When the Michigan Wolverines took the floor for warmups in the first round of the Midwest Regional Friday night, it looked as if they would be playing for the honor of the Big Ten.
Penn State and Indiana had already lost to lower seeds and Iowa was going down to George Washington out in Arizona. But the Hawkeyes survived–as did conference champ Purdue a night earlier–and by tipoff time, the Wolverines were playing to give the Big Ten a winning NCAA tournament first-round record for the ninth time in 10 years.
Who said the Big Ten stinks?
Well, a lot of people do after the eighth-seeded Wolverines fell to Texas 80-76. The Big Ten won only two of five first-round games, and both of its victories came by a bucket over much lower seeds that missed game-tying shots at the buzzer.
In 1992 and 1993 the Wolverines carried the Big Ten banner all the way into the Final Four. This young and shallow bunch of Wolverines provided only one reminder of that team–when Maceo Baston called a timeout he didn’t have with 3.2 seconds to go in the game.
It was reminiscent of Chris Webber’s blunder in the 1993 final, which cost Michigan a last-gasp shot at beating North Carolina. But Baston’s error wasn’t nearly as monumental, because the Wolverines trailed 78-76 and the Longhorns were inbounding the ball under their own basket and figured to get free throws at the other end.
Still, Baston’s mistake had 18,194 spectators in Bradley Center and players on both benches shaking their heads in disbelief.
“That was crazy, man,” Texas guard Reggie Freeman said. “I was saying, `Call timeout! Call timeout!’ “
Baston struck the “timeout” gesture as his teammates frantically tried to pull his arms down. But the ref blew the whistle and assessed Michigan a bench technical foul. Texas’ Brandy Perryman dropped in both free throws and Michigan was gone in the first round for the second year in a row.
“It’s just a mistake anyone could make,” teammate Maurice Taylor said.
Webber can attest. But Michigan coach Steve Fisher was quick to defend Baston, whose 23 points and 15 rebounds were the main reason Michigan was even in the game.
“It was totally unlike what happened four or five years ago,” Fisher said. “The timeout, if you have it as a story line, should be nothing more than a sidebar at the bottom.”
Fisher said reporters should focus on the Wolverines’ (20-12) inability to keep Texas (21-9) away from the basket. Fourteen of Texas’ 30 field goals came on dunks or layups.
Louisville 82, Tulsa 80 (OT): The 11th-seeded Golden Hurricane blew a 12-point lead in the last 4 minutes 10 seconds.
Tulsa wilted under a full-court press, committing 28 turnovers, including five in overtime. Mix in 33 points from Louisville’s DeJuan Wheat and it was enough to send the Cardinals on to the second round.
“We were getting ready to go home,” Louisville’s Brian Kiser said. “That’s a bad feeling.”
Villanova 92, Portland 58: The Big Ten might be struggling, but the Big East is awesome. Kerry Kittles proved to be fully recovered from a flu virus, scoring 19 points in 25 minutes as the Wildcats kept alive the Big East’s perfect first round.
“I don’t know how they’re not a one or two seed,” Portland coach Rob Chavez said. “Those one and two seeds must be really, really good.”
Wake Forest 62, Northeast Louisiana 50: The second-seeded Demon Deacons, who rank seventh in Division I scoring defense, held the feisty Indians to 37.7 percent field-goal shooting and survived a subpar performance by center Tim Duncan who, like Kittles, was ill this week. Duncan grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds but scored only 10 points and had four turnovers.
