Jamey Codding of Bullz-Eye.com got the opportunity to attend the Final Four thanks to Infiniti! Read about his experience below.

When complete strangers start chucking mini foam basketballs at you on your way down an airport escalator, you know Final Four fever has settled in. Houston was buzzing already, and we were still more than 24 hours away from the tipoff of the Butler/VCU game. Fans were moving through the George Bush Intercontinental Airport with their team affiliations proudly displayed on jerseys, t-shirts, hats, luggage and, of course, directly on their bodies with temporary tattoos and skin paint. Houston was ready to party. And so were we.

After getting settled at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Houston, we met with our trusty Infiniti rep for the weekend, Ray Daniels, and headed to Cabo for a quick bite to eat and a couple of cervezas. Great way to start a great weekend. A few hours later, we found ourselves at the Sambuca Jazz Cafe for some dinner — the lobster enchiladas come very highly recommended — and stuck around after the meal for a few more drinks and some great live music. If you ever are in Houston looking for a place to spend an evening out, Sambuca should be on your short list.

Of course, Saturday was game day, and after grabbing a quick burger, we hopped onto the shuttle bus and headed over to Reliant Stadium (home of the NFL’s Houston Texans) to check out Infiniti’s Tip-Off Tailgate event, with all sorts of games, activities and, of course, food and drinks. We milled around the tailgate section for an hour or so, our celebrity radar already on high alert since we could safely assume that some big names would be in attendance to take in college basketball’s biggest weekend. Sure enough, just before we made our way to the gate, we saw former NFL defensive lineman Warren Sapp hanging with a group of people in a tucked away corner of the event, but we wisely resisted the temptation to snap a quick picture. We’ve made a point of not irritating 300-pound former NFL players, and it’s worked well for us so far so why deviate now?

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Connecticut vs. Butler…who would have thunk it?

Roughly 50% of the bracket-playing population had the Bulldogs losing their first round game against Old Dominion, so for Butler to still be alive is nothing short of shocking. Sure, they made the title game last year, but they lost their best player (Gordon Hayward) to the NBA and at one point during they season, they were 14-9 and coming off a three-game losing streak to UW-Milwaukee, Valparaiso and Youngstown St. Needless to say, what Brad Stevens and Co. have done over the past two years (10-1 in the tournament, 11-0 against the spread) is nothing short of amazing, especially for a mid-major.

On the flip side, it isn’t mind-blowing that UConn made the title game, especially with the way Kemba Walker played in five straight games in the Big East Championship. Freshman Jeremy Lamb has been a solid sidekick, and the Huskies proved on Saturday night that they can play some lockdown defense as they held Kentucky to just 34% shooting from the field. They’re more athletic than the Bulldogs and they will have the best player on the court in Walker.

But there is something about Butler that gives them the edge in a tight game. In many ways, the team has taken on the personality of the unflappable Stevens, so as long as they can keep the game close, there’s a good chance that they’ll figure out a way to pull out a win. How do they do it? Matt Howard outworks opposing big men while shotmaker Shelvin Mack is something of a poor man’s Walker. When the Bulldogs need a bucket, he usually delivers.

This is probably going to be another white-knuckle finish, and if that’s the case, I’m going with my heart and taking the Bulldogs. Considering I picked VCU and Kentucky in Saturday’s game, I’m probably putting the hex on the underdogs.

ESPN’s Andy Katz outlines what has been something of a heated rivalry between Jim Calhoun and John Calipari.

The perceived breaking point between the two schools — and coaches — occurred during the recruitment of Hartford-area center Marcus Camby in 1993.

“I was responsible for recruiting Marcus and I did everything I possibly could,” Dickenman said. “I tried and I tried, and the bottom line is I was talking to a wall. We weren’t going to get him. We did have him on a visit with Kirk King and Ray Allen. We had this feeling that we weren’t in it and we never really were.”

“At the time John was an up-and-comer, a hot-shot name, and Jim doesn’t like to lose to anyone,” Dickenman said. “John has tremendous charisma and he’s a little brash. Jim had taken some things personal, but I don’t think they were necessarily directed at Jim.

Calhoun doesn’t like to lose at all, but he really doesn’t like to lose to hot-shot coaches like Calipari, so there will be a little extra juice to the UConn/Kentucky tilt on Saturday night.

