the country."
"What I think it boils down to is revenue," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "I think that's where the term comes from. Maybe it started with conference affiliation, but the bottom line is about revenue, which has no impact on a 5-on-5 basketball game."
Martin was able to point out some of the advantages that might come with playing in a conference that lacks the big television contract. He went so far to say that his recent recruiting has been similar to that of the mid-major schools.
"You get these (mid-major) schools that go out and recruit these kids that are borderline," Martin said. "These kids go there and they stay for three, four or five years and they grow together. Then you end up seeing these teams make tremendous runs.
"That's why we've had a chance to succeed, because we have a bunch of kids that have grown up together, that have stayed together, that have been through it together."
Copyright (c) 2010 Salina Journal and MediaSpan
Road rules in NCAA Tournament
The NCAA basketball tournament is a wild ride over a few weeks every March and into the first Monday of April. Still, it is always neat to watch a team no one has ever heard of cause the famed "upset."
In this year's NCAA Tournament we have already seen a number of upsets in just the first-two rounds of play. It was yesterdays Northern Iowa over Kansas and Saint Mary's beating Villanova that had the die-hard sports fan loving the upset Saturday.
Still, it Doug Gottlieb of ESPN radio Sunday morning pointed a few things out that helps make sense, but hopefully doesn't take anything away from the accomplishments of the upstart teams.
Gottlieb pointed out that teams like Saint Mary's, Northern Iowa and Old Dominion have played tough road schedules and tough out of conference schedules. Both of those things can lead to a higher degree of success in the tournament.
While Kansas plays in the Big-12 and Villanova in the Big East and have tough conference schedules, that doesn't always prepare a team for the different play that can be seen out of conference.
Look at Northern Iowa, they beat Boston College, Iowa, Southern Illinois and Iowa State. The Panthers lost to DePaul on a neutral site, in November. That was their second game of the season and came during a 16-1 run to start their season. They didn't lose again until they played Wichita State on the road in the end of January.
Old Dominion beat Georgetown on the road. While their wins out of conference where harder to come by than Northern Iowa, they played Missouri, Mississippi State and Richmond in a three game stretch all either on the road or at neutral sites. They played a tough out of conference schedule and beat one of those Big East teams as well.
For Saint Mary's their out of conference was even more impressive as they pounded New Mexico State and San Diego State to open their season. Then they lost to Vanderbilt by just two points. Then they went on an eight game winning streak that included wins at Oregon, at San Jose State, and at Utah State. They also beat California at home, went to Hawaii and won.
So for these three upset teams, it shouldn't be such a surprise as they have shown they can go on the road and win. They posted records with single digit loss records, and now Saint Mary's and Northern Iowa have punched tickets through to the Sweet 16 next week.
What does Sunday hold? Cornell is looking like a Cinderella as they opened their season with victories over Alabama and UMass both on the road. They lost to Syracuse on the road in the dome, Still, they beat St. Josephs, Davidson, as well as St. John's and La Salle both on the road. So Cornell shouldn't be overlooked as some patsy easy to beat Ivy League school, especially after the way the dispatched Temple.
Other teams to look out for on Sunday, how about Gonzaga who are always tough in the tournament. Not to mention the Zags beat Wisconsin, Davidson, Colorado and Cincinatti. They also lost to Michigan State by just four points. A win today puts them in a showdown with Butler and Gonzaga could be looking at an Elite-8 ticket as well.
Another team to watch today will be Georgia Tech. While I am not sure they can really make it past the Sweet-16, they beat Duke this season, and they should give #2 Ohio State a run for their money. If Tech can keep it close the Buckeyes might be going home for to stay.
Road wins, and more importantly non-conference road wins are so important and something that a lot of people forget when they are looking at the tournament.
Just incase anyone was wondering President Obama and his big picks for this year, he had Kansas winning it all, guess that won't happen. Last year he had North Carolina. He also had Georgetown and Villanova in the Elite-8, oops. Still, the president did see the talents of Cornell. Unfortunately he only has two of his final four teams left in Kansas State and Kentucky, tough go of things this year, huh Mr. President?
