March 17, 2010 | AP Press

PRINCETON, NJ - Douglas Davis came off the bench to score a game-high 16 points, including 10 during a 17-3 run to end the first half, as Princeton (21-8) advanced to the quarterfinal round of the College Basketball Invitational with a 65-51 win over Duquesne (16-16) at Jadwin Gym.

Kareem Maddox added 15 points and Ian Hummer added 14 for the Tigers who moved to 11-3 at home.

Damian Saunders led Duquesne with 14 points. B.J. Monteiro and Sean Johnson added 10 each.

Duquesne jumped out to a 20-11 lead as Princeton missed its first seven shots. Davis, who scored 13 in the first half, hit the first of three 3-pointers in the final 7:46 of the half to ignite Princeton’s 17-3 run. Duquesne, which shot 37 percent for the game, missed eight of its last nine shots as the Tigers took a 28-23 lead at the half.

DU briefly cut it to one on a Melquan Bolding layup a little over two minutes into the second half, before Princeton answered with a 15-3 run to take a 43-30 lead with 11:31 to go. Maddox, who was 6-of-10 from the field, scored eight points and assisted on another basket during the run.

Princeton maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

The Tigers outrebounded the Dukes 41-26.

“I didn’t think we guarded with the intensity we needed in the middle of the second half,” said Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart. “They beat us to quite a few loose balls. The biggest key was Princeton on the glass. They out-toughed us.”

Princeton, which shot 52 percent in the second half, finished at 47.1 percent. The Tigers went 4-of-14 from the 3-point arc with Davis accounting for all four makes.

“We’ve got several issues,” said Everhart. “Two issues that are obvious are that we just didn’t shoot the ball well this year – even from the free throw line – and that makes everything more difficult. When you can’t loosen a defense up by making shots, and you miss your free throws, you have trouble.”

Duquesne was 1-of-13 from the 3-point arc before Johnson hit 2-of-3 in the game’s closing minutes. The Dukes, who entered the game shooting 60.8 percent from the foul line, hit just 8-of-18 free throw attempts.

March 16, 2010 | AP Press

WASHINGTON, DC – In his final college game, George Washington senior Damian Hollis scored his career-high 30 points but it wasn’t enough as Virginia Commonwealth ended the Colonials’ season with a 79-73 triumph in the College Basketball Invitational Tournament first round Tuesday at Charles E. Smith Center.

The loss ends the Colonials’ season with a 16-15 overall record, their first winning record since 2006-07.

VCU (23-9) had five players score in double figures led by Joey Rodriguez’s team-high 16 points. Ed Nixon and Jamie Skeen added 14 points each and Larry Sanders and Bradford Burgess each scored 10 points. The victory allows the Rams to advance to the CBI quarterfinal-round matchup with the winner of Wednesday’s Eastern Kentucky-Charleston game on Monday, Mar. 22.

A-10 All-Rookie Team member Lasan Kromah scored 18 points for the Colonials including six straight early in the second half.

The Rams took its biggest lead of the game in the first half behind a 16-1 run beginning at the 9:15 mark to open a 37-20 bulge with 5:22 left. GW twice cut the lead to nine before a three-pointer by Troy Daniels, the Rams’ 10th three-pointer of the half, gave VCU a 45-33 lead at the break.

GW began the second half with a 16-6 run behind Kromah’s six straight to cut the deficit to 51-49 at the 10:56 mark.

The Colonials outrebounded the Rams, 39-33, including an 18-13 edge on the offensive end. GW shot 43.8 percent (28-for-64) for the game including just 4-15 from long range, while the Rams shot 46.3 percent (25-for-54) with 11 three-pointers.

Hollis’s 30 points was the highest scoring effort by a Colonial since Jan. 10, 2007. The senior ends his career with 1,196 points which ranks 28th on the GW career scoring list.

March 16, 2010 | AP Press

St. Louis Post Dispatch – If St. Louis University felt slighted by not being chosen for the NIT, the Billikens began to make their case that they deserved better on Tuesday.

SLU came out firing against Indiana State, making seven of its first eight shots and racing to a 17-4 lead on its way to a 63-54 victory over the Sycamores in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational at Chaifetz Arena. The Billikens (21-11) now get nearly a week off before their next game, which will be on Monday at Chaifetz against either Akron or Green Bay, which play tonight.

It also was a big step toward wiping out the bad memories of the Rhode Island loss, in which SLU didn’t play well at all. Whichever way SLU goes from here, at least the season isn’t ending on that game.

“I was ready to play another game because the sting from the Rhode Island game really hurt,” guard Kwamain Mitchell said. “When we came back, everyone was watching TV to see if we made the NIT, so we didn’t make it there but Coach told us we had a chance to play in the CBI. It was fun to go back out there.”

“I thought the guys responded well,” SLU coach Rick Majerus said, “especially psychologically. If a million people are in my ear (about the NIT), imagine how many people are in their ear.”

Mitchell had 19 points, including a run of eight in a row early in the second half that included his first dunk at SLU. Willie Reed had 17 points, eight rebounds and four blocks, leaving him one shy of the school single-season record. SLU was in control throughout, though the game got a little dicey late in the second half when an 11-0 run for Indiana State cut SLU’s lead to eight.

SLU felt it deserved a spot in the NIT after finishing in fourth place in the Atlantic 10, but the NIT chose two other A-10 schools, Rhode Island and Dayton, ahead of it, teams that finished behind SLU in the A-10 standings but had better RPIs. Now, they’ll use the CBI as a chance to get their young team some postseason experience.

The most telling part of the game were the opening minutes. Unlike the Rhode Island game, SLU came out with vigor, enthusiasm and, most important, good shooting. Mitchell hit two 3-pointers, Kyle Cassity drove to the basket to score, Cody Ellis hit a 16-footer, Reed made a spin move to score, Christian Salecich made a 10-footer, Brian Conklin scored from close range and SLU had six players score in less than 5 minutes.

“We were more confident,” Mitchell said. “Against Rhode Island, some guys weren’t prepared to play at a high level and it hurt us, obviously, so we didn’t get the win.”

SLU led by as many as 18 in the first half and by 13 at the break. SLU ran its lead to 19 with 7:16 to play and looked to have wrapped things up before going almost 6 minutes without scoring and seeing the lead cut to eight. But there wasn’t enough time left for Indiana State to get all the way back, and SLU made its free throws to close out the win.

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March 15 | AP Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte fired coach Bobby Lutz on Monday after his 12th year at his alma mater was marred by a late-season collapse and a costly blunder in a first-round loss in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Chancellor Philip Dubois said in a statement that the move was in the “long-term interest of 49ers basketball and the university as a whole.” Lutz leaves as the school’s all-time winningest coach with a 218-158 mark and with four years left on his contract.

“This was an extremely difficult decision and not one that was made lightly or in haste,” athletic director Judy Rose said. “Bobby has been an important part of the 49ers family and represented our university in a most positive manner. Our expectations for our program are high and our goal is to strive to be in the upper echelon of the Atlantic 10 with an opportunity to compete in the NCAA tournament on a regular basis.”

Lutz was promoted to coach in 1998 after three years as an assistant and led the 49ers to the NCAA tournament in five of his first seven seasons. But the 49ers haven’t been back since 2005.

Lutz didn’t immediately return a message left on his cell phone, but released a statement through the school.

“It has been a privilege and pleasure to coach at UNC Charlotte, my alma mater,” Lutz said. “I have been truly blessed and will forever bleed green.”

The move would have seemed improbable barely a month ago, when the 49ers knocked off Temple and moved into sole possession of first place in the Atlantic 10. With a roster full of newcomers, Lutz had seemingly turned things around after Rose said over the summer that Lutz faced a “critical year” after going 11-20 in 2008-09.

But Charlotte soon went into a free-fall, losing seven of its last eight games to miss out on the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight year. The 49ers also failed to get a bid to the NIT on Sunday.

And Lutz’s last game will be memorable for an embarrassing gaffe.

Trailing Massachusetts by three with under a minute left in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament at home, the 49ers had the ball and called a timeout. But they came out of the huddle with six players and when play began they were called for a technical foul.

UMass, which entered 11-19 and the 11th seed, hit both free throws and went on to post the upset.

