All No. 1s in the Final Four? Who Could Have Predicted That?
Hope you all had a chance to get tickets to see the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games this weekend. It was a wild one, but one that could have been easily predicted by any office secretary who can count to sixteen. After all of the games, all of the upsets, all of the last-second shots and missed free throws, all four No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Final Four in San Antonio- the first time such a thing has happened in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
Last year the Final Four featured two No. 1 seeds. In fact, that’s how it usually averages out. However, this year was very good for the selection committee, and very good for uncreative bracket filler-outers. There will be no underdog Davidson, no 3-seed Stanford or Xavier. Nope. Only the entrenched powers will survive, and you can guarantee that the national title game will pit two No. 1s against each other, so the odds makers are going to have a heck of a time trying to predict it.
Here’s an Andy Katz breakdown of the Final Four teams, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina and Memphis. People who played it save are going all the way to the bank this year. People, like Your’s Truly, who picked some underdogs, and though that the committee would get it just a little bit wrong, are long gone form winning the office tournament bracket pool.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Stanford vs. Texas by the Free Throws
One of the best games of the year is going to be played tonight in the Sweet Sixteen. Stanford will play Texas in Houston’s Reliant Arena, so you know that the crowd will be into it. Stanford and Texas, while they might not seem like a really obvious rivalry, they are similar in a lot of ways. A couple of years ago I remember seeing a Sports Illustrated cover with Stanford vs. Texas on the cover. The cover story was about determining the best overall sports school in the nation. Both Stanford and Texas have been good at lot of sports- not just football and basketball- for many years. Plus, if you look at the free throw stats- the teams are pretty closely linked.
—Free Throw Percentage—
All we go by here at the Final Four Blog is free throw percentage. We’ve already seen some horrible free throwing teams get eliminated, and if Michigan State can pull it off against Memphis tonight, we’ll be talking about the “Statistic of 2008” for the rest of the year.
—Free Throw Percentage—
Memphis: 58.7 (335th in the nation)
Michigan State: 73.0 (58th in the nation)
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Visit the Official Final Four Site
Fans who are planning on getting some tickets to see the Final Four might be interested in checking out the official Final Four site at the NCAA.com. There are all sorts of other college sports news sources out there, but we found ourselves at this site specifically because the commercials during the NCAA Tournament have been telling us over and over to go there. Plus, if we had the chance we would hire a former NCAA athlete. Then we might make a stop at Sonic, get some Hartford insurance, and then get a brake inspection at Midas… but we digress.
The official Final Four site for the men’s Tournament has lots of information- from where you should stay and eat when visiting San Antonio, to how you can be a volunteer to help out with the festivities.
But let’s not forget that tonight is a huge night for college basketball fans. Many a bracket depends on what happens in the Sweet Sixteen. West Virginia will play Xavier, Washington State will play North Carolina, Western Kentucky battles UCLA, and Louisville has a showdown with Tennessee. If you don’t have tickets already, make sure to get some right away, or get to a place where you can watch it all go down on TV.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Sweet Sixteen and the No. 1s Are All Still Dancing
Two fantastic rounds of college basketball have gone by, so already the field has been reduced from 64 to only 16 (sweet) teams. Some of the big dogs in this tournament have already exited the dance early, such as No. 2 seed Duke, No. 2 Georgetown, No 4s UConn, Vanderbilt and Pittsburgh… the list goes on. However, the No. 1s are all still in the dance. This isn’t that rare, though. The No.1s usually get a favorable location, a lot of easy teams to beat in the first couple of rounds, and, of course, they are really, really, good.
North Carolina and Kansas have cruised, but UCLA and Memphis have already been tested. Which of these four will be the first No. 1 to leave? Will all of them make it to the Final Four? You can get a better idea of where each team will go by checking out some cool blogs at Luke Winn’s Tourney Blog at SportsIllustrated.com.
Luke Winn always has some interesting things to read at his blog. As a blog ourselves, we have to appreciate a good one when we see it. Anyway, you can get the inside scoop on UNC, Kansas, UCLA and Memphis at his blog, and I recommend reading it if your bracket depends on one or more of these teams, if you support a team playing one of the No. 1s, or even if you’re just a fan of good reporting.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Sweet Sixteen Picks: South and West
Time to move on to the South and West, which, inexplicably, are located in the upper right and lower right regions of your standard bracket. But we digress. Here are our picks for the Sweet Sixteen games on the right side of your bracket. If we mess up, bear in mind we can always go back and change the scores, Orwellian-style, to make it seem as though our wrong predictions never existed at all. Wordpress is truth.
Michigan St. 75, Memphis 73
- We’ve been harping on free throw shooting all season long, and now is that time of year when making them is going to be the difference between a failure of a season and an unexpected trip to the Elite Eight. Drew “FT%” Neitzel gets to the line when it counts an the Spartans advance.
Stanford 82, Texas 81
- Best game of the Sweet Sixteen, by far. Lots of lead changes as the Cardinal go down Lo with the Lo-pez boys and the Texans make mince meat of the Stanford guards.
UCLA 102, Western Kentucky 65
- With pretty much the best possible scenario, the UCLA Bruins cruise to a win here, playing some of their reserves in the second half. Watch for some sweet highlight reel dunks.
Xavier 55, West Virginia 53
- Both teams struggle to get some offense going. Who has the legs underneath them to hit the last second shot?
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
The Sweet Sixteen are Set, But Who Will Be Elite?
