Mid Majors Make Major Statement In Tournament

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The Mid Major Conferences made major statements in the first round, certifying that they belong.  With the field of 65 represented mostly by the 6 power conferences in America, the Big East, ACC, SEC, Pac 10, Big 10 and Big 12.  It was the Ivy League, OVC, A10, Horizon, MVC, MAC, MWC, WCC and Colonial that was stealing headlines and making the key plays down the stretch to gain the attention of college basketball fans around the bars, pubs, offices, living rooms and internet.  The Mid Major conferences won 11 of the 32 (8 Thursday and 3 Friday) opening round games in this year's NCAA Basketball Tournament.  At a glance some would say that's a reasonable percentage until you recognize that there are 31 conference, 25 mid-majors and 6 power conferences.  Of the field of 65, there are 6 automatic bids to power conferences and 25 automatic bids to the mid-major schools, after that the at-large bids were given to 8 other mid-major conferences.  The 6 power conferences received the remaining or additional 26 bids (Big East 7, Big 12 6, ACC 5, Big 10 4, SEC 3 & PAC 10 1).

With all the discussions about the teams that were snuffed from primarily power conferences, the elite of these conferences had all they could handle with the elites of the mid-major leagues.  Not to mention a few near misses in the upset category by Robert Morris a 15 seed, taking 2 seed Villanova to OT and 4 seed Wisconsin needing heroics late in the ball game to salvage a 53-49 nail bitter against Wofford, a 13 seed, with less than 2000 students.

The first round would end with victories by a 14 Seed Ohio University, the lone participant from the MAC over #3 Georgetown (Big East), #13 Murray State of the OVC over #4 Vanderbilt (SEC),  #12 Cornell from the Ivy League defeating Temple of the A10, the Colonial's only entry, #11 Old Dominion was victorious over #5 Notre Dame (Big East), #10 St. Mary's of the WCC shocked #7 Richmond of the A10 to round out the mid-major upsets in round one.  In all 9 mid-major or lesser conferences, as some would say, would be responsible for over a third of the first round wins, 11.

Next, round two, which now has 16 games deciding the field of 16 for next week's count down, "The Sweet 16", which offers teams advancement towards the ultimate goal, The Final Four, the final stage for College Basketball's National Championship.  10 of 16 games involve at least one mid-major school, which leaves increased potential in at least one, if not several mid-major teams in the "Sweet Sixteen".

Teams to watch, #12 Cornell is long, can shoot, defend and control the pace of a game.  #4 Wisconsin just got by Wofford of the Southern Conference, don't know if they can struggle against the elite squad from the Ivy League, a league that hasn't won a NCAA tournament game until Thursday, in twelve years.  Tennessee may match up better with the Ohio transition game, but can they survive the kind of shooting this team dished out against #3 Georgetown on Thursday in the biggest shocker so far in the tournament.  Then there is #10 St. Mary's who has been catching analysts eyes gradually as the season came to an end, playing against #2 Villanova, a "Jekyl & Hyde" elite team that is ripe for the Cinderella upset, with their late season slump.  #5 Butler is a really good team, but no one realizes yet how good the #13 Murray State club plays, even after their thriller against #4 Vanderbilt.  Look for Murray State to be in the filed of 16 next week.  In another battle of two mid-majors, #11 ODU will have their hands full with #3 Baylor, but proved what they can do with a very poised victory against #6 Notre Dame in  round one, should be a very competitive contest.  #9 Northern Iowa is in the must see position, playing the top #1 Kansas, after a convincing victory over a talented #8UNLV.  #8 California can pound and shoot with physical teams, and defends the perimeter well, but this is #1 Duke, a disciplined ball club playing its' best basketball late in the season, appears to be the least of the likely upsets, but this is the search for "One Shining Moment.  #8 Gonzaga will try to take advantage of the #1 Syracuse, that recently lost in the opening round of the Big East Tournament and placed the "curse" of first round tourney losses.  No team has ever lost the opening game of their conference tournament and gone on to win the National Championship, that being said,  Syracuse sits in the right line of sight for being shot out of the picture by a mid-major.  #9 Wake Forest will not blow anyone but they are capable of staying around to steal a game against any team in the field, as they try to end the dream season for the #1 Kentucky.   The parity in college basketball is evident and the mid-majors are maximizing their opportunities to display their talent and skills and this dance is still up for grabs, even if the President of the United States has named the winner, the NCAA says we have to play the games to see who really will live that "One Shinning Moment".

