Elite 8, the Final Four is just around the corner!

We posted our preview of today's Elite 8 games yesterday, so be sure to check that out. Xavier and UCLA will tip off at 330pm pacific, and North Carolina vs Louisville will tip off around 6pm pacific. For more on that, be sure to check our march madness tv listings.

Our predictions for day two of the Sweet 16 went 2-2, but we were glad to be wrong on Davidson and see Davidson advance to the Elite 8!. If any coach at a non-BCS school deserves a run in the NCAA tourney, it is Bob McKillop. We did predict that Memphis would have an easy victory of Michigan State, just like we predicted Michigan State would beat Pitt. A number of analysts including Bob Knight and cheerleader Vitale were just so wrong on this matchup, when it was fairly obvious how the match ups would pan out!

Speaking of Vitale, it was so cool to see Steve Lavin call Vitale an ACC Homer, when they were both doing the Friday night College Gameday scoreboard on ESPN! Go Lavin! Lavin of course is learning under the master, as he may end becoming the next Dick Vitale! Unless he takes the California job? :)

CBS must be crying after last night's game, as they had four relatively not-very-close games, but at least they had a Cinderella Magic Moment in Davidson.

Will the success of Bob McKillop in the NCAA tourney have mid-major programs from all across the country running to New York to get New Yorker coaches? :)

Already Cal used the geo-tagging feature to go after Jamie Dixon of Pitt, after the success of Ben Howland at UCLA, and Herb Sendek at Arizona State!

And what about the talk that Pete Newell is promoting Bob Knight as the next head coach at Cal? Well, he would fit real well with the Berkeley crowd, but he won't be the craziest one of the lot for a change ;)

Daily Tourney Talk: Sweet 16 day 2, and Elite 8 coming tomorrow!

We went 3-1 in yesterday's Sweet 16 predictions. We don't want to tout our horn, but we predicted that the Lawson/Green/Ellington trio would be what gave UNC the victory over Washington State. We missed the West Virginia loss to Xavier as we were betrayed by the ThreePointeers outside shooting. Now we are 100% behind Xavier's attempt to beat UCLA and get to the Final Four.

As you may recall in 2004, the Thad Matta X-men would have made the Final Four had it not been for extreme Duke favoritism by the zebras in that game. And last year the X-men also lost an NCAA game on a controversial call, ironically to Thad Matta. After all the crapola UCLA has put "basketball" through, they deserve to lose to the X-men, and we predict that Xavier will beat UCLA in overtime. That game will be played tomorrow, in the Elite 8. That will be the first game.

We also had a good read on the Louisville vs Tennessee game, and it's really sad that these two teams had to meet in the Sweet 16 instead of the Elite 8. It is also sad that Louisville will have to face North Carolina in the Elite 8, instead of the Final Four. Both are Final Four caliber teams, and one could make an argument that they are two of the best three in the country at the moment (the third being Kansas). So it will be sad from a basketball perspective to see one of them go home without a trip to the Final Four. We predict that, partially thanks to the home co(ur)t advantage, North Carolina will beat Louisville in an instant classic.

And now that we got tomorrow's Elite 8 games out the way, here are our predictions for today's four Sweet 16 games. Will we go 4-0 this time? If we do, it will be upset city baby!!!

And don't forget to check our on-going TV listings, as well as our March Madness shopping segment.

NCAA Tourney Sweet 16 Preview and Predictions, Day 2

If you already read our Sweet 16 Day One preview, then you are ready for Day Two! Day 2 games will be played on Friday. Be sure to check our March Madness TV Listings for airtimes. All times pacific, unless otherwise indicated!


Davidson vs Wisconsin
Wisconsin, just like Washington State, are teams that have a more performance narrow band. They usually beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and lose to the teams they are supposed to. This is good news for Badger fans, unless of course Davidson is indeed playing like an Elite 8 team :)

I would prefer to see the Cinderella story continue, Davidson and Stephen Curry to make some noise and get to the Elite 8, and Bob McKillop to finally get the mass-market respect he deserves.

But I'm afraid that Wisconsin is not going to be "surprised" by the Wildcats the same way the Zags and the Hoyas were. Bo Ryan has the depth and the talent to win this game, one way or the other.


Stanford vs Texas
Oh boy, this is a tough one to get a read on. Texas, like Xavier, are crazy teams. They can beat anyone, and they can lose to anyone. The Stanford guards are really going to have their hands full with DJ Augustin and AJ Abrams, and there's only one Greg Washington on the roster.

The good news for Stanford fans is that they were already able to beat a guard-loaded team in Marquette, and that was with the drama of Trent Johnson getting prematurely ejected from the game.

