Best Qualities of March Madness

#16 - Road Trips

Geography is one of the recurring themes of March Madness. Teams from all over the nation compete, with rosters containing players from all around the globe. The tournament itself does not take place in one location, which gives college hoops fans the opportunity to follow their own team, or watch teams live that they've never seen before.

Photos by Krista Rizzo

Last March I took a road trip to St. Louis with three friends. We saw the Midwest Regional semifinal and final games there -- Florida-Butler, Oregon-UNLV, and Florida-Oregon. We had bought the tickets back in January, hoping to see the Badgers play there; and even though the Badgers didn't make it, the experience was still a fun one.

Games I Would Place One Betting Disc On If I Were a Gambling Man

Some very important games are on tap for today and tonight, including Louisville and Georgetown battling for the Big East crown, and of course, UNC at Duke for the ACC title. My record is now 18-7 since I started making these picks. Here are today's:

Louisville @ Georgetown - Louisville
Stanford @ USC - Stanford
California @ UCLA - UCLA
Marquette @ Syracuse - Marquette
UNC @ Duke - UNC

Best Qualities of March Madness

# 17 - Underdogs

Every year there’s at least one team that scores at least one upset victory in the tournament. One of the most recent astonishing runs by an underdog came in 2006, when George Mason knocked off four quality opponents on the way to the Final Four. That year, the Colonials beat Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State, and UConn. George Mason was a #11 seed that year, and only the second #11 seed ever to get to the Final Four (LSU in 1986).

Closer to home (my home at least), I’ll always remember UW-Milwaukee’s run in 2005, when the Panthers, a #12 seed, beat Alabama and Boston College in the first weekend of the tournament. They would go on to lose in the next round to eventual tournament finalist Illinois. The next year, the Panthers got another first round upset victory, this time against Oklahoma. In the second round, they lost to the eventual tournament champions, Florida. UWM might have played better in that second game, if they had a better mascot on the floor that day.

So who’s poised to be this year’s George Mason or UW-Milwaukee? Here are five teams I think could pull off an upset or two this year:

5. VCU

4. Kent State

3. UCSB

2. BYU

1. Davidson

Quick Links

Gary Parrish looks ahead to the hoops action this weekend.

Here is a look at some of the intriguing aspects of the mid-major conference tourneys.

ESPN.com's weekly power rankings have been updated.

Kyle Whelliston reports on a potential Cinderella team.

The Badgers aren't satisfied with just a share of the title.

JSOnline's Jeff Potrykus makes some early predictions.

Games I Would Place One Betting Disc On If I Were a Gambling Man

I'm a little late in posting my picks for tonight, so I'll focus mostly on the Pac-1o. Overall record is now at 13-7.

Arizona State @ Oregon - Oregon
Michigan State @ Illinois - Michigan State
Arizona @ Oregon State - Arizona
Cal @ USC - USC
Stanford @ UCLA - UCLA

Quick Links

A few articles worth checking out:

Grant Wahl from SI.com makes the case for Tyler Hansbrough for national player of the year.

Andrew Skwara identifies 3 teams that have the qualities of a champion...and points out what traits other teams are lacking.

Finally, Jeff Goodman from Foxsports.com gives a little love to the Wisconsin Badgers (congrats on another Big Ten Title!)

Best Qualities of March Madness

#18 - Overtime!

This post is partly inspired by tonight's Mississippi St. -Vanderbilt game, which Vandy ended up winning in OT, 86-85. Shan Foster hit a three-pointer with about 3 seconds left in OT to lift the Commodores, and he ended the game with 42 points.

There were 3 other games that went to OT tonight, including Bucknell's 87-86 victory over Navy in triple-OT.

Every NCAA Tournament delivers at least 1 memorable OT game for basketball fans. Here's a look at the last 3 years and some of the better OT games that fans were treated to:

2007

Two historic programs faced off in a regional final last year - Georgetown and North Carolina. The Hoyas prevailed after the extra five minutes of play, 96-84.

2006

Number 11 seed George Mason faced off against number 1 seed UConn in a regional final. GM needed OT to put away UConn, but after the 86-84 win, the Patriots found themselves in a Final Four and the ultimate Cinderella team.