Late Collapse or Late Surge Bama Wins 68-63

Game Stats

Who gets the credit for Alabama's (17-14) second "come from behind" victory against the South Carolina Gamecocks after trailing by 18 points with just over 11 minutes remaining in the ballgame?  Initially you have to credit Alabama Head Coach Anthony Grant for keeping his team motivated to play with confidence and efficiency down the stretch outscoring the Gamecocks 32-9 from the 11:39 mark to stun South Carolina (15-16) for the second time in 8 days.  Then there was Senior Guard Mikhail Torrance who scored 17 points on 5-11 shooting and Junior Forward Justin Knox who added 16 points on 5-9 accuracy.  After shooting 41% (15-36) in the first half, South Carolina was held to 8-27 shooting for 29.6%.  This was a tail of two halves as Alabama shot 50% (13-26) in the second half following a dismal 30% in the opening half.  In the most significant stretch from 11:18 remaining to 9:21 Alabama scored 10 unanswered points before a 30-second timeout was called and by then the momentum had completely shifted and the game was on a complete reverse spiral for Head Coach Darrin Horn, who had no answer for Grant's confident team, as the Tide continued to roll, allowing only one South Carolina field goal in the final 11 minutes and 39 seconds, a three-pointer by Ramon Galloway with 1:17 to play, shortly after the Crimson Tide had established a 62-59 lead, to tie at 62-62, but the Cocks would only get a single free throw from Devan Downey who likely ends his college career  with 21 points in a losing effort and no post season play.  Downey would experience his first and only missed free throw (6-7) with 18 seconds leaving the score 64-63 in favor of Bama.

In the end, South Carolina just fell completely apart as a team and appeared like a herd of deer in spot lights, while the Tide never looked like a team trailing by as much as 18 points deep in the final half.  South Carolina also led at the half 38-27.  The loss would eventually taint a marvelous game on the boards by Lakeem Jackson who finished with 14 rebounds (10 offensive) to go with his 9 points, and efficient shooting by Ramon Galloway 3-4 from the field (2-2 from 3) and 6-8 from the line.  And would watch Senior Guard Brandis Raley-Ross go scoreless (0-7) in 32 minutes on the floor. Junior Forward Sam Muldrow would finish with 13 points, all scored in the first half.  Muldrow's 3 second half shot attempts would all come from the perimeter.  

South Carolina will have all summer to wonder what could have been had they closed the game with less long jump shots and more interior play, even with the guards as they shot 70% (14-20) from the free throw line, but vacated the effort to penetrate and keep the pressure on the Crimson Tide.  They will also want to question not packing the zone and forcing the Tide to complete the run with some perimeter play.  Grant's two and three man half court schemes created passing lanes for cutters and isolation for players to penetrate the slow rotating defense of South Carolina during the comeback run.  The Cocks had little gas down the stretch with the limited use of the bench in the ball game.  Austin Steed played only one minute in the ball game.

So as the buzzer sounds, is it poor shooting, poor defense or great scoring and great defense.  Is it poor coaching or great coaching?  What we do know is that there is someone to congratulate and someone to criticize for this great Alabama victory and this disappointing loss by South Carolina.

Downey Ignites Upset In Nashville

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South Carolina (15-15, 6-10)  needed Devan Downey to have a big day to have any chance to win at Vanderbilt (23-7, 12-4).  And big game he had, scoring 26 points, 22 in the second half to ignite a come from behind victory over the #13 Vanderbilt Commodores.  Vandy's loss to Kentucky was their lone blemish at home until the Gamecocks rallied behind Downey to record a 77-73 victory in Nashville.  

