College Basketball

Well, so much for the Kansas-Villanova final I picked in the Outsports NCAA pool. Villanova, a No. 2 seed, lost to St. Mary’s, but the even bigger stunner was Kansas losing, 69-67, to Northern Iowa. I had not watched college basketball in the regular season, so when the pairings were announced it was interesting how […]

Once again we will host an NCAA men's basketball tournament pool. The field of 65 is set, with Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and Syracuse the four No. 1 seeds. You can sign up any time prior to the start of the first game Thursday. Once again we will host an NCAA men's basketball tournament pool. The […]

I love the first few days of March Madness. Even in a season when I don’t pay a lot of attention, I’ll watch those first couple rounds. But as if six rounds over three weeks wasn’t enough, the NCAA is talking very seriously about expanding the number of teams in the tournament to 96 or […]

The North Carolina Tar Heels started the men’s college basketball season as No. 1 and ended it that way with an easy 89-72 win over Michigan State in the final at Detroit. The Tar Heels were so dominant they scored a record 55 first-half points and had the biggest halftime lead ever in 21 points. […]

The Final Four is down to the Final Two, after North Carolina thumped Villanova and Michigan State surprised No. 1 seed Connecticut in the NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament. I can only hope the final is more exciting and interesting than the one snoozer and one so-so game Saturday. There were some decent moments in Michigan […]

I forgot to mention this when I wrote about my day at the first round of the NCAA Tournament held at the Wachovia Center but was reminded of it during the telecast of Villanova's Elite Eight victory over Pittsburgh last night at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston. The announcers mentioned that all of the […]

Is it just me or has the men’s NCAA basketball tournament been a big snoozer this year? There are no truly memorable games or moments (Gonzaga’s buzzer-beater was cool, but nowhere near a Tivo moment), the seeds have held up (which means no Cinderella) and there have been too many blowouts. If it was a […]

“Weak” Pac-10? As there is every year, lots of talk centered on how “weak” the Pac-10 was this year, and how they didn’t deserve six spots. Even President Obama got in on the mix, saying how weak the conference was, specifically calling out Arizona and UCLA (they both won), and axing all of them before […]

On Monday evening I was watching Comcast Sportsnet when the studio host announced that some tickets to the NCAA Men’s Basketball 1st and 2nd round games at the Wachovia Center had just been made available. Now, I’m not a major basketball fan and am by no means an expert, but seeing the tournament unfold year […]

Organizations, businesses and websites will need to think twice before using a trademarked NCAA phrase or bracket system this year in their ads. Due to the dwindling economy, the use of NCAA phrases is being used to bring in more revenue than usual from places like bars and websites. However, the lawyers of the NCAA […]

As the NCAA tourney unfolds this week, consider this: The most popular personal activity among fans of the men's tournament is gardening. Seriously. Some 48 percent of the college basketball fans surveyed by Scarborough Sports Marketing said they'd indulged in gardening in the last 12 months, which is slightly higher than the national average. While […]

Just a few more hours to sign up. Click here to sign up for the 2009 Outsports NCAA men's college basketball tournament pool. Signup is free. Also, our NCAA expert says North Carolina will win it all. Just a few more hours to sign up. Click here to sign up for the 2009 Outsports NCAA […]

Tournament Selection Sunday always includes two elements: The selection of 65 teams for the tournament, and a bunch of whining by Dick Vitale about teams that got ‘snubbed' (video below). This year it's St. Mary's, who Dick and a bunch of others say was wrongly left out. The complaint is that the "little guy" got […]

So, how good was Syracuse's 127-117 Big East men's quarterfinal basketball win over Connecticut that lasted six overtimes and 3 hours, 46 minutes and ended at 1:22 a.m? I am asking since I missed every second of it, but in reading about it, it sounded like a classic. Believe it or not, it was only […]

It sounds like the latest in Abercrombie & Fitch’s line of saucy “athletic”-inspired T-shirts, but in fact Longwood is a university in Virginia that recently became a Division I program. The “Longwood Lancers,” piercing opponents with vim and vigor. I heard about their move to D-I because they played against the University of Virginia while […]

Spoiler alert: This post has nothing to do with college football. It has everything to do with the over-compensating head women’s basketball coach at Southern Methodist University. The phrase “thou doth protest too much” came to mind when I read about Rhonda Rampola and allegations by former player Jennifer Colli, a lesbian, who says the […]

Bill Buckner and the ’86 Red Sox. Jean Van de Velde and the ’99 British Open. Memphis Tigers and the ’08 National Championship. Up 9 points with two minutes left, Memphis completed one of the great choke jobs in sports history Monday night, losing in overtime to the Kansas Jayhawks. Missed free throws. A key […]

Ohio State beat UMass for the NIT title Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. There was a time when the NIT meant something. Even as late as 1970, the NIT championship was regarded as a legitimate claim to a national championship. Since then, it’s become the race to see who’s the best team of those […]

So I spent all Friday and most of Saturday telling friends how Tyler Hansbrough wouldn’t be able to handle Louisville’s front line. No way he could put up big numbers against the combo of David Padgett and Derrick Caracter, not to mention having Earl Clark’s big arms near his face. Case closed – the Cards […]

After enduring two weeks of generally boring basketball and few compelling stories, this news is no surprise: This year’s [NCAA men’s] tournament might become the lowest-rated ever, or at least the lowest without an asterisk. Heading into Thursday’s games, CBS’ ratings were off 9% from last year, which was the lowest-rated ever except the 2003 […]