Memphis blows it

I don't know how you a) win 38 games in a season and b) get to the national championship game and c) have a two point lead with 10-point-something seconds left while shooting free throws and lose a game. Memphis deserved to lose the game. Any team that cannot hit game-clinching free throws should not be a national champion. Even worse, after bricking two free throws, they were able to get the offensive rebound and draw another foul! And the consensus number 2 pick in the coming NBA draft could only hit one of his two tries. I would be remembering that sequence if I drafted Derrick Rose.

Then the Jayhawks Most Outstanding Player, Mario Chalmers, nailed a death-defying three to tie the game and send it to overtime — where Memphis never had a chance. Chalmers' shot, with two Tigers in his face, was about as clutch as you can get. Nearly Kobe- or LeBron-esque.

Now, in retrospect, despite the absence of a cinderella story or even a 2- or 3-seed making it into the championship game or even the Final Four, the fact that two number one seeds duked it out in the final makes both the tournament and especially pools, somewhat more interesting. I had figured it was going to boring for poolies, seeing that many experienced entrants would not go against history and taking four number 1s. But the most exciting part about your pool is now "who took the right 1s?" Anybody who wanted to go against the masses and picked against UCLA and UNC is obviously raking in the dividends now.

The Madness begins

Selection Sunday: the day that kicks off March Madness. Where the brackets are drawn for all to see and for everyone in a pool to start plotting a route to the championship for their team of choice.

I'd be lying to you if I claimed to know anything in depth about all 65 of the teams that qualified for the "Big Dance" so let me tell you what I do know.

— I'm not surprised by any of the number ones. It seemed pretty clear cut this year. North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA and Kansas were the best in the U.S. this season. Anybody dumb enough to take a 16 seed over a one doesn't even deserve to fill out a bracket.

— There might be something wrong with the system if a team that's one game above .500 (Georgia at 17-16) can get into the tourney. I don't care if you fluked your way into winning your conference, well, actually, it'll be easy to pick their demise in the first round. Thanks for giving me an easy one Georgia.

— Did Duke really deserve to be a number 2 this year? I haven't heard a thing about the Blue Devils and they're usually pretty well covered by the media.

— USC vs. Kansas State should be a great game to watch. Michael Beasley, the potential first overall pick this coming NBA draft, vs. O.J. Mayo, a highly touted scorer. Both are freshmen and both can make or break their teams chances in the first round.

— I'm taking George Mason as my 12-over-5 upset. It's a bonus because that 5 happens to be Notre Dame and I have an irrational hate for the Irish.

— Do not discount the fact that North Carolina is basically playing home games in the first four rounds. You would have to be very bold to go against them before the final four.

— Finally, I'm taking UCLA to win it all. It's not because I love Kevin Love or Darren Collison. Not because they won the tough Pac-10 conference championship. No, it's because I've taken them for the past three years, done fairly well and why change something that's working fine? It's not nearly as fun to cheer on a number 1 seed, but hey, they're my team.

I'll no doubt have more on the tournament as Thursday draws near and I actually inform myself about the teams I've already written off and as i begin to doubt the picks I've already made.

Florida repeats! Now what?

Despite Greg Oden’s best efforts and best game of the tournament, Florida’s all-around team play carried them to their second NCAA title in a row. Another factor in the loss that became glaringly obvious towards the end of the game was Thad Matta’s horrendous coaching job of Ohio. With Florida’s big men in foul trouble and Oden clearly dominating down low, the Buckeyes continually threw up ill-fated three point attempts instead of capitalizing on the single coverage and foul situations down low. If the phenom Oden had been able to draw four more fouls, there wouldn’t have been anybody left who could guard him down low while eliminating Al Horford and Joakim Noah on the offensive end. It was a sloppy job in my opinion.

The questions will now start coming up about whether or not college stars will enter the draft for NBA money or if they’ll stick around for an education. Florida could hypothetically bring back four of their starters again and bring a third straight title home. Oden, who admittedly likes going to school, may stay in college because he knows the money will always be waiting for him. Kevin Durant may stay at Texas to help the Longhorns get deeper in the tournament next year. These decisions will have a huge impact on the draft and must have lottery teams like Memphis and Boston, who have blatantly tanked games, praying that the young guns declare.

