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Final
IND 94
MIL 98
Final
BOS 93
CLE 104
Final
PHI 91
MIA 104
Final
CHA 96
ORL 89
Final
UTA 111
OKC 119
Final
NO 106
PHO 120
Final
TOR 98
POR 109
Final
MIN 100
SAC 114

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2010, file photo, Kansas fans celebrate before an NCAA college basketball game against Missouri at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan.  (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Selection Sunday: Kansas, Kentucky, Duke And Syracuse Tabbed As No. 1 Seeds

The 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Bracket is set, with Kansas earning the overall No. 1 seed. Who else is in? Who was left out? Follow along with us throughout the night for reaction and analysis.

+ 11 updates since 12:44p  comments 14

From Our Editors

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Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.

Finally, The Brackets Are Set. The CBI & CIT Brackets.

The College Basketball Invitational is done picking up the NIT's table scraps and has selected the sixteen teams that will play in its tournament starting Tuesday.

Akron, George Washington, Princeton and St. Louis are among the teams highlighting the field.  Also among the teams in the tournament are 14-17 Oregon State.  I don't understand how this works.

Meanwhile the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) has also announced it's field that will begin play on Tuesday.  A lot of directional school action going on here, including South Dakota, Northern Colorado, Southern Mississippi & Middle Tennessee State.

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Your Grandmother Could Have Guessed 64 Of 65, Too

Twitter is abuzz this evening with folks boasting about their proficiency as amateur bracketologists. Everyone can't wait to tell the masses they correctly picked 64 out of the 65 teams selected  "I correctly picked 64 of 65" or something similar.  To which I would say...so what?

First of all, it's not like you started at zero.  Before you even put your guesses in you were working with 30 sure-thing automatic bids.  So if we cross them off, now you're talking about a field of 35 teams.  Among those 35 teams, 27 of those teams are also sure things to make the tournament based on record, RPI, SOS and common sense.  That's a grand total of 57 teams out of a possible 65 that anyone with a modicum of college basketball knowledge can correctly predict will make the tournament. 

That leaves eight tournament spots for you to make a guess about.  Assuming you have common sense and read a lot of Dick Vitale's fine written work, you're going to correctly guess at least three of those teams.  And so, that means even the least competant college basketball fan can correctly guess 60 out of the 65 teams selected any given year. 

If you really want to impress me, correctly guess the seeds of 63 teams.  Do that and I'll give you a medal (theoretically).

Congrats on guessing 63, though.  You've officially qualified for your own column on ESPN (half-joking).

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Who Wants To Play In The CBI? (No One, Apparently)

The College Basketball Invitational has yet to announce who it will invite to play in its tournament this year.  However, plenty of schools have already told the CBI not to bother sending an invitation because they won't be RSVPing anytime soon.

Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Charlotte and Alabama are among the programs that have already told the CBI not to bother because they're not interested.  They'd rather spend their March watching old game tapes from when they used to be good, I suppose.

If these schools see the NIT is the hamburger to the NCAA Tournament's steak, then the CBI must seem like that store-brand, fatty ground beef shaped into a tube in the freezer section.  Still, for those actually interested in playing basketball will find out if they have the chance shortly.

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The NIT, Summed Up In One Scheduling Conflict

The NCAA Men's Basketball Championship wasn't the only tournament to have its Selection Sunday. The NIT also set its field of 32 teams, cast-offs and just-misses of the NCAA tourney. The four No. 1 seeds are Illinois, Arizona State, Virginia Tech and Mississippi -- remember them from the bubble?

In the NIT, the higher seed plays host each game. So why is the Fighting Illini traveling to Long Island to face No. 8 Stony brook? We'll let former Deadspin editor and lifelong Illinois fan Will Leitch answer that.

Yep. Assembly Hall is booked with Cirque du Soleil.

Alegría (Spanish for "jubilation") is described as "a mood, a state of mind," and is running from Mar. 17 through Mar. 21. 

So, Illinois, a team that was this close to making it into the NCAA Tournament, just hours later found itself making travel arrangements for Stony Brook, NY. Welcome to the NIT!

