Barack Obama wins game of P-I-G against UConn women's basketball team

By: Mark Medina

He already shared his NCAA bracket with the entire country. So it's not surprising U.S. president and basketball aficionado Barack Obama challenged the Connecticut Huskies to a game of P-I-G after hosting the Huskies Monday at a White House ceremony for their 2009 NCAA championship.

"His shot was a little unorthodox," UConn Coach Geno Auriemma told reporters. "But I've always said I've never met a bad left-handed shooter. And he talks a little trash too. A typical, Chicago trash-talker. But he can back it up. That's all that counts. He's got the swagger."

It turns out Obama fully deserved the Huskies jersey with his name.

"No. 1, that's what I'm talking about," Obama said at the ceremony. "I will wear it when I'm playing."

UConn center Tina Charles told the Hartford Courant that Obama won the game against her, Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery.

Montgomery, who was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 2009 WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx, was quoted in the same article, saying Obama missed only one of five shots.

Cards win Game Changing Performance

The Ball State University women's basketball team continued to gain national attention Monday from its 71-55 upset victory against the University of Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Ball State won the "Pontiac Game Changing Performance" of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament for its first round victory on March 22. The award honors "the most dramatic moments that occur in NCAA games across the country, moments that change the outcome of a game or define a season."

For winning the award, Ball State received a $5,000 general scholarship contribution from Pontiac.

For the first time in program history, Ball State received votes in the final Division I USA Today Coaches' Poll as they received six votes.

The Cardinals handed the defending champion Volunteers their first-ever loss in the first or second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Tennessee, which was the No. 5 seed in the tournament, has won the national championship eight times. However, the Cardinals beat the Volunteers in their first tournament appearance.

The Good Life on Planet Auriemma

By HARVEY ARATON

Already atop his hemisphere of the basketball world, Geno Auriemma had a sobering overview of the men’s professional version, New York metropolitan area chapter, from a sky suite at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. He watched the Knicks close their season by slaughtering the Nets and pronounced himself wholeheartedly fulfilled as the architect of Connecticut’s recently crowned N.C.A.A. women’s champions and the newly named coach of the United States national team for the next Olympics cycle.

As with Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, the son of Polish immigrants, Auriemma said the typical third-generation American might not fully understand what the national team gig means for him, Philadelphia-bred but Italian-born.

“It’s something I always wanted to do,” said Auriemma, who was an assistant to Nell Fortner at the 2000 Sydney Games.

He acknowledged that the first thing he needs to do is call Krzyzewski to find out “how do you achieve the balance between the two jobs and still be able to stay sane with your personal life and your family?”

Especially when factoring in these twin realities: the Olympic appointment carries a gold-medal mandate while the Connecticut folk have been conditioned (by Auriemma) to expect nothing less than the Final Four.

I mentioned to him that after writing a February column praising Krzyzewski for his three-year volunteer duty in the restoration of America’s international basketball image (culminating with a gold medal last summer in Beijing), I received a fair number of e-mail messages from Duke country wondering how many prize recruits were lost to North Carolina while Coach K was moonlighting with the national team.

These days, in chat rooms and on message boards, there apparently is no such thing as an icon.

But let’s say you are an 18-year-old high school recruit, a globetrotting phenomenon in our so-called amateur culture of uncontrolled patronage. Do you think less of Coach K because he is the guy with Kobe and LeBron on his speed dial, or more?

“Duke’s going to get the guys they’re going to get whether you’re coaching the Olympic team or not,” Auriemma said. “There’s a certain kind of kid that goes to Duke, just like there’s a certain kind of kid that goes to UConn.”

The core players on the 2000 team were not Auriemma players, and that is why he said now was “the perfect time for me to be doing this.” Two of his favorites, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, are established W.N.B.A. stars and 2008 gold medalists. By the 2012 London Games, Renee Montgomery, Maya Moore and Tina Charles from this season’s team could be challenging for positions.

On the inherent job security risks outside his UConn kingdom, Auriemma said, “I’ve said a thousand times, there are two kinds of coaches — the ones who coach great players and ex-coaches.”

Oh, he has had offers to cross the gender line, within the college game. He said he was once “this close” to accepting one, too, until he consulted a friendly colleague, who shook his head in exasperation and said, “You’ve got to be the dumbest you-know-what in America.”

