NCAA Tournament National Championship Game Live Blog

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2011 NCAA Tournament National Championship Game Schedule

Butler was 8 pixels away from taking the championship last year. Is this their moment?

National Championship Game

Monday, April 4

Butler vs. Connecticut 9:23 (CBS - Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg, and Steve Kerr, SR: Tracy Wolfson

NCAA Tournament Final 4 Live Blog

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Butler Is Back In The Final Four

1985 was the first year the NCAA Tournament expanded to a field of 64 with the only format changes since then being that of play-in-games. In that year, 8-seeded Villanova went to the Final Four, and ultimately won the NCAA Tournament in what is considered one of the greatest NCAA Tournament upsets of all time. Since that time, only 3 other teams seeded 8th (and 0 seeded 9th) advanced to the Final Four: North Carolina in 2000, Wisconsin in 2000, Butler in 2011. North Carolina and Wisconsin both bowed out in the Final Four that year. There is a reason this is a rare occurrence. The 8 or the 9 seed is literally the worst possible draw in the NCAA Tournament. If Butler beats the winner of Kansas/VCU, they will do something that has not been done in 26 years: advance to the Final Four as an 8-seed. Best of luck to the Butler Bulldogs, for when they take the court next Saturday in Houston, they will be up against some very sacred NCAA Tournament history.

NCAA Tournament Elite 8 Saturday Live Blog

The Most Bizarre Ending To A College Basketball Game You Will Ever See

Presented with only one comment: Chris Webber now feels better about his life.

Your NCAA Final Four Schedule And My Thoughts On Each Team

In case you missed it, forget it, or want to see it again, here is the schedule and tip times for the 2010 Final Four to take place on Saturday, April 3, 2010 in Indianapolis.

Butler vs. Michigan State 6:07 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg, SR: Tracy Wolfson)
Duke vs. West Virginia Approx. 8:47 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg, SR: Tracy Wolfson)

We've got six days now until another meaningful college basketball game is played. My thoughts on the teams are this, one very likable team, 2 meh teams, and 1 utterly detestable team.

Butler is the underdog and frankly, how can you not like them. Sure their games are not the best, but you can't deny that Mack and Hayward and the rest of the Butler Bulldogs are fun to watch. Plus, their college is 8 miles away from Lucas Oil Stadium (if you are wondering about Sparty and last year, East Lansing is some 80 miles from Detroit and Ford Field). If ever a team had home court advantage on a supposed neutral court, it is Butler in the 2010 Final Four. Chance of a championship per the mind of JFein: 10%

Then there is their opponent, Michigan State. Sure they are not the most exciting basketball team on earth either, but you can't help but to respect the job that Tom Izzo does year in and year out on getting his teams through the regionals and into the Final Four. This is Sparty's 6th final four in the last 12 years and it is by no coincidence that that is so. They may be injured, but if there is one coach and one team you can bank on giving it their all in the NCAA Tournament, it is Michigan State. They are always counted out in the beginning of the tournament, and every year they prove all their haters wrong with no silencing being more powerful then the one this year. With all their injuries, no one gave them a chance in hell of making the Final Four, but here they are. Chance of a championship per the mind of JFein: 20%

West Fucking Virginia. At this point, how are they not the odds on favorite to win this whole thing? They won the Big East Tournament and frankly, they have been the most solid team of the bunch in this tournament. Again, another team that may not be the most exciting to watch (that's a recurring theme in this year's Final Four), but they are a good basketball team. We may all hate on Bob Huggins, but at this stage, my favorite player remaining in the tournament has to be Da'Sean Butler. You gotta respect a god clutch player and Da'Sean Butler is exactly that. The only downside of things if West Virginia wins (aside from the whole Bob Huggins is a champion bit) is several couches will be burned in the Mountain State. Chance of a championship per the mind of JFein: 40%

Duke. Oh boy. What is a Final Four if not for Duke? Every year Duke is always detestable and yet this year, it seems like they are even more detestable than normal. What is it about Scheyer, Singler, the Plumlees and the rest of the Dookies that we don't like this year. I guess their overall snobbiness for a start but even though they are probably the last team remaining most willing to open things up, they are still not a fun team to watch. Now does anyone actually believe that Duke can win this? Well look at who they have beaten thus far in the tournament. Arkansas Pine Bluff, California, a Robbie Hummel-less Purdue team, and Baylor. The only real overall solid team on that list is Baylor and they underperformed in today's game. Their biggest test of the tournament will be West Virginia and even though it is my philosophy that you never should go against Tom Izzo in a basketball game, the winner of the West Virginia-Duke Final Four game will be the national champion. Even if that winner somehow just happens to be Duke. Chance of a championship per the mind of JFein: 30%

4 teams.
3 games.
2 days.
1 champion.

