Published: March 31, 2008 11:51 pm            

Ramblin' Reck: Sticking with Jayhawaks in an interesting Final Four

TERRE HAUTE — Then there were four … in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships.

Four No. 1 seeds have gained the Final Four for the first time with UCLA facing Memphis and North Carolina meeting Kansas in Saturday’s semifinals in San Antonio.

Memphis and UCLA overpowered opponents in the regional championships. Kansas hung on to defeat people’s choice Davis and Tyler Hansbrough had some big buckets and rebounds for North Carolina in getting by a solid Louisville team.

We took Kansas to win from the start and will stick with the Jayhawks, but the champ could come from the Memphis-UCLA game.

It should be interesting as usual.

We had three of the four finalists on our original bracket — missing on Memphis — and had two in our picks last week, tabbing Xavier and Texas to win as we went 7-5 on our picks.

One team from the Missouri Valley Conference still has a shot at postseason honors. Bradley and Tulsa met in the first game of a best-of-three series Monday to determine the College Basketball Invitational champ.

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• Congrats — Congratulations are in order for athletes who earned academic all-state honors last week.

Micahlyn Allen of Terre Haute North earned the honor in girls basketball.

Bradley Stockton of Terre Haute South was cited in boys swimming.

ISU recruit Carl Richard rated special mention on the single-class all-state team cage named by The Chicago Tribune as did Mark Yelovich of Mt. Zion.

By the way, Western Kentucky had the top graduation rate of the teams in the men’s Sweet Sixteen with 100 percent. Davidson was second with 91 percent.

Tied for last at 33 percent were West Virginia, Tennessee and Texas.

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• Coaches step down— Mike Beltzel has retired as men’s basketball coach at Hanover, posting a 370-81 mark in 20 seasons.

He went 495-276 in 28 years of coaching.

In the prep ranks, Basil Mawbrey resigned as boys basketball coach at Cass, where he was 147-42 in eight years with a 3A title.

He earlier coached at Connersville and won a state championship. His 38-year mark was 659-246.

Dave Burton resigned after one season as girls basketball coach at Warren Central but will continue to teach and coach golf.

Paula Fettig resigned at Beech Grove, going 27-56 in four years. Her overall mark is 157-72. She coached at Bloomfield when the Cardinals took Class A honors in 1998.

Franklin Central has named Brian Harbin football coach. He has been assistant at Center Grove.

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• Tom-Cattin’ It — Former Indiana State football player DeJuan Alfonzo was named Ironman of the Week last month in the Arena League. He scored twice and had six tackles at cornerback for Chicago in a 70-35 victory over Colorado. … Former ISU baseball players on opening-day rosters are Joe Thatcher with San Diego and Clint Barmes with Colorado … Teams have been named for the Hall Of Fame Classic games for preps next season. Franklin Central, Lafayette Jeff, Bluffton and Tipton will be in the boys games. Ben Davis, Connersville, Oak Hill and Wawasee are the girls teams. Ben Davis should return its entire roster. … Funeral services were conducted last week for “Mr. Nice Guy” Larry Hasler in Greene County. He played for Lyons High School and coached for some time and was a county commissioner at the time of his death. … Two players have left the University of Evansville basketball program: Jay Couisnard and Jon Van Hoose. … Evansville was off to a 2-19 start in baseball after being no-hit by Northern Iowa last week. … Now that Tony Bennett has turned down a chance to go to Indiana to coach basketball, Mike Montgomery may be the leading candidate. He formerly coached at Stanford.

Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by e-mail at treck@ma.rr.com or by mail at 4276 South 5th Street, Terre Haute, IN 47802.

        

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