Tony Bennett's staff

CHARLOTTESVILLE - New Virginia coach Tony Bennett said at his introductory press conference today that he hopes to hire Liberty coach Ritchie McKay as an assistant.

"I'm going to make a hard push for him," Bennett said. "I feel like I've got a shot."

More than a shot, apparently. Liberty announced today that McKay has resigned. He'd been at Liberty for two seasons. Prior to that, he coached at New Mexico, Oregon State, Colorado State and Portland State.

McKay would give Bennett, who comes from Washington State, an assistant with recruiting ties in Virginia.

An announcement is expected soon.

Bennett also said he'd likely bring "one or two" members of his Washington State staff to Virginia, with assistant Ron Sanchez a strong possibility.

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Duke moves on

GREENSBORO

They walked into the post-game press conference looking like old pros, water cups in hand, casually perusing their stat sheets.

They looked, in short, like they'd been here before.

They hadn't. Duke's Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson were in new territory. They'd never been on a post-game dias after advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. Duke had not been there since 2006, before the trio arrived.

The Blue Devils got there tonight, though, with a 74-69 win over Texas.

The end was frantic, full of mad scrambles for loose balls. Duke got the ones that counted. Elliot Williams grabbed one with 11.5 seconds left after Jon Scheyer flung a pass over his shoulder clear to the other end of the court. After Williams was fouled and missed both free throws, Gerald Henderson snared another loose ball with 7.2 seconds left. Henderson hit both his free throws to give Duke its final margin.

"To be honest, I was just trying to get it out of there," Scheyer said of the fling he made as he was falling out of bounds. "It worked out pretty well where it landed."

It helped land Duke in the Sweet 16 for the 10th time in 12 years, but the first for this group of Blue Devils. Only senior Greg Paulus played on Duke's 2006 team. He played just two minutes Saturday.

Henderson played 36, Scheyer 34 and Singler 33 before fouling out. Before he did, he tipped in a missed free throw by Henderson to put Duke up 69-67. Henderson had 24 points, Singler 17 and Scheyer 13.

"It was just amazing to see him jump over everybody and tip it in," Henderson said, comparing it to similar plays made by former Blue Devils Nate James and Luol Deng in the NCAA tournament.

Those players were parts of Sweet 16 teams. So are these.

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Flameout Friday

GREENSBORO

That's what some of the press room early birds backstage here at the Greensboro Coliseum have dubbed last night's showing by ACC teams.

To recap, in case you missed it:

USC 72, BC 55. Taj Gibson went 10 for 10 vs. the Eagles.

Cleveland State 84, Wake Forest 69. The spirit of "Mouse" McFadden carried the Vikings over the defenseless Deacons.

Wisconsin 61, Florida State 59, OT. The Seminoles fell on a shot by Trevon Hughes with 2 seconds left.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Bracketville, Miami fell to Florida 72-60 in the NIT.

All of the ACC losses were to higher seeds. Wake was a 4, Florida State a 5 and BC a 7.

It's left to Maryland, Duke and North Carolina to carry the ACC banner in post-season play. That's because today didn't get off to such a hot start, either, with Virginia Tech falling to Baylor in the NIT.

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Tubby talks

About the Virginia vacancy?

Not exactly. But Minnesota coach Tubby Smith was asked here in Greensboro this afternoon about his name being bandied about as a candidate for yet another job - the one created when Dave Leitao stepped down Monday.

Smith's non-specific response:

"I have a job. I have a great job. We're enjoying Minnesota. We have no reason to be looking at anything else. And I'm very happy where we are.

"So it certainly is flattering sometimes, but it can be a distraction. The thing is, we've gotten our recruiting done early, and that, hopefully it's good to be wanted. But it's more important to be needed. I feel like I'm not only wanted in Minnesota, but needed there as well."

Cavalier fans would argue he's needed in Charlottesville as well. More in tomorrow's paper.

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Duke rolls

Too much Scheyer. Too much Henderson. Too much Singler.

Duke's Big three carried the Blue Devils over Florida State's solo act, dynamic guard  Toney Douglas, 79-69.

It wasn't that close. Duke buried FSU in a barrage of 3-pointers from the above-mentioned trio. The Blue Devils iced it by making 12 of 16 free throws over an interminable final 3:16.

Not exactly scintillating stuff, but it was an obviously important win for Duke, which has not done much of anything in March since 2006.

The question is whether the perimeter-oriented  Blue Devils have enough inside to make an NCAA run. They did a nice job "gang defending" (Leonard Hamilton's term) the larger Seminoles inside. They'll need to do more of the same, particularly if they wind up facing No.1 seed Pitt in the regional final.

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Title Sunday

Nearing tip for today's championship game between upstart Florida State and resurgent Duke. It is the Blue Devils first appearance in the championship since 2006. It's the Seminoles' first ever.

In fact, do you know when the Seminoles won their last conference basketball title? The answer is below.

Duke beat FSU twice this season, by a total of 11 points.

"We could have easily lost either game,"  Duke's Kyle Singler said. "They are a good team."