“Mr. Sunshine, Jim Boeheim,” Auriemma said. “See, he was saying: ‘This is all about winning, and you’re going to win every year, and you’re going to get the best players and you’re getting paid a lot of money. What’s wrong with that? Why isn’t that enough?’

“But that’s because he’s a very simple-thinking guy, while I’m thinking, Because maybe I want to come to the Carrier Dome and kick your butt.”

Boeheim’s sound advice eventually trumped Auriemma’s wanderlust. He settled in as a Connecticut lifer of the Coach K kind. Not a bad career choice in the aftermath of a third unbeaten season and especially now that USA Basketball has called to confer upon him the honor of being his country’s head coach.

They will have no favored status, Auriemma said, because he also considers opposing contemporary stars — Candace Parker, Seimone Augustus, Tamika Catchings — to be his people. “The ones I didn’t get but know,” he said.

He knew one thing Wednesday night, sipping red wine and watching a dreary Knicks game from high above the Garden court. These days, he is having a much better time than Mike D’Antoni, also a friend and part of the coaching Italian brotherhood. D’Antoni finished his first season in New York with 32 victories, or 7 fewer than UConn.

Connecticut Women Cruise to Sixth NCAA Title

The Huskies 76-54 rout of the Louisville Cardinals in the national championship game was a fitting end to what was a thoroughly dominating season. Connecticut won their games by an average of 30.5 points and became the first team in NCAA history, men's or women's, to go undefeated and win every game by a double-digit margin.

University of Connecticut Huskies' Tina Charles, right. and University of Louisville Cardinals' Monique Reid battle for a rebound in the first half of their NCAA women's Final Four Championship basketball game in St. Louis.

10 things we love about Stanford women's basketball

By John Reid

1. Stanford won't be afraid of UConn. The Cardinal has beaten the Huskies in five of eight meetings.

2. Stanford has entertaining YouTube videos. UConn's are not entertaining.

3. Stanford's Jayne Appel (right) is a walking headline. After her school-record 46-point game to beat Iowa State in a regional final, a headline could have been: "How do you like that Appel?"

4. With 83 3-pointers, Jeanette Pohlen needs eight to tie Krista Rappahahn for Stanford's single-season record.

5. Appel, Stanford's season

(84) and career (214)

blocks leader, will keep the Huskies from driving to

the hoop. That should

force the Huskies to

shoot from the perimeter

in a strange venue.

6. Stanford doesn't

have anyone annoyingly

tweetering during NCAA tournament games telecasts (UConn has Rebecca Lobo).

7. Stanford doesn't have a player who promised to give back her full scholarship money if they don't win the title (Oklahoma's Courtney Paris did).

8. Stanford's warm-up music ("All Right Now" played by the Stanford band) makes us want to get on the floor and dance with them.

9. Stanford's frontline of Appel, Kayla

Pedersen and Nnemkadi Ogwumike is peaking

at the right time. If the Cardinal wins its

first national title since 1992, the frontline

would be crowned the school's best ever.

Men's coaches hooping it up for women's teams

By Christine Brennan

With college basketball meaning what it does in the state of Kentucky, especially in this newsworthy week, it should come as no great shock that there are people in Louisville, perhaps a lot of them, who think the wrong Cardinals team made it to the Final Four.

The beloved Louisville men, the overall No. 1 seed, are out, bounced quite decisively the other day by Michigan State. The barely known Louisville women, a No. 3 seed, are in, with a dominating upset of a No. 1 seed, Maryland.

In the uneasy coexistence that persists between men's and women's college sports in some communities across the country, a development such as this could leave a devoted men's basketball fan a bit unnerved. You know the kind of guys we're talking about. They're the ones who all but refuse to acknowledge that there even is a women's tournament, usually make fun of it when they are forced to talk about it and tell you that if the women's Final Four were being played in their backyard, they would rather close the drapes than watch.

Thankfully, Rick Pitino is not one of those men.

Terps make All-America impression

Seniors with ties to Maryland made a huge impact on the Associated Press All-America women's teams announced on Tuesday, with Terrapins Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman named to the first and second teams, respectively, and Louisville's Angel McCoughtry (St.Frances) selected for the lead squad.

Oklahoma's Courtney Paris is the first four-time All-American, and Connecticut sophomore Maya Moore is a unanimous selection in her second appearance. Moore was joined on the first team by fellow UConn player Renee Montgomery. Paris, 6 feet 4, holds 18 NCAA records, including 112 straight double doubles.

