Pat Riley's shut-the-bleep-up message to Danny Ainge a show of support for LeBron James

Pat Riley called Celtics general manager Danny Ainge a "whiner." (AP)

Miami Heat emperor Pat Riley isn't responsible for creating the NBA's culture of hard fouls and cheap shots, but no one in its history has profited so handsomely in the pursuit of perfecting it.
In honoring two historically indisputable professional habits – establishing himself as the patriarch and protector of his star player; and wrapping himself in downright disdain for the Boston Celtics – Riley sent a missive to one of his messengers on Good Friday.
"Danny Ainge needs to shut the [expletive] up and manage his own team," Riley proclaimed. "He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him."
This was a spectacularly jarring response to Ainge, who had chastised LeBron James and his declaration that the NBA and its officials don't do enough to protect him. "I think that it's almost embarrassing that LeBron James would complain about officiating," Ainge had told WEEI radio in Boston.
For Ainge, he has been his vintage self: agitating, inciting, inspiring an irrational over-the-top response. If Riley's response feels unprecedented, remember something: The re-recruitment of James to re-sign in 2014 is underway, and this was Riley's way to back his franchise star. Even so, Riley's never needed a noble reason to grandstand. When it serves his agenda, no one steps down off Olympus and delivers the arrows like him.

In a season when James had manufactured no storylines beyond the perpetual testimonials about the greatness of his game, his venting in Chicago on Wednesday night promises to be the beginning of the framing of how he'll be officiated in these playoffs.
This is a copycat league, and this episode will turn out to be one more way in which Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has become the most mimicked of all.


Ainge criticized LeBron James for complaining about opponents' hard fouls. (AP)


When Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson wanted to install a defense, he made young assistant Darren Erman – a Thibodeau disciple in Boston – his defensive coordinator. The improvement's been dramatic. And when teams want to defend James, they'll study Thibodeau's blueprint.
Of course, everyone doesn't have the Bulls' personnel to be physical with James, nor the ferocious defensive mindset within their players. Still, Thibodeau is stubborn and he'll never let his players back down to James and the Heat. So stubborn, in fact, Thibodeau still hasn't signed the four-year, $17.5 million-plus contract extension that Bulls commemorated with an Oct. 1 news conference.
"The deal's done," Thibodeau told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday night. Nevertheless, he wouldn't acknowledge that it had been signed because that still hasn't happened, several sources with direct knowledge of the contract told Y! Sports.
This is how Thibodeau operates, part of his maddening genius. He wears everyone down until he gets everything he wants – front offices, players, and often opponents too.

Back in his assistant coaching days in Boston, his contracts lingered unsigned, too. Looking back, no one is sure that Thibodeau ever signed the waiver confirming that he'd never sell his personal engraved 2008 championship ring when those were handed out to staff.
In the end, remember something: Thibodeau is a disciple of Jeff Van Gundy, who is a disciple of Riley. Deep down, Riley understands something: the way with which those Bulls engaged James to end that 27-game winning streak had been the ultimate tribute to Riley himself. Thibodeau sent those Bulls hard for James, and it stirred something within the NBA's MVP that no one had heard out of him this season.


James wasn't happy with the officiating in the Heat's loss to the Bulls. (AP)

James is a product of a different day in the NBA, a different generation and the evolution of the sport spared him the beatings delivered in the 1980s and '90s. Nevertheless, how James is officiated is an issue for the NBA this season and beyond. That's been true forever with the league's best players, and always will be.
More and more, the league office has made life easier for offensive stars – legislating easier paths to scoring, punishing hard fouls with free throws, fines and suspensions. Once, David Stern changed the rules to make it harder for the Chuck Dalys and Rileys to beat up on Michael Jordan.
Now, it will be Adam Silver's turn with James. Make no mistake: James and his inner circle have a strong relationship with Silver, who'll replace Stern as the NBA's commissioner in 2014. Silver is so fond of James' business manager Maverick Carter, he granted an interview with Forbes to render some fluffy quotes for a profile on Carter.
Stu Jackson has long overseen basketball operations for the NBA, but he's begun the pursuit of returning to the front office of a team, sources told Yahoo! Sports. The restructuring of the league office could ultimately be dramatic, and those within the NBA are watching closely to understand how it'll eventually trickle down to the product on the floor.

In the end, Riles' statement was one for the history books, one of the best two-sentence releases pro sports has ever seen. Riley needs enemies, and the Celtics and Ainge will forever play the part for him. At the highest levels, the Celtics and Heat share a visceral hatred and that's increasingly rare in this buddy-buddy era.
After a Game 2 loss to Miami in the Eastern Conference finals in May, Ainge cornered the NBA's vice president of referee operations, Joe Borgia, in an American Airlines Arena corridor and tried to understand how James could go to the free throw line 24 times, the Heat 47.
Just trying to break free, Borgia finally blurted to Ainge, "I'm sure we missed five or six calls somewhere."
Boston believes Dwyane Wade went out of his way to hurt Rajon Rondo with a tackle that dislocated his elbow in the 2011 Eastern Conference playoffs. And, of course, there was the Heat's successful free-agent recruitment of Ray Allen last summer.
So, yes, James spoke out about all those non-basketball plays that have endangered him this season, borne out of a night when Thibodeau had his players honoring the lessons that Riley had taught Thibs' own mentor, Van Gundy, so long ago.

