LIKE IT IS

Ohio teams rocking NCAA Tournament

— On the final day here all the talk was not simply about the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, but that this state was the undisputed, and very proud, king of college basketball this week.

Meanwhile, hometown Little Rock got great publicity on TV (somehow ESPN made the Arkansas River look like it is in Hawaii) and newspapers across the nation because of the Women’s NCAA Tournament and Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne, who helped eliminate the UALR Trojans by scoring 39 points in her team’s 73-42 victory.

Delle Donne returns to action at the Jack Stephens Center tonight at 8:30.

The real buzz up here, though, was that of the Sweet16 teams, four are from Ohio.

Two of those come from the conferences that dominate this weekend’s play with half the field, the Big Ten and the Big East, which have a total of eight teams.

It isn’t odd that the Big East always seems to be in the middle of the fight for who is the beast of college basketball. It is a conference that was formed for basketball and an upstart television network called Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

Dave Gavitt looked at ESPN and Madison Square Garden and had a vision that has grown into a reality far beyond his wildest dreams.

Without Gavitt’s leadership, the Big East tried to become a football conference, too, and it has paled in comparison to what it has accomplished in basketball.

Syracuse, Marquette and Louisville join Cincinnati of the Big East this weekend and if the Orange and Bearcats advance, they will play each other, guaranteeing the Big East a Final Four team again.

Challenging the Big East for supremacy is the Big Ten. It also has four teams in the Sweet 16 - Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana and Ohio State, the flagship university in this beautiful little state.

There are only three remaining long shots - Cinderellas if you prefer a time-tested name - No. 10 seed Xavier, a team from Cincinnati out of the Atlantic 10, No. 11-seeded Carolina State, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and No. 13-seeded Ohio from the Mid-American.

Ohio shocked the tournament with its 65-60 victory over Michigan and then crawled to 62 points, which was enough to beat Stan Heath and South Florida. Heath’s teams needed to keep opponents in the 50s to win.

Ohio got some help in getting into the 60s thanks to two five-point sequences. The first came after a technical foul against South Florida’s Victor Rudd Jr. Walter Offutt made two free throws, then a three pointer.

Heath’s Bulls moved in front 42-37 on an alley-oop dunk, but Jawanza Poland was called for hanging on the rim. Ohio’s Nick Kellogg made the free throws and then hit a game-tying three-pointer.

It would seem North Carolina drew a huge break by getting Ohio in the Sweet 16, but the Tar Heels, a No. 1 seed, might be without starting point guard Kendall Marshall, who injured his right wrist.

All four No. 1 seeds - North Carolina, Syracuse, Kentucky and Michigan State - are still alive.

The Midwest Regional in St. Louis has the two lowest remaining seeds - Ohio and North Carolina State. But if the Tar Heels beat Ohio, and they should, and Kansas beats North Carolina State, which itshould, it would be Roy Williams facing Kansas, his old team, which he said he would never leave, but did to return home.

So the BCS conferences nailed down all but two of the spots in the Sweet 16, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if all four No. 1 seeds make the championship in New Orleans.

Folks in Ohio are happy about having four teams still playing.

And most important, Arkansas and UALR got good exposure, so good the Arkansas River looked like it could be in Hawaii.

Sports, Pages 17 on 03/20/2012