Stephen Curry will return for junior season at Davidson.
March 31, 2008
Minutes after his sophomore season ended Sunday in the Midwest Region final against Kansas, Davidson superstar Stephen Curry told CBSSports.com that he will return for his junior season, “no matter what anyone says I should do.”Curry, who undoubtedly played his way into the first round of the 2008 NBA Draft with his breakout performance in the Midwest Region — he averaged 32 points in four games to earn the region’s Most Outstanding Player award — said he’s not ready for the pro game, on or off the court.
“I have a lot of things I need to work on this summer,” he said. “Plus we’re going to have another great team next year, and I’d like to come back and get here again.”
Curry played shooting guard this season but will get major minutes next season at point guard with the graduation of teammate Jason Richards. A slender 6-foot-3, Curry’s professional future hinges on his ability to play either backcourt position.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Hansbrough and Beasley headline 2008 AP All-American team.
March 31, 2008
North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough and Kansas State’s Michael Beasley were unanimous selections to the Associated Press’ All-America team Monday. For the first time, no senior was chosen.
Beasley and Kevin Love of UCLA made it two straight years there were two freshmen chosen. Sophomore D.J. Augustin of Texas and Memphis junior Chris Douglas-Roberts rounded out the selections, shutting out the seniors.
The AP started choosing All-America teams after the 1947-48 season, and for the next six decades there was at least one member of the senior class on every first team.
Until this group.
Hansbrough, a junior and the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year, and Beasley, the Big 12 player of the year and third freshman to lead the country in rebounding, were named on all 72 ballots and received 360 points from the same national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. The voting was done before the NCAA tournament.
“To be one of just two players in the country to receive such an honor is very humbling,” said Beasley, who led Kansas State to its first NCAA bid since 1996. “I have never been about individual accomplishments, but about helping my team win games. I wish we were still playing, but I am happy with the success we had this season.”
The 6-foot-10 Beasley averaged 26.5 points and 12.4 rebounds for the Wildcats, shooting 53.5 percent from the field including 38.9 percent from 3-point range. He is Kansas State’s first All-America since Bob Boozer in 1959.
Hansbrough, a second-team selection last season, compiled impressive numbers (23.0 points, 10.4 rebounds) and lived up to his “Psycho T” nickname while leading the Tar Heels to a school-record 36 wins and their 17th Final Four. The last North Carolina player to be picked to the first team was Joseph Forte in 2001.
The 6-9 Hansbrough and Beasley joined Jameer Nelson of Saint Joseph’s and Emeka Okafor of Connecticut in 2004, and J.J. Redick of Duke and Adam Morrison of Gonzaga in 2006 as unanimous tandems. Hansbrough said he knew his name and Beasley’s were linked most of the season by fans and media.
“I think everybody wants to make comparisons about stats and things,” Hansbrough said. “To me, I thought he was definitely in a different situation than here. … He definitely had a good year and has had a lot of accomplishments.”
The 6-foot Augustin was named on 66 ballots and had 346 points. He directed the Longhorns to the regional final, averaging 19.8 points and 5.7 assists in 37.2 minutes. It is the second straight year a Texas player was on the first team as Kevin Durant and Ohio State’s Greg Oden became just the third and fourth freshmen to be so honored since 1972.
“It shows if you come here and work hard, ready to learn, great things will happen,” Augustin said.
The 6-10 Love led the Bruins to their third straight Final Four appearance, averaging a double-double in their tournament run after getting 17.1 points and 10.6 rebounds and shooting 55.7 percent in the regular season.
Love received 52 first-team votes and 318 points to become UCLA’s second All-America in as many seasons as Arron Afflalo was chosen last year. Love said he followed Beasley closely this season.
“That’s my guy. I’ve known Mike since seventh grade. We played against each other so many times,” Love said. “He’s a great player. He had one hell of a year this year, and I think if he decides to leave he’ll be the No. 1 pick in the draft.”
Douglas-Roberts, the third member of the All-America team playing in the Final Four, had 52 first-team votes and 309 points. The 6-7 swingman averaged 17.2 points and 4.1 rebounds and shot 44.9 percent from 3-point range for the Tigers, who lost just one game this season and earned the school’s second No. 1 ranking.
“It’s an honor. I’ve put a lot of work in, over the summers, during the season and staying after practice just trying to improve. I feel now that I’m finally getting the recognition I deserve,” said Douglas-Roberts, Memphis’ first All-America since Penny Hardaway in 1993. “But I still say when people look at that All-American list, it’s a motivation because I’m the one that people know the least about.”
Notre Dame sophomore center Luke Harangody was sixth in the voting with 211 points, and he was joined on the second team by seniors Shan Foster of Vanderbilt, D.J. White of Indiana and Roy Hibbert of Georgetown, and college basketball’s newest star, Davidson sophomore guard Stephen Curry who led the Wildcats to the regional final by averaging 34.5 points in the NCAA tournament.
