Saturday, March 25, 2006
Photo
Ohio State’s Sam Thompson beats Arizona defender Kevin Parro to the rim for a basket in the second half of their game in the West Region of the NCAA Sweet 16 on Thursday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. A late 3-point shot by the Buckeyes’ LaQuinton Ross gave OSU the 73-70 win.
The Longhorns are contemplating twin national championships.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Back in early January, P.J. Tucker gathered around the television set with some of his Texas teammates to watch Vince Young lead the Longhorns to a national championship in football.
Before Tucker took the court in the NCAA's round of 16, he chatted with Young on the telephone. The gist of the call was this: I've got my trophy, now it's time to get yours.
"We've talked before about both of us winning a national title," Tucker said Friday, with the Longhorns just one win away from the Final Four. "He told me to play hard and do some special things for our school. He knows how good we are on both [teams]. We've always dreamed of doing it. Now, we've got the chance."
Indeed, Young took care of the first part of an unprecedented double with his amazing performance in Pasadena, which capped off a perfect season for the helmet-wearing Longhorns. Now, the spotlight has turned to the guys in sneakers, who reached the final of the Atlanta Regional on Kenton Paulino's buzzer-beater against West Virginia.
The second-seeded Longhorns (30-6) meet No. 4 seed LSU (26-8) today, with the winner heading off to Indianapolis needing two more wins to win it all.
Would be a first
If Tucker and his teammates can win the final game of the season, they would make Texas the first school ever to capture The Associated Press football title and the NCAA men's basketball championship in the same academic year.
On the day of the Rose Bowl, the basketball team got out of practice early and headed off to watch their schoolmates rally for a 41-38 victory over Southern Cal, the two-time defending national champs.
Young put on an amazing performance, passing for 267 yards, running for 200 and scoring the winning touchdown on an 8-yard scamper with 19 seconds remaining.
"It was an exciting thing," forward LaMarcus Aldridge recalled. "I was with a couple of the guys, watching it at a teammate's house. When the football team came back to Austin, some of them were telling us what the experience was like and how great it was to win it all. We took what they said and decided that we wanted to try to do the same thing."
The Longhorns cleared a major hurdle Thursday night. West Virginia tied the game on a 3-pointer with five seconds left, but Paulino raced down the court and put up a shot that instantly became a part of tournament lore -- a hand-in-the-face, double-pumping jumper from several feet behind the arc that caught nothing but net as the horn sounded.
LSU spilled Duke
LSU reached its first regional final since 1987 with a stunning 62-54 upset of top-seeded Duke.
The Tigers put on a stifling defensive performance, holding player of the year favorite J.J. Redick to 3-of-18 shooting and the Blue Devils to their lowest point total since 1996. For a bunch of homegrown players whose state is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, this already has been a season to remember.
Three of the five starters -- Southeastern Conference player of the year Glen "Big Baby" Davis, freshman of the year Tyrus Thomas and defensive stopper Garrett Temple -- are from Baton Rouge. The other two, Darrel Mitchell and Tasmin Mitchell, grew up nearby.
"I've known Tyrus since we were about 4 years old," Temple said. "I knew Glen since the age of 9 or 10. I have been battling with Tasmin since we were 12. I guess it is a little more special than usual."