More Hoops Games, Bowl Teams on the Way

A longer college basketball season and making more teams eligible for football bowl games are expected to be approved when the NCAA Board of Directors meets today in Indianapolis.
Counting games for basketball could be played as early as the second Friday in November under the proposal forwarded from the NCAA Management Council. That would be a week earlier than currently allowed.
Also up for consideration is a plan to allow basketball teams to either play a 29-game schedule, one more than the current limit for a regular season, or a 27-game limit but include an exempt tournament in which a team could play as many as four games but have it count as only one game against the lower limit. Schools would have the option of which limit they use for scheduling.
The proposed new rules also would allow teams to play in a so-called exempt tournament - the Preseason NIT and Maui Classic are the best known - each season, rather than being limited to twice in four years. Teams couldn't play in the same exempt tournament a second time in that four-year span, however.
The new rule also would consider foreign tours as separate entities from exempt tournaments, so that once every four years a school could schedule a foreign trip between seasons and also play in an exempt event that season.
With the expected approval by the NCAA panel, the changes would become effective this summer. In each case, the alterations would effect Oregon's scheduling for the 2006-07 season, UO coach Ernie Kent said.
The Ducks are currently scheduled for a foreign trip in August, and if allowed would attempt to play in an exempt tournament again this season, as they did last year. Kent said Oregon was also likely to take advantage of an earlier beginning date for counting games.
Also up for approval is an alteration that would no longer require teams to count their conference tournament as one game against the limit. That is being pushed because not all leagues include every team in their tournament.
The NCAA Board of Directors will also consider a change that will allow football teams with a .500 record to play in bowl games. Currently, teams that don't have a winning record can play in a bowl only if it's to fulfill a conference's contract with the bowl.
There are currently 28 approved bowl games, which means 56 of the 117 Division 1-A teams played in bowls after the 2005 season.
There certainly will be at least one more postseason game after the '06 season, with the national championship game one of the four that needs official approval. The championship game will be in addition to the four current games in the Bowl Championship Series.
Also very likely to be played for the first time is the New Mexico Bowl, slated for Albuquerque. It was given a $2 million line of credit by ESPN, and financing is usually the determining factor on a bowl being approved. The New Mexico Bowl will match teams from the Western Athletic Conference and the Mountain West Conference.
The NCAA panel also will review applications from the International Bowl, to be played in Toronto, and the Birmingham Bowl, to be played in Alabama's largest city.

Curtis' Isaiah Thomas likely to choose UW

Guard Isaiah Thomas of Curtis High School, regarded as the top junior boys basketball player in the state, has called a news conference for Thursday to announce his choice of college amid reports that he will become a Washington Husky.
Thomas' coach at Curtis, Lindsay Bemis, told The Seattle Times on Tuesday night that although Thomas hasn't told him where he will go to school, "I'd be shocked if it wasn't Washington."
Thomas did not return phone calls Tuesday night, but two recruiting Web sites, Realdawg.com and Dawgman.com, quoted Thomas as saying he would become a Husky.
"Washington is a great place, and it's better because it's close to home and my family can always watch me now," he told Dawgman.com. "It's somewhere I want to be."
Thomas, listed at 5 feet 9, has been compared to former Washington star Nate Robinson in both style and production. He was named The Times 4A Player of the Year last season after averaging 31.6 points. He set a 4A state-tournament record with 51 points in a semifinal loss to Franklin.
Thomas, who can't sign a letter of intent until November, would be the first member of UW's 2007 recruiting class.
The news came the same day the Huskies learned that Blake Young, a guard from Daytona Beach Community College, would sign elsewhere. Young's coach at Daytona Beach, Brad Underwood, told the Wichita Eagle that Young will sign with Kansas State today. Young visited UW's campus last weekend.