The third team was senior Chris Lofton of Tennessee, junior Darren Collison of UCLA, sophomore Brook Lopez of Stanford and freshmen Derrick Rose of Memphis and Eric Gordon of Indiana.
Lofton was picked for the second team last season.
The preseason All-America team was Hansbrough, Lofton, Hibbert, Collison and Michigan State guard Drew Neitzel.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
IRL’s first unified race at Homestead-Miami a success.
March 30, 2008
The most memorable thing about the first event in American open-wheel racing’s new era might have been what didn’t happen.
Saturday night’s Gainsco Indy 300, the opening race of the newly unified IRL IndyCar Series, went off with little fuss and solid runs by most of the eight entrants from the recently absorbed Champ Car World Series.
“I think every one of those guys should be very proud,” said winner Scott Dixon, a former IRL series champion who was duly impressed by a race that featured 25 starters — the biggest field outside the Indianapolis 500 in six years — and yet only three caution flags in 200 laps.
That was surprising, considering that most of the newcomers had little or no experience in oval racing.
The deal that finally ended the 12-year rivalry between the two American open-wheel series came a month ago, meaning the new IRL teams had little time to take delivery, build and test their new Dallara Hondas.
Almost everyone, including several IRL officials, expected — and dreaded — a crash-filled event on the 1½-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval, where the speed differential between the top IRL drivers and the slowest of the newcomers was nearly 10 mph.
While Dixon and fellow IRL veterans Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon were lapping the track at speeds up to 210 mph, the former CART entries were turning laps as slow as 201.
“Yeah, I learned a lot,” said Oriol Servia, who led the newcomers with a 12th-place finish.
The Spaniard is the most experienced of the former Champ Car drivers, having raced on a number of ovals. But the IRL’s Dallara Hondas are a very different animal from the Panoz Cosworths that were raced in Champ Car last year.
“I learned a lot about the car — what happens when you have five cars in front of you in a superspeedway and you have no downforce,” Servia said. “These are scary feelings. I think there’s going to be plenty of those this season.”
Still, he added, “It was good fun and I can only imagine when we’re up to speed how fun it’s going to be.”
The race appeared to belong to Kanaan, another former IRL champ, who was ahead of Dixon by more than two seconds with eight laps to go.
But HVM Racing rookie Ernesto Viso, one of the transitional drivers and 10 laps off the leader’s pace, apparently punctured a tire and spun in front of Kanaan, who almost made it past. Instead, Kanaan clipped the rear of Viso’s skidding car and knocked his right front tire askew.
During the ensuing caution period, Kanaan stayed on the track, leading the race for several more laps with a car basically running on three wheels. But he headed for the pits when the green flag waved on Lap 197, giving the lead and the win to Dixon.
“I’ve been around a long time and the race is not finished until the checkered flag,” Kanaan said. “With 10 laps to go, I was looking around and I was thinking, ‘This looks too easy.’”
Dixon, who lost the 2007 IndyCar title to Dario Franchitti when he ran out of fuel on the last turn of the last lap at the season finale at Chicagoland Speedway, was feeling a whole lot better after starting the new year with his 11th IRL win, this one coming from the pole.
And he did it with a car that didn’t handle very well.
“For a bad day, we still came away with maximum points,” the New Zealander said. “That’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to hit the start hard and gain as many points as possible because I think, last year, that’s how we lost it (with a slow start).”
Andretti, who had failed to finish in his first two tries at Homestead, led a race-high 87 laps and wound up second, followed by Wheldon, whose string of Homestead victories ended at three, and Castroneves, the last driver on the lead lap.
Now it’s on to the temporary street circuit in St. Petersburg next weekend, where the former Champ Car teams could be more competitive.
“Yeah, I’m excited about going to St. Pete,” Servia said. “I think there’s a little bit too high expectations for the transition guys just because it’s our kind of track. We’re still fighting these big teams that know this car for five years.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Washington State’s Tony Bennett turns down Indiana job.
March 30, 2008
Washington State’s Tony Bennett talked to Indiana about its vacant head coaching job but decided not to pursue it.
“I had an exploratory conversation with Indiana, and I am not going to pursue the Indiana job,” Bennett told the Spokesman-Review for a story posted on the newspaper’s website Sunday.
Bennett told the Spokesman-Review that Indiana called Saturday evening to gauge his interest. He would not identify who called, but said Indiana contacted Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk to ask permission to contact him.
Calls to Bennett’s home by the Associated Press were not answered Sunday.
Speculation linking Bennett to openings at Indiana and California have been floating even before the Cougars lost to North Carolina in the round of 16 on Thursday, prompting Sterk to issue a statement Saturday that he had not been contacted by any university for permission to talk to the Cougars’ coach.
