WAC, Big 12 tournament results

Fresno State beat Louisiana Tech with a buzzer basket, 78-76, to take the WAC tournament.

No surprises: Brittney Griner was unstoppable in Baylor's Big 12 conference championship win over Texas A&M today. ESPN talks with Griner and Texas A&M's Danielle Adams.

Here are the NCAA tournament automatic bids, as a result of this week's action.

Brea Olinda out in the third round

Another upset tonight: Brea Olinda lost to Canyon Springs in the third round of the Southern California Division I state regional finals, 63-53.

What??

In the other semi, Mater Dei used a fourth-quarter surge to overcome Narbonne after playing neck and neck for the first three periods. IM in OC will have a report soon.

I'm really surprised by all this.

Edit at 11:50 p.m.: Mercedes Russell and her Springfield teammates won the Oregon 5A state basketball championship tonight. Wish my sophomore year had been like that.

ESPN to air entire tourney; Ryan steps down; Pac-10 semis

Every little step helps: ESPN will air the entire women's tournament.

Debbie Ryan is stepping down after 34 years as Virginia's coach.

My wrap-up of yesterday evening's Pac-10 tournament semifinals, which includes a slideshow. Championship game coverage from today coming soon.....

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke and UNCW have set a record for victories this season.

Gearing for Monday

Great feel-good piece on Green Bay's Kayla Tetschlag. And in adding 18 points in today's Horizon League semifinal, Tetschlag wasn't even the high scorer on her team.

What? The young woman accused of killing MTSU guard Tina Stewart is out of jail, on a $100,000 bond.

Semeka Randall is bringing some of the same coaching philosophies to her job in Ohio that she learned from her former coach, Pat Summitt.

Tournament showdowns are set:

Yikes - Fresno State and Louisiana Tech will face each other tomorrow in the Western Athletic Conference tournament final. Earlier this season, at Tech, words were exchanged by coaches Adrian Wiggins and Teresa Weatherspoon which were caught on video. The confrontation culminated in Wiggins telling 'Spoon to "have some class," and 'Spoon giving him a death look and then walking off to thrust her fists at the crowd. Suffice to say, there is no love lost between these two teams. I hope they have good refs tomorrow.

On the upside, Louisiana Tech has won its 1000th game.

In the Big 12, it will be Baylor vs. Texas A&M for the title tomorrow. ESPN talks to Odyssey Sims and Tyra White about the matchup.

It'll be Stanford and UCLA facing off for the Pac-10 title.

High school:

As California gears for regional finals tomorrow, ESPN provides a tip sheet for the top players.

They also provide a tip sheet for the Alabama finals.

But the biggest news around these parts could be this: Mater Dei point guard Jordan Adams dislocated her shoulder in Thursday's semis, and is questionable for tomorrow night. Wow!

In Oregon, Mercedes Russell put up 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds tonight to lead the Springfield Millers to the state 5A finals.

Pro news:

In the latest Los Angeles Sparks twist, Joe Bryant and Sandy Brondello have been hired as assistant coaches to Jennifer Gillom.

A wittle bit more news

The NAIA Division I championship bracket has been announced.

UNCW Coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, in her first year, has been named coach of the year for the Colonial Athletic Association. The guru says Coop was surprised to receive the award.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis has been named the Naismith player of the year.

They're playing who?? Pac-10 tournament upsets!

All week we've been waiting to see who would play the Pac-10's top two teams - Stanford and UCLA - in the conference tournament semifinals tomorrow. Quarterfinals were tonight and, well, the winners are not who you probably thought they would be.

California upset higher-ranked Arizona State, 48-43. As was the case last night, SoCal's own Layshia Clarendon again led the Bears - this time with 22 points. Cal seems to have finally awoken, and just in time.

Arizona beat USC, 72-61. Though the Wildcats were the higher seed, it's still somewhat of a surprise because the great season they've had has gone on quietly, without much fanfare. USC had been seeking an NCAA tournament bid this season, and those chances might be dimmed now.

Hopefully by tomorrow morning, all those ESPN folks will have corrected the fact that there is absolutely no Pac-10 tourney info on their women's basketball page. ESPN: there's more out there than the Big 12. If you can mention the Summit Confernce tournament winners, you can cover the Pac-10 a little bit.

Tomorrow Stanford will play Arizona at noon, and UCLA will face Cal at 2:30.