Capel is hired as Oklahoma coach

Jeff Capel was hired as Oklahoma's basketball coach Tuesday, resigning at Virginia Commonwealth to replace Kelvin Sampson and take over a program under NCAA investigation.
VCU confirmed Capel's move in a statement from president Eugene Trani and athletic director Richard Sander. The Sooners scheduled an afternoon news conference on campus to introduce Capel.
"We are both sad and happy with Jeff's announcement that he is going to Oklahoma," Sander said. "He did a great job here, and we know he will do a great job there."
The 31-year-old Capel is a former Duke player who was 79-41 in four seasons as coach at VCU. He signed a two-year contract extension last month to keep him at the Richmond school through 2012.
Instead, he will replace Sampson, hired as Indiana's coach March 29. Sampson was 279-109 in 12 seasons at Oklahoma.
The Sooners are awaiting a decision from the NCAA in a case involving more than 550 improper recruiting phone calls by Sampson and his staff. The accusations against Oklahoma include "lack of institutional control," one of the NCAA's most serious findings.
Oklahoma has argued for a lesser "failure in monitoring" finding and instituted self-imposed sanctions including probation and recruiting cutbacks. A hearing is scheduled April 21 in Utah.
Capel, whose father is an assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats, led VCU to the Colonial Athletic Association title and an NCAA tournament berth in 2004 and then to the NIT in 2005 -- the school's first consecutive postseason berths since 1985. His Rams finished this season 19-10 and did not make the postseason after losing to Hofstra in the conference tournament quarterfinals.
The signature of his VCU teams was defense. This season, the Rams allowed 62.4 points a game. On offense, they averaged only 12.5 turnovers and made nearly eight 3-pointers a game.
Sampson inherits an Oklahoma team that loses three of its top four scorers and top three rebounders in seniors Taj Gray, Terrell Everett and Kevin Bookout, but features a strong recruiting class that includes McDonald's All-American guard Scottie Reynolds from Herndon, Va.
Capel started 28 games as a freshman guard alongside Grant Hill on Duke's 1994 team that made it to the NCAA championship game but lost to Arkansas. He graduated in 1997, then played in the CBA and in France before beginning his coaching career as an assistant to his father, Jeff Capel Jr., at Old Dominion.
He moved to VCU as an assistant in 2001 and became the head coach the following year. At 27, he was the youngest head coach in Division I at the time.

No One Could have Predicted This

George Mason, LSU, Florida and UCLA.
Back in November, most would have pegged that group to be more likely to land in Madison Square Garden as the last four teams in the NIT rather than to be the last ones standing for college basketball's ultimate prize. It's the first time since the field expanded to 64 back in 1985 that not a single No. 1 seed has earned a spot in the Final Four.
And if you don't think that George Mason has a chance to come back from Indianapolis with the nets around their necks, you haven't been watching this tournament.
This is parity at its best in college basketball.
Jim Larranaga's club wasn't even supposed to be here. No, we're not talking about the Final Four. The Patriots were expected to be on the outside looking in on the day that the selection committee released its 65 teams.
Now the 11th-seeded Patriots, who had never won an NCAA tournament game prior to this year and are just the second-ever No. 11 to make the Final Four (LSU did it 20 years ago), have become the ultimate Cinderella story.
They have already knocked off a trio of the top programs: Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn. Who's to say that they can't beat third-seeded Florida? Not me.
Then again, any of the four teams can come away with the national championship. That's what'll make next weekend so special and what has made this tournament the most exciting that anyone can recall.
The only one of the quartet that was even ranked in the Associated Press preseason poll was UCLA at No. 19.
LSU was 8-5 at one time and no one outside of Baton Rouge had any idea how talented Tyrus Thomas actually was when the season began. Now Thomas and his roomies, Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Tasmin Mitchell, have become the sentimental co-favorites along with George Mason.
If the backcourt of Darrel Mitchell and Garrett Temple can find a way to make shots from the perimeter, there's no reason why the Tigers can't bring more joy to a state that is still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Florida was expected to take a hard hit after Billy Donovan's club lost its talented, but underachieving, trio of Anthony Roberson, Matt Walsh and David Lee last season. Almost all of the Gators' firepower was gone.
However, Billy the Kid's current group goes full throttle all the time and they have as much balance and cohesiveness as anyone in the country. You've got to love the effort that Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Taurean Green, Corey Brewer and Lee Humphrey give each and every game.
The Pac-10 was belittled after a poor non-conference slate, so no one gave UCLA much respect even after the Bruins rolled past Arizona a trio of times this season.
You can call Ben Howland's club ugly. You can say they can't score, but it doesn't really matter because UCLA knows how to defend — and that could be enough, along with the talented backcourt duo of Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo — to win a national title.
Getting back to George Mason. They aren't all that big — or athletic. They have a big man, Jai Lewis, who has a better chance of making the NFL than the NBA. They have a guard, Tony Skinn, who sat out the first game of the tournament after being suspended by his coach for punching an opponent in the groin.
They are the ultimate David, but there is no Goliath any more. LSU knocked off Duke. George Mason edged UConn. Florida rolled past Villanova and UCLA handled Memphis fairly easily.
What else do all four of these teams have in common other than knocking off a No. 1 seed? They all play hard. They all have good chemistry. They are all fun to pull for.
And none were supposed to be here.

