March Madness Run Amok...

Six of eight Big East teams go down in the first weekend, including my beloved Villanova Wildcats. I'm shocked but not surprised at the 'Cats given their major stumbling at the end of the season. Kansas goes down. Cornell is in the Sweet 16 along with U No Iowa and St. Mary's, Baylor and Butler. They don't call it "madness" for nothin'.

Sheesh!

A rough day for the Wildcats, Saturday...

UGH!  Shooting 5 for 27 from 3-point range ain't gonna cut it.  Just 10 for 27 would've won the game, but it just wasn't meant to be.  In the second half alone, Villanova shot just 7 of 24 from 2-point range (even with 8 offensive rebounds in the second half).  Again... UGH!  Even with North Carolina barely shooting 30% in the second half as well, the 'Cats just couldn't get their own shots to drop through the basket.  Heck of a run, though.

Next year, Villanova... next year!  Why do I say that?  Well, think about this... although the 'Cats lose Cunningham, Anderson and Clarke to graduation, they retain Reynolds, Redding, Pena, and the two Corey's (no, not Haim and Feldman).  Plus, they get four incoming top-level freshman, two of which are All-Americans.  Plus, they get red-shirt freshman Maurice Sutton, and Duke transfer Taylor King.

OH YEAH!!!

On to the Elite Eight!!!

Following a 20-point smack down of UCLA top get into the Sweet Sixteen, Villanova schooled Duke by 23 points tonight to get to the Elite Eight.

Next up?  Pitt on Saturday in Boston for the rights to reach the Final Four.

V-for Villamooooooova... V-for Victoryyyyyyyyyy...

15-1 for my Sweet 16 Picks...

My picks through the first round of March Madness gave me a record of 23-9.  Round Two, though, has me with 15 of the 16 picks in the Sweet Sixteen (Wake Forest being my only multi-round flub pick).

And my beloved Villanova Wildcats smacked some Big East butt with a 20-point victory over UCLA on Saturday.

Next up?  Duke on Thursday.

GO 'CATS!!!

My 2009 March Madness Brackets...

Okay, I finally got my brackets filled out... This was tougher than I thought.

First Round: I have seven “lower’ seeds advancing:
#9 Siena
#9 Tennessee
#10 Maryland
#10 Minnesota
#12 Arizona
#12 Western Kentucky
#13 Mississippi State

My Sweet 16 are:
Midwest – Louisville, Wake, Kansas, Michigan St.
West – UConn, Purdue, Missouri, Memphis
East – Pitt, Xavier, Duke, Villanova
South – NC, Gonzaga, Syracuse, Oklahoma (but I’m rooting for Clemson)

Elite 8:
Wake (upsetting Louisville)
Mich. St. (beating defending champs Kansas)
UConn (squeaking by Purdue)
Memphis (squeaking by Missouri)
Pitt (knocks out Xavier)
Villanova (over a weak Duke)
NC (over the Zags)
Syracuse (a last victory over Oklahoma)

Final Four:
Memphis (UConn w/o their key guard finally does ‘em in)
NC (Syracuse finally runs out of gas)
Villanova (they have Pitt’s number)
Wake vs. Mich St. (a toss-up, but it doesn’t matter because...)

Championship Game:
Memphis vs........ (heart says Wildcats, head says Tar Heels)

Memphis loses... again... in the championship game.

So... the 2009 Champs will be North Carolina (but I'm reeeeealllllly rooting for my Wildcats to get there).

That's my bracket and I'm stickin' to it!

*caveat... if Louisville manages to get out of the Midwest Bracket unscathed, all bets are off!!!

Jay Wright & the Villanova Wildcats...

Great article on Jay Wright, coach of the Villanova Wildcats basketball program:

From 1989-2004, Villanova never made it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats were in the field six times. They won three games, against Princeton, Portland and Long Island.

In the last 4 years they've made it to two Sweet 16s and a Final Eight. All three times they've lost to the eventual national champion. Now they're favored to get to the third round once again.

So how much more does anyone really need to know about the Jay Wright era?

The third-seeded Wildcats (26-7) will play No. 14 American (24-7), your Patriot League champion, in a first-round NCAA East Regional game Thursday night at the Wachovia Center. This 'Nova team was supposed to be good. Yet few, including the coach, figured it would be this good. Which means nil once the Madness gets going. It's the same group that narrowly made the field last March before winning twice as a 12 seed. It can happen, both ways.

