2B
SPORTS FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2010 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN KANSAN.COM
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Michael Jordan
FACT OF THE DAY
Cole Aldrich needs just one more block to move into a third place tie on the Kansas all-time blocks chart with Eric Chenowith. It was the 27th game this season that Aldrich recorded three or more blocks.
Source: Kansas Athletics
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: How many times has Kansas advanced to the conference tournament semifinals?
A: 30. It is their 12th appearance in the Big 12 semifinals.
Kansas Athletics
SCORES NCAA Men's Basketball:
No. 1 Kansas 80, Texas Tech 68
No. 3 Syracuse 84, No. 22
Georgetown 91
No. 7 West Virginia, Cincinnati late
No. 8 New Mexico 75, Air Force 69
No. 9 Kansas State 83, Oklahoma
State 64
No. 10 Villanova 76, Marquette 80
No. 14 BYU TCU late
No. 15 Tennessee 59, LSU 49
No. 16 Pittsburgh 45, Notre Dame
50
No. 21 Baylor, Texas late
No. 23 Texas A&M 70, Nebraska 64
No. 25 Texas-ElPaso, UCF late
NCAA Women's Basketball:
No. 15 Texas 64, Missouri 59
No. 16 Baylor, Colorado late
MORNING BREW
A radical bracketing process
By this point in the week, we're all dead tired of tests. There is nothing worse than looking
There's nothing worse than looking at an empty line, knowing you have no idea what the answer is and begrudgingly writing down a guess on the slight chance your teacher has pity for your weary mind.
But there's another test on Sunday that's full of empty blanks that I can't wait to fill in.
It's Selection Sunday, and filling out 65 spaces is never more fun. Of course, there are strategies for bracket roemostimation.
Some are wise. No. 1 seeds have never lost in the first round. A No. 12 seed nearly always beats a No. 5 seed in the first round — and it happened three times last year.
Others are foolish, but can be effective. I lost a bracket pool because a woman owned two husky dogs. Thus, she loved the Connecticut Huskies and rode them to the title game. I threw a lamp after Duke's Trajan Langdon slipped and cost me the bracket pool title.
But it seems like the radical bracket always looms near the top of the stands after the first and second weekends. People who couldn't care less about college basketball fill in their brackets arbitrarily and do better than those who leave permanent indentations on their couches on Big Monday.
I follow college basketball, and this year, I'm going to stray away from conventional bracket picking where, you know, you try to use basketball knowledge. I'm going to be That Guy, the one who picks upsets because of jersey color, mascot ferocity or school location.
BY CLARK GOBLE
cooble@kansan.com
It will be some combination of the fol lowing strategies:
Teams That Didn't Lose That Much Should Do Better Than Teams that Lost A Lot. It seems simple at the surface, but the depth is what makes the strategy special. Is Murray State (30-4) as good as a team as Texas (24-8)? On paper, in the program and in layup lines — no. But you have to ignore your instinct to win bracket pools, and Murray State's got the winning mentality. I'll take them to go farther than the losing Longhorns.
The Dartboard: The title isn't misleading. I watched a friend do this with much success one year. You write up all the teams seeded between 10-13 in random order on a piece of paper, pin the paper up so the names face the wall and throw three darts at the sheet. The teams that the darts hit are your upset specials. You must pick them to win five games total.
The Unquantifiable "Feel" Strategy: Again, rather simple. If you're "feelin" Duke, ride them until you don't feel them anymore. Each matchup has a distinct vibe, and only the bracketeers seeking this vibe can sense it. When you fill out by feel, you eliminate the stress. Moves that don't make sense will be the weekend.
Surely, by attempting this illogical
bracket strategy, I will crash and burn to last place in my bracket pool and be the April Fool until the tournament ends.
But the process of filling the bracket out will be infinitely better than any test.
FRIDAY YOUTUBE SESH
It's cheesy, cookie-cutter and takes forever to start.
But I never miss CBS "One Shining Moment," lennifer Hudson will voice the song this year, replacing Luther Vandross, who has done the song for the past couple years.
It helps fans relive the key moments from the tournament.
A Kansas fan decided to spin this idea. He created a Mizzou "One Shining Moment" video, but the moments aren't too shining. Instead, they're rather embarrassing.
Search "Mizzou One Shining Moment" and prepare to watch the lowlights of the Missouri basketball and football programs.
