pimblr.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Washington, D.C.—It’s “Free-wheeling Friday” again, which means we just might veer off the topic of college football. But you’re free to do the same. If you’re got something you need to get off your chest today, then let ‘er rip. Here are just a few things that are on my mind this morning.
I’m up in Washington, D.C. after watching Georgia play in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday. I’ve run into several Navy people who want to know how Paul Johnson is doing at Georgia Tech. All I can tell you is that the Navy people love this guy. They are grateful for what he did for the program and have no doubt that he is going to be successful at Georgia Tech. They find it funny when people say that Johnson’s option offense can’t succeed at this level of football. Bottom line, they said: People should quit trying to pigeon hole Paul Johnson. He is a ball coach and knows how to win. He always has.
I’m headed back to Atlanta today after watching Georgia lose to Xavier. There is no doubt in my mind that for 30 minutes Georgia was the better team. But Xavier finally wore Georgia down in the last 10 minutes. The only thing that struck me as strange is the fact that Sundiata Gaines, one of the best penetrating guards in college basketball, played 38 minutes and NEVER got to the free throw line. I don’t’ know. I’m just asking.
I hung around Thursday night at the Verizon Center and watched as Belmont, a No. 15 seed, almost beat second-seeded Duke before losing 71-70. I thought the Blue Devils might lose to the Bruins in this NCAA Tournament, but not the Bruins from Belmont. Belmont’s kids played toe-to-toe with Duke and never backed down. Rick Byrd, the Belmont coach, is the son of veteran sportswriter Ben Byrd of the Knoxville Journal. He really had his team prepared. How big an upset would it have been if Belmont had won? Since the tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, the No. 15 seed is 4-88 against the No. 2 seed. It would have been one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament. But if you were watching the game, it didn’t look like an upset. Belmont was not playing like a 15 seed. And Duke sure wasn’t playing like a 2.

ajc.com

Finally, its time to pick the West region and the Final Four bracket. The tournament begins today, so it won’t be very long before we all have feedback on our choices.
I hope all of you elected to participate in A Sea of Blue’s bracket challenge. If you haven’t, there is still time as of this writing to get your bracket selection in, and it is really easy. This earlier post has details on how to do it, and if you can find a few minutes before the games begin today at 12:20 PM.
Moving along to the West bracket, there is another sentimental favorite of mine that will get some love from me — Western Kentucky. As most of you know, I am a Western alum, and I spent many more hours than I should have haunting E.A. Diddle Arena in the late hours on the main floor, shooting baskets and pretending I was playing in front of crowds. It was (and still is) a wonderful place, and an excellent basketball facility.
But I digress. Here are my picks for the wild and wooly West:
UCLA over Mississippi Valley State — A 16 has never beaten a 1, and that won’t change here.
Duke over Belmont — I would love to pick Belmont, but no.
That’s all the easy ones in this region. Shocking? Not if you think about the rest of the games.
Connecticut over San Diego — I think this could easily go the other way, but Thabeet aught to be too much for the Toreros. Still, I wouldn’t be at all shocked to see San Diego upset the Huskies.
BYU over Texas A & M — BYU is a sleeper team in this tournament. When they are playing their best, they are capable of beating anybody, and I mean anybody.

aseaofblue.com

Okay where were we? It’s 2:00 pm…DirecTV has restored all my channels to their proper working order…and Xavier/Georgia is the only close game.
2:00 Nine and a half minutes to play in DC…more and more of the country is going to end up here watching Georgia and Xavier. The Bulldogs are up five, 49-44.
2:01 Portland State gave it a good run…but they are, after all, Portland State. Kansas is up 66-42 with less than eight to go, and I’m probably not going to spend much more time typing about that one.
2:02 The next set of games isn’t that far away…stay tuned for coverage of Kentucky/Marquette, Kent State/UNLV, Oral Roberts/Pitt, and of course, Baylor/Purdue.
2:02 Georgia’s in a 2-3 zone…of course, that means you have to get out on shooters. Oops.
2:03 B.J. Raymond just knocked down a three and it’s 49-all in DC.
2:03 And there’s another three. That’s a quick 10-0 run…and timeout Georgia.
2:04 That takes my attention back to Michigan State/Temple. I’ve said in other Bleacher Report columns that I can see any Big Ten team winning three games or losing in the first round. So far, the Spartans don’t look like first-round victims. It’s 54-38 midway through the second half.
2:05 If the Spartans do anything well, it’s rebound. They just got an extra offensive possession…and now it’s 56-38.
2:05 Back to Xavier/Georgia…one of my all-time college basketball pet peeves. Georgia takes a timeout to stop the run….instead of waiting for a dead ball to get the TV timeout. So we get a set of four or so commercials…come back to the Verizon Center for one possession…and we’re promptly into another set of commercials.

