Ore-gone

The Illini just aren't there yet. They had a very good season, finishing second in the Big Ten regular season. Bruce Weber has garnered commitments from some strong recruits, and while they'll lose Chester Frazier, Trent Meacham and Calvin Brock, the Mikes--Tisdale and Davis--are only sophomores, and so is Demetri McCamey.

Unfortunately, some of those players looked like deer in headlights in Thursday's 76-72 loss to Western Kentucky in Portland. The game wasn't close--it was a 13-point game with 3:17 to go--until the Illini stormed back a la their game against Arizona in 2005. Mike Tisdale was invisible (zero points) unless you count his four personal fouls, and McCamey did sneak into double-figures with 10 points, but was 0-5 from behind the arc. Meacham carried Illinois with four treys and 24 points, but Western Kentucky dropped nine three-balls and outscored the Illini by eight at the foul line.

Illinois finished the season 24-10, and WKU moves on to face a Gonzaga team that got a bit of a scare in their first round game with the Akron Zips.

But the scare of the day goes to Cal State Northridge, who led #2 seed Memphis by six with 10:12 remaining. The Tigers were bailed out by a guy named Sallie, as he dropped 10 threes (!) and scored 35 in the 81-70 Memphis win. Paging Robert Dozier? Paging Shawn Taggart? Anyone? I have you in the Final Four, Memphis! Get it together!

I hope UT-Chattanooga and Radford enjoyed their short-lived dance; their March was mostly sadness. The Mocs and Highlanders (apparently they're not immortal) lost to #1 seeds UConn and UNC, respectively, by an average of 49.5 points.

P.S. I was 14-2 on day one, losing Butler and Clemson. It was a day without many shockers (see the "Notable Number"), so many people had a strong start. On to day two!