Conference Tourney Live-Blog: Thursday, Late Games

7:37 I'm back. UCLA destroyed Cal, 88-66. Pitt is currently up three on Louisville, with 5:30 remaining in the first half.

7:44 A quick bubble recap from the early games:

Villanova: Lost to Georgetown, probably out.
Dayton: Lost to Xavier, almost certainly out.
West Virginia: Defeated UConn, probably secured a berth.
Miami FL: Beat NC State, should be in now.
Arizona St: Lost to USC. Very, very borderline.
Baylor: Lost to Colorado in double OT. Probably still in, but losing to a team with an RPI of 166 was a bad idea.
Vanderbilt: Beat Auburn...I'm kidding, of course. I can't see them getting in.

7:50 Now a look ahead to this evening's bubble games:

Florida: In desperate need of a win. Currently down 19-5 to Alabama, 5 minutes into the game.
Oregon: Plays Washington St. at 9pm ET. If they win, they're definitely in. On the bubble with a loss, but probably still on the right side.
Massachusetts: Plays Charlotte at 9pm ET. I don't know. I suggest they try to win.
Maryland: Is this team really on the bubble? They shouldn't be. Beat BC tonight (9:30 pm ET), then beat Clemson, then maybe we'll talk.
Mississippi 7-9 in the SEC- how could they not be in!? They need to get to the semis to have a chance. Tonight they play Georgia at 9:45 pm ET, definitely a must win. Georgia is bad.
New Mexico Needs to beat Utah (11:30 pm ET). A loss against UNLV tomorrow would be understandable, since the tournament is being played at their gym.
Arizona Plays Stanford, 11:30 pm ET. Probably in regardless, but a win would seal it.

8:06 Florida is now losing 34-11. Al Horford is not walking through that door.

8:20 In the game I'm actually watching, Louisville leads by 1, with 16 minutes left.

8:22 Temple is on the bubble, I guess. They're up 4 on La Salle with 3:40 remaining. They need to win that one.

8:24 Sheehan has updated his bubble article. He thinks Villanova is in, and he's probably correct. 10-10 in Big East games, with non-conference wins over George Mason and Temple. So...maybe.

8:27 Villanova's RPI is 50, and they are now 3-6 in games against the RPI Top 50. They seem very, very borderline to me.

Louisville 43, Pitt 42, 13:40 left. Excellent game. Now Pitt takes a one point lead.

8:29 Florida is down 46-23 at the half.

8:31 Ramon connects on a 3, and Pitt now has a 4 point lead. Ramon has a tough year from beyond the arc (~38%, I believe), but is 3/5 tonight.

Louisville looks terrible. This sucks.

8:36 Temple won by 9. They need to at least get to the A-10 finals to have a shot.

8:38 Everything is going in for Pitt. They're up 8.

8:40 Terrence Williams hits a big 3, his first bucket of the night, to momentarily stop the bleeding. Pitt by 5, 8:10 to go.

8:45 Padgett misses the second FT, then Clark knocks down what was apparently only a 2. Lead down to 2, as Pitt turns it over.

8:46 Memphis is up 21 on Tulane with 6:20 left. In case you were wondering.

8:49 Clark with the bucket and the foul. Tie game, with a FT coming. Hits the four shot; he's got 15 now. 9-0 run for 'Ville.

8:51 These offensive fouls where the basket counts anyway are so confusing. Louisville regains a 1 point lead, but now Pitt is shooting the bonus. They make 1/2, and we're tied.

8:54 A vicious dunk by Earl Clark, and we are once again tied. This is going to be a great finish.

8:57 The Gators are mounting a comeback- they've cut it to 19 with 13:32 remaining.

9:01 Young banks one in after Sosa flops, Pitt by 2 with 1:46 to go.

9:04 Blair misses two big FTs, Louisville gets the ball back down 2 with 40 seconds left.

9:05 Clark ties it up on a putback. Pitt can hold for 1- they call a TO with 16.5 left.

9:07 Fields almost makes a fadeaway from the corner at the buzzer. That shot was a lot closer than it probably should have been.

Overtime. As I said, tremendous game.

9:08 Florida has cut Bama's lead to 9. 10 minutes left in that one. Alabama is having trouble from the line, apparently.

Washington St. out to an early 8-3 lead on Oregon.

9:12 I hate foul calls away from the ball. You could call that every play, why now?

