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By David Kaplan

Northern Illinois is expected to hire a new men's basketball coach soon, but the Huskies are down two candidates.

On Tuesday, Purdue assistant Paul Lusk turned down the job and Gonzaga assistant Ray Giacoletti withdrew his name, according to sources.

Michigan State associate head coach Mark Montgomery will meet with NIU officials on Wednesday. No offer has been extended, but he comes highly recommended from coach Tom Izzo.

NIU fired its head coach Ricardo Patton on March 8.  The Huskies went just 35-83 overall and 19-44 in conference play in Patton's tenure.

By K.C. Johnson

All five starters scored in double figures with Derrick Rose leading the way with 18 points and eight assists as the Chicago Bulls downed the Sacramento Kings 132-92 Monday night at United Center.

The Bulls, who welcomed Carlos Boozer back from his five-game absence with a sprained left ankle, won their 13th straight home game and record the 14th 50-win season in franchise history.

Boozer played 26 minutes with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists. Taj Gibson also played after missing practice Sunday with a jammed big right toe.

Marcus Thornton's 25 points led the Kings.

The Bulls set season-highs for points, assists (34), 3-point shooting (70.6 percent).

PHOTO GALLERY: Bulls beat Kings | Monday's box score

Taj Gibson (left) and Carlos Boozer (5) defend against the Heat's Dwyane Wade. (Reuters)

By K.C. Johnson

Carlos Boozer participated in the Chicago Bulls' Monday morning shootaround and will start against the Sacramento Kings Monday night after missing the previous five games with a sprained left ankle.

"He was fine," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "It's great. We want to be at full strength. He adds a lot to our team. Offensively, low-post game, pick-and-roll game, catch-and shoot. Defensively, he rebounds."

Taj Gibson jammed his right big toe during Friday's overtime loss to the Pacers and wore a walking boot after Sunday's practice, which he skipped. But Gibson didn't have a walking boot on after Monday's shootaround, and Thibodeau said the second-year big man would try to play.

Notre Dame receiver Michael Floyd scores vs. Miami in the Sun Bowl. (US Presswire)

By Brian Hamilton

In January, after Michael Floyd elected to bypass the NFL and return to Notre Dame for his senior season, his coach effusively labeled him a "six-star" recruit.

A couple months later, Floyd may be decommitted, involuntarily.

The team's leading receiver was arrested early Sunday on an "operating while intoxicated" charge after allegedly running a stop sign and registering a .19 on a breath test -- more than twice the legal limit in Indiana -- according to documents released by prosecutors.

And Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly issued a strong response as a result: He suspended Floyd indefinitely from football-related activities until Floyd "gets his life in order."

But that may be just the start of Floyd's problems as he awaits discipline meted out by the school's Office of Residence Life.

By Paul Sullivan

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Andrew Cashner could've sealed a spot in the rotation Monday with a strong start against the Los Angeles Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

Instead, he gave up four runs on seven hits over three innings in a game called on account of rain after 3 1/2 innings.

"Couldn't really control much out there today," Cashner said. "It was wet and windy and a little cold, but still made some real good pitches today."

Illinois' D.J. Richardson and Crandall Head leave the court after the loss. (Tom Pennington/Getty)

By Chris Hine

TULSA, Okla. - TULSA, Okla. -- Demetri McCamey sat in the locker room, head down, staring at the floor.

There were no tears -- they had dried -- and no emotion in his voice, only a numb feeling that it couldn't really end like this.

McCamey desperately wishes he could have Illinois' 73-59 season-ending loss to Kansas back.

"I'm not the type of person to shed tears," McCamey said Sunday. "But I shed a few tonight."

His stat line: Six points on 2-for-9 shooting, four turnovers and seven assists.

By Chris Kuc

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Blackhawks got exactly what they did and didn't need over the course of 60 minutes in the desert.

The Hawks rebounded from their worst loss of the season with a much-needed 2-1 victory over the Coyotes on Sunday night at Jobing.com Arena, but they might have lost one of their top players in the process.

Chris Campoli scored the winning goal with 6 minutes, 34 seconds remaining, and goaltender Corey Crawford was on top of his game to lift the Hawks to the key Western Conference victory. Duncan Keith also scored as the Hawks got both goals on the power play to win for just the second time in six games. They moved into fifth place and pulled within three points of fourth-place Phoenix.

"As of late we've kind of stumbled and teams have caught us and are breathing down our necks," Campoli said. "To get those two points in regulation was crucial coming down the stretch. We knew how big of a game it was. We had a defense-first mentality."

