Phillin' The Lane: Championship Week

Basketball Australia's US correspondent Phil Moskowitz wraps another week of Aussie Boomers in action in the United States.

This week marks the start of the most exciting, edge-of-your-seat month that sport has to offer….. NCAA Conference Championship week, Selection Sunday, and the NCAA National Tournament.

The sheer passion, pride, and raw emotion that these kids play with are the biggest differences between NCAA and professional athletics.

NCAA athletes play for their teammates, their classmates, and for their school’s tradition as opposed to professional athletes who, on occasion, look like all they care solely about is their own performance or paycheck.

College athletes play for the name on the front of the jersey as opposed to the one on the back, and this makes for television that can not in any way be duplicated.

This coming week, four 2010 Boomer-hopefuls will be fighting for conference supremacy.

Matthew Dellavedova and the St. Mary’s Gaels kicked things off last night in the West Coast Conference Tournament.

After a first round bye, St. Mary’s went up against Portland in a Semi-Final matchup in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Gaels took control of the game on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor and scored a relatively easy 69-55 victory to advance to the Championship game today against Gonzaga (9/3 @ 1:30pm AEDT).

Delly had a very productive day with 16 points, four rebounds, three assists, and one steal.

Earlier this week Dellavedova was selected for the WCC All-Freshman Team as well as getting an Honorable Mention for the All-WCC Team. He averaged 12.5 points (3rd on team, 15th in WCC), 4.6 assists (2nd on team, 4th in WCC), and had a 2.6 assist/turnover ratio (1st in WCC, 18th in NCAA) in his first NCAA season.

“Yea, it’s great to be recognised [by the conference], but I just want to win tomorrow night,” Delly told PTL after the Portland game.

After falling short against Gonzaga twice during the regular season St. Mary’s has a chance for redemption today- it’s tough to beat a conference rival three times in the same season, and this should be a great rematch.

Ater Majok and the UConn Huskies also start their conference tournament tomorrow.

UConn fell to the 12th seed in the Big East after dropping their final two games of the regular season. The Huskies finished with an 11-7 Big East record and were 17-11 overall.

UConn’s first round match-up is against St. Johns Wednesday at 6:00am AEDT. If they keep winning and make it to the Championship game, they would need to play five consecutive days against the top tier of the Big East.

After St. Johns they would face Marquette, then Villanova, then comes the semi-finals, followed by the championship game on Sunday at 1pm AEDT.

Majok finished the season looking much more comfortable on the court. He played an average of 23 minutes, had 10 points (5-for-9 from the field), 11 rebounds, and six blocks in his last two games.

All six blocks came in UConn’s season-finale 75-68 loss to South Florida, and is a new career-high for Majok.

AJ Ogilvy also wrapped his regular season with two strong performances in Vanderbilt’s 1-and-1 week.

Ogilvy averaged 15.5 points (12-for-20 FG), 7.5 rebounds, two steals, one block, and one assist in the two games.

Vanderbilt is the 2nd seed in the South Eastern Conference Tournament this week and locked up a first round bye finishing the season 12-4 in the SEC and 24-7 overall.

Vandy will play Saturday at 12:45pm AEDT against the winner of Georgia and Arkansas. If they win, they will play in the Semi-Finals at 6:15am AEDT on Sunday. With a win in that game, the Commodores will play in the SEC Championship Game Monday at 4:00am AEDT.

The only chance that Vandy has to avenge their two regular season losses to Kentucky would be in the Championship game on Monday morning.

The last Aussie in tournament action is Brock Motum for Washington State who is playing in the Pac-10 Tournament this week.

Motum has played sporadically this season and will be facing Oregon in their first round contest on Thursday at 3pm AEDT.

When PTL caught up with Andrew Bogut a few weeks ago he offered up some advice for the Aussies playing in the NCAA.

“Just don’t take it for granted. I think in college a lot of kids kinda get there and are told they’re the world. Then all of a sudden before you know it it’s their third or fourth year and they haven’t been drafted [like they may have thought]. So I think definitely make the most of it while you’re there and take time to enjoy it.”

Bogut meanwhile has continued to flourish in the NBA. The past week he averaged 16.3 points (18-for-33 from the field and 13-for-16 from the line), seven rebounds, and 4.3 blocks.

Milwaukee has worked their way into fifth place in the Eastern Conference after their 92-85 win over the Conference leading Cleveland Cavaliers, which was their third win in a row and are now 9-1 in their last 10 games.

Also performing well was David Andersen who racked up 16 points (6-for-9 FG), five rebounds, two assists, one block, and one steal in 23 minutes against the Toronto Raptors, a 116-92 win.

He followed that with an eight point, three rebound games against the Sacramento Kings. However, after performing extremely well in the first two games off the week, didn’t see any time in the Rockets final two games, listed as having a sore back.

Nathan Jawai also didn’t see any time in the Timberwolves two losses but was listed in the team’s fifteen for the game against the Rockets with DND – Sprained Right Ankle and did not suit up in the following game. Minnesota has now lost five in a row and is only 3-11 since February 1st.

Patty Mills on the other hand did get in against the Indiana Pacers and recorded a career-high 6 minutes while going 0-for-3 from the field.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED:

• St. Mary’s beats Portland in the WCC Semi-Finals

• Bucks beating the Cavs to move into 5th place in the Eastern Conference

• UConn v So Florida- 4:32 remaining in the 2nd half: Majok records career-high 6th block

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS WEEK:

• St. Mary’s against Gonzaga in the WCC Championship Game

• UConn, Washington State, and Vanderbilt in their Conference Tournaments

• Bucks big match-up against the Boston Celtics (Wednesday @ 12pm AEDT)