Bracket Breakdown: East

The East Regional in East Rutherford, N.J. promises excitement and intrigue, no matter who ends up there. Several teams could win this one.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are the top seed, and draw the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky Fried Chicken in the first round. EKU has had a nice season, winning the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, but they're not North Carolina. Tar Heels roll.

They face the winner of a gargantuan 8-9 matchup between Tom Crean and the Marquette Golden Eagles (I almost called them Warriors-naughty, naughty!), and his mentor Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans. Teacher beats pupil here. Spartans win this one in Winston-Salem.

The 5 vs. 12 matchup in Spokane gives us the resurgent USC Trojans and the Arkansas Razorbacks, probably the last team chosen for the tournament. The last time these schools met, it was on the football field, and SC hung half a hundred on the Hogs in Fayetteville. This will be a better game, but give the edge to SC.

In the other Spokane game, the Fighting Kevin Durants, a/k/a Texas Longhorns, get a matchup with Reggie Theus and the New Mexico State Aggies. It seems like yesterday Reggie Theus was playing for UNLV and a million NBA teams. Durant and Texas are too much for the Aggies.

Down on the bottom half of the bracket, Gloria Vanderbilt takes on George Washington. It's not really Gloria's school, but I think it's the same family. I smell a slight upset here in the 6-11 game. First in war, first in peace, and first on Thursday in Sacramento: George Washington.

Speaking of upsets, there is another potential upset in Sacramento. Washington State has had an excellent season, finishing in second place in the Pac-10 regular season. They face the Golden Eagles (once a Titan, always a Titan) of Oral Roberts. Oral always said: "Expect a Miracle", and it was on the side of their court at one time. ORU has already beaten Kansas in Lawrence, and they get a 14 over 3 upset in Sac-town on Thursday.

Back in Winston-Salem, the struggling Boston College Eagles are matched up with the O'Reilly Texas Tech Red Raiders. Bob Knight won't be allowed to wear the O'Reilly sweater during the tournament, but he won't have to sell an oil filter to beat BC. Tech wins their first-round game.

Georgetown goes back to the future. They are coached by John Thompson III, son of their legendary coach. One of their players is Patrick Ewing, Jr., son of star Georgetown and Knicks center Patrick Ewing. Not coincidentally, Georgetown has their best team since the 80's. They are matched up with Music City's other team, Belmont, making their second consecutive tournament appearance. I like G'town to win big here.

All of that brings us to the second round. North Carolina should have relatively little trouble with a maxed out Michigan State team. USC and Texas meet in a rematch of the 2005-06 Rose Bowl, with Texas winning the hoops version, as well. In the upset bracket, the father of our country, George Washington, wins out over that fan of 60's retro architecture, Oral Roberts. GW's crosstown rival, Georgetown, solidly handles the Texas Tech O'Reillys.

At the Sweet 16 in the Meadowlands, UNC finds itself in a classic matchup with the Kevin Durants. Durant puts Texas on his back, and the Horns knock off the Heels, setting up a classic Roy Williams post-game press conference. In the other game, Georgetown earns bragging rights to D.C. by dispatching of the upstart GW Colonials.

Which brings us to the regional final, Georgetown vs. Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant is the real deal. For the second year in a row, though, Texas falls in the Elite Eight. The Georgetown renaissance continues, as the Hoyas punch their ticket to Atlanta.

Bracket Breakdown: West

The West Regional finds the Kansas Jayhawks as the #1 seed, thanks partly to UCLA's loss of their last two games in a row. Still, the Bruins only have to fly to NoCal for both rounds of the tournament, as they are bracketed for Sacramento and San Jose, before a possible trip to the Final Four.

There is no subregional in Kansas City, Wichita, Emporia, Leavenworth, or anywhere reasonably close to Lawrence this year, so the Jayhawks spend the opening weekend in the Windy City of Chicago. They also draw the winner of Tuesday's play-in game between Florida A&M and Niagara. If this were a band competition, FAMU would win hands down. But, Niagara feels hosed by having to play in this game, and should take out their frustrations on the Rattlers. The Purple Eagles then get a first round game with Kansas. Good luck with all that. KU wins their first opening game in three years, after losing to Bucknell and Bradley the last two years.

Awaiting the Jayhawks will be the winner of the Wildcats vs. Wildcats matchup between Kentucky and Villanova. It's hard to believe that Tubby Smith's job may be on the line. Some schools are excited to make the tournament every year. At Kentucky, national championships are expected, and the Big Blue hasn't won one since 1998. Kentucky basketball=Oklahoma football. Nova is a dangerous team, and will knock out the team from the Bluegrass.

One of the last teams chosen for the field are the Fighting Illini of Illinois. They draw the Hokies of Virginia Tech. Look for plenty of orange in this game. Illinois was just good enough to get into this tournament, but not good enough to get past Zabian Dowdell and the Hokies. Ya gotta pick a team with a guy named Zabian.

The Illini's downstate neighbors, the Salukis of Southern Illinois, are in the other game in Columbus. Their opponents are the Holy Cross Crusaders. Upset alert here, as Holy Cross can play. Holy Cross, Batman! The Uncaped Crusaders get the win over the Salukis.

This is a down year for the Duke Blue Devils. They are in the tournament as a #6 seed, and are grateful to be seeded that high. Their reward: a trip to beautiful downtown Buffalo, and a date with the Rams of Virginia Commonwealth. VCU is the regular season and tournament champion of the Colonial Athletic Association, the league that gave us George Mason. Mason's magic shifts down I-95 to Richmond, as the Rams knock off the Dukies, and make half of the college basketball world very happy.

Also in Buffalo are the Pittsburgh Panthers, and their opponent, the pesky Wright State Raiders. This is a potential upset. This will be close, but I'm not biting on this one. Give me Pittsburgh.

The bottom of the bracket takes us to Sacramento. Kelvin Sampson enters his first tournament as coach of the Indiana Hoosiers with a matchup with everyone's darling, Gonzaga. The Zags recovered from the dismissal of C Josh Heytvelt (possession of a narcotic mushroom) to win both the regular season and tournament in the West Coast Conference. Indiana, when last we saw them, scored 4 points in an overtime against Illinois. Give me the Zags.

Awaiting that winner will be UCLA. UCLA gets a first-round game against coach Ben Howland's alma mater, Weber State. Weber's not bad for the Big Sky, but this is UCLA. The Bruins bounce back.

In the second round, Kansas gets a stiff test from Villanova, and needs every ounce of energy and luck, but gets by the Wildcats. The Jayhawks get a matchup with the Hokies of Virginia Tech, who end the dreams of Holy Cross.

The dreams of VCU also suffer an end at the hands of the Pittsburgh Panthers. Pitt prepares for the winner of a great second round matchup between Gonzaga and UCLA. The Bruins win the rematch of a thriller from last year's tournament.

The HP Pavilion (great name for an arena-maybe Dell can sponsor an arena and call it the Inspiron) in San Jose hosts the Sweet 16 matchups of Kansas-Virginia Tech, and Pittsburgh-UCLA. KU handles Zabian and company in one matchup. Ben Howland and UCLA get the best of his former team and assistant, Jamie Dixon.

Which gives us the matchup we all want in the regional: Kansas and UCLA. This matchup radiates tradition. This will be up and down, and down to the wire, but Bill Self finally gets to a Final Four, after reaching the Elite Eight with three different schools (Tulsa, Illinois, KU).

Bracket Breakdown: Midwest

We begin our breakdown of the NCAA men's tournament with the Midwest Regional. The NCAA has gone back to using regional names, instead of generic names like the St. Louis Regional. This is a good move by the guys in Indianapolis. Click on the graphic for more details.

