Kansas Vs Ohio State

Kansas Vs Ohio State, The tightrope walk rocks on for the Jayhawks. Kansas, the underrated, undervalued team that’s been teetering on the edge of the tournament since before it even began, is now one of the last two left.

Tyshawn Taylor made two big free throws late, and All-American Thomas Robinson finished with 19 points and eight rebounds Saturday night to lift the Jayhawks to a come-from-behind 64-62 win over Ohio State in the Final Four — a game Kansas led for a grand total of 3 minutes, 48 seconds.

After scoring the game’s first bucket, Kansas didn’t lead again until Travis Releford made two free throws with 2:48 left. That lasted for 11 seconds, but the Jayhawks (32-6), who trailed by as many as 13, overcame another deficit and finally held on against the Buckeyes (31-8).

“It’s just been our thing all year, coming back,” Robinson said. “I don’t like doing it, but for some reason my team is pretty good when we’re down.”

More than pretty good. Kansas is one more magic act from bringing its second title in five years back to Allen Fieldhouse. It might take exactly that. The opponent is Kentucky, the big-time favorite to win it all, and a 69-61 winner over Louisville in the evening’s first semifinal. The Wildcats are an early 6.5-point favorite.

“It’s a dream to play the best team in the country, up `til now, hands down, the most consistent,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “It’s a thrill. And I think it’s even more of a thrill for us, because I don’t think anybody thought we could get here.”

Taylor’s two free throws with 8.3 seconds left gave Kansas a 64-61 lead, matching its biggest of the game. The Jayhawks intentionally fouled Aaron Craft with 2.9 seconds left. Craft made the first, then quickly clanked the second one off the front of the rim but was called for a lane violation.

Anthony Davis Player Of The Year

Anthony Davis Player Of The Year, Relax, Big Blue Nation. You can come in off the ledge now. Or one of those bridge railings Rick Pitino said would be needed if his Louisville Cardinals had been able to pull off the upset.

Rusty Costanza / The Times-PicayuneA determined Anthony Davis of Kentucky outfights Louisville’s Gorgui Dieng for one of his game-high 14 rebounds during the second half of the Wildcat’s 69-61 victory in the Final Four semifinals at the Superdome on Saturday. Davis also led all scorers with 18 points.
Your beloved Kentucky Wildcats are in Monday night’s national championship game after a sometimes-harrowing 69-61 victory against their in-state rivals Saturday in the Final Four semifinals before 73,361 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Kentucky (37-2) will be going for the eighth title in school history, but the first since 1998, and it puts Wildcats Coach John Calipari in reach of his first championship in four Final Four appearances.

“No doubt,” said David Colarussa, a Tulane student from Pittsburgh who nevertheless was wearing an “I Hate Louisville” T-shirt. “We have total confidence in our players. And in Cal we trust.”

It wasn’t easy. Final Four games aren’t supposed to be.

Louisville (30-10) denied Kentucky its trademark transition points (just four allowed), and kept the Wildcats off the offensive boards (just six offensive rebounds allowed).

Kentucky usually demoralizes opponents with big runs. But in this game, the Wildcats’ longest stretch of unanswered points was eight after Louisville scored the game’s first basket.

But what the Cardinals didn’t have, or for that matter no team in college basketball possesses this season, was a player to match 6-foot-10 freshman Anthony Davis.

Thrilla On The Hilla Justin Trudeau

Thrilla On The Hilla Justin Trudeau, Justin Trudeau will exchange a figurative blood sport for a real one when he steps out of the political arena and into the boxing ring on March 31.

The Liberal MP will face off against Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau in the marquee bout of this year’s Fight for the Cure, an annual Ottawa boxing tournament that pits local notables against each other to raise money for cancer research.

Better known for his movie-star good looks than his physical prowess, Trudeau has been training hard for the last six months in hopes he’ll surprise a few people when the bell sounds next Saturday.

He’ll need as much toughness as he can muster. His father, long-serving Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau, ensured his son had some boxing lessons. But his 37-year-old opponent is three years his junior, has a black belt in karate and served in the Canadian Forces.

Ringside and second row tickets are currently sold out for the event at the Hampton Inn in Ottawa, but you can purchase a standard table for $1,800.

