Louisville storms back to edge Florida, advances to its ninth Final Four

CBSSports.com wire reports
March 24, 2012

PHOENIX -- Hated to do that to ya, kid.

Rick Pitino nearly came unhinged and his point guard watched the end of the game from the bench. When it was over, though, it was Pitino and Louisville making plans for the Final Four and his protege, Billy Donovan, and the Florida Gators wondering what the heck happened.

Chane Behanan made the go-ahead basket with 1:04 left Saturday and the fourth-seeded Cardinals finished the game on a 23-8 run for a 72-68 victory over Donovan's stunned Florida team in the West Regional final.

Russ Smith followed Behanan's bucket with a pair of free throws and then Florida freshman Bradley Beal and teammate Kenny Boynton each missed chances to tie.

Louisville made one more free throw to seal the game and reach its ninth Final Four, and second under Pitino, despite playing the final 3:58 without point guard Peyton Siva, who fouled out.

Florida (26-11) went out in the regional final for the second straight year, with Donovan falling to 0-7 lifetime against the man who coached him at Providence, hired him as an assistant at Kentucky and felt as proud as a papa when he watched Donovan win his two national titles in 2006 and 2007.

This was no heartwarmer, though.

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Top-seeded Kentucky knocks off Indiana 102-90

ATLANTA (AP)—They ran up and down the court, two storied programs going toe to toe.

In the end, Kentucky was just too big, too quick, too good for Indiana.

The top-seeded Wildcats moved another step closer to the only goal that matters in the Bluegrass State, shaking off a rather quiet night from freshman star Anthony Davis to pull away from the Hoosiers 102-90 in the South Regional semifinals Friday.

“It was a war and Indiana played great,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “We just happened to play a little bit better.”

Kentucky (35-2) simply had too many weapons. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 24 points, Doron Lamb 21 and three of their teammates—not Davis, mind you— were in double figures. With that, the Wildcats dispatched the team that beat them back in early December and are off to a regional final for the third year in a row.

They’ll face Baylor on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four.

“I feel like we did a pretty good job,” said Kentucky’s Darius Miller, who added 19 points. “So did Indiana. It was a very intense game. It was up and down for the most part. It was a fun game to be a part of, the way that both teams played.”

Davis wasn’t his usual dominating self after picking up two early fouls. He finished with nine points and 12 rebounds. So it was left to another of Kentucky’s super freshmen to take the starring role. Kidd-Gilchrist had a double-double, also snatching 10 rebounds.

“In the huddles during timeouts, Michael was the guy firing us up,” teammate Twany Beckham said. “It showed with his play.”

Marquis Teague chipped in with 14 points and Terrence Jones 12.

Christian Watford had 27 points to lead the Hoosiers (27-9), who beat Kentucky 73-72 before Christmas but ended a comeback season with a loss to their border rival. Still, there was nothing to ashamed of, coming up two victories shy of the Final Four after winning a total of 28 games the previous three seasons.

Clearly, Indiana has regained its usual place among the college basketball bluebloods under coach Tom Crean.

“There’s a lot of good things that have happened,” Crean said. “This team has a lot of tremendous character, there’s no doubt about that.”

But Big Blue is moving on.

“We scored 90 points,” Crean said. “They’re a really good team. They’ve got a lot of guys. They’ve got a guy coming off the bench (Miller) who’s going to be a first-round draft pick.”

Indiana’s freshman star, Cody Zeller, had 20 points, while Victor Oladipo provided a spark in the backcourt with 15 before fouling out. Kidd-Gilchrist just kept pounding the ball inside, drawing foul after foul on the Hoosiers, then knocking down the free throws. He went 10-for-10 at the line.

He wasn’t the only one making free throws. Kentucky was a dead-eye 35-of-37 at the line, compared to 13-of-17 for the Hoosiers.

“It’s not any big deal,” Kidd-Gilchrist said. “We’re just taking our time with free throws.”

Jones, who had only four points in the December meeting, signaled this would be a different night by scoring Kentucky’s first five points in the rematch. That set the tone for a shootout, both teams running and gunning in an exhilarating display that kept fans in both blue and red on their feet most of the time.