Wright insists his four seniors, who weren't the most heralded recruiting class to grace the Main Line, are the reason for this season's success. They'll tell you that it all stems from his lead.

Maybe they're both right. There's obviously a connection that goes above and beyond. Even when Wright gets in somebody's mug, which only happens about every other timeout. Or perhaps it works because he does.

"He can get into you a little bit," said one of those fourth-year guys, Dwayne Anderson, the team's emotional center. "But it's all for the good. He gave [the upperclassmen] ownership, so we can try and get the message across instead of having him yell all the time. In huddles, we're not as animated.

"When he says something, you really believe it. He tells it like it is, even if it's not what you want to hear. Whatever he feels you need to do. His No. 1 goal is for you to be a great man. Then you can be a great player.

"Once you realize he only wants you to get better, you can get past all [the battles]. When you're young, you're not used to that. In high school, they pretty much let you do anything you want. There's no one to answer to. Here, he's the boss. You have to take his game plan and fit your game in that. He takes a lot of pride in playing for all the guys that came before."

It's tough love, from someone who gets it.

"It's not always pretty," Wright explained. "But I hope they understand we really care about them. We don't pump them up, make them think they're something that they're not. We try to be very realistic. I think in the long run, they appreciate that. But some struggle with it. Their buds are telling them they should be in the NBA, you're telling them all the areas they have to improve.

"One thing we always say is, 'The greatest gift we can give you is the truth.' I think kids, deep down inside, want to be coached. Sometimes, it doesn't work. It's not always perfect. I think we have good relationships, but not the type of relationship everybody thinks it is."

From across town, Temple coach Fran Dunphy sees the finished product. And as someone who usually gets the most out of his guys, he admires the craftsmanship.

"I think there is something special about [Wright's] goodness," Dunphy emphasized. "He carries that through, in everything he does. He's great with people. I'm sure he chews them out when he needs to. But at the end of it, he's ready to give them a hug. That's a critical piece to those kids knowing he has their best interests at heart. This is serious stuff. It doesn't come easy. There's a price we all have to pay, to play at such a high level of basketball. A lot of what they're doing goes right to the genuine quality of his person.

"When they were giving out that stuff, he for whatever reason got the whole package. He has a plan, and sticks with it. He's got a terrific product to sell, and he's doing his all to sell it."

Even if that passion is often an acquired taste.

"It can get intense," said junior guard Scottie Reynolds, speaking from experience. "He's really saying, 'How are you going to respond?' Not just in basketball, but in the real world. A lot of things in life are going to be way worse than what happens in games.

"When he battles you, he's just trying to get us to the next level. That's why you're a competitor. His voice definitely gets us going. I remember my freshman year, we got into it. Afterward he said, 'I love that.' But I can't do that during a game. It's bad for him and me, and our program. But it's good to have that fire, to go out and show him something.

"He'll point at you, and you know what's coming. But there's no denying that he's right in what he's saying, before he ever says it. I know what I just did. So you have to take a step back and get prepared for it. If you can't overcome that, you're going to have a rough time in life."

So, how are you going to fill out your NCAA pool?

 

March Madness Time!!!

It's that time of the year, and my alma mater - Villanova Wildcats - got a #3 seed in the East bracket; they're playing in their backyard at the Wachovia Center in my home town of Philly on Thursday night.

WOO-HOO!!!

I'm already College Hoops Crazy!

Congrats to the Jayhawks!

Congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks for winning the NCAA National Championship. It was a heck of a game; tight, with a bunch of mini runs, and going into overtime.

Three key notes:

1) Memphis’ achilles heel - free throw shooting in the clutch - brought them down late in the game.

2) Both head coaches were mentored by the great, incomparable Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown.

3) This will be the third time in the last four years that my Villanova Wildcats lost in the Tournament to the eventual champions: North Carolina in the Sweet 16 in 2005, Florida in the Elite Eight in 2006, and Kansas this year in the Sweet Sixteen.

Villanova will definitely be a Top-12 team in the pre-season polls next season. With freshman guard Malcolm Grant opting to transfer to get starting playing time (something he won't be able to do with Villanova's deep bench at the guard position), it opens up a scholarship for Jay Wright to get a tall, wide body under the basket - something they desperately need given that their tallest player is 6'10" sophomore Drummond (who broke his ankle in the tourney, and who has been hampered by injuries both seasons). If the Wildcats can get a true center, they'll definitely become a Top-5 team for next year.