And upon stepping out of the shadows on Good Friday, as much as Pat Riley was taking shots at the Celtics GM and defending his own superstar player, he had done something else too: Riley took a bow.
They're all coming for James, coming harder and harder. Remember that it was the emperor of these Miami Heat who taught them all how to do it, who glamorized the hard foul and the cheap shot and the culture that comes for LeBron James now.

Jim Boeheim stands guard over Syracuse as Big East takes its final breath

WASHINGTON – One last time the Baron of the Big East stalked the Verizon Center hallways on the day before a big conference game. Strange, that of all the men who could be the face of the first basketball league made for television, it would be the one with the balding head, tiny glasses and upturned nose who became its visage.

Come Saturday afternoon, the dying conference will take its final, unexpected gasp on the floor of a league arena, no less, and Jim Boeheim will stand guard before one bench, just as he did in the Big East's first season back in 1979. Through all those years, John Thompson and Louie Carnesecca and Jim Calhoun then departed, Boeheim never left. Mainly because he had nowhere else to go.

In a transient world of college basketball where a coach's commitment to a school lasts until the private jet of another university's booster lands at the local airport, Boeheim never left the shores of Onondaga Lake. No place else ever seemed right. His people were there. Why change all of that for a bigger bag of money?

The two men Boeheim relies upon most for counsel – former players turned assistants Mike Hopkins and Adrian Autry – think he would make a fantastic NBA coach. They rave about his consistency, his lack of wild emotions, the fact that he doesn't fall to the temptation of most college coaches to over-manage their teams. They say he handles egos as well as Pat Riley or Phil Jackson or any of those NBA men so blessed with an even keel. Then they smile when asked why he never took the chance, because the thought of Boeheim in Showtime is ridiculous.

"I think he knows what he wants," Hopkins said as he sat in the Orange's locker room on Friday afternoon. "He's an upstate New York guy."



Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim has the third-most wins in Division I history. (AP)

For all the waving of the arms and the high-pitched pleas and the tie askew, he is a simple man. And that is a genius for which he does not get enough credit.

College coaches today make one of two great mistakes. They either over-coach, pushing and pushing their teams into March until the players collapse from the pressure, or they are too hands-off, forgetting that 19-year-old men must be taught as much as coached. What Boeheim mastered long ago was the ability to do both. It's a hard balance to achieve.

"I think he lets guys enjoy college a little bit," Autry says. "But it's not out of control. He's not loosey-goosey."

Where Boeheim thrives is in not being complex. He doesn't throw volumes of information at his players. He doesn't oversell. He doesn't change the plays during the season. Syracuse doesn't even have the traditional game-day shootaround.

Strangely, some of the best coaches work this way. Talk to New England Patriots players about their coach, Bill Belichick, and the massive changes he makes to the game plan each week, and they will tell about a man who makes those switches seem easy. Perhaps Belichick's greatest gift is the way he can distill complicated concepts into easy-to-grasp PowerPoint slides and short videos.
In many ways, this is Boeheim's strength, too.

"Steve Jobs' genius was that he would make something complicated seem very simple," Hopkins said. "He can simplify anything. For instance, he can watch 10 minutes of game film and say, 'That's what they are going to do.' It's almost like Rain Man."

This isn't to say that Syracuse's coaches don't work. Like their counterparts, they stay up all night breaking down opponent's video, dissecting tendencies, looking for edges. Boeheim himself watches endless hours of college basketball. He has the cable package at his home and will stay up until 2 a.m. to catch the West Coast games. The difference is that he doesn't bury his players with his knowledge, dispensing just enough so they can get by.

"Just keep everything simple," Autry said.


As he sat on an interview dais beneath the Verizon Center court on Friday, Boeheim chuckled.
"We probably watch less tape than anybody in the country," he said.
Then he added:

"I always laugh at football coaches. They know every play, every position, every move that these other guys are going to make because they watch 36,000 hours of tape," he said. "Their players have no clue what they're talking about. …I always say, 'If the football player can do 1/10th of what those coaches know, they would be geniuses, because they can't.' It's not what the coaches know or what you know, it's what the players know and how they execute."

Sometimes simple works. Last week, Boeheim won his 900th game. He has the third-most wins in Division I history. He's coached for 37 years, and little about him has changed. When Autry and Hopkins are pressed for ways that he is not the same, the only thing they can come up with is that he seems, as Autry says, "more patient." That is hardly a great evolution.