The 2010 Final Four is upon us. Are you ready?

"AN INSTANT CLASSIC ON THE CORNER OF JOHN STOCKTON AND KARL MALONE DRIVE!" And The Rest of Gus Johnson's Fun Night In Salt Lake City

Oh, Gus, we really did miss you and your awesome screaming in the NCAA Tournament! What a night he had. For all the bad luck he has had in the past few years, he can now say that in what has been a wild and incredible tournament, he called the Game of the Tournament. But before we go there, let's get to this little thing called Butler upsetting Syracuse in a close game, shall we?



"BUTLER! AGAIN!"

Priceless Gus Johnson. It is worthy to note that before that Gus did have his moments of complete freakout in that game, although aside from the highlight videos that everything out, I can't seem to find anything.

And that maybe because the game he called after that one trumped it by a wide margin. Here are your late 2nd half and overtime game and Gus Johnson highlights of what was undoubtedly the game of the tournament, quite possibly the game of the college basketball season thus far, and maybe even an overall game of the year candidate. I present to you this highlight video starring Kansas State, Xavier, Karl Hess, and Gus Johnson.



"Let's it go AND BURIES IT!" - GuJo on a K-State 3 to put them up 3 with 23.6 to go.
"Here comes Holloway with the screen, OH HE'S FOULED ON THE SHOT!" - GuJo on the shooting foul behind the arc.
"WE'RE HEADING TO OVERTIME!" - GuJo. Self explanatory.
"Holloway, turns, fires OH HE MADE IT AGAIN! - GuJo on a Holloway 3 that tied the game with 46 seconds left.
"Holloway, he's shown a flare for the dramatic. Holloway! 11 to go! Holloway! Holloway gets it out. Crawford! 8! Crawford's gotta HURRY! UP..OOOHHHH!!!!!!!! HE'S TIED IT! CLEMENTE! CLEMENTE FIRES....AND WE'RE HEADING TO DOUBLE OVERTIME!! WHAT A GAME! INSTANT CLASSIC ON THE CORNER OF JOHN STOCKTON AND KARL MALONE DRIVE!" - Gus Johnson calling the final seconds of the first overtime.(Len Elmore's screaming drowns out the "OH!" but if you listen closely you can still make it out.)
"Redford a 3. Off the glass and no good and that's it! Kansas State advances to the Elite 8 with a double overtime win over Xavier! 101-96!" - Gus at the end of the game.

Now for some talk about the game. Yes, Karl Hess did mess up that call at the end of regulation. Yes there was a foul before the shot before the foul in the act of shooting behind the arc was called. Yes, Karl Hess was given a get out of jail free call by Kansas State holding off Xavier and winning one of the most thrilling and exciting NCAA Tournament games we've seen in quite some time.

Now back to Gus. If you think that we are the only ones that talk about Gus Johnson, think again.

Check this out:

As the seconds were winding down in double overtime, Gus Johnson was the #1 Worldwide Trending Topic on Twitter. How cool is that.

And yes, I was at first disappointed that Gus got the West region. I figured that out of his three possible destinations (Houston is the excluded destination for the obvious reasons; Nantz's hometown and Duke), SLC was the least attractive of the bunch. Boy was I wrong. We are yet to see what takes place in St. Louis but last night Salt Lake City saw a close and exciting upset, even if at times it was not the most beautiful basketball game ever played, and that was followed by the Kansas State-Xavier thriller that was without a doubt the game of a tournament filled with great games. On the other hand, the games in Syracuse set basketball back a few decades.

One Of The Most Controversial Endings To A College Basketball Game You Will Ever See

I don't know how many of you got a chance to the Xavier-Butler game that was on this morning, but if you did, then you witnessed one of the most controversial endings that you may ever see in your life. Butler had an inbounds pass with 36.9 seconds left. Eventually they lose the ball into the backcourt but it is touched by an Xavier player negating a backcourt violation. Not realizing this right away, the clock operator stops the clock for a brief split second before restarting it again. That minor detail would prove very critical in the outcome of the game as Butler made a game-winning basket with 1.2 seconds left. They reviewed the play. The result of that review created a situation that looked eerily similar to that ill-fated November night in 1997 in Montreal when Vince McMahon screwed Bret Hart.



Wow. While they certainly have every right to be upset about how that went down, I can't help but to feel like there should have been at least .2 left on that clock for them to attempt some sort of miracle play or something. Butler got the win, but as you saw in that video, Xavier was not happy.

By the way, that was a review that lasted 10 minutes. If you want to see the whole thing, click here to watch it in an albeit poorer quality video.