No Crying for Big Baby: LSU Takes Out Duke

No need for LSU and Big Baby to cry in this NCAA tournament. The Tigers left the tears for J.J. Redick.
Glen "Big Baby" Davis and a pair of defensive-minded freshmen have LSU just one win away from the Final Four, stifling Redick and sending top-seeded Duke to yet another loss in the round of 16.Davis scored 14 points despite foul trouble, freshman Tyrus Thomas swatted away five shots and another freshman, Garrett Temple, shut down Redick to lead No. 4 seed LSU to a 62-54 upset Thursday night in the Atlanta Regional.
"It feels good, but it's over," Davis said. "There's another task at hand."
That comes Saturday, when the Tigers (26-8) will face Texas in their first regional final since 1987. The winner of that one can book a flight to Indianapolis.
Duke (32-4) is heading home, having flickered out at a familiar point in the tournament. The Blue Devils lost in the regional semifinals for the third time in four years.
"This definitely hurts," said a red-eyed Redick, who had one of his worst games in the finale of his brilliant college career. "The last four years have been pretty amazing and I didn't want that to end."
Redick hardly looked like a favorite for player of the year, making only 3-of-18 shots and finishing with 11 points _ more than 16 points below his average. He equaled his lowest-scoring game of the season.
Duke's other star senior, Shelden Williams, went out with 23 points and 13 rebounds but his team wasn't nearly as balanced as LSU, which won the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship and has its sights on an even bigger title.
If the Tigers can play this kind of defense three more times, they might just do it for a state still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Duke made only 18-of-65 shots (28 percent) and finished with its fewest points in a game since 1996.
"That may have been the best defensive effort I've seen in one of my teams," LSU coach John Brady said.
Redick got his last basket, a 3-pointer off a screen with 3:32 remaining, to give Duke its final lead at 52-51. But that was about the only bright spot in a grim night for the usually sharp-shooting senior.
"We could have had a better offensive game, there's no question about it," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "But LSU had a lot to do with that."
Redick has done it all before, scoring only five points in a loss to Kansas in the 2003 regional semifinals. Duke failed to get over that same hurdle last season, losing to Michigan State with Redick managing only 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting.
The third time, it was Temple who stifled Redick.
"I was just trying to get a hand in his face and contest all his shots, or make him pass the ball back out," the freshman said. "I'm a defensive player. This is what I live for."
Temple could tell that Redick was getting frustrated as one shot after another failed to find the net.
"When he missed it, he was pretty upset," Temple said. "He was complaining to the referees about not calling fouls."
After Redick's final hoop, LSU outscored the Blue Devils 11-2 the rest of the way, going ahead for good on Davis' free throw with 2:32 remaining. Thomas came up huge in the final minute, making two free throws with 43 seconds left, dribbling through two defenders for a dunk nine seconds later, then rejecting a shot by Greg Paulus that essentially finished off the Blue Devils.
Thomas also led the Tigers with 13 rebounds.
"Duke's a team that everyone either wants to play for or against," he said.
Darrel Mitchell, who also had 14 points, made two free throws with 25 seconds left and Davis scored his final four at the line, even rebounding his own missed free throw to get back for two more attempts. The big guy looked longingly at the ball and patted it like, well, a baby.
The Tigers won despite making only 12-of-23 free throws and playing much of the second half with Davis and Thomas trying to stay in the game with four fouls apiece.
LSU hasn't been to the Final Four since 1986 and has never won it all. Not even Shaquille O'Neal, who played three seasons in Baton Rouge, could get the Tigers past the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Duke trailed much of the game but seemed to gain control with a 10-0 run midway through the second half.
The Blue Devils pulled ahead for the first time since an early 10-8 lead when freshman Josh McRoberts dunked two times in a row off lob passes to make it 42-40. They pushed the lead to 45-40 and had a chance to bury LSU when Redick wound up with an open 3 after a missed free throw.
The ball clanked off the rim, and Mitchell connected on a 3 at the other end to pull LSU to 45-43 with 8 1/2 minutes to go.
Duke struggled to get free of LSU's lanky, quick defenders _ epitomized by 6-foot-9 Thomas, who plays even bigger, and Temple, a 6-5 guard who draped himself on Redick.
Davis, whose 6-9, 320-pound frame is more in line with Charles Barkley, doesn't fit the mold of his teammates but is the unquestioned leader in just his sophomore year. The SEC player of the year even knew what to do at the end, instructing a teammate to pass the ball to Mitchell so the young team's only senior starter would have it at the buzzer.
Mitchell hurled the ball off the scoreboard hanging above the court.
"We didn't get the respect we deserve," he said. "We could use that as motivation."
The Blue Devils seemed to catch a break when Davis picked up two quick fouls, heading to the bench with 9:01 left in the first half. He watched the rest of the period from a chair, but his teammates didn't wilt their own without their star.
LSU was up 15-12 when Davis took a seat and actually improved on that margin before the break, leading 31-27 in Duke's lowest-scoring first half of the season. Williams, with 14 points, accounted for more than half of his team's offense but got little help from Redick or anyone else.
Brady clapped his hands when the horn sounded at halftime. Davis glanced up at the scoreboard and had a smile on his face as he stepped off the court, despite having scored just four points.
Big Baby had an even bigger smile when it was over.

