NCAA Men's Capsules: Peek behind the scenes with Michigan State's Izzo
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Despite his success, fame and fortune, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo is still an approachable guy. His cell phone vibrates constantly, and his windowed office on campus give friends and strangers a chance to knock on the glass and give him a big thumbs-up.
There have been a lot of those lately.
The 55-year-old coach has led his men's basketball team to the Final Four for the sixth time in 12 seasons, a feat also accomplished by just UCLA's John Wooden and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski.
If Izzo cuts down the nets Monday night in Indianapolis — a decade after he won a national title there — his .770 winning percentage in the NCAA tournament would rank No. 1 among active coaches.
To prepare for Saturday's semifinal against Butler, Izzo even escaped his Michigan State offices one day this week to get some work done, driving one-half mile to the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center to work on a game plan.
Izzo agreed to give the Associated Press exclusive, behind-the-scenes access for the first two days of his Final Four preparations.
_ Izzo's conference room:
The room connected to Izzo's office suite has a treadmill in the corner, plaques on the wall recognizing past head coaches, assistant coaches and those from Izzo's coaching tree who have gone on to lead programs such as Indiana's Tom Crean and Dayton's Brian Gregory.
Izzo sits on right side of the long, oval table.
His right hand rests on a computer mouse connected to a state-of-the-art video system — that is when he isn't reaching into a 35-ounce barrel of Utz Cheese Balls.
Assistant coaches Mark Montgomery, Dwayne Stephens and Mike Garland step in the room along with video coordinator Jordan Ott, joining Izzo and assistant video coordinator Doug Herner.
The staff begins to prepare to face the other teams in the Final Four: Butler, Duke and West Virginia.
"You got Butler," Izzo says to Montgomery.
"You should take West Virginia," he tells Stephens.
"You take Duke," Izzo says to Garland. "And in our film session, show the guys our good and bad runs against Tennessee."
Ott's crew of student assistants recorded a slew of games all season, helping Izzo and his staff devise game plans for possible NCAA tournament opponents.
"How many Butler games do we have in the computer," Izzo asks.
"Seven," Ott says. "You said you wanted losses, but they haven't lost since Dec. 22."
Izzo nods his head.
"I don't think we can go back that far," he replies.
College coaches borrow and share scouting reports with friends in the business. Izzo reads aloud: "Butler has some trouble guarding long, athletic players that are able to shoot the ball and put the ball on the floor to score."
Then, he snickers.
"You know why?" Izzo asks. "Those guys are pros."
With that, there's only the hum of a refrigerator.
"That place will be hoppin' for them," Izzo says of Lucas Oil Stadium, which will be filled with fans pulling for the hometown Bulldogs.
_ Izzo's office:
Sitting at his desk, strewn with papers, Izzo prepares to do five straight phone interviews, raising his total to nine by noon.
His shelves are filled with framed pictures of his wife, Lupe, their children, Raquel and Steven Mateen, as well as one of Izzo with President Barack Obama.
Floor-to-ceiling windows are behind him and to his left, creating a fishbowl effect that leads to people — such as Dan Jimenez of Lansing on this day — knocking on the glass and flashing a thumbs-up.
Izzo likes the fact that those who met him when he joined Jud Heathcote's staff as a little-known assistant in 1983 don't think he has changed. But it creates challenges and distractions, because Izzo has a hard time saying "no."
"Herner talked me into checking into a hotel (Tuesday) to get some work done," Izzo says. "We haven't done that before, but we're going to give it a shot."
Izzo gets out of his chair to grab a bottle of apple juice out of a drawer that hides a refrigerator.
"I've never had a cup of coffee in my life," he says.
One of Izzo's telephone interviews is with ESPN's Hannah Storm on "SportsCenter," and he is publicly asked for the first time about a report that Oregon plans to lure him with the largest contract in college basketball.
Izzo dodges the question for the first of many times, saying he is happy at Michigan State and focused on trying to win another national championship.
_ Izzo's conference room:
Soon after Izzo rejoins Herner in his conference room to get to work, but not for long.
