It’s all right there in the title — my bracket is f*#kd.

The Pittsburgh Panthers played with fire for the entire tournament and they finally got burned. In the first three games, they showed tremendous poise in the clutch. But when they had a chance to put this game away, they blew it.

Up four with the ball and 2:56 remaining, Pitt brought the ball up against Villanova’s full court pressure. If Pitt converts there and goes up six or seven, it would be a tough road to hoe for Villanova. But Jermaine Dixon made a bad decision at half court, which led to a steal and eventually to a three-point play for Villanova. On Pitt’s next possession, Sam Young turned the ball over in the lane. And just like that, the Panthers’ four point lead turned into a one-point deficit.

Down four with 0:12 to play, it looked like all was lost, but DeJuan Blair slipped to the hoop for a bucket and the Wildcats turned the ball over going for the home run. Levance Fields was fouled and knocked down two free throws to tie the game with 5.5 seconds to play. One more stop and Pitt was going to force an overtime when they had absolutely no business doing so. But they made a mistake on the inbound play, allowing ‘Nova to catch the ball near halfcourt, where it was flipped to Scottie Reynolds who was streaking down the sideline. The long pass covered a lot of ground when Pitt should have forced Villanova to dribble the entire length of the court. Make them catch it in front of you!

Reynolds drove into the lane and hit a tough game-winner.

Argh!

Give credit to Villanova for playing a great game. As a team, the Wildcats shot 22 of 23 from the free throw line, which is outstanding given the pressure of an Elite Eight game. It’s going to be fun to see them play in the Final Four.

In the other Saturday game, UConn fended off a feisty Missouri team with a 12-5 run over the last two minutes. UConn looked a little out of sorts in the second half, but freshman Kemba Walker scored 23 points off the bench to put the Huskies over the top.

#3-seed Missouri vs. #1-seed UConn
Tip-Off: 4:40 PM ET
Sagarin Ratings: UConn (94.21), Mizzou (91.04)
Line: UConn -5.5
Missouri’s strength is their forward duo of Leo Lyons and DeMarre Carroll, but guard J.T. Tiller scored a season-high 23 points against Memphis. Mizzou got Memphis to play at its pace, but I don’t think that the Tigers are going to find the Huskies as willing to run with them. UConn plays its best defense when Hasheem Thabeet is planted firmly in the lane. They don’t foul (Memphis sent Mizzou to the line 45 times on Thursday) and they are pretty efficient offensively, which one of the flaws of John Calipari’s team. If UConn gets into an up-and-down affair, Thabeet is far more likely to find himself in sitting on the bench in foul trouble. I’d expect UConn to push when they have the advantage but otherwise slow the tempo down. Mizzou’s run has been great, but UConn is playing as well as anyone in the tournament and given the Huskies’ balance of talent, that’s a pretty scary proposition. But 5.5 points is a lot to give the Tigers, who are playing the best basketball of their season right now. I think I’d stay away from this one wager-wise, but UConn is my pick to win it.

#3-seed Villanova vs. #1-seed Pittsburgh
Tip-Off: 7:05 PM ET
Sagarin Ratings: Pittsburgh (91.97), Villanova (89.59)
Line: Pittsburgh -2
I picked Pitt to win the whole thing and every game they love to scare the ever-loving crap out of me. Needless to say, I’m not as optimistic about the Panthers making it to the Final Four much less win the whole thing. The one thing that they’re doing better than anyone else this in this tournament is keeping their poise in the clutch. They have three of the best players in the college game in Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields, but they aren’t getting much offensive help from any of their other players. In each of the three tournament games, they’ve kept it in about second or third gear for much of the game before flipping a switch in the waning minutes. This is a dangerous game to be playing, especially against a Villanova squad that looks so good right now. The Wildcats have blown out two pretty good teams (UCLA and Duke) and they beat Pitt by 10 at home in the two teams’ only meeting this season. In that game, Blair was saddled with foul trouble, so Pitt should fare better if he’s able to play his usual minutes. So with the Panthers favored by two, we have a team that isn’t playing very well (but is winning) favored by a bucket over a team that is as hot as a pistol and already won the previous meeting. If I were a betting man and you put a gun to my head, I think I’d take the Wildcats and the points, though if the game is tied or within one with two minutes to play, Pitt probably covers (if that makes any sense). The thing that really worries me about laying any money on Nova is the fact that Panthers have already lost to the Wildcats and they know they have to take them seriously. I’d stay away from this one too. My brain is saying Nova and my gut is saying Pitt, but my pick is Pitt. I think they play better and win a tight one.