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This Week In Absurd Trade Rumors: Albert Pujols For Ryan Howard

ESPN's Buster Olney has just divulged the most ridiculous trade rumor I have ever heard. According to his sources, the Phillies were internally discussing the possibility of trading Ryan Howard for Albert Pujols. No, really. Predictably, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro denied this in the strongest possible terms:

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro flatly denied that the internal discussions have taken place. "Lies," he said. "That's a lie. I don't know who you're talking to, but that's a lie."

Now, Olney's a professional, and I don't think he'd run with a story of this magnitude if he felt his sources were unreliable. But I am singularly incapable of believing that this was even being discussed. It's a trade that only a Playstation 3 would make, and I don't think I even need to explain why.

Check that. I just fired up my PS3 and my copy of MLB: The Show. I attempted to trade Pujols for Howard, and my PS3 grew arms and legs, made an obscene gesture in my direction, opened my living room window, and jumped. $300 down the drain. Thanks a lot, Buster Olney.

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Don Cherry Eviscerates Matt Cooke On Coach's Corner

Last night, on Hockey Night in Canada's "Coach's Corner" segment, Don Cherry took a few minutes to reflect on Matt Cooke's injurious hit on Boston's Marc Savard, and the resultant lack of suspension. As you might imagine, Cherry was less than impressed (skip ahead to 1:55 for the relevant part):

(Video via Puck Daddy)

Say what you will about Don Cherry and his perpetually unusual sartorial decisions, but never doubt his pure, insistent love for the game of hockey, and his deeply-felt need to protect it from the perversion of poor rulings from up high. This Cooke case would most certainly qualify, and we're all still in a state of shock that Cooke didn't even get a game for extending his elbow into a defenseless player's head, causing a brain injury.

Perhaps, as has been pointed out numerous times, Cooke should have insulted Savard's wife instead; given the NHL's mangled set of precedents, that would have at least given him a few games off.

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Dick Vitale Gets Booth To Himself; Our World Is Forever Different

Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale were calling the ACC Championship between Georgia Tech and Duke. Then this happened.

Vitale_medium

Duke's Kyle Singler flew into the broadcast table, knocking out Dan Shulman's mic. But not Dick Vitale's.

Yes, friends. For about a minute, Dick Vitale had the broadcast to himself. In case you're wondering how it went, here's a paraphrase:

THAT WAS A CHAAAARGE! YOU GONNA CALL A CHARGE? CHAAARGE! HAHA, CHAAAAAAAAAARGE! DAN, YOU GONNA CALL A CHAAAAARGE BABY?!?!? CHAAAAAAAAAAA [...] AAAAARGE!

For that minute, the Earth stopped rotating. The rivers stopped flowing. The clouds overhead ground to a hot. In a bistro in Paris, tea stopped pouring out of the kettle, frozen mid-stream. The NORAD atomic clock went offline. My alarm clock, which formerly showed 1:56 PM, started flickering signs of the Zodiac. I checked my pulse. There was  no pulse, but I was still alive, suspended in a universal soup of shadows and dust.

Then Shulman was reconnected to the microphone. The laws of nature resumed their previous functions, but know that tomorrow when you go to the beach, you will find legions of marine life beached upon the shore. Look out your window. Observe the sparrows flying haphazardly into trees and buildings. They know what has happened. Something has been set askew and cannot be made right again.

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Brady Quinn's Theme Song Is Officially No Longer 'Mighty Quinn'

When Brady Quinn was drafted in 2007, the general consensus was that "Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)" by Bob Dylan was a song befitting of the erstwhile quarterback. Nearly three years later, Quinn finds himself miles away from a starting job in the NFL, and without the help of injuries or major off-the-field issues.

The Panthers are showing zero interest in Quinn, so for the time being he seemingly remains third on the Browns' depth chart. Here's PFT's Mike Florio.

