0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/23/2015
North Carolina State’s upset of Villanova marked the most significant upset from the round of 32 in this year’s NCAA tournament. Seeing a tournament upset authored by Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried and his N.C. State team reminds us that the man and the school have both participated in other significant first-weekend upsets in recent NCAA […]
CHARLOTTE, NC – MARCH 22: Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans reacts on the sidelines against the Virginia Cavaliers during the third round of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Time Warner Cable Arena on March 22, 2015 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/22/2015
In a 68-team tournament, it doesn’t seem very likely that one team would consistently become another team’s constant roadblock. Yet, some bracket oddities manage to create a situation in which one school’s plans are constantly frustrated by a specific foe. Utah went through a stretch in the 1990s in which it simply couldn’t get out […]
PITTSBURGH, PA – MARCH 21: Desmond Lee #5 of the North Carolina State Wolfpack celebrates after making a shot and getting fouled with teammate Beejay Anya #21 during the second half against the Villanova Wildcats during the third round of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Consol Energy Center on March 21, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/21/2015
Certain outcomes in sporting events can be simultaneously surprising and completely natural. There’s no way North Carolina State should have beaten Villanova on Saturday evening in Pittsburgh, excusing the first top-two seed from the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Yet, there’s every way North Carolina State should have been able to pull off this upset. On one […]
LOUISVILLE, KY – MARCH 19: Bryce Alford #20 of the UCLA Bruins celebrates after defeating Southern Methodist Mustangs during the second round of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournamenat at the KFC YUM! Center on March 19, 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/19/2015
Madness. It’s not just a word for March, it’s a word for the SMU Mustangs and the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area after their team exited the NCAA tournament in a manner which defies description. You know the general story: SMU, up by seven with a little over a minute left, watched UCLA’s Bryce Alford hit […]
JACKSONVILLE, FL – MARCH 19: The Georgia State Panthers celebrate after the Panthers win 57-56 against the Baylor Bears in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena on March 19, 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Last March, Oklahoma State — with Marcus Smart, a top-six NBA draft pick — was the eighth seed in the Big 12 tournament. That eighth seed in the Big 12 Conference was higher than the No. 9 seed the Cowboys received in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Seeing Oklahoma State as the 8 seed in an […]
0 comments by TSS LOCKER
Baylor athletics has achieved quite richly. The Bears have won two straight Big 12 football titles. Their basketball team has become much more consistent in recent years. Scott Drew has gone from being an erratic coach to someone who regularly gets a lot out of his players. Yet, the public perception of the Bears has […]
LOUISVILLE, KY – MARCH 19: Denzell Watts #1 and Nick Norton #2 of the UAB Blazers celebrate after defeating the Iowa State Cyclones during the second round of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournamenat at the KFC YUM! Center on March 19, 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek
They call it March Madness for a reason, everyone. The magic of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is always attached to a certain kind of insanity. The endlessly, annually amazing capacity of this tournament is not that it surprises us. We know that weird things are going to happen with 19- and 20-year-olds […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
What is Slingbox? You might know about it, but just to put a finer point on it, this technology opens the door to solutions for a sports blogger’s problems. For all the times I or any blogger has to leave home or be somewhere else while an NCAA tournament game is on, the Slingbox Player […]
LSU’s Johnny Jones didn’t manage the final minute of a game as poorly as Mark Fox did on Tuesday night… but he still came up short in terms of meeting basic standards of competence.
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/17/2015
The First Four is underway, but the round of 64 (your ever-available way to avoid using incorrect round-based terminology) doesn’t start until Thursday. Which round-of-64 games are the most important ones? Before giving you the top five, a word about UCLA and SMU. One could very easily include this game on the list as a […]
LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 03: Norman Powell #4 of the UCLA Bruins talkes with Head coach Steve Alford as he is taken out of the game against the Cal State Fullerton Titans at Pauley Pavilion on December 3, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. UCLA won 73-45. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek
It’s not duck season. It’s not rabbit season. Sorry, Daffy and Bugs. It’s bracket season. You want to be that person in the office pool or the online bracket contest who nails the big upset pick. Here’s a guide, and remember this about guides — they reveal a general path, not so much a specific […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/16/2015
The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee released its 1-68 seed list on Sunday. The Student Section is going to release three 1-68 seed lists based on categories that might not necessarily capture the imagination… but should certainly get your attention. This is very much a discussion-starting device and not a discussion-ending mechanism. The NCAA […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The court pictured above is one of the NCAA’s standardized “Stepford Courts,” with the familiar logo in the middle, the black bordering, and the clear lanes. (Stepford Courts must die, but of course, that’s why they exist. We wouldn’t want each NCAA tournament venue to retain its originality…) Yet, savvy observers will identify the building […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/15/2015
The NCAA tournament brackets have been released. Have a look. It’s time to assess The Road To The Final Four in various ways. One way is to evaluate which teams received favorable or harsh bracket paths. Keep this in mind: The following list is not limited to the teams that have a really good shot […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
We’re going to have plenty of time to discuss the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Which teams are going to make the Final Four? Which teams will be the trendy round-of-64 upset picks? What’s going to be the best round-of-32 matchup on Saturday or Sunday? Don’t worry — we’ll deal with those questions soon enough. We’ll examine […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
College basketball outlets — for breaking news or, in our case, news analysis and editorial commentary — have to be able to give readers a sense of what is actually happening or likely to happen on this day, more than any other day. On Selection Sunday — Christmas Day for the college basketball community — […]
