Inside the games: Vols welcome offense back to tournament
Tennessee single-handedly ended this tournament’s offensive slump in its 121-86 victory over Long Beach State.
The Volunteers’ outburst matched the sixth-highest point total in tournament history and tied the most scored in a first-round game.
UNLV beat San Francisco 121-95 in the first round in 1977.
The most points scored in a tournament game were the 149 by Loyola Marymount in a 34-point win over Michigan in the second round in 1990.
Tennessee was the first team to score 100 points in regulation since Kansas beat UAB 100-74 in the regional semifinal in 2004.
“We put the ‘fast’ back in ‘fast break,’ ” Tennessee guard Chris Lofton said.
Returning’ Rebels
UNLV’s 67-63 victory over Georgia Tech was the Runnin’ Rebels’ first NCAA tournament win since 1991, when they beat Seton Hall in the regional finals to advance to the Final Four as defending champions.
That team, which lost to Duke in the semifinals, was coached by Jerry Tarkanian.
Current UNLV coach Lon Kruger won seven NCAA tournament games since the Runnin’ Rebels’ last victory. He led Florida to the Final Four in 1994, and won one game each year with Illinois in 1997, 1998 and 2000.
Cavalier debut
Virginia’s backcourt of Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds is rated among the best in the country, and they were even more impressive in their first NCAA tournament game.
Singletary had 28 points on 9-for-13 shooting, including 5 for 7 from 3-point range, and grabbed seven rebounds in the fourth-seeded Cavaliers’ 84-57 victory over Albany.
Singletary had 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting, including half of his four 3-point attempts. He had nine assists and one turnover in 33 minutes.
“Their guards were terrific,” Albany coach Will Brown said, “as good as advertised.”
Family tie
Kevin Kruger took advantage of a new NCAA rule to transfer for a final season and play for his father at UNLV. He redshirted his first season at Arizona State then played for three seasons, leading the Sun Devils in scoring in 2005-06. He graduated in four years and under the new rule he was allowed to transfer and play right away. So he joined his father, Lon, at UNLV and they got to share an NCAA victory when the Runnin’ Rebels beat Georgia Tech 67-63.
Kruger is still waiting for his first NCAA tournament field goal, however, as he went 0 for 8 from the field, all from behind the 3-point arc. He did have eight assists and went 5 for 7 from the free throw line in 37 minutes.
“I wasn’t going to quit just because I hadn’t made a shot,” he said. “… Some nights, it’s not going to fall. Some nights, it is. There’s nothing I can do but get up a lot of shots tomorrow and before the game on Sunday.”
Sorry, Coach
This NCAA tournament was a tough one for college basketball’s winningest active coaches.
Bob Knight of Texas Tech, Lute Olson of Arizona and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, Nos. 1-3 on the wins list among active coaches, all lost their first-round games – the first time that has happened to those three in the same year.
The next two coaches on that list – Jim Calhoun of Connecticut and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse – didn’t make the tournament this year.
No foul
Wisconsin had some foul trouble in its win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, but the Badgers overcame it, as usual.
Jason Chappell and Alando Tucker both had four fouls against the Islanders, the first time for Tucker this season and the 28th time for a Wisconsin player. None of the Badgers have fouled out this season.
Kammron Taylor, who leads the team in minutes, has committed only 21.