All that said, we still think that a reunion with Charlie Weis in Kansas City remains one of the few possible destinations for Quinn.  Our guess is that, either way, the Browns will squat on him for now as a low-priced third-stringer, and that if they don't get something for him in trade before the draft perhaps they'll cut him loose so his presence won't undermine the on-field portion of the offseason program.

Ouch. I do believe that he can salvage his career as a valuable backup, in a Jon Kitna or Damon Huard sort of way. Regardless. it's time to assign Quinn a new theme song. Hit it!

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Your Television Loves You: What To Watch On Sunday, March 14

Here's how SB Nation recommends you operate your television set on Sunday, March 14. All times EST.

College basketball
1:00, ABC - SEC Championship. Mississippi State vs. Kentucky.
1:00, ESPN - ACC Championship. Georgia Tech vs, Duke.
1:00, CBS - Atlantic 10 Championship. Richmond vs. Temple.
3:30, CBS - Big Ten Championship. Minnesota vs. Ohio State.
6:00, CBS - NCAA Tournament Selection Show.

NBA
3:30, ABC - Celtics at Cavs.
9:00, NBA TV - Raptors at Blazers.

NHL
12:30, NBC - Capitals at Blackhawks.

Awesome movie
5:00, SyFy - Reign of Fire. It is a post-apocalyptic movie that involves fire-breathing dragons that kill people. It is one of my favorite movies ever. I am not even joking.

Awesome miniseries premiere
9:00, HBO - The Pacific. Seriously.

Travel Channel
Man vs. Food marathon. Gentleman eats an enormous amount of food, but all you will think about is how and when he will poop it out.

History Channel
Technically history in the sense that the show about guys cutting down trees was filmed a few weeks/months ago. Old man throws pretzel.

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Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras Use Charity Event For Airing Of Grievances

Have you ever wondered what would happen if two world-renowned tennis players went to a packed charity match and acted like two brothers with decades of unresolved baggage? You have? Well, you're in luck, because that's exactly what Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras just did. Also, you need to wonder about different things.

Okay, everybody feel uncomfortable and awkward yet? Yes? Great, mission accomplished.

We sort of wish Sampras had fired a second serve at Agassi's head, if only because we are strong proponents of discord, and two retired tennis superstars engaged in a fistfight during a "Hit For Haiti" fundraiser qualifies in spades. But that didn't really happen, so hey Pete Sampras: either take a joke or throw a punch. Make people happy one way or another.

Also, note that aside from injury, this is the only time one could ever actually feel sorry for Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal while they're on a tennis court. 

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West Virginia Holds Decisive Home Court Advantage At MSG

For tonight's Big East final, the game is ostensibly being held on a neutral court; Georgetown and West Virginia are both long drives from New York City, after all. And yet, West Virginia--which is the further of the two from the Big Apple, would seem to have the advantage here.

That's because every one of the Mountaineers' five starters are from the NY/NJ area, with Darryl Bryant hailing from Brooklyn itself. Game at Madison Square, Biggie playing during the opening introductions? Might as well be a home game. A real home game, that is.

For what it's worth, Georgetown's no stranger to geographic exclusivity, either; the Hoyas start one guy from New Orleans (Greg Monroe), and the rest are all from the Washington, D.C. area. And when the Hoyas win their halftime appeal to get the rest of the game played at the Verizon Center in D.C., that fact will become incredibly important.

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CBS' March Madness On Demand: As Good As It Can Get?

I feel very strange praising something unconditionally, especially if it's a consumer product, and especially when it might look like I'm shilling. After all, SB Nation has a partnership with CBSSports.com.

But I can't help it. CBS' March Madness On Demand (which was live today even though it's not technically March Madness yet) leaves nothing to be desired. I've watched sports online through all sorts of different portals. Last year CBS did a terrific job, and this year it's just as good. It runs straight from the browser, it looks good, it doesn't skip, it doesn't eat up too much of your computer's resources, and it's free. There's really nothing more I could ask of it, and I wish every sportscaster (ESPN360 is the only one in the same league) would do it this way.

I'm still sort of self-conscious over being perceived as a sellout, so I'd also like to note that Two and a Half Men isn't funny.

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