But unlike the Marquette guards, the Texas guards can shoot from Austin and make the bucket in Houston. And that's where the game is going to be played. Home co(ur)t advantage goes to Texas for sure.

Texas has enough big bodies to bother the Lopez twins on offense and defense, and the struggling Lawrence Hill is going to be tested going up against former Kelvin Sampson signee (the list is getting longer and longar) Damion James.

On the other hand, the Lopez twins are going to clog up the paint on defense, and create havoc in the paint on offense.

Can Stanford limit the three-point makes of Texas? Can they stop the wild runs and fast-breaks? If yes, they have a chance to win the game. Our prediction? Texas wins in a dramatic game.


Michigan State vs Memphis State
Well, well, well, the pundits are picking Izzo State, just like they were picking Pitt to steamroll Izzo State. We didn't, we saw that Izzo would be able to short-circuit the Panthers, and all the pundits (Bob Knight included) were blinded by the fact that MSG is Pitt's second home court as half of their roster is from the NYC/NJ area. We predicted Michigan State would beat Pitt.

And using the same reasoning, we see that Izzo State is really overmatched in just about every position, and unless Memphis has a total collapse on the free throw and the three point line, Memphis will get an easy win over Michigan State.

The development of Kalin Lucas was slowed down because coaches are "loyal" to their older players, in this case, Lucas is the one who should be running the show, not Neitzer and not Walton. But that's another story. Calipari has a lot of options to try to slow down Kalin Lucas, from tiny Andre Allen, to tall Antonio Anderson, along with Willie Kemp and Derrick Rose. Neitzel is an easy cover for most of the Memphis perimeter players.

Raymar Morgan could create some problems but Calipari has options, from Dozier to Anderson to handle him. Michigan State's size inside is not a threat since none of those guys are likely to beat a team or force double-teams. Heck, we may even see Pierre Niles or Hashim Bailey if Izzo goes big and tall ;-)


Villanova vs Kansas
Can you smell it? Can you smell it? We can smell it! No, it's not last week's dinner, it's the upset in the making! It's all about the guards, and Nova has a boatload of them. Guards and three pointers! That will be the undoing of Kansas, and a very disappointing loss for the Bill Self Jayhawks.

They showed this year against UNLV that they can grind better than last year (see Southern Illinois and Kansas NCAA tourney games), but as we saw in the Arizona game, talented guards can give them headaches. And Nova has plenty!

Now how can Villanova make up for the difference in talent inside the paint? With Casseim Drummond out for the season, the "shorties" will have to deal with "Shady", "Chaka Khan", and "Not Elton Brand Jackson", along with "Paul Bunyan". If the Nova Shorties can do enough to minimize the impact of the three big bigs, and contain Shady, and the guards, then we have an upset special!

Does this defy logic? Yes it does! But then again, this is the NCAA tournament. And let's not forget, how many of the NBA playoff results would have been the same if the NBA Playoffs were single elimination games? Even some of the best NBA teams of all time had their bad games and even got blown out on occasion. And with the NBA we are talking about seasoned professionals, not college kids.

Obviously Kansas would win a best of seven series, but in a single game setting, if the Nova guards are on fire, and the pressure weighs on Kansas, and the memories of the two first round exits and Elite 8 appearances cloud their minds, it will be upset city!.

Sweet 16 Preview and Predictions, Day 1

You can get a two hour preview of the NCAA Tourney games on CSTV, today at 2pm pacific (5pm eastern), but you can also get a preview right here. For all the TV stuff, be sure to check our March Madness TV listings.


West Virginia vs Xavier
The first wave of games tips off with a good old rivarly, Bob Huggins vs Xavier. As you may recall, Huggins was the head coach at Cincy, and they had an annual intense rivarly game every year. We now love West Virginia even more, after they beat up the Dookies, and we are planning a blogging celebration for them later today :) And because of that we want West Virgina to win and move along. But Xavier, just like Texas, is one of those crazy teams that can beat anyone and can lose to almost anyone. They already showed early tournament onions by making comebacks against Georgia and Purdue.

But ultimately we think the combination of outside shooting, Joe Alexander, and Bob Huggins toughness will get the Threepointers over the top and send the Musketeers home. And the X-men will have to worry some more, as their head coach may be poached by one of the BCS schools. Indiana is not the only major program looking for a head coach, and the impressive success of Herb Sendek at Arizona State may tempt other Pac-10 schools to go after one of his former assistants. We are talking potentially Oregon, California or USC. But let's leave that for the coaching carousel discussion :)


North Carolina vs Washington State
In the other game, North Carolina will face Washington State. This is the ultimate contrast in style, although the young singer is not a ...dick like his dad, he lets his team run when they have the advantage. We've said all along that Washington State, just like Wisconsin, are operating in a narrow band. They usually beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and lose to the teams they are supposed to lose to.

