Archive for March, 2006
Final Four Participants Change Little in SC Challenge
Eddie Mohr moves 19 spots on the backs of Florida and UCLA selections to 7th place. Joining the top 10 moving from a 12th place tie to a 10th place tie are Neil Hammer and Greer Zang. Dropping out of the top 10 were Kellen Summers (from 2nd to 13th), Carl Atwater (from 6th to [...]
Power Basketball Conferences: SEC, PAC-10 and Colonial
I would have taken practically any wager against two SEC teams making it to Indy to compete for the National Title. The SEC was in a rebuilding year, or so I thought. Remember the highly questionable Tennessee Two Seed. Similarly, a suggested bet that the Final Four would not include a Big East, ACC or [...]
Elite Eight Standings in the Sports Crossfire Challenge
Moving week! Chris Kendall moves 16 spots and Glenda Corley 13 to join in the top 5. Iris Blake continues to hold the lead by 17. Earl Forrester moves 21 spots and Mitch Wenger moves 12 into a tie for 10th. Unfortunately for Chris and Earl, selecting Duke and Tennessee, respectively, as the champion allows [...]
No. 1 Seeds Getting Benefit of the Doubt…
I’m not claiming a conspiracy. I’m not saying an unfair advantage is consciously being given to the Number 1 seeds. I am saying no one wants to make a call that will be declared questionable and send a Number 1 seed home. Take another look at the last 3 minutes of the Villanova-BC game. BC, [...]
Moving Starts as Round of 16 Gets Going
Riding the “coat” tails of the LSU tigers several polsters made some big moves Thursday. Gonzaga’s meltdown left a few in the wings. What will Friday hold? Biggest jump in standings from round 2 to round 3 – Earl Forrester: + 20 (from 31st to 11th) – Tara Heel: + 16 (from 53rd to 37th) [...]
Sweet Sixteen Bracket Predictions
The Sports Crossfire Sweet Sixteen Brackets are locked with some interesting predictions. Duke and UConn are each predicted to cut the nets in Indianapolis by 27% of the pool. Duke is expected to play in the final game by 37% and UConn is expected to compete for the trophy by 60% of participants. Obviously those [...]
Second Round Results in 17 point lead
Iris Blake took advantage of the first and second round upsets to collect 27 bonus points in route to a 17 point lead over the field. The next 20 places have only a 12 point spread indicating what on outstanding job Ms. Blake did during the first weekend. With only 5 of her Elite 8 [...]
Sports Crossfire NCAA Predictive Index
Sports Crossfire NCAA Challenge bracket selections place UConn atop the predictive index: 1. UConn – 1.000000 2. Duke – 0.727147 3. Memphis – 0.562327 4. Villanova – 0.503463 5. Gonzaga – 0.452216 6. Ohio State – 0.398892 7. UNC – 0.351108 8. UCLA – 0.333102 9. Boston Coll – 0.32964 10. Texas – 0.307479 11. [...]
Bracket breakdown by March Madness All Season
For a detailed bracket breakdown you need only go to March Madness All Season‘s excellent review, – NCAA Tournament Preview. In addition to complete region breakdowns and his tournament picks, Jeff has included analysis of these areas: – Top 10 Frontcourts – Top 10 Backcourts – Stars that can carry mid-major teams – Top 10 [...]
Monmouth joins 64 team bracket
Monmouth destroys Hampton 71-49 in route to a meeting with Villanova on Friday. The 64 teams are set. Now be sure to create your bracket in Sports Crossfire’s 2006 Bracket Challenge.
Selection committee draws deep heat in 2006
The 2006 bracket was out for only a few minutes before the criticism began rolling in. That happens every year. This year the criticism was more broadly reported on networks including CBS and ESPN and generated a much more aggressive defense by the committees chariman, Craig Littlepage specifically pointing out the comments from Billy Packard. [...]
Women’s NCAA Bracket is out
Tennessee, a 2nd seed, and UNC, the number 1 overall, are placed in the same region in the 2006 Women’s Basketball Bracket, making UNC’s road to the Final Four one of the toughest ever reports ESPN. Oh, and let’s throw in No. 3 Rutgers and No. 4 Purdue in that region, too. And just in [...]