Showing posts with label tournament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tournament. Show all posts
Friday, April 4, 2025
It's that time again...
It's that time when both NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments come down to four teams each.
Got to admit...I've slacked off a bit since last year when it comes to follow college hoops (2025 has been a year to deal with health issues, among other things)...but I'm still a fan.
I'm typing this in the middle of a game...but I'm going out on a limb to make predictions, anyway.
Women's: South Carolina over Texas, then Connecticut over UCLA...then the Gamecocks taking care of the Huskies on 4-6-2025.
Men's: Auburn over Florida, followed by Duke over Houston...with the Blue Devils stopping the Tigers on 4-7-2025.
Okay...now it's back to watching the games to find out what'll really happen.
Hope your favorite teams are still standing!
Friday, April 5, 2024
Too close to call...well, I like to think so!
Screenwriting has kept me away from posting more blogs all this time.
Speaking of screenwriting...you can't really write a better script than the way this season's two NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments have been turning out.
Okay...I'm cheating...I'm typing this during the third quarter of the North Carolina State-South Carolina women's basketball game. But I'm still going to go out on a limb and make predictions for how college hoops' final six games of 2023-24 will turn out.
Here goes:
WOMEN: South Carolina over North Carolina State, Connecticut over Iowa (but I smell a Hawkeye victory tonight over the Huskies), then the Gamecocks staying unbeaten at the expense of the Huskies...whose 2015-16 team was the last D-1 squad, men's or women's, to get through unscathed.
MEN: Connecticut over Alabama, North Carolina State over Purdue...followed by the Huskies taking the Wolfpack down on 4-8-2024 for a second consecutive title (something not done in D-1 men's hoops since Florida doubled up in 2005-06 and 2006-07).
But what a season it's been...especially with Iowa's Caitlin Clark breaking records left and right and Purdue's Zach Edey picking up where he left off.
And we're at a point in the season where any of those eight teams could win it all.
Well...time for me to get back to the South Carolina-NC State game. But before I go...I can't help but ask:
Which teams do YOU think will win it all here in 2023-24?
Friday, April 1, 2022
Hey! We've been here before!
Have you been following either or both of this season's NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments?
I was disappointed at both Iowa basketball teams, pleased at how far both Iowa State hoops squads did, but...I wasn't surprised at how the season ended for Nebraska's women, Creighton's men, and Creighton's women.
Now each tourney is down to four clubs...and here's how I think it'll all end:
WOMEN: South Carolina over Louisville, Stanford over Connecticut (although I smell a win for the Huskies against the Cardinal), and South Carolina ending Stanford's reign.
MEN: Villanova over Kansas, Duke over North Carolina, and Duke sending Mike Krzyzewski into retirement in style by stopping Villanova.
There you are: Eight teams that've already been to the Final Four before...seven of them have won it all before. (Only Louisville's women have yet to be the last to cut down the nets.)
Well, let's just sit back this weekend and see what REALLY happens.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Killing the Game?
This year, I've been following more NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tournament games than NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tourney ones.
The big reason: I'm upset at CBS CEO Les Moonves for crowing that the sexist, racist, homophobic, religiophobic, etc., etc. rantings of Donald Trump and other 2016 Republican presidential candidates are "good for CBS." Moonves likes how all the excrement slung by the Elephants' office seekers means more advertising money for the folks at the Eye Network. (Never mind the continuing corrosive effect the propagation of hate has on the collective American conversation.)
So while I'm watching ESPN and ESPN2 whenever they show D-1 women's tourney contests, it's TBS and TNT for me when it comes to seeing D-1 men's tourney teams play. (To get truTV, I'd have to pay my local cable outlet for another tier of channels.)
Speaking of ESPN2...I was watching this afternoon's Tennessee-Syracuse game (the Orange won the Midwest Regional final, 89-67, to get into the D-1 Women's Final Four for the first time in program history) when I saw the scroll on the bottom of the screen: "Geno Auriemma won't apologize for his team's success."
Why should he?
