WOW

Opening thoughts: I think it's fair to say, we, as sports fans, were spoiled with today. You won't see many days as exciting as today was.

Let's talk hoops:

• Ohio St. 65, Illinois 64. Well, I was due to correctly predict a big game, but the way the Buckeyes did it was shocking to say the least. The Illini led 51-39 with 12 minutes to go and seemed to be in control when the Bucks started slowly chipping away. Terrence Dials became a nightmare for Illinois in the paint, scoring 21 points and 8 rebounds while Matt Sylvester created matchup problems in the perimeter, leading the way with 25. But it looked like OSU would run out of gas after a James Augustine dunk put Illinois up 6 with 3 minutes left. But a tough Dials shot in the lane, followed by a sweet duck under left-hand by Sylvester cut it to 2 with 90 sec. left. Then, a big block by Dials and a contested 3 set the stage for Sylvester, who after a timeout, buried the go-ahead 3 with 5 sec. left. Roger Powell's 3 fell short at the other end, and the Bucks, for one day, were national champs. Illinois saw their weakness, athletic big guys who can rebound and make things happen as Dials and Sylvester gave Illinois fits. But this game was more Ohio St. winning it more than Illinois losing it. OSU didn't have one single turnover in the entire 2nd half, an astounding stat against the Illinois guards. OSU's defense was superb on the perimeter, contesting every 3. I still think Illinois is the favorite to win it all, but they should be wary of a team with athletic big men.
• Florida 53, Kentucky 52. This was Florida's first win over UK in 4 years, proving the Gators have the potential to do some postseason damage. Florida kept it close during the last 10 minutes, which is when UK's depth starts to take its toll. Anthony Roberson played smart basketball down the stretch, and David Lee was a man inside, getting a double-double.
  
• Missouri 72, Kansas 68. With the loss, Kansas lost the 1 seed for the Big 12 tourney, and for now, a 1 seed in the NCAA tourney. In addition, Keith Langford left the game early with a sprained ankle. His status is up in the air right now, although he thinks he'll be ready for the Big 12 tourney. Give credit to the Tigers, they really played hard, outrebounding the bigger Jayhawks 30-23 and getting to the foul line 34 times.
• N. Carolina 75, Duke 73. How can you top 3 Top 10 teams getting beat, including the last undefeated? How about another Duke/Carolina classic. This game was unbelievable for many reasons. First, Duke hung in and led for most of the 2nd half without a single J.J. Redick field goal. Lee Melchionni made 5 2nd half 3s to lead the Duke attack. The Dukies led by 9 with 4 minutes left, this one appeared to be over. But the Tar Heels came back, led by Sean May, who had one of the best individual performances in a Duke/Carolina game. 26 points, 24 rebounds, 12 coming on the offensive end for the big man, who had a big 3 point play late to cut the Duke lead to 2. May had more offensive rebounds by himself than Duke had as a team. After Raymond Felton got fouled, he made the first, but missed the 2nd of his 2 free throws. The loose ball came to freshman Marvin Williams, who incidentially hadn't played very well until this point. Williams came down with the loose ball, went back up, kissed it off the glass and got fouled to put Carolina up. Redick's 3 went in and out, Ewing airballed from 17, and Carolina clinched its first ACC regular season title in 12 years. Just another normal Duke/Carolina game. Why do they have to be so predictable, hehe.
• Wake Forest 55, NC State 53. And if you hadn't had enough yet, this game provided the encore. Wake led 35-27 at the half, executing offensively and defensively. The second half was a different story as the Wolfpack were able to slow the game down, only allowing 10 points in the first 16 minutes. NC State came back, and were up 3 with 20 seconds left when Justin Gray hit a tough 3 to tie things up. Inexplicably, NC State's Engit Atsur rushed a 3 and missed (may have gotten fouled) to give the ball back to Wake with 4 sec. left. Then, on a well-designed play by Coach Skip Prosser, Chris Paul inbounded to Vitas Danelius, who threw it right back to Paul. Paul had gotten by his defender and ran the ball down the court, hitting a fading one-hander from about 14 feet to win the game and all but end NC State's at-large hopes for an NCAA bid. Despite their great second half effort, NC State lost this game at the foul line, only hitting 9/21 from the line.

Now, for tonight's Championship Week roundup:

• America East. On their home floor, Binghamton played Vermont tough, but the Catamounts were too much, winning 76-65 and advancing to the championship game, which will be in Burlington on their home floor against Northeastern, who knocked off Maine. Vermont's big 2 were superb as Taylor Coppenrath went 12/15 from the floor, 10/12 from the line to score 34, while TJ Sorrentine added 25 on 9/16 shooting to lead the way. The championship will be played Saturday morning.
  
• Colonial. It will be the league's top 2 teams going at it as Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth advanced to tomorrow's championship game. ODU only has a small chance at an at-large bid, so they must essentially win to make the field. VCU did beat ODU earlier this year.
• Metro Atlantic. We got the rematch we were looking for. It will be Niagara/Rider III for the automatic bid tomorrow night. In the prior two meetings, the winning team has scored more than 100 points, and the last game went to overtime.
• Mid-Continent. The other two quarterfinals saw IUPUI advance in the first game, while Chicago St. is giving Valaparaiso a run for their money currently.
  
• Missouri Valley. Today was a good example of why the MVC tourney is the most underrated in the country. Top dawg Southern Illinois lost to 5 seed SW Missouri St. 65-61, opening the door for Wichita St. to get back in the NCAA mix. But Creighton quickly ended that, beating the Shockers for the 3rd time this year, 70-60. Southern Illinois is a lock for the Tourney, but it was still questionable that the MVC would get 2 bids. Southern Illinois losing probably knocked someone out.
• Northeast. The top seed, Monmouth was upset in the semifinals, setting up the unlikely championship game matchup of 12-16 Wagner vs. Fairleigh Dickinson. The championship will be played Wed. night at FDU.
• Patriot. Another rematch that everyone was hoping for as the top 2 teams, Holy Cross and Bucknell, will square off in the championship, at Holy Cross Fri. afternoon. Whoever wins this game is very capable of knocking off someone in the NCAAs.
• Sun Belt. In the other 2 quarterfinals, Western Kentucky has advanced while Louisiana-Lafayette seems to be on their way. As it stands right now, the semis will be: Denver/W. Kentucky and Florida International/La-Lafayette.
• West Coast. Gonzaga has already advanced to the finals with a convincing win over San Diego. The second semifinal has just gotten underway between Santa Clara and St. Mary's. A St. Mary's win pretty much cements their NCAA status, but it will have to come on Santa Clara's home floor, as they're hosting the conference tourney. All bubble teams are rooting for Gonzaga to win this tourney.

Tomorrow, 4 more automatic bids will be handed out, which will bring the number of teams that have automatically qualified up to 9.

And, as if the basketball weren't enough, there was the Duel at Doral between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. In what felt like a major championship, Tiger made a 20 foot birdie on 17 to go up 1, then watched as Phil's tying chip lipped out on the last hole to give Tiger his 2nd win of the year. Who knew golf could have some March Madness?

March Madness also found its way to tennis as Croatia finished their upset victory over the US in 1st round Davis Cup play. Ivan Lubjcic knocked off Andy Roddick in a 5 set classic to give Croatia the win.

This is going to be a tough week to get things done, as it always is.