Conference Tourneys UPDATE: Key LATE games, 3/8/2012

Big Ten: Minnesota 75 Northwestern 68 OT - With both teams fighting for their NCAA tournament lives, it was Minnesota prevailing in overtime, in an opening round Big Ten tourney tilt. Even though Minnesota advances and can pad its resume with another win, they are still in doubt for the big dance due to their sub-par 6-12 conference record. Northwestern can now only sit and wait for selection Sunday to see if the committee deems their 8-10 conference resume as sufficient to make the field of 68. Could Northwestern or Minnesota end up in a play-in game? Stranger things have happened. Minnesota's Andre Hollins led all scorers with 25 points, making 10 of 18 shots, including five of 10 from 3-point range.

Conference USA: Marshall 105 Tulsa 100 3OT - The 20-12 Thundering Herd kept its slim tournament hopes alive with a triple overtime victory in the conference tournament quarterfinals. Though the Herd is still not guaranteed anything, the win over Tulsa probably got them on a short list for the NIT, but they can now aim higher, with a Friday meeting with Southern Miss, with whom they split a pair of games during the regular season. DeAndre Kane went 15-35, for a career high 40 points to pace Marshall.

Big East: Louisville 84 Marquette 71 - In one of the more stunning upsets thus far, Louisville upset #9 Marquette in a Big East quarterfinal game, leading all the way, getting 18 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds from point guard Peyton Siva. Kyle Kuric led the Cardinals with 20 points, despite a 7-for-19 shooting effort. Louisville led the entire game and dominated the glass, with 48 rebounds to Marquette's 35.

Big 12: Missouri 88 Oklahoma St. 70 - Kim English scored a game high 27 points and Marcus Denman poured in 24 as the #5 Missouri Tigers advanced to the semi-finals of the Big 12 tournament. The Tigers will face the winner of the Texas-Iowa State game with an eye toward playing Kansas in the tourney final and possibly earning a #1 overall seed in the NCAAs. The Jayhawks and Tigers split a pair of regular season games, each team winning on their home court.

Louisville Sweeps Season Series with UConn, 71-58

College Hoops Player of the Day for Friday, February 18, 2011

Winning on the road in college basketball is hard. Getting it done in the Big East borders on ridiculous. Just ask Louisville. Or Connecticut.

Just two days after being thoroughly throttled in Cincinnati, the Louisville Cardinals returned to a more familiar floor at the KFC Yum! Center and beat up on the visiting Huskies, 71-58, sweeping the season series.

Freshman center Gorgui Dieng put up 13 points and 12 rebounds for his first career double-double while point guard Peyton Siva harassed UConn's Kemba Walker into a rare 3-for-10 shooting performance. Siva led Louisville with 15 points.

The Cardinals got off early and held an 8-point lead at the break, but the Huskies rallied early in the second half to take their only lead of the game, which turned out to be brief. Louisville went on a 14-5 run to reclaim the lead and held off Connecticut down the stretch.

Louisville (20-7, 9-5) shot just 41%, but the Huskies hit a only a 37% clip. 16 UConn turnovers resulted in a large shooting discrepancy. Louisville hoisted up 65 shots to Connecticut's 46.

All five of Louisville's conference losses have come away from home. They've won seven straight in their own building. Connecticut (20-6, 8-6) has lost four of six on the road and this loss comes off a home win over Georgetown. The Huskies and Cardinals are ranked 13 and 16, respectively, though those numbers are likely to change come Monday.

NOTABLE: There are 17 Top 25 teams in action on Saturday, all facing unranked opponents, but the most-widely-anticipated contest will be at Madison Square Garden when St. John's hosts #4 Pittsburgh at noon ET. The Red Storm is 8-5 in the Big East and has won four straight conference games. Pitt leads the Big East with a 12-1 record.

Cardinals Flying High as Knowles, Kuric Combine for 56 Points

College Hoops Player of the Day for Monday, December 27, 2010

Big East play got underway Monday night with a premier match-up in Pittsburgh, as the #6 Panthers handed Connecticut its first loss of the season, 78-63, despite 31 points from the nation's scoring leader, Kemba Walker.

Out in Kentucky, the Louisville Cardinals were getting in a final pre-conference tune-up, thrashing Morgan State, 104-74, with Preston Knowles going for a career-high 31 points and junior guard Kyle Kuric scoring 25 on 9-for-13 shooting, hitting 7 of 10 three-point shots.

Knowles canned 9-of-14 shots from the field, including 6 of 9 from three-point range as the Cardinals topped the century mark for the third time this season and upped their record to an impressive 11-1. Louisville scorched the nets on a 59% shooting night, nailing 37 of 63 shots and were even more incredible from beyond the arc, knocking down 17 of 23 treys, a 74% performance.

