Coach K will be looking for his fourth National Title tonight.

Tonights NCAA Basketball game features a team with a storied history versus a team looking for a Cinderella story ending that no one could of envisioned.

Duke will be looking for their fourth national championship ,while Butler will be looking for their first. Even though Butler has not loss in over three months and have been ranked in the top ten all year, they are decided underdogs on home turf and will be looking to shock the sports world tonight in Indianapolis.

Duke i s playing their best basketball of the year. In their last victory over West Virginia, they showed a true team effort and all their players know their role. The big three of Nolan Smith, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler all played great last game. If they play as well tonight, it will be a long night for the Butler Bulldogs. These players can beat you both inside and outside ,and Butler will have to play tenacious defense to keep these players at bay. Add to the fact that Coach Mike Krzyzewski has called this the closest team he has ever coached, and you have a team that is going to be very tough to beat. Coach K has also expressed how much he truly loves this team. Duke has a lot going for them tonight both on and off the court.

Butler has used their defense to secure a spot into tonight’s championship game. They grinded out a victory over Michigan State on Saturday night. They are lead by their superstar Gordon Hayward. Hayward will need to carry the offensive load to try to match the fire power of Duke’s offense. Point guard Shelvin Mack will need to manage the tempo of this game possession by possession to keep Duke form having the ball. This will be crucial and a must to pull off the upset. Center Matt Howard is questionable with a concussion. Butler will need his defense and rebounding. If he dopes not play, they will need a minor miracle to win. Butler needs a lot of things to go right to come out victorious tonight.

I would love to see Cinderella win tonight, but I do not think it will happen. Duke has too much offensive fire power and continuity for Butler to handle. Duke wins championship  number four.

Tonight’s matchups in the NCAA tournament has some intriguing games and are worth taking a closer look. Here is the way I see these four games playing out…

Midwest Region

Can Northern Iowa keep their Cinderella story going?

Tennessee vs. Ohio State

This game comes down to who  has the most dominant player between the two. Ohio St. has possibly the best player in the tournament in Evan Turner.  Turner is the type of player that can carry his team on his back. The Buckeyes have taken care of business so far and is a team focused on the Final Four with Kansas being knocked out of their region. Both teams have a lot of talent, but the Buckeyes have the outside shooting along with Turner that will be the difference in this game.

Prediction: Ohio State

Northern Iowa vs. Michigan State

Northern Iowa is becoming the Cinderella story of this tournament with their recent victory over the top seeded Kansas Jayhawks. They have all the ingredients that it takes to win this game and get to the Final Four ala George Mason a couple of years ago. They have a lot of momentum and confidence that should carry them to victory. The Spartans showed some resiliency in their victory over Maryland inspite losing their best player Kalin Lucas. No Lucas and a couple of more beat up players spells a loss. Northern Iowa keeps the slipper on.

Prediction: Northern Iowa

South Region

St. Mary’s vs. Baylor

St. Mary’s is another intriguing story in this tourney and  are coming off a impressive victory over Villanova. They are a patient, good shooting team that make good decisions on offense.. They will need to play their offensive best against a very good and athletic defensive team in the Baylor Bears. Baylor has won their first tournament games in 60 years. Baylor came in as a number three seed and are playing near home in Houston. The combination of being near home and hunger will propel them to victory.

Prediction: Baylor

Duke vs. Purdue

Duke has looked impressive on the defensive side so far and will pair up against another stellar defensive team in Purdue. Purdue is another team that has showed resiliency in their two close victories including their last one against Texas A+ M  in overtime.They have advanced without their star Robbie Hummel. Duke will make it too hard on Purdue to score, and Hummel will be sorely missed in this one. Duke should roll in this one.

Prediction: Duke

Hopefully these games are both exciting and competitive. These type of matchups make March Madness live up to the hype year after year.

Coming off one of the most dominating performances in school history, a blowout laugher victory over Gonzaga, the Syracuse Orangemen returned with one of their worst performances in memory.  Looking confused and tired, the Butler Bulldogs lulled the Orangeman to sleep on offense and dogged them on defense to gain the 63-59 win and earn it first-ever ticket to the Elite Eight.

