There Lies the Snub: Minnesota Gets at Least a Tie for Title

Minnesota, snubbed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee last year, has been a team on a mission this season--and it’s one that was virtually accomplished Saturday.

Second-ranked Minnesota clinched a tie for the Big Ten championship--and the automatic NCAA tournament berth that goes with it--with a hard-fought 67-66 victory over No. 23 Illinois Saturday at Minneapolis.

The Golden Gophers, 24-2 overall and 13-1 in the Big Ten, also appear in line for a No. 1 regional seeding, but will take nothing for granted. They were 19-13 last season and tied for fifth in the conference at 10-8 but became the first Big Ten team two games over .500 to not make the NCAA tournament since it was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Minnesota also had another motivational factor--revenge against Illinois (18-8, 8-6).

The Golden Gophers suffered their only Big Ten loss to the Illini, 96-90, at Champaign, Ill., on Jan. 14. They trailed in Saturday’s game until guard Bobby Jackson’s three-point play put them on top, 46-45, with less than four minutes remaining.

Illinois regained the lead, 66-65, on Bryant Notree’s dunk and Minnesota center John Thomas, a 59% free-throw shooter, was fouled with 4.7 seconds. Thomas made both free throws and Illini guard Kiwane Garris, the game’s leading scorer with 23 points, lost control of the ball while driving to the basket as time ran out.

Minnesota won its last Big Ten championship in 1982 with a team led by former NBA players Randy Breuer and Trent Tucker. The Golden Gophers also tied a school record for most victories held by the 1976-77 team that featured NBA standouts Kevin McHale and Mychal Thompson.

No. 1 Kansas 78, Kansas State 58--Forward Raef LaFrentz scored 10 unanswered points during a 24-4 run in the second half that lifted the Jayhawks (27-1, 13-1) to their nation-best 44th consecutive home victory in the Big 12 game at Lawrence, Kan.

Center Scot Pollard, who sat out eight games because of a stress fracture in his left foot, returned with eight points. Pollard made the first three-point attempt of his career with 2:37 left and got a bow from Coach Roy Williams as he came out of the game.

Pollard and two other seniors, guard Jacque Vaughn and forward Jerod Haase, played their final game at Allen Fieldhouse and cut down the nets afterward.

“We tore down one net today,” said Pollard, who did a cartwheel en route to the ceremony. “We hope to tear down some more in March.”

LaFrentz, who played center and averaged 23.3 points and 10 rebounds in Pollard’s absence, had 21 points and 11 rebounds.

The victory was the 10th in a row for Kansas over Kansas State (9-16, 2-12), which had a one-point halftime lead.

No. 3 Kentucky 82, Vanderbilt 79--The Wildcats (26-3, 12-2) overcame a 22-point first-half deficit in the Southeastern Conference game at Nashville.

Kentucky made a NCAA-record comeback from 31 points down three years ago against Louisiana State.

Vanderbilt (17-9, 8-6) made 14 of its first 20 shots to take a 37-15 lead in the first 7 1/2 minutes of the game. Forward Pax Whitehead scored 14 of his game-high 27 points in that span.

Kentucky cut the deficit to 10 at halftime and took its first lead, 58-57, with 11 minutes left as forward Ron Mercer scored 17 of his 23 points in an 8 1/2-minute stretch, including four baskets after four Vanderbilt turnovers.

Vanderbilt almost came back from a six-point deficit in the final eight seconds. Guard Drew Maddux made a three-point shot falling sideways and the Commodores stole the ball, but guard James Strong’s three-point shot bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

No. 4 Wake Forest 66, Virginia 60--Center Tim Duncan had 21 points, 23 rebounds and passed Ralph Sampson as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s career blocked-shot leader at 465 as the Demon Deacons (21-4, 10-4) bounced back from two consecutive losses at Charlottesville, Va.

Duncan played 40 minutes and seemed to wear down against the double-teaming of physical 6-foot-8 forward Colin Ducharme and 7-4 Chase Metheney, getting only one rebound and missing all three of his shots in the final eight minutes.

Virginia (16-11, 6-9) has lost five of its last six.

No. 5 Utah 56, Tulsa 54--Guard Andre Miller made a long jump shot with .4 of a second left as the Utes (20-3, 12-1) overcame their lowest scoring total of the season and being held 15 points below their average in a WAC game at Tulsa.

Tulsa (20-8, 10-4) had lost by 23 points to Utah at Salt Lake City on Jan. 27.

Guard Shea Seals, whose jersey was retired before game for being the school’s all-time scorer, scored off a rebound to tie the game at 54-54 with 19.4 seconds left.

Center Michael Doleac led Utah with 20 points. Forward Keith Van Horn, who had 40 points against Texas Christian last week, had 10.

Nebraska 74, No. 7 Iowa State 69--Guard Tryonn Lue scored 10 of his career-high 30 points in the final 3:35 of regulation as the Cornhuskers (15-12, 6-8) scored on five of their first six possessions of overtime in the Big 12 game at Ames, Iowa.

Nebraska, which ended a 12-game Big 12 road losing streak and defeated Iowa State (18-6, 9-5) for the first time in seven games, trailed by eight with four minutes to play and by five with 1:23 left.