Yesterday, his Connecticut Huskies mauled, crushed, demolished, and crucified Mississippi State, 98-38,
for the biggest victory margin in any regional or Final Four game since the NCAA started conducting a Division 1 women's hoops tourney in 1982. (The 60-point margin topped the 51-point difference between UConn and Texas in one of last season's East Regional semifinals.)
It was the 72nd straight time Breanna Stewart and Co. won a game; Stewart led the way with 22 points, 14 rebounds, and five blocks.
After the game (one in which the Huskies put in the game's first 13 points, enjoyed a 32-4 lead on the Bulldogs, then stretched it to 61-12 at the end of the first half), Auriemma fielded a reporter's question about whether Connecticut's total domination of D-1 women's b-ball- three straight championships and ten overall coming into this 2015-16 season- is killing the sport.
The head coach with the most Division 1 women's basketball titles ever wasn't pleased with the question.
"When Tiger (Woods) was winning every major, nobody said he was bad for golf," said the Man from Philadelphia. In fact, Woods' phenomenal success drew more fans to golf as the 20th Century was getting ready to make way for the 21st Century.
What's more, Tiger's presence on the links made the other PGA golfers step up their game.
Result: Since the current century began, golfers like Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Zack Johnson, and- more recently- Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson, and Jordan Spieth have shown they can frequently come away with The Big Check, too.
Same thing happened in NCAA Division 1 men's basketball...which, from the 1963-64 campaign to the 1974-75 season, was in the grip of one team: John Wooden's UCLA Bruins.
The Bruins took ten of the twelve D-1 men's titles offered during that span of time. It would've been twelve straight if Texas Western hadn't stopped Kentucky, 72-65, to end the 1965-66 season- a season where Oregon State interrupted UCLA's reign in the old AAWU (now, of course, called the Pac-12); and if, in 1973-74, North Carolina State hadn't beaten Marquette, 76-64...after the Wolfpack dethroned the Bruins, 80-77, a couple of days earlier.
By the way...a year after their school won it all in men's hoops, Texas Western College of the University of Texas officials changed their institution's name to the University of Texas at El Paso.
Wooden showed that he could get UCLA to the top with any kind of team, be it a run-and-gun kind, a patient team, or one headlined by a certain 7-2 center who, while still in high school, had college recruiters all over the country knocking each other over to sign him.
Lots of other head men's hoops coaches breathed heavy, heavy sighs of relief when John decided to hang up his whistle after the 1974-75 season...a campaign that ended when UCLA thwarted Kentucky, 92-85.
That's how the 37th NCAA D-1 men's hoops tourney ended. Before the Blue and Gold seized control of men's D-1 roundball, 18 different squads had won the first 25 NCAA D-1 men's basketball tournaments, starting with Oregon (the 1938-39 kingpin). And Kentucky was the sport's gold standard, with four championships- 1947-48, 1948-49, 1950-51, and 1957-58.
By the time the 1974-75 season ended, 21 teams had won the 37 NCAA D-1 men's b-ball tourneys. Since then, 14 others had taken the pot of gold for the first time ever.
And men's college basketball has grown exponentially in popularity since then...to the point where the gender's D-1 Big Dance is the NCAA's most lucrative event. (An event where this country's president fills out a bracket every March, just like millions of other Americans.)
While the 78th NCAA D-1 men's hoops tournament is going on, the 35th NCAA D-1 women's basketball tourney is also happening.
And, as Geno will tell you, it's all taking place at a time similar to what was happening in men's Division 1 ball during the 1963-64/1974-75 era.
Connecticut's first D-1 women's title came at the end of the 1994-95 season. Before that, eight different clubs claimed the first 13 NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tournaments, with Tennessee leading the way (the Volunteers, then under Pat Summitt, were tops in 1986-87, 1988-89, and 1990-91).
Since UConn got that first notch, teams headed up by Auriemma and Summitt nailed down 14 of the next 20 titles in D-1 women's roundball...with Tennessee grabbing three championships in a row from 1995-96 to 1997-98,
then triumphing in 2006-07 (the act that angered Rutgers fan Don Imus) and 2007-08.
