Atlanta Hawks

 NCAA Final Four in Detroit

1st Game: Michigan State .vs. Connecticut

2nd Game: North Carolina .vs. Villanova

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The final four teams in college basketball have been determined. There are two teams we expected to see there like North Carolina and Connecticut. The other two teams we did not expect to see there are Michigan State and Villanova. These will be the 4 teams going for the 2009 college basketball championship in Detroit.

The first game on April 4th will be underdog Michigan State taking on a tough UCONN team. This should be a good game between the Huskies of Connecticut and the Michigan State Spartans. I know Connecticut will be the favorite here, but I will be rooting for the underdog to upset the higher seeded team. The Spartans do have a realistic chance of winning this game and I’m sure a lot of fans in Michigan hope to see their team make it to the championship game.

The 2nd game on April 4th will be featuring the Tar Heels from North Carolina trying to win against the surprising Villanova Wildcats. The chances for Villanova winning this game are slim to none. The Carolina team has a lot of fire power in their arsenal and I can’t imagine an upset here. I will be rooting for the Wildcats to win this game, but I really think North Carolina may win this one by double digits. If you have North Carolina playing in the championship game on your college bracket; then you should be smiling. I believe North Carolina is the most likely team to advance to the championship game out of the 4 teams that still remain in the NCAA tournament.

I think this year’s tournament has been fun to watch. I would think the NCAA and the advertisers and sponsors want to see a North Carolina and Connecticut match up for the championship and this would be a great game to see. Villanova and Michigan State are still in this thing and they aren’t out to please anyone but their own school and fans. Can the Cinderella story continue with Michigan State or Villanova in this year’s 2009 championship game? I think if these two teams both make it to the finals, it will be good for college basketball and the NCAA.

I haven’t been good picking the winners yet; so I will try to give this one more try. I do think North Carolina will easily win over Villanova and advance to the NCAA Championship Game. I have the North Carolina Tar Heels penciled in for the final college basketball game of the season. I am going to go with those Spartans from Michigan State to pull out another miracle. Why? Well the last time I checked the Final Four was going to be played in Detroit for the 2009 NCAA Tournament. I also believe that Detroit is in the state of Michigan and since Michigan State and their fans will have such a short trip to the site of this year’s NCAA Final Four in Detroit, I’m going to pick them to win. I think the fans will be the 6th man for them and they can win this game.

My championship game on my NCAA Tourney Brackett has Michigan State playing North Carolina. I think the Spartans continue the momentum from the win over UCONN and they come out and play the Tar Heels tough. If Michigan State ever has the lead at any time in the 2nd half, they will beat the North Carolina Tar Heels and win it all this year. I’m going with Michigan State to be the last team standing when it’s all said and done! I’m sure the Spartan fans will be rooting loud for Villanova to upset North Carolina; if they are still in the tournament when they play. Michigan State will have to take care of business first on April 4th; before they can root for a winner in the 2nd game of the night.

Congratulations to the schools, players, coaches, and fans from North Carolina, Villanova, Michigan State and Connecticut! Just making it to the Final Four in college basketball is like winning a championship and all 4 schools should be proud!

The bracket is in place for the March Madness to begin in college basketball. It looks like a great field of teams and they will all be trying to advance to the Final Four in Detroit. The NCAA tournament is fun to watch and congratulations to all the teams that made it to this year’s big dance. Who will win the 2009 NCAA college basketball tournament? Which team will be the last one standing in Detroit? The road to Detroit begins now and here is how the field shapes up.