In a Bruising Battle, Tennessee Comes Out on Top

Tennessee had the height advantage and the historical advantage: 25 straight years in the N.C.A.A. tournament's Round of 16. When it counted, the Lady Vols also had Shanna Zolman and Candace Parker, two players who knew what had to be done and had the ability to do it.When they finished Sunday, they had led the second-seeded Lady Vols to a 76-69 victory over third-seeded Rutgers (27-5) in the Cleveland Regional. Now Tennessee (31-4), seeded No. 2, will face top-seeded and top-ranked North Carolina (32-1) in the regional final Tuesday. The winner will advance to the Final Four in Boston.
North Carolina moved on with a hair-raising 70-68 victory over fourth-seeded Purdue (26-7). Ivory Latta, North Carolina's undersized point guard, drove for the winning basket with 2.8 seconds left. She got up after making the shot, then fell back down when the game ended and remained on the floor for five minutes.
Team officials said she had a cramp in her left calf and would be ready for Tuesday's game.
The Tennessee-Rutgers game was physical from the start. Tennessee has four starters 6 feet 3 inches or taller, and Rutgers has one — the 6-4 freshman center Kia Vaughn — with three starters 6 feet or smaller. Tennessee's height advantage did not stop Rutgers from jumping to a 23-14 lead, but the Lady Vols responded with a 13-0 run late in the first half to take a 27-23 lead.
Tennessee led by 29-27 at halftime. The crowd of 8,428 at the Quicken Loans Arena watched Zolman, a 5-10 senior point guard, and Parker, a 6-4 redshirt freshman who plays equally well inside and outside, combine for Tennessee's first 20 points of the second half. They helped the Lady Vols extend their lead to 49-37 with 12 minutes 37 seconds left.
Parker did it with low-post play against the 6-foot Essence Parker, a sound defender who was overmatched. Zolman did it with deadly outside shooting. Each finished with 29 points, a career high for Zolman, who shot 10 of 14 from the field, including 5 of 9 on 3-pointers.
In the deep post, Parker backs in relentlessly. From 3-point range, Zolman entered the game shooting 42.4 percent this season.
"At halftime, we said we wanted to get the ball to Candace inside, but they doubled down on her, so that left me free outside," Zolman said.
Tennessee led by as many as 13 points in the second half, and Parker gave credit to Zolman.
"She was unreal," Parker said. "She was unconscious."
Rutgers, like Tennessee, relied heavily on two players: the senior shooting guard Cappie Pondexter and the sophomore point guard Matee Ajavon. Each played 40 minutes, with Pondexter scoring 22 points and Ajavon 24. But against Tennessee's insistent defense, each also had five turnovers.
The 5-9 Pondexter was guarded by Nicky Anosike, Tennessee's 6-4 sophomore center. "She likes to do the dirty work," Tennessee Coach Pat Summit said of Anosike, who despite Pondexter's scoring, did it well.
Pondexter, who could be the top pick in next month's W.N.B.A. draft, stayed an extra year in college because she dreamed of a national championship. After the game, she had a tough time trying to explain what happened.
"I never thought about us losing," she said. "We worked so hard. I'm definitely happy I made the decision to come back."
There was sympathy all around for Pondexter.
"She came back to get a ring and beat us," Zolman said. "I feel for her."
Summitt said: "After the game, I told her, 'I have tremendous respect for you.' I wanted her to know that. She's truly a winner."
C. Vivian Stringer, the Rutgers coach, said, "Losing Cappie is like losing a daughter."
Stringer and Summitt are Hall of Fame coaches and close friends. This was the third time in seven years that Tennessee had eliminated Rutgers late in the tournament, and both were unhappy before the game about meeting before the Final Four.
"I told her I never want to see her in this situation again," Summitt said. "It's tough to play against your best friends."
Stringer was philosophical.
"You learn in life that you get everything you possibly can, and when that's all you can do, you accept it," she said. "Tomorrow, the sun is going to come up. It is what it is. But if we coulda, shoulda, mighta, woulda done better, it would have been nice."

