Gordon Mann is in the air to Dallas, I’m in the airport waiting for a flight to St. Louis, others are on the road and yet others already there.
Teams are in place and fans are either there or en route. Headed for a great night of basketball all around.
Our colleague Dean Corwin is ready to weigh in with links to tonight’s pregame coverage, so I won’t go too deeply into that. Wishing everyone safe travels. This is the gathering point for tonight’s in-game posts as well — feel free to tell us what you’re seeing or hearing as we cut the field in half one more time.
- Our audio, from all eight sectionals
- Men’s scores for tonight, with games starting at 5:30 p.m. ET
- Women’s scores for tonight, with games starting at 5:30 p.m. ET
Bob Quillman and I have the last game of the night, tipping at or around 9 p.m. ET between Buena Vista and Washington U. So we’ll see you then.
FRIDAY PREVIEWS
MEN:
Gettysburg vs. Ursinus/The Evening Sun
http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_8558707
Washington U. vs. Buena Vista/St. Louis Post-Dispatch
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/othersports/story/4BA6651E949AF7C78625740C00130B48?OpenDocument
Wheaton vs. Whitworth/The Daily Herald
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=153396&src=289
Richard Stockton vs. Amherst/Press of Atlantic City
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/126/story/106460.html
Chad Davis Feature – Richard Stockton/The Bridgeton News
http://www.nj.com/news/bridgeton/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1205473218254210.xml&coll=10
Coast Guard vs. Rochester/The Day
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=86cc965b-1285-4ef3-b781-2d4b1da0fe23
Coast Guard Def. Story/Hartford Courant
http://www.courant.com/sports/basketball/hc-collfeat312.artmar12,0,5629534.story
WOMEN:
DeSales vs. Howard Payne/Allentown Morning Call
http://www.mcall.com/sports/college/all-desales.6312855mar14,0,1437277.story
The Express Times
http://www.nj.com/sports/expresstimes/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1205467579322950.xml&coll=2
WOMEN:
UW-Whitewater/Milwaukee Journal-Sentenial
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=728033
Simpson/Indianola Record Herald and Tribune
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080312/INDIANOLA01/803120418/-1/NEWS04
Simpson/Radio Iowa
http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=A9D8F977-09EF-FACE-767B47105BB538DA
OK, so the blog didn’t go anywhere tonight but I’ll take the blame for that. 🙂
Postgame observations from St. Louis — Buena Vista played huge tonight and deserves a nice gaudy postseason ranking. A little better care of the ball and they would be playing tomorrow night. Great fan support, too — loved the student section.
Alex Franz, St. Mary’s freshman guard, came up big on the big stage. With him and Mike Bowden (injured in the conference tournament) back next year St. Mary’s should be in good shape. They will obviously miss Tyson Lesesne, however.
Time for me to jump on the train… ah, board!
Very impressed with Coast Guard, though not impressed with Rochester. CGA showed a lot of heard, especially at the end of the first half when Grant Johnson put up a three from about 22′ and two defenders leaving him NO room to shoot. He hit it at the buzzer to cut Rochester’s lead to 1 – 25-24. In the second half, the Bears just hit another gear and played incrediably well on both ends of the court, while Rochester seemed to be sleep walking, especially inside. Incrediable moment when Sowers hit a three pointer from about 22′ or further… from straight on… and used the backboard to hit the shot as part of his 9 straight points in an 18-1 run for the Bears. The reaction afterward was certainly worthy of a photo-moment and helped the team just fly past the Yellow Jackets. Oh, and that shot put Sowers over the 1500 point career mark!
Rochester… like I said, looked completely out of it. This is the worst game I have seen them play. Uche and John did not look good inside, especially Uche in the second half – he had only one point in the half. That left too much pressure on Dominiak, Chmielowiec, and Juron. It is too bad that four years after we saw a lot of promise with this team, they never returned to Salem.