Boeheim Has No Excuses For Loss

Butler got rolling early, jumping out to a 12-1 lead as Syracuse turned the ball over 5 times in the first 6:30 of the game.  Syracuse then clawed their way back to a 5-point deficit at 17-12 before Butler extended the lead to 35-25 before the end of the half, as the Orange coughed up the ball for 12 first half turnovers.

Syracuse came out roaring to start the second half, going on a 15-4 run that gave them their first lead of the game at 40-39 with 13:29 remaining.  Butler hung tough, but Syracuse began to pull away at 54-50 after an Andy Rautins three pointer and Kris Joseph dunk.   It looked at that point the top seed would put an end to the Cinderella dreams.

Butler would then stamp out the Orangemen.  Ronald Nored and Willie Veasley nailed three pointers and Syracuse began to choke.  Andy Rautins would then throw up an anxiety-laden three pointer which amounted to another turnover and Willie Veasley would slam the door shut with an offensive rebound put back  with 0:59 left.

So what happened?

There were four major reasons why the Orangemen went down in a heap and to improve upon this disappointing performance, we need to isolate the breakdowns.

Unfriendly Officiating

Syracuse was bewildered right from the beginning as Butler attacked on defense.   Averaging just 15 turnovers per game coming into the matchup, Syracuse lost the ball 12 times in the first half and dug themselves a huge hole.   The officials made it clear they were going to call the game loosely and Syracuse didn’t respond properly to the muggings that were occuring to Andy Rautins and Wes Johnson.  It takes getting the refs attention that things could “get out of hand” to get them to change their lackadaisical whistle blowing.  Some simple chest bumping and jawing could have changed the tone.  Instead, a team which played pressing man-to-man defense with constant trapping was called for just 15 fouls when they could have easily been whistled 25-30 times.

Boeheim’s Coaching

While Jim Boeheim did some of the best coaching of his career this year, he should hand back the Coach of The Year award after this performance.  His team was listless with no answers on offense.  With 18 turnovers, their gaffes almost exceeded the field goals they made at 21.  Rick Jackson needed Stickum for his hands and Scoop Jardine needed a lesson on team basketball, but Boeheim let it ride.  His team could not get it together.  They outshot Butler from inside and outside the arc, outrebounded them on the offensive and defensive end and delivered more assists.  When your team does all this, dominates every stat and they still lose, a lot of blame goes to the coach.  Boeheim simply couldn’t get them out of their funk.

No Transition Game

Syracuse had no running game at all last night.  Their offensive style of up-tempo aggression was stopped cold.   It seemed as though the players were just out of gas from the beginning.  Some will blame this on the altitude in Salt Lake City, but I toss this on a team being tight and scared to lose.

Arinze Onuaku

Missing the pitbull in the center of the offense crushed Syracuse.  Rick Jackson showed he was not Onuaku as he was embarrassing over and over on the offensive end.  He could not force his way into position and forced the offense to gamble with it ball-handling.   With no transition game to speak of, Syracuse needed to push the ball inside and Jackson didn’t answer the call.  As Onuaku’s career comes to an end, he will always question whether he should have at least suited up for a just-in-case situation.  That situation presented it last night and he was in street clothes.  No Willis Reed moment was going to occur.

For Syracuse fans, disappointment comes with the territory of donning orange colored jerseys.  Tons of talents with little hardware to show for it.  Last night’s lost is another squandered season and rates right up there with other famous Syracuse implosions under Boeheim.

Here’s looking to next season and how they can disappoint again.

