NCAA Men's Tournament Capsules: For coaches, handling timeouts is tricky business

It seems to be easy question: Call a timeout or don’t call a timeout?

However, at some point during the win-or-go-home NCAA tournament, a timeout — or the lack of one — could be the difference between winning or losing. And while Dick Vitale is always screaming "Get a T.O., baby!", some of the top college coaches say it’s not quite so simple.

How quickly should a coach call one if an opponent goes on a scoring run?

Bill Self, coach of top-seeded Kansas, won’t hesitate to use all five of his allotted timeouts to stop the bleeding.

"I don’t mind using them at all — no reason to hoard them," Self said. "But I do think situation dictates when you call them."

Then there are coaches like California’s Mike Montgomery, an admitted hoarder.

"I’m a saver and I always have been," said Montgomery, whose team won the Pac-10 regular-season title and is a No. 8 seed. "I do think, though, that when you get into a loser-out environment you can ill-afford to get yourself into too big of a hole and you can’t fight your way back out of it. ... It doesn’t do you much good to save them if you’re going to lose."

It’s a small part of game strategy, but timeouts often play a big role by the final horn. In addition to the media timeouts coming roughly every 4 minutes, teams have up to four 30-second timeout (three carry to the second half) and one 60-second timeout.

Burn them all and a team can get burned at end of a game.

Look no further than Chris Webber’s infamous timeout call — or more accurately, calling the one Michigan didn’t have — in the final seconds to all but seal Dean Smith’s second national championship at North Carolina in 1993.

Steve Fisher was the Wolverines’ coach at that time. Now at San Diego State, an 11th seed that plays Tennessee on Thursday, Fisher understandably tries to avoid that situation again.

"I’d like to keep two in my pocket going down the stretch," Fisher says. "I don’t want to use all of them. I’d like to save them for the players."

Then there are games when it’s more about the timeout that doesn’t get called. North Carolina’s Roy Williams was criticized for not calling one during Kansas’ 18-0 run in the 2008 Final Four that helped put his Tar Heels in an unfathomable 40-12 first-half hole, yet Williams is a disciple of Smith’s save-the-timeouts philosophy.

Kentucky’s John Calipari would just assume not have to call one, either.

"Early in my career when I wanted to be ‘Watch me coach,’ I called a lot of timeouts," Calipari said. "I went out there and showed them the board: I’m going to write up a play, watch the genius that I am. I used to do that, but after you get older, you think what you think."

Then again, Calipari said he’s had to be more involved with a young squad that earned the No. 1 seed in the East Region. That led to his curious timeout call in last month’s two-point win at Vanderbilt; the Commodores had no timeouts and had to go the length of the court, but Calipari called his own timeout with 2.5 seconds left that allowed Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings to draw up a play that nearly resulted in a tying basket at the horn.

Afterward, Calipari said it was "one of the dumbest timeouts" he had ever called and said he asked his team to "please make me look good, somebody do something."

"In most cases, I don’t need to interject myself for my own ego, so if I don’t have to call timeouts, I don’t call them," Calipari said. "If I interject myself, I’m also interjecting the other coach. ... I’d rather go home with four timeouts."

If anything, coaches don’t want their players looking to the sideline to be saved by a timeout call every time an opponent makes a run. Instead, many coaches would rather take a simple attitude — "you got us into this, you get us out" — with their players when at all possible.

"We practice every single day to set up so many different situations that you ought to be pretty much understanding what’s going on," said Temple coach Fran Dunphy, whose Owls are a No. 5 seed. "And more than you being understanding, your players ought to be pretty understanding of how to handle a situation. But certainly, if teams make runs, you want to stop the run and call the timeout."

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose team is a No. 1 seed for the first time in four years, doesn’t have a set rule and said he prefers to call timeouts instinctively. He might let his players go longer without calling a timeout earlier in the season to make them show more toughness or adjust to a wild crowd, but things can change in March.

"It can vary from game to game and certainly from month to month because maybe they’ve already learned that lesson," Krzyzewski said. "Or, you know what, I’m not going to teach that lesson today. We just need to win this damn game no matter what the hell we have to do."

Still, coaches don’t always have a say in when their timeouts are called. Krzyzewski still remembers when his Blue Devils didn’t have a timeout for the final 5½ minutes of its two-point loss to Kentucky that sent the eventual champion Wildcats to the 1998 Final Four. That’s because the players had to call several timeouts to protect offensive possessions during the course of the game.

In the ‘93 final, Michigan had to burn a timeout on an inbounds play early in the second half, an innocent-looking play that proved huge once Webber signaled for that unforgettable timeout.

"You try to have all your timeouts in the second half," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "You use them in emergencies if somebody’s stuck some place. Sometimes the players will call them, sometimes you do. But you’d like to have them at the end of the game. It’s important."

Either way, Self is ready to make the call for the Jayhawks.

"There’s no reason not to use them if you’ve got them," he said. "You can’t take them home with you."

