West Roundup
Kentucky Flexes Muscle to Beat Villanova
Kentucky 67, Villanova 58
Saturday, March 17, 2007; Page E14
CHICAGO, March 16 -- On the surface, both No. 8 seed Kentucky and its star center appear too passive to make any noise in a game, much less in an NCAA tournament.
But as No. 9 seed Villanova found out Friday night in its 67-58 first round loss, a Randolph Morris-led Kentucky squad is feisty in its own manner.
  Kentucky's Ramel Bradley, right, talks to teammate Joe Crawford during the second half of their West Regional NCAA first round basketball game against Villanova in Chicago, Friday, March 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Brian Kersey) (Brian Kersey - AP)   The Gators are too much to handle in an 84-75 victory over Ohio State for their second straight national championship. On Hoops: Florida is a team for the ages, because in winning back-to-back national titles they took a very good team's best shot and still came out victorious. The Buckeyes are setback by the Gators' three-point shooting every time they try to make a run. Greg Oden, the public introvert, and Joakim Noah, the unabashed extrovert, share a common desire to savor college. Select CompanyFlorida joined a small group who repeated as men's basketball champion:Oklahoma State 1945-46 Kentucky 1948-49 San Francisco 1955-56 Cincinnati 1961-62 UCLA 1964-65, 1967-73 Duke 1991-92 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPFINAL FOURREGIONAL FINALSSouth West Midwest EastMULTIMEDIA Photos: Snapshots from the 2007 NCAA tournament. Video: Charting Texas freshman Kevin Durant's rapid rise to the top. Video: Post columnist Sally Jenkins talks about Durant. ON OUR SITETeam-by-Team Analysis:Coaching Tree: The Six Degrees of March's Mayhem (PDF) Flashback: A Quarter-Century Worth of Memories (PDF) TOURNEY TRACKER Share and compare your NCAA brackets. |
"We're happy to come in and have a complete win," Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith said. "We had Randolph setting the tone early inside, and the defense stepped up in the second half."
Morris proved to be both the calming presence and the offensive spark for Kentucky (22-11). Fouled time and again, Morris made 9 of 15 free throws and never let his even-keel demeanor waver. He finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
"It's always an emphasis to get me started," Morris said. "The team really plays off a lot of what I can bring to the table. If I can draw double-teams and free them up to get them started, then that's what I need to do."
A tightly contested first half found Villanova (22-11) and Kentucky trading leads and momentum back and forth. Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds showed little of the nervousness one would expect from a freshman playing in his first NCAA tournament, scoring 14 first-half points and making 3 of 4 three-point attempts. He scored 23 points on the night.
Kentucky guard Joe Crawford did his part to pull his Wildcats away from those of Villanova in the second half. His three-pointer sparked a 12-6 run that built a firm lead for Kentucky. Four players scored in double figures for Kentucky. Crawford had 10, Jodie Meeks finished with 12 and Ramel Bradley added 11.
During that second half run, "we rebounded the ball real well," Kentucky forward Sheray Thomas said. "We started sharing the ball and that led to easy baskets."
? KANSAS 107, NIAGARA 67: The top-seeded Jayhawks (31-4) turned 21 Niagara turnovers into 27 points and shot 54.1 percent (40 of 74) from the field.
Led by Mario Chalmers's 19 points, five Kansas players scored in double figures.
Niagara (23-12), which got 17 points from Charron Fisher, kept the game close for the game's first 10 minutes. Kansas went on a 30-9 run in the final 8 minutes 46 seconds of the first half.
"We heard a lot about last year and the year before that, but that's over and done with," Chalmers said. "That last eight minutes was key. We established a tempo and never looked back from there."
