Posts under ‘The Blogosphere: NCAA Style’

This site tends to lie pretty fallow during the summer and there are some good and bad reasons for that. The best reason — from my perspective at least — is that the sun’s shining during the day and the nights are made for drinking outside. Meaning that I’m just not in front [...]

o it’s with a tremendous sense of glee and relief that I greet the news that he’s left his imperious perch as CBS’s lead college hoops commentator, to be replaced by the harmless, if completely dull, Clark Kellogg.

Make no mistake about it, the airwaves will be a much better place without Packer’s incessant and unabashed cheerleading for the ACC, and ill-informed whining about non-BCS conference teams daring to crash March Madness. The only bad news about Packer leaving CBS is that he’s going to be involved in some sort of college hoops web venture, which I’m guessing will be nothing other than a way for that diminutive fuck to rake in some advertising dough.

t’d be different if Jennings were 16 and talking about leaving school to go play in Europe for three seasons. And, that is where this gets interesting.

Most European teams won’t be chomping at the bit to lavish 500K Euros on an 18-year old for a single season but I’d be willing to bet they would do so for a prodigiously talented 16, or even 15-year old American. If the kid bolts for the NBA at 19, at least they would’ve gotten two or three seasons out of him. Or maybe the kid would end up liking life in Italy or Spain and decide to stay even longer.

Start with Caleb Peiffer’s preview at Basketball Prospectus — this is the first time teams that finished one and two in the Pomeroy Ratings met in the final — before motoring on over to Beyond The Arc, where Mike Miller sees some ‘Melo in Memphis’s frosh point guard Derrick Rose and finish it up by [...]

There’s not a whole lot for members of the Mid-Major nation to get excited about it in tonight’s NCAA Championship game between Memphis and Kansas, the latter side being a true college hoops blueblood while the Tigers are an occasional Final Four interloper. Sure, the 38-1 Tigers may play in Conference USA, which is a Mid-Major league if I’ve ever seen one, but they are in no way, shape, or form a Mid-Major squad. Memphis is a power conference team that plays in a conference without any power. All that being said, any game is better when you can take sides and cheer for one team so we’re stuck with our yearly question of who to cheer for in the NCAA Championship game.

Start with Basketball prospectus and then move on to Mike Miller’s spin at Beyond The Arc before checking out the outstanding post at CAA: Life as a Mid-Major, which makes a forceful argument for chucking the current way — RPI and all — of picking teams for the Big Dance. Something that I’m all [...]

Gotta love those kooky, nerdy Davidson supporters:

Sphere: Related Content

can’t remember ever seeing a shooter as sweet as Curry at the college level. With his quick release and tireless ability to keep moving on offense, there seems to be nothing a team can do to defend him once he gets going. He wasn’t getting open looks on Sunday and Friday. He had a hand or two or four or six in his face every time he shot. Didn’t matter. Curry was money.

Maybe watching Reggie Miller during his senior year at UCLA or watching Calvin Murphy shoot the lights out for Niagara in the late 1960s is the closest it comes to watching Curry work his magic. I only sort of remember watching Reggie during his career at UCLA since I was 14 when he graduated and I wasn’t but a vision in the smoke from one of my parents bong hits when Murphy was playing college ball. So, as far as I know, watching Stephen Curry shoot the rock is as good as it gets in college hoops.

Following the first four days of the Big Dance, I want to deal with a couple of things. Let’s start with the Butler Bulldogs, 76-71 losers to Tennessee yesterday in an overtime thriller.
As good as this game was — and it was one of the best games of the college basketball season [...]

Compared to yesterday’s games like the scintillating 101-99 shootout that was the Drake-Western Kentucky scrap, the action in the Big Dance today was less than exciting.
After the thrill ride that was the concluding day of the First Round of the Big Dance, today’s been kind of a drag. Sure, it was great watching Duke [...]