Opening Game

Ark-Pine Bluff beats Winthrop 61-44 in NCAA opener

DAYTON, Ohio — Smiling Arkansas-Pine Bluff players plopped into the black folding chairs at courtside and checked their cell phones for congratulatory messages before heading out the arena door to get on yet another bus.

Finally, the Golden Lions had found a road trip to their liking.

Allen Smith scored 14 points Tuesday night, including a pair of 3-pointers during the Golden Lions’ second-half surge to a 61-44 victory over Winthrop in the NCAA tournament’s opening game.

The Golden Lions (18-15) will play Duke, the No. 1 seed in the South Regional, on Friday in Jacksonville, Fla. — a place they somehow missed during a season-opening jaunt that nearly did them in.

"It seems like we play better on the road than we do at home because we’re so used to being on the road," said center Lebaron Weathers said. "

Didn’t feel that way at the start of the season.

The Golden Eagles spent the first two months playing some of the country’s best teams on the road, going everywhere and getting nowhere. They dropped their first 11 games — all on the road — losing at schools such as Texas-El Paso, Michigan, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, Missouri, Kansas State and Oregon.

Players cranked up their iPods and let their music soothe them during 13-hour bus rides across the heartland in November and December, ones that bonded them for much better things in March.

"We think it brought them together," coach George Ivory said. "You’ve got to stay together on the road. You get to know each other better. You go through some bumps and bruises on the road, playing in some pretty tough places."

The basketball equivalent of boot camp hardened them for a Southwestern Athletic Conference season that would be much more kind. Their next destination is with history — a chance to pull off the unprecedented first-round upset of a No. 1 team by a 16 seed.

Ivory knows a little bit about that. He was a star at Mississippi Valley State, which kept up with No. 1 Duke in 1986 before falling 85-78.

"You see Duke a lot on TV," Ivory said. "You see them so much, it’s kind of like you just know what they’re going to do."

The fast exit was familiar for Winthrop (19-14), which has made the tournament nine times in the last 12 years but has only one victory in all those tries.

Winthrop got the type of game it wanted, but couldn’t make a shot as another tournament slipped away. Charles Corbin scored 13 points for the Eagles, who shot 29 percent from the field and went 2 of 21 behind the 3-point arc.

"We picked a bad time to have a bad game," coach Randy Peele said. "We played really frustrated. I hadn’t seen that from us for a while."

Neither team shoots particularly well — no player averages more than 10 points for either one. Instead, they win with tight defense and rebounding.

These mirror-image teams settled in to slog one out on the NCAA’s big stage.

Midway through the first half, there were as many shots blocked as made. Bored fans started doing the wave. Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s Tavaris Washington missed two dunk attempts. Both teams shot under 30 percent from the field in the first half, which ended with the Golden Lions up 24-23.

Ugly? Not to these two.

Corbin was the only shooter with any semblance of a touch, making his three attempts in the first half. His 3-pointer started a 13-2 run that gave Winthrop a 23-17 lead. The Golden Lions caught up by drawing fouls and making free throws.

Then, Smith changed everything with two uncontested shots.

Smith hit a pair of 3s — a rarity in this game — as Arkansas-Pine Bluff pushed its lead to 38-31. He held up his right hand in the "OK" sign — three fingers extended — after connecting from the left corner and the top of the key.

Things were anything but OK for Winthrop when the Golden Lions’ Terrell Kennedy, a bulky front-line player, swished only his second 3-pointer of the season to beat the shot clock, helping Arkansas-Pine Bluff pull ahead 14. Winthrop would never get closer than nine the rest of the way, unable to make an open shot or get a turnover to set up a layup.

"That became frustrating for me personally," said Mantoris Robinson, the Big South’s two-time defensive player of the year. "I felt if we got some stops, our offense would flow. But we didn’t shut them down."

For the final touch, Smith got an open 3 from the left wing and swished it with 16.3 seconds left, then gave his "OK" sign one last time.

This road trip was definitely more than OK.

-- Joe Kay

Features

Cornell’s Jon Jaques — from benchwarmer to star

ITHACA, N.Y. — Chances are, you’ve never seen a basketball player quite like Cornell’s Jon Jaques. Big Red coach Steve Donahue certainly hasn’t.

The 6-foot-7, 220-pound senior tri-captain has gone from a near-permanent spot on the bench for three years — he played in 34 of Cornell’s 87 games in his first three years, averaging just over three minutes and one point — to a starring role at power forward on a team that has won the past three Ivy League championships.

"In my 25 years of coaching, I’ve never experienced anything like it, and I think the rest of the league feels the same way," Donahue said. "Yeah, he hadn’t played in three years, essentially not a meaningful minute, which is hard to imagine, but the difference he’s made is phenomenal. I think he’s taken our team to another level."

Until Jaques was inserted in the starting lineup in early December, his main claim to fame was as a blogger extraordinaire for the New York Times.

"Better late than never, I guess," Jaques said with a smile. "A lot of people have asked why I kept playing. After each season during the summer I would just think about what I was doing, if I still wanted to play. I just kept thinking how weird it would be not to play, not to be around these guys, guys I’m used to being with every day.