Moore received 225 points and was the only unanimous choice among the 45-member national media panel that votes in the weekly Top 25. The voting was done before the start of the NCAA tournament.

Like Toliver, McCoughtry was a second-team All-American as a junior. The Sun's 2003 All-Metro Player of the Year guided Louisville this week to its first Final Four.

ISU women's basketball: Stanford's Appel chews up Cyclones

Berkeley, Calif. — Stanford center Jayne Appel not only knocked Iowa State out of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, she almost knocked Drake’s Lorri Bauman out of the record book.

Appel was unstoppable tonight. She posted up for 46 points, four under Bauman’s 1982 tournament record, as the second-seeded Cardinal (33-4) defeated the Cyclones 74-53 in the title game of the Berkeley Regional to earn their eighth Final Four appearance.

Fourth-seeded Iowa State finishes 27-9, equaling the school record for victories and making the Elite Eight for the second time in its history.

“This team, especially down the stretch, played with an amazing amount of chemistry and energy and cohesiveness,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “There’s a lot of things that are hard to quantify now when you’re disappointed and your season’s over, but I think when everyone tales a step back, I think they have every right to be very proud of what they accomplished.”

Stanford routed Iowa State 83-45 in the Waikiki Beach Classic on Nov. 29. Appel had to play only 18 minutes and scored six points in that game, but she made her presence felt immediately in the rematch tonight.

Appel dropped in 27 points in the first half as Stanford built a 38-25 lead and tallied the first seven points of the second half.

Fennelly’s plan was to let Appel operate one-on-one while concentrating on shutting down Stanford’s outside shooters. He said the bigger key was Iowa State shooting just 36 percent and Stanford finishing with a 47-18 rebounding advantage.

“I wasn’t worried about how many points she scored,” Fennelly said. “Our plan was to make 10 or 11 3s, take away the 3 from them. We tried to double- and triple-team her in Hawaii and just got annihilated.

“Our guards went 1-for-15 from the 3-point line, so we needed to score when we had open looks. But the (Stanford) offensive rebounds and putting her on the line 10 times were the bigger concerns that I had.”

Appel is listed at 6-foot-4, the same as Iowa State centers Nicky Wieben and Jocelyn Anderson, but she appeared to be an inch or two taller and much more powerfully built. Posting up, she used her size and strength to back in once she got the ball or to go from one side to the other and the lay the ball in.

“Tara (Stanford coach VanDerveer) told me that she was pretty sure that they were not going to double me, so we knew immediately that we were going to go inside,” Appel said. “That was the game plan from the very beginning and it worked for us.”

Amanda Nisleit did her best to keep Iowa State close with 17 points, including five 3-pointers, but Stanford otherwise clamped down on the Cyclone shooters.

The Cardinal led 55-34 when Iowa State tried to fight back, getting within 57-44 after two Heather Ezell free throws with 7:18 to play.

Stanford answered with the next eight points, six by Appel, to make it 65-44, and the closest Iowa State got after that was 18 points.

“There was still a big hill to climb,” Ezell said. “We cut it to 13 and couldn’t get a stop at the defensive end. Then we came down and missed a couple shots and lost the little momentum that we were getting.”

It was the final game for Iowa State’s five seniors — Nisleit, Ezell, Wieben, Anderson and Toccara Ross. They were part of teams that went 92-44 the past four seasons and made three NCAA tournaments.

“We made it to the Elite Eight,” Wieben said. “I don’t know if a lot of people thought we would do that. It was a good run for this team and we’re all happy to be a part of it.

“It’s pretty tough right now, for me personally thinking about I have to go out to the real world and what’s next. Right now, I just want to enjoy the moment and the rest of the time I have with my teammates.”

Nisleit made the all-tournament team while Appel was named the outstanding player. Also on the team were Stanford’s Jeannette Pohlen and Jillian Harmon, Michigan State’s Allyssa DeHaan and Ohio State’s Samantha Prahalis.

The game was really fantastic, this is one of the great game I watched and it took me to the top of my momemtom to watch another game. I encourage everyone to watch the game too.

Neutrality Isn't Always The Way to Go

Maryland's Marissa Coleman had 42 points and 15 rebounds on Saturday against Vanderbilt, but who was watching?

