ESPN Men's Basketball

Needless to say, by the time the news was announced Tuesday afternoon, this was not exactly the shock of the century.

Early Tuesday morning, Mike Brey told our own Andy Katz that Notre Dame had agreed to extend its commitment to the Crossroads Classic -- a four-team event featuring Hoosier heavies Indiana, Purdue, Butler and ND -- for another two years, into 2013 and 2014. Even before that, despite the expiration of the current agreement this season, no one really expected the event to go away. It was assumed the four schools would agree to keep the thing going, one way or the other.

The reason for that is the same reason the official news, as announced by the four schools, is so very welcome: The Crossroads Classic is an event too good not to continue.

Last season's inaugural edition went about as well as anyone could have hoped. The games weren't classics (though Butler's comeback victory over Purdue was certainly exciting), but the event itself was a welcome throwback to the original, organized and hosted by Tony Hinkle at Butler from 1948-51 and from 1957-60. It took the schools 50 years to put a similar event together again, but when they did, they got it right. All four athletics programs teamed together to host the Classic themselves, as opposed to outsourcing it to the Gazelle Group or one of the other patrons, and because they did so they were able to put the games in Conseco Fieldhouse, an actual basketball arena, while splitting the profits evenly among the four.

The end result showcased the collective culture of Indiana basketball. The impulse to gather in Indianapolis and square off on the hardwood -- the same impulse that has made the sport an obsession in the state, even at the high school level, for almost as long as it's been played -- was on full display. Everyone booed IU fans, because that's what other basketball fans from Indiana do. It was just fun, you know?

So, no, it was no shock Tuesday to see the four schools extend their sensible agreement through the 2014 season. But it was excellent to see. In a sport where scheduling too happily tosses aside monumental rivalries for the sake of individual gain (or, if you prefer, "protection" of a "nontraditional program"), the no-nonsense extension of the Crossroads Classic was a small but refreshing change of pace. May it ever be so.

1. Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said the Irish have extended their commitment to the Crossroads Classic for another two seasons. Brey expects the event to continue and be a fixture on the Irish’s schedule. Notre Dame lost badly to Indiana last season while Butler beat Purdue in thrilling fashion in the first event. Next season, in what will be the second of the initial two-year deal, will pit Notre Dame against Purdue and Indiana against Butler. Brey said the rotation of Notre Dame and Butler alternating with the two in-state Big Ten schools would continue in 2013 and 2014. The coach doesn’t anticipate playing Butler in a separate game since it might be hard to justify playing another in-state school, even one as highly rated and respected as Butler.

2. College basketball is in an era of transfers and another example of this is the attention 5-foot-9 Illinois State freshman Nic Moore is commanding. Moore had a solid freshman season for Tim Jankovich and the Redbirds -- averaging 10 points, 3.9 assists and 2.3 turnovers a game. Jankovich went to SMU to be coach-in-waiting, Vanderbilt assistant Dan Muller was hired, and now Moore wants out. As is the case with every transfer, there are suitors lining up. Notre Dame is in line with Illinois and Purdue for Moore’s services.

3. Davidson got plenty of mileage by beating Kansas in a neutral-site game in Kansas City early last season. Now Wildcats coach Bob McKillop is looking for a similar matchup. He said he called Texas coach Rick Barnes and told him he would love to play the Longhorns in Houston or Dallas at a neutral-but-Texas-leaning game. Davidson is in the Old Spice Classic, is playing Duke in Charlotte on the Bobcats’ home court, and is trying to get a single game at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, Kansas is playing Oregon State in the same game in KC that Davidson played last season. The Jayhawks are still desperately seeking a major home game on its schedule.

What if Tim Abromaitis got a (probably deserved) sixth year, too? Imagine how excited Mike Brey would be then.

As it stands, the Notre Dame coach is already quite stoked. On Friday, he learned that senior Scott Martin would be granted an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA, his sixth overall, thanks to a lost 2008 year transferring from Purdue and an ACL tear that cost him his 2010 season. On Monday, Martin and Brey got around to discussing the decision with the media, and as Martin cracked jokes about the bad economy ("So I figured why not stay in school for one more year?"), Brey wrapped his arms fully 'round his own very high expectations for the 2012-13 Fighting Irish. From the Chicago Tribune:

"I want this group to dream extremely big dreams, because they are very realistic," Brey said. "And dream them from Day One. We got a lot of work to do it. But I am excited about chasing big goals.

"We've talked about the Big East tournament, trying to win that. We've talked about playing deep in the NCAA tournament. This is a group that should be able to digest all that and do that. That's exciting for me, going forward. I like to have that: Boy, we can do it and we're expecting to do it."

