#iowa vs uconn where to watch

[glowbstory1]

March Madness Final Four: Listen to UConn vs. Iowa

Tonight (April 5), Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes face off against Paige Bueckers and the UConn Huskies at 9:30pm ET, broadcasting live on SiriusXM from the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.

After losing in the Sweet 16 round last year, UConn made it to this year’s women’s college basketball Final Four after defeating top-seeded USC in the Elite Eight 80-73. This is only Iowa’s second time to reach the Final Four in school history, the first time being last year when the team ultimately fell to LSU in the championship.

The winner of the UConn/Iowa Final Four game will face the winner of the NC State/South Carolina Final Four game for the championship title on April 7 at 3pm ET. Final Four: UConn vs. Iowa How to listen Listen to the live national broadcast on satellite channel 84 and streaming on the SiriusXM app.

visit

[maxsimagination]

𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙚𝙨 - 𝙘.𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙠

summary: caitlin and yn are both rookies for the fever and hit it off immediately

-> ik cameron was second pick but let’s run with it for the story

𖦹 masterlist

“𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙄𝙍𝙎𝙏 𝙋𝙄𝘾𝙆 in the 2024 wnba draft, the indiana fever select caitlin clark.”

“with the second pick in the 2024 wnba draft, the indiana fever select yn yln.”

i clapped harder than ever when i heard caitlin’s name called for first pick. we’d played against each other in college, uconn vs iowa was the rivalry.

immediately after, i almost had a heart attack when they called my name. tears welled in my eyes as i walked up to the stage, had my photo taken with cathy and followed the security to where caitlin was.

she swept me up in a huge hug, squeezing me tightly.

“i knew you would make it. you always were the hardest to play against.”

she teased me as she released me from her grip.

“i didn’t think i’d make it, i wasn’t expecting to hear my name so soon.”

i tried to laugh but only ended up choking on my tears as i wiped them away. caitlin brought her hand up to my face to gently swipe away the remaining drops as she grinned down at me.

“at least we can play together at the fever.”

——

one month later

i walked into the indiana fever gymnasium, almost gawking at how big it was, and how decorated it was with accolades. many of the girls were already there and they all waved me over.

“welcome to the fever, yn. good to have you.”

erica wheeler greeted me, along with caitlin who was already there. she had come up behind me however, and slung her arm over my shoulders with a grin.

it was the first training session we had as a new team, so we started off with the basics.

i worked hard, trying my best not to disappoint anyone but most of all, myself. it took some effort but within a month of the season taking off, i was on the roster for the indiana fever. and just as everyone expected, caitlin was also in the roster.

we formed an easy link-up on the court, always nailing our passes and getting steals from our opponents. we were like the dream team.

it was a game day against the connecticut sun, one of the top teams. we knew it would be a hard game but i was confident we could do it if we tried our hardest.

when we arrived at the stadium before the game, me and cait walking in together as the paparazzi snapped photos of us and our outfits.

warm up started after that, and we were just shooting baskets. i was taking turns at shooting free throws with cait, and while she was lining up to take one i stood back and watched. i let my eyes memorise her face, her eyes, her mouth, her hair. she looked so pretty concentrated on the throw.

while i was letting my mind wander, cait took the shot and landed it perfectly. it was my turn and she snapped me out of my daydream. we continued shooting baskets for a bit then moved on, eventually going back to the locker rooms and gearing up for the game.

they announced the starters for each team, calling my name then caitlin’s, along with aliyah, nalyssa, and kelsey.

the first quarter started and it was game on. i immediately got on the ball, running it up the court to the basket and landing a shot. by half time we were up, 45-30, which was impressive for the fever.

it was just before the end of the game, the score was close and i knew that we had to put some distance between us and the suns. our coach called a break and we all jogged to the bench. caitlin and i found each other instinctively, and when the break was over we went back out there with renewed intensity.

in the five minutes left, i managed to get possession of the ball, run it down the court and pass out to caitlin who scored a three. then i did it again, stealing the ball back off a rebound and getting to caitlin who scored another three.

we worked hard the whole game to keep the score in favour of us. caitlin was basically pulling three-pointers out of her ass with the amount she had landed. when the ref blew the whistle for the end of the game, we all cheered loudly. it wasn’t an important game by any means, but it was a big win for the fever especially against one of the top teams.

i ran to caitlin and she pulled me into a hug.

“you killed that! ceo of three-pointers right here.”

i poke cait as she grins and shakes her head at me.

“nah i couldn’t have done that without your passes, they were fire.”

she nudges me back. neither of us leave each others side until we get back to the locker room. all the girls are talking about the win, and i’m running on an adrenaline high. the girls are all jumping and dancing around, shouting out to whatever music is playing on the speaker in the room. so i join in with cait, grabbing her hands and jumping around. it was an amazing vibe after a great win.

[iluvbueckers]

Where are you guys seeing everyone crying?

[kahleahcoppergf]

nah that's not true. caitlin just shoots more. i find it funny that u didn't mention the uconn vs iowa game where cc shot 7-18 and 5 of her 21 came from the ft line once the refs got involved. she only scored 6 points in the first half. hannah is the only reason they even stayed in the game long enough for nika to get 4 fouls and have to back off caitlin. paige doesn't have as many assists as caitlin bc she doesn't a team full of shooters. tbh she only had aaliyah. points dont make a good performance if u played trash defense all night and won by the refs. paige and cc have diff play styles but that doesn't make cc better than her, sorry.

girl.....I know you did not just try to make it seem like iowa is better than Uconn...Uconn that's full of five star recruits and all american players. And I understand the injury so I empathize with the fact that they weren't able to play at full capacity but when Paige was playing on a SIGNIFICANTLY better Uconn team her freshman year she still had less assits than caitlin. And everyone who watched the UConn vs. Iowa game knows caitlin was not the sole reason we won but she still had a near triple double while having a terrible shooting night. If caitlin and paige switched ppg I would still think caitlins stats are better because of her rebounds/assists. If the only edge caitlin had on her was points I would agree with you but besides efficency, caitlin beats her in everything.

[madi2112]

Is it time for a revisit?

Another whole lifetime ago I was a huge sports fan.

A regular, "pace around the room, yell at the television set during tense moments", type sports fan.

Being raised in the Southern California area that meant Dodgers, Lakers, Rams, Kings and Angels.

It's what was expected of me as I had been forced to Cosplay a male all those years.

I was actually a very talented Basketball player. Had a 40 inch vertical jump and won dunk contests often (not kidding!!)

After I finally took the initiative to be my authentic self that changed completely.

I stopped watching, or even caring about, almost all sports.

I still had an interest in golf, but as a player and not much as a spectator.

I did catch a few minutes of the Rams Superbowl victory a couple years ago. Even that was more of a "yeah, that's kinda cool, but whatever" reaction to things.

In fact, the last time I purposely watched Basketball was Kobe Bryant's last game 8 years ago.

Until last night.

Thanks to Caitlyn Clark I stopped by a local restaurant and sat in the bar area where multiple television screens were showing the Iowa vs. Uconn womens semifinal game.

I cheered and let the excitement of the game take hold.

I have to admit it felt pretty good.

Besides it's what women do, we support each other.

Maybe next I'll go to an Orlando Pride womens soccer game. Maybe find other women's sports to keep an eye on.

But first, tomorrow is the Final Game. Iowa vs. South Carolina

Go Caitlyn!

~Madison

[junker-town]

Paige Bueckers and Jalen Suggs were BFFs long before dominating March Madness

The duo went from grade school friends to basketball legends.

As fulfilling as success can be, it’s even better when you get to share it with someone else. One of the best feelings is knowing you’re on top of the world, while getting to watch one of your best friends do exactly the same thing in their field. This is the case for Gonzaga star Jalen Suggs, and UConn phenom Paige Bueckers, two lifelong friends, now supporting each other from across the country, while their stars are shining on college basketball’s brightest stage.

Their roads to the Final Four might have split the two Minnesota natives onto opposite coasts, different timezones, and divergent basketball cultures — but their shared brilliance, honed against each other in backyard games of 21, have turned Suggs and Bueckers into household names overnight. An incredible article from Katie Barnes over at espnW detailed their early friendship.

At 10 years old there was nothing Paige Bueckers loved more than basketball. She’d already been playing for a couple of years, often teaming with kids older than her, and maxing out her rec league time to the point she had to be pulled from games due to league rules. Paige hated it. She’d cry on the bench, begging to be put back in, because all she wanted was to play more basketball. Off the court people remember her as reserved, shy, but the sport lit a spark in her.

Playing in a rec league wasn’t enough. She needed to be around basketball more, so Bueckers began tagging along with a friend to his basketball practice. It didn’t matter that she was hesitant to put herself out there — any kid would be when put into a social situation where they don’t know if they’ll fit in. Learning more about basketball and being close to the game eclipsed any awkwardness. Paige watched from the sidelines as kids ran drills on the court, and it was too intoxicating to resist. She began running them on her own, mimicking what she was watching. Soon watching wasn’t enough. The once-shy girl was pushing her way onto the court, taking part in the drills. Sometimes she’d finish practice with her rec league team, run to the other practice, and take part in that one too. Desperate to get her reps in.

Jalen Suggs fell in love with basketball from a young age. His dad remembers him as a toddler, tossing shots into a Fisher Price hoop, standing behind a line his dad drew on the floor. At an age most kids have attention spans measuring seconds, Jalen would just keep shooting, over, and over, and over again. It was his favorite thing to do, and this love of the game never waned.

The boy never stopped loving basketball. He’d practice at home on the small hoop, and when he outgrew that began playing in rec leagues. When he was 10 years old he arrived at practice and began running drills on the court before noticing a blond haired girl he hadn’t met before running drills by herself, eventually diving in and practicing with his team. It was at that gym that Jalen Suggs and Paige Buecker first met, and immediately became friends — basketball being the common thread that linked them together.

It’s almost impossible to keep in touch with people you meet in grade school. We all change, evolve, and just tend to have those one-fast friends dissolve into fond memories. This wasn’t the case for Suggs and Bueckers. Their bond was always basketball, and it was impossible to break.

Even as league structure dictated they couldn’t formally play together, there was no stopping the duo from having a healthy rivalry. The Suggs and Bueckers families bonded as their children did, having family gatherings and cookouts, Jalen and Paige wolfing down burgers and brats with speed, just so they could get back to the court and play more one-on-one. Brought together by basketball, Suggs and Bueckers became the closest of friends.

