The NCAA Championship Game Deserves Better
Remember back in school when you'd get assigned a group project and the person you were partnered with barely did any work but got just as much credit? That's how I feel about Jim Nantz calling the Final Four.
During the college basketball regular season, Nantz isn't there for games like Tennessee-Florida or North Carolina-Boston College. He's in an NFL stadium or calling a golf tournament.
Then, he shows up on the Saturday of the Big Ten tournament and gets to announce the biggest games of the NCAAs alongside Clark Kellogg, who seems to have an obsession with calling the basketball the "orange" or the "pumpkin."
I understand Nantz is a friendly face who has been at CBS since before I was born, but those aren't good justifications for letting him call the most-watched games of the season.
For one, Gus Johnson is a better play-by-play man who has been as big a part of recent classic games as the players themselves. In the past few years alone, he has called UCLA's 17-point comeback against Gonzaga (the game where Adam Morrison cried), Vermont's upset over Syracuse in 2005 where T.J. Sorrentine hit the three from "the parking lot," and this year's Xavier-Kansas State game that went to double OT.
And yes, he was the one announcing the North Carolina-Boston College game in mid February where the teams had a combined 5-16 conference record.
Beyond all of this, though, Nantz and Kellogg just don't have much chemistry - to the point I had to put Saturday night's action on mute. Kellogg talks the entire game and makes points that just aren't very accurate - for example, saying West Virginia's John Flowers is a potent three-point shooter (he's shooting 32 percent for his career) or that Lance Thomas played an outstanding game against Baylor (he grabbed nine boards, but was 2-for-9 from the field). And seriously, count the number of times he says "Jim" or "partner" tonight.
The point is that the semis and national championship are the three most-watched college games of the year. They feature the best teams and many of the best players. They deserve the best announcers to call the games. And right now, they're not getting that.
dimemag.com
Top-seeded Boston College advances in NCAA tournament by beating pesky Alaska-Fairbanks 3-1WORCESTER, Mass. -- Pat Mullane scored the tiebreaking goal 3:46 into the third period and Matt Price was awarded a goal when he was hauled down breaking toward an empty net with 12 seconds left, lifting Boston College to a 3-1 win over Alaska-Fairbanks in the NCAA tournament Saturday.
The Eagles (26-10-3), the top seed in the Northeast Regional, will face the North Dakota-Yale winner on Sunday for a spot in the Frozen Four.
Alaska-Fairbanks (18-12-9) made its first NCAA tournament appearance.
Boston College, the Hockey East tournament champion, improved to 9-0 in first-round NCAA tournament games in Worcester. The Eagles are seeking their third NCAA title since 2001.
With Nanooks goalie Scott Greenham pulled for an extra skater in the final 30 seconds, Price was racing toward a loose puck deep in the Alaska zone when he was hooked down by defenseman Joe Sova.
Copyright(c) 2010 Taragana
Purdue vs. Texas A&M 2010 NCAA Bracket Predictions, Odds & PicksPurdue showed their guts in an opening round win despite playing with a short deck but they will face a greater challenge today against Texas A&M at 5:10 PM ET. In the opening round of the tournament Purdue (28-5) came away with a hard fought 72-64 win over Siena as -4.5 favorites. Texas A&M (24-9) advanced to the second round of the tournament for the fifth straight year with an impressive 69-53 win over Utah State as -2.5 favorites. Below is a winning March madness predictions play to fatten your money clip with dough.
The Purdue vs. Texas A&M NCAA Bracket Odds Spread is Texas A&M -2.
Analysis: Purdue did fine in the first round without their leader Robbie Hummel but against a hot Texas A&M team his loss will be hard to overcome. Hummel gave Purdue invaluable versatility and rebounding ability. Texas A&M plays good, clean basketball and while they have no true stars on offense, they have enough capable scorers to do damage. Texas A&M will cover this spread because they are a little faster and a little better hitting the glass. Texas A&M is 11-2 ATS in their last 13 games and our March madness predictions money management recommendation is to play A&M for 1 UNIT ATS. The Purdue vs. Texas A&M NCAA Bracket Odds Total is at 127.0 points.
Play: Texas A&M -2
Copyright 2004-2009 Online Sports Handicapping
NCAAB: Late Round Trends
As we get deeper into all of the major conference tourney's, it's a good time for a reminder about some of the late round trends that have formed in many of the conferences.
Hopefully you've been following some of the information from earlier in the week as the winners have been flowing.
Big East Conference
A strange pattern has developed in the Big East tournament title game, with underdogs and favorites alternating ATS wins EVERY YEAR since '98.