Syracuse's last few seasons have been a swirl of controversy. Yahoo! Sports reported in 2012 that the team ignored players' positive drug tests. The NCAA is supposedly looking into the eligibility of last year's center Fab Melo. And Boeheim's longtime assistant Bernie Fine left after two former ball boys made allegations that he sexually abused them. Fine was not charged following a yearlong federal investigation.

"Hurricane-ish," is how Hopkins described the swirl of problems around the basketball program in recent years. Yet with each blow, each story that chips away at the 37 years, Syracuse continues to play well. Thrive, actually.

"These last four years have been some of our best," Hopkins said.

Come Saturday evening, the Big East will probably have played its final game. The last Big East arena will be empty. Maybe Boeheim will be cutting the nets on the way to his fourth Final Four. Maybe he will be walking these halls one last time. Either way, he will have been the Baron of the Big East. The face of a league built for TV.

NCAA's Sweet 16 offers plenty: flashy dunks, traditional powers, new rivals and more

yahoosports.com


As always, the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament offers something for everyone.

If you like a little Madness in your March, this year's grand prize is Florida Gulf Coast – the first No. 15 seed to advance this far. The Eagles were the saviors of a first weekend that was a little light on drama, plot twists and talking points (beyond ripping the refs, that is).

The toast of a 75-year-old sporting event is a basketball program that wasn't created until the 21st century, and brings with it the insouciance of youth. This tournament's One Shining Moment to date is the ridiculously brazen alley-oop FGCU point guard Brett Comer tossed to Chase Fieler with less than two minutes left in the monstrous upset of Georgetown Friday night.


FGCU's Chase Fieler dunks over SDSU's DeShawn Stephens. (AP)
 
In dismantling the Hoyas and San Diego State with a succession of audacious dunks, fast breaks and YOLO passes from Comer, the Eagles have been so entertaining and improbable that they have muted the buzzfeed-ish backstory of the head coach's supermodel wife. Their actual play has been the thing. For a team that was swept this year by Lipscomb and did not win the regular-season title in the Atlantic Sun Conference, that's a miracle.


If you are a fan of tradition, that's covered, too. Thirteen of the 16 remaining teams have at least one national title trophy somewhere on campus – the three that don't are FGCU (of course), Wichita State and Miami. Six coaches with national title rings remain in the Big Dance, and nine with Final Four experience.

If you prefer a more orderly bracket – most likely for office-pool purposes – then the Sweet 16 provides for you as well. Three of the top four seeds advanced in the murderous Midwest and the South, while all four remain alive in the East. The only No. 1 seed to lose is the one everyone suspected would lose first: Gonzaga, which was excessively rewarded for rolling through the mediocre West Coast Conference. The only No. 2 seed to lose is the program that always loses early: Georgetown, beaten by a double-digit seed for the fifth consecutive time in the Big Dance.

Of course, there is always one region that is an uncontained wildfire – this year it is the West, which has No. 2 seed Ohio State in Los Angeles with party crashers Wichita State (No. 9), La Salle (No. 13) and Arizona (No. 6). The Wildcats are living right, first getting a No. 14 seed from the Ivy League (Harvard) in the round of 32 and now getting a geographically friendly draw against a team whose fans do not travel in overwhelming numbers. That would be Ohio State, which sent a sparse contingent to last year's Final Four in New Orleans.

But even Arizona has to be impressed by the draw La Salle has had. The Explorers did have to win in Dayton in the First Four against Boise State, then turn around and beat No. 4 seed Kansas State two days later – but that was followed by a round-of-32 game against No. 12 Mississippi, and now a Sweet 16 game against Wichita State. For a No. 13 seed to potentially wind up in the Elite Eight without having to beat anyone seeded higher than fourth is a pretty fortunate path.

La Salle is trying to follow the trail blazed by VCU two years ago, from First Four to Final Four. But whereas the Rams were dominant most of the way on that run, the Explorers have won three games by a total of 13 points – the last two by a total of four, and the last one coming courtesy of a drive in the final seconds that guard Tyrone Garland dubbed "The Southwest Philly Floater." Garland's hoop allows La Salle to float into its first Sweet 16 since 1955.

But as tight as it's been for La Salle, that's nothing compared to the white-knuckle ride for Marquette. The Golden Eagles needed a driving basket by Vander Blue on Thursday to beat Davidson by a point, then survived two Butler game-winning attempts in the final six seconds to escape by two points Saturday. The star of those two games, scoring a combined 45 points, was Blue – an appropriate surname for a guy playing in Rupp Arena.



Rick Pitino celebrates with forward Wayne Blackshear after the Cardinals beat CSU. (USA TODAY Sports)

The other team to emerge from Rupp did so in opposite fashion from Marquette. Louisville played the way the No. 1 overall seed is supposed to perform, totally dismantling North Carolina A&T and Colorado State by a combined 57 points.
"That's as impressive a team as I've been against," CSU coach Larry Eustachy said, and he wasn't talking about this year. He was talking about his entire career.

