Owls and San Diego State Aztecs Head to Second Overtime

In the late goings of today's Round of 32 contest between the Temple Owls and the San Diego State University Aztecs, it looked like the Aztecs were going to get the second NCAA Tournament in the program's history (the first coming against Northern Colorado on Thursday). 
With less than two minutes to go, the Aztecs held a 54-49 lead, but the game wasn't in the bag quite yet. Temple fought back on the strength of a three-pointer from Khalif Wyatt and a Lavoy Allen jumper to tie the score 54-54 with less than a minute to go.

San Diego State had a final shot opportunity with four seconds left in regulation, but Chase Tapley's couldn't get a floater to go. The game went to overtime.
Juan Fernandez scored five of Temple's seven points in the overtime period, but the Aztecs were able to keep pace. They had yet another final shot opportunity, but Malcolm Thomas jumper was no good. The game went to a second overtime with scored tied at 61-61.
At this very moment, there is 2:38 to go in the second overtime period, and San Diego State has a 65-61 lead. As soon as the game goes final, we'll gave a full recap.
For more on the NCAA Tournament, check out our 2011 March Madness Home Page.

UCSD Policy Limits

With transfer applications soaring and budget cuts looming, the University of California San Diego is raising the threshold on a guaranteed admission program for the state’s community college students.
For years, community college students who took specific courses and obtained a 3.0 grade-point average could count on admission under the program called Transfer Admissions Guarantee, or TAG.
But faced with growing demand and limited capacity, UCSD officials in recent weeks have notified community college officials statewide that for guaranteed admission in 2012 and beyond TAG students will have to earn GPAs of 3.5 or better.
Mae Brown, assistant vice chancellor and director of admissions at UCSD, said that TAG applications have grown from 443 five years ago to 8,715 for fall admission this year.
“We saw the exponential growth in TAG applications — this is a guarantee — and the obvious issue is we don’t have the capacity,” Brown said. “Given the severe budget situation, and the university (statewide) taking a $500 million or more budget reduction, if we are going to guarantee, we should be guaranteeing admissions to the best prepared.”
UCSD’s program started in the early 1980s and involved only two-year schools in San Diego and Imperial counties. Later, UCSD entered agreements with 33 colleges around the state. And since 2009 it has offered the program to all 112 California community colleges.
Brown said applications spiked dramatically for 2011 largely due to a new computer-based process that makes it easier for TAG students to apply to multiple campuses. Still, she said, the trend was already overtaxing the campus’ capacity.
The university’s decision has prompted a sharp response from officials of Southwestern College, which serves a predominantly minority population in the South Bay.

Gonzaga Beats St. John’s in NCAA

Gonzaga University played spoiler in St. John’s University’s return to the national men’s college basketball tournament after a nine-year absence.
Gonzaga, seeded 11th in the Southeast Region, knocked off sixth-seeded St. John’s 86-71 in the last of yesterday’s three upsets in Denver, where No. 13 Morehead State shocked Louisville 62-61 and No. 12 Richmond ousted Vanderbilt 69-66.
“They’ve had a wonderful year,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of St. John’s. “But I couldn’t be happier for our guys to move on and get another chance to play again.”
University of Kentucky coach John Calipari heaved a sigh of relief after his Wildcats escaped with a 59-57 win against Princeton University yesterday in Tampa, Florida, to avoid their biggest upset loss in a record 51 trips to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.
Thirteen of yesterday’s 16 games were won by favorites, including double-digit victories by Pittsburgh, Florida, San Diego State, Brigham Young, Connecticut and Wisconsin.
Morehead State pulled the tournament’s first major upset as a 10 1/2-point underdog. The Morehead, Kentucky- based school beat two-time national champion and Southwest Region No. 4 seed Louisville on a 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left.