The action came fast and furious over the past few days, and we’re sorry, but we spent too much time watching the games for free online, rather than updating our blog posts like we should be doing. We can’t help it. Every year around this time American workplace productivity falls off the charts. You should just deal with it.
Hope your brackets are doing well. We envy those of you who knew that Davidson, Villanova and Western Kentucky would be sweet in the tourney this season. There probably aren’t many people out there with perfect brackets anymore. However, there are still some top seeds out there, and the office bracket pools should be heating up. Here are the left side of the bracket picks for the Tournament (East and Southwest [why is East always on the left, and South above the West, which is on the right of the bracket? Just a thought.])
North Carolina 72, Washington State 66
- The Heels clamp down on defense in the second half after falling behind early, sending Roy Williams to his millionth Elite Eight.
Louisville 65, Tennessee 64
- Free throw shooting becomes crucial at the end of this one. Too bad both teams are shamefully awful at the stripe, otherwise the scores would be in the 100s.
Kansas 80, Villanova 71
- The Jayhawks get to the rim all night, but it was a nice run for Nova. They’ll be strong next year.
Wisconsin 69, Davidson 61
- Get ready for 1,355 close-up shots of Stephen Curry’s foxy mom crying in the stands.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Aftermath of the First Round of Games
The first round of games is over now, so let’s review the aftermath before the next games start up anew today. There weren’t as many upsets as we would have liked, but there were still some good games. Here are the top five games from Thursday’s action:
TOP FIVE THURSDAY GAMES
1. Duke over Belmont
2. Texas A&M over BYU
3. West Virginia over Arizona
4. Xavier over Georgia
5. Purdue over Baylor
And now for the games to keep a close eye on during work. You should also consider calling in sick to watch a few of these.
TOP FIVE GAMES TO WATCH ON FRIDAY
1. Indiana vs. Arkansas
2. Gonzaga vs. Davidson
3. St. Joseph’s vs. Oklahoma
4. St. Mary’s vs. Miami
5. San Diego vs. UConn
Get out to a game soon by getting some NCAA basketball tickets. The action is going to come hot and fast, and you know you want to be there to see some thrilling finishes take place.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
LiveBlogging the Tournament!
I think the Final Four Blog is going to try to do some of that, how do you say, “live-blogging.” CBSSports.com has a great feature where you can see any game in the country with just a few mouse clicks. The best part is that it’s all free.
- 11:05 AM (PST) - I just saw the first emotional run made in the tournament proper. Xavier was down versus Georgia by about ten with eight minutes to go in the second half. Then the Minutemen got a few steals, a quick bucket here and there, then hit two threes in a row to regain the lead 49-52. Timeout called by Georgia. Chest bumping. Getting pumped.
- 11:06 – A lot of the commercials are all CBSsports.com commercials. Can’t tell whether I like this better than watching the usual rotation. By the end of March you can say each commercial word for word.
- 11:08 – The new Sonic commercial is pretty good. I like this marketing campaign. Wish there were more Sonics in San Diego. We’ve got enough In-N-Outs. There’s a Sonic in Vegas. Gotta get out there soon. Make a wager on Xavier. Speaking of, the game’s back on.
- 11:12 – Xavier has a guy named Duncan. Let’s hope he can channel Timmy when or if they play Duke later in the tournament.
- 11:13 – Georgia has gone cold. Xavier is pulling away. Was hoping for a good finish to get excited about here in the blog factory, but that’s probably not going to happen. Rooting for Georgia now, even though I have Xavier winning this game in my bracket. I demand madness more than my $50 office pool pot.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
Does it Pay to Be Tall in the Tourney?
Before the season started, the word from around the league was that the Pac-10 was going to be the best conference this season- hands down. Of course, the ACC also has some good teams, and the Big East might just take the cake this year. However, the theory of why the Pac-10 was going to be great still might hold true. Big guys make you better. And the Pac-10 had a lot of good big guys. Take, for example, Stanford, which boasts two of the biggest centers in the college game, the Lopez twins. UCLA has their tall freshman center/forward, Kevin Love. Across the country the Tar Heels and the Hoyas are winning a lot of games behind the interior presence of Psycho-T and Roy Hibbert, respectively.
So does size matter? Other teams will tell you it doesn’t. Check out the article on this subject at SportsIllustrated.com. While some teams have good size and can use that as their go-to method for getting wins, others know they aren’t tall and don’t try to be. Duke, for example, relies on speedy wing players and a backcourt with guards who can shoot and drive. They don’t pound the ball down low, but they have still won plenty of games. The Tourney will settle this debate.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.
TheLiveFeed.net Picks Louisville
Still haven’t decided who your national champion is going to be? Still haven’t decided whether a Mt. St. Mary’s Mountaineer would kill a Coppin St. Eagle in a hypothetical fight? (Can the Mountaineer use his surveying tools, such as a pick, a mallet or a prospecting pan? What type of Eagle is it? A Bald Eagle? A Golden Eagle?)
If you are still looking on the internet for one last prediction to sway you’re bracket picks, you might want to check out TheLiveFeed.net, a sports blog with sass and a sassy New England bias. It’s much less painstaking than Bill Simmons, though.
The “Final Four Blog Presented by StubHub” pick for tonight’s game: Mt. St. Mary’s U. They will win the play-in game tonight, because the play-in is all about punctuation. With a possibility of four punctuation marks in their name, Mt. St. Mary’s U. is a lock.
Period.
Plus, if you are going by a battle of mascots, then the Mountaineer would win in a landslide. Eagles are endangered for a good reason, specifically, Mountaineers.
To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.