ESPN Rise/Gatorade high school state POY awards

What a list:

Alabama
Hayden Hamby: G/F, West Morgan (Trinity, Ala.)

Alaska
Keiahnna Engel: SG, Dimond (Anchorage, Alaska)

Arizona
Promise Amukamara: SG, Apollo (Glendale, Ariz.)

Arkansas
Calli Berna: PG, Fayetteville (Fayetteville, Ark.)

California
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis: G, Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.)

Colorado
Jamie Katuna: SG, Longmont (Longmont, Colo.)

Connecticut
Katie Mahoney: G, Bacon Academy (Colchester, Conn.)

Delaware
Betnijah Laney: F, Smyrna (Smyrna, Del.)

District of Columbia
Mooriah Rowser: G, St. John’s College High School (Washington, D.C.)

Florida
Amber Henson: F, Sickles (Tampa, Fla.)

Georgia
Diamond DeShields: G/F, Norcross (Norcross, Ga.)

Hawaii
Maiki Viela: G, Lahainaluna (Lahaina, Hawaii)

Idaho
Jackie Luna Castro: F, Boise (Boise, Idaho)

Illinois
Ariel Massengale: PG, Bolingbrook (Bolingbrook, Ill.)

Indiana
Bria Goss: G, Ben Davis (Indianapolis, Ind.)

Iowa
Kiah Stokes: C, Linn-Mar (Marion, Iowa)

Kansas
Natalie Knight: G, Olathe South (Olathe, Kan.)

Kentucky
Sara Hammond: F, Rockcastle County (Mt. Vernon, Ky.)

Louisiana
Brandi Jeffery: G, St. James (James, La.)

Maine
Niki Taylor: C/F, York (York, Maine)

Maryland
Taylor Brown: G, Bishop McNamara (Forestville, Md.)

Massachusetts
Nicole Boudreau: G, Andover (Andover, Mass.)

Michigan
Jasmine Hines: F, Central Lake (Central Lake, Mich.)

Minnesota
Rachel Banham: PG, Lakeville North (Lakeville, Minn.)

Mississippi
Krista Donald: G, Lake (Lake, Miss.)

Missouri
Shelby Winkelmann: G, Hermann (Hermann, Mo.)

Montana
Danielle Muri: G, Billings West (Billings, Mont.)

Nebraska
Alexis Akin Otiko: F/C, Bellevue West (Bellevue, Neb.)

Nevada
Amanda Delgado: G, Liberty (Henderson, Nev.)

New Hampshire
Danielle Walczak: C, Oyster River (Durham, N.H.)

New Jersey
Temi Fagbenle: F, Blair Academy (Blairstown, N.J.)

New Mexico
Justina Prairie Chief: G/F, Gallup (Gallup, N.M.)

New York
Breanna Stewart: F, Cicero-North Syracuse (Cicero, N.Y.)

North Carolina
Cierra Burdick: G/F, Butler (Matthews, N.C.)

North Dakota
Caitlin Farroh: F, Grand Forks Central (Grand Forks, N.D.)

Ohio
Ally Malott: G/F, Madison (Middletown, Ohio)

Oklahoma
Ashley Clark: PG, Midwest City (Midwest City, Okla.)

Oregon
Jen Reese: F, Clackamas (Clackamas, Ore.)

Pennsylvania
Madison Cable: G, Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Rhode Island
Kelly Mannix: G, Barrington (Barrington, R.I.)

South Carolina
Xylina McDaniel: F, Spring Valley (Columbia, S.C.)

South Dakota
Alex Kneeland: G, Summit (Summit, S.D.)

Tennessee
Shacobia Barbee: F, Riverdale (Murfreesboro, Tenn.)

Texas
Alexis Jones: PG, MacArthur (Irving, Texas)

Utah
Lexi Eaton: G, Springville (Springville, Utah)

Vermont
Kylie Atwood: G, Lake Region Union (Orleans, Vt.)

Virginia
Elizabeth Williams: C, Princess Anne (Virginia Beach, Va.)

Washington
Erika Johnson: G/F, Holy Names Academy (Seattle, Wash.)

West Virginia
Mariah Byard: PG, North Marion (Farmington, W.Va.)

Wisconsin
Samantha Logic: G/F, Case (Racine, Wis.)

Wyoming
Jordan Kelley: PG, Campbell County (Gillette, Wyo.)