By Mike Wise


Fewer than 3,000 people paid to witness one of the signature performances in the annals of college basketball Saturday afternoon here -- in an arena that holds about 19,000.

ESPN did its best to camouflage the nearly 16,000 empty seats inside RBC Center, including the completely vacant sections behind both baskets that reached to the rafters. But the fact that only a smattering of four fan bases saw Marissa Coleman rally Maryland to within one victory of the NCAA women's Final Four is a damning indictment on the people who claim to love and promote the sport.

How Coleman's virtuoso 42-point performance to stave off Vanderbilt, laced with equal parts grit and skill, was seen by a national cable audience and not at least 10,000 in person has nothing to do with, sadly, the game's time-honored adversaries -- sexism and male chauvinism.

No, the perpetrator this time was the old heads at the NCAA, who really need to take a hard look at what communities care about women's basketball (programs such as Connecticut, Tennessee, Iowa State, Oklahoma and, recently, Maryland) and who doesn't (Raleigh and any other city that doesn't have a team in the tournament).

They need to stop the illusion of this ridiculous pod system that's supposed to encourage parity, whereby Stanford can play in nearby Berkeley and U-Conn. doesn't have to travel any farther than Trenton, N.J., during the tournament to earn a trip to the Final Four while a top-seeded Duke team has to play ninth-seeded Michigan State in East Lansing, where it got beat, and a top-seeded Maryland team showcases two of the nation's most polished and poised players, Coleman and Kristi Toliver, before two sections of its own fans.

Give up the illusion of competitive balance. Until the Final Four, award home court to the tournament's top seeds the first two rounds and give them the regionals to boot. Give back to the programs who carry the sport, rotating the Final Four to the towns and teams that have demonstrated they will buy tickets to see a spectacle that doesn't just involve their own players.

This means places such as Knoxville, Tenn., and Storrs, Conn., still the top two programs in attendance, which combined to draw almost 400,000 this past season, and also sites such as Lubbock, Tex., and College Park, which drew nearly 8,700 people per game last year.

Stop trying to convert a huge section of people who don't care now and never will.

In 1984, Cheryl Miller, the first great player of the game's modern era, led Southern Cal to its second straight national championship on a team that included the McGee twins, Pam and Paula, and a young Cynthia Cooper. Miller and that team boosted attendance to unprecedented levels. When you start from nothing, of course, those levels don't exactly make you drop your jaw.

The paid attendance at the NCAA championship game in Los Angeles that year against Pat Summitt's Tennessee program was 5,365.

Twenty-five years ago, the NCAA was thrilled to have 5,000 people for a championship. So in that context, 3,000 for a regional semifinal might not sound so bad, especially when you consider that it's only in the last few years that women's championships are decided by players making shots, instead of missing them. And that women's basketball has been an Olympic sport only since 1976.

Is parity slipping into women's basketball?

By DOUG FEINBERG

Goodbye Tennessee. So long Duke. See you next time North Carolina.

Thirty-two games into the NCAA women's basketball tournament and three of the powerhouses have already been bounced. Throw-in LSU, which had made the previous five Final Fours and it would be easy to see a transformation under way.

"I just think it points toward the parity in women's basketball with so many different teams doing so well. I think it's a good sign in some ways for basketball that they aren't in the Sweet 16," said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, whose team advanced to the Berkeley Regional semifinals. "But there is more talent spread around. I think it's exciting. You're looking at the future of women's basketball. Of course, as long as Stanford's in there, I like it."

Still even with those perennially Final Four teams out of the mix, it might be a little too soon to claim complete equality in the sport.

Sure all four No. 1 seeds won't be playing in the second weekend for only the second time since 1999 with Duke's loss to Michigan State on Tuesday. And yes, there certainly was a buzz after Ball State knocked out the two-time defending champion Lady Vols.

But let's look at the facts.

There is a lot of championship experience left with UConn, Stanford, Baylor and Purdue still playing. Those four teams have combined to win seven of the past 10 national titles. No mid-major team made it to the second weekend as all 16 teams left come from power conferences. The Big 12 and Big East each have four teams, the Pac-10 and Big Ten are sending three. The SEC and ACC only have one representative each.

"Three Pac-10 teams in the Sweet 16, I think that's making a pretty good statement that basketball as alive and well in the West," VanDerveer said. "Unfortunately we had to eliminate some West teams to get here," she said, referring to UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State."