"I basically told myself it would be worse not to play. I was having so much fun doing it anyway, and it’s worked out."

Jaques has a history in the role of second fiddle and his confidence often suffered. He played behind Alex Stepheson at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. At Cornell, he’s part of the supporting cast behind star Ryan Wittman, the school’s all-time leading scorer and Ivy League player of the year and an NBA prospect.

Everything changed for Jaques in late November. He didn’t play in the first three games of the season, then logged 1 minute at both Syracuse and Toledo and 2 minutes in a home game against Vermont. But when senior tri-captain Alex Tyler suffered a calf injury at Drexel in the Legends Classic, Donahue inserted Jaques, the Big Red’s best on-ball defender, and he responded by making a pair of clutch free throws in a seven-point win.

For that minor contribution, Donahue nominated Jaques to the all-tournament team, considering it a gesture of thanks and nothing more.

"I felt that was the last we’d see of Jon Jaques," Donahue said. "I just thought I would reward him for what he’s done over the last three years in accepting his role. That was my goal. Little did I know he would end up being one of our best players the rest of the season.

"He’s gone from a kid who I would worry about his poise to, if there’s a more poised player on our team, I don’t know who it is."

Two games later in his first start, Jaques scored a then-career-high 15 points in a win over Saint Joseph’s and one week later connected on 5-of-6 3-pointers to lead Cornell with 20 points in a victory over St. John’s. In a three-game span, Jaques averaged 13.7 points — he’d never scored 13 points in an entire season.

"It’s a testament to him how he he’s been able to not play for three years and come in and be such a contributor for us," Cornell senior guard Louis Dale said. "I don’t know how I would have handled that."

One of Jaques’ biggest contributions has been helping Wittman become a more complete player by guarding him in practice.

"He’s a guy in the shadows to the lay person," said Army coach Zach Spiker, a former Cornell assistant. "To those in the program, he has a very important role because he went head-to-head every day with Witt. He has had a lot to do with Wittman’s progress. Think about that size guy banging on Ryan Wittman every day, and he’s able to stay up with him."

"There would almost be fights out there. That’s how hard he (Jaques) competed," Donahue said. "I think that has enabled him to help us this year. If he didn’t do that and every single day try to get better, then there’s no way he would have been prepared for this situation when the opportunity arose."

Jaques’ presence in the lineup has helped Wittman, too.

"It was great for Ryan. To put another kid out with his size that can shoot the ball, it’s enabled Ryan to get more looks," Donahue said. "Ryan this year has been able to get more 3s than he’s ever had. It also frees Ryan on the defensive end, leaves him to save his energy for other things like rebounding."

Wittman said Jaques has done more than help him — he’s another weapon.

"He’s given us a huge lift, just giving us another option, another person who can knock down shots," said Wittman, who led Cornell in scoring for the fourth straight year, averaging 17.5 points per game, and is 26 points shy of 2,000 for his career. "I think everyone’s really happy that it’s paying off for him."

Jaques, who leads the team in taking charges, has reached double figures in scoring four more times since the St. John’s game, including a team-high 20 in Cornell’s win at Brown 11 days ago when the Big Red clinched the Ivy League title. He averaged 6.9 points a game for the season and shot nearly 50 percent (39 of 80) from beyond the arc.

Cornell (27-4), seeded 12th in the East, faces fifth-seeded Temple (29-5) in the opening round of the NCAA tournament on Friday. The Big Red have lost in the first round as a No. 14 seed the last two seasons, and if Friday marks the last game of Jaques’ career, his legacy won’t soon be forgotten.

"I’ll use him as an example for kids forever — never give up," Donahue said.

"He’s everything that a college basketball player should be," Army’s Spiker added. "It’s easy to get in the gym and work on your game when you’re playing a lot. It’s easy to get in the gym and work on the game when you’ve got a defined role, and for the better portion of his career he had none of those."

-- John Kekis

Spiders’ emotional leader used to be a ‘jerk’

RICHMOND, Va. — David Gonzalvez says it seems so long ago that Richmond finished his freshman season with an 8-22 record. For him, it’s like it took place in another lifetime.

That’s understandable, since by all accounts Gonzalvez was a different person then.

A self-described "jerk" as a freshman in 2006, Gonzalvez transformed himself in the offseason, in many ways becoming the glue that put the Spiders and coach Chris Mooney onto the same page.

This season, led by the ever-positive and emotional Gonzalvez, the Spiders went 26-8, tying their school record for victories in a season. They’re back into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2004. When they play St. Mary’s on Thursday in Providence, R.I., they will wear white jerseys as the higher seed for the first time.

Gonzalvez, a 6-foot-4 guard, is averaging nearly 15 points a game this season, and is fifth on the program’s career scoring list with 1,709.

None of the team or individual success may have happened had Gonzalvez decided to transfer — which he was close to doing. But following a tough first season, and with the help of others, he realized that the changes he needed to make were in himself.

"Freshmen hear stories about the guy that I used to be and they refuse to believe it because they know who I am now," Gonzalvez said. "It’s humbling and it’s rewarding too."

