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Bracket Breakdown: East Region
Later today, we'll begin rolling out our Tidbit previews of each team/first-round matchup, but to kick us off, we're gonna look at each region. Here's the East region. We're so glad they're calling it "East" again, instead of "Charlotte," though "Charlotte" is a quite lovely word....
The Brackets Have Been Out For Only 15 Hours, And Everyone's Already An Expert
The best part, to us, about Selection Sunday is how quickly the entirely unpredictable merges into the familiar. When the brackets are announced, every matchup seems deliciously random. Pittsburgh vs. Oral Roberts? Weird. But after about an hour of it sinking in, each matchup becomes fated to have ...
About Last Night
What you missed while throwing a fit over penis-shaped bendy straws ... • College basketball: Apparently there's some big tournament later this week. • NHL: Florida Panthers are unstoppable, will soon surpass Houston Rockets' win streak. • NBA: Well, this one pretty much seals Seattle's move to Okla...
Texas A&M Aggies
1. Battle of the Brazos. Texas A&M's rivalry with Baylor is called "The Battle of the Brazos," as the team's campuses sit 90 miles apart, near the Brazos River. The teams have been playing each other since 1914, but no year has been as eventful as this one. The fun started with a five-overtime thril...
Georgetown Hoyas
1. How It Got Here. Founded in 1789 by John Carroll, Georgetown was part of a larger educational effort by the Pope's "Team America" approach to help educate young Catholics in post-Revolutionary War America. Carroll went out to start out other universities, including his namesake in Cleveland, Ohio...
Arkansas Razorbacks
1. Record Breaker. New coach John Pelphrey set the record for most wins by a first year head coach at Arkansas with 20 when the Hogs beat Auburn at home to finish the regular season. That isn't a minor feat when you realize two of the best coaches in history coached at Arkansas, Eddie Sutton and Nol...
Kent State Golden Flashes
1. The Original Bracket Buster. Before there was George Mason, there was Kent State. Back in 2002 the Golden Flashes, behind three stud senior guards (Trevor Huffman, Andrew Mitchell and current FIBA scoring-record holder Demetric Shaw) and current NFL all-pro tight end Antonio Gates (who was an All...
Washington State Cougars
1. A Dingo Ate your Jumper Allowing only 56 points per game (good for third in the nation) in 07-08, this version of the Cougars are one that stifles on the defensive end. And assembling this team of defensive aficionados was an interesting and far flung task for the Coaches Bennett. Not one player ...
The Brackets, They Be Out
The brackets are out. Make sure to join our Pants Party pool, and Download our Deadspin Printable Bracket. (PDF, of course.) And, after the jump, enjoy Storming The Floor's instant analysis. We'll be all over everything tomorrow. The tournament! Wee! (By the way, we're having a little trouble with ...
Massachusetts Minutemen
1. So THAT'S what she meant! While vacationing in Boston one summer, I met a lovely girl. After spending a week with her, she told me she loved the Minutemen. Unfortunately for me, I was the wrong kind of "minuteman." The University of Massachusetts mascot comes from the Revolutionary War era where ...
Believe In The Flying Bracketti Monster
Everyone has their Sharpie and blank bracket, right? Okay, good. I entrust you also have your empty NIT and CBI — yeah the new 16-team tournament — brackets as well. You'll get to squiggle the teams into those little lines soon enough....
Kansas Jayhawks
1. Joe Morgan disapproves. According to the VORPies over at Basketball Prospectus, Kansas has the #1 Pythagorean winning percentage in all the land. In addition, they are ranked #1 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. I have no idea what this means (other than Mario Chalmers clogging up the b...
Texas Arlington Mavericks
1. You Ain't From Around Here, Are Ya, Boy? Ten of the eleven players listed as eligible on the UTA roster are from the state of Texas. The eleventh is 6'1" Guard Brandon Long, who hails from Richton Park, Illinois. The Junior was scoring 12 ppg before an injury vs. Texas Christian put him out for t...
Arizona State Sun Devils
1. The Herbivores. The Tempe fans have nicknamed themselves the "Herbivores," in loving deference to second-year head coach Herb Sendek, late of NC State. And let's face it: Herb Sendek is a just a terrible name. At least someone is having fun with it. Though I'd like to think the fans got the name ...
Kansas State Wildcats
1. Beas-who? One wonders how Kansas State University, a school that has lacked a dominance on the hardwood in recent years, manage to resurrect Jesus Christ himself in the form of a 6-foot-10, 235-forward from the Washington D.C. area. Well, Michael Beasley was coached by in an AAU summer league and...
Oklahoma Sooners
1. His One Shining Moment?: True freshman Blake Griffin hasn't gotten the same amount of hype that super froshes Derrick Rose, Kevin Love or Michael Beasley have received, but his 15 points and 9 boards per game are the biggest reason the Sooners are back in the NCAA Tourney field after a mediocre 1...
More NCAA Conference Tournament Doubleheaders, Please
While enough can't be said of Georgia's impressive and improbable doubleheader sweep of Kentucky and Mississippi State yesterday, the circumstances which forced them to play two games in one day were unfortunate. And now they're at a clear disadvantage against Arkansas in the SEC championship, which...
The Illini's Ridiculous, Plodding "Run"
Realize that we have seen our Illini do this before. In 1999, an 11th-seeded Illini team rode the hot hand of Cory Bradford to an amazing tourney championship game run, before collapsing, exhausted, to Michigan State (who eventually made the Final Four). That run was thrilling, breathtaking; it was...
Texas Longhorns
1. Never Gonna Give You Up. Strangely, after last year's second-round loss to USC (which is almost fitting, really), the people least confused by the Texas Longhorns' early exit were their own fans. The prevailing opinion was one of satisfaction that was unexpected six months prior. Who can blame th...