In case you missed it, here are some highlights from Wednesday and Thursday’s conference tournament action:

Wednesday

Sad Truth

Big shots only get replayed if you win. Robert Morris sophomore Russell Johnson hit a game-tying three pointer to send the Northeast Conference Tournament Title game into OT. But Long Island won in OT. And so Russell Johnson’s shot will not be shown three times next week on CBS. (Personally, I am going to miss the Robert Morris mascot. I’ve seen him live in person twice in recent tournaments, and he seems oddly non-cartoonish. His apparel is much too accurate for a mascot, in my humble opinion.)

Quotable

Noted during the Marquette game: “He had a career high against Providence earlier this season. But that’s not surprising. Everyone has had their career high against Providence.”

“It was a mistake. But I make mistakes, the players make mistakes, and no matter how smart they think they are, my assistants definitely make mistakes. And those are three fantastic officials.” Mike Rice would probably feel a lot differently if Wednesday’s loss was going to cost Rutgers a slot in the NCAA tournament. But given his intensity on the sideline, Mike Rice earned a lot of respect for handling Wednesday’s referee error like a professional. (Mike Rice did note that if he had known St. John’s stepped out with 1.7 seconds left he might have grabbed one of the officials by the leg and held him on the court.)

Senior Heartbreak

Nebraska desperately needed to beat Oklahoma St. on Wednesday to keep their slim NCAA hopes alive. And the Cornhuskers came back from 14 points down in the second half. But trailing by one, with 8 seconds left, Nebraska’s Lance Jeter lost the ball in the lane, and could not get off a shot to try to win the game. And with that turnover, Nebraska’s NCAA hopes were squashed. The senior leader of the Cornhuskers lay on the ground in agony that his dream was over. But after his teammates could not move him, Oklahoma St. head coach Travis Ford was one of the first to grab Jeter as he got to his feet. And you could tell from Ford’s long conversation with Jeter that he had nothing but praise for the Nebraska point guard. Jeter might not have wanted to hear it at that moment, but if it was not for his fine play all season long, Nebraska would not have even been in the bubble discussion.

Senior Struggles

While everyone wants to talk about how Georgetown’s struggles are because of Chris Wright’s injury, senior forward Julian Vaughn has played his worst basketball of the season down the stretch. Vaughn has averaged eight points per game this year, but he has a total of 6 points in the last four Georgetown games, shooting 1 for 18 from the floor, and grabbing only 4 rebounds in the last two games.

Thursday

Senior Heroics

Northwestern senior Michael “Juice” Thompson scored a Big Ten tournament record 35 points in Thursday’s opening round win over Minnesota. Thompson has absolutely been on fire from three point range lately. In his last four games, he is 18 of 33 or 55% from deep. And when you combine lethal outside shooting with his ability to drive the lane, Thompson is making the most of his final days playing college basketball.

Senior Swan Song

But for every senior who make a difference positive or negative, there are millions of seniors who walk off the court without making a final mark, good or bad. Minnesota’s Blake Hoffarber once hit a crazy buzzer beater to beat Indiana in the Big Ten tournament. He is one of the greatest three-point shooters in Minnesota history. But on Thursday, with his team losing to Northwestern by a dozen, he hit a pair of free throws with 20 seconds left, and walked off the court for the final time. 30 or so Minnesota fans stood to celebrate, but there was no climax to his great career. (I’m assuming a team that has lost 10 of 11 should not play in any postseason.) Hoffarber’s walk off the court was symbolic of so many hard working players this season, who will make many great plays, only to see their careers end without a dramatic climax.

You call 35 a tournament record?  Try 43!

Washington St.’s Klay Thompson returned from his one-game suspension and made a Pac-10 tournament record eight three-pointers while scoring a Pac 10 tournament record 43 points. On a night when the Big Ten tournament point record fell, the Pac-10 tournament record fell in even more dramatic fashion. Thompson needed every one of his points to keep the Cougars in the game, but they still fell two points short of upsetting the Huskies. (Incidentally, leading by three points, Washington fouled with 2.4 seconds left, preventing Washington St. from getting a shot to tie the game. Announcers always call for the foul in that scenario, and Washington executed perfectly.)

