The first full weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament is in the books and it wasn’t without its share of upsets and exciting finishes. The upsets of the first round included #12 Villanova beating #5 Clemson, #13 San Diego defeating #4 UConn in overtime, #13 Siena upending #4 Vanderbilt, #11 Kansas St. tamed #6 USC, and #10 Davidson subdued #7 Gonzaga. I think without a doubt the most exciting finish of the first round was #12 Western Kentucky hitting a last second 26-foot three pointer in overtime to beat #5 Drake 101-99.

The second round had its share of Cinderella stories advancing to the Sweet Sixteen with #12 Villanova defeating #13 Siena, #12 Western Kentucky beating #13 San Diego and #10 Davidson out gunning #2 Georgetown. I think the NCAA tournament is always better when we have these sort of teams making it to the second weekend and who knows one of these teams might be the next George Mason.

Right now North Carolina by far looks like the team to beat after the first two games so it will be interesting to see if some of the other high seeded teams step up to the challenge in the coming games.

Kansas -22.5
Temple +7.5
Purdue -3

Overall Record:

College Basketball 95-67-6
NBA 16-10
College Football: 44-41-1
MLB 7-1
NFL 63-33-3

The Georgia Bulldogs just completed a historic run through the SEC tournament by going from worst to first in four days. I would venture to say this is one of the most memorable runs ever due to all the circumstances revolving around this Championship specifically. Georgia won three games in less than 35 hours and four games overall against Mississippi, Kentucky, Mississippi St. and Arkansas to win the SEC Championship. The reason Georgia had to win three games within 35 hours was due to an EF 2 tornado that hit downtown Atlanta (tornados very very rarely hit major downtown cities) Friday evening and suspended Georgia’s game that evening leading to two games on Saturday. The rest of the tournament also was moved to Georgia Tech’s coliseum due to the damage suffered by the Georgia Dome.

Take all these components along with the fact that head coach Dennis Felton of Georgia was on the hot seat to say the least and the Bulldogs pulled off a monumental run to win the SEC. Georgia gained a #14 seed in the West and will play #3 Xavier in the first round.

College basketball conference tournaments are in full swing and there is already five teams in the Big Dance. Tomorrow and throughout the rest of the week many teams will have their heart broken and others will be ecstatic with a ticket to the Tournament. Congrats to the teams already in, but I don’t see any of them getting out of the first round except for Drake!

Cornell - Ivy League
Winthrop - Big South
Austin Peay - Ohio Valley
Belmont - Atlantic Sun
Drake - Missouri Vally

If you didn’t get a chance to see 7′7 Kenny George of UNC-Asheville tonight against UNC-Chapel Hill on ESPNU you really missed out. George is gargantuan to say the least yet he does have the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time which is generally tough for people of his stature. On the night George had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks. I hope UNC-A can win the Big South Tournament so we can see George and the gang again in the NCAA Tournament.

I have heard from an extremely reliable source this evening some SHOCKING news for college basketball.  Long Beach State will soon be announcing a new head coach for their men’s basketball team.  Keep in mind this University has had the likes of Lute Olson, Seth Greenberg and Jerry Tarkanian as their head coach through the years so they do hold their own.  The Long Beach State 49ers will announce Mike freakin Montgomery as their new head coach in the coming daysa year after he left the NBA and Golden State.  Montgomery is an alum of LBSU and wants to get back in the college ranks.  You can bank on this baby just like you could the “chalk” in this years NCAA tournament.  Snoop Dogg has to be proud about the news for his LBC.  Thoughts???

Michigan University announced they have fired Tommy Amaker as their mens basketball head coach.  Amaker coached six seasons in Ann Arbor with a 109-83 overall record, but only 43-53 in the Big Ten.  The most important thing to note is Amaker didn’t get the Wolverines into the NCAA Tournament once in his tenure.  There is an ass load of names being tossed around already as the successor for the head coaching job.  Mike Montgomery, Tony Bennett, Lon Kruger, Sean Miller, Steve Lavin and of course Rick Majerus.  Good luck to Tommy and Michigan as they go their separate ways.

UCLA covers -7 against Indiana

Michigan State covers +9.5 against UNC

OVERALL RECORD:

College Basketball 47-37-2

NBA 3-1

NFL 12-5-1

College Football: 10-8

USC covers -2.5 against Arkansas

Villanova covers -1.5 against Kentucky

Today so far hasn’t been the money making day yesterday was by any means.  At this point I am down and needing to get back on a roll.  These games will do just that for me and you!

Virginia Tech covers -3 against Illinois

Purdue covers +3 against Arizona

Kansas covers -19 against Niagara

OVERALL RECORD:

College Basketball 44-34-1

NBA 3-1

NFL 12-5-1

College Football: 10-8