Of the major upsets that happened so far in the tournament none is more talked about than Ball State's victory over Tennessee. The shock of it put the women's tournament on the front page the next day.

Any other season it might have been considered the greatest upset of all time, surpassing top-seed Stanford's loss at home to Harvard in 1998.

But the Lady Vols were already suffering through the worst year in Pat Summitt's career. With all five starters gone from the two-time defending champs and the team being inconsistent all season, the Lady Vols were vulnerable to see their unbelievable streak of making it to the regional semifinals every season come to an end.

"I think when you watch teams like Ball State, you can't help but get excited," Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "The mid-majors are catching up and you can't predict as much as you did before and it is good for the game because it spurs the interest of everyone across the country."

Now if Connecticut had lost to Vermont in the opener, that would have been something.

Yet the UConn express keeps rolling as the unbeaten Huskies (35-0) have shown no signs of weakness routing both Vermont and Florida in their first two games.

"As much as everyone focuses on Connecticut. There are going to be some great stories coming out of the tournament," Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. "The tournament is just become an unbelievable event for these kids. There are no guarantees. We want to get a lot better this week than we were this weekend."

The Huskies are well on their way to completing the fifth undefeated season in the history of the sport. Next up is California on Sunday in the Trenton Regional.

It will be UConn's first tournament game away from home as it has played the first two rounds at Gampel Pavilion. The NCAA tournament decided to go back to 16 host sites this season to try and boost attendance. While those numbers may be up, it forced a few top seeds to play on or very near to opponents home courts.

Seventh-seed Rutgers benefited from playing at home to knock off No. 2 Auburn. Yet Tigers coach Nell Fortner refused to use that as an excuse. The Scarlet Knights had been playing well heading into the NCAAs. They gave UConn its closest game of the season to finish off its Big East schedule in early March. Rutgers then went on to fall in double overtime to Louisville in the conference tournament quarterfinals.

"That was the best basketball we had seen them play in watching all the games scouting them," Fortner said. "My hats off to them and I fully expect them to get to the Final Four."

It seems as though the Scarlet Knights are finally on the same page after an inconsistent season and may yet make another run to the Final Four. The rollercoaster ride of this season is similar to the 2007 team that lost to Tennessee in the national championship game. That squad was highly ranked in the preseason before struggling early on. They finally put it together, winning the Big East tournament before the NCAA run.

Not all home teams had success in the tournament. LSU saw its streak of 12 straight NCAA tournament victories at home end with Louisville's victory Tuesday night. This will mark the first time that the Tigers aren't going to be playing in the final weekend of the NCAAs since 2003.

"I really, truly feel — I was thinking to myself — this is our time," Louisville star Angel McCoughtry said. "I really feel that. I mean, all these other programs — Baylor, they had their time. LSU, they had their time. UNC, all of them. I feel like, it's time for a different program to step up and get some new faces up in the Final Four — and we need to be one of the new faces."

Utah women's basketball: Utes ousted from NCAA Tournament

By Tony Jones

College Park, Md. » To have any chance at advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the Utah women needed to contain Maryland's two-headed monster of Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman, one of the best duos in the country.

But, in losing to the Terrapins 71-56 in a Raleigh Region second-round matchup, the Utes could stop neither. Nor could they stop any of the other Maryland players from scoring in transition, from knocking down open jumpers, or from claiming seemingly every rebound available.

As a result, Utah played its last game of the season on Tuesday night, in front of a packed Comcast Center filled with Terp supporters. And with a Maryland team too big, too

strong and too athletic for the Utes to handle, the top-seeded Terrapins took control early and cruised to a win that was as easy as the final score suggested.

"The difference in the game was physicality," Utes coach Elaine Elliott said. "They were bigger than us and stronger than us. That was not going to change. We were not going to grow, so there wasn't much that was going to be done about that."

That physical difference showed in nearly every facet on Tuesday night. Much had been made of Utah being forced to play an opponent on its home floor for the second consecutive year in the NCAA Tournament. But, truthfully, this game could've been played anywhere in the country and the outcome would likely have been the same.

The most eye-popping statistic was the 54-24 advantage that the Terrapins held in the rebounding department. Then you had to factor in Coleman, who scored 18 points and grabbed 18 of those boards, and scored whenever she put her mind to it. Toliver, one of the best point guards in the country, was money from the perimeter, especially early on when the game was still close. Demauria Liles scored 12 points, but more importantly snared 17 rebounds, as she and Coleman combined to outboard Utah by themselves.