This victory comes at the right time, as the Cocks will return to Nashville to open SEC tournament play Thursday.  Downey was not alone in the scoring as Sam Muldrow scored 20 points to go with 9 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals.  Downey leading the league in scoring and steals, added a couple of steals in this contest, along with one big steal and score during his second half highlight run.  Downey struggled in the first half shooting 2-9 for 4 points.  With USC trailing 35-27 at the half, and trailing by 9 points with just over 9 minutes to play in the ball game, Downey went on a scoring flurry hitting back to back threes and the run, comeback and 50-point second half was ignited.  South Carolina built a 7 point lead in about 4 minutes with a little over 5 minutes to go before Vandy tied the game at 69-69 with just under two minutes to play.  But the Gamecocks were more like "Fighting Gamecocks", as they could see the kill in sight and denied the host team and crowd the chance to regain control of the game.  Downey would come down and immediately hit a three and give the visitors the lead for good.

The game would wind down with Head Coach John Stallings' team cutting the lead to 2 points, but South Carolina would make free throws down the stretch to preserve the victory.  South Carolina locks up the #5 seed and will likely play Auburn or Alabama in the opening round of the SEC Tournament.

Other contributing factors in the game would be Muldrow, scoring 13 points in the first half, and Lakeem Jackson's first half penetration and scoring in the paint.  Darrin Horn's ball club would play physical throughout the game, which led to USC out rebounding the taller Commodores 29-24 (9-4 offensive).    In the earlier meeting won by Vandy, USC was out rebounded 39-24.  Horn never stopped coaching, and obviously the team kept believing and executing, and when Downey began scoring the Commodores went cold and appeared "shell-shocked" by the Downey scoring outburst.  Vanderbilt Senior Jermaine Beal would see his senior day and 21 point, 8 rebound, 2 assist performance tainted by  Downey and company.  A.J. Ogilvy added 15 points and Jeffrey Taylor 13 for Vandy.

South Carolina's Season Near The End

Game Notes

South Carolina (14-15, 5-10) travels into Nashville on a six game (1-7 over the last eight games) losing streak that will place the Gamecocks in a disappointing regular season finish unless they can find a way to upset the Commodores in the regular season finale.  #19 Vanderbilt (23-6, 12-3) is 14-1 at home losing only to the Kentucky Wildcats this season.  South Carolina will need a victory in Nashville and a couple of wins in the SEC tournament to extend the season.  Vanderbilt has a size advantage and recorded a severe rebounding advantage in the earlier meeting when Head Coach John Stallings' team out rebounded the Gamecocks 39-24 and shot better than 60%, with many of those shots around the basket.

South Carolina Head Coach Darrin Horn must find a way to get more post presence and board work to have a chance playing in Memorial Arena on Saturday.  South Carolina has been able to win only one game on the road this year in the SEC, which is their lone road victory of the season on a team's home floor.

This game may very well be about pride and resilience as the Gamecocks are on the verge of recording a losing season similar to the final two seasons of Dave Odom, former head coach at 14-16 and 14-18 respectively.

The season, with the loss of Dominique Archie and Mike Holmes, has become a devastating end to the career of Devan Downey, who was hoping to lead his team into the NCAA tournament in his final year.  Downey, a candidate for many individual accolades, wanted to end his college career playing in the NCAA tournament a feat he has never experienced during his journey from Cincinnati to South Carolina after a one year all freshman season with the Bearcats.  Downey has given his entire arsenal of offense in an attempt to carry a team that lacked offensive weapons, but his efforts fell short as the conference season prevailed and teams found ways to neutralize the performance and disruption of Downey's multi-faceted scoring.  It appears Devan will have to settle for personal accolades and recognitions for his body of work at South Carolina.

South Carolina will have to rely on a miracle season end to see post season play.  A really disappointing situation after a season that started with so much promise.

Cocks Fight Hard But Come Up Short

Game Stats

When South Carolina (14-13, 5-8) traveled to Lexington, Ky to take on the Wildcats, everyone had predicted a blowout, a revenge beat down for the lone loss on the Kentucky (27-1, 12-1) record.  While the 82-61 victory by John Calipari's team would appear to be a blowout, it was anything but that.  Fans don't like to talk about morale victories and this was not one, but the USC Basketball Team played extremely hard and competed with the team most believe will win the national championship.  A team with an estimated 4-5 future NBA players.