There is no regional in true SEC country this year (the South regional is in south Texas), so the committee shipped Florida to St. Louis and the Midwest. The Gators look really, really strong once again, returning almost their entire team from last year's national championship.

First, the Gators have a date in New Orleans with Jackson State. Jackson State doesn't have a prayer in the first round. Someday, a #16 seed will beat a #1 seed in the first round. Not here.

The winner (Florida, cough, cough) gets a matchup with the winner of the 8-9 game between Arizona and Purdue. Purdue has had a nice bounce-back year. Arizona is here every year, though they are not as strong as they were when they were going to Final Fours and winning a national championship. Still, the Cats are good enough to beat the Boilers here.

Every year, a 12 seed seems to always beat a 5 seed. This regional will be no different. Butler has had a great season, and has earned a #5 seed on the strength of its non-conference performance. They lost three games at the end of the year, and appear to have peaked too soon. Old Dominion is just the kind of team that can take advantage of this matchup. I pick Old Dominion in the upset in beautiful downtown Buffalo.

Maryland is another team that has bounced back this year. I thought the #4 seed was a little high, especially after their brainlock against ACC cellar-dweller Miami. Davidson, their first-round opponent, has rolled through the Southern Conference, and has won 29 games overall. This will be a tough game. I'm picking the Turtle, but Davidson will give Maryland all they want, and then some. The real question is: who does Lefty Driesell cheer for? He coached at both schools.

On the bottom half of the bracket, we find America's football team, Notre Dame, up against everyone's favorite choice for this year's surprise team, Winthrop. The Eagles come into this game at 27-4, and have broken into the Top 25, a first for a Big South team. Notre Dame is a pretty good team. But, I'm jumping on the Winthrop bandwagon for this one.

Also in Spokane is potentially the worst matchup of the tournament. Oregon rolled to the Pac-10 tournament championship last week. Miami (Ohio) got into this tournament on a literal prayer of a 3-point bank shot to beat Akron at the buzzer in the MAC final. The magic runs out for the Redhawks. Oregon, and it won't even be close.

Chicago is the site of one of the better first-round matchups: 7th seed UNLV and 10th seed Georgia Tech. The Runnin' Rebels are back, and got hosed a bit with this low seed. Tech has some guys that can play, and beat North Carolina during the last week of the regular season. In a tough game, give me Vegas. What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.

Wisconsin stays close to home in Chicago as a #2 seed, and draws the Islanders of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. TAMU-CC is the ultimate hyphenated school, and they're not even Aggies! I'd love to see them pull the upset, and I look for them to keep it close. But, Wiscy will pull away at the end to advance.

In the 2nd round, Florida draws Arizona. The Gators show up to play, and it won't even be close. Old Dominion survives to take on Maryland, and this turns out to be a good game. The Terps hold on in a close one to advance. Winthrop moves into a 2nd round game with Oregon, represents well, but comes up short, and the flourescent yellow of Oregon advances. The Ducks will take on Wisconsin, victors over UNLV.

Which brings us to the Sweet 16 by the Arch in St. Louis. The Gators get Maryland, and handle them with relative ease. Oregon takes on Wisconsin. The Badgers play to their seed, despite many experts' pick against them, and move on to the Elite Eight.

The Gators get a matchup with the Cheeseheads for a trip to Atlanta. Florida is just a little better, and moves on to the Final Four to defend their title.

Coming up: predictions from the West, East, and South regionals.

The Brackets Are Out

The pairings for the NCAA men's basketball tournament have been announced. They can be found here.

There were a few surprises along the way. I didn't expect North Carolina to receive a #1 seed, much less the #2 seed in the entire tournament. I also didn't expect Florida to be the top seed for the whole tournament.

The only teams that got in the tournament that I did not project are Arkansas and Stanford. Those are not surprising, as the Hogs made a big run in the SEC tournament, and the Cardinal didn't have any bad losses while going 10-8 in the tough Pac-10.

The only teams I had projected into the field that missed the tournament are Syracuse and Kansas State. I was mildly, but not totally surprised.

For what it's worth, I correctly projected 63 out of 65 teams in the field. I projected 44 out of 65 teams within one seed of what they received in the tournament.

The state of Texas came up big. 5 teams from Texas are in the field: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, North Texas, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. And they said this was a football state.

Bracket analysis to come during the week...

NIT Projections

And, for those teams left out of the NCAA tournament, the NIT is available. The National Invitation Tournament is the nation's oldest post-season tournament. This year, the field has been reduced from 40 to 32 teams.

This is the second year that the NIT has been operated by the NCAA. As a result, regular season conference champions not selected for the NCAA tournament receive automatic bids to the NIT.

I'm not even going to try to project actual brackets for the NIT. However, I will take a stab at projecting the 32 teams chosen.

Automatic bids: Austin Peay, Marist, East Tennessee State, South Alabama, Toledo, Vermont, Delaware State, Mississippi Valley State

The other 24: Drexel, Missouri State, Stanford, Air Force, Arkansas, Bradley, Florida State, Utah State, Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Michigan, West Virginia, Ole Miss, UMass, Mississippi State, Georgia, Appalachian State, San Diego State, Akron, DePaul, Hofstra, Bucknell, Washington

That's not a bad tournament itself. Most of those teams could win a game or two in the NCAA tournament with the right matchup.

2007 NCAA Tournament Projections, Final Edition

Nothing really earth-shattering has happened in the world of college hoops in the last 18 hours. All the teams that were supposed to win have won, thus far. That includes Florida, North Carolina, Long Beach State, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Big Ten and Big 12 championship games end too late to impact the bracket. The guys in Indianapolis are through with their bracket, so the positions of Ohio State, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Texas will not be affected by a win or loss this afternoon.

Top four seeds: Ohio State, Kansas, Florida, Wisconsin
Last four teams in: Purdue, Kansas State, Illinois, Old Dominion
Last four teams out: Drexel, Missouri State, Air Force, Stanford

I'm not projecting them in the bracket, but don't be surprised to see Appalachian State in the Big Dance. They could be this year's 2006 Utah State (How did they get in?). That is, a team from way under the radar finding themselves on CBS during the Selection Show.

So, last night's bracket is today's bracket. Click on the graphic for more details.

2007 NCAA Tournament Projections, Late Saturday Night

After an active day, it's safe to post another batch of tournament projections. I will have one more projection posted tomorrow afternoon between 3 and 5 PM CDT. Click on the graphic for more details.

There are a couple of notable happenings at the top of the bracket. By making it to the Big Ten final, Wisconsin has the last #1 seed, according to my projection. The selection committee will have their decisions finalized before the end of Sunday's Big Ten championship game. UCLA's loss to Cal in the Pac-10 tournament cost them a #1 seed, unless Florida loses to Arkansas on Sunday. Also, Georgetown worked their way up to a #2 seed, by winning the Big East tournament in grand fashion.

At the bottom of the bracket, Florida A&M played their way into the Tuesday night opening round game by winning the MEAC tournament. I have them projected to play Central Connecticut State.

I love Drexel's team this year. They have 14 wins away from home. However, I'm afraid their bubble is about to burst. I want to be wrong on this. I have the final spot down to Old Dominion and conference mate Drexel. Old Dominion has two wins over Drexel, a higher conference finish, and a win at Georgetown. I think that will give them the tiniest of edges. If Arkansas and/or N.C. State win on Sunday, that makes two more bubble teams unhappy.

Last four in: Purdue, Illinois, Kansas State, Old Dominion
Last four out: Drexel, Missouri State, Air Force, Stanford

Cal Poly and Long Beach State are playing for the Big West title as I type. Auto-bids on the line Sunday include:

ACC: North Carolina vs. North Carolina State at Tampa
SEC: Florida vs. Arkansas at Atlanta
Southland: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. Northwestern St. at Campbell Center, Houston
Big Ten: Ohio State vs. Wisconsin at Chicago
Big XII: Kansas vs. Texas at Oklahoma City

Musings

There will be another bracket projection before bedtime. I am waiting until after the finals of the Big East and WAC tournaments before finalizing tonight's projection. There will be one more tomorrow afternoon before the real selection committee makes theirs public at 5 PM CDT.

