Just yesterday I made reference to Larry Bird's epic NCAA performance against DePaul back in 1979. I noted that he scored 35 and pulled down 16 boards. I failed to mention that he also had 9 assists. One of the greatest performances in NCAA history.

In fact, only three other players have scored at least 35, gotten 8 or more boards plus a minimum of 7 assists. They are all legends. Bird plus Oscar Robertson (1959) and Bill Bradley (1965).

Make that four. Today, Otega Oweh had 35, 8 and 7. Kentucky needed every one of them to outlast Santa Clara in overtime.

Buckle into the time machine, because we are going way back. The photo below is the 1991 Kentucky basketball staff. Pretty impressive group. Bernadette Locke-Mattox (the first woman to serve as an assistant for a men's D1 NCAA basketball team; she would go on to be head coach of the UK women's team), Tubby Smith (national title coach in 1998), Rick Pitino (national title coach in 1998 and 2013), Herb Sendek (led four teams into the NCAA including Santa Clara), Billy Donovan (national title coach in 2006 and 2007) and Rock Oliver (who is currently an associate AD at UK).

Herb Sendek recruited Mark Pope to play at Kentucky. As is well documented, Pope was the captain of the 1996 Kentucky national title team.

1996 was the last time Santa Clara qualified for the Big Dance. Their point guard? Steve Nash, a Hall of Famer generally considered the best Canadian baketball player ever (although Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is now in the conversation).

Herb Sendek has had good success at Miami (OH), NC State, Arizona State and Santa Clara. He's a quality coach, but has never been great even though he had some great players including James Hardin (at Arizona State).

Sendek has been at Santa Clara since 2016. His teams have won at least 20 games every season since 2020. He's built this team old school, bucking every trend in the game. Every mid-major palyer that has any success transfers to a high-major. Sendek convinces them to stay at Santa Clara. He even talks some of them into red-shirting (that is, not play) their freshman year. That strategy was last in vogue around 1978. But he makes it work, somehow. The fact that the bay area campus looks like this.

Sendek's team lost today, but he out-coached Mark Pope. But he made one significant error. Sendek doesn't start freshman Allen Graves (what does he have against freshman) but he's his best player. Graves picked up two fouls in the first. Sendek took him out but put him back in with about 10 minutes to go in the first. he immediately committed his third foul. Graves ended up playing well with 17 points, but he was out of sync offensively and timid on the defensive end. Sendek ran plays for him repeatedly to get him back in rhythm offensively. This is a quibble, but in a game this clase it was probably the difference.

Well, Graves' foul trouble and the fact that Santa Clara kept trying to shoot 3s over Brandon Garrison. The video below shows how that worked out. Garrison is a supremely frustrating player, the kind who does one good thing immediately followed by two stupid things. He was big for my team today. 10 points, 7 boards, 6 blocks (!). He was so good, I included a second highlight from him.

Overtime was tight and tense. Santa Clara would not go away. It seemed like a random kid named Gavalyugov (also a freshman, also not a starter) was going to take out UK by himself. Then Gavalyugov tried to shoot over Garrison, who is 6'10" with long arms. Block, run out UK dunk. Twice! Block, UK run out resulting in two free throws. An 8-0 scoring run over 90 seconds calmed a bunch of nerves in the Bluegrass.

I am watching Iowa State dismantle Tennessee State right now. Domination in every phase. UK gets Iowa State next. Great.

Iowa State All-American forward Joshua Jefferson went out early against Tennesee State with an ankle/lower leg injury. He returned on crutches. Hate to see that. Iowa State was dominant without Jefferson today, but they'll need him going forward.

Hofstra was frisky in their game against Bama today, leading by 10 in the first. Nate Oates put the game in Philon's hands in the second and the Tide slowly pulled away. Not surprising that Hofstra would get frustarted as the game slipped away. But Victory Onuetu completely lost his cool, leveling one of Bama palyers and getting tossed out. You can't do that. Admirable restraint on the part of the Tide players to keep it from turning into a melee. Labaron Philon had an Otega-like performance with 29, 8 and 7 for the most glaucoma-free team in all of sports.

Hofstra is coached by Speedy Claxton, who won an NBA title with the Spurs in 2003. Speedy went to Hofstra back in the day, when they were coached by Jay Wright. Speedy's brother played for Wright at Villanova. Claxton has been the Hofstra coach since 2013. He's not doing it for the money. The first thing he did when he took the job was donate enough for them to build a new 5,000 seat basketball arena. Speedy was born in Hempstead, NY, which is also the home of Hofstra, which is named for the lumber baron who donated the land for the university.

Speaking of Villanova, they had their hands full with the Aggies of Utah State. Which isn't a surprise since this was an 8-9 matchup. Jay Wright was in the house to witness Utah State own the stretch, going on a 15-3 run in the last 5+ minutes. They scored at will at all three levels and forced two 5-second turnovers. Some great shooting in this one. Utah State hit 55% from 2, but only 12% (!) from 3 (2-16). Nova was the opposite, going 14-30 from deep (47%!) but only 44% inside the arc. That was a historic disparity in 3-point shooting.

Next up for Utah State: Arizona. I wouldn't bet against the desert cats, but that could be a good one. Utah State is really well coached.

Utah State brought a bunch of fans (they call themselves The Herd) who brought it. They wear blue latex gloves so their clapping is louder and distinctive. Who thought up that one?

That reserve point guard for Nova looks kinda familiar. Hey everybody, it's Devin Askew!  Playing in his sixth college season (!) for his fifth college team! (Kentucky, Texas, Cal two season, Long Beach State, Villanova). In the last 100 years, Kentucky has posted a posing record twice. Devin Askew was the point guard for one of those teams. Say what you will about Calipari, but one this is certain. If he has a great point guard, his teams are awfully good. If he doesn't, his teams are awful. Cal stubbornly stuck with Askew during the disasterous Covid season and got a 9-16 as a result. Memories, not good ones.

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