Five other teams accounted for the other six championships of the 1995-96/2014-15 period- Purdue (in 1998-99), Notre Dame (whose 2000-01 title prevented what ultimately could've been a UConn five-peat), Baylor (the only one able to go for seconds; the Bears followed up their 2004-05 championship by ruling in 2011-12), Maryland (the winner in 2005-06), and Texas A&M (which took it all in 2010-11).
So, that's it...coming into March Madness 2016, 14 different squads have won the first 34 NCAA D-1 women's b-ball tournaments.
At this very moment, the Huskies are working on a four-peat.
But first, they'll have to take the Longhorns out of the way tomorrow night to win the East Regional.
Two more victories after that, and Auriemma will get his eleventh title as a head coach...and he'll pass Wooden in the process.
The way I see it, Connecticut's success (that's putting it mildly) in D-1 women's basketball isn't killing the sport.
Media apathy toward the game is.
I mean, it hurts to turn on one of Disney's ESPN networks each March and find a good, good game being played in front of...rows and rows of empty seats.
It hurts, too, that these same media people- even those at Disney- don't lavish the same attention on women's ball as they do on men's ball. The scrolls themselves offer a clue: Rarely this season were you told how many points Stewart had in this or that game. (By contrast, Georges Niang's name was almost always seen in the scrolls here in 2015-16.)
Listen...Iowa State's Niang and Connecticut's Stewart were two of college basketball's leading players these last four seasons. Let's give 'em BOTH shout-outs!
And that speaks to something else.
How committed are many of the NCAA's Division 1 schools to their women's basketball teams?
Not just in money...but in spirit.
It's been 44 years now since Title 9 became law...and it hurts that, 44 years later, lots of resentment continues to exist over the law. The resentment not only shows up on TV and on sports radio, but in no telling how many athletic departments at no telling how many schools here in America.
How much support do the Breanna Stewarts really have, given- let's face it- America's anti-female heritage?
Breanna herself had one real answer to giving women's NCAA basketball a boost:
"Teams need to get better, players need to get better, and that starts from before we even get to college."
John Wooden had no problem with women's college basketball. He, in fact, called it a purer form of the sport than the men's kind.
I've always thought athletes were athletes, regardless of gender.
How about you?
The big reason: I'm upset at CBS CEO Les Moonves for crowing that the sexist, racist, homophobic, religiophobic, etc., etc. rantings of Donald Trump and other 2016 Republican presidential candidates are "good for CBS." Moonves likes how all the excrement slung by the Elephants' office seekers means more advertising money for the folks at the Eye Network. (Never mind the continuing corrosive effect the propagation of hate has on the collective American conversation.)
So while I'm watching ESPN and ESPN2 whenever they show D-1 women's tourney contests, it's TBS and TNT for me when it comes to seeing D-1 men's tourney teams play. (To get truTV, I'd have to pay my local cable outlet for another tier of channels.)
Speaking of ESPN2...I was watching this afternoon's Tennessee-Syracuse game (the Orange won the Midwest Regional final, 89-67, to get into the D-1 Women's Final Four for the first time in program history) when I saw the scroll on the bottom of the screen: "Geno Auriemma won't apologize for his team's success."
Why should he?
Yesterday, his Connecticut Huskies mauled, crushed, demolished, and crucified Mississippi State, 98-38,
It was the 72nd straight time Breanna Stewart and Co. won a game; Stewart led the way with 22 points, 14 rebounds, and five blocks.
After the game (one in which the Huskies put in the game's first 13 points, enjoyed a 32-4 lead on the Bulldogs, then stretched it to 61-12 at the end of the first half), Auriemma fielded a reporter's question about whether Connecticut's total domination of D-1 women's b-ball- three straight championships and ten overall coming into this 2015-16 season- is killing the sport.
The head coach with the most Division 1 women's basketball titles ever wasn't pleased with the question.
"When Tiger (Woods) was winning every major, nobody said he was bad for golf," said the Man from Philadelphia. In fact, Woods' phenomenal success drew more fans to golf as the 20th Century was getting ready to make way for the 21st Century.
What's more, Tiger's presence on the links made the other PGA golfers step up their game.
Result: Since the current century began, golfers like Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Zack Johnson, and- more recently- Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson, and Jordan Spieth have shown they can frequently come away with The Big Check, too.