Their friendship endured. Even though Suggs and Bueckers didn’t get to spend as much time together with the pressures of their high school careers mounting, they’d often meet at AAU tournaments to give each other pep talks, watch each other’s games, and play fierce games of five-on-five, Suggs’ team vs. Bueckers’ — organized by the two players.

“Just amazing stuff: back and forth, trash talk on both sides,” said Tara Starks, the coach of Bueckers’s Metro Stars AAU team, whose idea it was to invite Suggs’s boys team to scrimmage her girls ahead of the July championship tournament. “Paige would knock down a shot and talk a little trash. Jalen would come down and dunk. They would always go after us hard — running through the middle of the lane and dunking and talking trash. No letup at all. But it would push our girls and get them ready to play.”

The two players defined high school sports in Minnesota while they were playing. Suggs was a Gatorade Minnesota Player of the Year in football and basketball at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, Bueckers won three Gatorade Minnesota Player of the Year awards at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka. A 20 minute cross town drive separated the duo, but the results were identical: Both were dominating.

College drove them apart. Suggs was heavily recruited from across the country, but eventually settled on becoming the highest ranked player to attend Gonzaga, choosing the Pacific Northwest over Florida, Florida State, Iowa State and local Minnesota. Bueckers was so highly coveted that teams began offering her scholarships from the age of 14, ultimately picking to join UConn and become the next great in the program’s astounding history.

A 22-minute drive became 2,700 miles as the two friends began their college careers, but they never lost touch. Avidly following each other from across the country, Suggs and Beuckers followed each other’s games, called each other after big performances and held each other accountable in bad performances to ensure they’d reach their full potential.

Now that potential has been reached. Suggs and Bueckers are in the Final Four, leading their teams in hopes of cutting down the nets at the end. While their primary concern is taking Gonzaga and UConn to victory, they spend their remaining free time catching each other’s games and facetiming each other. In fact, this influence is so great that Suggs credited Bueckers for being a key part of his success in the tournament.

“I texted her after, and we FaceTimed and talked for a little bit,” Suggs continued. “Last night, she said some things that really helped me. I’ve been kind of struggling, trying to get my footing in these tournament games. Of course, seeing her go out there and play great like she did and then talking afterwards, she kind of said some words, it kind of got me uplifted. It got me going. Definitely helped tonight. ... She’s the GOAT for a reason.”

Regardless of what happens from here out, the friendship fostered in Minnesota between two basketball-loving kids has turned them into stars. Suggs is expected to be taken the top five picks of the NBA draft this summer, while Bueckers will have to wait until 2023 or 2024 to enter the WNBA, but will unquestionably be the favorite to be the No. 1 pick when she enters.

There’s no doubt they’ll keep supporting each other in the pros too, ensuring these friends will make each other better for the rest of their careers.

[racingtoaredlight]

THE DEGENERATE’S GUIDE TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL TV WATCH ‘EM UPS 2021: WEEK ONE, TIME FOR THE GOOD STUFF

This is by far the best “opening” slate of games we’ve had in at least a couple of decades. The great thing about having a bunch of cross-country, inter-conference, top 25 matchups in the first week of the season is that we’ll all have a clear expectation of every team involved and will mostly have those ideas flipped over by the end of the month. Answers to questions but wrong, you know?

That’s ok because, really, the whole college football season is that same cycle over and over. And we love it, don’t we folks? We love it more than dying unfulfilled and for no reason with nothing at all to show for it in the larger scheme of the world. College football is a metaphor for life which is just an elaborate metaphor for college football.

Blah, blah eastern times and websites. There have already been approximately one million games played this week with a few FCS over FBS upsets and, upsettingly enough, Kansas was not one of the losers. Whooooooooo! Let’s get it on!

Saturday, September 4

Fordham at Nebraska   12:00pm   BTN

Fordham +46.5 might be the safest bet you can make this week.

ULM at Kentucky 12:00pm SECN

What can you say about Kentucky being favored by 31 over anybody except that it seems incredibly overconfident. They aren’t ranked in the top 10 so I assume they either skip Bama this year or don’t play them until October.

Temple at Rutgers    12:00pm  BTN

In real time the scheduling is fine but these first handful of games feel like a punishment for me crowing about the general quality of this week’s matchups.

Tulane at 2 Oklahoma  12:00pm  ABC

These are the games that come back to win Heisman trophies for Oklahoma QBs later in the year. If the Sooners don’t beat the spread (-31.5) they probably shouldn’t keep their ranking next week.

Holy Cross at UConn  12:00pm  CBSSN

If you can still get UConn -4 anywhere don’t. Holy hell that’s bleak. 4-points at home against Holy Cross. It’s getting real close to time to turn the lights off on the Huskies football program.

Colgate at Boston College  12:00pm  ACCN

If the Toothpastes can just score more than 7 they will have outperformed expectations. If they score more than 7 and hold BC under 60 they will likely have beaten the spread. Chomp ‘Em, Colgate! (I don’t think that’s really their motto but it should be.)

Western Michigan at Michigan  12:00pm  ESPN

I could’ve sworn Michigan played last week and lost but maybe I’m just used to that.

Stanford vs. Kansas State (in Arlington, TX)  12:00pm  FS1

There have been times over the last 25 years where this would be a matchup befitting of a premium neutral site but this is not even close to being one of those years. Definitely not in week one, at least.

19 Penn State at 12 Wisconsin  12:00pm  FOX

Nobody will ever make it make sense that Penn State still has a football program, let alone a football program that puts some of the best athletes into the NFL year after year in a post-Sandusky world.

Army at Georgia State  12:00pm  ESPNU

I can’t be the only one that thinks if the troops put together a football team with the best training and facilities available they’d still get their asses handed to them week after week like they do in illegal wars of aggression.

Fresno State at 11 Oregon  2:00pm   P12N

Kayvon Thibideaux didn’t make the list of “freaks” this year in the Athletic and I can’t tell if I’m just wildly overrating his abilities or if there was some weird oversight due to him announcing that he’ll be playing more standing up on the outside than with a hand in the dirt. Anyway, he’s fun to watch when he’s just pinning his ears back and rushing the QB and Fresno State throws a lot so this could be worth a few minutes of entertainment in this weird in-between time slot. Though, be warned, early kickoff Pac-12 games do tend to suck.

Lafayette at Air Force  2:00pm Stadium

Air Force favored by 42.5. You don’t see that often.

Rice at Arkansas  2:00pm  ESPN+/SECN+

A beautiful reminder of the old SWC. Nothing else. And that’s probably not enough reason to watch this. Arkansas is probably pretty bad but I have trouble believing Rice is going to keep it within 20 of anybody on the road.

17 Indiana at 18 Iowa  3:30pm  BTN

B1G’s plan is to prime the polls early so their teams seem better later on. I’m not falling for it. These are two shit teams that will only look good within the context of the B1G.

14 Miami (FL) vs. 1 Alabama (in Atlanta, GA)  3:30pm   ABC

Miami’s starters are about as old as an average NFL team’s and they’re still gonna get run over by the Bammers. The Canes do actually have a decent stock of pro prospects right now but a lot of these guys were on the field against UNC last year watching as the Tar Heels put up 3,492 rushing yards. So it’s a bunch of middle aged mid-round prospects against a shiny new crop of future stars. Bama should just get an auto-bid for the playoffs at this point until they prove they don’t belong anymore. I’m calling it now: it’s fine, I had a bunch of chores to do around the house anyway.

Marshall at Navy   3:30pm  CBSSN

Ah, the AAC. So dear to my heart. I hated everything Navy did last year but last year was a mulligan anyway. This year might be, too, in the end but for now we can pretend it’ll go off without a hitch.

Miami (Ohio) at 8 Cincinnati  3:30pm  ESPN+

The Bearcats are the darling of mainstream coverage if you’re looking for a playoff Cinderella. Which usually means they’ll lose three games in the regular season and won’t even make it to their conference championship.

West Virginia at Maryland  3:30pm  ESPN

Wait, is this a conference game now? A future conference game? I won’t be paying close attention to realignment. This should be a rivalry of some sort but I can’t quite put myself at ease with WFV in the ACC and Maryland will never belong anywhere but the ACC.

UMass at Pitt   4:00pm  ACCN

Pitt being favored by 35.5 feels like a trap.

Louisiana Tech at Mississippi State   4:00pm  ESPNU

LaTech must be sliding backwards as a program judging by the +23 line. I got nothing else here.

Montana State at Wyoming   4:00pm   ESPN+

I’m intrigued by the screaming amateurism that this game projects. I won’t actually watch it but the way it will look like a 4k remaster of a game from the 60s is appealing on a spiritual level.

Central Michigan at Missouri   4:00pm   SECN

Fuck Missouri.

23 Louisiana at 21 Texas   4:30pm   FOX

The line has moved heavily towards the Ragin Cajuns since it opened. Texas is still a solid favorite but there is something here that I have not been paying attention to so if you want to dig a little you might find some relatively easy money.

Northern Iowa at 7 Iowa State  4:30pm  ESPN+

Iowa State, #7 in the preseason. What a weird fucking time we live in.

San Jose State at 15 USC   5:00pm  P12N

Clay Helton is still the coach at USC. That’s crazy. This program has been sleepwalking through the last decade and they’re still able to pull a #15 ranking because they only have one or two teams on their schedule with a relatively equal talent level.

Gardner-Webb at Georgia Southern   6:00pm  ESPN3

Campbell at Liberty   6:00pm   ESPN3

Liberty’s QB is this year’s unheard of draft prospect that every self-styled draft expert/prognosticator on god’s green twitter is touting as a first round pick. I don’t have an opinion on him because I generally feel gross watching Liberty do anything.

Nicholls at Memphis   7:00pm  ESPN+

Go, Tigers, go. I don’t actually have any expectations calibrated for this year’s Memphis squad. I saw Kenneth Gainwell made a 53-man roster for the Eagles and couldn’t remember him being anything other than a freshman. Time is cruel.

Missouri State at Oklahoma State   7:00pm   ESPN+

If Oklahoma State can’t hit for at least 60 in this game they aren’t real and I hate them.

Monmouth at Middle Tennessee   7:00pm  ESPN3

Ah, Monmouth, Monmouth! These chips are too spicy!

Texas Tech vs. Houston (in Houston, TX)  7:00pm   ESPN

The future of the Big 12 is the SWC, as it always should have been. Well, I mean, aside from the SWC’s tentpole programs. Ah, fuck, it’s so weird and stupid.