The Cardinals only enhanced their billing as the team to beat, and coach Rick Pitino only enhanced his billing as a guy Kentucky fans would like to forget ever won them a national title. He made a comment after the CSU game that was not taken particularly well by the Big Blue base.

"You know, I don't think this [team] is going to be who's who in the lottery draft, but that's not why we play the game," Pitino said. "We don't play the game for the lottery draft. We play the game for Louisville and then our guys move on and they're very successful people in and out of basketball."
This was said in the building where the home coach (John Calipari) has built the entire program around the lottery draft. Or draft lottery, if you will. And while that approach worked extremely well the first three seasons, it produced a one-and-done NIT season this time around.

So Kentucky fans are now solidly in the corner of Oregon, Louisville's Sweet 16 opponent. The Ducks represent the one great failing of the NCAA selection committee, having incomprehensibly been given a No. 12 seed. Oregon played its way out of that rather impressively, dispatching Oklahoma State and trendy team Saint Louis in authoritative fashion and looking more like a No. 4 seed along the way.

But that matchup is only half the reason why the Midwest Region is the place to be this week. The other game pits Michigan State against Duke, a matchup that is both blueblood and hard hat. Half of those six coaches with national titles will be in Indianapolis this week, a true heavyweight gathering.
Speaking of heavyweights: if you didn't love Jim Larranaga's Ali Shuffle in the Miami locker room after the Hurricanes advanced, you have no joy in your soul. The sight of the 63-year-old coach throwing jabs and showing off his footwork was the March Gladness moment of the day Sunday. If Larranaga gets the Hurricanes to the Final Four as a second act after doing it with No. 11 seed George Mason in 2006, you can finalize his Hall of Fame papers.

But it won't be easy. Even if the 'Canes beat Marquette, there would be a regional final battle with either Indiana or Syracuse. The Hoosiers were on upset alert most of the game against Temple on Sunday before pulling through, and the Orange had to work to subdue No. 12 seed California. Last time Indiana and Syracuse met in the NCAA tournament, Keith Smart made something of a name for himself.


Michigan's Tim Hardaway Jr. dunks vs. VCU. (USA TODAY Sports)

The other 1-4 seeding matchup of the Sweet 16 pits Kansas against Michigan in Arlington. The Wolverines were awesome in rolling over VCU, whereas the Jayhawks have only played one strong half out of four so far. The Wolverines are one-fourth of Jim Delany's master plan, which remains in play: the Big Ten winning every region. If it can get Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan and Indiana all to the Final Four to win its first national title since 2000, it would be the greatest conference achievement in college basketball history. But don't overlook the game opposite Kansas-Michigan. That's the Sunshine State duel between rivals Florida and Florida Gulf Coast.

OK, they're not rivals at all. But maybe this is the start of something big in a state known far more for football. Florida has three of the 16 teams remaining for the first time ever, including the biggest underdog (by seeding) ever.

For an NCAA tournament first weekend that needed a signature moment and a signature Cinderella, Florida Gulf Coast and its audacious alley-oop will do nicely.

New Big East adds Butler, 2 others

By Kieran Darcy | ESPNNewYork.com


NEW YORK -- It's official. The Big East has been reborn.

The seven Catholic schools that are leaving the old conference have added Butler, Xavier and Creighton to their ranks. The new league, under the old name, officially commences operations July 1.

The Big East men's basketball tournament will continue to be played at Madison Square Garden in New York. And the conference has agreed to a 12-year television contract with Fox Sports.

"Today we relaunch the Big East," said the Rev. Brian Shanley, president of Providence College, at a news conference in midtown Manhattan. "We go back to being a basketball-centric ... league going forward. And I think Dave [Gavitt] is smiling down right now on what it is that we're doing."

Newest Of The New Big East

Of the three newly added Big East teams, Xavier has had the most familiarity with the Catholic 7 schools since the 1979-80 season. None have had much success.

Team	W-L	PCT
Creighton	8-21	.276
Butler	3-5	.375
Xavier	14-17	.452

Gavitt, the former coach and athletic director at Providence who died in 2011, founded the original Big East in 1979. Four original members -- Georgetown, Providence, St. John's and Seton Hall -- will move to the new conference, along with Villanova, Marquette and DePaul.

Butler and Xavier move from the Atlantic 10, and Creighton joins from the Missouri Valley Conference.
"We looked for schools that had academic profiles like us," Shanley said. "We wanted schools with strong sustainable and sustained athletic programs. And we wanted schools that could play really good basketball, because that's really the bread and butter of the Big East. And when we examined all the schools that we thought about, we came to the conclusion that the three schools seated here among us today were the best schools that we could possibly ask to join the Big East."