First, five-star basketball camp founder Howard Garfinkel calls. Then the doctor who performed shoulder surgery on highly touted incoming recruit Adreian Payne rings. And his executive secretary, Lori Soderberg, hands Izzo a trimmed-down list of people who have called: former Spartan Eric Snow, ex-Michigan coach Bill Frieder, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas and Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun.
Just when Izzo is about to focus on semifinal opponent Butler, he breaks for a Final Four conference call featuring the four coaches. Izzo rolls his eyes when asked about the Oregon report and basically repeats what he said earlier.
Soon after he's done with the conference call, Washington Wizards coach Flip Saunders calls.
"They're pretty good," Izzo says of Butler. "They've got two pros."
Then, Izzo laughs hysterically toward the end of the call.
"Flip said, 'You've got to get to the championship game because if you get there, I'll get thrown out of our game so I can watch,'" Izzo tells Herner.
Moments later, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins calls.
"I'm happy for you," Izzo says. "We'll see you down there."
Izzo takes a quick break to eat some pizza before sitting back down to watch Butler video.
"Oh my God," Izzo says. "It's 2 o'clock! Where did the time go?"
Herner points to Izzo's incessantly vibrating cell phone.
"It usually doesn't work when you turn it off," Herner deadpans.
_ Team film room:
Izzo gathers his players in a room with three long tables on three tiers and comfy, basketball-colored chairs to briefly look back at the win over Tennessee and ahead to Butler.
Life-size pictures of Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and Jason Richardson line the left side of the room and images of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Steve Smith and Eric Snow are on the right wall.
"I'm convinced we're just as good as any team left," Izzo tells the team. "I haven't felt that way in years. I didn't in '05 at the Final Four. And last year in the finals, I didn't think we were as good as North Carolina."
Izzo shows key runs — good and bad — from Sunday's game against Tennessee.
"Watch the difference in our offense," Garland says. "It's almost like night and day."
After a light workout, players leave the Breslin Center, and Izzo decides to do the same.
"I'm going home to have dinner with my family," Izzo says. "I'll be back in about an hour and a half."
_ Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center:
Izzo walks into the Vista Room at 7:54 a.m. Tuesday, where Ott has created a makeshift setup to scout Butler.
The unmarked room is across the hall from a conference filled with people attending the Michigan Traffic Safety Summit. The windows are open, pushing a crisp breeze into the conference room, but the blinds are shut to improve the picture projected on a screen.
Izzo is very impressed with Butler forward Gordon Hayward and guard Shelvin Mack.
He points a laser pointer at the 6-foot-9 Hayward.
"He was 5-11 going into high school, and he kept his guard skills after he grew," Izzo says.
Mack makes shot after shot.
"This guy will be a pro," Herner says.
"Yeah, he will," Izzo says as they commence a 4-hour session interrupted just once by a radio interview. He'll later poll his staff about how to handle Butler's on-the-ball screens and its top two players.
_ Izzo's Lexus SUV:
Making the one-half mile drive back to the Breslin Center for a packed news conference, Izzo reflects on the company he now keeps with Wooden and Krzyzewski:
"It's funny because it doesn't really sink in right now, which it shouldn't," Izzo says. "It's pretty impressive, and yet it is something I sure won't think about for another 10 years or so."
Old Barn a staple of Indiana basketball lore
INDIANAPOLIS — Sometimes at Hinkle Fieldhouse, you can see haze in the air from dust that can never quite be cleaned up. The court creaks a bit in places — the man who hit the most famous shot here calls it sensitive.
And the sunlight that sometimes shines onto the floor through those huge windows?
"That's homecourt advantage," Butler's assistant athletic director Carl Heck says with a wry grin.
Magic has happened in this venerable building, from the 1954 high school showdown that inspired "Hoosiers" to the undefeated homecourt record that Butler put up on its run to this weekend's Final Four just a few miles away. The "Old Barn" just has that feeling, more than a movie, a building or a floor. For decades, it was the court of dreams in Indiana.
"It was such a wonderful place to play in," said Oscar Robertson, who won two state championships there. "It was so mystical."
Gordon Hayward, whose grandson, Gordon, is the star of the Bulldog team, knows it.