Huskies coach wonders 'what if,' eyes next season

Lorenzo Romar was home Sunday, watching Connecticut and George Mason play for the right to go to the Final Four. It was a game that easily could have involved his Washington basketball team. It was hard to keep his mind from wandering.
Change the outcome of any one of several game-altering plays in Friday night's 98-92 overtime loss to UConn and then remind George Mason once and for all that it was an 11th seed, and the Huskies would be advancing to Indianapolis this weekend -- not only playing for the national championship, but thinking they had a realistic chance of winning it.
"If we had been able to beat Illinois and Connecticut, who couldn't you beat?" Romar asked.
Instead, the UW coach will travel to the Final Four by himself, watch other teams reach for the big prize and figure out ways to get his program in this postseason position again, if not farther along.
Difficult to replace will be guard Brandon Roy, likely the Huskies' third consensus All-America selection if The Associated Press rewards him today as expected; forward Bobby Jones, a four-year starter and considered one of the nation's better defensive players, and forward Jamaal Williams, who saved his best college game for last, scoring 27 points against UConn.
Replacement parts will come from a highly touted recruiting class headed by 7-footer Spencer Hawes, mixed with a returning cast relatively lean on long-term experience.
Should the UW follow tradition and feature only seniors on their media guide cover and pocket schedule, reserve forward Hans Gasser and non-scholarship guard Brandon Burmeister will be the faces of the 2006-07 Huskies. They have one start between them.
"We will have the youngest team I've ever coached," Romar said. "We've got to get old real quick. I don't expect us to come out and be stellar. If we are, great. We're not ready to say we're going to the Final Four next year."
Treated to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including back-to-back trips to the round of 16, the inclination is for diehard UW followers to expect no program falloff, no transition period. That might be difficult to avoid.The Pac-10 will be as competitive as ever, with Final Four-bound UCLA, Arizona, California, Oregon, USC and Washington State each returning a roster deep in game-tested upperclassmen.
For the Huskies, a lot will depend on how much player development can take place in a short amount of time inside Edmundson Pavilion.
As hefty as his reputation is, Hawes doesn't have wide shoulders yet. He probably needs two seasons to fill out, making pointless all those early claims of him as "one and done" regarding the college game and his NBA ambitions.
Another noteworthy recruit, 6-7 forward Quincy Pondexter, can dunk with anyone but doesn't have a trustworthy outside shot, a situation similar early in the career of the player he will try to replace, Jones.
Phil Nelson, another 6-7 recruit, runs the floor well and has a smooth shooting stroke, but hasn't qualified academically yet.