The presidents of the joining schools also discussed their reasons for becoming members of the new Big East.

"Joining the Big East is an unprecedented opportunity for Butler and represents an ideal fit for us -- academically, athletically and geographically," said Butler president James Danko.

"It's an endorsement of who we are and how we've gotten here, as well as where we can go next," said the Rev. Michael Graham, president of Xavier.

"We have enjoyed our affiliation with the Missouri Valley Conference over the years, but when an exceptional opportunity presented itself, we paused and carefully considered our options," said Creighton president Timothy Lannon. "We see this new partnership enhancing the visibility of the university through increased national media exposure."

The conference could expand to 12 teams in the future, and Saint Louis and Dayton have been rumored as potential additions.

"We're 10 for next year. We know that for sure," Shanley said. "Whether and how we get to 12 is a negotiable between us and our partners, and we've discussed actively a number of schools that are really strong potential partners for us.

"We also believe that the landscape of college sports has not stopped morphing and that there may be some more movement out there. So for now we're very happy at 10, and we'll see what happens going forward."

The schools have hired executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to assist in their search for a commissioner. They've also brought in Dan Beebe, the former commissioner of the Ohio Valley and Big 12 conferences, as a consultant.

"We're committed to finding a commissioner of vision, someone who'll help us to look to the future while also preserving our tradition," said Georgetown president John DeGioia.

A 16 vs. 1 upset, already the longest of long shots, is especially unlikely this March

By Jeff Eisenberg | The Dagger – 44 minutes ago
 

 

Liberty will be in the NCAA tournament despite a 15-20 record and a No. 288 RPI (USA Today Sports Images)

In the 28 years since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, No. 16 seeds are 0-for-112 in their attempts to pull an upset against a No. 1 seed in the opening round.
Don't count on that changing next week.
As a result of conference tournament carnage in the lowest-rated one-bid leagues, this year's crop of likely No. 16 seeds looks especially weak. Instead of the teams who finished at the top of those conferences making the NCAA tournament, middle-tier teams from some of the nation's weakest leagues have pushed their way into the field of 68.
The most egregious example is Liberty, which improbably rebounded from a 20-loss regular season to stun Big South favorites High Point, Gardner-Webb and Charleston Southern in the conference tournament. The Flames, only the second team ever to make the NCAA tournament with as many as 20 losses, are almost certainly bound for a First Four game in Dayton.
A good bet to join them in Dayton is whichever team comes out of the MEAC this year. With first-place Norfolk State and second-place NC Central going out in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, that league will produce an NCAA tournament team with at least 13 losses – possibly more if third-seeded Savannah State also falls.
Also potential candidates for No. 16 seeds are Western Kentucky, which went 10-10 in the Sun Belt but caught fire last week, and James Madison, which finished fourth in the weakest CAA in recent memory. Throw in NEC conference tournament champ LIU Brooklyn and whoever comes out of the SWAC, and the NCAA tournament is guaranteed at least six teams with RPIs of 150 or worse.
By contrast, the only 2012 NCAA tournament team whose RPI was below 150 was Western Kentucky, which made a similar miracle run in the Sun Belt. The other five No. 16 seeds were Mississippi Valley State (144), Lamar (108), Vermont (135), Long Island (80) and UNC Asheville (104).
Just because this year's No. 16 seeds will be weaker on paper doesn't mean an upset is impossible. After all, this season has produced Cal Poly over UCLA, TCU over Kansas and Chaminade over Texas.
Still, No. 16 seeds have a long history of futility. And it doesn't seem promising that this is the year that's going to change.

Unlikely Liberty, with 15-20 record, clinches NCAA berth

Associated Press4:11p.m. EDT March 10, 2013

(Photo: Curtis Wilson, USA Today Sports)

CONWAY, S.C. (AP) — Liberty coach Dale Laney doesn't care how many losses it took to get his players to the NCAA tournament.
The Flames became just the second 20-loss team to reach college basketball's marquee event, beating Charleston Southern 87-76 Sunday to win the Big South Conference title. Liberty opened the season with eight straight losses and had never won more than three in a row until this week. Yet, it joined Coppin State in 2008 as the only schools with 20 or more defeats in the field of 68.