And along the way, the change helped Mooney build the program he envisioned when he left the Air Force Academy and took the Richmond job in 2005, and then brought in Gonzalvez and six other freshman to get going.

Immaturity was a problem that first year, and the losing record didn’t help.

"It’s difficult for a freshman to understand college basketball, the coaches’ role, the players’ role, their parents’ lack of role, and so that’s all in there," Mooney said. "It’s all difficult."

Especially when one of the building blocks didn’t want to fit in.

"I was a jerk," Gonzalvez said, speaking of his once-strained relationship with Mooney. "That’s the only rule that he has around here: ‘Don’t be a jerk.’ "

When the season was over, Gonzalvez told Mooney he wanted to transfer. That’s when the bond around the tight-knit Spiders team began being developed.

"When I was going to transfer, he was genuinely trying to help me find a place that would be the right fit for me," Gonzalvez said. "I was taken aback by that because I’m thinking, ‘I’m leaving your program and you still are trying to help me? Why?"’

Mooney had other plans, and began seeking support from his other players.

"He came to me and he said, ‘We’re going to try to keep David because I think he’s a special player,"’ fellow senior Ryan Butler recalls. "At the time, I didn’t see it because I was thinking if a guy wants to leave our program, why do we want to keep him?"

But Mooney asked Butler to trust him, and quickly the freshman saw why.

"I knew, as soon as coach Mooney told me that I had to trust him, that Dave was going to do whatever it took to make sure that he got on the right side for us again," Butler said.

Within a week, he said, Gonzalvez’s attitude did an aboutface, and he began pledging to teammates that he was not only staying, but turning things around.

"He came to me and he said, ‘Dan, I really messed up. I’m really trying to get my life together. I’m trying to get everything together,’ and he really did," center Dan Geriot said.

"He’s really become just an unbelievable person."

Gonzalvez credits former Spiders running back and current Arizona NFL star Tim Hightower with steering him back to the Christian upbringing his mother provided in Marietta, Ga.

"What that guy did, it was amazing," he said. "He almost took me in, he made me a part of his life as his little brother. We used to get up in the morning and we used to have Bible study early in the morning before school, like 6 in the morning, and then like at 9 at night.

"What he did for me, I can’t even put words to it."

Hightower remembers seeing Gonzalvez at Bible studies, but still seemingly lost.

"I just started seeing that he was interested in it but it’s like anything, when you’re new at something, especially when it comes to faith, you’re kind of unsure," he said. "I started to gravitate towards him and I kind of took him as my personal project. I’ve had a lot of people mentor me and I just took it as my responsibility and kept encouraging him."

And on the court, the Spiders are reaping the rewards.

"I’d say he’s gained more fire, especially now realizing he can be competitive and be everything and be up in guys faces and still be the nicest guy in the world," Geriot said. "We always say he looks so intimidating with the bald head out there.

"He comes out there and he’s in guys’ faces, making great plays and little do they know that’s probably the nicest guy in the whole conference."

Nice, and dangerous.

Gonzalvez hit the game-tying, contested 3-pointer that sent the Spiders’ regular season game at Xavier into overtime — a game Richmond lost. He then scored 26 points as the Spiders exacted their revenge in the tournament semifinals, beating the Musketeers in overtime.

He gives the credit for his success to backcourt mate Kevin Anderson — the A-10 player of the year — whenever possible. The pair is one of the nation’s top guard combinations.

Mooney counts the tale as one of the joys of his coaching career.

"I’ve said this before: He’s the most genuine person I know and he’s one of my favorite people in the world," he said.

And Gonzalvez, well, he feels good, really good.

"When I wake up in the morning and I think about our record and what we’re doing and our last win over Xavier, which was really good for us, I feel good," he said. "When I go to sleep, I feel good. When I’m eating my lunch, I feel good.

"We’re going to the tournament. I’m thinking about how we’re leaving Wednesday and I miss class Thursday and Friday to go play in the NCAA tournament. It’s just a good feeling.

"Look at the smile on my face. Do you see that?"

It’s hard to miss.

-- Hank Kurz Jr.

After trying season, Smith rewarded with NCAA bid

MINNEAPOLIS — Tubby Smith thought he had seen just about everything in his 19 years of coaching basketball.

Then this year came along.

In his third season at Minnesota, Smith lost his two best recruits to legal entanglements and his starting point guard to an academic suspension. The team that was left endured seven losses by five points or less and was blown out by 28 at Michigan about a week before the Big Ten tournament.

Yet Smith and the Golden Gophers (21-13) orchestrated an improbable run in the conference tournament to earn the 11th seed in the West Region, where they will face sixth-seeded Xavier (26-7) in the first round in Milwaukee on Friday.

"I haven’t ever had a year like this and I hope I never have one like it again," Smith told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Just for the players’ sake. Me, people know what I’m about. I’ve established myself. My credibility is pretty good. What I’m worried about is them. I’m trying to help them become all they can be."