There certainly wasn’t much to fear on the inside in the opening half, not with the two big men, Davis and Zeller, both spending much of the period on the bench, each saddled with two fouls.

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Heslip’s 3s lift Baylor to 80-63 win over CU

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)—With his 3-point goggles on, the bucket never looked quite so big for Brady Heslip. Because of that, the future’s looking as bright as those uniforms for the Baylor Bears.

Heslip, the kid who grew up playing H-O-R-S-E with his dad in Canada, made a big splash in America on Saturday, going 9 for 12 from 3-point range and lifting the third-seeded Bears to a pullaway 80-63 victory over No. 11 Colorado in the NCAA tournament.

“When they set great screens and they make passes that are on target and on time, it just makes it easy for me,” Heslip said. “Especially if I’m in rhythm and feeling good shooting.”

He was, and because of it, Baylor (29-7) will bring the highlighter-yellow uniforms down to Atlanta for a South Regional semifinal against Xavier or Lehigh next Friday.

Heslip, in the meantime, will enjoy his status as Baylor’s newest star.

He celebrated a few of his makes by pinching together his thumb and forefinger on each hand, putting the circle over his eye and lifting the other three digits in the air. The 3-point goggles.

While all this was going on, he began trending on Twitter—and in the postgame Q&A, we learned that he chews Doublemint gum, has been a gym-and-driveway rat in his hometown of Burlington, Ontario since he was 3 and is the nephew of one-time Canadian hoops star and Toronto Raptors head coach Jay Triano.

“Ever since I was growing up, they never forced it on me,” Heslip said of his hoop-loving family. “It was just something that I fell in love with.”

The nine 3s and 27 points were his career highs—and in this game, Baylor needed every one of them.

He made six from behind the arc in the first half to keep his cold-shooting teammates close. Then, he helped break open a tight game late. His 3-pointer with 6:56 was on the front side of Baylor’s 19-3 run to close the game. And it was contagious. Shortly after that make, Pierre Jackson (15 points, 10 assists) jacked one up from three feet behind the arc. Swish. Anthony Jones also made one.

But Heslip, not to be outdone, sandwiched No. 9 in between those—leaving him only two short of the NCAA tournament record set by Jeff Fryer of Loyola Marymount in 1990. Those nine also matched the number put up by Purdue’s Courtney Moses in the women’s tournament a few hours earlier.

“When he came in, we knew how good of a shooter he was,” Baylor forward Quincy Acy said. “Every time I went to the gym at night, I would see him in there. Sometimes twice a day. He works for it. I know whenever he gets hot, he can outshoot anybody.”

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Crowder leads Marquette past Murray State, 62-53

By NANCY ARMOUR, AP National Writer
11 hours, 49 minutes ago

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)—Marquette has perfected the art of the comeback.

Down late yet again, Jae Crowder scored six points during a decisive 14-2 run, and the third-seeded Golden Eagles pulled away from Murray State for a 62-53 victory Saturday that sends the Golden Eagles into next weekend’s West Regional semifinals.

Crowder finished with 17 points, 12 in the second half, and also had 13 rebounds. Darius Johnson-Odom also had 17 for Marquette (27-7).

“When you’re playing a team like Murray State, they’re going to keep throwing punches and throwing punches, and you have to find a way to slow them down,” Johnson-Odom said. “We did a great job of that today.”

Isaiah Canaan had 16 points and six rebounds for the sixth-seeded Racers (31-2), who fell just short of their first trip to the regional semifinals for the second time in three years. This one is sure to sting, too, even if it wasn’t as gutwrenchingly close. Murray State lost to Butler 54-52 in 2010 when Gordon Hayward forced a Canaan turnover with about 10 seconds left.

The Racers have come a long way since. They won their first 23 games of the season, were the last team in the country to lose and showed against Marquette they can play with anyone.

“We proved today that we belong, and we belonged on a national stage,” Racers coach Steve Prohm said. “We just weren’t good enough the last seven minutes.”

Give Marquette some credit for that.