Accordingly, the UNDERDOG is scheduled to cover in '10 after Louisville's chalk win over Syracuse last spring.
Atlantic 10 Conference
The A-10 title game has been anything but competitive, with underdogs having won just once in the last 10 years (1-8 ATS 11.1%).
Conference-USA
With Memphis dominating the proceedings, the FAVORITES turn the tables in the semifinal round, having gone 17-3 SU & 12-8 ATS (60%) over the L10 years. The Tigers have won four straight title games as favorites as well, going 3-1 ATS (75%). Since 2006, UNDER the total is 10-2 (83.3%) in the C-USA semifinal & final games.
Mountain West Conference
FAVORITES have done well late in the last three MWC tourney's, going 7-1 SU & ATS (87.5%) over the last three years in the semi's and title games. Note: last year's Championship game was a pick'em pointspread.
Pac 10 Conference
UNDERDOGS stand a much better chance of covering late in the Pac 10 Tournament, 11-7-1 ATS (61.1%) since '03 in the semi's and title games.
Big Ten Conference
Similarly, FAVORITES own a 5-1 SU & 4-2 ATS mark in the semifinals of the L3 Big Ten tourney's after going just 1-11 ATS prior.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Semifinal UNDERDOGS are even better than previous rounds, 15-6-1 ATS (71.4%) since '99. It's not until the ACC title game where FAVORITES take over, 10-1 SU & 6-3-2 ATS (66.7%) since '99.
Mid-American Conference
The MAC title game has seen the FAVORITE go 9-3 SU & ATS (75%) since its inception. The straight up winner is 12-0 ATS.
Southeastern Conference
In the last nine SEC Tournament championship games, the UNDER is 8-1 (88.9%), and the UNDERDOGS are 4-5 SU & 5-3-1 ATS (62.5%).
Western Athletic Conference
Eight of the L10 (80%) WAC semifinal contests have gone OVER the posted total. Amazingly, in that same stretch, all five WAC title games exceeded the total as well. If you're combining those numbers, it's 13-2 (87%) OVER for the last five years.
gambling911.com
Inward focus key for BHSU men
As the Black Hills State men's basketball team prepares for its trip to the NAIA Division II national tournament, a common theme has emerged from their coach: Worry about yourselves.
"Our guys just need to worry about being the best team that we can be," head coach Paul Sather said. "We have to clue in on us, and be prepared."
The Yellow Jackets will face St. Francis (Ind.), 23-9 overall, on Wednesday in their first-round meeting at 3 p.m. on the campus of the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo.
It will mark the eighth national tournament appearance for Black Hills State, which has a 9-7 all-time record in its previous trips.
Last season, the Yellow Jackets advanced all the way to the tournament semifinals, losing to eventual champion Oklahoma Wesleyan 85-72. BHSU lost four seniors off of that team, but it returned a good chunk of the nucleus that led them to their impressive run a season ago.
They kept the momentum going this season, finishing with a 21-9 record before falling February 28 to Jamestown 78-67 in the semifinals of the Dakota Athletic Conference.
Four Yellow Jackets recently received All-Dakota Athletic Conference honors. Leading the way was junior Luke Enos, named the DAC Player of the Year with his 19 points and six rebounds per game. He was on the All-DAC first team for the second consecutive season. Also on the first team for the second time was junior guard Cain Atkinson, who scored 16 points per game.
Will John Johnson, the forward who broke the school rebound record with 850 rebounds, was named DAC Defensive Player of the Year and was second-team all-conference. Junior guard Clay Pottorff was on the third team after averaging 11 points and four rebounds per game.
Considering the talent-laden roster and last year's success, this season has prepared Black Hills well for the pressure of tournament games. Opponents always got up for any game against the Yellow Jackets, who became the hunted this year.
"Our conference was much better this year, and we had a great target on our backs all season," Sather said.
The team is not resting on its laurels, and players said they know that no team can be taken lightly at this point of the season.
"I think if you go into any national tournament game, there are no guarantees," Enos said. "But we still need to play with confidence and keep that mentality."
The coaches are credited with keeping the players focused, which can happen after a successful season. Sather and his assistants have put Black Hills State on the map as a program and they look to keep building off last season's foundation.
"It says a lot about our coaching staff and the work they put in," Johnson said. "They have brought in a great group of guys, and what we have done over the past couple years says a lot about our program also."
As far as their first-round opponent, Sather said he had limited knowledge of St. Francis but knew the Mid-Central Conference was terrific. He reiterated that the Jackets can only be concerned with what they can control, which is how well they play.
