Ohio State sophomore swingman LaQuinton Ross has shown flashes of greatness in his short college career, but last night in Los Angeles, Ross officially arrived. The 6-8 Ross is usually a solid weapon coming off the bench for the Buckeyes, but last night he saved their asses against Arizona. In an extremely tight game that was actually tied with just a few seconds to go, Ross came alive to score 14 of the last 17 Ohio State points, including an ice-cold three from NBA range to put his guys up three with just two seconds to go, effectively sealing the win … In the postgame handshake line, ‘Zona’s Mark Lyons jokingly (we think) greeted Ross with, “I can’t stand you!” … After the game Chad Ford tweeted: “LaQuinton Ross was amazing last 8 min. His stock is skyrocketing right now. Scouts have always liked him. Living up to potential in tourney.” … If this surging version of Ross is for real, and you team him with what you usually get from Aaron Craft and DeShaun Thomas? There might not be a better team than Ohio State left in the field … Of the four NCAA games played last night, that Ohio State game was the only one that wasn’t massively disappointing. While they were playing on one channel, office bracket favorites Miami was letting down their supporters on the other. Marquette completely dominated the ‘Canes, 71-61, taking advantage of a team that seemed to be a little out of sorts from the jump. Here’s the only stat you need to know: Marquette shot 54% from the field, while Miami shot 34.9%. It was actually painful to watch – none of the ‘Canes could make a shot from anywhere … The other high seed that didn’t bother to show up was No. 1 seed in the East, Indiana. The Hoosiers were completely befuddled by Syracuse‘s zone and seemingly mentally folded up the tents early into the game when it became clear that it was going to be a struggle all night. Syracuse won by 11, holding Indiana to just 50 points, a full thirty points below their season average. They also blocked Cody Zeller‘s shot six times … That goes to show you that you can watch tons of tape, try to have your scout team mimic Syracuse’s zone, and talk about how to beat it all you want to – nothing compares to seeing it up close … Honestly, way better than any of the games was some of the action on Twitter. Here’s what Carmelo Anthony tweeted right after the Syracuse victory: “Indiana just got taped!!!!! @DwyaneWade @stevenovak20 You guys will be next!!!!!” … And here’s what the great Rex Chapman tweeted about that same game: “Folks can put that L on Tom Crean all they want – but he played w no bench & a midget back-court all yr long. They were just exposed 2nite.” … The magic of 13-seed LaSalle ran out last night as the Explorers were just owned by Wichita State. For all of the power of the South West Philly Floater, it was evident about three seconds into the game that LaSalle had no shot at winning. The Shockers were so much bigger inside, they just bullied the Explorers all over the court. Wichita State would score on quickly and easily on layups in the paint, then LaSalle would struggle for a look on their end, eventually settling on a one-on-one difficult three-pointer. That scenario played out so many times it felt like it was on a loop …
Wow. The Los Angeles Lakers have been so bad in so many games this year. Last night was one of those nights. They let a Milwaukee Bucks team that was coming off a grim loss to the woeful 76ers the night before – a debacle that led to all sorts of drama between Brandon Jennings and the Bucks coaching staff – outplay and out-tough them last night, 113-103. They let Larry Sanders – he of 9.4 ppg – go for a career-high 21 points … Heading into the game Kobe Bryant needed 35 points to surpass Wilt Chamberlain‘s 31,385 career points for fourth on the all-time scoring list. He finished with 30, so the Kings will be the lucky highlight reel recipients on Saturday night … The official AP recap stated that Bryant left the arena using a crutch, “but was walking without any pain.” … Midway through the game, Bucks longtime color guy Jon McGlocklin kept insisting on referring to Steve Nash as “Little Larry Bird” … Those Dallas Mavericks .500 beards are going to have to stay a little while longer after they got pasted by the Indiana Pacers on their home floor last night, 103-78. Dallas was just dominated by Indy’s attack on the boards and their defense and after the game Roy Hibbert (16 points, 11 boards) seemed awfully unamused by the Mavs’ beard schtick for a guy whose team just rolled. “We heard something about them wanting to shave or doing something like that,” Hibbert said after the game. “We wanted to shut that (stuff) down to begin with. They wanted to get to .500 so they gave us their best effort in the first half. Whatever gimmick they need to rally themselves, that’s fine.” … DeMarcus Cousins was a monster for the Kings last night as Sacramento rolled past Phoenix 117-103. Boogie had 34 and 14 rebounds in just three quarters … As good as he was, the play of the night belonged to Tyreke Evans. In the second half he split a trap out by the three-point arc, bounded into the lane, went up, felt contact and went into a 360 spin in mid-air to lay it in. Crazy … We’re out like the Hoosiers.
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