Category: College Basketball

If you’re going to be in Vegas during March Madness, won’t you do us a favor and give us some live reports from it so we can both envy and hate you? For the rest of us, here are the odds for the top 16 teams to win the NCAA tournament. As of Monday, UConn is favored to win the tournament by the oddsmaskers, which basically guarantees they’ll lose.

#1 Seeds
Duke: 4-1
UConn: 5-2 (overall tourney favorite)
Villanova: 11-2
Memphis: 10-1

#2 Seeds
Texas: 14-1
Tennessee: 25-1
Ohio State: 18-1
UCLA: 12-1

#3 Seeds
Iowa: 45-1
N. Carolina: 12-1
Florida: 20-1
Gonzaga: 25-1

#4 Seeds
LSU: 28-1
Illinois: 20-1
Boston College: 25-1
Kansas: 25-1

You can get the full list here. By the way, the worst odds you can bet are 500-1: Air Force, Southern Illionis, NC-Wilmington, Kent State, George Mason, Bucknell, Wisc-Milwaukee, and Wichita State. If any of those teams won, Vegas would probably make a ton of dough.

You hear that sound fellas? That’s the sound of a bunch of Davids readying the slingshot to slay the Goliaths in the dance. Either that or it’s the sound of me peeing my pants in anticipation. They’re very similar.

I love championship week. The Big East tournament already gave us the biggest upset of the week with Syracuse beating UConn on a buzzer beater by Gerry McNamara in overtime. This is going to be so much better when say, UNC Wilmington beats Memphis next weekend.

The story was even better in the Atlantic 10 where all the higher seeds were upset on Thursday. The biggest one being #6 ranked George Washington losing to unranked Temple by 15 points.

Need some upset picks in your bracket? ESPN Magazine came up with 5 teams that could pull off a big upset: Old Dominion, UNC Wilmington, Northern Iowa, Murray State, and Pacific. I love the name Salukis but Southern Illinois is a flawed team according to this article. Good luck in the pool. I’ve already resigned myself to losing so I won’t been too disappointed when a couple of my Final Four picks get wiped out on day 2.

Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, claims that about 5% of all college basketball games with a large point spread are fixed. College basketball is the easiest target because one or two people can easily shave some points and win the game but not cover the spread. Easy money for gamblers and as long as the team wins, no one is going to question the players for only winning by 9 instead of 10.

Smaller favorites — teams favored by 12 or fewer points — beat the spread almost exactly 50 percent of the time, showing how good those oddsmakers are at their jobs. But heavy favorites cover in only 47 percent of their games. There is little chance that the difference is due to randomness.

There is a strange dearth of games in which 12-point favorites win by, say, 13 or 16 points. And there are a lot of games that they win by 11 points or slightly less. There is just no good explanation for this.

So here’s the lesson here – unless you know the fix is in, don’t bet on the heavy favorites, especially if the point guard looks like he owes someone money.

[NYTimes]: Sad Suspicions About Scores in Basketball

Waaaaaaaaahhhhh

Mike Krzyzewski thinks that the media has it in for his team and that they are trying to sway officials to call the game unfairly against Duke. And by unfairly, I mean correctly. Coach K blames “whoever puts up the graphics, whoever puts up the footage” for fostering resentment against Duke.

This is so absurd that I had to doublecheck to make sure I wasn’t reading an Onion article. Coach K didn’t mention any news organizations except for ESPN. Last I checked, Dick Vitale is so biased for Duke that doctors had to surgically remove his nose from Krzyzewski’s rectum.

I don’t even know what to make of this. It’s like Paris Hilton criticizing the media for making her out to be a whore. Look Coach K, think of it this way, the media finally shining a spotlight on the “no fouls against Duke” clause in the ref’s contracts just gives you a convenient excuse to blow it in the NCAA tourney again.

[Winston-Salem Journal]: Conspiracy Theory: Krzyzewski angry with media

Alright folks, as the regulars know we have a new chatroom where we will be holding regular chats during sporting events or just discussing the week that was. We are having our first formal chat for the Duke-UNC game on Sat. 9 ET. So for all you college basketball fans out there, this should be really fun, just get your nicknames registered (It says how to when you press the help button) and meet us there.