Smith built Tulsa into a legitimate NCAA tournament threat, restored Georgia’s program to respectability and took Kentucky to a national championship, five SEC titles and six regional semifinals. But his time at Kentucky was often uncomfortable, never quite meeting the lofty expectations of some of college basketball’s most fickle fans after taking the Wildcats to the title in his first season.

So in 2007 he left for Minnesota and took over Gophers program that was ruined by NCAA sanctions and quickly made it competitive again, taking them to the NIT in his first year and the first round of the NCAA tournament last season.

His latest tourney trip may be his most satisfying yet.

"I don’t know that Tubby Smith has ever done a better coaching job," Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi said. "Obviously he has won a national championship, so people could argue that. But it has been a challenging year."

Expectations were high in Minnesota when Smith landed a recruiting class that included Minnesota Mr. Basketball Royce White, an athletic 6-foot-8 forward, and junior college transfer Trevory Mbakwe, a burly banger that added some much-needed toughness inside.

But White left school in February after a series of legal troubles kept him off the court. Mbakwe has been on the shelf all season while an assault case in Miami drags on. He maintains his innocence, and Smith supports him, but the school has made a decision to keep him off the court until the case is resolved.

Also in February, starting point guard Al Nolen was suspended for the remainder of the season for academic reasons.

"That’s been the longest part of the winter. Because you care about guys like Royce and Trevor and Al," said Smith, whose father died less than a week before the season started. "That’s what life is. Sometimes it throws you a lemon and you’ve got to make lemonade out of it."

The distractions took their toll. Losses at Indiana and Northwestern and at home to Michigan threatened their chances to make the NCAA tournament.

An 83-55 loss at Michigan stole some of the momentum from a win over Wisconsin in February, but the Gophers responded with a 25-point win over Iowa in the season finale. Then they beat Penn State, Michigan State and Purdue to reach the Big Ten tournament finals and earn that NCAA bid.

Like some of the punishment Smith — the sixth of 16 children raised on a farm in Maryland — received as a youngster, the tough times appear to have hardened this group of Gophers.

"I got my share of paddles and switches and straps and some two-by-twos on my back," Smith said. "It was the best thing that happened to me. This group, they’ve handled it as well as anybody."

"We talk about the ‘Tubby stare,"’ Maturi said, referring to Smith’s famous glare of fury at a player after a mistake. "Really it’s the Tubby focus. He just does not lose that ultimate focus. He refuses to give up on the ultimate goal, on this team, on this staff, his style and his convictions. And here we are."

After all the adversity, senior co-captain Damian Johnson said the Gophers feel ready for anything the Musketeers will throw at them.

"We feel like we’re a team that can handle any situation right now," Johnson said.

Smith said the loss of his father and a nephew, who was stabbed to death on a college campus in 2008, has given him a new outlook that has helped this team come together at the right time.

"We’ve tried to be more positive and tried to really focus on the kids," Smith said. "Sometimes those negative things can seep into you and you don’t realize it’s coming out. And it’s the way the players are receiving it."

-- Jon Krawczynski

Huskies to go after smaller Eagles inside

SEATTLE — Yes, Marquette is small. Its coach claims "we will be the smallest team you have seen" from a major conference.

Buzz Williams also says Lazar Hayward, Marquette’s center and leading scorer, "is 6-6½ — with his shoes on."

Quincy Pondexter knows Hayward to be even smaller than that.

Pondexter and Hayward were teammates last summer for the United States during the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia. Both were greeted there by a training table with unrecognizable native dishes they refused to eat.

"He was losing weight by the day," Pondexter said Tuesday of the 225-pound Hayward, who leads Marquette’s four-guard offense in scoring at 18.1 points per game entering Thursday’s first-round meeting in the NCAA tournament between the 11th-seeded Huskies (24-9) and sixth-seeded Golden Eagles (22-11).

"I starved a couple days, ate bread, water. It was like fasting. Then I went ahead and got some McDonald’s."

A re-nourished Pondexter has Washington recharged for its second consecutive tournament appearance.

"He can pretty much do it all," Hayward said of his former dorm mate in Serbia.

Pondexter has led the Huskies to seven consecutive wins, including three last weekend to secure the Pac-10 tournament championship.

To make it eight in a row and get into Saturday’s second round, Washington needs to go back inside and find out just how small Marquette is.

"You want to test them, to see what they can do inside," point guard Isaiah Thomas said.

Which is to say, the Huskies need to keep playing the way they have all season while in San Jose. A second-round game would be against either third-seeded New Mexico or Montana. The Lobos’ tallest starter is 6-8.

Even the 5-8 Thomas will have a height advantage Thursday at point guard over Maurice Acker, whom Williams says is more like 5-7½ instead of his listed 5-8.

"He’s smaller than me?" Thomas said, amazed

So again it’s inside or bust for the Huskies. Washington is at its frenetic best when Thomas, whose average of 17.1 points per game is second on Washington to Pondexter’s 19.8, is driving daringly into the lane. He floats circus shots or attracts multiple defenders, leaving Pondexter or revitalized, 6-9 forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning open for easy baskets underneath.

