Miami makes NCAA return with 78-49 win vs Pacific

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Shane Larkin is sharing a special season with all those Miami seniors.

Larkin, the sophomore who is the only non-senior starter for the Hurricanes and the ACC player of the year, had 10 points and matched his career high with nine assists as No. 2 seed Miami beat Pacific 78-49 in the East Regional on Friday.

Playing their first NCAA tourney game in five years, the Hurricanes (28-6) took control with a 14-0 run midway through the first half. They went on to their most-lopsided victory ever in the tournament.

Durand Scott had 21 points with five 3-pointers for the Hurricanes, who already have four wins more than they ever had before. Reggie Johnson had seven points and 10 rebounds.

Second-year Miami coach Jim Larranaga took mid-major George Mason to the NCAA Final Four in 2006. That makes him the only ACC coach not at Duke or North Carolina to take a program that far - and he might be able to do it again, with his own ACC team.

The Hurricanes will play Sunday against Colorado or Illinois.

Pacific (22-13), the California team that played its last game for retiring longtime coach Bob Thomason, was no match for the Atlantic Coast Conference's regular season and tournament champions.

Thomason had said last year that his 25th season at his alma mater would be his last. The Tigers gave Thomason a 20-point win over Big West Conference regular-season champion Long Beach State in his final home game, then won the league tournament for his fifth NCAA appearance.

Travis Fulton had 18 points on six 3s for the Tigers, while Khalil Kelley had 11 points and nine rebounds.

After Kelley's three-point play with 14:35 left in the first half got the Tigers within 8-7, they went more than 7 minutes before scoring again.

Even though Larkin had a tough shooting day (2 of 8), he was in the middle of everything the Hurricanes did.

After a shot-clock violation that was one of only three turnovers by Miami before halftime, Larkin got the Hurricanes on a roll.

Larkin hit two free throws to start the Miami run, then had an alley-oop pass to Tonye Jekiri before scoring on a driving layup off the glass while being fouled and making another free throw.

Miami stretched the lead to 22-7 before Kelley's dunk with 7:19 left finally ended the run.

On consecutive possessions in the second half, Larkin made passes and was already holding up three fingers before Scott's 3-pointers had cleared the rim. The second around the 12-minute mark made it 59-29.

The Hurricanes were up by as much as 40-16 when Erik Swoope made two free throws with 6 seconds to go in the half. He was fouled while going up in the air in traffic trying to catch another alley-oop pass from Larkin.

Markus Duran swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer for Pacific, but the game was already well out of reach.

Thomason finished at Pacific with a 437-321 record.

Colorado takes on Illinois in NCAA tournament opener

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- For 50 years, Colorado could usually be dismissed as a program floating around the backwaters of college basketball.

Since coach Tad Boyle arrived in 2010, Colorado sure looks like a program on the rise.

Boyle has led Colorado to the NCAA tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1962-63, and the No. 10-seed Buffs (21-11) are a trendy early-round upset pick when they face No. 7 seed Illinois (22-12) on Friday in the East Regional.

''We're the pretty girl right now,'' Colorado forward Spencer Dinwiddie said Thursday. ''Everybody wants to pick us.''

Colorado wouldn't have been anyone's pick until Boyle arrived from Northern Colorado. Since then, the Buffaloes have averaged 23 wins. Last season they stormed through the Pac-12 tournament to win an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, then snagged an opening-round win over UNLV. Energized by that experience, Colorado earned an at-large bid to this season's NCAA tournament after a solid 10-8 finish in the Pac-12.

Everything, Dinwiddie said, is going just like Boyle promised.

''When coach was recruiting me, he talked about wanting to build Colorado into a perennial Top 25 program. I think you see the strides that we're making toward that,'' Dinwiddie said. ''And we are just going to get better.''

Boyle, a former Kansas player, is building Colorado's foundation on players like Dinwiddie, a forward from California who led the team in scoring, and Texan Andre Roberson, the Pac-12 defensive player of the year who ranks second nationally in rebounds with 11.3 per game.

Roberson grew up in San Antonio, about 75 miles south of Austin, and was passed over by the major programs in the Lone Star State until he had already decided to take his game to the Rocky Mountains.

''I was kind of a late bloomer. The Texas schools didn't come in until late,'' Roberson said. ''I took it as a sign of disrespect.''

