NEW YORK (AP)—Dante Milligan made a touching and triumphant return to the arena he practically grew up in, and with a few encouraging words from his mother seated courtside, helped Massachusetts into the NIT championship.
The undersized post player had 17 points, 12 rebounds and made several blocks late, and the Minutemen defeated two-time defending NCAA champion Florida 78-66 on Tuesday night.
Gary Forbes scored 19 points, Chris Lowe and Ricky Harris added 16 each, and the starters scored all but two points for the Minutemen, who will play Ohio State on Thursday night.
It was Milligan who made things happen in the second half, though, rallying UMass from a nine-point deficit after hearing his mother Ruby shout something— he wouldn’t say what—a couple minutes after the break.
“That’s for me to keep right here,” Milligan said, pointing to his heart. “She yelled something that changed my whole focus for the game.
“She’s been through so much trying to raise me and my brother when we were younger.”
Milligan and his brother, Alonzo, were involved with Boys’ Club of New York growing up, and their mentor worked in public relations at Madison Square Garden. Together they spent dozens of nights hanging out in the locker rooms and watching the New York Knicks.
Three years ago, Milligan’s brother died in a random shooting in his old East Harlem neighborhood, and the Garden and Knicks established a scholarship fund in Alonzo’s honor.
The older brother carries a tattoo on his arm that reads, “Enjoy life today. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow may never come.”
He’s sure enjoying his time in the NIT.
He scored a career-high 24 points in the tournament opener against Stephen F. Austin and had 13 to help the Minutemen rally from 22 down with 14:37 left to beat Syracuse in the quarterfinals.
“It kind of feels like destiny,” Milligan said.
UMass (25-10) took its first lead since early in the game when Etienne Brower hit a 3-pointer with 9:49 left. Milligan scored a couple minutes later, then stuffed Walter Hodge at the other end, leading to another 3 from Brower and a 59-51 lead with 7:25 to go.
The Gators (24-12) never could get closer than six the rest of the way, ending a disappointing season with a lackluster finish miles away and far removed from the consecutive titles they won on college basketball’s biggest stage.
Marreese Speights had 12 points and a career-high 18 rebounds for Florida, the first defending champ to miss the NCAA tournament since 1989. The sophomore wouldn’t say whether he would enter the NBA draft, only that he’ll discuss it with coach Billy Donovan and his family.
Star freshman Nick Calathes added 12 points on just 5-of-19 shooting, and Dan Werner had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Gators, who were an abysmal 8-of-21 from the free-throw line—something that bit them while they tried to rally in the closing minutes.
“We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well,” Donovan said. “I thought their speed and quickness on the perimeter caused us problems.”
So did the Minutemen’s experience.
UMass starts three fifth-year seniors, a junior and a sophomore. The Gators countered with a lineup entirely devoid of upperclassmen.
“The reason I thought we’d have a chance in this game was if our seniors showed some leadership,” coach Travis Ford said. “These guys just have that never-die attitude.”
The game was a matchup of coaches who both learned under Rick Pitino at Kentucky, Donovan as an assistant and Ford as the guard who led the Wildcats to the Final Four.
Like Donovan a year ago, when he flirted with a coaching vacancy in the NBA, Ford now has to face questions about his future. His name has already popped up for the opening at LSU, perhaps a chance to return to his roots in the Southeastern Conference.
His team was fortunate to be within 36-27 at the break, after a dreadful shooting performance uncharacteristic of the nation’s eighth-highest scoring team. The Minutemen were 1-of-13 from beyond the arc and at one point went more than 12 minutes without a field goal.
Florida wasn’t much better, though, twice turning the ball over on inbound plays—gaffs more appropriate for November than the first day of April.
Forbes nearly brought the shooting slump to a merciful end with about 3 minutes to go, the ball rolling tantalizingly around the rim before popping out. A minute later he finally scored on a layup, and the Minutemen looked up to see they only trailed 30-25.
“We never worry about how we’re shooting in the first half,” Forbes said. “We went into the locker room knowing we were going to make a run.”
NEW YORK (AP)—Ohio State had just lost three straight games in mid-January when Thad Matta got on the phone with Florida coach Billy Donovan, looking for some insight into how to handle a young team or some encouraging words from a close colleague.
So much for that.
“He started laughing and said, ‘You think you’ve got problems?”’ Matta recalled Monday.
All of those freshmen and sophomores who replaced the star-studded cast of last year’s national title game have grown up, though, and Florida and Ohio State are back in the final four—though nobody’s mistaking the NIT for the NCAA tournament.
If the two-time defending national champion Gators can beat Massachusetts and the Buckeyes get past Mississippi in the NIT semifinals Tuesday night, they’ll play a rematch of last year’s title game Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
“If you take the amount of players in the national championship last year that are now in NBA uniforms … I’m not surprised where we’re at,” said Donovan, putting the postseason in perspective. “This is a path for our program and our team right now that we’ve got to go through.”
It’s not a path either team expected to take.
The youthful Gators started 18-3 and had everybody momentarily forgetting first-round picks Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah, and second-round selections Taurean Green and Chris Richard. And it’s not what the Buckeyes, without departed draft picks Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook, were expecting when they beat Michigan State in their regular-season finale.
But Florida wilted down the stretch and Ohio State fell to the Spartans in the Big Ten tournament, and for the first time since 1980 the two finalists from the previous year were left out of the NCAA field.
“It’s not the national championship game, but it’s still a tournament,” said Buckeyes guard Jamar Butler, who scored 13 points when Ohio State beat Florida in December. “We had the mind-set coming in that we wanted to win this.”
Ohio State (22-13) hasn’t been tested in the NIT, coasting past UNC-Asheville, California and Dayton to reach New York.
The Gators (24-11), the first defending champions to miss the tournament since 1989, also have breezed through the bracket. Easy home wins over San Diego State and Creighton set up a quarterfinal at Arizona State, where Florida shot a season-high 60.5 percent from the floor in toppling the top-seeded Sun Devils.
“We have a young team and we haven’t played a lot together,” Florida forward Dan Werner said. “We know that we might get a chance to play Ohio State, but right now we’re just so focused on UMass.”
Massachusetts (24-10) was among the last teams left hanging on Selection Sunday, but quickly regrouped to beat Stephen F. Austin in the NIT’s opening round. The Minutemen then showed some perseverance behind coach Travis Ford, rallying from 12 down with 8 1/2 minutes left to beat Akron and 22 down with 14:34 left to beat Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.
One of the rising stars in coaching, Ford has returned Massachusetts to basketball’s main stage by instilling similar values as Donovan did at Florida— fitting, of course, because Donovan was an assistant at Kentucky when Ford was leading the Wildcats to the 1993 Final Four.
“He’s somebody who, if I had a bad day or coach (Rick) Pitino got on me, I could go talk to,” Ford said of his relationship with Donovan. “Someone I respect, admire, look up to, all those things.”
Their relationship was so tight that when Ford transferred from Missouri and had to sit out a year under NCAA rules, he and Donovan played full-court games of one-on-one to stay in shape.
“He was such an incredible competitor,” Ford said. “He was a great influence on me.”
Ole Miss (24-10) reached the NIT semifinals by beating UC-Santa Barbara and fending off Nebraska in overtime, then going on the road to upset Virginia Tech.
“This is a tremendous experience for our kids,” Rebels coach Andy Kennedy said. “I played in this event in 1989 and still have very fond memories of playing in the Garden and the experience it was, and I’m hopeful our guys are creating the same lasting memories.”
© 2008