By JOHN P. WISEOne Great Season
Poor Cincinnati. After the Bearcats cruised in their Big East Tournament opener on Wednesday, they were trounced by Notre Dame in one of the most lopsided blowouts in the event's storied history.
Fellow alums think I'm harsh on our alma mater; it's not that I'm not excited about the job Mick Cronin has done in his fifth season in Cincinnati. But at the same time, I'm tempering my optimism because I don't think the Bearcats are back, as many of them like to think. They play excellent defense and their scrappy style is reminiscent of those great UC teams of the 1990s. But those teams also had some scoring punch. Currently there is very little offensive firepower, no go-to guy to carry a team, and that's why Cincinnati's exit from the NCAA Tournament will be an early one.
>> MORE: Recent March Madness Notebooks From OGS
Today's Headlines
+ Staying at Madison Square Garden, ESPN play-by-play guy Dave Pasch said each of the afternoon session's two quarterfinal games (UConn-Pittsburgh and St. John's-Syracuse) was worthy of a final in any other league. I agree; do you?
+ In the Big 12, OGS enjoys a nice following in Stillwater, where folks know we like some Oklahoma State sports. That said, Kansas had no business struggling to beat the Cowboys in Thursday's quarterfinal. The Jayhawks are No. 1A to Ohio State's No. 1 national ranking, and barely escaped the upset due to terrible execution of a poorly designed strategy in a late timeout by OSU coach Travis Ford, one that didn't even yield a shot attempt in a 63-62 loss.
+ BYU barely beat a weak TCU team that won only one conference game this season. The Cougars lost their already shaky hold on the No. 1 seed out west.
Top Four Seeds
+ EAST — Ohio State: Finally, Buckeyes fans can start watching some basketball again.
+ SOUTHEAST — Notre Dame: The Irish win by almost 40 on a day that Pittsburgh goes one and done in the Big East Tournament.
+ SOUTHWEST — Kansas: An ugly win Thursday doesn't harm KU's No. 1 hopes.
+ WEST — Duke: With Pittsburgh watching on television, the Blue Devils can play their way on to the top line here.
On The Bubble
+UAB — OGS correctly predicted an early exit from the C-USA Tournament, but we thought it would have come today in the semis. A quarterfinal loss to East Carolina could keep the Blazers out of the field.
Work To Do
+Michigan State — Avoiding an upset to Iowa was clever, but Sparty, with a gimpy Kalin Lucas, would do well to beat Purdue in Friday's Big Ten quarterfinals.
Today's Top Read
+ Did USC coach Kevin O'Neill and his wife get drunk and confront some Arizona fans at a hotel bar at the Pac-10 Tournament in Los Angeles Thursday night? Would we ask such a question if such a thing wasn't being reported?
What To Watch
+ USC vs. Arizona, FSN, 9 p.m.
Your Tournament Video Of The Day
The "Cardiac Kemba" video from yesterday already had 45,000 views on YouTube at the time of this writing 24 hours after it happened. Walker joined UConn's long history of Huskies winning big games at the buzzer. Here's Tate George beating Clemson in the 1990 Sweet Sixteen: