Buzz Williams loses voice; resorts to writing out words on playboard

Buzz Williams— the head coach of the # 3 seed Marquette men's basketball team— may have lost his voice during the Golden Eagles second-round game against the #6 seed Murray State Racers Saturday night but, with a little improvisation with a magic marker, managed to give a pep talk to lead his team to victory, 62-53.

The excitable coach went to a huddle in the final minutes of the the physical game and— with his voice all but gone— told his players what to do by writing the words he would normally yell at them down  on the play board.

Not a lot of X's and O's—  mostly words.

As quick as the coach would usually yell "Listen" or "Posts," Williams would jot them down with the marker for his players to read.

It must have gotten confusing when he wrote down "Monster" and "Mashdown" as well.

Vocally or handwritten, the "pep writing" clearly worked and spared the team's eardrums.

Marquette now moves on to the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year and will meet the winner of the Florida/Norfolk State game.

Jae Crowder, Marquette's dread-locked Big East Player of the Year, led the team with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Next game, bring a bag of Ricolas coach.

Southern Miss apologizes for band shouting racial slur at K-State player

Members of the Southern Mississippi band are facing disciplinary action after shouting an insensitive racial slur in a chant at Kansas State point guard Angel Rodriguez during the first half of the Golden Eagles' 70-64 East Region loss on Thursday.

The band was heard chanting "where's your green card?" at Rodriguez while he was at the free throw line.  The freshman is from Puerto Rico.



Southern Miss president Martha Saunders issued a statement after the game on the school's web site that said," We deeply regret the remarks made by a few students at today's game.

The words of these individuals do not represent the sentiments of our pep band, athletic department or university.  We apologize to Mr. Rodriguez and will take quick and appropriate disciplinary action against the students involved in this isolated incident."

Southern Miss interim Ad Jeff Hammond told the Clarion Ledger that he would take the band's director to meet with Rodriguez and K-State coach Frank Martin to apologize.

Obama and British PM Cameron talk hoops and politics

President Obama last night showed British Prime Minister David Cameron what March Madness in America is all about after he escorted the PM to the NCAA men's basketball tournament in Dayton, Ohio— which is, coincidentally, a key swing state in November's election.

While Cameron didn't look too crazy about the sport, he watched two games which would have left the King speechless.

First, Western Kentucky came back from a 16 point deficit to defeat Mississippi Valley State, 59-58, then BYU came back from 25 down to beat Iona 78-72 in the greatest comeback in tournament history.




Earlier in the day, the two leaders were set up to discuss their respective policies on Afghanistan before embarking on Air Force One to catch the play-in game.

The President did all of the things everybody usually does while relaxing at a basketball game— shake the hands of dozens of fans and kiss a baby.  Cameron took off his sweater.

Cameron became the first foreign head of state to fly with the president aboard Air Force One and from the looks of him at the game, it was probably the highlight of his day.

At halftime, Obama joked, "He's going to teach me cricket."

St. John's Gets NCAA Tournament Bid Much To LSU's Chagrin

The chances for an NCAA Tournament bid didn't look good for the St. John's men's baseball team after losing to Seton Hall in the Big East championship game on Sunday, but the Red Storm were given one of the final at-large berths to make the field of 64 for the fourth time in five years.  National power LSU cried that the selection of St. John's is a farce and says the NCAA should take a look at how they select the 64 team field.

LSU (36-20) is claiming that they play in a tougher conference and should have been picked over the Johnnies.  St. John's (35-20) finished second in both the Big East regular season standings and championship series.  It is arguably the best team in the northeast.

For the record, LSU finished 9th in the SEC and didn't make their own conference tournament finals.

The Tigers are screaming that their #23 RPI and 12-3 finish entitles the team to be picked ahead of the Red Storm, who go into the NCAA's with a respectable #54 RPI.

"I would say that this year, as a committee, we didn't use RPI as the hammer that maybe it was in previous years," said Tim Weiser, the chairman of the 10-member NCAA Selection Committee.

If LSU wants to find a culprit, the school should look at some of the automatic-bids awarded to winners of conference championships.



New Mexico (20-39) and UALR (24-32) won their respective conference title games (Mountain West and Sun Belt) and will be coasting into this year's tournament field. 

St. John's is a second place team in the Big East conference.  It's hard to argue with all the the RPI's and the fact that seven SEC teams were selected to the tournament that LSU doesn't have a case, but don't blame St. John's.

Sure, Big East baseball will probably never be compared to the SEC, but other factors in St. John's success should be taken into consideration.

For one thing, LSU is a ninth place team. They should know only Big East basketball gets nine or more teams into a tournament. 

Secondly, the Red Storm play in colder weather.  They don't see a home field game until mid-March after they've played about a dozen games on the road.  By seasons end, St. John's has played nearly two-thirds of their games on the road.
 
"The debate is a consistent one: How do you measure a second-place team versus, for example, a ninth-place team?," said Weiser.  " We've got a divided group in that regard."

While LSU sulks, St. John's rejoices about it's # 3 seed in the regional hosted by top-seed Virginia.

"It felt pretty good," said St. John's head coach Ed Blankmeyer.  "It made it a lot easier to enjoy the rest of [the selection show]...It was exciting for me, and I felt very happy for the players."

The Red Storm is no NCAA interloper.  This will be the 33rd appearance in the NCAA Tournament for St. John's--the eighth most by any school.

Last year, St. John's was also in the same bracket as #1 Virginia and beat them in the first game before losing the rematch with the Super Regionals within their grasp.

This year the Red Storm will face # 2 seed East Carolina on Friday before tangling with #1 Virginia and #4 Navy over the weekend.

For now, put all the conspiracy theories to rest.