"It's historic, a beautiful facility," the elder Hayward says. "You know, my grandson had offers from other schools, like Purdue and Michigan, but he chose to come here because he thought they had the best facility."
In "Hoosiers," coach Norman Dale of the small-town Hickory Huskers realizes his players are in awe when they arrive at the 15,000-seat fieldhouse. Hoping to calm them down before the state championship, he pulls out a tape measure and asks them to check the height of the baskets. When they realize that the rims are 10 feet high, just like the ones back home, they relax.
A scene like that never happened, says Bobby Plump, the real-life version of Jimmy Chitwood who made the game-winning shot for little Milan in the 1954 Indiana state final. But his team's awe of the building was real. His first experience with it came when coach Marvin Wood took the Indians there before a state tournament game in 1953.
"Woody walked us by the floor, and all of us just stopped," Plump, now 73, said. "You know, that place was mammoth, and especially from down home. It just got quiet for a little bit, and Bob Engel, one of our players, looked around and said 'You could put a lot of hay in this place, couldn't you?' That kind of broke the ice."
Milan lost in the semifinals that year, but roared through postseason play the next year. The Indians beat a young Robertson and his Indianapolis Crispus Attucks squad on the way to the championship.
The southeast Indiana school an hour's drive west of Cincinnati, enrollment 161, squared off in that title game with Muncie Central, a school 10 times its size. It was only possible because Indiana's single-class system allowed the smallest of schools to dream the biggest of dreams. Excitement about the Indians had grown because of their postseason run in '53, so the crowd was in their corner.
Milan led 23-17 at halftime, but Central dominated the third quarter and tied the game heading into the fourth.
Milan called a timeout with 18 seconds left and the score tied at 30. Plump dribbled near the midcourt circle, then advanced as time wound down. He cut hard to his right, pulled up and drained a 15-footer to win the championship. The fans were delirious.
"I only had 10 points against Muncie Central," Plump says now. "It was the worst game I had in two years of tournament play, but it's the one everybody remembers."
Plump's shot was instant legend in Indiana, and it became a worldwide phenomenon after the movie debuted in 1986, with the championship scenes filmed in the fieldhouse.
"That probably stands out as the most significant thing to happen in high school basketball," Pacers president Larry Bird said. "For Milan to be able to win a state championship had to be something special, not only then, but to see it evolve over the next 50 years is pretty magnificent."
Little has changed at the fieldhouse since Plump's famous shot 56 years ago.
Hinkle Fieldhouse and the Butler Bowl football stadium cost a combined $1 million to build — an enormous amount of money 82 years ago. The Indiana High School Athletic Association helped foot the bill because it wanted more space to host its increasingly popular state basketball finals.
When completed in 1928, the fieldhouse held more than 15,000 people, the largest such facility in the nation during its first 20 years of existence. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Walk in the south doors of the huge brown brick building and you can look at team photos old and new on the walls of the dimly-lit hallway. There's a large trophy case that is a virtual shrine to Tony Hinkle, the longtime Butler coach and athletic director the building was renamed for in 1966.
Step into the arena itself and the roof soars above, with huge rows of windows. The west windows are always covered by curtains, but the east windows are never covered. The court originally ran from east to west, but it was switched to north-south in 1933 because sunlight caused problems for the players.
"When you walk in here and it's a full house, that light — there's like a haze that comes across it because you can't clean this building 100 percent," says John Harding, a 65-year-old Indianapolis native who has been the equipment manager for 19 years. "You don't clean concrete that's been here since 1928. There's just dust. It's been here. You see that haze coming across there in kind of an arc right going down — it comes right down on the floor."
The oak floor has been replaced over time, but the risers below are the originals. The court creaks when you walk on it and it's uneven in some spots. The soft, flexible wood has made it a favorite of players through the years.
"It all came back to me when the movie 'Hoosiers' came out," Plump says. "People magazine wanted to take a picture of me in my letter jacket at Hinkle Fieldhouse. I'm standing under the basket at the south end and they've got their camera for the picture on a tripod on my side of the 10-second line. There's a kid dribbling under the basket on the north end. They asked him to stop because it was jiggling the camera. That's how sensitive the floor was."