Copyright (c) 1998-2010 digitaljournal.com
ACC Basketball Tournament 2010 Schedule and Scores
The another exciting game to be played by Virginia and Boston College, in NCAA College Basketball. This is the first game of ACC tournament 2010 that is scheduled this Thursday March 10 2010 starting at 12.00 in the afternoon. Here are the complete list of Acc Tournament Schedule 2010
Thursday, March 11: Opening Round
No. 8 Boston College vs. No. 9 Virginia, Noon (Raycom)
No. 5 Wake Forest vs. No. 12 Miami, 2PM (Raycom)
No. 7 Georgia Tech vs. No. 10 North Carolina, 7PM (ESPN2)
No. 6 Clemson vs. No. 11 NC State, 9PM (Raycom)
Friday, March 12: Quarterfinals
No. 1 Duke vs. 8/9 Winner, Noon (Raycom/ESPN2)
No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. 5/12 Winner, 2PM (Raycom/ESPN2)
No. 2 Maryland vs. 7/10 Winner, 7PM (Raycom/ESPN2)
No. 3 Florida State vs. 6/11 Winner 9PM (Raycom/ESPN2)
Saturday, March 13: Semifinals
Semifinal 1 1:30PM (Raycom/ESPN)
Semifinal 2 3:30PM (Raycom/ESPN)
Sunday, March 14: Final
Championship Game, 1PM (Raycom/ESPN)
The Hokies will open the ACC tournament against Miami for the third consecutive year. You're never safe until your name appears during the Selection Sunday show and the Hokies can't afford to put any doubt into the minds of committee members. This may not be an absolute must-win for Tech, but a win would probably solidify its place in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007.
TV Coverage: If you live in the ACC geographic footprint, you will have to watch the game on your local Raycom affiliate or on Raycom.Swarmcast.com. The game will be blacked out on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com. If you live outside of the ACC, you can watch on ESPN2 or ESPN360.com.
micromixx.com
Penn closes home schedule with win over Dartmouth
Penn capped a long day of college basketball across Philadelphia yesterday by hosting one of its smallest crowds of the season at the Palestra.
But Gov. Rendell, an alumnus, thought it was worth his time to show up for the Quakers' last home game of the season, as did a cluster of Penn legends, including Bobby Morse and Bob Weinhauer.
The announced crowd of 2,335 - about a quarter of the Palestra's capacity - was rewarded for making it through this most trying of seasons, as Penn walked off the floor from its final home game with a 78-68 Ivy League win over Dartmouth.
"It's great for us to carry into the off-season," Quakers forward Jack Eggleston said. "We really wanted to finish on a high note for [seniors] Justin [Reilly] and Drew [Godwin]."
Penn (6-21, 5-8 league) led from start to finish, and shot 52.1 percent from the field. Eggleston led all scorers with a career-high 25 points - 19 in the first half. The junior also pulled down 11 rebounds.
Reilly scored the game's final basket with a dunk in the closing seconds.
"I came down here last night at 1 a.m., and I was just standing at half-court looking around at the rafters and all those pictures," Reilly said.
Dartmouth (5-23, 1-13) was paced by guard Ronnie Dixon, who scored 18 points.
Rendell left the Palestra optimistic about next season.
"I do have hopes for them when [Tyler] Bernardini and [Andreas] Schreiber come back next year," he said. "And they have a good recruiting class coming in."
Bernardini and Schreiber have been sidelined by injuries.
Weinhauer, who coached the 1979 Penn team that made the Final Four, offered an endorsement of current Quakers coach Jerome Allen as his interim campaign draws to a close.
"We have some deficiencies, let's face it . . . but I see a tremendous improvement," Weinhauer said.
"I'm honored and grateful that I can pick the phone up and get his ear," Allen said.
