Blair Kerkhoff’s bracket buzz
Game of the dayTrent Johnson missed a great finish. The Stanford coach was ejected after collecting his second technical foul in the first half. The Cardinal made sure his season didn’t end while sitting this one out. Brook Lopez rattled in a baseline leaner with 1.3 seconds remaining in overtime, giving the Cardinal an 82-81 victory. Lopez had eight of Stanford’s 11 points in overtime.
With 30 points, let’s make Lopez the player of the day, edging out Marquette’s Jerel McNeal, who also had 30. But McNeal’s missed three-pointer with 5 seconds left in regulation sealed overtime.
Shot of the day
Darren Collison got two of them. His driving layups and kisses off the glass for UCLA’s final two baskets carried the top-seeded Bruins past Texas A&M 53-49.
Had the Aggies won, we’d have gone with Josh Carter. Early in the second half, he drove to the right side of the basket and launched his patented quick-release shot. The ball hit the top of the backboard — an inch higher and it would have gone over — and dropped through the net.
Line of the day
West Virginia guard Joe Mazzulla nearly pulled off a triple-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists against Duke. “That kid was fabulous,” Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He looked like a mini Jason Kidd out there.”
Lines of the day
That would be betting lines of the day, supplied by BetUS.com, one of 12,000 companies to blanket the media with NCAA Tournament-related e-mails. You know your favorite team’s chances, but did you know the odds are 10-1 that you’ll win your office pool? Having Western Kentucky meet San Diego helps your bracket considerably. Other odds:
2-1 that you watched a game during work hours.
500-1 that you’ll get every game correct in your bracket. (ESPN reported that of the 3.6 million brackets it received in an online contest, nobody went 32 for 32in the first round. But one went 0 for 32).
500-1 odds of a team winning a national championship on a buzzer-beater.
Three questions
•Was Curtis Shaw right in ejecting Stanford coach Trent Johnson?
Absolutely. Johnson was standing near the top of the key when zapped with the second technical for the bounce-out. But both could have been smarter. Johnson could have stayed near his bench and demanded an audience. The crew could have waved him back as he was approaching. Johnson owned up to his mistake afterward.
•When has Duke had a longer stretch of not reaching at least the regional final?
Saturday’s loss to West Virginia makes it four years in a row for the Blue Devils, who last got to a regional championship game in their Final Four year of 2004. Go back to the pre-Mike Krzyzewski days. After playing in a 1980 regional final, Duke went until 1986, when it lost the national championship game. Bill Foster and Krzyzewski were the coaches in that span.
•How far from the action do you have to sit before your nose bleeds?
Kansas fans will find out next week. By defeating UNLV on Saturday, the Jayhawks advance to the Sweet 16 at Ford Field in Detroit. That site, along with the South Regional at Reliant Stadium in Houston, will be the first to use a seating configuration that will increase seating capacity to about 70,000.
The courts will be placed in the middle of the football fields and temporary seats will be installed and extended toward the floor. Flat-screen televisions will be placed in the upper confines.
Ford Field held a game with this configuration five years ago when an NCAA-record 78,129 watched Michigan State-Kentucky.
Bonus question
•What is Bob Knight’s next choice?
The Hall of Fame coach’s pick to win it all — Pittsburgh — went down in flames against Michigan State. Hey, it was a gutsy call by Knight, not picking a top seed. But even with UCLA’s close call with Texas A&M, the chalk is looking stronger, especially with the collapsed brackets in the West and Midwest regions.
Big 12 top seed conquests
Texas A&M, which lost a heartbreaker to UCLA, was bidding to become the third Big 12 team to defeat a No. 1 seed.
2003: No. 2 Kansas 78, No. 1 Arizona 75, West Regional final
2004: No. 2 Oklahoma State 64, No. 1 St. Joseph’s 62, East Regional final
