John Clay’s Sidelines

First, click here for an spreadsheet on the NCAA Tournament thus far. Or you can download the spreadsheet by clicking here.

Now, here are some fun facts about the NCAA’s Sweet 16.

Sweet 16 seeds:

• There are three No. 1 seeds (Kentucky, Syracuse and Duke)
• There are three No. 2 seeds (West Virginia, Ohio State and Kansas State)
• There is one No. 3 seed (Baylor)
• There is one No. 4 seed (Purdue)
• There are two No. 5 seeds (Michigan State and Butler)
• There are two No. 6 seeds (Xavier and Tennessee)
• There is one No. 9 seed (Northern Iowa)
• There is one No. 10 seed (Saint Mary’s)
• There is one No. 11 seed (Washington)
• There is one No. 12 seed (Cornell)

RPIs of the Sweet 16 teams:

• 2-Kentucky
• 3-Duke
• 4-West Virginia
• 5-Syracuse
• 6-Kansas St
• 9-Baylor
• 12-Butler
• 14-Tennessee
• 16-Purdue
• 17-Northern Iowa
• 19-Xavier
• 22-Ohio State
• 28-Michigan State
• 35-Saint Mary’s
• 41-Washington
• 46-Cornell

Continue reading ‘Some fun facts about the NCAA’s Sweet 16′

Seth Davis recommends this video for those needing to feed their Cornell basketball jones. It’s Cornell freshman Eitan Chemerinski taking on Rubik’s Cube while the Big Red is waiting at the airport.

Here are some early links having do with Cornell, which plays Kentucky on Thursday night:

• Brian Bennett of espn.com blogs on Cornell’s victory over Wisconsin to reach the Sweet 16.

• CBSSports.com wire report on the Cornell win over Wisconsin.

• Cornell’s John Jaques is blogging for the New York Times during the tournament.

• Official Cornell University athletics basketball site.

• John Harper of the New York Daily News on Cornell 7-footer Jeff Foote.

• Jasmine Marcus of the Cornell Daily Sun writes that Cornell is not afraid to “Hatorade.”

• Ray Glier of the New York Times on Cornell’s jack-of-all-trades Barry Leonard.

• Cornell’s basketball page on espn.com.

• Yes, there is a Cornell Basketball Blog, and it’s a good one, too.

Updated Kentucky basketball stats in Excel files through Saturday’s win over Wake Forest:

• Kentucky game-by-game individual stats in an Excel file using Google Docs.

• Kentucky game-by-game team stats in an Excel file using Google Docs.

Post-game videos taken by H-L’s Charles Bertram in New Orleans:

Continue reading ‘Videos: Kentucky after win over Wake Forest’

(AP photo)

BBL for Sunday:

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader on Kentucky’s big win in the Big Easy:

Foul trouble for Wake Forest’s leading scorer and rebounder, Al-Farouq Aminu, helped get the rout started. But Kentucky was clicking with newfound precision and merciless consistency, and advancement to Syracuse this week became a certainty by halftime.

A crowd of 11,966 in the New Orleans Arena watched Kentucky advance to the Sweet 16 round for the first time since 2005. The Cats got there in style. The combined margins of victory in two games here - 59 points - represented Kentucky’s third biggest two-game spread to start an NCAA Tournament. Only the 68-point margin in 1995 and 62 in 1996 have been larger.

Mark Story of the H-L on how Kentucky is now the favorite:

Finally, genuine NCAA Tournament electricity came to the Crescent City.

Oh, not in the actual New Orleans Arena.

As word spread that No. 1 overall seed Kansas was in deep doo-doo Saturday against Northern Iowa, an unusual crowd gathered around a TV near the media room buried deep inside the bowels of the facility.

Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader on the UK women’s win over Liberty:

On Monday night, Kentucky will face fifth-seeded Michigan State, a 72-62 winner over Bowling Green in the first game on Saturday.

The Cats have struggled with teams from the Big Ten, losing their last eight games, including a loss in the second round to Michigan State in 2006.

For a while on Saturday, it looked as though the big team from the Big South was going to be just as troubling for Kentucky.

My column on A’dia Mathies’ big day in her hometown:

She was back in her hometown after all, back where A’dia Mathies starred for Iroquois High School and captured Miss Basketball honors.

So it shouldn’t have been surprising Saturday when, during warm-ups, the Kentucky freshman kept hearing someone call her name.

“I didn’t want to look,” said Mathies.

Why not?

“It shows that I was focused if I didn’t look out there,” she said.

Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal on UK’s Saturday night shooting clinic:

In advancing to the Sweet16 for the first time since 2005, UK won its two games by an average of 29.5 points.

Against Wake Forest, the Cats pulled away late in the first half and dominated the second, leading by 31 points, shooting 60.3 percent and getting double-digit scoring from four players, including a career-high 20 points from sophomore Darius Miller.

Matt May of the Cats Pause writes that UK left Deacons in their Wake:

For a night in the Big Easy Miller made everything look as simple as the city’s nickname, setting a career-high with 20 points in Kentucky’s 90-60 annihilation of Wake Forest in front of 11,966 fans at New Orleans Arena.

Miller set the tone for the Cats (34-2) by attacking the Demon Deacons’ defense in the opening minutes of the game, then his teammates joined in to put another NCAA Tournament punishment on Wake Forest, just as they did in 1993 and the 1996 national championship season.

Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News on UK’s new role:

The Wildcats didn’t find out about KU losing until after they had demolished Wake Forest, 90-60, with 20 points from Miller, 14 points and seven assists from guard Eric Bledsoe and 19 points, eight rebounds and an impressive episode of restraint from center DeMarcus Cousins.

By the time they knew, however, they were having too much fun celebrating a lopsided win and watching Bledsoe’s scorching second-half dunk being replayed on ESPN to worry about one of their fellow No. 1 seeds being vanquished.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Hot-shooting Kentucky keeps on rolling’

(AP photo)

SEC links for Sunday:

• Tennessee’s bench makes the difference in win over Ohio, reports Mike Griffith in the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
• John Adams of the News-Sentinel praises Tennessee’s perimeter defense.
• David Climer of the Tennessean on UT’s Josh Bone finding his niche.
• Andy Gardiner of USA Today on Tennessee’s trip to the Sweet 16.
• New no-grill tailgating rules at Georgia, reports Liz Shearer of the Athens Banner-Herald.
• Scott Hotard of The Advocate reports on LSU women’s NCAA win over Hartford.
• North Carolina ends Mississippi State’s season at the buzzer, reports Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger.
• Paul Jones of the NE Mississippi Daily Journal on the Mississippi State loss to Carolina.
• Clarion-Ledger reports that Ole Miss will play host to Texas Tech in next NIT game.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Tennessee’s bench takes Vols to next round’

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