Despite a decided size advantage—Prohm joked Crowder and Johnson-Odom were missing spring practice somewhere—the Golden Eagles could never quite get in sync against the speedy, aggressive Racers. That Marquette was essentially playing a road game couldn’t have helped. Plenty of Racers fans made the three and a half hour drive for the game, and Kentucky fans jumped on the bandwagon in a show of state solidarity. When Jewuan Long made a layup to put the Racers up 46-41 with 7:43 to play, the crowd responded with the kind of roar usually reserved for that other Kentucky team.

But the Golden Eagles had plenty of practice at rallying during the regular season, when they came back to win six games after trailing by 11 or more points, and never doubted they could come back against the Racers.

“Eight minutes,” Johnson-Odom said, “is like 30 minutes.”

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Ohio State pulls away from Gonzaga for 73-66 win

By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer
13 hours, 49 minutes ago

PITTSBURGH (AP)—Jared Sullinger doesn’t get mad anymore. Those days are over. The Ohio State sophomore forward knows he can’t afford to lose his temper if the Buckeyes want to reach the Final Four.

So rather than sulk after foul trouble and some solid Gonzaga defense frustrated him for 36 minutes Saturday, the quickly maturing big man relaxed, took a deep breath and hoisted the Buckeyes on his broad shoulders.

Sullinger scored 18 points, including two big baskets on soft hook shots in the final 3 minutes to lead Ohio State to a 73-66 victory and a spot in the regional semifinals for the third straight year.

“I knew that throwing my body and creating contact wasn’t going to work in this game,” he said. “So I kind of just went with a little bit of finesse and just tried to get off-the-body contact and try to go up and finish.”

And finish off the original bracket busters in the process.

DeShaun Thomas also scored 18 for the second-seeded Buckeyes (29-7), while Aaron Craft added 17 points and 10 assists. Ohio State will play Florida State or Cincinnati in Boston on Thursday.

“We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well in the second half, but we knocked the shots down. And everybody made a big shot here and there,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said.

It’s what the Buckeyes do. When Sullinger spent the last 9:12 of the first half on the bench with two fouls, the Buckeyes relied on Craft and Thomas to erase a seven-point deficit.

Then, with the Bulldogs surging after wiping out a 10-point Ohio State lead, the Buckeyes went back to basics.

They went back to Sullinger, though such measures hardly seemed necessary after a putback by Thomas gave the Buckeyes a 58-48 lead. The Bulldogs (26-7) responded with a 13-3 run capped by a 3-pointer from the corner by Harris that tied it at 61 with 4:05 to go.

Then Sullinger, who still thinks about last year’s loss to Kentucky in the regional semifinals, took over. He backed down Gonzaga center Robert Sacre and hit a soft little hook shot from the right block to put Ohio State back in front.

“Right down the stretch we wanted to get the ball in his hands,” Matta said. “He’s a winner. We’ll ride that down the stretch.”

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Wisconsin holds off Vanderbilt 60-57

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) The Wisconsin Badgers are riding the nation's stingiest defense - and admittedly a bit of luck - back to the round of 16.

The Badgers held the Southeastern Conference's two leading scorers in check Saturday night and Ryan Evans grabbed a crucial rebound with 2.1 seconds left to help Wisconsin fend off Vanderbilt 60-57 in the NCAA tournament.

The Badgers held John Jenkins (20.1) and Jeffery Taylor (16.3) to 13 and 9 points, respectively in advancing to face top-seeded Syracuse in the East Regional in Boston.

Jenkins got just one good look at the basket all night, and it came on a wide-open 3-pointer in the final seconds. With the Commodores trailing 59-57, Jenkins created some space between him and Jarred Berggren, but like so many of his other shots on this night, it was long.

``That was as wide open a shot as we gave up the whole game,'' Badgers coach Bo Ryan said. ``It just didn't happen to go down.''

Evans grabbed the rebound among a mash pit of bodies pushing and shoving underneath the basket, corralling the ball and drawing the foul with 2.1 seconds left.

``It was a pretty good look,'' Jenkins said. ``I felt like I got a good chance of having it going in, just like a lot of looks I had today. It just didn't drop for me.''

Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings desperately wanted a whistle on the Badgers but didn't get it.

If the Badgers didn't get away with a foul, they know they got away with a rare defensive breakdown.

``He's one of the best scorers in the country, one of the best shooters in the country,'' Badgers point guard Jordan Taylor said. ``So when you see a guy get a look like that, your heart kind of drops. I know my mom already bought tickets to Boston, so I was hoping that it didn't go in.

``But Jared did a great job of recovering there and making it as difficult as possible. Ryan did a great job of checking out down low and securing the rebound. But it was definitely heart-stopping for a second there.''

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Michigan State handles LIU 89-67

By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer
6 hours, 49 minutes ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—Draymond Green got on the phone earlier this week with a former Michigan State star.

Magic Johnson must have told Green to play just like him.

Green recorded his second career NCAA tournament triple-double—the first player to do it since Johnson—and Derrick Nix added 18 points as top-seeded Michigan State fought off the upset bug that took down two No. 2 seeds, advancing in the West Regional with an 89-67 win over LIU Brooklyn on Friday night.

On a freaky Friday of upsets, Michigan State wasn’t going down.

Green wouldn’t stand for it.

“The kid’s a great player,” LIU coach Jim Ferry said. “I thought he was a great player going in on tape. He’s a great player live. He’s going to have a very long career in front of him. He’s just a fantastic basketball player.”

The Spartans (28-7) finally put away the bothersome No. 16 Blackbirds (25-9) with a 14-4 run midway through the second half. Michigan State outscored LIU 47-30 after halftime to set up a third-round game with Saint Louis on Sunday.

Green had 24 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and no turnovers in 35 minutes. He joined Johnson and Oscar Robertson as the only players in history to have more than one triple-double in the tournament.

Afterward, Green showed typical humility in downplaying his accomplishment. His previous triple-double came in last year’s tournament loss to UCLA.

“At the end of the day I’d much rather have a win than a triple double, because when you look at those record books it’s going to say Draymond Green stats triple double and then it’s going to say the score of the game,” he said. “And the last one was a loss and this one was a win. So it don’t really matter.

“It’s just about getting wins this time of year, and I’m just happy we’re able to do that.”

Green didn’t get into any specifics about his conversation with Johnson. The Hall of Famer was talking with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who put Green on the phone.

“I don’t know what he said to him, but it might have been something good,” Izzo said. “I might have to call him back. I’m proud of Day Day (Green’s nickmane). I’m pleased for him. Happy for him. And yet he’s got a lot of basketball to go. “

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Beal, Prather lead Gators to 71-45 win over Cavs

By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer
13 hours, 0 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—With his 1.5-point scoring average, Casey Prather surely wasn’t a big part of Virginia’s scouting report on Florida.

You can bet any team that plays Florida the rest of the NCAA tournament will know who he is.

Prather scored a career-high 14 points on a rare day Florida’s 3-point shooters went cold, and the Gators had no trouble beating the Cavaliers 71-45 Friday in the NCAA West Regional.

“On a big stage like this, he was probably a very unlikely candidate to step up and do what he did for us tonight,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “I’m happy for him, because he’s a great kid.”

Prather made 6 of 7 shots in a season-high 22 minutes, using a cool spin move to get to the basket for a baseline layup in the middle of the second half. But his best shot came late when he dunked off Erving Walker’s alley-oop pass.

“I woke up trying to be focused on the game and what I could do to help the team,” the sophomore reserve said.

Prather had played more than 10 minutes in a game just twice since mid-December and hadn’t scored more than six points in any previous game this season. In his last 16 games he had scored a total of 15 points.

“He gave them a great lift,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “When you look at someone off the bench to give you a spark—I don’t want to say you weren’t counting on him—but that is a pleasant surprise, and he was that for them.”

Bradley Beal also had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Patric Young had 13 points on 6-for-6 shooting with three dunks.

Those efforts were enough to offset the Gators’ 4-for-23 shooting on 3-pointers. They entered the game averaging a nation-leading 9.9 a game but missed their first 13 attempts.