If you don't think so, be sure to check Washington State's record, courtesy of Ken Pom RPI. They are 0-5 against Sweet 16 teams (UCLA, Stanford), but they beat up NCAA teams that lost in the first week (Baylor, Zags, USC, Oregon). Arizona is an exception because when they had their full complement they were playing like a Sweet 16 team. But injuries and such derailed them. But that's a story for another day.

Ultimately we think that UNC will overmatch Wazoo. Derrick Low may give them some headaches, as neither Lawson or Q are ideally suited to guard him. Kyle Weaver on the other hand will have his hands full having to deal with Ellington on defense and Ginyard and Green on offense. Hansbrough will probably be limited by the Wazoo interior play and defensive scheme, but the combination of Lawson and Green/Ellington, and possibly Deon Thompson's bank shots will be the difference.


Louisville vs Tennessee
This is a game we have a hard time getting a read on. Both teams are deep, both press and run and gun. We would have preferred that this was a Final Four game instead of a Sweet 16 game.

But let's consider Tennessee's history in the NCAA tourney in the Bruce Pearl era and Pitino's history. That does not look favorable for Tennessee, but one could have easily made the same argument for Texas A&M vs Louisville last year at Rupp Arena, and Billy Clyde Gillispie pulled out a tough win at his future home court beating Pitino on his former home court. Or to use Pitino-speak, his former home cot :)

But there's something else that goes against Tennessee: Consider how they did not only in past NCAA tourneys under Bruce Pearl, but also in other tourneys. This year they got blown out by Texas in a pre-season tourney in New Jersey. Last year they lost to Butler in the pre-season NIT. They haven't done well in the SEC tourney either.

Obviously the three point shot can be a determining factor and if there is a big difference in the shots made, we think that the team with that advantage will probably win the game.

Other than Lofton - if he is having a wild shooting game - we don't see any potential matchup advantages for the Vols.

Ultimately we think that Padgett and T-Will will be able to make up for the potential shortcomings of the Cardinals guards crumbling under the Vols pressure, and Derrick Caracter and Earl Clark will be too much for the Vols big men to handle. Louisville will win, we predict, but it could be a very close game.


Western Kentucky vs UCLA
We badly want Western Kentucky to win, but we are afraid that UCLA will be too much. Duke West has been getting a series of "friendly" calls by the zebras, not just the highly visible controversial calls, but also the multiple fouls per possession the UCLA wrestling-forwards commit on screens on offense and double teams on defense.

We have enough material now to convict Ben Howland of ruining the game of basketball. You have two of the fastest guards in the country in Collison and Westbrook, and the most smartest (LOL) big man in Kevin Love, and yet you try to win the games in a slugfest, the same way a desperate low-major coach of a 300+ RRI team is clinging on to dear life. For crimes against basketball, Ben Howland, you have been convicted to lose in the Elite 8, and never make it to the Final Four again :)


Friday's Games
We will be posting our preview and predictions for the four day two games later today! Update! The time is Later! Here is the preview and predictions for day two of the Sweet 16 (Friday).

NCAA Tourney Second Round predictions, day two

We went 6-2 in yesterday's second round predictions. We did predict Bob Thuggins and his Threepointers beating the Whining Express of Coach Ratface K, and that Washington State would short-circuit the Fighting Irish, and that Izzo State would beat up the Pitt Panthers. We pointed out that Pitt's marvelous performances at MSG happen for a reason, half of their team comes from the New York area, so MSG games are home-coming games for those players. The only two we got wrong? The wild prediction that UNLV would beat Kansas and Beasley and Billy "Get me a towel" Walker would out-talent the Wisconsin Badgers.

It is worthy to point out that we believe that both Wisconsin and Washington State are "ceiling" teams, they can consistently beat the teams they are supposed to, but they cannot beat teams that are better than them. That's why Washington State can beat teams like Notre Dame, and the middle of the Pac-10, but was 0 for ever against UCLA and Stanford.

Anyways, now let's move on to day two of the second round. Action tips off with Villanova short-circuiting Siena. The Cinderella run ends for Siena. Remember, this is the team that beat Stanford early in the season when the feisty Trent Johnson scheduled a home-coming game for Taj Gibson. But you can get Jay Wright won't sleep on them, he was the Hofstra coach after all, so he is familiar with the east coast mid-majoralia.

Run and gun? Whatever it is, Texas will beat Miami handily. This is easy to predict. The other three games in the same time slot are not. And CBS is going to go crazy with quick live look-ins.