Those are indeed big goals for this team, particularly without Abromaitis, but there are reasons to expect so much. Notre Dame's mid-season Big East run in 2012 proved this group of Irish, when cohesive and self-contained, can play with just about anyone in college hoops on any given night. It's an experienced group, but it's also one that keeps improving. Forward Jack Cooley proved to be one of the best offensive rebounders in the country in 2012 (and an underrated post scorer to boot), and he could compete for Big East player of the year honors in 2012. Sophomore guard Jerian Grant is an equally underrated perimeter presence who pulled off the rare feat of a high assist rate (29.5 percent) and a relatively low turnover rate (15.6 percent) in his 2012 season.

That duo alone would have kept this Irish team near the top of the Big East next season. Martin's return -- alongside good and/or emerging guards Eric Atkins and Pat Connaughton-- gives the Irish a deep, experienced, well-rounded team.

It's tempting to look at this Irish lineup, compare it to the talented heavies in the Big East and wonder if Brey isn't merely wishcasting. But the more you dig in, the more you appreciate Grant and Cooley's performances in 2012 ... well, no wonder Brey is so excited. He has every reason to be.

1. The National Association of Basketball Coaches' board of directors is meeting in Indianapolis on Thursday, with the issue of transfers and how to handle the requests as a primary agenda item. The board has some notable names, including Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who was involved in a high-profile case in which the player was initially restricted from transferring to a number of schools; Michigan State’s Tom Izzo; Pitt’s Jamie Dixon; Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim; Notre Dame’s Mike Brey; and NC State’s Mark Gottfried, among others. The NABC doesn’t have legislative power but does serve as a lobbying group to the membership -- and can also influence other coaches on how to handle a transfer situation.

2. The men's NCAA tournament basketball selection committee will also meet Thursday in Indianapolis. The primary agenda item, according to incoming chair Mike Bobinski of Xavier, is to determine the 2013 East Regional site. The finalists are expected to be Syracuse and Brooklyn (Newark, N.J., is still technically in, but it would be a surprise since the regional was there in 2011). Bobinski said it is unusual for the site still to be unknown less than a year before the event. The dismissal of former NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen apparently contributed to the site selection delay; Shaheen’s replacement, Mark Lewis, will be at the meeting. The original plan was for the tourney’s 75th anniversary to have a presence at Madison Square Garden. But the NCAA couldn’t make a commitment before the Garden had to turn in its Knicks and Rangers schedules to the NBA and NHL, respectively. The 2013 Final Four is in Atlanta. The other regional sites are set in Los Angeles (Staples Center), Dallas-Fort Worth (Cowboys Stadium) and Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium)

3. New Illinois coach John Groce has added two transfers in Rayvonte Rice from Drake and Sam McLaurin from Coastal Carolina. The Illini are also busy finalizing their last major non-conference game. Illinois will play Auburn on Dec. 29 at the United Center in Chicago to fill the final significant game on the schedule.

1. Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said there was no decision yet on whether seniors Scott Martin and Tim Abromaitis will receive a sixth season of eligibility. Martin and Abromaitis each have had knee injuries. Martin played in three total seasons -- the first one at Purdue and the last two at Notre Dame with a redshirt season and an injury season in between. Abromaitis played in only two games this past season. This was his fifth season in college due to an injured second season with the Irish. Clearly, getting one or both back would be a major deal for the Irish in the Big East next season.

2. Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus spent the early part of the week working on his non-conference schedule. He said scheduling has become one of the toughest parts of the job, especially in dealing with the amount of money teams are getting for guaranteed games. But SLU is once again working on a stellar slate of games that should help the power rating. SLU does get New Mexico in a return game and may end up playing Murray State in St. Louis. SLU is one of the anchor teams in the CBE Classic in Kansas City with Kansas, Texas A&M and Washington State. A potential Kansas-SLU matchup in a final would be quite a show in KC.

3. The Sun Belt adds Georgia State. The WCC adds Pacific. But the biggest winners outside the power six in this conference alignment in 2012 will likely be the Big West adding San Diego State. The Atlantic 10 may also win if it can finalize a deal to get Butler. The team that may have the most trepidation now could be Boise State. The Broncos went to the WAC for the fall of 2013 but the WAC could look drastically different if the MWC-CUSA merger poaches a few members. Or, more likely, the Sun Belt under former WAC commissioner Karl Benson gets regional teams out of the WAC in Texas and Louisiana to bolt. Don’t put Boise in the WAC in cement just yet.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – With his team trailing by as many as 10 points in the second half, Xavier guard Tu Holloway had one thought: “If it comes down to one of us winning this game on a shot, I’m going to win this game for us.”

It did.

And he did.

With 21.3 seconds left Friday night, Holloway banked in the go-ahead field goal to beat seventh-seeded Notre Dame 67-63 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Xavier, the No. 10 seed in the South, will play No. 15 seed Lehigh at Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday.

