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Purdue no pushover with hardnosed Kramer

Howie Stalwick, for Sporting News

Purdue's Chris Kramer (center) had 10 points and four steals against Siena.

SPOKANE, Wash.—Purdue guard Chris Kramer looks like a linebacker, and the Siena Saints seem to think he plays like one, too.

Siena coach Fran McCaffery pleaded the Fifth when asked about Kramer's rough-and-tumble play Friday in Purdue's 72-64 triumph in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

"I don't know if there's a delicate way to answer that, so I better stay away from it," McCaffery said.

Kramer, a muscular, thick-bodied senior, is known for his tenacious and sometimes physical defense. The two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year just smiles when asked about the verbal abuse he's taken from fans around the league.

"I get it worse than anybody I've ever seen," Kramer said. "Seriously. I got rode so bad. But it's fun. You're hated by everyone, but you're loved by so many. It's just one of those things.

"As much as they don't want to say it, they really appreciate the way you try to play. They just don't like it when you're playing against their team."

Friday's performance was a typical one for the 6-3, 214-pound Kramer.

He repeatedly crashed to the floor after colliding with players or in pursuit of loose balls. Kramer drew the ire of Siena's Kyle Downey after rather violently throwing the ball off Downey's body as it was headed out of bounds. Not long after that, Kramer and Downey joined a pile of players in a scrum for the ball. Downey emerged with a bloody nose. Kramer emerged with his reputation intact.

"Just being a pest," Purdue coach Matt Painter said approvingly. "And that's what he's got to do for us to be successful."

The play and leadership of Kramer became even more important to the fourth-seeded Boilermakers when All-American candidate Robbie Hummel went out for the year with a knee injury Feb. 24 against Minnesota. Since then, Purdue is 4-2.

"We just had to stay focused," Kramer said. "Everyone's got to step up."

Kramer, averaging just 6.4 points per game for his season and career, said he's made a "conscious effort" to contribute more on offense since Hummel went down. Kramer has averaged 8.7 points in Hummel's absence, including a season-high 18 against Indiana on March 3.

On Friday, Kramer had 10 points and a game-high four steals. More important, he held Siena scoring leader Alex Franklin scoreless after Franklin notched 10 points in the first half to help the Saints take a 32-29 lead into the locker room.

Kramer guards everyone but centers, but he usually defended guards before Hummel was hurt. Now Kramer often has to guard power forwards like the 6-5, 226-pound Franklin, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

"Guarding bigger players down in the post, you've just got to try to front them and not let them get the ball in position to get an easy touch," Kramer said as he sat in the locker room with ice bags draped on both arms. "When they do get the ball, you've got to really get into them, pressure them."

Not surprisingly, Kramer was a standout football player (primarily a quarterback and safety) in high school.

"If you watch guys like Kramer play, you can see how there's an advantage if you recruit football players," Painter said. "Especially guys that play in the defensive backfield, they close down on angles, they do a very good job of pursuing the basketball."

Kramer is scheduled to graduate in May. He's undecided on his basketball future and talks about becoming a sports agent or attending law school once his playing days are over.

Painter, who preaches the value of gritty defense, said he fell in love with Kramer when he saw him play in high school.

"He was always a hardnosed player that could really defend," Painter said.

Now Kramer's college career, and Purdue's season, hang in the balance each time the Boilermakers take the floor. Painter says it won't be easy replacing Kramer next season.

"He's got good speed, good quickness, but more than anything, he's just a winner," Painter said. "He has some deficiencies, but when he steps out there on the court, competing isn't one of those deficiencies."

Hartford-LSU Preview (AP)

Van Chancellor knows what it takes to build title-winning teams, and Jennifer Rizzotti knows what it's like to play for him. Chancellor now will try to get the better of his former player when seventh-seeded LSU faces Rizzotti and No. 10 seed Hartford on Sunday at Durham, N.C. in the Memphis regional.

Vermont fans watch hoops with an eye on hockey

Jim Fink, for Sporting News

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In a sea of Syracuse orange, a gathering of several hundred green-shirted University of Vermont fans found time Friday night to root for two of their favorite teams.

In the hours leading up to the Catamounts' game against Syracuse, Vermont fans huddled in a downtown Buffalo bar eating pizza and chicken wings, drinking beer and cheering the university's men's hockey team in an Hockey East semifinal against rival Boston College at the TD Garden.

