http://www.yardbarker.com/content/team/791 Recent articles about the Belmont Bruins en-us Well, as expected, there have been a few surprises in the Tournament so far. I being busy re-modeling my garage have been a bit slow to comment on these (as if anyone cared…). Be that as it may, here are my observations… Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:41:50 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/215368 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/215368 There were several great games in the first round of this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament and each of the great games has had key players. But who had the best game of the first round and has earned the right to be deemed the "1st Round Workhorse" or most outstanding performance of the first round of the NCAA tournament? Our list of candidates... (see if you agree or have anyone to add) Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:21:49 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213747 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213747 Only a day after a scare against the Belmont Bruins, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski explained his team's poor performance against the cinderella 15th seed. Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:18:17 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213498 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213498 There it was, plain as could be on the overhead scoreboard, orange numbering on a black background: As the closing seconds ticked away Thursday night, Belmont was beating Duke. Read that again, slowly: No. 15-seeded Belmont was beating No. 2 Duke. Belmont, the Atlantic Sun Conference school with zero NCAA tournament wins to its credit, was leading Duke, the Atlantic Coast Conference school with three national championships on its resume. And yet it was not to be. Using every last one of Gerald Henderson's 21 points, including the go-ahead basket with 11.9 seconds left, and one key steal by DeMarcus Nelson, Duke barely avoided what would have been a monumental upset, edging Belmont 71-70 in the first round of the West Regional. Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:38:48 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213205 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213205 Well the early games yesterday proved to be "snoozers" with only the potential of #14 seed Georgia beating #3 seed Xavier giving some excitement to basketball fans. #12 seed Temple proved to be very disappointing against #5 Michigan State and #9 Kent State (a very high-scoring team) scored only 10 points in the first half against #8 UNLV. The one game that was truly exciting in the day-cap was #6 Marquette versus #11 Kentucky. The Wildcats, playing without their best player Patrick Patterson, gave Marquette all they could handle. Kentucky senior Joe Crawford went off for 35 points in a gutsy effort to single-handedly push his team to the 2nd round. But Marquette just proved to be too deep and too athletic for Kentucky and the Golden Eagles are the ones advancing. In the night cap, we certainly had a thriller with #15 Belmont pushing #2 Duke to the limit. If not for a Gerald Henderson coast-to-coast layup with under 1 minute remaining, the Blue Devils may have been bounced by the Bruins for Tennessee as only the 5th time a #15 seed had won an NCAA Tournament game. #13 seed Winthrop and #4 seed Washington State were tied at 29 at halftime, but the Cougars just took over in the 2nd half and were able to advance. #14 seed Cal State Fullerton hang tough the Big Ten champion Wisconsin Badgers, but the Titans fell short losing, 71-56. #12 seed George Mason was simply outplayed the #5 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish, showing the Patriots were clearly not the Final Four team from 2006. There were 3 other exciting games in the nightcap with #10 Arizona versus #7 West Virginia, #8 BYU versus #9 Texas A&M and #11 Kansas State versus #6 USC. The West Virginia Mountaineers stayed consistent all game and although star forward Joe Alexander did not have an OUTSTANDING game, he still turned a good enough performance to win. Arizona`s Chase Budinger really stepped up his game with 23 points, but it wasn`t quite enough. The competitive 8-9 matchup did not let down with BYU versus Texas A&M. The Aggies started out the game 11-0, but the BYU Cougars slowed down the game to take a 29-29 tied into halftime. But in the 2nd half, Texas A&M were just too athletic for BYU and went on to win 67-62. When thinking of the Kansas State-USC matchup, everyone was talking about Michael Beasley versus O.J. Mayo. But as said in a previous Blog, this game would depend on the supporting cast and the Wildcats got a 22-point game out of Bill Walker to support Beasley. Jacob Pullen also played well scoring 11 points and dishing out 5 assists off the bench. On USC`s side, Davon Jefferson and Taj Gibson combined for 25 points, and that is perhaps the reason Kansas State went on to win and advance to the 2nd round. Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:40:21 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213121 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/213121 Every game analyzed for your enjoyment. Day 1 - 16 games - March Madness. Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:51:37 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/212991 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/212991 Belmont almost became every Duke haters favorite team. The Bruins led Duke with 15 seconds left but lost in the final seconds. It was great to watch the mighty coach K scramble to get his team to beat a #15 seed Atlantic Sun(!!) team. Oh the excuses Dicky V, Knight and Bilas would have had to come up with if the Bruins had won. Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:57:40 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/212890 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/212890 Clearly a game handed to Duke thanks to poor coaching decisions down the stretch by Belmont's head coach. FIRST! Why suck all of the momentum out of your team by holding the ball - after a timeout - when you're up by one and you've been scoring effectively by spreading Duke's defense? Unless you have an opportunity to run the clock out, take the first good basket and make Duke guard you. But no, Belmont thought it'd be a good idea to stand there with the ball and then try to create something with less than 9 seconds on the shot clock. SECOND! What the heck kind of inbounds play call was that from under the basket? Please tell me it was NOT a lob play against a taller and clearly more athletic Duke team. Indeed Belmont just wrapped up the trip to the second round, put a big red bow on it, and handed it over to Duke with their blessing. You can't just play 39:30 of good basketball and expect to beat a team like Duke. Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:25:00 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/212862 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/212862 How did SportProjections.com do against ESPN.com and CBSSportsline.com in their NCAA College Basketball tournament picks? Should you continue reading Yardbarker and their contributors or are the top sport sites the best spot for sports? You'll be surprised to see how we did against the "Big Boys". Visit each team page to get the latest headlines from local newspapers and the best bloggers on the web. If you're a fan of a smaller school that doesn't have a group on our site please add your team and rss feeds for the team. Please send me a message at http://www.sportprojections.com/profile/ChrisFry if you have any question. Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:23:34 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/204048 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/204048 It's our last picks before the announcements tomorrow. Which team is missing? Which team is too low? Which team is ranked too high? Give us all your predictions for the upcoming tournament. Visit each team page to get the latest headlines from local newspapers and the best bloggers on the web. If you're a fan of a smaller school that doesn't have a group on our site please add your team and rss feeds for the team. Please send me a message at http://www.sportprojections.com/profile/ChrisFry if you have any question. Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:26:01 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/202642 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/202642 Do you think Drake is just the name of a coffee cake? Are you under the assumption that Belmont University is near the racetrack on Long Island? If so check in daily this week for a breakdown of teams that could potentially bust your bracket. Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:33:53 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/188890 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/188890 Today features some big games like UAB-Memphis, Louisville-Georgetown and of course, Duke-North Carolina. But let`s look at the games that may be even more important to the particular teams playing the games. These are games where these Mid-Major teams can punch their tickets to the NCAA Tournament, also known as "The Big Dance." ATLANTIC SUN CHAMPIONSHIP: Belmont vs. Jacksonville The Belmont Bruins are no stranger to the A-Sun Championship game and will look to repeat thieir championship of last year. Belmont is led by junior forward Shane Dansby, who averages 14 points and 6 rebounds per game. The Bruins are currently on a 12-game winning streak and finished the season 24-8 overall, including a solid 14-2 in A-Sun play. On the other hand, the Jacksonville Dolphins are new to this game. The trio of guard Ben Smith, forward Lehmon Colbert and center Marcus Allen lead this time, all with scoring averages in double figures. Jacksonville finished the year 18-12 overall and 12-4 in conference play. Belmont and Jacksonville played each other once during the regular season and the Bruins were victorious on their home floor, 85-78. In that game, Dansby had 28 points for the Bruins while Colbert and Allen each had 24 for the Dolphins. BIG SOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP: UNC Asheville vs. Winthrop This one is going to be a very interesting game. On one side you have the Winthrop Eagles, who have dominated this conference this entire decade and have been almost a shoe-in every season to win this conference`s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. On the other side you have the UNC Asheville Bulldogs, who are the #1 seed in the Big South tourney this year and have a 7`7", 360-pound center in Kenny George. The Bulldogs are a well-rounded team as they have 4 other players averaging in double-figures in points in addition to George. Senior guard Michael Jenkins leads the Eagles with an average of 14 points per game. But Winthrop relies on their defense to win games, giving up only 59 points per game this year. So will it be the Bulldogs offense or the Eagles defense that prevails in this Big South Championship game? OHIO VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIP: Austin Peay vs. Tennessee State This OVC tournament has been crazy this week and it is mainly because of the Tennessee State Tigers. The Tigers came into this tournament as the #6 seed, finishing the regular season 14-15 overall and 10-10 in OVC play. But in the OVC tourney, they have knocked off the #3 seed Morehead State and then the #2 seed Murray State in the past two days. Junior guard Bruce Price has really played well all season for Tennesse State and has scored 22 and 20 points, respectively, in the two OVC tournament games. So now that the Tigers have defeated the #3 and #2 seeds in the OVC, can they take down #1? That`s a tall order as the #1 seeded Austin Peay Governors finished the regular season with a 23-10 overall mark, including a record of 16-4 in OVC play. Austin Peay had a tough take with #4 seed Tennessee-Martin in the semi-finals, winning by a score of 78-77. Another well-balanced squad, the Governors have 5 players scoring in double figures led by junior forward Drake Reed with 15 points and 6 boards per game. This is just the beginning! Be sure to watch all the championship games this week on ESPN and ESPN2! Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:42:50 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/185900 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/185900 SportProjections.com has released their latest and greatest version how the March Madness tournament brackets will look. Which team is missing? Which team is too low? Which team is ranked too high? Give us all your predictions for the upcoming tournament. Visit each team page to get the latest headlines from local newspapers and the best bloggers on the web. If you're a fan of a smaller school that doesn't have a group on our site please add your team and rss feeds for the team. Please send me a message at http://www.sportprojections.com/profile/ChrisFry if you have any question. Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:22:53 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/185894 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/185894 SportProjections.com has released their latest and greatest version how the March Madness tournament brackets will look. Which team is missing? Which team is too low? Which team is ranked too high? Give us all your predictions for the upcoming tournament. Visit each team page to get the latest headlines from local newspapers and the best bloggers on the web. Remember to add a profile for other sport fans to discuss the picks. If you're a blogger, add your profile and website address to help your SEO and advertise your site. If you're a fan of a smaller school that doesn't have a group on our site please add your team and rss feeds for the team. If you have any questions how to create it please contact us at sportprojections@gmail.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:46:59 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/174027 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/174027 SportProjections.com has released their latest version of "bracketology". Who is too high? Who is too low? Who won't make the tourney? Who will make the tourney? Remember to add a profile for other sport fans to discuss the picks. If you're a blogger, add your profile and website address to help your SEO and advertise your site. If you're a fan of a smaller school that doesn't have a group on our site please add your team and rss feeds for the team. If you have any questions how to create it please contact us at sportprojections@gmail.com Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:46:45 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/153838 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/153838