Entries Tagged 'Basketball' ↓

I picked Georgetown to win the National Championship. I had them playing UCLA. In order to win now, the teams my co-workers picked will also have to bow out. This may be the first and last time I bet on sports. It takes all the fun out of watching.

It’s my second favorite time of the year.

Next to football season, nothing gets me more excited than the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. I think it is one of the most perfectly designed playoff systems in all of sports. In just three weekends they take 64 teams through a single-game-elimination tournament before the final two play for the championship, this year on Monday, April 7. You can’t beat it for nail-biting drama and excitement.

Now mind you, this year I’ll be a little less excited than in past years. My alma mater, Syracuse, didn’t make the tournament. We’re in the NIT for the second year in a row and while it is nothing to sneeze at seeing any post season play, the NIT is really the consolation tournament. Maybe next year.

I am also doing something this year I’ve never done before. I’m in an office pool. I’ve never been a gambler, in fact, putting money on games has always diminished their enjoyment for me. I’m so preoccupied with winning money that I can’t fully appreciate the games themselves. But it’s apparently an annual event on my job and it only cost $5 to get in, so I figured I’d play along.

But already I have found myself picking teams I think will win over teams I really want to win. For example, in the West Regional, #15 seed Belmont very nearly beat #2 Duke, who won 71-70. I hate Duke and would have preferred to see them lose, but logic told me to pick them to advance, to enhance my chances of winning the pool. So I couldn’t root for Belmont although I wanted to.

Now the Big East conference got 8 teams into the tournament, more than any other, because its the best conference in college basketball despite what that ACC shill Billy Packer may think. Since my Orange can’t carry the banner, I’m rooting for the other teams to do well and have picked Georgetown to win it all, against UCLA. That’s what my head tells me, although my heart would love to see a Cinderella team go deep into the post season.

The Rams from Virginia Commonwealth University, the 11th seed in the West Region, beat the #6 Duke Blue Devils 79-77 in a first round matchup of the 2007 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament. This is the first time Duke has gone home this early since 1996.

And boy are we happy! So long suckers!

Have I mentioned I hate Duke?

This was supposed to be my pre-NCAA Basketball Tournament hype entry. But it has turned into a bit of a shocker.

With the announcement of the tournament seedings, my alma mater, Syracuse (22-10) has not made it in. I am shocked. We always make the tournament! I can’t even recall the last time we didn’t get into the big dance. I am dumbfounded.

The Big East did send six teams to the tournament—Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Villanova and Pittsburgh—and we will root for one of our regular season rivals to bring the title home for the conference. Even if that happens, it will be bittersweet. Suddenly my anticipation and excitement has diminished considerably.

The ACC sent 7 schools; the Pac 10 and Big 10 also sent 6, while the SEC had 5 and Big 12 sent 4.

Defending NCAA Champion Florida Gators are the #1 seed overall, and the #1 seed in the Midwest Region. The other top seeds are ACC Champion North Carolina in the East; Big Ten Champ Ohio State in the South and Big !2 winner Kansas in the West.

My sentimental underdog favorites will be the Great Danes from the State University of New York at Albany, the 13th seed in the South Region. They face #4 Virginia in the opening round.

The next three weeks will provide arguably the best basketball we’re likely to see at any level of the game. Starting with the play-in game on Tuesday, between Florida A&M and Niagara to decide who faces #1 Kansas, the top 65 teams in the country will be whittled down to a Final Four, before ultimately crowning a national champion on April 2 in Atlanta.

The full tournament bracket can be seen here.

Update: Late Sunday night, the field of teams in the NIT was announced.

I don’t get to watch much pro basketball, I’m a Knicks fan. (ba dum pum)

But seriously folks, in these parts, the best NBA action is played on the west side of the Hudson River. The New Jersey Nets have once again made it to the NBA playoffs as winners of the Atlantic Division–but then, even teams with sub .500 records make the playoffs in the NBA. They began their first round, best 4-of-7 game series against the Central Division third place finisher, the Indiana Pacers, one of those teams right at .500.

A friend of mine, a native New Yorker who now makes his home in New Jersey (he actually bought one; you can afford to do that once you leave New York), got tickets to game one Sunday at the Continental Airlines Arena, which is across a wide parking lot from Giants Stadium, where I am told Jimmy Hoffa is not buried.

His employer, a large pharmaceutical company, has corporate season tickets and thus they get the hookup for great playoff seats. We were in section 1, a not bad location indeed, under one of the baskets. Good seats from which to see the game and people watch, although had it not been for the big screen on the scoreboard, we would have missed seeing Nets co-owner Jay-Z and his wife, whats-her-name.

Now even though I root for the Knicks, I do know a thing or two about basketball and being a New Yorker who hasn’t yet abandoned the state, I found the fan behavior among our western neighbors to be quaint, to say the least. See, they have such customs as actively encouraging the fans to make noise, I mean it says so right on the scoreboard, with little videos of players telling the fans, “Make Noise.” Uhm…New York sports fans never need to be told when to make noise. We just kinda follow the action and make the call ourselves. Call us impulsive.

They also have these “Thunder Sticks,” large cylindrical balloons that you blow up then clap together to make an annoyingly loud noise. Never seen those in New York either, although I wish I was the guy who invented them. He must have made a fortune. I hear tell they’re used in other sports and in other cities around the country. Cute.

Def Jam recording artist, Ne-Yo sang the national anthem and quite well I might add (he didn’t do the R. Kelly version) and also performed “So Sick” during halftime. Lots of little suburban white kids in the courtside seats where he sat were asking for his autograph and to take pictures with him. Many of their parents however seemed unaware of who he was.

The game itself was close and exciting right up to the end. The Nets lost, but only by 2 points and I think this will be a close series the whole way. A couple of suspect calls went against them, they missed lots of free throws and were abysmal on the offensive boards. Nets forward Jason Collins is like a tree rooted to the floor. He doesn’t rebound or look to score. Why is he out there?

It will be June before they finally crown the NBA Champion, so this was just one game in a long slow process. But it was fun to see real pro basketball played in the metropolitan area again.