College Basketball 3/15

GAMES OF THE DAY
North Carolina 68, Virginia Tech 66
Tyler Hansbrough is the player of the year for a reason. Hansbrough rebounded a JT Thompson miss with 20 seconds left in a tie game to set up the winning possession. Ty Lawson drove down the right side of the lane and threw up a floater that bounced off the backboard. The ball bounced around and Hansbrough came from the other side of the court and picked up the loose ball and knocked down a fifteen foot jumper from the baseline with .8 seconds left to win it. Wayne Ellington hit two big threes down the stretch and finished with 15 points and 8 boards. Hansbrough led the Heels with 26 points and 9 rebounds.

Georgia 60, Florida 56 OT
At the end of regulation, Ramel Bradley missed three shots, including a step-back 15 footer at the buzzer that would have won the postponed SEC quarterfinal game. Instead, the game went to overtime where it was tied at 54 when Ramel Bradley hit a pull up 16-footer that rolled around on the rim for about four seconds before finally dropping with 8 seconds left. But at the other end, freshman Zac Swansey hit a turn-around three with 1.2 seconds left. There was some controversy at the end of the game when Billy Gillespie ran an out-of-bounds play where Bradley set a screen on the man guarding the inbounder and was run over but no foul was called. Kentucky's Joe Crawford led all scorers with 24.

Boise State 107, New Mexico State 102 3OT
Reggie Larry scored 31 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as Boise State outlasted New Mexico State in a triple overtime thriller in the WAC Championship game. Boise was up 52-36 with 13:47 remaining, but NMSU chipped away until Jonathan Gibson hit a three with 24 seconds left to put them up one. A BSU free throw sent it to OT at 71-71. Hatila Passos of NMSU had a three-point play with under 6 seconds left at the end of the first overtime to tie it at 80. The third OT was forced when Justin Hawkins of NMSU hit a driving lay-up with 18 seconds left, and BSU couldn't get a shot off. The Broncos pretty much sealed up the victory with 42 seconds left in the third OT when Anthony Thomas split three defenders for an acrobatic reverse lay-up three-point play.


PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Tywain McKee, Coppin State
McKee scored 33 points, tying a season high, including a floater with 2 seconds left the broke a 60-60 tie and sent Coppin State, the seven seed in the MEAC tourney, into the NCAA's with the conference's automatic bid. The Eagles are the first 20-loss team to ever reach the NCAA tournament, but they won 12 of their last 13 games.

Tyler Hansbrough, UNC
As mentioned before, Hansbrough scored 26 points, grabbed 9 boards, and hit the game winning shot in the Heels semifinal win over Virginia Tech. He also grabbed a huge defensive rebound of a JT Thompson miss to set the stage for his last second heroics.

Darren Collinson, UCLA
Collinson scored 28 points to go along with 3 boards and 3 assists (without a turnover) as as UCLA knocked off Stanford 67-64 en route to the Pac-10 tournament title. Collinson dominated the game with his penetration. Stanford had to switch to a zone in both halves to keep the 6 foot point guard out of the lane.

Honorable Mention
Wink Adams, UNLV (23 pts, 4-5 3's), Joe Crawford, Kentucky (24 pts, 6 rebs), Blake Griffin, Oklahoma (20 pts, 13 rebs (6 off), 2 stls), Reggie Larry, Boise State (31 pts, 16 rebs, 4 asts, 2 blks), Drew Neitzel, Michigan State (26 pts), Brandon Rush, Kansas (28 pts), Tyler Smith, Tennessee (24 pts, 6 rebs, 3 asts), Charles Thomas, Arkansas (24 pts, 10 rebs)


TEAM OF THE DAY
Georgia
The Bulldogs didn't let a little storm ruin their postseason. Georgia won two games yesterday, beating both Kentucky, in overtime nonetheless, and Mississippi State, advancing to the finals of the SEC tournament. Before winning three games in three days in the SEC tournament, Georgia had gone 4-12 in SEC play. For the day, Georgia was led by Sundiata Gaines who averaged 18 pts, 4.5 rebs, and 3 asts for the day. By advancing to the SEC finals, Head Coach Dennis Felton seems to have saved his job for the time being.