It all comes down to this

65 teams entered the tournament a bit over two weeks ago and after some tough games, thrilling comebacks and a few (very few make that) surprises, only two teams remain. Tonight it is Ohio State vs. the defending champion Florida Gators. There are a ton of storylines in this game, more than there usually is actually, but that’s hard to say because I know for a fact that journalist can be crafty.

For one, Florida defeated Ohio State at college football’s national championship game. It’s a fairly good bet that Ohio’s basketball team can put up more than the 14 points that their football counterparts did in their loss.

Also, no team has won consecutive NCAA tournaments since Duke accomplished the feat back in the ‘91-92 tournaments. With all of their starters returning from last season, it’s still a good bet Florida can do it.

This could be phenom Greg Oden’s final college game as well as his last chance to show his abilities in a big game. Oden has frequently gotten into foul trouble throughout the tourney and has had his playing time limited because of it. Going up against Jo-Noah and Al Horford will be a challenge to the big man and it wouldn’t be a bad bet to say he racks up a couple of fouls quickly.

And since both of our brackets a done, the Intern and I have decided to bet since we no longer of bias or loyalty to our previous picks.

Dan: Florida 72, Ohio State 60

The Intern: Ohio State 76, Florida 67

The Final 4 are set!

Three out of four isn’t bad for a guy who isn’t as well versed in basketball as most other pundits. By other pundits, I am referring solely to my Intern who only correctly hit 2 out of the 4 final teams.

Next weekend’s game present some good, interesting match ups on both sides of the bracket. In the East/South match up, the phenom Greg Oden faces off against Georgetown’s tenacious defense and big men Roy Hibbert and Patrick Ewing Jr. Georgetown came back against UNC during regulation and flat out destroyed them in overtime while Ohio State beat Memphis by 16 despite Oden playing limited minutes due to foul trouble.

The other side is a rematch of last year’s championship pitting UCLA against the formidable squad from Florida. Both teams didn’t have much trouble in their regional finals where Florida rode Lee Humphrey’s hot hand en route to beating Oregon while UCLA’s Aaron Afflalo led his team to a 13 point win.

While I originally had taken Texas to be in the championship game, that seems fairly impossible now and I’ll have to take a new opponent for my eventual champion UCLA. It seems to me that Georgetown’s two big men could get Oden into foul trouble limit his minutes and take over the game. Look for the Hoyas to roll.

Ohio State completes huge comeback

I never thought I would actually say that the consensus number 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft (Greg Oden) was better off being on the bench during last night’s 20 point come from behind victory against Tennessee. Oden, who got himself into foul trouble, something he does exceedingly well at, was on the bench for a large portion of last night’s game than I’m sure he wanted to be. The weird thing was, in his absence was the time that Ohio actually stepped it up. The play of his back up forward, a white boy named Terwilliger surprised me the most. From the looks of it, the back up had a starter calibre game. If this doesn’t seal the fate of Durant at number one, I’m not sure what does. But it still comes down to how the ping-pong balls fall and if Durant and Oden decide to declare or not.

Bracket-mania!

Let’s hope you didn’t take too many upsets in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament because if you did, your bracket most likely isn’t looking too good right now. Since it’s always a cop out taking all the high seeds, you shouldn’t even feel good about your bracket if you’re leading right now anyway. That is unless you’re somehow winning due to the attrition in your pool, then you can celebrate and gloat all you want.

I’m not in any position to gloating right now; over the weekend I’ve lost two of my elite 8 and one of my finalists (Texas). It could be worse but it could definitely be better. Who would’ve thought that Kevin Durant couldn’t, in fact, lead his team by himself? I certain thought he could; it’s too bad there are no mulligans.

The Intern is doing slightly better but is also down 2 of his elite 8 (Georgia Tech and Texas).

***Update***

The Intern's Final Four are Kansas, Florida, Georgetown and Memphis. He would write to tell you why but he's a very busy man. (Read that last sentence with a sarcastic tone.)

How’s your bracket doing?

