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Notebook Hurricane duo damages Ohio's dream game
Posted: Sunday March 19, 2000 09:31 PM
By Ryan Hunt, CNNSI.com NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- So much for that "Battle of Ohio" everyone had been drooling over. Instead, a couple of Hurricanes have flooded "Bracketville." With matching upsets, Miami and Tulsa ended dreams of a Ohio State-Cincinnati showdown, which would have been the first matchup of the in-state schools since the 1962 NCAA championship game. Interestingly, the last time Miami and Tulsa met was also in 1962. "We messed up a lot of people’s brackets," Miami guard Vernon Jennings said. "I think only Miami fans had us penciled in this far. We made a lot of people upset instead of getting ourselves upset." Now it’s two teams with similar nicknames, that are fighting to earn respect and that hardly no one thought would get this far are storming into Austin. Miami had won just one NCAA tournament game (a first-round win over Lafayette in 1999) entering this season. For the Hurricanes it is the first Sweet 16 appearance in school history. For Tulsa’s Golden Hurricane, it is the third such trip in the past seven years. The winner will advance to the Elite Eight for the first time. "Once again, we are swimming in unchartered waters," Miami coach Leonard Hamilton said. "Each time we win a game, each time we take a step forward, we are making history for our program." It also will be a unexpected reunion of Leonard Hamilton and Bill Self. Self was an assistant under Hamilton for four seasons (1986-90) at Oklahoma State.
Roping ‘em inIn the offseason, Tulsa senior forward Eric Coley likes calf roping. In the postseason, he’s grown accustomed to roping in rebounds. After having only five double-digit rebounding games in the first 32 games of the season, the 6-foot-5 Coley has grabbed 11 or more boards in each of the past three. The senior forward has set career-highs in both games of the NCAA tournament, with 14 against UNLV and topping that with 16 on Sunday against Cincinnati "He’s like a lot of the guys I used to have -- 6-5 and real athletic," Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins said. "He was a tough matchup for Jermaine [Tate], but Jermaine was probably the player we had the best chance of guarding him." Even though Tulsa has only one starter taller than 6-foot-5 (6-10 center Brandon Kurtz), the Golden Hurricane outrebounded the physical Bearcats 44-39. "It was a little hard for us to adjust because they were basically playing with four guards and one big man," Tate said. "We looked at their size and underestimated them a bit."
Missed opportunityOne of Michael Redd’s easier opportunities to score turned into one of Ohio State’s toughest moments in its loss to Miami. Redd’s missed dunk with 10 seconds remaining in the first half, followed by John Salmons’ buzzer-beating 3-pointer, turned what could have been a tie score at the half into a five-point Miami lead. "That gave us a huge lift," Jennings said. "We wanted to get out of halftime real quick at the point and get to the second half because we had all the momentum." Redd, on the other hand, did not. The Buckeyes’ guard scored only two second-half points and picked up all five of his fouls in a span of 8:58. He fouled out for the first time this season and only the fourth time in his career. "What are you going to say [to Redd]? Make it next time?," Ohio State coach Jim O’Brien said. "It was one of those crazy situations that came back and hurt us."
TidbitsCincinnati shot a lower field-goal percentage than its opponent for only the sixth time this season. The Bearcats were only 3-3 in those games ... Two Miami players played all 40 minutes against Ohio State: Johnny Hemsley and Jennings .. The 13-point loss matched the Buckeyes’ worst defeat of the season. Kansas beat OSU 80-67 in December. ... The last time Tulsa beat Cincinnati was Dec. 23, 1972, 92-86 in overtime. ... Hamilton earned his 200th career victory, a win that tied Miami’s school record for wins in a season.
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