Notable: Will Buford scored 23 points to lead #2 Ohio State to a 100-40 victory over hopelessly-outgunned Tennessee-Martin, extending the Buckeyes' winning streak to 13 straight. The 13-0 mark is the 4th-best start in Ohio State's 112 years of basketball history. Ohio State opens Big Ten play at Indiana on New Year's Eve.

Kuric's 22 Drops Syracuse in Freedom Hall Finale

College Hoops Player of the Day for Saturday, March 6, 2010

A little-known sophomore sub named Kyle Kuric scored a game-high 22 points - all in the second half - to lead Louisville to their second victory this season over #1 Syracuse in a fitting farewell to hallowed Freedom Hall in Louisville,Kentucky.

The Cardinals also became the only team to not only top the Orange twice this year, but the only team to beat them away from the Carrier Dome, as Rick Pitino's flow offense cut Kuric loose and produced a 78-68 win.

Not only was the win important for sentimental reasons, as Freedom hall has been home to Louisville Cardinals basketball teams since 1956, but the win virtually ensured Louisville a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Cardinals finished the Big East regular season 11-7, and are 20-11 overall.

Kuric, who averages less than 14 minutes per game, came up big in the second haf as he was pressed into action after starting guard Jerry Smith sprained his thumb just before half time. The spunky soph responded by hitting 9 of 11 shots, including four 3-pointers in a memorable career-high performance.

Hopson's 25 Leads Tennessee to 2-0 Record

College Hoops Player of the Day for Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Tennessee 124, N.C. Asheville 49 - 13 different Volunteers scored, but sophomore guard Scotty Hopson was filling up the stat sheet quicker than anyone else, tallying 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including hitting 6 of 7 from 3-point range. Hopson added 4 rebounds, 5 assists and a pair of steals in the all-around effort. Best of all, he did his damage in just 23 minutes on the floor. Hopson averaged 9.2 ppg last season. This year he's up to 25.5 after two games, though the competition gets tougher after December.

Notable: The College Tip-Off Marathon was a smashing success for ESPN and college hoops, especially with the two premier games going down to the wire. Gonzaga pushed #2 Michigan St. to the limit, with the Spartans finally prevailing, 75-71. Right on the heels of that contest, #1 Kansas went toe-to-toe with Memphis for the full 40, finally dropping the Tigers, 57-55. Close calls for the top two teams (preseason rankings) suggests that this season will be much like many past: lots of upsets and a general carousel around the top 10.

Louisville's Reggie Delk: 20 points, 8-9 (4-5, 3s), 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 22 minutes. (Louisville 96, Arkansas 66)

Louisville Wins Big East Tournament

Louisville 76, Syracuse 66

Louisville used a 21-5 run coming out of half time to erase an 8-point Syracuse lead and went on to win the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden Saturday night.

The Orangemen led 38-30 at the half, but just 6 minutes into the second half, found themselves down 51-43. After a 6 overtime game on Friday night and a single OT in their win over West Virginia on Saturday, the Syracuse starters appeared fatigued and were not executing with the same sharpness as they displayed in the first half.

Take nothing away from the Cardinals, however, who used a swarming defense to take Syracuse out of their game. Louisville also turned up their shooting, hitting 48% for the game, including 10-27 from beyond the arc.

Louisville became the only #1 seed from the nation's Big Six conferences to win their tournament. Washington, North Carolina, LSU, Michigan State and Kansas all were booted from their respective conference tourneys without any of them reaching the finals.

Louisville Wins Big East Title; Late Saturday Results

#6 Louisville 62, West Virginia 59

Getting a little help from Pitt, which knocked off Connecticut, the Louisville Cardinals took the opportunity to take the Big East regular season championship with a spirited effort at West Virginia.

The Cardinals enjoyed the luxury of playing UConn and Pitt just once each this season, splitting those games (lost to UConn, beat Pitt) and losing just once more (at Notre Dame) to finish 16-2, a game better than the 15-3 records posted by the Panthers and Huskies.

Senior forward Terrence Williams had one of his best games of the season, scoring 20 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, handing out 7 assists and pulling off 6 steals.

The win gives Louisville byes in the first two rounds of the Big East tournament, meaning they will next see action on Thursday, March 12. Winning the Big East tourney will certainly result in a #1 seed for the NCCA tournament, but the Cardinals are likely to have to face either Pitt or UConn in the finals.

