A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
Before tonight’s Sweet 16 game, players from Kansas and Richmond got into a little bit of an altercation in the tunnel before the game.
Nothing serious happened beyond some jawing, but it definitely carried over into the game. Despite Kansas running out to an early win, the game was chippy throughout.
Since it’s a slow early session of games, here is the video in case you didn’t see it:
Yep, we’re doing it again. We’re live blogging tonight’s NCAA Tournament action – the second night of Sweet 16 games – with various members of the MSF writing crew as well as our friends from Rumors and Rants.
So once the games start, head on over here and join us for the most riveting, irreverent, humorous and occasionally insightful basketball commentary you will find anywhere. At least, that’s the plan.
One half of the Southwest Region’s Sweet 16 bracket features two of the most unlikely Sweet 16 teams imaginable.
On one line is Virginia Commonwealth University, a team that was so uneven during the regular season that they were nothing more than a “First Four” team in this year’s tournament. Yet, despite the outrage over their selection, VCU stays standing.
Florida State garnered a 10 seed despite suffering a late season injury to their best player. Undeterred, the Seminoles have followed the lead of the nation’s best defense to the Tournament’s second weekend.
Who will win? The Sports Muse analyzes.
Yep, we’re doing it again. We’re live blogging tonight’s NCAA Tournament action – the first night of Sweet 16 games – with various members of the MSF writing crew as well as our friends from Rumors and Rants.
So once the games start, head on over here and join us for the most riveting, irreverent, humorous and occasionally insightful basketball commentary you will find anywhere. I promise. (But I haven’t signed a letter of intent, so don’t hold me to it!)
Oftentimes, it’s easy to break down a game.
Team A has much more of an inside presence on both ends than Team B…so it will be a tough matchup for B.
Team A has nobody that can guard Player X on Team B…so it will be a tough matchup for A.
Many times, we line up the teams, compare individual players, maybe look at the bench and the coach, and come away with a good synopsis of what is likely to happen.
Then, there are the games like this year’s Sweet 16 matchup between Wisconsin and Butler.
If you’re like me, the first thing you do when the NCAA Tournament TV schedules come out is check to see which games the great Gus Johnson is doing.
With the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 coming this weekend, and the intensity and stakes increasing, we need Gus now more than ever – plus it’s the last weekend you’ll get to hear him calling college basketball this year.
So here are the games Gus is announcing this weekend, plus a bonus video from Funny or Die called “Great Moments in History with Gus Johnson.” It’s predictably outstanding.
The Sweet 16 kicks off tonight with much anticipated matchups Butler v Wisconsin, BYU v Florida, and Duke v Arizona. The fourth matchup, which will actually be the first one to tip off, seems to be flying under the radar, but it has the potential to be the most entertaining game of the bunch.
Jim Calhoun and his Big East Tournament champion Huskies take on Steve Fisher and his #2 seeded San Diego State Aztecs. There will be plenty of athleticism to go around in this one, plus two guys with very bright futures at the next level: Kemba Walker and Kawhi Leonard.
The national consensus seems to be that the Ohio State-Kentucky matchup at 9:45 ET on Friday night is the most intriguing game of the Sweet 16. But the East Region appetizer that comes before OSU-UK isn’t bad itself.
The #2 seed North Carolina faces one of the two remaining Big East teams, #11 seed Marquette. The Tar Heels are the favorite, but in this preview I’ll explain why there is legitimacy to the growing buzz that Marquette could pull off another upset.
Kansas entered the NCAA Tournament ranked #2 in the the national polls after winning their fifth Big 12 Tournament in the last six years, and much like previous years they became a favorite to win the Big Dance.
The Jayhawks make it back to the Sweet 16 after being upset by Northern Iowa in the second round in 2010. Kansas has what some would consider the easiest path the the Final Four considering the 10, 11, and 12 seeds are the teams still left in their bracket.
The 12 seed, Richmond, has returned to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1998, defeating Vanderbilt and Morehead State to get there. The Spiders have won 16 of their last 18 games with the only loses coming against Temple and Xavier, who both made the NCAA Tournament.