"We always try to be in there going to the paint, getting points underneath and off offensive rebounds, or to get us to the foul line," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said.

One of the reasons the Huskies are in this tournament is because they got inside then made 17 of 18 free throws in the Pac-10 tournament title game to clinch the win against California. The automatic bid that came with it eliminated the stress of whether the NCAA tournament selection committee would choose them.

There are potential pitfalls to Washington’s inside job.

Doctors have told Thomas he probably has a broken bone in his shooting hand. Last year’s Pac-10 freshman of the year said Tuesday that trainers are trying to make a less-bulky glove for him to wear over the hamate bone on the palm of his left hand. He’s planning to wear that Thursday.

"When I fall, that’s when all the pain comes back," he said.

Thomas says the glove he had been wearing since getting hurt on Feb. 11 at Cal caused him to shoot with too much of his hand on the ball.

Romar calls it a non-issue, citing how well Thomas has played with the injury.

It’s not like Marquette just got small since bids were announced on Sunday. Although they lost three of the top eight scorers in school history off last year’s team and were picked to finish 12th in the Big East, the Golden Eagles arrived Monday in San Jose for their fifth consecutive NCAA tournament.

They have been hardened by 15 games decided by five points or fewer this season. Marquette has won seven of those. It won three straight in overtime on the road, lost by one at West Virginia and by five at top-seeded Syracuse.

"We’re going to be facing one of the most mentally tough teams — if not the most mentally tough team — we’ve faced all season," Romar said. "People keep saying, ‘Who do they remind you of that you’ve played?’

"No one. They get after it. The things they do on the floor compensate for their lack of size."

-- Gregg Bell

Overlooked Jackson plays key role in ND turnaround

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame point guard Tory Jackson wrestled the rebound away from Seton Hall’s 6-foot-6 forward Jeff Robinson, sending the ball bouncing toward midcourt and out of bounds.

Jackson chased after it, though, dove and batted the ball right into the hands of Luke Harangody for an easy layup and a three-point play after he was fouled. Jackson got up and let out a yell at midcourt to celebrate.

It was typical Jackson, doing the gritty work while a teammate gets the glory. Despite leading the Big East in assists for the third time — only former Syracuse standout Sherman Douglas had done it until now — the 5-foot-11 Jackson has never been made Big East’s all-conference team. Not even an honorable mention.

"He’s always been a guy who has not gotten the attention he deserves," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "What’s been so great is it’s never bothered him. He’s just cared about his team winning and leading. I think that’s what makes him a winner."

Jackson played a key role in helping the Irish win six of their last seven to finish 23-11 and earn a sixth seed in the NCAA tournament against Old Dominion (26-8) Thursday in New Orleans. While everyone has accepted the slowdown offense Brey turned to when leading scorer Harangody went down with a knee injury on Feb. 11 and missed five games, Jackson has been the one setting the pace.

"The way Tory controls the game, he knows when to push the ball and when to slow it down and burn it," Harangody said. "He’s done a great job."

The Irish, who have been known for 10 seasons under Brey as an up-tempo team that didn’t emphasize defense, were averaging 79.2 points and 57.8 shots a game before Brey decided to switch to a more deliberate offense. The Irish did so seamlessly in a double overtime loss at Louisville.

Since making the switch, the Irish are averaging 65.6 points and 49.6 shots a game and not only earned an NCAA berth, but a sixth seed.

"To play from off the map two-and-a-half weeks ago and really just an afterthought, to a six seed has got to be a little bit unprecedented in the history of finishes," Brey said. "I love the momentum we have heading into this tournament."

The change of speed wasn’t hard for Jackson, who is 14th in the nation in assist-turnover ratio and 31st in assists at 5.3 a game. He said even though he’s handling the ball more, it makes his job easier.

"It just helps us slow down and see the game a lot better," Jackson said. "It gets us great possessions every time."

Jackson, a senior from Saginaw, Mich., has played in and won more games than anyone in Notre Dame history. Brey calls Jackson the voice of the team, frequently saying his guard could run practice on his own without the coach. Jackson does some coaching before games as well.

"He’s emphasizing things we talked about in the scouting report. He’s verbalizing things we talked about the two previous days of practice. He’s getting the guys individually," Brey said. "He’s got a chatter in there that is extremely constructive."

Harangody describes Jackson as the team’s glue.

"He’s an energy guy. He brings it every time whether in practice or before a game. He’s a guy keeping guys’ attitudes up," Harangody said.

Jackson managed to stay positive when the Irish lost four of five games in January and appeared to be heading toward the same midseason slump that led to the previous season falling apart, when the Irish lost seven straight. He said he’d return to his apartment after some losses and just stare at the wall.

"I’m a sore loser. I may go home and hate everybody. But the next day I’m going to come back smiling, come back putting in more work and trying to figure out ways to win," he said.

Jackson finally got some recognition at the end of the season when he received the league’s Sportsmanship Award and was named to the Big East all-tournament team. Jackson said being overlooked doesn’t bother him, although he said it probably would have when he was younger and more brash.

