#2 Kansas St vs. #6 Xavier, Best NCAA Game Ever?
Published March 26, 2010 | 
If you missed it, I’m sorry, you need to stay up later. Or maybe lay down the law to your wife that you will be watching all the NCAA games. But you have missed one of the greatest NCAA tournament games I have ever witnessed.
The only reason its hard to call it the best ever is because there wasn’t a game winning shot. It was really more of a series of incredible 3′s by Xavier to keep the game within reach. It was the kind of game where if anyone was sleeping in your home or anywhere in the vicinity of it, they would be awoken by screams of excitement every minute. Jordan Crawford and Holloway were just pulling up from 30 feet with threes that you sit there saying “Oh, you cant shoot tha- OHHHH MY GOD WHAT A SHOT.”
This video doesn’t do the game justice but it sure hits the highlights. Note the excitement of the announcers when this stuff was happening. Epic.
New NFL OT Rule (Postseason, for now)
Published March 23, 2010 | 
The NFL owners voted 28-4 in favor of new overtime rules giving the team that loses the coin toss in overtime to get another possession if they can hold the coin toss winner to a FG at best. The format would then follow a sudden death format. They need 24 out of 32 votes to pass a rule change in the NFL. The only teams that voted against it were the Bills, Vikings, Ravens, and Bengals.
Goodell had been a strong proponent of this new rule change. The Packers loss to the Cardinals in the first round, in the highest scoring game in NFL playoff history would remain the same outcome since GB won the coin toss. Goodell, and others, had been very worried that something like this could happen in the Super Bowl, and could have last year had Peyton been able to score rather than throw the pick. This would have been a disaster for the NFL had the Super Bowl been decided in a coin toss.
Why the change?
Well, since 1994, when they moved the kickoff yard line to the 30 from the 35, the coin toss winner has gone on to win the game 60% of the time. A 60/40 advantage is a HUGE advantage. The kind of advantage that could make a sports bettor millions in a season if he had that advantage in every game. Home field advantage in football for the last decade is around 56%, and the OT coin toss is even more determinant of a win.
The new ruling is only for the playoffs right now. But Rick McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee didn’t rule out the rule being instated for the 2010 regular season, be he did doubt the possibility. They want to protect players and make games as fair as possible. The possibility of playing longer OT games is a no go for coaches and players. The next week the team’s have no energy, and the later in the game and the more tired players get, the more they get injured.
New Rules in detail:
- Each team must have the opportunity to have possession at least once during the extra period. But, if the opening coin toss is able to score a touchdown on their opening drive that team is declared the winner.
- If the coin toss winner scores a field goal on it’s first OT possession, the coin toss losing will have the opportunity to possess the ball. If this team scores a TD on the ensuiing possession, they are declared the winner. If the score is tied after both teams have had the ball, it returns to sudden death OT and any team scoring in any fashion wins the game.
- If the score is tied after the 15-minute OT period or the initial possession has not ended, another OT will being. and play will continue until a score is made. (No Change here)
Cinderella Ratings Problem For CBS/NCAA
Published March 23, 2010 | 
Cinderella’s are all the story and all the hype in the NCAA tournament right now. We’ve got #12 seed Cornell, #9 Northern Iowa who took down #1 seed Kansas. St. Mary’s is still around.
Now, watching the underdog Cinderella take down the big guys is awesome to watch (sometimes even when it’s at the expense of our bracket pools). ”The Sandman” Samham for St. Mary’s and Farokmanesh for Northern Iowa were my two favorite stars of the last round of the tournament. But these guy’s still being around could be at huge expense to the NCAA and CBS. Continue reading
NCAA Tournament Upsets & Bracket Buster List – 2010
Published March 18, 2010 | Thursday March 18th – Round of 64 (Day One)
The first 3 games of the day were all nail-biters with potential upsets. The biggest possible upset and near bracket buster was #2 seed Villanova, who were down all game to #15 seed Robert Morris. But ‘Nova took over in overtime, but Robert Morris still had a shot to tie for double OT in the end and missed it. BYU (#7) pulled it out in double OT over (#10) Florida after fighting back in both regular time and overtime.
- First Upset: (#11) Old Dominion over (#7)Notre Dame 51-50. Notre Dame had a 3 pt shot at the end to tie it, and it went in and out to lead to a put back layup at the buzzer, leading the Fighting Irish to an early defeat in the tournament. Many experts had picked Notre Dame to be a Cinderella going deep into the tournament in the ‘soft’ South bracket.
