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News Nuggets, 03.12.04
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

C-USA Tournament quarterfinals roundup

NO. 13 CINCINNATI 64, LOUISVILLE 62

Armein Kirkland suggested a way to crack one of the nation's stingiest defenses, then made the shot that made it happen.

Kirkland worked free against a smaller defender and made a short bank shot with 16.9 seconds left, giving No. 13 Cincinnati a 64-62 victory over Louisville on Thursday night in the Conference USA quarterfinals.

Taquan Dean's rushed 3-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark, providing a second consecutive dramatic finish this season for the longtime rivals.

Cincinnati (22-6) lost by 27 points at Louisville in January, ending its season-opening winning streak at 13. The Bearcats needed overtime to beat the Cardinals in the rematch on their home court.

Playing in a downtown arena near campus, the Bearcats overcame Francisco Garcia's career-high 28 points and one of the nation's stingiest defenses. It came down to one play suggested by Kirkland.

Louisville (20-9) surrounded power forward Jason Maxiell when he got the ball near the free-throw line, leaving Kirkland open to catch a pass and make an easy shot that snapped the game's seventh tie.

DEPAUL 89, TEXAS CHRISTIAN 65

Andre Brown scored 21 points and Delonte Holland added 19 to lead top-seeded DePaul over Texas Christian 89-65 in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament on Thursday.

The Blue Demons will play Alabama-Birmingham in Friday's semifinals. Both teams were among five that shared the regular-season championship.

DePaul (20-8) has won 10 of its past 11 games, reaching 20 wins for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. TCU (12-17) ended its season by losing three of four.

Drake Diener scored 13 points in the second half to finish with 15 for DePaul. Quemont Greer added 12.

Nucleus Smith led TCU with 17 points. Corey Santee added 16 and Marcus Shropshire 14.

Brown scored 13 points in the first half, when the Blue Demons twice led by as many as 20. It was 42-29 at halftime, and TCU could get no closer than eight points in the second half.

UAB 77, CHARLOTTE 66

Morris Finley scored 28 points to lead Alabama-Birmingham to a 77-66 win over Charlotte in the Conference USA quarterfinals Thursday.

Sidney Ball added 13 points, and Ronell Taylor had 11 for the Blazers (20-8) in a game between two of the five teams that shared the regular-season championship.

Brendan Plavich led Charlotte (21-8) with 21 points, all of them on 3-point shots. Curtis Withers scored 15 points, Demon Brown added 11 and Butter Johnson had 10 for the 49ers.

Finley opened the second half with two consecutive 3-pointers that wiped out a 37-35 halftime deficit and sparked a 16-2 run that gave UAB a 51-39 lead with 13:56 remaining. Charlotte could get no closer than six points after that.

SAINT LOUIS 72, No. 23 MEMPHIS 61

Izik Ohanon led a late 16-2 run that sent Saint Louis to a 72-61 victory over Memphis in the Conference USA tournament quarterfinals on Thursday night.

Saint Louis (18-11) will face Cincinnati in the semifinals, hoping its slog-it-out pace lulls another opponent and takes the Bearcats' crowd out of game. Cincinnati won their regular-season game by 25 points.

No. 23 Memphis (21-7) had plenty of trouble with it, getting out of sync at the outset and falling apart at the end. Ohanon had eight points in the decisive spurt.

It marked the end to a numbing six-day stretch for the Tigers, who went into the final game of the season with a chance to win the conference's regular-season title outright.

Memphis lost to Cincinnati on a last-second shot Saturday, forging a five-way tie for the title. The Tigers then got eliminated from the tournament in their first game.

Reggie Bryant led Saint Louis with 18 points, and Ohanon had 14.

49ers legend stepping down as Texas A&M coach

DALLAS — Texas A&M coach Melvin Watkins said Wednesday he's resigning after this season, ending a six-year tenure that bottomed out with an 0-16 conference record this season.

The announcement came on the eve of the Big 12 tournament. He said he wanted it out now instead of after the Aggies finish the season to avoid speculation hovering over the team.

The Aggies (7-20) play Missouri in the first round Thursday night. Watkins said whenever A&M is eliminated, he'll be done, too.

"Hopefully that last game will be winning the national championship," he said.

Watkins was hired in 1998 after leading North Carolina-Charlotte, his alma mater, to the second round of the NCAA tournament in his first two seasons as a head coach. Things seemed to be coming around last season when the Aggies went 14-14, ending a run of eight straight losing seasons.

A&M started this season 7-4, but hasn't won since beating Long Island on Jan. 6.

None of its wins were against a team from a major conference and two of the losses were to Oakland (Mich.) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Aggies lost their final two conference games by 26 and 29 points.

LSU to meet Sooners, seeks 2005 home foe

LSU is moving its football game against Arkansas State from 2005 to 2004, and the school plans to play home-and-home games against Oklahoma.

Arkansas State will visit Tiger Stadium on Sept. 11, replacing Houston as the Tigers' opponent in the second week of the season. In January, Houston asked to be let out of its game with LSU, a request to which LSU tentatively agreed, conditional on finding a suitable Division I-A replacement. Because Arkansas State was already under contract to play LSU in 2005, it was decided to move the game up one year.

"Football opponents used to be etched in stone years ahead of time, but those days are over," said LSU associate athletic director Dan Radakovich, who is responsible for football scheduling. "We understood Houston's request to make a change in its schedule, and we were willing to take a look at the change if it did not dramatically affect our schedule this season."

The Arkansas State game will be LSU's final non-conference contest before beginning play against Southeastern Conference opponents.

"I am continually disappointed that opponents have attempted to change our out-of-conference schedule at such late dates," said LSU coach Nick Saban. "However, Arkansas State provides us with a better opportunity to prepare our team for this year's early SEC schedule. With a Pac-10 team (Oregon State) coming in for the season opener, it is good to have a team with SEC-type tendencies in week two to continue our team's development for the rest of the season."

Discussions that led to the scheduling change also prompted negotiations between LSU and Oklahoma for a future home-and-home series.

Oklahoma will play at Tiger Stadium and LSU will visit Norman on dates to be announced later this spring.

LSU now must add one opponent to its 2005 home schedule which currently includes North Texas, Arizona State, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn and Arkansas.

Games on aircraft carrier scratched

A proposed college basketball extravaganza afloat won't set sail after all, at least not next season.

Michigan State, the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy and North Carolina had been discussing playing a November doubleheader on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier at a naval base near Jacksonville, Fla.

The U.S. Navy told the Spartans that the games couldn't be played next season because all ships need to be battle-ready while the military is involved in Iraq.

"It's not something they can do during this time," coach Tom Izzo told the Detroit Free Press for a Tuesday story. "They can't hold up an aircraft carrier, which I totally understand.

"It's no big deal to me either way, but it would have been kind of impressive for the cause."

Proceeds from the event, which called for an 8,000-seat grandstand on the flight deck, would have been donated to families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It would not have been the first time Michigan State took on a different venue.

Three months ago, Kentucky beat the Spartans 79-74 before a basketball record crowd of 78,129 at Ford Field, the home of the Detroit Lions.

Michigan State played Michigan in hockey two years ago at Spartan Stadium before 74,554, a record crowd for a hockey game.

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News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2004 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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