After jumping out to a 11-2 lead in the first two and a half minutes, Kentucky and its' fans could smell an embarrassing route of the visiting team.  But a nice 7-2 run over the next two minutes narrowed the lead to 13-9 and the scrappy competitive game was on.  For the rest of the game, Kentucky, led by John Wall, Demarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson could not gain more than an 8 point lead for the next ten minutes.  In the final five minutes of the half, the Wildcat size and strength began to take over.  With Kentucky shooting poorly from the outside (3-11 from 3-Pt range) they began to pound the glass and penetrate to grind points in closing out the first half.  After establishing a 14 point lead at the 1:31 mark, no one could score until SEC scoring leader Devan Downey scored his 9th point on a long 30-foot shot to end the first half with Kentucky leading 37-26.  In the second half Devan would add 17 more points shooting 9-25 and 3-9 from the arc.

The tenacity and competitive spirit of USC Head Coach Darrin Horn and Downey would display itself again in the second half, when Kentucky jumped out to a 16 point lead just under two minutes into the half.  But over the next nine minutes the Gamecocks would get as close as 6 points before the size, speed and talent of Kentucky would take advantage in the post and in transition, and with 9:18 to go USC would watch its efforts become overshadowed by the gradual growth of a small double digit lead between 10-15 points over that period.  With just under three minutes and the score 69-59 Kentucky, Patterson, who finished with a team high 23 points, to go with his 8 rebounds, grabbed an offensive rebound and dunked to start the run for the final margin of victory.

USC has a few positives to take from this loss, forcing John Wall into 6 turnovers, Wall was held to 12 points on 4-15 shooting, scoring on 10 assisted plays, after averaging less than 10 assists during SEC play and holding Kentucky to only 10 fast break points.  Overall, the Gamecocks did not back down, nor did they allow various runs during most of the game to discourage their level of effort against a superior ball club.  Concerns will obviously be noted in the post scoring where Kentucky scored 56 of its' total 82 points in the paint.  South Carolina was able to generate 30 of its' 61 points in the paint on penetration and passing, along with stick backs from offensive rebounds.  The Wildcats had a decisive advantage at the free throw line due to post play, going 15-20 from the line and the Gamecocks were 5-7, with Downey going 5-5 from the charity stripe.  No bench scoring for the Gamecocks was obviously disappointing to Coach Horn.

Lakeem Jackson took two ill-advised shots from the perimeter, but otherwise was near perfect scoring aggressively on 8-11 shooting for 16 points (4 rebs, 3 stls, 2 asts & 1 blk), while Sam Muldrow was effective earlier in the game and finished with 10 points (5-11), 8 rebounds and 3 blocks.
 

It is now South Carolina's turn to attempt a home court beat down, returning home to play Mississippi State at the Colonial Life Arena, where the Gamecocks have played their best basketball all year, winning 11 of its total 14 victories in this arena.

USC Signee Falls Short In Playoffs To Lexington

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In Devan Downey-like fashion, South Carolina 5'10" signee Bruce Ellington of Berkeley (14-11) single handily shot his team into contention against highly ranked Lexington (23-5) as he scored 25 second half points to finish with 33, as Lexington needed clutch free throw shooting from Sophomore sensation Shaq Roland, who sank two free throws with 0.9 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime, 72-72 .

The overtime became the "Shaq Roland Show" as Lexington turned the game into a rout with a 15-0 run to open the overtime.  Roland finished with 34 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists.  But Roland was not alone as Lexington received a double-double from Adrian Wigfall (18pts/10rebs) and David Burns scored 23 points for the Wildcats coached by Bailey Harris, who has 14 twenty-win seasons in 23 years, two 4A state championship in four trips to the season finale. 

South Carolina Coach Darrin Horn and staff were on hand at the Wildcat gymnasium to watch his future point guard Ellington, along with a few USC players.  Ellington was impressive down the stretch, but the opposing team effort, a pesky zone and depth was so familiar to his future coach who has had to endure similar concerns.  Hopefully Ellington will have more help by the time he transforms his skill sets to the SEC level at South Carolina.