This moment of madness brought to you by Muscle Milk®. It’s powerful protein. Drink. Evolve™

When Virginia Commonwealth’s name was called on Selection Sunday, there were more than a few eyebrows raised across the country. ESPN’s Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Hubert Davis even spent a few minutes railing on the inclusion of VCU (and UAB). In fairness, they weren’t arguing that the Rams weren’t a solid team, or even that they weren’t capable of making a run to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8, just that their resume wasn’t as good as those of Virginia Tech or Colorado.

But that didn’t stop VCU head coach Shaka Smart from using their words to motivate his team. The Rams had an especially tough road to the Final Four, and were underdogs in each and every game they played. It’s not like this was some underachieving team from the Big East. The Rams finished fourth (fourth!) in the Colonial Athletic Association, so their run to the Final Four truly came out of nowhere. Along the way, they’ve beaten five power conferences: USC (Pac-10), Georgetown (Big East), Purdue (Big Ten), Florida St. (ACC) and yesterday’s monumental upset of #1-seeded Kansas (Big 12).

And it’s not like these wins were nailbiters, either. Sure, the FSU game went into overtime, but they upended USC by 13, Georgetown and Purdue by 18 and Kansas by 10. They didn’t just beat these teams. They pounded them.

How did VCU do it? Despite being outrebounded on average by more than seven boards, the Rams combined stingy defense with the great tournament equalizer, the three-pointer. Try this stat on for size: In five games, VCU has shot better from three-point range (44%) than their opponents have shot from the field (39%). What’s amazing about the Rams’ hot shooting is that on the season, they made just 36% from long range.

America loves an underdog story and with VCU set to square off against Butler in the Final Four, we’re guaranteed that a mid-major will play in the title game for the second straight season.

That’s the great thing about a sudden-death tournament. And Muscle Milk would like to remind us that on any given day, the little guy can win.

He’s dead, Jim.

Even though I had lost two Final Four picks (Pitt and Duke) earlier in the tournament, my bracket still had monetary potential — all I needed was Ohio State to beat Kansas in the title game and I would have finished second in my pool of 20. Thanks to the Buckeyes, that deal’s dead, and so is my bracket.

My bread and butter, Sagarin and Pomeroy ratings, did not perform well in the Sweet 16. Teams with at least a 2-point Sagarin advantage were just 2-6, while 65% Pomeroy favorites were just 2-4. Both Sagarin and Pomeroy were 39-13 (75%) in predicting winners heading into the Sweet 16.

It’s all right if you lose a couple of Final Four teams early in the tournament, but if you go with the #1 seeds and lose your overall winner, there will be blood in the water.

It appears that anyone who has the Jayhawks is sitting pretty.

Derrick Williams played a nearly perfect first half, and then his supporting cast played a nearly perfect second half.

It’s really that simple.

If not for Williams, Duke might have blown Arizona out in the first 20 minutes. The sophomore forward went 8-for-11 from the field (5-of-6 from 3PT) for 25 points to go along with six rebounds, three steals and a block. That’s all in a half, people. Not a game. A half. His deep three as time expired cut the Duke lead from nine to six, and gave Arizona some momentum heading into intermission.

One category that coaches and statheads both look at is offensive efficiency, which is the number of points per possession that an offense scores in any given game. Since each offensive rebound starts a new possession, one stat I like to look at is the number of points per trip. In the second half, the Wildcats scored 55 points on 35 trips, or 1.57 points per trip. The sign of a good offense is generally 1.0 point per trip, so Arizona’s work in the half was nothing short of outstanding.

Arizona missed just 16 shots in the second half (making 21), but gathered 12 (twelve!) offensive rebounds, so along with three turnovers, the Wildcats only had eight scoreless trips in the second half. That means that they scored on 27 of their 35 (77%) trips in the final 20 minutes. That’s a truly an amazing half of basketball.

Arizona made nearly all its open shots and hit several tough leaners and fadeaways that aren’t typically high percentage shots. They took care of the ball — remember the aforementioned three turnovers — and made every correct decision when Duke’s defense came over to help or trap.

That said, Duke still had a chance to make a run with about six minutes to play. The Blue Devils cut the lead from 14 to 11 and forced an Arizona miss, but Nolan Smith couldn’t convert a semi-tough layup to get the lead under 10. Had that shot gone in, the pressure would have been back on the Wildcats, and the game might have been tighter at the end. But it didn’t fall and Arizona went on a 5-0 run to push the lead back to 16. Wheels off. Game over.