So, Northern Iowa did in fact beat the Shockers of Wichita State today to get the Missouri Valley automatic bid.
No Jenna, UNI won, not Texas.
More Tickets Punched
Along with Cornell, Winthrop (Big South), E. Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun), and Murray State (Ohio Valley) have all received automatic bids on Saturday.
Today, the following will be decided:
Missouri Valley: No. Iowa/Wichita State 2p.
Automatic Bids:
Cornell (IVY)
Winthrop (BIG SOUTH)
East Tenn State (ATLANTIC SUN)
Murray State (OHIO VALLEY)
Last a little longer…
With their win over Brown, Cornell is the first to punch a dance card for the Madness. The Ivy does not have a conference tournament, so the overall conference champion gets the automatic bid.
This is the third straight year for The Big Red who went 12-1 in conference and 26-4 overall.
While the Ivy teams tend to bow out after the first round, this Cornell team has proven it can run with the big boys with road wins over Alabama, UMass, St. Johns, Drexel, La Salle, and St. Joseph’s. Let’s not forget that this team also took then undefeated #1 Kansas to the buzzer in Lawrence. Don’t count them out.
Automatic Bids:
Cornell (IVY)
Calipari on the rocks?
The Limited Edition Calipari Maker's Mark
According to Beverly Fortune at Kentucky.com, Maker’s Mark bourbon will be producing a limited edition John Calipari bottle.
Made of a special blend of bourbon, this edition is guaranteed to turn you into the underdog in everyone else’s eyes the never-ending ability to say all the right stuff to Erin Andrews. Don’t drink too much, or you will wake up as the coach of New Jersey Nets.
In all seriousness, the limited edition 24,000-bottle run will go on sale starting April 2 (during the Final Four, no less) retailing “in the high $40’s” and will raise money for the UK Symphony Orchestra.
SI’s Exploration of Bracket Creep
Sports Illustrated posted a series of articles on the proposed expansion of the NCAA tournament to 96 teams. First, Stewart Mandel explains that expansion — for better or worse — is imminent.
Second, George Dohrmann offers four (just four?) reasons why expansion is a terrible idea.
Finally, Billy Donovan asserts his case for tournament expansion.
While Dohrmann’s article is preaching to the choir in my case, I had not previously considered the argument that expansion would make February less interesting because the “bubble teams” would be shifted to schools that only the most hard-core fans would care to watch (if those games were televised at all) and even the small conference tournament finals would likely pit teams who were both assured of bids.
Donovan’s article should be exhibit A for any case against expansion for its inability to assert a coherent answer to the question “Will This Produce Better Basketball?” Donovan’s case is muddled to say the least. His desire to expand the tournament for the sake of the students is admirable, but also smacks of rewarding quantity over quality, an impulse that only performs a disservice on students in the end. Donovan’s argument that basketball is only considered a “March sport” due to the prominence of both the current tournament and the other sports sandwiching the basketball season is not addressed in any way by expansion. It seems Donovan is arguing that, given that basketball is hopelessly only watched in March, more teams should be seen in that window. Ironically, this proposal would seem to further marginalize the regular season without a pay-off unless one accepts — without warrant — that ratings for the opening round of a 96 team tournament would mirror the status quo. The essay then highlights the importance of a season-long body of work, while, a breath later, explaining that single-elimination tournaments are completely unpredictable. In Donovan’s exalting of “Cinderella” he never addresses one of the biggest criticisms of expansion, specifically that this expansion has more to do with adding two more Big East or ACC teams than additional giant-killers.
Mandel is probably right (he usually is) that this move is inevitable but, barring the NCAA’s jonesing for cash, the cases for and against are entirely one-sided.
Saturday Services 2/27/10
And, we’re back!
Monday night heralded the return of our most humble temple who was out for three weeks due to injury. Just in time too, since we are currently in Judgment Week, the time where bubbles galore start popping. Just think, next time you hear from me, it will be March! This looks to be an amazing March despite the fact that neither North Carolina, UCLA nor Indiana will be in the Field of 64 (not baring a miracle or three) since the discovery of tobacco.
On the rise is the Atlantic 10, who is quietly racking up At-Large bids. If the season ended today, and Joe Lunardi is right (and he tends to be) the A-10 would have 5 bids. That is same as the Big Ten, one more than SEC and FOUR more than the Pac-10! Crazy! But URI and Dayton are on the bubble, and as Brad Pitt says, “In this town, your luck can change just like that.” (Incidentally, Dayton plays UMass on Sat and I am torn between being a spoiler or wanting more bids for my beloved conference. I digress.)
Which means that these last games are crucial for many teams. What is on tap for Sat?
#2 Kentucky at #17 Tennessee 12p: The Wildcats have taken down both Vandy and Tennessee, but that was at home. Now the Wildcats travel to Knoxville. There is no bid on the line as both teams are locks, but lets face it, you love seeing Bruce “The Human Creamcycle” Pearl don the Orange Jacket like he just won some Jack Daniels Masters Tourney. Fashion woes aside, the battle of the Blue and Orange is great.
Michigan at #9 Ohio State 12p: Ok, this game is not what is should be. Staring the season ranked at #15, The Blue did not live up to exceptions. However, if there is one thing I know about Wolverines from my time at The Thom, they love knocking “The Definite Article” down a bit. The Nuts are not in danger of missing the tourney, but it would be nice to push them down the seeding chart.
#1 Kansas at Oklahoma State 4p: Blue and Orange meet again in Big 12. Since Kansas is undefeated in conference, every game is a must watch, and you know Travis Ford and the Cowboys want rush the floor after taking down #1 at home – especially since they are on the bubble.