The bubble teams are still sweating. Oklahoma State lost to Texas today in the Big XII, making at least one at-large bid safe. Arkansas is still alive in the SEC, and is set to play Florida in the final. It seems like Arkansas just played Florida in the SEC football championship game at the Georgia Dome. Tomorrow, they're going to do the same thing in hoops. And, N.C. State is still alive in the ACC, having won three in a row in Tampa. They have a tall order tomorrow, as they face archrival North Carolina.

Among today's automatic qualifiers, so far: Albany, Memphis, Oregon, Florida A&M, Jackson State, George Washington, Miami (Ohio), and UNLV. Catch SportsCenter for the buzzer-beaters that sent FAMU and Miami to the Big Dance, as both were great plays.

More later...

2007 NCAA Tournament Projections, Saturday

It's been a crazy day, but I think it's safe to post another round of projections. Click on the graphic for more details. The Florida Gators move back into a #1 seed, for now. UCLA drops to the last #1 seed, with Wisconsin breathing down their backs.

Power conference schools such as Purdue, Illinois, and Kansas State did themselves huge favors by winning on Friday. This is especially true after the favorites lost in the Atlantic 10 and the WAC, giving two at-large berths to Xavier and Nevada, which would have gone to someone else, like maybe Old Dominion or Missouri State.

Last four in: Purdue, Kansas State, Illinois, Drexel
Last four out: Old Dominion, Missouri State, Air Force, Stanford
Next four out: West Virginia, Florida State, Ole Miss, Mississippi State

The SEC is looking crazy, as Florida does its best to get through a group of upstarts remaining in the conference tournament. Next for the Gators: Ole Miss. Mississippi State and Arkansas lurk on the other side of the bracket. All three remaining SEC West teams are playing for their lives.

Saturday brings a plethora of semifinals and finals. Automatic bids will be determined in the following conferences:

America East: Albany at Vermont
Atlantic 10: Rhode Island vs. George Washington at Atlantic City
Big East: Georgetown vs. Pittsburgh at New York
Big West: Long Beach State vs. Cal Poly at Anaheim
Conference USA: Houston at Memphis
MAC: Miami (Ohio) vs. Akron at Cleveland
MEAC: Delaware State vs. Florida A&M at Raleigh, N.C.
Mountain West: BYU at UNLV
Pac-10: Oregon vs. USC at Staples Center, Los Angeles
SWAC: Jackson State vs. Mississippi Valley State at Birmingham, Ala.
WAC: Utah State at New Mexico State

Robbery

Theft is a good word to describe what is happening to the at-large hopes of some bubble teams in college basketball tonight. Upsets are happening in conference tournaments all over the country, taking bids away from teams that would otherwise be headed for the NCAA tournament.

The WAC will have an extra team in the tournament, as Nevada was upset tonight by Utah State, 79-77. There is a really good chance the Utah Aggies will have to play the New Mexico Aggies in the final, as the tournament is being held on New Mexico State's homecourt.

The Atlantic 10 tournament is always unpredictable. That is to be expected from a league which really has 14 teams, and extends to Ohio and Missouri. This year is no exception. Tonight, regular season champion Xavier was knocked off by Rhode Island, 79-71. Rhode Island will play the St. Louis-George Washington winner for a trip to the Big Dance.

Weird things are happening in the SEC, also. Mississippi State and Arkansas are set to play in one semifinal. Overwhelming favorite Florida will take on the winner of LSU-Ole Miss in the other. There are a lot of bubble teams out there rooting for Florida this weekend.

If I were connected with Drexel, Old Dominion, Stanford, West Virginia, Missouri State, or Air Force, I would be sweating bullets this weekend.

Stay tuned for more blogging on Championship Week. This is my favorite basketball week of the year!

Bizarro World

It's bizarro world today at the ACC Tournament. First, it's in the non-traditional location of Tampa. And, there are eight teams left. Among them are Boston College, Miami, Virginia Tech, and Florida State.

This isn't your daddy's Tobacco Road.

Speaking of bizarro, there is the chance that Notre Dame and Louisville could play Saturday night. In New York City. In the finals of the Big East tournament. Didn't that used to be an East Coast conference?

My, how the BCS and football money drive everything...

2007 Bracket Projections, Friday

Some strange things happened on Thursday in Bracketville. Click on the graphic for more detail of the projected bracket.

UCLA inexplicably lost in overtime to the 8th place team in the Pac-10, Cal. I have not moved them from my projection, as I already had them as the 3rd #1 seed. I don't see them slipping past that spot, in spite of today's bad loss.

The team that hurt itself the most was Air Force. The Falcons lost to Wyoming today in Las Vegas, 77-72, knocking themselves out of the Mountain West tournament. Air Force has never won a post-season tournament game, either in the NCAA, the NIT, or a conference tournament. This is the third year in a row that the Zoomies have entered the MWC tournament with over 20 wins, only to lose in the first round. Air Force has lost four in a row. They will have a long next three days. I have them out of my projected bracket for now.

Say goodbye also to UMass. They lost an overtime game to the St. Louis Billikens, in the Atlantic 10 tournament in Atlantic City. The Minutemen were hoping to turn their 23 wins into at least an at-large bid. That looks doubtful, now. By the way, it's really unstable for St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, to be in a conference with Atlantic in the name. There's nothing Atlantic about St. Louis.

In Tampa, Duke and Maryland were both upset today in the ACC tournament. Both will make the Big Dance, but their seeding will suffer. By the way, it's weird to see the ACC tournament in Florida. But, it's good to spread it around every once in a while, and Tampa's a good place to have it.

One automatic bid will be decided on Friday. Bucknell plays at Holy Cross in the Patriot League final.

Last four in: Drexel, Missouri State, Syracuse, Illinois
Last four out: Air Force, Florida State, Purdue, Kansas State

Thursday's Bracket...

...is same as Wednesday's projected bracket. Well, almost. There were several games today, but none of them affected any projected seedings or at-large bids. The only changes affect the #16 seeds, as Weber State is playing themselves out of the play-in game. Actually, I believe the NCAA will keep them out West in the first round, rather than have them go to Dayton for a Tuesday night opening round game. Click on the graphic for more details.

Central Connecticut State, as projected, won the Northeast Conference tonight, and Weber State is pasting Northern Arizona as I write, to win the Big Sky championship. Both teams are competing with each other for a spot opposite the SWAC champion in next Tuesday's play-in game in Dayton, Ohio. Their computer profiles are practically alike. If CCSU and Cream o' Weber are lucky, a really sorry team will come out of nowhere and win their conference tournament, giving said sorry team the trip to Dayton.

Syracuse and West Virginia both won Big East tournament games in New York today, preserving their precarious spots in the field, for now. A lot can change in the next 72 hours.

Conference tournaments will be in full swing on Thursday, as the ACC, Big 10, SEC, Big XII, and Pac-10, among others, kick off their tournaments. No automatic bids are up for grabs on Thursday.

2007 NCAA Tournament Projections, Wednesday Edition

Or, tomorrow's brackets today. Of course, if you're in the Eastern Time Zone, then it is tomorrow, because it is after 11 PM in Houston. Click on the image for more detail.

No major changes to the bracket, unless you're a fan of the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue was knocked out of the bracket by Wright State's win in the Horizon League tournament tonight. No sweat for the Boilers, because 1) this is one man's bracket, and I'm not on the selection committee, and 2) they have the Big Ten tournament this week, to prove their worth. Also, Butler fell from a #6 to a #7 seed, which resulted in some shuffling among other teams.

