Coach Rick Pitino and No. 7 Kentucky gave Carlos Rogers a taste of the rough treatment he can expect in the future.
Andre Riddick, Rodrick Rhodes and the rest of the Wildcats frustrated the Tennessee State star into 11 turnovers and a technical foul Friday for an 83-70 victory in the first round of the NCAA Southeast Regional.Rogers, a 6-foot-11 senior and a projected first-round pick in the NBA draft, was held to 15 points - 10 below his average - on only 10 shots. Wherever he went, Kentucky made sure it had a couple of bodies and elbows on him.
"When I was coaching in the NBA, you knew you've got to stop Jordan, you've got to stop Bird," Pitino said. "Our philosophy is to take the opposition out of what they do best. We felt what they did best was to go to Carlos Rogers."
The third-seeded Wildcats will play No. 21 Marquette in Sunday's second round. The Warriors beat Southwestern Louisiana 81-59 in the opener at the ThunderDome.
Rogers was called for a technical midway through the second half for slamming down the ball after he was called for a foul. In the next two minutes, Rogers twice had to separated from Kentucky players after hard contact.
At one point, Rogers exchanged a peace hug with Kentucky guard Travis Ford, his teammate last summer for the United States in the World University Games. Later, after he was called for another foul, Rogers shouted, "They're killing me! They're killing me!"
When Rogers left the game in the final minute, he stopped to shake hands with Pitino on his way to the bench.
"If you had three people on you, you'd get uptight, too," Rogers said. "The frustration had a tendency to set in."
Riddick, a junior center, scored a career-high 22 points and Rhodes also had 22 for Kentucky (27-6).
"I just wanted to be a factor out there," Riddick said.
Pitino, who coached against the likes of Michael Jordan and Larry Bird while with the Knicks, said Kentucky planned its offensive strategy to go right at Rogers, not around him.
"We felt the best way to take it to a shot blocker was to take it to his face," Pitino said. "Andre did a great job of taking it to him."
Curtis Davis scored 17 points for the Tigers (19-12), the Ohio Valley Conference tournament champions.
Marquette 81, SW Louisiana 59
Marquette found the answer to Southwestern Louisiana's hyperventilating, full-court offense in patience and defense.
Damon Key scored 24 points and led a 19-0 second-half run that enabled the 21st-ranked Warriors to pull away to victory.
Marquette, seeded sixth, improved to 23-8. Southwestern Louisiana, the No. 11 seed, finished 22-8.
Key scored 13 points in the second half and also grabbed 12 rebounds for Marquette, which shot 51 percent after making only 38 percent of their attempts and falling behind 34-31 at the half.
"Our guys played smart and did not let themselves lose focus in this game," Marquette coach Kevin O'Neill said.
Roney Eford finished with 20 points, including a dunk and a 3-point shot during the decisive streak. Seven-footer Jim McIlvaine made only four of 14 shots to score 10 points, but he and his backup, Amal McCaskill, each had 10 rebounds to help the Warriors dominate the boards, 49-30.
Another key was defense. The Warriors abandoned their trusty man-to-man pressure for a triangle-and-two to contain Southwestern's Michael Allen in the second half.
Allen finished with 23 points but only had six in the last 18 minutes of the game. Southwestern's second-leading scorer, Byron Starks, was held to seven - 11 below his average - on 3-of-15 shooting.
Duke 82, Texas Southern 70
No team goes to the Final Four six times in eight years by taking first-round opponents lightly in the NCAA tournament.
Duke never has, and it didn't on Friday.
The Blue Devils launched their bid for a seventh trip to the Final Four under coach Mike Krzyzewski with a victory over 15th-seeded Texas Southern in the Southeast regional.
The Blue Devils (24-5), making their 11th consecutive appearance in the tournament, won their opening game for the 10th straight season and improved to 12-1 in first-rounders since 1955.
Chris Collins made four 3-pointers and scored 17 points as the Blue Devils built a 45-33 halftime lead and were never seriously threatened by the overmatched champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.
The Blue Devils led by 22 points before Texas Southern (19-11) trimmed the advantage to 74-64 with a late surge.
Collins finished with 20 points, while Antonio Lang had 18 and All-American Grant Hill, content with directing the Duke offense rather than trying to score, contributed 11.
Michigan State 84, Seton Hall 73
Shawn Respert and Michigan State held Seton Hall without a basket for nine minutes to start the second half, and broke away to victory.
Respert, known for his scoring, had 25 points despite a bandage on his sprained right thumb. But it was defense that quickly turned the Spartans' one-point lead at halftime into a 19-point bulge.
Michigan State (20-11) advanced to play No. 6 Duke in Sunday's second round. Duke defeated Texas Southern 82-70 earlier Friday.
The victory by the seventh-seeded Spartans gave Big Ten teams a 5-1 record in the first round. Minnesota, also in the Big Ten, played Southern Illinois later in the West.
Arturas Karnishovas scored 23 points for 10th-seeded Seton Hall (17-13). The Pirates were just 8-10 in the Big East, and their inclusion in the field of 64 was criticized by some.