Monday, March 14, 2011

2011 March Madness Tournament

It's time for my yearly post on my blogspot website to tell you about the 2011 NCAA March Madness tournament. The format for the opening round is different then previous years. The tournament begins tomorrow (March 15) at 6:30PM ET with the inaugural First Four. The First Four are the opening round prelims that are for the right to play in the field of 64.

That means if you are just getting into college basketball because its March Madness, you might not have known that there are now 68 teams that get into the NCAA tournament. The First Four games consist of pair of games that involve teams playing for a 16 seed and the last four at-large bids play for a 12th and 11th seed respectively.

This brings up something interesting that I didn't really know about the selection process before that kind of seems obvious now. I wondered why the 12 seed always seemed to be able to beat the 5 seed in most years. It's because they put one of three types of teams as a 12 seed: the awesome small conference team, the good to great Mid Major conference team, or the last teams in from one of the power conferences. 13 seeds and lower are reserved for the smaller division 1 conferences.

You can watch the First Four on truTV. The ESPN family of networks will be showing the first round matchups of the NIT Tournament. Besides the NIT tournament, there are also two other college basketball tournaments taking place: The College Basketball Invitational and the College Insider Tournament.

The Tuesday matchups are North Carolina-Asheville (19-13) vs. Arkansas-Little Rock (19-16) and UAB (22-8) vs. Clemson (9-7). The 16 seeds are playing at 6:30PM ET and UAB and Clemson are playing for a 12 seed and the right to play 5 seed West Virginia. Many people were critical of these two picks, which were the last two at-large teams in the tournament. UAB was the Conference USA regular season champ and the 2nd C-USA team in the tournament. The analysts said that Clemson did not belong in the tournament, especially since they did not have a win against a top 50 opponent all year.

The second set of First Four games on Wednesday are between the (16) Texas-San Antonio (19-13) vs. Alabama State (17-17) and USC (19-14) vs. VCU (23-11). USC and VCU are fighting for an 11 seed and the right to play the 6 seed Georgetown. Both of these at-large selections were heavily criticized after the brackets were revealed on Selection Sunday as well, but especially VCU out of the Colonial League.

Bubbles Busted



You would think with 68 teams coming into the tournament, there would be less controversy then normal. But of course, teams 69 - 74 are all going to be upset that they didn't make it. There were quite a few schools that were heart-broken on Sunday.

Top of the list is Colorado, who had 3 wins against top 25 Kansas State including one in the Big 12 tournament. They should have been in ahead of all four of the First Four contestants.

Other teams that were upset include Virginia Tech, who struggled down the stretch after beating #1 Duke and played their way out of the tournament. Alabama beat Georgia twice, but Georgia took one of the last at-large bids instead of Alabama. Boston College had an argument, but less of one then the other teams ahead of them.

You would have thought that more tournament bids would have meant more at-large bids from smaller conferences. If Cleveland State would have beaten Butler, both teams would have been in the tournament. They had a better record then Butler, but there is no way that the Bulldogs would have been denied after going to the finals last year. Saint Mary's also got the short straw after losing to Gonzaga in the WCC finals. This is another case of a smaller conference only getting 1 bid because the right team won.

NCAA Tournament Schedule



1st Round Games - Day 1
#12 Clemson vs #5 West Virginia 12:15 PM - East Region - CBS
#9 Old Dominion vs #8 Butler 12:40 PM - Southeast Region - truTV
#13 Morehead State vs #4 Louisville 1:40 PM - Southwest Region - TBS
#10 Penn State vs #7 Temple 2:10 PM - West Region - TNT

#13 Princeton vs #4 Kentucky 2:45 PM - East Region - CBS
#16 UNC-Ash/Ark-LR vs #1 Pittsburgh 3:10 PM - Southeast Region - truTV
#12 Richmond vs #5 Vanderbilt 4:10 PM - Southwest Region - TBS
#15 No. Colorado vs #2 San Diego State - West Region - TNT

#15 UC Santa Barbara vs #2 Florida 6:50 PM - Southeast Region - TBS
#14 Wofford vs #3 BYU 7:15 PM - Southeast Region - CBS
#14 Bucknell vs #3 Connecticut 7:20 PM - West Region - TNT
#13 Belmont vs #4 Wisconsin 7:27 PM - Southeast Region - truTV

#10 Michigan State vs #7 UCLA 9:20 PM - Southeast Region - TBS
#11 Gonzaga vs #6 St. John's 9:45 PM - Southeast Region - CBS
#11 Missouri vs #6 Cincinnati 9:50 PM - West Region - TNT
#12 Utah State vs #5 Kansas State 9:57 PM - Southeast Region - truTV

1st Round Games - Day 2
#13 Oakland vs #4 Texas 12:15 PM - West Region - CBS
#9 Tennessee vs #8 Michigan 12:40 PM - West Region - truTV
#15 Akron vs #2 Notre Dame 1:40 PM - Southwest Region - TBS
#9 Villanova vs #8 George Mason 2:10 PM - East Region - TNT

#12 Memphis vs #5 Arizona 2:45 PM - West Region - CBS
#16 Hampton vs #1 Duke 3:10 PM - West Region - truTV
#10 Florida St vs #7 Texas A&M - Southwest Region - TBS
#16 UT-San Antonio/Alabama St vs #1 Ohio State 4:40 PM - East Region - TNT

#16 Boston U vs #1 Kansas 6:50 PM - Southwest Region - TBS
#15 Long Island vs #2 North Carolina 7:15 PM - East Region - CBS
#14 St Peter's vs #3 Purdue 7:20 PM - Southwest Region - TNT
#11 Marquette vs #6 Xavier 7:27 PM - East Region - truTV

#9 Illois vs #8 UNLV 9:20 PM - Southwest Region - TBS
#10 Georgia vs #7 Washington 9:45 PM - East Region - CBS
#11 USC/VCU vs #6 Georgetown 9:50 PM - Southwest Region - TNT
#14 Indiana State vs #3 Syracuse 9:57 PM - East Region - truTV

For more NCAA tournament information, check out my NCAA tournament contests and March Madness Sportsbook Promotions pages on my website. You can also find news and updates on the NCAA tournament at BestSportsGambling.com

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