No. 7 seed Florida (24-10) pierced Virginia’s vaunted defense—the Cavaliers were giving up just 53.7 points a game—to get to the boards for second-chance baskets. The press also generated some easy buckets for the Gators, helping them go 24 of 30 from inside the arc.

“We were struggling to score in the beginning,” Walker said. “The press had a huge effect on the game. It got us in our offensive rhythm.”

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Indiana impressive in 79-66 win over NM State

By TIM BOOTH, AP Sports Writer
Mar 16, 1:31 am EDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)—After a four-year absence, Indiana is making its NCAA tournament return last longer than just one brief appearance.

And even though it’s one victory, it’s still a moment worthy of reflection for Indiana coach Tom Crean after rebuilding a gutted program and leading the Hoosiers to a 79-66 win over New Mexico State—their first in the NCAA tournament in five years.

“I think when I look up at the crowd and catch a glimpse of my family … it hits you for a brief moment that this is really, really special,” Crean said. “We’ve been through so much to get to this point. We’ve all learned a great deal. Everybody is better. It didn’t seem like it at the time, but everybody is better for what we had to endure.”

Now if the Hoosiers want to keep this tournament return going for another week, they’ll just need to take out Shaka Smart and those bracket-busting upstarts from VCU.

Jordan Hulls went on a second-half shooting spree and finished with 22 points, and the fourth-seeded Hoosiers rolled Thursday night in the second round of the South Regional.

Indiana picked up its first tournament win since beating Gonzaga in 2007 on a night its main stars—Cody Zeller and Christian Watford—did the heavy lifting in the opening minutes then watched Hulls and others take over.

Hulls shot 8 of 12, and 7 of 8 in the second half including his own personal 11-point run as the Hoosiers (26-8) blew the game open. Zeller, Watford and Will Sheehey all finished with 14 points for Indiana as part of a 59 percent shooting display that propelled the Hoosiers to the weekend.

Next up for the Hoosiers are the 12th-seeded Rams in the third-round Saturday afternoon and the chance for Indiana to find its way back to the regional semifinals for the first time since going to the Final Four in 2002.

“In a situation like this, there’s some physical to it, but it’s much more mental and retention, and seeing how it applies to you,” Crean said. “I’m looking forward to being up late.”

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No. 2 seed Kansas rolls through Detroit 65-50

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Kansas coach Bill Self hardly broached the topic of fellow No. 2 seed Missouri’s upset loss to Norfolk State on Friday. He figured there was no need—his players already knew.

He made sure to mention another No. 2 seed, Duke, also went down.

“The Duke game was going on and there was 5 seconds left or 20 seconds left when I finished doing my pregame,” Self said. “I told them then, `Hey, Duke’s getting ready to get beat, too.”’

It served as a warning to the Jayhawks.

They most certainly heeded it.

Thomas Robinson bullied his way for 16 points and 13 rebounds, and the second-seeded Jayhawks rolled to a 65-50 victory over Detroit in the second round of the Midwest Regional.

“I didn’t make a point of it because sometimes you make a point, it could add pressure, saying it’s possible. But I did say, `Hey, the one thing is we have to make sure Detroit doesn’t play well,” Self said of the earlier upsets. “When teams get comfortable anything can happen.”

After the first 15 minutes, Detroit never looked comfortable.

Doug Anderson led the Horizon League-champion Titans with 15 points before fouling out with 11:06 left. Ray McCallum, the son of the Detroit coach, added eight points on 4-for-15 shooting.

“I’m really proud of my guys,” said Detroit coach Ray McCallum. “We played one of the truly great teams in the country tonight, and that really, pretty much tells the story.”

Elijah Johnson added 15 points and Tyshawn Taylor had 10 for the Jayhawks (28-6), despite spending much of the second half in the locker room with cramps. Self said that Taylor received IV fluids during the game and should be 100 percent for Sunday night’s game against Purdue.

Kansas toyed with the Titans (22-14) early on before ramping up the defense, eventually holding them to 32 percent shooting and 3 for 17 from beyond the arc.

“They do a good job of not letting you get in the paint. That’s one of the strengths of my game,” the younger McCallum said. “I felt like I got good looks. It was just one of those games.”