“My best game ever? I could say most important game ever,’’ Holloway said.

He played like it.

During a postseason in which his team is still trying to erase the memories of a reputation-shrinking December brawl on its home floor against crosstown rival Cincinnati, the senior seemed determined not to let it end early.

Trailing 48-38 in the second half, Holloway capped a 13-3 Xavier run with a jumper to knot the score at 51-all. Counting that bucket, Holloway scored eight of his team’s next 10 points, taking back the lead 59-58 with 3 minutes, 23 seconds left when he stole the ball and scored at the other end.

The teams traded the lead after that. And even after Holloway’s bank shot, which gave his team a 64-63 lead, Notre Dame had a chance to tie it.

But with 2.8 seconds left, as Irish guard Eric Atkins hit the front end of a one-and-one, teammate Jerian Grant was called for a lane violation when he left his position behind the 3-point arc too early as he ran in for a rebound.

Mike Stuart, a member of the three-man officiating crew that worked the game, said in a prepared statement about the call: “The rule is that anyone outside the 3-point arc is under the same restrictions as the free throw shooter. They cannot penetrate the arc until the ball hits the rim, in which case No. 22 [Grant] was clearly way down in the lane before the ball ever hit. It’s an obvious violation, by the rule.”

The whistle gave the ball back to Xavier, and Dezmine Wells buried two game-sealing free throws after Notre Dame guard Pat Connaughton was whistled for an intentional foul.

Holloway finished with a game-high 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting.

“The moment’s never too big for him,’’ Xavier coach Chris Mack said of Holloway. “… That’s who he is, he’s extremely courageous. He’s never one to let somebody else take over. He doesn’t do it selfishly; he just has a huge belief in himself. And his teammates do, and his coach.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Quick thoughts from 10th-seeded Xavier's 67-63 victory over No. 7 seed Notre Dame:

Overview: The Duke loss preceding this game will be talked about for quite a while. But so will the ending to this one.

Xavier guard Tu Holloway’s game-winning bank shot with 22 seconds left at Greensboro Coliseum -- followed by a lane-violation call on Notre Dame in the final seconds -- capped a down-to-the-wire, adrenaline-pumping affair.

It finished in odd fashion. With 2.8 seconds left and Xavier leading 65-63, Notre Dame’s Eric Atkins went to the line for a 1-and-1 and a chance to tie it. But as he made the first, teammate Jerian Grant was called for a lane violation when he left his position behind the 3-point arc too early as he ran in for a rebound.

Mike Stuart, a member of the three-man officiating crew that worked the game, said in a prepared statement about the call: "The rule is that anyone outside the 3-point arc is under the same restrictions as the free throw shooter. They cannot penetrate the arc until the ball hits the rim, in which case No. 22 [Grant] was clearly way down in the lane before the ball ever hit. It's an obvious violation, by the rule."

(A similiar call was made at a key moment during top-seeded Syracuse's 72-65 victory over UNC Asheville during the second round of the East Regional on Thursday.)

The call gave the ball back to Xavier, and on the ensuing inbounds pass, Notre Dame's Pat Connaughton was whistled for an intentional foul when he grabbed Dezmine Wells' jersey. Wells hit both free throws to seal the victory.

Turning point: Notre Dame led by as many as 10 points in the second half, but with 7 minutes, 3 seconds left, Holloway capped a 13-3 Xavier run with a jumper to knot the score at 51-all. Counting that bucket, Holloway scored eight of his team’s next 10 points, taking back the lead, 59-58, with 3:23 left when he stole the ball and scored at the other end.

Key player: Holloway had another great game, finishing with 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting.

Key stat: Notre Dame was 4-for-9 from the free throw line; Xavier was 18-for-27.

Miscellaneous: Xavier is one of only eight schools that have made at least seven consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. ... This marked the third straight trip to the tournament for the Irish.

What’s next: No. 10 seed Xavier will face 15th-seeded Lehigh -- which upset No. 2 seed Duke earlier Friday -- on Sunday for the right to advance to the South Region semifinals in Atlanta.

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.

NEW YORK – When Gorgui Dieng first enrolled at the University of Louisville, he was more exclamation point than Big East post player.

With 187 pounds stretched to its limits over a nearly 7-foot frame, guys like Fab Melo, Yancy Gates, Henry Sims and Jack Cooley could have him used as a toothpick.

And post moves?

Let’s just say Dieng had the moves like Jagger.

“I didn’t have any,’’ the sophomore said.

But after some dedicated weight training and personal tutelage from Cardinals coach Rick Pitino, daily 45-minute private sessions that were about as fun as they sound – “Oh no, it wasn’t fun at all,’’ Dieng laughed – Dieng now is playing like an exclamation point instead of looking like one.