- Second Upset: #13 seed Murray St. beat #4 seed Vanderbilt 66-65 with a last second jumper for a HUGE upset and bracket buster for many. Murray State’s Danero Thomas hit a 2 pointer with 2 seconds left to seal the game and the huge upset against Vandy. This is the biggest upset so far.
- Near Bracket Buster: Baylor (my sleeper Final Four pick) was close and tied until 2 minutes remaining. Baylor went on a huge run to finish the game with a 68-59 win. It was the first win for Baylor in the NCAA tournament since 1950 (60 years).
- Third HUGE Upset: #14 seed Ohio takes down the Big East conference champion and #3 seed Georgetown 97-83. Ohio had a losing record in their conference and only reached the tournament by winning their conference tournament. Ohio’s Armon Bassett led the Bobcats with 32 points. This is the largest win of a #13 over a #4 seed in NCAA tournament history.
- Fourth Upset: #11 Washington takes down #6 Marquette in a close one, 80-78. Not many people picked Washington after they went on to win their conference tournament and steal a bid from the bubble teams. The Pac-10 has been horrid this year, perhaps motivating Washington to make a statement in the tourney. We’ll see Friday what fellow Pac-10er Cal has to offer against Louisville.
- Fifth Upset: #10 St. Mary’s over #7 Richmond 80-71. 7-10 games aren’t really upsets, since statistically, the #10 seed wins more often than the #7 seed. But a lot of people had Richmond as a sleeper pick to win a few games. Lebron James actually had Richmond winning 3 games, beating ‘Nova in his bracket on ESPN.
- Additional (technicallly) upsets: #9 Northern Iowa over #8 UNLV 69-66. Looks like the boys at UNLV got caught shaving too many points for their bookies and ended up blowing the game, not a real big upset at all. Also, ACC weakling #9 Wake Forest took down the over-talented #8 Texas squad, who clearly wanted to get home early to start prepping for the NBA draft. A lot of people had Texas winning a couple and taking down Kentucky as a big upset.
There were 7 upsets on the first day of rhe NCAA tournament, more than there usually are. This was overall the most exciting day of opening round games I’ve ever seen, especially the early games. There was almost another huge upset to go along with Georgetown, when Villanova BARELY squeaked one out against Robert Morris in a game they were down in for the entire game. On to Friday’s games….
Friday March 19th – Round of 64 (Day Two)
Friday was the day of the top seeds. Unlike Thursday, the top seeds were out to show their dominance. Duke, Syracuse, West Virginia and Ohio State all took care of business, dominating their opponents. There were only two upsets all day.
- First Friday Upset: #12 Cornell upsets #5 Temple 78-65. An Ivy league team hasn’t won a tourney game since 1998. Cornell had this one in the bag the whole game. Many experts and analysts like Cornell with ESPN’s Jay Bilas even picking them to his elite 8, and possible final 4 Cinderella.
- Second Upset: #10 Georgia Tech takes down #7 Oklahoma St 64-59. It was a close one until the end, with a turnover late sealing Oklahoma State’s fate. The Big fellas, LaWall and Derrick Favors were the difference in this mini upset.
Overall there were 9 upsets in the 32 first round games as things settle out and go a little more according to plan on Friday.
This post will be updated often to list the most recent upsets in the tourney each day.
Duke-NCAA Conspiracy Theory
Published March 16, 2010 | 
There has been a lot of talk about how Duke has the easiest road to the Final Four in Indianapolis, and Kansas, the overall #1 seed, has one of the hardest. Duke has the most losses of the #1 seeds (5), all of which were on the road. Duke was also given the play-in game. Disregard the play-in game, since the first game for #1 seeds is always a joke, #1 has never been beaten in the first round. Kansas, Kentucky, and Duke all won their conferences and conference tournaments.
Here’s where the conspiracy theorists come into play. The NCAA is in its final 3 years of its lucrative TV contract with CBS (11 years, 6.1 billion). They can opt out after this tournament. They want another huge contract from either CBS or ESPN/ABC if they can match the CBS bid. CBS is losing money on the NCAA’s just like NBC lost money on the Winter Olympics ($250 million). So the NCAA wants to make sure ratings are huge this year to make sure CBS bids high and ESPN/ABC is drooling for the opportunity. It’s also the same reason the NCAA is considering adding 31 teams to the NCAA field to expand it to 96. Money. Big Money.
So why Duke?
Duke is ratings gold. Duke has always been ratings gold. There is never controversy with the Continue reading