Shawn Siegel's Blog

A quick review of the evening action on Day One of the NCAA Tournament:

(2) Duke 71 - (15) Belmont 70

A quick review of the morning action on Day One of the NCAA Tournament:

(3) Xavier 73 - (14) Georgia 61
Josh Duncan, one of the most efficient players in college basketball, finished with 20 points as the Musketeers rebounded from a slow start to beat Georgia. Coming off their miraculous SEC Tournament win, Georgia looked to have the magic early before running out of gas down the stretch. Everybody who picked Xavier to go the Sweet Sixteen or beyond took a big sigh of relief.. and now XU plays the winner of Baylor/Purdue.

One of the fun but also sometimes frustrating aspects of the NCAA Tournament is that CBS televises multiple games at once. This can lead to some exciting in-game looks at close exciting games, but it also means you might be missing the game you really want to see. CBS released their coverage maps of Friday's opening round action, and I've linked to the maps for each time-slot below.

 

One of the fun but also sometimes frustrating aspects of the NCAA Tournament is that CBS televises multiple games at once. This can lead to some exciting in-game looks at close exciting games, but it also means you might be missing the game you really want to see. CBS released their coverage maps of Thursday's opening round action, and I've linked to the maps for each time-slot below.

 

A rundown of some of today's coaching news:

- UAPB head coach Van Holt resigned after six seasons at the helm. The Golden Lions finished 13-18 this year, and Holt's overall record was 50-124. This record might not look good but consider that UAPB was 4-51 in the two seasons before Holt took over.

- Besides the firing of Barry Hinson and Tim Welsh over the weekend, other relatively prominent firings in recent days include Toledo's Stan Joplin (just one season removed from being MAC Coach of the Year) and TCU's Neil Dougherty.

All season long with Daily Bracketology I project what the selection committee would do.  And now we know what they did do. But what about what they should have done. Taking the 65 teams that made the Big Dance, here is the field that I would have created with actual seed in parentheses.

 

ONE

This column is not the place for in-depth team information (which you can find here), or in-depth game previews (which you can find here).. this here is all about straight-forward, honest, to-the-point, useful NCAA Tournament commentary:

Multiple sources are reporting that Arkansas State has hired former LSU coach John Brady. Brady replaces Dickey Nutt, who resigned after 13 years leading the Indians.

Brady was fired by LSU in the middle of the season, with the Tigers struggling to an 8-13 start. Known more for his recruiting prowess than in-game coaching skills, Brady did lead LSU to the Final Four just two years ago. There was some recent rumblings that Nolan Richardson, the long time Arkansas coach, would get the job.. but talks fell through.

CBS has announced the specific tip-off times of all first round games. Using our five-star rating, we rank the games according to their "Must-watch" status.

 

These are games that feature one of:

Upset Watch

Star Watch

Too Close to Call

Bracketology Review