I’m down in Providence for first round action so follow along here for updates all day. I already got the ball rolling on Twitter, so you can get up to speed there. New updates will always be at the top.

11:33 P.M. — Tennessee leads this one, 44-41, with 10:24 remaining, but this doesn’t quite have the drama of some of the earlier games. The Vols like to ugly things up and that’s exactly what they’re doing. I’m putting the running blog to bed, we’ll be back at it tomorrow and Saturday. Check out tomorrow’s Herald for complete coverage of today’s games.

11:14 P.M. — We’re at the half of the Tennessee-San Diego State game and the Vols lead 34-26. I didn’t catch much of the first half because I was writing the Georgetown-Ohio game story, but it doesn’t sound like I missed much. So how is everyone’s bracket doing? Mine is pretty much blown up, but these games have been so great today, who cares? One thought, with all of this talk of NCAA tournament expansion: How can you change this event? It’s perfect and today was just further evidence of that.

9:00 P.M. — Ohio leads 71-57 with 10:03 remaining, thanks largely to a pair of 3-pointers from Cooper. The blog posts will become more infrequent because I need to start pounding out my story for tomorrow’s Herald.

8:55 P.M. — Maybe this is why Greg Monroe isn’t more aggressive. He just picked up a foul off the ball and then a charge on successive possessions. He has three and is taking a seat.

8:53 P.M. — This is the point when all of the Ohio fans refuse to switch seats in the living room for risk of messing with their team’s luck. If Georgetown is going to make a run it’ll need to happen quick. OU up 17 with 12:32 to play.

8:46 P.M. – Can you even call this an upset? Ohio is just playing better. They’re making shots, but there’s nothing fluky about it. Bassett just rattled in a step-back 3-pointer to give Ohio a 58-42 lead with 15:12 remaining.

8:39 P.M. — Second half has begun and Ohio is emboldened. Cooper just threw a lob to Washington on the break and Washington nearly brought the basket support down. Ohio leads 53-42. Austin Freeman, Georgetown’s leading scorer, finally got on the board a few seconds ago.

8:23 P.M. – Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo is in the house. He just cut through press row to get to his seat. Also in his Mayo’s section is former Pat Troy Brown. I keep scanning that section and keep coming across Patriots — Brandon Meriweather and James Sanders are also sitting front and center.

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Keep in mind, these are just for fun. If I was a good enough prognosticator to make big money on my predictions, I would have given up this journalism thing years ago. Anyways, onto today’s games (picks in bold):

Midwest Region

1. Kansas vs. 16. Lehigh — Kansas. Big. Next.

8. UNLV vs. 9. Northern Iowa –  Northern Iowa has been getting love all season as a dangerous mid-major. They advance today.

6. Tennessee vs. 11. San Diego St. — The final game tonight in Providence (approx. 10 p.m. tip). The Aztecs are a trendy upset pick. Don’t buy it. The Vols’ pressure defense will cause problems and they’ll pull out a close one.

3. Georgetown vs. 14. Ohio — This one tips at 7:25 p.m. in Providence. The Hoyas, led by talented big man Greg Monroe, will roll.

West Region

5. Butler vs. 12. UTEP – The Miners have BCS talent, led by Louisville transfer Derrick Caracter, and should have received a better seed. They’ll take it out on Butler today, pulling off the “upset.”

4. Vanderbilt vs. 13. Murray St. — Vandy is a shaky 4-seed and could fall victim to an upset, but I think the Commodores squeak this one out.

7. BYU vs. Florida –  BYU is capable of making a deep run. Florida is lucky to be in the field. Cougars advance.

2. Kansas St. vs. North Texas — The Wildcats have their sites set on the Final Four. They’ll take the first step today.

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Get Bruce Pearl talking about Boston and the Sharon native uses words like “love” and “passion.”  Now the coach at Tennessee, Pearl is back in the area preparing his team to play San Diego State in the opening round of the NCAA tournament tomorrow night at 10 in Providence.

“I was here for 22 years of my life and so nobody could identify with being from Boston more than me,” Pearl said. “I made the choice to stay home and go to college. I lived at the Gah-den and Fenway.”

I had to cut Pearl off to note that he pronounced the name of the Celtics and Bruins arena the way the locals do, even though he moved away 28 years ago.

“I still got that accent any time I want,” Pearl said. “I’m never going to call it the Garden. I’m going to call it the Gah-den because that’s what it’s called.”

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Boston College finished the regular season with a disappointing 66-54 loss at North Carolina State yesterday. The loss slowed some of the momentum the Eagles had built while winning 3-of-4 games, but now their focus is on the ACC tournament, which begins Thursday at noon with a matchup with Virginia.

“It’s not a big setback,” BC coach Al Skinner said of the regular season finale. “It was disappointing because we didn’t really respond to the situation and we didn’t really knuckle up and play the kind of defense we needed to, so that part was a little disappointing. But I don’t think it’s a huge setback.”

One bit of good news is that Skinner expects to have Corey Raji back in the lineup on Thursday. The junior forward  left yesterday’s game in the first half with a left shoulder injury.

“He’ll probably be out of practice for a couple of days, but I think he’ll be ready to go by Thursday,” Skinner said.

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Just wanted to point out something that got a brief mention in today’s paper — Boston University will play Hartford in the first round of the America East tournament on Saturday (2:15 p.m.). As the No. 4 seed, BU was slated to take on No. 5 Binghamton, but the beleaguered program withdrew from the tournament.