Why Buffalo over Boston?

"This is the NCAA playoffs," athletic director Bob Corran said. "But, I'll be checking my Blackberry. A lot."

Nearby Sean Leach of the Burlington, Vt., suburb of Williston was walking through the crowd, proudly displaying a "Go 'Cats" Vermont license plate.

"This is the higher-stake game of the two," Leach said, who admitted he has split feelings between the basketball and hockey teams.
Stan Rhodes, a Rutland resident, agrees.

"My focus is on the boys," he said between sips of beer.

"The hardcore basketball fans came to Buffalo," added Eric Miller, a Burlington resident. "The hardcore hockey fans went to Boston. I guess we kind of headed in two different directions."

Jim Fink of Buffalo Business First, a sister publication of Sporting News, is covering NCAA basketball games in Buffalo.

Texas A&M rides Middleton past Utah St. (AP)

When Texas A&M guard Derrick Roland broke his leg in December it forced some drastic lineup changes for the Aggies, including freshman Khris Middleton being moved into the starting lineup. He played OK, then averaged a solid 15 points in three Big 12 tournament games. But Middleton erupted for a career-high 19 points as fifth-seeded Texas A&M crushed 12th seed Utah State 69-53 on Friday in the...

South: Purdue 72, Siena 64: Purdue Silences the Doubters and Beats Siena

No. 4 Purdue, considered a national-title contender before Robbie Hummel’s injury, displayed enough second-half feistiness to beat No. 13 Siena.

South: Texas A&M 69, Utah State 53: Aggies Advance With Hot Shooting

The Aggies advanced to the second round for the fifth straight year, sending Utah State to its seventh straight opening-game loss.

TCU-Dayton Preview (AP)

With a matchup against the Memphis Regional's No. 1 seed the likely reward for a victory, eighth-seeded Dayton is trying not to get too distracted by a potential meeting with an eight-time national champion. A first-round contest against No. 9 seed TCU presents its own problems. Playing their first NCAA tournament game Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn., the Flyers face a Horned Frogs team making its...

Ish Smith: Wake wants 'up and down' game against Kentucky

Mike DeCourcy

NEW ORLEANS -- When Wake Forest PG Ish Smith nailed a running shot to beat the buzzer and eliminate Texas from the NCAA Tournament, it wasn't the first time he'd nailed a game-winner. "He makes big shots," coach Dino Gaudio said. Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy spoke with Smith, who gets a game against this year's big-shot freshman, John Wall of Kentucky, in the NCAA second round Saturday night.

Wake's Ish Smith looks forward to high-scoring game vs. UK.

SN: Are you a fan of other fast players -- do they draw your attention?
Smith: I'm actually a fan of basketball. One player that stands out is Tony Parker. Chris Paul. Guys like those. Deron Williams, who's deceptively fast. When I get a chance to watch Kentucky on SportsCenter, their team overall is really special. And he's (Wall) just a catalyst of everything they do.

SN: You've got a knack for hitting last-second shots. A lot of them come from that right elbow area. What's that about?
Smith: I think Avery Bradley did a great job of not allowing me to go middle. That's where I was really trying to go. He cut it off, so the only place to go was back right. Thank God I hit a tough pull-up, and now here we are.

SN: Is that what'd you'd call that? A pull-up?
Smith: I guess that's what you'd call it: a pull-up, floater, fadeaway, whatever.

SN: The word "prayer" doesn't come into that?
Smith: Ah, I think I shot that one with a little bit of confidence. Obviously, a prayer was answered, because that was a tough shot.

SN: Wall says he is not the best shooter, but when it really matters he's going to make them. How much do you feel that might apply to you?
Smith: I think that's huge for any big-time player. I don't know his percentages, but I'm sure they're not as high as some of the other players on the team. But when it's under 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, 15 seconds -- for the most part, I bet he makes them.

SN: Can you put a handle on why things didn't go well the last two or three weeks?
Smith: I don't know. It's a mystery. We were 18-5 and on the rise. People were really talking about what we can do. We're still that same team. It could be mental lapses, where you step on the floor thinking you're just going to walk on the floor and not have to do little things to win.

SN: Kentucky's been in some close games. Does that give you confidence that they're not so big and bad?
Smith: We play in the ACC. So we play Duke. Last year we played Carolina, and they were national champions. We play teams that are huge; we play teams that are fast. Hopefully our league has prepared us for what's about to hit us.

