Sweet 16 heat up March Madness
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
We’re down to the final 16 teams.
And when we only have 16 teams remaining in the biggest tourney of college hoops, that only means one thing, the regional semifinals of the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament is on with only two more rounds to go before we determine which two teams will be advancing to play for the national title.
There’s no more room for error. And as far as the Louisville Cardinals are concerned, they shouldn’t allow themselves to make the same mistakes they made against Siena if they still have plans of advancing to the 2009 NCAA Final Four.
Sure, all four no.1 seeds in the tournament advanced but it wasn’t smooth sailing for the top-seeded Louisville Cardinals when these Sienna Saints refused to cooperative. You see, the Cardinals had a comfortable double-digit lead over Sienna and it did look like Louisville was on its way to advancing comfortably. But when the Saints, all of a sudden, erased that huge lead, the Cardinals started to panic.
For a team that has the overall no.1 seed in the tournament, Louisville struggling this early into the bracket was surprising. And while their fellow no.1 seeds like the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Connecticut Huskies and the Pittsburgh Panthers all took care of business as expected, Louisville struggling against Sienna in round two was surprising, and a reason to be concerned about if you’re a Cardinals fan.
If it wasn’t for Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino challenging his team, they wouldn’t be able to hold on to a 79-72 win. Pitino called a timeout after the Saints made a late rally. He told his team, ‘’you’ve got to prove to yourselves now you’re a great basketball team.’’ Luckily for him, his senior Terrence Williams got the message.
Terrence Williams led the Cardinals to counter…
UNC kicks off 2009 March Madness
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
And they have the Radford Highlanders first.
Aside from the fact that North Carolina is the ONLY no.1 seeded team not coming out of the Big East, the Tar Heels are coming in the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament looking to win the national title in Tyler Hansbrough’s last hurrah. Hansbrough has been the face of UNC the last four years and it is only fitting for them to go and win the big one in Hansbrough’s senior year.
But will North Carolina be a good bandwagon to ride on to win a lot of dough until the end of the tournament? Sure, they have Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson but can these guys be enough for UNC to end up with the national title?
No.1 has been a tenuous position atop the polls all year and the North Carolina Tar Heels demonstrated this again last week, when they were dumped by the Florida State Seminoles in the ACC semi-finals. They were beat 73-70, failing to cover as 8.5-point favorites.
While the Tar Heels were hot down the stretch going 16-4 straight up in their last 20 games, they were far from profitable for their backers, as they limped to a 7-13 mark against the spread.
Bettors actually made out okay in the tilt between UNC and Florida State, as the No.1 team in the nation was only getting 54 percent of the betting action at the online sportsbook SPORTSBETTING.COM (you just know I had to mention those guys right?) by tip-off. It appears many had this one handicapped right, feeling that was too many points to lay.
SPORTSBETTING.COM reported steady early action flowing in on UNC to win the South Region of the bracket this year, but bettors have been less enthusiastic so far on the Tar Heels to win it all. Perhaps the visions of them dropping that game to the Seminoles is still fresh.
They are still the favorites to cut the…
Praying for March Madness seeding
Friday, March 13th, 2009
Selection Sunday is coming.
‘’The calm before the storm’’ is on as conference tournaments are now underway coming to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament. It’s all about seedings to those teams hopeful to win the national title by season’s end with their seeds for March secured.
But in leagues such as the Atlantic Sun, Patriot and Sun Belt, it’s winner-take-all. There are no at-large bids, and the teams know that if they want to be in the March spotlight, they must win their league tournament first.
In the Big 12 Conference, the Kansas Jayhawks won the regular-season title by a game over Oklahoma, which lost twice while star big man Blake Griffin was sidelined by a concussion. One of those losses was at home to the Jayhawks. Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma are NCAA locks, while Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State look good for bids.
For the Big East, the Louisville Cardinals won the regular-season title by a game over Connecticut and Pittsburgh. If the Cardinals can also win the league tournament, they’re a good bet for a No.1 seed.
