With defenses focused on Hansbrough, Tar Heels' Ellington and Green know opportunity is there
SAN ANTONIO -- Wayne Ellington and Danny Green can see it coming.
With every pass in North Carolina's halfcourt offense, they know defenders are trying to closely watch them and All-American teammate Tyler Hansbrough in the paint. Sooner or later, the ball will go inside and attract the swarming attention of the defense, leaving them open for a fleeting moment on the perimeter when the ball comes back out.
As the Tar Heels prepare to face Kansas in the Final Four on Saturday night, they need Ellington and Green to do something with those looks to ease the pressure on Hansbrough.
When they're hitting from outside on everything from kickouts to transition 3-pointers -- which they've done almost all year -- the Tar Heels (36-2) and their fast-paced offense have been hard to slow.
When they're not, such as against Maryland and Duke, North Carolina has looked out of rhythm and suffered its only losses.
So far, the duo, entering their first Final Four, seem unfazed by that burden.
"Going into the game, there's so much excitement and so much adrenaline pumping," Ellington said. "But once the ball is thrown up in the air, I think things will be back to normal. We've all been on some pretty big stages before."
Ellington, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, is the team's No. 2 scorer at 16.6 points per game. Green, a 6-5 junior, is the top reserve bringing a steady 11 points off the bench, and he's athletic and versatile enough to defend on the wing or hold his own against bigger players.
They've offered balance to an offense that relies on Hansbrough's rugged inside game and plenty of easy transition scores from speedy point guard Ty Lawson.
"We've got to try to figure out a way to guard them all," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "You put so much focus on Tyler, he still gets 20 and everybody else has big nights. ... Our focus will be, don't let them be who they want to be. I think in order to do that you have to defend all five spots."
In the Tar Heels' wins, Ellington and Green have combined to shoot 49 percent from the floor and 42 percent from 3-point range. Ellington even had a last-second 3-pointer in overtime to cap North Carolina's comeback from seven down with 2½ minutes left in regulation to win at Clemson 90-88 in January.
But in the losses, they combined to average 17 points on 26 percent shooting, including 3-for-22 from behind the arc.
That was most evident in the 89-78 loss to Duke in February. With Lawson sidelined with a sprained left ankle, the Tar Heels needed a big day from Ellington and Green. Instead, they missed shot after shot while the offense degenerated into a Hansbrough-takes-on-all attack. Ellington finished with eight points on 3-for-14 shooting and missed all six 3-pointers, while Green had three points on 1-for-10 shooting.
Green, who has missed 18 of 23 shots in the two losses, said those performances haven't shaken his confidence. But he admitted his first shot in a game can be telling.
"It's a confidence builder," he said. "It gives you more confidence to take the next one and knock the next one down. But a shooter's going to shoot. Even if I don't make the first one, I'll shoot it when I'm open."
The rematch against Duke provided the perfect example of that. Green made a layup just 8 seconds after checking into the game and followed with a 3 a few minutes later. He finished with 18 points on 8-for-14 shooting -- which included a poster-quality slam over Greg Paulus -- to go with eight rebounds and seven blocked shots in the 76-68 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Ellington also bounced back, finishing with 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting, including 2-for-3 from 3-point range.
So far in the NCAA tournament, Ellington has been as consistent as he was during the regular season. Green's tournament has been a little tougher; he struggled with his shot in the first two rounds and got into foul trouble in the East Regional championship against Louisville.
That hasn't mattered for the Tar Heels so far. But with the three other No. 1 seeds here, that won't be true by Saturday.
"Right now we're winning games and trying to make history," Green said. "I know what my role is. I know what my job is. I'm going to continue to do it until we get that last (championship) banner."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Rose vs. Lucas focal point for Memphis vs. Michigan State matchup
HOUSTON -- Everyone knows about the freshman guard who does everything. It's Derrick Rose of Memphis, and the biggest question about his NBA future isn't whether he'll go, but whether he'll have an NCAA championship in tow when he does.
But there's another good one in this South Regional. His name is Kalin Lucas, the penetrating point guard for Michigan State, who will be trying to stop Rose -- or at least neutralize him -- when the fifth-seeded Spartans meet top-seeded Memphis on Friday.