The 38-year-old Bennett is 52-17 in his two years at Washington State, guiding the Cougars to consecutive NCAA tournament appearances for the first time in school history.
Last year, Bennett signed a seven-year contract that pays about $700,000 per year.
The Cougars, who finished third in the Pac-10 and went 26-9 this season, lost 68-47 to North Carolina in the NCAA tournament regional semifinals Thursday.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Denny Hamlin wins Food City 500 at Martinsville.
March 30, 2008
Denny Hamlin hopes he’s finally put his frustration behind him, not only at Martinsville Speedway, but throughout the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
“It’s just been so close so many times and to finally break through here, it definitely means a lot,” Hamlin said Sunday after he foiled Jeff Burton’s late-race pit strategy and won the Goody’s 500. “It feels like maybe the monkey is off our back.”
Hamlin had twice finished in the top three on the smallest, tightest track in the series, and said he felt like bad luck had let several other wins slip away, too.
At Atlanta three weeks ago, he had just moved into second place when his power steering failed. Then in the last race at Bristol, a fuel pickup problem on the restart of a two-lap sprint to the finish cost him a chance to win, and he finished sixth.
“I definitely feel like maybe this is the turning point for our team,” he said.
For 389 laps, the race looked like it would be another victory for Hendrick Motorsports at the track it has dominated by winning eight of the last 10 races.
Hendrick drivers led 371 of those laps, but Hamlin and fellow Virginia native Burton made decisions under the next-to-last caution that allowed them to move up front.
Hamlin then ruined Burton’s decision to stay out while the rest of the leaders pitted, passing him on the 427th lap and holding on for his fourth career victory.
“We timed it perfectly,” Hamlin said. “We got to the front when it counted.”
Jeff Gordon rallied to finish second, followed by Burton, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart. Johnson had won three in a row at Martinsville heading into the race.
Hamlin had a great view of the last one, finishing third, and had shown several times recently here that he was among the few that could run with the Hendrick teams.
“First Virginia win for me,” he said in Victory Lane. “Finally. The curse is over, I think. I hope. We’ve had such bad luck over these first few weeks.”
Hamlin arrived 15th in the point standings; he moved up to eighth.
“It finally feels good to come here and get a win,” said Hamlin, a native of Chesterfield. “Can’t wait, man. This is a sign of things to come, I believe.”
Gordon, seeking his eighth victory at Martinsville, was satisfied.
“It came down to pit strategy, and Denny and those guys definitely did the right strategy,” he said, believing Hamlin had taken two tires with 111 laps to go.
When Gordon headed for pit road on Lap 389, Burton was running second and decided to stay out. Most of the front-runners also pitted, including Hamlin, but he just stopped for fuel while the rest took tires, allowing him to beat Gordon off pit road.
Hamlin made quick work of the cars between his and Burton’s, pulling onto Burton’s bumper with 75 laps to go. He moved inside to challenge for the lead on the next lap, then did it again with 73 laps to go, passing Burton to take the lead for good.
He won by 0.398 seconds.
Gordon passed Burton with less than seven laps to go, and the normally mild-mannered and diplomatic Burton was left seething about rookie Michael McDowell’s conduct.
“We had one driver that I thought was real inconsiderate,” Burton said of McDowell, who was making his series debut for Michael Waltrip Racing. In Burton’s mind, McDowell should have been better about getting out of the way of the contenders at the end.
“He better learn some manners or he’s going to get taught,” Burton said.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. of Hendrick led a race-high 146 laps, but saw his winless streak stretch to 68 races. Johnson led 135 and Gordon, the pole-sitter, led 90 laps.
“Our car was unbelievable in the first half of the race,” Gordon said. But after taking tires late, “the car just never took off,” he said, until it was too late.
The race also went well for Jamie McMurray, who arrived 36th in points and having to race his way into the field. He did that, qualifying fifth, and then backed it up, running up front most of the day before finishing eighth. He’s now 30th in points.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Kansas ends Davidson’s Cinderella run in 2008.
March 30, 2008
And then there were ones. Four No. 1s, that is.
Kansas wore down Stephen Curry and plucky upstart Davidson with its size and strength, holding on for a 59-57 victory Sunday that put all four No. 1 seeds into the Final Four for the first time.
After Kansas’ Sherron Collins missed with 21 seconds left, the 10th-seeded Wildcats got one last chance. Curry was double-teamed, could not get off a shot and was forced to pass to Jason Richards, whose 25-footer from the top of the key thudded off the backboard.
Richards dropped to his back at midcourt while the Jayhawks celebrated with a measure of relief.
“Fatigue was definitely a factor,” Curry said. “That four-guard rotation they had really took a toll.”