"It's a fun game when you're in command from start to finish," Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. "I just thought we were ready to play from the opening tip."

Utah actually had the most encouraging of starts in this one. The Utes played sound defensively for the first 10 minutes, limited the Terrapins to one shot per possession, and knocked down their open shots when the opportunities presented themselves. A bucket by Morgan Warburton gave Utah a 15-8 lead, and it appeared that the Utes would be able to stay competitive.

Then the bottom fell out.

Maryland began to force turnovers and get out on the break. That's when the run began. Up 32-28, Maryland scored the final 12 points of the first half. When it was over, Utah trailed 44-28, and the game was out of reach.

"I think Maryland started hitting their shots and we started to miss our shots," junior forward Kalee Whipple said. "That was the difference. It just kind of turned around right there. I felt we came out in the second half and fought pretty well."

In a season where the Utes made second-half rallies a virtual trademark, they closed to within 59-45 with 10 minutes remaining. But the Terrapins then went on a quick 5-0 run, widened the advantage to 64-45 and spent the final few minutes receiving standing ovations for Toliver and Coleman, who were playing their final home game at Comcast Center.

For her part, Warburton scored 17 points in her final game as a Ute, but shot 7-for-21 as Maryland's defense made getting an easy look at the basket almost impossible. Whipple scored a game-high 24, but Utah never could find a third scorer to take the pressure off.

Story Source: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11988065

Historic loss for Tennessee women in NCAA opener

Tennessee's NCAA women's title defense ended sooner than expected, wrapping up the worst season ever for Pat Summitt's storied program.

Ball State, seeded 12th, stunned the two-time defending national champions, 71-55, Sunday in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Bowling Green, Ky., ending one of the more remarkable streaks in college basketball history.

The fifth-seeded Lady Volunteers (22-11) had never before lost on the opening weekend of the tournament, going 42-0 through the years.

It was one of several firsts: * First defending national champion to lose in a first round. Old Dominion won the title in 1985 and failed to make the tournament the next year.

* First NCAA loss by Tennessee before the Sweet 16.

* First appearance by Ball State (26-8) in the tournament.

The fifth-seeded Lady Volunteers (22-11) had never before lost on the opening weekend of the tournament, going 42-0 through the years.It was one of several firsts:* First defending national champion to lose in a first round. Old Dominion won the title in 1985 and failed to make the tournament the next year.
* First NCAA loss by Tennessee before the Sweet 16.* First appearance by Ball State (26-8) in the tournament."I thought we were tentative, maybe uptight," Summitt said. "But you have to give credit where credit is due and that's to the Ball State basketball team. They had a lot more toughness. They beat us to loose balls. They made shots."

In other first-round highlights:

No. 2 Baylor 87, No. 15 Texas San Antonio 82, OT -- The Bears won despite playing without Coach Kim Mulkey, who was hospitalized earlier in the day after suffering a reaction to medication she was taking because of having a kidney stone removed Friday. Leon Barmore, the Baylor assistant coach and also Mulkey's former coach at Louisiana Tech, took over the reins for the Bears (28-5), who won at Lubbock, Texas. Baylor's Jessica Morrow and Melissa Jones each made two free throws in the final 23 seconds of overtime to stop the Roadrunners (24-9).

No. 10 Minnesota 79, No. 7 Notre Dame 71 -- The Fighting Irish's home-court edge was no match for the Gophers' three-point shooting and rebounding at South Bend, Ind. The Gophers (20-11) started the game by making 11 of 13 shots and opened a 14-point first-half lead, then used three-point shots to stop the Irish (22-9).

No. 9 Michigan State 60, No. 8 Middle Tennessee 59 -- Mia Johnson sparked the victory with a tiebreaking three-point shot for the Spartans (21-10) with just over a minute left at East Lansing, Mich. Brandi Brown made a layup to get the Blue Raiders to within one, but Middle Tennessee (28-6) didn't get a shot off after calling a timeout with 10 seconds left.

