Cleveland State's Horizon League foe wins on Howard's tip off a teammate's miss an instant before time expired.

Associated PressMatt Howard (54) delivers the game winning putback -- as teammate Andrew Smith (44) watches -- in Butler's 60-58 win over Old Dominion.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This time, a last-second shot at the buzzer went Butler's way.

Matt Howard scored on a tip-in at the buzzer, giving the eighth-seeded Bulldogs a 60-58 victory over Old Dominion on Thursday in the second round of the Southeast Regional.

Howard was on the left side of the basket after Shawn Vanzant missed from the right side. Howard went up with his right hand and put the ball in an instant before time expired.

A year ago, Butler's magical run to the NCAA championship game ended with a narrow miss at the buzzer against Duke. In this game, the Bulldogs got the bounce they needed.

Howard and Shelvin Mack each scored 15 for Butler (24-9), which will play the winner of Thursday's Pittsburgh-UNC Asheville game. The Bulldogs have won 10 straight.

Frank Hassell led Old Dominion (27-7) with 20 points. The defeat ended the Monarchs' nine-game winning streak.

The game featured 21 lead changes, and neither team led by more than six points.

Old Dominion came in with the best rebounding margin in the country, and Butler's effort to overcome that obstacle -- and keep Hassell under control in the paint -- became even tougher after the 6-foot-8 Howard picked up his third foul with 16:36 left. His teammate Andrew Smith, a 6-11 center, was called for his fourth foul 40 seconds later.

Howard remained in the game and Smith was replaced by Garrett Butcher, who scored six straight points in an 8-1 run that put Butler ahead 49-43.

Old Dominion answered with a 6-0 spurt that began with a 3-pointer by Darius James with 10:09 to go. The Monarchs' next field goal came more than 7 1/2 minutes later, but the basket by Hassell sparked a six-point run that tied it with 31.2 seconds remaining.

Howard's finisher came on Butler's 32nd rebound. Old Dominion finished with 29, only the second time this season the Monarchs were outrebounded.

The game started with a frantic pace, as both teams ran up and down the floor until the initial foul finally stopped play at the 15:50 mark.

The lead also went back and forth until ODU reserve guard Trian Iliadis drilled a 3-pointer and Keyon Carter made a soft jumper to make it 18-13. Over the next eight minutes, however, the Monarchs went 1 for 6 with seven turnovers and fell behind 22-21.

Hassell made Old Dominion's final three field goals in a first half that featured 13 lead changes and ended with the Monarchs clinging to a 29-27 lead.

After Harper's go-ahead basket, the Cardinals had a chance to win it, but Morehead's Kenneth Faried blocked Mike Marra's attempt before the buzzer.

Associated PressMorehead State's Kenneth Faried grabbed 17 rebounds and blocked a last-second shot in the Eagles' 62-61 win over Louisville.

DENVER, Colorado -- Demonte Harper made a 3-pointer from the top of the circle with 4.2 seconds left Thursday to lead 13th-seeded Morehead State to the first upset of the NCAA tournament, a 62-61 victory over No. 4 Louisville in the Southwest regional.

After Harper's go-ahead basket, the Cardinals had a chance to win it, but Morehead's Kenneth Faried blocked Mike Marra's attempt before the buzzer and Louisville was gone after its first game for the second straight year.

Terrance Hill scored a career-high 23 points for the Eagles (25-9), who advance to play the winner of the Vanderbilt-Richmond game.

Faried finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds for Morehead State, which won its first NCAA game since 1984.

Chris Smith had 17 points for Louisville (25-10), which ends on its first two-game losing streak of the season.

Talor Battle's 3-pointer from far behind the arc for Penn State had tied it at 64-64 with 12.2 seconds to go.

Associated PressTemple's Ramone Moore scores for the Owls during their 66-64 win over Penn State.

TUCSON, Arizona -- Juan Fernandez sank an off-balance 18-footer with under a second to play Thursday to give Temple a wild 66-64 victory over Penn State and end coach Fran Dunphy's NCAA tournament record 11-game losing streak.

Fernandez, double-teamed as time was running out, got off a shot off his right foot while fading to his left just inside the 3-point line.

Neither team had led by more than four points and there were 10 lead changes in an intense second half. Talor Battle's 3-pointer from far behind the arc for Penn State tied it at 64-64 with 12.2 seconds to go.

Fernandez and Ramone Moore scored 23 points each for the seventh-seeded Owls (26-7). Battle scored 23 for the 10th-seeded Nittany Lions (19-15) in their first NCAA tournament appearance in a decade.

Former Major Leaguer Randy Ruiz, who's now playing ball for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, lost his home in Japan to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

View full sizeFormer Major Leaguer Randy Ruiz, whose father reportedly lives in Cleveland, is playing baseball in Japan. He lost his home there in the tsunami and the earthquake that triggered it. This photo is from Spring Training 2010, when he was in camp with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Clearwater, Fla. -- His pretty three-bedroom apartment that overlooked Sendai is in shambles. Not that Randy Ruiz plans on returning anytime soon. Fact is, he's not exactly sure what to do, where to go.

Caught in a series of tragic events, the ex-big leaguer who now plays in Japan and his teammates are truly living day to day.

"Earthquakes, volcanoes erupting, nuclear power plants exploding and the tsunami," Ruiz told The Associated Press by cell phone this week. "What can be next?"

"It's all over, this all you see," he said. "I'm from the Bronx, and the only thing I could compare it to is 9-11. It's like, 'Is this real?'"

At least Ruiz, who homered off Josh Beckett, Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett during a late-season run with Toronto in 2009, is safe. He was playing with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in an exhibition game 400 miles away last Friday and never felt the magnitude-9.0 quake.