Garry Donna, editor of Hoosier Basketball Magazine for 40 years and a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, said playing there as a high school kid in the 1950s was a bigger-than-life experience.
"It didn't matter that the locker rooms were a mile away, you didn't care that the sun came in the windows, it was a special occasion," he said. "Hinkle Fieldhouse is like no other."
The fieldhouse hosted the state championships from 1928 to 1971 and Plump's is far from the only stirring tale.
John Wooden is known the world over as a winning basketball coach at UCLA. Perhaps his most painful loss came in the 1928 state finals, the first at the fieldhouse.
Wooden's Martinsville team led Muncie 12-11 late in the game, but Muncie was issued a technical foul for taking too long while attending to an injury to Charles Secrist. Wooden, an excellent free-throw shooter for the defending state champs, missed the free throw.
According to the rules of the day, the ball came to midcourt for a jump ball. Secrist tipped the ball to himself, then fired the ball toward the basket from just beyond halfcourt, hoping to give himself a chance to rebound. The high, arching shot somehow dropped through the net, and Muncie won 13-12.
In 1955, Robertson scored 30 points to lead his team to the state title against Gary Roosevelt. It was the first state title in the nation for an all-black team.
"It came to mean more later," Robertson told The Associated Press. "You're not aware of all that in high school. I didn't find out about all those things until I was into my adult years."
Attucks scored 97 points that day, an Indiana record that still stands.
The next year, Attucks became the first unbeaten state champion in Indiana behind 39 points from the Big O.
Robertson played regular-season games there, too.
"We drew such big crowds that it was the only place to hold the games," the Hall of Famer said.
Over time, the building has become somewhat modernized. Chairs were added around the lower section in 1989, dropping the seating capacity to 11,000. Panels on the roof added in the past few years helped improve sound quality.
But for the most part, it's an uncomplicated place. Aside from the blue-painted original wooden bleachers that cover much of the arena and the "new" blue chairs, the dominant color is gray.
There are no video screens, no escalators, no air conditioning. Filled to capacity on a cold winter's day, it gets hot enough that the windows have to be opened. Nothing fancy.
"The people that really appreciate tradition and history love it," Butler coach Brad Stevens says. "If you're looking for new amenities and flashy things and something that everybody's trying to build to keep up with the Joneses, I think you've got to go somewhere else."
-- Cliff Brunt
Freshman Dawkins: Duke's X-factor?
DURHAM, N.C. — Andre Dawkins could be preparing for the prom.
Instead, he's having the time of his life in another kind of big dance.
The 18-year-old finished high school early to get a jump start at Duke. After playing the season with a heavy heart, he's hoping to continue providing an offensive spark off the bench in the Final Four.
"It's been a lot of fun, a long journey for the whole season," Dawkins said. "But this is what we looked forward to from Day 1."
He hit two clutch 3-pointers in the South Regional final victory against Baylor and will be ready if his number is called when the Blue Devils (33-5) play West Virginia (31-6) on Saturday night in Indianapolis.
"I don't really know if it has hit me yet," Dawkins said. "Maybe walking onto the court at (Houston's Reliant Stadium) and just seeing all those seats. It was kind of like, 'Wow, this is the big time right here.'"
The teenager's trip to the Final Four has capped a tumultuous, emotion-filled season for the freshman, who might be the best pure shooter on Duke's roster.
After not taking a shot in a combined seven minutes in his previous two NCAA tournament games, he knocked down two 3s against Baylor — including one in the final minute of the first half that swung momentum back to the Blue Devils and helped propel them to their first Final Four since 2004.
"Andre has guts," teammate Jon Scheyer said. "He comes in games and he's confident, and it's a big lift."
Of course, having a certain level of courage comes in handy when you're trying to enroll at Duke early.
Dawkins had attended four years of high school in Virginia — one year of public school before transferring to Atlantic Shores Christian School and was classified as a freshman again. He found out that needed one English class for NCAA eligibility, so he passed that class over the summer and pursued early admission to Duke.
"We were just saying, 'Wow, last year we were in the Metro (high school) Conference,'" said his father, also named Andre Dawkins. "This year, you're in the Final Four. That is crazy. We were just thinking how much a blessing that it is to be at that point, and how things can change for you."
