MIKE RUTHERFORD

Seton Hall became the second Big East team to see its bubble popped today (literally...Gonzalez was so pissed...threw his skip-it) as the Pirates were handled by Notre Dame, 68-56, in a game that all but crushed their hopes of gaining an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. A night after scoring 109 points in a victory over Providence, the Hall was held to just a point more than half that total.

The other big story of the night was the return of Fighting Irish superstar Luke Harangody, who had missed Notre Dame's last five games with a bone bruise. 'Gody quickly silenced those who had claimed his team is better without him on the floor - the Irish won 4 of 5 games without him - by coming off the bench four minutes into the game and recording 15 points and nine rebounds...at halftime. He finished with 20 points and 10 boards to lead all players in both categories. 

Notre Dame moves on to face second-seeded Pitt tomorrow night at 7 p.m. 

Over in the Big 12, Oklahoma gave credence to the belief that they had already shut it down for the 2009-2010 season by showing up in body only to be throttled by rival and No. 7 seed Oklahoma State, 81-67. OSU's Keiton Page hit 5-of-8 threes and led all scorers with 24 points. 

The Cowboys get No. 2 Kansas State next. 

In the only other game of semi-importance(?), Tulsa knocked off Rice 73-62 in a C-USA quarterfinal. The tournament might not be off to a rousing start, but I hear cocky freshman Darius Washington misses 2-of-3 free-throws with zero seconds on the clock and his team down two in the championship game. So that'll probably be worth tuning into. 

 

Thomas Beisner

1:00 PM

The Big XII,despite the stigma of being a football conference and sounding like a name of a movie your company won't expense, has developed into quite the powerful basketball league over the past several seasons. This year appears to be no different as they enter the post-season with the nation’s top ranked team, three other teams in the top-25 and six teams likely to go dancing. Before they take on the world, though. a little intra-conference positioning is on tap. The Phillips 66 Big XII Tournament (no event is more married to their sponsor) gets underway tomorrow and there are a number of things that the casual observer must know. Study up.

Location  

Kansas City, Missouri, hosting their ninth Phillips 66 Big XII Tournament, is known as both the “BBQ Capital of the World” and the “Paris of the Plains”. The convergence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers originally attracted settlers to the area and KCMO was officially incorporated in 1850. That also marks the last time someone thought, “Hmmm. I think Kansas City might be a nice place to live.” 
 
Names to Know

Sharon Collins – Collins is a delightful elderly lady who will be lingering in the bar of your hotel, sipping a 7-on-7 and working her way through three packs of Marlboro Reds. Often confused with Kansas point guard Sherron Collins, Sharon has developed some witty pick-up lines involving “ball handling” and “going to the rack”. Stay away.

Kim English – Not to be confused with Gary Parrish's Missouri man crush, natives of Kansas City know Kim English for exactly what it is – an institution of learning. Sue Ann Kim established Kim English in 2001 after relocating from Beijing and has now helped over 75 Chinese transplants gain American citizenship and master their new language.. 好！

Tiny Gallon – In basketball circles, Tiny Gallon is the freshman center for the Oklahoma Sooners. In Kansas City, though, tiny gallon has two completely different meanings. It’s most commonly (and most boringly) used a reference to anything smaller than 128 ounces. For example, you might tell the gas station attendant that their soda machine is out and he will reply, “Dammit son, just grab one of them tiny gallons in the cooler”. The less frequently used version in Kansas City is used as part of a phrase such as “Dang, did you see that tiny gallon the red dress? She must not be from ‘round here”.  This variation often does not appear in Kansas City vernacular at all, making appearances only when a large amount of visitors come to town.  Because women in Kansas City are fat.

The Contenders

Kansas – They entered the year at the top of the polls and ended the season still hugging the top spot. That’s certainly not a bad thing. In between, there were fights with the football team, DUIs, Facebook banishments and the worst free throw ever. And that’s just two players. They’re the favorites to win the national title so you have to figure they’re the favorites to win this tournament. I didn’t fact check that. I’m just assuming.