AMA Supercross 2012

AMA Supercross 2012, Ryan Villopoto wrapped up his second straight AMA Supercross season title Saturday night, racing to his eighth victory in the first 13 rounds of the season.

Villopoto, the Kawasaki star from Poulsbo, Wash., held off Davi Millsaps in front of 48,962 fans at Reliant Stadium. Villopoto has a 104-point lead over KTM’s Ryan Dungey, sidelined by a broken collarbone.

“It’s huge,” Villopoto said. “There is a lot of hard work that went into this, and I am only one piece of the pie. The whole Monster Energy Kawasaki team has worked very hard all year to help me make this happen.”

KTM’s Ken Roczen, from Murrieta, Calif., won the Western Regional Supercross Lites race.

Justin Trudeau Fight

Justin Trudeau Fight, When Montreal MP Justin Trudeau stepped into the ring Saturday night for his charity boxing match against a Conservative senator, it was with a saddened heart.

Trudeau’s grandmother, Kathleen Sinclair, died Thursday at a B.C. nursing home.

“At 92, Gramma’s mind was still strong, but her body slowly shut down,” Trudeau said Saturday morning on Twitter. “She loved, and was loved, immensely.”

Sinclair, born Kathleen Bernard in 1920 in B.C.’s Okanagan region, was part of a family steeped in politics.

Her husband, James Sinclair, served as a member of Parliament for the Vancouver area from 1940 to 1958, including a stint as fisheries minister under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent.

Her daughter Margaret, one of five girls in the family, married Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1971. Kathleen Sinclair was one of only a handful of people who knew in advance of the secretly planned wedding, and told CBC News at the time that she was delighted to have the prime minister marry her daughter.

“I was very happy for her because I think it was what she wanted,” Sinclair said.

Sinclair’s 11 grandchildren include Justin Trudeau, the MP for the Quebec riding of Papineau, his brother Alexandre (Sacha), and Michel, the youngest of the three Trudeau brothers who died in an avalanche in 1998. She also had 13 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren, according to her obituary.

“Kathleen led a remarkable life,” the obit reads. “Although she travelled the world, moved her family back and forth to Ottawa during the political years, her heart always remained in B.C.”

Joe Paterno Death Reported By Onward State Student News Website

Joe Paterno Death Reported By Onward State Student News Website, Media organizations and an interested public sat on edge Saturday afternoon, knowing grim news could come at any moment. Just before 6 p.m. PST, it did.

Onward State, a student news site at Penn State, tweeted that according to its sources legendary former Nittany Lions football coach Joe Paterno had died at 85.

The news was jarring but not unexpected.

Paterno had learned he had lung cancer in November shortly after being fired from his post in the wake of an explosive S-EX- abuse scandal involving a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky.

And, a few hours before Onward State’s report, just before 3 p.m. Saturday, a newspaper in northeastern Pennsylvania had reported that Paterno had fallen gravely ill and that family and close friends had been summoned to say their final goodbyes.

Onward State’s report went viral and some media organizations, including CBSSports.com, went with the story.

But it wasn’t true.

“CBS report is wrong — Dad is alive but in serious condition,” Joe Paterno’s son, Scott Paterno, tweeted.

Later that night, Onward State retracted its original report and issued an apology.

“In this day and age, getting it first often conflicts with getting it right,” wrote Devon Edwards, who resigned as managing editor, “but our intention was never to fall into that chasm.”

Onward State wasn’t the only one. Far more prestigious institutions with professional journalists did as well.

CBSSports.com’s initial report did not cite Onward State as the source of its information but included a link to the student news site’s story. Shortly afterward, in a version that acknowledged conflicting reports, it cited Onward State by name as its source.

CBSSports.com managing editor Mark Swanson issued a public apology near midnight, admitting the original report it cited wasn’t verified. “CBSSports.com holds itself to high journalistic standards, and in this circumstance tonight, we fell well short of those expectations,” Swanson wrote.

The impact of such misreporting reverberated into Sunday when Paterno’s family announced that he had died.

It is not the first time a well-known figure was pronounced dead too soon.

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