ESPN Men's Basketball

MORAGA, Calif. -- Tradition has it that Saint Mary’s sweats it out on Selection Sunday. Two seasons ago, it took the drama out of it by winning the West Coast Conference tournament, and the Gaels made it all the way to the Sweet 16. Last season, despite racking up 25 wins and a share of the WCC regular-season title with Gonzaga, the Gaels got snubbed.

So before Saint Mary’s faced its first difficult test of the season, against Northern Iowa, and came through with a convincing 57-41 win at McKeon Pavilion, Gaels coach Randy Bennett reminded his squad that games in early November can have significant meaning.

“It’s one of those résumé-building wins come March,” Saint Mary’s guard Stephen Holt said, noting that the sting from being bypassed remains on the Gaels’ minds. “Coach hit on it in the locker room. It’s important to use that as motivation.”

Saint Mary’s responded by holding Northern Iowa to 13 first-half points and a 27 percent field goal percentage for the game. Top Panthers scorer Anthony James was limited to two points on 1-for-15 shooting.

The offensive woes Northern Iowa faced stunned a team that was coming off a 17-point road win against Old Dominion but didn’t necessarily surprise coach Ben Jacobson, given the quality of opponent the Panthers were facing.

“Saint Mary’s is very good defensively,” Jacobson said. “They’re physical and had a good plan. They made things harder for us.”

At one point, the Gaels led by 28 points after hitting five 3-pointers during a game-deciding 17-2 run in the second half. Matthew Dellavedova, who has taken over ball-handling duties after the team lost WCC player of the year Mickey McConnell, appeared very comfortable while scoring 11 points and dishing out seven assists. Holt, a sophomore who joins Dellavedova in the backcourt, came away with 10 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Forward Rob Jones added 10 points and 10 rebounds while providing a strong defensive presence.

“We were ready because we knew this was a good team -- one of the best mid-major programs in the country,” Bennett said. “You need to get these. We only get so many cracks at teams like that.”

Saint Mary’s has a possible home game against Big Sky preseason favorite Weber State, a trip to Las Vegas to take on Baylor and Missouri State, and a BracketBusters game in February as its opportunities to state its case for an at-large bid come March.

So while the limited offensive production might have put television viewers to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, Bennett could only smile at the sight of the scoreboard at halftime and go to bed satisfied that the Gaels managed to take down a team expected to contend for the Missouri Valley Conference title.

Even at this stage of the season, they weren’t shy about recognizing the win’s importance.

“It’s pretty big,” Holt said.

Sixty-four head coaches are set to participate in Shots from the Heart, a season-long free throw shooting contest complete with an NCAA tournament-style bracket that raises awareness for the fight against heart disease and honors the memory of Skip Prosser, the Wake Forest coach who died of a heart attack in 2007.

Beginning this month, the coaches once a month will shoot 25 foul shots with a staff member at each campus tallying up the results. Bragging rights will be involved, of course, given the 64-coach format.

In a nod to the NCAA tournament-style event, an intriguing first-round match-up features Kansas coach Bill Self getting a chance to get a form of revenge against Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson, whose team stunned the top-ranked Jayhawks last March.

New Mexico's Steve Alford, Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon, Minnesota's Tubby Smith and Butler's Brad Stevens are also among those scheduled to participate, as is Arizona coach Sean Miller, who finished his career at Pitt as one of the top free throw shooters in NCAA Division I history at 88.5 percent.

"I'm really looking forward to participating in this event, not just to raise awareness for the battle against heart disease, but to honor the memory of Skip Prosser," Miller said in a statement. "He and I share a connection as former coaches at Xavier, and I have a great deal of respect for him. I was honored to be invited and am definitely willing to help in this cause."

The contest is being administered by collegeinsider.com, and to avoid ties, the first 20 shots are worth a point each, the next four are worth two points and the final shot is worth three.

Sixty-four assistant coaches, including Wofford's Mark Prosser, Skip's son, are also participating in a separate contest.

John Wall has been nominated for the ESPY Awards for Best Male College Athlete and Best Breakthrough Athlete, but the former Kentucky star won't be rubbing shoulders with the other celebrities Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

According to the Washington Post, Wall has decided to skip the event due to scheduling conflicts -- including a meeting for NBA rookies.