Fear The Other Singler 

Oregon forward EJ Singler (Kyle Singler’s little brother) scored a career high 22 in Wednesday night’s win over Arizona St., and he followed it up with an even more impressive 24 points in Thursday night’s upset over UCLA. Back-to-back career nights is an impressive feat. This goes to prove you should never count against a Singler in March.

Comeback

Arkansas came back from 16 down to tie Tennessee in the final minutes, only to fail to complete the job. But Miami had more than enough to complete the comeback against Virginia. Trailing by 10 in the final minute, the Hurricanes scored 10 points in 29 seconds.

The best example of Virginia’s epic meltdown was when Miami missed a free throw with 15 seconds left only to see two Virginia defenders trip over the ball going out of bounds, without a single Miami player in sight. Or perhaps it was best represented by Virginia’s inbounds pass with 1.7 seconds left that was stolen by Miami and gave Miami a shot to win in regulation.  Eventually the Hurricanes prevailed in OT.  Tony Bennett has won a lot of games with an under-manned Virginia squad this year, but this is the type of epic March meltdown that can shorten a coaches’ career.

No Comeback

During the Michigan St. vs Iowa game they flashed a graphic that Michigan St. had not lost a single game all year after they had a seven-point lead. How is that even possible? Perhaps because Tom Izzo is one of the best game managers of all time. Even with the Spartans not playing well, you know his team is going to make smart plays in crunch time. And in a game where a loss would knock Michigan St. out of the NCAA tournament, the Spartans hung on for the close win.

On Tuesday, I mentioned that the Spartan defense struggled mightily in the last 11 games. And while I speculated that it might be the defense of Mike Kebler and Keith Appling whose playing time has increased since Korie Lucious left, the Spartan blog “The Only Colors” set me straight. Both Kebler and Appling are clearly better defenders than Lucious. And Dan Dakich agreed, calling Appling one of the best defenders in the Big Ten. Plus with Iowa down three in the final seconds, Mike Kebler made a fantastic defensive play to force an off-balance miss by Iowa.  Something went wrong with the Spartan defense after Lucious left, but it is not Appling and Kebler.

Doh!

Oklahoma St. and East Carolina were both playing their tournaments one-seeds on Thursday. And both teams were assessed technical fouls for taunting in the second half of the close games. East Carolina won in OT against UAB, and Oklahoma St. lost by a single point to Kansas.  But both plays were epic mistakes in close games.

Oklahoma St. was also called for multiple offensive fouls in the paint late. The Oklahoma St. post players simply lowered their shoulders and ran over the Kansas defenders. Oklahoma St. had a chance to win, but they just did not play smart down the stretch.

What a difference a day makes 

On Wednesday, Colorado trailed last place Iowa St. virtually the entire second half. They were seconds away from being knocked out of the NCAA field thanks to Darion “Jake” Anderson’s 30 points and incredibly hot shooting. But after surviving the Iowa St. upset bid, Colorado beat Kansas St. for the third time this season, and now it looks like Colorado has a solid chance of getting an at-large bid.

Fab Melo Sighting 

The Garden was a lot quieter than I expected on Thursday in the Syracuse – St. John’s game. Given how Syracuse fans always flood the Big East tournament and given St. John’s hometown advantage, I expected a raucous atmosphere. But I actually thought the New Mexico vs Colorado St. game sounded louder on TV.

Fab Melo was the Big East preseason rookie of the year, but he had several “DNP – coaches decision” lines late in the season. So of course, in the huge game at Madison Square Garden, Melo caught an inbounds pass under the basket, spun around in the lane, and made the go-ahead bucket. Melo had a career high 12 points, which is not much of a career high, but it still made all the difference in the win. Also, before you accuse Melo of being over-hyped by the media (like Josh Selby), it was actually Jim Boeheim who said in October that Melo was the most impressive freshman he had seen in a long time. Finally, we got some idea why.

And with Kemba Walker’s dramatic last second basket to beat Pitt, we now get a rematch of the six OT UConn-Syracuse game from Madison Square Garden a few years ago. Friday’s slate also includes three great afternoon games. Alabama vs Georgia, Clemson vs Boston College, and Michigan vs Illinois all have the feel of bubble elimination games, where the winner is comfortably in the NCAA field and the loser may be staying home.

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