College Basketball 3/13

GAMES OF THE DAY
Illinois 64, Penn State 63
With just under five minutes to play, Illinois had a 62-52 lead when Penn State switched from man-to-man to a zone defense. The Nittany Lions stormed back, going on an 11-0 run to take a 63-62 lead. With 7 seconds left, Illinois's Chester Frazier took the ball out under the basket and inbounded it to Trent Meachem. Frazier's man immediately doubled Meachem, who passed it right back to Frazier for a reverse lay-up with 3.5 seconds left. Penn State missed a three at the buzzer, and #10 seed Illinois advanced to face Purdue.

UNLV 89, TCU 88
UNLV survived a barrage of three's from TCU (17-23 from deep), including one from Brent Hackett with thirty seconds left to put TCU up 88-86. After two time outs, with 7.2 seconds left, Wink Adams took an inbounds pass from the top of the key, drove right and into three TCU defenders, and went up and hit a floater and drew a foul, hitting a free throw to give UNLV the win.

Georgia 97, Ole Miss 95 OT
With 6 seconds to play and Ole Miss down three, David Huertas was fouled shooting a three and stepped to the line to knock down all three free throws, sending the game to overtime. Down three with 5.5 seconds left in OT, Chris Warren looked like he was going to do the same thing - he got fouled shooting a three and hit all three free throws. But Georgia inbounded the ball to walk-on Corey Butler (who ironically had fouled Warren), who pushed the ball the length of the floor and found Dave Bliss for a 12 foot bank shot with .4 seconds left to win the game, ending Mississippi's bubble chances.


PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Joe Alexander, West Virginia
Alexander scored a career high 34 points on 12-22 shooting, to go along with 7 rebounds to lead West Virginia over UConn and into the Big East semi's where they will play Georgetown. Alexander was a thorn in the Huskies side all night, creating all sorts of mismatches - when Jeff Adrien guarded him, he took him to the perimeter and dribbled by him; when Jerome Dyson guarded him, he just went into the post and hit turn-around jumper and turn-around jumper; and when they finally put Stanley Robinson on him (the best match-up), they either had to deal with Adrien on a mismatch with a guard or go small and get killed on the glass. They went small, and West Virginia dominated UConn on the boards and get two huge offensive rebounds down the stretch.

Reggie Roby, Colorado
Roby had 32 points and 12 rebounds to lead the #12 seed Colorado over #5 seed Baylor in the Big XII Tournament in double overtime. He scored 8 of his 32 in the second overtime as Colorado withstood a furious second half rally from Baylor, who was down by as much as 15 in the second half.

AJ Ogilvy, Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt shot 67% as a team in defeating Auburn in the SEC Tournament, led by Ogilvy who shot 12-13 from the field enroute to 27 points.

Honorable Mention
Wink Adams, UNLV (29pts, 3asts), Dionte Christmas, Temple (29pts, 5rebs, 4asts), JR Giddens, New Mexico (28pts, 17rebs), JJ Hickson, NC State (27pts, 14rebs), Jerome Jordan, Tulsa (23pts, 17rebs), Reggie Larry, Boise State (26pts, 9rebs), OJ Mayo, USC (23pts, 6asts), Jerel McNeal, Marquette (28pts, 6rebs)

TEAM OF THE DAY
St. Joseph's
St. Joe's was really a pick by default as they were the only team to enhance their bubble status by knocking off Richmond 61-47. The Hawks were led by 16 points (on 6-6 shooting, 3-3 from deep) and 5 boards from Rob Ferguson and 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists from Pat Calathes.