SN: If this game gets in the 80s, is that good for you?
Smith: Oh, we want it up and down. The teams that usually give us problems are teams that slow it down, put us in zones, do things like that. We want this game up and down, and I'm sure they do, too.

SN: They say if they hit jump shots there's nobody in the country that can beat them.
Smith: That could be true, but like I said, I haven't watched those guys play that much. They're a heck of a team. Let's just hope that night they're not making jump shots so we have a chance.

SN: How many times have you seen the shot from the Texas game?
A: I've only seen it one time. Me and Farouq (Al-Farouq Aminu) were in the room, just kind of joking around with each other. I was on Facebook for the most part all last night.

Mike DeCourcy is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at decourcy@sportingnews.com.

Williams College Reaches Division III Title Game

SALEM, Va. (AP) -- Blake Schultz scored 18 of his team-high 25 points in the second half to lift Williams College past Guilford College 97-88 in an NCAA Division III national semifinal on Friday.

North Carolina-Gonzaga Preview (AP)

Few teams are entering the NCAA tournament with as much momentum as Gonzaga. Perhaps no school secured a bid despite struggling as severely down the stretch as did North Carolina. The seventh-seeded Zags look to win their 19th straight overall when they take on the 10th-seeded Tar Heels in the first round of the Sacramento Regional on Saturday.

Murray State's Tony Easley: 'Every time we look up, we always see us on the TV'

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Tony Easley, Murray State's starting center, was saddled with foul trouble and only played 13 minutes in the Racers' upset of No. 4 seed Vanderbilt in the first round on Thursday. Easley, who leads Murray State with 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game, is eager to contribute more in the Racers' second-round matchup Saturday with Butler. He took a few minutes to talk with Sporting News' Ryan Fagan.

Tony Easley: "I forget sometimes I need to take a charge or just wall up. I have to remember to stay on my feet this game."
Sporting News: Have you guys gotten a chance to watch any other tournament games?
Tony Easley: Barely. Every time we look up, we always see us on the TV, so we barely get to check out everybody else. We've been checking out a couple games, though. We've been waiting all season to see us on TV, and now that it's happening, we're lovin' it every time we see it.

SN: Have you guys tried to duplicate the buzzer-beater Danero Thomas hit Thursday?
TE: We were joking about it today at practice. He missed it today at practice, and we all told him, "Man, you'd better be glad you made it yesterday."

SN: What are your thoughts about Butler?
TE: Great team. They have a great veteran leader in (Shelvin) Mack, and a great shooter in Mack. They have great big men with (Matt) Howard and (Gordon) Hayward, and they all can shoot 3s. We have to contest the 3-point shot all game. That's the one thing we need to focus on them tomorrow.

SN: You guys talk about the team approach, but they do too. You see similarities there?
TE: Definitely. It's weird. We match up quite a bit, just from the team standpoint. They have guys all down the line, so many threats, even off the bench, guys who can come in and shoot the 3-ball. It's kind of like looking at us in the mirror.

SN: Have you ever seen a team shoot 3s like they did against UTEP?
TE: Never. Man, we always say at practice, "Just let it fly" and they put that into effect. They really let it fly, and they make 'em, so it's really challenging.

SN: You were in foul trouble right away against Vanderbilt. What do you have to do to avoid that against Butler?
TE: I think sometimes I help too much. I remember the first foul I got, I think I should have taken a charge, and the second one maybe I shouldn't have reached in there. But I think sometimes that's what it is, I try to help too much and that's where I get in trouble. Plus, just trying to go block shots. I think I've gotten in a groove blocking shots so much that I forget sometimes I need to take a charge or just wall up. I have to remember to stay on my feet this game.

Related Links

Saturday matchup: Butler-Murray State

Fagan: Racers' drama hits the big stage

Butler uses surger to eliminate UTEP

SN: Tell me about Matt Howard.
TE: Great post player. He has right-hand moves, left-hand moves, post moves. Great post size. He's a great player. It's going to be a challenge, a team effort. Once he gets going early in the game it sets up their whole team because you have to worry about him so much you forget about the 3-point line.

This story appears in March 20's edition of Sporting News Today. If you are not receiving Sporting News Today, the only daily digital sports newspaper, sign up today.