On the negative side, the Hawks lost leading goal scorer Patrick Sharp to an apparent left knee injury late in the first period. The extent of Sharp's injury will be assessed Monday in Chicago, coach Joel Quenneville said.

Photo: Blackhawks winger Patrick Sharp lies on the ice after injuring his leg during the first period. (Christian Peterson/Getty Images)

TULSA, Okla. - It's only natural to wonder whether Derrick Williams and Jordan Hamilton will still be friends after what happened Sunday.

In the final seconds of Arizona's 70-69 victory over Texas, Williams, the Wildcats' star forward drove to the basket off a screen. Running over to defend him was Hamilton, his former AAU teammate and friend.

The two collided, the shot went up and the whistle blew. The shot went in and the foul - was on Hamilton.

It was that 3-point play with 9.6 seconds remaining that lifted the Wildcats to the victory over the Longhorns.

Williams had a rough day, scoring 17 points on just 4-for-15 shooting and he had a bloody elbow to show for the aggressive way Texas defended him.

Texas final shot by J'Covan Brown missed and while Texas wanted a foul on the shot and resulting rebound, there was none called and the Wildcats won. Hamilton led Texas with 18 points.

CLEVELAND -- Despite about 18,000 fans rooting against them and one of their most dangerous shooters back at the team hotel with an illness, George Mason jumped out to an 11-2 lead in the opening minutes and threatened to silence an arena full of scarlet-and-gray wearing Buckeyes' fans.

Then Ohio State made its move.

A lot of moves, actually.

The top-seeded Buckeyes rallied quickly and never looked back to advance to the Sweet 16 with a 98-66 dismantling of George Mason at Quicken Loans Arena. Ohio State used rattling dunks from Jared Sullinger, lightning-fast passes from Aaron Craft and pinpoint perimeter accuracy from Cleveland native David Lighty to deflate any hope George Mason had of making a sequel out of its 2006 Final Four run.

The Buckeyes will face fourth-seeded Kentucky in the East Region in Newark, N.J., on Friday.

Lighty finished with 25 points with a career-high 7 of 7 3-point shooting.

Photo: Ohio State's Jared Sullinger and William Buford watch from the bench late in the game. (US Presswire)

MESA, Ariz.--The Cubs hosted the Giants Sunday afternoon with Randy Wells, their best pitcher ERA-wise at 1.29, on the mound.

In their previous three games, all losses, Cub pitchers had allowed 34 runs, but manager Mike Quade insisted he was not a big spring "numbers" guy.

"Not here, not right now," he said when asked about whether he was concerned about the team's 6.82 ERA, nearly two runs a game higher than opponents. "I'm looking at this individually. I honestly don't know any of the ERAs of my individual guys.

"But I sit back and say, how (have they thrown). I'm just looking at how I feel about them health-wise. Would I like to see improvement here and there and do we need to come out with better command by April 1st? Yeah. But, pitching-wise, I'm looking at a group of guys that I'm happy with."

Wells was just what the Cubs needed Sunday. He allowed the first two Giants to reach, then retired the next 18 in a row, leaving after six innings with a 2-1 lead.The Cubs won 3-2 in 10 innings.

"Confidence is a huge thing and I lost it last year," Wells said. "It's a tough thing to overcome."

Then he sat down and draped a towel around his neck and stared blankly at what transpired Sunday on the United Center floor. He saw what wasn't supposed to happen in this invigorating, expectation-defying season all too agonizingly happening again.

Notre Dame was not up to the moment once more. The second-seeded Irish suffered a withering 71-57 loss to No. 10 seed Florida State, the best team in coach Mike Brey's tenure falling short of its first Sweet 16 bid since 2003.

"Yeah," a dejected Hansbrough said in the locker room, "it's not the best feeling in the world."

Photo: Notre Dame's Tim Abromaitis finds himself surrounded by Florida State players in the first half. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Tribune)

WASHINGTON -- The players in the Butler locker room celebrated their latest stunning upset in the NCAA tournament by screaming, exchanging high fives and hugging each other.

Across the arena, Pittsburgh forward Nasir Robinson sat in front of his locker with his shoulders slumped. His voice was barely audible.

"I take the blame, man. I take the blame for the loss," Robinson said, referring to the pivotal play in Butler's 71-70 victory over the top-seeded Panthers on Saturday night.

Matt Howard made one free throw with 0.8 seconds left to cap a wild final sequence that enabled No. 8 seed Butler (25-9) to advance to the round of 16 and deal Pittsburgh its latest painful exit from the NCAAs.