He’s more mature now and more humble. Besides, as the second youngest of 14 children, he’s used to sharing the limelight. He’s focused on one thing.

"If I’m doing what it takes to win, eventually in the end it will show," Jackson said. "Point guard is getting every one else involved."

-- Tom Coyne

Gary & Greivis: Odd couple prepares for final run

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The unique working relationship between conservative Maryland coach Gary Williams and flamboyant star guard Greivis Vasquez began four years ago with a quirky exchange — one Williams recalls with a chuckle.

Vasquez was a freshman about to participate in his first practice with the Terrapins. Instead of heading directly to the locker room, the 6-foot-6 guard first dropped by the coach’s office in Comcast Center.

"He leaned into the doorway, saluted and said, ‘Reporting for duty, sir,"’ Williams said. "That was the start of his college career. I’m sure he didn’t sign up for what he got into."

In truth, Vasquez couldn’t have asked for anything more. And there’s no way Williams could have envisioned just how instrumental Vasquez would be in reviving a program that had drooped into a slump so soon after winning the national championship in 2002.

With Vasquez leading the way, the Terrapins (23-8) this week enter the NCAA tournament for the third time in four years. They open play Friday in Spokane, Wash., against Houston (19-15) in the Midwest Regional.

It’s already been a banner season for Williams, Vasquez and Maryland. Williams was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Terrapins to a share of the league’s regular-season title. Vasquez was the lopsided winner in balloting for ACC Player of the Year.

Vasquez averaged 19.5 points, 6.2 assists and 4.6 rebounds this season.

"I know in terms of value to your team, Greivis has been tremendous for us this year," said the 65-year-old Williams, who has always been supportive of Vasquez’s emotional, freewheeling style despite his own conservative instincts.

Maryland turned out to be the perfect place for Vasquez, a native of Venezuela who was still in the process of improving his English — and his game — when he arrived on campus out of Montrose Christian (Md.) High School.

Not only will Vasquez receive a college degree, but the polish he’s added to his fearless brand of basketball could potentially earn him millions in the NBA.

"Maryland gave me a great opportunity," Vasquez said. "My family, the whole country of Venezuela is thankful about me coming to Maryland. It’s just a blessing. I’m so proud to be here and be a part of something so special. I’ll always love Maryland.

"This has been a great place for me."

It’s hard to imagine how Williams and the Terrapins might have fared over the past four years without Vasquez. Last season he became the first player in school history to the team in scoring, assists and rebounds. Then, after he decided against leaving for a shot at the NBA, Vasquez guided the Terrapins to a second straight 20-win season.

And he did it with a wink, a smile, and a shimmy.

"He’s been a player who’s always wanted to get better," Williams said. "Some guys get here with a great reputation and they don’t work hard to keep improving because they think they’re good enough. Other guys hit a wall — they reach a level of satisfaction or a level of disappointment and they stop working.

"But Greivis has always had the goal to be the best player he could be. The only thing I did was tell him there’s always another level you can get to for any player. He bought into that."

Vasquez was already a special player when he arrived at Maryland. Although he showed flashes of brilliance at Montrose Christian, most of the attention was focused on teammate Kevin Durant, now an NBA star with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

"Greivis would make plays as a passer that not a lot of other high school players could make," Williams said. "He did play with Durant, so a lot of times he was overshadowed in what he did. I knew we weren’t going to get Durant, so Greivis to us was really a good recruit. He’s proven to be a very good college basketball player."

Williams will surely miss Vasquez.

The feeling is mutual.

"I wish I could play for him 20 more years. He inspires me," Vasquez said. "We talk almost everyday — about the NBA, different stuff about life. I have no words to describe how happy I am to be here and to be here for four years.

"Coach Williams, he’s one of my heroes."

-- David Ginsburg

Kentucky freshmen appear ready for NCAA run

Kentucky senior Perry Stevenson isn’t worried about the Wildcats’ youthful roster turning into a liability during the NCAA tournament.

Perry, one of three seniors on the roster who get limited playing time, says the talent of Kentucky’s fabulous freshmen will more than make up for their inexperience. The top-seeded Wildcats play East Tennessee State on Thursday night in New Orleans.

"The seniors on this team are just lucky to have guys that we’re surrounded by now," Stevenson said. "They just have high basketball IQs and unbelievable athletic ability. They just know what to do."

Stevenson’s perspective may be more than just chatter from a supportive teammate.

Especially if the way point guard John Wall and forward DeMarcus Cousins helped save Kentucky during the Southeastern Conference tournament is any indication of how the freshmen will perform during the NCAAs.

Wall scored seven of his 17 points in overtime as Kentucky (32-2) rallied from five down with 2:28 left in regulation to beat Mississippi State 75-74 in Sunday’s SEC championship. Cousins hit a layup off Wall’s missed 3-pointer to send the game into overtime.

There’s no disputing their youth, though.

"This team, they don’t shave yet," Kentucky coach John Calipari quipped.