The Louisville big man scored 16 points and yanked down 6 rebounds, shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the floor to help the Cards beat Notre Dame 64-50 and head to the Big East tournament championship game for the third time in four years.

Louisville will face Cincinnati in a title game that is perfectly emblematic of the shifting sands of conference realignment. This marks the first championship in which none of the league’s founding members are playing.

“Conference USA comes to the Big Apple,’’ Pitino joked, alluding to the two teams’ former league.

It is certainly not the final anyone predicted in November, or maybe January or February for that matter.

Cincinnati looked awful early, took part in an awful brawl against Xavier in December and lost to Rutgers in January.

Louisville, meantime, lost at Providence by 31 in January and spent the entire season blowing the budget on athletic training supplies. It got so bad Pitino worried about having enough players to practice.

Only three – Chris Smith, Chane Behanan and Dieng – have played in all 34 of the Cardinals’ games. Almost as many (Mike Marra and Rakeem Buckles) have missed the entire season with injury; Stephan Van Treese played in just three.

Fortunately for Louisville, Dieng was one of the mainstays.

He has not been spectacular but he has been steady, a reliable presence inside defensively and becoming a more deft scorer with every game.

The same player who averaged 5.7 points and 4.4 rebounds a year ago posted 11 double-doubles this season.

He even has moves, plenty of which were on display against the Irish.

“We wanted to go inside to Gorgui because they don’t tap the post and he did a very good job tonight of going to a variety of different moves, especially the jump hook,’’ Pitino said. “He’s becoming a terrific player. He plays real hard and the sky’s the limit to how good he can become down the road when he gets stronger.’’

Ah, the stronger part.

Dieng ballooned from 187 to 244 in a year, taking his charge to gain weight a little too far.

He checks in at a more muscular 235 now, but he’s still giving up plenty in the league. Cooley weighs in at 248 and stands just 6-9, Sims is 245 and 6-10, and Gates, who will Dieng will try to muscle around in the title game, is 260 pounds despite being only 6-9.

“I can tell I was kind of, I don’t want to say soft, but I wasn’t physical at all,’’ Dieng said. “I just got on the court and played. But (Pitino) changed my whole game. He made me like being physical.’’

Charming and friendly, the fish out of water – a Senegalese by birth now dropped in Kentucky horse country – has become a favorite in Louisville.

Fans love him and his teammates love to tease him for his malapropisms and still-balky English.

“He doesn’t get sarcasm at all,’’ Peyton Siva said.

Dieng, though, is getting this basketball thing down.

With an exclamation point.

Overview: It might not be quite as impressive as what UConn pulled off last year, but Louisville is on a heck of a run here in New York City.

The Cardinals, the No. 7 seed in this year's Big East tournament, are headed to the championship game after knocking off No. 3 seed Notre Dame, 64-50.

Louisville has now won three games in three days, taking out No. 10 seed Seton Hall, No. 2 seed Marquette and now the Fighting Irish. The Cardinals had a somewhat disappointing regular season, but are rising up the charts now in terms of NCAA tournament seeding.

Notre Dame will be in the Big Dance, too, but is now 0-5 in Big East semifinal games. The Irish lost to Louisville in last year's semis, too.

Turning point: Notre Dame took a 15-9 lead on a layup by Eric Atkins with 12:42 remaining in the first half. That was its last field goal of the half, believe it or not. Louisville outscored Notre Dame 26-4 the rest of the way and led 35-19 at intermission. The Cardinals' pressure defense simply suffocated the Fighting Irish.

Things didn't get any better for Notre Dame in the second half. The Irish managed to cut the deficit to 12 early on, but then the Cardinals poured it on again. Louisville led by as many as 24, and cruised to victory.

Key player: Louisville point guard Peyton Siva has been the MVP of this tournament so far. The 6-foot junior just missed a triple-double on Friday night, finishing with 13 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

Notre Dame big man Jack Cooley was named second-team All-Big East, but Louisville center Gorgui Dieng dominated him tonight. The 6-foot-11 sophomore finished with a game-high 16 points, making all eight of his shot attempts

Atkins had 12 points to lead Notre Dame.

Key stat: Notre Dame shot horribly on Friday night -- from everywhere. The Irish were 19-for-52 from the field (36.5 percent), 10-for-19 from the foul line (52.6 percent) -- and most importantly, 2-for-16 from 3-point range (12.5 percent).

Miscellaneous: Louisville has now been to the Big East title game in three of the past four seasons. The Cardinals won the tourney in 2009, and lost in the final to UConn last year.