Ruiz first learned of the disaster when umpires suddenly stopped the game in the eighth inning. The team's English translator explained the situation to Ruiz and fellow former major leaguers Darrell Rasner and Ryan Speier, and fans were sent home.

Ruiz and the other Eagles -- Kaz Matsui, Byung-Hyun Kim and Akinori Iwamura, among them -- are practicing in Nagoya, about 300 miles from their hard-hit home in the port city of Sendai. They're staying in a hotel, feeling guilty.

"We're eating at buffets and people over here are starving. They could use a hot meal or cup of coffee," Ruiz said.

Ruiz is trying to stay in contact with family and friends. His dad is in Cleveland, his grandmother in New York. He's been in constant touch with Blue Jays star Jose Bautista -- both born on Oct. 19, "we're like brothers," Ruiz said. They played together in Toronto last year before Ruiz was released in mid-May and went to Japan.

"The first day, I couldn't get through to him," Bautista, last year's home run champion, said Thursday before Toronto played Philadelphia. "I was worried about him, concerned."

"I'm from the Dominican Republic and we've had hurricanes. I'm not comparing that with what's going on in Japan, but I know what it's like to have debris in the streets, no water or power, and chaos," he said. "I know he wants to help with the relief effort and he'll do the right thing. But sometimes you get to a point where it probably helps a country not to have a lot of foreigners that they have to worry about, along with their own people."

Rasner has let his former New York Yankees teammates know he's OK. Yankees reliever David Robertson gladly spread that news Wednesday at the spring training complex in Tampa, Fla.

In Japan, though, there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty. "We don't know what's going on," Ruiz said. "There's the language barrier, too."

Winter weather, power outages and a lack of water have added to the hardship.

"It's like a movie. Doesn't seem real but it is," Ruiz wrote in an e-mail. "Everything you don't want to happen is happening."

There's talk the start of the Japanese regular season could be pushed back two or three weeks to mid-April. The Eagles' park has been damaged and Ruiz speculates it may not be ready until May.

"If it was up to me, I'd worry about the city before worrying about baseball," he said. "Who wants to go to a baseball game when you have dead family members?"

Ruiz said some American players from other teams have left the country. He wants to stay and eventually play, as long as it's safe. There are fears that more than 10,000 people have been killed and growing concerns about radiation exposure.

"We don't want to burn any bridges. We want to be here for the team. We want to help with fundraising and aid," he said.

"But if it gets worse, we're going to have to do what we do. Everyone worries about their health. We're talking it out," he said. "We're going to stick together. If one guy goes, we're all going."

Ruiz hasn't seen his 14th-floor apartment since the calamities, and said he doesn't plan on going back for a while. He learned of the damage -- "staircases broken, cracks everywhere, everything on the floor" -- from teammate Kelvin Jimenez, who pitched for St. Louis in 2007-08.

Jimenez lived one floor above Ruiz and was in town rehabbing when the tsunami swamped Sendai.

"He was scared, he was nervous. He didn't know what to do," Ruiz said. "He told me he ate three boxes of Cheerios, trying to figure out where to go."

Reds score two runs in six innings off Fausto Carmona. Manager Manny Acta says Carmona is close to being ready for his Opening Day starter on April 1.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Manager Manny Acta said Fausto Carmona looked ready for opening day after he pitched six innings Thursday in a 5-1 loss to Cincinnati at Goodyear Ballpark.

Carmona (3-2) allowed two runs on six hits. He struck out five, walked two and hit a batter.

"I think Fausto has proven over his last two starts that he's just about ready to go," said Acta, who named Carmona his opening day starter early in camp. "We've got two weeks to go down here and I guess we have to pace ourselves with him.

"He worked  fast, threw strike one and they beat the ball in the ground. He went six innings easy with a very low pitch count."

Acta said he wants Carmona to reach 100 to 110 pitches in an outing before he leaves the desert to face Chicago on April 1 at Progressive Field.

Carmona threw 75 pitches against the Reds.

The Indians could only muster one run against Reds pitching. It came against Aroldis Chapman, he of the 105 mph fastball, in the ninth inning. Shelley Duncan sent a sharp single to right, Jack Hannahan walked and Lou Marson singled him home.

The Reds led 1-0 lead on Todd Frazier's home in the fourth. In the fifth, reliever Dontrelle Willis ripped a triple into the right field corner. Kris Negron delivered him with a single through the middle to make it 2-0.

The Indians had scoring chances, but didn't execute.

Hannahan hit a leadoff double in the fifth off Willis. Luke Carlin advanced him to third, but Luis Valbuena and Michael Brantley grounded out without delivering the run.

Shin-Soo Choo drew a one-out walk in the sixth, but Carlos Santana fouled out to third on a hit-and-run. Choo stole second and Travis Hafner walked, but Austin Kearns struck out.

"Give them credit," said Acta, "they pitched well."

The Reds added two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth.

Mike Leake started and pitched four scoreless innings. He allowed three hits, walked one and struck out two.

Freshman guard Knight had missed all of his seven shots before his game-winner.

Associated PressPrinceton's Dan Mavraides (33) tries to take the basketball away from Kentucky's Josh Harrelson.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Freshman Brandon Knight, held scoreless for more than 39 minutes, made a driving layup with 2 seconds remaining to lift No. 4 seed Kentucky to a 59-57 win over 13th-seeded Princeton in the second round of the NCAA tournament Thursday.

Knight missed his first seven shots and even found himself on the bench in the closing minute. But coach John Calipari, who proclaimed, "You can't count on freshmen" a day earlier, put the ball in Knight's hands with the game on the line.

Knight delivered, and Big Blue advanced to face West Virginia in the third round Saturday.

It was the biggest contribution Kentucky got from its trio of talented newcomers. Fellow freshman Terrence Jones finished with 10 points, and Doron Lamb added seven.

