The sheer amount of awesome college basketball action that we have today calls for a live blog.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This live blog will be a bit sporadic and will range to god-knows how many games, but we’ll see what happens.\u00a0 Either way, on this rainy Saturday in New York City, I know I will be having a great time on my reclining chair.<\/p>\n
12:11 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>The great Gus Johnson is already hard at work this March.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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,\u00a0and the nation’s leading scorer, Houston’s Aubrey Coleman.<\/p>\n 12:29 PM: <\/strong>The C-USA title game hits half-time with the top-seeded Miners leading 43-38.\u00a0 UTEP will be a tough team to figure out when filling in the brackets next week.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But they don’t have a single win against a team that will be in the tournament.\u00a0 Hard to tell how good they are, but maybe this second-half will give some more answers.\u00a0 As for Houston’s Coleman, he was 2-12 in the first half, with 6 points.\u00a0 If he can get untracked, Houston could definitely pull the upset.<\/p>\n 1:02 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>I’ll probably turn my main focus to the Phils game for\u00a0a while, but UTEP clings to a 3-point lead.\u00a0 They have a physically imposing frontcourt and a big-time point guard in Randy Culpepper.\u00a0 They definintely have the look of a team that could beat people next week.<\/p>\n 1:10 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>We’re getting the Phils announcing crew here, Tom McCarthy, Wheels, and Sarge, which is nice.\u00a0 Great to hear their voices again.\u00a0 J.A. Happ gets the start, with all of the Phillie regulars behind him in the field.\u00a0 They’re opposed by the Twins, who have newly-acquired Jim Thome hitting cleanup, and Joe Mauer sitting this one out.<\/p>\n 1:17 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>A nice looking inning from Happ.\u00a0 Gave up a single, but struck out Morneau and Thome on a couple of good sliders.<\/p>\n 1:45 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Phils lineup: Rollins-Polanco-Utley-Howard-Werth-Ibanez-Victorino-Francisco(DH)-Ruiz.\u00a0 They went down in order in the first three, and Happ has retired 9 in a row since the leadoff single.\u00a0 The positive reports on Cole Hamels continue.\u00a0 He was hitting 91 with his fastball the other day, compared to about 86 at this time last year.<\/p>\n 1:48 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>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.\u00a0 If it wasn’t already, it’s definitely a must-win situation for Rhode Island against Temple.<\/p>\n 2:24 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Illinois out to a slim lead over Ohio St. late in the 1st half.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They have talent and are looking like they could be a dangerous 10 or 11 seed next week.<\/p>\n 2:27 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Ben Francisco accounts for the Phils first hit and first run on a solo shot in the 5th off of Nick Blackburn.\u00a0 Phils up 1-0.\u00a0 It was a nice outing from Happ, which is great to see, of course.\u00a0 Here’s hoping J.A. can avoid the sophomore slump.<\/p>\n 2:32 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>In the SEC Semis, Kentucky has been up by about 10 over Tennessee\u00a0for most of the game, now with 15 minutes to go.\u00a0 John Wall tweaked his knee, but looks ok.\u00a0 Wall has clearly become the vocal leader as well as the star player for the Cats.\u00a0 He’s got all the makings, as they say.\u00a0 Smart play by J.P. Prince to take Wall off the dribble immediately after the knee tweak.<\/p>\n 2:36 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Meanwhile, Duke down by 3 to Miami at the half in the ACC Semis.\u00a0 Who gets the fourth 1-seed if Duke and West Virginia both lose today?<\/p>\n 2:50 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>A not-so-great outing from Antonio Bastardo and a bad error by Victorino lead to four runs in the 5th for the Twins.\u00a0 McCarthy said that a bunch of prospects, including all three guys acquired in the Cliff Lee deal, were sent to minor-league camp yesterday.\u00a0 He said J.C. Ramirez through great.\u00a0 He didn’t say anything about Phillippe Aumont.\u00a0 Awesome.<\/p>\n 2:54 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Our old friend Clay Condrey comes on to pitch for Minnesota and surrenders a run.