1. Arizona v. Kansas (Big 12 quarters) (8:30 PM, ESPN)
2. (17) Brigham Young v. (12) Iowa St. (Big 12 quarters) (11:30 AM, ESPN 2)
3. Missouri v. Mississippi St. (SEC second round) (6 PM, SEC Network)
4. (9) Texas Tech v. Baylor (Big 12 quarters) (6 PM, ESPN)
5. (15) Kentucky v. Oklahoma (SEC second round) (8:30 PM, SEC Network)
6. Mississippi v. Arkansas (SEC second round) (Noon, SEC Network)
7. Oregon v. Indiana (Big 10 second round) (11 AM, Big Ten Network)
8. Xavier v. Marquette (Big East quarters) (1:30 PM, Peacock)
9. Connecticut v. Villanova (Big East quarters) (8:30 PM, Fox Sports 1)
10. (14) Texas A & M v. Texas (SEC second round) (2:30 PM SEC Network)
In the ACC quarterfinals, Cooper Flagg leaves the game with an ankle injury. The Dukies lead 58-50 with about five minutes left.
ReplyDeleteAt the half, Ole Miss leads Arkansas 42-34.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, whatever happens is Cooper Flagg is more important than the result of any game played today -- and probably more important than the result of any game played this weekend.
ReplyDeleteDuke beats Georgia tech 78 to 70. Ole Miss leads Arkansas 49-44 with 15:02 left in the game. Iowa State and BYU are tied at 80 with 6:20 left.
ReplyDeleteWith 11:24 left, Arkansas and Ole Miss are tied at 53, as Cal's guys have fought back from what had been a 42-27 deficit in the first half.
ReplyDeleteR.I.P. to John Feinstein, who has died at the age of 68.
ReplyDeleteThere's no report about the cause of death. He just published a column about Tom Izzo yesterday.
DeleteWith 9:35 left in the game, Arkansas has surged to a 60-53 lead. In the Big East, St. John's has beaten Butler 78-57. In the Big 10, Oregon has beaten Indiana 72-59.
ReplyDeleteBYU beats Iowa State 96 to 92.
ReplyDeleteWith 7:37 left, Arkansas leads Ole Miss 63 to 56. Winner gets Auburn tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteJon Scheyer says that Cooper Flagg has a sprained ankle and that the x-rays were negative.
ReplyDeleteCal's super power is coming from behind. His Achilles Heel is defending late leads. Arkansas now leads 63-61 with 7:07 left.
ReplyDeleteGame now tied at 63. So Ole Miss was up 42-27. Then Arkansas went on a 36-14 run to take a seven point lead. Then Ole Miss went on a 7-0 run to tie it. This is the whole Coach Cal experience in one game.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Chuck Culpepper and John Clay have been inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame. Since Dave Kindred left the Courier-Journal, back in the 1970's, Culpepper is by far the best writer to cover the UK basketball program.
ReplyDeleteChuck Culpepper is also great on Tony Kornheiser's podcast.
DeleteOle Miss is now on a 13-2 run, and the Rebels lead 69-65 with 5:20 left. Cal calls time.
ReplyDeleteIn honor of John Feinstein, I am going to read "A Season on the Brink."
ReplyDeleteOle Miss leads 77-72 with 2:57 left.
ReplyDeleteWith two minutes left, Ole Miss leads 77-76. What a game!
ReplyDeleteWith 1:06 left, Arkansas has taken a 78-77 lead.
ReplyDeleteArkansas led 80-77 with about 20 seconds to go, but gave up an old-fashioned three-point play to allow Ole Miss to tie it. Arkansas now has a chance for the last shot -- they miss an easy shot, but Ole Miss was called for a foul with 7.8 seconds left. Then Arkansas missed both free throws. Now Ole Miss has the ball in a tie game. Sean Pedulla comes down the floor, Arkansas backs off, he shoots a three in transition -- and nails it. He had been 0-6 from three-point range, but finished 1-7. His three-pointer won it for Ole Miss: 83 to 80.