Syracuse at Ohio   7:00pm   CBSSN

I still love CBSSN but no thank you.

Southern at Troy   7:00pm  ESPN3

Fading fast.

Oregon State at Purdue   7:00pm   FS1

Fading faster.

Norfolk State at Toledo   7:00pm   ESPN3

I’m evaporating.

Central Arkansas at Arkansas State   7:00pm   ESPN3

Eyes are closing.

Eastern Illinois at South Carolina   7:00pm   ESPN+/SECN+

Snoring softly.

Baylor at Texas State   7:00pm   ESPN+

Snapping to just to talk about how evil Baylor is in general, aside from the horrifically cursed athletics department.

Akron at Auburn   7:00pm   ESPN+/SECN+

Back to sleep.

Abilene Christian at SMU   7:00pm  ESPN+

Snoring loudly.

5 Georgia vs. 3 Clemson (in Charlotte, NC)   7:30pm   ABC

Ah, shit, here we go! It is party time! On paper this is an insanely good “opening” week matchup. But this is also the game that I most had in mind when I wrote about how kind of useless this week’s games are for the season going forward. Clemson is in the DJ Uiagalelei era now and even if he’s better long term than I suspect him of being, he’s still bound to be raw against a Georgia team that might actually have more overall talent than Clemson right now. But if he shows out he’ll be an immediate Heisman darling until he starts throwing lawn darts for a few weeks in a row. It’s fun but meaningless.

NIU at Georgia Tech   7:30pm    ACCN

Trash.

Northwestern State at North Texas   7:30pm   ESPN3

Crap.

UTSA at Illinois   7:30pm   BTN

Garbage.

William & Mary at Virginia   7:30pm   RSN/ESPN3

Funny if William & Mary wins but probably just miserable all around.

Florida Atlantic at 13 Florida   7:30pm   SECN

I don’t often fall into the trap of daydreaming about mascots fighting but an owl fighting an alligator is too good to pass up. There are owls of some sort pretty much everywhere in the world so they have to cross paths in nature with a gator every so often. If you have any videos of an owl winning these fights, please share them.

Southern Miss at South Alabama   8:00pm   ESPN+

Hell, yes. I can’t fully explain why this shitbox gets me a little bit excited but it does.

Kent State at 6 Texas A&M   8:00pm   ESPNU

Always root against Jimbo. Don’t always bet against him but definitely always root against him.

Montana at 20 Washington   8:00pm   P12N

Now this is interesting brand building to me. I don’t think there’s much here for UDub other than an expected win but Montana has been a pretty good team in I-AA over the years. If they can run closer than the +24 they’ve been given it could boost their profile quite a bit.

Duquesne at TCU   8:00pm   ESPN+

I’m not falling for this one.

ETSU at Vanderbilt   8:00pm   ESPN+/SECN+

Vanderbilt is a 21-point favorite and I am telling you, gentle reader, that is a mistake.

16 LSU at UCLA   8:30pm   FOX

UCLA hasn’t been a top talent draw on the West Coast in the last 20 years for whatever reason. This is what I meant by USC sleepwalking. It feels like, to me, going to school in Westwood and playing home games in the Rose Bowl would be a bigger draw than University Village and the Coliseum. But maybe being able to walk to games is important to recruits. Whatever, LSU is going to fuck the Bruins up right there in the Rose Bowl so that’s not gonna help anything.

Bethune-Cookman at UTEP   9:00pm   ESPN3

This is as close to a bodybag game as UTEP can get, at least where they’re the favorites, but I will say this for BCU: their uniforms are usually pretty cool.

New Mexico State at San Diego State   10:30pm   CBSSN

This is that real MWC shit. Lovely to me for reasons I have not been and never will be able to articulate.

Arizona vs. BYU (in Las Vegas, NV)  10:30pm   ESPN

This game is Mormon as hell. If you know any Mormon football fans then they probably have an interest in this game. Bless ‘em, nobody else will have an interest but readers of Moroni sure as hell will.

Nevada at California    10:30pm   FS1

Hmm. Maybe. I doubt I can sink much time into it but I do like the overload of different dark shades of blue threads involved here if nothing else.

Utah State at Washington State   11:00pm   P12N

And here we have a ton of red, depending on alternates and whatnot.

Portland State at Hawaii   11:59pm   Spectrum PPV

A historic showcase for the run & shoot but I don’t know what either offense is supposed to be right now.

Sunday, September 5

9 Notre Dame at Florida State   7:30pm   ABC

Notre Dame is only favored by 7. Did FSU get a huge influx of talent that I totally missed or is the line just something nice in honor of Bobby Bowden? From what I know of these two programs from last year, the Irish should be at least a 3 TD overdog. Was Ian Book really all that great? I thought he was a good QB but I am thoroughly confused by what’s driving the odds on this one.

Monday, September 6

Louisville vs. Mississippi (in Atlanta, GA)   8:00pm   ESPN

Yehaw. What a weird way to close things out. Why aren’t the UGas and the Cocaine Tigers playing in this slot? The racist south is favored by 10 but, off the top of my head, I don’t think they’re actually any better than Louisville. Whatever, there’s close to a zero percent chance I even remember this game is happening.

[keneerike]

NCAA Tournament 2017: Two Steps to Filling out a Winning Bracket (and a look at the women’s game)

March Madness is here again. Let’s get to it.

But first, let me get this out of the way....

If you’re one of the ten people in America filling out a women’s bracket, roll with UConn. 

That was a tough one.

UConn vs. The Field.

If you’re betting against The Huskies’ drive for five, take one of the #1′s from the other side of the bracket, Baylor or SC. That delays a match-up with the prohibitive tournament favorite as long as possible, inserting more chances for injury, fatigue, or the vagaries of the game to weaken Uconn. With any luck, some other team knocks off the Huskies before the Final Four.

UConn’s perennial dominance raises an intriguing question: 

How can a top women’s basketball program manage to do what the men can’t? Why don’t we see 21st century blue bloods like UNC or Duke reel off fifty wins in a row on the men’s side of the ledger?

Here’s my theory:

The talent disparity in the women’s game is much starker than the men’s.

The biggest reason for that is the physical differences between the genders. Because women have less muscle mass/length/height than men, each individual unit of athletic ability has a greater marginal impact on a player’s overall ability. 

In other words, the percentage difference between two units of horsepower and four units compared to twelve units and fourteen units is much greater. When you’re dealing with fewer units of “ability”, each additional unit added to the mix has an inordinate effect on the competitive landscape..

Bigger fish in a smaller pond.

In the men’s game, the differences in physical ability between top teams is minimal, There are many more men in America playing basketball than women, which amplifies talent gaps even more. 

When there are few, if any, true above-the-rim athletes roaming the hardwood, a couple extra inches of height or quickness weigh large. 

A women’s team that can pair just a few of these 97th-percentile players on one team can enjoy years of unchecked brilliance. Few squads have the firepower to counter a collection of elite female athletes and there’s only so much great coaching can do to level the playing field.

If your program lacks an elite recruiter, you might as well change your name to “The Washington Generals”.

Now, on to the men’s bracket....

(Note: All of the following presumes you’re operating in the standard bracket scoring setup that rewards increasing points as the tournament progresses.

If you’re in a pool that gives bonuses for upsets or some other unorthodox scoring system, adjust accordingly.)

Every year I publish my bracket and suggestions for winning your own pools.

The strategy that gives you the best chance of taking down a large pool remains the same, so much of the advice mirrors that of previous years.

I’m no expert on college basketball and I only watch NCAA ball during the tournament. Ironically, my lack of interest in the college game doesn’t disqualify me from giving advice on picking a bracket. I know what it takes to win these sort of “roll-the-dice-and-pray” competitions, especially when no one you’re playing against has a marked competitive advantage over the rest of the field.

Step 1: Adopt the Right Perspective.

If you’re in a pool of any reasonable size, you're unlikely to win.

Once you’ve got the right mindset, it’s easier to produce a bracket that maximizes your chances of winning. Given the slim odds that any single entry has of winning a large pool, the importance of differentiation cannot be overstated.

Facing tough odds, you’ll need some special moves to clear a path.

That’s where “risk” comes in.

If you’re playing in a small office pool, you can ignore this advice. Stay conservative. You don’t have to take nearly as many risks because there isn’t that much opposition.

Play in a big pool, however, and you’ve got to venture out on a limb.

In a competition where most of your competitors are likely to have the same few picks in the Elite 8 and Final Four, the spoils ain’t going to the risk-averse.

Step 2: Employ a risk-driven strategy.

Unless you own a crystal ball, the best long-term success goes to those who adopt one of the following strategies:




1) Pick a tourney favorite to win it all, along with a number of significant upsets throughout your bracket.

2) Pick an unconventional winner and stay conservative throughout the rest of your bracket.

Both of these strategies infuse risk in to your bracket, instead of going “chalk”, like most of the nation. 

The best path to winning a big pool is to gamble on plausible upsets, stepping out on a limb to gain an edge on competitors. The talent gap between most tourney teams is minimal, outside of the big dogs, so you might not even call it an upset when some of the lower seeds win. 

The most frequent cognitive bias in bracket selection is getting caught up in seed numbers. As difficult as it is, you have to try to ignore gaps in seeding (e.g. #4 vs. #13) when filling out your bracket. If some of the available data says your #14 seed has a legitimate chance to topple that #3, roll the dice. 

That move is even more enticing if you don’t have the winner of the match-up winning its next game.

Winning is not about how many correct picks you make; It’s about how many points you score relative to the rest of your pool.




If you make a correct pick, along with 95% of the nation, you don’t gain much. Correctly call an upset, however, while everyone else gets it wrong, and that’s a big step forward.

Remember, the chances of your bracket winning a big pool are remote to begin with. You want to maximize your chance of taking down a huge pot in the event your picks are correct.

You go all chalk and get those right....you’re still likely to finish empty-handed. Most of your competition has done the same and there are probably a dozen other entries who got that SC/Marquette match-up right that you got wrong to edge you out by a couple points.

You only gain ground when you score points missed by the rest of the field.

With most pool setups, it does you no good to finish anywhere but the very top of the standings. 20th place is as good as 200th place.

Give yourself a chance to win by looking for arbitrage opportunities. Shoulder some risk when others are afraid to.

So, who did I pick to cut down the nets?

Upset Squads: SMU, Purdue

Final Four: Duke, Arizona, UNC, Louisville

Championship: Duke, UNC

Champion: Duke

* Click here for Full Bracket *

I had a strategy for selecting the winners of each game throughout the bracket....