On the plus side, the Huskies will be noticeably bigger, though trying to maintain an up-tempo style. Depending on the defensive proficiency of their big men, they could open with a lineup of 7-foot redshirt freshman Joe Wolfinger at center, 6-7 sophomore Jon Brockman and the 7-foot Hawes at forwards, and 5-11 sophomore Justin Dentmon and 6-2 junior Ryan Appleby at guards.
"We'll have more of an inside-outside ballclub than we've had," Romar said. "We'll still push the ball, still be an attack-type team. That won't change. Look at Spencer Hawes. He's not a slow, slumbering type big man. Neither is Joe Wolfinger."
The biggest question mark about the next UW team will be proven perimeter offense. Appleby is a 42-percent shooter from 3-point range, but no one else has his credentials. Junior Joel Smith and Burmeister could be pressed into service behind the line, but help could come elsewhere.
Of the UW's four incoming recruits, guard Adrian Oliver of Modesto, Calif., might be the least publicized but could make as much of an immediate impact as any of the newcomers. He played for a Modesto Christian team that had two other Division I signees, players headed for Kentucky and Brigham Young. He averaged 26 and 25 points per game over his past two seasons, without teammates funneling the offense to him while largely creating his own inside and out.
He also plays fearlessly. On the same weekend the Huskies were playing at Stanford, Oliver had a hip injury that would have sidelined most players. He scored a game-high 33 points in a little more than three quarters of action, the sleek swingman closing out his evening by taking the ball to the basket, getting bumped while airborne and completing a spectacular play by spinning 360 degrees and tossing in an improbable basket.
The degree of difficulty on that maneuver was off the charts. The fact that he was on the floor at all made the shot even more memorable.
"I have the will to win," said Oliver, dressed in a white uniform with red and blue trim that resembled those worn by Arizona. "I hate to lose. I play hurt, sick, whatever."
He's noticed that Romar isn't reluctant to make starters out of freshmen, and wants to be one of them. He intends to play a lot right away.
"My whole life I felt I've been overlooked," Oliver said. "It drives me to prove that I can be a top player in the country. That's one of the reasons I chose Washington -- Coach Romar is going to groom me into being an NBA player. I trust him to do that."
Oliver won't have any trouble fitting in with his UW peers. Before anyone was signed, he roomed with Pondexter and Nelson at high-profile summer basketball camps in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. The four incoming freshmen are a diverse group, based on ethnicity alone: Oliver is Hispanic and black, Nelson is Native American and white, Pondexter is black and Hawes is white.
The Huskies can't wait long for them to get ready. After a relatively soft non-league schedule this past season with a senior-laden group, the next UW team will host Final Four qualifier LSU and its 6-9, 320-pound center Glen "Big Baby" Davis on Dec. 20, a few weeks after playing at Gonzaga.