****Official NCAA Tournament Thread****
 

A little early, but the tip times just came out. All times are EST.

Thursday

12:20 - Xavier vs. Georgia
12:25 - Kansas vs. Portland St.
12:30 - Michigan St. vs. Temple

2:30 - Marquette vs. Kentucky
2:50 - Purdue vs. Baylor
2:55 - UNLV vs. Kent St.
3:00 - Pittsburgh vs. Oral Roberts

5:00 - Stanford vs. Cornell

7:10 - USC vs. Kansas St.
7:10 - Duke vs. Belmont
7:20 - Washington St. vs. Winthrop
7:25 - BYU vs. Texas A&M

9:40 - West Virginia vs. Arizona
9:40 - Wisconsin vs. CS-Fullerton
9:50 - Notre Dame vs. George Mason
9:55 - UCLA vs. Mississippi Valley St.

Friday

12:15 - Tennessee vs. American
12:25 - Gonzaga vs. Davidson
12:30 - Drake vs. Western Kentucky
12:30 - Miami vs. St. Mary's

2:45 - Butler vs. South Alabama
2:55 - Georgetown vs. UM-Baltimore County
3:00 - Connecticut vs. San Diego
3:00 - Texas vs. Austin Peay

7:10 - Oklahoma vs. St. Joseph's
7:10 - North Carolina vs. Play-In Winner
7:20 - Vanderbilt vs. Siena
7:25 - Mississippi St. vs. Oregon

9:40 - Indiana vs. Arkansas
9:40 - Louisville vs. Boise St.
9:50 - Clemson vs. Villanova
9:55 - Memphis vs. UT-Arlington

Feast on some tip times, my lovelies.

Like the Cat's time, just have to keep them from showing the Duke game down here.

I still can't get over that Tennessee-Butler second round matchup. Both teams should pool their resources and buy something really nasty for the committee over that.

Butler got thoroughly fucked.

A 7 seed? And they have to play an Alabama team in Alabama?

Butler did get hosed...... playing a road game in Birmingham. That So.Alabama team is pretty damn good, Butler has it's hands full .

Yay, one of my favorite work weeks of the year! The office goes nuts on the first round games.

The times for Stanford/Cornell and Texas/Austin Peay have been fixed.

Look out Portland State!

So, how good is Georgetown and how dumb would having them get upset in the second round by Davidson be?

G-town is not as good as last year but they are still probably a top 10 team at best right now. Davidson will lose.

They'll have the home-court advantage, but I don't think Davidson is nearly as good as Gonzaga. At least they don't have near the amount of weapons.

SC is final four bound

Gonzaga lost to San Diego in their conference tourney. I think Davidson's gonna be able to pull it off.

GAH! Dumb and bold basically mean the same thing when you're filling these damn things out.

KU beat them on their home court earlier this year.

If they don't get upset by KSU they'll lose to UW.

TBH, I think they can definitely make it to the elite 8. I think we can hang with UW.

I don't think all that highly of the Big 10 or Big East (um, I hate them with a passion :) ), so it's hard for me not to blow up that portion of the bracket.

Wisconsin is good, but they play the excruciating Big 10 style where they're always a basket away from either winning or losing. As said before, Georgetown is good, but not as good as last year.... Pittsburgh attempted 44 free throws in the Big East championship.

Those are the toughest to figure out, IMO. They're good enough at the style they play to go to the Final Four, but they'll do it with an average margin of victory of 3 points per game (see Ohio State last year).

I was nice to KState... I have them losing in the Elite 8 to KU... trying to relive the mojo from 88.

My purple tinted glasses appreciate it, but the Cats have not played well for some time. If Walker/Pullen bring their games, KSU is very dangerous. If not, very beatable. We'll see. Should be a fun matchup with USC regardless.

Maybe if they were Bortland State...

I don't know how we ever get past Baylor.

KSU won't beat USC.

It would be nice to see KU go past the second round this year.

Heh.

It's been nice to see them go past the 2nd round 4 of the last 6 years, too. :spock:

Although I don't have KU making the Final Four,I'd really like to see a KU-UCLA rematch.

John Calipari is a god damned saint:

Today, the final AP Top 25 men's basketball poll of the 2007-08 season was released. The Tigers have now been ranked in the top 25 of the AP Poll for 57 consecutive weeks. 36 of those weeks, Memphis has been in the top 5. Memphis and UCLA are the only two programs that have been ranked in the poll every week of the last three seasons.