Day one is complete and day is about to get underway in the NCAAs and many people are probably kicking themselves for having made silly picks in their brackets. Any one who took Duke should be feeling pretty sad right now as they were bounced in nail-biting fashion by VCU. Vanderbilt straight up jacked George Washington and I know someone personally who had the game going the other way. Penn and Davidson both kept it close before bowing to the higher seeds.

Largely, there weren’t many day 1 upsets but look for day two to potential make up for it.

It's Finally Here!

I our tradition of “friendly” competition, the Intern and I have, like a large percentage of people in North America, have filled out our brackets and are going to face off in a head to head over the next few weeks for bragging rights. Since we wouldn’t want to run our entire brackets here, we’ll just give up our final four picks.

Dan

Florida: They’ve returned their five starters from last year’s championship team but more importantly, have you seen the competition in the Midwest bracket? It’s pathetic. The only team with a chance to unseat them is Wisconsin, but their Centre’s injured.

UCLA: My pick to win it all because, quite frankly, they’re my pick to win it all every year and I have no idea why. I’m not buying into Kansas’s team and I don’t know enough about Pittsburgh and So. Ill to take them. I do know that Duke sucks though.

Ohio State: Mark my words: If Ohio State and Texas A&M reach the elite 8, that will be one hell of a game to watch. Acie Law IV is going to show what he’s made of and Greg Oden is Greg Oden.

Texas: They have, by far, the hardest competition in their region but I can see Kevin Durant shining under the tournament’s pressure a la Carmelo Anthony. They’re going to have to fight through every game, well, except for their first round match up with New Mexico State.

The Intern’s picks will come later…

The Intern's thoughts on: The NCAA tourney

I am sitting at home right now, watching the two juggernauts of the West fighting for alpha-dog status in the NBA; the Dirk led Mavs vs. Steve Nash’s Suns and the funny thing is that I really don’t care. Usually in situations like this, I would be clutching my knees giggling like an Asian school girl, but on the eve of the NCAA Tournament, all I can think about is my bracket. I keep going over in my head can Georgia Tech actually beat the Gators to advance to the final four and who will come up victorious in the elite 8, the Hoyas or the Longhorns? I might not be a college hoops guru, but every March I always get swept up in the excitement of the tournament. One thing is for sure and that is I will definitely not get a good night’s sleep because I will be up tossing and turning all night dissecting my bracket.

What’s the point?

Yesterday, Niagara best Florida A&M in the NCAA’s play-in game by a score of 77-69. While I did learn the actual reason for having this play-in game yesterday, it still seems very unfair to the participants, even if they are the two of the worst teams in the tournament.

Firstly, the NCAA added the play-in game because after another conference joined the fray, they had to add another automatic bid and, instead of taking away an at-large bid (which could be given to a better team from a big conference), they just upped the field to 65 teams.

While the play-in game seems harmless enough, most people forget that there’s already another tournament going on for the teams that didn’t make the big dance: The NIT. While it is a second-string tournament, shouldn’t the team losing the play-in get some sort of consolation prize and receive a high seed in the NIT considering they would theoretically be the best team in that tournament? But that argument might lead to a team throwing the play-in game to get a high seed and at least on home game in the NIT as opposed to facing off against the nation’s best team a few days later.

The only issue that that practically no one will argue is that the play-in game is next to pointless. Still, I applaud you Niagara; have fun against Kansas

Sifting through the brackets

Selection Sunday is a joyous day for gamblers around the world. Even pseudo-gamblers and office poolies love to see the brackets and make their picks. It can be taken casually or super-seriously depending on the stakes of your wager. But, most of all, it’s a day that encourages fun.

How often can you enter a contest where people are evenly matched and knowledge of the subject might even turn into a liability? How often does the fact that your second cousin’s or your uncle-in-law’s Alma mater actually have a chance to make you money? Unless you work at a sporting goods store, a team’s jersey isn’t going to make you money. But, if last year, you picked George Mason (where?) to make a Cinderella run because a relative went there once upon a time, or maybe you just really liked Florida’s jerseys so you picked them to win it all, you would have probably made a handsome sum from your fellow poolies.

I would go into whom I’m picking and what my bracket looks like, but I wouldn’t want to give away too many tips. You’ll all have to wait for Thursday for those tidbits.