What's next: Louisville will face No. 4 seed Cincinnati, which stunned top seed Syracuse earlier this evening, in the Big East championship game, at 9 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN.

Notre Dame is headed back to South Bend to prepare for next week's Big Dance.

NEW YORK -- Jim Boeheim argued on Thursday afternoon that college basketball players don’t care about distractions; players just want to play, the Syracuse coach said.

He was talking about his own team, which has rolled along despite a police investigation into alleged child abuse by a former Syracuse associate head coach, and an NCAA investigation into Cuse's drug-testing policy.

He could have been talking about all the teams in the Big East tournament semifinals.

Notre Dame lost Tim Abromaitis early to knee injury, a loss that coach Mike Brey admitted at least stunned the Irish early on. And then the Irish shook it off, grabbed the ball and rolled along.

Louisville doubled as a MASH unit, with more players in the training room than on the practice floor. The incomplete and ever-changing lineups meant the Cards took some lumps along the way. Yet here they are.

And then there is Cincinnati, one half of the brawl with Xavier that stained the game and both proud schools. Some wondered if the Bearcats would recover. Instead that embarrassing fight became the team’s turning point.

Now it is March and it is simply about basketball for everyone.

The question isn’t how will you deal. It’s who wants it.

Syracuse-Cincinnati

What to watch

The Bearcats at the 3-point line: In the regular season, Cincinnati hopped all over the Orange by draining four quick 3-pointers to build an early lead. Syracuse ultimately won, but that 3-point barrage kept the game tight.

The guards: There are an awful lot of good ones in this game -- Scoop Jardine, Brandon Triche, Dion Waiters and Michael Carter-Williams for Syracuse. Dion Dixon, Cashmere Wright and Sean Kilpatrick for Cincinnati. Syracuse’s backcourt has to take care of the basketball as it has all season -- the Orange had only four turnovers against Connecticut on Thursday -- and the Bearcats need their guards to crack the Orange’s zone.

Who to watch

Yancy Gates: The Cincinnati big man had a terrific game against Georgetown in the quarterfinals, helping the Bearcats come back to beat the Hoyas. He was equally effective against Syracuse in the regular season, scoring 16. The caveat: The Orange were without Fab Melo. Gates needs to be tough, especially on the boards, which is Syracuse’s one Achilles heel, for Cincinnati to win.

What’s at stake

The Orange could walk off the court and still claim the No. 1 seed on Sunday. Cincinnati, making its first Big East tournament semifinal appearance, is playing to up its slot on Selection Sunday.

Louisville-Notre Dame

What to watch

The pace: Notre Dame will want to slow it down, and Louisville will want to go. If the Cardinals can somehow push the Irish out of their comfort zone -- which coach Rick Pitino doesn’t necessarily expect -- it’s a huge advantage for Louisville.
The scoreboard: First, to see if it moves. Though the Cardinals prefer to push tempo, they aren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut. The game against Marquette was more exception than rule. They don’t score a lot of points, nor do the Irish. Second, to see how many overtimes it goes. These teams have played at least one extra stanza in their past four meetings, and six of the past nine.

Who to watch

Peyton Siva: The Louisville point guard did not play well against the Irish in the regular season; he was a nonfactor with only eight points. He’s been sensational in the Big East tournament. In two games, Siva has 32 points, 10 steals and nine assists, and he has played 70 of a possible 80 minutes.

What’s at stake

The Irish have never played for the Big East tournament title, going 0-for-4 in semifinal games -- including last year, when Louisville upset the favored Irish. Louisville, meantime, has played for the title three times since joining the league.

NEW YORK – Somewhere in Philadelphia, Bruiser Flint should be crafting his argument:

"The Top 100 Reasons Why My Team Deserves To Be in the NCAA Tournament."

South Florida provided 99 for the Drexel coach.

The Bulls, fighting to prove why they belonged in the bracket, instead gave the selection committee a litany of reasons for why they didn’t.

Forget the RPI and the 1-9 record against RPI top-50 teams. Forget the unbalanced schedule that worked against the Bulls in terms of SOS.

Just go to the eye test and watch the final few minutes of regulation and the extra period in their 57-53 overtime loss to Notre Dame. The federal government could put it on a loop to force bad guys to confess.

It was equal parts painful and foolish, a one-two self-inflicted punch that could prove to be a knockout.

Missed layups, missed front ends of one-and-ones, turnovers, dribbling aimlessly for 23 of the final 25 seconds with a four-point deficit and throwing the ball out of bounds on a last-ditch attempt to win it.

How did USF blow it? Let us count the ways.

And the Bulls blew it on a bubblicious night when Texas and Cal likely played their way in with wins and North Carolina State and Colorado State at least played their way into the discussion.

