Live Blog: Championship Week Saturday and Phils Spring Game

The sheer amount of awesome college basketball action that we have today calls for a live blog.  And, to top it all off, the Phillies are playing on the MLB Network at 1, which will be my first look at them this spring.  This live blog will be a bit sporadic and will range to god-knows how many games, but we’ll see what happens.  Either way, on this rainy Saturday in New York City, I know I will be having a great time on my reclining chair.

12:11 PM:  The great Gus Johnson is already hard at work this March.  He called the Big Ten games in Indianapolis until about 11:30 last night, and he was in Tulsa for the 11:30 tip of the Conference USA title game between UTEP and Houston.  I haven’t seen either of these teams this season, but I’m looking forward to seeing the new and improved Derrick Caracter for UTEP, and the nation’s leading scorer, Houston’s Aubrey Coleman.

12:29 PM: The C-USA title game hits half-time with the top-seeded Miners leading 43-38.  UTEP will be a tough team to figure out when filling in the brackets next week.  If they win today, they’ll go into the tournament riding a 17-game winning streak, with a national ranking to go along with it.  But they don’t have a single win against a team that will be in the tournament.  Hard to tell how good they are, but maybe this second-half will give some more answers.  As for Houston’s Coleman, he was 2-12 in the first half, with 6 points.  If he can get untracked, Houston could definitely pull the upset.

1:02 PM:  I’ll probably turn my main focus to the Phils game for a while, but UTEP clings to a 3-point lead.  They have a physically imposing frontcourt and a big-time point guard in Randy Culpepper.  They definintely have the look of a team that could beat people next week.

1:10 PM:  We’re getting the Phils announcing crew here, Tom McCarthy, Wheels, and Sarge, which is nice.  Great to hear their voices again.  J.A. Happ gets the start, with all of the Phillie regulars behind him in the field.  They’re opposed by the Twins, who have newly-acquired Jim Thome hitting cleanup, and Joe Mauer sitting this one out.

1:17 PM:  A nice looking inning from Happ.  Gave up a single, but struck out Morneau and Thome on a couple of good sliders.

1:45 PM:  Phils lineup: Rollins-Polanco-Utley-Howard-Werth-Ibanez-Victorino-Francisco(DH)-Ruiz.  They went down in order in the first three, and Happ has retired 9 in a row since the leadoff single.  The positive reports on Cole Hamels continue.  He was hitting 91 with his fastball the other day, compared to about 86 at this time last year.

1:48 PM:  I didn’t see what happened in the C-USA game, but apparently Houston turned it on and pulled off the upset, stealing a bid and knocking someone off the bubble, as UTEP will get a bid anyway.  If it wasn’t already, it’s definitely a must-win situation for Rhode Island against Temple.

2:24 PM:  Illinois out to a slim lead over Ohio St. late in the 1st half.  The Illini have had an up-and-down season, but if they can take out OSU a day after beating Wisconsin, they’ll be going into the tournament with momentum, even if they were to lose in the final tomorrow.  They have talent and are looking like they could be a dangerous 10 or 11 seed next week.

2:27 PM:  Ben Francisco accounts for the Phils first hit and first run on a solo shot in the 5th off of Nick Blackburn.  Phils up 1-0.  It was a nice outing from Happ, which is great to see, of course.  Here’s hoping J.A. can avoid the sophomore slump.

2:32 PM:  In the SEC Semis, Kentucky has been up by about 10 over Tennessee for most of the game, now with 15 minutes to go.  John Wall tweaked his knee, but looks ok.  Wall has clearly become the vocal leader as well as the star player for the Cats.  He’s got all the makings, as they say.  Smart play by J.P. Prince to take Wall off the dribble immediately after the knee tweak.

2:36 PM:  Meanwhile, Duke down by 3 to Miami at the half in the ACC Semis.  Who gets the fourth 1-seed if Duke and West Virginia both lose today?

2:50 PM:  A not-so-great outing from Antonio Bastardo and a bad error by Victorino lead to four runs in the 5th for the Twins.  McCarthy said that a bunch of prospects, including all three guys acquired in the Cliff Lee deal, were sent to minor-league camp yesterday.  He said J.C. Ramirez through great.  He didn’t say anything about Phillippe Aumont.  Awesome.

2:54 PM:  Our old friend Clay Condrey comes on to pitch for Minnesota and surrenders a run.  I don’t care what anybody says about Condrey (not that anybody ever says much), the guy is a champion.  Good to see him and wish him well.

