Sports InsideOut

The tournament has lived up so far.  The Uconn and Kentucky runs are nice, but those teams have been there before, and although they are 7 and 8 seeds, respectively, they are two of the best programs in NCAA tournament history.  The best part of this tournament has been Mercer, who took down Jabari Parker and Duke, Harvard, who upset Cincinnati and then gave Michigan St a run for its money,  and North Dakota St, who took down Oklahoma with a game tying three with just seconds to go.  Teams like Stephen F. Austin, who down four with 5 seconds left, completed a 4 point play (3 and a foul) to beat favorite VCU, and Tennessee, who as a 11 seed beat Iowa in the First Four and then suddenly became one of the best teams in the country, crushing Mercer and UMass before barely falling to 2 seed Michigan in a game that could have gone either way.  The definition of the madness is lowly 11 seed Dayton, lucky to make the tournament, as many thought they would be out.  ...

Here are my picks for the conference championship games, winners and MVPs for the 7 major conference tournaments. BIG 10 Final: Michigan St vs. Nebraska Winner: Michigan St MVP: Gary Harris Michigan St is beginning to get fully healthy, which means we are just beginning to see what they can do.  Recently, they have not played very well, and are nearly out of the rankings, down to 22.  But the injuries they have had are just unbelievable.  Each of their top 4 players has missed significant time (and by significant, I don't mean one or two).  Gary Harris missed the least, at just a couple weeks, but Payne missed even more time, and Keith Appling missed time, and was hindered in many of the recent games he has played.  Brandon Dawson, arguably their best rebounder, missed the most time, sitting for about a month for (wait for it) breaking his hand after slamming on the table in the film room.  With all of these guys back, I think they can make a run and ...

The Syracuse vs. Duke game this past weekend lived up to the hype.  I feel everyone is focusing on the charge call and the Jim Boeheim ejection, while instead they should be focusing on how well both teams played, and how it was such a great game until the final 15 or so seconds.  This game even further entrenched Florida into the number one spot, and there is really no team you can put there.  Florida looks like far and away the best at this point, and why shouldn't they, they've been phenomenal lately, winning 19 in a row.  In this stretch, they've beaten Kansas, Memphis, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee twice.  The only real close call has been Arkansas on the road, and they have beaten South Carolina by 16, Georgia by 22, Tennessee by 26, and Texas A&M by 33.  The talent on this team surpasses every other team in the country.  Easily.  Billy Donnovan is a great coach, turning this team around after starting 6-2 (if you call that...

1. Nebraska Nebraska has won 5 of 6, with the only loss on the road against Michigan.  Next 4: Penn St, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern (in my opinion the 4 worst in the Big Ten).  Terran Petteway is first team all Big Ten.  He can score in so many ways.  I hope he doesn't go pro after the year, but don't know why he wouldn't.  There really is no way to improve his draft stock past his first round position by staying a year.  Ray Gallegos is a great three point shooter, making this a very solid offense.  The key is their defense.  Tai Webster is a big guard who can really defend, as can Petteway and swingman Shavon Shields.  Nebraska needs to do well the rest of the way to pull out a tournament win, but I think they are playing great, and should finish well.  The real tough loss holding them back is UAB, but other than that, they have been solid. 2. Providence Last year, Providence had two of the top young freshman in the country going...

Top 10 (includes top 3 players with stats, and comments on team) 1. Syracuse Tyler Ennis 11.6 PPG 5.7 APG, Jerami Grant 12.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG, CJ Fair 17.4 PPG, 5.8 RPG This is the easiest choice, they are far and away the best team in the country right now.  Jerami Grant is phenomenal, he is a great defender, and can shoot from anywhere, and is also a huge post presence.  Tyler Ennis is one of the three best PGs in the country, along with Aaron Craft, and Marcus Smart.  CJ Fair is an all-american.  Behind that, they have 3 other athletic big men who also have awesome names: Baye-Moussa Keita, Dajuan Coleman, and Rakeem Christmas (so does Duke transfer guard Michael Gbinije).  Anyways, Keita, Coleman, and Christmas could start on almost any team in the country, and lead the team (and maybe the league) in blocks.  In Syracuse's famous 2-3 zone, it is critical to have these big, strong and athletic big men. 2. Michigan St Keith Appling 16.4 PPG, 4.6 APG, Gar...

College basketball truly began this past weekend with the first weekend of conference play.  Oregon lost its first game of the season to number 24 Colorado.  Michigan St took down Indiana.  Undefeated Wisconsin came back to beat ranked Iowa after Fran McCaffery was ejected.   Kansas lost at home to a very talented 21st ranked San Diego St team.  It was an exciting weekend and showed me why college basketball is so great.  Here is a video of the college basketball highlights since 2010. I am going to answer two big questions for this post. Question 1: Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Indiana are four of the best programs in the country.  Recently, they haven't done very well.  All four of these programs are not in the top 15 of this week's poll, and have struggled lately.  Two are unranked.  Will this be a trend for the rest of the year or is this just a slow start? In my opinion, the answer is different for all of these ...

For this blog post, I would like to do something called a blind resume.  Here are the resumes of two teams.  They include SOS (strength of schedule rank in the country), RPI (a computerized ranking of each team), and record (W-L).  It is your job to decide which two of these four teams should be a number one seed. Team 1                    Team 2                 Team 3                Team 4 Record: 9-3            Record: 12-1        Record: 11-1        Record: 11-2 RPI: 4                     RPI: 13                RPI: 1                   RPI: 35 SOS: 2                   SOS: 79     ...