(c) 2010 Philadelphia Media Holdings
Hokies' improbable ACC schedule
We suspect Virginia Tech will and will deserve to make the NCAA basketball tournament. But one demerit on the Hokies' ledger is a beyond-improbable ACC schedule that is the absolute weakest possible.
Check out the conference standings. Seven teams are .500 or better in league play; five are below.
Those five just happen to be the five Virginia Tech faces twice this season.
A quick ACC schedule primer: Each of the 12 teams plays five rivals twice and six once. Two of the five are annual partners, while the other three rotate.
The Hokies' yearly two-fors are Virginia and Boston College. Their rotation two-fors this season are Miami, North Carolina and North Carolina State.
Each of those five is 5-9 or 4-10 in the league with two games remaining.
Six of Virginia Tech's eight ACC victories came against the bottom five. This coupled with a weak non-conference schedule and a current three-game losing streak make the Hokies (21-7, 8-6) far from certain of making the NCAA field.
We believe that with games this week against N.C. State and Georgia Tech, followed by the conference tournament, Virginia Tech will prove itself NCAA worthy. But the Hokies have little wiggle room.
A more difficult ACC schedule might have tempered Virginia Tech's record, but it would have provided more opportunities for high-profile victories to impress the selection committee.
While the Hokies play none of the top seven twice, Georgia Tech and North Carolina face four. Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Maryland, Virginia, Boston College and Miami play three, Wake Forest one.
It's the luck, or curse, of the rotation. Last season, for example, Virginia Tech's three rotation two-fors were Duke, Florida State and Clemson. Next season it's Georgia Tech, Maryland and Wake Forest.
Let's also remember that while Virginia, Boston College, Miami and N.C. State were projected to finish near the bottom this season, reigning national champion North Carolina was not.
To fathom the improbability of the Hokies' five two-fors this season occupying the bottom of the standings, we buzzed Dr. Brian Bradie, chair of Christopher Newport University's math department this morning. He was intrigued by the riddle and asked for time to ponder.
About 45 minutes later, he graciously called back with two possible methods:
The first required calculating the historical probability of each team finishing in the bottom five. He suggested researching records of the last 10-15 years. The probability of five specific teams placing in the bottom five would be those five percentages multiplied by one another.
We'll save that project for another time.
The second method presumes more randomness, that each team has an equal chance of being among the bottom five. The odds of one school's five two-fors being the bottom five, Bradie said, are 1-in-462.
He figured this using an anology of putting 11 names into a hat (a team can't play itself) and drawing a specific five. So with the first draw from the hat, you'd have a 5-in-11 chance, followed by 4-in-10, 3-in-9, 2-in-8 and 1-in-7.
Multiply those chances together and you get 1-in-462.
Quirky, interesting and very much a part of Virginia Tech's postseason credentials.
weblogs.dailypress.com
First look at WVU's 2010 foes
As soon as one West Virginia University football season ends, fans start calling the sports desk to see if the schedule for the next season has been announced.
After all, many die-hard Mountaineer enthusiasts plan their vacations around WVU games, especially those that require a road trip.
West Virginia announced its 2010 schedule earlier this week.
In case you missed it, here it is again:
Sept. 4: Coastal Carolina
Sept. 11: at Marshall
Sept. 18: Maryland
Sept. 25: at LSU
Oct. 9: UNLV
Oct. 14: South Florida
Oct. 23: Syracuse
Oct. 29: at Connecticut
Nov. 13: Cincinnati
Nov. 20: at Louisville
Nov. 26: at Pittsburgh
Dec. 4: Rutgers
We'll have more than half a year to dissect each of the opponents and compare their strengths and weaknesses against those of the Mountaineers.
Today, let's take a look at the five non-conference games that will start off the schedule. Since WVU didn't play four of these foes last year, we have some new blood to analyze.
Coastal Carolina: I want to scream in my best John McEnroe voice, "You cannot be serious!'' But West Virginia isn't doing anything different than any other major college program.
Ever since the NCAA allowed teams to play 12 games, the big programs make sure their first game is at home against some small school willing to travel and take a beating for the biggest check it will get all year.
