ESPN Men's Basketball

1. Being on the NCAA tournament selection committee has become a bad omen for athletic directors or commissioners keeping their jobs, with a third member losing his day job while on the committee. Last year, Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe was fired and had to step away from the committee; he was ultimately replaced by Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione. Then, UConn athletic director and chair Jeff Hathaway was forced to “retire.” He had to take a faux consultant job with the Big East to stay on the committee. Hathaway is now the athletic director at Hofstra. The latest to lose his job is SMU AD Steve Orsini, abruptly fired Thursday. Chair Mike Bobinski of Xavier and new NCAA vice president Mark Lewis will now have to huddle to find a replacement for Orsini on the committee. If they stay in the Big East/Conference USA area, they should look at USF AD Doug Woolard, Big East associate commissioner Dan Gavitt or East Carolina AD Terry Holland.

2. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said Kentucky’s Anthony Davis -- the consensus No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft -- brings shot-blocking, something the U.S. Olympic team may need this summer in London. Davis’ chances have risen due to the injury to Orlando’s Dwight Howard. Krzyzewski said Davis isn’t “trying out” for the team; rather, Davis is now in the pool of players who may be selected. Krzyzewski said it would be good to get Davis indoctrinated right away into USA Basketball. “He’s a great talent and a good kid," Krzyzewski said. “Hopefully we don’t get any more guys hurt."

3. Organizers for the Battle 4 Atlantis -- the top non-conference tournament -- won’t decide on the bracket until August for the November event. The event, at the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, could put all eight teams in the NCAA tournament. They are: Louisville, Duke, Stanford, Missouri, Minnesota, Memphis, VCU and Northern Iowa.

1. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said Wednesday that he was in full support of the rules committee decision to have one finished, flat surface on the court instead of temporary decals or logos. “I just wish they would get rid of them," Krzyzewski said. “You could put them alongside the court. Where else is this in the middle of a court or playing field? There isn’t a logo in between the second baseman and shortstop. You’re not side-stepping over Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The main thing is that it was dangerous." Krzyzewski also chimed in on the plethora of transfers who have graduated and are seeking waivers to play elsewhere while attending grad school. A number of these players have been shopping around this spring. “It makes rising seniors free agents," Krzyzewski said. “I’m not sure that’s a good thing."

2. The NCAA dropped the ball on the 75th anniversary of the NCAA tournament, in 2013. The NCAA could have been at Madison Square Garden had it planned for the event long ago. But the Garden didn’t hear from the NCAA until too late, after dates had to be booked with the NHL (Rangers) and NBA (Knicks). The old MSG housed the NIT and the NCAA tournament in the 1940s. The NCAA should have gone old-school, putting the first and second rounds or the regional finals at historic spots for the sport. Instead, it settled on the Staples Center (Los Angeles), Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis), Cowboys Stadium (Arlington, Texas) and now the Verizon Center (Washington, D.C.). I know the NCAA has to deal with pro-style arenas, but there are college venues with historic significance in the sport that have decent size and capacity that the NCAA could have planned for well in advance (MSG, Rupp, Phog Allen, Huntsman Center). If it meant a tougher ticket for 2013, then so be it.

3. Murray State went for the sure thing and decided to play in the Charleston (S.C.) Classic over being in a Kansas State NIT Season Tip-Off pod that wouldn’t guarantee a trip to New York for the semifinals. The Racers complete the eight-team field in the Charleston tourney, scheduled for Nov. 15-18, with Baylor, Boston College, Charleston, Colorado, Dayton, St. John’s and Auburn. Baylor is the favorite in this tournament but Murray State should be seeded second or at the least third in this field.

I'm not sure how much Duke can use newly committed recruit, power forward Amile Jefferson, in the 2012-13 season. It strikes me as difficult to assume a player with such a slight frame (Jefferson is listed at 6-foot-7, 190 pounds) who is a "jump shot away from being special" (according to ESPN recruiting scouting analysis) will play alongside Mason Plumlee, and Duke's coterie of perimeter scorers, or whether Duke needs more of the stretch-forward role they got from departing senior Ryan Kelly, the apparent antithesis of Jefferson's game.

But in the end, it doesn't matter: Duke desperately needed to add to its 2012 recruiting class. On Tuesday, after one of the most drawn-out recruitments in recent history -- it feels like we say that every year -- Jefferson spurned NC State, Kentucky, Ohio State and Villanova. The decision was surprising; many expected Jefferson to commit to NC State, and Jefferson's mother even carried an NC State hat in her purse, just to be safe. In the end, Duke landed the No. 25-ranked player in the class of 2012, because Jefferson considered it a "once in a lifetime opportunity."

Clearly, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's recruiting pitch got across.

The questions now are whether Jefferson can help right away, where fellow McDonald's All-American and shooting guard Rasheed Sulaimon fits in the backcourt, and so on. If Jefferson can excel as early as this season, all the better for the Blue Devils. If he can't, he provides the promise of well-developed talent as a sophomore, particularly after Mason Plumlee graduates. In either case, with a short bench, a lack of frontcourt depth, and the creeping suspicion that Coach K had (even briefly) lost the pace of the nation's best recruiters, Jefferson's commitment is as important for competitive reasons as it is symbolic ones. Where the pieces all fit remains to be seen.

It's probably fair to assume Coach K will figure it out. After all, there's a reason why his take-home got this big.

1. Conference USA coaches and athletic directors met in Destin, Fla., Monday and, according to multiple sources, there is a strong movement to move the 2013 conference tournament from Memphis to Tulsa. Memphis is leaving for the Big East after next season and while it would make more economic sense to keep the event where it is, there isn't a lot of goodwill toward the Tigers to give them an added advantage in their final season in the conference. A decision on the tournament will be made next month.

2. Old Dominion is taking its time on deciding whether to upgrade football. The A-10 is apparently not an option anymore. If the Monarchs are deciding between the CAA and upgrading football to go into C-USA, then from a basketball standpoint, staying put makes more sense. If it’s a football decision then the Monarchs have to move. If it’s about hoops then ODU staying with George Mason and in a familiar basketball-first conference would be more beneficial to the continued success of this program.

3. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made his intentions clear that he won’t coach the US National team beyond this summer. An NBA coach could be the next choice (and on Twitter a good suggestion came in the form of Doug Collins). If a college coach has another shot then Michigan State's Tom Izzo or Kansas' Bill Self, who have strong USA Basketball ties, could be in the pecking order. But it’s still unclear what direction the team/program will take after Coach K departs from the top job.

The offseason is rough, but at least we have two things:

1. The NBA Playoffs.

2. Olympic basketball.

I realize there are many college hoops fans who have no interest in the pro game, and while I don't understand you lot -- it's really good basketball, promise! -- such a stance does mean you likely take no solace in the mere presence of the NBA playoffs. But we can all get behind Olympic basketball, right? The collection of the world's best players, wearing the Stars and Stripes, vying for a gold medal -- it's a thrilling experience made all the more exciting by the continued global evolution of the game.

Though it may feel like it, it wasn't always this way. Just twelve years ago, USA Basketball appeared to be on something like a permanent decline. The 2004 Olympic team failed to capture gold at the Games, losing to Argentina 89-81 in the semifinals, and the recriminations were long and loud and thoroughly embarrassing to coach Larry Brown and his players (most notably Allen Iverson), who were seen as emblematic of the NBA's supposed me-first culture. The international game was on the rise -- less selfish, less brash, more fundamental -- and the United States, dominant basketball superpower, was on the way out.

That didn't happen, and we have two men to thank.

One is USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo, who revamped the men's national team with the establishment of a player pool designed to give the organization more structure and continuity. Colangelo's general vision has been the driving force behind the idea of USA Basketball as a program, not as an isolated, once-in-four-years affair.

The other is the man Colangelo hired to oversee the team, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who today announced this summer's 2012 Olympics would most likely be his last on the job. Under Coach K, USA Basketball became something less like a lark -- hey, sure, let's go win gold and travel, should be fun -- and something more like a consistent, dedicated annual effort. In 2008, Coach K selected an amazing team built on the league's best talent, with players who were not only better than their competition but adjusted their styles to the international game (a frequent criticism of past teams) and played selfless, ego-free basketball. Coach K got Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul and Dwight Howard and you-name-it to play together. (Watch footage of Bryant's defense in that tournament. It was breathtaking.) When Spain's talented team tested the Americans in the 2008 gold medal game, they were ready. The 2004 team would have been run off the floor.

Then, in 2010, Coach K won again, this time in the FIBA World Championships with a group of players effectively dubbed the "B Team" -- young, emerging stars like Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Andre Igoudala, Kevin Durant and Kevin Love. (The list goes on: Eric Gordon, Stephen Curry, Rudy Gay, Danny Granger ...). Nearly every player on that team came back from the 2010 FIBAs and went on to be a star on the league, Durant and Rose most notably. And is it a coincidence that Lamar Odom was sixth man of the year in 2011, or that Tyson Chandler anchored the Dallas Mavericks to an NBA title?

We can argue the developmental benefits of USA Basketball under Coach K. What we can't argue is the massive evolution the team has undergone since that nightmare in 2004. A fractured, bloodied entity is long since behind us: The 2012 men's Olympic team will come in as the obvious favorite, and none of the questions of the past -- Can the personalities work together? Can the U.S. play the international style? -- will linger over the proceedings. Coach K is an old-fashioned patriotic type. Whether you agree with his politics or not, his ability to imbue his star-studded, millionaire-loaded national teams with that spirit -- country first, team second, individual last -- has to be considered among the finest accomplishments of his career.

It would be too much to say Colangelo and Coach K "saved" USA Basketball. The players are far too good for that. Even as the game globalizes, the rest of the world still has a long way to go to catch up. And the personalities of the 2008 stars, specifically Bryant, went a long way toward ensuring a level of focus and dedication not seen in 2004.

Still, eight years ago, USA Basketball was in crisis. Today, it's as strong as it's ever been. It isn't always hard to coach the best players in the world, but it isn't always easy, either. And Coach K was the perfect man for the job.

The Afternoon Links are back, and they are exactly what they say they are. Some days will bring more links than others. This is the offseason, after all. If you have a link you'd like included, your best bet is to hit me on Twitter. You can also e-mail your link to collegebasketballnation at gmail.com, or use the submission form here.

• James Johnson's first item of business was winning the news conference, and that seemed to go pretty well, at least according to Hampton Roads Daily Press' David Teel: "James Johnson didn't act like the ACC's youngest, least-experienced and probably lowest-paid head basketball coach Tuesday. Conversely, Virginia Tech's new boss appeared comfortable during his introductory news conference. Comfortable in the spotlight, confident in himself. Don't misunderstand. There wasn't a whisper of brashness. He wasn't glib, emotional or long-winded. Some may interpret that as anxiety. But I saw comfort mixed with humility." Even better? As planned, Johnson's hiring prompted recruit Marshall Wood, who had asked for his release after former coach Seth Greenberg's departure, to remain in the fold.
• Western Kentucky freshman Derrick Gordon announced his transfer to UMass, where he will sit out a year before becoming eligible in 2013-14, via Twitter. Judging by the COPIOUS USE OF CAPS LOCK, Gordon is excited about the news.
• Over the weekend, Team USA added Oklahoma City's James Harden and (more relevant to our interests) likely No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis to the pool of players eligible for selection to this summer's Olympic team. Davis would still have to make a final cut, but given the dearth of true big men available to Mike Krzyzewski this summer -- Dwight Howard is out, and without him the only true center in the player pool is NBA defensive player of the year Tyson Chandler -- Davis might have an outside shot at making the squad. I'll be honest: I would love to see Davis play in the international system. (And also: I can not wait until the 2012 Summer Olympics. You're going down, Spain! Who's with me?)
• We missed this late last week, but Connecticut got a commitment from Phil Nolan, a 6-foot-10 forward ranked No. 23 at his position in the class of 2012. Nolan might not make an immediate impact, but in the wake of Andre Drummond's draft departure, Alex Oriakhi's transfer to Missouri, and Roscoe Smith's defection, Nolan's sheer size makes him an important get.
• The Washington Post recognized the 10th anniversary of Maryland's 2002 national championship with a photo slideshow. When done poorly, photo slideshows are one of the worst things about the Internet. When done well, they're totally awesome. This is an example of the latter, complete with "Where are they now?" updates on each of the beloved title-winning Terrapins. For example: Did you know Juan Dixon is in Turkey? True! And that Steve Blake plays for the ... ha, just kidding.
• Obligatory in-house links: Today, Myron Medcalf breaks down how Kentucky's 2012 freshmen raised the expectations bar forever. In case you missed it, be sure to see Myron's story on Trent Lockett, who transferred from Arizona State to Marquette be closer to his mother, who is fighting her second diagnosis of a "crazy" and "rare" brand of lymphoma cancer. And don't miss last week's feature on a renewed Bruce Weber, who looked refreshed and ready for a new challenge at Kansas State when he spoke with our Jason King.
• Daily basketball break: "Any faceted solid, he showed, no matter how complex or irregular, could be folded from a single uncut sheet of paper. Start with a piece of paper big enough, and you could model Notre Dame down to the last gargoyle." You may want to read this story.

