Mississippi guard Stefan Moody scored 26 points and forward M.J. Rhett added 20, as the Rebels completed a stirring second-half comeback from a 17-point halftime deficit, defeating Brigham Young 94-90 in an NCAA Tournament first-round game Tuesday night at University of Dayton Arena.
Hampton coach Edward Joyner Jr. said he’d seek divine intervention if the Pirates earned a matchup against the unbeaten Kentucky Wildcats. Following Tuesday night’s 74-64 win over the Manhattan Jaspers, he made the call.
Sure, millions will be watching the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament to see whether Kentucky’s bid for an unbeaten season can be quashed or whether a 14 seed can make it to the Final Four. But the popularity of the tournament also spawns another kind of madness.
Undefeated No. 1-ranked Kentucky can be written in Sharpie when you fill out that office bracket, but the picks that put you over the top aren’t tracing the chalk to Lucas Oil Stadium.
If any one player epitomizes what the NCAA Tournament means to bettors and the sports books, it’s Mamadou Ndiaye, a 7-foot-6-inch, 300-pound mountain of a man for UC Irvine.
You would have to be crazy to think you can master the betting process for the NCAA’s annual college basketball tournament. That’s part of why it’s called March Madness.
The quest to open eyes of NCAA suits about their short-sighted views and mistaken opinions when it comes to staging championship play in Las Vegas doesn’t soon appear to be changing.
Connecticut is a national champion for the fourth time because when it comes to the final of each season, this almost always holds up: The side that executes those things thought inessential during a season is the one cutting down nets at its end.
Two years ago, Jim Calhoun was playing out this same scene, cutting down his own set of nets and giving Connecticut its third national title. Then he left the program in academic disrepair to go play golf and had former player turned assistant Kevin Ollie stick around to clean up the mess. Most programs don’t survive. But Connecticut was different.
Shabazz Napier turned in another all-court masterpiece Monday night to lift Connecticut to a 60-54 win over Kentucky’s freshmen and a national title hardly anyone saw coming.
Shabazz Napier scored 22 points and Connecticut got the best of Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament championship game on Monday night. It marks the fourth title for the Huskies in 15 years.
When the Wildcats of Kentucky start a lineup of all freshmen against Connecticut in tonight’s national championship game at AT&T Stadium, it will be the first time in a final since the Fab Five of Michigan did so in losing to Duke in 1992.
At this point, it seems to be a daily routine. Brush your teeth, eat lunch, get annoyed by bad drivers on the way to work, and, of course, watch Aaron Harrison hit a huge 3-pointer as Kentucky wins a thriller.
This is the new normal. The way college basketball will look more often than not each March.