In the super-battle of the double-digit cinderellas, Western Kentucky will squeak by San Diego, and first-year former GoneZaga coach will taste what GoneZaga has been tasting the last few years, bitter tears of defeat. Speaking of the surprise mid-majors, be sure to check the post at Casey's Clipboard on them and Siena.

The end of the rainbow does not contain Sweet 16 gold for the Figthing McKillops, who just shuttered their NCAA Glass Ceiling by finally winning their first McKillop NCAA tourney game. This could mean that they lose their coach to a bigger job though. Oregon maybe hiring and the international man of mystery could be a good-will ambassador for Nike ;-) We predict that Georgetown will grind Davidson to the ground, and get a Hoyas-style but convincing win.

The hardest game to predict? Butler and Tennessee. The Wild Pearls have not been convincing and given their recent results in the NCAA tourney in the Bruce Pearl era (perhaps the shadow of the giant ...Summitt looming on them men's program?), and last season's pre-season NIT game, we are prepared to declare that Butler will beat Tennessee! Oh my! This regional is starting to sniff like the 2007 preseason NIT with Butler, North Carolina and Tennessee. But let's not crown them just yet :)

The last three games, shown all together on one TV set, will feature Memphis winning comfortably over Mississippi State, North Carolina getting an early scare from the energetic Arkansas Razorbacks before making a run around the 8 minute mark of the second half, and getting a relatively un-close close win. So onto the Sweet 16 for UNC! And the last game? We predict overtime for the Oklahoma vs Louisville game, with lots of battles in the paint, and Terence Farley being a factor, but ultimately Rick Pitino wins in overtime.

To check what's on the old-school YouTube, be sure to check our March Madness TV listings.

By the way, kudos to CBS for switching to the very close Purdue vs Xavier game during the TV timeouts of the Marquette vs Stanford game, instead of running the usual commercials. Because they work for viewers like you ;-)

If you missed any games, or you want to rewatch them, or if your team lost and you want to relive some great wins from the past, the whole NCAA library (allegedly) has been posted at NCAA.com. You can also watch NCAA tourney games there outside your region. Or something like that :)

March Madness Second Round predictions

Our day 2 predictions were not as good as day one, we went 9-7 thanks to all the crazy upsets that took place making it true March Madness. Our running score is 22-10. Our record is ...on the bubble ;-)

So what will happen in the eight second round games today? Here we go...

Bob Thuggins and his Threepointeers will beat the Dookies! Go Thuggins! Go West Virginia! Go WVa! Go Go Go! This will be the only game shown in the timeslot, so the world can enjoy a Duke Loss :-) More on the TV schedule at our on-going March Madness TV schedule post.

The second wave of games will have Billy Walker and B-Easy beating the "ceiling" Wisconsin Badgers, the X-men beating Purdue in an entertaining game. Then Washington State will short-circuit Notre Dame and win easily.

Stanford and Marquette, hard to predict, but ultimately the Lopez Twins beat the Marquette guards. And *gasp* UNLV and the Fighting Lon Krugers will beat Kansas! That's right, Bill Self will find himself on the wrong end of another March surprise. You heard it here first ;-)

The last two games will be entertaining as Texas A&M gives UCLA more than they can handle, but ultimately Ben Howland with the help of Kevin Love and the Zebras will beat Texas A&M.

Everyone is jumping on the Pitt bandwagon, but one man is not! And that's the one who is going to derail the Pitt Train. His name? Tom Izzo. That's right, Izzo will outgrind the Panthers, and squeak by in a double-overtime instant classic. And in case it wasn't clear: Michigan State will beat Pittsburgh in an instant classic!

March Madness predictions for Friday (NCAA Round One, Day Two)

After going 13-3 in day one of our March Madness predictions, we feel brave enough to post predictions for all sixteen games of day two. We start in chronological order, the order the games will tip off.

The one and only Bill Raftery tips off Friday's games with Tennessee steamrolling American. American is a great story, but the Bruce Pearl express is loaded in numbers and in talent, the Patriot league team has no chance! But it would be a really nice upset if it happened. A very big IF!

Then Billy Packer gets his hands dirty by calling a mid-major game, where Davidson continues their streak of not winning NCAA games. That means Gonzaga will not be GoneZaga in the first round! The depth and versatility of the Zags will ultimately get them the W. Look for key contributions from Bouldin, Kuso and Pendo.

Then the annoying Tim Brando and the G-Man will call Drake beating Western Kentucky in a game that will be a lot closer than Keno Davis and Drake fans would think considering their #5 seed.

The fourth game of the first wave will have the first upset, Saint Mary's beats up the Miami Hurricanes, and Patty Mills scores 33. Randy Bennett said Miami reminds them of San Diego, and they haven't beaten San Diego lately, but we think that ultimately St Mary's has what it takes to beat the Canes.