Do we know how good Michael Gbinije is? We do not. The former Duke player -- who will transfer to Syracuse, as announced by that school this weekend -- didn't give us much to analyze in his freshman season. He made 19 appearances but averaged 5.8 minutes per game, in which he notched a whopping 1.7 points and 0.8 rebounds per contest. We do have some idea of Gbinije's talent: He was a touted incoming recruit for the Blue Devils, a top-30 player in the 2011 ESPNU 100, and clearly one who could make an impact before his Duke career came to a close.

Whether he could have done that at Duke -- where Miles Plumlee is graduating but junior Mason Plumlee will return for his senior season, and the youngest Plumlee, redshirt freshman Marshall, is waiting in the wings -- remains up for debate. There are two items of note about this transfer:

1. If Gbinije wanted to avoid a talented frontcourt -- if he was planning on playing right away -- then his decision to attend Syracuse seems slightly suspect. The Orange will have one of the deepest frontcourts in the country in 2012-13, with Rakeem Christmas and C.J. Fair and Baye Keita and even James Southerland, and two more incoming big men in center DeJuan Coleman (the nation's No. 14-ranked player) and power forward Jerami Grant, who ranks No. 37 in the class of 2012. Gbinije will have to sit out the customary transfer year, but depending on which Syracuse players shine in 2012-13, and which decide to leave for next summer's draft, he may find playing time in an Orange uniform just as hard to come by as it was in Durham, N.C.

2. Syracuse won't become a member of the ACC next season; along with Pittsburgh, the Orange have elected to wait until after the 2012-13 football and men's basketball seasons to try their much-ballyhooed and long-delayed (thanks to Big East exit protocols) leap to the ACC. But eventually, most likely within Gbinije's career at the school, Syracuse will face off with Duke as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Which means Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski just kind of, sort of -- gasp! -- allowed a player to transfer within his own league.

And yet frogs are not raining from the sky, and cats are not lying down with dogs. There is a distinct lack of mass hysteria involved here. In other words, Division I coaches of the world, there is a way to handle transfers like this in a particularly non-dramatic fashion. A thumbs-up to Coach K for allowing his player to transfer in decidedly straightforward fashion, despite the chance Gbinije could play against the Blue Devils at some undisclosed future time and place. Life goes on.

The question is, what needs fixing? And once you've decided on that, how do you go about doing it?

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski appeared on Oklahoma City sports talk show "The Sports Animals" Monday, and he was asked this exact question: "What do we have to do to fix the game of college basketball?"

This is a really broad question. It assumes that college basketball needs fixing, but it doesn't provide any premise for exactly what about the sport is so desperately in need of repair. I can think of a few things, of course. Coach K, for his part, made an interesting point -- that the relationship between the NBA and college hoops is fundamentally broken:

"First of all college basketball doesn’t control college basketball," Krzyzewski said. "The NBA controls college basketball. They are the ones along with the players union that sets the rule. College basketball just reacts to what the NBA does to include the early entry date. College basketball put out April 10. Well, that date doesn’t mean anything. April 29 is when guys have a chance to put their names in the NBA draft.

"I think one of the main things that has to happen is college basketball has to have a relationship with the NBA," he said. "There should be someone in charge of college basketball who on a day-to-day basis sets an agenda for our great sport. We don’t have anything like that. As a resolve we don’t have a voice with the NBA or the players union and that’s just kind of sad."

Who would disagree with that?

I'm not sure the one-and-done rule is the biggest problem afflicting college hoops specifically -- it affects, what, 30 players (tops) every year? -- but it is not unfair to say the utter lack of relationship between the NBA and the college game is a major problem affecting both levels of the sport, but particularly college basketball, generally. And how do you fix that? Coordination. Organization. Some apparatus by which NCAA president Mark Emmert can say, "Hey, NBA, we're happy to keep doing our thing down here -- building players' brands and developing them for entry into your professional embrace -- but you've got to throw us a bone. We're really getting slammed." This would seem to be in the NBA's interest, too. After all, the deal it gets from the NCAA is pretty good, but the deal could be better, couldn't it? Talent evaluation is still less a science than an art. General managers still make mistakes on weak information, still have a limited amount of time to get to know draftees in intimate ways. Is there any way to close that gap?

This is basically me noodling here, and I admit there are no ready-made solutions. At the end of the day, what Coach K is probably really talking about is a move to a two-and-through (copyright John Gasaway) or three-and-free (I just made that up) via the NBA collective bargaining process. That's really the only hope for changing the one-and-done rule, which seems to be the popular consensus even among those coaches (like John Calipari) who have utilized it to their competitive advantage.

But the general idea -- some relationship between college hoops and the NBA, similar to USA Basketball and the NBA, or USA Basketball and the college game, some go-between, some committee, something -- would be an undeniably positive step in the right direction for the sport as a whole, right?

BOSTON – Somewhere, some clever Syracuse fan ought to grab a red cape, a magic marker, ink a Z on his chest and call himself The Zone.