Ryan Fagan is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at rfagan@sportingnews.com.

Missouri defense stifles Clemson, leads way in 86-78 triumph

"The Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball" is still humming. Kim English and Keith Ramsey each scored 20 points, and Missouri's swarming ...

Texas A&M Beats Utah State 69-53

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- When Texas A&M guard Derrick Roland broke his leg in December it forced some drastic lineup changes for the Aggies, including freshman Khris Middleton being moved into the starting lineup.

Oklahoma State plays NCAA opener minus star Riley (AP)

The biggest story out of the Tempe site of the NCAA women's tournament is who is not playing and why. An ill-advised slap to the back of an opponent's head two years ago has become a major pain in the neck for the 20th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Coach Kurt Budke's team, seeded fourth in the Sacramento Region, is preparing to play without the nation's third-leading scorer Andrea...

Cornell, team of misfits, looks dangerous after beating Temple

JACKSONVILLE -- The house went for rent in Ithaca last spring, a rarity of sorts when everyone in upstate New York still is uncoiling from burrowing away for winter.

The ad in the paper jumped out: Big Ugly Brown House for rent.

Guard Louis Dale warns opponents: 'Don't sleep on us'

"We kind of looked at it as a sign," said Cornell center Jeff Foote.

The ugly team in the ugly house. A year later, the team full of players no one wanted or recruited is now an NCAA Tournament darling after Friday's 78-65 rout of Temple.

The star guard whose father coached the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, yet couldn't get his son a spot in the Gophers' roster. The point guard who grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and wanted to play for the Tide, yet couldn't get a sniff. The 7-footer who once weighed 195 pounds, and was recruited only by Division III schools.

This team of misfits, this group of seniors who were summarily thumped in the first round of the last two NCAA tournaments by a combined 43 points, got the first tournament victory for the Ivy League since 1998. And did it with relative ease.

"You sleep on us," said guard Louis Dale, "and that's a big mistake. There are too many of us who have something to prove."

And the stage to show it. When it became obvious that Alabama wasn't interested in Dale, his mother sent her son's game tapes to schools -- and only Cornell was interested. Ryan Wittman, whose shooting beyond the arc in the second half deflated Temple, couldn't use his father Randy (then coach of the Timberwolves) as an in to play for the Gophers. Foote, despite his height, had an offer from Division III Rochester Institute of Technology, walked on at St. Bonaventure and later transferred to Cornell through a strange series of events that included -- get this -- his mother (a nurse) meeting the Cornell team in the emergency room after one of its players was paralyzed in a freak practice accident.

She told her son that night that Cornell, because of the family atmosphere, was the place to play. Little did she know that one day he would move in with 13 other Big Red players in a 14-room house they've nicknamed The Dog Pound.

They've got a television in the living room, not nearly enough bathrooms and just enough private space to not completely annoy each other. Every upperclassman has at least a 3.0 grade point average despite weekly tournaments of Super Mario Smash Brothers on Nintendo 64, and forward Eitan Chemerinski – he of the 4.06 weight GPA in Applied Economics and Management -- has solved the Rubik's cube in 2 ½ minutes.

"Nobody else on the team can do it," Foote said. "We stick with Smash Brothers."

How about Bracket Smashers?

Lost in the typical NCAA madness of the little guy beating the big guy is the reality that Cornell lost just four games this season -- two to No.1 tournament seeds Syracuse and Kansas (by 5 on the road). With a win over Wisconsin on Sunday, the Big Red will play a de facto home game (Ithaca is 45 miles from Syracuse) in the East Region Sweet 16 against No.1 seed Kentucky.

The hotshot team with three freshmen starters against the Ivy Leaguers with four senior starters. Doesn't take an Applied Economics and Management major to see what could happen there.

"We've learned from those (tournament) losses the last two years," Wittman said. "We're not intimidated by anything."

Before Friday's game, after Cornell was introduced and ran onto the court, the ball racks hadn't made it back to the court. Instead of standing and doing nothing, the Big Red started running layup drills and pick-and-rolls without any balls.

"Probably didn't look too pretty," Dale said.

About as pretty as that Big Ugly Brown House.

Matt Hayes is a writer for Sporting News. Tune in to Total Access weeknights. E-mail him at mhayes@sportingnews.com.

Tweety playing large for Baylor these days

Tweety Carter didn't become a starter for Baylor until his senior year.