Second wave of games
Three of the four games will be cakewalks, Texas over Austin Peay, Georgetown over UMBC, and UConn over San Diego. But Butler will have its hands full yet ultimately survive and advance over South Alabama.


Afternoon games, first wave
Phil Martelli will get his shiny bold dome broadcast live on CSTV (CBS College Sports), in addition to having the game shown on various CBS affiliate regions. We think that St Joe's has enough to beat Oklahoma, although it wont be easy. Their beating Xavier twice will give them the confidence needed to pull such a victory over a BCS team.

We do not see Vandy having any trouble with Siena, and North Carolina won't have to climb a mountain to beat Mount Saint Mary's.

The Oregon vs Mississippi State game looks very promising, but because the Nike Ducks are bombing away, Batman won't have as much impact on the game, and we predict that Oregon will beat Rick Stansburies.


Last block of games
Memphis and Louisville will have no troubles advancing. However our crystal ball is having a hard time getting a good read on the other two games, so our predictions for the next two games are not as strong as the previous ones. Ultimately we think that talent will rise to the top and the combo of Eric Gordon and DJ White will be too much for Arkansas, and the Hoosiers will advance and face UNC in a good (on-paper) game.

Last but not least, we have Clemson vs Villanova. This is a hard game to pick. We simply cannot see clearly, but we will give Clemson the slight edge to beat the Fighting Massiminos.


For all the TV listings of the NCAA, NIT and CBI, be sure to check our March Madness TV listings post.

Recapping a fun Day One of March Madness!

We did much better than we thought in our day one predictions, we were 13-3! The only games we got wrong were Bob Thuggins over Kevin O'Neill, Kent State vs UNLV, and Kansas State vs USC.

Congratulations to the Belmont Musicians! A valiant effort against the feverish Dookies, and oooooh so close to the upset. The Belmont coach probably made a lot of money tonight, one way or the other. When you have an NAIA transfer carve up the Duke team, composed of about eight McDonalds All Americans, you have to tip your hat to Belmont! Go Belmont Go!

Kentucky's senior Joe Crawford had a valiant effort too, as he tried to will his team into a comeback victory over Marquette. And Tom Crean can finally breathe a sigh of relief, it was his first NCAA tourney win in the post D-Wade era at Marquette! And a winning streak against the Cats in the tourney!

Other good games were the Miracle Dogs of Georgia doing better than the Miracle Orange of Syracuse did in the tourney after their conference tourney miracle run. At least the Dennis Felton Dawgs won the first half of the game. This was another good game, but ultimately the X-men made a comeback.

Another good game was the battle of the super-freshmen, and Tim Floyd got a taste of his own medicine when his own superfrosh got knocked out of the tourney. Last year USC spoiled the Kevin Durant party.

And that game was a clear example of why we need to go to six fouls or more. If the NCAA really means that they want to do what's best for the student athletes, then they should address the foul situation immediately. The student athletes work and train hard all around the year so they can compete on the court. Why should we let three middle-aged men with overactive "weasels" and egos control their playing time? This is ridiculous. NCAA, take action now!

To close, this was indeed chalk day, as most of the top seats won, and it's really hard to call Kansas State over USC or Texas A&M over USC upsets, just because the seed numbers are higher.

Now it's up to Bob Thuggins and the West Virginia Threepointeers to beat the Dookies! Go West Virginia, Go!

The 2008 Madness tips off in a few minutes!

It's finally here basketball fans! March Madness is about to officially tip-off with the Miracle Dogs (Georgia Bulldogs) squaring off with the X-men! A full slate of games on CBS today, along with a bonus game at 445pm eastern on CSTV (CBS CS).

Be sure to check our 2008 March Madness TV listings for the games, and to find out which games will be shown in your region, be sure to check with your local CBS station's website or tv listings.

We've also posted our predictions for all sixteen games tipping off today!

But basketball is not the only one having March Madness. Dell is having two March Madness one-day specials! There's a feature-packed desktop for $500 (see the link in the left column), and also a feature-packed laptop, the Inspiron 1525 laptop for $700 (before tax, fees, shipping & handling) after $395 instant savings (T5450 Core 2, 3gb RAM, 160gb hard disk, 15.4" widescreen, dvd burner). This is a one day sale, so don't sleep on it!

Prediction for March Madness Thursday games!

We will put our basketball reputation on the line (since we don't have any), and use our mad basketball skillz to predict all sixteen games that will be played tomorrow in the NCAA tournament! That's right, we are diving all the way in. We'll be shocked if we get more than eight of them, right :)


First wave of games
Action tips off with Xavier facing the Georgia Miracle Dogs. As we saw with the G-Mac Syracuse Orange Miracles, things can catch up with a team after a miracle run, so we expect a comfortable Xavier win. Of course Xavier is a crazy team as you can see from their record, so they could lose by 20. But we'll stand by our prediction of a comfy X win.

