Well darn it USC, Marquette and Siena

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Having loved the way USC started playing basketball the last two weeks, I was eager to see the Trojans keep winning. Hey, it helps our newspaper sales and the blog hits. USC leads and leads then ... loses.

Again, refs don’t lose games, but these particular refs in the USC-Michigan State game certainly gave the Trojans no breaks. But may I ask, after Taj Gibson comes back in with his four fouls, did no one tell him really clearly that getting an over-the-back call almost immediately was just not allowed? Apparently not.

Marquette, my alma mater, playing a fun style of little guys all helter-skelter and happily scoring, then overcoming the loss of its best player, Dominic James, because of an injury, then James comes back today, the Golden Eagles get behind Miss-ouri by 16, I quit caring, they come back and take the lead, I start caring, Lazar Hayward STEPS OVER THE LINE when he’s inbounding with a chance for Marquette to maybe hit a winning three-pointer with 5.5 seconds to go. So the Golden Eagles lose and now I’m both mad and sad. And you hate for a team to lose because a kid has a brain cramp. And sad for James.

And then there were the Siena Saints with Kenny Hasbrouck as the star and his dad Jeffrey following every game in his wheelchair and all of a sudden the Saints are leading top-seeded, top-ranked Louisville in the final four minutes, so in spite of myself, I start thinking maybe those Saints can go marching in to the Sweet 16. But no, they can’t.

Some small consolation in this. The World Figure Skating championships are in Los Angeles this week. Love me some skating and with Marquette and all the Pac-10 but Arizona (??) gone and no real underdogs left I’ll only mind missing the Xavier-Pitt game (family members are Xavier grads, so go Musketeers!) while there’s dance compulsories to cover.

-- Diane Pucin