Singler's keys today: "They are big inside, and we are going to have to stop Toney Douglas. He's a very good guard. We are going to have to play 40 minutes. That is a big thing with this team. Sometimes we don't play well in the first half and play better in the second. We have to put together two halves."

OK, the answer to the question above:

The Metro Conference title, in 1991.

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Noles win

Florida State 73, North Carolina 70.

The Seminoles reached the ACC tournament finals for the first time today, getting 27 points from Toney Douglas and a everything but the kitchen sink effort from Derwin Kitchen, who had 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists.

North Carolina once again played without ACC player of the year Ty Lawson. The Tar Heels shot just 37 percent.

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Semifinal Saturday

Florida State hanging close with top-seeded North Carolina here at halftime. North Carolina up 32-29.

FSU scored 6 points in the frst mnute and had an early 8-5 lead before going scoreless for more than seven minutes.

Both teams shooting 35.3 percent (12 of 34).

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Terps in, Hokies out

ATLANTA

Lots to catch up on here tonight. Maryland just did what Virginia Tech couldn't, winning its second tournament game to likely secure a bid to the NCAA tournament on Sunday.

The Terps, behind 22 points from Greivis Vasquez, knocked off Wake Forest 75-64. They improved to 20-12 and likely became the ACC's 7th NCAA team.

Earlier, Florida State beat Georgia Tech. Look for a story on the Seminoles' Toney Douglas in Saturday's paper.

Earlier still, Virginia Tech had its heart broken by North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough for the second consecutive year. Last season, Hansbrough hit a jumper with eight-tenths of a second remaining to beat the Hokies in the ACC semis, dashing their NCAA hopes. Today, he tied up Tech's J.T. Thompson with 5.2 seconds left, resulting in a held ball and giving possession to North Carolina. The final: Heels 79, Hokies 76.

"Same story, different ending" was the theme for the Hokies heading into the game. Instead it was same story, different twist, but same ending.

Call it Psycho II, starring Pscho T.

And once again, thanks in large part to Hansbrough, it's "Hello NIT" for the Hokies.

The decisive play was a mad scramble. The Hokies trailed by a point when they came out of a time out with 22 seconds left. Thompson had set a screen and wasn't expecting the ball. Malcolm Delaney didn't intend to give it to him. Delaney saw Dorenzo Hudson open on the wing and fired a pass. Thompson, not knowing Hudson was behind him, intercepted it in the lane. He was quickly surrounded by three players. Hansbrough grabbed the ball from behind. Thompson wanted to pass it to A.D. Vassallo, but couldn't raise his arms.

Thompson felt he got fouled. Delaney thought Thompson got fouled. The officials felt otherwise, and as Seth Greenberg said after, that's all that mattered.

After North Carolina got possession, Hansbrough was fouled and hit a pair of free throws to put the Tar Heels up three. A.D. Vassallo missed  a 3-point attempt as time expired.

A short hook by Hansbrough had put the Tar Heels up 77-76 with 33 seconds left. The shot put Tech on the ropes. His tie-up of  Thompson finished them.

"He's a fierce competitor," Greenberg said.

Tech gave up 19 offensive rebounds to the bigger Tar Heels.

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Tournament Day 2

Some thoughts on last night's games, while waiting to see how the Ty Lawson-less North Carolina Tar Heels fare against Virginia Tech this afternoon.

I mentioned in a story today that firey Maryland point guard Greives Vasquez went out of his way to praise coach Gary Williams after last night's win over N.C. State. I knew Vasquez was president of the Williams' fan club, but had no idea how often Vasquez gave this particular stump speech, until I came across this item from Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post.

Don't know if the Terps can beat Wake Forest today to cement an NCAA at-large bid, but Maryland does at least one thing teams usually must to advance in tournament play: shoot free throws well. Vasquez shoots 88 percent, Eric Hayes is at 86 and Landon Milbourne shoots 85.4.

Now, on to Virginia. What to say about the Cavaliers, who finished 10-18, the program's fewest wins in 40 years?

The less the better, probably. Not suprisingly, the Virginia locker room was somber following the defeat. No one had much to say, other than to pledge that they do not want to endure another season like this one.

The game marked the end of the career of Mamadi Diane, who was in the last group of players recruited by former coach Pete Gillen. Diane scored 24 points, just two short of his career high. Diane had a difficult season, averaging just 4.5 points heading into last week's games.  He finished in style, though, scoring 47 points in his final two appearances in a Virginia uniform.

"I am very proud of his perfomance," coach Dave Leitao said. "Not only the fact that he scored, but his overall game was very good. He was in a lot of right spots, stole the ball and battled. His career has not been that and easy and this has been a difficult year. It's not something I would have wished on him. To end at least individually like thiis is something he will remember."

Summing up Diane's career, Leitao called him "a really significant contributor on some good teams in a very good conference."

Diane said the end of his career is "very tough to swallow.

"This is all I have known for the last four years. Whenever this point came, it was always, 'What can I do in the offseason to get ready for next year?" I have really enjoyed my time here, the good and bad. It's all been great and has made me a man."

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