Odds and Ends
Starting tomorrow, I will have a complete Sweet Sixteen preview, broken down region-by-region. It will include players to watch, favorites and sleepers, and much more.
Also, how is everyone's bracket doing? If you use the typical one point for each first round win and two points for each second-round victory, I would have 44 points. Not bad, but not good by any means. How is everyone else's doing?
Also, how is everyone's bracket doing? If you use the typical one point for each first round win and two points for each second-round victory, I would have 44 points. Not bad, but not good by any means. How is everyone else's doing?
posted by Jeff at 4:13 PM
7 Comments:
My bracket could be better, but I can't complain. I have 12 of 16 Sweet 16 teams right, and only lost 1 Elite 8 team, and no Final 4 teams. If Georgetown and LSU upset Duke and Florida, I'll be sitting pretty.
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Nevada losing in the first round killed me. I had them and Duke in the finals.
I also had the Airforce and North C. upset me. So as of today i rank 10 out of 10 in my pool. Ohhh well!
Love your blog Jeff. I've got 43 points 7 out of 8 elite-8 remaining. What will kill me is I have UCLA going to the final and I think there inexperience will show here this next few games. I do think they will beat the zags-because of their strong defense.
Good luck Keep blogging!
some interesting posts...leaning haevily toward the Villernova squad, like their guts and still have enough inside (sheridian +others) to get it done--Duke gone tonight, it's been nice watching JJ, but can't carry the water any longer--Yeah Uconn should skate, love Marcus W., his St Anthony roots show!--Everyone is off ucla now, so i'm on them, they get there.
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Championship are narrowed down to the Final 2. Florida Gators & the UCLA Bruins will face off for the Final Game and the Championship on Monday night.
How are your bracket picks holding up? Did you get the right combinations of favorites and upsets?
The Sweet Sixteen was a Cinderella story following the 2nd round games. George Mason with an 11th seed start and Bradley with a 13 both made it through to the regionals and both faced higher seeded teams from their regions in the next round. GMU advanced to the Final 4 but didn't stand a chance against the shooting and rebounding skills of the Gators who move on to the Final.
Bradley lost to #1 seed Memphis. There were many who questioned that generous placement for Memphis. They survived to earn a place in the Elite 8 but were eliminated by the hot ball handling of UCLA. LSU eliminated Texas to advance to the Final Four. UCLA playing against LSU in the semifinal on April 1 silenced all doubts about whether they have the stuff to win big. From the first moments of the game it was UCLA all the way...and on their way to face the Gators in the Final.
This was the first Final Four since 1980 with no No. 1 seed and no team from the ACC or Big East. Whether allowing top players into the pros earlier or just plain improvement in the other conferences is the reason for this unexpected twist, it delivered a weekend of good basketball, even if it wasn't the edge of your seat OT battles that have made previous Final Four match ups so exciting. Who will be the winner? No one really has a good idea. The only thing that is certain is whoever takes the top place in this year's tourney, unless it's UCLA, will be a team no one thought was going to be in the Final 4...
Good luck with your bracket picks! Check the printable bracket to see who was in the full list and to see the teams that made it through to the Final Championship Game...
Remember back on Selection Sunday? The number 1 seeds in each bracket were no surprise and most experts were picking two of the top seeds to make it to the final. NONE of the number 1 teams are still alive.
The greatest NCAA Tournament in recent history rolls on. LSU continued its amazing run behind Tyrus Thomas and Big Baby Davis. UCLA became the first team that I can remember to reach the Final Four without needing to play well even once in the first four games. Florida made me look like a genius (for calling them "this year's 2003 Syracuse"). Okay, maybe not, but they did indeed emerge as a legit power over the past two weeks. And then there's George Mason.
The mighty Patriots continued the most improbable run in March Madness history by knocking off UConn in a thrilling overtime game. They were tenacious. They played with heart. They made every big shot. They left me dancing in my living room.
The crazy part though is that they should have been doing all of that against a different team.
I've always felt that the Sweet 16 round of the tourney, particularly the Friday games, is the segment that always slips under the radar. There isn't as much media coverage heading into the weekend and with higher stakes contests coming right on the heels of the Sweet 16 games, there just isn't time for reflection. Texas' thrilling win over West Virginia? Long forgotten. JJ Redick's 3-for-18 shooting night? Remembered only as part of the "LSU story." Things that seemed epic when they happened are now just bits and pieces of the large puzzle leading to Indy.
The shame of that is that one of the most surprising and determined and exciting teams in this field got absolutely screwed on Friday night and nobody seems to remember or care. I'm talking about the University of Washington Huskies. I'm talking about the one game in this tournament where the referees absolutely dictated the outcome, where they stole a game from the more deserving team and gave it to the other guys. If you don't believe me, find yourself a tape of the game and watch it.
I won't go through the entire list of blown calls and inconsistent whistles, but here are a few key miscues:
1. Brandon Roy was given two fouls on one play, at the worst possible time, for doing absolutely nothing. First, Roy gets whistled for one of the dozen "phantom fouls" that UW was tagged for during the game. Supposedly, he "held" Rudy Gay going around a screen, but the replays showed that they barely even bumped each other. Then, after he and Gay jawed at each other a bit, some wannabe superstar referee comes flying in and gives them both a technical foul. (All he had to was just break them up.) Now Roy has four fouls with almost 13 minutes to play. He has to go out of the game. Not surprisingly (you know, since he's one of the best players in the country and all), UW saw its 12 point lead disappear with Roy on the bench. By the time he came back in, UConn was up one. As Seth Davis noted, if Roy hadn't been forced out of the game with two ridiculous foul calls, UW might have won by 20. I can't remember an instance that was more blatantly unfair than this. Honestly, it was a travesty.
2. Speaking of Roy, he made a brilliant move in overtime, taking the ball the length of the court and flipping it up and ... not quite in. Because Hilton Armstrong came over and swatted it out of the cylinder. No big deal, that's goaltending, right? Wrong. Not on this night. Somehow it was ruled a good block, UConn recovered the ball, and scored a crucial basket at the other end, all while Bill Raftery bemoaned the injustice of it all.
3. In overtime, Marcus Williams started to drive across the lane and stubbed his toe on the floor, tripping and falling to the ground. A ref comes flying in and calls a tripping foul on UW point guard Justin Dentmon. Not only was the official blocked from seeing the play, not only was there absolutely no contact, not only did he give UConn two free points, but the ref fouled the poor kid out on that call. Dentmon became the third Husky to foul out of the game, and just like that, UW was without its point guard. Think that made a difference when Washington got a steal with 13 seconds left and down by two? I'm guessing they could have used their point guard right about then. Instead, he was on the bench, disqualified on yet another phantom call and his team was throwing the ball - and its last chance at tying the game - away.
4. UConn's Ed Nelson shot a free throw and after immediately knowing that it was wayward, he bolted after it, sprinting across the line before the ball was even halfway to the basket. He was then able to secure the rebound for the Huskies. I watched this play about 10 times on my TiVo because I couldn't believe how bad the refs blew it. It was like Shaq in the All-Star game. Oh wait, it wasn't, because they called Shaq for that violation and then everyone laughed at how funny and ridiculous it was.
Those are just the four most blatant errors; the plays that were dead wrong and really can't be viewed any other way. You can also take into
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account all the times Roy was hacked in the lane with no call, or the fact that UConn shot twice as many free throws despite there being very little difference in how the teams played, or that UW was whistled for an almost impossible 33 fouls and had four guys foul out. But you don't need all that to know that UW got cheated. All you need to know is that they were up 12, cruising to victory, when their star player was basically stolen from them. Everything else is just window dressing.
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