The elder Dawkins said his son's decision hit home this week during the lead-up to the McDonald's All-America Game in Columbus, Ohio.
"I said, 'Do you miss being in that?'" the senior Dawkins asked his son. "He said, 'Well, I think I'm doing something that's a little bit exciting, too.'"
Exciting, yes, but also at times uncertain.
Dawkins' minutes vacillated during the season. He played at least 12 minutes in 14 of his first 17 games, and had all six of his double-figure scoring games during that stretch. But once the Blue Devils entered the heart of the Atlantic Coast Conference season, he played more than 12 minutes only four times and didn't score more than seven points in any of those games.
Then he rediscovered his shot against the Bears, and may have earned himself some additional time on the court.
"I just attribute (that shooting) to just staying ready and working on it in practice. ... Coach told me to shoot if I'm open, so that's what I did," Dawkins said. "I'm just trying to play my part. When coach is calling me I'm always ready to go in and do whatever they need me to do."
Tragedy made his first season exponentially more difficult than for most freshmen.
His older sister Lacey was riding to Durham for the Blue Devils' game against St. John's on Dec. 7 when she was killed in a three-vehicle accident in southern West Virginia. Their father said Andre, a laid-back and quiet teenager, keeps a photograph of his sister on his cell phone and had trouble opening up about her death, preferring to keep himself involved with basketball and academics.
It was comforting, though, that coach Mike Krzyzewski and Duke athletic director Kevin White were among those who attended the funeral and helped make the Blue Devils feel even more like an extended family for him.
"There was a lot of love coming from everywhere," the elder Dawkins said.
Said his son: "I just had great family support and all my teammates and my coaches being there for me the entire time. If there was anything I needed, wanting to talk to me, it was just a good feeling, I think that's one of the main reasons I was able to get through it as well as I did."
When he rejoined the team after her funeral, he scored 16 emotional points against Gardner-Webb and has kept her memory alive through the ups and downs of the season.
"It's still something he thinks about," Dawkins' father said. "It's something he wants to cherish and just continue to move on and appreciate the time that they had together."
-- Joedy McCreary
WVU's Ebanks becomes solid defender
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia's Devin Ebanks is all about real estate. He feels he owns the paint on the defensive end of the court.
The 6-foot-9 sophomore prides himself in forcing his opponent's top scorer to have an off night. He holds a grudge when he occasionally slips up.
Defense defines West Virginia. And the long arms of Ebanks have helped West Virginia play its best defense during a 10-game winning streak that has the Mountaineers in the Final Four.
"We don't like being scored on," Ebanks said. "We try to limit everybody's scoring and limit their touches. It's fun knowing that you can shut the other person down and outrebound the other team, just outman them, out-tough them. It's a fun way to play."
He didn't feel that way two years ago. Ebanks didn't care much for defense until he was recruited by coach Bob Huggins.
"He's not going to tell me what I want to hear," Ebanks said. "He's going to tell me what I need to hear, just got me in the right direction as a player. Trust is a big factor, and I trust him a lot."
Inconsistent scoring forced Ebanks and his teammates to turn up the defensive intensity this season. The Mountaineers have shot below 50 percent from the field in 26 straight games.
They've also held six of their last seven opponents under 60 points, with the exception being Kentucky in the East Regional final. West Virginia (31-6) will need a similar effort Saturday night against Duke (33-5) in Indianapolis.
"We're not going to score a whole lot of points and our guys want to win, so I think they understand we've got to do a great job of guarding," Huggins said. "Our length has something to do with it. And I think in the last month, we got a lot better."
Especially Ebanks, who struggled in the early part of the season but turned things around on both ends of the floor. He has six double-doubles this season and is third on the team in scoring at 12 points per game and averages 8 rebounds. He's committed the fewest fouls among West Virginia's starters, but his 74 turnovers leads the team.
He was responsible for Villanova all-American Scottie Reynolds shooting 5 of 16 from the floor in the regular-season finale.
In the first round of the NCAA tournament, Ebanks had 16 points, 13 rebounds and held Morgan State's Reggie Holmes to 4 of 17 shooting and 12 points, 10 under his average.