“You’d think a guy with three undergraduate degrees and two graduate degrees could count to five, but obviously I didn’t,” Lutz said after the game, which left Charlotte 19-12.

Lutz’s assistants were also fired on Monday, and the school said a search for a replacement would begin immediately.

“Our fans, especially the students who are dear to my heart, have been tremendous and a source of inspiration for me,” Lutz said. “They deserve the best and that is my hope for them.”

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June 13, 2009  by Scott Brand

As a former University of Rhode Island (URI) graduate (1983-1987), I wanted to write an article regarding my 25-year working relationship and friendship with former URI head Men’s Basketball Coach Brendan Malone, who is presently an Orlando Magic assistant coach.

Given the timeliness of Brendan Malone’s current affiliation with the perhaps NBA Championship bound Orlando Magic as an assistant coach, I thought you may be interested in reading an article on him and perhaps my continued friendship with him.  Since my dad’s passing last year, I have rejuvenated my long standing friendship with former URI Coach Brendan Malone. 

He has offered me words of remorse since the passing of my father Hal Brand, who he maintained a pen-pal relationship while coaching the Ram’s in the 80’s. And he has also given me career advice on approaching former boss Isaiah Thomas at FIU for a potential job. But most of all he is just plain fun to talk to just like he was in 1987 with Carlton “Silk” Owns and Gavin Scotti as the up and coming coach of a young but surging team after experiencing a series of bite nailing losses in the last seconds.

“We won ugly,” said Malone, after the Magic defeated the Celtics to force a Game 7. “We shot 56% from the foul line, had a 2 to 1 Assist to Turnover ratio, but managed to make the big plays at the end.”

I still get the same “rush” talking to him and believe he should be acknowledged as such in some manner considering it is topical and it is summer and College Basketball news is relatively slow in the Greater Kingston area.

Below is a little synopsis of my continued relationship with Brendan as the assistant manager of the Rhode Island Basketball team and continued friendship.

In the fall of 1983, when the University of Rhode Island announced the
hiring of head men’s basketball coach Brendan Malone, Scott Brand, a URI
freshman and Syracuse University (SU) basketball fan, believed Christmas
arrived early in Kingston, Rhode Island. Being an Orangeman fan his
entire childhood, since his sister attended SU, Scott was well aware of
the Malone legacy.

Malone started his impressive coaching career as head basketball coach of the legendary Power Memorial High School in New York City, which was Kareem Abdul Jabaar’s Alma Mater.  After winning three titles, Malone continued his career path in upstate New York with the Syracuse Orangemen, as an assistant coach and recruiting mastermind. At Syracuse, Malone was known as the man who lured high school sensation Dwayne “Pearl” Washington to play for the Orangemen. Washington, at the time was considered the most highly decorated high school recruit in the nation.

It didn’t take long for Scott to pay Malone a visit at his office in Keaney Gymnasium and introduce himself.  It was a brief meeting and the two traded Orangeman anecdotes. Scott would have volunteered his service that day to Malone’s rebuilding efforts; however, he was a member of the men’s varsity tennis team.  But when the tennis season ended later in the fall, Scott bee-lined to Malone’s offices and rendered his services as an assistant team manager.

Brand interviewing Malone in the New York Knicks locker room in 1989 In his new capacity, Scott quickly gravitated towards the development of sports promotions that were staged to attract fans to the games and ultimately encourage visiting blue-chip high school recruits to sign-on with URI like future stars Kenny Green and John Evans.  A “Slam Dunk Contest, a “Silly Pets Tricks Show,” and a monthly newsletter were just some of Scott’s contributions to the Malone basketball program. During the course of his involvement, Scott developed a strong bond with Malone on both a professional and personal level.  Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Scott’s dad, Hal, started writing Malone letters offering words of encouragement for his challenging rebuilding efforts. Hal was surprised to receive detailed correspondence back from Malone and a pen-pal friendship flourished. 

