Bracket Madness

Well, minus a few surprises in the opening rounds (Butler and Cleveland St.) - my bracket is staying alive.

My sweet sixteen included Louisville v. Wake Forest (I think everyone was shocked by the Wake Forest loss loss). Instead it's Louisville v. Arizona

Kansas v. USC - which obviously I was wrong there too, its Kansas v. Michigan St.

In the West, I had UConn, v. Purdue (Purdue already lost this game tonight)

Mizzou v. Memphis: the Tigers are my team! but they are not looking so good right now. If they lose, then my bracket will be messed up because I have Memphis in the final four.

In the East, I have Pitt v. Xavier (Xavier already lost)

Villanova v. Duke (Duke is losing currently, but that would also ruin my bracket. i also have Duke in the final four).

In the South, I have UNC v. Gonzaga (this is a potential upset)

Syracuse v. Oklahoma (My other team, go Syracuse!)

How's your bracket doing?

Reaction to Butler's Seeding

This is a little old, but I was unable to get it up on the Dawgnet site before the tournament started. Several students from the online journalism class went around campus asking people what they thought of the men's basketball seeding in the NCAA tournament. This occurred the Monday after Selection Sunday. Bobby Fong even has a comment!

An amazing season comes to an end

Yes, yes it's true. Everyone should know by now that we fell to the overrated LSU Tigers (sorry, I am still bitter). But, on the lighter side - the men's team still had an amazing season for a "rebuilding" year as some would describe. I just can't wait to see these guys tear up the court next year.

On worse news, Cleveland State won today, upsetting Wake Forest. I am not happy about this but at least the Horizon League still has a representative. I believe they take on Arizona next but don't quote me on that.

The women's team is still in their tournament as well having beat Duquesne in Pittsburgh, PA. They now face Marquette in Milwaukee, WI for the next stage of the WNIT. Go Dawgs! They play at on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET.

More for March Madness coming...my bracket is still somewhat alive.

Another seed, another opportunity

After the announcement of Butler's 9 seed, I am honestly not surprised. I was hoping for a 7...maybe even a 6, but alas, a 9 seed is reasonably fair and all too predictable a seeding from the NCAA Committee. Honestly, there is no difference between an 8 seed and a 9 seed; either places Butler in the same bracket location. I believe we got the 9 seed bc 1) we lost the HL tourney final and 2) we are in a non-power conference (power conf. = Pac-10, Big 12, ACC, Big East, SEC, and Big 10). The results are out, so now the men's team must take things for what they are and start preparing for LSU.

The LSU Tigers are an incredibly similar team to the Bulldogs, although Butler has a deeper bench. LSU's backcourt is led by redshirt junior guard Marcus Thornton, and their frontcourt is led by senior forward Tasmin Mitchell and senior center Chris Johnson. Predicted defensive match-ups are Ronald Nored & Shawn Vanzant trading responsibility for Thornton, Willie Veasley guarding Mitchell, and Matt Howard controlling Johnson. This should be one of the best games of the whole NCAA Tournament, and poetically enough, it will be the first game of the whole process (beginning at 12:20 EST).

Go Dawgs!!

9 seed in Greensboro

Biting my nails the entire time, they finally showed that Butler will be playing in Greensboro, NC as a 9 seed against the LSU Tigers. I think that is definitely a doable game, but that fact that the next step is UNC is a little scary - but hey, we can finally challenge Tyler Hansborough.

LSU is more than beatable. This year has been somewhat hilarious and terrible for the SEC. One example of why we can beat LSU - easy, THEY LOST TO VANDERBILT. As much as I love Vandy, and I do, they simply did not have a good year. They also lost to Auburn, Miss St (the SEC champs), and Xavier (whom we beat). There are a few others as well. In summary, we should have been the 8 seed, but beggars can't be choosers.

To view the entire 65 team bracket, click here.

Since the final game....

In case anyone has been out of it for several days, the Bulldogs lost the tournament final game to Cleveland State. They led most of the game up until about five minutes to go when they couldn't really even buy a basket. The final score ended up being 57-54, close but not enough. It's sad but not a complete tragedy (or really even close). The bright side is that the Horizon League gets a little more attention in the March Madness festivities. With two teams in the tournament, this is a great thing for the league. And if you are a die-hard fan like myself, you will enjoy seeing Cleveland State get stomped in the first round....just kidding, a little.