Big East Record

Gonzaga capped the day by beating St. John’s, one of a record 11 teams in the tournament from the Big East Conference. The Spokane, Washington-based Bulldogs, making their 13th straight NCAA tournament appearance, held a 41- 18 rebounding advantage and hit 54 percent of their shots.
Gonzaga advances to play Brigham Young, the No. 3 seed in the Southeast, which beat Wofford 74-66 behind a 32- point performance by Jimmer Fredette, the nation’s leading scorer.
“I’m just excited we’re able to live another day,” Fredette said after hitting 10 of 25 shots.
Pittsburgh was the only No. 1 regional seed in action yesterday, beating the University of North Carolina- Asheville 74-51 in the Southeast Regional. The other three top seeds begin tournament play today, when 16 more games are scheduled.
Ohio State, the No. 1 seed in the East region, meets Texas-San Antonio in Cleveland, and Southwest top seed Kansas plays Boston University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Defending champion Duke, the top team in the West, meets Hampton University in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Butler Advances

Butler University, which lost to Duke in last year’s NCAA tournament championship game, advanced yesterday with a 60-58 win against Old Dominion on Matt Howard’s layup as time expired. Eighth-seeded Butler next faces Pittsburgh.
Seventh-seeded Temple University also won in the final second, beating 10th-seeded Penn State 66-64 on a contested jump shot by Juan Fernandez with 0.4 seconds on the clock.
The Owls move on to a matchup with No. 2 San Diego State, which beat Northern Colorado 68-50 in Tucson, Arizona, for the first tournament win in school history.
Florida, the No. 2 seed in the Southeast, routed California-Santa Barbara 79-51 and will face No. 7 UCLA, which held off No. 10 Michigan State 78-76 in Tampa.
Southeast No. 4 seed Wisconsin beat Belmont 72-58 in Tucson and next plays No. 5 Kansas State, a 73-68 winner against Utah State.

Huskies Cruise

Big East tournament champion Connecticut, seeded third in the West, rolled past Bucknell 81-52 in Washington as Kemba Walker had 18 points and 12 assists. The Huskies, who are 16-1 in tournament openers since 1990, advance to play Cincinnati, which defeated Missouri 78-63. Connecticut’s 29-point margin of victory was the biggest in yesterday’s games.
“I didn’t think it was going to be this easy, especially when I was back in my hotel room watching all the games, watching some upsets,” said Connecticut’s Alex Oriakhi, who scored nine points. “I was a little bit nervous, to be honest. I’m just happy we pulled it off and we won by a lot.”
Kentucky fought past Princeton on Brandon Knight’s driving layup with two seconds left and next plays West Virginia, which rallied for an 84-76 victory against Clemson.
Darius Miller scored 17 points and Josh Harrellson added 15 as Kentucky overcame a five-point second-half deficit against the Ivy League’s tournament representative.
While Princeton came up short, Morehead State’s win means a 13th seed has now won in 20 of the last 27 NCAA tournaments.
Thanks to Richmond, No. 12 seeds have pulled at least one upset in 21 of the last 23 tournaments. Morehead State and Richmond will play in the next round.

Gonzaga finally looking like the Zags we all love

The Mile High City had an underdog trifecta, something that's unlikely to be duplicated in any other pod in this tournament. 

