Andy Katz Breaks Down the Final Four Storylines

Just jumping onto the NCAA Tournament after spending the previous two weeks in a cave? Don’t worry, Andy Katz of ESPN has you covered with all the most pressing storylines of the current Final Four teams. In case you missed anything to do with North Carolina, UConn, Michigan State and Villanova on their journeys to the pinnacle of college basketball, you can read all about it at ESPN.

Many of you already know some of the storylines here. Michigan State, playing in nearby Detroit, will have a decided home court advantage. North Carolina has been here before with the same class, so they’re the experienced ones. UConn won the tourney two times in the past fifteen years, both times coming out of the West, and Villanova is the newbie to the Final Four crowd. Even though they went to the Final Four once before back in the ‘70s, they don’t exactly have the glorious history and pedigree of the other programs in the mix.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 31, 2009 - Post a comment

The Final Four is Set! UNC, UConn, Michigan State and Villanova

Since this is the Final Four Blog, we’re really pumped about this time of year. The Final Four is in the books for 2009- the field is set. Two No. 1 seeds enter the round-of-four, North Carolina from the South and Connecticut from the West. Villanova, a No. 3 seed from the East bracket is in, as is Michigan State, a No. 2 seed from the Midwest regional.

What do you think of the Final Four this year?  Unlike last year there’s a bit more variety- as you have a couple No. 1s, a No. 2 and a No. 3 in there. You don’t have a supreme underdog like George Mason, but then again you don’t have any clearly, vastly superior team, either. We should get a couple of really good games here in the final stretch of the season.

Already getting nostalgic about the Elite Eight? Well check out the Sports Illustrated slide show of the action. You have Blake Griffin-Tyler Hansbrough, Goran Suton being a beast in the block, UConn’s post players dominating the paint, and Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds hitting a huge shot to knock off Pitt.  Make sure you get some Final Four tickets before they’re all gone.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 30, 2009 - Post a comment

Brackets Finally Take Hit as Memphis, Duke, Perdue, Xavier Fall

If you didn’t catch the action last night, here’s a little breakdown.

  • No. 1 UConn put the clamps on No. 5 Purdue, winning 72-60 despite some off-the-court issues with their fiery coach, Jim Calhoun.
  • Pittsburgh and Xavier stayed close for most of the game, but Levance Fields put the game away with a late three, a steal and a breakaway bucket.
  • Missouri outlasted Memphis, despite a valiant comeback effort by the Tigers. Missouri advances to play UConn after beating the former runners-up 102-91.
  • No. 3Villanova took control of the game in the second half and never looked back, sending No. 2 Duke packing.

Tonight you’ll get the rest of the Sweet Sixteen games, which include Arizona-Louisville, Syracuse-Oklahoma, Gonzaga-North Carolina and Kansas-Michigan State. If you’re already feeling the crunch in your bracket pool, you’re not alone. President Barack Obama said goodbye to one of his Final Four teams, Memphis. There were actually some upsets last night (albeit fairly lame ones) as Missouri and Villanova defeated their slightly higher seeded foes. Make sure you get tickets to this weekend’s action as soon as possible!

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 27, 2009 - Post a comment

Tourney Games Resume Today!

The NCAA Tournament will re-start the action with four round-of-sixteen games today.  They staggered the games a bit so that there shouldn’t be too many wraparound coverage problems when there are two close games  ending at the same time.  Purdue and UConn get underway at 7:00 PM in Glendale, Arizona. Xavier and Pitt play at 7:27 in Boston, Missouri plays Memphis in Glendale at 9:37, and Villanova plays Duke at 9:57 in Boston. All times are Eastern, in case you were wondering.

On to more juicy gossip. Apparently Yahoo! Sports has been running with a story about some alleged recruiting violations attributed to UConn Huskies men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun.  The story’s all over the web, and couldn’t have come at a worse time for Jim, as his team is set to face arguably their most fearsome opponent so far, Purdue. Calhoun is trying to keep the players from thinking about the off-the-court issues, but clearly it’s been affecting big Jim Calhoun. I wonder if they got all the facts right. Calhoun hates it when they don’t come with the facts.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 26, 2009 - Post a comment

Sit Back and Smell the Chalk

With the Sweet Sixteen another day away from getting started, college hoops fans have a little time to sit back, relax and take it all in, the sights, the sounds, and most of all, the hype. If you go anywhere on the interenet you can find tons of information and analysis about the games that will take place this week. Will the No. 1s stay alive? Will Arizona continue to cruise? Why were there no Cinderellas? Man, there’s a lot of chalk tak. However, we’re going to take a break at the Final Four Blog and give you guys something different.

Take a look at Luke Winn’s Tourney Blog. He’s always giving his blog readers something fresh and interesting, but few blogs have features that can compare to his Style Archive. Luke Winn is a man who can identify well-dressed and not so well-dressed hoopsters. Take a look at some of the creative and outrageous fashion statements that the Tourney players have come up with during the Madness.