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Xavier edges Notre Dame 67-63 in NCAA

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) Tu Holloway kept attacking the paint and knocking down tough shots for Xavier throughout the second half. It's no surprise the senior guard came through with the basket to help the Musketeers advance in the NCAA tournament.

Holloway banked in the go-ahead shot over Jack Cooley with 21.3 seconds left, helping Xavier rally to beat Notre Dame 67-63 on Friday night in the second round of the South Regional.

Holloway finished with 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting, including a flurry that helped the 10th-seeded Musketeers (22-12) rally from 10 down in the second half against the seventh-seeded Fighting Irish (22-12).

``He's made such big plays through the course of his career,'' Xavier coach Chris Mack said. ``The moment's never too big for him.''

Holloway had 17 points in the second half, the last coming when he rounded a screen from Kenny Frease and sent a high-arcing shot over Cooley's outstretched arm for the 64-63 lead.

``Coach Mack called my number, and it's a shot I practiced over the summer,'' Holloway said. ``I work hard for moments like this, and fortunately through the graces of God the ball went in. I knew it was big.''

After a free throw from Dezmine Wells pushed the lead to two, Notre Dame's Eric Atkins drew a blocking foul to get to the line with 2.8 seconds left. He swished the first free throw, but official Michael Stuart ruled that Jerian Grant left his position behind the 3-point arc too early as he ran in for a rebound, giving the ball back to Xavier.

The same unusual call was made at a critical moment of top-seeded Syracuse's 72-65 victory over UNC Asheville during the second round of the East Regional on Thursday.

On the ensuing inbounds pass, Pat Connaughton was whistled for an intentional foul when he grabbed Wells' jersey trying to deny him the ball. Wells knocked down both free throws to push the lead to four with 2.8 seconds still on the clock to ensure the victory.

``It's too bad that happens, but there was a lot of plays,'' Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said of the lane-violation call. ``We missed some free throws. There were a lot of plays that culminated in not being able to escape with a win.''

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South Fla works over Cal 65-54 in NCAA tourney

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) Ugly, ugly, ugly. Just the way South Florida likes it.

The Bulls introduced the NCAA tournament to the Big East's nastiest defense Wednesday night, putting more than just a chill into a California team that had never seen anything like it. The Bulls allowed only 13 points in the first half and brushed their way to a 65-54 victory.

South Florida (21-13) will play No. 5 seed Temple in Nashville on Friday, a matchup of teams known for gritty defense. Few have been better than this one for the first 20 minutes on the NCAA stage.

The Bulls swarmed `em, bumped em' and swatted their shots away - those that weren't air balls, that is.

California (24-10) didn't score over the last 8:55 of the first half, missing 10 shots and turning it over twice while South Florida pulled ahead 36-13.

Guard Jorge Gutierrez, the Pac-12 player of the year, was held to 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting.

It wasn't all defense that got it done for South Florida. Freshman point guard Anthony Collins, a thin-built player with a youthful face that reminds coach Stan Heath of a 12-year-old kid, played like a star in his first NCAA tournament game, scoring 12 points. Victor Rudd had 15 points

The Golden Bears won't soon forget the way they got worked over. They must have felt as if there were six Bulls on the floor at times playing defense.

No, only five. The refs counted.

The Bulls set a Big East record by giving up only 56.9 points per game this season. Their problem: They score about as many points as they give up. South Florida didn't have a player average in double figures for the season.

Realizing he didn't have many scoring options, Heath instituted the defense-first, defense-last philosophy that got them to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 20 years and, now, their first win. The Bulls came in 0-2 in the tournament.

Other teams exult when one of their players hits a big basket. The Bulls cheer from the bench as the other team passes the ball around helplessly and hopelessly.

They were cheering their defense from the opening tip.

The first time down the court, Gutierrez forced a running shot that was too hard, a taste of the misery ahead. California missed its first five shots and eight of its first nine, helping South Florida pull ahead 15-3.

Collins made a driving layup, a floater, a 15-foot pull-up jumper and a layup off his steal during the opening run, getting South Florida's unpredictable offense moving.