The NCAA Basketball Tournament has been trimmed down to sixteen teams and it has been a wide open tournament from the opening tipoff. The #1 overall seed Kansas Jayhawks were shocked in the second round with a loss to Northern Iowa, and the  third seeded Georgetown Hoyas did not even taste victory as they were bounced in the first round by Ohio. How does the tournament shape up with the remaining survivors is the question? Here is the way I see it…

MIDWEST

This region saw the aforementioned upsets above with Kansas and Georgetown wondering why they were sent packing. With those teams out, it is set up nicely for the Ohio St. Buckeyes to come out of this region. They have been workmenlike  like so far, and  they should  take out Tennessee in their next game and then  the winner of the Michigan State/Northern Iowa game. Ohio St. looks real  good for the Final Four.

WEST

Will the Kentucky Wildcats hang a championship banner from the rafters in 2010?

The West region still has their number two seeds remaining  in Syracuse and Kansas St. Syracuse has looked impressive including yesterday’s victory over Gonzaga. Kansas St. has looked true to form also and knocked off BYU in their latest victory. These two teams are on a collision course to meet in the Elite Eight and that should make a incredible game. But in the end, I see the Orangemen advancing and being a little too much for KState  to handle.

EAST

This region has  my prediction  champion Kentucky Wildcats playing as well as anyone in the tournament. Kentucky is coming off a thirty point blowout over Wake Forest and are riding on a high. They will have stiff competition down the road in Big East champion West Virginia. That game sets up for a very intriguing matchup. Kentucky is too deep and talented to the Final Four pass them by.

SOUTH

The South hosts the #1 seeded Duke Blue Devils. Duke has advanced with smothering defense and looks like a lock to get to the Eight where they will probably face a hungry Baylor team that has won their first tourney games in sixty years. I think Baylor will take out Duke and become the best story of the Final Four.

As you can see so far, anything can happen in this tournament. This makes it very tough to predict but makes the watching that much more exciting. I am looking forward to Thursday to see what transpires. It has left me wanting more!

Versatility. It can be the difference between becoming a champ or becoming a chump.

In Buffalo, New York, the spotlight was shining brightly on the Syracuse Orangeman as they took the floor, minus one of its leaders, Arinze Onuaku.  After watching top-ranked Kansas get knocked out of the tournament the previous day, Syracuse definitely was feeling the pressure to deliver a solid performance against a Gonzaga squad ranked 22nd in the AP Poll and a perennial NCAA Tourney upstart.

Johnson Leads Syracuse To Blowout Victory

The Orangemen didn’t disappoint and sent a message to the remaining teams in the field that they are the team to beat with a stunning 87-65 rout.  With Onuaku in street clothes on the bench and center Rick Jackson on the bench with three fouls with 8:58 remaining in the first half, the Orangemen were ripe for defeat.  Instead, the showed why they are the most feared team in the tournament, as they stuffed the Gonzaga offense with a stifling 2-3 zone and spread the wealth on offense as they went on a 15-4 run to close the first half to open a 15 point lead.

The beatdown didn’t end there, as Syracuse opened the second half with another 15-4 run over four minutes to effectively to put a close to the game and coast in with the most impressive victory by any team thus far in the tournament.

On both ends of the court, everything went right.  As a team, Syracuse shot 55% from the field, 48% from behind the arc and 74% from the free throw line.  Defensively they held Gonzaga to 42% from the field and 14% from behind the arc, numbers which improved as Syracuse showed mercy over the final ten minutes.

The offensive onslaught was led by Wesley Johnson and Andy Rautins.   Johnson scored a career high 31 points and 14 rebounds with Rautins scoring 24 points while draining five three pointers.   Brandon Triche chipped in 13 points and Scoop Jardine added 9 points.  Rick Jackson pulled down 10 rebounds and Kris Joseph added 6 boards to round out the action.

The victory was all that more impressive given that star big man, Arinze Onuaku was still nursing a quadricep injury that he aggravated during the Big East tournament.  Onuaku, considered one of the best defensive players in the NCAA, is the central core of the vaunted 2-3 zone defense.  Despite Onuaku not on the floor, the Orangemen shut down the Gonzaga offense over and over and was especially relentless during the eight minute span that saw Syracuse establish a 30 point lead.

