Mad Max the key to Bearcats’ tourney success

Jason Maxiell wants to have an effect on defense, whether it’s with a powerful block or simply starting the fast break.

“I would love to block it to the fifth row and let a fan catch the ball,” Maxiell said Friday after Cincinnati’s practice for a second-round NCAA matchup against Kentucky today. “But I like them right off the backboard to start a fast break and get two points.”

Cincinnati’s 222 blocked shots for the season are one short of the school record set in 2000. The Bearcats are second in the nation at 6.9 blocks per game, and the 160 blocks by Maxiell and Eric Hicks alone are 23 more than the entire Kentucky team this season.

Tubby Smith knows all about the 6-foot-7, 250-pound Maxiell. Four years ago, the Kentucky coach tried to recruit the wide-bodied shot-blocker from Carrollton, Texas.

“He certainly developed into the player we knew he would be,” Smith said. “His ability to control the game offensively and defensively, his shot-blocking ability. It’s going to take an extraordinary effort by whoever is matched up on him. We’re going to have to make adjustments all along.”

Web casts better than nothing

NCAA men’s basketball tournament Web casts haven’t been TV quality, but are better than nothing.

Cstv.com offers online feeds of CBS’ TV coverage in a $20 package that will continue through tournament games CBS covers regionally rather than nationally. Users can’t watch games shown in their local TV market, which is determined by their zip codes on their credit cards.

Unlike TV, which comes on with a flick of a switch, it was slow going for many users trying to log on to cstv.com’s Webcasts Thursday. “There was an overload when everybody tried to log in for the first time,” CSTV chief executive Brian Bedol told USA Today.

While cstv.com used more bandwidth than last year’s Webcasts in order to allow users to put action on their full screens, the Webcasts weren’t TV quality: Moving players seemed surrounded by heat waves.

TV had a real-time advantage: Webcast action trailed TV coverage by about 45 seconds.

Shooting from the hip

Ed McCants’ teammates weren’t surprised when he took a double-clutch shot in Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s opening NCAA game – and made it.

The senior guard has a reputation for shooting from the hip, and lower.

“I shoot a lot of garbage in practice,” he said.

Teammate Adrian Tigert remembers his most remarkable shot. McCants slipped and was sitting on the court when he heaved one up in practice, drawing the wrath of coach Bruce Pearl.

“Coach stopped practice and was like, ‘What are you doing?’ ” Tigert said. “(McCants) looked at him and was like, ‘What do you mean, what was I doing?’ He thought he was open, apparently.”

Wish fulfillment

Jared Homan grew up on a farm in Iowa, skipping school lunches to watch college basketball games and dreaming of playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Homan led ninth-seeded Iowa State into the second round with a 64-53 victory over Minnesota. The Cyclones will play top-seeded North Carolina Sunday.

“I am from a small town, population 1,700, and this is the kind of thing we grew up dreaming about,” Homan said. “We watched all the basketball we could, and hoped someday to get a chance to play against the North Carolinas.”

Homan had 14 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high seven blocks to lead the Cyclones. The senior from Remsen, Iowa, had six blocks in the second half.

Vitale will miss some NCAA action

Dick Vitale’s mouth usually is rolling along at warp speed this time of the year, providing rapid-fire analysis of the NCAA Tournament for ESPN.

But Vitale will be absent from the network’s reports in the next few days as he is scheduled to undergo hernia surgery today.

In the telephone interview, Vitale said he plans to appear on ESPN’s coverage next week via satellite from his home, then be on site at the Final Four the following week in St. Louis.

Ohio coach gets two-year contract extension

Ohio basketball coach Tim O’Shea has signed a two-year contract extension through the 2009-2010 season, a reward for getting the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994.