In this NCAA tournament, the Zone (yes, it deserves to be capitalized) has grown to near-mythological proportions and taken on the aura and presence of a superhero, complete with superpowers.

How do you beat the Zone? Why do you play it? How unique is it? What makes it so hard?

It is everywhere, an all-consuming beast. In the two press conferences between Syracuse and Ohio State, on the eve of their Elite Eight match, the word zone was mentioned 50 times.

Heck, if the Orange win the national title, the Zone could earn Most Outstanding Player honors.

Here’s the dirty little secret: The Zone does not have superpowers, nor is Orange coach Jim Boeheim some evil scientist who has concocted something no one in basketball can duplicate.

The Syracuse coach is just committed (or stubborn, pick your word). He does not waver if teams are shooting well against the Zone (as Wisconsin did) and he does not give his players the option of man-to-man defense.

Ever.

“They buy into it because they want to play,’’ Boeheim laughed. "These guys know what we want to do, what we’re about. They work hard at it.’’

Boeheim, in fact, is tickled at people’s preoccupation with his defense, as if he’s unearthed some sort of relic from the peach-basket days.

“It’s always funny to me,’’ he said. “You never hear anybody yelling at Mike Krzyzewski to go back and play zone. Why is that? He’s such a good coach, you don’t question him? Is that what it is? Really? Somebody shook their head down there. OK, that means I’m not a good coach, so you can question me.’’

Thad Matta would beg to differ. The Ohio State coach will be the next to attempt to slay the Zone, on Saturday night, and while he knows conventional wisdom holds the easiest way to beat a good zone is to shoot 3s, he also watched Wisconsin drain 14 and lose.

“A couple of years ago I heard what I thought was the greatest answer from Coach Boeheim,’’ Matta said. “Somebody asked him, 'What do you do when somebody gets really hot against your zone and they’re making 3s?' He said, ‘How do you know they’re not going to make them against man-to-man?’ He has his philosophy and he’s only won 900 or however many games he’s won. It works for him.’’

Whom to watch

William Buford, Ohio State: Matta went out of his way to commend his senior for his defensive effort against Cincinnati. And it was deserved. It also was welcome deflection from Buford’s offensive woes.

The Sweet 16 has not been kind to Buford. He has played in that round three consecutive seasons and is 8-of-37, including an absentee 1-of-8 against the Bearcats on Thursday.

This season, however, is Buford's first appearance in the Elite Eight. Ohio State needs him to run with the clean start.

Wisconsin offered a nice little road map for their Big Ten brethren in terms of beating the Syracuse zone– hit 3s. Now, expecting Ohio State to be as red-hot as the Badgers is probably silly, but the Buckeyes do have shooters.

Which is where Buford comes in. He’s one of those shooters and he needs to make those 3s.

“The great thing about William is he usually bounces back,’’ Matta said. “Hopefully the odds say tomorrow some higher percentage will be going in for him. But yeah, we need Will to play well.’’

Scoop Jardine, Syracuse: One of Syracuse’s hidden strengths this season is its ability to take care of the basketball. The Orange are eighth in the country, committing just 10.5 turnovers per game.

That number will meet its match in the form of Aaron Craft. Arguably the best on-the-ball defender in the country, Ohio State's sophomore guard is a relentless gnat who not only swats at the ball but also frustrates his opponent into mistakes.

Jardine, typically the primary ball handler for Syracuse, had been very good until Thursday’s regional semifinal against Wisconsin when the senior coughed up the ball five times.

That can’t happen against Craft. Ohio State will turn those miscues into points – the Buckeyes got 20 points off turnovers against Cincinnati – but more crucially, OSU is quite content in a grind-it-out, half-court game. If Jardine turns it over, that means more chances for Ohio State to dictate the tempo.

What to watch

This could be the first time that Syracuse feels sorely the absence of Fab Melo. Rakeem Christmas and Baye Keita have done a more than admirable job for the Orange through this NCAA tournament run, but in their first three games, the duo has not faced anything quite like Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas.

The two are big, strong and armed with an arsenal of scoring touches. Most crucially for Christmas and Keita, Sullinger and Thomas help Ohio State rack up a plus-7.6 rebounding edge, good for sixth in the country — and good for lots of extended possessions. Christmas and Keita will have their work cut out for them in this game.

“James [Southerland] and C.J. [Fair] are going to have to help us,’’ Orange forward Kris Joseph said of defending the Ohio State big men. “It’s going to be the weakside man on the back of the zone that’s going to be able to help the most when [they] get the ball down low. If Rakeem does a good enough job, we won’t need to, but it’s going to be our job definitely to give him a lot of help.’’

Guard play was the story of the early-afternoon games in the Men's Basketball Championship on Saturday. Here's a closer look at the wins by the Syracuse Orange and Ohio State Buckeyes, each of whom advanced to the Round of 16.

(1) Syracuse 75, (8) Kansas State 59

Syracuse’s win was the 47th in the Men’s Basketball Championship for head coach Jim Boeheim. That’s tied for the fifth-most all-time with John Wooden (who did all of his coaching before the tournament expanded to six rounds). Boeheim is two wins behind Jim Calhoun for fourth-most, 32 behind all-time leader Mike Krzyzewski.

The Syracuse bench dominated, going 10-for-15 from the field (including 3-for-4 on 3-pointers) and 10-for-11 from the free throw line. The Orange bench outscored Kansas State’s reserves, 33-0.

In particular, Syracuse was at its best with Dion Waiters on the floor. The Orange outscored Kansas State 47-30 in the 24 minutes in which he played, and tallied all 12 of their transition points with him in the game.

Scoop Jardine was also a catalyst. He scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half, and also had eight assists for the game, his most since February 8th.

During Jardine's career, Syracuse is 17-1 when he has at least eight assists. Syracuse held Kansas State to just 18 percent shooting (6-of-33) outside the paint. That's the lowest percentage by a Syracuse opponent on those types of shots in the last three Men's Basketball Championships.

The Orange shot 67 percent in the second half, including 5-for-5 from 3-point range.