Calipari sent forward Daniel Orton to the locker room briefly during the Wildcats’ SEC semifinals against Tennessee on Saturday after the freshman argued with an assistant coach about his play on the floor.

Orton got the message, admitting he got "caught up in the moment" of an emotional game, and returned to the floor a few moments later.

Calipari compares his freshmen — Wall, Cousins, Orton and guards Eric Bledsoe and John Hood — to Michigan’s Fab 5. They made it to the NCAA national championship game in 1992 as freshmen and again in 1993 as sophomores, though they lost both games.

The Fab 5 were a bit younger when they played in their first NCAA tournament game in 1992 — the Michigan freshmen averaged 18 years, 311 days in age while the Kentucky freshmen average 19 years, 277 days old, according to STATS, LLC.

Their age shouldn’t matter anyway, said Florida coach Billy Donovan, who won an NCAA title in 2006 with only four upperclassmen.

"I don’t think experience has anything to do with it," Donovan said. "These kids like at Kentucky, the season they’ve had, it’s for a reason. They’ve won some games where they had to come from behind, and they’ve played in every possible situation."

Calipari has had his own success with youth. As Memphis’ coach in 2008, Calipari reached the national title game with a Tigers team led by freshman Derrick Rose.

Hearing about that kind of experience from Calipari and his assistants has added to the preparation the UK freshmen have already received on the floor this season, Wall said.

"I think he’s done a great job," Wall said. "Not just him, but the coaching staff ... they’ve done a great job of helping us out and assisting us and telling us the things that they’ve learned from when they were playing.

"I feel like I’m prepared."

However, there are times Calipari admits that he isn’t sure he is prepared.

The coach says this is uncharted territory even for him. His 2007-08 squad relied on several upperclassmen to balance Rose’s youth.

I don’t know what to expect at times," Calipari said. "I’m walking along trying to figure out, ‘What do I do?’ But I’ll say this: They want to win. They have a will to win. They refuse to lose."

-- Beth Rucker

Duke: No such thing as easy Final Four path

DURHAM, N.C. — Just about everybody figures Duke has the easiest Final Four path of any of the four No. 1 seeds.

Well, everybody but the Blue Devils.

"This is the NCAA tournament," guard Nolan Smith said Tuesday. "There’s no such thing as an easy path."

If anyone would know lately, it’s these current Blue Devils. Through the past few years, they’ve learned just how difficult it is to roll through a bracket.

Duke (29-5) holds the No. 1 seed in the South Regional — its first top seed since 2006 — and will face the Winthrop-Arkansas-Pine Bluff winner on Friday in Jacksonville, Fla. The Blue Devils haven’t reached the Final Four since 2004, the school’s longest drought since coach Mike Krzyzewski got his powerhouse program rolling in the mid-1980s.

Some have argued that a favorable tournament draw has given the Blue Devils an edge to end that streak this year. But if there’s one thing these players have learned through the stages of their careers, it’s that getting to the national semifinals isn’t quite as simple as those Duke teams made it look in the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s.

Krzyzewski may have made it to 10 Final Fours in three decades at Duke, but not with any of his current players.

"There’s so many upsets every year, every game’s going to be hard," Smith said. "So we definitely don’t pay any attention to the ‘easy path’ thing."

In large part, that’s because nothing ever came easy for the current Blue Devils in past NCAA tournaments, and while the seniors have made incremental progress in advancing a step deeper in the bracket each year, each run still ended with an upset.

The seniors were freshmen on the team that went one-and-done against Virginia Commonwealth. The following year, they won their opener — in last-second fashion against 15th-seeded Belmont — before being bounced by West Virginia. Last year’s group reached the round of 16 for the first time since 2006, but they were knocked out by eventual Final Four participant Villanova.

"I think it’s good for our upperclassmen to remember the last three tournaments, and what they learned from them," Krzyzewski said. "How they felt after a win, after a loss, because it’s an abrupt ending. The tournament is cruel in its abruptness."

With three players — ACC tournament MVP Kyle Singler, heady guard Jon Scheyer and Smith — capable of scoring 20 points in any game, and 7-foot-1 center Brian Zoubek finally putting up rebounding numbers that suit his sizable frame, these Blue Devils appear better built to make a deep tournament run than their most recent predecessors, with Krzyzewski calling this his best team since the 2005-06 team was led by J.J. Redick.

Even that group wound up going home early, with LSU ending Redick’s college career in the regional semifinal round. This team is embracing its status as a No. 1 seed — when that was announced Sunday night, Smith tweeted simply: "Yessirrr!!!" — without getting caught up in looking too far down the bracket.

But that’s not to say that Smith isn’t aware which team could await in a second-round matchup: Louisville.

And understandably so. Smith’s late father Derek was a nine-year NBA veteran who played on the Cardinals’ national championship team in 1980.

"I’m not going to lie — I’m definitely looking forward to (playing Louisville), if that was to be the possible matchup," Smith said. "Knowing my father went there and knowing everybody on the team, I know the program and everybody around Louisville basketball, so that’d be a treat to play them."

-- Joedy McCreary