"I accept the challenge and I like shutting them down," Ebanks said.
Huggins' bread-and-butter has always been tough man-to-man defense but he's mixed it up in the NCAA tournament, using a 1-3-1 more often. Against Kentucky, the zone clogged the middle and forced the Wildcats' guards to shoot 3-pointers. The Wildcats missed their first 20 3-point attempts.
In Duke, the Mountaineers are facing the second straight No. 1 seed, and the Blue Devils' perimeter scoring might be the toughest challenge to date.
"Duke is kind of similar to us," Ebanks said. "They're a good defensive team and a good rebounding team. It will be like the same teams going against each other. I guess it will be who will out-tough who in that game."
Huggins demands that it be a team effort.
Da'Sean Butler, West Virginia's leading scorer, is tied with Ebanks for the team lead in steals. Kevin Jones, Wellington Smith and backup John Flowers, all at 6-7, are adept at shot blocking and hold their own on the defensive end.
Ebanks, named to the all-Big East rookie team as a freshman, had to earn his reputation as a stopper.
He missed three straight games in November for undisclosed personal reasons and sat out another in December after hitting his left hand on a rim at a tournament in Anaheim, Calif.
"He had a hard time holding onto the ball," Huggins said. "He did not shoot the ball really well. The thing about most of our guys is they do a lot of things and Devin became I think an outstanding defender."
By late December, his hand had healed and things started to click on both ends of the court.
He averaged 18 points and 15 rebounds in wins over Mississippi and Seton Hall and was named Big East player of the week. In the following game he had a team-high 19 points in a 63-62 win over Marquette that capped the team's 11-0 start.
"I started feeling more comfortable, especially on the offensive end," Ebanks said. "I had a couple of good scoring games and my defense stayed where it's at. I just started putting it all together."
The team's defensive consistency didn't take off until Huggins challenged his players after a 73-62 loss at Connecticut on Feb. 22. The Mountaineers haven't lost since.
One of the first questions Huggins asked Ebanks as a recruit was if he wanted to win a national championship. Ebanks didn't hesitate to tell the coach what he wanted to hear. And with two more solid games, that wish will come true.
"Now that we have a chance to do it, it's a great feeling," Ebanks said.
-- John Raby
Other Final Four News
Hometown Final Four rally draws crowd for Butler
INDIANAPOLIS — It's not unusual to see downtown Indianapolis awash in blue, hosting a sea of sports fans. But when fans flocked to Monument Circle for a pep rally Wednesday afternoon, they weren't decked in blue for the Colts, but for the Final Four-bound Butler Bulldogs.
Fans crowded the south side of the monument and spilled onto Meridian Street, waving blue and white pompoms, and peering through paper bulldog masks as they cheered on the hometown team. The school's bulldog mascot, fittingly named Blue, sported a Butler T-shirt as he laid panting in the afternoon sunshine.
Police estimated about 2,000 fans packed the streets. More watched from open windows and rooftops of nearby office buildings as the Butler band and cheerleaders performed on the monument's steps.
"I've been watching Butler forever, and it's just an inspiration. ... Any basketball game that brings the community together is a wonderful thing," said University High School student and basketball player Amy Strawbridge, 19. "I just looked around and so many people are crying. You never know their background or where they came from, but everyone comes here, and your heart pounds. It's a good thing."
Butler clinched its first ever Final Four berth with a 63-56 win last weekend over Kansas State. The Bulldogs will face Michigan State on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium, about five miles from their campus.
"Today everyone in Indianapolis is a Butler Bulldog," said Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard, who wore a Butler T-shirt over dress clothes as he addressed the crowd. He later proclaimed Wednesday as Butler Bulldog Day.
University President Bobby Fong said that it had been almost 40 years since a hometown team had played in a Final Four. The last time it happened was 1972, when UCLA won the national title — a point that Fong emphasized and left the crowd cheering.
"We hope to pay back your faith with a national title," he said.