The other two new automatic qualifiers, Oral Roberts and North Texas, were already in my projected bracket.

Wednesday brings a flood of first-round tournament action in various conferences, plus two more automatic bids:

Northeast: Central Connecticut State vs. Sacred Heart
Big Sky: Northern Arizona vs. Weber State

Both of those games are most likely for the right to play a team such as Ohio State in the first round. The Big Sky winner may be a candidate for the Tuesday night play-in game, as their computer rankings are really low in relation to the other qualifiers.

UUOTD-Tuesday

The early 80's were good to Tulsa. Oil prices were up (before the industry crashed), and a new coach named Nolan Richardson was coaching the local basketball team. Richardson was wearing loud pocadot shirts at the time, and was bringing his "40 Minutes of Hell" system to big-time basketball. It worked, and he built a big-time program at the University of Tulsa, before moving on to Arkansas.

The Golden Hurricane wore some flamboyant uniforms of their own during this time period. Shown are the home uniforms, as worn during a throwback night earlier this year. They were among schools of this era that wore a gold uniform, with some tiger stripes down the side. At the time, I thought they were cool. What was I thinking?

I'm glad these went out of style.

2007 NCAA Tournament Projections, Tuesday Edition

Here is today's installment of bracket projections. Click on the graphic for more detail.

Last four in: Drexel, Missouri State, West Virginia, Syracuse
Last four out: Kansas State, UMass, Clemson, Florida State

Congratulations to last night's winners of automatic bids: VCU, Gonzaga, and Niagara.

Tonight, three more bids are on the line:

Horizon League: Butler vs. Wright State. This game is on Wright State's homecourt. Wright State tied with Butler for the league title, and swept the regular season series. The Raiders are dangerous.
Mid-Continent: Oral Roberts vs. Oakland. This one is being played just down the street from ORU, at Union High School in Tulsa. The John Q. Hammons Arena is not your normal high school gym, but a modern, 5600 seat arena that a lot of colleges would die for. ORU is heavily favored, but OU of Michigan upset the Golden Eagles two years ago in the finals. Oakland has a better team this year.
Sun Belt: North Texas vs. Arkansas State. Do you believe in the Mean Green? The winner is one game away from a probable #16 seed in the NCAA tournament. Arkansas State is so low in the computers (#179 yesterday), they may be a candidate for next Tuesday's play-in game in Dayton.

UUOTD-Monday

And, the styles just keep getting worse and worse...

These are the latest to come down the pike from Nike. This is something called the System of Dress. This week, Arizona, Syracuse, Florida, and Ohio State will be the first to unveil Nike's latest contribution(?) to fashion.

The baggy pants have gotten baggier, and the shirts have become tighter. The color designs on the Syracuse and Florida versions aren't real great, either. These are definitely worthy of two eye gouges.

Pretty soon, basketball will no longer be played in shorts, but in these so-called pants. Ugh.

2007 NCAA Tournament Projections-Monday edition

Here is today's edition of bracket projections for the upcoming NCAA men's basketball tournament. The real brackets will be presented next Sunday at 5 PM CDT on CBS. Click on the image for more detail.

Last four in: Drexel, Old Dominion, Missouri State, Kansas State
Last four out: UMass, Illinois, Ole Miss, Florida State

Three more automatic bids will be determined tonight:

Colonial: George Mason vs. VCU. George Mason lost the bulk of last year's Final Four team, and struggled through a 15-14 regular season. The Patriots have rolled off three wins in the Colonial post-season tournament, and can make an improbable return to the NCAA tournament with a win over regular-season champion VCU.
MAAC: Niagara vs. Siena. Both teams finished in a tie for 2nd place in the regular season. Siena knocked off regular season champion Marist in yesterday's semifinals.
WCC: Gonzaga vs. Santa Clara. The 1st and 2nd place teams in the regular season meet for the automatic bid. The Zags need to go ahead and win here, as they may not merit an at-large bid, in spite of their brutal non-conference schedule.

The NIT got two more automatic qualifiers yesterday. Sun Belt regular season champion South Alabama was upset in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament by Middle Tennessee State. Also, the MAAC regular season champ Marist Red Foxes lost to Siena.

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

Shout Out

It's tournament time. I'd like to give a shout out to a couple of high school teams of interest to this blog.

The girls basketball team from my alma mater, Tecumseh High School in Oklahoma, qualified for the Class 4A state tournament, beginning Thursday in Oklahoma City. It is the first trip to state for the Lady Savages since winning a state championship in 1993.

At home, the Kingwood Mustangs boys basketball team qualified for their third consecutive Class 5A state tournament, beginning Friday in Austin. The Mustangs are 38-2, with both losses coming to out-of-state teams during a holiday tournament. They are currently ranked 14th in the nation according to USA Today. Kingwood lost in overtime to Plano in last year's state championship game, and won the 2005 state championship. KHS is the alma mater of my wife.

Congratulations are in order to both teams. Good luck!

Ugly Uniform of the Day

Some refer to this school as Jack-O-Lantern U. Others call it Pumpkin State. I simply call them the Aggies. The Oklahoma Aggies, that is.

OSU wears this hideously electric shade of orange. For basketball, they normally wear black uniforms. Those do not look quite so bad. However, they sometimes wear orange on the road. Such was the case when they went down to Waco Saturday to take on Baylor.

These uniforms would glow in the dark if the lights went out. Not really, but almost. A few years ago, the OSU athletic marketing department rolled out this ugly new font, which is shown on these uniforms. There is also a matching OSU logo, on the black uniform. The slanted number is not good. Their football team got the hint this season and switched back to a normal-looking number. The basketball team needs to do the same.

Finally, there are some ugly-looking horizontal stripes going down the side of the uniform. The whole thing just screams: "Unstable!"

But, as long as their mega-donor T. Boone Pickens likes them, then they'll wear them. Pickens has given $165,000,000 to their athletic department thus far, and the school is in the process of seizing property adjacent to campus via eminent domain, to build new athletic facilities. That has nothing to do with uniforms, but T. Boone now owns a collegiate athletic franchise in Stillwater.

Who's In, Who's Not?

Here is my current guess at next week's field of 65 for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. I will have another bracket posted no later than Monday, and will be posting projected teams daily.

(bold=already qualified)

America East: Vermont
ACC: North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Maryland, Duke, Georgia Tech
Atlantic Sun: Belmont
Atlantic 10: Xavier
Big East: Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Notre Dame, Marquette, Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia
Big Sky: Weber State
Big South: Winthrop
Big Ten: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois
Big XII: Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas, Kansas State, Texas Tech
Big West: Long Beach State
Colonial: VCU, Old Dominion, Drexel
Conference USA: Memphis
Horizon: Butler
Ivy: Penn
MAAC: Siena
MAC: Akron
Mid-Continent: Oral Roberts
Mid-Eastern: Delaware State
Missouri Valley: Creighton, Southern Illinois, Missouri State
Mountain West: BYU, UNLV, Air Force
Northeast: Central Connecticut State
Ohio Valley: Eastern Kentucky
Pac-10: UCLA, Washington State, Oregon, Arizona, USC, Stanford
Patriot: Holy Cross
SEC: Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky
Southern: Davidson
Southland: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
SWAC: Mississippi Valley State
Sun Belt: Western Kentucky
West Coast: Gonzaga
WAC: Nevada

Last four teams in: Drexel, Kansas State, Missouri State, Georgia Tech
Last four teams out: Michigan State, Ole Miss, Florida State, UMass

Tickets Punched

The following schools have their tickets punched for the 2007 NCAA men's basketball tournament:

Penn-Ivy League champion
Winthrop-Big South champion
Belmont-Atlantic Sun tournament champion
Davidson-Southern Conference champion
Eastern Kentucky-Ohio Valley tournament champion

More to come...