Upperclassmen carried the Wildcats most of the way. Darius Miller scored 17 points, and lone senior Josh Harrellson added 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Panthers led by just three points early in second half, but Gibbs made 4 of 5 3-pointers during the half as Pitt pulled away.

Associated PressPittsburgh's Lamar Patterson (right) tries to score over UNC-Asheville's John Williams.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Pittsburgh was bigger, stronger and more physical. Matt Dickey made a few more shots that might look good on the Internet.

The result was a well-established norm: The No. 1 beat the No. 16.

Ashton Gibbs scored 20 of his 26 points after halftime, and Pittsburgh kept the top seeds perfect against the 16s in the NCAA tournament, pulling away in the second half to beat UNC-Asheville, 74-51, on Thursday.

The Panthers (28-5) led by three early in the second half, but they eventually showed the scrappy Big South champions what Big East play is all about, out-rebounding the Bulldogs 50-27 to make up for a so-so shooting performance by nearly everyone but Gibbs.

He finished two points off his career high, set in a quarterfinal loss to UConn in the Big East tournament. Gibbs shot 4 for 5 from 3-point range in the second half and scored seven points in the 13-5 run that put the game away.

The Panthers (28-5) advanced to play No. 8 seed Butler in the next round. The Bulldogs beat Old Dominion in the day's opening game at the Verizon Center.

Pitt eventually got around to running, dunking and doing whatever it wished against UNC-Asheville (20-14), ending a whirlwind week for Dickey, coach Eddie Biedenbach and his Bulldogs from the mountains of North Carolina.

Dickey scored 21 points but was only 2 for 9 from 3-point range. He helped put the Bulldogs on the map with a YouTube-sensation 3-point winner late in the regular season, then hit the 3 that sent the game to overtime in a win over Arkansas-Little Rock in a Dayton play-in game.

Dickey had a four-point play in the first half Thursday and made a nice bank shot on a drive into the paint to cut Pitt's lead to 30-25 at the half. But he had to feel claustrophobic around the Panthers, who double-teamed him on defense while continuing their rebounding dominance on the offensive end.

Pitt finished with nearly as many offensive rebounds (22) as UNC-Asheville had total (27).

With no starter taller than 6-foot-5, UNC-Asheville proved to be a scrappy opponent. The Bulldogs were chasing down loose balls and blocking shots in the opening minutes before a 1-for-10 cold spell turned into a 16-2 run and 23-11 lead for the Panthers.

Dickey finally hit a basket -- the 3-pointer that drew a foul and turned into a four-point play -- and UNC-Asheville slowly worked its way back.

The Bulldogs pulled within three twice in the second half as Dickey started to find some range. Pitt got the lead back to 10, but Dickey made a layup and fed J.P. Primm on a fast break for another score, making it 41-35 and forcing Panthers coach Jamie Dixon to use a timeout.

In the end, the Bulldogs just couldn't keep pace.

They finished 3 for 19 from 3-point range, hampering any hope of completing the comeback. When Gibbs and Gilbert Brown hit back-to-back 3s to put the Panthers ahead by 17, the No. 1 vs. No. 16 streak was destined to stay intact.

Manager Manny Acta says Grady Sizemore will get two at-bats against the Diamondbacks on Sunday.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- It will only be two at-bats, but Grady Sizemore will appear in his first game in over 10 months Sunday when he DHs for the Indians against Arizona in a Cactus League game at Goodyear Ballplark.

"We're going to play him in the big league game," said manager Manny Acta. "Hey, we've got to sell some tickets."

Acta was kidding about selling tickets, but he's exciting about having Sizemore back in the lineup for the first time since May 16 when he injured his left knee sliding back into first base at Camden Yards.  It was the second time he'd bruised the knee last season and it led to microfracture surgery in June.

Sizemore, a two-time Gold Glove winner and three-time All-Star, has been trying to make it back to the lineup ever since.

"Grady will run the bases against on Friday," said Acta.

Acta did not say when Sizemore would complete the final step of his return-to-games program -- sliding.

"We can't do everything in one day," said Acta.

The season starts April 1 so the chances of Sizemore opening the season on time are slim. But this is certainly a step in the right direction.  

Anderson's floater with 18.7 seconds left helped clinch the win.

Associated PressRichmond guard Kevin Anderson (14) walks off the court with coach Chris Mooney after scoring 25 points in the Spiders' 69-66 win over Vanderbilt.

DENVER, Colorado -- Kevin Anderson scored 16 of his 25 points in the second half, including a floater with 18.7 seconds remaining that helped seal 12th-seeded Richmond's 69-66 win over No. 5 seed Vanderbilt on Thursday in the Southwest regional.

The Spiders (28-7) sprang the second upset of the day at Pepsi Center after tiny Morehead State, the 13th seed, used a 3-pointer by Demonte Harper in the waning seconds to upset fourth-seeded Louisville, 62-61, in the early game.

Vanderbilt had a chance to tie the game with 2.5 seconds left, but Rod Odom's desperation heave was nowhere near the hoop as time expired.

So much for the Commodores (23-11) vanquishing their tournament demons. They have now stumbled in their last three appearances in the NCAA, also losing to No. 13 seed Murray State on a last-second shot last season and falling to Siena, another 13th seed, in 2008.

Kawhi Leonard had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Aztecs, who led by just three points with 14 minutes left.

Associated PressSan Diego State's James Rahon (11) tries to get around Northern Colorado's Devon Beitzel.

TUCSON, Arizona -- After a little scare from Little Jimmer, San Diego State advanced in the NCAA tournament for the first time.

Kawhi Leonard had 21 points and 10 rebounds and second-seeded San Diego State withstood Devon Beitzel's scoring burst to beat Northern Colorado, 68-50, on Thursday.