Instead, USF joined Washington, Northwestern and Mississippi State in the losers’ bracket of teams that will spend an uncomfortable Sunday evening.

Of course, beauty or ugliness, as Stan Heath said, is in the eye of the beholder -- and when the USF coach gazed upon the mess, he saw a masterpiece.

“Hopefully we erased any doubt of what kind of basketball team we are,’’ he said. “We belong. We definitely belong. Giving that kind of effort on the defensive end, you have to really appreciate when you have teams that sacrifice themselves on the defensive end. People on the outside, the casual observer, don’t know how difficult that is, don’t understand that. Teams like us not only get in, they win and advance.’’

Heath’s assessment of his defense is fair. The Bulls do play hard and they challenge shots, using their size inside to make everything difficult. In one ridiculous effort, Gus Gilchrist managed to block Jerian Grant despite falling backward and out of bounds.

But this wasn’t about the defense making things ugly. Good defense should be lauded.

This is about the offense making things uglier.

As active and disruptive as the Bulls’ defense is, their offense is that lackluster. It is like watching chess, with players just standing around like statues.

South Florida led by three with 2:45 to play in a game when three points might as well have been 300, and lost. Frankly, it lost multiple times.

First, when with 33 seconds to play and USF up 45-44, Jawanza Poland got out on the break with absolutely no one but a row of cheerleaders near him and the basket ... and missed a layup.

“He should have finished that layup,’’ Heath said. “He’s point-blank, all by himself. He makes it and the game is over. It’s done.’’

Second, when Poland, strangely fouled by Scott Martin after that miss, clanked the front end of a one-and-one.

Third, when Poland made the worst 33 seconds of his life even worse, fouled Pat Connaughton.

Because the Irish were every bit as culpable in this disaster, Connaughton naturally missed one of two free throws to tie it with 26 seconds left.

“That was unusual,’’ Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said with a chuckle. “We threw a bomb to Pat and he got fouled. I thought, this is getting wild.’’

Ah, but there were five more minutes of wild to come. Notre Dame edged out to a four-point lead when Eric Atkins, without a field goal in the entire game, drained a 3-pointer with 30 seconds to play.

USF got the ball back and point guard Anthony Collins showed all the urgency of a senior citizen on a freeway.

It would have been a comedy of errors if weren’t so hard to understand and if the potential ramifications weren’t so bad.

“I’ll be honest, I won’t sleep,’’ Heath said. “You want to hear your name called on Sunday at 6 o’clock. I think we’ve done a great job by putting ourselves in a great position. I think our team is worthy. But there’s some people that have a lot of information that make wise decisions and we’ll let our case rest with them.’’

There is no shame in losing to Notre Dame. The Irish are a very good team, owners of a 22-10 record now and a legit top Big East squad.

And Heath should be commended for what he’s done. He has retooled a team that won 10 games all of last season into one that won 12 in the Big East alone this season.

But at this time of year it is not enough to talk about what you’ve done. You have to compare your results and your game to others.

You have to look like an NCAA tournament team -- and in its last game before Selection Sunday, USF didn’t.

Overview: Notre Dame is in the Big East tournament semifinals -- and the Fighting Irish are awfully fortunate to be there.

No. 6 seed South Florida had No. 3-seed Notre Dame on the ropes in the final minute of regulation Thursday night, but made several critical mistakes that allowed the game to go into overtime (see more below). And the Irish took care of business from there, winning 57-53.

It's a crushing loss for South Florida (20-13), which was looking to go to the Big East semis for the very first time. It also means the Bulls' NCAA tournament status is very much up in the air -- a win against Notre Dame (22-10) would have essentially sealed a bid to the Big Dance.

Turning point: The first half was a strange one. South Florida hit eight of its first 10 shots, opening up a 20-8 lead -- but then went into a nine-minute, 12-second drought, during which it fell behind 26-20. The Bulls closed to within 28-26 at intermission.

The game remained tight throughout the second half, and then things went haywire in the final minute. First Victor Rudd turned the ball over with 40 seconds left and the Bulls up 45-42, which led to two Notre Dame free throws. Then the Bulls inbounded the ball, broke the press and found Jawanza Poland for a wide-open layup -- but he missed it.

Poland was fouled in the scramble for the ball, went to the foul line -- and missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Then Poland tried to intercept a pass on defense and was whistled for a foul -- Pat Connaughton made one of two free throws, and we ended up in overtime.

The big play in OT was a trey by Eric Atkins -- who didn't score a single point in regulation -- that pushed Notre Dame's lead from 51-50 to 54-50 with 30 seconds remaining. South Florida's Toarlyn Fitzpatrick hit a 3-pointer with three seconds left to make it 54-53, then Notre Dame was fouled and hit one of two free throws. And on South Florida's last-ditch chance to tie or win the game, having to go the length of the floor with one second left, the Bulls threw the ball out of bounds. A perfect ending.