Ursinus-Gettysburg – if you based this on the first couple of minutes of the game, the Bullets DOMINATED. They started the game up 10-0… but just like Centre last week against Ohio Wesleyan, it didn’t last. The Bears exploded on a 19-4 run to answer… and the Bullets didn’t have a chance for the rest of the game. Ursinus is just too good on all points of the floor, especially since they are playing with a gimpy Nick Shattuck (been in a boot and on cruches for most of the week). But Noonan and Shema stepped up, but scoring more than 20 points in the game and the blow out was on – 79-55 final.
Unlike Rochester, Gettysburg is in very good shape next season… they lose NO ONE! Well almost, Matt Presby, who is about 7th or 8th off the bench, and Dwyer, who is even further off the bench, do graduate!
As for tonight’s game, I would have to give the advantage to Ursinus… but I bet many have given the edge to Trinty (CT), Mass-Dartmouth, and Rochester in the last two weeks. But, Ursinus has better players inside who can shoot from many points on the floor. They have great guards in Cousart Page and even McGarvey. And don’t forget Hilton who was score-less in the first half and then got at least 12 points in the second half on big shot after big shot.
That all being said, Coast Guard has already beaten their fair share of big men with some incrediable efforts from Prebeck, C. Johnson, and Blum. And don’t forget Hudson who is small, but can out jump nearly everyone on the floor. Several times last night he just seemed to keep rising and rising when going for rebounds our out-shooting taller defenders.
I am really looking forward to tonight’s game. The NEWMAC looks to have their first final four team since 1987 (Clark)… and the Centennial could have their first participant at Championship Weekend since 2000 (Franklin & Marshall).
I wasn’t able to post the link here, but there’s a neat story in the New London (Conn.) Day about Coast Guard’s trip to Collegeville. They have garnered the well wishes of a prominent basketball personality but I’ll have to let you find out who on your own.
On the women’s side of things, George Fox and Hope both played outstanding defense last night. The Flying Dutch were especially impressive limiting the Bruins to very few open looks and 4 for 24 shooting that was actually worse when you factored in air balls and shots that missed the rim. Frequently GFU had to settle for long threes late in the shot clock. I’m struck by how good Hope’s younger players are, especially Philana Greene (sophomore) and Carrie Snikkers (freshman). There’s a lot of depth on this team in terms of talent and size. Get used to seeing the Dew Crew in late rounds of the tournament. Coach Morehouse told me after the game that George Fox was one of the best coached teams he’s ever seen, a very nice nod to Coach Rueck and his staff.
You can’t say enough about the atmosphere at the Brownwood Coliseum. There’s tremendous fan support with approx. 100 people lined up to get into the building before the gates open. I’ve been told there were even more when HPU played McMurry last weekend. The pep band, the appropriately silly looking mascot, the noise — it’s a fantastic atmosphere and must be a ton of fun for the Yellow Jackets to play in.
Tonight’s match-up will be very enjoyable — undefeated teams playing in a great arena with a berth to the final four on the line. This isn’t a de facto title game — Kean, DePauw, Whitewater and others are playing far too good to concede that — but it’ll very special.
Gordon, great report. Thanks. Maybe it’s just me, but I do find it disconcerting that twice in the last five minutes–once in your report, and once on the front-page story–I have read that the Hope-HPU game “isn’t a de facto title game.” True enough. But that it had to be mentioned, twice, suggests this game should not be an Elite Eight game. It’s too bad the selection committee couldn’t see it that way.
True — hard to dispute that, but then again, aside from a couple of upsets to Thomas More and Mary Wash, it would be difficult to say which matchups today should be juggled.
Very simply, Pat, any of the matchups could have been juggled. That’s not to diminish any of the teams still remaining — each has played very, very well to get this far, no matter the sectional. But the two remaining 30-0 teams simply shouldn’t have to play each other just to get to the Final Four. Howard Payne – DePauw and Hope-Whitewater would be great games, and STILL leave the opportunity for two undefeateds to play.
I think you picked the one matchup that would be the worst to break up. Only Messiah-‘Mary Washington’ really fits the mold.
Also keep in mind that Hope was very likely not the top seed in its own region. The last regional rankings aren’t published but Hope was third in the Great Lakes behind Thomas More and DePauw the week before tournament selections. Whether you like those rankings or not, that suggests that Hope woudn’t be a team the NCAA would try to bracket separate of another top seed.