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…
Butler v Cleveland State on Tuesday
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
The Butler Bulldogs, you may not hear much about them but as of press time, they are ranked no.17 in the nation.
Of course, like other bracket-bound teams, the Bulldogs can use all sorts of momentum heading to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament. Thankfully, they have Gordon Howard to make things easier for them.
Gordon Hayward is a top candidate for Horizon League player of the year. All seven of the 6-foot-8 freshman swingman’s best games had him scoring 19 or more points, ironically, all of them have come on the road, including a career-best 27 points in the Bulldogs’ 75-63 victory at Davidson.
He is shooting 52.5 percent from 3-point distance and 85.9 percent at the free-throw line in 14 road games. Hayward said he enjoys playing in hostile environments like Davidson’s sold-out Belk Arena, which holds 5,223. The Butler Bulldogs improved to 11-3 on the road with their 75-63 victory at Davidson. No team in Division I has more road wins.
The last time the Bulldogs met up with the Cleveland State Vikings, Butler edged Cleveland State 50-48 on Dec. 4 on a 3-pointer by Zach Hahn with one second remaining, capping a wild finish that featured three lead changes in the last 19 seconds. The Bulldogs shot 31.5 percent from the field, but that was better than the Vikings at 25.9 percent. Cleveland State made just one of 11 3-pointers.
After the Vikings’ seven-game winning streak was finally snapped, expect them to bounce back against the Bulldogs. The Vikings entered the week in third place in the Horizon League with two games left. They were two games behind Butler and one behind…
Gonzaga – St. Mary’s Betting Tips
Monday, March 9th, 2009
It’s Gonzaga going up against St. Mary’s on Monday night.
And while we inch closer to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament, teams on the bubble continue to jockey for position, all hoping that they’ll get the invite once Selection Sunday gets here.
You don’t need to tell the no.14 Gonzaga Bulldogs that. They have the St. Mary’s Gaels at the Orleans Arena on Monday night and will need all the momentum they can get heading for the bracket wars.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs are headed into this weekend’s West Coast Conference tournament as the favorites, nearly certain to make their 11th straight NCAA tournament. The Zags have won 16 of their 17 games in 2009, many by ridiculous margins.
The latest example was last week’s 90-40 demolition of South Carolina-Upstate. While no one expected the Spartans to win, the domination they’ll suffer from Gonzaga was unexpected. The Zags held them to 29 percent shooting and forced 26 turnovers, while committing only four themselves. They outscored the Spartans 37-2 off turnovers, 36-18 in the paint and 16-2 in transition.
With a returning core of all-WCC players like Jeremy Pargo, Josh Heytvelt and Matt Bouldin, plus emerging stars Austin Daye and Steven Gray, and sharpshooter Micah Downs, expectations were high that this might be the first Zags team since the 1999 squad to get past the Round of 16.
Heytvelt is certainly doing his part, averaging 15 points and nearly seven rebounds per game. Bouldin is averaging 13 points, Daye 12, and…
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…
Villanova – Providence Betting Tips
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
It’s the regular season finale for the Villanova Wildcats and the Providence Friars.
And while the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament inches closer and closer by the second, teams hopeful to get the invite to the tournament will just keep on trying to build some semblance of momentum heading to the biggest tournament in college basketball.
With the Villanova Wildcats and the Providence Friars duking it out, you can very well expect both teams to heat up The Pavilion. You see, the last time these teams met, both were involved in a finish no one saw coming.
It was during their first meeting, with the Villanova Wildcats having built a 20-point second-half lead at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on Feb.4, only to see it whittled to one in the closing seconds by a flurry of 3-pointers from the Providence Friars.
The Wildcats made 8 of 15 3-pointers in the first half but knocked down just 1 of 13 attempts after the break. The Friars, on the other hand, tied a school record with 17 3-pointers, 11 in the second half, and set a record with 40 attempts from behind the arc.
Scottie Reynolds led Villanova with 31 points, and Dwayne Anderson (19 points, 10 rebounds), Reggie Redding (12 points, 11 rebounds) and Dante Cunningham (12 points, 11 rebounds) each had double-doubles. Sharaud Curry topped the Friars with 25 points, current Big East Player of the Week Weyinmi Efejuku had 23 and Jeff Xavier added 21.
The Wildcats have won a school-record 27 consecutive games at The Pavilion and are 50-4 in their on-campus facility since 2005. The Friars (18-11, 10-7 Big East) have won…
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