Wildcats lifted by Vandy man
Northwestern earns historic win after gift foul from Fisher-Davis
At Northwestern, the party goes on.
At Vanderbilt, there is only one question: What was he thinking?
Northwestern’s first NCAA tournament victory over Vanderbilt, came after Commodores guard Matthew Fisher-Davis inexplicably grabbed Bryant McIntosh of the Wildcats on purpose, sending McIntosh to the free throw line for the go-ahead points with 15 seconds left.
“I actually thought we were down one,” Fisher-Davis explained after Thursday’s heartbreaker in the West region. “Coach ... pointed at him, but he was just telling me that was my matchup. I took it as (I should) foul. It was just a dumb-ass foul.”
And though Fisher-Davis scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half to help Vandy rally from 15 points down, his mistake was the main takeaway from this game — maybe not as bad as Chris Webber calling a timeout that Michigan didn’t have or Georgetown’s Fred Brown throwing the pass to James Worthy of North Carolina in the final, but a blunder nonetheless.
“An honest mistake,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins called it. “You feel bad for players. He was tremendous today. Certainly, I was surprised.” Ball unfazed by dad: UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball dribbled around the court at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center in preparation for his team’s opening game of the NCAA tournament.
With nearly every shot he took, fans yelled out: “You’re better than Steph!”
This has become Ball’s world since his father, LaVar, proclaimed the talented freshman better than NBA MVP Steph Curry.
Ball took the comments in stride and went about his business, just as he has with each of his father’s increasingly-audacious statements.
“He’s been like that my whole life. It’s nothing new to me,” he said. “He’s got a camera in front of his face now so y’all are seeing it for the first time. He’s never going to change for the cameras. He’s been the same his whole life.”
Hoosier canned: Indiana coach Tom Crean has been fired. Crean won two Big Ten regular-season cham- pionships but went 18-16 this season and missed the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in nine years. Crean went 166-135 at Indiana.
Alford-Indiana: UCLA coach Steve Alford spent a few minutes responding to questions about the Indiana coaching vacancy. One thing Alford didn’t say, that he wasn’t interested in returning to the school he led to the 1987 national title. “Obviously, that was 30 years ago,” said Alford, whose Bruins open the NCAA tournament against Kent State in Sacramento. “I was a part of that. I stood on stage with a great group of guys and won a national championship. It’s my home state. I played there.” Alford has three more seasons left on the seven-year contract he signed in 2013, which pays him a base salary of $2.6 million a year. Hurley back in Sacra
mento: Dan Hurley’s last visit to Sacramento came in 1993, when big brother Bobby — the former Duke star and then-NBA rookie with the Kings — fought for his life after a frightening car accident that the entire, close-knit basketball family realizes could have been far worse. Even fatal.
Bobby Hurley was lucky. He knows it. His brother knows it.
Now, the Hurleys will reconvene in in far happier times: Dan Hurley’s Rhode Island team is playing Creighton.