Kansas State was able to hang in with Syracuse for much of the game because of its offensive rebounding. Jordan Henriquez had 11 of the team’s 25 offensive rebounds, one shy of the tournament record set by Bo Kimble in 1990.

Looking ahead, the Orange have lost their last three games in the Round of 16 since winning the national championship in 2003.

(2) Ohio State 73, (7) Gonzaga 66

The Buckeyes are headed to the Round of 16 for the third straight season, the longest such streak since the Sweet 16 began in 1975.

Ohio State’s Aaron Craft finished with his first career double-double, recording 17 points and 10 assists. His seven baskets tied a career high. Craft was 5-for-5 in the paint and finished with a team-best 10 of the Buckeyes’ 24 paint points.

In two seasons, Craft never had more than nine assists in a regular-season game, but he's now had at least 10 assists in the Round of 32 twice. Last year against George Mason in the Men’s Basketball Championship Round of 32, Craft had 15 assists.

Ohio State made nine 3-pointers, with Craft assisting on seven of them.

The Buckeyes accounted for 27 of their 73 points (37 percent) on 3-pointers, their highest percentage of points from 3-pointers in a game this season. Entering Saturday, they ranked last in the Big Ten in percentage of points from 3-pointers (20 percent).

Rebounding was also a key. Gonzaga dominated the offensive glass in the first half, with nine offensive rebounds and 13 second-chance points. The Buckeyes clamped down in the second half, limiting the Bulldogs to four offensive rebounds and two second-chance points.

Ohio State entered Saturday allowing opponents to grab only 25 percent of their missed shots, the best percentage in the Big Ten.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Here’s a quick rundown of what to look for in Friday’s evening games in Greensboro.

No. 15 Lehigh (26-7) vs. No. 2 Duke (27-6), 7:15 p.m. ET

If there’s one constant in the NCAA tournament -- other than Duke and North Carolina playing really close to home -- it’s the Blue Devils winning their opening-round games.

Under coach Mike Krzyzewski, the Blue Devils have won 25 of their 27 opening-round games and they’ve taken most of them by lopsided scores. Duke won 14 of the past 15 by an average of 26.9 points, including an 87-45 rout of No. 16 seed Hampton in the 2011 NCAA tournament.

“At Duke, our coaches are great at preparing us for games,” Blue Devils forward Miles Plumlee said. “Regardless of the opponent, we respect each and every one, and we’re just ready to play the game.”

Krzyzewski and his assistant coaches are working a little harder to prepare the Blue Devils for Friday night’s South Region second-round game against No. 15 seed Lehigh at Greensboro Coliseum.

The Blue Devils will probably be without starting forward Ryan Kelly, the team’s third-leading scorer (11.8 points per game) and rebounder (5.4), for the third consecutive game. Kelly, a 6-foot-10 junior from Raleigh, N.C., still hasn’t fully recovered from a sprained right ankle he suffered in practice March 6.

Without Kelly in the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils defeated Virginia Tech 60-56 and lost to Florida State 62-59 in the semifinals at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.

“He will not be able to play like any type of rotation minutes,” Krzyzewski said. “In other words, you’re not going to see a Plumlee go out and Kelly come in. He might be available for some spot duty and we’ll know more about that [Friday]. Like an end-of-game situation, end of half or some type of specialty thing, but no more than that for this game.”

Kelly has become especially valuable because he’s a big man who shoots 40.8 percent on 3-pointers.

“It’s not a shooter,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s the fact that he’s a big guy who can shoot. We can put another shooter out there, but then we’re real small. So it does have an impact because you might get a few more open looks or a little bit more time to shoot the ball. There’s more space. There are a variety of things that happen as a result of him being out there.”

Kelly’s injury has also left Duke’s bench even thinner. Against the Seminoles, only three Duke reserves combined to play 47 minutes and were outscored 18-9 by their FSU counterparts.

“They would all love Ryan to be able to play,” Krzyzewski said. “But we’re fine. You play with who you got and you play; there’s no excuses for anything. Our guys are ready to go. We love to have Ryan because when he comes into ballgames, he’s different than the other two [big men, brothers Miles and Mason Plumlee]. It makes the other team have to adjust more during the course of a game.”

Who to watch:

Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum: The junior was the country’s sixth-leading scorer with 21.9 points per game. He was named MVP of the Patriot League tournament, scoring 29 points with five assists and three steals in the Mountain Hawks’ 82-77 victory over Bucknell in the championship game.

Duke’s Miles Plumlee: With Kelly sidelined with a sprained ankle, Miles Plumlee -- the oldest of three Plumlee brothers from Warsaw, Ind. -- will have to shoulder an even bigger load. The 6-foot-10 forward scored nine points on 3-for-6 shooting in the FSU loss. He was Duke’s leading rebounder over the past nine games, averaging 10.8 boards.

Duke’s Austin Rivers: Rivers, a freshman from Winter Park, Fla., and son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, was sensational in his first season, leading the Blue Devils with 15.4 points per game. He was named ACC Rookie of the Year and is adept at driving to the basket for points, or kicking the ball back out to his teammates for open shots on the perimeter.

What to watch: Duke’s shooting. The Blue Devils tend to live or die by the perimeter shooting and they struggled in their last three games, making only 16 of 67 3-point attempts (23.8 percent). Rivers made only 3 of 20 3-point attempts in his past four games. Top reserve Andre Dawkins, a career 40.4 percent shooter on 3-pointers, was 1-for-12 in the past five games, after a 6-for-9 performance in a 74-66 victory at FSU on Feb. 23. If the Blue Devils are going to advance beyond this weekend, Rivers, Dawkins and guard Seth Curry are going to have to heat up again.

No. 10 Xavier (21-12) vs. No. 7 Notre Dame (22-11), 9:45 p.m. ET

About the time Xavier was trading punches with Cincinnati in the most frightening moment of the college basketball season, Notre Dame was just beginning to fight through its own troubles.

In mid-January, neither team looked like an NCAA tournament contender. On Friday night, the Fighting Irish and Musketeers will play in a South Region second-round game at Greensboro Coliseum.