"He was noticeable. He was very noticeable," Rose said of his memories of Lucas from their meetings over the past few years in AAU games. "He didn't just pop into the limelight. He's been there."
The NCAA tournament ramps things up a bit, however, and when Lucas scored 19 points in Michigan State's second-round win over Pitt last week, this week's freshman-on-freshman guard matchup became an obvious story line for this game.
Pretty much everyone knows Rose, who is projected as a No. 1, 2 or 3 pick if he bolts college for the NBA after this season, as expected.
Not as many know Lucas, and those who do don't seem to appreciate him all that much. He was steady this season, averaged 10 points and four assists, but was left off the Big Ten's list of all-conference newcomers.
"Miffed would be a wrong word," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said of the snub. "I was disappointed that he wasn't, hoping that especially coaches would see what this kid has done for us, instead of maybe just choosing the guys with the highest scoring average or things like that."
Izzo recognizes, of course, that none of the newcomers named to that team are playing anymore. (OK, Ohio State's Kosta Koufos is still alive in the NIT.)
But Lucas is. He combined with senior Drew Neitzel last week to score 21 of Michigan State's final 25 points to help the Spartans pull away from Pitt.
While Neitzel was jacking up 3s, Lucas was taking the ball to the rim, something he did with ease when he was in high school, an all-everything player in Michigan, but that took some refining once he got to the next level.
"Coming from high school, it was more getting into the lane and making a lot of layups and stuff like that," Lucas said. "In college, you have to adjust to 7-footers and big guys in the lanes."
The adjustment wasn't automatic. After starting five games at the beginning of the season, Izzo saw his freshman struggling, saw a lineup that was too young, not able to live up to the high expectations that follow the Spartans around as vividly as memories of Magic Johnson and Mateen Cleaves.
The coach urged his freshman to watch more film, analyze the rights and wrongs of his game more. Lucas got the starting job back in February and now has his team in the regional semifinals for the seventh time in Izzo's 13 years.
Against Rose.
There's a tendency to think that a player this talented, even though he's freshman, was this good the minute he walked in the door at Memphis seven months ago.
Not so, says coach John Calipari.
Calipari's good friend, Xavier coach Sean Miller, "looked and he said his initial thought was, `he'll be like your 12th-best player," Calipari said. "And that was early on. He has gotten so much better and so much more comfortable. The only thing you have to tell Derrick is what you want him to do. When you teach Derrick, whatever you teach him, he owns. It's no longer yours."
Other things Rose owns: Conference USA freshman of the year, a spot on the all-conference first team, a strong, all-around floor game (he averages 14 points and 4.5 assists) and even a 68 percent average from the line, which qualifies as above average for the Tigers, who shoot only 59 percent as a team.
Easy to work with, too.
"The way he looks at himself, he's humble, and he thinks he's got so much more growth," Calipari said. "I hope that means one more year at Memphis but I don't know about that."
Though Rose demurs when asked about his future, conventional wisdom is he'll do like so many freshmen have of late -- Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Carmelo Anthony to name a few -- and bail when this season's over for the Tigers, regardless of whether that's here or next week in San Antonio.
Lucas? He's almost certainly destined to stay.
Izzo calls him the fastest player he's ever coached. Though there's a long way to go, the coach's relationship with Lucas is drawing comparisons to the one Izzo had with Cleaves, who is oft-cited as the favorite player Izzo ever coached.
Problem is, Izzo sees Memphis, with Rose, as a newer version of the Lakers when they had another famous Michigan State alum -- Magic Johnson.
"As good as I've seen," Izzo says of Rose. "And he, too, maybe doesn't get as much credit. He's not scoring 25 points a game, because he's playing in a system where his job is to deliver the ball some, score the ball some. He's got great versatility, and I think that's what makes him a special player."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Like old times: Pelphrey gearing up to face Indiana
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- As a native of Kentucky, John Pelphrey has plenty of appreciation for Arkansas' next opponent.
"When I was growing up, Indiana was doing it. That was in their heyday. It couldn't have been any bigger," the Razorbacks' coach said Monday. "Us playing Indiana in the NCAA tournament -- that's a big deal."
The ninth-seeded Razorbacks face the eighth-seeded Hoosiers in the first round Friday night in Raleigh, N.C. The teams have met only once before, over a half-century ago, so there's not much history between them.