When I didn't feel strongly about either team in a match-up, I used three tie-breakers:

1) Popular Pick 2) Location of Game 3) Front Court Prowess

1) Who is America picking?

Here’s the national bracket:

http://games.espn.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2017/en/nationalBracket

If the teams are relatively-even and 80% of the nation is leaning one way, I'm rolling the other way.

2) Location of game

Look at the location of each match-up. Many of the games are being played in the backyards of some of the entrants.

If a team is less than three hours away from its home arena, that's a de-facto home game. In college sports, home field advantage is much more important. You've got teenagers playing under the bright lights for the first time with rabid fans doing everything they can to unsettle them.

3) Does the team have any dominant bigs, particularly those who block 1+ shot a game?

A team with great bigs can always dump the ball down low when shots aren't falling from deep. Rim-protectors can impact the other offense as well, forcing guards to settle for tough jumpers.

I forgot this key element of basketball when I jumped on the Iowa State bandwagon a couple years back.

Good luck, folks. The first day of the tournament is an unofficial holiday for a reason.

[jodyedgarus]

Your Guide To The 2019 NCAA Women’s Tournament

The early release of the women’s NCAA tournament bracket on Monday afternoon actually did fans a favor: If any year merits having additional time to fill out a bracket, this year is it. Three different teams were ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll this season, and a storyline has been how open the competition was for the top spots in each region. ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel wrote on Monday night that this year’s NCAA tournament “might be as wide open as any since 2006,” with as many as seven teams that could legitimately cut down the net on April 7.

Luckily, FiveThirtyEight’s March Madness prediction model is here to guide you as you make your picks. You can read about how the model works here or keep reading to learn what the model predicts for the top seeds, which teams could make an unexpected run and which squads could bow out sooner than expected. We’re also highlighting the best first-round matchups to help you schedule your Friday and Saturday around women’s hoops.

Top seeds

The four No. 1 seeds are Baylor, Notre Dame, Louisville and Mississippi State. You read that right: UConn is not a top seed for the first time since 2006. But the Huskies are still a No. 2 seed, and they still got a regional nearby, in Albany, New York. The Huskies will host the first two rounds in Storrs, and their fans have packed Albany regionals for years — so they would essentially have home-court advantage until the Final Four. That’s a tough setup for the region’s No. 1 seed, Louisville, and the FiveThirtyEight model reflects that, giving UConn a 68 percent chance and Louisville a 24 percent chance of making the Final Four. But the Cardinals did beat UConn in January, as star guard Asia Durr scored a game-high 24 points. That win should give Louisville confidence as it chases its second straight Final Four appearance.

The selection committee created a similar setup out west, where Mississippi State is the No. 1 seed and Oregon is the No. 2. With each team hosting the first two rounds and the regional rounds being played in Portland, Oregon could make its first Final Four without leaving the state. The model gives the Ducks a 51 percent chance of doing just that behind triple-double queen Sabrina Ionescu, who could be the first pick in the WNBA draft if she declares. Mississippi State, which secured its No. 1 seed after winning its first-ever SEC tournament title, has a 44 percent chance of making the Final Four and a 10 percent chance of winning a national title. The latter would be a storybook ending for the national runners-up in each of the past two seasons.

The Greensboro, North Carolina, region is a hotbed of low-post talent, starting with the No. 1 overall seed in Baylor. The Lady Bears have had a dominant season to date, running their record to 31-1 and leading the nation in blocked shots, defensive rebounds and opponent field-goal percentage. The 6-foot-7 Kalani Brown and 6-foot-4 Lauren Cox have combined to average more than 28 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks per game. Not to be outdone, No. 2 seed Iowa has espnW’s national player of the year in 6-foot-3 Megan Gustafson. According to Her Hoop Stats, Gustafson is both the nation’s top scorer, putting up 28.0 points per game, and the nation’s most efficient scorer, recording 1.44 points per scoring attempt and shooting just under 70 percent from the field. There are several low-post standouts among the lower-seeded teams as well, but Baylor projects to be the best in Greensboro, with a 76 percent chance of making the Final Four.

Although Baylor is the No. 1 overall seed, it’s the top seed in the Chicago region, Notre Dame, that has the best chance of winning a national championship. The FiveThirtyEight model gives the defending champs a 30 percent chance of repeating and Baylor a 28 percent chance at its first title since 2012. The Fighting Irish returned all but one starter from last year’s team and then led the country in points per game while playing the nation’s toughest schedule. Notre Dame’s chief competition in Chicago will likely be No. 2 seed Stanford, the Pac-12 tournament champions and the only team to beat Baylor this season. Under head coach Tara VanDerveer, the Cardinal have a 56 percent chance to make the Elite Eight but just an 8 percent chance to advance to the Final Four.

Sleepers

A pair of 4-seeds could knock off some of the favorites in the Sweet 16. In Albany, Oregon State has a 21 percent chance of making the Elite Eight, potentially displacing Louisville, while South Carolina has a 10 percent chance of doing the same to Baylor in Greensboro. Oregon State finished third in what was perhaps the nation’s deepest conference, the Pac-12, and ranks fourth in the nation in 3-point shooting at 38.8 percent. If the Beavers, particularly star guard Destiny Slocum, get hot from deep, they could extend their stay on the East Coast to the Final Four. Under head coach and former Virginia point guard Dawn Staley, South Carolina also has electric guard play, which could set up a fascinating game of contrasts against Baylor in the Sweet 16. Don’t count Staley out as she chases her second national championship in the past three seasons.

Also in the Greensboro region, No. 3 North Carolina State has received relatively little attention compared with ACC rivals Louisville and Notre Dame despite starting the season 21-0. (NC State didn’t lose a game until February!) The Wolfpack would not have to leave their home state to make the Final Four, and the FiveThirtyEight model gives the team almost the same chances as No. 2 seed Iowa of advancing to the Elite Eight (40 percent versus 42 percent).

Busts

It’s perhaps a sign of progress that a mid-major team can even be considered for this category, but Gonzaga, the No. 5 seed in the Albany region, probably won’t see it that way if this prediction proves true. Gonzaga is vulnerable after two players suffered season-ending leg injuries in its conference tournament semifinal. The model still gives the Bulldogs an 87 percent chance of beating Arkansas-Little Rock, but a team that was ranked in the top 25 for parts of this season and had aspirations of hosting the first two rounds as a top-4 seed surely has its sights set higher than one NCAA tournament win.

No. 4 Texas A&M has also had injury concerns, although the school recently announced that leading scorer Chennedy Carter (22.5 points per game) will play in the NCAA tournament. She is returning from a hand injury, though, and if her shot isn’t falling, Texas A&M could struggle with a tough Wright State team that holds opponents to just 36.2 percent shooting, which ranks 24th in the nation.

Speaking of tough mid-major teams, the state of Florida has a couple that will start the NCAA tournament in Miami. No. 5 seed Arizona State can’t be happy about traveling all the way across the country to play No. 12-seed UCF in their backyard, and the Sun Devils have only a 69 percent chance of winning one game and a 26 percent chance of winning two games in the Sunshine State. Meanwhile, host and No. 4 seed Miami has an 82 percent chance of beating No. 13 seed Florida Gulf Coast, but there are signs of a potential upset here. FGCU is ranked only three spots behind Miami in the Her Hoop Stats ratings (the teams rank 28th and 25th, respectively) and is dangerous behind the arc: Nearly half of FGCU’s shot attempts are 3-pointers, which ranks second nationally, while Miami is letting teams score more than one-third of their points from three, which ranks 320th nationally.

Fun first-round matchups

If you’re looking for two senior stars trying to extend their careers, watch No. 8 seed California take on No. 9 seed North Carolina on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. Kristine Anigwe has had a historic season for the Golden Bears and leads the nation in rebounding with 16.3 per game, including a 32-point, 30-rebound effort against Washington State two weeks ago. North Carolina ranks in the bottom third of teams nationally in rebounding rate, so one might predict a long afternoon for the Tar Heels, but their offensive firepower can keep them in any game. (Just ask Notre Dame and NC State, which both lost to North Carolina in the span of a week earlier this year.) Guard Paris Kea is the star (17.1 points per game), but three other players average double-figure scoring and a fourth averages 9.5 points per game.

FiveThirtyEight model’s prediction: California over North Carolina (64 percent)

If you’re looking for a battle between mid-major powerhouses, don’t miss No. 6 seed South Dakota State versus No. 11 seed Quinnipiac on Saturday at 11 a.m. Eastern time. Both teams have been to the tournament before: SDSU won its ninth automatic bid in 11 years this season, while QU is in for the fifth time in seven seasons and made a Sweet 16 appearance in 2017. SDSU boasts the Summit League’s all-time leading scorer in Macy Miller, who is averaging 18.1 points per game this season while shooting nearly 55 percent from the floor. But Quinnipiac could make things tough for Miller and the Jackrabbits: The Bobcats hold opponents to just 50.5 points per game, second-best in the nation, and their 11.5 steals per game rank sixth nationally. Whichever way this game goes, the winner could be a sleeper pick to knock off No. 3 Syracuse and make the Sweet 16.

FiveThirtyEight model’s prediction: South Dakota State over Quinnipiac (65 percent)

Finally, if you’re looking for toss-ups, the three games that our model gives the most even odds are:

No. 10 Buffalo vs. No. 7 Rutgers, Friday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time (Buffalo has a 51 percent chance of winning)

No. 10 Auburn vs. No. 7 BYU, Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time (Auburn has a 55 percent chance of winning)

No. 6 UCLA vs. No. 11 Tennessee, Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern time (UCLA has a 56 percent chance of winning)

Check out our latest March Madness predictions.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/your-guide-to-the-2019-ncaa-womens-tournament/

[buddyrabrahams]

10 college basketball games to watch in December

November college basketball is a wild ride. Half the games are big time match-ups fabricated by sponsored tournaments and the other half feature certain blowouts. One thing both genres share in common is lack of national interest. Tournaments held during Thanksgiving week draw out the die-hards but lack attendance or TV viewing from even casual basketball fans.

Flipping the calendar from November to December makes things start to feel real in college hoops. Some conferences tip off league play, while some blue-blood programs schedule enticing match-ups in on-campus gyms. Gone are the sleepy vacation resort crowds, and in their place are the pep bands and student sections that make this sport great.

Over the 31 days of December, there is plenty to attract your attention, highlighted by this slate of games featuring top teams throughout the nation.