NIT Bound

East Tennessee State qualified for this year's NIT, with a 92-67 blowout loss on their homecourt to Belmont in the finals of the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament.

For the second year, regular season conference champions automatically qualify for the NIT, if they do not go to the NCAA tournament. So, the Buccaneers become the first team to qualify for the NIT.

I'm sure they're really excited about that in Johnson City, Tennessee.

First Invitation

The first invitation to this year's NCAA tournament was clinched tonight by the Penn Quakers, who clinched the regular-season Ivy League championship. The Quakers whipped Yale, 86-58. The Ivy is the only conference that does not have a post-season tournament.

Four more bids go out on Saturday.

In the Big South, juggernaut Winthrop hosts high-scoring but 14-18 VMI in the finals of the conference tournament.

Austin Peay takes on Eastern Kentucky in Nashville for the championship of the Ohio Valley conference tournament. The cheer "Let's Go Peay" will be heard early and often at the Gaylord.

In the Atlantic Sun, East Tennessee State hosts Belmont in the finals of the conference tournament.

And, in the Southern Conference, regular season champion Davidson takes on the College of Charleston at the North Charleston Coliseum. The Cougars, coached by ex-Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins, upset favored Appalachian State tonight in an overtime thriller.

Half the fun of March Madness is getting to the Tournament.

UUOTD-Spring Training Edition

Spring Training is underway now, and exhibition games began yesterday. Spring has sprung in warmer regions of the country, and opening day is not far away.

An alarming feature in baseball uniforms is being modeled by Alex Gordon of the Kansas City Royals. Several teams are wearing a colored stripe down the side of their jerseys. The Royals' spring training partner, the Rangers, are wearing a red stripe with royal blue. That is not a good look. The different colored jerseys (like blue for the Royals) are fine from time to time, but these wide stripes, or whatever they are, need to go.

I use the Royals as an example due to these caps. They keep the standard royal blue, with the "KC" logo, but have these little gray wing-looking things above the ear. I can't tell if it's supposed to be the wings of Mercury, or Goodyear. Or, if it's just supposed to be a rounded edge above the ear. Either way, I hope other teams aren't copying it. The Royals' blue caps with the white "KC" have been just fine, even when their team has been horrible.

An Unbalanced League

The SEC, home of last year's national champion and one other Final Four participant, finds itself as a very unbalanced league this year. The conference's power lies in the East division, where Florida, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Tennessee reside. Georgia, with an 8-7 conference record after tonight, would be in first place in the West division. No wonder some bracket analysts have Georgia as a bubble team, in spite of their 17-11 record. And, two-time defending NIT champion South Carolina most likely will not be back to defend that crown.

The West division is in serious danger of not qualifying any teams for the NCAA tournament. Alabama has the best post-season chances on this side of the league, as they moved back into a tie for first place tonight with a win over Ole Miss. The Tide won their 20th game of the season, but are only 7-8 in conference play. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are also tied with Bama at 7-8.

The SEC, as usual, is underrated and underexposed in hoops.

Progress

The Cotton Bowl today made official their attempt to reinvent their bowl game. As has been rumored for the last month, the Cotton Bowl board of directors voted to move their game to the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, effective in 2010.

The Cotton Bowl will now attempt to crowd into the BCS bowl rotation. It is one of the traditional New Year's Day bowls, but suffered in recent years from a decaying and decrepit stadium. The game was in danger of being passed up by other cities in the pecking order of Big XII and SEC teams.

The new Cowboys stadium would be a great place for a BCS bowl game, and a national championship game. It would also benefit the Big XII, as the Big XII often finds itself playing in a hostile environment for national championship games (see Orange Bowl-OU vs. Florida State, Sugar Bowl-OU vs. LSU, and Rose Bowl-Texas vs. USC).

I am excited that the Cotton Bowl has made this move. I hope that OU and Texas follow suit and move the Red River Rivalry to Jerry's Palace on Johnson Creek.

UUOTD-Sunday

We're still going back in time, but only to the 1990's.

In 1996, the Kentucky Wildcats were kings of the hill, winning another national championship. Rick Pitino could have been elected governor, before taking off to coach the Knicks. This was a great team.

The Cats normally wear a classic royal blue. The blue is synonymous with a basketball tradition that takes a back seat to no one.

Someone was not thinking straight at Converse, when they designed this denim uniform. I love denim, but it does not go on a basketball uniform, especially one for a traditional powerhouse like Kentucky. Kentucky had a great blue road uniform. They did not need to throw it away for this.

Thankfully, this uni was thrown on the ash heap of history, and the royal blue uniform was brought back. The Cats will gladly keep that national championship, though.

Ugly Uniform Of The Day-Retro

We're still going retro, and we're still on the time machine. The time machine takes us to Atlanta, and 1971.

The Atlanta Hawks wore one of the ugliest uniforms in the history of the NBA. At the time, I'm sure it was considered groovy. However, it was tasteless. All that are missing from this uniform are the flowers and the flourescent Volkswagen bus.

The great Pete Maravich is shown in the home version. They wore lime green with blue, with stripes down the side of the uniform. On the back, the player's name was listed under the number. Maravich was simply "Pistol". Notice the knee-high socks, also. The Hawks really sullied his greatness with this uniform.

The Hawks changed their primary color to red when they moved to the Omni in 1972. They've had some bad looks in the last 30 years, but none as bad as this.

And, to think the team has chosen to wear this as a throwback this year. Ugh!

A Good Story

A good friend of mine has recently become a newspaper editor in western Nebraska. I was scoping out his paper's website yesterday, and came across a great achievement.

I do not keep up with high school girls basketball. I know of a handful of good teams in Texas, mostly at the class 5A level. I do remember, though, from my days in Oklahoma, that the best show is at small school tournaments, especially the state tournament. The small school tournaments there are the best attended, and the passion for hoops is greatest in tiny communities where there is nothing else.

Sioux County High School is located in Harrison, Nebraska (population 279), in the far northwest corner of the state, near the borders of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is 48 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart. According to the Nebraska School Activities Association, Sioux County is the second-smallest school in the state, with an average attendance of 24. The school's website shows 30 students. There are 16 girls in the school, and 12 play basketball.

Last night, the Sioux County Warriors qualified for their first ever girls state tournament, defeating Maywood by a score of 43-32. They now advance to next week's state tournament in Lincoln. I know nothing about Nebraska girls basketball, but I wish them well.

The Warriors now get to ride a big yellow school bus 503 miles to Lincoln (according to Mapquest). I don't think they'll mind. If they're lucky, maybe someone could spring for a charter, or at least a nice minibus. Either way, it's a really, really big deal.

UUOTD-Thursday

UUOTD remains on the time machine, and we go back to 1979.

We're not in Cleveland, but we go down the Ohio Turnpike/Pennsylvania Turnpike down to Pittsburgh, where the Pirates won a World Series.

These were the "We Are Family" Pirates, who adopted the popular disco song by Sister Sledge. They were a good team, led by guys like Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, and Bill Madlock (pictured). I was for Baltimore in the '79 Series, and was mad when the Pirates won it.

The Pirates also wore uniforms worthy of the disco era. They had some of the ugliest uniform combinations, and never wore the same thing two days in a row. They had both black and gold caps, in the 1890's style, with the flat top and horizontal stripes. The caps also had stars, given to players as a reward by the captain, Willie Stargell.


They also had gold, black, and white jerseys and pants. The white jerseys had gold pinstripes, with a small black trim on the pinstripes. The pants matched the jerseys, but the pants were not always worn with its matching jersey. So, there were all kinds of combinations of uniforms for these Pirates.

