Western Kentucky

Western Kentucky is at it again. The 12th-seeded Hilltoppers, who made an unexpected run in the NCAA Tournament last year, pulled off a first-round upset of fifth-seeded Illinois, 76-72, in a South Regional first-round game last night in Portland, Ore. Steffphon Pettigrew had 17 points to lead Western Kentucky (25-8) which led by as many as 17 points but had to hold off a late charge by the Illini (24-10). It was the 19th time in the last 21 years that a 12 seed has beaten a No. 5. Trent Meacham had a season-high 24 points for the Illini, who were without senior defensive specialist Chester Frazier, who had surgery on his right hand last week.

Western Kentucky found a way to stop Samardo Samuels and No. 3 Louisville. Double-teaming Louisville's freshman big man at every turn, the Hilltoppers stunned the Cardinals 68-54 yesterday at Nashville, Tenn., for their first victory over a top-three opponent in more than 40 years. A.J. Slaughter led the Hilltoppers (3-2) with a career-high 25 points and Steffphon Pettigrew added 17 points and 12 rebounds for Western Kentucky, which dominated the Cardinals (2-1) at both ends of the floor in the second half.

Glen Mills guard Bennie Stewart has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Western Kentucky. The 6-foot-3 senior was named The Inquirer's Main Line/Delco area boys' basketball player of the year after averaging 20.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.2 steals and 4.1 assists for Glen Mills during the 1997-98 season. He led the Bulls to the state semifinals as a junior and to the second round of the Class AAAA state tournament this year. The Bulls went 30-3 and won the District 1 Class AAAA title in Stewart's junior season.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - St. Joseph's started its basketball season much better than it had a year ago, beating Western Kentucky, 72-61, at E.A. Diddle Arena on Friday night. The Hawks avenged a 98-70 loss that opened the 2010-11 campaign by holding off several WKU rallies. The final rally came on the heels of coach Phil Martelli's technical foul and four consecutive points that made it 56-51 with less than five minutes to play. Langston Galloway answered at the other end with a three-point play that put the nail in the coffin, with a fallaway three making it 62-51 with less than three minutes to play.

Clem Haskins, the basketball coach at Western Kentucky, last night was named head coach at Minnesota, men's athletic director Paul Giel said. Haskins takes over from Jim Dutcher, who resigned in January after three members of the team were charged with sexual assault after a game in Madison, Wis. Assistant coach Jimmy Williams served as interim coach. "That's good news," said University of Minnesota president Kenneth Keller. "The truth is, I just came back into town no more than five minutes ago. This is the first I've heard of it. " A five-member search committee recommended Haskins for the position.

Clemette Haskins and Lillie Mason led No. 5 Western Kentucky to a 74-65 victory over St. Joseph's yesterday in the second round of the NCAA women's East Region. Haskins, a 5-foot-9 junior guard, shot 10 for 12 from the field and had four assists. Mason scored 27 points. "It was Clemette's best performance of the year, not only from a standpoint of shooting, but handling the tempo of the game, getting the ball to the right person and taking care of the basketball," said Western Kentucky coach Paul Sanderford.

Mark Bell, Western Kentucky's 5-foot-8 point guard, is the youngest of 22 children. His mother has 90 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren. If Bell signed autographs only for his nieces and nephews after yesterday's stunning 72-68 upset of Seton Hall, his hand would be cramped for weeks. Once again in the Southeast Regional, it was the smallest man on the court who made the biggest plays down the stretch. Thursday, Bell led Western Kentucky in scoring and rebounding in a 55-52 win over Memphis State.

Looking for a dark horse in the NCAA tournament? You don't have to venture much beyond the Western Kentucky stable in the Southeast subregional at Orlando Arena. The seventh-seeded Hilltoppers (24-5) take on 10th-seeded Memphis State (20-11) today in a first-round game. Memphis State has Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway, perhaps the most complete college player in the country, but Western Kentucky appears to have the better team. Many would consider a Hilltopper victory to be an upset, but that's only because Memphis State has a name and Western Kentucky is one of those lightly regarded "directional" schools.

They appear at this time every year like buds on a tree, players who go overlooked or underestimated through the season, then blossom in the NCAA tournament. Mark Bell of Western Kentucky is one of those players. At 5-foot-8, he is a candidate for the Naismith Hall of Fame Award, given annually to the best player under six feet. There is nothing like being the youngest of 22 children to stoke the competitive fires. Bell plays with a buoyant, indomitable spirit, testimony to the fact that instinct is as valuable a commodity in basketball as height.

There are few surprises when teams are extending their rivalry to the fifth meeting of the season, as the Rutgers and Penn State women's basketball teams were last night. When the occasion is the NCAA East Regional semifinals, the best players are expected to play well. Each coach hopes one of her other players surfaces with an influential game. Kristen Foley answered the wish of Rutgers coach Theresa Grentz last night at the Palestra. The 5-11 junior, who averages 10.4 points a game, lifted her tenacious, poised game to a higher level by scoring a career-high 25 points.