The Flames' .429 winning percentage (15-20) is the lowest for an NCAA tournament team since Oakland (Michigan) had a 12-18 record (.400) in 2005.
"That's awesome," Laney said of his team. "We've got the hats, right?"
Yes, you do, Coach.
The Flames finished their best stretch of basketball this year, winning their fifth in a row — and their fourth game since Tuesday — to take their first Big South tournament crown since 2004. John Caleb Sanders led the way with 27 points and tournament MVP Davon Marshall had 20 off six 3-pointers.
Marshall and Sanders got things going in a hurry over top-seeded Charleston Southern (19-12) with 3-pointers in the first 90 seconds — and the Flames barely lost their outside touch. Marshall was 6 of 7 from beyond the arc and Liberty finished 9 of 18 on long-range baskets.
The performance ended a hard-to-imagine run through the field where Liberty defeated home-standing Coastal Carolina and both Big South divisional winners in High Point and Charleston Southern. Sanders said the team began to believe when they topped the Chanticleers 78-61. "When you can beat Coastal by 20 on their home floor, we knew we could beat anybody in this tournament," he said.
That played out over the week at the HTC Center with the improbable run.
"We've played four of our best games in these four games of the tournament," Sanders said. "Talk about peaking at the exact right time."
Count on Liberty being near the bottom of the 68 NCAA seeds and a likely candidate for the tournament's first-four contests. Sanders says he and the Flames don't care which opponent they face.
"I feel like if we do us, we can give them a game," he said.
Saah Nimley had 18 points to lead the Buccaneers, who as the Big South's regular-season champs will play in the NIT.
The Flames and their cheerleaders rushed the court when the game ended, the players piling on top of each other in celebration. And why not, since Liberty was among the longest of longshots to be cutting down the nets in this one?
Liberty will try and pull off a Big South tournament double later Sunday when its top-seeded women's team takes on Longwood for that NCAA berth. The Flames women have won 14 of the past 16 Big South tournament titles.
The Flames fell behind for a final time, 40-37, on Arlon Harper's 3-pointer with 18:10 lead. That's when Sanders' jumper started a 17-7 run the next six minutes to take control. The charge was capped by Marshall's long 3-pointer that put Liberty ahead 54-47. The lead eventually grew to 14 points as the Bucs could not match Liberty's success from the field.
Charleston Southern was just 9 of 28 from behind the arc and Nimley, who made the all-Big South Conference team, was just 1 of 7 from three. The Bucs finished with five players in double figures.
Buccaneers coach Barclay Radebaugh said he told people after his team's 79-75 victory at Liberty on Jan. 26 that he wanted no part of what the Flames were building a second time.
"I think they're lying in wait," he said. "That's a scary team. They've got size, they've got depth. They're guards are good. They're strong."
Charleston Southern came in the tournament's top seed and would have hosted this final under the Big South's old home-court format. The league began a three-year deal to play at the recently opened, $35 million HTC Center on the campus of Big South member Coastal Carolina — about 10 miles or so west of South Carolina's Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach resort area.
The Buccaneers hadn't been to a Big South final since 2005 and last won in 1997, also the last time they advanced to the NCAA tournament. They got to the championship by defeating Winthrop in the tournament opener and rallied from 5 points down at the half to oust VMI, 71-65.
Charleston Southern had gone from nine victories in 2009 to back-to-back 19-win seasons the past two years. Both their leading scorers in Nimley and Harper are sophomores so Radebaugh believes the Bucs aren't done contending for Big South crowns. First things first, though.
"I'm really looking forward to the NIT," Radebaugh said. "It's not going to be a show up game for us."
Liberty was next to last in the Big South's six-team North Division. That's when the Flames found their game, topping host Coastal Carolina in the opening round before knocking off one of the tournament favorites in High Point, 61-60, in the quarterfinals. The Flames led throughout against High Point, taking a 19-point lead and holding on.
Liberty kept the run going on Saturday with a win over Gardner-Webb.
The Flames didn't let up against Charleston Southern. Sanders, the team's leading scorer this year at 13 points a game, nearly reached that mark with 12 points in the period while Marshall added 11.
Tavares Speaks hit a bucket as the halftime buzzer sounded that put the Flames ahead 35-34 heading into the break. Speaks ended the game with 18 points.
Laney, Liberty's fourth-year coach, previously led Colorado State into the NCAAs back in 2003. He said it was difficult to compare experiences and chooses to concentrate on his happy players, snipping away at basketball nets to take back to campus.
"It's life changing. I'm just looking at their faces and trying to soak in every moment," he said. "That's what you're doing this for."

MVC fan's $50,000 shot that doesn't pay - in cash, that is

MIke Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports3:29p.m. EDT March 10, 2013

(Photo: Paul Halfacre, USA TODAY Sports)

ST. LOUIS – Alex Permann hit a half-court shot before the Missouri Valley Conference championship game Sunday and cost himself $50,000.
That probably needs explanation.
Permann, a 24-year-old optometry student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis was selected for one of those popular shooting contests; make a layup, free throw, 3-pointer and half-court shot in the allotted time to win a prize – 24 seconds, in Sunday's case, and $50,000.
Permann hit the layup, nailed the free throw, then dashed to the midcourt line and buried a half-court shot, waving his hands in joy as the crowd roared, thinking they had just seen the big winner of the weekend.
"When I hit that shot," he said later, "I was thinking about 50 grand."
Ooops.
About that 3-pointer -- he forgot.
"I guess I don't listen too good," Permann said.
By the time he realized his mistake, he had time to rush off a couple of 3-point attempts, but missed.
Rules are rules. MVC officials huddled and came up with a compromise. Permann will get four tickets for life to the MVC tournament and four VIP passes and a three-day hotel stay in St. Louis for next year's tournament.
"I've got to tell you, I'm just sick," MVC associate commissioner Jack Watkins said of Permann losing his jackpot.
"Either way, it's been awesome. I just can't believe I made it," said Permann, whose main experience with basketball is playing in an intramural league once a week. He'll have the memory, anyway. Just not $50,000.