Key player: Notre Dame had three players in double figures, but the biggest player of the night was Atkins. The sophomore guard averages 12.4 points per game, but had a goose egg for 40 minutes, and it's tough to stay in a game mentally when you haven't broken through on the scoreboard for that long. But he finally got his chance in overtime, and he delivered when it counted most. Atkins had six points in overtime, and also had six assists in the game.

Rudd had 16 points to lead South Florida.

Key stat: Notre Dame outscored South Florida at the foul line, 13 to 3. South Florida shot just five free throws on the night.

Miscellaneous: South Florida point guard Anthony Collins suffered a finger injury on his left hand late in the second half, and sounded like he was in intense pain. He did return to the game with his fingers taped, but that's something to keep an eye on with USF going forward.

What's next: Notre Dame will play No. 7 seed Louisville in Friday night's second Big East semifinal, which should tip at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET. The two teams met once in the regular season, and it was a thriller -- a 67-65 Notre Dame win in double overtime at Louisville.

For South Florida, it's nervous time, until Selection Sunday rolls around and the Bulls see if their name is called.

Editor’s Note: To see our expert picks for each of the nation’s 12 top conferences, click here. To cast your vote in these races, visit SportsNation.

A quick look at the player and coach of the year races in the Big East:

Player of the year

Syracuse is far and away the best team in the Big East Conference.

Which is great when it comes to winning games, but a real problem when you’re trying to sort out player of the year trophies.

Usually you can at least find one obvious candidate from the best team in the conference. With the Orange, that’s impossible. Together they are unbeatable, but individually they almost cancel one another out. Is Scoop Jardine more valuable than Kris Joseph? Does Joseph do more than Fab Melo? How about Dion Waiters, the guy who comes off the bench to rank second on the team in scoring?

All four will get and deserve votes but Syracuse is truly a sum-of-its-parts squad, one where every piece is critical but none more than the others. Someone on this team could win Big East POY -- and if we were voting, we’d lean Waiters -- but it’s not likely.

So who are the obvious candidates? There are two front-runners – Marquette’s Darius Johnson-Odom and West Virginia’s Kevin Jones.

Johnson-Odom has been terrific for a team that has been rock steady all year. Second in the Big East (behind Jones) in scoring, he averages 18.4 points per game. He’s scored in double figures in every game he’s played in save one -- suspended for the first half against West Virginia, he had nine.

Jones, in the meantime, had to be great for coach Bob Huggins’ young team to survive -- and the senior forward has been great. Along with leading the league in scoring and rebounding (20 points and 11 boards), he’s put up 18 double-doubles this season.

Some other long shots to consider: Marquette's Jae Crowder, Notre Dame’s Jack Cooley, Georgetown’s Jason Clark and Seton Hall’s Herb Pope. St. John’s freshmen D’Angelo Harrison and Moe Harkless have been terrific but there’s another newcomer award for them.

It’s a tough pick between the two favorites and I waffle daily but I’d probably lean Johnson-Odom because he has not only been sensational, his team has been, too.

Coach of the year

Interesting test case here -- do you reward the guy who has steered the loaded roster to near perfection or do you celebrate coaches who have had surprising success?

Jim Boeheim is one trip to South Bend away from perfection, achieving such rarefied air despite dealing with the fallout from the Bernie Fine scandal in December. Outsiders might argue that a kindergartener could coach a team with so much depth and talent. What looks easy, though, isn’t always. Managing a team -- especially in this day and age, when premier players come in with premier egos -- is not easy.

And Boeheim hasn’t steered a team to near perfection in any old league. He’s done it in the Big East.

Mike Brey and John Thompson III, meantime, took the opposite run to success. Neither is supposed to be here.

The Irish were picked ninth in the league, and that was before Tim Abromaitis blew out his knee. After that? No one figured Brey’s team to be of any consequence.

But Brey, who memorably retooled his team two years ago after Luke Harangody’s injury, has done it again. Notre Dame is 12-5 in the league, vying for a top-four finish. Brey, who won coach of the year honors last year, has imbued his team with confidence, handing over the keys to the sophomore backcourt of Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant, and letting them run the show.

Thompson’s year at Georgetown has been equally impressive and equally surprising. The Hoyas were picked 10th in the preseason coaches’ poll after losing Chris Wright and Austin Freeman to graduation.

Instead, Georgetown is knotted with Notre Dame at 12-5. Henry Sims has been an eye-opener, the ideal point-center for the Hoyas’ Princeton style, and Otto Porter is arguably among the top freshmen in the conference.