Athletic director Barry Collier also spoke at the rally, as did Butler alumnus Bobby Plump, who was a member of the high school basketball team that inspired the movie "Hoosiers." Part of that movie was filmed inside the Bulldogs' home, Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Noticeably missing from the pep rally were its honorees — Collier said that the team was back at Butler attending class. But despite the team's absence, the fans still turned out in full force.
Justin Brady, 25, wore a Butler T-shirt, blue-and-white Mardi Gras beads and a striped hat in the school's colors. He rode his bike to the rally with a Butler flag strung across the front of the handlebars.
"I was in the Butler band for four years, and went to pretty much every single game," said Brady, who graduated from Butler in 2007. "I traveled to all the tournaments, including the last Sweet 16. So I'm a huge Butler fan, and I'm really excited to see them make it all the way to the Final Four."
Ann Taylor, 54, held a large letter 'B' cut from blue posterboard. Next to her, her daughter, Hilary, held a letter 'U.' The two alternated raising the letters, following along with chants of the crowd after the band played the school song to close the rally.
"We're big-time Butler supporters," said Ann Taylor, who went to Butler in the '70s. "She went to IU, but she comes to all the games. It's a Butler theme in the house."
Hilary Taylor, 23, said that even though she graduated from IU, her loyalty has always been with the Bulldogs.
"It's always been Butler basketball," she said. "When I was at IU, I still always rooted for Butler."
-- Carly Everson
WVU fans give Mountaineers loving sendoff
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Mountaineers have got to be feeling the love.
Thousands of screaming fans packed into one side of the West Virginia University Coliseum on Wednesday to send basketball coach Bob Huggins and his players to the Final Four.
Senior Wellington Smith said he was amazed by and grateful for the turnout, while D'Sean Butler thanked the community for being genuine, kind and supportive throughout his time in Morgantown.
Huggins says the Mountaineers are happy to represent what he calls "the greatest people in the world."
West Virginia hasn't been to the Final Four since 1959. The Mountaineers face Duke on Saturday in Indianapolis.
Other College Basketball championship news
North Carolina can end rocky season with NIT title
NEW YORK — North Carolina is on the cusp of another championship. Not the one it wanted, though.
Left out of the NCAA tournament after a lousy season, the Tar Heels have reeled off four straight victories in the NIT and will play Dayton in the title game Thursday night at Madison Square Garden with a chance to gain a somewhat dubious distinction.
A win would make North Carolina, one of college basketball's most storied programs, the first team to follow up an NCAA national championship with an NIT crown the next year.
"Let's be honest, this was not where we wanted to be," coach Roy Williams said Wednesday. "Everybody wanted to be in the NCAA tournament."
Early departures and injuries contributed to a string of embarrassing losses that squashed the Tar Heels' hopes for a repeat.
Now, they're shooting for back-to-back titles of a different sort.
"We definitely let a lot of people down," sophomore point guard Larry Drew II said. "It's very important for us to go out on a positive note."
Dayton is trying to do the same thing after a disappointing campaign of its own.
The Flyers were ranked No. 21 by The Associated Press before the season, their first preseason ranking in a major poll since 1967-68, and picked to win the Atlantic 10 Conference.
But they stumbled down the stretch, finished seventh in the standings and missed the NCAAs.
Given another opportunity to show their stuff against other also-rans in the NIT, junior forward Chris Wright and Co. got on a roll. Relying on sound defense and strong rebounding, the third-seeded Flyers beat Illinois State before hitting the road for wins over Cincinnati and No. 1 seed Illinois.
"I just think we started in practice, holding ourselves accountable," Wright said. "We started to get on each other as a team. It is on you to go out there and execute and it is on you to go out there and get it done."
After arriving in New York, Dayton (24-12) held off Mississippi 68-63 in the semifinals Tuesday night.
"I am very, very proud of these guys in terms of their commitment to staying strong and staying together during some tough times during the year," coach Brian Gregory said. "We have played with greater poise and composure."
Dayton is playing in its 22nd NIT, second only to St. John's (27), and the Flyers are 39-24 at Madison Square Garden, giving them more wins at the fabled arena than any other school outside the New York metropolitan area.
Chris Johnson's 22 points against Ole Miss sent Dayton into the final for the first time since winning its second NIT championship in 1968.
