Temple, under gambling probe, playing for tourney’s last spot
Temple and UAB are playing for the last spot in March Madness, a week after the famed Philadelphia school acknowledged it’s looking into possible gambling irregularities involving the basketball program.
The Owls and Blazers are fighting for the American Athletic Conference title and the league’s automatic bid in a game that’ll end at about 5 p.m. EDT.
The nation’s final contest today, the Big Ten’s title game between Wisconsin and Illinois, will probably end closer to 5:30 p.m. but the loser here is a shoo-in for an at-large bid.
Kent State coach backing player after brutal mistake
The sun appeared over northeast Ohio at 7:33 a.m. EDT today just as Kent State coach Rob Senderoff predicted, in hopes Earth’s rotation brings solace to his heartbroken team.
The Golden Flashes were on the verge of winning the MAC championships and the league’s automatic bid after Cli’Ron Hornbeak’s putback gave Kent State a 61-60 lead over rival Akron with 6.2 seconds left.
That’s when Hornbeak’s teammate Julius Rollins shocked everyone inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland by intentionally fouling Akron’s Greg Tribble as the Kent State player believed his team was behind and needed to stop the clock. Instead, Tribble made two free throws and sent the Zips dancing.
“The thing that I told him [Rollins] … if it’s the worst thing that ever happens to you when you’re 50 years old like I am, [then] you’ve live a pretty, pretty charmed life,” Senderoff told reporters. “Tomorrow the sun will come up. It will be a little cloudy for me and for our guys, but the sun will come up tomorrow.”