And speaking of Madness. It wouldn’t be March without a gallery of oddball fanatics, would it? Here is SportsIllustrated.com’s gallery of crazy tournament fans. If you see yourself in the pictures, we salute you.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 25, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame to Play Kentucky; Hockey a No. 1 Seed

The Joyce Center will be the host of yet another Notre Dame postseason tournament game. Notre Dame will host Kentucky on Wednesday night in what amounts to an “Elite Eight” game in the NIT. Kentucky had to beat No. 1 seed Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska to get to this round. In the opening round the Wildcats beat UNLV. If you watched the Creighton-Kentucky game last night, you probably know that the Wildcats lead most of the game, but that they had to survive a potential game-winning three pointer to hold onto the win. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 if you can’t get tickets.

In other Notre Dame sports news, the men’s hockey team is pretty much the cat’s meow. The Fighting Irish recently won the CCHA Championship in a rout of arch rival Michigan, and now they’re entering the NCAA Ice Hockey Tournament as the No. 1 seed… in the Grand Rapids regional. They will take on the winner of the College Hockey America (CHA) tournament, Bemidji State, in the opening round on the weekend of March 28th. Notre Dame hockey rules!

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 24, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Awaits Winner of Creighton-Kentucky

Notre Dame advanced to the third round of the NIT last week, but the players, coaches and fans are still waiting for their next opponent to be announced. Creighton and Kentucky will play tonight to determine UND’s next opponent. Which team are you hoping the Fighting Irish will get to play.

On the one hand, wishing for one team over the other is a bit of a conundrum. You can say something like, “I think Notre Dame matches up better with Kentucky.” But then what if the Wildcats lose and you have to play the Blue Jays?  Let’s just hope that the Domers can be well prepared for whatever team they draw.

Kentucky is an established national superpower in college basketball, having achieved the most wins of any hoops team in the NCAA. Of course, they’re a few year’s removed from the days when they were a title threat. Beating Kentucky would be sweet. Creighton, however, is a Midwestern upstart that has been one of the most consistently good mid majors in college hoops. No matter who they play, make sure to get tickets to the game!

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 23, 2009 - Post a comment

Tournament Highlights from Day 1 in Photos

What a day, huh? The first day of the NCAA Tournament is always fantastic, isn’t it? You’re checking your bracket constantly, switching from real work to the live game feed in your browser all day long, and the games are coming fast and furious. What could be better? Well, as Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com writes, hopefully today is a little better. Out of the 16 first round games that went down today, only five were decided by fewer than double digits. There were close ones to be sure, but there were quite a few blowouts. Where are the last second shots to send upsets to the second round? Expect some miracles tomorrow.

If you’re interested in some excellent camera work, you can cruise on over to Sports Illustrated, where they have a sideshow recapping the best action from Day-1. As expected, the Blake Griffin flip makes an appearance.

Day-2 is here, though, so quit reading this blog and get involved in the game. Talk some trash to your cubicle neighbor, take a break and search for some tickets and soak it all in- this is the best time of year for the Final Four Blog, can you tell?

To get NCAA Basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 20, 2009 - Post a comment

Let the Madness Begin!

Ladies and gentlemen, loyal blog readers and hoops fans from around the world, the madness has begun! Set up your computer screen so that you can watch the whole tournament, all the games you ever want, all day long. In fact, while you’re reading this blog post right now, we advise you to head over to CBS or some of the other college sports websites out there so that you can stream live games all day long. You don’t have time for blog reading! Either use the link at the bottom of this post to grab soe NCAA Tournament tickets, or minimize this screen so that you can enjoy the greatest spectacle in all of sports, the NCAA Tourney.

Supposing it’s commercial time, you can always amuse yourself with some nice hoops-related slideshows. At SportsIllustrated.com they have a cool slide show of some of the best mascots who will be present at the Tournament. If you’re a fan of Wake Forest, Radford, WVU or Syracuse, you might want to see this.  They even have some nice commentary from a fashion expert on why each mascot is the fashionably awesome. Enjoy the Tournament and we’ll see you back here tomorrow, bright and early.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 19, 2009 - Post a comment

Morehead State Wins Play-In Game

The first game of the NCAA Tournament is now over, as Morehead State defeated Alabama State in the annual tradition known as the play-in game. Well, the NCAA doesn’t like to call it the play-in, but pretty much everyone out there knows that’s what it is. At any name or rate, the Morehead State Eagles caught fire early and held the lead over Alabama State for most of the game, and finally won 58-43. There were no last second heroics, but you can be sure that that won’t last long in this tournament.

So now the field of 65 has been cut to 64, and the brackets are set. Louisville, the No. 1 overall seed in the Tournament, will get to play Morehead State in the first round. Think they’re on a hot streak and have a chance of pulling off an upset. If so you’re in the small minority. But hey- it’s the Tourney and anything can and will happen.  Please make sure you turn in your brackets to your office bracket coordinator before you leave work tonight.  Everybody get some rest and prepare for a maddening round of games coming at you on Thursday, all day long.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 18, 2009 - Post a comment


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