Gonzaga tops in AP poll for 1st time

The to-do list for the Gonzaga basketball team got shorter Monday: For the first time, the Zags were ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Sweet, but it may get bumpier from there.
Next: Avoiding the potholes that have stopped every other No. 1 this season, then finding a way to the Final Four.
"We don't believe there is any jinx," said assistant coach Tommy Lloyd, subbing for coach Mark Few, who was said to be fly fishing and unavailable for comment. "Obviously, it's a dream for us, the ultimate accomplishment. Riding the best record in Division I at 29-2, the Bulldogs took advantage of Indiana's loss to Minnesota last week and switched places with the Hoosiers, advancing from No. 2 and moving comfortably into the No. 1 spot Monday.
The Spokane, Wash., school best known for Bing Crosby's croons and John Stockton's passes received 51 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, 44 more than Indiana.
"We're not necessarily in pursuit of a ranking," Lloyd said. "We're trying to get to the NCAA tournament. When that's over, as coaches we can look back and realize what an accomplishment it is and how difficult it is."
The Zags are the 57th school to be ranked No. 1 since the AP poll began in January 1949. The school is considered a mid-major and reached No. 2 for the first time last week. Now it will play for the first time at No. 1 on Saturday night in the West Coast Conference semifinals.
Few, in anticipation of the Bulldogs being ranked No. 1 overall, told ESPN.com's Andy Katz that the historic ranking would be an "honor" for both the school and the city of Spokane.
"If they choose to do it, it's an honor," Few told Katz prior to the release of the poll. "[The No. 1 ranking] would not only be an honor for the program, it's an honor for Spokane.
"It's a big deal in Spokane, but it's not like [we're] carrying any more burden when [ranked] No. 2 or 3 or 5."
The Bulldogs are the fifth school to hold the top slot this season. Indiana was the preseason No. 1 and was on top for nine other weeks. Duke, which was No. 1 for five weeks, and Louisville and Michigan, which were both on top for one week, were the other No. 1s this season.
Gonzaga reached No. 2 last week, at the time its highest ranking. After Indiana's defeat, the Bulldogs capped their West Coast Conference regular season with wins over BYU and Portland to pave the way to the one-spot leap. Their first game as a No. 1 team will be in the semifinals of the WCC tournament Saturday night.
Duke, which followed a loss to Virginia with a win over Miami, stayed third with five first-place votes. Kansas and Georgetown both jumped two spots to fourth and fifth. The Hoyas received the other two first-place votes.
Miami, Michigan, Louisville, Kansas State and Michigan State rounded out the top 10. Virginia Commonwealth and UCLA, both ranked earlier in the season, returned to the poll at 21st and 23rd, respectively.
Gonzaga's rise to the top comes 14 years after the school burst onto the national scene with a surprise run to the final eight of the NCAA tournament. Since then, Few has guided the Zags to 12 conference titles, 13 trips to the tournament and four trips to the round of 16.

Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg discuss Gonzaga as the new No. 1. Plus, they're joined by Creighton's Doug McDermott and head coaches Billy Donovan and Buzz Williams.

Along the way, Gonzaga has produced a slew of NBA players, including Dan Dickau, Adam Morrison, Ronny Turiaf, Austin Daye, Robert Sacre and Jeremy Pargo. The team features players from Canada, France, Germany and Poland along with Stockton's son, David.
Kelly Olynyk, the 7-foot Canadian center, leads the team in scoring at nearly 18 points a game and averages seven rebounds. He calls the No. 1 ranking a "great milestone."
According to kenpom.com, Gonzaga ranks third in the nation in offensive efficiency (120.6) and 23rd in defensive efficiency (89.2), both marks the best by the Bulldogs in the last decade. The Zags' 55.8 effective field goal percentage (combining 2 and 3 pointers) ranks eighth in the country.
"We have a special team this year," Olynyk said. "It shows that college basketball in the rest of the country has a lot of respect for us."
Spokane is a city of 200,000 near the Idaho and Canadian borders. It's a blue-collar town, far from the high-tech wealth of the Seattle area. But basketball is one place where the state's second-largest city outshines Seattle. Gonzaga, in fact, is the first team from the state of Washington to be ranked No. 1.
At the time of Gonzaga's run to the final eight, the school had fewer than 5,000 students and was struggling with enrollment and budget issues.

