Saint Louis

Chris Heinrich likes to create. When he attended Church Farm School in Chester County, he won an art award for pottery three consecutive years, and he's always being asked to make something in pottery or ceramics. Now, on the basketball court, Heinrich continues to create an effective game to help Saint Louis, the surprise tournament champion of Conference USA, enjoy success in the national tournament. The Billikens (19-13) last week won four games in four days, one of six teams in NCAA history to perform the feat, to gain the conference's automatic bid. And Heinrich, a 6-foot-11 junior from Quakertown, was instrumental in the team's 56-49 win in the championship game over DePaul, scoring 11 points and knocking down a pair of free throws with 21 seconds to play.

SAINT LOUIS - After permitting a season-high 87 points in a loss to Dayton on Saturday, Temple coach Fran Dunphy expected his team to respond with a much-improved defensive effort against Saint Louis. Although the Billikens nearly matched their season averages in points and field-goal percentage, the Owls made enough stops in the second half to come away with the 72-67 win over Saint Louis before 8,760 at raucous Chaifetz Arena. "I was pleased with our defensive effort," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.

Tommie Liddell scored 24 points, Ian Vouyoukas tallied 21 and Saint Louis might have ended Massachusetts' dreams of an NCAA Tournament bid with a 74-71 overtime victory in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament last night. The second-seeded Minutemen (23-8) needed to make a statement in the tournament to impress the NCAA Selection Committee, and losing their first game to the seventh-seeded Billikens (20-12) wasn't the way to do it. Saint Louis, which overcame an eight-point halftime deficit, scored the first seven points in overtime and then held on to win. A three-pointer by James Life with 32.5 seconds to play got Massachusetts to within 73-71, and the Minutemen got the ball back with 18.1 seconds on a backcourt violation.

PLAYING SAINT LOUIS is the basketball equivalent of a trip to the dentist office. Sit in the chair for 2 hours while the shrill of the drill drones on. All you can do is hope to survive and lose as little blood as possible. The Billikens play mean defense. In the parking lot, their car is too close to yours. In the concession line, they are putting the straw in your soda. In the washroom . . . OK, you get the point. They are everywhere. The task facing Saint Joseph's Wednesday night was to try and shake St. Louis long enough to walk away with a win. They squirmed, but couldn't get out of the chair and lost, 72-60.

PLAYING SAINT LOUIS is the basketball equivalent of a trip to the dentist office. Sit in the chair for 2 hours while the shrill of the drill drones on. All you can do is hope to survive and lose as little blood as possible. The Billikens play mean defense. In the parking lot, their car is too close to yours. In the concession line, they are putting the straw in your soda. In the washroom . . . OK, you get the point. They are everywhere. The task facing Saint Joseph's last night was to try and shake Saint Louis long enough to walk away with a win. They squirmed, but couldn't get out of the chair and lost, 72-60.

Fran Dunphy isn't sure which learned basketball philosopher first coined the phrase "offense is part inspiration, but defense is all perspiration. " The Temple coach just knows that it's true. Shooters run hot and cold, but unrelenting effort on the defensive end can be a constant. Despite the frigid temperatures outside the Liacouras Center and the even frostier shooting percentages inside it, the Owls' 57-53 squeaker over Saint Louis yesterday afternoon was emblematic of the sort of steam-steam persistence that is required to win when even the most makable shots are clanging off the rim or rolling out. And with steady point guard Juan Fernandez sidelined with a bone bruise to his left knee and twin towers Lavoy Allen and Micheal Eric foul-plagued and ineffective, Dunphy had to come up with a second-half answer, quickly, or risk being upset by the always-scrappy but supposedly outmanned Billikens.

Saint Louis hired Rick Majerus yesterday, a move that signals the school's intentions of becoming a Top 50 national program. Father Lawrence Biondi, the school president, announced the hiring in a statement. Majerus, a college basketball analyst for ESPN the last 3 years, has a career record of 422-147 with 15 postseason appearances. The school will introduce Majerus at a news conference Monday morning. "I am extremely excited about having a person of Rick Majerus' stature and reputation at the helm of our men's basketball team," Biondi said.

While both Saint Louis and Temple are known for their stifling defenses, only one - 20th-ranked Temple - has shown enough consistent ability on the offensive end from the beginning of the season. But that didn't matter much to surging Saint Louis last night, at least not in the early going, when the Owls made their first-ever visit to Chaifetz Arena and managed to escape with a 57-51 victory. The Billikens, the fourth-place team in the Atlantic 10, opened up a nine-point advantage (24-15)

The word is that Larry Hughes could be the next great one. A 6-foot-5 freshman guard for Saint Louis, Hughes will put his considerable skills on display today when the Billikens (22-10) meet the Kentucky Wildcats (30-4) in a second-round NCAA tournament game at the Georgia Dome. He was Conference USA's second-leading scorer at 21 points per game this season, and was the second-leading freshman scorer in the country behind Michael Redd of Ohio State (21.8 ppg.). "There are only seven letters to describe Hughes: L-O-T-T-E-R-Y," said Valparaiso coach Homer Drew.