Cancel the Bucknell and Bradley references, Kansas will coast through Portland State. Portland is now a state? I have to catch up with modern geography :)

The next one is hard to predict, Temple or Izzo? While Temple hasn't had frequent NCAA trips the last few years, their coach, Fran D did when he was chewing Ivy at Penn. But ultimately we'll sing-a-long like Dick Vitale and praise Izzo's NCAA tourney savvy. Michigan State wins. It might be a double over-time game though!


Second wave of games
The second wave of games starts off with a repeat of the Elite 8 game of a few years ago, where Kentucky tries to avenge the D-Wade loss. If Patrick Patterson was playing, it would be a different story, UK would probably have been a top eight seed, but without PP, and with the crazy Marquetts guards, we predict a close Marquette victory.

An intriguing battle will take place between Baylor and Purdue, Baylor a team that was perhaps picked because of its off-court success in recovering from the Dave Bliss tragedy. Half a dozen other teams could easily make a good case why they should have been picked ahead of Baylor, but that is for the Bracketology historians to dissect in the future. Ultimately we think that Purdue will win, but Baylor will give them a scare before bowing out.

A game that promises to be nice as well is Kent State vs the Slugfesting Rebels of UNLV. Lon Kruger has shown that his teams have a fight, even if they are undermatched and the chances stacked against them. But we are going with a gut feeling here, and are predicting Kent State over UNLV.

It is tempting to do "Oral" jokes, but we'll leave that to the late night talk shows. We predict a comfy Pitt victory over ORU.

The second wave of games finishes with a game that will be played on CSTV at 445pm eastern (145pm pacific), after all the other games have finished up. It will be the battle of the Academics, but we expect Stanford to deliver a woodshed beating over the Cornell Big Red. Red from the Stanford spanking ;-)


Afternoon games, first wave
And now we jump to the afternoon games, where the two superfreshmen square off, Michael Beasley vs OJ Mayo. The game is further complicated by the fact that OJ Mayo and Billy Walker were high-school teammates and their one-on-one games were getting very intense even though they are friends. Unless Beasley scores more than 50 points, we predict that Tim Floyd will outsmart and dissect Kansas State, and USC will get a relatively easy win and move on to the next round. Tim Floyd will be officially named party pooper as he takes out Durant and Beasley in consecutive years. But this time he has OJ Mayo so don't blame him :)

We predict that both Duke and Washington State will have relatively easy paths to the second round after they tip off with the Belmont musicians and the Winthrop "where's our previous coach" Eagles.

The last game of the day promises to be a typical 8 vs 9 matchup of Texas A&M and BYU. Even without Billy G Clyde, we expect the confused Mark Turgeons to defeat the BYU Cougars. It will be an interesting battle inside as Trent Plaidsted squares off with Jordan and Davis and the other A&M inside players. But we have an opt-out for BYU: If Tavernari makes more than six three-pointers, BYU has a good chance of winning!


Last wave of games
The first day of March Madness, and usually the most exciting since it's the start of the tourney, and there's sixteen games, closes with UCLA and Wisconsin getting comfortable wins and moving along in the second round.

Jim L and his miracle Masons are facing off Notre Dame, but after last year's Winthrop upset, and Digger Phelps's zone and out of bound plays, the Fighting Irish will have an easy victory over the Final Four Cinderella. We expect "Gody" to give Will Thomas and the other George Mason inside players a major headache and the Domers have the outside shooting to match up with whatever Coach L throws at them.

Last but certainly not least, Bob Thuggins squares off with streaking Arizona. We pitted these two teams against each other during championship week, before the brackets came out, and before West Virginia beat UConn in the Big East tourney. Since we had hints of being clairvoyant, we feel brave enough to predict a half-time fist-fight between Bob Huggins and Kevin O'Neill in the tunnel as the teams are heading to the locker rooms.

Oh the game? That's right we are supposed to predict the game. We feel that unless Alexander the Great scores more than 40, Arizona has enough guard play and JoJo Hill to take out the Bob Thuggins Beileiners. Arizona wins.

And this concludes our sixteen predictions for day one of the NCAA tourney. And if you readers out there behave and eat your cereal, we may post a set of predictions tomorrow for Friday's games. No promises though.

Be sure to check our summary and detailed March Madness TV listings so you can plan ahead your TV watching and TiVoing. And remember, if you are TiVoing or recording games, give them at least an extra hour as buffer time. Since two games are played per arena, it only takes one or two overtimes or delays to make the games run a lot longer. And the TV timeouts are a bit longer in the tourney.