“I don’t know if some people seem to have memories of elephants, that they don’t want to ever forget that,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “But for our kids it is a chance to go out on the biggest stage of college basketball and advance. And I truly believe that the only games that people remember are the ones you play in March.”

For a while, it seemed like neither the Fighting Irish nor Musketeers would be playing in March.

The Musketeers, who were ranked No. 8 in the country when they routed the Bearcats 76-53 on Dec. 10, lost five of six games after four of their players were suspended for their roles in an ugly brawl in the closing minutes of the Crosstown Shootout. After an 85-72 loss at Temple on Feb. 11, Xavier was 16-9 overall, 7-4 in the A-10.

“If I was being very, very honest, it was extremely difficult,” Mack said. “I don’t think there’s a manual for a coach, for a program, for your players, in how you respond. But the one thing I never questioned about our kids is their desire to compete and want to get better. We stepped in a lot of venues where we heard about the incident, but Xavier basketball is much bigger than 10 bad minutes on a Saturday. This program has done so much good for so many years that we can define ourselves with who we truly are.”

Xavier senior center Kenny Frease, whose face was left bloodied from the fight, said the aftermath of the brawl seemed to bring the Musketeers closer together.

“It was difficult just because of the pressure that was put on us from the outside world,” Frease said. “I think that as a team we always knew that if we were able to come together that we would be where we are today. And in the locker room it really brought us closer together just having gone through that type of adversity. The adversity that you’re going to see in the NCAA tournament, we have been through all that. We have been through a lot more than that. So I think that as a team we’ll be ready for anything we see.”

The Fighting Irish had their share of adversity, too. Notre Dame started 4-2, but then lost senior forward Tim Abromaitis to a season-ending knee injury in practice Nov. 25. Without him, the Irish lost six of their next 13 games and were 11-8 after a 65-58 loss at Rutgers on Jan. 16.

“I feel like it was two different seasons almost before Tim got hurt, and the way we prepared, and the way we game planned and stuff,” Notre Dame guard Scott Martin said. “And then after Tim, we kind of had to figure things out again and regroup and go from there. So I think it was just a lot of hard work and dedication out of us that paid off.”

After the loss at Rutgers, Notre Dame won nine consecutive Big East games (the longest conference winning streak in school history), including a 67-58 upset of then-No. 1 Syracuse on Jan. 21.

“You have to have great, great leadership,” Irish coach Mike Brey said. “I don’t know if I have been more proud of a captain like Scott Martin. Because his partner in leading was supposed to be Tim Abromaitis and he kind of lost him. So for him to lead through a crisis early in the season, I think really helped us. And we had our young guys we committed to them and got them playing time. They needed to play, they needed to get reps. Even if we’re losing games, they needed to get in there and get reps and I think they grew from that.”

Both teams will find out how much they’ve matured Friday night.

Who to watch:

Xavier’s Tu Holloway: Holloway, a senior, led the Musketeers in scoring (17 points per game) and assists (5.1) and was the only Atlantic 10 player in the top five in both scoring and assists. He also leads Xavier in steals (1.5) and foul shooting (86.6 percent). Holloway averaged 19.7 points and 5 rebounds in three Atlantic 10 tournament games.

Notre Dame’s Jack Cooley: Cooley, a bruising 248-pound forward, averaged 12.4 points and 9 rebounds. Cooley, from Glenview, Ill., had a career-high 27 points with 17 rebounds in a 75-69 victory over Providence on March 2, one of his seven double-doubles in the past 10 games.

Xavier’s Mark Lyons: A junior guard from Schenectady, N.Y., Lyons averaged 15.5 points with 2.7 assists. A third-team All-Atlantic-10 selection, Lyons is a potent 3-point shooter, making 39.6 percent of his attempts.

What to watch: Defense. Notre Dame turned its season around with defense, limiting opponents to only 59.2 points per game, which was second-fewest in the Big East. Notre Dame held its opponents to 60 points or fewer in 15 games, including 11 against conference foes. Five opponents were held to fewer than 50 points by the Irish.

1. Long Beach State coach Dan Monson was non-committal Monday on whether or not Larry Anderson can go for the 49ers in their second-round game Thursday against New Mexico. The 49ers won the Big West tournament without Anderson (knee), but any chances for an upset may depend on his availability. It would be a shame if the 49ers aren’t at full strength, because they were a legit, trendy pick to win a game.

2. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t prepared to rule out forward Ryan Kelly (foot injury) for Friday's second-round game against Lehigh but wasn’t sounding too optimistic that he will play. You can’t compare Kelly to Kyrie Irving, but it is a bit of déjà vu that the Blue Devils are dealing with a foot injury heading into the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season.

3. North Carolina coach Roy Williams wouldn’t give an exact time frame for the return of forward John Henson, who missed the past two games with a wrist injury. The selection committee was under the impression that Henson would be back for the tournament.

ATLANTA -- About 45 minutes after Florida State's thrilling 62-59 win over Duke in the semifinals of the ACC tournament, Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton shared a special moment with one of his most well-respected counterparts.

While standing outside FSU's locker room, Hamilton was greeted by a smiling Mike Krzyzewski, who had just watched Hamilton's Seminoles best his Blue Devils in a tournament he basically owns. Coach K congratulated Hamilton and praised his team.

As Hamilton delivered his thanks, Krzyzewski briefly paused, giving Hamilton one last look that read, "Hell of a team."

That look was nothing new for Hamilton. He's been getting it from opposing coaches for a few years, it's just taken those outside of the ACC some time to acknowledge them.

Interestingly enough, national respect isn’t exactly flowing for the third-winningest ACC program over the past seven years.

A Florida State team that won a school-record 12 conference games during the regular season and is line for a top-4 seed in this year's NCAA tournament shouldn't be overlooked like it is.

"Because we have not been at the top -- been No. 1 or No. 2 -- we haven't gotten a lot of recognition," Hamilton said. "We've been moving our program along for quite some time, it's just that you guys have just started to notice."

As FSU prepares to capture its first ACC tournament title (in only its second championship appearance), it does so in a totally different place than it was months ago. FSU has won 17 of 20 games and is looking to take the season series against tournament top seed North Carolina -- an improbable thought midway through the season.