It was quite the clash during that World Series, when the Orioles chose to wear their orange jerseys with the white and black hats. The disco era was quite colorful, pun intended.

My high school had the same colors as the Pirates, and the baseball team wore imitations of the Pirates' uniforms in 1980-81-82, with gold jerseys and black pants with gold pinstripes on the pants, and the black flat-top cap with stars.

At least the Bucs didn't wear powder blue on the road, like a lot of the other teams of that era did.

Oh, what a difference 28 years makes.

A Train Wreck?

NBA All-Star Weekend has turned into more of a party than a game. The game is usually pretty bad, and comes at the end of a long weekend of partying.

A lot of the time, I find Jason Whitlock to be a big blowhard. Other times, I agree with him. He opines here that bringing the All-Star Game to New Orleans next year is a bad idea. I'll let him say these things, because: 1) he's a better writer than me, and 2) because he's black, and there are things he says that I wouldn't be able to write.

Mayhem Main Event at NBA All-Star Weekend

Now, we have another reason why Mark Cuban doesn't want to bring the All-Star Game to Dallas.

Ugly Uniform of the Day

For today's UUOTD, we remain in the Great Lakes. That area has been a center for bad taste in uniforms.

The NBA, the 90's, and the city of Cleveland have provided plenty of fodder for this blog in recent days. Now, they all converge for one UUOTD.

The Cleveland Cavaliers changed color and uniform schemes with their move into Gund Arena (now Quicken Loans Arena) in 1994. They changed to this black, orange, and baby blue uniform. There is a splotch of baby blue across both the jersey and the shorts. It looks like a kid spilled blue paint on a black uniform. The orange trim does not help at all. This was bad, bad, bad. The Cavs wore these for four years, before keeping the colors and removing the splotch on a revised uniform, which they wore for five years before moving to their present uniforms.

Once again, the NBA tried to get too cute. Somewhere out there, there is a uniform designer who is the object of much ridicule. The league may not design all uniforms, but they do approve all uniform changes. The uniform czar at the NBA was asleep on the job in the mid-90's.

Don't worry, though. These will come back as throwback jerseys in another 10 years or so.

For what it's worth, the Cavs are wearing their late 80's-early 90's orange jerseys Thursday night, in a throwback promotion. They are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the beginning of their run of quality teams, which played third banana to the Pistons and Bulls of that era.

Ya gotta look out for CLE.

It's Big Business

The 2000's are becoming known for the ballooning budgets of collegiate athletic programs.

Kyle Whelliston, at his blog, The Mid-Majority, has lists of every Division I athletic program, in order of student enrollment (total, undergraduate & graduate), athletic budget, and a lot of other information on all 338 Division I schools. It is quite interesting.

Some interesting facts, from the 2005-2006 school year:

Largest school: The Ohio State University, with 50,995 students. Minnesota and Texas were close behind, with both having an enrollment over 50,000.
Smallest school: Centenary, 1,040 students.

Largest school with no football program: Long Beach State, 33,479
Largest school in Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA): UC-Davis, 29,210
Largest school not in BCS conference: Central Florida, 42,465

Smallest school in BCS conference: Wake Forest, 6,504
Smallest school with football program-Bowl Subdivision: Tulsa, 4,174
Smallest school with football program-Championship Subdivision: Wofford, 1,177

Largest athletic expense: Ohio State, $101,804,848
Largest athletic expense, non-BCS conference: TCU, $37,111,424
Largest athletic expense, Championship Subdivision: James Madison, $23,024,778
Largest athletic expense, non-football school: St. John's, $24,363,808

Smallest athletic expense: Wofford, $2,240,193
Smallest athletic expense, Bowl Subdivision: Louisiana-Monroe, $7,191,179
Smallest athletic expense, BCS conference: South Florida, $24,340,060
Smallest athletic expense, non-football school: St. Francis, N.Y., $3,054,035

This begs this question, among others: What is Wofford doing in Division I?

UUOTD-Tuesday

We remain in the Great Lakes, but cross the border into the Great White North of Canada for today's UUOTD.

The Toronto Raptors came into the league in 1995, while the movie Jurassic Park was popular. I thought that was a questionable and goofy team name at the time. The uniform was even worse, as modeled by Vince Carter (above).

The NBA trend for some teams at that time was to have a big mascot on the front of the jersey, with a logo and a small number. For the Raptors, this meant having something akin to Dino on the front, complete with pinstripes and purple. They also had a little "TR" logo at the bottom of the stripe on the side of the shorts.

Gross. At least they didn't use Barney as a mascot.

The Raptors have done better to adopt the Canadian colors of red and white. The dinosaur uniform days are over.

The question in the future will be: What's a Raptor? I don't look for them to change their name to the Mounties any time soon, though.

Finger Lickin' Good

This is from a game earlier this year between Alabama and LSU.

Alabama assistant coach Tom Asbury is caught picking his nose, then eating the booger. This is classic video, made even better by the greatness of the DVR, and the commentary on the slow-motion replay.

Enjoy...

UUOTD-Monday

Imagine this: A UUOTD not involving Cleveland or San Diego!

The 1990's were a decade where the NBA's marketing and design people were under the influence of drugs. That can be the only explanation for some of the bad uniforms and designs that the league is only now being purged of. Designs that were supposed to be cute and cool did not withstand any test, much less the test of time. There were some bad, bad looks as the league said goodbye to the great Michael Jordan.

A classic example is what happened to the Detroit Pistons' uniforms, from 1997-2001. The Pistons had a great look, with their blue and white uniforms, with red trim. Somebody in the front office, or in the NBA marketing office, got the bright idea to change the color scheme. So, the Pistons switched to teal, and this goofy horsepower logo. Grant Hill is pictured here with this uniform. A tough team from a tough city like Detroit did not need to be wearing teal.

Also, one of the worst logo designs were the alternate designs with the team initials, such as the "DP" on the shorts. That was so ghey. The Pistons were not the only guilty party on that-see the Utah Jazz and their "UJ" from the 90's.

Not coincidentally, the Pistons were struggling on the court. The team got smart in this decade, and switched back to blue and red. A championship soon followed.

Teal was a bad, bad look for the Pistons.

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Sometimes, it is for the best when things do not work out.

Two weeks ago, Norv Turner was passed over for the head coaching job with the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones decided to go with a defensive-oriented coach, and chose Wade Phillips. Turner went back to San Francisco, and signed a one-year extension to remain the offensive coordinator with the 49ers.

But, the earth shook last week in San Diego, and Marty Schottenheimer was fired after a 14-2 season. The Chargers, loaded for a Super Bowl run, hired Turner as their head coach today.

Today, Norv Turner is glad that Jerry Jones passed him over. He now has a legitimate chance to make it to a Super Bowl. He's already worked with owners Dan Snyder and Al Davis, so whatever he runs into in San Diego will be a piece of cake. He also won't have Jerry Jones making football decisions for him.

Norv Turner gets to live in sunny San Diego, and gets to coach a good team. Good for him.