The Aztecs (33-2) had their hands full with the 15th-seeded Bears of the Big Sky early, looking like that NCAA winless streak could hit seven games. San Diego State pulled away behind its defense in the second half, holding Northern Colorado (21-11) scoreless for nearly 7 minutes to avoid the upset.

Billy White had 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Aztecs, who will face Temple in the West regional Saturday.

White helped stop the Jimmer Fredette Show in the Mountain West Conference final and the Aztecs tapped Chase Tapley to chase Northern Colorado's Little Jimmer, Beitzel.

Tapley hounded Beitzel into a tough-shooting first half, but the Big Sky player of the year scored eight quick points in the second to get Northern Colorado within three. Beitzel and the rest of the Bears went cold after that, though, their hopes of leaving their first trip to the NCAA tournament with a win squashed by San Diego State's 13-0 run.

The Aztecs put together their best season in 90 years as a program, setting a school record for wins and avenging their only two losses during the regular season by steamrolling BYU and Fredette in the Mountain West Conference tournament title game.

What San Diego State needed to punctuate it was an NCAA tournament victory.

The Aztecs had been to the NCAA tournament six prior times and had a first-round exit in each, including three under coach Steve Fisher. San Diego State was hoping to avoid losing some of the national luster it had built up during the regular season and strip itself of that can't-get-it-done-in-March label.

They did it behind another big game by Leonard and a hounding defense that held Northern Colorado to 33 percent shooting and one big second-half scoring drought.

Northern Colorado's task was to avoid getting run over while staring at the lights on the big stage.

The Bears have only been a Division I program since 2006-07 and made a quick climb after a rough start, winning this season's Big Sky regular-season and tournament titles to get into the NCAAs for the first time.

Northern Colorado has a pack of tenacious rebounders and one of the best smaller-program players in Beitzel, the nation's 12th-leading scorer (21.4 points).

But this was a much bigger stage, against a longer, more athletic team than anything the Bears see in the Big Sky.

San Diego State's also had some success stopping high-scoring guards, too, holding Fredette to 10-of-25 shooting in the MWC title game.

White got a lot of credit for putting a stop to Jimmer Time and figured to get the task of controlling Beitzel.

Instead, Fisher changed things up, sending Tapley out to hound Beitzel.

It worked in the first half.

Beitzel hit some shots early, but had to work hard for everything he got, even to get through screens. Tapley swatted a shot from behind after Beitzel got by him in the early going, then got a piece of a 3-point attempt a few minutes later.

Beitzel had eight points on 3-of-8 shooting in the first half, though he got enough help from his teammates to keep the Bears within six.

Then he gave Northern Colorado hope of the upset.

Getting good screens from his teammates, the senior heated up, popping in a pair of 3-pointers and a just-the-right-English drive through the lane in the first 4 minutes. Beitzel added another 3 that made it 38-35 with just over 14 minutes left.

Turned out to be the end for Northern Colorado.

Struggling against San Diego State's pressure, the Bears didn't score again until Mike Proctor hit a layup with 7 1/2 minutes left.

The Aztecs pushed its lead to 16 during the scoreless streak and never let the Bears close after that, finally dancing their way into the NCAA's third round.

A quick question-and-answer session with NCAA Tournament players at The Q: What's the most embarrassing thing to happen to a player on your team this season?

A quick question-and-answer session with NCAA Tournament players at The Q

What's the most embarrassing thing to happen to a player on your team this season?

•Mike Morrison, George Mason junior forward: "We had a guy who was going down the court against Northern Iowa and he had too many little electrolyte bars before the game, and he was going down the court, and I was like, 'What's going on?' And he threw up on the court. The cameras didn't catch it somehow, and he went right over to the sidelines and threw up again. How the cameras didn't catch it, I don't know, but it was funny. He ate like five of those bars in a row."

View full sizeEd Suba Jr., Akron Beacon-JournalReally, there are worse things, says Texas-San Antonio's Devin Gibson, right.  Here, Ohio State's David Lighty, knocks the ball away out of his hands during the Buckeyes' 75-46 victory in their NCAA Tournament clash in Cleveland, Friday. Beforehand, he shared the tale of how Jeromie Hill lost his shorts.

•Devin Gibson, Texas-San Antonio senior guard: Asked the question, Gibson went back into his locker room and put the question to his teammates. Teammate Jeromie Hill offered himself up and Gibson agreed. "Yeah, Jeromie's pants falling down in a game."

"I was playing defense with my hands up," Hill said, "and someone's foot got between my legs, and my shorts weren't tied tightly, and they just went, "whoop."

•Dante Jackson, Xavier senior guard: "Can I go back to a year ago? It happened to me. We were playing Kansas State and I threw the ball directly out of bounds. I caught the ball and thought I saw somebody out of my peripheral vision, but it was the ref. So I threw it at him and he dodged it and it went right out of bounds."

•Jae Crowder, Marquette junior forward: "We were warming up for St. John's at home, and we do a little drill where the coach throws the ball off the backboard and we dunk it, and Davante Gardner went to dunk it, and right when he dunked it, he slipped off the rim and fell on his back. We laughed and laughed and laughed. He's big, so we knew he was all right."

-- Doug Lesmerises

Third-team All-America guard Tu Holloway manages just five points against Marquette, and the Golden Eagles smother Xavier.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Only two other times this season has Xavier guard Tu Holloway failed to tally double-digits in points.

The speedy, acrobatic junior was a third-team All-America player for the Musketeers this season because he is difficult to slow, nearly impossible to stop entirely.

Marquette did what only two other teams have done in holding Holloway to five points as the 11th-seeded Golden Eagles upset sixth-seeded Xavier for a 66-55 victory in the East regional game Friday night at The Q.

