Washington State's Bennett selected coach of the year
March 30, 2007
ATLANTA (AP) -Tony Bennett, who led Washington State to its best season in 60 years, was selected The Associated Press college basketball coach of the year Friday.
The 37-year-old Bennett, who succeeded his father, Dick, this season at Washington State, is the second coach to win the award after his first season as a head coach, joining Bill Hodges of Indiana State in 1979.
The Cougars, who were picked ninth in the Pac-10 preseason poll, finished 26-8, were second to UCLA in the conference and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament. It was their first tournament appearance since 1994 and the fifth in school history.
Bennett received 40 votes from the 72-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Thad Matta of Ohio State and Billy Gillispie of Texas A&M each received 10 votes, while Bo Ryan of Wisconsin got seven.
The Cougars reached as high as ninth in the rankings this season and were 13th in the final poll. He was an assistant to his father at Washington State for three seasons and played for him at Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Bennett and Washington State agreed to a contract extension earlier this week.
Bennett is the first Washington State coach to win the award, which was first given in 1967.
Roy Williams of North Carolina won the award last season.
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Copyright 2006-2007, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Knicks sign Kentucky center Morris to 2-year deal
The New York Knicks signed Kentucky center Randolph Morris, who played his junior season as an NBA free agent, to a contract Friday.
The Knicks did not announce terms of the signing, but an NBA source told ESPN Insider Chad Ford that it is a two-year deal worth $1.6 million.
Morris joins the Knicks in their fight for an Eastern Conference playoff berth, which took a hit with a 90-68 loss in Cleveland on Friday. There is no immediate word on when Morris would join the team.
"We said all along that in terms of building this team we would have to find unconventional ways to try and find talent and get out and beat the bushes," said Isiah Thomas, the Knicks' coach and director of basketball operations. "This is a very unique situation and I don't know if there has been something similar to this. The rules allowed it, and here we are."
Thomas said the 6-foot-11, 260-pound Morris will soon join and practice with the Knicks.
"It's another guy we can add to our young core,'' Thomas said. "We're very happy to have him. It's another big and it's almost like another pick in this year's draft -- just a little early."
Thomas said several other teams were "chasing" Morris.
Randolph declared himself eligible for the 2005 NBA draft after his freshman season at Kentucky, but he did not sign with an agent. After going undrafted, he returned for his sophomore and junior seasons under Tubby Smith. Morris sat out the first 14 games of his sophomore season because of an NCAA penalty related to contact with an agent.
Due to a provision in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, Morris is prohibited from re-entering the draft and had free agent status throughout the 2006-07 season at Kentucky.
According to the NBA rookie contract scale, Morris' $1.6 million deal equates to first-round money; his salary is on par with what the 26th pick received in last year's draft and what the 30th pick will sign for in 2007.
According to Kentucky, Morris met with athletic director Mitch Barnhart on Thursday night and was asked to wait until Smith's replacement was hired before deciding whether to stay in school. A Kentucky spokesperson told ESPN.com that Morris told Barnhart he would do that.
On Friday, Morris apparently changed his mind. Morris told Barnhart on Friday afternoon that he had signed with the Knicks, Kentucky spokesperson Scott Stricklin confirmed.
Kentucky is now trying to figure out how the departure of Morris, who averaged 16.1 points and 7.8 rebounds a game this season for the Wildcats, before spring semester's end will affect the school's academic progress report.
Under the new APR, schools are subject to scholarship penalties if student-athletes leave early and not in good academic standing. Withdrawing from school before the end of a semester can seriously impede a team's GPA and academic standing. To that end, Texas and Ohio State are taking steps to ensure freshmen Kevin Durant and Greg Oden will finish the spring semester.
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Cougs' opponent looks familiar
By Scott Taylor
Deseret Morning News
LOS ANGELES Familiarity, as well as the lack thereof, is an underlying theme as BYU faces Louisville in today's opening round of the 2007 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
The 11th-seeded Cougars (23-9) tip off against No. 6 Louisville (26-7) at 6 p.m. MT at USC's Galen Center, with the victor advancing to meet today's winner between No. 3 Arizona State and No. 14 UC Riverside on Monday.
BYU is making its second straight NCAA appearance. After finishing with school-bests in overall record, national ranking and NCAA seeding last year, the Cougars downed Iowa in the first round before falling to Oklahoma in the second.
In the NCAAs for the third straight season, Louisville finished fifth in the Big East Conference this year and reached the conference tournament semifinals before falling to top-seeded UConn. The Cardinals enjoyed the best record in school history, a first-ever national ranking and a best-ever NCAA sixth seed.
So, while the Cougars and Cardinals have never met on the court, BYU can look at UL and see those similarities and others. Both boast strong inside-out attacks and feature their respective conference players of the year in BYU senior center Dani Wright and Louisville sophomore forward Angel McCoughtry.
Both want to improve on less-than-stellar performances in their most recent outings Wright finished with as many points as fouls five in the Cougars' loss to New Mexico in the MWC championship game, having sprained an ankle in the quarterfinals and splitting open her chin in the semis.
"My ankle is 100 percent and I got my stitches out," said Wright. "I'm ready to roll."
McCoughtry scored just nine points in her foul-plagued outing against UConn.
The two coaches are familiar with each other, with Jeff Judkins' first two years at BYU overlapping with counterpart Tom Collen's final two seasons at Colorado State.
"What I can tell you is that from the years that I spent in the Mountain West," said Collen, "it's one of the top conferences in the country and it competes on a very even level with a lot of the BCS teams in terms of the quality of the student-athletes. They do a great job of recruiting and I think where they really excel is that they have great coaches from top to bottom."
Countered Judkins: "He knows me and he knows that we run four-man motion and we pound the ball inside. Hopefully, he's not used to that that much. ... It's hard when you come to these tournaments, but it's refreshing. You don't know them and they don't know you."
Judkins and his players liken Louisville to TCU athletic and quick with McCoughtry similar to the Frogs' Adrianne Ross, only with stronger post-up moves. Or better yet, like former BYU standout Ambrosia Anderson.
And what do the Cards see in the Cougs?
"They have some strong post players and shooters they look like they are a pretty good team," said Louisville junior Patrika Barlow. "They play a different style than we are used to. We are used to going up and down the floor, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage and just push it on them."
And yet the Cougars have shown they can run when they want to.
So the BYU starters are back in familiar territory with Wright, Melinda Johnsen and Jennie Keele playing in what could be their final collegiate game.
"We have (NCAA) experience and I think when you can set the standard early, that's important," said Keele. "We're the ones that have the experience, so we need to have level heads. Knowing it could be your last game, it can be hard and we're a little bit nervous, but we'll try to set the way and lead the way or our team."
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com
@ 2007 Deseret News Publishing Company
One man's guide to the 'Madness'
Still agonizing over that NCAA bracket during a breakfast of Lucky Charms and Bud Light since you're not actually going to work today anyway?
Well, here are a few more things most likely conflicting with what you've read before to take into account before turning over your "for entertainment purposes only" choices to the most popular guy in the office for the next two weeks.
If it's already after the 12:20 p.m. deadline of the Davidson Maryland tipoff, fret not, I've never actually won one of these things. In fact, I tend to get beaten so viciously that I think of my opponents as the unstoppable tag team of Ron Artest and Chris Simon, who go by the moniker of "uncalled 4 aggression."
But does it matter anyway? As all the most humorous people have told you this week office pools are inevitably won by a woman in receiving who picked the teams by color, mascot or name.
If the woman who wins your pool, though, knew that Old Dominion decked itself in slate blue, silver and light blue, that Wright State’s fans cheer on their Rowdy Raider mascot, and that Texas A&M Corpus Christi's teams are called the Islanders as it's the nation's only university located on its own island then maybe she's not as clueless as your bruised and battered male ego wished her to be.
Anyway, here's my bracket and how I came about it:
First, let's tackle the local angle to get that pain out of the way. Holy Cross will not beat Southern Illinois.
I would love for the upset to happen. The men's basketball team winning an NCAA tournament game on the heels of the hockey team’s upset victory last season would be the most exciting Worcester sports story since Burkett Little League’s trip to Williamsport.
Yesterday morning, on a poll at telegram.com, only 38.8 percent of respondents had the Crusaders losing in the first round; just over 10 percent had the team making the Sweet Sixteen, and just under 10 percent had them winning the national championship.
For the record, teamrankings.com gives Holy Cross a 0.01 percent chance of winning the tournament.
Holy over optimistic Cross, Batman.
In facing teams from power conferences this year, Holy Cross lost to Syracuse (not in the tournament) by 8 points, Providence (also enjoying games on the couch) by 9 points, and Duke (seeded lower than Southern Illinois) by 12.
The 'Sader-Saluki bowl may be a close game both teams hold opponents to under 60 points a game but there’s a reason Southern Illinois is ranked 14th in the latest AP poll and Holy Cross was receiving a whole one vote.
But upsets come from somewhere, and I've found that the upsets which seem to be the most harped upon by the college basketball analysts a rare breed that spends 11 months of the year locked in a coffin happen rather frequently. So, with that theory, I'm picking Creighton over Nevada, Old Dominion over Butler, and Davidson over Maryland.
That only gives me one 12 seed beating a 5 seed and everyone knows that's the traditional upset spot, so I need one more of those. The remaining 12s are Illinois, Arkansas and Long Beach State. Illinois and Arkansas are bad teams from power conferences, though, and this is the spot where the mid major is supposed to shine, so only Long Beach State and its four double digit scores move on from this trio.