Kansas State – Just seven years removed from coaching a high school team, Frank Martin has Kansas State in national title contention thanks to the backcourt of Jacobham Lincoln and the world’s fastest basketball player/magician Denis Clemente. They dropped both games to Kansas this year but went undefeated against Baylor, Texas A&M and Texas this season. I would assume this, along with their #2 seed, makes them the second favorite.

Baylor – After slowly improving the past few years under Scott Drew and that Australian point guard, the Bears launched themselves onto the national scene this season thanks to Tweety Carter, the school’s first McDonald’s All-American, and LaceDarius Dunn, who’s name sounds like the sequel to this movie. Their road to the title likely goes through Texas, Kansas State and Kansas. They’re 2-0 against the Horns this year and 0-2 against Kansas’ finest, losing by 2 to the Wildcats and by 6 to the Jayhawks.  Again, third in your program, third in your sports book.

Wednesday’s Games

#8 Colorado vs. #9 Texas Tech – Despite protests to just have their athletic directors debate whether athletes respond better to being enticed by sex, drugs and alcohol or by being locked in a closet, these teams will play an actual basketball game. The Buffaloes enter the tournament on a three-game winning streak and the Red Raiders, despite having a guy named Mike Singletary, have showed no backbone in losing seven in a row and nine of eleven.  You sold on this one yet?  No?  Umm...there will be cheerleaders?

#5 Missouri vs. #12 Nebraska – Even The Scwab is going to sit this one out.  You should too. 

#7 Oklahoma State vs. #10 Oklahoma – There will be plenty of hatred in the Sprint Center for this one and, for once, it won’t be because Oklahoma State is fighting each other. An in-state rivalry is just the kind of first-round sexiness this tournament needs. The key for Oklahoma State will be Big XII Player of the Year James Anderson, who topped the conference with 22 points per game. On the other side, Oklahoma freshman guard Tommy Mason-Griffin was the conference leader in tattoos per square inch. I don’t think that will be as useful in this matchup. It does bear noting, though.

#6 Texas vs. #11 Iowa State – The formerly top-ranked Longhorns are now the sixth-seed in the Big XII tournament after a road loss to Kansas State sent them spiraling into a 6-8 tailspin to finish the year. However, barring a disaster, Texas will slaughter the Cyclones and you’ll hear for the 450th time about Dexter Pittman's weight loss. What they won’t tell you, though, is that his excess weight stumbled across some radioactive contamination in a sewer and formed a living organism capable of transforming into actual size Tweety Carter, Tommy Mason-Griffin and Sherron Collins body doubles. This could pave the way for a Longhorn tourney run.

Rest of the Schedule

Quarterfinals  - Thursday, March 11
No. 1 Kansas vs. CU/TTU winner  11:30 a.m.
No. 4 Texas A&M vs. MU/NU winner  2:00 p.m.
No. 2 Kansas State vs. OU/OSU winner  6:00 p.m.
No. 3 Baylor vs. ISU/UT winner  8:30 p.m.

Semifinals - Friday, March 12
Thursday afternoon winners  6:00 p.m.
Thursday evening winners  8:30 p.m.

Final - Saturday, March 13
Semifinal winners  5:00 p.m.

By Thomas Beisner

1:00 PM

Each morning, the CBS College Basketball Road Trip team will stop spooning each other in their Motel Six beds, grab a couple of bagels and hit the road in pursuit of their next college basketball destination. Their dossier and agenda are to remain top secret. However, I went to high school with one of the writers from Viva Laughlin and CBS forgot to take back his keys. Here is what he found…



Location: The sixth-largest city in Kansas, Lawrence proudly declares itself a college town. And, like any college town, it lends itself to being easily abbreviated and tagged with “Vegas”. Unfortunately for Lawrence, Kansas, Larry Vegas has been claimed about 250 times already, according to Google. And I’m pretty sure someone named Larry Vegas sent my wife a Facebook message asking if she wanted to pose for photos. On second thought, Lawrence is just fine.