Fast-forward to Hal’s 70th birthday where Scott produced a video in tribute to his dad reaching this vaulted milestone.  There was never a question in Scott’s mind that Malone would be featured in the video wishing his dad a Happy Birthday. And once again Malone, then Detroit Piston’s assistant basketball coach, rose to the occasion.  Despite the fact that it had been 11-years since Scott had worked with Malone, he still maintained his friendship. Malone reciprocated by producing a video-tape situated in the Detroit Piston press conference facility, where he wished Hal a Happy 70th Birthday.

Through the years, Scott would call Malone on occasion to catch-up and automatically the former Ram coach would faithfully begin the conversation by enquiring about Hal.  On September 7th, 2008, Hal passed away and shortly thereafter, Scott contacted Malone to inform him.  Malone, now an assistant basketball coach for the Orlando Magic, offered Scott his condolences and the two began reflecting on the early 80’s when Malone set the tone for one of the most successful URI basketball teams in history by bringing in notable stars like Carlton Owens, Kenny Green, Tom Garrick, and John Evans. 

After Malone’s departure, the same team he hand-picked, nearly reached the NCAA Final Eight two-years later, upsetting nationally ranked Missouri and Syracuse before falling to Duke by one-point. All those Malone coached one-point losses and his infusion of new recruits created the perfect storm for the Ram’s unlikely run in the 1987 season. 

Scott was surprised and flattered to learn that Malone had only been in contact with two other people affiliated with the URI basketball program since his departure nearly 25-years ago.  And Brand was in good company with URI stars Tom Garrick and Kenny Green as the three people to maintain contact with the former Rhody coach. Scott felt proud hearing that from his life-long role-model, but unfortunately this time it was bitter-sweet since he could not share the news with his best-friend Hal.   

April 14, 2009 | AP Press

CINCINNATI – Top assistant Chris Mack will succeed Sean Miller as Xavier’s head basketball coach, a university spokesman said Tuesday.

The formal announcement will be made at a news conference on Wednesday, Xavier spokesman Tom Eiser said. Eiser declined any additional comment.

Miller left last week to take the head coaching job at Arizona. Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski had interviewed several candidates.

Mack has no head coaching experience but close ties to the program. He played for Xavier and was a two-time captain before graduating in 1992.

He was director of basketball operations at the Jesuit school from 1999-2001, and spent three seasons as an assistant to Skip Prosser at Wake Forest before returning to Xavier as an assistant coach in 2004. He was an assistant for all of Miller’s five seasons as head coach.

Xavier finished 27-8 last season and reached the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament before losing to Pittsburgh. The Musketeers will lose only two players from that team to graduation.

The Musketeers have advanced to the round of eight twice in the past six years. They have won three straight Atlantic-10 regular season titles, growing in national prominence while replacing coaches who leave for bigger schools.

Xavier has enjoyed a stretch of consistent growth under coaches Pete Gillen, Prosser, Thad Matta and Miller, who was promoted when Matta moved on to Ohio State.

AP Photo

April 6, 2009 | AP Press

Sean Miller of Xavier has accepted the head coaching job at Arizona, ending the Wildcats’ sometimes frustrating search for a high-profile replacement for Hall of Famer Lute Olson.

The university announced the hiring on Monday after a confusing few hours in which it was first reported by several media outlets that Miller had turned down the job.

The 40-year-old coach met with Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski and informed the school he was leaving after five years, then told the players in a meeting later in the afternoon.

“I did my best to follow my heart,” Miller said.

He was scheduled to be introduced Tuesday at a news conference in Tucson.

“It’s been an exhaustive week, but it’s a good day to be a Wildcat,” Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood said. “We believe we’ve brought in the best young coach in the country, a proven winner who will take this program into the future.”

University of Arizona president Robert Shelton called Miller “absolutely the right person to lead our program forward.”

Miller led the Musketeers to the Elite Eight last year and received a contract extension through the 2017-18 season. Xavier reached the round of 16 again this season.

The hiring came four days after Tim Floyd turned down Arizona’s offer and decided to remain at Southern California.

In an emotional farewell meeting at Xavier on Monday, Miller praised the Cincinnati school.

“I cannot say enough good things about this place,” he said. “It defines who I am to a large degree.

Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski called Miller “a terrific coach, a great friend.”

“He has helped bring us to the point where we are poised to be the very best we’ve ever been in our history,” Bobinski said. “We believe we are on the cusp of our greatest basketball ever.”