\u00a0 I don’t care what anybody says about Condrey (not that anybody ever says much), the guy is a champion.\u00a0 Good to see him and wish him well.<\/p>\n 3:11 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Kentucky has exploded on Tennessee and now leads by 23.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Eric Bledsoe has hit 5 threes.\u00a0 They also have peripheral guys like Darius Miller and Darnell Dodson that knock down shots.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 3:26 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Things have gotten weird in the OSU-Illinois game.\u00a0 After Illinois took a 50-39 lead, the Buckeyes went on a 20-0 run to go up by 9.\u00a0 But now Illinois has come back and cut it to 3 with just under four minutes to play.\u00a0 Should be a good finish.\u00a0 Always fun to watch a top player like Evan Turner have to lead a team to win in a big spot like this.<\/p>\n 3:39 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>The Phils win 5-4.\u00a0 Cody Ransom, who spelled Alex Rodriguez for the Yankees at the start of last season, hit a 3-run homer for the Phils.\u00a0 Barring injury, he won’t make the roster.\u00a0 New relievers Jose Contreras and Danys Baez pitched the 8th and 9th and looked pretty good.\u00a0 Baez put a couple on base, but his curveball looked filthy.<\/p>\n 3:42 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>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.\u00a0 He comes through in the clutch again, tying the game on a base-line drive to send this Big Ten Semi to OT.\u00a0 Nice!<\/p>\n 3:53 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Yeah, there can be no doubt now that Turner is the Player of the Year.\u00a0 He sends it into Double-OT with another big drive and score.\u00a0 He’s looking like the next Brandon Roy.<\/p>\n 4:07 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>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.\u00a0 Ohio State might not have much depth at all, but they have an outstanding group of players, led by Turner.\u00a0 That was a great game.\u00a0 Madness!<\/p>\n 5:06 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>I’ll have to admit: I took a little break from watching TV there.\u00a0 It was a good time to do it.\u00a0 Honestly, this Georgia Tech-NC State game is probably the least interesting ACC Semi I can remember.\u00a0 Dick Vitale didn’t even stick around to announce it.\u00a0 He made Len Elmore do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 They’re up by 14 on Vandy in the 2nd half.\u00a0 One problem for the Bulldogs, though, is that there were no teams in the SEC last year like this year’s Kentucky team.<\/p>\n And, over in the Big Ten, yet another upset is brewing, as Minnesota has jumped out to a 19-4 lead over Purdue\u00a0with 7 minutes to go in the first half.<\/p>\n 5:28 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Minnesota and Purdue hit the half with Minnesota up 37-11.\u00a0 This showing from Purdue is going to put the Selection Committee in a tough spot tomorrow.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They are 3-1 since Hummel went down, but none of those 3 wins was against good competition.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 6:20 PM: <\/strong>OK, I found something interesting about the NC State-GA Tech game.\u00a0 NC State has a guy who’s first name is Farnold.\u00a0 I’m not sure why, but that’s really funny.<\/p>\n 8:15 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>A great flurry of action over the last 10-15 minutes.\u00a0 More mid-major madness is unfolding, as the MAC title game is heading to overtime.\u00a0 In the PAC-10 title game, it’s been nip and tuck the whole way and coming down to the last seconds now.\u00a0 And in the Big 12, K-State is trying to stay within striking distance of the Jayhawks.\u00a0 How good is this sport?<\/p>\n 8:20 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>Washington pulls off the win over Cal, so they won’t have to stress tomorrow night during the Selection Show.\u00a0 The Pac-10 officially avoids the ignominy of only getting one bid, as Cal will join them in the field.\u00a0 Will either of them get a win?\u00a0 Maybe, but probably not.\u00a0<\/p>\n 8:28 PM:\u00a0 <\/strong>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.\u00a0 They were the 9-seed in the MAC.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The sheer amount of awesome college basketball action that we have today calls for a live blog.\u00a0 And, to top it all off, the Phillies are playing on the MLB Network at 1, which will be my first look at … Continue reading