Weekend Watchdog: Tournament championship time
Who’s going to be playing in the NCAA tournament?
The first tickets get punched this weekend.
The Big South goes first, Saturday at noon on ESPN2. Then the Ohio Valley crowns its champion at 2 p.m. The Atlantic Sun title game is at 7 p.m., followed by the semifinals of the West Coast Conference tournament. Read more
Weekend Watchdog: Boogity, boogity, boogity
Darrell Waltrip’s there.
Danica Patrick’s going to be there.
It’s Boogity, boogity, boogity time.
The flag drops on the Daytona 500 on FOX Sunday at 1 p.m. Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle will lead the field to the start/finish line as Waltrip starts another year in the announcer’s booth. Read more
VCU runs ends with loss to Butler
A pair of threes by Shelvin Mack broke open a close game midway through the second half, and Butler held on down the stretch to defeat Virginia Commonwealth 70-62 in the Final Four on Saturday in Houston.
Mack’s first three gave Butler a 47-43 lead with 11:16 to go. He made another 1:19 later to make it 50-45 Butler, then capped a personal eight-point flurry with a layup that put the Bulldogs up seven at 52-45 with 9:38 left. Read more
Unbelievable! VCU knocks off Kansas to earn Final Four berth
Virginia Commonwealth led by as many as 18 points in the first half, and then withstood a furious second-half Kansas rally to shock the top-seeded Jayhawks 71-61 on Sunday and advance to the first Final Four in the school’s history.
“We knew Kansas was going to make a run in the second half, but we never gave up the lead, and our guys kept fighting,” VCU coach Shaka Smart said after the historic upset.
VCU (28-11) became the first team to win five games to reach the Final Four after being forced into a First Four matchup as one of the final four teams to receive an at-large bid into the tournament as the #11 seed in the Southwest Region. Read more
Unbelievable! VCU knocks off Kansas to earn Final Four berth
Virginia Commonwealth led by as many as 18 points in the first half, and then withstood a furious second-half Kansas rally to shock the top-seeded Jayhawks 71-61 on Sunday and advance to the first Final Four in the school’s history.
“We knew Kansas was going to make a run in the second half, but we never gave up the lead, and our guys kept fighting,” VCU coach Shaka Smart said after the historic upset.
VCU (28-11) became the first team to win five games to reach the Final Four after being forced into a First Four matchup as one of the final four teams to receive an at-large bid into the tournament as the #11 seed in the Southwest Region.
The Rams played again like the higher seed on Sunday, dominating the first 20 minutes of play en route to posting a 41-27 lead at the halftime break. A 12-2 KU run cut the lead to four at 43-39 at the 15:11 mark, and a Tyshawn Taylor three-point play brought the Jayhawks to within two at 46-44 with 13:13 left. Smart went to a zone defense at that point to try to slow Kansas down, and the strategy worked as VCU held Kansas to three points over the next 4:45 during an 11-3 run that put the lead at 57-47 on a Jamie Skeen dunk.
A pair of key threes by Joey Rodriguez and Bradford Burgess provided some needed breathing room as Kansas made one last run to cut the lead to 65-59 with 1:43 to go on a Markief Morris layup, but the Jayhawks would get no closer.
“We got prepared well by Coach. He prepared us really well, and we just went out there and executed what he told us to do,” said Skeen, who led the Rams with a career-high 26 points.
Brandon Rozzell scored 12 off the bench for VCU, which will play Butler next weekend in the national semifinals.
Marcus Morris had 20 points and 16 rebounds for Kansas (35-3).
The Virginia Commonwealth win completes an odyssey through the Southwest Region that included wins over Southern Cal from the Pac 10, Georgetown from the Big East, Purdue from the Big Ten, Florida State from the ACC and then Kansas from the Big 12.
“I’m so happy for all of our guys and all of our fans, everyone that believed in us all the way. We had to win five games to get here, but we did it,” Smart said.
And then there were eight: VCU advances to Elite Eight in dramatic fashion
A Bradford Burgess layup on an inbounds play with seven seconds to go extended Virginia Commonwealth’s Cinderella run as the Rams knocked off Florida State 72-71 in overtime in the Southwest Region semifinals Friday night.
The Rams (27-11) led by as many as nine points in the second half but went ice-cold in the final four minutes of regulation. A Chris Singleton three-pointer tied the game at 65 with 46 seconds to go and ultimately sent the game to overtime. Read more
Weekend Watchdog: 16 … 8 … 4
The Cinderella stories have enjoyed their moment in the sun – especially in Richmond. Now it’s time to boil down the field to the Final Four.
CBS and TBS offer doubleheaders Thursday and Friday to get us ready for the regional finals this weekend. CBS covers the action from Anaheim, with San Diego State facing Connecticut in the early game at 7:15 p.m. followed by Duke-Arizona.
TBS gets to be in New Orleans, with Florida-BYU followed by Wisconsin-Butler. Read more