—Edited by Ashley Montgomery
CAMPUS
BY NICOLAS ROESLER
nroesler@kansan.com
WOMEN'S CLUB LACROSSE
The women's club lacrosse team has started off its spring season with seven straight victories, but the team has four games left. The latest victory came over Missouri on Sunday.
Two of the remaining contests are against Oklahoma State in Stillwater on March 27. The last two games are against Truman State and Washington
MEN'S CLUB SOCCER
University on April 10.
The men's spring session will begin after spring break on Monday. March 22
The season consists primarily of club practices and inter-squad scrimmages, but matches between other schools are a possibility. The top 20 players, as chosen by the captains, will be selected to compete in the Ed Charttrand Memorial Tournament at K-State.
students after they fill out a club sport waiver at the Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center. There is also a $25 fee.
The spring session is open to all
MEN'S ULTIMATE FRISBEE
The men's ultimate frisbee B team will participate in the Frost Bite Tournament this weekend in Springfield, Mo. This is the first tournament the team will compete in this season.
— Edited by Ashley Montgomery
UCLA defeats Arizona, moves forward in Pac-10 tourney
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Michael Roll scored 19 points, Reeves Nelson added 18 and UCLA held off Arizona 75-69 Thursday in a Pac-10 Conference tournament quarterfinal between two powerhouses that once ruled the league but have struggled this season.
The entire conference has fallen nationally, and after getting six
No schools better illustrate the league's current woes than Arizona and UCLA, which have won a combined seven Pac-10 tourney titles, with the Wildcats taking four in a row during one stretch.
teams into the NCAA tournament each of the last two seasons, the Pac-10 will be fighting to have two this time.
Instead of playing for another
title, though, the fourth-seeded
Wildcats and No. 5 Bruins were relegated to an afternoon quarterfinal game in a half empty Staples Center that had more Arizona fans than those rooting for the local Bruins.
Comedian Bill Murray, sporting a red visor over his spiky white hair, was among the Wildcat boosters; his son Luke is a graduate assistant on coach Sean Miller's staff.
Nelson grabbed 11 rebounds
as the gritty heart-and-soul of the Bruins, which he's been all season. Wearing protective glasses, he played for the first time since missing the previous four games with a slight retinal tear in his left eye. Nikola Dragovic also scored 18 points.
Nic Wise scored 16 points and Derrick Williams added 14 for Arizona (16-15), which lost in the quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. The Wildcats salvaged NCAA tournament appearances both times, extending their nation's best streak to 25 straight years. That will end this season, although their winning record could
land them in the NIT.
The Bruins (14-17) still have a shot at trying to improve what is their worst record since 2003-04, coach Ben Howland's first season in Westwood. They advanced to a semifinal Friday against the winner of the game between top-seeded California and No. 8 Oregon.
Arizona got to 58-55 with 7:52 remaining on two free throws by Solomon Hill. But the Bruins kept making free throws and Malcolm Lee hit a big 3-pointer to push their lead to 64-57 with 5½ minutes left.
The Wildcats played catch up the entire game, and trailed 37-33 at halftime.
Softball vs. Missouri State, 2 p.m.
Baseball
at LSU, Baton Rouge,
La., 7 p.m.
Softball vs. Valparaiso, 4 p.m.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
Track
at NCAA Indoor
Championships,
Fayetteville, Ark., all day
TODAY
SATURDAY
Women's Rowing at OU Invitational, Oklahoma City, Okla., all day
Baseball at LSU, Baton Rouge, La. 2 p.m.
SATURDAY
Softball
vs. Valparaiso, 1 p.m.
Women's Tennis vs. St. Louis, 3 p.m.
Softball vs. Missouri State, 3 p.m.
Women's Rowing at OU Invitational, Oklahoma City, Okla., all day
Women's Swimming at Zone D Diving Championships, College Station, Texas, all day
SUNDAY
Baseball at LSU, Baton Rouge, La.. 1 p.m.
Women's Rowing at OU Invitational, Oklahoma City, all day
Women's Swimming
Women's Swimming at Zone D Diving Championships, College Station, Texas, all day
MONDAY Women's Tennis vs. Cleveland State, 12 p.m.
Women's Golf at Northern Migration Invitational, Florence, Ariz., all day
Men's Golf
at Square Creek
Invitational, Choudrant,
La., all day