PLAYING TODAY: Collision down South; West’s best
At Atlanta Regional
No. 1 Duke (32-3) vs. No. 4 Louisiana State (25-8): Battle between Duke’s Shelden Williams and LSU’s 6-foot-9, 310-pound Glen Davis could shake the Georgia Dome. 5:10 p.m.
No. 2 Texas (29-6) vs. No. 6 West Virginia (22-10): Longhorns won first matchup this season, 76-75, and held 19-rebound edge. 30 minutes after first game
At Oakland Regional
No. 1 Memphis (32-3) vs. No. 13 Bradley (22-10): Bradley’s run is nice, but Memphis’ mid-major tour runs through it. 5:27 p.m.
No. 2 UCLA (29-6) vs. No. 3 Gonzaga (29-3): The best teams in the West square off. 30 minutes after first game
TARGETED DEVIL: Redick in eye of the storm
Duke has become one of the most loved, and hated, programs in college basketball, enough to inspire a book, “To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever” by North Carolina fan Will Blythe. Duke senior All-American J.J. Redick is this season’s object of attention for Blue Devils haters. Asked why, Redick said Wednesday, “I have always said that the biggest reason why people dislike me is because I play for Duke. And because over the past four years I have sort of become one of the faces of our program, there’s been animosity directed my way. I’ve basically heard everything you can say about me or my family or my sexual orientation or my poetry or whatever. So now it’s just kind of comical to me.”
AMONG FRIENDS: Louisiana linguistics
LSU coach John Brady could have recruited his starting lineup by taxi. All five starters are from Louisiana and knew each other before signing at LSU. Three starters – Garrett Temple, Darnell Lazare and Glen Davis – hail from Baton Rouge. “They have their own way of communicating to each other,” Brady said. “One time in practice I thought they were mad at each other. But they said it’s just what they do. So I kind of just stepped away.”
QUESTIONS BEGGING FOR ANSWERS: No. 1s and a mid-major in spotlight
Can the No. 1 seeds move on? Can the mid-majors live to play another day? Those are the biggest questions as NCAA Tournament play resumes today with the Sweet 16 round. Never have all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. Memphis and Duke will try to come one step closer with games against Bradley and LSU, respectively. Bradley, meanwhile, can become just the second team in the mid-major era that began in the mid-1990s to advance to the Elite Eight, joining Kent State in 2002. Today’s best matchups: Gonzaga-UCLA and Duke-LSU.
