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ANAHEIM, Calif. — There was only one noteworthy aspect of Nolan Smith's and Kyle Singler's trek from the interview room to the Duke locker room on Thursday night: Neither said a word.

Engulfed in their own thoughts after top-seeded Duke's shocking 93-77 loss to fifth-seeded Arizona on Thursday night, Singler and Smith walked in silence through a series of narrow corridors littered with cleaning equipment, cardboard boxes and unused folding chairs. No words were needed to convey to each other the disappointment of a loss that marked the end of both seniors' storied collegiate careers.

"The tournament is cruel," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It's an abrupt end for everybody when you don't win. Last year it wasn't an abrupt end for us, when we won the whole thing. You have to look at the full body of work, these guys have been part of 125 wins over a period of four years and it's been an honor for me to coach them."

Both Singler and Smith cemented their legacies at Duke by leading

110847561ANAHEIM, Calif. — One of the cruelest annual rituals of the NCAA tournament is that the losing team's top underclassmen must address their futures mere minutes after a crushing season-ending loss.

It was Kyrie Irving's turn to endure that on Thursday night, and the Duke freshman handled it as well as could be expected.

Sitting in the corner of a solemn, tear-stained Duke locker room after a 93-77 loss to fifth-seeded Arizona on Thursday night, Irving said he's still considering returning to school for his sophomore season but acknowledged there's "no guarantee" he'll be back. Irving, a potential top-five pick, has until the April 24 NBA early entry deadline to make a decision.

If Thursday night was Irving's final game at Duke, he left another lasting impression. In just his third game back from a right toe injury that cost him most of the season, Irving was Duke's best player, scoring 28 points on 9-for-15 shooting in a futile attempt to try to help the Blue Devils withstand Arizona's

AP110317132139ANAHEIM, Calif. — In the hallway outside the victorious UConn locker room, the two heroes of the Huskies' 74-67 victory over second-seeded San Diego State embraced and then reenacted the most important shot of the game.

"I was like, 'Lamb, Lamb, Lamb,'" Kemba Walker said to Jeremy Lamb, making a motion as though he was catching a pass. "And you were like, 'No, No, No.'"

That Lamb had the confidence to take a kick-out from big man Alex Oriakhi, shake off his All-American point guard and bury a game-changing left-wing 3-pointer is one of the biggest reasons UConn is now one victory away from Jim Calhoun's fourth Final Four. The freshman's shot with 1:42 to go halted a 7-0 San Diego State spurt, quieted a roaring pro-Aztecs crowd and gave UConn a four-point lead that it never relinquished.

Whereas Lamb had been content to be part of UConn's supporting cast most of the season, the 6-foot-5 guard sensed Thursday's final two minutes were his time to step to the forefront because Walker was

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Even though San Diego State certainly doesn't have the edge in history or pedigree at the blue blood-heavy West Regional, the Aztecs do expect an advantage in at least one respect.

They're hoping for huge crowd support.

An upper-corner ticket to Thursday's Sweet 16 matchup between San Diego State and Connecticut is going for at least $300 on StubHub, yet the Aztecs said friends, family and fellow students will shell out big bucks and make the 90-minute trek north for the game. San Diego State had never won an NCAA tournament game prior to beating Northern Colorado and Temple last week, making a Sweet 16 appearance a once-in-a-lifetime ticket for many students and alumni.

"Being on campus Monday, I got stopped 20 or 30 times by a group of people who said they got their tickets and they're all going to be at the game," backup center Brian Carwell said Wednesday. "We definitely feel we're going to have a lot of fan support down here."

A hostile road environment

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — If a pro-Arizona crowd showers Duke in boos and catcalls during Thursday night's Sweet 16 matchup in Anaheim, it still won't be anywhere near as bad as the treatment the Blue Devils often receive in their home state.

Duke forward Kyle Singler recalls walking into a burger joint just outside of Chapel Hill and attempting to place an order. Instead, the owners were such ardent North Carolina supporters that they refused to serve him dinner.

"I don't want to make this a big story or anything," Singler said. "I just wanted a cheeseburger."

Like the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball or the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL, Duke is college basketball's flagship program that much of America loves to hate. From T-shirts bearing the slogan "Breathe if you hate Duke," to the defaced illustration of Mike Krzyzewski on the cover of the Indianpolis Star's sports section last April, to the character on "Glee" who declared he hated Duke like "the Nazis," the Blue Devils are the

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Encircled by about a dozen reporters Wednesday afternoon on the eve of Arizona's Sweet 16 matchup with Duke, Pac-10 Player of the Year Derrick Williams described what it was like when he wasn't the center of attention.

Williams recalled sitting by himself as reporters flocked to his teammates the first time Arizona players met with the media prior to his freshman season.

"Not many people knew who I was back then," Williams said. "They were excited about our whole class, but I wasn't the main one they were focused on. There were not many people around me at all."

That it was less than two years ago that Williams was still an unheralded recruit many thought would redshirt is hard to believe considering how quickly he's developed since then.

Williams has gone from sixth man for an undistinguished Los Angeles-area high school program as a sophomore, to under-the-radar Division I prospect as a senior, to a potential No. 1 NBA draft pick two years later. He had a

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There's a fine line between ambition and delusion, and Tennessee appears to have crossed it with its list of top choices to replace Bruce Pearl.

A source in the school's athletic department told the Knoxville News-Sentinel that the five top candidates are Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon, Villanova's Jay Wright, Alabama's Anthony Grant, Texas A&M's Mark Turgeon and Wichita State's Gregg Marshall. Will anyone on that list besides perhaps Marshall even bother to take Tennessee's calls?

That Tennessee would bother to float Dixon and Wright as potential candidates is as laughable as Oregon reaching out to Michigan State coach Tom Izzo this time last year. The Vols might throw Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams on their list as well because they have about as much chance with those two as prying Dixon or Wright out of the Big East.

Whereas the Oregon job at least had Nike money behind it to make it somewhat compelling to big-name candidates last year, Tennessee's job has numerous red flags

AP1102270105838Instead of its legacy being of a team that went from worst in the Pac-10 to making a deep NIT run, this year's Washington State team may be remembered for its inability to stay out of trouble off the court.

Starting center DeAngelo Casto became the latest player to run afoul of the law on Tuesday when Washington State announced that he will miss Wednesday's NIT quarterfinal as a result of a violation of team rules. The Spokesman-Review reported that Casto's off-campus apartment was searched by police early Tuesday morning and a small amount of marijuana was allegedly found.

The suspension of Casto marks the third marijuana-related incident this season involving one of Washington State's starters. Washington State coach Ken Bone also issued one-game suspensions to guards Reggie Moore and Klay Thompson earlier this season after both were cited for marijuana possession in separate incidents.

"I am disappointed in DeAngelo as he let himself and his teammates down," Bone said in a