Same thing happened in NCAA Division 1 men's basketball...which, from the 1963-64 campaign to the 1974-75 season, was in the grip of one team: John Wooden's UCLA Bruins.
The Bruins took ten of the twelve D-1 men's titles offered during that span of time. It would've been twelve straight if Texas Western hadn't stopped Kentucky, 72-65, to end the 1965-66 season- a season where Oregon State interrupted UCLA's reign in the old AAWU (now, of course, called the Pac-12); and if, in 1973-74, North Carolina State hadn't beaten Marquette, 76-64...after the Wolfpack dethroned the Bruins, 80-77, a couple of days earlier.
By the way...a year after their school won it all in men's hoops, Texas Western College of the University of Texas officials changed their institution's name to the University of Texas at El Paso.
Wooden showed that he could get UCLA to the top with any kind of team, be it a run-and-gun kind, a patient team, or one headlined by a certain 7-2 center who, while still in high school, had college recruiters all over the country knocking each other over to sign him.
Lots of other head men's hoops coaches breathed heavy, heavy sighs of relief when John decided to hang up his whistle after the 1974-75 season...a campaign that ended when UCLA thwarted Kentucky, 92-85.
That's how the 37th NCAA D-1 men's hoops tourney ended. Before the Blue and Gold seized control of men's D-1 roundball, 18 different squads had won the first 25 NCAA D-1 men's basketball tournaments, starting with Oregon (the 1938-39 kingpin). And Kentucky was the sport's gold standard, with four championships- 1947-48, 1948-49, 1950-51, and 1957-58.
By the time the 1974-75 season ended, 21 teams had won the 37 NCAA D-1 men's b-ball tourneys. Since then, 14 others had taken the pot of gold for the first time ever.
And men's college basketball has grown exponentially in popularity since then...to the point where the gender's D-1 Big Dance is the NCAA's most lucrative event. (An event where this country's president fills out a bracket every March, just like millions of other Americans.)
While the 78th NCAA D-1 men's hoops tournament is going on, the 35th NCAA D-1 women's basketball tourney is also happening.
And, as Geno will tell you, it's all taking place at a time similar to what was happening in men's Division 1 ball during the 1963-64/1974-75 era.
Connecticut's first D-1 women's title came at the end of the 1994-95 season. Before that, eight different clubs claimed the first 13 NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tournaments, with Tennessee leading the way (the Volunteers, then under Pat Summitt, were tops in 1986-87, 1988-89, and 1990-91).
Since UConn got that first notch, teams headed up by Auriemma and Summitt nailed down 14 of the next 20 titles in D-1 women's roundball...with Tennessee grabbing three championships in a row from 1995-96 to 1997-98,
Five other teams accounted for the other six championships of the 1995-96/2014-15 period- Purdue (in 1998-99), Notre Dame (whose 2000-01 title prevented what ultimately could've been a UConn five-peat), Baylor (the only one able to go for seconds; the Bears followed up their 2004-05 championship by ruling in 2011-12), Maryland (the winner in 2005-06), and Texas A&M (which took it all in 2010-11).
So, that's it...coming into March Madness 2016, 14 different squads have won the first 34 NCAA D-1 women's b-ball tournaments.
At this very moment, the Huskies are working on a four-peat.
But first, they'll have to take the Longhorns out of the way tomorrow night to win the East Regional.
Two more victories after that, and Auriemma will get his eleventh title as a head coach...and he'll pass Wooden in the process.
The way I see it, Connecticut's success (that's putting it mildly) in D-1 women's basketball isn't killing the sport.
Media apathy toward the game is.
I mean, it hurts to turn on one of Disney's ESPN networks each March and find a good, good game being played in front of...rows and rows of empty seats.
It hurts, too, that these same media people- even those at Disney- don't lavish the same attention on women's ball as they do on men's ball. The scrolls themselves offer a clue: Rarely this season were you told how many points Stewart had in this or that game. (By contrast, Georges Niang's name was almost always seen in the scrolls here in 2015-16.)
Listen...Iowa State's Niang and Connecticut's Stewart were two of college basketball's leading players these last four seasons. Let's give 'em BOTH shout-outs!
And that speaks to something else.