But for Pelphrey, wanting to beat Indiana is nothing new.
Kentucky's rivalry with Indiana is one of the nation's most prestigious, and when Pelphrey played for the Wildcats, their December clashes against the Hoosiers consistently came down to final few possessions. In 1989, Pelphrey was a sophomore on Rick Pitino's first Kentucky team. The Wildcats, who had been put on probation by the NCAA earlier that year, lost to Bob Knight and Indiana 71-69.
The following season, Pelphrey scored 21 points before fouling out in an 87-84 loss to the Hoosiers.
"We were going through some difficult days ourselves, dealing with probation and everything," Pelphrey said. "The balance of power kind of shifted, so to speak."
Kentucky finally broke through against its rival to the northwest during the 1991-92 season. Led by sophomore Jamal Mashburn, the Wildcats beat Indiana 76-74.
"Jamal Mashburn became a superstar, and he was able to kind of carry us over the hump," Pelphrey said. "Just feel very fortunate to be a part of some of those games. Coach Knight was still the coach there, but that was a big game for us."
Kentucky went on to a 29-7 record and lost to Duke in the 1992 regional finals on Christian Laettner's famous buzzer-beater. If Laettner had missed, the Wildcats would have played Indiana again in the Final Four.
Pelphrey is in his first season as Arkansas' coach, and the Razorbacks are hoping for their own breakthrough against Indiana. Arkansas (22-11) is in the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year, but the Hogs haven't won a game there since 1999.
The Razorbacks have been to six Final Fours and won a national championship in 1994 -- an impressive resume for any program. In Raleigh, however, they'll have some elite company. The Indiana-Arkansas winner will likely play top-seeded North Carolina in the second round. Georgetown, another former national champion with multiple Final Four appearances, is also playing in Raleigh.
"It is a hard road in the tournament," Indiana interim coach Dan Dakich said. "The No. 1 seed gets a little easier road in the first game, obviously. The 8-9 game is always tough. You've got to win, but it is a great opportunity for us if we decide to take advantage of it."
Arkansas reached the championship game of the Southeastern Conference tournament -- an event that was moved to Georgia Tech's home court after a tornado hit the Georgia Dome on Friday night. With no way to accommodate all those with tickets, the SEC only let in those with working credentials, the bands and cheerleaders, and family and friends of the players.
"It was crazy," Arkansas forward Darian Townes said. "But we got used to it."
The arena figures to be a little more full when the Razorbacks take the court in Raleigh, and they could have their work cut out for them against Indiana. The Hoosiers (25-7) have lost three of four, but they were in the Top 25 as recently as last week.
Freshman guard Eric Gordon averages over 21 points per game. The question is how well the Hoosiers have recovered from coach Kelvin Sampson's resignation last month amid NCAA allegations of major rule infractions.
"Just not having coach Sampson around has been a big adjustment," forward D.J. White said. "A lot of guys are used to him being around, but we are through that stage right now. We haven't been playing good ball lately, and we know that. So we just have to figure something out going into the tournament."
Knight is now long gone from Indiana, and the Hoosiers haven't won an NCAA title since 1987. Still, there's no doubt Indiana has talent -- and Pelphrey understands how special this matchup will be.
"Our guys, I don't know if they understand everything there is to know about Indiana, in terms of the history," Pelphrey said. "Obviously, growing up in Kentucky, it's right there."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Clark scores 6 straight as Owls advance to Atlantic 10 semifinals
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Chris Clark scored six straight points and Temple tallied the final 11 points in an 84-75 victory over La Salle in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament on Thursday night.
Dionte Christmas had a game-high 29 points and Mark Tyndale and Sergio Olmos added 14 apiece as the second-seeded Owls (19-12) advanced to their 23rd conference semifinal despite squandering a 14-point second-half lead.
Temple, which has won a season-high five straight games, will play sixth-seeded Charlotte, which rallied in the second half to beat third-seeded Massachusetts 69-65.
Rodney Green had 20 points to lead seventh-seeded La Salle, which finished its season at 15-17. Darnell Harris added 18 points and Yves Mekongo Mbala had 16 for the Explorers, who were routed by Temple last weekend.
This one turned into a great game.
The Owls, who also got 10 rebounds from Tyndale, seemed to be in control after Christmas hit two free throws for a 73-67 lead with 4:37 to play.