2007 NCAA Tournament Projections

Updated NCAA Tournament projections:

St. Louis Regional East Rutherford Regional

(1st-2nd round, Lexington) (1st-2nd round, Chicago)
1) Ohio State 1) Wisconsin
16) East Tennessee State 16) Central Conn. St.-Jackson State

8) Tennessee 8) Arizona
9) Oklahoma State 9) Virginia Tech

(1st-2nd round, Chicago) (1st-2nd round, Columbus)
5) Duke 5) Vanderbilt
12) Michigan State 12) Xavier

4) Marquette 4) Butler
13) Winthrop 13) Holy Cross

(1st-2nd round, Sacramento) (1st-2nd round, Buffalo)
6) Alabama 6) Oregon
11) Clemson 11) Texas Tech

3) Washington State 3) Pittsburgh
14) Long Beach State 14) Vermont

(1st-2nd round, New Orleans) (1st-2nd round, New Orleans)
7) Louisville 7) UNLV
10) Creighton 10) Villanova

2) Texas A&M 2) Memphis
15) Austin Peay 15) South Alabama

San Jose Regional San Antonio Regional

(1st-2nd round, Sacramento) (1st-2nd round, Winston-Salem)
1) UCLA 1) Florida
16) Weber State 16) Delaware State

8) Indiana 8) Maryland
9) Boston College 9) Purdue

(1st-2nd round, Lexington) (1st-2nd round, Spokane)
5) Texas 5) West Virginia
12) VCU 12) Appalachian State

4) Southern Illinois 4) Air Force
13) Akron 13) Santa Clara

(1st-2nd round, Buffalo) (1st-2nd round, Spokane)
6) BYU 6) Virginia
11) Kansas State 11) Old Dominion

3) Georgetown 3) Nevada
14) Penn 14) Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

(1st-2nd round, Winston-Salem) (1st-2nd round, Columbus)
7) Kentucky 7) Notre Dame
10) Illinois 10) Bradley

2) North Carolina 2) Kansas
15) Oral Roberts 15) Marist

UUOTD-Turn Back The Clock Edition, Again

We remain on the time machine, back to the 1970's, and we stay on the shuttle between San Diego and Cleveland.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have not had many good uniforms in their history. It can be argued that their current unis are the best they have ever worn.

In 1974, the Cavs left the old Cleveland Arena for the Coliseum in Richfield, halfway to Akron. When they moved, they also got new uniforms. They kept the colors of wine and gold, and began wearing these monstrosities. The colors are bad. The trim is hideous.

Cavalier legend Austin Carr is shown wearing the road version of these rags.

These are some of the worst uniforms in the history of the NBA. The NBA has had plenty of bad uniforms, but these are up there with the worst.

Eye-gouge rating: 2

Ugly Uniform of the Day

We return to San Diego for today's Ugly Uniform Of The Day.

The Padres have a laundry list (no pun intended) of ugly uniforms throughout the years. Today's UUOTD was full of good intentions, but is just really, really bad.

San Diego is a Navy town. With that in mind, the Padres wanted to honor our military on some promotional days during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. They unveiled these really awful camouflage uniforms. Never mind that camouflage is worn more by the Army, and that San Diego is full of Navy men and women. These guys look like action figures. Only thing is, G.I. Joe is a soldier, not a baseball player.

I do not want to throw the military under the bus. I respect and support our military and their mission. But even the brave men and women of our armed forces would agree: These Padres uniforms are ugly.

UUOTD-Turn Back The Clock Edition

Staying in the 1970's...

The city of Cleveland has been known to some as the "Mistake By The Lake". The 70's weren't good to Cleveland, and nowhere is that more evident than in uniforms worn by two of their teams: the Indians and the Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers have one of the worst uniform histories of any franchise in the NBA. But, that is another story for another day.

The Indians wore these all-red uniforms on occasion from 1973 to 1976. They wore a blue hat, with a funky-shaped "C", and these pajama-looking red uniforms. These are some of the worst uniforms in the history of baseball. They look like tomatoes. Maybe these tomatoes went on the Padres' cheeseburgers. Nah, because there was no interleague play in those days, and both teams were horrible. The only way they saw the World Series was on TV.

Eye gouge rating: 2


I could not find a picture of Oscar Gamble in the red uniform. That's too bad. It would have been classic.

Rumbling In The Hills

From the hills of Arkansas...

It is being reported that Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles, aka "Frank of the Ozarks", is set to announce his retirement.

As they say on the East Coast: Film at 11. Or, in the blog world, more later..

Report from Channel 40/29 in Arkansas

New Blog

I have tried to keep this blog fun and informative. There are some subjects which I feel are better addressed elsewhere. I tend to be opinionated on some subjects. Therefore, I have created another blog at http://hotopinions.blogspot.com.

In the meantime, enjoy this blog!

Intramurals?

This is old news, as it happened earlier this week.

Colorado football coach Dan Hawkins was asked about an anonymous complaint from a parent about the relative lack of time off during the Buffs' offseason program. Hawkins left Boise State for the bright lights of the Big XII, and promptly went 2-10 in a train wreck of a season. He is not used to losing, and losing is not wearing well on him.

The audio of his response is here. This is classic audio. Does he mean business, or is he a lunatic?

Good stuff...

UUOTD-Turn Back The Clock Edition

We turn back the clock to 1972 for today's Ugly Uniform of the Day.

The San Diego Padres, for the first ten years of their existence, were a bad baseball team. They also had bad uniforms to match.

This 1973 Topps baseball card shows an action shot of the '72 Padres at an empty San Diego (later Jack Murphy and Qualcomm) Stadium. The Padres have a legacy of bad uniforms, but these are the worst. They look like cheeseburger wrappers. Which makes sense, since McDonald's founder Ray Kroc bought the team in 1974. The hats are ugly, the jerseys are ugly, and the pants are ugly. These are better to be forgotten, except for comic relief.

This is not the first time for the Padres to have the UUOTD, nor will it be the last.

Eye-gouge rating: Two

Sleepless In San Diego

Oh, what a brain fart in the playoffs will do...

The San Diego Chargers yesterday fired coach Marty Schottenheimer, after a 14-2 season. The Chargers inexplicably blew a lead and lost their first playoff game to the Patriots, and it went downhill from there. The Bolts lost both their coordinators to head coaching jobs (OC Cam Cameron to Miami, DC Wade Phillips to Dallas), and Schottenheimer was being vetoed on his choice of defensive coordinator. It was a power struggle between Marty and general manager A.J. Smith, and management won.

If the Chargers had continued through the playoffs as they did in the regular season, they would have won a Super Bowl, and Marty could have retired on top.

Schottenheimer continues with a reputation as a great regular season coach, with little success in the playoffs. The Chargers look silly for firing a coach after going 14-2, after announcing a month earlier that said coach would be returning.

The Chargers are full of talent, but now must replace the head coach and both coordinators. Rumored candidates include Bill Parcells (we saw how that worked out in Dallas), and Pete Carroll (trying to get out of USC one step ahead of the NCAA).

2007 NCAA Tournament Projections

We are a month away from the NCAA tournament, and a lot of things can still happen, and probably will. These pairings are always in flux, and seeds will fluctuate drastically for some teams. At this point, I have nine teams from the Big East, and seven teams from the ACC projected to be in the field of 65. I don't expect that form to hold.

Here is this week's installment of NCAA Tournament projections:

East Rutherford Regional San Antonio Regional

(1st-2nd round, New Orleans) (1st-2nd round, Lexington)
1) Florida 1) Ohio State
16) Weber State-Miss. Valley State 16) East Tennessee State

8) Clemson 8) BYU
9) Creighton 9) Virginia

(1st-2nd round, Spokane) (1st-2nd round, Columbus)
5) Air Force 5) Arizona
12) Texas 12) Winthrop

4) Oregon 4) Georgetown
13) Providence 13) Davidson

(1st-2nd round, Spokane) (1st-2nd round, Sacramento)
6) USC 6) Boston College
11) VCU 11) Gonzaga

3) Kansas 3) Nevada
14) Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 14) Long Beach State

(1st-2nd round, Lexington) (1st-2nd round, New Orleans)
7) West Virginia 7) Alabama
10) Maryland 10) Illinois

2) Memphis 2) Texas A&M
15) Austin Peay 15) South Alabama

San Jose Regional St. Louis Regional

(1st-2nd round, Winston-Salem) (1st-2nd round, Chicago)
1) North Carolina 1) Wisconsin
16) Marist 16) Delaware State

8) Tennessee 8) Villanova
9) Old Dominion 9) Florida State

(1st-2nd round, Winston-Salem) (1st-2nd round, Buffalo)
5) Oklahoma State 5) Kentucky
12) Stanford 12) Appalachian State

4) Butler 4) Southern Illinois
13) Syracuse 13) Holy Cross

(1st-2nd round, Chicago) (1st-2nd round, Columbus)
6) Indiana 6) Virginia Tech
11) Louisville 11) Kansas State

3) Marquette 3) Washington State
14) Vermont 14) Oral Roberts

(1st-2nd round, Sacramento) (1st-2nd round, Buffalo)
7) Duke 7) UNLV
10) Missouri State 10) Xavier

2) UCLA 2) Pittsburgh
15) Penn 15) Akron

UUOTD-Saturday

Today, sadly, marked the end of football season, with today's Pro Bowl in Hawaii. I didn't watch it. Nonetheless, we now have an off-season full of mini-camps, free agency, and the draft. It won't be long until training camps open in August.

