The Morning Dish – Sunday, March 28th
Huskies Are In: Although the road wasn’t always smooth, Connecticut was expected to get to the Final Four back in the preseason. With their 87-71 win over No. 8 Alabama on Saturday, the Huskies made it by winning the Phoenix Region as its No. 2 seed in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score may indicate. The Huskies got almost all they needed from two hot guards, as Ben Gordon nearly matched his career high by scoring 36 points and Rashad Anderson had a career-high 28 points in the win. Anderson had 22 of his points in the first half, when he went 6-6 on three-pointers to lead the Huskies (31-6) to a 50-29 edge, helped by a 17-4 run in the final five minutes. Gordon was the regional’s MVP, going 4-7 on three-pointers and 10-11 at the foul line.
Alabama (20-13) got a career-high 24 points from Chuck Davis and 21 from Kennedy Winston. In the second half, the Crimson Tide never got closer than 14 points.
Connecticut All-American center Emeka Okafor played just 19 minutes, as he tweaked his shoulder on a hard foul in the first half. After the game, he said he was okay.
Cowboys End Hawks’ Run: With 6.9 seconds left, No. 2 Oklahoma State got a three-pointer off a broken play by John Lucas for a 64-62 win over No. 1 St. Joseph’s in the East Rutherford Regional final. Lucas scored the last five points for his team and 17 of his 19 points in the second half, when the Cowboys (31-3) played much better by cutting down on the turnovers that the Hawks (30-2) frequently turned into points in the first half. After committing 10 first half turnovers, the Cowboys turned the ball over just twice in the second half, and they shot over 47% for the game. The Hawks shot just 38.6% from the field, and that along with being killed on the glass by a 41-22 margin helped do them in.
The Hawks, who were led by Delonte West’s 20 points, had one last chance, but Jameer Nelson’s shot from just behind the foul line fell short before time expired. Nelson had 17 points (6-18 shooting), 8 rebounds and 8 assists.
Joey Graham helped Lucas with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Tony Allen had 12 points, 5 assists and three blocked shots.
Official Used Profanity?: ESPN.com’s Andy Katz reported that the Texas coaching staff is claiming that official Ted Valentine used profanity during Friday night’s loss against Xavier in the Atlanta Regional semifinal. On Saturday, they said that Valentine told Longhorn senior guard Brandon Mouton to “shut the (bleep) up”. No word was available from Valentine or if he would officiate later in the tournament.
Champions: In the Division II championship game, Kennesaw State got 26 points from Terrence Hill as they blew out Southern Indiana, 84-59 to win its first national championship in Bakersfield, California. The Owls (35-4) steadily pulled away in the second half, building on a 30-24 lead they held at the break.
Fan Profanity May Be Policed: Maryland state assistant attorney general John Anderson said that the University of Maryland can prohibit profane chants, vulgar language and offensive messages on clothing at basketball games. This arose out of behavior at a January game against Duke, where fans chanted such vulgarities at Blue Devil guard J.J. Redick that the school got a rash of negative publicity. School officials originally said that they could do nothing about it due to the fans’ First Amendment rights, but Anderson sent an advisory earlier this month saying that was not true. The advisory came after the school asked for guidance on dealing with the situation, and the Washington Post reported that associate athletic director David Lipitz will lead the effort to draft a policy that could include ejecting fans who engage in profanity or request a change of clothes that bear offending messages.
Tonight’s Menu
The last two spots in the Final Four are determined in the two games today.
• At 2:40 PM EST, the St. Louis Regional Final has No. 3 Georgia Tech taking on No. 4 Kansas.
• At 5:05 PM EST, the Atlanta Regional Final has No. 1 Duke taking on No. 7 Xavier.