However, Harris hit two free throws and a 3-pointer to start and end an 8-0 run that gave La Salle a 75-73 lead.
Olmos scored on a pick-and-roll layup to tie the game, but he failed to convert the three-point play after being fouled with 1:57 to go.
Harris then missed a 3-pointer at the other end and Clark was fouled going for the rebound. He converted both shots to put Temple ahead 77-75.
After Yves Mekongo Mbala was called for walking, Clark hit a 3-pointer that got a very friendly bounce on the rim, going up in the air and coming back down in the basket.
Clark made 1 of 2 free throws after Mekongo Mbala aired a 3-pointer and Christmas converted two more free throws after Harris missed another 3-pointer.
Temple scored the first eight points and 11 of 13 in getting a quick jump on La Salle. The Owls led by eight at the half, increased the margin to 14 early in the second half and were leading 59-48 after a free throw by Christmas with 12:38 to play.
La Salle, which struggled to beat Duquesne in the first round on Wednesday night, went on a 15-2 spurt that featured 3-pointers by Harris, Mekongo Mbala and Ruben Guillandeaux and six points by Green.
There were five more lead changes down the stretch with Clark providing the final one.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Giddens leads New Mexico over UNLV, 59-45
appearance, lifting New Mexico to a 59-45 win over UNLV on Tuesday night.
The Lobos (23-7, 10-5 Mountain West) snapped a four-game losing streak to UNLV (22-7, 11-4) and logged a key victory as they seek to improve their argument for receiving a possible at-large berth to the NCAA tournament.
Giddens was a force, collecting eight rebounds by halftime in his final homecourt appearance -- barring a trip to the National Invitation Tournament. The Kansas transfer also had five assists and a steal.
Fans in the student section chanted Giddens' name in the closing minutes, then "M.V.P" after the final horn, lobbying for Giddens to be named the Mountain West's player of the year.
UNLV point guard Wink Adams scored 12, four points below his average, but went scoreless in the second half. The Rebels shot 33 percent from the floor, hitting just 18-of-54.
UNLV had won four straight over New Mexico, including a 79-60 decision in Las Vegas on Feb. 2 when UNLV opened with a 21-5 run. The Lobos refused to let it happen again, forcing a grinding pace for a 24-22 halftime lead.
From there, New Mexico turned the tables, starting the second half with an 11-0 burst that stretched the lead to 35-24.
The Rebels missed their first four field goal tries and had three turnovers after the break, and the capacity crowd of 18,018 fans was at full roar as Chad Toppert hit a 3-pointer to force a UNLV timeout.
New Mexico didn't stop, giving an all-out effort on both ends during a Senior Night sendoff for Giddens, Jamaal Smith and Darren Prentice.
"I appreciate what these three young men have done for us with their leadership, their toughness," Lobos coach Steve Alford said in a postgame ceremony. "That's what you need for building blocks in a new program."
After the Rebels cut the deficit to 43-33 at the 10-minute mark, Prentice threw a long pass to Giddens for a thunderous slam dunk that kept the fans standing and the crowd noise at full volume.
Then, Roman Martinez collected a miss and banked it in to push New Mexico's lead to 47-33 with 7:44 remaining, and UNLV trailed 51-37 with 5 minutes to go when Smith drew the fourth and fifth fouls on Rebels point guard Wink Adams.
UNLV coach Lon Kruger was furious with the call, but his team never got the margin into double digits again.
With the victory, Alford set a school record for most wins by a first-year coach. Dave Bliss went 22-11 in his first season coaching the Lobos, back in 1988-89.
The Pit was sold out, just like a week earlier for an overtime loss to BYU. It marked the first consecutive sellouts since the Lobos faced Arizona and New Mexico State early in the 1996-97 season.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Adrien's double-double leads No. 15 Connecticut to 79-61 victory over Rutgers
PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Jim Calhoun didn't mince words with junior forward Jeff Adrien before No. 15 Connecticut played Rutgers on Tuesday night.
"I told him, 'I need 40 from you tonight.' There was no 25-minute talk. That's all I said," the Hall of Fame coach recalled. "I was nervous about this game. He gave me 40."