Miller indicated the chance to win a national title helped lure him to the Pac-10 school.

“I would never leave Xavier unless it was a place where I really felt you could win a national championship,” Miller said. “When I say that, it does not mean you can’t win one here. [Arizona] is a place that has done it before, and has a quarter century worth of excellence.”

Arizona won the NCAA championship under Olson in 1997 and has made three other trips to the Final Four.

In a news release, the university said terms of the contract would be available at Tuesday’s news conference. It is believed the school was offering at least $2 million per year and may have sweetened the proposal to seal the deal. Its announcement made clear that the money would come from “athletic department-generated revenue” and not from taxpayers or the school’s general fund.

Miller had a 120-47 record in five seasons at Xavier, guiding the team to the NCAA tournament four times. This year’s team went 27-8 and made it to the East Regional semifinals before falling to Pittsburgh.

He flew to Albuquerque, N.M., on Sunday to meet with Livengood and Shelton. Miller returned to Cincinnati later in the day aboard a private jet owned by an Arizona booster.

Miller will inherit a program with an elite reputation but short on talent because of its tenuous coaching situation.

Olson took a leave of absence in the 2007-08 season but planned to return last fall. Just before the season started, he retired for health reasons.

Russ Pennell took over as interim coach with the understanding that he would not be Olson’s permanent replacement. Pennell guided the team to a 21-14 record and the program’s 25th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.

The Wildcats made a surprising run to the Midwest Regional semifinals before being routed by Louisville. Two prominent members of the team, juniors Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill, are expected to leave for the NBA. Junior point guard Nic Wise also may turn pro.

That would leave Miller with a major rebuilding job because the program has essentially missed two recruiting seasons, not counting the current one.

Miller signed a 10-year contract extension with Xavier after the team went 30-7 and reached the regional finals in 2007-08. He was making $850,000 per year, but insisted money was not a factor in the move.

Miller was an assistant to Arizona State coach Herb Sendek and the two remain close friends. He was lead assistant to Thad Matta for three seasons at Xavier before taking over when Matta left in 2004.

AP Photo

March 26, 2009 | AP Press

BOSTON, MA – Levance Fields pointed Pittsburgh in the right direction just in time — as usual.

For the second straight game, the orchestrator of the offense took the big shots himself, hitting a 3-pointer with 50.9 seconds left, then scoring off his steal as the top-seeded Panthers reached the regional finals for the first time in 35 years with a 60-55 win over Xavier on Thursday night.

One more win and they’ll be headed to Detroit for the Final Four.

“We came in expecting to win two games,” Fields said before acknowledging the obvious: “It was dramatic.”

The star point guard provided the drama in Pitt’s previous win, 84-76 over Oklahoma State. That game was tied at 74 with 2:42 left. Then Fields made a layup and a 3-pointer and the Panthers never trailed after that.

Pitt knows the late-game strategy by now.

“Give Levance the ball,” Big East co-player of the year DeJuan Blair said with a laugh.

The last time Pitt was in a regional final was in 1974 when it lost to eventual national champion North Carolina State and star David Thompson 100-72.

“It definitely was big for the players, the coaches and the city,” said Sam Young, who led Pitt with 19 points. “It’s something we’ve been waiting for, for a long time.”

Pitt (31-4) trailed 54-52 before Fields connected. He then poked the ball away from B.J. Raymond and went in for a layup with 23.9 seconds to go.

“It’s just sad that we had to go out the way we went out,” Xavier’s Derrick Brown said. “The season we had, it was about toughness and finishing what we do. And we didn’t finish.”

Fields did, scoring 14 points, while Blair had 10 points and 17 rebounds in the East semifinal victory. The Panthers overcame an eight-point halftime deficit.

Pitt plays Saturday against the winner of Thursday night’s second semifinal between second-seeded Duke and third-seeded Villanova for a berth in the Final Four.

“We’re a confident group,” Fields said. “We haven’t played our best basketball, but the good thing is we’ve found a way to make plays when we’ve needed them.”

Fourth-seeded Xavier (27-8) was led by Raymond with 15 points and Derrick Brown with 14.