Seven Big East teams; Louisville, second-seeded Pittsburgh, third-seeded Connecticut Huskies, fourth-seeded Villanova, fifth-seeded Marquette, sixth-seeded Syracuse and seventh-seeded West Virginia, are NCAA locks.
The eighth-seeded Providence Friars could play itself into the field, but at a minimum, that would require getting to the semifinals, which would mean a victory over Louisville in the quarterfinals.
Cincinnati, Georgetown and Notre Dame could get firmly onto the…
Who’ll get Invite to March Madness 09?
Monday, March 9th, 2009
Selection Sunday is on March 15, in case you didn’t know.
That means, you should now be getting ready for the March Madness bracket tournament with Selection Sunday just around the corner. The opening round of the tournament begins on March 17 as the rest of the field gets narrowed down to four for the 2009 NCAA Final Four on April 4 and 6 at Ford Field in Detroit Michigan.
The predictions for which college teams will be picked for the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament have been coming out since the last tournament finished. The phrase ‘’March Madness’’ was coined by Henry V. Porter in 1939, to describe an Illinois high school basketball tourney. Brent Musburger first used it during his NCAA coverage in 1982 causing a legal battle almost as insane as the playoffs. But everyone finally worked things out and the madness was official. There isn’t a good record of who first called the playoffs ‘The Big Dance,’ but it does describe the action.
The five schools who have the winningnest history in NCAA Division I Men’s basketball include UCLA with 11 championships; Kentucky who won the March Madness tourney seven times; Indiana with 5 Big Dance victories; the North Carolina Tar Heels having outlasted all the other teams 4 times, including their championship win in 2005, and Duke with 3 titles.
There are 8 teams that won twice and others who are trying to reach that goal this year.
Leading the division in the America East are the Vermont Catamounts and Binghamton Bearcats. The Catamounts have a 23-7 record with a 13-3 card in conference play while the Bearcats have a 20-8 mark.Mike Trimboli, a candidate for America East Player of the Year honors, was doubtful with an undisclosed illness that forced him to miss the regular-season finale at Maine. That ended a streak of 123 straight starts for the senior. How valuable is he? He finished second in the conference in assists, steals and assist/turnover ratio, third in free-throw percentage, fifth in scoring and 3-point percentage, tied for seventh in minutes played and ninth in…
Duke V Florida State Betting Tips
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
It was only a matter of time before we did another Duke game.
You read it, the Florida State Seminoles travel to Durham, North Carolina to play its final ACC road game of the season as they slug it out against No.7 Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Which of these two teams can gain an edge before the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament gets here?
The Florida State Seminoles can finish second place in the ACC standings with victories in its final two conference games of the 2008-09 season. Florida State is led by ACC Player of the Year candidate Toney Douglas and ACC Coach of the Year nominee Leonard Hamilton. The Seminoles were picked to finished 10th by the attending media at ACC Operation Basketball in October and enter Tuesday’s game in a tie for third place in the league standings.
The Seminoles have won six of their last eight games (all conference match-ups) and enters Tuesday’s game with the Duke Blue Devils carrying an overall record of 22-7, that’s the most regular season wins by Florida State since also winning 22 games prior to post-season play during the 1992-93 season.
The Seminoles also own a record of 9-5 in ACC play, that’s their most conference wins since winning nine during the 2005-06 season and tied for the third most ACC wins in school history. The Seminoles arrive in Durham looking to win their fifth ACC game and their 11th game away from Tallahassee this season.For Duke, after losing four times over a six-game span, head coach Mike Krzyzewski knew he had to do something to shake up his Blue Devils.
Since moving Jon Scheyer to point guard and putting freshman Elliot Williams in the starting lineup, Krzyzewski has seen his Blue Devils run off four consecutive wins to move back into second place behind their rivals, North Carolina Tar Heels, in the ACC standings. The Devils moved to 10-4 in the league with their tough 72-65 victory at Virginia Tech. The Tar Heels are a game in front at…
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