I think this is gonna be a blast so we hope to see you guys at our first sportscolumn.com live chat! You can enter the chat room here.

You’re expendable!

FSU fans prematurely rushed the court with 1.7 seconds to go thinking they had won the game. The Seminoles were assessed a two-shot technical foul. Luckily, they were up 77-72 and the two free throws did not change the outcome of the game.

Everyone will talk about how FSU might have gotten into the dance with this win but the overlooked part of this story is that Coach K sent all of his players to the locker room except for five reserves because he feared for their safety.

It’s unfortunate that happened. When a crowd rushes when there is still time on the clock, you have to be very careful. We weren’t going to win the ball game so why put those kids in harm’s way. I thought it was the right thing to do.

Unless of course you’re warming the bench, then you can be in harm’s way.

Let’s say somehow the Duke plane crashed in the middle of a war zone and everyone survived the crash. If I were Pocius, Davidson, Boykin, Boateng, or Johnson, I’d be very afraid. When Coach K yells “Cannon Fodder” at you, it’s not a play he wants you to run.

[Warchant.com]: Noles take down No. 1 Duke

Those of you who have jobs — too bad. But at least this year you won’t have to sneak out to watch the opening round of the NCAA tourney. CBS sports is offering free online viewing of the games. Good news for you. Bad news for your employer.

A consulting firm is estimating that the availability of games on the internet could cost employers nearly $4 Billion due to lost productivity. I’m not sure that being able to watch games only changes anything. The first few rounds have everyone in the office reloading web pages to see how their brackets are turning out anyway. For me, productivity during the tourney was nil anyway.

Man, I just got very excited thinking about the tournament this year. The buzzer beaters and upsets make me emotionally….erect. Hooo boy! It’s only a few weeks away folks!

[Pittsburgh Live]: Employers cry foul over Internet ‘Madness

bloody gauze not for sale

Remember when someone bought Luis Gonzalez’s used gum for $10,000? Well, someone came up with the great idea to sell the gauze that Adam Morrison used to stem a bloody nose in his game against Pepperdine.

Unfortunately, selling bloody bandages is against ebay rules so they pulled the auction. It’s too bad for the seller because I’m sure Golden Palace.com would have bought it. They’ll buy anything as long as it gets enough press. They are bigger media whores than Paris Hilton.

Not to be discouraged by something like ebay rules, someone is selling the unused gauze from the same game.

This unused gauze pad was for Adam Morrison. During the final 4 minutes of the first half of the NCAA college basketball game between Gonzaga and Pepperdine on Monday, February 20, 2006, Adam Morrison used one to clear a bloody nose as he continued to play. This was picked up on the floor at the game.

Shockingly, no one has made a bid on it yet. This reminds me of the “three people who have never been in my kitchen” rule. I own some tissue that’s never been used by Michael Jordan. How much can I get for that?

We’re #65!

The NIT anounced criteria changes for its tournament today and now all regular-season conference champs not in the NCAA tourney will get a spot in the NIT. Also, a team no longer needs a .500 record to get into the tournament.

Just think, the NIT used to be the postseason tournament in the U.S. I have watched a lot of NIT games (this is what happens when your team stinks) and it’s so depressing. The schools put up a “hey, we’re here to win it” facade but you know most of the players from big time programs are not happy to be there. The worst part about winning the NIT is that… you won the NIT.

[Sportsline]: NIT makes significant criteria changes for 40-team field

Fired!

Erin Lashnits, who is the girl inside the Stanford tree was suspended after she was observed drinking inside the tree and had a breathalyzer score of 0.15. She said she was drunk but denies drinking during the game or having a flask.

The incident began as a misunderstanding when Lashnits began prancing in the middle of the court, as she is allowed to do at Stanford, instead of confining her routines to under the basket, as Cal requires. That’s when officers began observing her more closely.

Hmmmm, I don’t know. The UC Berkeley police? In a game between rivals Stanford and Cal? A blood alcohol level that wouldn’t even make it into the Top 15 BACs list? This sounds highly suspicious. Like the time they framed OJ. I hope they find the real tree with the flask who is still out there.

[SFGate]: Stanford tree mascot fired for drinking at basketball game
[eHow]: How to Become the Tree