How committed are many of the NCAA's Division 1 schools to their women's basketball teams?
Not just in money...but in spirit.
It's been 44 years now since Title 9 became law...and it hurts that, 44 years later, lots of resentment continues to exist over the law. The resentment not only shows up on TV and on sports radio, but in no telling how many athletic departments at no telling how many schools here in America.
How much support do the Breanna Stewarts really have, given- let's face it- America's anti-female heritage?
Breanna herself had one real answer to giving women's NCAA basketball a boost:
"Teams need to get better, players need to get better, and that starts from before we even get to college."
John Wooden had no problem with women's college basketball. He, in fact, called it a purer form of the sport than the men's kind.
I've always thought athletes were athletes, regardless of gender.
How about you?
Friday, March 22, 2013
Well, at Long Last, I Did It! (Part 2)
Well...I see the men's bracket I filled out already got thrown out the window.
It was all because La Salle beat Boise State in the first round. Yesterday, Harvard took it to New Mexico, 68-62; California edged UNLV, 64-61; and Colorado State handed Missouri an 84-72 verdict.
But I'm still pressing on...and I'm ready to give you my predictions on how this year's NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tournament will turn out:
FIRST ROUND: Midwest- Baylor over Prairie View
Florida State over Princeton
Louisville over Middle Tennessee State
Purdue over Liberty
Oklahoma over Central Michigan
UCLA over Stetson
Creighton over Syracuse
Tennessee over Oral Roberts
FIRST ROUND: West- Stanford over Tulsa
Villanova over Michigan
Iowa State over Gonzaga
Georgia over Montana
Wisconsin-Green Bay over Louisiana State
Penn State over Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Texas Tech over South Florida
California over Fresno State
FIRST ROUND: South- Notre Dame over Tennessee-Martin
Miami (FL) over Iowa
Colorado over Kansas
South Carolina over South Dakota State
Nebraska over Tennessee-Chattanooga
Texas A&M over Wichita State
DePaul over Oklahoma State
Duke over Hampton
FIRST ROUND: East- Connecticut over Idaho
Vanderbilt over St. Joseph's
Marist over Michigan State
Maryland over Quinnipiac
Delaware over West Virginia
North Carolina over Albany
St. John's (NY) over Dayton
Kentucky over Navy
SECOND ROUND: Midwest- Baylor over Florida State
Louisville over Purdue
Oklahoma over UCLA
Tennessee over Creighton
SECOND ROUND: West- Stanford over Villanova
Georgia over Iowa State
Penn State over Wisconsin-Green Bay
California over Texas Tech
SECOND ROUND: South- Notre Dame over Miami (FL)
South Carolina over Colorado
Texas A&M over Nebraska
Duke over DePaul
SECOND ROUND: East- Connecticut over Vanderbilt
Maryland over Marist
North Carolina over Delaware
Kentucky over St. John's (NY)
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS: Midwest- Baylor over Louisville
Tennessee over Oklahoma
West- Stanford over Georgia
Penn State over California
South- Notre Dame over South Carolina
Duke over Texas A&M
East- Connecticut over Maryland
Kentucky over North Carolina
REGIONAL FINALS: Baylor over Tennessee
Stanford over Penn State
Notre Dame over Duke
Connecticut over Kentucky
NATIONAL SEMIFINALS: Baylor over Stanford
Notre Dame over Connecticut
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Baylor over Notre Dame
See if you agree that Kim Mulkey's Bears will clip those nets down at New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, LA. In fact, see if you agree with any of these picks...I'd like to hear from you.
I'm Jim Boston...thanks for reading this blog!
It was all because La Salle beat Boise State in the first round. Yesterday, Harvard took it to New Mexico, 68-62; California edged UNLV, 64-61; and Colorado State handed Missouri an 84-72 verdict.