Gonzaga, an 11 seed in the Southeast Regional, wrecked shop on No. 6 St. John's 86-71 in the final game in Round of 64 action at the Pepsi Center. The cruise-control "W" contrasted with what lower-seeded brethren Morehead State and Richmond did earlier in the day; the Eagles and Spiders dramatically pulled out victories to make it to Saturday.
"I'm just tickled pink, I guess, or whatever the saying is," Bulldogs coach Mark Few said upon plopping down to the podium at the postgame presser.
It was Gonzaga's best game of the season. Easily. The best sign for this team and its fans: the second-best game, according to Steven Gray, was the WCC title game, which preceded this one. The Zags defeated St. Mary's 75-63 in that one. So ... here comes a Gonzaga tournament run? No one's going there yet. Some guy named Jimmer stands in the way. (More on him and that matchup in a few.)
Because of the team's makeup and size up front, Few sort of took fleeting offense at the seeding his team received. They prepped all week as the superior team.
"We didn't consider ourselves a lower seed. We just knew it was a number that some random group assigned us," Few said. "We went into this game thinking we should win. That was the mindset as soon as the matchup popped up."
They played like the better team Thursday night. Gonzaga took a 15-14 lead with 15:14 left in the first half, then never looked back. The Bulldogs shot a very impressive 62.5 "effective field-goal percentage" from the floor. Effective field-goal percentage (referred to as eFG%) is a stat that properly weighs 3-point shots in correlation with 2-point ones. The Zags hit 9 of their 15 attempts from deep, led by Gray's four, boosting their broad field-goal percentage up from 53.8 percent.

Lee plays with an edge in guarding Michigan State's Lucas

TAMPA, Fla. - UCLA junior guard Malcolm Lee insists he's not playing with a chip on his shoulder after being slighted for Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year honors, an award that went to USC's Marcus Simmons.
He most certainly is playing with a chip in his left knee, courtesy of a small cartilage tear suffered in the closing seconds of regulation in the team's regular-season-ending win at Washington State.
But he certainly appeared to be playing with a certain something extra in the seventh-seeded Bruins' 78-76 barn-burning win over No. 10-seed Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Tampa's St. Pete Times Forum.
Lee locked down Michigan State's fantastic senior guard Kalin Lucas for more than 30 minutes, holding the Spartans' top scorer to zero points until a steal-and-layup with 7 minutes, 45 seconds left. "Like I've said before," UCLA head coach Ben Howland said emphatically, "Malcolm Lee is the best defender in the country at his position."
Lee held Lucas to 0-for-7 shooting in the first half as the Bruins broke open the game with a 42-28 lead.
Even as the Spartans marched back, ultimately giving themselves a chance to win, Lucas wasn't the biggest factor.
Lucas finished 4 of 14 from the field, 1 for 2 from the free-throw line, and had four turnovers, including a travel violation with less than a second to play that effectively ended the game.
"He's an All-American guard, and we knew that,"

Seann William Scott

The actor "voluntarily admitted himself for proactive treatment to address health and personal issues," says his rep.

 

Seann William Scott has checked himself into a treatment center, his rep says in a statement.
"Seann William Scott has voluntarily admitted himself for proactive treatment to address health and personal issues," the rep says of the American Pie star.
 "He appreciates the support of his many fans at this time," adds the rep, who did not disclose the nature of his issues.

Scott and screenwriter Steve Conrad, which aims to bring together directors, writers and actors for shorts, features, documentaries and episodic Web content, last year.

Nate Dogg Is Dead At 41

Nate Dogg, one of the most recognizable and smooth voices in rap and R & B, has died. He was 41.

Born Nathaniel Hale, Nate Dogg suffered from ill health for years. His death was first reported in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

The cause of death is not immediately known, though the Press-Telegram reports that he suffered two strokes, one in 2007 and another in 2008. TMZ reports it's confirmed Nate Dogg's death.

The hook singer first came to national attention on Dr. Dre's 1992 masterpiece "The Chronic." Nate earned the first of four Grammy nominations in 1995 for "Regulate," a collaboration with Warren G. His fourth and most recent nomination came for Eminem's "Shake That" in 2007.

Since the news broke of Nate Dogg's death, his friends and collaborators have sent messages out about him. "We lost a true legend n hip hop n rnb. One of my best friends n a brother to me since 1986 when I was a sophomore at poly high where we met," tweeted Snoop Dogg, who continued on for several tweets before concluding, "RIP NATE DOGG."

On Twitter, "Nate Dogg" quickly became a trend.

Nate Dogg released several solo albums, including a self-titled effort in 2008