FSU struggled to find itself and players say there was a disconnect between guards and bigs. Forward Bernard James said selfishness ruled at times, destroying the "team" and leaving individuals.

"We'd go out and try to make spectacular plays one-on-one and that didn't work for us and that's why we got drummed by teams early in the season," James said.

Drummed as in losing by 18 to Florida and 20 to Clemson and losing 6 of 10 games from the end of November to the beginning of January.

The Clemson whooping changed everything, James said. Players and coaches gathered shortly after to speak candidly about how things weren't working. Slackers were called out and even coaches received constructive criticism from players.

Guards were told they were shooting too much and big men were called lazy in the ultimate open forum.

"Everybody knew what the other guy next to him was thinking," James said. "We identified our problems and everybody worked toward fixing them. That's what brought us to the point we are now."

Two games after the catastrophe at Clemson, FSU pounded UNC 90-57. Two games later, the Noles shocked Duke at Cameron Indoor.

Now, Florida State is a win away from breaking new ground … again.

Even if FSU loses Sunday, it's obvious that the Noles aren’t going away in the ACC. Behind the UNC-Duke current, FSU has been tirelessly working to demolish the notion that the ACC is a two-team league.

"At Florida State, we haven't thought that way in a long time," James said. "It's been about four or five years since they thought that the ACC was a two-team conference.

"This year, we've put ourselves in a really good position to show the rest of the world that the ACC is not a two-team conference."

Added forward Xavier Gibson: "We're coming in there and breaking Tobacco Road up a little bit -- mixing it up -- and that's what we came to do."

A win Sunday will likely bring more onto FSU’s bandwagon, but the Seminoles aren't worried about that because they don’t have time to worry about impressing outsiders.

For Hamilton, it’s all about getting the best out of his players and making sure they play and win for themselves.

"We have to consistently keep doing it and maybe we'll crack into that area that you guys call respect," he said.

DURHAM, N.C. -- This is what everyone expected North Carolina to be right about now: the ACC regular-season champion, the top seed in next week’s league tournament, in the mix for a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs.

It’s just not quite the way everyone expected the Tar Heels to achieve it all.

Dismissed as lacking heart after losing by 33 points at Florida State on Jan. 14, overlooked as focusless after losing a 10-point lead (and the game) to Duke in the final three minutes Feb. 8, sixth-ranked UNC finally showed what all the ballyhoo was about in the first place during its 88-70 victory over the third-ranked Blue Devils on Saturday night.

For only the second time this season, all five starters finished in double figures.

For the first game since December 2003, three Tar Heels finished with double-doubles.

They dominated the backboards (45-28), held a perimeter-reliant opponent to worse than 30 percent 3-point shooting (6-for-21), and never trailed.

All against a top-five foe.

“One thing that we talked about is people are going to put you on a pedestal to knock you down,’’ said point guard Kendall Marshall, who finished with 20 points and 10 assists. “That’s what happens. We weren’t going to be perfect unless we went out and won every game by 30. That’s not what happened … we learned from our mistakes, we continued to get better. And now it’s all starting to come together.”

In beating the Blue Devils (26-5, 13-3 ACC) by their largest margin at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1989, the Tar Heels (27-4, 14-2) showed what they had learned from their previous four losses:

• How to dictate tempo and energy (via UNLV and FSU).
• How to keep a lead after building one (via Kentucky and Duke the first time).

Marshall was already annoyed about seeing Duke guard Austin Rivers’ game-winning shot from the first meeting seemingly every time he turned on the TV. So he grew downright hostile when he saw it replayed as part of a highlight montage on Cameron’s video board before pregame introductions.

“I told my teammates that was disrespectful, and we’ve got to go out here and prove a point,’’ Marshall said. “Obviously they feel like they have that edge, that swagger over us right now, being that they won in our gym. It left a bad taste in our mouth, and we wanted to be able to come out and win today.”

Thus, they “played angry,” as UNC forward John Henson (13 points, 10 rebounds) put it, using an early 18-1 run to build a 22-5 lead within the first eight minutes.

By halftime, they pushed their advantage to 24, holding the ACC’s best 3-point shooting team to 2-for-11 from behind the arc in the first half while shooting better than 52 percent themselves.

“We were overwhelmed in the first half,’’ Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “They just played beautiful basketball. They were so efficient. They are a great team -- they are not a good team, they are a great team.”

Of course, Duke rallied. In this rivalry, what else would you expect?

And when Blue Devils forward Miles Plumlee (16 points) cut the lead to 75-64 on two free throws with 6:01 left, no one could help but remember that game three weeks earlier, when Duke also came back.

“We were up 14 with three minutes and something left … and I told everyone during a timeout, basically, to remember what happened last time, and don’t let it happen again,’’ said senior forward Tyler Zeller (19 points, 10 rebounds).

They didn’t.

After Duke's Seth Curry missed a jumper, UNC forward James Michael McAdoo extended the lead to 15 with 3:03 left on an offensive rebound and layup. Sophomore Harrison Barnes followed with a 3-pointer to give his team an 18-point cushion with 2:04 left.

Zeller -- who missed two free throws, accidentally tipped in a Duke shot and was the defender on Rivers’ winning 3 in the previous meeting -- scored five more points before he fouled out with 51 seconds to go. But he actually felt comfortable enough with the lead, he said, to enjoy the final seconds from the bench.

Ah, sweet vengeance.

“I think this game was definitely just recalling everything that we’ve been through this whole season, everything we learned to build up to this,'' said Barnes (16 points).

The key now, the players agreed, is to keep building -- and keep exceeding the outside expectations that were downgraded after their losses this season.

“My team has had to bounce back all year long,’’ UNC coach Roy Williams said. “We go down to Florida State and lose by 3 million, everyone’s jumping off the bandwagon and saying no team is going to lose like that and be that good of a team. And our team kept playing. We lose to Duke and everyone’s got a great opinion about how stupid we are and how bad we are, and my team kept playing.

“The best thing about my team is they’re pretty tough. I mean that’s some pretty big plays they’ve had to bounce back from, and I think they’ve done a nice job. Right now they’re regular-season ACC champions.”

