Daily Tourney Talk (Tuesday)

post will be updated throughout the day...

NCAA Press Conferences on Wednesday on TV!
* CSTV will have a seven hour block starting at 10am PT/1pm ET. The seven hour block will repeat at 5pmPT/8pmET on CSTV.
* ESPN News usually features the press conferences as well

New documentaries from CSTV to debut in March:
* One to One: Gene Keady
* One to One: Voices of March: Dick Engberg, Billy "Coca Cola" Packer and Jim "Golf" Nantz
* National TV debut of the 2006 Florida Gators "Gator Glory" official NCAA tourney documentary
* Also repeats of their library of NCAA-related documentaries. Check their college basketball tv schedule page for details. Please note that their schedule is subject to change (and I mean it!).

Idea Box: If the NCAA is really interested in the best interest of student athletes, why don't they announce the teams playing in the opening round game a bit earlier so the teams can have more time to prepare for a quick turnaround and a Tuesday night game in Dayton, Ohio. If the NCAA really has the student athletes interest in mind, this is a very simple thing to do that can make life a lot easier for the two opening round teams (or just get rid of the opening round game and decrease at-large bids from 34 to 33).

Bracket Buster: Marquette's Jerel McNeal is out for the NCAA tourney. This is bad news for Marquette fans, but they can still win... Doug Gottlieb pointed out that Marquette may have strategically timed the announcement, so it wouldn't have affected their seeding... Also from Gottleib on SportsCenter: "Arizona is like the Lion in the Wizard of Oz". They are the Wildcats after all...

Trends: Kansas first round exits. The last two tourneys Kansas was defeated in the first round of the NCAAs. This year they are playing the winner of the Niagara vs Florida A&M play-in game. Can Kansas do it this year? Talent-wise they are even better than last year, and neither Niagara nor Florida A&M are as good as the 2005 Bucknell or 2006 Bradley teams. Common-sense says Kansas gets a comfortable win. But then again so it did in 2005 and 2006...

The Rat (Jim Rome's term for Coach Dirty-K) has a new TV ad: State Farm Insurance ad set in a fictional Coach K basketball camp. No recruiting violations on this one - at least college basketball wise. There may be insurance agency recruiting violations in it :-)

We are ready to call it: After 400 hours of research our Senior Mock Bracket Expert Volf Blidzor is projecting Albany to beat Virginia. Super-scintilating super-sensational upset pick special baby! Albany with capital A!

More from ESPN News: Big "Glen Davis" Baby will enter the NBA draft but not sure if he'll sign with an agent yet (press conference next wednesday)... Mike Nardi is hopeful for the game against Kentucky... Michael Jordan will get a new coach after this season is over...

Billy Packer on ESPN News wearing a big bright red Coca Cola shirt (and he is critical of Vitale being a circus act?). Packer wanted to see Drexel in the field, he picks the four #1 seeds to go to the final four so CBS can get good ratings and he thinks Florida is the team to beat. His cinderella team is Winthrop.


TV Listings

TV listings just updated at the March Madness TV listings section. Don't forget to double-check with your local CBS station as local game coverage varies from region to region and affiliate to affiliate. Also some local CBS stations on some occasions may show a different game on their HD channel, especially if the regular CBS game is not in high definition.




Tourney Talk

Tonight! at 430pmPT/730pmET the play-in game of the NCAA in opening-round mecca Dayton, Ohio: Florida A&M vs Niagara. The NCAA wants to sugar-coat it and call it "opening round" but it's really a play-in game. The spin stops here :-) Prediction: Florida A&M wins in overtime! Also two NIT games on ESPN and ESPN2 tonight.

Upset pick candidate: Don't forget about the Zags. Remember the Zags did their damage in the tourney when they flew under the radar and played like a team and had no superstars. Don't be surprised if they win 1 or 2 games (and yes I know they would play UCLA in the 2nd round). Pargo/P-Mac can bother Collison while the open-post oafense can minimize the impact on the boards of UCLA's starting wrestler Lorenzo Mata.