Coastal Carolina, a member of the Big South Conference, finished 6-5 last year.
It opened with an 18-0 loss to Kent State, and also traveled to Clemson, where it received a 49-3 whipping. It also got blasted 58-13 by Liberty. Yes, the same Liberty team with who WVU opened last year's season, a lackluster 33-20 WVU win.
This is one of the many things that makes me bring out my most-used line these days: I love sports, but I don't like what sports has become.
Marshall: One of two non-league opponents that had a winning record, and the only one to win a bowl game. The Herd finished 7-6 and beat Ohio University in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.
While West Virginia has dominated the Friends of Coal Bowl series, perhaps there is more intrigue in the matchup this fall than in any of the previous games.
Why? Because Hurricane native John 'Doc' Holliday left his job as WVU's recruiting coordinator to become the head coach at Marshall.
Although he hasn't coached a single game there, he already has Thundering Herd fans believing he is the guy who will lead Marshall back to football greatness.
Hiring Holliday was a bold move by new athletics director Mike Hamrick. It certainly has MU fans excited about Marshall football again, something they haven't been for the past few years.
This is the second and final visit WVU will make to Huntington in the seven-year contract it signed with Marshall. For that factor alone, this represents Marshall's best chance of a breakthrough win over the Mountaineers.
Still, it's hard to see Marshall improving or WVU declining that much from last year, which saw yet another double-digit WVU win.
At least this year, the hype leading up to the game will be genuine. No matter how hard those of us in the media have tried to sell the in-state rivalry, we haven't found many buyers.
Maryland: Talk about a once-proud program that is in decline.
The Terrapins finished 2-10, winning just one of eight games in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the worst record of any team in that weak league.
Although there was talk Ralph Friedgen would be gone as the Maryland coach, he's back.
So is James Franklin, who already has been designated as the coach-in-waiting. I don't know about you, but I've never understood that concept since it limits your next choice to one person instead of allowing you to see who is available.
Friedgen's shaky status led to a lackluster recruiting year, so things don't look much better in College Park.
It's good to see Maryland back on the schedule, but a win over the Terrapins doesn't hold much prestige these days.
LSU: Last year, WVU made a road trip to an SEC school and lost to Auburn.
This year, the Mountaineers are making a major upgrade in traveling to LSU, which finished a disappointing 17th last season, when it went 9-4, ending with a loss to Penn State in the Capital One Bowl.
Still, the Tigers four losses came to Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Penn State, all teams that won January bowl games.
At the end of the season, coach Les Miles had an incredible recruiting year as LSU's Class of 2010 was listed in the top 10 in every recruiting service.
This is the one non-conference game where West Virginia will be an underdog. It's likely the Mountaineers will enter the game 3-0, but we won't know how good -or how bad -West Virginia will be until this game, which should answer all our questions.
UNLV: I was hoping this was a road game so I could get the boss to spring for a trip to Vegas, but it's just a one-year contract for this game in Morgantown.
While it's a new opponent, it's not exactly one that is going to create a great deal of excitement.
The most exciting thing that happened to the Rebels took place after their 5-7 season when Bobby Hauck agreed to leave Montana, where he was 80-17 as the head coach of the Grizzlies. He immediately began recruiting and came up with UNLV's best class in years.
Still, this was a bad team whose defense allowed 456.2 yards per game. Its three ventures into the top 25 witnessed losses of 41-0 to TCU, 59-21 to BYU and 35-15 to Utah.
Hauck looks like a great choice to turn around the Rebels, but this appears to be a long-term project.
Looking at the first five games, if WVU enters Big East play with less than a 4-1 record, it will be disappointing. If it loses to anybody other than LSU, it will be devastating.
We'll break down the Big East in future columns. For now, I've got to practice spelling Coastal Carolina's nickname, the Chanticleers. Before you ask, a chanticleer is a rooster. So I guess Coastal Carolina fans are rooster boosters.
newsandsentinel.com
|