But I'm still pressing on...and I'm ready to give you my predictions on how this year's NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tournament will turn out:
FIRST ROUND: Midwest- Baylor over Prairie View
Florida State over Princeton
Louisville over Middle Tennessee State
Purdue over Liberty
Oklahoma over Central Michigan
UCLA over Stetson
Creighton over Syracuse
Tennessee over Oral Roberts
FIRST ROUND: West- Stanford over Tulsa
Villanova over Michigan
Iowa State over Gonzaga
Georgia over Montana
Wisconsin-Green Bay over Louisiana State
Penn State over Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Texas Tech over South Florida
California over Fresno State
FIRST ROUND: South- Notre Dame over Tennessee-Martin
Miami (FL) over Iowa
Colorado over Kansas
South Carolina over South Dakota State
Nebraska over Tennessee-Chattanooga
Texas A&M over Wichita State
DePaul over Oklahoma State
Duke over Hampton
FIRST ROUND: East- Connecticut over Idaho
Vanderbilt over St. Joseph's
Marist over Michigan State
Maryland over Quinnipiac
Delaware over West Virginia
North Carolina over Albany
St. John's (NY) over Dayton
Kentucky over Navy
SECOND ROUND: Midwest- Baylor over Florida State
Louisville over Purdue
Oklahoma over UCLA
Tennessee over Creighton
SECOND ROUND: West- Stanford over Villanova
Georgia over Iowa State
Penn State over Wisconsin-Green Bay
California over Texas Tech
SECOND ROUND: South- Notre Dame over Miami (FL)
South Carolina over Colorado
Texas A&M over Nebraska
Duke over DePaul
SECOND ROUND: East- Connecticut over Vanderbilt
Maryland over Marist
North Carolina over Delaware
Kentucky over St. John's (NY)
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS: Midwest- Baylor over Louisville
Tennessee over Oklahoma
West- Stanford over Georgia
Penn State over California
South- Notre Dame over South Carolina
Duke over Texas A&M
East- Connecticut over Maryland
Kentucky over North Carolina
REGIONAL FINALS: Baylor over Tennessee
Stanford over Penn State
Notre Dame over Duke
Connecticut over Kentucky
NATIONAL SEMIFINALS: Baylor over Stanford
Notre Dame over Connecticut
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Baylor over Notre Dame
See if you agree that Kim Mulkey's Bears will clip those nets down at New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, LA. In fact, see if you agree with any of these picks...I'd like to hear from you.
I'm Jim Boston...thanks for reading this blog!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Well, at Long Last, I Did It! (Part 1)
A couple of days ago, a coworker friend of mine was passing out copies of the bracket for the 2013 NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tournament to other crew members.
When I got home this past Tuesday night (as this year's tourney started out with two of four first-round games), I did something I'd never, ever done before:
I actually filled out the bracket sheet.
So, right now, with the second-round contests starting later on today, I'd like to offer my predictions on how what could turn out to be one hell of a men's D-1 tournament could shape up. (Yeah...I know four games already are on the books!)
FIRST ROUND: North Carolina A&T over Liberty
St. Mary's over Middle Tennessee State
Boise State over La Salle
James Madison over LIU-Brooklyn
SECOND ROUND: Midwest- Louisville over North Carolina A&T
Missouri over Colorado State
Oregon over Oklahoma State
St. Louis over New Mexico State
Memphis over St. Mary's
Michigan State over Valparaiso
Creighton over Cincinnati
Duke over Albany
SECOND ROUND: West- Gonzaga over Southern
Wichita State over Pittsburgh
Wisconsin over Mississippi
Kansas State over Boise State
Arizona over Belmont
New Mexico over Harvard
Iowa State over Notre Dame
Ohio State over Iona
SECOND ROUND: South- Kansas over Western Kentucky
North Carolina over Villanova
Virginia Commonwealth over Akron
Michigan over South Dakota State
UCLA over Minnesota
Northwestern State over Florida (!)