Adrien actually only gave Calhoun 39 minutes, but in that time he had a career-high 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Huskies to a 79-61 victory, their 11th win 12 games.
"Anytime Coach talks to me about anything I need to come through," Adrien said. "He talks to me and tells me I'm not playing like Jeff Adrien. Whenever I talk to Coach I always tend to step it up for some reason. He asked for 40 and I gave him 40."
It wasn't just Adrien, who had his 15th double-double of the season and 31st of his career, the most of any active player in the Big East.
Sophomore forward Stanley Robinson had 18 points and 13 rebounds and junior guard Craig Austrie had 18 points and was 4-for-4 from 3-point range.
"They were the guys tonight," Calhoun said. "They were our veterans tonight and they combined to score our last 30 points."
Connecticut (22-6, 11-4), which moved one game ahead of Marquette in fourth place in the Big East, the last spot that secures a first-round bye in the league's tournament, was coming off a tough loss at Villanova on Saturday that ended the 10-game winning streak.
The Huskies weren't overly impressive in the streak with eight wins coming by single digits, but four of the victories were over ranked teams.
"We are very secure we can win but we didn't play secure the entire game," Calhoun said. "But this was a good bounce-back game and it was the first time we had separation since Marquette (the first game of the streak when the Huskies led by as many as 29 points)."
Freshman Earl Pettis had a season-high 18 points for the Scarlet Knights (10-19, 2-14), who lost their eighth straight game. The last three losses were to ranked teams: Notre Dame, Marquette and Connecticut.
Rutgers, behind 11 points from Pettis -- one better than his previous season high for a game -- was within 43-37 at halftime, shooting 48.4 percent from the field (15-for-31), an impressive stat against Connecticut, which entered the game third in the conference in field goal percentage defense (38 percent).
The Scarlet Knights opened the second half on an 8-4 run with Anthony Farmer's 3-pointer with 17:12 to play bringing them within 47-45.
Then came the Huskies' run it seemed everyone in the building was waiting for.
Connecticut scored the next 11 points, the last two on a baseline jumper by Adrien that made it 58-45 with 13:02 left. During the run, Rutgers missed six shots and turned the ball over once. All of a sudden the Huskies were contesting every shot and it worked to get them some breathing room.
"We had a terrific first half against an extremely talented team," Rutgers coach Fred Hill said. "In the second half our young guys never stopped playing hard."
The Scarlet Knights shot 35.7 percent in the second half (10-for-28) and were able to stay reasonably close by going 4-for-8 from 3-point range in each half, led by Farmer's 3-for-4.
Hasheem Thabeet had 10 rebounds and six of Connecticut's 11 blocked shots. Reserve Jonathan Mandelove had four blocks for the Huskies, who lead the nation in blocked shots at 8.8 per game.
"This is a pretty key stretch for us. We needed this win, especially on the road," Robinson said. "The crowd wasn't there but we pretty much came in and took over. You could see them drop their heads a little bit and we took over."
Hill was upset with the way his frontcourt allowed Adrien to dominate inside, using a street expression for how bad it was.
"We could have had some heart and played him a little tougher," he said. "You are going against a guy who took your lunch."
Connecticut sophomore guard Jerome Dyson returned after a nine-game suspension for violating team rules. Dyson, who averages 14.3 points per game, had three points and five assists.
"It was good," Dyson said of his return. "I just wanted to be out on the floor with my teammates. That was the biggest thing that I missed, just being on the floor with my teammates."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Milum dunk, Middleton free throws give Akron 56-52 win over Miami
OXFORD, Ohio -- A put-back dunk by Quade Milum and a pair of game-clinching free-throws by Cedrick Middleton gave Akron a 56-52 win over Miami of Ohio in the final seconds on Tuesday night.
The dunk by Milum, who had six points, came with 36 seconds remaining. The free throws with one second remaining by Middleton, who led the Zips with 18 points, iced the victory.
Chris McKnight contributed 10 for Akron (19-7, 9-4 Mid-American Conference), while Nick Dials had eight. The Zips shot 46.5 percent for the game, including 4-of-6 from behind the 3-point line during the second half.
Tim Pollitz led the RedHawks (13-12, 7-6) with 18 points, while Kenny Hayes added 13 -- his 12th straight game in double figures.
Akron broke an eight-game home winning streak for Miami.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
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