3:11 PM:  Kentucky has exploded on Tennessee and now leads by 23.  The one big knock on Kentucky this year has been their poor perimeter shooting, but I’ve never thought it was as bad as people said, and they showed that today.  Eric Bledsoe has hit 5 threes.  They also have peripheral guys like Darius Miller and Darnell Dodson that knock down shots.  It goes without saying, but the job that Calipari has done to take a team this young to a 2-loss season so far is really amazing.  Sure, they have loads of talent, but you would’ve expected a team relying so much on three freshman to have more slip-ups than they’ve had.

3:26 PM:  Things have gotten weird in the OSU-Illinois game.  After Illinois took a 50-39 lead, the Buckeyes went on a 20-0 run to go up by 9.  But now Illinois has come back and cut it to 3 with just under four minutes to play.  Should be a good finish.  Always fun to watch a top player like Evan Turner have to lead a team to win in a big spot like this.

3:39 PM:  The Phils win 5-4.  Cody Ransom, who spelled Alex Rodriguez for the Yankees at the start of last season, hit a 3-run homer for the Phils.  Barring injury, he won’t make the roster.  New relievers Jose Contreras and Danys Baez pitched the 8th and 9th and looked pretty good.  Baez put a couple on base, but his curveball looked filthy.

3:42 PM:  Well, Mr. Evan Turner is making a name for himself, and probably some extra money for himself in the form of a higher draft pick in June.  He comes through in the clutch again, tying the game on a base-line drive to send this Big Ten Semi to OT.  Nice!

3:53 PM:  Yeah, there can be no doubt now that Turner is the Player of the Year.  He sends it into Double-OT with another big drive and score.  He’s looking like the next Brandon Roy.

4:07 PM:  Turner fouls out with a minute left in the second OT, but they were already up by 4, and the win was iced by a couple of buckets from David Lighty.  Ohio State might not have much depth at all, but they have an outstanding group of players, led by Turner.  That was a great game.  Madness!

5:06 PM:  I’ll have to admit: I took a little break from watching TV there.  It was a good time to do it.  Honestly, this Georgia Tech-NC State game is probably the least interesting ACC Semi I can remember.  Dick Vitale didn’t even stick around to announce it.  He made Len Elmore do it. 

In SEC action, Mississippi St. continues to try to repeat what they did last year: get an unlikely conference tourney win to get a bid to the Dance.  They’re up by 14 on Vandy in the 2nd half.  One problem for the Bulldogs, though, is that there were no teams in the SEC last year like this year’s Kentucky team.

And, over in the Big Ten, yet another upset is brewing, as Minnesota has jumped out to a 19-4 lead over Purdue with 7 minutes to go in the first half.

5:28 PM:  Minnesota and Purdue hit the half with Minnesota up 37-11.  This showing from Purdue is going to put the Selection Committee in a tough spot tomorrow.  What do you do with a team that was heading for a #1 seed with a couple games to go in the season, loses one of their best players to injury, and then turns into a team that can only score 11 points in a half.  They are 3-1 since Hummel went down, but none of those 3 wins was against good competition.  The Boilermakers should come out with a good effort in this second-half, because if they just get blown out they’re making it very easy for the Committee to drop them way down the seeding ladder.

6:20 PM: OK, I found something interesting about the NC State-GA Tech game.  NC State has a guy who’s first name is Farnold.  I’m not sure why, but that’s really funny.

8:15 PM:  A great flurry of action over the last 10-15 minutes.  More mid-major madness is unfolding, as the MAC title game is heading to overtime.  In the PAC-10 title game, it’s been nip and tuck the whole way and coming down to the last seconds now.  And in the Big 12, K-State is trying to stay within striking distance of the Jayhawks.  How good is this sport?

8:20 PM:  Washington pulls off the win over Cal, so they won’t have to stress tomorrow night during the Selection Show.  The Pac-10 officially avoids the ignominy of only getting one bid, as Cal will join them in the field.  Will either of them get a win?  Maybe, but probably not. 

8:28 PM:  After a thriller in the MAC title game, we have a pretty good candidate to play in the play-in game on Tuesday night: the Ohio Bobcats.  They were the 9-seed in the MAC.  Of course, the MAC is a pretty decent conference in the grand scheme of things, so maybe the committee will spare them from that fate.