What makes Syracuse so dangerous for upcoming opponents is the preparation required to prepare for its 2-3 zone.  During the regular season, teams get a few days to prepare during practice for what awaits on the floor that they only see when they play Syracuse.  Gonzaga showed today what limited practice time can do to a team facing this defense.   If Syracuse can win it first of two games in each of the upcoming weekends that close out the season, they have the advantage in the Regional Final and Final matchups.

At this point, nobody wants to play Syracuse and they are the clear favorite to be cutting down the nets in Indianapolis, with or without Arinze Onuaku.

This years NCAA Basketball tournament appears to be wide open. My predictions have chalk in them but also have a bit of a surprise in them compared to what most of the experts are going with. Here are my Final Four predictions…

March Madness is upon us. It is time to pick your Final Four.

This is where my surprise come in. Kansas is the top seeded team in this tournament, and most people have them not only making it to the Final Four but winning the whole thing. I do see Kansas getting to the Elite Eight, but I see the Georgetown Hoyas beating them there. Georgetown  has a tough path to get to Kansas including possibly playing Ohio State on there way to Kansas. I like the way Georgetown plays and are coached. They run a good offense, have a good defense are were so close to winning the Big East tournament. They are peaking at the right time.

Prediction:Georgetown

WEST

I see this region as the chalk winning it. Syracuse is the #1 seed. I see the Orangemen winning this region even though they have limped into the tournament and do have a injury concern. Cuse has a pretty easy road to the Elite Eight where they will likely face Kansas St. I think by then, they will be both healthy, and a team playing at their best. Syracuse is the class of this region and is too talented to let the Final Four pass them by.

Prediction:Syracuse

EAST

The East region features the freshmen talented Kentucky Wildcats. I think Kentucky has the most talent of any team in the tournament, and they will show they can play as a team with that talent. Kentucky won a lot of close games this year including a unlikely win in the finals of the SEC tournament. This type of winning brings a team together. Kentucky has become a team with awesome talent and will be tough to beat in this tournament. Kentucky takes out West Virginia to get to the Final Four.

Prediction:Kentucky

South

The South region features the Duke Blue Devils as the #1 seed. Duke has the easiest road to the Elite Eight and should not have much of a problem getting there. They are more than fortunate to get this kind of draw. While I would like to pick the Blue Devils because of their fortune, I do not believe on they will get to the Final Four. I am going to go with the Villanova Wildcats. Nova did not end the season on much of a road as they had a very tough schedule to end it. I think that with their hard ending schedule, the competition of the Big East conference, and the talent they have as a team, Villanova will come out of the South and take out Duke.

Prediction:Villanova

My final four has two number ones, a two and a three. I have three Big East teams making the final four. I see Kentucky taking out Georgetown in the finals. The Wildcats with three freshmen cut down the nets.

Looking at the #1 seeds in this years NCAA Basketball Tournament leaves me with the question on what the committee was thinking when they put together the brackets. Kansas is the #1 overall team in the nation but was not treated as such. Here is the way I see how the #1 seeds have it in fashion with difficultly…

How do the #1 seeds have it in March Madness?

The fore mentioned Kansas Jayhawks have the hardest road even though they were the #1 ranked team to end the season. Kansas, in the MIDWEST bracket, will have to go through Maryland to get to the elite Eight and will then in probability take on the Georgetown/Ohio State winner. Those two teams are among the best teams playing right now and will give Kansas a tough run to the Final Four.

The West bracket has the Syracuse Orangemen as the #1 seed and they have it pretty good. They should cruise to the Elite Eight where they will probably take on Kansas St. or Pittsburgh. This is a easier matchup than what Kansas has to deal with. Syracuse was lucky to be a #1 seed as they limped into the tournament, but they seemed to get rewarded for it.

The East bracket has the Kentucky Wildcats as the #1 seed. Kentucky is the hottest team in the NCAA right now but have a tough road to the Final Four. They will probably have to face a talented and underachieved Texas team along with Temple on their way to the Elite Eight. If they are fortunate to get there, they will probably face either West Virginia or New Mexico on their way to the Final Four. A tough draw for the red hot Wildcats.

