marchmadness Page 26 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

If You Didn't Know Derrick Williams Before, You Do Now
"He just gives you a presence all the time, that kid. He looks like he never gets tired. He is unique. He's a very unusual player to guard. He's a great player. A great kid. I told him afterward he is special .... He gives you confidence. You always know you have that guy on the court. There is a ph...

Jimmer Left The Court With A Bandage On His Chin, But Kyle Singler Probably Saw His Mom Crying
Your morning roundup for March 25, the day rockhopper penguins fight for their oil-slicked lives....

Your Omnipresent Sweet Sixteen Starter Open Thread
Tourney games is comin', yo. UConn/San Diego State at 7:15 p.m. BYU/Florida a dozen minutes later. Arizona/Duke at 9:45 p.m.-ish. Finally, Butler and Wisconsin close out the Sweet Sixteen's first night starting at three minutes before 10 or thereabouts....

Cats vs. Dogs: The First Round Goes Out With A Bang
Round one of our March Madness Dogs vs. Cats tournament ends today with our final two matches, after which we'll have sixteen of the sweetest competitors. Grab your flashlights, 'cause no one's going gently into the good night. [Jezebel]...

BYU And The Mid-Major Hype Cycle
Today's Sports Illustrated asks the question: Are the BYU Cougars America's Team? (They also have an awesome cover photo, by Robert Beck.) The answer is no, BYU's not America's Team, because that phrase really has no meaning beyond a marketing slogan formulated more than 30 years ago. But it speaks ...

NBA Scouts Agree: Jimmer Fredette Is Very, Very White
The best part about yesterday's foreseeable New York Times story on Jimmer Fredette wasn't the obvious notion that Fredette might make for a less-than-dominant NBA player. Far better and more obvious was the list of less-than-dominant NBA players that several front-office types used to assess Fredet...

The UConn Fans Ruined Geno Auriemma's Birthday
Hours before his 57th birthday, and just after his Huskies beat Purdue by 24 points in Storrs to advance to the Sweet 16, Geno Auriemma sat down in a press conference and found something to complain about. Only about 5,700 people — just about half the capacity of Gampel Pavilion — had come out to ...

Frank Martin Is The Most Terrifying Coach On Earth
Wisconsin beat Kansas State in the second round on Saturday, and in the post-game press conference, a reporter's question made Wildcat senior Jacob Pullen cry. Terrifying hero-coach Frank Martin came to his star's defense, and in that moment we were reminded that if Frank Martin wanted to, he coul...

Duke Alums Are Worried About Craziness Of The Young Cameron Crazies
There is a crisis in Durham. Dennis and Elizabeth Chen, '02 and '00 Duke grads and presumably husband and wife, wrote a letter to the Duke Chronicle proposing a Crazie-off challenge to the university's current student body. At the Michigan game on Sunday, the letter alleges, the Crazies practiced th...

Cats vs. Dogs: The Madness Marches On
When we last met, we had four tough matches ahead of up. And some of those were particularly intense. Today we've got two more, pitting classic breeds against pop culture legends. Grab your bandaids, because this one's going to leave… [Jezebel] ...

The VCU Pep Band Makes Its Director Gyrate Uncontrollably And Sometimes Strip
This is Ryan Kopacsi, director of the very-popular VCU pep band and also, apparently, a male model. He's known around the university and amongst pep band circles for his overenthusiastic dancing and for often removing his clothing during games. At VCU, this is apparently called "TTS," or Time To S...

Your NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen Finishing Touches Open Thread
In the next few hours, all attendees will have RSVP'd for the Sweet Sixteen extravaganza. The final five match-ups are Arizona vs. Texas; VCU vs. Purdue; Marquette vs. Syracuse; Illinois vs. Kansas; and in the weekend's final game, Florida State vs. Notre Dame....

Your NCAA Tournament Early Games/Return Of Gus Open Thread
Washington and North Carolina tip off at 12:15 p.m., followed by Michigan vs. Duke at 2:45 p.m. Who knows, maybe Jalen and Bobby and Grant and Tom will put on a halftime slap fight....

The Man Born Without A Right Leg Is America's Best 125-Pound Wrestler
Your morning roundup for March 20, the day Haitian frustrations still have a Fugee in hand pain....

Here's The Crazy Ending To Butler-Pitt, Featuring Two Of The Stupidest Fouls In March Madness History
Butler somehow escaped this one, 71-70, and will advance to the Sweet 16, while Pitt became the first one seed to get knocked out of this year's tournament in the worst way imaginable. Tim Brando and Mike Gminski declared that they'd never seen "an ending like this" before Gilbert Brown missed his...

Your Late Round-Of-32 Games Open Thread
Today's second batch of games starts around 6:10 p.m. eastern with Temple vs. San Diego State. About an hour later, Butler goes up against Pittsburgh. Then, it's Gonzaga vs. BYU and Kansas State against Wisconsin....

Your Early Round-Of-32 Games Open Thread
In the early game, a Kentucky team that barely beat Princeton faces a West Virginia team with a coach who's 8-1 against the head Wildcat....

LeBron James Turned The Atlanta Hawks Into The Cleveland Cavaliers For 12 Minutes
Your morning roundup for March 19, the day after it became wise to snatch a few domain names ending in ".xxx"....

Your Night Games Open Thread
This one's your open thread for the rest of the evening. First up we've got BU-Kansas, LIU-UNC, St. Peter's-Purdue, and Marquette-Xavier....

George Mason Welcomes Gus Johnson To The Tournament With A Go-Ahead Three-Pointer To Beat Villanova
George Mason advances, Gus Johnson erupts, fans smooch. It's that time of year....