Robinson leads Kansas to 60-57 win over NC State

By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer
Mar 24, 2:00 am EDT

ST. LOUIS (AP)—Thomas Robinson kept missing easy buckets. Tyshawn Taylor had a shooting performance he’d rather soon forget. Kansas made just two shots from outside 5 feet, and seemed to be in constant trouble against North Carolina State.

Yet a smile kept creeping across Robinson’s face. Taylor spent most of the second half Friday night trying to calm down coach Bill Self, who was stomping along the Jayhawks’ sideline.

“We haven’t been a picture-perfect team all season,” Self said later, “but that’s one thing that’s exciting. The guys take pride in not being perfect. They take pride in winning ugly.”

They certainly won a muddy brawl against the Wolfpack.

Robinson had 18 points and 15 rebounds, Jeff Withey blocked 10 shots to finish one shy of the NCAA tournament record, and the second-seeded Jayhawks held on for a 60-57 victory. They advanced to play top-seeded North Carolina, led by former coach Roy Williams, which escaped with a 73-65 overtime victory over No. 13 seed Ohio earlier in the night.

All the upstarts have headed home.

It’s the bluest of the bluebloods in a Sunday showdown for the Final Four.

“They’re a great team, great coach, great program,” Robinson said. “It’s two great programs and when we do meet, I’m pretty sure it’s going to go down as a big one.”

It figures to be a little more sexy than their game against the Wolfpack.

Both teams struggled to make shots, run offense and get into a flow. Kansas (30-6) even squandered an eight-point lead in the final few minutes, failing to wrap up the win until Richard Howell’s off-balance heave at the buzzer came up well short.

“The guys are tough. They’re tough,” Self said. “They find a way.”

C.J. Leslie had 18 points to lead N.C. State (24-13), despite sitting much of the second half with four fouls. Scott Wood finished with 12 points on 2-for-10 shooting, though his biggest error wasn’t a missed shot but the shot he never even got to attempt.

N.C. State had pulled within 58-57 on a transition layup by C.J. Williams with just over a minute remaining. The teams swapped possessions before Kansas managed to get a layup from Elijah Johnson off an inbound pass from Taylor with 13.5 seconds left.

The Wolfpack crossed midcourt and called a timeout to set up a play, which was designed to get the ball to Wood off a baseline pass. Instead, a skip pass went high and the sharpshooter stepped out of bounds trying to pull it in, giving the ball back to Kansas with 5 seconds to go.

Robinson was fouled and missed the free throw at the other end, but a pass down court and Howell’s tightly guarded shot at the buzzer came up nowhere close, allowing Kansas to escape.

“We did not execute very well. The end of the day, that’s my responsibility,” Gottfried said.

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Beal’s 21 lifts Fla. to 68-58 win over Marquette

PHOENIX (AP)—Exactly as his coach asked him to, Bradley Beal is bringing out his `A’ game. His latest bit of wizardry moved Florida a win away from the Final Four and set up Billy Donovan with a perfectly scripted matchup against his old coach and boss, Rick Pitino.

Beal, the freshman with NBA written all over him, scored 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting Thursday night to help the Gators to a 68-58 victory over Marquette.

Next up for No. 7 Florida (26-10) is a West Regional final Saturday against Louisville and Pitino, who taught ol’ Billy The Kid a lot of what he knows.

“Obviously, I’ve said that outside of my parents, he’s the most influential person in my life,” Donovan said.

The most influential person on Donovan’s team? On this night, it was Beal. He also had six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots, including one on Jae Crowder while the third-seeded Golden Eagles (27-8) were desperately trying to claw back after trailing by 14.

Crowder, a senior and the Big East player of the year, never found his touch. After sitting for eight minutes in the first half with foul trouble, he finished with 15 points on 5-for-15 shooting while another Marquette senior, Darius Johnson-Odom, also went 5 for 15 in a struggle to reach 14 points.

“We struggled being in rhythm most of the game,” coach Buzz Williams said. “Jae has always played more than 12 minutes in a half, but it’s dangerous for him to pick up his third, so he sat a lot the half. When you’re playing against a team as good as Florida and you’re playing without your key guys, it’s hard for that rhythm to get established.”

Erving Walker had 11 for the Gators, including a 3-pointer that came after Patric Young scrapped for an offensive rebound with 2:05 left. It snapped a 6-0 Marquette run that pulled the third-seeded Golden Eagles to within six.

But the biggest difference maker was Beal, a high school national player of the year whom Donovan has been pushing to be more assertive, especially after the Gators lost four of five heading into the tournament.

“He doesn’t want to step on toes; he’s very aware of his place on the team,” Donovan said, in explaining Beal’s slow acceptance of a leading role. “You can’t do anything but love him because of the way he handles himself.”

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Purdue holds off Saint Mary’s 72-69 on Jackson FTs

By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer
8 hours, 50 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Having watched his team hang on against Saint Mary’s after blowing a late double-digit lead, Purdue coach Matt Painter didn’t point to a specific play that made the difference.

Painter simply said luck was on the Boilermakers’ side after they moved on in the NCAA tournament with a 72-69 victory Friday night in the Midwest Regional.