The South bracket has the Duke Blue Devils as the #1 seed. Duke has the easiest road to the elite eight and should make it with not much of a problem. There, they will probably face either Villanova or Baylor. Not a bad draw by any means. If Duke can get there, they should be the freshest team in the Final Four.

While all this is speculation and prediction, I see Duke having the easiest road to the Final Four followed by Syracuse, Kentucky and Kansas. We will have to see how this all plays out, but I am ready to see it. MARCH MADNESS is only a couple of days away.

You may not have heard these here first, but you still heard them here.  Upsets and the Little Guy are two of the most gripping things about March Madness so here are six games in the first weekend that will go to the underdog…in no specific order:

Houston (13) over Maryland (4)- Midwest Region first round

Murry State (13) over Vanderbilt (4)- West Region first round

Washington (11) over Marquette (6)- East Region first round

Siena (13) over Purdue (4)- South Region first round

St. Mary’s (10) over Richmond (7)- South Region first round

Cal (8) over Duke (1)- South Region second round

Siena (13) over Texas A&M (5)- South Region second round

The theme here is the 13s over 4 seeds, and no 12s beating any of the number 5 seeds.  The five seeds always look strong then get caught and while I know I am missing at least one but this could be the year of the 13 seed and doesn’t just about everyone outside of West Lafayette have Purdue going down to Siena?

Riding the Siena bandwagon into the Sweet 16 is a stretch but 4 guys in double figures and Ryan Rossiter’s 13.9 ppg and 11 rpg combined with 17-1 in the Metro Atlantic have me believing in these Saints.

Cal over Duke is already getting a little buzz and you have got to like a group of seniors like Cal has who can score from inside and shoot the 3-ball like they have in Jerome Randle, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson.

Washington is underseeded and they should be able to expose Marquette in the backcourt.  Quincy Pondexter and Lazar Hayward should be an interesting matchup to watch within this one with their athleticism and length.

St. Mary’s just looks like  team that isn’t going to allow anyone to take them out of their game and they won’t be disheartened if they fall behind.  They have shooters and Ben Allen is going to be a tournament favorite especially for people who haven’t seen St. Mary’s.

Murry State is just a gut-feeling and Houston over Maryland is more of a shot at the ACC than anything else and don’t be surprised if only one ACC team is standing after the first round.

If you are a college basketball fan and haven’t tuned in for this year’s Big East tournament, its time to stop calling yourself a college basketball fan.  After four days and fourteen games, West Virginia and Georgetown will square off this evening for the Big East tourney crown and the automatic bid to the NCAA.  It wraps up perhaps the most highly competitive league championship tournament in NCAA history.

Greg Monroe Leads 8th-Seeded Georgetown To The Big East Championship Game

Let’s take a moment to review some of the highlights of the tournament:

• Saint Johns blowing Connecticut off the floor to register the first upset of the tournament, 73-51, and ensuring that Connecticut will not be dancing this March.
• Seton Hall blowing a 29 point second half lead with 13:36 left to Providence and escaping with an unbelievable 109-106 victory in a matchup of amazing offensive basketball.
• Cincinnati nailing its free throws with 1.8 seconds left to seal a 69-68 victory over Rutgers.
• Marquette squeaking by Saint Johns 57-55 in a back and forth second-half brawl.
• Cincinnati outrebounding Louisville 54-33 (with 28 offensive boards) to stave off and register a 69-66 upset
• Georgetown shocking top-seeded Syracuse 91-84 as Syracuse watched it’s big man Arinze Onuaku carried off the floor due to a knee injury.
• Marquette upsetting Villanova 80-76 with some late scoring success, dropping in 50 points in the second half.
• Notre Dame upsetting Pittsburgh 50-45, making its free throws down the stretch to pull out the victory.
• West Virginia hitting a three pointer at the buzzer to beat Cincinnati 54-51  after an unbelievable turnover that gave the Mountaineers the one extra opportunity for the win.
• Georgetown upsetting and demolishing Marquette 80-57.
• West Virgina winning another last minute heartstopper over Notre Dame 53-51.