For Boyle, attracting talent like Roberson and Dinwiddie took making a hard sell on what Colorado could be, not what it had been. Colorado had been to the NCAA tournament just 10 times between 1940 and 2011.

''We sell the opportunity to come and make your mark on a program and leave your stamp on a program and build a legacy,'' Boyle said.

Comparing basketball pedigrees with Illinois isn't even close. The Illini have been to the NCAA tournament 30 times, 11 since 2000. Illinois missed last season's tournament but returns with a senior-laden lineup under first-year coach John Groce.

The Illini burst through a 12-0 start that included winning the Maui Invitational and a win over Gonzaga, the team that entered the NCAA tournament at the top seed in the West Region and ranked No. 1.

The schedule got much tougher when the Big Ten season started in January. After a 2-7 start in league play, Illinois rallied to an 8-10 finish and enter the NCAA tournament having lost three of their last four games.

The mid-season slide brought out a lot of ''doubters and haters,'' Groce said. ''They stayed the course. I appreciate the way they fought.''

With that kind of up-and-down season, Illinois players displayed little of the positive energy Colorado did during the teams' pregame NCAA news conferences Thursday.

Dinwiddie talked about the momentum surrounding the Colorado program and the chase to ''win it all.'' Illinois guard D.J. Richardson noted Friday's game ''could possibly be our last'' and the team wants to ''come out and fight and have fun.''

While that could come across as a sense of doom from Illini players, it could also be a quiet confidence from a team that had to slug its way through the nation's toughest conference to get here.

''We know we can play with anybody in this tournament,'' Illinois forward Tyler Griffey said. ''We have had some big moments and big games and big wins, but we have had some low points too. I think we have learned from all of those experiences and we are going to use them to our advantage.''

U.S. Men Play World Cup Qualifier

The United Stats Men's National Team plays Costa Rica at Dick's Sporting Goods Park tonight in a World Cup qualifying match. The U.S. lost 2-1 in its first qualifying game for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The Americans are currently last out of six nations in the table with zero points through one game. Honduras is the only team with three points. The top three teams in the fourth round advance to Brazil, while the fourth team advances to a intercontinental playoff for a chance to play on soccer's biggest stage.

Rockies Rip Giants

Wilin Rosario lifted a two-run homer to help the Rockies roll the Giants, 10-4. Charlie Culberson added a pair of RBI for Colorado. Drew Pomeranz gave up three runs in five innings for the win. The Rockies host the Giants and are at the Rangers today in a pair of split squad contests.

Buffs Battle Illinois

The Colorado Buffaloes battle the Illinois Fighting Illini today in Austin, Texas for a second round matchup in the NCAA Tournament. The Buffaloes are 21-and-11, while the Illini are 22-and-12. The winner moves on to play second-seeded Miami-Florida or 15th-seeded Pacific.

Rams Roll Tigers

Dorian Green posted 28 points as the eighth-seeded Colorado State Rams rolled the ninth-seeded Missouri Tigers 84-72 in the Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament. Greg Smith and Jon Octeus each had 12 points for Colorado State, which outrebounded Mizzou 36-to-18. The Rams will play top-seeded Louisville on Saturday.

Nuggets Continue Win Streak Against 76ers

Anthony Randolph blocked Damien Wilkins' jumper as time expired to help the Nuggets win their 14th straight game with a 101-100 victory over the 76ers. The win clinches a postseason spot for Denver. Corey Brewer hit three free throws to put Denver ahead with two seconds left and finished with 29 points and five steals. Andre Miller added 21 points and eight assists in place of the injured Ty Lawson. Lawson missed the game with a heel injury. The Nuggets improved to 48-and-22. Philadelphia blew an eight-point lead with 1:52 left in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets host the Kings on Saturday.

Ravens Offer DE Dumervil Contract

The Ravens are offering defensive end Elvis Dumervil a contract. The Denver Post reports the Super Bowl champions sent the deal to the free agent. The 29-year-old was cut by the Broncos last week after he did not fax his restructured deal to Denver by Friday's deadline. He was expected to take a four-million-dollar salary cut to eight-million this year. The Broncos paid Dumervil 14-million-dollars each of the last two seasons. The Louisville product registered 11 sacks and 54 tackles in 16 games last season.