Purdue at Michigan, Dec. 1

Last year, the Big Ten moved a few conference games for each team to the early part of January to compensate for the league playing its conference tournament abnormally early. Most power conferences end their tournament in the 48 hours prior to Selection Sunday. Because the Big Ten wanted access to Madison Square Garden, which is already booked in mid-March by the Big East Tournament, the Big Ten moved things up a week.

This year, the Big Ten Tournament is back where it belongs in Chicago, but the early December conference games remain on the schedule. Big Ten brass looks to the semester break and a newly expanded 20-game conference slate as the reasons.

Whatever the case, it will always feel strange to have important conference games just days following Thanksgiving. That’s where we find ourselves this very Saturday, with two of the league’s top teams squaring off already.

Though it feels like Conference Player of the Year won’t be awarded for millennia, Carsen Edwards can cement himself as the frontrunner for the honor. Getting off to a hot scoring start, especially with a win in Ann Arbor, would put the spotlight on Edwards for the rest of the Big Ten season.

Iowa at Michigan State, Dec. 3

Just two days later, two more of the Big Ten’s best will go toe-to-toe. This is not a match-up that necessarily flashed off the calendar preseason. Michigan State looked to be the class of the conference and while Iowa seemed poised for a strong year, they have impressed more than expected. The Hawkeyes are undefeated, with wins over Oregon, UConn, and Pitt. Iowa can already start to prove itself as a team capable of a tournament run with a win in East Lansing.

In the other locker room, things have not gone fully according to plan. Sparty has already lost twice, to Kansas and Louisville, as they adjust to life without Miles Bridges on campus. Michigan State has the talent to be in the conversation at the top of the bracket, but needs to start banking high quality wins to stay in that conversation. This would be the perfect game to do so.

Iowa State at Iowa, Dec. 6

Just three days after that crucial conference match-up, Iowa turns around and hosts one of the most underrated rivalries in college basketball. The Cyclones and Hawkeyes play in two of the sport’s most iconic venues and have tussled once per year since 1970. Since the teams started playing yearly, Iowa leads the series by a narrow margin of 25 wins to 23.

This year’s match-up will be greatly affected by the availability of a host of Iowa State contributors. So far this season, four Cyclones have yet to suit up. Lindell Wigginton and Solomon Young have been injured, while Cameron Lard and Zoran Talley were suspended by the program for the team’s first seven games. Combined, those four players started 97 times last season. Coach Steve Prohm is hopefully that his team will continue to build as it comes back together healthy.

So far, even with a chunk of the team unavailable, Iowa State has looked excellent, winning twice at the Maui Invitational. Freshman Talen Horton-Tucker looks like a future star and Virginia transfer Marial Shayock has always been able to score.

Nevada vs. Arizona State (in Los Angeles), Dec. 7

If you’ve only been following college basketball from the surface so far this season, you’ll want to check out Nevada as soon as possible. The Wolf Pack isn’t just good for a mid-major; Eric Musselman has built one of the best teams in college basketball. After reaching the Sweet Sixteen last March with a team already almost exclusively assembled via transfers to Reno, Musselman added three more quality transfer players and a talented freshman in big man Jordan Brown.

The Wolf Pack will make an interesting challenge for Arizona State freshman guard Luguentz Dort. The Canadian phenom has been spectacular this season, yet has not faced Top 25 competition yet. Nevada has tons of options when defending Dort, making this a very intriguing match-up when the Sun Devils have the ball.

Gonzaga vs. Tennessee (in Phoenix), Dec. 9

The Zags look like the headliner in this match-up, thanks to their fantastic win over a dominant Duke team in Maui. I wouldn’t, however, overlook Tennessee when considering possible Final Four teams. Perhaps because the Vols lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, many seem to have forgotten just how good Tennessee was last season. A team that won 26 games last season returns the 11th-highest percentage of its minutes played last season. Grant Williams won SEC Player of the Year last season and has been treated like a relative afterthought this year.

The Vols showcased what they are capable of already by taking Kansas to overtime earlier this month. Williams fouled out just before the extra period and the Jayhawks prevailed, though Tennessee was impressive. The game felt as much like a tournament match-up as any other game so far this season, except for Gonzaga’s win over Duke. This game should have plenty of juice behind it and be a nice test for both teams.

Villanova at Kansas, Dec. 15

Although Villanova has bounced back to a certain degree, there may be no worse fate for a team in need of turning things around than a trip to Phog Allen Fieldhouse. In 15 years at Kansas, Bill Self has more Big XII Conference titles (14) than losses in his home gym (11). It’s just so rare for any team to sneak into Lawrence and leave with a win, especially for this Villanova team, which is clearly both less talented and less polished than any Jay Wright has had in half a decade.

The Wildcats have taken the 9th most three-point attempts this season, but have shot just 32.9 percent as a team. No Villanova team has shot under 33 percent since 2012. That number could recover with a hot shooting night, but that percentage is a symptom of a deeper problem. Villanova isn’t making shots because none of the Wildcats excel at creating shots, for themselves or for others.

Against a rangy Kansas defense, that could be a serious problem. Kansas fans will be salivating at the chance to avenge NCAA Tournament losses to the Wildcats in 2016 and 2018.

Gonzaga at North Carolina, Dec. 15

Because Gonzaga has reached a point in its program history where it can seek a number one seed every March, but still plays in the West Coast Conference, we as the viewing public are treated to a few extra gems involving the Zags every December. While most high-profile teams will play one or two big games, often because they are sanctioned to do so in a tournament or challenge-type event, the Zags find themselves scheduling tough games, often away from the comforts of home.

This game features one key question for the Tar Heels: who on the Carolina roster can cover a player like Rui Hachimura? We’ll see who Roy Williams tries on a player of Hachimura’s size and athleticism during this game, taking notes for later down the road. Coach K will have an eager eye on UNC’s defense against a player as springy and agile as Hachimura, knowing he and freshman Zion Williamson have at least two future dates with North Carolina.

Duke vs. Texas Tech (at Madison Square Garden), Dec. 20

You didn’t think we could make it through this entire list without a Duke game, did you? Of course not! The Blue Devils have been the hottest ticket in college basketball all season. Every win has been exhilarating and full of dunks and highlights. Duke’s only loss was arguably the best played game of the young season. So of course we have to recommend checking out the Blue Devils in their home-away-from-home at the “Mecca of Basketball” in New York City.

They’ll face a Texas Tech team that should provide ample challenge. Sophomore Jarrett Culver has increased his scoring, rebound, and assist numbers this year, now posting 18.8 points per game with 50 percent shooting from long range. He is a rising name among NBA scouts and should make for an intriguing defensive assignment for the Duke guards as they also try to impress decision makers at the next level.

Kansas at Arizona State, Dec. 22

While Kansas gets Villanova in the comfy confines of Phog Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks will travel to Tempe to face off with Luguentz Dort and the Sun Devils. Remember that stat above about how few home losses Bill Self has at Kansas? One came last year at the hands of Bobby Hurley’s Arizona State program. The Jayhawks started that game on a 15-2 to run before losing in convincing fashion.

The second half of the home-and-home series gives Kansas a chance for revenge. Lagerald Vick should draw the assignment of guarding Dort, though based on match-ups, this should be a game dictated by the Kansas bigs. Dedric Lawson is poised to comfortably record a double-double in this one.

North Carolina vs. Kentucky (in Chicago), Dec. 22

Give Roy Williams and his staff some credit this year. The Heels will play five KenPom Top 50 teams before Christmas and also started their season with true road games at Wofford and Elon. Duke, by the way, won’t play a true road game until Jan. 8, while the Tar Heels will have played five away games by that date.

This game, like so many early season Kentucky tilts, will be a good measuring stick to determine which freshmen are prepared for conference play. That goes for both teams here, as UNC is also giving high volume minutes to two freshman. Point guard Coby White looked pedestrian at Michigan this week. An up-and-down race with Big Blue is the kind of game where his attacking style could thrive.

Shane McNichol covers college basketball and the NBA for Larry Brown Sports. He also blogs about basketball at Palestra Back and has contributed to Rush The Court, ESPN.com, and USA Today Sports Weekly. Follow him on Twitter @OnTheShaneTrain.

from Larry Brown Sports https://ift.tt/2PaAfKZ

[cvasps]

We Need To Slow Down…

It seems that every month or so there is an article, commentary, or an event that gains traction on the “bigger” news outlets and sends shockwaves through world of strength and conditioning. There was “The Killing Season” a few weeks back, and last fall the comments made about Chris Doyle at Iowa not being “worth the money”. In today’s day and age we all react quickly. We want to hit the like or share button before we process what we actually hear or read. Now, if we watch the whole video or read the whole article or not is another discussion in and of itself, but the reactions stay the same. We want to jump on a band wagon and beat the drum to say “look at this it’s so right/wrong”!

The latest article that has caught traction is the New York Times article on UCONN Women’s Basketball team and their “training characteristics”. This thing has blown up. I have a problem with what is going on in this for three reasons:

1) People are looking at the article and only taking away that they run/work till their tired and keep pushing to make them focus (see mental toughness and a whole different topic of conversation), and they lift hard all year. Ok, here is where the actual fear comes in for me. The sporting sub culture that is women’s basketball has long been one of over use injuries, and training designed around “making them tougher.” Now, the best team in the history of the game is saying, not only do we do that but also we do it at an even more extreme level than any of you. All I can see coming from this is strength coaches being called into their head coaches office and hearing something along the lines of “you need to push them harder, the workouts need to be faster and more intense, they need to be tougher.” If this is something that has been progressed, and started from the summer when the kids all start their off season, then I would tend to believe that we would all agree that this type of training could lead to success, but not because of the training itself, but because the training has been progressed to the point where the kids can handle the stress and not break down. That’s what my take away from the article was, that they constantly increase the stress applied to the athletes, so they are able to work at a greater level for a longer duration of time. That’s the key. Progress them and they get better. Just go bat shit crazy because “it’s what UCONN does” and we have a repeat of what happened in the Pacific Northwest this winter.