Kansas (35-3) moved on to play overall No. 1 seed North Carolina — and former coach Roy Williams — on Saturday, and UCLA and Memphis will round out the party at the Alamodome. Three No. 1s have advanced three times, most recently in 1999.
The win also rids Bill Self of that dreaded “best coach never to make a Final Four” label. Self had fallen short with three different schools, including last year’s edition of the Jayhawks.
But this year’s bunch had too much talent, depth and experience to be denied.
“Davidson is a good team. A lot better than they were seeded,” Collins said. “Curry was tough. He does a lot of moves and was tough to get to, but we got there.”
Curry, who became only the fourth player to hit the 30-point mark in his first four NCAA tournament games, finished with 25 on 9-of-25 shooting and was picked Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest Regional. His roommate, Bryant Barr, was the only other Davidson player in double figures, scoring all 11 of his points in the second half.
The loss snapped Davidson’s 25-game winning streak, longest in the nation.
“We just forced him into tough shots in the second half,” said Russell Robinson, who helped hold Curry to 4-of-13 shooting after halftime. “We didn’t let him get into a rhythm.”
Sasha Kaun came up with big baskets down the stretch whenever the Jayhawks needed them, and he and Chalmers scored 13 for Kansas, which ended the feel-good story of the tournament. Tiny Davidson, trying to become only the third double-digit to make the Final Four, simply ran out of gas in the stretch.
Not that the Wildcats didn’t put up a valiant fight. Curry looked exhausted much of the second half — with good reason, after leading the Wildcats to upsets of Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin. But he showed the same moxie he’s had all tournament, drilling an NBA-range 3-pointer with 54 seconds left that cut Kansas’ lead to 59-57.
But after making improbable shots all tournament, Davidson could not get the one it needed most.
“They had a lot of bodies and a lot of athletic guys who could chase me,” Curry said. “They did make me work hard, and I had good looks at the end, but they weren’t falling like they did all tournament. We can’t hang our heads. We had opportunities. We just didn’t execute.”
Though they fell short of the Final Four, the Wildcats (29-3) have nothing to be ashamed of. They hung with the toughest teams in the nation — Georgetown and Wisconsin had two of the stingiest defenses in the country — and gave little Davidson something to be known for besides providing free laundry to its students. The Wildcats left the floor to applause from a fan club that’s gotten a lot bigger over the last two weeks, and Max Paulhus Gosselin acknowledged them by holding up his index finger.
“We made history for our school,” Curry said. “Not a lot of people expected a lot from us, so I’m proud of what we have accomplished, but it hurts a lot to have been this close to the Final Four.”
This is Kansas’ Jayhawks’ 13th trip to the Final Four, but its first since 2003 — Williams’ final season. He took the Jayhawks to the championship game - they lost to Syracuse — then bolted for his alma mater.
“Everyone knows he used to coach for KU,” Collins said. “There will be a lot of emotion and a lot of heat for that game.”
Emotions for Self, too. He had taken teams from three different schools to the regional finals only to fall short four times, including last year, when the Jayhawks lost to UCLA. He acknowledged Saturday that the hole in his resume weighed on him daily, and he would someday reach the pinnacle of college basketball.
And now he has. He smiled and gave a thumbs-up to the Kansas fans who shouted his name, and the players beamed as they lined up to cut down the nets at Ford Field.
Curry, the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, had made the tournament his own little party, hanging 30 points on Georgetown and 33 against Wisconsin and delighting fans with his silky-smooth shot. The rest of the Wildcats weren’t bad, either, and they had folks all over rooting for yet another underdog-made-good story.
And for awhile, it looked as if it just might happen.
Kansas came in walloping opponents by almost 20 points a game, best in the nation, and the Jayhawks’ “toughest” test in the tournament thus far had been a 15-point win over Villanova on Friday night. They had a distinct advantage in size and stature — on and off the court.
Yet Davidson’s pesky defense had them looking downright tight for most of the afternoon. They had 14 turnovers — nine in the first half alone — and at one point had more turnovers (3) than field goals (1). They even had a shot-clock violation coming out of a timeout.
They had foul trouble, too, with Kaun playing only eight minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls. Rush practically disappeared after a couple of baskets, enduring a 19-minute stretch that spanned halftime without a field goal.
Barr made three 3-pointers, and Curry scored on a long jumper to give Davidson a 51-47 lead with 8:54 left. But the Wildcats were clearly tiring, and they couldn’t hold the Jayhawks back any longer.
Chalmers stripped the ball and took it in for a layup, Collins followed with a 3 and Kaun scored on a layup. After Barr made a layup, Arthur kissed one off the glass to make it 56-53. Kaun made a free throw, and Rush made a pair to push the lead to 59-53, matching the largest margin of the game.
But Curry had one last highlight left in him. Thomas Sander missed the second of two free throws and, after the loose ball went off a Jayhawk, Curry hit his 3-pointer that cut the lead to 2. But Davidson could go no further.
