2008 Tourney Roundup: Day 3

Two thrilling finishes today, with UCLA and Stanford barely advancing. More on both below, but I'd first like to be obnoxious and point out how poor the officiating was in both of the late games- Michigan St. and the Bruins both got a lot of calls. The most notable was the last play of the UCLA game, with a no call on Josh Shipp. Incredibly, I don't think the announcers ever mentioned the possibility of a foul.

CBS was not on top of its game today, both the announcers and their choices in flipping to games. At one point in the afternoon, as the Xavier game was ending, I think we got about three minutes of basketball in an hour of real time. Anyway, enough complaining, onto the games.

UCLA 53, Texas A&M 49
Three of UCLA's five starts were awful. Shipp didn't score a point. Mbah a Moute had 2 points and 6 turnovers. Westbrook was 3/10 from the floor, and 1/4 from the line.

It didn't matter. Darren Collison and Kevin Love were that good. They combined for 40 of the Bruins' 53 points, and were unbelievable down the stretch. Collison started off hot from downtown, going 4/4 from deep in the first half and keeping his team in the game. He cooled off after halftime, but his two driving layups in the last minute, each putting the Bruins up 2, were the difference in the game.

Love might have been even better. He finished with 19 points on 7/12 from the field, 11 boards, and 7 blocks. UCLA was feeding him the ball in the post down the stretch, and he consistently came through. A fallaway jumper to give them their first second half lead with 1:37 left was particularly impressive. Unbelievable games by those two, and they're rewarded by playing the winner of tomorrow's WKU-San Diego game in the Sweet 16. They still have to win two more, but it'd be very surprising if UCLA didn't reach its third consecutive Final Four.

West Virginia 73, Duke 67
Before hitting 3 meaningless treys in the last two minutes, Duke was 2/19 from deep. Combine that with the fact that they got outrebounded by 26, and it's actually pretty incredible that they didn't lose by 30. DeMarcus Nelson had a tough shooting day (there's a shocker), going 2/11 from the floor.

I'd love to heap praise on WVU's Joe Alexander, but I can't get too excited about 7/22 from the field. The real story for the Mountaineers, as the announcers let us know, was Joe Mazzulla. He had 13 points, 11 boards, and 8 assists, and was seemingly everywhere.

Xavier 85, Purdue 78
I definitely had more to say about this game about six hours ago. Xavier, as usual, was extremely balanced, with seven guys scoring 6 or more. Drew Lavender looks to be back to full strength, as he had 18 points and 9 assists. Purdue's incredible season came to an end, but the young Boilermakers will be back. Robbie Hummel struggled, shooting 2/10 from the field.

Wisconsin 72, Kansas St. 55
I'm kind of annoyed that the Badgers ended up in the same region as Kansas. I'm not sure, but I think Wisconsin might be really, really good. I also believe, as you may have noticed, that Kansas is not going to lose, regardless of opponent. If Wisconsin ends up playing, and losing to, the Jayhawks in the Elite 8, we won't ever know how good this team really was.

We do know they were quite good today. Wisconsin's offense is anything but pretty, but it is effective- they shot 52% from the field. It helped that K-State isn't really into the whole "defending" thing- the Badgers had a ton of open looks from 3 in the first half, and they took advantage. Beasley and Walker combined for 41 but, unless you're UCLA, two guys isn't enough. Wisconsin was in control the whole game, and will face the Davidson-Georgetown winner in the Sweet 16.

Washington St. 61, Notre Dame 41
Putt Notre Dame up against a real defense, and they don't look so great. It happened against Marquette in the Big East tourney, and again tonight against Wazzu. They shot 25% from the floor, including 3/17 from Luke Harangody. He did have 22 rebounds, but missed putbacks aren't all that valuable. Robbie Cowgill was very efficient for the Cougars, shooting 6/7 from the floor. Kyle Weaver added 15 points and 9 boards.


Stanford 82, Marquette 81 (OT)
Brook Lopez was dominant in the second half for the Cardinal. He only had 2 points n the first period, as his brother Robin handled the scoring load. But he scored 28 in the 2nd half and OT, including a shot from a very tough angle to win it. When he gets going, there's really not much you can do about it, as he was getting the ball nearly every possession down the stretch. A valiant effort by Marquette, especially Jerel McNeal, who had 30 and kept the Golden Eagles in the game with three 3s in OT. But he missed multiple open looks in the last couple minutes of the extra period, and that wasn't acceptable with Lopez scoring seemingly every time he touched the ball.

Michigan St. 65, Pitt 54
Remarkably, the same team that lost to Iowa and Penn St. a couple months ago is in the Sweet 16. Neitzel was 5/8 from 3, and finished with 21. Goran Suton had a few big buckets as the Spartans pulled away at the end, and was 7/11 from the field overall. Ronald Ramon's 1/9 performance was an appropriate way to finish a disappointing season for him.

Kansas 75, UNLV 56
The Jayhawks shot 67% from 2 and rolled, to the surprise of absolutely nobody. Not much to say here, as I barely saw any of this one. I would like to relay an interesting note- UNLV starter Corey Bailey is 27, and worked as an air conditioning repairman between high school and college. More can be read about this here, including the following tremendous quote from teammate Wink Adams: "He's just old." Indeed.