By Mel Greenberg
Hello, all.
This will be short because the Guru is busy at an offsite location in the Philadelphia-area counting United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) all-American, coach, player, and freshman ballots, although two of those categories, as one might guess, don't require a lot of counting.
There didn't appear to be any new player-blogging at the AP site in the last 24 hours. We did deliver AP Doug back to his Manhattan residence on what was a rather quick trip South on the way back to here.
One record clear from a previous post -- Doug's train time spent on trips to Connecticut games is on Metro North mostly and not Amtrak.
Looking at the Sweet 16 field, in terms of AP Final poll teams, the first nine all survived. Cal was upset, but No. 11 Old Dominion, No. 13 Oklahoma State, and No. 15 Notre Dame, making it 12 of the AP's Sweet 16. The other AP teams still alive are No. 19 Louisville, No. 20 George Washington, No. 21 Vanderbilt, and unranked Pittsburgh, although it would be hard to make the Panthers a 100 percent Cinderella, considering they had been ranked during the season.
On the other hand, beating Baylor was still worth something. There was an oppportunity for all but one of the top 16 to make the field. The only intra-16 game was No. 15 Notre Dame's win over No. 14 Oklahoma.
No. 10 Cal lost to George Washington, No. 12 Baylor lost to unranked Pitt, as mentioned, and No. 16 Kansas State lost to No. 19 Louisville.
For those counting conference success, the Big East has already been addressed and has five of the Sweet 16, followed by three from the Atlantic Coast, three from the Southeastern, two from the Big 12, and one each from the Pacific-10, Colonial Athletic Association, and Atlantic Ten.
Officially Speaking
During the immediate fallout after the "Clockgate," episode involving Rutgers' last "extra" second loss at Tennessee, it was noted that if any of the officials who worked the game and didn't follow procedure and had been reprimanded in any meaningful way, perhaps their names wouldn't appear in NCAA tournament boxscores, namely because they might be suspended from the tournament.
Well, a glance at every boxscore in the first two rounds yielded this find:
Bob Trammell worked the Pittsburgh-Wyoming game in the first round and the West Virginia-Vanderbilt game in the second round; Tina Napier worked the Western Kentucky-UTEP game in the first round and the George Washington-California game in the second round, while Bonita Spence worked the Illinois State-Oklahoma game in the first round and the Oklahoma-Notre Dame game in the second round.
On another note, Dawn Marsh, who has played in the tournament for Tennessee, officiated one of the games. We caught her working some CAA games involving Drexel this season. Also working one of the games was Wanda Szeremeta, a former teammate of scoring sensation and now New York Liberty executive Carol Blazejowski when the two starred for Montclair State, which advanced to the first Women's Final Four format in 1978 under the AIAW.
Villanova Travels Memory Lane in the WNIT
The Wildcats will be in Boulder, Colo., to play the University of Colorado in a third-round contest. In 2003, coach Harry Perretta's squad upset a very good Ceal Barry-coached Buffs squad in Colorado's holiday tournament and the two later met again in an NCAA regional semifinal game in Tennessee, won by Villanova. The magic for the Wildcats ended the next game against the Vols, but that win made Perretta's group the only Big Five team to advance that far in NCAA history.
-- Mel
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