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The 2009 NCAA Final Four is ON

Jeffdstuff — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:08:00 +0000

The final four teams in college basketball will collide this weekend.

The cliché ‘’time flies when you’re having fun'’ is an old and dusty one, but it really holds true when it comes to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament.

It seems like it was only yesterday when it was just Selection Sunday and with a blink of an eye, the opening round, the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight are all in the rearview mirror and now, the 2009 NCAA Final Four is here.

Last year, there weren’t really any surprises as each of top four seeds; the Memphis Tigers, the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Kansas Jayhawks and the UCLA Bruins all made the Final Four.

While there are two no.1 seeds this year with the North Carolina Tar Heels (again) and the Connecticut Huskies making it, the Michigan State Spartans and the Villanova Wildcats decided to crash the party as well, shocking some college hoops fans in the process.

Of the four, SPORTSBETTING.COM has UNC as the odds-on favorite to win the NCAA championship at -125 followed by the Connecticut Huskies at +250. Michigan State is listed at +500 and Villanova at +600.

Listed as a -7.5 point favorite, North Carolina will try to prevent the Villanova Wildcats from reliving its magical 1985 run (shocked Georgetown), while UConn, favored by 4.5-points, will try to punch a ticket to the final by defeating Michigan State.

With the big match-ups come a full menu of...

UNC kicks off 2009 March Madness

Jeffdstuff — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:41:24 +0000

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...

Your 2009 March Madness Bracket!

Jeffdstuff — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:02:04 +0000

Championship Week is finally over, setting us up for the biggest tournament in college hoops.

In case you didn’t get that, the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament will start things off on March 19, when round one of the 64-team tournament begins. The road for the college basketball national title officially begins and in case you haven’t felt it yet, March Madness is finally here.

The Louisville Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Panthers and the Connecticut Huskies have the Big East on the verge of putting up a huge impact in the tournament as all three teams from the conference are seeded no.1 this March.

The only no.1 seeded team not coming out of the Big East is the North Carolina Tar Heels of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Tar Heels, despite losing in the ACC conference tournament, is seeded no.1 in the South division after securing the ACC regular season title.

The Louisville Cardinals are the top overall seed in the tournament and will play in the Midwest. Although they have fellow Big East rivals like the Connecticut Huskies and the Pittsburgh Panthers seeded at no.1 in the West and East divisions respectively, Louisville still is the Big East team to beat.

Unlike the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Connecticut Huskies and the Pittsburgh Panthers, the Louisville Cardinals are the only no.1 seeded team to win their conference tournament. And with a basketball genius like Rick Pitino running the team from the sidelines, Louisville will be a tough out in the tournament indeed.

The Duke Blue Devils wound up with the second seed with Pittsburgh in the East division despite winning the ACC tournament, beating the Florida State team the Tar Heels had lost to the day before. But since North Carolina swept Duke in the regular season, no.2 was the best they can do.

The Memphis Tigers got snubbed for...

Praying for March Madness seeding

Jeffdstuff — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:58:00 +0000

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...

Teams to bet on for March Madness 09

Jeffdstuff — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:28:11 +0000

Since we are less than a month away from March, it’s only fitting to find out which teams are ruling college hoops right now.

Why? Well, in case you didn’t know, the month of March only means one thing to college basketball, the March Madness bracket tournament and since the 2008-09 NCAA college basketball season is nearing it’s own version of the playoffs, it’s about time for you to have an idea on which team to bet on.

And as far as the No.1 spot is concerned, the Connecticut Huskies still own the top spot. The Huskies beat the Louisville Cardinals and the Michigan Wolverines last week to earn the title ‘’top dawg.'’ These guys certainly look good heading towards March.

The Oklahoma Sooners and the North Carolina Tar Heels hold second and third place respectively. The Sooners got three first-place votes while the Tar Heels were No.1 on two ballots.

The run for No.1 started when Pittsburgh finished its two-week stint on top. Wake Forest and Duke each were up there for a week before Connecticut moved in. The changes in the Top 25 started following a week that saw 14 teams, six in the top 10, lose at least one game.

Pittsburgh jumped from sixth to No.4, while Louisville remained fifth after rebounding from a home the loss to Connecticut with a road win over St. John’s.