“We expected to win,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. “We didn’t come here content or satisfied. We expected to win. This has been a 12-month mission. It came down to one final play. That’s the beauty of this game that we play.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Memphis advances to 2008 Final Four by blasting Texas.
March 30, 2008
The freshman from Chicago who wears No. 23 and soars all over the court just finished getting Memphis into the Final Four when fans began chanting “One more year!”
Then Derrick Rose picked up his South Regional MVP award, clipped a piece of the net and called his mom to share the moment. He kept it brief, though, because he didn’t want his teammates to see him cry.
It might be the only thing they’ve never seen him do.
Driving, dishing and dunking, going above the rim for rebounds and flying around to block shots, Rose led Memphis past Texas 85-67 on Sunday for its first trip to the Final Four since 1985.
“I’m just living the dream right now,” said Rose, who finished with 21 points, nine assists and six rebounds. “Everybody back home happy for me and our fans back in Memphis are happy, so we’re just living it up.”
They should.
The Tigers tied the NCAA Division I record for wins in a season, with their only loss coming to a team ranked No. 2 at the time. They’ve been first, second or third in the poll all season. And to all the people who keep saying they’d be the first No. 1 seed to lose, leading scorer Chris Douglas-Roberts can say, “See you in San Antonio.”
“I’m not sure if we’ll get the respect we deserve, but if we don’t, it doesn’t matter,” Douglas-Robert said. “It’s four teams left now.”
Memphis will play UCLA and its freshman phenom, Kevin Love. The Tigers and Bruins have a nice little history, having met in a regional final two years ago and in the 1973 title game.
Memphis has only been back to the Final Four once, with Keith Lee leading the way in 1985. But that trip was vacated according to the NCAA record book because of rules violations. Ditto for the only other time John Calipari coached a team to the Final Four, UMass in 1996.
This March, Memphis has treated the NCAA field like a continuation of Conference USA play. This 18-point finish was the second-closest final margin.
“We just try to go out there and prove everyone wrong,” said bruising big man Joey Dorsey, who had 11 points and 12 rebounds.
The Tigers were a win away from the final weekend of the NCAA tournament each of the last two years, but couldn’t get over the hump. Then again, Dean Smith never won a title at North Carolina until that other No. 23 came along, Michael Jordan.
Calipari even compared Rose to another icon of greatness, Tiger Woods. Actually, Calipari brought it up last weekend, when he passed along an article about Woods to Rose, telling him, “This is who I believe you can be, physically, skill-wise.”
“He’s got to improve, got to get on the range a little bit and get that stroke right, but he also has the mental capacity and the mental toughness and the intelligence to be unique and special. And it sets him apart,” Calipari said.
“He’s been that way since we got him, so it’s nothing I’ve done with him. He just has a will to win. It may be with a defensive stop. It may be with a rebound that he nicked his head on the rim as he went to get it. It may be outrunning the entire field when he started behind everybody. It may be a steal, a dive, a tip out of nowhere, and then again it may be a drive, baseline and dunk on their team.”
Put it this way: The only time Texas (31-7) slowed Rose in the first half was when he got popped on the gash above his right eye and needed new tape and glue job.
Rose made his first four shots and his fifth was a 3-pointer that went in, then spun out.
He opened the game with a jumper in the paint, a reminder that the Longhorns didn’t have a guard big enough to block his view, much less his shot. He blocked an open-court layup by Texas star D.J. Augustin and threw a long pass to Joey Dorsey for a dunk.
“He’s so evasive,” Longhorns coach Rick Barnes said. “I thought early in the game that we could have picked up a couple charges, but I could tell by looking at our players’ faces when I said that. They were like, `I’m sure that looks like we can.’ But he was just slippery. He just slips around and comes at you so hard, and then he comes around the rim and can just elevate and get over you.”
Barnes also complimented Rose for his tempo and composure.
“He just didn’t seem to get rattled,” Barnes said.
Augustin scored 16 points, but was 4-of-18 and had more turnovers (four) than assists (three). All the turnovers came in the first half, like one when he ran to the baseline, turned to throw a pass and saw no one open, so he just dropped it out of bounds. Memphis’ size, speed and athleticism kept Texas from ever getting into a groove.
“They are just as athletic as anybody else,” said Texas’ A.J. Abrams, who has faced UCLA, Kansas, Tennessee and Michigan State this season. “I think they spread the court a little bit more than those other teams as far as driving the ball, and they use every position.”
Abrams scored only two points in the first half, but finished with a team-high 17. Nobody else scored more than eight. The outside-shooting frontcourt of Connor Atchley and Damion James were 1-of-10 on 3-pointers.