With March Madness set to tip off, we thought it would be nice to pick the brain of someone who knows a little about the sports gambling world to see if we could get any tips for betting the games (legally of course).

Al DeMarco is the General Manager of SportsGamingEdge.com and is the featured handicapping analyst on SportsNet New York’s Daily News Live. He’s also a regular contributor on FoxSports.com and MSNBC.com. We recently caught up with Al to talk a little about his site and the tourney, including which team he likes as a dark horse this year.

The Scores Report: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to pick your brain, Al. Can you talk a little about Sports Gaming Edge – how you got started, what your goals are and what people who haven’t been to your site can expect to find when they visit it for the first time?

Read the rest of this entry »

1. #11 Utah State looks like a sneaky smart pick against #6 Marquette.
The Golden Eagles are just 1-5 after losing Dominic James, their fourth-leading scorer and best playmaker, for the rest of the season. Granted, those five losses were to UConn, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Villanova, and they only lost by an average of 7.2 points, but Marquette has to travel to Boise to face #25-ranked Utah State, who had a 19-game winning streak this season. The Golden Eagles better account for Gary Wilkinson and Jared Quayle, who make up one of the best inside-outside combinations west of the Mississippi.

2. The committee didn’t do Mississippi State any favors.
Congratulations on winning the SEC tournament, Bulldogs! Now we need you to make the 2000 mile-trip to Portland, Oregon by Thursday, where you’ll play the Pac-10 champions in their neighboring state. Good luck, and enjoy the Pacific Northwest!

3. UConn shouldn’t be seriously challenged until the Elite Eight, but this is UConn we’re talking about.
If the Huskies come out with a singular focus, no team on their side of the bracket should be able to keep up. Washington, Purdue and BYU are nice teams, but they don’t have the star power or coaching experience of the Huskies. Nor do they have anyone to matchup with Hasheem Thabeet on the inside. However, UConn is known for having tournament ADHD, so its entirely possible that one or more of these teams make the Huskies sweat late into the second half.

4. Missouri/Memphis should be a good one.
The Utah State/Marquette winner could easily give Mizzou a run, and Memphis might be challenged by the winner of the Cal/Maryland game, but if the Tigers face the…um…the other Tigers in the Sweet Sixteen, it’ll be a nice matchup. Memphis hasn’t played a good team since early February (when they blew out Gonzaga in Spokane) and Missouri just won the Big 12 tourney in convincing fashion. Both teams are stellar defensively, but Mizzou has an advantage on offense with DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons on the front line.

#5 Oklahoma visited #12 Missouri last night, and the Tigers pulled the upset, 73-64. Blake Griffin had 16 points and 21 rebounds, but turned the ball over six times in the loss. The Tigers were obviously motivated after the 25-point drubbing they took from the Kansas Jayhawks. This looks like it would have been a fun game to watch — too bad it was only on ESPN360. The network really should have a way to bring great matchups like this to a wider audience.

#9 Kansas lost to unranked Texas Tech, 84-65. Senior Alan Voskuil had 35 points on 9 of 14 shooting from long range. I’m not sure what to make of these Big 12 teams right now. Kansas and Oklahoma looked like the cream of the crop, and they turn around a lose to Texas Tech and Missouri, respectively. (In the Sooners’ defense, Missouri was the #12 team in the nation and the game was on the road.) Oklahoma was in line for a #1 seed, but it looks like they still have some work to do.

