Wrapping up Wednesday

ATLANTIC CITY - Let's conclude today by taking a look back at the action and assembling the multimedia all in one place.

The best game of the day was definitely Duquesne's 91-81 win over Massachusetts. The Dukes were up by as many as 19 points during the first half, but the Minutemen stormed back to draw within a point on a floater by Ricky Harris with under two seconds left before halftime.

UMass took a two-point lead a few times, including with 11 minutes left in the game. But after Duquesne forced the eighth tied score of the half two possessions later, the Dukes re-asserted themselves for good and pulled away for the win.

The game was full of interesting statistics, including great efficiency for both sides. UMass averaged 1.10 points per possession and Duquesne averaged 1.223. This despite the fact that the Minutemen missed 43 of the 76 field goal attempts they took, including 26 of 34 missed attempts from three-point range. But they got 19 offensive rebounds and shot a respectable 7-11 from the free throw line (though that isn't too many attempts.)

Duquesne shot 50.9 percent from the field for the game, including 11-for-24 from beyond the arc. They made a total of 28 field goal attempts and recorded assists on 20 of them. Also impressive was the 14 overall fouls committed, with only two players committing three fouls.

The best fans of the day were St. Bonaventure's. Sorry, St. Joe's and La Salle. But it's worth noting that one of the St. Joe's students I know told me she was disappointed with the Hawks fans' turnout.

You wonder whether things would have been different if they'd reversed the order of games and had La Salle and St. Joe's (plus Xavier and Temple in the second round) play at night. Just saying.

We'll close with a noteworthy line from each game and the various multimedia offerings. Tonight you get audio of the La Salle, St. Joe's and Charlotte press conferences, and video highlights of the St. Joe's press conference.

The La Salle audio is a bit choppy because of some glitches with the feed that came into my recorder. I've cleaned it up as best I can, but if you want more, click here for a quote sheet with La Salle and Saint Louis.

I'll talk to you again tomorrow. There's certainly a lot to discuss overnight - including what you think of the fact that Phil Martelli only used seven players in today's win.