On the eve of the NCAA Tournament starting for real, a few thoughts on the bracket… *The pool that I’m in, like many others, makes it advantageous to pick lower seeds to win. For the national championship, in a year with no obvious favorite, I’m looking at the 3-line. Oregon and UCLA are each there […]
The improbable run of UConn completed on Monday night, as the Huskies defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 60-54 to win the 2014 NCAA Tournament. The storylines from the championship game in Dallas are as follows…
The world of sabermetrics—or stat geeks if you want a less complimentary term—has long been assuring us that the results of close games are decided mostly by luck, and that it’s all “variance” to use their mathematical term. The sabermetrics crowd has been thrown for a loop by the success of the Kentucky Wildcats in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, as the Cardiac ‘Cats continued their surreal run of last-second wins in a 74-73 thriller over Wisconsin in Saturday’s national semi-final.
A weekend of great basketball concluded with UConn and Kentucky grabbing the final two places in the Final Four, alongside Florida and Wisconsin who won on Saturday. The Huskies beat Michigan State in a good game, and Kentucky survived Michigan in a stupendous game in what is turning out to be a tournament for the ages for the young Wildcats.
The Golden Tickets of college basketball are being handed out this weekend. Unlike the great Gene Wilder movie Wily Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, there’s only four tickets as opposed to five, but the first two were claimed by one program making a long-anticipated return and another coach making a long-awaited first-time visit. Florida and Wisconsin are ticketed for Dallas next weekend.
It was quite a night of college basketball in the Sweet 16 on Friday. Three of the four games went literally to the final possession, including both games at the Midwest Regional in Indianapolis where the crowd was out in full force. Here’s a look back on the four games that completed the field for the regional finals…
The last four teams in the NCAA Tournament East Regional converge on New York City to settle a Final Four berth between tonight and Sunday. Friday’s semifinals feature Iowa State-UConn (7:27 PM ET) and Michigan State-Virginia (9:57 PM ET), with both games carried by TBS.
The whirlwind of March Madness is over and the hard business of determining a national collegiate basketball champion has begun. The romance of the NCAA Tournament is about what took place this past weekend, when a four-day rush pared the field from 64 teams to 16 and no-name underdogs had their day in the sun.
Life in the NCAA Tournament is harsh, and Wichita State became the latest to learn that lesson on Sunday when the Shockers’ unbeaten season came to a crushing end in a 78-76 loss to Kentucky that was nothing less than a brilliantly played basketball game.
The chalk started to assert itself in the NCAA Tournament, as six teams that were favorites moved on to the Sweet 16. But there was still room for upsets, as two dark horses also survived this opening weekend of the tournament. Here’s a look back at yesterday’s eight games from the Round of 32…
The South Regional of this year’s NCAA Tournament is home to the field of 68’s #1 overall seed in the Florida Gators, and will be settled in Memphis next weekend. TheSportsNotebook has run the tale of the tape of all 17 teams in this region (the 16-seed line is in play tonight in the First Four at Dayton). Now here’s nine general thoughts about this quarter of the bracket, followed by game-by-game picks at the bottom
The South Regional of the NCAA Tournament is one of two brackets that have teams playing in the First Four on Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton. It’s only the 16-seed line, as Mount St. Mary’s and Albany will tip off in about seven hours. Florida is the top seed in this region and the #1 overall seed in the 68-team field. Here’s a rundown on all 17 teams placed in the South Region, a brief summation of notable aspects in their body of work and key personnel…