NCAA Basketball Line

25/03/07

Knicks sign Kentucky center Morris to 2-year deal

Updated: March 24, 2007, 2:17 AM ET

The New York Knicks signed Kentucky center Randolph Morris, who played his junior season as an NBA free agent, to a contract Friday.

The Knicks did not announce terms of the signing, but an NBA source told ESPN Insider Chad Ford that it is a two-year deal worth $1.6 million.

Morris joins the Knicks in their fight for an Eastern Conference playoff berth, which took a hit with a 90-68 loss in Cleveland on Friday. There is no immediate word on when Morris would join the team.

"We said all along that in terms of building this team we would have to find unconventional ways to try and find talent and get out and beat the bushes," said Isiah Thomas, the Knicks' coach and director of basketball operations. "This is a very unique situation and I don't know if there has been something similar to this. The rules allowed it, and here we are."

Thomas said the 6-foot-11, 260-pound Morris will soon join and practice with the Knicks.

"It's another guy we can add to our young core,'' Thomas said. "We're very happy to have him. It's another big and it's almost like another pick in this year's draft -- just a little early."

Thomas said several other teams were "chasing" Morris.

Randolph declared himself eligible for the 2005 NBA draft after his freshman season at Kentucky, but he did not sign with an agent. After going undrafted, he returned for his sophomore and junior seasons under Tubby Smith. Morris sat out the first 14 games of his sophomore season because of an NCAA penalty related to contact with an agent.

Due to a provision in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, Morris is prohibited from re-entering the draft and had free agent status throughout the 2006-07 season at Kentucky.

According to the NBA rookie contract scale, Morris $1.6 million deal equates to first-round money; his salary is on par with what the 26th pick received in last year's draft and what the 30th pick will sign for in 2007.

According to Kentucky, Morris met with athletic director Mitch Barnhart on Thursday night and was asked to wait until Smith's replacement was hired before deciding whether to stay in school. A Kentucky spokesperson told ESPN.com that Morris told Barnhart he would do that.

On Friday, Morris apparently changed his mind. Morris told Barnhart on Friday afternoon that he had signed with the Knicks, Kentucky spokesperson Scott Stricklin confirmed.

Kentucky is now trying to figure out how the departure of Morris, who averaged 16.1 points and 7.8 rebounds a game this season for the Wildcats, before spring semester's end will affect the school's academic progress report.

Under the new APR, schools are subject to scholarship penalties if student-athletes leave early and not in good academic standing. Withdrawing from school before the end of a semester can seriously impede a team's GPA and academic standing. To that end, Texas and Ohio State are taking steps to ensure freshmen Kevin Durant and Greg Oden will finish the spring semester.

Information from ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz and The Associated Press was used in this report.

23/03/07

Illini athletic director apologizes

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The University of Illinois will not discipline athletic director Ron Guenther for yelling at men's basketball coach Bruce Weber and Illini players during the team's NCAA Tournament loss Friday.

Guenther yelled substitution advice to Weber -- who was just a few feet away -- and also yelled "Warren -- you idiot" after a play by Illini forward Warren Carter, according to a report on CBS Sportsline.com. Guenther also pounded the table throughout Illinois' 54-52 loss to Virginia Tech in Columbus, Ohio.

Richard Herman, chancellor at the Urbana-Champaign campus, said Wednesday that Guenther -- in his 15th year as AD at Illinois -- would not be disciplined. He said Guenther had apologized to Weber and Carter.

The outbursts happened because Guenther is a fan, Herman said.

"If you've been with director Guenther at a game, you know his intensity when he watches a game," Herman said.

But he added, "He's always the athletic director and the remark was inappropriate."

Herman said he'd heard from only two Illinois graduates demanding action against Guenther.

Guenther did not return calls from The Associated Press on Wednesday. In an interview published Sunday in The (Champaign) News-Gazette, Guenther acknowledged his comments and actions.

"Did I slap the table? Yes," Guenther said. "But I didn't direct my comments to anyone in particular, and I certainly didn't intend for my words to be picked up. That did not represent the way I feel about our players, and they know it."

Guenther and Illinois' basketball and football programs have been under pressure this year over a variety of troubles.

The basketball team's first-round NCAA exit followed a car accident that led to felony charges against sophomore guard Jamar Smith for drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident that left his passenger, center Brian Carlwell, with a serious concussion. And Rich McBride, a senior guard, pleaded guilty this month to drunken driving after an arrest last fall.

Two weeks ago, football coach Ron Zook kicked two players off the team after they were charged with burglary and theft. Jody Ellis and Derrick McPhearson pleaded not guilty.

Despite the troubles, Herman said he continues to support Guenther.

"The man runs a high-integrity program," Herman said.

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16/03/07

Crossroads

By Jeremy Stone, Yahoo! Sports
March 16, 2007

SACRAMENTO, Calif. If last year's Indiana-Gonzaga NCAA tourney game marked the end of an era for both programs, maybe this year's rematch marked the beginning of a new one.

For the Hoosiers, the 70-57 victory Thursday marked Kelvin Sampson's first NCAA tournament win at Indiana. At a school with five NCAA championships, that won't make folks in Bloomington take much notice. But at a school that's made one Sweet 16 since 1994, a victory Saturday over UCLA sure would.

Progress has to start somewhere. And with Sampson, it starts with defense.