What the Longhorns really needed was Kevin Durant, last year’s national player of the year. Without him, Texas still managed to win the most games in school history and win two more tournament games than they did with him.
If Augustin doesn’t turn pro, the Longhorns could have all five starters back next year.
“You know, we didn’t want our road to end right here,” guard Justin Mason said, “but we’re going to work hard like we did last summer and we’ll be back and get ready for next year.”
If can happen. Just look at Memphis bouncing back after two straight setbacks in the regional final.
Of course, it helps to bring in a guy like Rose.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Scott Dixon wins first unified IRL race at Homestead-Miami.
March 30, 2008
New American open-wheel era or not, it was pretty much business as usual Saturday night in the IRL IndyCar Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.A Target Chip Ganassi Racing entry, this one driven by former series champion Scott Dixon, won the season-opener for the third straight year. He took the lead late in the 200-lap race when Tony Kanaan, another former champion, ran out of luck.
And, while none of the newcomers making the transition from the Champ Car World Series to the newly unified IndyCar series were able to compete with the leaders, forecasts of disaster proved wrong and the newcomers generally stayed out of the way of the faster cars and out of trouble.
Dixon, the New Zealand driver who lost the IRL IndyCar Series championship to Dario Franchitti when he ran out of fuel on the last lap of the 2007 season, got off to a great start with the victory in the Gainsco Indy 300.
But it didn’t look like his race to win.
Kanaan came out of the last round of green flag pit stops in the lead and appeared well on the way to a victory until Ernesto Viso, a rookie driving for one of the former Champ Car teams that just joined the IRL, punctured a tire and spun on the 193rd of 200 laps.
As Viso slid broadside across the track, Kanaan tried to duck around him and almost made it. But Kanaan hit Viso’s car with the right front of his Dallara Honda, knocking his tire askew.
Kanaan stayed out front for several laps behind the pace car, with his damaged tire barely touching the ground. But he slowly drove his damaged car into the pits as the green flag waved on lap 197, giving up the lead to Dixon, who won for the second time on Homestead’s 1.5-mile oval.
While Kanaan received condolences from his team, Dixon celebrated his 11th IndyCar victory.
“We were catching (Kanaan) quick and that was the best part about it,” Dixon said. “It would have been close at the end.
“This is fantastic. I think it’s four wins in a row for Ganassi cars at Homestead,” added Dixon, who led 67 laps.
Kanaan was philosophical.
“This was a misfortune, yes,” the Brazilian said. “But how many times have I won races because some other guy was lucky? With 10 laps to go I was looking around and I was thinking, ‘This looks too easy.’”
Marco Andretti, who led a race-high 85 laps, finished second, about five car-lengths behind the winner. Andretti, the son of Andretti Green Racing team co-owner Michael Andretti and grandson of longtime racing great Mario Andretti, led from lap 122 until he got caught behind a lapped car and watched Kanaan race past on lap 161.
Second was a big accomplishment for Andretti, who broke a halfshaft and finished 15th at Homestead as a rookie in 2006, then had to park an ill-handling car and finished last in last year’s race after he said he scared himself on the track.
“I’m a competitor and I want to win races but, after my luck here in the past, I’ll gladly take second. You get a sense of a little bit of accomplishment,” Andretti said. “Coming from last year, our goal was just to try to finish this race. We worked very hard to come up with a setup that works here and the car was very solid, very stable and we had some good speed.”
Dan Wheldon, who had won the last three Homestead races, one for Andretti Green Racing and the last two for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, started at the rear of the 25-car field after crashing in Friday night’s qualifying. He quickly moved up among the leaders and eventually led nine laps before finishing third, just ahead of Helio Castroneves, the last driver on the lead lap.
Ed Carpenter, who also had to start from the rear after both he and Vision Racing teammate A.J. Foyt IV were penalized when their cars failed post-qualifying inspection, finished a lap off the pace in fifth. Danica Patrick was sixth.
The race was run almost exactly a month after the announcement that the two rival American open-wheel series would become one under the banner of the IRL. Of the eight former Champ Car entries, Oriol Servia was the top finisher in 12th.
It was tough on the newcomers, who got their IRL cars within the last three weeks and had very little preparation time or testing.
“The car ran well to the end and that was the first goal,” Servia said. “We’ll get better. We’ve been better every time we go out. … It was good fun and I can only imagine when we get up to speed how much fun it’s going to be.”
Despite the fact that most of the newcomers had little or no oval racing experience, there were only three caution flags in the race.
Before Viso spun, the only cautions were brought out by debris on the track and then when Milka Duno spun and hit Ryan Briscoe as he tried to squeeze by near the top of the banking.
“You could tell these were good, solid professional drivers out there,” Wheldon said. “They’re going to be tough before this season is over.”
