News, Notes From NCAA Tournament Sites – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 15, 2002
By The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Missouri star Kareem Rush spent a sleepless night, and not because he was worrying about Ohio State.
He was busy taking care of his bloody lip.
Rush needed 21 stitches to close a cut that came during Thursday’s win over Miami. He went for a fake, then was hit by an inadvertent elbow as James Jones jumped to shoot.
“I went to the hotel and iced my lip. It didn’t help,” Rush said Friday. “It’s still pretty big, and I came to practice today. It’s not a big deal.
“It’s just a little busted lip. It’s there, but as long as I don’t think about it, I’ll be fine. Like last year I had a broken hand and once I got it out of my mind, I just kept on playing.”
Rush, also slowed by a strained neck that forced him to get X-rays during the first-round victory, finished with 15 points against Miami. He averaged 20 points this season for the Tigers, who play fourth-seeded Ohio State in the second round at the West Regional on Saturday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser has been known to drop a Lithuanian word or two into casual conversation.
It’s Prosser’s way of trying to narrow the language gap with two of his players, senior Darius Songaila and freshman Vytas Danelius. They’re Lithuanian.
Prosser can pronounce 10 or 12 words, including “pasitikejimas,” which means “confidence.”
“He’s a funny guy. He tries to learn some Lithuanian,” Songaila said. “He uses it all the time. I don’t think it helps, but it shows he cares about you as a person.”
Songaila has lived in the United States for five years and speaks English well. Danelius has been in the country for two years and is still getting comfortable with English.
“Vytas doesn’t know a lot of things,” Songaila said. “He’s still young. I know my way around and I try to show him.”
Prosser, in his first season at Wake Forest, has had few foreign-born players.
“I think my Lithuanian probably isn’t as good as his English,” he said, referring to Songaila. “Those two guys are really a delight to coach.”
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) – The recruiting of Kent State leading scorer Trevor Huffman has become the stuff of legend around campus.
Kent’s scholarship off was the only one Huffman received, and even that was conditional.
“They were waiting on some Russian guy,” Huffman said Friday at the South Regional. “It looked like I was going to have go to a junior college.”
His mother, Jennifer, tried to offer support.
“She told me, ‘Honey, it’s fine, you’re not that good,”‘ Huffman said.
Huffman says she has since learned otherwise. Her son is averaging 16.1 points, helping the 10th-seeded Golden Flashes (28-5) advance to meet No. 2 Alabama (27-7) in the second round.
Huffman’s mother is “not really a basketball connoisseur,” he explained. “I just taught her what top of the key was the other day.”
No one had to explain Huffman’s skill to Alabama coach Mark Gottfried.
“If you put a Florida jersey on him, he’s bigger and stronger than (Gators guard) Brett Nelson. He shoots the ball as good, too.”
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Coach Steve McClain’s strategy for luring recruits to play at Wyoming is simple and straightforward.
“If you want a good education and you’re serious about basketball, come to Wyoming,” he said Friday, a day before his 11th-seeded Cowboys played Arizona in the second round of the NCAA tournament. “If you need other things, don’t come.”
“I’m not trying to convince a kid that if they come to Laramie, it’s big city-life,” he said. “There aren’t 20 clubs to go to.”
Instead, McClain said recruits that visit the school go out to a restaurant where mounted deer heads hang on the wall.
“We don’t try to hide anything,” he said. “I tell the kids that if a school rolls out the red carpet for you, you better look under the carpet to see what’s there.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – North Carolina Wilmington’s Brett Blizzard is having the last laugh on Florida State.
The Tallahassee, Fla., native wasn’t recruited by his hometown college, which fired coach Steve Robinson on Monday after four consecutive losing seasons.
“It was a situation where they weren’t ready to offer me a scholarship. They wanted me to wait a year and walk on,” Blizzard said Friday. “They thought I’d do whatever I had to do to go to Florida State. I’d worked hard and felt like I deserved a scholarship.”
So Blizzard went to Wilmington, and now he and the 13th-seeded Seahawks (23-9) play fifth-seeded Indiana (21-11) in the second round of the South Regional on Saturday.
The Seahawks stunned fourth-seeded Southern California 93-89 in overtime Thursday.
“Coach (Jerry) Wainwright was there from the start and he was honest with me,” Blizzard said. “He told me I’d be able to make an impact at Wilmington.”
Blizzard unintentionally played a role in Robinson’s firing. Florida State boosters were annoyed that he got away and became the Colonial Athletic Association player of the year.
“Without question, he’s become our standard-bearer,” Wainwright said. “He hangs up his ego before he gets involved in practice. He’s really helped attract good players.”
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) – Coach Mark Gottfried could have rebuilt second-seeded Alabama slowly. But he didn’t want to wait that long.
Gottfried, the Crimson Tide’s fourth-year coach, chose to play several youngsters his first two seasons to see what they could do.
“Our talent wasn’t very good,” Gottfried recalled. “We signed a bunch of freshmen, the guys who are now juniors, made the decision to play early, wanted them to grow with the program.”
Grow they have.
Erwin Dudley was the Southeastern Conference’s player of the year. Rod Grizzard averages about 15 points. Terrance Mead and Kenny Walker are also key contributors for a team back in the NCAA tournament for the first time in seven years.
Alabama hasn’t been past the second round since 1991. They get that chance against 10th-seeded Kent State in South Regional action on Saturday.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Tulsa assistant coach Alvin “Pooh” Richardson was the Golden Hurricane’s point guard nine years ago when then-coach Tubby Smith took the school to the NCAA’s round of 16.
Richardson and Smith, now at Kentucky, joked about how big the coach’s eyes got when he was angry, especially on turnovers.
“I had those eyes bulging out at me on many occasions,” Richardson said Saturday. “I didn’t want him yelling at me. I didn’t want those eyes bulging at me. I didn’t try to ever turn the ball over. It worked, too.”
Richardson said Smith told him he’s glad the Golden Hurricanes are doing well.
“I think he gets so excited about Tulsa because it’s the spot that put him on the map,” Richardson said. “It gave him an opportunity. He ran with it. Once he got the opportunity, he got it done. He does have a soft spot in his heart for Tulsa.”
Kentucky, seeded fourth in the East Regional, plays No. 12 Tulsa on Saturday in the second round.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – North Carolina Wilmington coach Jerry Wainwright’s low-key attitude and deadpan humor are playing to receptive reporters in Sacramento.
Wainwright showed up a day after his team upset fourth-seeded Southern California in overtime and said he wasn’t caught off-guard by having to stay in town through Saturday for the second round.
“Contrary to public opinion, I did pack enough clothes,” he said. “My wife is on an incredible buying spree right now.”