ReplyDeleteIn the next SEC epic, Texas (the Number 13 seed) upsets Texas A & M 94 to 89 in double overtime. The Longhorns advance to play Tennessee in the quarter-finals tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe next game, between Missouri and Mississippi State, will not tip off until 6:48 PM Central Time, which means that the UK game against Oklahoma (the last game of the day) will not start until at least 9:30 PM Central time.
ReplyDeleteThat means, of course, that UK's game will likely finish after midnight in the Central Time Zone.
ReplyDeleteSelfishly, I was glad it did. I was asleep by 9 last night, but then I woke up somewhere around midnight when my wife came to bed and couldn't get back to sleep. We don't have SEC Network, but we listened to Jack Givens and Tom Leach for the last five minutes of the game on my phone. We listened through the website of WKTG 93.9 FM "Power Rock, the Rock of Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana." The most harrowing moments of the harrowing finish for us was when the UK network feed dropped with about a minute to go and the apparently automated WKTG Power Rock stream kicked in. Fortunately, Creedence got through not much more than a verse and chorus of "Fortunate Son" before we got back to Otega Oweh, et al.
DeleteUK fans are, of course, starved for success in the SEC Tournament. Here is a complete list of UK's SEC Tournament games in the 2020's:
ReplyDelete03/11/21: Mississippi St. 74, Kentucky 73
03/11/22: Kentucky 77, Vanderbilt 71
03/12/22: Tennessee 69, Kentucky 62
03/10/23: Vanderbilt 80, Kentucky 73
03/15/24: Texas A & M 97, Kentucky 87
Mizzou and Mississippi State tip off before a bunch of empty seats, as the UK fans are presumably still in restaurants and bars all over Nashville.
ReplyDeleteThe Mizzou game has already been stopped for an injury. Meanwhile, in the ACC quarterfinals, Stanford leads U of L 33 to 30 at the half.
ReplyDeleteI understand that if the SEC Tournament started at Noon Eastern Time -- like the Big 10 does -- then the tip time would be 11 AM in Nashville. But this way, the Thursday and Friday sessions at the SEC Tournament don't finish until around 1 AM Eastern Time, which is just nuts.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I have to say that I hate these black Mississippi State uniforms with the word "STATE" in big block letters.
ReplyDeleteU of L hits a shot at the buzzer to beat Stanford, 75 to 73.
ReplyDeleteAt the half, Mizzou leads Mississippi St. 39 to 34.
ReplyDeleteWhile we do not get the SEC's network with our lightweight cable-TV package, we do get Fox Sports 1 (FS1) and the Big 10's network. So among the games I saw in the evening was a thrilling, double-overtime affair between Creighton and DePaul in the "Big East" and the traditional Bob Griese Special between Purdue and Southern Cal in the "Big 10."
ReplyDeleteI latched on to the Gus Johnson/Bill Rafferty Big East call in the first overtime. DePaul had led the favored Creighton by as many as 17 points in regulation but then had to make a tremendous scramble to come back from down five or six in the last minute to force the second overtime. And then they nearly did it again, except that a Creighton player who had shot 45 percent on free throws in the regular season made four straight in the last seconds of the second overtime. Creighton won, 85-81, and moves on to play Connecticut, which clobbered Villanova despite the Thrill Score, in one semifinal; it's St. John's and Marquette in the other. Lots of intrigue here for UK fans.
I went to sleep to Purdue hanging close to USC in the Big 10, and then I stirred briefly to the Matt Painter press conference after the Boilermakers had come from behind to win. I was happy for my people, who mostly align with Purdue.
Speaking of college basketball, this is an interesting notion for a story. However, the right answer for No. 1 (assuming adjustment to today's dollars) is Lew Alcindor, with Kyle Macy, Bill Walton, Oscar Robertson, Pete Maravich and Bill Bradley each being in the top 10 and Caitlin Clark, Elvin Hayes, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry Lucas, David Thompson, Ralph Sampson, Darrell Griffith, Jerry West, Akeem Olajuwon, Earvin Johnson, David Robinson, Larry Bird, Larry Johnson, Michael Jordan, Danny Ferry, Danny Manning, Patrick Ewing, Cliff Hagan and maybe Chamique Holdsclaw somewhere in the top 35 or so.
ReplyDelete