The Golden Bears readily acknowledged that they hadn't played anything quite like the Bulls' defense. With four players averaging in double figures, their best chance was to spread the ball around and be patient.

They ran out of patience real fast, prompting coach Mike Montgomery to call a timeout to get his team settled down. Instead, things quickly got worse.

A lot worse.

Gutierrez hit a fade-away 15-foot jumper with 8:56 left in the first half. The Golden Bears wouldn't score again before halftime, with South Florida pulling off a 14-0 run. It ended with a telling moment: California guard Justin Cobbs dribbling toward the basket and failing to even attempt a shot before the buzzer sounded.

Totally discombobulated.

The Golden Bears shuffled toward the locker room with blanks expressions. Their 13 points matched the seventh-fewest in an opening half since the NCAA tournament expanded in 1985, according to STATS LLC.

The Bulls pulled ahead 57-25 with 8:49 left. The only question was how low they could keep the sore. California fouled repeatedly in the final minute, giving itself enough chances to hit the 50-point mark.DAYTON, Ohio (AP) Ugly, ugly, ugly. Just the way South Florida likes it.

The Bulls introduced the NCAA tournament to the Big East's nastiest defense Wednesday night, putting more than just a chill into a California team that had never seen anything like it. The Bulls allowed only 13 points in the first half and brushed their way to a 65-54 victory.

South Florida (21-13) will play No. 5 seed Temple in Nashville on Friday, a matchup of teams known for gritty defense. Few have been better than this one for the first 20 minutes on the NCAA stage.

The Bulls swarmed `em, bumped em' and swatted their shots away - those that weren't air balls, that is.

California (24-10) didn't score over the last 8:55 of the first half, missing 10 shots and turning it over twice while South Florida pulled ahead 36-13.

Guard Jorge Gutierrez, the Pac-12 player of the year, was held to 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting.

It wasn't all defense that got it done for South Florida. Freshman point guard Anthony Collins, a thin-built player with a youthful face that reminds coach Stan Heath of a 12-year-old kid, played like a star in his first NCAA tournament game, scoring 12 points. Victor Rudd had 15 points

The Golden Bears won't soon forget the way they got worked over. They must have felt as if there were six Bulls on the floor at times playing defense.

No, only five. The refs counted.

The Bulls set a Big East record by giving up only 56.9 points per game this season. Their problem: They score about as many points as they give up. South Florida didn't have a player average in double figures for the season.

Realizing he didn't have many scoring options, Heath instituted the defense-first, defense-last philosophy that got them to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 20 years and, now, their first win. The Bulls came in 0-2 in the tournament.

Other teams exult when one of their players hits a big basket. The Bulls cheer from the bench as the other team passes the ball around helplessly and hopelessly.

They were cheering their defense from the opening tip.

The first time down the court, Gutierrez forced a running shot that was too hard, a taste of the misery ahead. California missed its first five shots and eight of its first nine, helping South Florida pull ahead 15-3.

Collins made a driving layup, a floater, a 15-foot pull-up jumper and a layup off his steal during the opening run, getting South Florida's unpredictable offense moving.

The Golden Bears readily acknowledged that they hadn't played anything quite like the Bulls' defense. With four players averaging in double figures, their best chance was to spread the ball around and be patient.

They ran out of patience real fast, prompting coach Mike Montgomery to call a timeout to get his team settled down. Instead, things quickly got worse.

A lot worse.

Gutierrez hit a fade-away 15-foot jumper with 8:56 left in the first half. The Golden Bears wouldn't score again before halftime, with South Florida pulling off a 14-0 run. It ended with a telling moment: California guard Justin Cobbs dribbling toward the basket and failing to even attempt a shot before the buzzer sounded.

Totally discombobulated.

The Golden Bears shuffled toward the locker room with blanks expressions. Their 13 points matched the seventh-fewest in an opening half since the NCAA tournament expanded in 1985, according to STATS LLC.

The Bulls pulled ahead 57-25 with 8:49 left. The only question was how low they could keep the sore. California fouled repeatedly in the final minute, giving itself enough chances to hit the 50-point mark.