San Diego State over Oklahoma
Georgetown over Florida Gulf Coast
SECOND ROUND: East- Indiana over James Madison
North Carolina State over Temple
UNLV over California
Syracuse over Montana
Butler over Bucknell
Marquette over Davidson
Colorado over Illinois
Miami (FL) over Pacific
THIRD ROUND: Midwest- Louisville over Missouri
St. Louis over Oregon
Michigan State over Memphis
Duke over Creighton
THIRD ROUND: West- Gonzaga over Wichita State
Kansas State over Wisconsin
Arizona over New Mexico
Ohio State over Iowa State
THIRD ROUND: South- Kansas over North Carolina
Virginia Commonwealth over Michigan
UCLA over Northwestern State
Georgetown over San Diego State
THIRD ROUND: East- Indiana over North Carolina State
Syracuse over UNLV
Butler over Marquette
Miami (FL) over Colorado
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS: Midwest- Louisville over St. Louis
Duke over Michigan State
West- Gonzaga over Kansas State
Ohio State over Arizona
South- Virginia Commonwealth over Kansas
Georgetown over UCLA
East- Indiana over Syracuse
Butler over Miami (FL)
REGIONAL FINALS: Louisville over Duke
Ohio State over Gonzaga
Virginia Commonwealth over Georgetown
Butler over Indiana
NATIONAL SEMIFINALS: Louisville over Ohio State
Butler over Virginia Commonwealth
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Louisville over Butler
If you're one of the millions of Americans who filled out a bracket this week, how does yours look? Do you think Rick Pitino's Cardinals are going to cut down the nets at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA on 4-8-2013?
Let me know what YOU picked.
When I come back, I'm going to show you how I think this year's NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tourney will end up. Stay tuned!
When I got home this past Tuesday night (as this year's tourney started out with two of four first-round games), I did something I'd never, ever done before:
I actually filled out the bracket sheet.
So, right now, with the second-round contests starting later on today, I'd like to offer my predictions on how what could turn out to be one hell of a men's D-1 tournament could shape up. (Yeah...I know four games already are on the books!)
FIRST ROUND: North Carolina A&T over Liberty
St. Mary's over Middle Tennessee State
Boise State over La Salle
James Madison over LIU-Brooklyn
SECOND ROUND: Midwest- Louisville over North Carolina A&T
Missouri over Colorado State
Oregon over Oklahoma State
St. Louis over New Mexico State
Memphis over St. Mary's
Michigan State over Valparaiso
Creighton over Cincinnati
Duke over Albany
SECOND ROUND: West- Gonzaga over Southern
Wichita State over Pittsburgh
Wisconsin over Mississippi
Kansas State over Boise State
Arizona over Belmont
New Mexico over Harvard
Iowa State over Notre Dame
Ohio State over Iona
SECOND ROUND: South- Kansas over Western Kentucky
North Carolina over Villanova
Virginia Commonwealth over Akron
Michigan over South Dakota State
UCLA over Minnesota
Northwestern State over Florida (!)
San Diego State over Oklahoma
Georgetown over Florida Gulf Coast
SECOND ROUND: East- Indiana over James Madison
North Carolina State over Temple
UNLV over California
Syracuse over Montana
Butler over Bucknell
Marquette over Davidson
Colorado over Illinois
Miami (FL) over Pacific
THIRD ROUND: Midwest- Louisville over Missouri
St. Louis over Oregon
Michigan State over Memphis
Duke over Creighton
THIRD ROUND: West- Gonzaga over Wichita State
Kansas State over Wisconsin
Arizona over New Mexico
Ohio State over Iowa State
THIRD ROUND: South- Kansas over North Carolina
Virginia Commonwealth over Michigan
UCLA over Northwestern State
Georgetown over San Diego State
THIRD ROUND: East- Indiana over North Carolina State
Syracuse over UNLV
Butler over Marquette
Miami (FL) over Colorado
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS: Midwest- Louisville over St. Louis
Duke over Michigan State
West- Gonzaga over Kansas State
Ohio State over Arizona
South- Virginia Commonwealth over Kansas
Georgetown over UCLA
East- Indiana over Syracuse
Butler over Miami (FL)
REGIONAL FINALS: Louisville over Duke
Ohio State over Gonzaga
Virginia Commonwealth over Georgetown
Butler over Indiana
NATIONAL SEMIFINALS: Louisville over Ohio State
Butler over Virginia Commonwealth
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Louisville over Butler
If you're one of the millions of Americans who filled out a bracket this week, how does yours look? Do you think Rick Pitino's Cardinals are going to cut down the nets at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA on 4-8-2013?
Let me know what YOU picked.
When I come back, I'm going to show you how I think this year's NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tourney will end up. Stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)