Early Games
Tennessee -19.5 over American
Gonzaga +2 over Davidson
St. Mary’s +1 over Miami
Drake -3.5 over Western Kentucky
Sort of Early Games
San Diego +11.5 over Connecticut
UMBC +17 over Georgetown
Texas -15.5 over Austin Peay
Butler -5 over South Alabama
Early Evening Games
Siena +6.5 over Vanderbilt
Mount St. Mary’s +25 over North Carolina
Mississippi State -2.5 over Oregon
St. Joe’s +1 over Oklahoma
Late Games
Clemson -6 [...]

UNLV spanks Kent State 71-58
Nothing good, that’s certain.
The main problems with the MAC that leave our squads unprepared for Big Dance play are the abyss in quality that are the bottom four or so teams in the league and the lack of atmosphere at gyms throughout the league, no matter where a team [...]

From our perspective at least.
Let’s start by saying that I’ve never been happier that I went to work on the opening day of the NCAA Tourney. With the exception of Duke barely surviving Belmont’s upset bid, this had to be one of the worst opening days of the Big Dance in history. And [...]

It wasn’t a vintage first half performance from the Big West champs but there’s no shame in going into the half trailing Wisconsin 30-28. Being that CS-Fullerton’s two top players, Scott Cutley and Josh Akognon, have been merely average in the first half while the supporting cast, including lead three-point snipers Marcus Crenshaw and [...]

With four games left in the first day of the 2008 Big Dance this is where we, at Notes From A Basketball Junkie, stand.
We’re a pretty pathetic 4-8 on Picks of The Day but confident that we’ll be on even terms by the time Mississippi Valley State-UCLA is over at about 12:15 AM [...]

Hope their bus crashes on the way back from the game or their hotel catches on fire tonight or Coach K dies of self-righteousness or, well, anything horrible happens to this hotbed of entitlement and privilege.
Say what you will but Duke neither deserved nor earned the victory tonight.

Sphere: Related Content

Should be about 2.0 left to play. The question is whether Belmont has a Valpo/Northwestern State moment in them.

Sphere: Related Content

Rick Byrd has pitched a no-hitter for the entire game but the last two plays he’s come up with may end up costing his Belmont Bruins the game.

Sphere: Related Content

Winthrop’s getting lambasted by Washington State, 67-37, with less than two minutes to play. That leaves 0-1 in Upset Specials but we’d happily trade an O-fer if it meant Belmont is going to dispatch Duke.
With the sharpshooting Bruins in the double bonus and leading 70-69 with 1:40 left to play, that’s looking more [...]

Coach K’s not the only Dookie that looks like crap with 2:44 left in the game and the Blue Devils clinging to a tenuous 67-64 lead over Belmont. His entire squad looks like they’ve been doing suicides for the past day and a half, as a fresher, quicker, and more determined Bruins squad continues [...]

A better effort from any team in any game in the Big Dance as we’ve seen from Belmont thus far in this game. There are so many Bruins diving after the ball and running down loose balls that it seems like there are seven or eight guys wearing Belmont jerseys out there. Knock [...]

Belmont’s taken a 58-56 lead at the 10:59 mark.

Sphere: Related Content

And send the detestable, despicable Duke Blue Devils packing in the first day of the Big Dance? Let’s hope so!
With 11:57 left to play the Bruins from Nashville, George Vecsey’s favorite underdog, is trailing by by four, 56-52.
If Belmont can rediscover the deadeye shooting touch from triple-land they had in the first [...]

As promised, we’re picking every game tomorrow. Here goes!
(all lines from Bet US.Com as of 1:45 AM EST)
Early Games
Georgia +8.5 over Xavier
Kansas -22 over Portland State
Temple +7.5 over Michigan State
Marquette -6 over Kentucky
Purdue -3 over Baylor
Kent State -2 over UNLV
Pittsburgh -8.5 over Oral Roberts
Cornell +14.5 over Cornell
Late Games
Duke -20 over Belmont
USC -3.5 over Kansas [...]

Here’s my official Yahoo Pick’em Entry into my work pool:

Laugh all you want but when Kent State and Drake make their runs to the Elite Eight and Georgetown beats Xavier in the championship, I’ll be the one in the money.

Sphere: Related Content