Ellington did get double digit scoring assistance from R.J. Robinson 12 pts., Marcus Wiggs 11pts., and D.J. Harrison 11pts.

Free Throws Solve Home Court Disadvantage For Vols

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The game was played in Colonial Life Arena, a definite advantage for the Gamecocks on most game days, but for Tennessee (20-6, 8-4) a 63-55 winner over South Carolina (14-12, 5-7) Saturday, it was just a matter of taking advantage of what was given to them.  After trailing or playing close for 33 minutes of the ball game, the Vols continued to grind out plays, loose balls and opportunities in the middle of the lane to score or get to the free throw line, where they outscored the home team by 9 points in an 8-point game.  In a game of 13 lead changes, 6 ties and a 10-19 turnover advantage for the host squad, one would think this was a formula for a home court victory.  But in the end it would be the repeat of the decisive free throw advantage that teams have shown in each of the three consecutive losses by the Gamecocks that would make the actual difference, in lieu of poor shooting.

The game overall was not pretty for either team or its stars.  Devan Downey was well under his 23 point average with 15 points on 4-18 shooting and Wayne Chism fell below his 17 point conference average with 11 points on 4-6 shooting.  #20 Tennessee started the game with 8 turnovers in the first 8 minutes of play.  South Carolina on the other hand rarely converted those turnovers in to points and could only establish a 2 point lead 11-9 by the second media timeout.  By halftime the Gamecocks held a 28-24 lead with 8 points off turnovers and 7 points on second chance opportunities, shooting only 33% (11-33 and 4-14 from 3-pt).  The Vols shot 45% (9-20, 2-7) for the same ugly period but managed to shoot 4-8 from the charity stripe versus South Carolina 2-4, to stay close with all the turnovers.

In the second half it was more of the same, with South Carolina continuing to concentrate on the perimeter and Tennessee grinding to push the ball in the paint and take only open perimeter shots, however the results began to shift late in the half as the Gamecocks were able to hold the lead or stay within 3 points for nearly 13 minutes, before the Vols began to take over.  Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl was able to counter the game plan of USC Head Coach Darrin Horn's aggressive match-up zone, with running offensive sets that constantly flashed players to the middle of the lane with quick feeds to attack the zone from the middle to score or interior pass to the blocks.  This periodically left Bobby Maze open to hit a few key jump shots to establish some balance in a game where both teams shot poorly from the perimeter.  The difference?  The Vols used the paint in the second half to shoot 52.4% (11-21, 2-4), while the Cocks continued to struggle at 30% (9-30, 1-12).  The Vols were 15-24 from the free throw line during the final period, getting there by concentrating on the inside, shooting only 4 long range shots.  The Gamecocks were fouled less often obviously taking 12 long range perimeter shots and was 8-11 (72%) from the charity stripe in the second half.

Tennessee really only led in three key statistical areas, "shooting percentage" 48.8% versus 31.7%, "points in the paint" 32-22 and "assists" 13-3.  South Carolina led in "free throw shooting percentage" 66.7% against 59.4%, "offensive rebounds" 13-10, "second chance points" 12-9.  With a cold perimeter afternoon, the home team had become the disadvantaged squad as the odds of percentages in basketball took over, the high percentage shot either went in or generated foul shot opportunities for Tennessee and the low percentage shot failed to fall for South Carolina and rarely did they get to the foul line.   

The Garnet Army was again alive and well represented, but in the end they could not will their basketball heroes to victory, as Tennessee countered a sloppy game with grinding and getting to the free stripe twice as many times as the host team.  South Carolina will only wonder what could have been if the free throw percentage advantage could have been matched with equal trips to the line.  Only three South Carolina players even shot free throws, Downey, Raley-Ross and Austin Steed (1-2). 

The free throw difference, along with a 20-3 Tennessee bench scoring difference assisted the Vols in grinding out a late 17-3 run that virtually rendered the game a Tennessee victory.

Brandis Raley-Ross continued his scoring support and balanced play, as the senior guard scored a team high 16 points on 5-10 shooting (2-6 from 3 and 4-7 from the line).