Ramon hits both. Pitt by 4, three minutes left.

9:14 Padgett with a putback to get Louisville within 2.

Ramon somehow ends up with the ball after a pass is deflected, and lays it in. Lead back to 4.

Florida is only down 6 with 7:44 remaining. I believe they were down 25 at one point.

9:17 Fields gets a great bounce on a runner to put Pitt up 6. Over the back on Clark on the other end. Things aren't looking good for the Cardinals.

9:20 Up 10 now, Pitt is about to put it away. Louisville finally hits a shot to get it down to 7 with
20.2 remaining. But it's too late.

Alabama is now up 11 on UF 4:21 to go.

9:23 Pitt wins, 76-69. After winning nine straight, Louisville enters the tournament won a two game losing skid.

9:31 ASU's RPI is 76. It's going to be tough for them to get in, they really got hosed on that over the back call this afternoon.

Alabama up 13, 2 minutes left.

9:42 Alabama 80, Florida 69 is the final. That's the end of the Gators.

Washington St. is up 14 on the Ducks, with 3:23 to go in the first. UMass is up 8 on Charlotte, 6:49 before halftime.

Texas A&M is on the bubble, I suppose. Or, they will be if they lose to Iowa St.- they're down 7-2. Still early.

10:04 ND is up 1 on Marquette, 7 minutes in.

Marquette is such a weird team. They are built around three guards, none of whom are good shooters. This should not work. But they can all defend, and get to the rim, so they're decent.

10:09 Wow, Harangody had a 3.25 GPA? He must be some sort of genius.

10:13 Marquette has taken a two point lead. Harangody is on the bench with two fouls.

10:36 Kurz hits a 3 at the buzzer, and ND is up 6 going into the half.

Washington St. is up 9 on Oregon, 7:25 left. UMass, up 17 at halftime, is down 1 against Charlotte at the under 12 timeout.

11:03 Marquette has somehow taken a 1 point lead over ND. I have no idea how this happened, I've been watching Oregon lose.

11:08 It appears that UNLV hit a 3 at the buzzer to beat TCU by 1. They narrowly avoid a terrible loss, and are likely safely in the tournament now.

Oregon lost to Washington St. by 5. And UMass lost to Charlotte, somehow.

11:17 James hits a 3 to extend the Marquette lead to 7. McNeal has 23 points on 9/16 shooting and 4/7 from the line. Those numbers are from the Yahoo! in game box score, and could very well be wrong.

11:22 McAlarney hits a big 3 to get ND within 4. He is only 2/7 from 3, but 4/6 from 2, for a total of 14 points.

11:28 I have seen more excellent out of bounds save today than any other day in my life. A great one by Barro there, but Marquette can't convert. Harangody shooting the bonus, down 5 with 4:40 remaining. He makes the first but not the second.

11:30 Acker is having a nice game for Marquette, and now he has another three roll in to extend Marquette's lead to 10.

11:35 Len Elmore is trying to tell is that Harangody is drawing more attention today, because two days ago he won the Big East POY, and he cannot deal with the pressure and is thus not having a very good game.

11:40 Texas A&M won. They are in now, if they were not already.

11:41 Maryland lost. They are finished.

11:48 Marquette wins, 89-79. UConn and Notre Dame were overrated, and it showed today. Tomorrow night will be Georgetown vs. West Virginia, and Pitt vs. Marquette. This really is the best tournament.

Arizona is up 11-10 on Stanford, 7 minutes in.

12:13 Mississippi has forced OT against Georgia. Staying alive, barely

12:53 They lost in OT. Another bubble popped. At this rate it is going to be about a 54-team tournament.

1:30 Arizona loses. Given all the other bubble teams that lost today, they're probably still in.

New Mexico is about to lose a game they cannot afford to lose, down 7 to Utah with 3:44 to play.

1:53 And New Mexico is going to OT. Of course they are.

2:07 New Mexico loses by 2 in OT.

A terrible day for bubble teams. Although I suppose that in the aggregate that is impossible, since no bids were clinched by conference champions (I think). A lot of bubble teams lost, that is for sure, and this whole thing is going to be a mess to sort out on Sunday.

Friday may be the best day of the year, in terms of a combination of quality and quantity of basketball. Big East and Pac-10 semis. ACC, SEC, Big 12, B10 quarters. A lot of basketball, no more byes, and most of the bad teams have been eliminated (well, except in the B10). Should be fun.