WKU sets NCAA record with 59-58 win over MVSU

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) The team with the losing record pulled off the most fantastic 5-minute finish in NCAA tournament history.

The most surprising thing? Western Kentucky didn't even think it was all that extraordinary.

It was, in every way.

With a president and a prime minister sitting in the front row behind the basket, the Hilltoppers turned up their full-court press and overcame a 16-point deficit in the last 5 minutes on Tuesday night. Their 59-58 victory over Mississippi Valley State christened it as the tournament of comebacks.

Who better to do it than the longest of long shots?

``Wow,'' coach Ray Harper said, his face still flush with March emotion. ``I don't know where to begin.''

With the comeback, of course. There's never been one quite like it.

T.J. Price's three-point play with 33 seconds to go completed the Hilltoppers' unprecedented rally in front of President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, who headed out at the buzzer.

The NCAA called it the biggest deficit overcome in the final 5 minutes of a tournament game. The previous best: Illinois overcame a 15-point deficit in the last 5 minutes to beat Arizona 90-89 in overtime in a regional final in 2005.

Madness indeed.

``It's a crazy feeling,'' said Derrick Gordon, who had 11 points. ``That's the president of the United States coming to watch our game. We wanted to put on a show. Things didn't work our way for the first 35 minutes, but we came away with the W.

``I'm sure he liked what he saw.''

He saw the only squad with a losing record in the 68-team field get out of its own way long enough to do something special. The Hilltoppers (16-18) shot only 30 percent from the field, turned the ball over an incredible 28 times and won.

The Hilltoppers have rallied from double-digit deficits in each of their last three games, including two in the Sun Belt Conference tournament. Their latest comeback was the biggest of them all.

``We're used to doing it,'' Gordon said. ``We did it all throughout the Sun Belt tournament. No matter how much we were losing by, we were just going to keep on fighting until the buzzer went off. That's something that teams don't know about us.''

Western Kentucky moves on to play Kentucky - the top seed in the South Regional - on Thursday in Louisville, an all-Bluegrass game for the second round.

MVSU (21-13) caught the president's eye while pulling ahead, but couldn't close it out. Kevin Burwell scored 20 points and locked eyes with the president after swishing a 3-pointer while the Delta Devils built their big lead. Obama smiled back.

``Like I said yesterday, we were just trying to put on a show for him,'' Burwell said. ``In the heat of the moment, I just pointed at him a couple of times. That was it.''

Obama - an avid basketball fan who fills out an NCAA bracket each year - spent a lot of time explaining the nuances of the game to Cameron. Obama has picked Kentucky as one of his Final Four teams.

A smaller school from a corner of the commonwealth became the star of the First Four.

The Hilltoppers were the losers' favorite in the bracket - the first team since Coppin State in 2009 to make it to the tournament with a losing record.

And that didn't even begin to tell their story.

A team featuring seven freshmen lost 11 of its first 16 games. The low point came on Jan. 5, when Louisiana-Lafayette somehow managed to get six players on the floor for the winning shot in overtime. And that wasn't the worst indignity that day. Only 2,137 fans took advantage of a $1 ticket promotion, showing that very few considered the Hilltoppers worth a buck.

The next day, coach Ken McDonald was fired, replaced by Harper, an assistant. The Hilltoppers responded by losing their next three games.

Slowly, they grew form a young, bad team into one that found its stride at tournament time. They won four games in four days for the Sun Belt's automatic berth.

And here they were on Tuesday, making an even bigger comeback in the NCAA tournament before an audience that seemed to add to both teams' jitters at the outset.

There was no avoiding the guest list. During the first timeout, photographers from the White House press corps went on the court to snap photos. The two referees on that side of the court shook the president's hand.

MVSU led most of the way and seemed to have everything in control until Western Kentucky went to a full-court press.

``I thought it was just our guys got rattled, got excited, and got a little bit beside themselves,'' coach Sean Woods said. ``Normally in a situation like that, maybe it's one guy or two. But when it's all five, it was like a snowball effect.''

Burwell had a chance to tie the game with a 3 in the closing seconds. Cor-J Cox had a putback at the buzzer that left the Delta Devils a point short.

March Madness Starts!

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