The situation at Binghamton has been very messy, with misconduct at every level of the basketball program. Playing without its coach and many of its top players, it was impressive that Binghamton was able to secure the fifth seed, going 8-8 in league play. But Binghamton president Lois B. DeFleur released a statement that the team would not participate in the tournament, citing “possible distractions” as the reason.

With the Bearcats out of the tournament, all of the teams that finished behind them in the standings were bumped up a slot and the play-in game between the No. 8 and No. 9 teams was eliminated. The result for BU (17-12, 11-5) is a matchup with host Hartford (8-21, 6-10). BU swept two games from the Hawks during the regular season.

If you follow the Boston University basketball program, you’re probably aware that first-year coach Pat Chambers spent the previous five years serving as a Villanova assistant under Jay Wright, one of the top coaches in the country. But you might not be aware that Chambers has had some accomplished mentors throughout his basketball career.

During his playing days at Division 2 Philadelphia University, Chambers (right, photo from goterriers.com) was the point guard for Herb Magee. Magee has gained some acclaim recently after winning his 903rd career game, the most wins for any coach in NCAA history. (Here is a great New York Times feature on Magee from earlier this week).

Chambers, who served as an assistant on Magee’s staff from 2001-04 before landing at Villanova, said he has learned much from the 68-year-old Magee, who has coached at Philadelphia U. for the past 43 years.

“He’s an amazing guy,” Chambers said. “He gave me a great opportunity to play for him. I look at him and what I can learn from him – No. 1 is loyalty. Forty-plus years at the same school is unheard of today. He’s a hard-working guy that maybe has it figured it out.”

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When Derek Kellogg took over at UMass two years ago, he knew it would take time to get the program where he wanted. But that doesn’t mean it’s always been easy to maintain patience during the past two seasons. Kellogg (right) discussed the challenge in today’s college basketball notebook.

Though UMass made the NIT final in Travis Ford’s final season in 2008, the cupboard wasn’t exactly stocked when Kellogg took over after Ford bolted for Oklahoma State.

While Kellogg inherited some solid veterans — Tony Gaffney, Chris Lowe, Ricky Harris — there was very little to build on from Ford’s last recruiting class. Jeff Goodman, a national college basketball writer for Foxsports.com, calls the class the worst he’s ever seen and it’s difficult to argue.

But it’s not as if the dearth of young talent is the only reason the Minutemen have gone 22-35 in Kellogg’s two seasons. Kellogg had never served as a head coach before getting the UMass job and has experienced some growing pains.

Kellogg completely scrapped the up-tempo style that worked so well for Ford’s teams and immediately installed the dribble-drive motion offense. The system was essentially a disaster last season, with Lowe, the point guard, never getting comfortable.

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Facing a tall task — both literally and figuratively — Harvard got some good news for tonight’s game against Ivy League-leading Cornell. Keith Wright, a 6-foot-8 sophomore, will play.

Wright, who has missed the last four games with inflammation in his left Achilles tendon, woke up feeling better this morning and decided to suit up. Wright will not start, but he will be able to come off the bench to throw another big body at Cornell’s 7-foot center Jeff Foote.

Foote torched Harvard for 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks the first time the teams met, an 86-50 Cornell win on Jan. 30. If Harvard has any chance to get revenge tonight, it will need to keep Foote in check.

For live updates during the game, you can follow me on Twitter.

Today’s feature on Tommy Amaker touched on a 2007 New York Times story that questioned Amaker’s recruiting tactics.

Through extensive reporting the story uncovered a number of questionable instances in Harvard’s recruiting early in Amaker’s tenure. While an Ivy investigation cleared Amaker and his staff of any wrongdoing, it’s safe to say some of the practices would fall into the vast gray area that exists in the recruiting world.

The academic questions raised by the story are more cut-and-dried. The school maintains that its admission standards for basketball players have not been reduced, and obviously all of the recruits that have matriculated to Harvard have met the Ivy League guidelines.

With all of that said, the hiring of Amaker signaled a change in the approach of the Harvard athletic department. By bringing in a high-profile coach, Harvard made it clear that there would be more of an emphasis placed on winning.

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Harvard encountered a number of problems when it lost 86-50 at Cornell three weeks ago. The most glaring issue was the 25 turnovers the Crimson committed. But at the other end of the court, Harvard had no answer for Cornell’s Jeff Foote. The 7-foot center had 16 points (on 7-of-11 shooting), nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

Foote is a match-up problem for most teams, but his size poses a particularly tall task for the undersized Harvard front-line.

“I think he’s the key to their team,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said after the drubbing in Ithaca. “I think he’s sensational. He gets blocks, rebounds, scores, he’s a tremendous passer – you can’t help off of their 3-point shooters and he’s good enough to carry the load in whatever way is necessary. I really like his game, his poise, his unselfishness. Hopefully next time around we’ll be a little better in other areas.”

Harvard gets its shot at revenge tomorrow night when it hosts the Big Red in a pivotal Ivy League matchup. Cornell (21-4, 7-1) is currently tied atop the conference standings with Princeton (15-6, 6-1), though Harvard (17-5, 6-2) trails by just a game. A Crimson win tonight would bunch things up even further, setting up some critical rematches down the stretch. Princeton travels to Cornell on next Friday and Harvard plays at Princeton in the season finale on March 6.

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