But that doesn't mean college basketball won't be well represented at the event.

Butler should have a presence in anticipation of the Duke-Butler NCAA tournament championship game winning the award for Best Game.

Butler coach Brad Stevens, forward Matt Howard and former star Gordon Hayward are expected to be in attendance.

And Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson, along with former players Ali Farokhmanesh and Jordan Eglseder, also hope to take the stage and win the award for Best Upset. After beating Kansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament, it would probably be an upset if they didn't.

No, Lucas O'Rear -- he of the menacing sideburns and effective post play during Northern Iowa's Sweet 16 run in the 2010 NCAA tournament -- was not drafted to the NBA. Two realities prevented this occurrence: One, the NBA draft hasn't happened yet. And two, even if it had, there is no way an NBA team would have used one of its two draft picks on the stocky 6-foot-6 forward from Nashville, Ill.

But O'Rear is a man of many talents, and among them, apparently, is baseball. O'Rear was a right-handed pitcher for UNI's now-defunct baseball team. On Monday night, he got a surprise: The Cincinnati Reds had chosen him in the 13th round of the 2010 Major League Baseball draft.

That he was drafted wasn't the surprise; most expected O'Rear to come off the draft board eventually, most likely after round 50, because baseball has a gazillion rounds in its draft, many of which produce players who never catch a whiff of professional baseball.

The surprise was how high O'Rear was drafted. Round No. 13 approaches legitimate "I should think about a baseball career" territory, which is what O'Rear must now do. On Tuesday, O'Rear told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier that there's a "high likelihood" he'll return for his senior year at UNI, but that he has to consult with his father and UNI head coach Ben Jacobson before making a decision.

I've never seen O'Rear pitch the baseball, but I have seen him -- 6-foot-6, 240 pounds, with sideburns to make Grizzly Adams blush. If only there was a sabermetric projection for intimidating mound presence. (Knowing sabermetrics, there probably is.)

ST. LOUIS -- Quick previews of the Sweet 16 games here tonight:

Tennessee-Ohio State storylines

• How will J.P. Prince do checking Evan Turner? That’s the marquee individual matchup in a rematch of a thrilling Sweet 16 game three years ago between the Volunteers and Buckeyes. At 6-foot-7, Prince has the length to hinder Turner's passing lanes and shooting looks -- but does he have the mentality for the matchup? Prince has been an up-and-down, hot-and-cold player for four years -- but he played great in the first two rounds of the tourney, averaging 16 points and playing excellent defense against San Diego State and Ohio. But this is Ohio STATE, not Ohio.

• Turner gets the attention for Ohio State -- but that helps guard Jon Diebler get the open shots, and he's been killing it lately. Diebler has made 29 of 61 3-point shots the last six games, and is averaging 21 ppg over the past three games. Diebler's scoring has become progressively more important to Ohio State as the season has gone along. He's scored in double figures in 10 of the Buckeyes' last 11 games, and their record in that time is 10-1.

“Diebler is a guy that you have to respect,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. “You have to fear. If he can see it, he can make it. So you’ve got to know where he is on the floor.”

• Will Tennessee be able to force a tempo that wears down the Buckeyes? Ohio State has played a very short rotation all season -- essentially just six guys -- and the Volunteers prefer to play at a frantic pace. Ohio State’s core group of players obviously is in great shape, but this could be their most difficult stamina challenge.

Northern Iowa-Michigan State storylines

• Northern Iowa's team got a congratulatory phone call from UNI alum Kurt Warner after beating Kansas. Both Warner and the Panthers know a thing or two about success in St. Louis. UNI has won six straight games here in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament over the last two years, and Warner was the quarterback who led the Rams to their only Super Bowl victory.

“When I got that call and passed it along to the guys, they lit up about as much as they did following that basketball game,” coach Ben Jacobson said. “I mean, it had a real impact on our guys.”

• Is Michigan State now an underdog against Northern Iowa, without leading scorer Kalin Lucas, who will miss the rest of the season with a torn Achilles tendon? If so, that's fine with the Spartans. Said forward Draymond Green: "I'm pretty sure if Kalin was in this game we wouldn't be the underdog. But with Kalin going down, a lot of people think we can't do it. And we know we can. So we're going to come out and play like it."