Daily Tourney Talk: It's Xavier, not Ex-Zavier!

It was so funny to see Dennis Felton saying how much he knowns and respects Xavier, when he doesn't even know how to pronounce their name. Likewise, Duke-educated Ja(y)son Williams called Ex-Zavier as well.

So let's all practice saying their name the right way, it's not pronounced Ex-Zavier, it is pronounced Zavier!

Meanwhile Cornell was having some transportation issues, but there were all sorted out thanks to Big Brother's help. And what did Coach K do with his voice? Was he screaming like Count Dracula when the sun went down?

Seth Davis has joined Steve Lappas and Jayson Williams on the CSTV March Madness preview show. And a funny moment on CSTV: Clark Kellogg interrupted the live broadcast and grabbed Seth Davis and moved him out of the studio!!! Not sure if this was staged or not, but it was so funny :)

Meanwhile "reporter" Tom Keegan asked Billy Walker one of the stupidest press conference questions ever. He asked him "who is a better teammate, Michael Beasley or OJ Mayo?". Unless this was a staged question, the AD or the coach should have jumped in and tell Tom Keegan to go back to the Drive and eat his popcorn ;-)

Billy Clyde Gillispie denied the rumors that he watched all 29 Marquette game tapes. And with good reason, it would take 60 hours of non-stop watching. And there's barely that many hours between now and Selection Sunday. He did confess however that he watched most of them.

Daily Tourney Talk: One day before the Madness!

Today's Outside the Lines has a NCAA tourney themed Centerpiece story: "Cinderella Story". Steve Cyphers looks at the #1 vs #16 matchups, and revisits the Harvard over Stanford women's upset for the ages. Details from OTL. Today's episode will air at 330pm eastern (1230pm pacific) on ESPN and ESPN-HD.

Don't miss the debut of March Madness Central on CSTV (now CBS College Sports) at 4pm eastern (1pm pacific). With the infusion of CBS money and resources, CSTV will now go wall to wall March Madness tourney coverage. During the games, CSTV will be airing March Madness Central in parallel, showing press conferences, highlights, interviews, maybe look-ins, and who knows what else to fill up the time :) CSTV will also air two games, one on Thursday (Anaheim game at 5pm eastern (2pm pacific)), and one on Friday (noon eastern).

But post-season madness already filled up the airwaves, with the ESPN family of networks showing eight NIT games last night, and eight more tonight, and Fox College Sports showing two CBI games per night. That's right, ten post-season games per night, that's more than the NCAA tourney games even, as we only get four "full games" per day from CBS (plus one from CSTV the first two days).

And speaking of TV, will someone please tell Dookie Ja(y)son Williams to stop eating his own words? Literally! He talks faster than his biological system can process the words, so he ends up eating his words. And that's an issue if you are a basketball analyst on TV!

Daily Tourney Talk: Quick hitters

In case you missed the promos on ESPN, Bob Knight returns to the ESPN studios on Wednesday! Watch out! With Bilas out of the way (he is doing NCAA games for CBS), Knight will get more face time!

Is it me, or does Sean Miller, the Xavier coach, sound like his former associate, Herb Sendek on the phone? (No, he hasn't called me, but when he was talking to the ESPNers).

Congratulations to CSTV for making the splashy transition to CBS College Sports! Last night they had the debut of their own version of "Sportscenter for College sports", they call it "College Sports Tonight", with Greg Amsinger and Adam Zucker.

Speaking of CBS College Sports (aka CSTV), it is interesting that their college basketball team closely resembles the ESPN in their make-up: They have the Big East Coach guy (Digger Phelps vs Steve Lapas), the West Coast guy (Steve Lavin vs Sean Farnham), the Duke-vs-UNC guy (Hubert Davis vs Ja(y)son Williams, and the commanding point guard (Reece Davis vs Greg Amsinger). And they both have their Andy Katz, Andy Katz vs Brian Curtis. Wow, a five on five matchup!

And while we are on TV, be sure to check our on-going March Madness TV listings, starting with a summary of the three post season tournaments (NCAA, NIT, and CBI), and then following up with detailed daily listings. As always, be sure to always double-check with your local listings. All times mentioned here are Pacific time (unless otherwise indicated). This is a west coast bias blog, although we trash the west coast teams most of the time ;-)

And more on the TV topic, the NCAA first day press conferences will be launching on ESPN News on Wednesday. And speaking of ESPN News, in a couple of weeks they will be launching ESPNews-HD, with brand new shiny studios and more information (jam)-packed in the high def tv screen.