NEW ORLEANS—He was Demond Carter when the basketball world first was introduced to him—no doubt tiny enough to be called "Tweety" but not yet big enough in the game to be identified primarily by a nickname.

It was eight summers ago Carter and Derrick Caracter were invited to the Nike All-American Camp in Indianapolis before they'd even attended a day of high school. Caracter was 6-9, 285 even then. He was so large at so young an age one scout, drunk on those measurements, called him the best prospect in a camp that also included Chris Paul and Luol Deng.

Carter was puny, supposedly 150 pounds but probably closer to 130, looking every bit the middle-schooler until he was handed the ball. Then, he did not appear to be out of place.

"I remember all those guys—everybody that was there," Carter said. "They were great: Chris Paul, Daniel Gibson, A.J. Price, Russell Robinson. You had all those guys there at the guard spot teaching you. They didn't think they were too much."

It is fascinating how different the paths have been for Caracter and Carter in the years since.

Caracter endured a tumultuous high school career, was considered a high-risk recruit for Louisville's Rick Pitino and turned out to be exactly that. Then, after being dismissed, he was fortunate to find a comfortable home this season at UTEP.

Carter scored more than 7,000 points in his high school career, made McDonald's All-American and yet was content to remain a role player for three years, waiting to get his chance to run the Baylor Bears. And now he has a chance to drive them deeper into the NCAA Tournament than they've been in the modern era.

Well, OK, he's already done that. A victory over Sam Houston State was the program's first in the tournament since 1950. But a win Saturday over Old Dominion would produce at least a Sweet 16 appearance—and that would be a genuine statement.

"The only thing that matters for a point guard—it's like a quarterback—did you win?" coach Scott Drew said. "And Tweety does those little things.

"A lot of players who don't have that experience and confidence, or just the overall belief that the team's more important than me, they go out there and try to get their own … In those cases, the team doesn't win."

Though he is considered the most prolific scorer in high school basketball history, Carter arrived at Baylor eager to convert to the point guard position and hungry to learn all that was necessary to become that kind of player.

Assistant coach Paul Mills said Carter asked questions constantly: What's it like at Texas? What's it like at Texas Tech? Carter was so enamored of basketball that on the first day of school his freshman year, Mills saw him playing on an outdoor court outside his apartment complex—at midnight, with regular students.

"He just wanted to play," Mills said. "He wanted to be the best point guard possible.

"Now, we have six freshmen, and he's explaining things to them. In our locker room this week he was telling them about being in the NCAA Tournament, how the last time we were just happy to be here and you have to value every possession."

If Carter is running a fast break and the prudent play is to take a layup for himself, he'll ask the teammate who was running with him: Did I miss you?

"I say, no, we got the bucket," forward Quincy Acy said. "I appreciate him being unselfish, but he can score, too."

Carter averaged 15.2 points and 6.0 assists in this, his senior season, when the team finally became his. He played just about as much as a junior, but the ball belonged to Curtis Jerrells. Other players might have transferred, or complained. Carter did his job and waited. And this season is his reward.

"Coming out of high school, of course I wanted to jump right in and be that guy," Carter said. "I had the ability to do it, but I had guys in front of me that were great guys, great players and taught me a lot, actually.

"Just giving my life to God, letting him control my destiny—He showed me a good way and I'm going to continue to put my life in His hands."

Carter now is so thick with muscles he no longer looks much like a Tweety. It's very much who he is, though. He has grown up but hasn't changed.

Mike DeCourcy is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at decourcy@sportingnews.com.

Stanford gearing up for another NCAA tourney run (AP)

Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer and Lisa Bluder of Iowa stood in a hallway Friday reflecting on a game, a school and a conference that ties these three successful women's basketball coaches together. It was 25 years ago when VanDerveer's Ohio State team beat Stringer's Iowa squad in a matchup of Big Ten power programs witnessed by a record 22,157 fans.

Huskies trying to prove preseason hype was warranted

Quincy Pondexter made the game-winning shot for Washington against Marquette.

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—For the Washington Huskies, their first-round win against Marquette was about earning respect.

"That's all we were saying during timeouts, that everybody was calling us a finesse team," Washington sophomore Elston Turner said. "We wanted to show them we could rebound and get loose balls and be scrappy with the rest of the teams in the nation."