No. 9 Georgia Tech 76, No. 8 Iowa 62 -- The Yellow Jackets (22-9) harassed the Hawkeyes (21-11) on defense and beat them to rebounds in the victory at Iowa City, Iowa.
Rest of the scores Connecticut and Oklahoma are among the easy first-round winners. C13

Story Source: http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/basketball/la-sp-ncaa-women23-2009mar23,0,5830544.story

What2Watch4: This Week's Long Beach Games

by Mike Guardabascio

What are you watching for? In short, a lot! High school and college sports have cranked back up for the winter season, and you don't want to miss a minute. Of course, if you can't make it to one of these games, check LBPostSports.com for all your local coverage!

Wednesday

Boys' Basketball: Millikan @ Wilson, 6:30pm
Millikan and Wilson are two of the more athletic, entertaining teams in the city, as Mike Wilder (leading Moore League scorer) and his Bruins try to shut down Kierre Beverly and Alden Darby in this Moore League opener.

Thursday

LBSU Women's BBall vs. Pacific, 1pm
This incredibly odd starting time is part of the NCAA's women's basketball Pack The House Challenge. It would seem that raising attendance for women's basketball is hard enough without having the tipoff at lunchtime while the student body is out of town, but Long Beach likes to shoot for the stars. If you don't go, people will notice.

Girls' Soccer: Poly @ Wilson, 3pm

Wilson graduated a lot of players last season, which would normally be devastating to a team's chances of repeating as Moore League champion, but since they were national champions as well, they're looking pretty good. They'll face a talented Poly team that will be among few serious contenders to knock them off in league play, and this should be a fun one.
LBSU Ice Hockey vs. Texas A&M, 10pm @ Glacial Gardens
Come open Beach Hockey's home 2009 schedule with this match against Texas A&M, a school that sees even less natural ice than Long Beach State. There are only four home games left this season, so don't sleep on this one.

Friday

HS Basketball Doubleheader: Wilson @ Poly, 5pm
The Moore League basketball scheduling is fantastic, as there are always doubleheaders, with the girls' teams starting around five, followed by the boys' games, around 6:30pm. This is a great doubleheader to start with, as the Wilson girls' basketball team looks to knock off a national power in Poly, and then the boys' teams (who along with Jordan will be the cream of the crop this season) tip off right after. Come enjoy the city's best rivalry for an evening at Poly's Ron Palmer Pavilion.

Check the calendar on the right for complete listings. Want something listed in an upcoming What2Watch4?

Story source: http://lbpostsports.com/newsdesk.php?story=1813

First Thoughts - 2009 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament

By CJ

The Bracket has been announced. The question is, will this be a coronation of UConn, or will someone be able to rise up to stop their run? Overall, I think this has been the fairest bracket in recent memory, but it does seem that the Trenton region (UConn’s) is a bit easier than the other three. Still, upsets await the unwary.
In the Berkeley region, it’s between Duke and Stanford with Tennessee as a possible spoiler to Stanford reaching the finals. To do that, the young Lady Vols will have to kick it up a notch to get farther than the Sweet-16. In the end, I’ll have to go with Duke in a close one against Stanford.
The Oklahoma City region could very well see a fair number of upsets. Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, UNC, and Auburn could all make a good run out of the region. In the end, if Oklahoma doesn’t fall to Georgia Tech in a stunner, I think they’ll emerge from this region.
In Raleigh, the Maryland Terrapins will be sorely tested, especially in a potential NCAA regional rematch with Baylor, but they should also survive for a trip to St. Louis.
For Connecticut, I think the only school that could stand in their way to the Final Four is Florida State, and that’s only if the Seminoles have a heck of a game.
Amazingly, I have my number ones in the finals. Who wins? I’m agreeing with just about everyone else: the only team that has a realistic shot at spoiling UConn’s perfect season is Maryland for three reasons: 1) Head coach Brenda Frese and seniors Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman have won a championship, so they aren’t lambs to the Final Four slaughter; 2) Their philosphy of winning — if we score more points than you, then we win (as opposed to the more common, if we keep you from scoring more points than us then we win). UConn has a high-powered offense that no one has been able to thwart to this point. Perhaps then the only solution is to outscore them; 3) Brenda Frese. It’s my feeling that Maryland could easily have won the title last year had Coach B been able to marshall the team for the entire season. Don’t underestimate the positive motivation from this coach.
I’m not going to predict a winner. I’ll just say that I think if Maryland can’t beat UConn, then no team in the country can (all things being equal).
(Disclaimer - y’all know I’m a huge Maryland fan, and I make no apologies for that. Is this biasing anything in this blog? Maybe a little, but I think it still holds, regardless.)