March Round-Up

March Madness

NCAA- The Elite 8 match-ups are upon us and the teams left will make for some marquee games. Of the teams left, none can be considered "True Cinderellas". The teams that have made it this far are the teams that saw success throughout the season in the tougher conferences. Look for tomorrow's match-up between UNC and Oklahoma to be one for the ages on March 29th (5:05pm ET) with Missouri embarrassing Memphis during the Sweet 16.


NCAAW- The Women's tourney has been different than in previous years due to the scheduling of games. The NCAA went back to the 16 site format vs. previous years 8 site format. Because traditionally attendance to the games in the first few rounds have been particularly low, the association decided to name locations based on proximity of teams that qualified for the tourney for the first 2 rounds in hopes to get more people in seats at the games. Crowd attendance has increased as hoped, but teams closest to the location are getting the advantage having the games held in their home state. Needless to say, there have been some games where a team will have the majority of the fans in the stands while other teams are at a disadvantage playing in a hostile environment. Because of the additional home court aid to some teams, there have been some major upsets. #9 Michigan State beat #1 Duke in Lansing, Michigan during round 2 action. #7 Rutgers upset #2 Auburn in Piscataway NJ in the second round. Also, Oklahoma now has home court advantage up through the Final Four.

Check the bracket here for upcoming match-ups.

NIT- There are four teams left in the very competitive NIT Tourney. On March 31st the NIT semifinals will be held with #1 San Diego St. playing #3 Baylor and #2Notre Dame playing #2 Penn State. For a Wikipedia history of the NIT tourney click here.

World baseball Classic
Japan took home the championship in an extra-inning thriller vs. Cuba. The U.S. team was knocked out by Japan in the previous round semi-finals match. This is the second championship classic for the Japanese.
NBA
Teams are currently jockeying for playoff positioning. The Eastern Conference 8 teams are all but set except for the 8th seed Detroit is desperately trying to hold onto. Detroit has struggled through injuries with Wallace, Hamilton and Iverson all injured the past couple of weeks so the race for that 8th seed between Detroit, Charlotte and Milwaukee could be a good one. The West top 8 positions are also pretty solidified at this point with Phoenix and Dallas fighting for that 8th seed. The West teams below 9th are pretty far off. See standings here.

NHL
In NHL news, the playoff race is really tight especially in the Western Conference. in the West, there are still 7 teams with a chance to slide into the top 8 qualifying positions. Both Colorado and Edmonton have great shots with the majority of their remaining games being played at home replacing Nashville. There are 2 weeks left till Stanley Time.

Let the Madness Begin! Round 1... Fight!

The NCAA Men's basketball Tourney bracket was released Sunday, and now one of the best weeks in sports is upon us. There were a few surprises like VCU, Portland State, Oklahoma State, Boston College and Mississippi St. that barely made it in with the help of their respective conference tourneys and some teams that got their bubbles burst on Sunday; including Kentucky, St. Mary's, UNLV, Davidson, and Weber State.

This year will be one off the most competitive tournaments ever. Any team has the potential to knock off other teams the way that the season has been going. The four #1 seeds in the tournament are Louisville, UConn, Pittsburgh (Big East teams), and North Carolina, but the #2, #3, and #4 seeds all have been ranked in the top 10 at one point or another during the season.

First round games to make sure you watch (ordered from awesome to good):

Match-up, Location, and Time

• Utah St. vs. Marquette Boise, ID 3/20 @ 12:30pm

The game will be played in Boise, ID close to Utah State and Utah State dominated the WAC and most of the teams that it matched up against and finished with a solid record. USU is playing its best basketball of the season. Meanwhile Marquette has been mixing it up in the Big East Conference knocking off teams that underestimate their talent. Should be a great game and a huge upset if USU knocks off the #4 seed.

• Cleveland St. vs. Wake Forest Miami, FL 3/20 @ 9:40pm

Cleveland St. has had a fairy tale season emerging out of nowhere to dominate in the Horizon League and knock off some talented teams like Syracuse and Butler. Wake Forest has been playing fairly well also, especially earlier this season beating both conference foes Duke and North Carolina.

• Washington vs. Mississippi St. Portland, OR 3/19 @ 5:00pm

Mississippi St. is playing good ball right now and has a young and speedy team much like the build of Louisville's team. They just won the SEC tourney out of nowhere and are poised to win more games. Washington has had a great season and has a deep bench and lots of talented players who have been playing very consistent basketball.

• Ohio State vs. Sienna Dayton, OH 3/20 @ 9:40pm

Sienna from the Metro Atlantic Conf. played very well in the NCAA tournament last season and knocked off then #16 Vanderbilt in the first round. They haven't beat any strong teams this season though. OSU made it into the competitive Big Ten conference tournament championship but lost to Purdue.

• Portland St. vs. Xavier Boise, ID 3/20 @ 7:25pm
  

Xavier has a dominant big man team that should be interesting to watch against the feisty quick ball play of Portland St.

• Clemson vs. Michigan Kansas City, MO 3/19 @ 7:10pm

Two pretty evenly matched teams should make for a great game.

• BYU vs. Texas A&M Philadelphia, PA 3/19 @ 12:30pm

BYU is back for blood after getting knocked out of the Big Dance last year by the Aggies. BYU won the MWC but lost in the tourney to SDSU. A&M meanwhile, has played well but lost their last game at Texas Tech.

For a copy of the games and bracket check here: Bracket