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.