Chalk?

Well....from 65 down to 4. The 2008 NCAA Tournament does have a first. For the first time, all four #1 seeds have made it to the Final Four. And only one game was close.

The Cinderalla team, Davidson, lost its glass slipper. But not without a fight. Behind Stephen Curry, Davidson made a run to the Elite Eight, and was a 3-point shot from making the Final Four.

Next weekend sets up for some great games. UCLA will face Memphis, while Kansas takes on North Carolina.

UCLA matches up really well with Memphis as they have the long, athletic bodies to go with the length that Memphis showed on Sunday. Kevin Love with give Dorsey the same match-up problems that Oden did last year. Here is where the experience of the past two years will help UCLA. And where the free throw troubles of Memphis will finally catch up with them. The pressure of being in the Final Four for the first time will get inside of the head of the Memphis players. UCLA prevails.

The Kansas-North Carolina game is much harder to predict. Kansas will be able to run with North Carolina but should they try is the question. With a healthy Ty Lawson, North Carolina runs better than any team in the country and Tyler Hansborough seems determined to win a championship. Kansas will be playing such freedom after finally advancing to a Final Four. Coach Bill Self looked ABSOLUTELY relieved once the final horn sounded. I think North Carolina will run a little better that Kansas and set up my Championship game prediction, UCLA-North Carolina.

But this first time of having all #1 seeds will produce some magical moments. UCLA will win the title. Chalk though? I'm still having trouble accepting that.

March Madness Continues...

Man, the excitement of the 2008 NCAA Tournament has kicked into high gear. After a Thursday where there were only a couple of close games, Friday brought buzzer beaters, upsets and the general Cinderalla feeling we are accumstomed to.

Lets start in Tampa, where we had the anit-chalk day. All of the lower seeds won there, including two games that went into overtime. Drake and Connecticut both lost, which also effectively screwed my bracket. I couldn't predict the Drake game, because I haven't gotten the chance to see them play a lot. I could see Connecticut losing but they looked so well during the last month of the season. But losing AJ Price, definitely hurt them a lot.

The Drake game had it all though. Drake came back from a huge deficit to send the game into overtime. Man. Oh I can't wait for today. Michael Beasley plays again, and I have the chance to make up some ground in my brackets.

Tune in.....

2008 NCAA Tournament

My thoughts on the 2008 NCAA Tournament:

12:30 PM: I wished CBS left the Georgia-Xavier game on. Georgia looks fiesty enough to give Xavier a tough frst round game. I haven't seen their respective benches so I can't see if my pick (Xavier) will be wrong.

The Temple-Michigan St. game is also good starting out. Both teams seem to have little nerves at the beginning of the game.

Wow, its pretty cool that the Temple coach,...., is also a teacher in their business school. Temple is hanging around, with the game tied at 9 with 12:57 left in the first half.

Final Four Picks

I've filled out my brackets and my Final Four teams are North Carolina, Georgetown, Texas and UCLA.

Georgetown and North Carolina will have a rematch of their match up from last year. Without Jeff Green, Georgetown hasn't found that consistent late-game scorer. I think it finally comes back to haunt this year, and Carolina makes the championship game.

I have UCLA winning the title this year. I think Kevin Love is the difference for the Bruins. The past two years they (UCLA) have run into Florida which dominated the post with Al Horford and Joakim Noah. If UCLA doesn't win the title, then you have to start looking at their coach, Ben Howland, and see if his coaching style leaves them to tight for the NCAA Tournament.

Luckily I won't have to wait long for the madness to begin. Tuesday will have the play-in game between Mt. Saint Mary's and Coppin State. Let's go Coppin!!!!

Tourney Time!!!!!!!

Well here it is. The NCAA Tourney brackets have been announced. I am psyched because of all of the games that I will be able to see. I hope to cover a couple of the games in my area. That would be great. Once I get a good look at the brackets, I can offer my Final Four picks. Last year, I got 3 out of 4 picks correct, and half of the championship game participants.

Props to American University, UMBC, and Coppin State for earning their first ever NCAA Tourney appearances.

#1 Overall Seed is North Carolina. I was surprised at this. I didn't think they looked that impressive down the stretch. I know Ty Lawson is coming back from injury, but I'm still not sold on their defensive principles. They'll be in the East bracket.

#1 Seed South- Memphis
#1 Seed West- UCLA
#1 Seed MidWest- Kansas

These are worthy #1 seeds. All of them won their conference tournaments, and generally in the Top 5 the entire season.

East Region:

North Carolina has a pretty tough region with #2 Tennessee and #3 Louisville in the bottom of the bracket. Tennesse, in particular, is the type of team that can cathc fire and shoot you out of the gym. They matchup really well with North Carolina. They have an inside presence to combat Tyler Hansborough in the post, while Chris Lofton leads their outside shooting brigade.

Midwest Region:

Clemson gets a #5 seed? Wow. Definitely wasn't expecting that at all. Georgetown is in the Midwest region, but they get a local opponent, UMBC. If they win that game, either of their next opponents (Gonzaga or Davidson) are more than capable of pulling the upset. A good first round match up: M. Beasley vs. OJ Mayo. Can't wait for Thursday to see that match up.

South Region:

Memphis's bracket just might be the toughest. #2 Texas, #3 Stanford, #4 Pittsburgh, #5 Michigan State all are capable of beating Memphis. The toughest games (physically) will come out of this bracket. Miami earned a bid, which is interesting since they lost to Virginia Tech, and Virginia Tech hasn't officially made the tournament yet. I sense big arguments brewing here. Kentucky is also in this bracket.

West Region:

I'm not sure how I feel about this region. Duke is in this region as the #2 seed, but beyond that, I don't see much competition for UCLA. Xavier earned the #3 seed for the region, which frankly I don't know how that happened. Baylor made the field, which took the spot of Virginia Tech. VCU also was left out of the tournament.

Now I'm off to fill out my brackets. When I'm done, I'll have my picks for the Final Four, as well as this year's champion.

March Madness Creeping Closer

We're approaching the half-way point of March, and the college basketball conference tournaments are beginning to fill spots in the Big Dance. Already there have been some upsets that will bring the mid-major vs. big conference debate again. VCU and St. Mary's are two teams who I know will be hoping that some big time schools don't make extended conference tournament runs.

The number #1 seeds in the tournament are far from being decided but the schools I hear the most are: UCLA, Memphis, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kansas and Duke. Going into the conference tournaments, my number #1 seeds would be North Carolina, Memphis, Texas and UCLA. I really don't want to put UCLA there, but at this point I have no choice.

This isn't a West Coast bias thing. I have seen a couple of UCLA games, and more importantly their finishes. UCLA has gotten the better end of several calls that decided their a couple of their games recently. The call in their game against Stanford decided the game (props to the Bruins for coming back from a 12-point deficit to make the game close), and the call against Arizona State set the stage for Josh Shipp's miracle shot.

Texas earns my nod over Tennessee because they beat Tennessee, and they have the nod over UCLA if it comes to that.

But the conference tournaments will clear the picture up. Oh I can't wait.