There was one more incident, with former Champ Car stars Will Power and Justin Wilson banging together on an early restart. A bent suspension ended Power’s race in last place, but Wilson, who punctured a tire, was able to continue after pitting and finished 15th, seven laps behind Dixon.
“I’m very pleased we completed our first IndyCar Series race,” said Wilson, who made his first start for eight-time CART/Champ Car champion Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. “I’m a lot more confident. I think our race pace is a lot better than our qualifying pace.
“I know we have a lot to do, but this gave us something to build on for the future.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.
North Carolina squeezes by Louisville for 2008 Final Four trip.
March 30, 2008
Tyler Hansbrough always found a way for North Carolina, whether it was carrying the Tar Heels when they lost their point guard or making a shot despite every defender knowing the ball would end up in his hands.
Now, with his relentless drive, Hansbrough has the Tar Heels back in the Final Four.
Hansbrough had 28 points and 13 rebounds Saturday night to help the Tar Heels hold off Louisville 83-73 in the East Region final. Playing in front of a partisan home-state crowd, they reached the national semifinals for the first time since winning the championship in 2005.
The Tar Heels (36-2) advanced to play the Kansas-Davidson winner next Saturday at San Antonio, setting up a potential matchup between Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams and the Jayhawks program he left behind when he returned to his alma mater in 2003.
On this night, however, the focus was squarely on the Atlantic Coast Conference’s player of the year.
Battling in a physical contest inside, Hansbrough finished 12-for-17 from the floor in 38 minutes and was named region MVP. That included a pair of clutch jumpers over the outstretched arms of 6-11 center David Padgett as the Tar Heels desperately tried to hold their tenuous second-half lead in the final minutes.
“He does the same thing in practice every day,” Williams said. “He is the most driven, focused player I’ve ever seen in my life. He wants to be the best player he can be and win.
“That’s Tyler Hansbrough. That’s Tyler Hansbrough at practice every day. That’s Tyler Hansbrough on off-days. That’s who Tyler Hansbrough is.”
For Hansbrough and his teammates, it was a reversal from last year’s second-half collapse against Georgetown in the NCAA tournament’s round of eight. This time, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed got to cut down the nets instead of heading to the locker room to wait for next year.
The Tar Heels have won all four of their games in this tournament by double digits. All four victories came in their home state, too, allowing them to celebrate in front of plenty of blue-clad fans Saturday.
“My feelings right now are great,” Hansbrough said. “This just kind of takes all those bad experiences away. At the same time, we want to accomplish more.”
Ty Lawson added 11 points — including a key 3-pointer with about five minutes left — for North Carolina, which blew a 12-point halftime lead, then broke away from a tie at 59 to earn their 17th trip to the Final Four.
Last year, nobody could hit a shot when the Tar Heels needed one most against the Hoyas in a loss that had stayed with them all season. But this time, the Tar Heels played with steady poise when the third-seeded Cardinals (27-9) erased the margin and traded baskets with them in the anxious final minutes.
First, with the Tar Heels clinging to a 68-64 lead, Lawson came around the baseline and knocked down a 3 from the corner in front of his bench that pushed the margin to seven. Then, after a basket from Earl Clark inside, Hansbrough knocked down a straightaway jumper over Padgett to make it 73-66 with 2:27 to play.
Hansbrough essentially closed the door on Louisville on the next possession. The 6-9 junior got the ball on the left wing with the shot clock winding down, then pump-faked to get Clark up in the air and step in for another jumper over Padgett. The ball swished cleanly through while Hansbrough was knocked to the ground, pushing the lead to 75-66 with 1:33 left.
“I’ve been playing with him my whole college career,” said junior Danny Green, who had 11 points despite needing four stitches to close a cut above his left eye late in the first half. “A lot of shots that he takes and makes, it still shocks me to this day. I’m like, ‘How did he get that off and how did he make it?’ He’s been doing it his whole career.”
The baskets left Louisville’s players in similar disbelief.
“You see the guy as a junior and he’s getting his jersey retired and you’re like, ‘Why?’” said Terrence Williams, who had 14 points for Louisville. “Then you play against him and you say, ‘That’s why.’ He’ll go through the floor just to get a rebound. He’s a great player.”
The Tar Heels went 8-for-8 at the foul line to seal it in the final minute. That steady hand was quite a change from last year’s loss to the Hoyas, in which they missed 22 of 23 shots and let an 11-point lead slip away in the 96-84 overtime loss.
Jerry Smith scored 17 points to lead Louisville, which shot 53 percent and gave the Tar Heels all they could handle after halftime.
“We played exactly the style of play we needed to win,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “(It’s) very difficult sometimes for people to admit when the other team is better. But we’re a very good basketball team this year, very good, and they were better tonight.”
Lawson — back at full speed after spraining his left ankle in February — had nine assists while operating as a one-man press break against the Cardinals’ full-court defense all night.