Midwest

1 Louisville vs 16 Moorehead St.

2 Michigan St vs 15 Robert Morris

3 Kansas vs 14 North Dakota St

4 Wake Forrest vs 13 Cleveland St

5 Utah vs 12 Arizona

6 West Virginia vs 11 Dayton

7 Boston College vs 10 USC

8 Ohio St. vs 9 Siena

West

1 Connecticut vs 16 Chattanooga

2 Memphis vs 15 CSU Northridge

3 Missouri vs 14 Cornell

4 Washington vs 13 Mississippi St.

5 Purdue vs 12 Northern Iowa

6 Marquette vs 11 Utah St.

7 California vs 10 Maryland

8 BYU vs 9 Texas A&M

East

1 Pittsburgh vs 16 East Tennessee St.

2 Duke vs 15 Binghamton

3 Villanova vs 14 American

4 Xavier vs 13 Portland St.

5 Florida St. vs 12 Wisconsin

6 UCLA vs 11 VCU

7 Texas vs 10 Minnesota

8 Oklahoma St. vs 9 Tennessee

South

1 North Carolina vs 16 Radford

2 Oklahoma vs 15 Morgan St

3 Syracuse vs 14 Stephen F. Austin

4 Gonzaga vs 13 Akron

5 Illinois vs 12 Western Kentucky

6 Arizona St. vs 11 Temple

7 Clemson vs 10 Michigan

8 LSU vs 9 Butler

Those are the teams in place for this year’s 2009 college basketball tournament. Only 1 team can win it all and it should be interesting to see who we will crown in Detroit. I see some very interesting match ups in the first round games. I think the teams in the East section of the bracket are the best. If you had an all star team from all 4 sections and created 4 super teams, I would think the East would be the best all star team. I do think an upset will take place in the East and I’m going with a team that most won’t be picking to win that part of the bracket and advance to the Final 4 in Detroit.

Here is the teams I think will make it to the Final Four and you can let me know if your college brackets have the same teams as mine. Be sure to reply and give me your 4 selections on which teams you see making the Final Four in Michigan.

Midwest Champions: Wake Forrest

West Champions: Memphis

East Champions: Florida State

South Champions: North Carolina

Those will be the 4 teams I will be rooting on to make it the Final 4. Now tell me the teams you see making a trip to Detroit, Michigan for the Final Four.

The Big East tournament in college basketball is currently going on in Madison Square Garden in New York. There was a good match up on the schedule for Thursday; when the number 3 team in the country Connecticut going against the number 18 team in college basketball Syracuse. There was no reason to believe that this game had anything special about it, other than it was two top 20 teams competing against each other. After the smoke had clear and a winner was found from this college basketball game, people would be left wondering if this was the best college basketball game ever.

I have seen many great games in sports over the years, but I’m not sure any of them would top the college basketball game played in Madison Square Garden on March 12, 2009. You can look at any team sport or individual sport and find great match ups and games over the years. I know Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had many historic battles in their careers in basketball. The Bird/Magic matchups started in college and the 1980’s was filled with Larry’s Celtics and Magic’s Lakers playing for NBA championships. Their famous battle in college doesn’t even come close to the comparison of the Uconn and Syracuse game.

The game was close throughout and it was hard to tell who would win this one. As the last seconds of regulation ticked off the clock, a Syracuse Orangeman player knocked down a 3 point shot from the right wing. The score was all tied up at this point and this shot would have gave Syracuse the win over Uconn. Since the shot came very close to the buzzer, the officials decided to have another look at this critical basket. It was this 3 point shot that would determine if overtime was needed or if the Syracuse team would advance in the Big East tournament. It took a very close look to determine if the player had released the ball in time or not. You could see the basketball just barely touching the player’s finger when the last second left the clock. The shot was called no good by the referees and now the two Big East teams prepared of an overtime session.

Going to overtime in college basketball is something that happens often, so at this point it really wasn’t a big deal. After the first overtime was played and a winner hadn’t been found yet, since the teams were still tied, a 2nd overtime had to be played. A double overtime college basketball game is pretty rare, but even that wasn’t enough time for a team to take the lead in this one. Now the Uconn and Syracuse matchup becomes a triple overtime game and it starts to enter the realm of all the other triple overtime games ever played in college basketball. However, the 3rd overtime was as successful as the first two were and still no winner in this Big East match up. A 4th overtime didn’t work either and the teams had to enter a 5th overtime session! You don’t get 5 overtime periods in any sport and you never see this in college basketball. Now the game between these two exhausted teams was special, but it got even more special when the time expired in the 5th overtime and the score remained tied. This Big East tournament game between Connecticut and Syracuse would need 6 overtimes to see which team would advance in the tournament.