Marquette employed a defense that primarily used 6-foot-7 swingman Jimmy Butler to defend the 6-foot Holloway, and it led to 1-for-8 shooting from the point guard.

Meanwhile, Marquette point guard Darius Johnson-Odom shouldered the offensive load for the Eagles in scoring 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting. Johnson-Odom's biggest baskets came at the end of the first half, when he sank a 3-pointer with 1:37 remaining to give the Eagles a 10-point lead, and then hit a breakaway layup and free throw at the end of the half to give Marquette a 33-20 lead.

Xavier could only pull within 60-51 with 3:12 remaining, unable to challenge with Holloway faltering offensively.

In Holloway's two other single-digit outings, the Musketeers split the outcomes, winnign and losing a game.

Throwing the basketball equivalent of a change-up pitch to the Buckeyes is risky -- the well-drilled knows how to deal with surprises, and it dealt with Texas-San Antonio's change of pace by hammering them.

View full sizeJoshua Gunter, The Plain DealerOhio State Buckeyes' David Lighty looks for an open man around Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners' Melvin Johnson III in the second round of the 2011 NCAA Division I Men's basketball championships Friday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. OSU won the game by a landslide 75-46.

The Ohio State men's basketball team will face enough curveballs, change-ups and off-speed stuff to make it seem like baseball, the game of the good old summertime. Instead, it is March Madness, and most opponents know they cannot give the top-seeded Buckeyes what they are expecting and still beat them.

For a team with the multiple weapons and experience of Ohio State, even the element of surprise is a dicey proposition. The Buckeyes' freshmen, although they look as callow as their driver's licenses say they are, still act and play with a wisdom beyond their years. Their seniors have seen it all.

Texas-San Antonio, an up-and-down, fast-paced team, played away from its strength, hoping to confound Ohio State by the drastic nature of its change Friday at The Q. Ohio State blinked in surprise, said the basketball equivalent of, "Well, look at this nice Eephus ball," and then went yard, winning 75-46.

A 16 seed that had to survive a play-in game in Dayton before traveling here, the Roadrunners tried a different approach because they knew they were seriously outmanned. (Wait, wait. Scratch that "play-in game" reference. The NCAA may get so mad about that that it makes Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel take a little longer "timeout"; the approved term is "first-round game.")

Anyway, the Roadrunners, fresh off their quick-step in Dayton, used a four-corners offense to run down the shot clock. On defense, UTSA players in their blue-and-day-glo-orange uniforms surrounded Jared Sullinger inside, while the guys at the front of the zone were more aware of "slides" (defensive rotations) toward 3-point ace Jon Diebler than children at recess.

But no one can take away everything, even in the compact playing area of basketball. So the Roadrunners had to give OSU shooting guard William Buford his chance to win the game. This kind of defensive gamble is either a great opportunity for Buford, who often talks about "showcasing" his game, or it is a calculated insult. Buford is too silky smooth and big-game-tested to be ignored. Moreover, with a big NCAA Tournament -- a la Mike Conley Jr. in the 2007 run -- Buford could become a late-first-round NBA Draft choice. He is the only junior on the OSU team, after all, and may not wish to be the building block for a diminished team next season.

Buford responded by making seven of the 12 shots the UTSA defense contrived to give him. He scored 18 points. He made hustle plays. He passed when he had nothing. He is one of the reasons the Buckeyes are the basketball purist's team.

They share the ball, they hit the open man, and they would quite properly pledge their loyalty to a "One for All, All for One" slogan -- except that has been devalued hereabouts by the Cavaliers team that usually plays on this floor.

UTSA coach Brooks Thompson said the Buckeyes have the look of a championship team. He mentioned the focus and preparation the Buckeyes obviously had put in. There was no assumption of superiority that makes for so many March upsets.

Ohio State is a team that has won or shared back-to-back Big Ten regular-season titles. You do not do that by taking nights off. There are teams that have caught lightning in a bottle in March. But Ohio State has been grinding away at the generators all season.

A business trip, Diebler and Buford called their weekend in Cleveland. Let the UTSA newbies talk about the thundering, home-game atmosphere for Ohio State and file away every moment, even the one-sidedness of the loss, like a book mark in a favorite volume. That is not the Ohio State method.

"They were calm and collected," said UTSA center Jeromie Hill.

The Buckeyes aren't about one shining moment. To win it all, they will need a DiMaggio streak of them.

To reach Bill Livingston: blivingston@plaind.com, 216-999-4672

For one thing, no one from UTSA took the time to tie the Buckeyes' shoelaces together to render them unable to walk.

View full sizeJosh Gunter, The Plain DealerOhio State Buckeyes' Jordan Sibert slams down a dunk in the second half against the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners in the second round of the 2011 NCAA Division I Men's basketball championships Friday at The Q.

Why Ohio State won

No. 1 seeds always win these games. The record is now 108-0 against No. 16 seeds in the history of the tournament. Given what basketball at The Q has been like lately, a loss in the building by No. 1 Ohio State may lead to the building being codemned, and no one wanted that.

The OSU players felt they weren't as intense as they needed to be early in the game, but that didn't last.

"Once we got through the first timeout, we were down," OSU coach Thad Matta said. "I thought our guys did a good job of responding and really keeping the focus."

The Buckeyes sat behind the baseline for parts of the George Mason-Villanova game, and no one from UTSA took that time to tie the Buckeyes' shoelaces together to render them unable to walk.

Why UTSA lost

The slowdown plan installed Thursday, which point guard Devin Gibson said "puzzled" some players and didn't seem to be embraced by up-tempo scorer Melvin Johnson III, stopped working after a good first five minutes.

"The scheme coach put together worked," Gibson said, "and I think they look us lightly, but then they woke up after the first five minutes."