Money money money! Andy Katz said on this morning's "Cold Pizza" (okay, First Take) on ESPN2 that the NCAA is sugar-coating the play-in game with hard cash, as the winner of the game gets one full-share of the revenue, which would be about 1 million $200,000 or so. So now all the university administrators and bureaucrats will lobby for their teams to play in the opening round game, because let's face it, you have a much higher chance to win the opening round game, than beat the #1 or the #2 seed in the "actual" NCAA tourney :)


NBA Draft 2008 here we come!
NC State's prodigal freshman JJ Hickson will declare for the 2008 NBA Draft but not hire an agent. Some of the tv talking heads mentioned team chemistry issues, so perhaps it may not be as big of a loss. One of those "addition by subtraction" type of things?

Bob Knight body language analysis (daily tourney talk)

Perhaps prophetic was our post of a few days ago, juxtaposing the resumes of West Virginia and Arizona. This was before West Virginia beat UConn in the Big East tournament. And lo-and-behold, they are playing each other in the first round of the NCAA tournament. We feel so special, so special ;-) So that gives our NCAA tourney upset predictions more street cred. (As if!)

Meanwhile Bob Knight tried to incite religious wars when he jokingly talked about Catholics vs Methodists. Oh the Pope is going after the General!

And Dookie Vitale continues his "Knight back to Indiana" routine, while Bob Knight tries to stay motionless and expressionless while Vitale goes on with that sales pitch. But it was very interesting (and perhaps subconscious) last night, when Knight said right after that "Dick makes a very good point", short pause, "on the brackets...". Intentionally or not, Knight wants back!!! And we don't even have a body language specialist on this blog. We can't afford one, unlike Papa Bear!

Be sure to check ESPN and ESPN2 today for more bracket analysis, but also the reveal of the 2008 NCAA Women's College Basketball Tournament brackets.

And after that, the NIT will take over the ESPN family of networks, as every single NIT game (31 total) will be shown on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Classic. Action tips off with a handful of games on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is interesting to note the NIT seeding, to see how the college basketball coaches, led by CM Newton, viewed the field of teams left out by the NC2A.

Fill your brackets with these upset specials! (Daily Tourney Talk)

Well, well, well, we have some great upset specials for you. Our most likely upset is in the Sweet 16, where Hasheem "Shot-blocking" Thabeet blocks out the sun, has a triple double, sinks the "Beached Whale" (Kevin Love), and UConn beats up UCLA in double overtime and moves on to the Elite 8! Ben Howland cries, Kevin Love lays an egg, and they all go to the NBA, Howland included ;-)

A few other conditional upsets: USC over Wisconsin, because Tim Floyd can slugfest it out too, but he has more pure talent than Bo Ryan.

Izzo out-slugfests Pitt in the second round. Everyone's jumping on the Pitt bandwagon, but let's not forget the Big East tourney is played in the Ga'aden (Madison SQuare Garden) and half of Pitt's team is usually composed of New York metro area hoopsters.

Don't be shocked if Clemson beats Kansas in the Sweet 16. Clemson gave both Duke and UNC major headaches in the ACC tourney, and Kansas can fall into the ...traps as well.


First round upsets
St Mary's over Miami, this one is signed sealed and delivered! The downside? Cal picks the St Mary's coach as their next head coach, and Patty Mills goes pro (NBA or Europe).

Arizona over West Virginia and Kevin O'Neill and Bob Huggings pick up a fist-fight in the tunnel during half-time ;-) Arizona has two solid guards, and if Jordan Hill stays out of foul trouble, watch out! Budinger and Joe Alexander can cancel each other out if they both have good scoring games.


Fool's Gold upsets
Georgia over Xavier? Not happening. Remember what happened to G-Mac's Syracuse after their miracle run in the Big East tourney? It will probably be worse for Georgia.

Belmont over Duke. Sure VCU got them, but expect the Dookies to give Belmont a good-shed beating. But if Belmont wins, I'll be very happy.

Daily Tourney Talk: The Brackets are out, four days to tip-off

It is no longer a secret, the brackets are out and the hoops world is buzzing. What did the committee do? Well, probably not a bad job considering the mess they were dealing with. Surely there's a number of teams you can make an argument that should have been included, and some that should not, but given the moving target of the selection criteria, it's not a surprise. We did not find a smoking gun with this year's selection. Sure, Seth Greenberg and Herb Sendek can cry a Boeheim, but they should look at their out of conference schedule. And no, Herbie, the Maui excuse is not enough. Granted, both coaches did pick the best scheduled that fit young and inexperienced teams, so they are not to blame.

The NCAA tournament is not a birth-right, you have to prove that you are one of the best 45 to 50 teams to get in. Or win your conference tournament. Fair or unfair, that's how it is setup.