Best BBall Conference in the NCAA?

[swh1972]

Illinois did not have an answer for the VT pressure down the stretch, but overall a good effort - and a nice first round for the Big Ten, going 5-1.

[richyb83]

#6 seed Winthrop in the not such an upset special over #11 seed Notre Dame 74-64.

Stanford should have been replaced by Syracuse. The Orange would have been a better match-up vs. Louisville.

SEC 4-1 record in the 1st Round. Tennessee scoring 121 vs. Long Beach St. today is very Pheonix Suns-like.

How about Virginia Commonwealth (VCU) over Duke??

Southern Illinios looks impressive.

[eastsider]

Teams from the same conference can't play each other in the first two rounds, so that Syracuse v Louisville matchup would have never happend.

[dgreco]

VCU i expected, winthrop over ND never would have thought. I had VCU so that helped my bracket, but I had ND going to the elite 8 so that really killed me

[richyb83]

I nailed Winthrop, they are scary and should have beat Tennessee in last year's NCAA's. I lost on the Arkansas upset special, USC was in total control through-out the game.

I was just trying to say Stanford had no business being in the NCAA Tourney ahead of Syracuse. How Big is the Big East these days??

Pitt vs. VCU should be a great game!

[richyb83]

The "Battle for Ohio" was a game of the ages. What a storyline..The Musketeers of Xavier have waited 23 years to play Ohio State. Then thier HC Thad Matta leaves Xavier for the Buckeyes

OOOOOOOVVVVERTIME!!!! MARCH MADNESS at it's BEST!!!!! 62-62!!! LONG 3 Pt. Basket w/ 2 seconds left!!!! Thought Xavier had them.

Oden has fouled out!

[dgreco]

Ohio State Xavier was a great game, so was Butler Maryland, and right now louisville tamu looks to be another good game.

[richyb83]

You ain't kiddin' dgreco! Some exciting down-to-the-wire games everywhere.

Could Vandy/Wash. State be going do Double OT?? VCU has cut the Pitt lead to only three with a couple minutes left!

[dgreco]

You ain't kiddin' dgreco! Some exciting down-to-the-wire games everywhere.

Could Vandy/Wash. State be going do Double OT?? VCU has cut the Pitt lead to only three with a couple minutes left!

[egrguy]

Great first game with Tennessee holding on to get past Virginia.

Currently I am surprised that Purdue is even giving Florida a game, but yet they are up 2. I can't imagine Purdue holding on, but it could get interesting.

[dgreco]

Good UNLV---Wisconsin game, they looked horrible vs. TAMU-CC and proved they weren't that good, atleast this week, vs. UNLV

[egrguy]

Wisconsin hasn't been the same team since their big man Brian Butch got injured in the Big 10 tournament. Also nice game by Purdue to give Florida a game. S. Ill, UNLV, and Butler representing the mid-majors so far in the Sweet 16.

[dgreco]

Wisconsin hasn't been the same team since their big man Brian Butch got injured in the Big 10 tournament. Also nice game by Purdue to give Florida a game. S. Ill, UNLV, and Butler representing the mid-majors so far in the Sweet 16.

[egrguy]

The SEC is looking good as is the PAC-10, I underestimated them in my bracket, especially with USC knocking off one of my Final Four teams in Texas. I can't wait for round 2!

[TennBear]

Yes, The SEC is looking good. I will keep rooting for Tennessee and Vandy to good forward. Tennessee should have beat Ohio State in Columbus earlier this year. Ohio State has looked vulnerable in the tourney. Of course when Tennessee played Ohio State before, their 7.0' center was just coming along. Vandy should have their hands full with Georgetown.

Of special note, Tennessee (the state) has 3 teams in the Sweet 16. No other state has more than 2.

[dgreco]

Yes, The SEC is looking good. I will keep rooting for Tennessee and Vandy to good forward. Tennessee should have beat Ohio State in Columbus earlier this year. Ohio State has looked vulnerable in the tourney. Of course when Tennessee played Ohio State before, their 7.0' center was just coming along. Vandy should have their hands full with Georgetown.

Of special note, Tennessee (the state) has 3 teams in the Sweet 16. No other state has more than 2.

[swh1972]

Also Bigten and ACC have looked horrible and both OSU and UNC look very vulnerable.

[dgreco]

With regard to the Big Ten, what tournament have you been watching?

The Big Ten went 5-1 in the first round, meaning that they put nearly half of their conference in the final 32 teams in the country. Of those, wins, OSU, Indiana, MSU, Purdue were impressive. Indiana, MSU and Purdue played comparable seeds. Throw in Illinois, everyone's "last team in", who took a VT team to the wire, and should have beaten them. Oh, by the way, they were a #12 Seed.

In round two, you had MSU and Purdue take #1 seeds to the wire, and Indiana only lost to UCLA, a #2 seed by 5. OSU was fortunate, if not lucky, to get past Xavier, and Wisconsin did not play well.

Granted, they only have one team left in it, but I wouldn't say that was too bad given people's general disrespect for the Big Ten this year. If you go by seedings, they should only have two teams left anyway.

I agree that the ACC looked bad.