2) They do use monitoring. It says it right in the article. As a matter of fact, it seems that they monitor quite a bit. Just because it’s not HRV, or heart rate, or athlete tracking doesn’t mean it’s not monitoring. This has become such a polarizing thing it’s somewhat disgusting. Is there an art and a science to coaching, yup sure is, but that doesn’t mean you either are an artist or a scientist. So seriously, just get over it. You can help the kids by asking them a few questions and tracking it to see if there are trends. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it’s monitoring. I’ve run teams where we have used HR monitors, and Omegawave, and questionnaires. I’ve also run teams where “this is the plan and we are sticking to it unless you all are open and honest about where we are.” Was one way more successful than the other? Yes, the group where the kids actually talked and were open and honest in discussing things. If you are going to monitor and you don’t know what you are looking to impact/track/change, then it isn’t going to work, but don’t tell me that if you are tracking questionaries’ that that’s not monitoring because it’s cheap and anyone can do it. Saying that’s not monitoring is just you making an agenda driven statement that ignorant at best. Chapter 2 of The Manual, Vol. 1 was about how to do just that. I couldn’t recommend reading what Kevin had to say there more.

3) Please do not over look some simple things that have the greatest impact on their success in Storrs. The first being they have, arguably, the best coach in the history of women’s basketball. We can talk all day about Gino vs. Pat, but at worst they’re 1A and 1B. He has assembled an absolutely fantastic staff that does an amazing job with their student athletes. Look at the last 4 or 5 paragraphs of that article and tell me that Coach Kimball isn’t doing every single thing possible to ensure the student athlete’s she is responsible for are successful. I mean seriously LOOK AT THAT LIST OF THINGS SHE DOES! From nutrition, to monitoring (YES IT SAYS IT FOLKS), to any form of training and recovery work you can think of. She covers all the bases. I wouldn’t expect the rest of the staff to be any less devoted either. (Disclaimer, all I know is what I read in this article, and I am super impressed, but have never seen any of this, so the statements in the article are all I have to go off of). So you have one of, if not the greatest coach of all time who has assembled a staff of dedicated hard working people who are doing a fantastic job, and you now are going to add in the fact that they recruit the best players in the world at the game we are talking about, and now maybe you have the perfect recipe for a winning streak greater than 100 games.

All in all, the moral of this story is be careful what you share, because the back story is more important than the single point that you may want to take from it. At the end of the day, your staff has to be fantastic at what they do and you have to progressively increase the stress placed upon the athlete in order to safely improve performance. I just hope that these articles don’t drive to many coaches to go to extremes when it comes to pushing kids too soon too fast. The necessity to have to change the culture of a team doesn’t mean kids have to get hurt. It means we all need to take a step back and look at what we can each do better to improve each factor affecting performance, because when push comes to shove, winning cures a lot of those “issues.”

Learn More Here: We Need To Slow Down…

[racingtoaredlight]

The degenerate’s guide to college football TV watch ‘em ups, 2019 season, week 6

Not sure if anybody has reminded you lately but there is only one OCTOBER!!! And we’re in it. October is breast cancer awareness month and one of only four annual truck months. The first football weekend of October features three top 25 matchups, which isn’t terrible, but two of them are B1G conference games. And they each feature a team from the state of Michigan who probably won’t be in the top 25 come tomorrow.

So now that I have you all pumped up for it, let’s get to the games! As per usual, the schedule is copied and pasted from FBSchedules and gambling info, where it’s provided, is from Vegas Insider. NOW ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!????!???? IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER!!!!

Saturday, October 5

Matchup                                                          Time (ET)               TV/Mobile

TCU at Iowa State                                           12:00pm                   ESPN2

TCU is tough to figure out. So is Iowa State for that matter. But I think Gary Patterson got back on track last week and the Cyclones -3.5 looks bad to me so... load up the Cyclones, I guess.

14 Iowa at 19 Michigan                                   12:00pm                     FOX

The line is moving towards Iowa but it’s still Michigan -4. I think the sharps are on Iowa here but I don’t trust it. This looks like a horrible game for purposes of watching.

Kent State at 8 Wisconsin                               12:00pm                 ESPNU

Wisconsin’s defense might be great but the Badgers still kept it close against Northwestern last week. That’s a big red flag for me but not so big that I think Kent State +35 is smart money. I hope Chryst runs it up like crazy.

Maryland at Rutgers                                         12:00pm                   BTN

It’s been a long couple of weeks since Maryland’s offense looked good. But I bet Rutgers can get them back in the swing of things. Terps and the over.

6 Oklahoma at Kansas                                      12:00pm                  ABC

The line has moved towards Kansas and I’ve got nothing. I love Les Miles and those plucky Jayhawks but come the fuck on. Oklahoma’s gunning for 80. Also, I love KU football for all the failure so I’m in the bag for either 95-0 Oklahoma or KU pulling one of the more monumental regular season upsets in memory.

21 Oklahoma State at Texas Tech                    12:00pm                   FS1

TIRED: Bet the over. WIRED: Chuba Hubbard hits the over by himself.

Purdue at 12 Penn State                                    12:00pm                 ESPN

Rondale Moore won’t play but he’s not out for the year. Supposedly. He should be, though, right? No reason to chance it with one of the best players in the country on a garbage program like Purdue. Penn State is favored by 28 and, as much as I hate to say this, they’re wildly undervalued even though that’s up 11.5 from where the line opened. This is going to be an all out splatterfest.

Tulane at Army                                                    12:00pm              CBSSN

This game is a metaphor. The environment vs. the troops. The environment is favored.

USF at UConn                                                      12:00pm      CBSSports.com

As godawful as USF has been this year they’re still favored by 11 on the road in a conference game. UConn should consider dropping football.

Utah State at 5 LSU                                             12:00pm              SECN

Jordan Love goes to Death Valley to face a bunch of future first round picks in the LSU secondary. That’s fun for scouting but LSU should destroy USU. 

Boston College at Louisville                               12:30pm              RSN

No idea what to say here.

Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan                3:00pm              ESPN+

We’re about to run through a bunch of MAC games.

Virginia Tech at Miami (FL)                                   3:30pm              ESPN

But before we get to all that MAC first we have to deal with this MAC-level disaster. Miami has pretty much sucked so far this year but maybe they fixed everything in the week off. More likely, Justin Fuente will get off the hotseat for a week after winning on the road against a Miami team dressed up as pumpkins.

Western Michigan at Toledo                                 3:30pm             ESPN+

O/u 74, 1.5-point line. These teams are interchangeable. Not just Toledo and Western Michigan - the entire MAC is a jumble of teams that are exactly the same and Buffalo. Buffalo sucks way differently than the rest of the MAC.

Ohio at Buffalo                                                        3:30pm           ESPN+

Buffalo sucks differently than the rest of the MAC but they still suck.

Marshall at Middle Tennessee                                3:30pm        Facebook

I want to love this game but it looks fucking horrible.

Arkansas State at Georgia State                            3:30pm         ESPN+

ESPN+ is definitely a government conspiracy. Real deep state channels over here. The other Arkansas is favored on the road in a matchup of two middling offenses and two of the worst defenses in the country. I’m tempted to say hit that over of 69.5 with the Red Wolves winning. I don’t know about that line, though.

11 Texas at West Virginia                                         3:30pm           ABC

I am not enjoying Heisman hype for Texas’ QB but I don’t think WFV is the team to bring him back down to earth.

Illinois at Minnesota                                                  3:30pm          BTN

Minnesota may be the worst 4-0 team in the country but if they are you can put money on them being the worst 5-0 team in the country, too. I think Tanner Morgan is pretty good as far as B1G passers go and the “worst...” unbeaten team thing could very easily extend to the worst 8-0 team in the country.

Bowling Green at 9 Notre Dame                              3:30pm          NBC

I very strongly disliked Notre Dame for a long time before they bought their coach’s way out of a murder trial but the line for this game is laugh out loud shit and I’m fully on board with it. Domers by 46 with an o/u of 63 is a thing of beauty even if it glorifies pure evil.

Baylor at Kansas State                                             3:30pm        ESPN2

Kansas State’s mimicry of a good team might be breaking down after getting run over by Chuba Hubbard & Co. last week but a win by Baylor could get the Bears into the top 25. I need the ghost of Taco Bill (yes, I’m aware) to rouse the Wildcats for a stomping of Baylor.

Ball State at NIU                                                        3:30pm         ESPN3

Do whatever you want with this.

7 Auburn at 10 Florida                                              3:30pm          CBS

Fantastic uniform matchup featuring some almost great Florida throwbacks to Steve Spurrier’s Heisman season. I wish the stripes on the shoulders went all the way around. Otherwise they’re perfect.

Air Force at Navy                                                      3:30pm           CBSSN

I haven’t gotten a handle on Air Force this year but this is not a good Navy team. Maybe the Paul Johnson offense has finally run its course in Annapolis? Usually you can count on a senior QB to make the option hum for the Middies but they aren’t looking like anything special through three games in 2019. Here’s hoping they can find their rhythm as home dogs.

Memphis at ULM                                                       3:45pm            ESPNU

Kenny Gainwell came very close to making the RTARLsman list this week but he needs some bigger highlights to get back on there. ULM running back Josh Johnson’s production has gotten worse every week this year. Memphis is a pretty big road favorite and they should be bowl eligible by the time they dip back into conference games.

Troy at Missouri                                                        4:00pm             SECN

Kelly Bryant has been OK so far as Missouri’s QB. Which is fine, that’s what Kelly Bryant is: an OK QB. But if he can get more confidence in Derek Dooley’s system he could get a real shot at an NFL roster next year. Games like this one are the best way to build confidence.

North Carolina at Georgia Tech                               4:00pm            ACCN

UNC has looked well-coached but talent-deficient so far this year while Georgia Tech has looked untalented and undisciplined. Here in the ACC that means this game is a tossup.

Northwestern at Nebraska                                        4:00pm             FOX

I’d like to think Nebraska can never climb out of their 15 years-long rut but maybe Scott Frost is the real deal. If he is then this game should be a walkover for the Huskers. Look for a close game that hinges on some comically bad execution.

Arizona at Colorado                                                   4:30pm        Pac-12N

Khalil Tate and Laviska Shenault are still cool. That brings a tear to my eye.

WKU at Old Dominion                                               6:00pm         ESPN+

This is the kind of football we live for in these posts. All gambling, no sentimentality, weird uniforms, and a matchup that would look great in the March Madness First Four. But it’s part of the Disney plot to overthrow Ukraine.

3 Georgia at Tennessee                                             7:00pm         ESPN

By what right do I hate Tennessee? And yet, my desire to see them keep falling to deeper and deeper depths is boundless. I don’t particularly like Georgia but I want them to win by 60+. They can do it but are they cool enough to do it? I doubt it. Look at their coach’s haircut. He must use a woodchipper like a Flowbee to get that look. Maybe he found a barber in the countryside of 12th century France.

