NCAA Tournament 2012: Duke, Michigan, Missouri All Fall On Second Day

Kansas moves on to face Purdue, who pulled off a minor upset over Saint Mary’s earlier in the day.

For up-to-the-minute scores on all NCAA Tournament games, please check out SI.com’s complete scoreboard.

USF began its game against Temple in the 2012 NCAA Tournament’s round of 64 with shooting about as cold as the event has ever seen. But the Bulls got hot in the second half and scorched the Owls for a 58-44 win.

Victor Rudd Jr. led USF’s second-half onslaught and finished with 17 points and seven rebounds. Anthony Collins joined him in double figures with 17 points of his own. USF had just 15 points in the first half, but came out cooking in the second, scoring 21 points in a stretch of just more than five minutes and keeping the Owls at bay for the duration.

Xavier did everything they could to throw the game away, but Notre Dame’s late mistakes were even worse. They quite literally ‘threw’ the game away.

Atkins wouldn’t have a chance to make the free throws and force overtime. On the front end of the one-and-one, Notre Dame was called for a lane violation, which turned the ball back over to Xavier. Much like Thursday’s crucial lane violation call in the Syracuse - UNC Asheville game, it was technically correct. Also much like that call, the officials were nitpicking and chose to blow the whistle on something that happens on nearly every free throw attempt.

I’m not sure I’d ever seen this called before Thursday. So imagine my surprise when, on Friday, a lane violation was called on the man behind the free throw shooter. Again. For the second day in a row, in a close game.

This time it was Notre Dame falling victim to the dreaded lane violation. The player behind the shooter -- a shooter who made the shot, no less -- cross the three-point line and free throw line extended too early, before the ball hit the rim. And thus, the basket didn’t count and the ball was awarded to Xavier.

Notre Dame is one of the best teams in the nation at not turning the ball over. The Fighting Irish just don’t turn it over very frequently, so one would expect them to be secure with the ball late in the game.

LOLNOPE

This looked real bad for a moment, but thankfully Andrew Walker got up and walked away. Well, stumbled away, looking dazed and confused. It seems likely he suffered a concussion, hitting the deck after taking a hard chop to the face from one of his Xavier teammates.

And the result.

Well, we can probably cross a couple names off the list of potential -- and this is really a stretch -- candidates for the vacant Portland Trail Blazers head coaching job. Someone asked all the remaining coaches in the Portland pod of the NCAA Tournament whether they’d be interested in the job, and a couple answers -- notably Tom Crean’s and Rick Pitino’s -- were superb.

↵From the AP:

Green became the third player to record multiple NCAA Tournament triple-doubles, joining some guys named Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson, with his 24-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist performance.

His last assist was the sort of nifty pass one does not expect a large, plodding forward to make:

Purdue led almost wire-to-wire in its 72-69 win over Saint Mary’s in the Second Round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament. But the Boilermakers had to hang on late to get their ticket to the weekend.

The Boilermakers advance to play the winner of Kansas-Detroit.

For up-to-the-minute scores on all NCAA Tournament games, please check out SI.com’s complete scoreboard.

For more on the 2012 NCAA Tournament bracket, stay with SB Nation’s Selection Sunday StoryStream, and stick around SB Nation’s NCAA Tournament hub for a complete printable NCAA Tournament bracket and tons of analysis on who was snubbed, who got the best bracket, and who will make it all the way to New Orleans and the Final Four.

You thought Texas’ 11-point first half was bad? Temple and USF combined for 34 points on the same court in Nashville on Friday night in the first half of their Second Round game. No. 5 Temple holds a 19-15 lead on No. 12 USF.

The box score for this one is more like an actuarial table, given how grim the numbers are:

For up-to-the-minute scores on all NCAA Tournament games, please check out SI.com’s complete scoreboard.

For more on the 2012 NCAA Tournament bracket, stay with SB Nation’s Selection Sunday StoryStream, and stick around SB Nation’s NCAA Tournament hub for a complete printable NCAA Tournament bracket and tons of analysis on who was snubbed, who got the best bracket, and who will make it all the way to New Orleans and the Final Four.

Few expected the Long Island Blackbirds to truly push Michigan State in the final No. 1 vs. No. 16 matchup of the 2012 NCAA Tournament. But push the Blackbirds have, trailing just 42-37 at the half.

For up-to-the-minute scores on all NCAA Tournament games, please check out SI.com’s complete scoreboard.

A few of his highlights are after the jump. Here’s hoping he breaks a backboard soon.

And an open-court jam:

It’s technically against NCAA rules for “student-athletes” to fill out NCAA Tournament brackets, but I have to think Ohio’s Bobcats will end up getting a pass for filling out this one.

For up-to-the-minute scores on all NCAA Tournament games, please check out SI.com’s complete scoreboard.

No slip-ups in that spot, no siree-bob. Izzo’s makin’ damn sure of that. Don’t want to become another statistic today, no sir.

For up-to-the-minute scores on all NCAA Tournament games, please check out SI.com’s complete scoreboard.

So far, the award for best March Madness video goes to Norfolk State. And it isn’t even close. The Spartans had a camera inside their watch party on campus, and the results were the best. Watching the students go completely nuts as the Spartans beat Missouri is easily the best thing you’ll see today.

Be careful with the volume, though. At about the 13 second mark, it sounds like a bomb of joy and celebration goes off in the student center. It was that loud.

Duke’s loss to Lehigh in the 2012 NCAA Tournament was not necessarily “one of the all-time shockers” -- heck, Missouri’s loss to Norfolk State hours earlier may have been more shocking -- but it may set new records on the Internet Schadenfreude Meter. Just look at this Dukie.

You don’t think there’s more? You must not know us.

America; this is C.J. McCollum, take a moment and introduce yourself, C.J..

That’s essentially what’s going to be asked of Lehigh’s star guard for the next two days.

The Bobcats were able to build their lead because Michigan couldn’t stop D.J. Cooper from getting to the rim, and he was finishing brilliantly while setting up his teammates.He finished with 21 points, five assists and was 7-11 from the field. He was doing whatever he wanted on Big Ten Freshman of the Year Trey Burke, and led the Bobcats to a wire-to-wire victory.

The Wolverines were simply ice cold all game long. John Beilein’s offense is predicated on deep shooting — the Wolverines led the Big Ten in three-pointers — and when they go cold, bad things happen. They struggled all season on the road, and playing on a neutral court seemed ominous from the beginning. The Wolverines led just once in the game, at 9-7.

It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win, as Saint Louis has advanced in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998.

Down six midway through the second half, the Billikens recovered with a prodding offense to down Memphis 61-54.

For up-to-the-minute scores on all NCAA Tournament games, please check out SI.com’s complete scoreboard.

For more on the 2012 NCAA Tournament bracket, stay with SB Nation’s Friday StoryStream, and stick around SB Nation’s NCAA Tournament hub for a complete printable NCAA Tournament bracket and tons of analysis on who was snubbed, who got the best bracket, and who will make it all the way to New Orleans and the Final Four.

Duke leads 30-28 at halftime, and they spent most of the first half trailing. They’ve been terrible from distance so far, and as is normally the case with Duke, they can’t score when they can’t shoot threes.

CJ McCollum probably has the best highlight so far with this crossover and baseline jumper.

And the reaction:

For up-to-the-minute scores on all NCAA Tournament games, please check out SI.com’s complete scoreboard.

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↵He’s also a pretty swell interview, too.