“We’re very grateful to get this victory,” Painter said. “Any time you play a great team like Saint Mary’s and you get a 13-point lead, you’ve got to put them away. We weren’t able to do that. When you get a big lead like that and somebody takes the lead back from you, it’s normally difficult to win the game.”

But the 10th-seeded Boilermakers did, thanks to Lewis Jackson’s two free throws with 22.8 seconds left, a couple more from Robbie Hummel and Rob Jones’ missed 3-pointer for Saint Mary’s at the buzzer.

Jackson, Purdue’s senior point guard, said it would have been awful to end his career after blowing an 11-point lead in the last 4 minutes.

That’s why he was glad to be the one to step to the free throw line with the game hanging in the balance.

“As a little kid, you live in the moment, you count down, and I knew my fate and my career were lying in my hands,” Jackson said.

Jorden Page hit a 3-pointer with 44.2 seconds left to finish a 14-2 run that brought the Gaels back from a 66-55 deficit with 4:24 to play.

Purdue’s Terone Johnson was called for traveling while under heavy pressure from Clint Steindl, and then Steindl was called for traveling as he tried to inbound the ball on the baseline.

Page, just 1 for 8 from the field in the game, badly missed what would have been a go-ahead 3 with 10 seconds left, and Hummel’s free throws made it a three-point game.

Jones, who scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half, couldn’t connect on a good look at a 3 from the wing just ahead of the buzzer for the seventh-seeded Gaels (27-6).

“It’s a program win,” Purdue’s Ryne Smith said. “We were a bubble team for a long time and we got in. We’re allowed two hours to enjoy this and then we have to move on to the next game.”

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No. 15 seed Norfolk St stuns No. 2 Missouri 86-84

By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer
11 hours, 44 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Kyle O’Quinn’s booming voice echoed through the halls, the jovial center for Norfolk State riding the euphoria of a monumental upset of Missouri as the words spilled out of his mouth faster than he could think.

“We messed up some brackets! We messed up some brackets!” he bellowed, before turning a corner and seeing a pack of reporters.

“We even messed up my bracket,” he said sheepishly.

O’Quinn put together the finest game of his career at the biggest moment in the history of Norfolk State basketball. The senior finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds, helping the No. 15 seed Spartans to an 86-84 victory over the second-seeded Tigers on Friday.

All those brackets that had the Big 12 tournament champs advancing to face Florida in the West Regional—perhaps even all the way to the Final Four—can be torn up. It’s the MEAC champions who are moving on.

Pendarvis Williams and Chris McEachin each added 20 points for the Spartans (26-9), who have already made their first trip to the NCAA tournament a memorable one. They became the fifth No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 and the first since fellow conference member Hampton in 2001.

“You always go into the game with a sense of confidence,” O’Quinn said, “but I never thought it was an upset-alert until that buzzer went off.

“At the end of the game,” he said, “that’s when I thought it would happen.”

O’Quinn had a chance to take some drama out of the final possession, but the 70-percent foul shooter missed two free throws with 3.8 seconds left. Missouri coach Frank Haith called timeout to set up a final play, and Phil Pressey got a pretty good look at a 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded.

It clanked off the back iron as O’Quinn leaped for joy.

Pressey fell to the court in disbelief.

“We just shocked everybody,” Spartans swingman Brandon Wheeless said.

Michael Dixon led Missouri (30-5) with 22 points, and Pressey and fellow guard Marcus Denmon finished with 20 points each. Pressey also contributed eight assists, though senior guard Kim English was held to two points on 1-for-7 shooting.

“I’m very disappointed, as everyone in that locker room was,” Haith said. “I hurt for those seniors because they put so much into this. They had high expectations.”

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Mitchell leads Saint Louis past Memphis 61-54

By RUSTY MILLER, AP Sports Writer
9 hours, 9 minutes ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—During his years away from coaching as an ESPN commentator, Rick Majerus figured he’d have the perfect forum to discuss how much fun defense is.

Then he learned otherwise.

He said he was told, “We’re not going to show some guy in a defensive stance on SportsCenter.”

No problem. His team got to put on a show for a national audience watching the NCAA tournament.

Kwamain Mitchell supplied the offense with 22 points, including three big 3-pointers, and Saint Louis rode its gritty defense to a 61-54 victory over Memphis on Friday night in a West Regional second-round game.

The result was vintage Majerus, the colorful coach who led Utah to the 1998 national championship game. The Tigers wanted to run, Saint Louis wouldn’t let them. A team averaging more than 75 points per game was stymied, saddled and shut down.

“We wanted to make sure we limited their fast-break baskets and make defense a priority,” said Majerus, who has won more than 500 games as a coach at Marquette, Ball State, Utah and Saint Louis.

Mitchell closed the first half by banking in a 3, then nailed two others to help the ninth-seeded Billikens (26-7) overturn an eight-point deficit in the second half. They advanced to play the winner of LIU Brooklyn and top-seeded Michigan State on Sunday.

“I came in with the attitude that we had something to fight for,” Mitchell said. “Win, or lose and go home.”

Brian Conklin added 16 points, including five free throws in the final minute to salt the game away.

Some observers thought the Billikens were overmatched. Memphis was bigger, stronger, deeper, more athletic and had more NCAA experience. As Majerus had said a day earlier, Saint Louis didn’t have any future pros on its roster.

“It’s fun to come out and prove people wrong,” Conklin said.

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