-Preseason 05: #12 (0-0)
-03/13/06: #4 (30-3)
-Preseason 06: #14 (0-0)
-03/12/07: #5 (30-3)
-Preseason 07: #3 (0-0)
-03/17/08: #2 (33-1)

With all that homework I'm assuming you've entered the Yahoo challenge as it's paying like 5 mil for a perfect bracket.

Heh, yeah. People think that joke is so good until you present the actual facts.

Ha ha ha. What homework? I just copied and pasted that article. I suppose I could check out that yahoo thing. I always suck at these NCAA Tourney brackets, though.

bumpage

What stinks is UNC and KU would have to settle for a Final Four meeting rather than facing off for the championship.

I like UCLA's early matchups, should help getting Love and Mbah a Moute healthy. Also, watch out for USC. They've really come together towards the end of the year, and with Hackett back, they are definitely a complete team. They've got solid scoring options throughout the lineup and their defense is pretty damn good.

I have UCLA in the final getting beat by Kansas...

But now that I think about it, I think UCLA's luck is going to run out.. I dont think the officals will bail them out in the tourney like they did late in the year....

I picked UCLA to win it each of the last two years, but that had more to do with the homer in me than anything else. However, both of those teams made it to the final four with inferior talent due to their defense. Regardless of what some may think, UCLA's defense steps it up come tournament time and it can frustrate even the best of teams.

Got the TV on here at my desk....i am ready!

PLEASE DON'T KEEP ROLLING GEORGIA

It was cute in the SEC tourney, but that would be a quick death for 1/8 of my Elite Eight.

Currently, no one is announcing for the KU-Portland State game on MMOD. It's kind of awesome.

Damnit Xavier, just bury them and move on... Ugh, looks like their shooting funk is still in effect.

Mizzou fans are going to boycott Coke Zero.

YOU'RE KILLING ME <strike>SMALLS</strike> MUSKETEERS

Fffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuga.

I initially thought, "Hey, maybe Georgia will just keep playing out of their minds," but then I thought, "Don't be reeruned. They really do suck quite badly."

**** YOU XAVIER

Stupid Xavier is going to kill my bracket before this thing even gets going.

:cuss:

I'm so ****ing mad at those assholes right now.

Et tu, Bliss?

Woo hoo....my Georgia pick is lookin' pretty good so far.

Xavier's just played terribly so far, but UGA is playing some solid defense.

FireSeanMiller.com

Yes! Good offensive foul call by Hightower. COME ON XAVIER!

Come on Xavier....stay down.....go Dawgs!

EVERYBODY LOVES THAT GUY FOR THREEEEE!!!!

JACKSONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!

Okay, Xavier was just playing a little prank on me.

Now they're playing.

Not looking good for my 1st upset prediction.

Just realized on Comcast there is a 2nd CBS feed, so I don't have to watch local teams in a blowout.

Sweet.

Duncan is awesome.

Annnnnnnnnnd one for Brown.

Damnit Georgia!

Anyone watching MMOD. Mine is choppy as hell

I had to stop watching, it was so bad. The audio was awful.

I'm in the same boat. I'm getting audio, so I'm just listening at this point.

Yep....my upset #1 is toast!

Heyyyyyyy, Carter Blackburn's doing the Marquette-Kentucky game! Neato.

:KU:Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU :KU:

Damn, UNLV is waxing Kent State 18-6 halfway through the 1st half.

It looks like I may have my first loss on my bracket.

Same here, eazyb.

ORU-Pitt is as fun to watch as I expected it to be so far.

It's a massacre so far.












I'll leave. :sulk:

Well, it was a fun first ten minutes for ORU, I guess.

18-0 run for Pitt now, and ORU is just playing dumb, horrible basketball.

Kent State ties an all-time low for points scored in a half. LMAO

They should try to not suck so much.

Baylor is letting a big 10 team score at will against them

POSTERIZED

Kentucky is literally GIVING this game away. Haw haw haw!
You could even say that Marquette is TAKING it from them. Haw haw haw!

That's not unexpected, but it IS sad.

Oh holy shit:

Has there already been a No Shooting Allowed at Kent St. joke?

Has it been long enough for that?
I guess it has, because I chuckled.
Of course, it's entirely possible I'm a abd person.

Kent State has already halved their first half production... in the first minute of the second half.

While I watch Pitt blow out ORU

Crawford is not human.

There goes my $5 million.

I was hoping for a harder matchup, but oh well, UNLV should be a good practice game.

thanks, Baylor

for nothing....^$!##@@^&&*! Big 12....

There is still a chance that the Beaz could stop the Mayo.

USC has better cheerleaders than KSU. Game over.