2005

2005 was a particularly good year for OT. Three out of the four regional finals went to OT that year, including Michigan State's double-OT win over Kentucky, 94-88. Louisville beat West Virginia 93-85 in another OT regional final, and Illinois defeated Arizona in a tight 90-89 OT contest.

Games I Would Place One Betting Disc On If I Were a Gambling Man

UW-Milwaukee got upset at home and Purdue lost in overtime last night, which means I went 3-2 with my picks (10-5 overall now). Here are tonight's picks:

Kentucky @ South Carolina - Kentucky
Duke @ Virginia - Duke
Oklahoma @ Oklahoma St. - Oklahoma St.
Tennessee @ Florida - Tennessee
Texas A&M @ Baylor - Baylor

Some Quick Links

Here are a few articles worth exploring:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Mark Stewart prepares you for Senior Night at the Kohl Center.

Seth Davis from SI.com tries to explain the messy coaching situation out in Arizona.

ESPN's Pat Forde hands out his conference awards (and a few disses too).

Badger Bias

This blog will invariably have a bias toward the Wisconsin Badgers. I’m not going to try to hide it…in fact in the coming weeks I’ll probably be flaunting it.

Badger fans across the nation should be grinning right now, as Ohio State just defeated Purdue in overtime, 80-77. That means that the Boilermakers are now 14-3 in the conference, and that the Badgers (14-2 in the Big Ten) now have an opportunity to win the conference title outright.

UW’s next two games are Penn State at home (tomorrow night, 8 pm), and at Northwestern on Saturday at 2 pm. Neither team should pose a serious threat. Penn State is 6-10 in the Big Ten, and Northwestern had 1 conference win going into tonight’s game against Iowa.

The Badgers have already faced both teams once this season. Back on Jan. 15, UW downed Penn State 80-55, and on Jan. 19 the Badgers beat the Wildcats 62-50.

UW’s last Big Ten title came in the 2002-03 season, when they finished 12-4 in the conference. Fans may remember the final regular season game that year went down to the wire, and Devin Harris hit a free throw to give the Badgers a 60-59 win over Illinois.

Go Big Red!

Games, Tips, and Free Money! Hooray!

There's a website called wagerline.com, and if you register there are free games where you make picks (on NCAA games and other sporting events). Best of all, if you're any good at it, you can actually win money.

One of the games I've been playing is called Survivor, where every night you make a single pick. You have to try to get on a winning streak, and if you get up to 17 consecutive correct picks, you'll win $1000. It's pretty hard, and so far my best streak has been 4.

The website also feature tips on picking games, and shows you statistics of how many people are picking certain teams.

Games I Would Place One Betting Disc On If I Were a Gambling Man

Last night I went 4-1 with my picks, and my overall record now sits at 7-3. Here's who I like tonight:

Purdue @ Ohio St. - Purdue
Nebraska @ Texas - Texas
UW-Green Bay @ Valparaiso - Valparaiso
Loyola Chicago @UW-Milwaukee - UW-Milwaukee
Florida St. @ North Carolina - North Carolina

We Interrupt This Broadcast…

The news that Brett Favre has decided to retire is sending shockwaves throughout the state of Wisconsin. I would be remiss if I failed to say a few words about the most important sports figure in the history of Wisconsin.

Brett Favre has decided to retire, and there shouldn’t be any surprise from those who have followed his career. If there has been one constant associated with Brett Favre, it has been the ability to surprise. Good surprises - like escaping a sack, falling backwards, and completing a pass that no other quarterback could have completed. Bad surprises - like throwing into coverage and trying to force something to happen, only to have the pass intercepted. Surprises have defined the career of Favre, and Tuesday morning he delivered another surprise to the Packer faithful. After 16 years as the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Favre was retiring.

Many thought that Favre would be back, that the temptation of making another deep run in the playoffs would persuade him to suit up for another grueling year in the NFL. But for the man who has nothing left to prove, the temptation to simply say goodbye has apparently proved stronger.

It may seem to many Packer fans that the news of Brett Favre retiring is a bad dream. The truth is however, that watching Favre over the years has been a dream, and now that his career is over, many of us are just starting to wake up from that dream.

Best Qualities of March Madness

#19 - Conference Tournaments



15 conference tournaments kick off this week, including 3 tomorrow.