• Both the Spartans and Panthers are well-versed in playing physical, half-court basketball. But Michigan State has traditionally had an underrated fast break, and that concerns a UNI team that much prefers a slower pace.

“The biggest thing will be to stop their initial break,” guard Ali Farokhmanesh said. “That’s what they’re really good at. They get into their sets quick. And they get the ball off the rim and go. So we’re definitely going to have to be ready on the defensive end to get back in transition and be ready to block them off and set up a wall.”

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Northern Iowa 69, Kansas 67.

• Yes, you read that right. Someone other than the Jayhawks will win this tournament.

• Northern Iowa controlled this game from start to finish but needed some unbelievable heroics to pull it out in the end. Ali Farokhmanesh, hero of March, did it again. After hitting the 3 that beat UNLV on Thursday, he hit another one -- and a questionable shot it was -- with 35 seconds left for a four-point UNI lead, then made two free throws to clinch it.

• Northern Iowa epitomized team, getting something from everyone it played. Ben Jacobson, coaching star of March, regularly plays 10 men and it paid off brilliantly in this game. So many Panthers stepped up and made huge plays.

• For Kansas, it is a gruesome underachievement. The solid favorite to win the national title doesn't even make the Sweet Sixteen. Bill Self has his title, but also now another crashing NCAA tourney disappointment. Kansas has now lost in the second round three times as a No. 1 seed, most of any school.

UNI coach Ben Jacobson is drawing heat from all sides today. The reason? Jordan Eglseder.

Eglseder is Northern Iowa's 7-foot center and second leading scorer. He's also, unfortunately, in some trouble. Mere hours after UNI's loss to Bradley Saturday, Eglseder was pulled over and charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. As punishment, Jacobson suspended Eglseder for ... three whole games. Harsh, dude. Harsh.

This rather lenient punishment happened for obvious reasons -- UNI can't afford to lose any more league games and stay on the right side of the bubble, and the Panthers desperately need Eglseder to make sure that doesn't happen. Losing Eglseder for the rest of the season or the NCAA tournament would be dire for UNI's chances to make waves in March.

Of course, that's also a somewhat cynical approach. From College Hoops Journal's Matt Norlander:

Eglseder is a key player for the Panthers. He accounts for more than 12 points and nearly eight rebounds per game. He’s a 7-foot lug in a conference and a sport that lacks them. Northern Iowa is on the bubble right now, and with another two losses, it would likely mutate from an at-large candidate to a sure-fire NIT squad. Making The Tournament would be an economic boost to the school. So with that in mind, it seems, at this hour, that head coach Ben Jacobson is content with the perception that he goes easy on his players when they break the law. Three games is weak, I don’t care how thin your bench is.

[...] That’s version 24 out of How to React to Controversy coach’s handbook, I believe. The games Eglseder is schedule to miss: Creighton, Old Dominion and Evansville. ODU is noteworthy because it’s the BracketBusters game. I wish Jacobson would send a message and pine the kid until the conference tournament at least. Creighton and Evansville would struggle to beat UNI this year even if the Panthers only played four guys.

Norlander isn't the only person making this case; Andy Katz's first tweet on the subject was met with the same reaction. Most people are comparing Elgseder's punishment to Brady Morningstar's, the Kansas guard who was arrested for a DUI in the fall and suspended for an entire semester. There are a couple of pertinent differences there -- Kansas is super-deep, the fall semester isn't nearly as crucial as UNI's stretch run and Morningstar had previously been involved in a fight on Kansas' campus between football players and the basketball team.

Still, the general concern is the same, and critics of Jacobson have a point here. Eglseder's punishment is lenient. It's driven less by educational concerns than by the desire to get a star player back on the court as quickly as possible. For all of college basketball's highfalutin rhetoric about student-athletes and academia, the core of the sport is no more noble than any other.

Doug Gottlieb speaks with Gonzaga's Mark Few about his team and how impressed he is with Syracuse. Plus, Northern Iowa's Ben Jacobson talks about mid-major basketball and Evan Daniels discusses recruits.