The road to the 2014 Final Four that comes from the West will go through Anaheim, as the 16 teams placed in the West Regional will play for the chance to get to SoCal next weekend. Here’s a concise look at all the teams in this quarter of the NCAA Tournament, their personnel and notable aspects of their regular season performance…
The NCAA Tournament is set to tip off at 6:40 PM ET on Tuesday night, with the first of four “First Four” games from Dayton over tonight and Wednesday that will get us down to 64 teams by the time the full field starts up on Thursday afternoon. TheSportsNotebook’s coverage has begun. Here’s a brief summation of what’s available here online, what will be available and how we’ll be approaching NCAA Tournament coverage here between now and when the national champion is crowned in Dallas on April 7…
The South Regional of this year’s NCAA Tournament is home to the field of 68’s #1 overall seed in the Florida Gators, and will be settled in Memphis next weekend. TheSportsNotebook has run the tale of the tape of all 17 teams in this region (the 16-seed line is in play tonight in the First Four at Dayton). Now here’s nine general thoughts about this quarter of the bracket, followed by game-by-game picks at the bottom
The South Regional of the NCAA Tournament is one of two brackets that have teams playing in the First Four on Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton. It’s only the 16-seed line, as Mount St. Mary’s and Albany will tip off in about seven hours. Florida is the top seed in this region and the #1 overall seed in the 68-team field. Here’s a rundown on all 17 teams placed in the South Region, a brief summation of notable aspects in their body of work and key personnel…
The Midwest Regional was the talk of ESPN last night as the “blood regional”, with Wichita, Michigan, Duke and Louisville as the top four seeds. It’s also the biggest regional, with three seed lines being in play at Dayton during the First Four over Tuesday and Wednesday night. TheSportsNotebook has summarized the basic resumes of all 19 teams in a separate post. My own picks are below. Here are nine general thoughts on this region…
The Midwest Regional is the biggest of the four brackets in the NCAA Tournament, as three of the “First Four” games in Dayton will be in this region. Thus, the Midwest has two teams at the 11, 12 & 16 seed lines respectively, for a 19-team bracket overall. Wichita is the 1-seed and this regional will ultimately be settled in Indianapolis. Here’s a concise summation of all 19 teams, touching on their resume and personnel…
TheSportsNotebook will dig into the specifics of all four regional brackets over the next 30 or so hours prior to the beginning of “The First Four” in Dayton. For now, let’s start with nine general thoughts on the overall bracket itself…
The Washington Nationals lived through a disappointing 2013 season, one in which they had high expectations and weren’t afraid to share them publicly. In spite of a late-season spurt that made things moderately interesting, the Nationals still finished out of the playoffs and got themselves a new manager in Matt Williams. What’s the outlook in the nation’s capital for 2014? Here’s the Notebook Nine, our focal points on this year’s Nationals team…
The NCAA Tournament bracket is up and the Madness has begun. But before we dig into the field of 68, how about we first take a look back at the events of the past several days in the college basketball conference tournaments? The first nets were cut down as teams won conference tournaments and in no case was a bigger statement than in Indianapolis, where Michigan State thundered to a tournament crown.
The Baltimore Orioles didn’t make it back to the playoffs last year after their surprise run to the Division Series in 2012. But the Orioles did win 85 games in baseball’s toughest division and established that the turnaround under manager Buck Showalter is on a firm foundation. How far can that foundation go in the new season? That’s the question our Notebook Nine, the nine key talking points about the Orioles will seek to shed light on…
In a major league baseball era where one-third of the teams qualify for postseason play, the organization with the most distinct financial advantage of any in sports was not one of them in 2013. The New York Yankees lived through a season filled with injuries, drama and underachievement, en route to an 85-win season that left them home for October. After a busy offseason, are the Yanks ready to come back strong? The Notebook Nine, our key talking points about the Pinstripes, are what follows…
The Kentucky Derby Championship Series, the qualifying process for horses on the road to Churchill Downs on May 3, has a good race going in Arkansas on Saturday. The Rebel Stakes has a number of contenders, and a possible Derby favorite.