Larry Hughes is likely to be gone from the board by the time the 76ers select in the upcoming NBA draft, but that didn't keep the club from working out the guard from Saint Louis at a closed session at the Healthplex in Springfield, Delaware County. The 6-5, 185-pounder is projected to go within the top seven picks of the June 24 draft, but in the event of a trade, the Sixers, who pick eighth, said they wanted to cover all the bases. General manager Billy King said the Sixers got a feel for Hughes the "person" during yesterday's visit, more than just dissecting his potent shooting skills.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - With Michigan State's season in peril, Draymond Green turned to teammate Keith Appling during a timeout and told him to be ready. And when his chance arrived, Appling delivered. His shot, the one Green urged him to take, helped save the Spartans.l Appling's critical three-pointer with 1:34 left, a 20-foot jumper set up by Green's drive and pass, gave Michigan State a 65-61 win over Saint Louis yesterday, and thrust the top-seeded Spartans into the Round of 16 after they survived a 90-foot tug-of-war and wills with the scrappy Billikens.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - There's a thread running through Michigan State's program that connects the decades and NCAA titles - three players intertwined by talent, charisma and leadership skills. From Magic Johnson to Mateen Cleaves to Draymond Green. Three-of-a-kind Spartans. Johnson and Cleaves, floor generals of different sizes whose smiles were as radiant as their spellbinding games, carried their teams to championships. Green is trying to be next. After recording his second career triple-double in an NCAA tournament game, Green will try to push the top-seeded Spartans one step closer to a third national title on Sunday when they play No. 9 seed Saint Louis.

Virginia will put its pack-line defense on display for the nation Friday against a Florida team well-suited for attacking it. The 10th-seeded Cavaliers (22-9) have only seven scholarship players available, making it imperative for their slowdown game to keep the score low if they hope to beat the No. 7 Gators (23-10) at the CenturyLink Center, Omaha, Neb. Memphis-St. Louis. The Memphis Tigers (26-8) have the No. 8 seed and an advantage heading into a showdown with ninth-seeded Saint Louis (25-7)

The final top 25 teams in the USA Today-ESPN men's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and previous ranking: Rec   Pts   Pr 1. Kentucky (30) 32-2   774   1    2. Syracuse 31-2   730   2    3. Missouri (1) 30-4   715   5    4. Michigan St. 27-7   660   8    5. N. Carolina 29-5   652   4    6. Kansas 27-6   586   3    7. Ohio State 27-7   578   7    8. Duke 27-6   557   6    9. Murray State 30-1   502   10    10. Baylor 27-7   481   11    11. Marquette 25-7   452   9    12. Florida State 24-9   442   17    13. Wisconsin 24-9   348   12    14. Michigan 24-9   319   13    15. Georgetown 23-8   307   14    16. St. Mary's 27-5   268   18    17. Indiana 25-8   252   15    18. Louisville 26-9   245   –    19. Wichita St. 27-5   231   16    20. Creighton 28-5   199   22    21. Florida 23-10   189   19    22. New Mexico 27-6   125   –    23. San Diego St. 26-7   99   21    24. ...

IT IS a mantra that is recited like gospel by every Billy Packer clone during college basketball's postseason: Tournament time is when guard play especially is at a premium. For a lot of teams, including Philadelphia's three Atlantic 10 Conference members, those words hold true not only in this particular postseason, but throughout all the games that went before. Temple, Saint Joseph's and La Salle not only had three guards on the floor on a consistent basis, but sometimes four.

THE ATLANTIC 10 and Big East start their conference tournaments today with a healthy number of teams eyeing up hitting the refresh button on Joe Lunardi's bracketology page. Locally, Temple is playing for NCAA seeding. But Saint Joseph's and La Salle need to make serious runs and Villanova needs a miracle. Here's a look at the three league's starting today: Atlantic 10 Regular-season champ: Temple won its second title in 3 years. But it's the first outright A-10 championship since 1989.

The top 25 teams in the Associated Press men's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and previous ranking: Rec   Pts   Pr 1. Kentucky (63) 30-1   1,623   1    2. Syracuse (2) 30-1   1,561   2    3. Kansas 26-5   1,482   3    4. N. Carolina 27-4   1,442   6    5. Missouri 27-4   1,343   7    6. Duke 26-5   1,262   4    7. Ohio St. 25-6   1,251   10    8. Michigan St. 24-7   1,149   5    9. Marquette 25-6   1,087   8    10. Michigan 23-8   945   13    11. Murray St. 30-1   922   12    12. Baylor 25-6   909   9    13. Georgetown 22-7   873   11    14. Wisconsin 23-8   853   14    15. Indiana 24-7   707   18    16. Wichita St. 27-5   492   15    17. Florida St. 21-9   468   22    18. San Diego St. 24-6   441   21    19. Creighton 28-5   364   25    20. UNLV 25-7   360   17    21. Temple 24-6   343   23    22. Florida 22-9   305   16    23. Notre Dame 21-10   256   20    24. Gonzaga...

THE THREE CITY Atlantic 10 teams were all over the regular-season awards announced yesterday. Now, all they have to do is win some A-10 Tournament games starting tonight. Temple's Fran Dunphy was named coach of the year, Saint Joseph's C.J. Aiken the defensive player of the year, La Salle's Earl Pettis the most improved player and St. Joe's Ron Roberts sixth man. St. Bonaventure's Andrew Nicholson was the player of the year. Temple's wonderful backcourt was honored with first-team (Ramone Moore)

WE'RE MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO: Seeing if three Philly teams can get to Saturday's semifinals in Atlantic City. Got to think league officials would not mind seeing that either. Would certainly help attendance. Temple, La Salle and Saint Joseph's have had terrific seasons so the ability is certainly there. None of this will be easy as there is not a tremendous amount of difference between the top of the league and the middle and there are very few, if any, easy games. TEAM ON THE RISE: Temple has won 13 of 14. The Owls have been rising for months.