Outsider choices: Mike Dunlap and Stan Heath. Dunlap is supposed to be an assistant, helping Steve Lavin. Instead, while Lavin recuperates from prostate cancer surgery, Dunlap has been running the show at St. John's, and running it with a roster stuffed to the gills with freshmen. Heath, meantime, has pulled himself off the hot seat and the Bulls into the conversation, taking South Florida to its best finish since joining the Big East.

This is another can’t-go-wrong choice. And hey, could you argue with Marquette's Buzz Williams winning it too? Not me.

My pick: Boeheim. The name of the game is winning, and no one in the league has done that better this year than the Syracuse coach.

The Morning After is our semi-daily recap of the night's best basketball action. It wrote this after it finished Bubble Watch early this morning; it preemptively apologizes for any fatigue-induced typos.

No. 12 Georgetown 59, No. 19 Notre Dame 41: Every so often in the past three weeks, someone in a chat or on Twitter or wherever would ask whether "Game X" was the appropriate time for Georgetown fans to start freaking out. See, Georgetown has collapsed down the stretch a lot in recent years, and it seems the general fan consensus was that these collapses were systemic. The letdown would happen eventually. It was a matter of when, not if.

This has always been a silly question, perhaps one most easily answered with the following: "Have you seen this Georgetown team play defense?" After Monday night's dominant win over Notre Dame, such a retort has never been more appropriate.

Simply put, the Hoyas -- who share a league with the 29-1 Syracuse Orange, by the way -- play the best brand of defense in the Big East. Throughout their now 12-5 campaign, they've allowed league opponents the fewest number of points per possession. On Monday, it was easy to see examples as to why: The Hoyas use their all-around length to challenge every shot, both from long range and inside the arc, with tenacity, and when their opponents miss -- and they do so more often against Georgetown than all but five teams in the country this season -- the Hoyas often secure the rebound. On Monday night, Georgetown held Notre Dame, a previously scorching squad, to just 17.6 percent on 3 of 17 shooting from long range. Forward Jack Cooley was a non-factor, saddled with foul trouble and unable to compete with the interior length of Henry Sims, and ND rarely got second chances on its misses. The result was .77 points per trip, by far the Irish's worst output of the past two months.

And then, after Georgetown had finished stifling ND on its own end, it brought the ball down the floor and played its trademark brand of patient, pass-first Princeton offense. Everyone was good, but Sims -- who has to be the best passing big man in the country -- was magnificent, scoring easy buckets on the low block but just as often slipping gorgeous bounce passes to Hoyas cutters prettier than anything any coach could ever hope to draw up. God, it was fun to watch.

In the offseason, when the basketball dries up and the depression sinks in, remind me to visit Sims' Synergy profile, click on his assists, and watch the video on an endless loop. (Actually, let me write than on my calendar: "April 20: Shave for first time in weeks. Then watch Henry Sims on Synergy." OK, got it. Let's move on.)

No. 4 Kansas 70, Oklahoma State 58: Actually, come to think of it, make that two offseason reminders: "May 15: Consider taking shower. Decide to pass. Then cue up every single made 3 of Keiton Page's 2011-12 season. Play on loop."

It's not so much that Page's shot itself is sweet -- though it is -- but rather about how Page gets his shots. My roommate, a former screen-utilizing wing player in high school, was watching the "SportsCenter" highlights of Page's night in total appreciation and awe. I think he said something like, "See, that just shows you, if you know how to play basketball and use screens and shoot, you can score." And I hate to tell him this, but he's right. Last night, a relatively unathletic 5-foot-7 dude became Oklahoma State's all-time leader in made 3s, and he got there because: a) he can shoot and b) he uses off-ball screens as well as any player in the country. Rub the shoulder and pin the defender. Fade if he overplays. Come off with your hands out, ready to shoot. Plenty of players in college hoops have these skills, but just as many don't, and with Page, you can't even call it a skill. It's more like an art.

Alas, Page's senior night excellence wasn't enough to stop the Big 12 steamroller that is Kansas, which clinched the outright 2012 Big 12 regular-season title with the win. It's the eighth straight season in which Kansas has won at least a share of its conference's top honors, which is, when you think about it, utterly insane.

The Jayhawks got there thanks in large part to their own senior guard, Tyshawn Taylor, who has, in his four years in Lawrence, morphed from a promising youngster to a mercurial personality to, now, a bonafide fan favorite. Taylor's scoring was incredible: 27 points, 10-of-15 from the field, 4-of-7 from 3.

After the game, Erin Andrews asked Taylor to describe how hard it was to guard Page. "He's a bad boy," Taylor said, an ultimate sign of respect for an opponent of four years. We can only assume the feeling was mutual.

Everywhere else: Baylor beat Texas Tech. That's pretty much all you need to know about that.