So much madness

Big 12 quarterfinals day:

Hoopfeed has a Big 12 tournament blog, and in this entry she talks about Melissa Jones setting the tempo against Kansas. Jones is wearing glasses after sustaining an injury a couple weeks ago. Much admiration for her.

ESPN has some good Big 12 videos and pictures.

Mechelle Voepel interviews Whitney Hand of Oklahoma and Texas A&M's Sydney Colson.

Pac-10 results on opening day:

Arizona State beat Oregon State by a mere six points, 50-44.

Arizona held off a mighty Oregon comeback to pull off a 90-89 win. Perhaps that's why the Wildcats are "in the conversation" again.

USC beat Washington State 77-66.

Cal finally got it together and put away Washington, 58-48. San Bernardino's own Layshia Clarendon lead the Bears with 16 points.

Stanford and UCLA, first and second in the conference, don't play until Friday. The Pac-10 site has a nice story on Bruin Coach Nikki Caldwell, in the meantime.

More NCAA:

Could the Big East really get ten teams in the NCAA tournament?

Geno Auriemma's bench has him worried about officiating.

Cal Coach Joanne Boyle has been given the 2011 Carol Eckman Award, for "spirit, integrity and character through sportsmanship, commitment to the student-athlete, honesty, ethical behavior, courage and dedication to purpose," by the WBCA.

Stanford is discontinuing "easy" classes for athletes. I didn't know they offered easy classes at Stanford.

Junior colleges:

The national tournament starts next week in Kansas.

USA Basketball:

Wanna try out for the U16 team?

Eye on Mercedes Russell

I got back from my run this morning to find that my dad had called and left me a message. I am old enough now that we do call each other early in the morning sometimes, but I still couldn't guess what this voicemail could be about.

"Hey babe," he said. "Check out the Guard today - there's a story about a Springfield player who's only a SOPHOMORE that is attracting attention from colleges all over the country. She's 6-5 and will probably grow to 6-9!"

Bless his heart. Always watching out for my hoopheaded ass. And he's brought Mercedes Russell to my attention:

At 15, she’s 6-foot-5, with growth plates the doctors say haven’t closed yet, and with skills that resemble the point guard she was back in grade school, before the big growth spurt.

Which is why the Millers’ games have become must-see events, at least to those coaches from schools like Tennessee and Stanford.

And sure, Oregon. Russell’s first recruiting letter came from the Ducks, more than a year ago now.

“It was cool,” she says.

Now, she’s got stacks of letters from everywhere. Tennessee keeps reminding her how much the Lady Vols like her. Connecticut, Duke and Kentucky asked for this week’s tournament schedule.

“It’s still cool,” she says.

But Mercedes seems unfazed by it all. Just like during games, when she’s the focus of opponents — sometimes, it seems she’s the focus of every opponent on the floor.

No matter what, her coach and teammates say, her demeanor never changes.

“She never gets flustered,” Springfield coach Bill Wagner says.

She comes home banged up and sore, completely exhausted. And sometimes, she quietly smiles.

“That’s the most you’ll get out of Mercedes,” says her mom, Tammy Hill. “Once in a while.”

A mature 15-year-old? Interesting. Tennessee, UConn and Duke? Very nice.

Springfield Coach Bill Wagner isn't worried about his team of mostly underclasswomen, led by Russell, going into tomorrow's state tourney.

Part of the reason is they're 24-2 on the season and 13-1 in league. But Wagner appears to be one of those coaches who takes down all player numbers before the playoffs (GRRR!!), so Russell's stats aren't available. She's the only one on Springfield's maxpreps roster, in fact. There really isn't much out yet on this girl, but I found a telling piece from last week's playoff game: 36 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks for the youngsta.

I am keeping her on my radar now.

More tourneys, and WNBA gearing up

UConn won the Big East tournament. And even though the conference is arguably the nation's strongest, their win is no big surprise. They beat Notre Dame 73-64 to take their fourth consecutive title.

South Dakota state beat Oakland and took the Summit league championship for the third time in a row.

Arkansas-Little Rock beat Western Kentucky to grab the Sun Belt Conference title.

Coaching changes:

Cathy Andruzzi has resigned as Fordham's head coach, "to pursue other interests."

WNBA:

The new WNBA president will have a background in business, league officials say. But if they don't want to put someone in place until early June, maybe they don't really need one. Let's save the salary and raise the player limit on each team instead.

The league has much planned for its fifteenth season this year.

Australian superstar Liz Cambage will enter the WNBA draft this year.