Rice at UAB                                                                 7:00pm        ESPN+

UAB is dead to me. Favored by only 10 at home against Rice? That’s disgusting.

UMass at FIU                                                               7:00pm         ESPN3

Butch Davis is having quite the struggle trying to put FIU together as a program. Things are in a very bad place for FL Int’l (pronounced “Flinn-tull”) even though the school is in a very nice place.

25 Michigan State at 4 Ohio State                             7:30pm           ABC

I know Mark D’Antonio has gotten some crazy results in his time as Michigan State’s head coach but this looks bleak. Brian Lewerke truly sucks and Chase Young is getting Myles Garrett comparisons. 20-points is a huge number for a game like this but I’ll be pretty surprised if the Buckeyes of An Ohio State University don’t beat the spread.

Tulsa at 24 SMU                                                         7:30pm          ESPNU

SMU with that little number next to it is a sight to behold. So last week I guessed that it had been since 1986 that the Mustangs were ranked and that was correct. How smart I must be. I’m really curious how they deal with that success. It seems silly but that ranking is a really big deal for the Ponyfuckers. Here’s hoping they sprint right past 13-points and pull away from Tulsa for a decisive win.

Vanderbilt at Mississippi                                           7:30pm           SECN

AJ Brown and DK Metcalf already look like stars in the NFL. Remember the offense they were in last year that struggled getting them the ball and had them run a combined four total routes? Haha. Fuck both of these teams, though. Nobody cares what happens here.

UTSA at UTEP                                                             8:00pm          ESPN+

El Paso versus San Antonio, aka “The Bigger Even Boringer El Paso.” Everything is bigger in Texas. Even Texas.

Liberty at New Mexico State                                      8:00pm        FloSports

Put some prop money on Antonio Gandy-Golden and ignore everything else in this game. Maybe even ignore Gandy-Golden.

Pitt at Duke                                                                   8:00pm         ACCN

Goddamn does this game suck. Go Panthers.

California at 13 Oregon                                               8:00pm         FOX

The Berkeley Bears don’t have much of an offense but their defense is good enough to keep things within 20 here. I’d put money on Justin Herbert throwing his first pick of the year, Cal to cover, and Oregon to win.

Oregon State at UCLA                                                9:00pm        Pac-12N

Chip Kelly’s revival as a football genius lasted exactly one half. Here the Bruins and Beavers matchup in the Rose Bowl to sully the reputation of that great stadium.

San Diego State at Colorado State                           10:00pm       ESPN2

MWC, baby! Fun stuff for me even if CSU is a trash heap. SDSU is no great shakes this year but at least the setting and the uniforms clash are cool.

16 Boise State at UNLV                                              10:30pm        CBSSN

Boise by 100. Book it.

15 Washington at Stanford                                        10:30pm         ESPN

Stanford was one of the biggest disappointments of the season’s first month. This is the perfect spot for David Shaw and his team of sleepmakers to bore Washington to death and, at least, keep it closer than 15. 

[madpicks]

New Post has been published on https://www.madpicks.com/sports/ncaab/college-basketball-games-watch-conference-tournament-saturday/

College basketball games to watch on conference tournament Saturday

Just one day left of non NCAA-tournament basketball, and before we can get to the big dance we’ve got to finish up conference tournaments. Some conference tournaments are just in their semifinals, but others have their finals today like Power conference ACC and Pac 12 as well as mid-majors like the MAC and small conferences like the Big West.

From here, if your team is firmly in the dance, resume boosting is still a bit of a possibility as far as seeding is concerned. For a team like Vanderbilt, a win would be absolutely massive to get them off of the bubble and into into the NCAA tournament. No team has ever been an at-large team with 15 losses, and Vandy sits squarely on 14. A win over Arkansas and a final berth (esspecially one against Kentucky) would be huge for the Dores.

We’re hoping for maximum madness down at the small conference level where conference tournament title is the only way into the NCAAs. Below is a handy grid of what to watch and when today for maximum basketball enjoyment.

College basketball watchability

Time You should watch this. Watching this wouldn’t be a bad idea. At least it’s basketball.

11 a.m. Albany vs. Vermont (ESPN2) 12:30 p.m Texas State vs. UT Arlington 1:00 p.m. Alabama vs. Kentucky (ESPN) Davidson vs. Rhode Island (CBSSN) Norfolk State vs. North Carolina Central Michigan vs. Minnesota (CBS) 1:30 p.m. Penn vs. Princeton (CBS) 3:00 p.m. Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas (ESPN) UCF vs. SMU (ESPN2) Troy vs. Georgia State (WatchESPN 3:30 p.m. Northwestern vs. Wisconsin (CBS) Richmond vs. VCU (CBSSN) Yale vs. Harvard (ESPNU) 5:00 p.m. UCONN vs. Cincinnati (ESPN2) 5:30 p.m. Creighton vs. Villanova (FOX) 6:00 p.m. Iowa State vs. West Virginia (ESPN) Colorado State vs. Nevada Alcorn State vs. Texas Southern (ESPNU) 7:30 p.m. Kent State vs. Akron (ESPN2) 8:30 p.m. Weber State VS. UND (ESPNU) Marshall vs. Middle Tennessee (CBSSN) 9:00 p.m. Duke vs. Notre Dame (ESPN) 9:30 p.m. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. New Orleans 11:00 p.m. Arizona vs. Oregon (ESPN) New Mexico State vs. Cal-State Bakersfield (ESPNU) 11:30 p.m. UC Irvine vs. UC Davis

[junker-town]

These are the best individual performers in women’s college basketball right now

Photo by Torrey Purvey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Sure, it’s a team sport — but some players have taken things into their own hands.

With just under a month until the end of the regular NCAAW season, the playoff picture is starting to crystallize (well, sort of). The temptation to hone in on who could go all the way is more tempting than ever, but plenty of the best players in the nation right now probably won’t make it that far. So while there’s still time to appreciate their phenomenal seasons, take some time away from your appointment Baylor and South Carolina viewing to watch some of the individual stat leaders from around Division I.

(Procedural note: we’re sticking to starters, and going by the NCAA’s official stats.)

Points per game

Stella Johnson, senior, Rider University — 25 PPG

The almost-hometown hero (she’s from Denville, New Jersey, about an hour from the Rider campus) has lead the NCAAW in scoring for nearly the entire season — plus, she’s snagging an average of 7.5 rebounds and 2.6 steals. Her 17-3 Rider Broncs lead the MAAC by just one game, and they’ll be guarding that top spot when they play No. 2 Marist at home Tuesday night (Feb. 11, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN3). The last Rider/Marist match-up went to OT, so though Johnson’s output has tapered slightly in recent games, she’ll probably get plenty of chances to show out.

Three-point shots per game

Taylor Robertson, sophomore, Oklahoma University — 4.78

There are sharpshooters, and then there’s Robertson, who is on track to at least challenge both the men’s and women’s NCAA three-point shooting records (the men’s record-holder is a guy you may have heard of named Steph Curry). Unfortunately, her Sooners probably won’t make the NCAA tournament (barring a major upswing), but who among us doesn’t love a good hot streak? Their next nationally available game is vs. Kansas State on Sunday (Feb. 16, 3 p.m. ET, FS1).

Oklahoma is where Taylor Robertson always wanted to be. The countless hours spent in the gym made her dream a reality. The story from @JessicaCoody https://t.co/Q7k4z6Hrlh pic.twitter.com/dsVjZM3q0a

— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_WBBall) January 27, 2019

Field goal percentage

Monika Czinano, sophomore, Iowa — 69.2 percent (nice)

When star forward Megan Gustafson graduated last year, she probably should have left a hole. After all, there aren’t many players who are that unstoppable under the basket — she led the league in field goal percentage with (you guessed it) 69 percent. But 6’3 center Czinano has stepped up in a big way. Just this past weekend — immediately after healing from a scary ankle injury — Czinano went 10 of 11 (!) against Purdue on Sunday. The Hawkeyes will face off in what will almost inevitably be a battle vs. the No. 10 Terps on Thursday (Feb. 13, 6 p.m. ET, BTN). Iowa beat Maryland in their last matchup, but this time they’ll meet in College Park.

Assist/turnover ratio

Kelly Campbell, senior, DePaul University — 5.54

Campbell is about as balanced a player as you can find. With eight points, eight rebounds and nearly six assists a game, the guard is filling in the gaps on an extremely talented DePaul team (they’re currently No. 1 in the Big East, and three games ahead of anyone else). She may not be owning the highlight reels (those mostly belong to her fellow senior star Chante Stonewall), but Campbell is taking better care of the ball than almost anyone in the country. The Blue Demons play Butler on Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14, 8 p.m. ET, BEDN), and Campbell (who hit her season-high scoring in their last match-up) will inevitably be a key component.

Double-doubles

Unique Thompson, junior, Auburn University — 19

There’s no question that Auburn is struggling right now. But the 6’3 Thompson really is unique, just as her Twitter handle asserts. There are only two games in which she hasn’t had a double-double this season, and that’s off 56 percent shooting from the field. Thompson, one of two upperclassmen on the whole Auburn roster, has the second-highest offensive rebounding average in the country. So when they play No. 1 South Carolina Thursday (Feb. 13, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network) in what might very well be a slaughter, look out for how Thompson turns lemons in lemonade and tries to spark the Tigers to a brighter 2021.

Highlights from today's Auburn victory over Vanderbilt!#WarEagle | #TeamOfExcellence pic.twitter.com/iEJPIMgDae

— Auburn Women's Basketball (@AuburnWBB) February 2, 2020

More games to watch

No. 5 UConn at No. 1 South Carolina (Feb. 10, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

Obvious appointment television: UConn is trying to get back on track after an ugly loss to Oregon, and South Carolina is looking to beat UConn for the first time in front of what promises to be a sellout crowd in Columbia. It doesn’t get much better than this.

No. 9 Louisville at No. 4 NC State (Feb. 13, 8 p.m. ET, ACC Network)

After two consecutive losses (including one to unranked Syracuse), the Cardinals desperately need to right the ship — and a statement win vs. the conference-leading Wolfpack would be just the ticket. Elissa Cunane certainly won’t make it easy for them, though.

No. 3 Oregon at No. 7 UCLA (Feb. 14, 11 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network)

You say you love women’s basketball, but do you love it enough to watch this truly great matchup (UCLA’s first big test) at 11 p.m. on Valentine’s Day? If your date is down, you’ll know you’ve found the one, is all I’m saying.

