Roundup: The ball is tipped...
Tourney time, y’all. Colorado lifts the Pac-12 lid on the NCAA Tournament with its 10:30 a.m. PT/11:30 a.m. MT tilt against UConn (TNT), and Pat Rooney writes that Colorado wants to play “Buffs basketball.” The Buffs are back in the dance after a one-year drought.
Next on the ledger is Utah, which goes up against 14th-seeded Fresno State at 4:27 p.m. PT/5:27 p.m. MT (or thereabouts on TRUTV). Your faithful Salt Lake Tribune reporter Kyle Goon gives us a Fresno State scouting report with the help of a Bulldogs beat writer.
Here’s the Arizona-Wichita State scouting report courtesy of the Arizona Daily Star (6:20 p.m. PT/7:20 p.m. MT, TNT). Both of these teams have histories of making deep tourney runs.
In order for USC to move on to the second round, the Trojans must stop Providence’s Kris Dunn, writes Zach Helfand (6:50 p.m. PT/7:50 p.m. MT, TBS).
Well this isn’t exactly the way you want to roll into the NCAA Tournament – Cal guard Tyrone Wallace is done for the season with a fractured right hand. The senior guard injured his hand Wednesday during practice.
This is big for next year – the NCAA approved Chris Boucher’s petition to play one more year at Oregon, so Boucher will be back. Dude has blocked a school-record 106 shots this season.
Meanwhile, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament begins Friday, and UCLA head coach Cori Close told our Ashley Adamson and Mary Murphy that she expects all five Pac-12 NCAA-bound women’s basketball teams to perform well in the tourney.
Our Michelle Smith discusses the new perspective found by Oregon State guard Sydney Wiese when she missed eight games earlier this season with a hand injury. The No. 2 seeded Beavs open the NCAA Tournament Friday afternoon against Troy.
I’m not sure that our Commander in Chief knows that the Pac-12 was the toughest conference in women’s basketball, because President Obama picked Arizona State to reach the Sweet 16 but doesn’t have a single Pac-12 team going to the Elite 8. #EastCoastBias
Washington State men’s basketball coach Ernie Kent will have his contract rolled over so that he will remain on a five-year contract that is fully guaranteed through the 2020-21 season. AD Bill Moos announced his intention to do so on Tuesday (Jacob Thorpe).
It’s not head coach, it’s Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football. It’s not offensive coordinator, it’s Andrew Luck Director of Offense. It’s not defensive coordinator, it’s Willie Shaw Director of Defense. And now, the Stanford quarterbacks coaching position has been endowed as the Kevin M. Hogan Quarterbacks Coach. Tavita Pritchard (led Stanford to that miraculous ’07 upset at USC) will be the first to rock that title.
This happened Tuesday night, but Lorenzo Romar got T’ed up in Washington’s wild 107-102 win over Long Beach State in the first round of the NIT.