Traveling Distance: The trip from East Lansing to Lawrence is a daunting one, but not one that our weary road warriors will back down from. Now nearly halfway through their trip, they’ll pack up the Kia Rondo, watch Kid Rock wave farewell in the rearview mirror and travel 750 miles to where our fair game came was birthed from the athletic Canadian loins of Dr. James Naismith. In the process, they’ll bid farewell to C.M. Tomlin, who will return home to make room for Matt’s ego, which has grown considerably since having two columns on the CBS Sports college basketball page yesterday.

Song Birds: College basketball is rich with tradition and each school has their calling card. However, there is, perhaps, no more famous signature chant than KU’s “Rock….Chalk….Jayhawk….KU” ditty. The chant is usually recited after singing the alma mater and is followed by the fight song. According to the Kansas site, it was originally “Rah, Rah, Jayhawk, KU” when created in 1886 and later took on “Rock Chalk” as a tribute to Lawrence’s limestone. It also says Kansas fans eagerly await Lady Gaga’s “Rock chalk, rock chalk chalk, rock chalk, rock chalk chalk” remix.

Acronym Confusion: The University of Oklahoma is referred to as OU. The University of Kansas is referred to as KU. As the kids say, I’m HMS (for the rest of you old guys, that’s “shaking my head”).

Toto, I don’t think we’re on probation anymore: Over the past two seasons, Kansas went 64-11 and won a national title. During that time, Kansas was also on (minor) probation. Does that mean that Kansas was the first school to win a national title while on probation? I don’t know. CBS wouldn’t fund an intern for the trip. It should be noted, though, that the probation had nothing to do with the academic records of Darrell Arthur, who was found to have not technically graduated high school after beating a guy who supposedly didn’t take his SAT in the NCAA title game. You do know neither of the A’s in NCAA stand for academics, right?

Serious Statistical Breakdown: Mark Mangino ate this part. But only after he subjected it to unfair mental torture.

Carry on my Wayward Son: Since this past summer, Tyshawn Taylor has been the leading scorer on Team USA, broken his finger fighting the football team, inspired a hot new video game, had his Facebook taken away for posting transfer threats and earned a starting spot. That’s more ups and downs than Danny Bonaduce on a pogo stick. But, if his 17 points against Colorado is any indication, Taylor is gassed up, aight? Point plankn.

Celebrity Fan Power: Kentucky has Ashley Judd, Southern Cal has Snoop Dogg, Texas has Matthew McConaughey and Temple has Bill Cosby. Kansas? They have former Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie, who has been popping up at Jayhawk games lately to root for his buddy Bill Self. Should he be in attendance tonight, it’s a win-win for the road trip crew as Drew can finally get the name of the rehab program that encourages traveling from college town to college town and Tomlin’s replacement in the back seat could end up being a former Big 12 and SEC Coach of the Year. You in, Clyde? Pit stop in Lexington tomorrow…

On a personal note: As a Kentucky alum, I found this part of Bill Self’s Wikipedia bio unnecessarily harsh: “Self joined Larry Brown's coaching staff at the University of Kansas, replacing the position vacated by John Calipari”. Vacated? Low blow.

Agenda: Just like a night at the Playboy Mansion in the 70’s, the guys will look to get inside and get their senses wrapped around what Wilt Chamberlain left behind. There will be rocking, there will be chalking and there will be Jayhawking, whatever that may mean. But, most importantly, they will pay heed and they will beware of the Phog….or at least all the Phog puns, of which there are thousands.

KU, the expectations are high for this trip. You’re 26-1, you’re #1 in the nation, your program is dripping in history and your center is missing one of his front teeth. Anything thing short of an epic 24 hours will be a major letdown.

Lawrence, Kansas, let’s do this.