MARCH MADNESS - THE FINAL FOUR

With a squeaker last game, then Final four teams are set: North Carolina vs. Kansas, and UCLA vs. Memphis. As I had predicted, it's the first time that all four #1 seeds made it to the Final Four since the expansion to 64 teams in 1985.

I think it's going to be NC vs. Memphis for the Championship, with the Tar Heels winning it all. Should be a heck of a Final Four weekend next week.

*GRIN*

There is NOTHING sweeter for a Wildcat alum than seeing Villanova win to get into the Sweet 16... annnnnd to see Georgetown LOSE!

OH YEAH!!!

Happy Easter, everyone!

March Madness - the first round round-up...

Villanova overcomes an 18 point first-half deficit to knock off Clemson (WOOT!), ending the first round with flair. All four lower seeds (#12s & #13s) that played in Tampa today pulled off the upsets.

Re: my first round match-ups? I’m 22-10 with a pristine South bracket and losing only 2 of my Sweet 16 teams (neither of my losers do I have going beyond Round 2 anyway).

The Wildcats start off Sunday’s round of games against fellow underdog Siena. The winner gets to go to the Sweet 16, potentially against #1 seed Kansas. Gotta love it!

MARCH MADNESS - DAY 1

I was going to post (in detail) about the latest Obamessiah mess. But I'll save that for later. On to more important things.... like... MARCH MADNESS TIME!!!

Okay... tip-off of the first game starts in under 30 minutes. Normally, I go through all the picks meticulously - schedule details, team makeup, injuries, strengths & weaknesses, etc. - but this year I just went (as best as I could) with just a brief glimpse at the match-ups. So... without further ado... here are my picks for the first round:

EAST
North Carolina
Indiana
Notre Dame
Washington State
St. Joe’s
Louisville
Butler
Tennessee

MIDWEST
Kansas
Kent State
Villanova
Vanderbilt
USC
Wisconsin
Gonzaga
Georgetown

SOUTH
Memphis
Mississippi State
Michigan State
Pitt
Marquette
Stanford
Miami
Texas

WEST
UCLA
BYU
Drake
UConn
Purdue
Georgia
West Virginia
Duke

======================

My SWEET 16 are:

North Carolina vs. Notre Dame
Louisville vs. Tennessee

Kansas vs. Villanova
Wisconsin vs. Georgetown

Memphis vs. Pittsburgh
Stanford vs. Texas

UCLA vs. Drake
Georgia vs. Duke

=========================

My FINAL FOUR will be:

North Carolina vs. Kansas
UCLA vs. winner of Memphis/Pittsburgh

If Memphis wins, this’ll be the first time that all four #1 seeds get to the Final Four.


So... what are YOUR picks???

IT'S MARCH MADNESS TIME AGAIN!!!

WOOT!!!

Okay... I’m a college hoops playoffs nut case (I admit it proudly). It’s in my blood (I’m a Villanova grad). And the ’Cats are trying to claw their way into the NCAA tournament. The first big test was today in the first round of the Big East Tourney where they burst the bubble for Syracuse by pouncing on the Orangemen 82-63.

Next game?... the hated Hoyas of Georgetown (BOO...HISSSSS). They played each other during the regular season. The game was tied when Villanova was called for the lamest of ticky-tack fouls with only 1/10th of a second left on the clock. The Hoyas escaped a defensive battle with a cheap win from the foul line. ALL of the announcers and game commentators were holding their noses and verbalizing their dismay at the bad officiating. It left a bad taste in the Wildcats’ mouths, that’s for sure.

Tomorrow is REVENGE TIME!!!

/queue the marching band/

V... for Villanova...
V... for Victory...

I'm so depressed...

My brackets are busted.

Villanova loses in the first round. Texas A&M got bounced. Pitt & Kansas faultered. Vandy got screwed by the refs. North Carolina forgot how to play against Georgetown's predictable defense in the latter half of yesterday's game.

And the Final Four is now:

Florida (the team that knocked out Villanova in last year's tourney)
Georgetown (any Big East team, and especially Villanova, despises the Hoyas)
UCLA ('nough said)
and
Ohio State

By default, I'm rooting for Ohio State... but it's leaving a sour aftertaste.