"I like the way we won tonight," Sampson said. "We have to win games on the defensive end. Our defense was our calling card tonight."

To ring up a win over the Bruins and give Hoosier fans a reward they haven't enjoyed since Mike Davis' improbable 2002 run to the championship game, it says here they'll need more than just defense. But that's all the Kelvin Sampson Hoosiers want to talk about.

"We have to control ourselves and go out and play our defense [against UCLA]," Roderick Wilmont said. "Everything will fall into place."

Toward the end of Davis' tumultuous tenure, little fell into place. It certainly didn't in Davis' final game as Hoosier coach, the 90-80 loss to Gonzaga in last year's second round.

"Last year we didn't play good defense in the game," DJ White said. "That's what we've prided ourselves on the year, defense. I think we did a pretty good job tonight."

Of course, it was easier to play good defense against this year's Gonzaga team than it was against the Adam Morrison-led group of 2006. And the team the Bulldogs have fielded in the last month has been without its best player, Josh Heytvelt, who was suspended following an arrest on a charge of felony possession of a controlled susbstance.

Thursday's loss marked only the second first-round loss for Gonzaga in a remarkable nine-year string of NCAA tourneys. But coach Mark Few didn't sound disappointed.

"I'm as proud as I've ever been in a squad," Few said. "In lieu of everything else we went through, for them to rally, win another league championship and be in a position to win in the second half … we just didn't get it done."

Nobody was ready to discuss the end of an era. But with the graduation of Morrison and J.P. Batista last year, and the graduation of Derek Raivio and suspension of Josh Heytvelt this season, it's clear Gonzaga is in a transition period.

"I've never seen us miss so many 2-footers," Few said. "A lot of them were uncontested 2-footers."

So maybe it was just a bad game. Even Gonzaga is entitled to one of those in the tourney every few years or so.

But maybe it's more than that. Maybe the almost unthinkable run – nine straight tourneys, an Elite Eight, three more Sweet 16s – is over. Maybe the Zags have slipped back to the days when winning the West Coast Conference tourney is the only way they'll make the NCAAs.

And maybe Indiana, whose fortunes started to turn south just as Gonzaga started its meteoric rise, finally has passed the Bulldogs on the way back to college basketball royalty.

Jeremy Stone is the NCAA football and women's basketball editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Jeremy a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Copyright @ 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

05/03/07

Santa Clara 63, St. Mary's 47

March 5, 2007
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -John Bryant had 14 points and Santa Clara beat St. Mary's 63-47 Sunday night to advance to the West Coast Conference tournament final against Gonzaga.

The winner of Monday night's title game gets an automatic NCAA tournament berth. Top seed Gonzaga beat fifth-seeded San Diego 88-70 in the other semifinal game at the University of Portland's Chiles Center.

The second-seeded Broncos (21-9) finished second to Gonzaga in the WCC standings. They had a bye until the semifinals, while third-seeded St. Mary's (17-15) defeated seventh-seeded Portland 87-47 in the quarterfinals.

Santa Clara, which swept the two-game regular season series, held off a St. Mary's rally midway through the second half. Sean Denison's dunk with 1:08 left made it 58-47, sealing it for the Broncos.

Tempers flared briefly after St. Mary's Brett Collins slammed into Santa Clara's Scott Dougherty as he went up for a layup. Collins was ejected from the game.

Collins was the only Gael in double figures with 13 points.

The Broncos lost their final two regular season games at Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine, snapping a six-game winning streak. Their biggest win came on Feb. 12 at Gonzaga, when they snapped the Bulldogs' 50-game winning streak at home with an 84-73 victory.

Santa Clara's Dick Davey was voted WCC coach of the year, breaking a string of six consecutive coach titles for Gonzaga coach Mark Few. Davey is retiring after this season.

It was a tight and scrappy first half, but Santa Clara went on a late 9-0 run capped by Mitch Jenke's 3-pointer that made it 33-28 at the half.

Santa Clara jumped out to a 39-28 lead to open the second, but the Gaels kept up and narrowed it to 41-39 on Collins' 3-pointer and Wayne Hunter's layup.

The Broncos extended their lead again to 49-41, with the 6-foot-11 Bryant scoring on a layup and two free throws.

26/02/07

Montana 85, N. Colorado 64

Feb. 24, 2007

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - Jordan Hasquet scored all 16 of his points in the second half and grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds Saturday to lead Montana's rally to an 85-64 win over Northern Colorado.

Montana (15-14, 9-6) ended a three-game losing streak and clinched a berth in the league's postseason tournament. The Grizzlies won the conference tournament the past two seasons, advancing to the NCAA tournament.

Northern Colorado (4-23, 2-13) raced out to an 18-4 lead just seven minutes into the game, making 7 of its first 11 shots from the field.

Ryan Staudacher hit three 3-pointers in the last five minutes of the first half to help the Griz pull to within 39-32 at halftime.

Hasquet scored the final six points in a 13-2 run to start the second half, giving the Griz a 45-41 lead with 13:55 to play.

Freshman Cameron Rundles had six points during a 16-1 run that gave Montana a 75-53 lead with 6:10 to play. Montana's biggest lead came at 85-60 when Dave Vanderjagt followed up his own miss.

Andrew Strait added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Griz. Rundles added 13 points and Matt Martin had 12. Bryan Ellis scored eight points and matched his career high with 11 assists.

Sean Taibi led Northern Colorado with 18 points.