If Tom Izzo really does have an underground Lord of the Rings-style factory where he builds his Michigan State army from scratch, he wasn’t even being creative when he made Korie Lucious as the eventual successor to Kalin Lucas. Similar name, similar game, and if you saw the spin move and floater that Lucious (10 pts, 6 asts, 4 stls) hit last night to stick the dagger in Northern Iowa and send the Spartans to yet another Elite Eight, you couldn’t help but remember Lucas’ similar shot that iced Kansas in the tourney last year … Read More »

After the first three days of the NCAA Tournament belonged to lovable underdogs like Jimmer Fredette, Ali Farokhmanesh, Cornell and the St. Mary’s Hoosiers, Day 4 belonged to the big dogs — a.k.a. the Big Ten. Thanks to Korie Lucious and Chris Kramer‘s clutch play and Evan Turner‘s overall dominance, we’re headed to the Sweet Sixteen with the Big Ten having more teams still standing (Ohio State, Michigan State, Purdue) than any other conference, including the much-hyped Big East … Michigan State was trailing Maryland by one with six seconds left after Greivis Vasquez (26 pts, 8 asts, 3 stls) hit a tough shot in the lane. The Spartans got it to Lucious (13 pts), and the sophomore calmly found his spot and drained a three at the buzzer. Read More »

If nothing else, Northern Iowa needs to keep this run going so we can see how many more times Greg Gumbel butchers the name Ali Farokhmaneh. One of the 14 variations he had yesterday was pronouncing the kid’s first name “Aloof” … In case you missed it, Farokhmanesh is becoming the breakout star of the NCAA Tournament. After dropping the game-winning three against UNLV in the first round, the 6-foot senior delivered the dagger yesterday as the Panthers took out overall No. 1 seed Kansas. Northern Iowa was up by one with 40 seconds left when they broke KU’s full-court press and got it ahead to Farokhmanesh. Read More »

Sixteen games down, 16 more to go for Round One. After watching 12 straight hours of basketball yesterday, it was tough to shave this list down to just 10, so don’t get mad if your school’s top guy got left off:

1. Jimmer Fredette, BYU — The New York-bred point guard who plays like a Canadian and became a star in Utah. You know how when the Suns are down late in the fourth quarter and Steve Nash decides to stop passing and start scoring? Fredette plays like that all game long. Read More »