Tag: March Madness (Page 7 of 24)

      NCAA announces March Madness expansion…

      July 12, 2010 /
      INDIANAPOLIS - APRIL 05: A general view of the opening tipoff between Matt Howard #54 of the Butler Bulldogs and Brian Zoubek #55 of the Duke Blue Devils during the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 5, 2010 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images);

      …and it’s not as bad as we thought it was going to be.

      The final four at-large teams and final four automatic qualifiers in the newly minted 68-team NCAA men’s basketball tournament field will meet for the right to enter the traditional 64-team draw, tournament selection committee chairman Dan Guerrero announced Monday.

      The “First Four” will be played either the Tuesday or Wednesday after Selection Sunday. The winners of the four games will advance to what will now be called the “second round” on either Thursday or Friday.

      The games will be televised on TruTv (formerly CourtTV), which is available in 93 million homes, said NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen, who manages the NCAA tournament. CBS, Turner, TBS and TruTV are in their first year of a $10.8 billion, 14-year television agreement.

      There was a lot of talk about a possible expansion to 96 teams, which would just be an obvious money grab by the NCAA, but the entity showed some restraint and are only going to expand the tournament by three teams.

      I don’t know what the hell TruTV is or if I even get it on DirecTV, but this is the way for a channel to put itself on the map.

      But wait a second — the last few at-large teams (#10-#12) aren’t seeded as low as the last few automatic bids (#16), so how are the winners of the “First Four” going to be inserted in the rest of the tournament field?

      Guerrero and Shaheen said the last four at-large teams would be put on the seed line the committee decided they earned. So, this could mean that two could be considered No. 12 seeds playing for the right to play a No. 5 and two could be No. 11s vying to play a No. 6 in the second round.

      In its news release, the NCAA listed the 10th seed as a possible destination for the last at-large teams, something that has occurred in past years. It is unlikely that the committee will have one team seeded 10th, 11th or 12th to avoid having teams seeded differently playing in a First Four game.

      Confused yet? Me too, but at least the NCAA has a plan. I just don’t know quite how it’s going to work. If these are #11 vs. #16 games, then potentially there would be a #16 vs. #6 matchup if the #16-seed won its “First Four” game. That is going to take some getting used to.

      Hey, at least they didn’t expand it any further.

      College Basketball, External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, March Madness, News

      Michigan State advances to Final Four

      March 28, 2010 /

      Don’t bet against Tom Izzo in March. Even without his best player, Kalin Lucas, Izzo has directed his Spartans to their second-straight Final Four with a 70-69 win over Tennessee.

      The game was nip-and-tuck the entire way with neither team leading by more than eight points. Raymar Morgan made a free throw with 1.8 seconds to play to give the Spartans the lead for good.

      Personally, I’m a little bummed. I was hoping Tennessee and West Virginia would square off in the title game so we could see the matchup between Steven Pearl and Cam Thoroughman.

      College Basketball, March Madness

      West Virginia upends Kentucky

      March 27, 2010 /

      Kentucky started out strong, but once West Virginia started hitting its threes and settling into its 1-3-1 zone, the game shifted. WVU made 10 of 23 of its shots from deep. Conversely, the Wildcats hit just 4 of 32 from long range. They also killed themselves at the free throw line, making just 15 of 28 attempts (53%).

      Joe Mazzulla played admirably, posting 17 points and playing scrappy defense on DeMarcus Cousins at the base of the Mountaineers’ 1-3-1 zone. He fouled out with two minutes to play, and WVU was pretty shaky handling the ball against Kentucky’s press, but the Mountaineers made enough free throws to seal the win.

      On a side note, my bracket is starting to look pretty good. With WVU already in, and Duke still alive, I could get two Final Four teams in a year when very few brackets will have three or more. (Virtually no one picked Butler or the MSU/Tennessee winner.)

      College Basketball, March Madness

      Butler heads home — to the Final Four

      March 27, 2010 /

      Butler upended K-State, 63-56, and will head home to Indianapolis for the Final Four next weekend.

      Kansas State was out of sync early on, and couldn’t buy a bucket for long periods of the first half. Every analyst seems to think they were tired from Thursday night’s double-OT win over Xavier, but these are 19-, 20-, and 21-year old kids we’re talking about, so fatigue shouldn’t be that much of a factor, especially considering that K-State is a pretty deep team.

      Butler controlled the game for most of the way, but there was a nearly five-minute stretch in the second half where the Bulldogs didn’t score a field goal, which allowed the Wildcats to claw back into the game. Butler turned the ball over 11 times in the second half (19 in the game), but didn’t have a single turnover in the final four and a half minutes after Kansas State regained the lead.

      Butler made up for its sometimes sloppy offensive play by hitting almost 47% from three (7-15) and getting to the line 20 times (six more than K-State). They also played solid defense throughout the game, though K-State missed a lot of bunnies; Butler’s defense was outstanding on the final few possessions.

      Brad Stevens (33) has to be one of the youngest coaches (if not the youngest) to make a Final Four, and he’ll get to do it in Butler’s hometown of Indianapolis. I’m not sure they’ll be much of a home court advantage as the Final Four crowd is usually heavy in non-partisan corporate types. The Bulldogs have a real shot at playing in the title game as both of their potential opponents — Michigan State and Tennessee — are very beatable.

      This is the third time in five years (George Mason ’06, Memphis ’08) that a mid-major has made the Final Four. Prior to that, there was a stretch of seven years (Utah ’98) where only “power” conference teams made it to the national semifinals.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Basketball, March Madness

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