Today's last game also continued a trend: ugly uniforms at the Pro Bowl. These may not have been the worst ones the NFL has slapped on these guys. However, these are pretty bad. The watermarks under the front of the jerseys have got to go. They look like most countries' paper money. I don't want to see stars or some tropical design under the front of the jersey. Just give me a number and maybe a team name, and I'm fine with it.

Also, the patches make the uniform look a little busy. We don't need the team name on the front and the logo on the side. We already know what team he plays for. The Pro Bowl logo looks a little like the Survivor logo, but they didn't use brown as the color. The patches on the jersey make it look too busy, and make it look too much like NFL Europe. Which German beer is going to sponsor the teams next year?

Tiki Barber is pictured here in his last game. These jerseys were a cruel joke to play on him.

Not A Bum

Poor Wade Phillips. He has always had to follow in the footsteps of his colorful and famous father, former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips. Wade has actually coached longer in the NFL than his father. He also has an above average record as a head coach in Denver and Buffalo.

I applaud Jerry Jones for hiring a coach based on his coaching ability, and not his ability to sell tickets or draw TV cameras. This is not a sexy hire, but this team does not need a sexy name for this hire. This is a coach hungry to prove that he should not have been fired from two NFL jobs, and one that has been successful everywhere he has been. The Cowboys are a team that should be better than 9-7.

I hope this works out. I don't expect a train wreck, but I'm not sure if greatness is in the future.

Ugly Uniform of the Day

Indianapolis is blessed with a Super Bowl champion with cool uniforms. That city is also cursed with a basketball team with ugly uniforms.

The Pacers' duds are simply that: dud. The mustard yellow and pinstripes are putrid. They're even worse on the road, when they have pinstripes on top of navy blue. They tried to go old-school when they moved into their new retro arena. It hasn't worked. The arena is great, but the uniforms are not.

Eye-gouge rating: one

Blech!

The Yanks Are Coming

This week, NHL owners Tom Hicks of the Dallas Stars, and George Gillett of the Montreal Canadiens, announced their intention to buy the Liverpool club of the English Premier League. For those of us on this side of the pond, that is a soccer team. In England, they play football, and are five-time European champions.

This is a big deal. Slowly but surely, American owners are taking over franchises in the EPL. Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer owns Manchester United, the most popular team in the world, and Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner has purchased Aston Villa.

This is a good marriage. American money invested in English clubs can't help but improve the quality of the best league in the world.

It's not fair to compare English soccer with pro sports in the US. However, it's a cool thing. I don't know enough about it to have a favorite team. If one of those clubs wants me as a fan, I'm available, for a price.

What's Taking Jerry So Long?

It's slowed down a lot here at the old blog, but Jerry Jones is still looking for a coach.

Today, Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera visited Valley Ranch. Tomorrow, Colts quarterbacks coach/assistant head coach Jim Caldwell is scheduled to interview with Jerry.

I think Norv Turner becomes the new coach, with Jason Garrett as offensive coordinator, and Todd Bowles gets promoted to defensive coordinator.

Go ahead and pull the trigger, if that's what you're going to do, Jerry.

Above Zero

Belated congratulations to the Iona Gaels, on their first victory of the season. Last Saturday, Iona defeated Easy Rider, 69-57. There are no more winless teams in Division I college basketball.

Actually, the school is called Rider. Maybe I should call them Red Rider.

Iona is now 1-22.

NCAA Tournament Projections

Latest edition of NCAA tournament projections, based on AP and Coaches polls, and the latest RPI..

San Antonio Regional
(1st-2nd rounds-New Orleans)
1) Florida
16)Central Conn St/Marist

8) Clemson
9) Texas Tech

(1st-2nd rounds-Spokane)
5) Southern Illinois
12)Davidson

4) Oregon
13)Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

(1st-2nd rounds-Columbus)
6) Indiana
11)Arkansas

3) Kansas
14)Vermont

(1st-2nd rounds-Lexington)
6) Notre Dame
11)Maryland

2) Memphis
15)Long Beach State


East Rutherford Regional

(1st-2nd rounds-Lexington)
1) Ohio State
16)East Tennessee State

8) Gonzaga
9) West Virginia

(1st-2nd rounds-Sacramento)
5) USC
12)Xavier

4) Nevada
13)Holy Cross

(1st-2nd rounds-Chicago)
6) Texas
11)Tennessee

3) Marquette
14)South Alabama

(1st-2nd rounds-Winston-Salem)
7) Stanford
10)BYU

2) North Carolina
15)Delaware State


San Jose Regional

(1st-2nd rounds-Sacramento)
1) UCLA
16)Weber State

8) UNLV
9) Creighton

(1st-2nd rounds-Winston-Salem)
5) Alabama
12)Virginia

4) Duke
13)UMass

(1st-2nd rounds-Buffalo)
6) Georgetown
11)Michigan State

3) Butler
14)Akron

(1st-2nd rounds-New Orleans)
7) Vanderbilt
10)Boston College

2) Texas A&M
15)Penn


St. Louis Regional

(1st-2nd rounds-Chicago)
1) Wisconsin
16)Jackson State

8) Villanova
9) Virginia Tech

(1st-2nd rounds-Lexington)
5) Washington State
12)Illinois

4) Oklahoma State
13)Winthrop

(1st-2nd rounds-Spokane)
6) Kentucky
11)Purdue

3) Air Force
14)Oral Roberts

(1st-2nd rounds-Buffalo)
7) Florida State
10)Kansas State

2) Pittsburgh
15)Austin Peay

Super Bowl Musings

Super Bowl XLI is in the books. The Colts held off the Bears, 29-17. This was neither the best nor the worst Super Bowl ever played. This is the first Super Bowl win for the Colts since moving to Indianapolis in 1984.

If not for the opening kickoff return for a touchdown by Devin Hester, the Bears would have gotten their butts kicked. The Colts were a much better team.

The rain absolutely ruined the game. The players were fumbling all over the field, and the spectators didn't pay Super Bowl prices to sit in the slop. Plus, the NFL's corporate backers couldn't have been real happy to entertain clients in that mess. I wouldn't be surprised to see the NFL only award the Super Bowl to domes from now on.

There were a lot of nervous people in Las Vegas. The over/under line on the game was 47. The Colts led 29-17, and had a chance to add a meaningless score during the last two minutes. Coach Tony Dungy isn't going to run up the score on anyone, much less his friend Lovie Smith. So, he went for it on 4th down, the Colts missed, and didn't score. The game ended with the 29-17 score. Those who bet the under won. Those who bet the over lost. It's a good thing I don't bet on football, because I would have taken the over.

Adam Vinatieri now has four Super Bowl rings. He needs one more to tie Charles Haley for the record for most Super Bowl rings by one player.

That's it for now. Congratulations to the Colts. They earned it!