Archive: March, 2011
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
CBS will hit the air at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time with a two-hour pregame show live from Reliant Stadium. Greg Anthony, Charles Barkley, Seth Davis and Kenny Smith will join Greg Gumbel on the studio set.
Just after 6:00 p.m., the time will come to throw the ball up in the air for one of the great Final Four matchups we'll ever see.
Saturday, April 2
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Whether you like mid-major insurgents or established powerhouses, there will be some very good hoops today and tomorrow. Which teams do you think will advance to the Final Four in Houston?
Saturday, March 26
Southeast Region at New Orleans, La. (Gus Johnson, Len Elmore, Reggie Miller and Marty Snider)
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Warning: As happens on here every once in a while, this is a long post. I've been meaning to put it up for some time, but I wasn't able to get it all together until now.
Even though we're already halfway through the Sweet 16, allow me to take you back for a moment to the day before Selection Sunday. In the heart of a weekend usually devoted to power-conference tournaments, the Ivy League was able to steal a fair amount of the national spotlight for a few hours.
The Harvard-Princeton playoff game for the Ancient Eight's NCAA Tournament berth will live long in the memories of fans in Cambridge, Old Nassau and beyond. It was a wonderful contest, capped off by a Douglas Davis buzzer-beater that became the lead story on SportsCenter that evening.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Gus Johnson is going to New Orleans to call Jimmer Fredette's next game. Hold on to your hats, especially if Brigham Young beats Florida. We could have a Southeast Regional Final between BYU and Butler. That would be epic.
Thursday, March 24
West Region at Anaheim, Calif. (Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery and Lesley Visser)
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
East (Newark, N.J.) Region
At Charlotte, N.C. (Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg and Tracy Wolfson)
7. Washington vs. 2. North Carolina, 12:15 PM (CBS)
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
I picked George Mason to beat Villanova in my bracket, but I certainly didn't expect a Wildcats collapse quite like that.
With 3:53 left in the game and 'Nova winning 52-46, stats guru Ken Pomeroy tweeted that the Wildcats had an 80 percent chance to win. As probabilities go, that's pretty high.
Jay Wright's squad did not get that statistically likely outcome, though. Instead, it got doused with another cold bucket of reality.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Will we get the drama of yesterday's afternoon session games, or the relative dullness of the night session games (other than Michigan State-UCLA)? It's time to find out.
I can't help thinking that the one game of major local interest is going to be one of the better ones today. George Mason is a very good and very cohesive team, but if Villanova's stars get their act together, they have the talent to beat almost any team in the NCAA Tournament.
You can get live updates on all the action below. There's also a live scoreboard here. If you're on a mobile device, click here to follow the chat console and send in comments.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
All times are Eastern, and most of them are approximate. West Virginia-Kentucky, Temple-San Diego State and Butler-Pittsburgh should be hard start times because of their respective channels' television broadcast windows.
East (Newark, N.J.) Region
At Tampa, Fla. (Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and David Aldridge)
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Princeton gave Kentucky everything it could handle and then some in Tampa today. The Tigers, who were making their first NCAA Tournament appearance in seven years, fell short only by a Brandon Knight floater high off the glass in the game's final seconds.
The 59-57 final score is a reasonable reflection of the game. But it leaves out the Tigers' five-point lead with 12:39 left in the second half, as well as the rally from four points down with 2:01 remaining to tie the score in the final minute.
The winning shot was the kind of play that separates big-conference powers from non-scholarship minnows. Even with Princeton's storied NCAA Tournament history, there's only so much any team can do against a five-star freshman with millions of NBA dollars in his future.
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Amid the delirium of Temple's win, there was a losing team on the other side of the floor. It so happens that said team was one that just a few of you pay attention to.
So here's the transcript of Penn State's postgame press conference, courtesy of ASAP Sports. On the dais were coach Ed DeChellis, Talor Battle, Tim Frazier and David Jackson.
THE MODERATOR: For Penn State we've got head coach Ed DeChellis. Then we've got Tim Frazier, followed by David Jackson and Talor Battle.
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
