Saturday's conference-tournament bonanza

[Plebe]

ACC semifinals:

• Notre Dame vs. Louisville, 12:00p ET (ESPN2). Amazingly, this will be the first time all season that ND has faced a top-16 team away from home.
• Duke vs. Miami, 2:30p ET (ESPNU). If Duke can prevail, it will be their best win outside Durham this season.

AAC quarterfinals:

• UCF vs. Tulane, 12:00p ET (ESPN3). Tulane aims to avenge its recent loss to UCF.
• UConn vs. Tulsa, 2:00p ET (ESPN3). Kia Nurse's return seems to be the most interesting storyline of this game.
• Temple vs. Houston, 6:00p ET (ESPN3). Temple hasn't lost to anyone not named UConn since January.
• South Florida vs. SMU, 8:00p ET (ESPN3). USF eked out a 1-point win over SMU in January, and needs this win to protect its at-large bid.

Big 12 quarterfinals:

• Kansas State vs. Iowa State, 12:00p ET (FSN). ISU has played itself into a probable at-large bid; a win here would leave no doubt.
• Baylor vs. Texas Tech, 2:30p ET (FSN). Will Alexis Jones (knee bone bruise) be ready to play?
  
• Texas vs. Oklahoma St, 7:00p ET (FSN). Texas still looking to regain confidence after recent losses to Oklahoma and Iowa State.
  
• Oklahoma vs. West Virginia, 9:30 ET (FSN). OK needs a win to keep alive its hopes of hosting. WV needs a win to avoid a nerve-racking Selection Monday.

Big Ten semifinals:

• Ohio State vs. Purdue, 4:00p ET (BTN). OSU has been rolling lately. If Purdue can pull an upset, they just might sneak into the bubble picture.
• Maryland vs. Michigan State, 6:25p ET (BTN). Can MSU defend Brionna Jones? She had 28 and 15 when these teams met in the regular season.

SEC semifinals:

• South Carolina vs. Kentucky, 5:00p ET (ESPNU). Can SC beat KY for a 3rd time, and just 6 days after beating them in Columbia? Will Coates play?
• Mississippi State vs. Texas A&M, 7:00p ET (ESPNU). Can MSU make it 3-0 against A&M?

Pac-12 semifinals:

• Oregon State vs. UCLA, 9:00p ET (Pac-12N). These two teams split their regular-season games. Can OSU limit its turnovers this time?
  
• Stanford vs. Oregon, 11:30p ET (Pac-12N). Can the Ducks avoid a hangover after their dramatic upset win over Washington?

 

[msf22b]

Well done Plebe
Thanks for the research.

 

[eebmg]

Well, if I got this timed well, ND will pummel Louisville by halftime giving me an hour for lunch
before the UConn game.

 

[triaddukefan]

In ways these conference tournaments are tougher than the NCAAs, definitely so physically. In the ACC..Louisville will be playing its 3rd game in three days, but at least they have had a full 24 hours of recovery time before today's game. Duke's game finished up about 1015 last night..... Probably got back to the hotel after midnight.. And now have a 230 game today.

 

[FairView]

Thanks for the schedule and your insights.

 

[rugbymate]

In ways these conference tournaments are tougher than the NCAAs, definitely so physically. In the ACC..Louisville will be playing its 3rd game in three days, but at least they have had a full 24 hours of recovery time before today's game. Duke's game finished up about 1015 last night..... Probably got back to the hotel after midnight.. And now have a 230 game today.

Duke has been a pleasant surprise this year. My sense is that they are underrated. Would love to see a Duke/ND final with Duke winning. Not sure they have the depth , though, with so many games played so closely together.

 

[triaddukefan]

Duke has been a pleasant surprise this year. My sense is that they are underrated. Would love to see a Duke/ND final with Duke winning. Not sure they have the depth , though, with so many games played so closely together.

I've thought that Duke has been undervalued all season, but sometimes it's good to be under the radar

Your definitely right about the depth issue. We are OK in the front court... But we only four guards on the roster..and three of them start and play heavy heavy minutes.

 

[2Husky]

The Tulane v UCF first have was just as good as a tilt between top SEC teams. and Bob Picozzi is on the call

 

[Plebe]

There's some good WCBB discussion going on right now on ESPNU with Brooke Weisbrod and Charlie Creme.

 

[Orangutan]

This Duke-Miami game is pretty awful so far. 10-9 Duke at the end of 1. Yuck.

 

[Plebe]

This Duke-Miami game is pretty awful so far. 10-9 Duke at the end of 1. Yuck.

Took the thought right out of my head. U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi kind of ugly.

 

[Orangutan]

Now up to 23-20 *at half*. Duke won the 2nd quarter 13-11.

First to 50 wins...if the score even gets that high.

 

[Zanzman]

Miami up one with little over 700 left in game

 

[DaddyChoc]

Guess I'll order a pizza for the night games

 

[Plebe]

Wow, Lexie Brown with the stone-cold pull-up J, gets the bucket and the "and-one" to put Duke up by 4 with 30 seconds to play.

 

[Orangutan]

Duke just played a little smarter down the stretch to win. Possessions after Miami went up by 1 with less than 2:00 to go:

- Two non-shooting fouls on Brown puts Duke in the bonus. Brown makes both
- Miami shot clock violation
- Foul Brown on made jumper. 3-point play
- Missed jumper, Duke rebound. Ballgame.

 

[johnnyc]

The Dukettes win.....Coach P gettin' it done.

 

[triaddukefan]

Big Shot Lexie Brown

 

[HuskyFan1125]

Purdue leading tOSU at the half 36-31 on B1G Network.

 

[Plebe]

Upset alert: Purdue is up 36-31 at the half on Ohio State. Kelsey Mitchell is 2-for-12 and has only 7 points.

 

[tomcat]

I am planning on watching the USF-SMU game. While I usually cheer on the Bulls in a game like this one, I have now seen SMU's Alicia Froling once live and once on TV and am a fan. Se's got a really nice game, and if they let her loose tonight, SMU could win this game.

 

[Plebe]

Taylor Murray of KY is out of this game with a neck sprain suffered when she got flattened by a screen she never saw.

Kentucky, much like Tennessee and Connecticut, was already razor-thin on bench depth. Big advantage to SC.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

Purdue with back to back baskets to open 2nd half. Lead tOSU 41-31

 

[HuskyFan1125]

Murray being out actually hurts Kentucky more than Coates being out for South Carolina.

 

[Plebe]

Plenty of offense in this game. SC up 27-20 after 1Q.

I swear, as good as Alaina Coates is at what she does well, South Carolina might be a better team without her on the floor. The game just opens up and Davis, Wilson, Cuevas and Gray just have so much more room to operate.

Akhator of KY just limped off the floor with some leg injury, but KY hanging around, with lots of production from Epps.