There is now talk of 3 #1 seed coming out of the Big East, though that seems unlikely, since either North Carolina or Duke will get one, as will the winner of the Big 12 tournament, plus, Memphis made their case by completing their thrid straight undefeated Conference-USA season with a 74-47 thumping of Tulane, and are carrying the nation's longest win streak at 22 straight.

The PAC-10 is also being overlooked, even though last season, PAC-10 teams compiled the best record for a conference in the NCAA tourney. It might be a mistake to relegate #16 Washington (which took the conference with a 67-60 win over Washington St. Saturday) to a #2 seed and drop UCLA and Arizona St. to #3 or #4 spots.

While the PAC-10 may have had a down year, the conference as a whole may have simply been exhibiting better balance. Washington was 14-4, UCLA went 13-5 and Arizona State was 11-7. Those top three teams lost just 6 out-of-conference games and the most recent of those was on December 4, ancient history in college hoops.

It will be interesting to see how many PAC-10 teams make the field of 65 (Cal also finished 11-7; Arizona and USC were both 9-9.) and how high they will be seeded. The tournament could provide a relatively easier path to the elite 8 level for a number of PAC-10 squads.

Lousivlle Slips Past Marquette

#6 Louisville 62, #8 Marquette 58

Concerned about having to replace fallen Dominic James (out for the season with a foot injury) with junior guard Maurice Acker, the #6 Marquette Golden Eagles entered their game at #6 Louisville feeling short-handed.

Despite poor first half shooting by Jerel McNeal (2-13), Marquette found themselves only down by 3 at Louisville, 28-25, as the teams headed to their locker rooms at the break.

The closeness of the game was no doubt due to poor shot selection by the Cardinals, who, despite a big size advantage inside,took most of their shots from the perimeter. Terrence Williams hit 3 of 6 3-point attempts for Louisville, totaling 12 for the half.

That all began to change at the start of the second half. After clanking two outside jumpers, the Cardinals started to press full court, which resulted in turnovers and layups for Louisville, scoring eight straight points on four shots from dunking distance to take a 36-26 lead just three minutes in.

Having established a lead and inside dominance, however, the Cardinals continued to settle for long-range jumpers, allowing the Golden Eagles to close the gap, finally getting to 61-58 with 23.4 remaining on a Lazard Hayward trey.

But that was as close as Marquette would get, despite a no-call on a Marquette 3-point lean-in attempt down just 4 with 16 seconds left and then inexplicably not fouling. Louisville escaped, though their play was not at a level one would expect this time of year.

Both Louisville and short-handed Marquette could become early victims in either or both the Big East tourney or the NCAAs if they don't step up their decision-making and overall percentages.

While Marquette's 35% shooting was due mostly to McNeal's uncharacteristic 3-19 performance, Louisville's 44% effort from the floor and 42% (5-12) from the line, has to be a cause for concern for coach Rick Pitino.

Louisville Grabs Big East Share

Louisville blew past Georgetown, 76-58, likely ending the Hoyas' NCAA hopes. Georgetown is 14-12 overall and 5-10 in the Big East.

Louisville shot 70% in the first half - hitting all 6 of their 3-point attempts - and raced off to a 41-31 lead at Georgetown. Samardo Samuels and Earl Clark each had 9 points.

Clark scored a game-high 22. Terrence Willimans had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Louisville moved into a tie for first place in the Big East with Connecticut at 13-2. Winners of five straight, the Cardinals next host #8 Marquette on Sunday, March 1.

Big East: Huskies, Cardinals, Golden Eagles Keep Winning

Hasheem Thabeet led the #1 Connecticut Huskies to a routine 64-50 home win over South Florida, keeping them atop the conference standings, at 13-2.

Thabeet scored a game-high 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting. Teammate Jeff Adrian huled down 14 boards to go with his 9 points.

#7 Louisville cruised to a 72-63 win at Cincinnati, for their 6th conference road win in seven tries. The Cardinals (21-5, 12-2) kept pace, second in the tight Big East race.

Terrence Williams led the scoring with 20 points. He also snatched 9 rebounds.

#10 Marquette survived a tussle at Georgetown, hitting their free throws down the stretch while maintaining a 6 to 9-point lead in a testing 78-72 win.

Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews provided most of the scoring punch for the Golden Eagles, with 22 and 21 points, respectively. Lazard Hayward added 17, with 10 rebounds.

Marquette also improved to 12-2 (23-4 overall) in the Big East. Pittsburgh looks to get to 12-2 when they host DePaul at 8:00 pm tonight.

Ryan Ayers hit 7 of 11 three-pointers and scored 28 points as unranked Notre Dame crushed Providence, 103-84. Both the Irish and Friars remain on the bubble for an NCAA bid.