The Tar Heels shot 53 percent to become the first team to shoot better than 50 percent against the Cardinals. The win allowed Williams to move past Pitino and Bob Knight and into a tie with Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp and Louisville’s Denny Crum with six Final Four appearances, which is fourth most all-time.
The game came hours after the Louisville and North Carolina women’s teams played in the NCAA round of 16 in New Orleans. In that game, the top-seeded Tar Heels rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat the fourth-seeded Cardinals 78-74.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
UCLA advances to 2008 Final Four by crushing Xavier.
March 30, 2008
After reaching the Final Four for the third straight time, UCLA coach Ben Howland called these Bruins “by far the best” of the three.The other two didn’t have freshman Kevin Love, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds as the top-seeded Bruins blitzed Xavier 76-57 Saturday to earn their record 18th overall trip to the Final Four.
Love was picked as the most outstanding player of the West Region.
“Obviously, it’s unbelievable,” Howland said after taking the last few snips of the net. “That’s really a credit to how good the players are and how well we performed under pressure the last three years.”
It’s the Bruins’ longest string of Final Four appearances since they closed the John Wooden era with nine straight trips and added a 10th consecutive trip in 1976 under his successor, Gene Bartow.
The Bruins’ 1980 Final Four was later vacated by the NCAA because of rules violations.
At times on Saturday, Howland’s Bruins looked every bit as dominant as Wooden’s finer squads, annihilating a proud Xavier team that had set a school record for victories.
The Bruins (35-3) lost in the Final Four the last two years. But they go to San Antonio with Love, who has given them a formidable inside presence and has raised his game in this tournament.
UCLA plays the Memphis-Texas winner in the national semifinal in San Antonio on April 5.
“We’re getting spoiled with Kevin,” Howland said.
Love made 7-of-11 shots from the floor, including 2-of-4 from beyond the arc. Half of his rebounds came at the offensive end and he added four assists for good measure.
“He looks like he’s 25 years old when he’s playing,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said of Love, who is 19.
The Musketeers (30-7) had no answer for Love on a day they shot 36.2 percent from the floor — a credit to UCLA’s relentless man-to-man defense.
“We can play better than we did today,” Miller said. “I couldn’t be more proud and really at ease right now because I really felt we went about as far as we could and lost to a great team. They’re unique. I’m really pulling for them. I hope we lost to the national champion.”
The knock on UCLA is that it often coasts with a big lead. Not this time.
Leading by nine at halftime, the Bruins snuffed out third-seeded Xavier’s comeback hopes with a 14-0 run early in the second half.
“It all started with defense,” Love said. “That’s what really won the game for us.”
The rest of the game was one long advertisement for the powder blue and gold, with a partisan crowd rocking U.S. Airways Center with chants of “U-C-L-A!”
After the game, the same fans serenaded Love with chants of “one more year!” as he gave an interview along press row.
This wasn’t the time for Love, projected as a high NBA pick, to address his future.
“It feels great but we’ve got business to take care of next week and I’m not even thinking about the next level right now,” Love said. “I’m living in the now, living in the present.”
The now is pretty cool if you’re a Bruin.
UCLA had flirted with trouble in the previous two rounds, surviving upset bids by ninth-seeded Texas A&M and No. 12-seeded Western Kentucky. After the too-tight victory over the Hilltoppers, Love called the Bruins’ play “unacceptable.”
But against Xavier they reverted to the form that made them a No. 1 seed.
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had 13 points and 13 rebounds and Darren Collison added 19 points for UCLA, which shot 53.8 percent from the floor and won its 14th straight.
Derrick Brown had 13 points for Xavier.
This matched Xavier’s deepest foray into the NCAA brackets. The Musketeers had reached the regional final once before, in 2004.
Early on, Xavier looked as if it might be able to hang with UCLA. After turning the ball over a season-high 19 times in the third round, the Bruins had 10 turnovers in the first half on Saturday.
But the Musketeers only scored two points off those turnovers — and it cost them when UCLA finally settled down.
Leading 24-20, the Bruins closed the first half on a 9-4 run. The leader of the charge was Mbah a Moute, who has been slowed by a sprained ankle.
Mbah a Moute scored five straight points, all of them as a result of some gritty work on the offensive boards.
“All I can tell you is I didn’t have any pain,” Mbah a Moute said.
Then Collison dribbled down the clock and hit a jumper over Stanley Burrell, the Atlantic 10’s Defensive Player of the Year, to send the Bruins into the dressing room with a 33-24 lead.
The biggest bucket may have come when Love pulled down an offensive rebound on a missed free throw, then fired the ball to Collison loitering beyond the arc. Collison hit the 3-pointer and UCLA led 43-28.
A few minutes later, Love buried a 3-pointer and the Bruins led by 20.
Hookscenter.com wire report.