“I thought the shot Levance Fields hit is all about [the poise of] senior point guards,” said Xavier coach Sean Miller, who knows something about that.

He was a star point guard at Pitt from 1987 to 1992 and is second in school history in assists.

Panthers coach Jamie Dixon made it to the round of eight for the first time in his six years on the bench after losing in his other two trips to the round of 16. Xavier fell short in its bid for a third berth in the regional finals in six years.

“They pushed us around in the first half, but we responded in the second half like we usually do,” Dixon said. “Like I’ve said before, I never get tired of seeing Levance take big shots. He’s made them year after year.”

Trailing 37-29 at halftime, Pitt scored the first nine points of the second half — and Xavier missed its first 10 shots — as the Panthers took a 38-37 lead with 14:33 left.

But the Musketeers recovered and went ahead 54-52 with 1:50 remaining when Dante Jackson cut to the basket for a layup.

Fields then had the ball past midcourt before it went into the backcourt off a defender. Fields retrieved it, dribbled into his own end and fired up the go-ahead shot over Jackson.

“We ran our go-to play,” Fields said. “I did a little bit of an in-and-out move, got him on his heels a little bit and took the shot. Once I got him back, I took the open shot. I had confidence in it.”

Jackson thought he could stop him.

“I thought I had a pretty good challenge,” he said.

Fields was in the right place again when Raymond lost control of his dribble. Fields got the ball, pushed it forward and dribbled ahead of the field to put the Panthers up by three.

Xavier’s Terrell Holloway made a free throw with 16 seconds left, but Young hit two just three seconds later. After a missed 3-pointer by Brown, Brad Wannamaker made one more free throw for Pitt with 2.6 seconds left.

The Musketeers went just 7-for-29 from the field in the second half when they were outscored 31-18.

But they were solid late in the first half. With the score tied at 27, Xavier outscored Pitt 10-2 in the last three minutes of the half to take a 37-29 lead. Brown started the surge with a 3-pointer and sank another one that made it 35-29.

Blair struggled offensively inside and finished with just two points and four rebounds in the first half. He had eight points and 13 rebounds after that.

AP Photo

BOSTON (AP) — Xavier should have outgrown the stigma of being a “mid-major” team with its success in NCAA tournaments.

Right, coach Sean Miller?

“How would you define that?” he asked.

Good question.

With the impressive NCAA tournament showings by Xavier, Memphis and Gonzaga this decade — all still in the tournament from non-BCS conferences — “mid-major” is hardly synonymous with early elimination.

So when Xavier takes on Pittsburgh from the tough Big East in an East Regional semifinal Thursday night, the team with the better performance and not the stronger conference should prevail.

“You can say we’re a mid-major, but we feel we’re an elite level program and that’s what we try to focus on,” Xavier scoring leader B.J. Raymond said Wednesday.

The Musketeers reached the round of eight in 2004 and 2008 and are in the tournament for the eighth time in nine years. Memphis lost in the championship game last year and is in the round of 16 for the fourth straight year, the longest current streak.

And Gonzaga is in the round of 16 for the fifth time in 11 straight NCAA tournaments, though it lost in the first round the past two years.

The Big East has a record five teams in the round of 16 from the group of seven that made the tournament. Pitt, the regional’s top seed, has been hardened by the physical style it encountered game after game. But that may not be a huge edge against a taller Xavier team, the regular-season champion in the Atlantic 10.

“I don’t think there’s any advantages, really. You’ve got to play against good people, I think, in any conference,” Panthers coach Jamie Dixon said. “There’s 16 good teams left, very good teams. It may build in some ways character with the teams you play, but at the end of the day it’s who is playing well two weeks, three weeks after the conference (tournament) is over.”

Pitt (30-4) had all it could handle in the first round against East Tennessee State before beating the No. 16 seed in the regional, then topped Oklahoma State 84-76. The Panthers are in their sixth straight NCAA tournament under Dixon but haven’t advanced beyond the round of eight in the other five.

“No game is guaranteed in the tournament,” Pitt point guard Levance Fields said. “Being No. 1 seed, everyone is gunning for you. We think we did a great job taking the team’s best shot and making plays we needed downthe stretch to win the game.”