Courtesy of Fanatics.comGonzaga is No. 1 in the country for the first time, and a commemorative T-shirt is already on sale.

Today, enrollment is at 7,800 and new buildings are popping up on campus all the time. The 6,000-seat McCarthey Athletic Center, which opened in 2004, has been sold out for all but one game. The Zags have rewarded their fans with a 120-8 home record there.
It hasn't been easy. Every year, the Zags seem to take on a tougher nonconference schedule to make up for their WCC schedule. This year they own wins over No. 9 Kansas State, No. 13 Oklahoma State, plus Clemson, Oklahoma, Baylor, Washington State and West Virginia. Their only losses are to Illinois and Butler.
"We've had our struggles and battles, but we've made the right adjustments and calls," Lloyd said. "We must be doing something right."
For now, the Zags, newly anointed No. 1, head to the league tournament in Las Vegas. Lloyd knows such honors go only so far.
"I don't think those teams are going to care where we are ranked," he said.
Virginia Commonwealth and UCLA, both ranked in the AP poll earlier in the season, returned to the poll at 21st and 23rd, respectively. They replaced Butler and Louisiana Tech. Butler fell out of the rankings from last week's No. 20 ranking after a 32-point loss to VCU. Louisiana Tech dropped out after one week at No. 25 despite winning its two games last week by an average of 25 points.

Big 12 acknowledges 'errors' by refs

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The Big 12 Conference has admitted that "officiating errors" were made late in No. 6 Kansas' controversial overtime victory over Iowa State on Monday.
The officials did not call either a block or a charge when Jayhawks guard Elijah Johnson collided with Iowa State's Georges Niang, who appeared to have his feet set, with five seconds remaining in regulation.

Instead, Niang was whistled for a holding foul after Johnson's shot missed and the ball came loose on the floor. Johnson went to the free-throw line and made the two free throws, forcing overtime and helping Kansas rally for a 108-96 victory in Ames.
"The Big 12 Conference acknowledges that officiating errors were made at the end of regulation during last night's Kansas at Iowa State men's basketball game," the conference said in a statement released Tuesday. "The plays have been reviewed and appropriate measures will be taken by the Coordinator of Men's Basketball Officials to adjust the number of future assignments for the two officials involved in conjunction with Conference policies."
Monday's officials were Tom O'Neill, Mark Whitehead and Bert Smith. The Big 12 did not identify the officials or the plays in question.
Curtis Shaw, a former longtime official and now the league's coordinator, told ESPN.com on Monday the Big 12 would approach the teams and "take appropriate action."
When asked what kind of accountability could occur for officials, Shaw said that because officials are independent contractors, the way the conference handles any kind of disciplinary action -- if warranted -- is through future assignments.
Even golfer Zach Johnson, an Iowa native, took notice of the call. Johnson wrote on Twitter: "What a horrible no call in the ISU/KU game. Refs blew this game in regulation. What is up with the officials this year? Terrible!"

Indiana, Gonzaga 1-2 in AP's Top 25

ESPN.com news service

 

Indiana is No. 1 in The Associated Press' Top 25 for the fourth straight week, while Gonzaga moved to No. 2 for the first time in school history.

The Bulldogs were third last week, matching their previous best ranking.

"The polls mean a lot more this time of year than they do in November, December, even January," coach Mark Few said. "All of us are being judged on the true body of work. It's definitely rewarding."
Gonzaga becomes the first team outside the major six conferences to be ranked in the top two since Memphis was No. 2 in the final poll of 2007-08, a span of 92 AP polls.
"It establishes us as a national program, which I believe we have been for the last 10 years," Few said. "This group has done a great job of competing at that level, winning games at the highest level."
While the West Coast Bulldogs made some news at the top of the poll Monday, Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs from Down South, moved into the rankings for the first time since a 13-week run in 1984-85, their only appearance in the poll.
Louisiana Tech, which is 25th this week, was led back then to a ranking as high as No. 7 by a forward named Karl Malone. Gonzaga at that time had a point guard named John Stockton.

They went on to become one of the greatest combinations in NBA history with the Utah Jazz, were members of the Dream Team and both were inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Hoosiers, who have been ranked No. 1 for a total of 10 weeks this season, received all but one first-place vote from the 65-member national media panel.
Gonzaga, which got the other No. 1 vote, was ranked third for the final two weeks of 2003-04.
Duke moved up three spots to third and is followed by Michigan and Miami, which dropped from second after falling to Wake Forest, the Hurricanes' first Atlantic Coast Conference loss this season.
Kansas is sixth, followed by Georgetown, Florida, Michigan State and Louisville.
Saint Louis, which beat Butler and VCU last week, moved into 18th in the poll, the Billikens' first ranking since being in for one week last season.
Colorado State, which was 22nd and lost twice last week, and VCU, which was 24th, dropped out.
Information from The Associated Press and ESPN's Stats & Information group was used in this report.