So after a 29-point performance against Alabama State on Wednesday, when Johnson said the stars aligned, he never got rolling, was held to 1-of-9 shooting and 5 points by the style and the defense of Ohio State's David Lighty and Will Buford.

And this was too early for UTSA to upset a highly-ranked team, but maybe that will come down this line. This was the fourth NCAA appearance for the school, and the roster is filled with underclassmen. Gibson said the vision of coach Brooks Thompson is for UTSA to be the "Gonzaga of the South," but it's not there yet.

-- Doug Lesmerises

"I was excited and the arena was empty and I was yelling and singing songs." Not only was it his debut in this year's tournament, it was also his graduation day.

View full sizeJoshua Gunter, The Plain DealerOhio State Buckeyes' David Lighty looks for an open man around Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners' Melvin Johnson III.

Ohio State senior David Lighty, a Cleveland native and Villa Angela-St. Joseph graduate, will provide The Plain Dealer with diary updates during the NCAA Tournament. These were Lighty's thoughts after Friday's win over Texas-San Antonio

"It was an early day because we had shootaround in the morning. We woke up at 8:30, got a little breakfast, a little bagel, some Cheerios, some fruit. And I was excited when we got here to the gym for the shootaround for 20 minutes. I was the second one on the floor and I was yelling and screaming for some reason. I was excited and the arena was empty and I was yelling and singing songs. I was excited.

"After shootaround, we came back to the hotel and I took a nap and got some lunch and took another nap and watched a couple games. Yeah, it was two naps, but they weren't long naps. I was in the bed watching TV and just laying there.

"I was definitely ready when we got here for the game, especially because it's the start of our journey and hopefully we make it to Houston. And this was a good way to start, especially back home in front of a lot of people who haven't seen me play in a while. So that was greatly appreciated.

"I didn't see my family before the game but I'm sure I'll see them back at the hotel. They were right behind the bench and I saw them during the game.

"And I graduated today, don't forget that. We walk on Sunday, and I can't be there, so I'll walk in June. But it's worth it."

Averaging 17 points, Sullinger scored just 11 points in his NCAA Tournament debut, making five of seven shots from the field.

View full sizeJohn Kuntz, The Plain DealerOSUs' Jared Sullinger celebrates a 3-point score in the second half against UTSA.

The Roadrunners sagged on Ohio State's Jared Sullinger in a zone, letting the OSU shooters go to work while trying to avoid leaving the 6-9, 270-pound freshman forward alone against 6-8, 230-pound Jeromie Hill or 6-4, 250-pound Larry Wilkins.

"Sullinger -- our guys were just bouncing off him," Texas-San Antonio coach Brooks Thompson said.

Averaging 17 points, Sullinger scored just 11 points in his NCAA Tournament debut, making five of seven shots from the field. He was 1-for-2 from the free-throw line, just the sixth time in 35 games he took two foul shots or fewer. Often, Sullinger has buried teams from the line, shooting at least 10 free throw in all three Big Ten Tournament games.

This time he was happy to give it up, and he also was limited by playing only 28 minutes, getting a rest for the final 28 minutes of the blowout. But he also went through three defenders a few times to score.

"Sometimes I don't feel the three players around me," Sullinger said. "Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. If I can tell there are three players there, I'll pass it."

He was still shaking his head about his first touch of the game more than five minutes in, when Wilkins drew a charge on him. Sullinger said Wilkins bumped him three times, and then, when Sullinger got the ball and made a power dribble, expecting more physical play, Wilkins backed off and drew a charge.

"He played me for a fool," Sullinger said. "It was a good play by him."

-- Doug Lesmerises

"Offensively, they're probably the most efficient team I've ever been on the court with," UTSA senior point guard Devin Gibson said. "They play inside and outside really well, so they might have a pretty good chance of winning it all." Watch video

When in doubt, pass.

Syracuse and its vaunted zone defense could be waiting for Ohio State in New Jersey if the Buckeyes make it to the East Regional final, and it's that defense that anyone putting the Orange into the men's Final Four instead of the Buckeyes would cite. The zone defense employed by No. 16 seed Texas-San Antonio against No. 1 Ohio State on Friday was as far from the Syracuse version as Texas is from New York, yet a team often led by an inside presence seemed to fire off a warning with its first NCAA Tournament game, a 75-46 win over the Roadrunners.

Sag in on OSU freshman Jared Sullinger, cut off driving lanes for David Lighty, and the Buckeyes will shoot over you, or pass around you.

"We wanted to send a message out today and let people know we're here to take care of business and not to play around," OSU junior William Buford said.

The overall No. 1 seed in the tournament, Ohio State (33-2) advanced to a round-of-32 game Sunday against No. 8 seed George Mason (27-6), which probably will go at the Buckeyes in a completely different way. But the point gleaned from Ohio State's 29-pointer over a No. 16 seed, with those seeds now 0-108 against No. 1 seeds in the history of the tournament, is not about the particular problem as much as the problem-solving.

"Offensively, they're probably the most efficient team I've ever been on the court with," UTSA senior point guard Devin Gibson said. "They play inside and outside really well, so they might have a pretty good chance of winning it all."

The Buckeyes shot 56 percent from the field and 50 percent on 3-pointers, led by 18 points from Buford and 14 from Jon Diebler.

"We got them on a day when they were hot," Gibson said, perhaps unaware this was the ninth game this season in which Ohio State made at least half its 3-point tries.

More than the shot was what came before the shot -- a pass to make it happen. Ohio State made 29 baskets and had assists on 26 of them, smashing the previous NCAA Tournament assist record of 21 set by St. John's 12 years ago. Aaron Craft had seven, Lighty, Diebler and Buford each had five, freshman Deshaun Thomas had three and center Dallas Lauderdale had one. Sullinger, a great passer out of the post, was the only regular without an assist.

