-The Knicks suffered an excruciating loss to the Magic at The Garden- damaging any playoff aspirations they had. Leading 87-84, they allowed Jameer Nelson to drain back-to-back three’s down the stretch to fall 94-89. But what this game will be remembered for is the missed goaltending call on a key Stephon Marbury drive. With the game tied, Marbury drove the left baseline and put up an eight-foot floater. As it was on its way down, Orlando’s Dwight Howard blocked it. There was no call. Despite wild protests from Isiah Thomas who was on the court at one point, play continued. And when Nelson used a Howard screen to knock down a go-ahead trey, the Knicks would never recover. The costly loss was their fourth straight and dropped them to a season worst 10 games below .500. With only 12 games remaining, Thomas’ club finds itself in dire straits- two full games behind the eighth seeded Nets and now 2.5 behind Orlando.

-To Thomas’ credit, he didn’t lash out at the officials afterwards, instead pointing out that “they’re not perfect.” One statement though loomed large as he talked about his team’s free throw inefficiency, which has cost them several times during this up and down season. Tonight, his team misfired on 14 of 37 which he pointed towards for the loss. The coach basically said that if they were a much better free throw shooting team, they could’ve had a much different season. It’s not hard to disagree when you consider that they’ve been in the majority of their games and certainly lost a lot of crushers. The “little things” such as a simple fundamental like the charity stripe can be the difference between being only average to a good team. The good teams can knock’em down in crunch time.

-If you haven’t seen HBO’s special on UCLA basketball, we definitely recommend it. They did an outstanding job covering the John Wooden Era, which saw the legendary Wizard of Westwood lead the Bruins to 10 championships including a remarkable seven in a row from 1967-73. The record 88-game winning streak was covered including when Digger Phelps’ Fighting Irish finally haulted it. Most stunning though was how dismayed Bill Walton was about losing four of the final 10 games of his brilliant career, adding that “It could’ve been perfect.” Also covered was Wooden telling his players before the 1975 championship against Kentucky that it was his final game. Most telling was the reaction and how they performed to make sure their Hall of Fame coach went out the appropriate way- what else- a winner! If you get the chance to catch this outstanding documentary, you won’t be disappointed.
-Congrats to the Rutgers Lady Scarlet Knights on advancing to the Final Four with a convincing 64-45 win over Arizona State. After shocking Duke in the final minute Saturday, they pulled away from ASU in the second half to cruise to the 19-point win. They were led by Matee Ajavon’s 20. Center Kia Vaughn had a strong game with a double double (17 and 10) while blocking two shots. Freshman Epiphanny Prince added 10 points and 10 rebounds. The run to their second Final Four was put in proper perspective by Essence Carson, who chipped in with 11 points and eight boards:

“It was sort of like a dream where we just felt…as long as we stuck to our game plan- and that’s to continue to believe in ourselves- then we can continue to get it done. This entire run through the NCAA tournament has been sort of unreal, but at the same time we understand that all the hard work we put in put us there.“

Congrats to them and best of luck in the Final Four where they’ll do battle against LSU, who dismantled Uconn 73-50 thanks to a dominating performance from center Sylvia Fowles. She finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds. The big center intimidated Geno Auriemma’s Huskies. She’ll be a tall order for the Rutgers women next weekend in Cleveland.

-We’ll be talking sports at the top of the hour on our Hard Hits blog show. Check it out!