*sigh*

You want brackets??? I'll give you brackets!!!

I'm already having second thoughts about my brackets... but I don't care. It's March Madness time! To quote a famous Andy Williams Christmas song,

"It's the most.... wonderful tiiiiiime.... of the yearrrrrrrr."

I'm thinkin' that the final will be North Carolina vs either Pitt or Kansas (although my heart always belongs to Villanova... even though their tuition nowadays is outrageously, insanely, overly expensive).

The "upsets" to look out for this year:

#3 Texas A&M and #4 Virginia in the South Region...

The winner of the #6 Vanderbilt/#11 George Washington match-up in the East Region...

#5 Butler, #6 Notre Dame and #10 Georgia Tech in the Midwest Region...

#5 Virginia Tech, #3 Pitt and (of course) #9 Villanova in the West Region.


P.S. I'm already down one loss (I'm not a fan of Bobby Knight, but I thought he'd get his team to at least win the opening game against BC, given that BC was without a key starter... c'est la vie).

It's MARCH MADNESS Time!!!

First off... I thought my alma mater (Villanova) was more deserving of a #7 seed. But, they can handle it, where they're at (first round against Kentucky - a different group of "Wildcats" - who were weak this season). There's a potential second round match-up against Kansas (but, remember, that Villanova beat Texas earlier this season).

I can't believe that the NCAA committee screwed up so much this year. How the frell can they exclude Syracuse, West Virginia, and Kansas State, while at the same time seeding the likes of Arkansas, Purdue, Indiana, Georgia Tech, Arizona, Stanford???

Add some more at-large seeds from the mid-majors, instead, if you're gonna keep out the 'Cuse (but the big conferences won't go for that, even though it was the mid-majors that made last year's first four rounds so friggin' exciting). Where's Drexel, Hofstra, Air Force, Missouri State, Marist, Vermont, Appalachian State, Akron???

I haven't filled out my brackets yet, but on first glance they made easy roads for Florida and G'Town for the first two rounds, while NC is stuck with the winner of the Marquette/Mich State matchup in the 2nd round, then they will most likely face Texas next, then the Hoyas to get to the Final Four. That's INSANE!

I think Texas A&M is my South Region Cinderella story. But that remains to be seen. Must bury my head in the voluminous stack of stats so that I can fill out my brackets.

UCLA vs. Florida??? (ugh!)

The only way the NCAA Championship Game match-up could've gotten any worse than tomorrow's UCLA vs Florida (the team that defeated my beloved Villanova Wildcats) is a match-up of Georgetown vs any Bobby-Knight-coached team. (ugh...... UGH!...... groan)

I'm begrudgingly rooting for Florida.

MARCH MADNESS TIME!!!!!!!!!

Okay... I've got my brackets finally filled out... How about you?

I have a couple first round toss-ups:

Georgetown vs. Northern Iowa
Seton Hall vs. Wichita State

The two “favorites’ in these games don’t impress me, especially against who they’re playing in the first round.

My 1st Round upsets:

#9 Bucknell over #8 Arkansas
#9 UAB over #8 Kentucky
#10 NC State over #7 Cal
#11 San Diego State over #6 Indiana
#12 Utah State over #5 Washington


MY SWEET 16 (* advances to Elite Eight):

*UConn beats Illinois
(UConn is too complete a team, here)
*North Carolina beats Tennessee
(Tennessee is playing waaaaaaay over their heads)

*Villanova beats Nevada!!!
(Nevada’s big man inside will knock off BC in 2nd Round)
*Florida beats Ohio State
(Florida is young, but has strong defense, while Ohio State has no perimeter shooting)

* Pitt beats Memphis
(Pitt is huge, and they have a deep bench, while Memphis is young with no perimeter shooting)
* Gonzaga beats Marquette
(by a fuzzy mustache whisker)

* Texas beats West Virginia
(Texas has big, big D; WVa is only a 2-man team that's scored above 71 pts only twice in last 15 games)
* LSU beats George Washington (or Duke beats LSU)
(LSU is young but with the best rebounding in nation, if they play GW. If Duke gets past GW in the 2nd Round, they’ll handle LSU)


My FINAL FOUR:

UConn vs Villanova
Pitt vs Duke/LSU


CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:

VILLANOVA BEATS DUKE/LSU

Remember... you heard it here first!