"I think we just did a really good job of moving the ball," Diebler said. "With their zone, they're really extended, and we did a good job of getting in the middle, getting the ball to the middle. Very unselfish. That's how we've been playing all year."

Some of the assists were spectacular, especially an inbounds lob from Craft to Lauderdale that allowed the Solon native to bring a crowd filled with OSU jerseys to its feet with his one-handed catch and dunk. The crowd of 20,164 at The Q was the largest to ever see a men's college basketball game in Ohio.

"It was supposed to be two-handed dunk, but he threw it super high, and I had to stretch for it," Lauderdale said. "I'm glad I completed it."

"Dallas is a freak of nature," Sullinger said. "It was like a bear paw all over the ball."

Other passes were far more mundane, but just as effective.

"We did a great job sharing the basketball and taking good shots," OSU coach Thad Matta said. "That's when we're at our best."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: dlesmerises@plaind.com, 216-999-4479

Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera has doubled, homered and driven in three runs for the Indians.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- The Indians tripled their way to a 12-6 victory over Texas on Friday night at Goodyear Ballpark.

Shin-Soo Choo's three-run triple to right center off Mark Loew in the seventh inning gave the Tribe an 11-5 lead. In the fifth,  Matt LaPorta hit a two-run triple for a 6-5 lead.

Choo tripled home LaPorta, Jack Hannahan and Lou Marson. LaPorta tripled home Travis Hafner and Orlando Cabrera. The Indians ended the night with 10 hits, including two each by Asdrubal Cabrera, Choo, LaPorta and Hannahan. 

David Murphy's long homer to right center off Carlos Carrasco gave the Rangers a 5-4 lead in the top of the fifth. It was the second homer Carrasco allowed in the game. He was removed after walking Nelson Cruz following the homer.

Carrasco allowed five runs, three earned, on seven hits in 4 1/3 messy innings. He faced 22 batters, nine over the minimum.   

Asdrubal Cabrera, with the fans chanting his first name, hit a two-out homer off Matt Harrison to pull the Indians into a 4-4 tie in the fourth.  In the second, Cabrera, with his cheering section in full voice, hit a two-run double past third for a 3-2 lead.

Cabrera was thrown out trying to stretch the double into a triple and it cost the Tribe a run when Shin-Soo Choo followed with a double.

Texas took a 1-0 lead when Elvis Andrus homered off Carrasco in the first. The Indians tied it in the bottom of the inning when Michael Brantley scored on an error by third baseman Chris Davis.

Chad Tracy's RBI single gave Texas a 2-1 lead in the second. Cabrera's double erased that, but Texas reclaimed the lead with two runs in the third on singles by Nelson Cruz and Yorvit Torrealba.

Harrison was just as messy as Carrasco. He allowed four runs on four hits in four innings. He walked three, threw two wild pitches and hit a batter. 

The Tribe bullpen was much effective than Carrasco. Josh Judy, who earned the victory, Rafael Perez, Justin Germano, Chad Durbin and Tony Sipp combined to allow two runs over the last five innings.

Heard and seen around Quicken Loans Arena Friday.

View full sizeJoshua Gunter, The Plain DealerMarquette Golden Eagles' Darius Johnson-Odom goes up for a shot around Xavier' Jeff Robinson in the second half of the second round of the 2011 NCAA Division I Men's basketball championships Friday,

What a quipster.

After George Mason, playing like its name, laid assorted bricks, deposited a few lava flows and chipped away the rock face of Villanova's defense for a 61-57 victory, coach Jim Larranaga had a little fun with the media with his perception of the game.

"I thought that game was really pretty," said the onetime Bowling Green coach. "Both teams executing at a very high level. What was the final score, 88-86?"

But he wants to tell ya . . .

Getting serious, Larranaga said: "It was kind of like a prize fight for both teams. Both guys punch very hard and you don't really get great results, and by the end, you're just fatigued and trying to fight through it. And we ended up being the last team standing."

Quince: David Lighty jokes that Ohio State point guard Aaron Craft can't dunk. "Craft can touch the rim, though," Lighty said.

In the great basketball movie, "White Men Can't Jump," Rosie Perez, as playground star Woody Harrelson's girlfriend, goes on 'Jeopardy!' and nails it the way hardware superstores nail home repair. The "answer" to one question in the category "Foods That Begin with Q" is "Legend says this was the forbidden fruit of the Bible."

"What is a quince?" Perez says, on her way to routing other contestants, including a "rocket scientist" played by the late Los Angeles Times sportswriter Allan Malamud.

And on the forbidden-fruit front, there are probably some lines about Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl's illegal recruitment of Craft that could go here.

Q tip: Rumor going around some OSU people is that the families of the five players suspended by the NCAA for five games at the start of next football season were angry that football coach Jim Tressel, who covered up the scandal, only got two games originally from OSU officials. Why, you would think the student athletes were not appreciative of the coach's "protection" of them.

After the NCAA upheld the five-game suspension of the players for next season, Ohio State released a statement, at 8:30 p.m. Thursday -- timed to be buried amid March Madness, saying that Tressel had asked for his penalty to be boosted to five games, too.

Working their quirk: Never saw violins in a pep band before, but George Mason pulled it off. Their bandleader also had on the first canary yellow suit any grown man has worn in town since Omar Vizquel was the Human Sunbeam at the 1995 World Series party at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. The rather larger George Mason gentleman looked like a solar flare.

Qualms: Villanova's Jay Wright knew he had troubles, right here in Crooked River City, when Mouphtaou Yarou from the country of Benin went to the foul line, with the score tied at 54, with 1 minute, 13 seconds to play against George Mason.

"I'm thinking, 'Why him?' said Wright. "Mouph's not a great free-throw shooter (66.1 percent). He got doubled up there. I was going to call timeout, but they called the foul. And those things just happen sometimes. I told our guys, our Final Four year (2009), our Final Eight years, those things didn't happen. The right guy goes to the line."