#8 Villanova at #4 Syracuse 9p: This nightcap has been circled on the calendar since the start of conference play. Nova has taken a couple of hits recently, losing to upstart UConn and Pitt. They have dropped in the rankings and also was replaced by Purdue as the fourth #1 seed in the Lunardi Report. So, the question is, if they beat Cuse in “The Igloo” do they go back to #1 seedom or does Cuse come down? Those questions and more will be answered on Sat!
Devil Induction: It was just announced the Christian Laettner will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame for his college work. Honestly, I love that the HOF does reward all levels of the game, and while his NBA career was ‘Duketastic‘ in every sense of the word, he did make his name for his college play. I expect there to be a large protest of Kentucky fans outside the induction ceremony guarding the entry. Sorry, I had too. Go Defense.
Here is the schedule for Saturday and remember…the games start at noon (as does the hoops menu and drink specials! Woohoo!)
Top 25 Action:
12:00 PM (2) Kentucky at (17) Tennessee
12:00 PM Michigan at (9) Ohio State (Just not what is once was…)
12:00 PM Notre Dame at (13) Georgetown (Swilkins vs. CatPop)
12:00 PM (16) Pittsburgh at St. John’s
1:30 PM (20) Vanderbilt at Arkansas
2:00 PM Cincinnati at (7) West Virginia (The Huggins Classic)
2:00 PM (21) Texas at (23) Texas A&M
4:00 PM (1) Kansas at Oklahoma State
8:00 PM Missouri at (6) Kansas State
9:00 PM (8) Villanova at (4) Syracuse
Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!
12:00 PM Boston College at Georgia Tech
1:30 PM Baylor at Oklahoma
2:00 PM North Carolina at Wake Forest
4:00 PM Texas Tech at Nebraska
4:00 PM Maryland at Virginia Tech
4:00 PM Minnesota at Illinois
6:00 PM Charlotte at George Washington
7:00 PM Massachusetts at Dayton
8:00 PM Southern Miss at Memphis
Oh Please Let This Happen
Several months ago, I posted a diatribe about Ole Miss and its frustration with students chanting “The South Will Rise Again”, and I suggested their continued use of the team name “Rebels” and their mascot “Colonel Reb” may be the sort of thing to embolden negative student behavior (I have since learned that Colonel Reb, while appearing at games and rallies, is no longer sanctioned by the school — good move).
Well someone listened and the school is fully moving on from Colonel Reb and opened up the replacement decision to a student vote (held yesterday) and you won’t believe who is considered the front-runner. Let’s just say he’ll change what war you think of when you hear the name “Rebels.”
Say Goodbye to College Sports Video Games
While EA Sports has already announced that it will be ending its NCAA Basketball franchise after this season (because video game players didn’t understand why they had to play a regular season…zing!), the game manufacturer and the NCAA will likely continue to suffer for the annual college sports video games they have put out over the years for some time to come.
For those unfamiliar with sports gaming, the NCAA sells the rights to use the teams and players in video games to EA for a hefty chunk of change. Or, they don’t actually sell the rights to the players — perish the thought! — instead a video game player gets to play an anonymous Florida QB wearing the number 15, with the same facial structure, build, stats, and religious alignment of Tim Tebow. And then the game conveniently lets you edit the names of the players to reveal that, coincidentally, the announcers pre-recorded those names!
This scheme continued for some time before Ed O’Bannon of UCLA and Sam Keller, a former ASU and Nebraska QB decided to file suits challenging the NCAA’s right to sell their likenesses for its own gain.
Last week in federal court, Keller prevailed in defeating EA’s motion to dismiss the suit, meaning the game manufacturer is poised to undergo an expensive and time-consuming scouring of their documents unless they settle, which I would imagine they would — a public review of these documents, likely rife with NCAA correspondence that cynically treats college athletes as unpaid pawns in a billion-dollar boon for the organization charged with protecting them, probably would be a PR nightmare on par with, I don’t know, unnecessarily expanding the tournament.
Along came a Spider(s)
DePaul head coach Jerry Wainwright was fired today after five seasons.
So, with Tom Brady and his boos, and Mark McGuire and his juice dominating the sports headlines today, two little stories about former Richmond coaches hit the wire today with little if any notice. And the two coaches are going in opposite directions.
First, Jerry Wainwright was fired from DePaul today after 22 consecutive Big East regular season losses. DePaul ended the last year’s regular season recording all “L”s in conference play. Strangely, the Blue Demons beat Cincinnati in the first round of the Big East Tourney and almost took down Providence in the second round. This season, DePaul was off to a good start, winning their first four games before starting the free fall eventually losing the first three conference games of the year. While at Richmond (2002-2005) Wainwright posted a 50-41 record, going to the NCAA Tournament once (2004) and the NIT once (2003), both times losing in the first round. Ironically, it was Providence who knocked them out of the 2003 NIT.
Michigan Coach John Beilein agrees to a contract extension to coach in Ann Arbor until 2016.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the court, Michigan’s John Beilein, who coached Richmond for five seasons before Wainwright, signed a contract extension that will keep him in Ann Arbor until 2016. Beilein left the Spider program in 2002 to take over the West Virginia program before moving to Michigan in 2007. Last season, Beilein brought the Wolverines back the NCAA Tournament for the in ten seasons and while this season has been up-and-down, he is recruiting solid talent and shows no signs of slowing progress.
Too bad the same can’t be said for former Mountaineer Rich Rodriguez.
Dumars to Michigan
File under: Keeping it in the Family – according to AnnArbor.com, former South Florida guard Jordan Dumars, son of Piston great Joe Dumars, will be transferring to Michigan.