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Every time a game winds down to the three-minute mark, Tyler Zeller still thinks about it: the missed foul shots, the accidental tip-in, the failure to take another step forward to defend Duke guard Austin Rivers' game-winning 3-pointer.

"I know I could have played that play better," Zeller, North Carolina’s senior 7-footer, said recently. "I know I could have made those two free throws. Everybody tells me that I didn’t lose the game, but I always say I could have won it."

Instead, that notch went to Rivers -- with ramifications for both players, both teams.

In the three weeks since the Blue Devils’ stunning 85-84 come-from-behind victory, neither team has lost. Each squad has struggled at times: Duke defensively, UNC with making shots. But the third-ranked Blue Devils seem to have finally jelled, accepting that their go-to guy is Rivers. The No. 6 Tar Heels have refocused, relying on Zeller more than ever to lead.

As a result, Saturday’s rematch at Cameron Indoor Stadium will determine who wins the ACC regular-season title -- and will impact whether either team earns a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

"The stakes are high," Rivers said. "They’re going to be ready to play because of what happened last time. But so are we."

---

It could have turned out so differently for both players.

After Rivers hit “The Shot” over Zeller from the right side of the arc, capping a season-high 29-point night (the most a freshman has ever scored in the rivalry game), he was deluged by attention and kudos. He had posted big games before -- 20 points in a win over Michigan, 22 in a loss to Ohio State. But he had also struggled. So much so during a stretch early in the ACC season that he found himself coming off the bench, rather than starting, Jan. 19 against Wake Forest.

So the day after the UNC win, while replays of his 3-pointer were still dominating the airwaves and websites, coach Mike Krzyzewski met with Rivers to remind the rookie not to get too caught up in one memory.

"When a youngster hits a shot like that -- not many people hit a shot like that -- it can hurt him," Krzyzewski said. "… You want to stay in that moment, it’s such a high … and it’s not a bad moment to stay in. But it takes away the possibility of other moments."

Rivers said he recognized that and was determined not to settle for that game and that moment being his only highlight.

"Maybe some players, they would think hitting a shot like that, things are great now, they don’t have to do anything [else]," said Rivers, a 6-4 guard from Winter Park, Fla. "I viewed that as an opportunity, personally, to keep it going."

And he did. Since the win over UNC, Rivers has averaged 16 points a game. But perhaps more importantly, he has found acceptance and a better connection with his team.

Freshmen, Krzyzewski noted, often struggle to find a balance between solidifying an individual role and developing relationships with team veterans. That was the case for Rivers, who worked hard in practice and was coached hard by Krzyzewski and his assistants -- but like all rookies, he had something to prove.

"You don't want to step on anybody's toes," Rivers said. "At the same time, you have to establish yourself. You don't want to just come in and get pushed around. My whole thing was, 'I'm just going to come in, I'm going to be aggressive.' My father [NBA coach Doc Rivers] always told me, 'Don't let anybody ever change your game. Don't let anybody take away from what's gotten you here.'"

His shot, his performance against UNC showed why.

"Prior to that, I had had games this season where I played well, the team played well, and it felt good," Rivers said. "After that game, I felt really good, I thought, 'I like the way this feels; I like doing what I can to help this team win.' And Coach told me to use that to keep it going. That’s what I’ve tried to keep doing since that game; to go out there and do everything I can. And I think I have."

---

Zeller, by contrast, didn’t need any sort of confidence boost entering that game.

Afterward -- well, that was another thing.

The studious forward from Washington, Ind., had been on a roll, recording five double-doubles in his previous seven outings. And against the Blue Devils, he had scored 21 of his 23 points entering that final 2:38 stretch, when he had such a big part in Duke’s 10-point rally.

The accidental tip-in of Ryan Kelly's 3-point attempt? There wasn’t much he could do about that, considering the push he got in the lane from a Duke player on his way up to try to grab the ball. But going 2-for-4 from the free throw line stung, especially when he was averaging about 80 percent on foul shots. And opting, on a switch, to defend Rivers' possible game-tying drive rather than step (and reach) up to defend a game-winning 3? That still stings.

"He took it as hard as maybe any player I’ve had take a loss in a regular season," UNC coach Roy Williams said.

Zeller did go into a shell for a couple of days, failing to fall asleep until 5 the next morning, sitting in the back of class the next day so he could avoid fellow students and not turning on the TV until two days after the game because he knew he wouldn’t hear much good about himself. His coaches called him, his teammates checked on him.

When the team returned to practice that Friday, though, he was more serious, more focused, determined that a stretch like that would never happen again.

"That [Duke] game is something I use as motivation, something I used to keep going," he said.

Indeed, he followed that loss with a 25-point, nine-rebound performance against Virginia and has averaged 18.6 points during UNC’s six-game winning streak. But it’s the way he’s scored and rebounded and played defense that’s been more important -- as if that final Duke stretch didn’t negatively impact him, as if it didn’t happen. His teammates noticed, and followed suit.

"I think they really saw how hurt he was, and they really saw an increased level of focus and seriousness, and I think that’s one of the ways that he leads them," Williams said. "You’ve got to take that like he’s a teacher, and I think he did teach them something."

First and foremost, that every play, ever mistake, matters -- and can’t be taken for granted.

"We could have made free throw throws, boxed out … if I wouldn’t gotten a charge, if Kendall [Marshall] would have entered it in on the post feed, or maybe made Austin drive on that last play -- anything like that," UNC forward Harrison Barnes said. "You look at those things, and you take that into the next game … and you do a better job of managing that."

And the Tar Heels have. Over the past few weeks, Marshall said, they’ve been more determined to push their leads rather than settle, focus rather than relax. Wednesday, for instance, it was Zeller who scored the first 10 points (eight on free throws) during a 31-10 run that put that game out of reach for Maryland.

"He bounced back and really has played some of his best basketball since [the Duke game]," Williams said. "I’m hopeful that if the clock’s winding down Saturday, he’s dribbling the ball outside the 3[-point line], and some little guard’s guarding him, and I hope he makes the shot and we win the game."

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.