BYU and Florida, who meet in the Sweet 16 tomorrow night, are absolutely no strangers to each other. Just last year they played a memorable first-round game that marked the first nationwide exposure of Jimmer Fredette (speaking of…click here to see a remarkable image of Jimmer), who scored 37 in BYU’s double-overtime win. The game marked BYU’s first tourney win since 1993 while Florida was appearing in the dance for the first time since their consecutive national titles in 2006-07.
Twelve months and one week later, the stakes and aspirations of each squad are much higher with just two wins separating each school from the Final Four and #1 seed Pittsburgh already eliminated. The oddsmakers currently have Florida as a three point pick, and they have the slight advantage of playing in the middle of SEC country. Can Jimmer and the Cougars overcome the odds to advance?
Duke is the defending champion that most expected to be playing on the second weekend of the 2011 NCAA Tournament.
Arizona, on the other hand, is the rebuilding former juggernaut that had to knock off favored Texas to advance past the Tournament’s first weekend.
In this post, The Sports Muse analyzes the journey these two teams took to get to the 2011 Sweet 16, how they stack up statistically this season, and how Thursday night’s game will most likely play out.
The Wisconsin-Butler matchup on Thursday night is going to be outstanding. I cannot wait to watch that game. I am also greatly intrigued by UCONN-San Diego State, Florida-BYU, and really all of the other matchups on Thursday and Friday night because, well, this is the Sweet 16 after all.
But no matchup has me more intrigued than the matchup between the #1 seed and the #4 seed in the East Region – Ohio State versus Kentucky.
That’s why I am kicking off my part of our Sweet 16 previews off with this matchup. No sense saving the best for last. The most compelling matchup comes first for me.
Maybe it’s about time we all start paying attention to the season-long observations of Ari Kaufman…
To wit – BYU and San Diego State can indeed pair off with anyone in the country and the mistake is still being made involving sleeping on the Butler Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, North Carolina and Duke both survived their second round games by the skin of their teeth, partly because the NCAA always mandates that one of the tourney sites during the first two weekends be somewhere in the state of North Carolina.
If Washington v. Tar Heels were played instead in say Cleveland or Tulsa, does Carolina still survive the round of 32??
And the Big East surpassed all expectations of a possible thud; throw out UConn and Marquette (who beat other Big East members over the weekend) and the conference was essentially shut out. Charles Barkley may be outspoken, but before Selection Sunday I was one of those that suggested that the Big East be capped at eight teams, even if it would have left out the school whose campus I drive through every day and that now gets their long-awaited tourney rematch with North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
When the smoke finally cleared last night, the chalk survived with ten of the 16 top seeds. As we decompress after four days of wall-to-wall hoops, a synopsis on the four Regionals, and some of the teams that went by the wayside.
This post is from 2010!!!
What an opening weekend.
I am sure that there have been opening weekends that have been as good or close to as a good, but I can’t imagine another NCAA Tournament opening weekend being better than what we just saw.
There were buzzer beaters, huge upsets, Cinderellas that lasted to the second weekend, tremendous individual performances, and just a lot of really, really good basketball. This weekend proved, once again, why the NCAA Tournament is the most exciting event in sports.
Now it is time for the second weekend, the Sweet 16 and then the Elite 8, and we have all of the TV schedule, announcer, and spread info you need.
When I hit the publish button after writing this post, it will conclude my series of eight Sweet 16 previews. So far, other than my pick of Northern Iowa over Michigan State because of the loss of Kalin Lucas, I’ve played it safe and gone with the favorites.
I love the stories of St. Mary’s and Cornell, but I think their Sweet 16 matchups dictate a planr flight home after one game this weekend.
Washington, on the other hand, is a double-digit seed that could very well play on after Thursday night. That is not a knock on their opponent, West Virginia, which is an outstanding team led by a superlative player in Da’Sean Butler.
Rather, it is a testament to just hot Washington is right now and to the benefit of having a duo like Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter, probably the most underrated 1-2 punch in the nation.
Can the Huskies pull off their third straight upset and make the Elite 8? Let’s analyze.
