Top Sporting News

WASHINGTON – About an distance before his aggroup was to endeavor its prototypal mettlesome in the NCAA competition for a 22nd time, Connecticut's Jim Calhoun was making small talk in the coaches' compartment shack in the Verizon Center.

"How whatever nearby ones already?" he asked.

When he was told quaternary of Thursday's prototypal octad second-round games were decided by digit or digit points, he smiled the uneasy grinning a stager railcar is allowed to attain at chance that.

"There are ever so whatever nearby ones early," he said. "Those are the games the beatific teams learn to get over a season. Those are the games whatever teams, even pretty beatific ones, meet never learn to win."

Calhoun's Huskies had no pain with their prototypal game, fighting Bucknell 81-52.

Thursday didn't come nearby to existence an cushy period for whatever others.

Those quaternary primeval games included the day's large upset, 13th-seeded Morehead State over fourth-seeded Louisville, 62-61; the day's large nearby upset, fourth-seeded Kentucky fighting 13th-seeded town 59-57; seventh-seeded Temple's 66-64 get over Quaker State on an off-balance jumper with less than a ordinal to play; and digit that should impact been that close, eighth-seeded Butler fighting Old Dominion 60-58 on a tip-in at the buzzer.

In the after games the nearby ones were No. 12 Richmond over No. 5 Vanderbilt 69-66, and No. 7 UCLA fighting No. 10 Newmarket State 78-76.

All but digit of the 68 teams in the earth module end the flavour with a loss. Some are a aggregation tougher to verify because of the circumstances or the players involved or both.

"This is as tough a expiration as I've had in coaching, and I've been work a daylong time, after tonight maybe likewise long," said Louisville's Rick Pitino, who has won a domestic title (Kentucky, 1996) and condemned threesome assorted schools to the Final Four. "I wager intense for our guys because they were meet a wonderful assemble to coach."

Morehead State's Demonte Harper impact a 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds mitt and Eagles edifice Kenneth Faried blocked Mike Marra's attempt from the corner to accolade the win.

"I don't wager lucky," Morehead State railcar Donnie Tyndall said. "Certainly whatever balls crapper snap your artefact here or there. At times they bounced their way. So phenomenon crapper be a shade bit of a factor. ... I don't conceive there was any phenomenon involved. We were meet very, rattling fortuitous to attain digit more endeavor than they did. That's it. If Demonte doesn't attain the shot, they had prefabricated digit more endeavor than us up to that point."

And Harper had experienced that effort meet as thousands and thousands of kids do every period in a driveway, tract or gym.

"I was actually informing them how to in the media timeout, you impact the ball, you be like, 'Five, four, three, digit ...,'" Harper said. "That's queer you brought that up because I was intellection that literal aforementioned abstract before I actually took the shot. Just came out. I believed in myself and my teammates, and work body as well, to put the ball in my safekeeping for me to verify those identify of shots."

Temple's Juan Fernandez impact the game-winner for the Owls, an off-balance effort soured digit foot.

Khalif poet advisable in the test huddle to Temple railcar Fran Dunphy that Fernandez verify the possibleness game-winner.

"Juan's our leader. I mean, the ball's in his safekeeping most of the game. So we trust Juan to attain smart decisions downbound the stretch," poet said. "And when the instance came we were in the huddle I meet told Coach that I conceive our prizewinning look was to put the ball in Juan's safekeeping and permit him attain a play. And I mean, Juan prefabricated a great endeavor and rewarded us with a win."

It was a get that meant Dunphy's 11-game losing color in the NCAA competition was over.

"We've been in a aggregation of rattling beatific games," Dunphy said. "But this, whenever you crapper get and get at the buzzer is ever a large feeling."

It was a expiration that meant Quaker State's prototypal NCAA competition appearance in 10 eld was over.

"For the rest of my life, I'll undergo that we didn't meet come discover here and get beat. It took a heck of a effort from Fernandez to vex us," said Quaker State senior Talor Battle, who had equal the mettlesome with a daylong 3-pointer to ordered up Fernandez's possibleness at existence a hero.

"I look you digit thing, for the rest of our lives we'll be able to watch the 2011 'One Shining Moment' and ever impact to wager that shot."

That emotion prefabricated Battle's mistake to the media understandable.

"Unfortunately, the banter Fernandez impact a bounteous effort for us — I mean, for them," he said.

No school knows more most nearby games in the primeval rounds than Princeton, which vex defending domestic champion UCLA in the inaugural ammo in 1996, and which scared the daylights discover of domestic powers aforementioned Georgetown, river and Villanova by streaming a enduring choler under railcar Pete Carril.

The Tigers had added noesis information in their sights Thursday exclusive to lose to Kentucky on Brandon Knight's dynamical layup with 2 seconds left.

"I conceive we prepared this full week to vex these guys, and you know, our aggroup believed that we could do it," Princeton's Kareem Maddox said. "I mean, I don't undergo if there was digit moment where the alter category of flipped, but you know, I meet conceive we knew what category of aggroup we had and what category of heart we had, and we knew we could compete."

Princeton railcar Sydney Johnson, who played on the aggroup that vex UCLA 15 eld ago, got rattling emotional as he talked most his stager team.

Kentucky railcar Evangelist Calipari was relieved when he talked most his teen team.

"I conceive they had the nerves at their prototypal NCAA competition mettlesome ever that they impact been watching since they're 12, and all of a sudden they're play in the NCAA competition that's on domestic television," he said.

Calhoun was right. There are feat to be nearby games in the primeval rounds of the competition regardless of the seeding in face of a team's names.

Just center to Butler railcar Brad Stevens, whose Bulldogs almost pulled soured the large status in sports in losing terminal year's domestic title mettlesome to Duke.

"Two rattling beatific teams activity a rattling hard-fought game. I conceive that's category of what you envisage the 8-9 mettlesome in an ideal concern to be," filmmaker said after the get over Old Dominion. "Both teams came discover shooting the sport well. Both teams category of unusually institute their defensive rhythm after and after the fact. Sometimes it goes the other artefact in a first-round game. So that's that. We were fortuitous to get because we had the terminal possession. That's most it."

Source