Samhan Swiftly Becomes Star of NCAA Tourney, but Can He Get a Date?
by Terrance Harris
HOUSTON -- Saint Mary's senior center Omar Samhan has quickly become one of the best players in the NCAA tournament, particularly among those you'd probably never heard of before Selection Sunday.
What's even more interesting is that the 6-foot-11 post has become equally known for his outlandish comments as he has been for his performance on the court, where he has averaged 30.5 points and 10.0 rebounds in two games to deliver the Gaels to the Sweet 16.
Samhan certainly didn't disappoint during Thursday's media session at Reliant Arena, where No. 10 seed Saint Mary's will play No. 3 Baylor in a South Regional semifinal Friday night. He drew a chorus of laughter from the attending media when the question came up about if the song "Love Story" would be playing in his iPod to pump him up for the game against the Bears.
Samhan found the closest camera from his podium seat and glared confidently into it.
"Are those cameras on?" he said. "I love you, Taylor [as in singer Taylor Swift]. You should call me."
by Michelle Smith
Louella Tomlinson is built for blocking shots. She is long, lithe and mobile. Her 6-foot-4 frame is complemented by long fingers at the end of a 7-foot wingspan. She has a natural instinct for getting herself in the right position to obstruct a shooter's path between their release point and the rim.And the junior forward from St. Mary's College in California has made good use of her gifts.Tomlinson enters Thursday night's big home game against No. 22 Gonzaga needing three blocked shots to break the NCAA Division I record held by Sandora Irvin (TCU, 2002-2005). Tomlinson has 478 blocks. Irvin 480. It will be a race to the record with Michigan State's Allyssa DeHaan. DeHaan, the tallest player in women's college basketball at 6-foot-9, has 479 career blocks heading into Thursday's game against Michigan. DeHaan is a senior and Tomlinson has one more season left to add to her total. Tomlinson is also within five blocks of the NCAA single-season record of 161. 
When Jasmine Smith found out she was pregnant, she told her best friend first.That best friend was her big sister, Jontelle, who also happened to be her teammate on the St. Mary's (CA) women's basketball team.Jontelle and Jasmine Smith were born 13 months apart. They look alike ... they sound alike ... they finish each other's sentences. They were supposed to have been born on the same day, a year apart.Jasmine knew her big sister would have her back."Telling my family was the hardest thing ... ever," Jasmine Smith said. "After that, telling the coaches was easy. But telling my parents ... oh, man." 
The West Coast Conference tournament starts tonight in Las Vegas, but nobody is really going to be paying attention until Sunday when St. Mary's Patrick Mills makes his much anticipated return. No offense to LMU, San Diego, Pepperdine or USF, but like most opening acts in Las Vegas, nobody cares. (Well not nobody. The WCC did sell out all of its all-tournament passes before the first tonight's tip-off. So maybe that move to a neutral court in Las Vegas wasn't a bad move afterall. Remember this when the Pac-10 and the other big schools play conference tournaments in front of empty crowds.)And the WCC tournament will draw a lot of interest from the bubble teams. Gonzaga is already in the NCAA tournament. If the Bulldogs can win the conference tournament, then St. Mary's could be left on the bubble. That's the rub for the WCC commissioner Jamie Zaninovich. To be honest, I don't know how he does it. Now, you can't just keep Gonzaga out of the tournament. And you can't exactly turn into Marsellus from Pulp Fiction ... "Listen Mark, in the second half, your butt goes down. Say it." Though, you couldn't really blame the commissioner if he turns into Bobby "the Brain" Heenan for a day. You know, Matt Boldin comes running down the court and the Zaninovich throws sand in his eyes. Or maybe he gives Omar Samhan a foreign object to use.The crowning achievement would be if St. Mary's held a one-point lead with only seconds remaining and Zaninovich ran out on the court and screamed, "Sound the horn, sound the horn!" ending the game in the Gaels' favor. (Though, that seemingly happened with the screw-job ending in the Super Bowl.)Not that Zaninovich has to go to any of those extremes. St. Mary's probably ends up winning the tournament anyway. The Gaels have much more on the line and have something to prove. Gonzaga does not, it's human nature.Not that it will be easy. Mills figures to come out rusty in his first game. And St. Mary's opponent will already have at least a game under its belt. But the Gaels will find a way to win that semi-final game before running the Bulldogs out of the building. Which, of course, would be bad news for the bubble teams out there.Bubble Teams Are Big Gonzaga Fans This Weekend originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:00:00 EST . .