NCAA BASKETBALL
Tomorrow, Sunday, March 13, is not only the day we change our clocks forward an hour but also the day 68 lucky teams throughout men's Division 1 basketball find out they are in the NCAA Tournament, an annual event often referred to as March Madness.
For today, though, the madness involves the way the conference tournaments are breaking down? Jimmer scores 52? Check. Louisville arguably the hottest team in the country? Check. Duke/UNC scheduled for a second date in two weeks (third on the season)? Check. Number-one overall Ohio State rolling toward a position as one of the favorites in the big dance? Checkeroo.
Okay, let's face it. Selection Sunday will look a whole lot worse to some teams than it will to others. After all, teams are given 1st-16th seeds, which means some quietly-successful teams will have to enter the tournament playing the best teams in the country, which almost always lead to stat-padding and blowout losses. The big question right now, hours before the selections, are who will get what? Number one seeds? If you've been paying attention to the NCAA this season, three teams (Ohio State, Kansas, Duke) have lost the week they received the #1 ranking, and two others (Texas and Pitt) have been on the cusp before suffering debilitating losses to unranked opponents. So it's clear that there are no givens. Well, maybe one or two. Ohio State and Kansas are expected to be number ones, given their status as elite that has remained this year despite losses here and there.
>>>>Note: Kansas is currently up 63-55 on Texas, about two thirds of the way through the second half of the Big Twelve Conference Championship Game. Nationwide, Kansas is ranked Number 2 in the country, and Texas is ranked 10th.
>>>>Tomorrow, Ohio State (which nipped unranked Michigan today by a score of 68-61) will play unranked Penn State for the Big Ten title.
Otherwise, it's difficult to pick out a given for a Number One. Brigham Young University, behind star Jimmer Fredette (see below), got as high as third in the rankings this season, but lost twice to conference rival New Mexico and and lost third-scorer Brandon Davies to university student honor code violations. Last night, BYU finally beat New Mexico, behind 52 points (33 in the first half!) from Fredette, arguably the front-runner in Naismith Player of the Year contention. BYU is currently down, 43-31, to San Diego State University, whom they beat twice this year, in the Mountain West Conference final.
Then there's defending national champion Duke University. The Blue Devils were ranked #1 overall twice this year, but lost it in January after dropping a contest against conference foe Florida State and in late February after being beaten by underdog Virginia Tech, another conference rival. The Devils just avenged the latter game, beating the Hokies 77-63 today in the ACC Conference semifinals behind Player of the Year candidate Nolan Smith's 27 points. Tomorrow, at 12:30 p.m., the Devils will take on blood rival UNC after the Tar Heels beat Clemson, 92-87, in overtime in the other semifinal. This is just weeks after UNC dealt Duke a difficult double-digit loss in their second season meeting, after the more-experienced Devils recovered from an early deficit to beat the Heels at Duke in January. Duke has been in the headlines all year; North Carolina recovered from a sluggish start to romp through the rest of the regular season schedule and the conference tournament so far (well, they've been down by at least 10 in all tourney game so far, but it hasn't hurt their record). The two teams are the defending national champions of the past 2 years, and it is believed that Duke would be an automatic #1 if they win the season's rubber match tomorrow. North Carolina would likely be close, but a debate would still rage.
Last year, Duke beat rising star Butler by a basket in a classic game that came down to a nearly-there last-second half-court shot by Butler's Gordon Heyward to claim the title. The year before, North Carolina rolled through Michigan State in Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson's senior year curtain call.
We're not quite into the thick of the madness this year, but we're getting quite close.
This week's top-ranked teams nationwide were:
1. Ohio State
2. Kansas
3. Pittsburgh (lost to UCONN in the Big East Conference tourney two days ago)
4. Notre Dame (lost last night in overtime to Louisville)
5. Duke
6. North Carolina
7. San Diego State
8. Brigham Young
9. Purdue (lost yesterday to Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament)
10. Texas
Note: San Diego went on to beat BYU in the Mountain West Conference Final, 72-52.
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