[MadVlad]

I think you are overrating those Teams, Florida looks only decent, especially versus purdue, they should of blown them out--> Florida seems a little lackadaisical on the court. As Far as MSU they got lucky I think with the win over MU MU was missing their best player which hurts the team. Also Indiana also got lucky with the style of play of UCLA, if UCLA ran with the ball Indiana would of looked horrible. A slow game helped them. Also watch the Pitt/UCLA game its gonig to be low scoring and boring, because both teams are defense oriented. OSU was very vulnerable against Xavier and if the kid hit the shot big IF they would of won, also Wisconsin hasn't looked great since they lost Brock, if they had him they would be playing a lot better. Overall I think the impressive conferences have been the Big 12 and SEC. Also the state of Tennessee must be enjoying this tourny like TennBear said.

[dgreco]

Florida needs to be careful, UConn went into the tournament last year and looked great, but started playing lazy and got bumped by a feisty George mason just prior to the Final Four.

[dgreco]

Tubby Smith is leaving Kentucky to take over the head coaching job at Minnesota, multiple sources told ESPN.com's Andy Katz on Thursday.

Smith had four years remaining on his Kentucky contract.

Smith has met with Kentucky players and athletic director Mitch Barnhart. He is expected to fly to Minnesota later Thursday afternoon.

Smith called former Minnesota coach Dan Monson early Thursday and told him he was accepting the job. Minnesota is expected to pay Smith $1.8 million per year.

In 10 years at Kentucky, where he replaced Rick Pitino, Smith went 263-83 and went to the NCAA Tournament every season, winning the 1998 national championship. But the Wildcats have not been back to the Final Four since. This season's team, which finished 22-12 overall and 9-7 in the SEC, had more Kentucky fans calling for Smith's ouster.

Earlier this month, before the Wildcats played their first-round NCAA Tournament game, Barnhart issued a statement supporting Smith, saying "Tubby's our basketball coach."

But Barnhart also said that he and Smith would sit down after the season to discuss potential changes -- and declined to say whether any of Smith's assistants might be replaced.

Andy Katz is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

[ohioaninSC]

That may be the biggest shock of March. UK fans weren't happy at all w/ him, I guess he couldn't handle the pressure. Hopefully, he can rebuild Minnesota to respectability. It will only help the Big 10 conference.

[dgreco]

That may be the biggest shock of March. UK fans weren't happy at all w/ him, I guess he couldn't handle the pressure. Hopefully, he can rebuild Minnesota to respectability. It will only help the Big 10 conference.

[TennBear]

Of the games last night, only the UCLA-Pittsburgh Game showed a team that had a difference in the quality of the teams. The other three games could easily gone either way.

Kansas was very lucky that there were some missed calls. The points on those could have made a difference. I think that the Refs were making a strong attempt to be even in all the games. Missed calls that went in Kansas favor, 1) counting a score after the 35 sec buzzer had gone off, 2) counting a score even though there was offensive goal tending, 3) taking the ball away from SI when the ball had hit the rim, 4) waving off a score by SI on a foul that was a shooting foul and giving them two shots instead. They made both thereby taking away one point. Like I said, it could have been anyone's game.

Memphis was lucky that their free throws improved some near the end of the game. The free throws certainly are a problem with Memphis. They negated Acie Law for most of the game. Neither team ever looked like they were able to get into their game. Memphis did not seem to defend the way that they wanted. That have been because TA&M had the game at their speed the whole game.

The Tennessee team went cold in the Second Half and let Ohio State back in the game. Credit Ohio State for much bettter defense and an attacking offense. UT was another team that had the free throws really come back to bite them. I think that they made only about 50% in the second half and many of those were the front end of a one and one. Credit OSU for making their's when they needed to and keeping their big men in the game to the end while both had four fouls early. Was hoping for a foul call on the end of the game. There was a much of a foul on that shot as the shot on the other end that put UT down. All and all, I thought that there were no clear bad calls against either team that would have made a difference. It was a game that you would feel bad that either team had to loose.

It will be interesting to see which team the San Antonio crowd will support in the upcoming Regional Championship. A very late night for someone that gets up at 0420 every morning EDT. I'll be tired today.

[dgreco]

Of the games last night, only the UCLA-Pittsburgh Game showed a team that had a difference in the quality of the teams. The other three games could easily gone either way.

Kansas was very lucky that there were some missed calls. The points on those could have made a difference. I think that the Refs were making a strong attempt to be even in all the games. Missed calls that went in Kansas favor, 1) counting a score after the 35 sec buzzer had gone off, 2) counting a score even though there was offensive goal tending, 3) taking the ball away from SI when the ball had hit the rim, 4) waving off a score by SI on a foul that was a shooting foul and giving them two shots instead. They made both thereby taking away one point. Like I said, it could have been anyone's game.

Memphis was lucky that their free throws improved some near the end of the game. The free throws certainly are a problem with Memphis. They negated Acie Law for most of the game. Neither team ever looked like they were able to get into their game. Memphis did not seem to defend the way that they wanted. That have been because TA&M had the game at their speed the whole game.

The Tennessee team went cold in the Second Half and let Ohio State back in the game. Credit Ohio State for much bettter defense and an attacking offense. UT was another team that had the free throws really come back to bite them. I think that they made only about 50% in the second half and many of those were the front end of a one and one. Credit OSU for making their's when they needed to and keeping their big men in the game to the end while both had four fouls early. Was hoping for a foul call on the end of the game. There was a much of a foul on that shot as the shot on the other end that put UT down. All and all, I thought that there were no clear bad calls against either team that would have made a difference. It was a game that you would feel bad that either team had to loose.

It will be interesting to see which team the San Antonio crowd will support in the upcoming Regional Championship. A very late night for someone that gets up at 0420 every morning EDT. I'll be tired today.