On to Bracketology...it is guaranteed (well pretty much guaranteed) that Butler will receive an at-large bid for the tournament. If they don't, many ESPN analysts including Joe Lunardi will be dubbed dumba..., excuse me, idiots. Right now, in Lunardi's bracketology, he has us listed as an 8 seed in Philadelphia playing Dayton. This isn't the first time he had us matched against Dayton, but I am never sure how correct he actually is. Last year, he had us at a 5 and we were officially seeded as a 7. So, while I am sure we will receive at least an 8, you never know - those over at the NCAA confuse me. Preferably, it would be nice to be a 5 or 6, but that's just wishful thinking. Either way or what we get, at least we are in it. If we do receive an 8, in Philly, against who Lunardi thinks we will play...and if we make it past round 1, we will be up against the 1 seed Connecticut. But this could definitely change considering last night's Syracuse game against Connecticut. After 6 overtimes in the Big East's Quarterfinals, Syracuse beat UConn 127-117...the game was truly phenomenal. How two teams can continue overtime that long is beyond me, but they are sure to receive nice seedings in the tournament (just maybe not number ones). Syracuse continued to the semifinals tonight and beat West Virginia with only one overtime, 74-69.

Anywho, back to the Bulldogs....if I had to guess, I would say we will be an 8 seed most likely playing either in Philly or Greensboro, NC...but who knows. Selection Sunday is in two days, so we will find out soon enough. The Selection Show airs at 6p.m. EST on CBS.

To check out Joe Lunardi's Bracketology predictions on ESPN, click here.

To create your own predictions on ESPN, click here.
I don't quite understand this one, it doesn't even include all the teams, but I guess it is to compare with past games.

Keep reading the blog for an update of the brackets on Sunday.

Saturday night's semi-final win

Hello, Bulldog fans. It's been awhile, so I thought I'd drop a line.

While it is incredibly nice to be on Spring Break, it is even better to be spending a good part of it at home...for two reasons: 1) I live in Carmel, so I'm 20 minutes from Hinkle Fieldhouse, and 2) I live in Carmel, so I'm 20 minutes from Hinkle Fieldhouse!! Needless to say, I'll be at Tuesday night's conference final game...I'm also recording it on the house DVR. One can never get enough of Butler Basketball.

It's exciting to think that the Dawgs could secure another solid NCAA tournament seed with just one more win, and it's even more exciting to think that the same squad will be back next year to defend whatever success they find in the coming weeks of college hoops.

Tuesday night's game will be the third BU-Cleveland State meeting this season, and it will also be a rematch of last season's conference tournament final. Butler won the 07-08 tournament matchup, 70-55. This year's game, however, will be more competitive, I think. The two BU wins in the 08-09 regular season were by two points each...one off of a Zach Hahn buzzer-beating three and one off of a halted Viking advance at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The coming final game goes down at 9 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on ESPN.

P.S. For those who watched/heard about Shelvin Mack's leg injury, per information from student assistant Erick Brown, the leg issue was cramp-related, not a medical injury so to speak. Mack is said to be ready for the final conference game. You can read Erick's stories on the men's basketball team (as well as other stories on all BU athletics) in the Dawgnet Sports section at http://www.dawgnetnews.com/index.php/sports.

Thanks for reading.
Go Dawgs!!

Dawgs bring the championship home

Thanks to their ability to pull off a successful win on Saturday, the men's basketball team have brought the Horizon League championship to Hinkle Fieldhouse. Their last two games were, in a brief description, dynamically different. For everyone at Thursday night's game against Youngstown St., they got to see several players that rarely receive game time, take the court. The bulldogs stomped the Penguins, 78-57. That's putting it nicely. The game might even got a little boring, no offense to the team - I always love to see them win. I was almost wishing for that on Saturday, however the closer games are always more exciting (if we win of course).

On Saturday however, the lead changed a couple of times throughout the game - with the Cleveland State Vikings taking a small lead in the beginning. The Bulldogs recovered the lead however before half-time. In the second half, there was a period when the dawgs did not score for awhile, giving the Vikings a chance to catch up. The last five minutes became the most nerve-wrenching. Butler freshman Ronald Nored made the last points of the game that gave the Bulldogs the final lead. Both games against Cleveland State this season came down to two points. They will undoubtedly face the Vikings again in the HL Tournament.

The women's bball team have two more games in their season before their season is over as well. The Bulldogs faced HL leader Green Bay on Saturday, losing by only five points. However, they pulled out a win on Thursday evening, beating Milwaukee in overtime. The Bulldogs go on the road against Youngstown St. and Cleveland St. this Thursday and Saturday.

The following pics are from the Thursday night men's and women's games (photos by Sports Editor Steven Peek):









Check out Dawgnetnews.com for more pictures.