After the run last year, Black Hills is not content with just getting to the tournament. They are looking to win by focusing on their team and confidence. The Yellow Jackets are continuing to work on improving themselves.
"It's exciting, because we can end our season on a good note," Enos said.
And having confidence won't be a problem.
"More than anything else, we will be going down there with confidence, and if we do, it doesn't matter who we play," Johnson said.
(c)Copyright 2010, rapidcityjournal.com
Four Marist basketball players earn MAAC honors
Four Marist College basketball players were honored by the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on Monday afternoon.
From the women's team, which won the regular season league championship for the seventh consecutive year, Rachele Fitz and Erica Allenspach were both named First Team All-MAAC, and Corielle Yarde was named to the Second Team.
From the men's team, Candon Rusin was named to the league's All-Rookie Team.
Both Fitz and Allenspach are now eligible to win the league's Player of the Year award, an honor Fitz has won each of the last two seasons.
poughkeepsiejournal.com
Cal pulls away down stretch to beat Cougs 86-70
Berkeley, CA -- The Cal Bears (17-8, 9-4) showed Washington State (15-10, 5-8) why they are in first place atop the Pac-10.
After trailing at halftime, Cal rallied late to defeat the Cougs by a final of 86-70 inside Haas Pavilion on campus in Berkeley.
True fans of college basketball were treated to 40 minutes of outstanding play by both teams.
Coming off a tough loss Thursday to Stanford, Coach Ken Bone clearly had his team ready to get out on the hardwood Saturday afternoon.
There was no sign of a mental hangover, only signs of a team ready to play good basketball.
No question his team knew they were playing the top team in the conference by turning in their best effort to try and steal a conference road win.
Led by Klay Thompson and his game-high 28 points, Washington State raced out of the blocks with some serious sharp-shooting. Coach Bone complimented Thompson saying, "When he's hitting shots like that, everything else just works well."
At the second media timeout, the Cougs were 9-12 from the field clutching a 10-point lead at 22-12. Thompson was a perfect 4-4 from 3-point range.
As expected, Cal made a couple of runs over the final 11 minutes of the first half, but WSU answered each and every one of them.
When Jerome Randle sank the last of his 4 first half treys, Coach Bone was forced to change his defense.
"We were thinking we'd play zone," said Bone during his post game comments. "They ... started hitting some shots and I thought, you know what?", let's get out of it and try to go man-to-man. We were up 45-34 at half and we felt our man was doing a decent job and we stayed with it most of the time."
Coach Mike Montgomery said the right things and pushed the right buttons during halftime. His team came out strong to begin the second half with a 14-7 run to reverse Washington State's advantage and momentum.
Little by little, Cal whittled away at the Cougar lead. No lead is safe against Pac-10's top team.
Almost on cue at the 10:38 mark of the final 20 minutes, Randle was left open enough to knock down a 3-point shot as casually and effortlessly as other players making a layup. With Randle's string music, Cal regained the lead at 58-57.
"The first three or four minutes of the second half were a struggle," Coach Bone pointed out. "California stepped up the tempo and the physicality of the game, similar to what the University of Washington did at their place. Going through that experience a couple of weeks ago in Seattle probably helped us today."
For the next seven minutes the two teams exchanged scoring punches like a couple of heavyweight boxers.
After Reggie Moore missed a tough shot that was put back by Nikola Koprivica, Coach Bone called for a timeout with the score 71-70 in favor of Cal and just over 4 minutes left in the game.
Coming out of that timeout, WSU continued playing strong man defense and forced Randle into an awkward miss and Moore grabbed the board.
On the ensuing possesion by WSU, the ball eventually ended up in the hands of Koprivica who encountered enough contact to miss a short shot. DeAngelo Casto was whistled for a foul going over the back for the rebound, beginning a parade of Cal players going to the free throw line which mercifully ended when the final buzzer went off.
The Cougs never stopped battling but never scored another point.
Cal seemed to have eight men on the court as the clock wound down.
After Thompson was mauled on consecutive plays, exasperation got the best of Coach Bone. He offered constructive criticism of the officiating from his place on the sideline and was called for a technical foul for openly sharing an opinion.
"It was a great game and unfortunately it got away from us at the end," lamented Bone. "The technical (foul) didn't help things. In hindsight, I need to keep my composure to help them keep their composure."
Perhaps this road loss for Washington State was no more complicated than an experienced Cal team knew what was necessary to beat a very talented young team.
Copyright (c) 2009 Clarity Digital Group LLC
|