Fourth-seeded Xavier (27-7) advanced with wins over Portland State and Wisconsin after going just 5-5 in its previous 10 games.

And now it must face a Pitt team with an outstanding point guard in Fields, a powerful rebounder in DeJuan Blair and a dangerous scorer in Sam Young, who had 32 points against Oklahoma State.

“Where it really starts and stops is to be physical ourselves, to not allow them to dominate us on the glass,” Miller said. “Our defense in general is what has allowed us to have 27 wins. It’s why we’re here and what we just did last weekend. Our greatest strength will be tested against, to me, the best at doing it.”

But the Musketeers are bigger — three of their starters are taller than the Panthers’ tallest, Blair — and have greater depth. So Pitt’s regulars must avoid foul trouble.

Fields is most concerned about Xavier’s size.

“They’re really tall at every position,” he said. “We’ve got to do a great job of boxing them out and not giving them second-chance opportunities.”

Pitt is rested after playing just two games since losing to West Virginia in the first round of the Big East tournament on March 12. So any bruises from the battering the Panthers took against Big East teams should be healed by now.

“Our practices are very intense, very tough. Guys leave bleeding most of the times just from drills we run. And it gets you ready for the games,” Fields said. “DeJuan had a little fall the last game, but he’s fine. So everybody is good.”

Fields is the latest point guard to excel at Pitt. His assists-to-turnover ratio is second-best in the nation. He recently passed Brandin Knight for most assists in one season at the school.

In fourth place on that list? The current coach of Xavier, who played at Pitt from 1987 through 1992.

“Coach did play there, everybody knows that,” Raymond said. “It’s the elephant in the room. But we’re just going to focus on trying to do our best and play at the highest level.”

Even if they’re not in one of the highest-rated conferences simply because they’re not in a BCS football league.

“To me, it’s so much more about your program than the name on the front of your jersey and what you stand for than whether you’re in this conference or that conference,” Miller said. “And I think college football and college basketball are completely different when it comes to that.”

March 25, 2009 | AP Press

RICHMOND, Va. — Stefon Jackson scored 34 points and Texas-El Paso went on a 10-0 run after Richmond closed within two in the second half Wednesday night and the Miners beat the Spiders 81-69 to reach the College Basketball Invitational finals.

UTEP (22-12), in its third season under Tony Barbee, will play Oregon State or Stanford, who played later in the later semifinal, in a best-of-three series beginning March 30.

“My team came out focused and ready to play and to get to the championship of the CBI,” Jackson, the lone UTEP seniors, said. “We executed everything Coach Barbee prepared for us.”

Richmond (20-16) didn’t score for more than four minutes after Ryan Butler’s driving layup pulled them to 58-56 with 7:59 to play. During the drought, coach Chris Mooney was ejected for drawing his second technical foul for arguing what he thought was poor officiating.

David Gonzalvez led the Spiders with 24 points.

“Man, he’s really good,” he said of Jackson, one of the nation’s leading scorers with a 24.3 average. “We knew he was good going right, but I don’t think we had any idea how good.”

UTEP, which outscored Richmond 26-14 at the line, had already rebuilt its lead to 63-56 on three free throws by Jackson and Randy Culpepper’s basket when Justin Harper appeared to score on a dunk for the Spiders. But the officials waved it off, calling Harper instead for a charge, and then compounded Mooney’s frustration by calling a foul on an apparent block by Richmond’s Jarhon Giddings at the other end. As Mooney peeled off his jacket, he was tossed.

“The second one, I didn’t say anything,” Mooney said, adding that he apologized to the team for getting ejected. “I think it’s probably more cumulative if I’m asking for too many calls, but I certainly didn’t swear or raise my voice or anything like that.”

Jackson made both free throws, making it 65-56 with 4:44 to play, and it was over.

Culpepper added 19 points for the Miners.

Giddings scored 10 in his final game as the Spiders’ lone scholarship senior.

The Miners used a 15-5 run to open a 28-16 lead with nine minutes left in the first half. Culpepper had six points in the burst and Jackson four. After the Spiders scored nine straight points to get within 28-25, Jackson scored 10 more in a 14-8 run to end the half.