Archive - Feb 2012 - News / NCAA Daily

The Providence Friars might have put a pin in UConn's NCAA tournament bubble after their 72-70 win at the Dunkin Donuts Center. The home team Friars rallied back from a 14 point deficit with 12:30 remaining, using a 19-2 run to take the lead for good. Bryce Cotton and LaDontae Henton made 5 three pointers apiece for the Friars, finishing with 22 points and 18 points respectively.

Around this time of year, you usually have three types of teams in accordance to the NCAA tournament. The first group is full of the mortal locks, which usually includes most teams in the top 25 right about now and those who did well in both non-conference and conference play. The second group is filled with teams with losing records or barely winning records with RPI's that do not warrant tourney consideration. The third group is full of the teams that are described as being "on the bubble" of a tournament bid.

Kentucky has hung on to the #1 ranking in the nation, with a player who many deem to be the likely #1 pick in the 2012 Draft. In an 83-74 Kentucky victory over Vanderbilt, Anthony Davis had a performance that could only be described as dominant. Scoring a career high 28 points (10-11 FG, 8-9 FT) to go with 10 rebounds and 6 blocked shots, it seemed Vanderbilt could do nothing to slow the freshman big man down. Displaying his usual skill for scoring around the basket, Davis also showed excellent form and touch on some jumpers that hit all net.

Thomas Robinson

With a previous victory over Kansas and a 19 point lead with just over 16 minutes remaining, Missouri had to feel they had a good chance of breaking the dominant force of the Big 12. Instead, Kansas was fuelled by the Allen Fieldhouse crowd to go on a monumental comeback and take the game 87-86 in overtime. Thomas Robinson scored 28 and had 12 rebounds to remain at the forefront of any National Player of the Year discussions with Kentucky's Anthony Davis.

It was 41-28 in a half that saw Kentucky with their greatest deficit this season and Mississippi State PG Dee Bost controlling the game. After halftime, freshman Mike Kidd-Gilchrist was given the assignment to stop Bost. Like he has done in the past big games for #1 Kentucky, he performed brilliantly. Kidd-Gilchrist finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, with Bost only scoring 5 points in the second half. Kentucky ended up winning the game 73-64.