Western Kentucky and new football coach Bobby Petrino will be switching leagues after his first season with the Hilltoppers. Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said Monday that Western Kentucky will officially join the league July 1, 2014. "The tradition of the university and its athletics success is truly remarkable," Banowsky said. "The men's basketball program has made seven NCAA appearances since 2000, the women's basketball program has advanced to three NCAA Final Fours and football went to a bowl game last season in just its fourth year in the BCS. " C-USA, however, is losing Tulsa.

Villanova's 1985 NCAA Tournament championship remains a watershed of local college basketball. Not quite so well-remembered these days is the 1971 Wildcats squad that came within one game of winning the whole enchilada. On March 27 - after beating Fordham, Penn (by a 90-47 margin) and Western Kentucky - the Jack Kraft-coached 'Cats lined up at Houston's Astrodome against the juggernaut that was John Wooden's UCLA Bruins squad (featuring three future NBA standouts, Henry Bibby, Curtis Rowe and Sidney Wicks)

1 KANSAS Record: 29-5, 14-4 Big 12, cochampion. RPI: 5. Coach: Bill Self (20th season, 505-163 overall; 298-58 in 10 seasons at Kansas; 28-12 NCAA). Best win: 74-66 vs. Ohio State, Dec. 22. Worst loss: 62-55 vs. Texas Christian, Feb. 6. Three-pointers: 36.7 percent. Free throws: 73.3 percent. Top three: Ben McLemore (16.4 ppg., 5.3 rpg., 2.0 apg.), Jeff Withey (13.6 ppg., 8.4 rpg., 3.8 bpg.), Travis Releford (11.5 ppg., 2.6 apg., 1.2 spg.). The skinny: The Jayhawks will be disappointed with anything less than a second straight Final Four.

RYAN RADCLIFF threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Cody Wilson with 5:11 remaining to give Central Michigan the lead, and Western Kentucky was stopped on fourth down when a field goal would have tied the game in the final minute, giving the Chippewas a 24-21 win in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl on Wednesday night in Detroit. Lance Guidry, coaching the Hilltoppers on an interim basis before Bobby Petrino takes over, decided to play for the win on fourth-and-2 from the 19 with 51 seconds left, but Kawaun Jakes threw incomplete.

Western Kentucky has hired Bobby Petrino as its new football coach, the school announced Monday. Petrino, 51, replaces Willie Taggart, who left last week to take the South Florida coaching job. The 51-year-old was fired by Arkansas in April for a "pattern of misleading" behavior following an accident in which the coach was injured while riding a motorcycle with his mistress. Petrino had a 34-17 record at Arkansas before he was dismissed in the wake of the scandal. Petrino had an affair with former Razorback volleyball player Jessica Dorrell, who he later hired as a football assistant and gave $20,000 in gifts.

Kolton Browning's 16-yard touchdown run on fourth and 1 lifted Louisiana-Monroe to a 34-31 overtime win over No. 8 Arkansas in Little Rock, Ark. Browning accounted for 481 yards of total offense and four touchdowns to lead the Warhawks (1-0) to their first win over a Southeastern Conference team since defeating Alabama in 2007. The Razorbacks (1-1) played the second half without quarterback Tyler Wilson, who suffered a head injury after taking several big hits in the first half.

The claim might not last past Friday night, but for the next few days Ohio can boast of college basketball supremacy. For the first time, four teams from one state have reached the NCAA tournament's round of 16, with Ohio represented by Ohio State, Cincinnati, Xavier, and Ohio University. Previously, three schools from the same state had made it 20 times, including La Salle, Villanova, and Penn State in 1955. The Explorers, led by Tom Gola, reached the national championship game that season before losing to Bill Russell's San Francisco team.

AFTER AN historic first night when one team (Western Kentucky) overcame the largest last 5-minute deficit (16 points) and another (BYU) came back from the largest deficit (25 points) to win, followed by a Friday that included the unprecedented exacta of 15 over 2 that took out Missouri and Duke, rationality returned to the NCAA Tournament Saturday and yesterday. By the time last night's games ended, the Sweet 16 included 14 teams from five of the power conferences and along with the Atlantic 10's Xavier, a team that finally got it right after a season of getting it wrong and Ohio, a team from the long forgotten Mid-American Conference The Big Ten dominated, getting four through with a record of 9-2. The Big East is 11-5 after Cincinnati topped Florida State, 62-56.

Chris Allen led four Cyclones in double figures with 20 points, and eithth-seeded Iowa State (23-10) scored its final 14 at the free-throw line Thursday night to beat ninth-seeded Connecticut, 77-64, in a South Regional in Louisville, Ky. It's the first time since UCLA in 1996 that the defending champs have lost in the opening game and only the second time the Huskies (20-14) have lost their first game in the NCAA tournament. UConn coach Jim Calhoun was already on his feet before the final buzzer, walking to congratulate Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg.

T.J. Price's three-point play with 33 seconds left completed Western Kentucky's furious comeback Tuesday night for a 59-58 victory over Mississippi Valley State (21-13) in an NCAA tournament opener featuring a presidential audience in Dayton, Ohio. President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron had front-row seats to see the tournament open with a classic March comeback. The Hilltoppers (16-18) are the longest of long shots, the only squad in the 68-team field with a losing record.