The Duke Blue Devils, which lost by 27 points to Clemson then beat Miami in overtime, dropped from fourth to sixth. Wake Forest, which lost by 27 points to Miami before snapping a two-game losing streak with a win over Boston College, held seventh place.

The Memphis Tigers, who beat Gonzaga in a matchup of ranked teams, moved from 14th to eighth, while Michigan State moved from 13th to No.9. Marquette, which fell to South Florida for its first Big East loss, dropped two spots to 10th.

The UCLA Bruins were at No.11, followed by...

UNC just fine without Tyler Hansbrough

Jeffdstuff — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:57:08 +0000

Yes, they’re still winning even without the reigning national player of the year.

One week into the 2008-09 NCAA college basketball season and the North Carolina Tar Heels are still reigning supreme. The Heels passed their first big test without Tyler Hansbrough as their front line stepped up big with Tyler Zeller scoring a team-high 18 points while fellow freshman Ed Davis came up with a double-double Saturday to help North Carolina beat Pennsylvania 86-71.

This is definitely an impressive season-opening performance that indicates that the North Carolina Tar Heels can weather the uncertainty of playing without the national player of the year.

Deon Thompson added 17 points for the Tar Heels, who led by double figures much of the day yet had some trouble putting together a game-sealing run. North Carolina was also without fellow senior Marcus Ginyard, injuries that forced North Carolina to thrust Zeller and Davis into the lineup.

Taking the second spot after week 1 are the Connecticut Huskies, led by Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 junior from Tanzania, who scored 23 points and had a career-high 17 rebounds to lead No.2 Connecticut to a season-opening 81-55 win Friday over Western Carolina.

Thabeet, who towers 7 inches over any defender, also blocked five shots. He was 7-of-11 from the field, with most of his attempts from inside five feet. After two years as the Huskies’ defensive stopper, Thabeet says he ready to step it up on offense as well.

Following at third are the Louisville Cardinals, at fourth spot is UCLA and rounding up the fifth spot is Pittsburgh. Levance Fields and DeJuan Blair had 15 and 17 points respectively as they breezed past Fairleigh Dickinson 86-63 Friday night.

Michigan State is at sixth, the Texas Longhorns are at seventh spot, while the Duke Blue Devils, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and...

Bob Knight, a Living Legend for Texas Tech Red Raiders

Tristan — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:48:04 +0000

If we are talking about the 2007-2008 NCAA College Basketball Season, the name Bob Knight, coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, is synonymous with greatness and winning. Coach Bob Knight is one of the greatest coaches ever to walk onto a basketball court, who has more wins than any Division I-A head coach (891).

Looking at Coach Bob Knight’s coaching career since he was hired by the Texas Tech Red Raiders. In his first year, Texas Tech Red Raiders went from 11th in the Big 12 Conference to a tie for third and posted a +14-victory margin (9-19 in 2000-2001 to 23-9 in 2001-2002).

In Coach Bob Knight's second season, it marked his eighth National Invitational Tournament appearance and the 34th time in his 37 years of coaching that his teams had played in post-season tournaments. By his third season with the Texas Tech Raiders coach Bob Knight was at the helm of another unqualified success. Overall, the squad won 23 games marking the first time in the school's history that the...

Cardinals look for a March Madness spot on Selection Sunday

Jeffdstuff — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:24:17 +0000

The Big East conference is always anybody’s game, and the Louisville Cardinals sure took advantage of it. It’s not long ago that the Louisville Cardinals struggled, lost two in a row and almost fell at the very bottom of the Big East conference standings. Even with all of Louisville’s problems this season, they were able [...]

NCAA Basketball Rivalry Week: It’s Duke vs North Carolina

Jeffdstuff — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 00:28:51 +0000

Some games need buildup. This one doesn’t. Quite simply, it’s Carolina and Duke, two desperate teams meeting in Cameron Indoor Stadium in front of a nationwide audience. No. 5 North Carolina (20-3, 6-2) will head to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on its second – and biggest – rival in five days, No. 16 Duke [...]

Can George Mason pull another March Madness feat?

Jeffdstuff — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 01:55:51 +0000

George Mason stunned the nation last year by going all the way to the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis and it looked as though they were going to win it all. But their cinderella story would come to an end against the Florida Gators. Despite their heartbreaking 73-58 loss to the Florida Gators (who would [...]