All this and they still didn’t play the championship game yet.  It almost makes you feel bad for the kids on Georgetown and West Virginia as it is almost impossible for tonight’s game to live up to what has transpired in the tournament thus far.

The results of the Big East tournament this weekend are bound to lead to much controversy when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee announces the brackets Sunday night.  There are those that will complain that the Big East is getting too many spots.  There are others that will disagree and say the Big East is being not being represented enough.

After watching this tournament, I have to side with the latter part of the argument.  It is expected that the Big East will likely send just 8 of its teams to the NCAA tournament this year.  Given the quality of basketball displayed in Madison Square Garden this week, it is a gross injustice that at-large bids will be granted to bubble teams from other major conferences that simply aren’t deserving.

Let’s take at the list of teams that are on the bubble and will likely be dancing in March:

• Illinois
• Minnesota
• Washington
• Arizona State
• Ole Miss
• Virgina Tech
• Georgia Tech

If any of these teams played in the Big East, they’d likely be the 12th seed or lower in the conference.   Most would make the case that the Big East #12 team, Connecticut would handily defeat this group of bubble teams on a consistent basis.  These bubble teams will get the nod over South Florida, Seton Hall and Cincinnati simply because they performed better in drastically weaker leagues.

Lets take a look at the Pac-10 for example.  Here is a league that will no doubt get three participants in the NCAA Tourney despite being less competitive than the MAAC or Horizon leagues.  If you took Siena, Northern Iowa or Butler and placed them in the Pac-10 this year, they win the league championship handily.  But they will get multiple at-large bids at the expense of the Big East teams.

Arizona State is the 2nd rated team in the Pac-10.  Looking back at their season, they played three tough out-of-conference games against Duke, Baylor and BYU, losing every game.  Washington played Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Georgetown.  The only game they won was against Texas A&M and that really had nothing to do with Washington, as that was the game A&M star Derrick Roland snapped his leg in half in a horrific injury that completely shocked the whole Aggies team.

Then you have Pac-10 champion California.  Here is their resume out of conference.  Blown off the court by Syracuse.  Handled with relative ease by Ohio State.  Spanked by Kansas.  Beaten by New Mexico.   Their only quality non-conference win came against Iowa State whom came in 11th place in the Big 12.

Be assured, the Pac-10 will get three representatives in the NCAA tournament regardless of how bad this conference has been this year.  While California, Arizona State and Washington get undeserving invites to the Big Dance, South Florida, Cincinnati and Seton Hall will likely be playing in the NIT.

Lets hope that the NCAA Tournament Selection Committtee was watching the same basketball games the rest of us were viewing this week in New York City and awards 11 invites to the Big East and sends the message to conferences like the Pac-10 to improve their games or don’t expect to get invited.

Should there be any changes to March Madness?

There has been a lot of talk this week about the NCAA basketball tournament and what changes if any should be made. Some people like to have more teams invited to the dance while others say don’t mess with something that is not broken. I think that the tournament is fine with the 64 teams and should not invite anymore teams as they would not be deserving. There is one change I would make when it comes to qualifying for the tournament…

The change I am talking about is I would make the conference regular season a automatic invite to the tournament. A team that endures and wins the conference should be rewarded for their efforts. There have been many teams that dominated the conference over the years but had one bad night and their dreams of March Madness dashed away. I know that the conference tournaments are exciting, but there is too much emphasis on them just a week before the tournament that counts. I know that it could potentially  invite the lesser teams to the tournament if the conference champion loses in its tournament , but you cannot penalize a team for a great regular season. I have been a component of this for as long I have followed College basketball.

I am not alone in this as I have heard other analyst agree with what I am talking about. I love March Madness as it its the most exciting thing in sports today. I just think that a regular season champ should be both rewarded and recognized for their accomplishments. I think it is the right and fair thing to do. I think that this is a change that should be made to the NCAA Basketball Tournament.