"There are some teams that enter this tournament that are a little upset that they weren't chosen, and then there's other teams that are disappointed they didn't reach their main objective — but realize that they probably had a lot to do with it," said Gregory, who is 6-1 in the NIT. "They're a little ticked off at themselves for putting themselves in that position, and that's exactly what these guys did. They took responsibility, stood up and said we can do better."
But the Flyers figure they still have a tall task ahead in the No. 4 seed Tar Heels (20-16), who won their only NIT title in 1971 when current Denver Nuggets coach George Karl was on the team.
North Carolina scored the final five points of regulation to force overtime Tuesday night in a 68-67 win over Rhode Island. That followed hard-fought victories over William & Mary, Mississippi State and UAB — the last two on the road.
"They are still North Carolina. You are talking about a Hall of Fame coach. He didn't become a dud the last two months," Gregory said. "There is a Carolina way. They are tremendous in the open court. They really push the ball. They flow quickly in their secondary offense, very seamlessly, and they are extremely big."
Williams said increased intensity and desire on defense has been the key to UNC's turnaround. And though he acknowledged a win Thursday night wouldn't wipe out all the problems his team had this season, he said it would still be "a wonderful feeling."
"We've had a pretty rough season this whole season. We didn't even know if we were going to make it to the NIT," Drew said. "But we did know that if we did make it, we wanted to go out with a strong impact."
-- Mike Fitzpatrick
Rozzell, VCU beat Saint Louis to wrap up CBI
ST. LOUIS — VCU had pretty simple motivation to finish off the best-of-three CBI championship without a Game 3.
"Just trying to get home," said Jamie Skeen, who hit a pair of crucial baskets in the final two minutes of the Rams' 71-65 victory over Saint Louis on Wednesday night. "If we win, we get to go home."
Top reserve Brandon Rozzell scored a career-high 27 points and was 4 for 7 from 3-point range, helping VCU beat Saint Louis for the second time in three nights.
"We wanted this to be our last game," Rozzell said. "We kept that in mind."
Saint Louis (23-13) led by nine at halftime and again early in the second half before fading with a roster of freshmen and sophomores. Game 3 would have been Friday night in St. Louis.
"It was a great experience for us," coach Rick Majerus said. "It was an honor to play in it. We didn't have a good year, we had a great year."
Skeen added 16 points and six rebounds and Joey Rodriguez had 13 points for the Rams (27-9), who compensated for an off-game by leading scorer Larry Sanders. He was in foul trouble much of the game and held to three points and four rebounds. Sanders had 20 points and 12 rebounds in a 68-56 victory Monday in Richmond, Va.
First-year coach Shaka Smart said before the game he discussed finishing the year on a five-game winning streak. The Rams finished fifth in the Colonial Athletic Association and lost only twice in their final 12 games, both times to CAA champion Old Dominion.
"We talked about this as the knockout game," Smart said. "For a while it didn't look like there was going to be anybody knocking anybody out.
"It was won on the defensive end."
Willie Reed had 16 points, six rebounds and three blocks for Saint Louis. Freshman Corey Remekun added career-bests with 13 points and seven rebounds for the Billikens, who finished 18-4 at home.
Cody Ellis was held to three points, eight below his average, on 1-for-9 shooting. Saint Louis was 2 for 18 from 3-point range for a two-game total of 7 for 38.
"Cody's had a great year; he hit that freshman wall," Majerus said. "We get so many open shots and we can't hit.
"I told these guys, 'You've got to be able to make shots.'"
Another guard, Kyle Cassity, had four assists and a steal in 33 minutes but didn't attempt a shot due to an undisclosed injury.
"Cassity was just like a dying dog," Majerus said. "I applaud the kid, he kept wanting to play."
VCU outscored Saint Louis 9-2 to pull away from a 61-all tie with 3:04 remaining, with Remekun finally scoring for the Billikens with seven seconds left. Rozzell's previous best was 20 points against College of Charleston on March 22.
Saint Louis had appeared to seize control with 7:18 to go in the half on a five-point play — Sanders' second foul plus a technical that put the Billikens ahead 23-20. Saint Louis led 33-24 at the break.
-- R.B. Fallstrom