[junker-town]

Women’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 preview: Get ready for the potential upsets and favorites 

Everything you need to know for another mad weekend of basketball.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, if your definition of wonderful is 12 straight top-tier women’s college basketball games (which frankly, it should be).

Now that our collective blood pressure has gone back down after the thrilling finishes of the first two rounds, it’s time to once again put our heart health in jeopardy with even tighter competition: we have even more lower-seeded teams in the Sweet Sixteen on the women’s side than on the men’s, meaning more potential Cinderellas — and at least two regions where the ticket to the Final Four ticket is entirely up for grabs.

Get to know the top teams and players in the 2019 NCAA women’s tournament Sweet Sixteen.

Greensboro Regional (Saturday, 3/30)

No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 3 NC State (11:30 a.m. ET, ESPN)

No. 1 Baylor vs. No. 4 South Carolina (2 p.m. ET, ESPN)

It’s going to be decidedly worthwhile to wake up early (sorry, West Coast folks) to see Iowa scoring machine Megan Gustafson — she of the 70.1 percent effective field goal percentage, per Her Hoop Stats — take on a tenacious NC State, a team whose freshman center Elise Cunane shows serious potential to get near Gustafson’s level. These teams are pretty evenly matched, and it should be a good game despite the early call time.

Though it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the oppressive no. 1 overall seed Baylor doesn’t stifle South Carolina, it’s also hard to imagine star South Carolina guard Ty Harris and Dawn Staley rolling over. This is still the team that kept UConn in check for an entire half, and if they get enough buckets in transition the Gamecocks could keep this one close.

Chicago Regional (Saturday, 3/30)

No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 4 Texas A&M (4 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 11 Missouri State (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

If there were a dictionary entry for “appointment television,” it would feature an illustration of Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale and Texas A&M’s Chennedy Carter going head to head. Notre Dame is stacked top to bottom with phenomenal talent, and Ogunbowale isn’t even the team’s most efficient guard — that would be Jackie Young. But Ogunbowale and Carter share an unequivocal relentlessness that makes them just absurdly fun to watch, even if there’s a strong probability Notre Dame will get the W.

The women’s tournament’s truest Cinderellas are the Missouri State Lady Bears, who started their regular season by losing seven of their first eight games. But they upset Drake to win the Missouri Valley Conference, and then upset No. 6 seed DePaul and No. 3 seed Iowa State. Now, they’re the sole double-digit seed left in the tournament, and as is appropriate for a team that counts former NCAA leading scorer Jackie Stiles among its coaching staff (she’s an alum), they can quickly get hot. Against DePaul, they shot 55 percent from behind the arc — if anybody can match offense, though, it’s Stanford. It should be a wild ride.

Albany Regional (Friday, 3/29)

No. 2 UConn vs. No. 6 UCLA (7 p.m. ET, ESPN)

No. 1 Louisville vs. No. 4 Oregon State (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)

Two weeks ago, no one would have given a UCLA-Oregon match-up a second thought. But two weeks ago, UConn hadn’t been seriously challenged by a fearless No. 10 seed Buffalo team in the second round, and UCLA hadn’t shown remarkable composure in upsetting No. 3 seed Maryland. The Bruins beat Oregon late in the season, and once again pushed the Ducks to the brink in an OT loss in the Pac-12 tournament — and the Huskies look uncharacteristically vulnerable. An upset is still unlikely, but if it happened, it would tear 90 percent of brackets to shreds.

Oregon State, on the other hand, appears to be hanging on by a thread, having played dangerously close in their first two tournament match-ups. Faced with a Louisville team that’s getting hot at exactly the right time, the Beavers have a steep road to the Elite Eight.

Portland Regional (Friday, 3/29)

No. 1 Mississippi State vs. No. 5 Arizona State (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

No. 2 Oregon vs. No. 6 South Dakota State (11 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

This regional features two teams riding upsets, and the top two offenses in the country (Oregon is No. 1, and Mississippi State is No. 2). The latter two will likely be on cruise control to the Elite Eight, but if anyone can challenge the Ducks it’s the offense-minded Jackrabbits, who shot 47 percent from three in a close loss to Oregon before conference play began. There is always the potential for Madness, after all.

[junker-town]

Countdown to March Madness: Champ Week — or where No. 1 seeds are made

We’re digging into the Pac-12, where this weekend’s tournament is anyone’s game.

It’s the time of year where there’s simply too much happening, in the best possible way. The NCAAW regular season wrapped up for most teams over the past weekend, with a few notable upsets (Creighton over Marquette, Arizona State over No. 11 Oregon State, and Texas A&M over Kentucky) and a lot of games where top teams — no doubt burnt out by the grind of the season — had to fight to assert their dominance.

UConn and Baylor in particular found themselves in nail-biters versus unranked South Florida and West Virginia, respectively, on Monday night. UConn, who was missing starter Katie Lou Samuelson after she suffered a back injury (thankfully, it’s not serious), went into the locker room at halftime with just 25 points before edging out a win, 57-47 — one can barely recall those halcyon days when UConn was ruining women’s basketball with their impenetrable dominance. (That said, I probably just jinxed it, and now they’ll win the title.)

Now we’re already in the thick of Champ Week, with the ACC, SEC and Big Ten tournaments having kicked off yesterday. If you’re trying to figure out how to watch, Swish Appeal has helpfully published a schedule of when and where you can find all the conference tournament games.

We dove into the ACC a little bit last week, and the outcomes since have only confirmed what we already knew: the ACC tournament winner is going to dramatically change the way the NCAA women’s basketball tournament bracket looks. Basically, as ESPN notes, if it’s No. 3 Louisville or No. 4 Notre Dame (and as of now, they are the clear top two teams) whoever wins gets to go to the nearby Chicago regional; it’s impossible to forecast anything else about the tournament without having that information.

For more information about the ACC (which, beyond its bracketology implications, is also the most competitive conference in women’s college basketball), check out the Swish Appeal preview, the Women’s Hoops World preview and the AP preview.

Over in the SEC, No. 5 Mississippi State claimed the regular season title on Sunday — but their 68-64 clinching victory over No. 12 South Carolina wasn’t as easy as the Bulldogs would have probably liked. In all likelihood, they’ll have to defeat the Gamecocks — the reigning SEC tournament champions — again if they want to win their first-ever conference title, and make a last-ditch run for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Read more at Swish Appeal and from the NCAA; personally, I will probably spend much of the tournament mourning Chennedy Carter’s finger.

The Big Ten also promises tight competition. No. 8 Maryland won the regular season title outright, but lost to No. 10 Iowa — the conference’s No. 2 seed — in the process. Plus, there are a slew of teams in the middle of the pack ready to pull off an upset; last year, as the NCAA notes, over half of Big Ten tournament games were decided by single digits. Swish Appeal, Testudo Times and Women’s Hoops World all previewed this year’s tournament.

This week, our primary focus will be the Pac-12 — a conference that seemed all but locked up until fairly late in the season. Yes, No. 6 Oregon, No. 11 Oregon State and No. 7 Stanford have been nationally-ranked threats almost all season. But for the vast majority of the regular season, including conference play, Oregon kept winning in gaudy fashion — with the exception of an anomalous loss to Michigan State in December — and even today, remains the No. 1 offense in the country per Her Hoop Stats. Sabrina Ionescu racked up seven triple doubles as the team hummed along, even beating a top-10 Stanford by 40 points in February.

Then came what Oregonians refer to as the Civil War (a modification of meaning only really possible in Oregon): Oregon vs. Oregon State, once in Eugene and once in Corvallis. Oregon defended home court handily, but were upset on the road by the Beavers in a 67-62 game where they lost star forward Ruthy Hebard to injury — and didn’t look particularly effective before she went to the bench. They dropped their next game too, to a then-unranked UCLA.

Suddenly, the No. 2-ranked team — the highest national ranking in program history — didn’t look like such a sure thing, while Oregon State, Stanford, No. 20 Arizona State and No. 25 UCLA were surging or at the very least steady. Since, the Ducks have dropped to No. 6; Hebard still isn’t playing at 100 percent, and guard Taylor Chavez is out with a foot injury for the foreseeable future, both serious blows to the team’s depth.

Meanwhile, the tournament looks like it could be a great stage for some of the conference’s less-appreciated talents. At Oregon State, stars Destiny Slocum and Mikayla Pivec have the support of a dangerous backcourt in Aleah Goodman and Kat Tudor.

️ Double-overtime win to wrap up the regular season yesterday! ️ Check out the highlights from our victory over Arizona!#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/6ixXQEgkh3

— Oregon State WBB (@BeaverWBB) March 4, 2019

The Bruins have Kennedy Burke and Michaela Onyenwere, who are together averaging 33 points and 14 rebounds a game.

Today was special! : https://t.co/ob1RdytJOZ#GoBruins pic.twitter.com/Yt9ah0ppK7

— UCLA W. Basketball (@UCLAWBB) March 4, 2019

Stanford has WNBA-bound sharpshooter Alanna Smith, who’s currently top 20 in the country in both field goals made and blocks — a testament to her hustle.

Alanna Smith finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds in @StanfordWBB's victory. She takes the @OpusBank #12Best moment. pic.twitter.com/VbSh96fh3r

— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) March 2, 2019

And Arizona State has been content to play the spoilsport, without gaudy stats and mostly on the back of senior forward Kianna Ibis — but there’s no telling whose run they could mess up if they got hot at the right time.

Try and defend @Kianna_Ibis No seriously, try pic.twitter.com/hcvSdcdG7p

— Sun Devil WBB (@SunDevilWBB) March 2, 2019

Entering the tournament, Oregon is still the frontrunner. But if you ask the Arizona State team who played them close in Sunday’s regular season finale (66-59, Oregon), the Ducks have weaknesses that a smart team can play off of. Plus, there’s the confidence that comes from knowing Pac-12 have beaten each other, at least by extension: Oregon lost to UCLA who lost to Stanford who lost to Cal who lost to Oregon State, and so on. This weekend’s tournament is anyone’s game.

Games to keep an eye on:

It’s hard not to just say, all of them — but naturally, the weekend’s championships will be must-see TV. You can more or less just set aside your Sunday: title games start with the ACC at 12 p.m., and continue with the SEC at 2 p.m. After a break, it’s the Big Ten at 6 p.m. and then the Pac-12 at 8 p.m. — all on ESPN2, so for once they will be easy to find (times are Eastern).