Meanwhile, #2 North Carolina fended off a feisty Virginia Tech squad, 86-78, while #4 Pitt beat #15 Marquette, 90-75. The Tar Heels earned at least a share of the ACC regular season title, though they’ll have to beat archrival Duke on Sunday to avoid sharing the honors with the Blue Devils.

College basketball is heating up, people, and there is no better example than tonight’s Border War between #16 Kansas and #19 Missouri. The atmosphere at Mizzou Arena was electric even though the home team only scored 16 points the entire first half (and trailed by 14 at halftime). Bit by bit, the Tigers chipped away at the lead, and after trailing for the previous 30 minutes, J.T. Tiller’s bucket with 0:50 remaining gave Mizzou the lead, 60-58. Twenty seconds later, Mario Little made a rainbow jumper from the baseline to tie the game, 60-60. The Tigers ran the clock down and with just 0:02 remaining, Zaire Taylor got a very friendly bounce to put Mizzou ahead for good, 62-60.

One of the biggest differences between college hoops and the NBA is the energy of the home crowd. The fans in Columbia stuck with the Tigers even when things were going badly and gave them that extra boost when they needed it most. With the Jayhawks up two, Sherron Collins (who is an 84% free throw shooter on the season) missed two crucial shots at the charity stripe due in no small part to the fact that he was shooting into the teeth of the student body.

It’s Rivalry Week and ESPN has a number of great Top 25 matchups over the next few days. Mizzou and Kansas got us off to a great start.

At the end of the year, it’s always interesting to look back at all that has happened in the world of sports over the last 12 months. 2008 brought us a host of compelling sports stories, including the culmination of the Patriots’ (unsuccessful) quest for perfection, a Bejing Olympics that featured incredible accomplishments by the likes of Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and the Redeem Team, and, of course, Brett Favre’s unretirement, which managed to hold the sports news cycle hostage for a solid month or more.

As is our tradition, we’ve once again broken our Year End Sports Review into three sections. The first is “What We Learned,� a list that’s packed with a number of impressive feats. And when there are feats, inevitably there are also failures.

Don’t miss the other two parts: “What We Already Knewâ€� and “What We Think Might Happen.â€�

The New England Patriots weren’t so perfect after all.

After rolling through the 2007 regular season unscathed, the Patriots entered the 2008 Super Bowl as overwhelming favorites to roll over the pesky, but seemingly inferior New York Giants. The Pats were just one win away from staking their claim as the best football team in NFL history. But thanks to a dominating Giants’ defensive line, an improbable catch by David Tyree, and a virtually mistake-free performance by Eli Manning, the unbeatable New England Patriots were beat. It’ll go down as one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, and considering Tom Brady’s season-ending injury in 2008 cost the Pats a chance for redemption, it seems that many have forgotten how New England stood just one win away from perfection. – Anthony Stalter

Michael Phelps is part fish.

Eight gold medals in one Olympiad? No problem. Michael Phelps made the seemingly impossible look (relatively) easy en route to one of the most – if not the most – impressive Olympic performances ever. Phelps had to swim all four strokes, compete in both sprint and endurance races, and deal with the constant media attention and pressure that came along with his quest. Sure, NBC turned up the hype, but what Phelps accomplished is simply incredible. – John Paulsen

Usain Bolt is part cheetah.

First, Usain Bolt made Jamaica proud by setting a new world record (9.69) in the 100-meter sprint. Then, he broke the 12 year-old 200-meter world record with a time of 19.30 seconds. He showboated during the first race but cleaned up his act to win the second race in a professional manner. Some even say that Usain Bolt – not Michael Phelps – was the biggest story to come out of the Bejing Olympics. – JP

The Big 12 has the best quarterbacks in the nation.