Texas hall of fame women's coach Jody Conrad retires after 900 wins and a perfect season (early 80s). This is the 2nd year in a row her team did not make the NCAA tourney.


Quotables

Doug Gottleib predicts VCU beating Duke because of guard play

Both Jemele Hill of ESPN.com and Skip Bayless pick Duke vs Carolina in the women's tourney.

Skip Bayless on so many people picking Georgetown: "Big East Lunacy"

Paul Hewitt also supports tourney expansion (not 128, but enough to include more deserving/talented teams)

Lenn Robbins: The South region is very soft (#2 seed Memphis weak, picks Texas A&M to prevail). Lenn Robbins is a Big East guy by the way...


Kentucky Talk Doug Gottleib continues to not sugar-coat things (props to Mr Gott Hoops for that), and he talked about the recruiting issues at Kentucky, giving an example of a recent recruit who did not even consider Kentucky because he wasn't impressed by the KY assistants (even though he liked Tubby). Gottlieb did not give the players name but he provided a list of schools he was looking at, so those of you who really want to know who it is, you can just look at the recruiting sites and find the player with those teams on his list. Doug also mentioned the recruiting of Jai Lucas could be another thing to watch recruiting-wise with KY implications... I'm sure Kentucky fans are parsing each word in their AD's comments. Even if you don't parse it word by word however, it is rather obvious that the intent of the statement was to quiet the unrest among the fans and let the players/coaches focus on the game(s) ahead.


Selection Sunday revisited once again

Championship Week Flashback: NC State got Duke's number in both men's and women's ACC conference tourneys this year!

NCAA admits socio-political issues determine who is not in the Opening Round game. They don't want to have two HBCU teams face-off in the opening round. This raises questions about basketball fairness to the other teams that instead of playing in the tourney they have to play an opening round game. But the root cause of this issue is having the opening round game so the "BCS" teams can retain their 34 at-large bids. Solution: Reduce at-large bids to 33 and get rid of the opening round game Problems solved... Or have the last two at-large teams play the opening round game. How about that? Sounds a lot more fair to me.

The Selection Cmte seems to (directly or indirectly) point to the CBS 6pm ET/3pm PT deadline for some of the seeding snafus. I believe that. I'm sure they can figure out a way to give the cmte more time. Perhaps play the games on Saturday? :-) But that doesn't explain Arkansas, Illinois and Drexel. They (10-drone selection cmte) still refuse to give clear answers. Perhaps it is time for glastnost in the Selection process. After all reality shows continue to be popular. Here is an example of what could have happened: Desperate Bubble Teams NEXT on CBS: Tonight Jim Boeheim whines about the tourney on PTI, Sportscenter, The Pulse, College Gamenight, Oprah, Dr Phil, Nightline, The O'Reilly Factor, Jerry Springer, Newshour with Jim Lehrer, G4's Attack of the Show, the Daily Show, and Quite Frankly. Leonard Hamilton prepares highlight clips of FSU with Toney Douglas, Drexel makes a giant poster that lists their 13 road wins, and Appalachian State posts ads promoting their team across every single mile of the Appalachian Trail... On tomorrow's show, the Selection Cmte Chair teaches the cmte members how to answer a "Yes or No" question with 200 words without actually giving an answer...


The Lighter Side of Hoops

Mark Few gave Rece Davis the "John Stockton point guard" award for being able to handle all the egos on the set of College GameDay.

Bob Knight was joking about zone defenses with Digger Phelps

Following the recent events, Pokey Chapman is strategically positioned to be the first woman to coach a men's college basketball team...

A new book called the "The Enlightened Bracketologist" uses the Brackets approach to answer many questions. Written by NY Times sports tv columnist Richard Sandomir. Some examples: Their bracketologists picked the "Raging Bull" as the top sports movie... Homer Simpson faced off Ghandi as the top bald guy...