Every conference has a tournament, except for the Ivy League - Cornell won the regular season title and is officially the first team in the NCAA Tournament.

Here are the tournaments that start this week. Next to the conference's name, I've included the current first place teams:

Beginning March 4th

Big South (tie, N.C. Asheville & Winthrop)
Horizon (Butler)
Ohio Valley (Austin Peay)

Beginning March 5th

Atlantic Sun (Belmont)
Patriot (American)
Sun Belt (tie, South Alabama & Western Kentucky in the East; tie, AR Little Rock & LA Lafayette in the West)

Beginning March 6th

Missouri Valley (Drake)
Northeast (Robert Morris)

Beginning March 7th

America East (MD Baltimore Cty.)
Colonial (VCU)
MAAC (Rider)
Southern (tie, Chattanooga & Appalachian St. in the North; Davidson in the South)
West Coast (Gonzaga)

Beginning March 8th

Big Sky (Portland St.)
Summit (Oral Roberts)

Glancing through the names of the conference leaders, there are definitely a lot of familiar teams – Gonzaga, Butler, VCU, Drake, and Winthrop for example. Then there’s MD Baltimore Cty., which has never made it to the NCAA Tournament before. They went 13-3 in the America East Conference, which includes teams like Vermont and Albany.

Games I Would Place One Betting Disc On If I Were a Gambling Man

Yesterday wasn't a great day for my picks. Indiana got blown out, Maryland gave one away, and UCLA hung on by a thread. Overall, I went 3-2. There aren't that many marquee match-ups tonight, but here's who I'm picking:

Pittsburgh @ West Virginia - West Virginia
Virginia @ Georgia Tech - Georgia Tech
Texas Tech @ Kansas - Kansas
St. Mary's @ Portland - St. Mary's
Santa Clara @ Gonzaga - Gonzaga

Introducing a New Feature: "tS' Weekly Top Five"

Every Sunday night or Monday morning, I'll be posting my picks for the top five teams in the nation. There is a very scientific approach I take to these rankings, and it is probably the most objective poll in the nation. These are not the petty opinions of a wannabe sports expert. You can take these rankings to the bank, and show them to your friends who work there.

#5 - Xavier: The Musketeers have won 11 straight in the competitive Atlantic 10 Conference. If you don't know a lot about this team, you will soon. Xavier is destined to become a media darling as the Tournament approaches.

#4 - Tennessee: I haven't drunk the kool-aid yet on this team. Their recent wins against Memphis and Kentucky were by close margins, and in between those victories they lost to Vanderbilt. At times, they are explosive; but at other times they look unfocused and impatient.

#3 - UCLA: After today's grind out win at Arizona, the Bruins are now 8-1 in Pac-10 road games. They have one of the toughest defenses in the nation, but their offense has had stretches where scoring is a struggle. Big game this Thursday at home against Stanford.

#2 - North Carolina: UNC has won 6 in a row since their home loss to Duke, including nail-biter at Virginia and a come-from-behind win at Boston College yesterday. Ty Lawson had only 1 field goal in his comeback Saturday, but he did lead the team in assists with 5, and added 2 steals.

#1 - Louisville: Louisville is the hottest team in the Big East, and maybe the country. They've won 9 in a row; a winning streak that includes victories over Georgetown and Notre Dame at home and Marquette and Pittsburgh on the road. They have a chance to win the Big East regular season title with a win this Saturday at Georgetown.

Best Qualities of March Madness

#20 - Sweat-Stained Suits

This entry is inspired by today's pressure-filled Kentucky - Tennessee game, and the Vols' head coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl isn't the first head coach to be caught on camera with massive pit stains, though in the last few years he certainly has become the most famous. I'm sure he was perspiring quite a bit today, after his squad almost dropped two in a row to the visiting Wildcats.

I found the image over at the Tennessee Basketblog.

Introducing a New Feature: "Games I Would Place One Betting Disc On If I Were a Gambling Man"

This will be another semi-daily feature, where I pick a few of the day's games. I'll keep track of my record and post it as well. Let's get it started:

Notre Dame @ Depaul - Notre Dame
Indiana @ Michigan St. - Indiana
Villanova @ Louisville - Louisville
UCLA @ Arizona - UCLA
Clemson @ Maryland - Maryland