bleacherreport.com

“They like the idea of having a third tournament. You have had schools on the outside looking in. Now they have this third option.”
One school that could have that option is Ohio State, whose chances for an NCAA tournament bid were left hanging after its opening-round loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament.
“I haven’t even thought about it,” Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said when asked if he was interested in the CBI. “I don’t know enough about [it], to be quite honest with you. They’ve sent me e-mails. But I refused to read them because I want to go to the NCAA tournament.”
The Big Ten has no official stance on the CBI, and an e-mail request for a comment on it from the NCAA, which also owns the NIT, was not answered. But clearly this new event is a threat to the NIT, which began in 1938 and was taken over by the NCAA in 2005.
It is not inconceivable — in fact, it is very possible — that teams left out of the NCAA field will receive offers from both the NIT and CBI.

read_more

Final shot saves the North Carolina Tar Heels
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tyler Hansbrough has relentlessly chased the ball all season. That aggressiveness is a big reason why No. 1 North Carolina barely avoided a stunning upset in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Saturday.
The All-American grabbed a loose rebound and hit a jumper with 0.8 seconds left to help the Tar Heels beat Virginia Tech 68-66 in the semifinals, keeping their tournament title defense alive and dealing a painful blow to the Hokies’ NCAA tournament hopes.
Hansbrough finished with 26 points and nine rebounds for top-seeded North Carolina (31-2), who trailed almost the entire way against a team it had routed last month before rallying for its 10th straight victory. The Tar Heels advanced to today’s championship to play third-seeded Clemson, as they continue their push for a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs that could keep them in-state until the Final Four.
It was all thanks to Hansbrough, the 6-foot-9 junior who has climbed the school’s career scoring list while serving as the driving force behind the Tar Heels’ national-title aspirations.
“He definitely finds the ball, no doubt about that,” said Marcus Ginyard, who had 10 points for North Carolina. “It’s never surprising. From the first day I saw him play, I could tell that you’ve got to get used to expecting stuff like that out of Tyler. It’s amazing really to play with somebody that fights so hard and wants to win so bad.”

read_more

Namely, Northwestern. Home again early, with no place to go.
In case you weren’t riveted on the game, the Wildcats lost to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten tournament 55-52. They left with their futility intact.
The NCAA tournament is 70 years old this March. Northwestern has never appeared in it.
You can look it up. Northwestern hosted the first national championship game in 1939. The Wildcats helped start the big dance.
But they have never been invited. Not once.
All 10 other teams in the Big Ten have played in the NCAA tournament. All 12 in the ACC and SEC, all 16 in the Big East, all 14 in the Atlantic 10, everyone in the Pac-10 and Big 12, all eight in the Ivy League.
Eight different schools from the state of Illinois have made at least one trip. A total of 296 teams nationwide had done it, through 2007.
But never Northwestern. It is probably fitting, they’re just up the lakeshore from the Cubs.
The closest the Wildcats can get to a Final Four? Well, point guard Craig Moore was a high school teammate of former Florida star Joakim Noah.
And no breakthrough seems imminent. Thursday’s loss to the Gophers ended the season at 8-22, and 1-18 against Big Ten opponents. (In the interest of gender equity, it should be noted the Wildcat women went 5-26 and 1-18. So when it comes to adversity, Northwestern is in full compliance with Title IX).

read_more

CLEVELAND — In the waning minutes, as it became increasingly obvious that Eastern Michigan University’s basketball season was about to end in Thursday’s Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals, frustration engulfed the face of Travis Lewis.
By the time the senior swingman and former Loy Norrix standout finished his duties at the postgame podium, his mood had turned somber.
Lewis, a scholarship member of the football team who walked on to the basketball team in the middle of the 2005-06 season, is done as an athlete at Eastern Michigan.
“Both with football and basketball, I’m going to miss putting on an Eastern Michigan jersey,” Lewis said, after scoring three points and grabbing eight rebounds before fouling out with 1:37 left in the Eagles’ 70-61 loss to Western Michigan.
“My entire career I’ve been the underdog, but it made our team come closer together. It’s been a great experience, it’s been fun. The only thing I didn’t accomplish was getting a ring, so that’s the thing that really hurts the most.
“I experienced a lot of things that made me better as a person, from the struggles and ups and downs that we had here. It’s just, it’s going to be a hard step to take now, not being able to put on that jersey in the fall and put it on again in the winter. Man, it’s … I’m going to miss it.”

read_more

LAS VEGAS - Pigs did not fly. Hell did not freeze over. The world did not spin off its axis.
In the aftermath, it really was just one loss - albeit a very bad one.
The 12th-ranked Utah women are sure to suffer a hit in their NCAA Tournament seeding after being upset by ninth-seeded Colorado State 60-52 in the Mountain West Conference tournament opener Wednesday.
But the Utes (27-4) might not fall that far. In his bracket projections on ESPN.com, Charlie Creme only dropped them from a No. 3 to a No. 4 seed.
“Utah’s season as a whole still stands pretty strong, and the committee has stated that this is a whole-season evaluation,” Creme said. “What if the upset had happened on January 27? Based on what the committee says, it shouldn’t have more impact than that would have had.”
It was the extreme disparity of the teams that made the loss so shocking.
Utah had won 22 straight games, gone undefeated in the conference regular season (16-0) and boasted an RPI of No. 20.
Colorado State (4-27) entered the tournament on a 20-game losing streak, hadn’t beaten a conference team until UNLV in the play-in game, and ranked 312 out of 338 teams in the RPI.

read_more