The first 5 overtimes ended in ties with each team scoring 10 points in the first overtime, 6 points in the 2nd overtime, 11 points in the 3rd overtime, 6 points in the 4th and 5th overtimes. Uconn only manage to score 7 points in the sixth overtime and Syracuse would win this incredible game with a 17 point performance in the last overtime. The final score showed Syracuse with 127 points and Connecticut with 117. The final score would suggest an easy win for Syracuse, but this was not easy in any way.

This game will be remembered for a long time and will be known as an historic matchup in the years, decades, and centuries to come. It took 3 hours and 46 minutes to play this game. It lasted so long, that it really took two days to play. The tip off came on March 12, but wouldn’t end until Friday March 13th at 1:22 AM eastern time. The fans from both schools will always remember the 6 overtimes it took to settle this one. The players and coaches involved in this game will never forget it either.

The player that will be best known from this game is Jonny Flynn. He ran the show for Syracuse for 67 of the 70 minutes this game took to play. He was also the leading scorer with 34 points. Many may forget that Jonny Flynn had 11 assists and 6 steals in this game or the fact he was perfect from the free throw line going 16 of 16 there. They will remember he led an exhausted Syracuse team over over the 3rd ranked team in the nation. His comments after the game where he stated that he couldn’t even feel his legs right now, will be something that college basketball fans remember for a long time too. Friday the 13th is a great day for the men in orange and their 6 overtime victory is the greatest game I have ever seen or heard about.

The college basketball season is playing it’s last games of the year as they prepare for tourney play in regional action. The last weekend of the season ended with the number 1 team in the land UCONN going down to Pittsburgh. This appears to be one of the most evenly matched up tournaments in a long time and this is just the appetizer for the NCAA Tournament that will begin soon.

I look forward to watching the teams in the ACC and SEC conferences battling it out this week. Both of these tournaments are going to be fun to watch and I’m sure they will be at least one final four team in the NCAA tourney that comes from either the ACC or SEC. A few bubble teams may need to win their regional tournaments to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

I think the NCAA tourney in college basketball is better than any other college or professional sport. 64 teams that get to battle on neutral ground and the winner keeps playing; while the losers go home for the year. College football could certainly take lessons from the basketball program and create a playoff system in college football. We may not know who the true winner in college football is; but we do get to crown a true champion in basketball. Which team do you think has the right players, coaches, and are just now hitting their stride to win it all this year?

VOTE FOR THE TEAM MOST LIKELY TO WIN IT ALL IN 2009

A. Connecticut

B. North Carolina

C. Oklahoma

D. Duke

E. Pittsburgh

F. Memphis

G. Wake Forrest

H. Other?

In depends on which poll you look at to determine the rankings in college basketball. I think most people use the AP poll to see the college basketball rankings and this is the way they shake out in the AP:

1. Pittsburgh

2. Duke

3. North Carolina

4. Wake Forrest

5. Connecticut

Now if you look at the USA Today poll you will find the same 5 teams and they are ranked exactly the same. The two polls don’t disagree until you get to the 7th spot on the rankings. The AP poll has Texas ranked as the 7th best team in college basketball; while the USA Today poll shows UCLA as the 7th team. The RPI rankings is a better way to gauge the teams in some cases, but they don’t factor in weak competition too much. This is the way the RPI rankings have the top 5:

1. Pittsburgh

2. Duke

3. Butler

4. Xavier

5. Clemson

Not the teams you would expect to see on a top 5 list in college basketball, but that is the current top 5 rankings from the RPI. College basketball should be fun to watch and it’s a wide open race this year and hard to pick which team will come together and win it all this year. March Madness may get really “mad” this year and I can’t wait for the NCAA Tournament to roll around.