Iowa State’s second-leading scorer, 6-4 forward Kenny Pratt, missed a high-arching shot over 6-11 Mikki Moore at the buzzer in regulation while guard Dedric Willoughby dribbled the ball of his foot and out of bounds when Iowa State was behind by two with 18 seconds left in overtime.

No. 9 South Carolina 69, Tennessee 58--The Gamecocks (21-6, 13-1) won for the fourth time in seven days as their three-guard offense of Larry Davis, BJ McKie and Melvin Watson combined for 51 points in the SEC game against the Volunteers (11-13, 4-10) at Knoxville, Tenn.

Davis had 19 points while Watson and McKie had 18 and 14, respectively.

No. 10 New Mexico 89, Hawaii 69--Guard Charles Smith had a career-high 37 points and the Lobos (21-5, 10-4) extended their home-court win streak to 26 by making 18 of 22 shots in the second half of the Western Athletic Conference game at Albuquerque. Guard Anthony Carter had 29 points for Hawaii (19-5, 11-3).

No. 11 Cincinnati 83, DePaul 54--The Bearcats (22-5, 10-1) got 45 points from their reserves, including 19 on eight-of-10 shooting from backup guard D’Juan Baker, in a Conference USA game at Chicago.

Cincinnati’s leading scorer, forward Danny Fortson, had 18 points and forward Ruben Patterson, coming off the bench since getting into Coach Bob Huggins’ doghouse because of showing up late for practices, had 17 on seven-of-10 shooting.

Forward Marcus Singer took a Conference USA 17 three-point shots, missing 12, for DePaul (3-21, 1-12).

No. 12 North Carolina 93, No. 14 Maryland 81--Forward Antawn Jamison scored 29 points and Serge Zwikker had a career-high 24 as the Tar Heels (19-6, 9-5) continued their climb up the ACC standings at College Park, Md.

North Carolina, after a 0-3 ACC start, moved into a third-place tie with Maryland (20-7, 9-5), which has lost five of eight games. The Terrapins had rallied from a 22-point deficit to defeat the Tar Heels, 85-75, at Chapel Hill, N.C., on Jan. 8.

Jamison made 11 of 17 shots and had 10 rebounds while the 7-3 Zwikker was 10 of 14, making most of his shots from the baseline against the smaller Terrapins, who don’t have a player over 6-9.

Forward Keith Booth scored 20 points and had his jersey retired before his final game at Cole Field House.

No. 15 Louisville 75, Southern Mississippi 72--Forward Alvin Sims’ follow shot with 10 seconds left tied the game in regulation and his two free throws with 34 seconds remaining in overtime put the Cardinals (21-6, 8-4) ahead for good in the Conference USA game at Hattiesburg, Miss.

It was Louisville’s fifth overtime victory, one short of the NCAA record held by Wake Forest (1983-84) and Tennessee Chattanooga (1988-89).

Sims also stole the ball from Southern Mississippi (12-12, 6-6) as time ran out in regulation.

No. 16 Xavier 79, La Salle 67--Guard Gary Lumpkin scored a career-high 28 points in the Atlantic 10 game at Cincinnati as the Musketeers (20-4, 11-3) won 20 games for the eighth time in 10 seasons.

Freshman guard Donnie Carr, averaging 23.9 points, had 16 for LaSalle (9-15, 4-10), which had 15 turnovers and shot 32% in falling behind by 19 points at halftime.

No. 21 Colorado 84, Missouri 75--The Buffaloes had only two field goals in the second half but made 32 free throws in 41 attempts to sweep the the Tigers (13-14, 5-9) in conference for the first time since 1972-73 in the Big 12 game at Boulder, Colo.

Colorado guard Chauncey Billups had 31 points.

No. 22 College of Charleston 94, Centenary 73--Forward Thaddeous Delaney had 30 points and 10 rebounds as the Cougars (25-2, 16-0) of the Trans American Athletic Conference increased the nation’s longest winning streak to 19 and won their 32nd consecutive home game at Charleston, S.C. Centenary is 9-17, 6-10.

No. 24 Indiana 64, Northwestern 49--Coach Bob Knight benched regulars guard Neil Reed and forward Charlie Miller, started four freshman and was ejected for getting a second technical just before halftime but still got his 699th victory in the Big Ten game at Bloomington, Ind.

Seven-foot forward Richard Mandeville, the only non-freshman starter for Indiana (21-8, 8-7), had 16 points and made two three-point shots that keyed a decisive 20-7 run in the second half.

Center Evan Eschmeyer had 23 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots for Northwestern (7-19, 2-13).

OTHER GAMES

Princeton (21-3, 11-0) became the first team to clinch an NCAA tournament berth with a 60-53 Ivy League victory over Dartmouth (16-8, 8-4) at Hanover, N.H. Center Steve Goodrich has made 70 of his last 94 shots for Princeton, which has a 16-game winning streak. . . . Jim Boeheim became the 71st coach to win 500 games as Syracuse (17-10, 8-8) posted a home-court 92-62 Big East victory over Rutgers (11-13, 5-11). Boeheim’s .747 win percentage (500-169) is 11th all-time. . . . Forward Bubba Wells scored a season-high 46 points, but Austin Peay (15-13, 12-6) was a 107-100 Ohio Valley Conference loser on the road to Morehead State (8-18, 6-12), which got 40 points from guard Doug Wyciskalla.