The Big 12 housed some of the best quarterbacks in all of college football in 2008. Texas’s Colt McCoy, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Missouri’s Chase Daniel and Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell were all considered Heisman candidates at least at one point during the season, while McCoy and Bradford are still in the running. Amazingly, Bradford and McCoy aren’t done; both will return in 2008. And although they don’t receive as much attention as the top signal callers in the conference, Kansas’s Todd Reesing and Baylor’s Robert Griffin certainly turned heads this year as well. In fact, the highly versatile Griffin is only a freshman and could make the Bears a very dangerous team for years to come. – AS

After absolutely demolishing Missouri 62-21 in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday night, will the Oklahoma Sooners take on the Florida Gators in the BCS National Championship Game?

Considering they set a record for scoring 60-plus points in five straight games, it’s going to be hard to deny the Sooners a trip to Miami. I realize they played a high school secondary in MIZZOU, but lighting up the scoreboard for 62 points is impressive – I don’t care if it’s done against a woman’s flag football team. If Oklahoma leapfrogged Texas in the BCS standings last week, than there’s no way the idle Longhorns top the Sooners in the new standings.

OU’s victory Saturday night was impressive. And their non-conference schedule was harder than UT’s. But even considering all that, the Longhorns deserve a chance to play for a nation title – as does USC, Penn State, and yes, even Boise State. Nobody will convince me that the current BCS system is fair. And nobody will convince me that the current system is the best way to determine who the best two teams are in college football.

A playoff wouldn’t solve everything, but it would certainly be better and more exciting than the crap way college football relies on computers to determine what teams are more deserving to play for a title. I would love to see Texas get another shot at Oklahoma and to see what Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford could do against USC’s defense. That would be exciting. What’s not exciting is playing the “what if� game – what if Texas played MIZZOU on Saturday night and won 62-21?

If it winds up being Florida and Oklahoma in the title game, nobody is going to argue that it isn’t an exciting matchup. But that’s not the point. The point is that the current system is full of loopholes. And it’ll be the same mess next year, only probably with different teams.

Think about this, the system is so screwed up that the announcers during the end of the OU-MIZZOU game were actually debating whether or not the Sooners should score just once more (they were already up 55-21 by the way) with under four minutes remaining to make sure they appeared dominant enough to the BCS. How sad for a team (and announcers for that matter) to be worried about something like that with the game already in hand.

Perhaps no team in college football has played better over past two months than Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators. And thanks to their impressive 31-20 victory over No. 1 Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, Tebow and the Gators will head to Miami to play in college football’s national title game on January 8.

In the end, the Crimson Tide didn’t have enough offensive firepower to knock off Urban Meyer’s Gators, who just had too many players to control. The started to wear down the Gator defense in the third quarter, but couldn’t muster any points in the fourth and it wound up being their pitfall. The stout ‘Bama defense couldn’t contain Tebow, either, who threw for 216 yards and three touchdowns, including a five-yard scoring pass to Riley Cooper with 2:50 remaining in the game, which turned out to be the nail in the coffin.

It’s hard to place blame on running back Glen Coffee, who rushed for 112 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown, but QB John Parker Wilson couldn’t come up with enough big plays throughout the course of the game. He threw for just 177 yards and outside of a 64-yard pass to Julio Jones in the first quarter, Wilson struggled throwing vertically against an extremely fast Florida defense.

What’s amazing is that Florida scored 31 points against a fantastic Alabama defense and did so without Percy Harvin, who is their most explosive playmaker. The Gators’ win is truly a testament to how good this team is to knock off a previously undefeated Tide program, which had stifled their opponent’s offenses all season.

And does Tim Tebow get thrown back into the Heisman discussion after this game? The Big 12 quartbacks – Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and Graham Harrell – have been impressive, but Tebow has been on an absolute tear and in the biggest game of the season, he produced. His leadership, determination and heart have also been unrivaled this year.This is why college football should wait until after the championship game is played to crown the Heisman winner, because what if Tebow outshines Bradford or McCoy yet one of those two Big 12 QBs win the award? It’s kind of ridiculous not to wait until the BCS bowl games are played to crown a Heisman winner.

So Florida is in (assuming of course that the BCS doesn’t screw things up, which of course is still a major possibility), and will await the result of the Big 12 Championship Game. If Oklahoma beats Missouri, it’ll be the Gators and the Sooners in the national title game. If MIZZOU produces a massive upset, than all hell breaks loose and college football fans will pray all of the BCS’ computers explode and mass chaos ensues.