Quid pro quo: In Latin, it basically means "a favor for a favor." Or, if Northwestern scratches Texas-San Antonio's back, will Syracuse have its claws out for Ohio State if the teams meet in the East Region final? Or something like that.

Northwestern lost to OSU by one point in the regular season and in overtime in the Big Ten Tournament with the same plan the UTSA Roadrunners tried against OSU. "It can work. Obviously, it didn't today," said coach Brooks Thompson.

Syracuse plays the country's definitive exasperating zone. Coach Jim Boeheim is on the U.S. Olympic team staff to teach NBA pros its principles. And Syracuse will be a bit longer and more athletic than UTSA, too.

They have a quorum: It seemed like UTSA had a one-to-one ratio in fans to players. But give the Texans credit. Their small but doughty band of fans made a lot of noise, proportionate to their numbers.

Quality: Everybody I know is down in college basketball because of the one-and-done NBA rule, Parity fuels this engine, not quality. It hardly matters, because there are also:

Quintessential March Madness moments: It can't just be the basketball, or March Madness would be as soulless and self-promoting as the NBA. And it can't be the Big Dog at OSU. It's smaller and more intimate than the sprawling spectacle of Ohio State football.

But when the basketball pep band is tooting away, and the four gray flags with the scarlet O-H-I-O letters on them come flying out, borne by racing cheerleaders, and Brutus Buckeye is flexing his muscles right in front of press row, and the whole of the massively pro-Ohio State crowd is cheering like it's the tongue of the Shoe anyway -- well, that is a fine moment. It won't put a single ball in a basket, but it is part of why so many of us love it so.

Quash those ideas: Villanova ended its season with a six-game losing streak, something that troubled coach Jay Wright.

But he didn't anticipate examining the final minutes of each loss to look for a pattern. He's not sure there is one.

"I don't want to ruin your story, but they're college kids," Wright said. "You don't know if the kid's girlfriend broke up with him last night. You just don't know. All you can do is put them in that position and give them confidence. I know they had confidence."

Defensive stopper Rick Jackson scored a season-high 23 points, C.J. Fair added 14 and Syracuse began taking care of "unfinished business" in the NCAA tournament with a 77-60 win over Indiana State in a second-round game Friday night.

 

View full sizeAmy Sancetta, Associated PressIndiana State's Dwayne Lathan (20) shoots against Syracuse's Rick Jackson in the second half of the East regional NCAA college basketball tournament second round game, just after midnight Saturday at The Q arena in Cleveland.

CLEVELAND (AP) - Defensive stopper Rick Jackson scored a season-high 23 points, C.J. Fair added 14 and Syracuse began taking care of "unfinished business" in the NCAA tournament with a 77-60 win over Indiana State in a second-round game Friday night.

The third-seeded Orange (27-7) want to make up for last season’s disappointing tourney appearance, when their title run as a No. 1 seed ended with a loss to upstart Butler in the round of 16. Jackson, the Big East’s top defensive player, scored six straight during a crucial stretch in the second half when Syracuse finally pulled away from Indiana State (20-14).

Syracuse will play Big East brethren Marquette on Sunday in a third-round game. The Golden Eagles won the regular-season matchup between the schools.

Jake Kelly scored 12 to lead the Sycamores, who got within four in the second half but had no answer for Jackson.

---

Earlier Friday night

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Syracuse confident, but wary

By Bud Poliquin The Syracuse Post-Standard

The dunking jamboree had been whistled to a halt by the big boss man, and those in the seats of what had been LeBron James' house had stopped their oohing and aahing . . . particularly as they had gazed upon James Southerland, the flying forward who proved among the huzzahs that he is as orbital as he is pliant.

And now, with the workout nearly completed Thursday afternoon, it was time for the Syracuse University athletes to put some finishing touches at the ol' charity stripe. So five Orange players were instructed by Jim Boeheim to launch two free-throws apiece . . . and if any of them missed, the entire SU team had to run baseline to baseline.

Enter Brandon Triche, who has buried 37 consecutive foul shots across Syracuse's past nine dates, hasn't botched one in more than a month and has become nearly as dependable from 15 feet as sunrise is in the morning.

Splash.

"That's 38!" shouted Scoop Jardine. "Here comes 39!"

Doink.

Yes . . . doink.

View full sizeJoshua Gunter, The Plain Dealer

Unimaginably, Triche's toss rolled around the rim and bounded away, thus proving that sure things aren't. Less remarkably, the errant shot forced the Orange to take off for the far end in amazement.

Still, mostly everybody smiled. Including Boeheim, who is on the verge of coaching in his 28th NCAA Tournament against Indiana State's Greg Lansing, who is about to coach in his first NCAA Tournament game.

"We expect to win six games," said Triche, a sophomore guard, before leaving The Q. "Yeah, we do. If we play the way we know we can play, if we play together and play good defense, we don't think any team can beat us."

It made for bold talk, sure. But then, the Orange is 26-7 -- the only game it has lost in the past 35 days was in overtime to Connecticut, and it has defeated seven Top 25 clubs since December.

"Our confidence is high," said Triche. "When we were losing back there in January, we weren't sure of ourselves. But now we know we can play great basketball."

'But then, do not think for a moment that there will be any tsk-tsking of Indiana State. And not just because 4th-seeded Louisville was rolled through the NCAA Tournament doors on Thursday by 13th-seeded Morehead State, a royal stumble in this 2011 version of the proverbial Big Dance.

"You can't overlook anybody," warned Triche. "After losing to Butler last year . . . I mean, we didn't know who Butler was. We didn't think they were that good, and they locked us down."

Syracuse.com's final report on its home team's victory