Top seeds lose in the first round as often as Deval Patrick gets good press, so North Carolina, Florida, Ohio State and Kansas all get a pass.
My apologies to the other top local angle in the tournament, Central Connecticut's Javier Mojica of Auburn. Yes, you were labeled by ESPN’s Andy Katz as a player "you'll love watching" in the tournament, but I hear good things of the Buckeyes' Greg Oden, too.
Second seeds get knocked out in the first round as often as Willy Wonka opens his factory, so welcome Memphis, Georgetown, Wisconsin and UCLA to round two.
Eventually, a lower number and its championship dreams have to part ways, though, so let's knock off a No. 3 seed. Oral Roberts has a forceful presence in Caleb Green, so I say the Mouthy Bobs take down Washington State.
Man, there are still a lot of games left.
The rest of the 3 and 4 seeds not yet discussed get through then, already discussed the 5-12 dynamic, so now up to 6-11 matchups.
Louisville gets to play in Kentucky, so can't beat that advantage. Notre Dame has to play the day before St. Patrick's Day? No way Fighting Irish can perform under those conditions congratulations, Winthrop.
As an American, I'm more comfortable with the Virginia Commonwealth than any Dukes, so VCU goes. Also, between Vanderbilt and George Washington, only one of those men has been president.
Alright, three 7/10 matchups left. No place is closer to the spirit of this tournament than Las Vegas, so UNLV advances. No place remaining is closer to me than BC, so they go, too. Finally, Gonzaga is much more fun to say than Indiana.
That leaves the four 8-9 matchups and those are impossible, so to make up for shunning Indiana, the states of Arizona, Kentucky and Michigan (State) get through. And since the Mormon missionaries (another solid tag team) always have been respectful when I tell them I don’t believe in God, BYU over Xavier.
Five more rounds to go and only 10 minutes before you have to leave for work?
Rapid-fire bracket-filling then: Sweet 16: Florida, Davidson, Oregon, UNLV, Kansas, Southern Illinois, Pitt, UCLA, UNC, Texas, Oral Roberts, Georgetown, Ohio State, Long Beach State, Louisville and Creighton.
Elite Eight: Florida, Oregon, Southern Illinois, UCLA, Texas, Georgetown, Ohio State, Creighton.
Final Four: Florida, UCLA, Georgetown, Ohio State
National championship game: Florida, Ohio State
There we are, one game to go, swallow that last backwash sip of Bud Light and let's get to it.
Will Florida be able to ride its team cohesiveness to a second straight title, or will Ohio State's Oden play the Carmelo Anthony role this year and carry his team to the title before cashing in his NBA millions?
The Buckeyes scored a Big 10-leading 73.6 points per game this year, but the Gators did a little better, averaging 79.3 per game. The SEC, however, was a higher-scoring league in general, Florida's ppg actually placing second to Tennessee's.
Therefore, it's not too surprising that OSU's 60.2 ppg defensive number outdoes the 66.4 ppg that the Gators gave up.
So how to make sense of these numbers?
According to the Ohio State Web site, a Buckeye is a "small, shiny, dark brown nut with a light tan patch that comes from the official state tree of Ohio, the buckeye tree."
According to Steve Irwin, Gators are "Crikey".
Final score: Florida 74, Ohio State 70.
Josh Bousquet can be reached by e-mail at jbousquet@telegram.com.
@ 2007 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.
Long Beach State 82, Pacific 76
STOCKTON, Calif.
(AP) - Aaron Nixon had 32 points, nine rebounds and six assists to lead Long Beach State to a 82-76 victory over Pacific on Monday night, giving the 49ers their first outright Big West Conference championship since 1996.
Sterling Byrd had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Kejuan Johnson scored 11 points for Long Beach State (20-7, 10-2 Big West), which officially ended Pacific's three-year reign as Big West regular-season champion while beating the Tigers in Stockton for the first time since 2002.
Michael White had his first career double-double with a career-high 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead Pacific (11-16, 5-7), which also got 12 points from Reggia Vezia in the ESPN Big Monday game.
Long Beach led by 13 points early in the second half, but Pacific went on a late 10-2 run to rally back within 72-70 with two minutes to play before the 49ers closed out the victory.
Long Beach swept Pacific for the first time in five years and recorded its first 20-win season since 2000.
The game was tied for the sixth time at 17 midway through the first half before Long Beach State began to pull away behind Nixon, who had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists as the 49ers stretched their lead to seven points five times before the break.
Nixon took an inbounds pass in the left corner with one second remaining, then banked in a 25-foot 3-pointer that beat the buzzer and gave Long Beach State a 39-32 halftime advantage.
With Nixon scoring at will, including back-to-back 3-pointers, Long Beach bolted to a 54-41 lead six minutes into the second half before Pacific's comeback made it close at the finish.
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