SEC Championship: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Florida, 4:00 PM ET CBS
This is going to be an absolute battle and I for one think that this is going to be extremely close throughout. Ironically, even though ‘Bama is the top team in the nation, many college football purists have been clamoring for weeks that Florida is the true No. 1. It’s hard to argue that point with the way the Gators have destroyed opponents by a 414 to 97 margin since losing to Ole’ Miss on the last Saturday in September. Still, the Crimson Tide have one of the most disruptive defensives lines in the nation and while the Florida offense is incredibly explosive, defense will win this game in the end. If ‘Bama can get to Tim Tebow and disrupt the flow of the Gator offense, the Tide might be able to rely on Glen Coffee and their ground game to grab victory, finish the season undefeated and secure a spot in the national championship. A win won’t be as easy to come by as it was last week against Auburn, however, as the Gators boast one of the fastest defenses in the country. Oddsmakers have made Florida a 9.5-point favorite but ‘Bama has a great shot to win outright. If we’re making predictions, I say the Gators win, but don’t cover.

ACC Championship: No. 17 Boston College vs. No. 25 Virginia Tech, 1:00 PM ET, ABC
Ah the ACC…the red-headed step child of the 2008 Championship Weekend. Ten of the 12 teams in this conference finished with a 5-3 or 4-4 record and arguably the best team in the ACC (Georgia Tech) won’t even play for a title due to a tough loss to Virginia back in September. But despite the allure of the SEC and Big 12 championship games, this matchup pits two of the best defenses in the nation against each other as VA Tech ranks sixth nationally and BC is eighth. The Hokies held opponents to only 268 yards or less in six of their 12 games while offensively, BC has totaled 244 yards or less in four of its last six games. In their first meeting this year, VA Tech returned two interceptions for touchdowns, while BC scored on a punt return to edge the Hokies 28-23. Defense is going to win this game and VA Tech has a small edge in that department, but the Eagles have been very opportunistic this season, forcing a remarkable 16 turnovers in their last five games. Oddsmakers have made this game a pick ‘em and while it’s hard to back a struggling Hokies’ offense, defense wins this game and I say VA Tech is your ACC Champion at the end of the day.

Big 12 Championship: No. 20 Missouri vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, 8:00 PM ET ABC
Regardless of whether or not you think Texas should be playing MIZZOU this weekend, this is the matchup that the BCS produced so live with it. The Tigers essentially have a small edge with the game being played at Arrowhead Stadium, but they better hope for bad weather to slow down Sam Bradford and OU’s explosive offense. While Chase Daniel and the MIZZOU have taken a backseat to OU, Texas and Texas Tech over the past couple weeks, the Tiger offense is still dangerous and posses a threat to Oklahoma and a defense that was absolutely shredded by Oklahoma State last weekend. Still, this game will come down to whether or not MIZZOU has enough defense to slow down Bradford, DeMarco Murray and a host of talented Sooner receivers. No opponent has even come close to containing Bradford. TCU’s and Texas were the only two teams to hold OU to under 40 points this season and the Sooners have scored 60-plus points in their last four contests. Oddsmakers have made OU a 17-point favorite and while it’s tempting to thing Daniel will keep the game close, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Other Notable Games:

No. 5 USC at UCLA, 4:30 PM ET ABC
The last time the Trojans traveled to Pasadena, they were upset 13-9. Ironically that was also the same year Oregon State beat USC in Corvallis. And who beat USC earlier this year in Corvallis? Hmm…

Navy at Army, 12:00 PM ET CBS
The most underrated rivalry in college football will once again be on display this week in Philadelphia.

No. 12 Ball State vs. Buffalo, 8:00 PM ET ESPN2
This game might not get the attention of the other title games, but the MAC has produced some quality NFL-caliber players over the years, including Ben Roethlisberger, Chad Pennington and Randy Moss. And this game features one more: Ball State QB Nate Davis.