Overcoming a 15-point deficit against No. 6 seed Marquette, one of the better teams in the Big East, was a step in the right direction for 11th-seeded Washington. It's hard to overstate, actually, what the win meant to a Huskies squad that was ranked in the top 15 in the preseason but has heard the naysayers all season after failing to meet the hype.

A win over New Mexico on Saturday, however, and the Huskies are in the Sweet 16. Suddenly, a top-15 ranking looks just about right.

"People have been critical about us," Huskies junior Venoy Overton said. "They talk about us bad, they talk about Washington, they said we shouldn't be in this tournament, that we're soft. We're just trying to prove everybody wrong. They haven't really said too many things bad about Cal, but we're the other team (from the Pac-10) that made the tournament, and they're not speaking too well about us, so we have to stand up for ourselves."

The Marquette win helped erase the memory of a one-point loss at UCLA and a three-point loss at home to Southern California; the latter was the most recent loss, back on Feb. 18.

Since that USC defeat, Washington has rattled off eight straight wins, half of them by double-digit margins.

The Huskies are, by their assessment, a much better team now than they were during their string of five losses in seven games to start January.

"We're just so much more mature," said sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas, who is second on the team with his average of 17.1 points per game. "I've always told my teammates to keep faith and anything can happen and do the things we can control. Players found their roles and they love doing what they do."

In the win against Marquette, Turner was one who executed his role.

"He's a shooter, and he shoots the ball," Overton said. "He came in and we set him up for easy shots and he knocked them down."

Turner, whose dad, also named Elston, is an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets, made four of his five shots in the second half, and was the catalyst to the rally.

"I've been waiting for this type of atmosphere and this type of chance all year," Turner said, "and I finally had it, and I feel like I took advantage of it."

And even though gaining respect for the Pac-10 Conference wasn't necessarily on the forefront of the Huskies' thought process, the fact that they beat a Big East squad didn't escape them.

"A lot of people were down on the Pac-10, saying that we're not as tough as all the other conferences, such as the Big East," Turner said. "We just wanted to show that the Pac-10 is still to be reckoned with, that we're not just going to lay down and let everybody push us around."

Beat No. 3 seed New Mexico on Saturday, and the criticism of Pac-10 basketball—and especially the Huskies—will begin to fade.

Ryan Fagan is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at rfagan@sportingnews.com, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ryan_fagan.

4th-seeded Badgers get by Wofford 53-49 (AP)

Slow and plodding early, fast and frantic late. No matter the tempo, Wisconsin stayed poised against pesky Wofford. It's exactly what coach Bo Ryan expected from his team, which has plenty of NCAA tournament experience. And in the end, the Badgers did exactly what they do best -- play defense. Jon Leuer followed a huge jump shot with an even more critical steal on the other end, and the...

Gonzaga still feels like underdogs against UNC (AP)

Kelly Graves was late for his own press conference, held back by a security guard because Graves lacked the proper identification. It only adds to Graves' belief that despite unprecedented success in recent seasons, Gonzaga women's basketball remains unknown outside of its hometown. And don't even try convincing the Bulldogs coach that despite a No.

Grant's second half pushes Purdue past Siena

Keaton Grant ignited the decisive run that rallied fourth-seeded Purdue past No. 13 seed Siena 72-64 on Friday in the first round of NCAA tournament's South Regional.

West: Pittsburgh 89, Oakland 66: Undermanned Oakland Cannot Keep Pace With Pitt

The 14th seeded Golden Grizzlies held an early lead but could not withstand losing one of their best players to a head injury.

Baylor counts on Griner for NCAA tournament (AP)

Brittney Griner wasn't her usual aggressive self at the start of her first game back from a two-game suspension for punching an opponent. Baylor coach Kim Mulkey needs her talented freshman to get back into form quickly or else this season could come to an early finish. The fourth-seeded Bears take on No.

Grant, Johnson lead Purdue past Siena (AP)

Purdue played the us-against-the-world game to open the NCAA tournament. Us won. "You got the president picking against you, so it's a different thing," Boilermakers senior Keaton Grant said of the national chorus-- including Barack Obama -- who expected 13th-seeded Siena to beat the Boilermakers because Robbie Hummel is out.

Missouri races to 5th straight opening round win

Kim English and Keith Ramsey each scored 20 points, and Missouri's swarming defense lived up to its reputation during an 86-78 victory over Clemson in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday.