from CollegeHoops.net:

If there's a "cinderella" in this tournament, Villanova would be it. The Wildcats hung around the Top 25 all season, but never challenged for the Big East title and mostly went under the radar. With solid guard play, an impressive defensive focus, and a capable big man in Dante Cunningham, the Wildcats have enough pieces to at least give the Tar Heels a better game than Oklahoma did (which isn't saying much).

MATCH-UP BREAKDOWN

College Hoops ncaa tournament, final four, villanova, north carolina

OK, I have officially burned the my bracket and Oklahoma fell in my pool. I have nothing left except the idea of watching some good basketball. I was hoping for some great games over the past weekend and honestly was left a bit disappointed. Here are some final takes on the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 and some opening thoughts on the Final Four:

*TAR HEELS MY PICK - I tried to convince myself that Gonzaga and Oklahoma could challenge the Tar Heels and most of that was based off of their poor play on defense. However, they held Oklahoma and Gonzaga, two high-scoring teams, to 137 total points. The Tar Heels, who I argued all regular season were the best team, have once again convinced me that they are. I can't see them losing to anyone.

*WHAT SCANDAL? - All the talk of the potential black cloud hanging over Connecticut following the amazingly timed release of recruiting violations proved to be unwarranted. The Huskies are looking strong and really the only thing standing in the way on UNC for a national title. I would not be surprised if Jim Calhoun calls it quits at the end of the year with on-going health problems and a looming probation.

*BIG TEN SURPRISE - I am the first to admit that I've been a Big Ten basher for most of the season. While I am not prepared to revoke those comments, I am ready to eat some crow about Michigan State. I was impressed with the way they handled Missouri in the Sweet 16 and amazed at the way they shutdown Louisville altogether on Sunday. They made the Cards play a Big Ten-style contest and that won them the game. This may be Tom Izzo's best coaching job yet.

*'NOVA A CINDERELLA AGAIN - After knocking out perenial power Duke in the Sweet 16, Villanova exacted their revenge on Pittsburgh and knocked out their Big East Brothers to earn a spot in the Final Four. The two wins over higher seeds give the school 15 wins vs. higher seed all-time, the most of any school. They are the lowest seed of any team left standing, entering the Final Four as a No. 3.

*FINAL FOUR NOT IN THE CARDS - The Cardinals had so much going there way, but I am thinking the 39-point victory over Arizona might have made the boys a little too confident heading into their match-up with Michigan State. They weren't ready for that defensive intensity the Spartans brought to the table. What sealed their fate though was they couldn't set up their pass without making baskets. It's disappointing for Rick Pitino as this team could play with any in the nation, just not MSU on Sunday.

*PITT PLAYS WITH FIRE, GETS BURNED - After a few lackluster performances early in the tournament, the Pitt Panthers were finally exposed on Saturday night. I am still trying to figure out how in world Scottie Reynolds got all the way down the court nearly uncontested. The first thing I learned playing basketball was STOP THE BALL!!! The Panthers peaked a bit too early this year. They would have won it all if it was February Madness.

College Hoops ncaa tournament, sweet 16, elite 8, final four, north carolina, connecticut, michigan state, villanova, louisville, pittsburgh

The NCAA tournament got underway on Thursday and after 12+ hours of watching hoops, there was plenty of excitement to talk about...

*How about my Hilltoppers? Western Kentucky held off Illinois, 76-72. They were up big and made me stress things out at the end, but a win is a win baby! All five starters scored in double-figures for Western Kentucky, including a team-high 17 points from Steffphon Pettigrew. The Hilltoppers became the second team to win a tournament game in consecutive years as a 12-seed or worse (Tulsa in 2002).

*Top Teams Roll - Memphis and Villanova got a bit of a scare in the opening round, but for the most part the top teams rolled with North Carolina, Connecticut, Duke Memphis, and Oklahoma winning their games by a combined average of 29.1 points.

*Close But No Cigar - VCU, a trendy No. 11 seed pick, had the ball in their best player's hands (Eric Maynor) with a shot to win it at the buzzer, but Maynor drove the lane and his shot roll off the rim and the clock hit zeroe and the Bruins squeaked out a 65-64 win. UCLA, which has made the Final Four each of the last three seasons, narrowly escaped a first-round exit.

*Tigers Impressive - Two streaks ended Thursday: LSU got its first NCAA tournament win since the 2006 Elite Eight, while Butler had its four-game, first round winning streak snapped.  The Tigers are underrated and play great defense. They are going to push North Carolina more than most think on Saturday.

*Watching Games Online - I loved my setup yesterday. I have my desktop computer going right into my HDTV and watched split screen with CBS-TV on one side and CBSSports.com on the otherside. Pretty sweet, especially since it was free. The delay is annoying at times, but I will deal with it.

*My Bracket - 14-2 so far as I had lost with Clemson and VCU. Today is going to be a bit more crazy though, mark my words.

*Prediction Time - Arizona and Utah State today are my underdog picks. Also, look for FSU to blowout Wisconsin.

College Hoops ncaa tournament, western kentucky, vcu, villanova, memphis, north carolina, duke, connecticut, memphis, oklahoma, vcu, lsu, ucla, butler

Let the Madness begin! The brackets have been drawn and the guessing is over...or is it? Now comes the fun part, filling out the brackets. Here are some my opening observations....

*The No. 1 Seeds - The selection committee got it right here with Louisville, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Connecticut all getting tabbed with the honor.

*Big East Rocks - They didn't the mega seeds that many expected earlier in the season as only seven of the 16 teams made the tournament rather than the 8 or 9 some had speculated earlier. Still, three No. 1 seeds from the conference is quite a  statement.

*SEC Letdown - The conference had one of its worst years ever and only because Mississippi State made an improbable run to the conference tournament championship did it get three teams in. LSU and Tennessee earned at large bids, but only a No. 8 and and No. 9 respecitvely.

*Big 10 Overrated - Penn State didn't get in, but the Big Ten get seven teams in. Still, I don't think the conference is really that good. Outside of Michigan State I expect early exits for all of the teams and even the Spartans proved to be vulnerable.

*Conference Breakdown - ACC (7 teams in), Big East (7), Big Ten (7), Big 12 (6), Pac 10 (5), SEC (3), Atlantic 10 (3), Horizon (2), MVC (2), Moutain West (2), WCC (2)

*Buckeye Pride - Five of the 13 Division I schools in Ohio made the NCAA Tournament - Akron, Dayton, Cleveland State, Ohio State, and Xavier.

*Last At-Large Ins - Arizona (12 seed), Wisconsin (12), Dayton (11), Maryland (10), Michigan (10) and Minnesota (10)

*Notable snubs - San Diego State (35th in RPI), Creighton (40), Saint Mary's (48), Auburn (63), Penn State (70)

*Where are they now? - The tournament is missing some of its regulars this season. Amongst the casualties are Arkansas, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Florida, Indiana, Georgetown, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame.

*Know Your Bracket - Understanding the history of the bracket could go long way towards helping you win your bracket. Consider a few of these numbers: six of the last eight final four teams were No. 1 seeds; Since 2000, only two teams that weren't a #1 or #2 seed have gone on to win a national championship (both No. 3 seeds - Florida in '06 & Syracuse in '03). Check out all of the TOURNAMENT HISTORY BY SEEDS and come up with your own trends.

*Local Love - Here's where the local teams are headed...
Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. (Play-in game): #16 Morehead State (19-15) vs. #16 Alabama State (22-9) - Dayton, OH
Thursday, 7:25 p.m. - #4 Gonzaga (26-5) vs. #13 Akron (23-12) - Portland, OR
Thursday, 9:55 p.m. - #5 Illinois (24-9) vs. Western Kentucky (24-8) - Portland, OR
Friday, 3:00 p.m. - #6 West Virginia (23-11) vs.#11 Dayton (26-7) - Minneapolis, MN
Friday, 7:10 p.m. - #1 Louisville (28-5) vs. #16 Morehead St/Alabama St winner - Dayton, OH
Friday, 7:25 p.m. - #4 Xavier (25-7) vs. #13 Portland State (23-9) - Boise, ID
Friday, 9:40 p.m. - #8 Ohio State (22-10) vs. #9 Sienna (26-7) - Dayton, OH

COMPLETE BRACKET

College Hoops ncaa tournament, louisville, north carolina, pittsburgh, connecticut, big east, sec, big 10, penn state, michigan state, acc, big ten, big 12, atlantic 10, horizon league, mvc, mountain west, wcc, arizona, wisconsin, dayton, michigan, minnesota, san diego state, creighton, saint mary's, auburn, kentucky, indiana, arkansas, florida, cincinnati, georgetown, georgia tech, notre dame, morehead state, western kentucky, xavier, ohio state

Louisville loses to Notre Dame by 33 points and only falls 1 spot.

Duke loses to UNC and Boston college and only slips 3 spots while remaining in the top 10.  Had the refs not homered Miami the Blue Devils would have lost 4 in a row.

Clemson lost to Virginia and Wake Forest lost to N.C. State and neither fell out of the top 10.

I guess the seeding for the NCAA Tournament has already been determined for the top 10 teams and nothing will remove them.

This is the kind of thing that ruins the sport.

LATEST RANKINGS

College Hoops ncaa rankings, louisville, notre dame, north carolina, boston college, virginia, wake forest, nc state

GetSportsRadio - Hoop Scoop (mp3) - ESPN's Mark Adams joins Chad Brendel and Greg Shoemaker to talk college hoops

Don't kid yourself, Connecticut (22-1) is off the hook. They are the best offesnive team in the Big East and after watching the 7-foot-3 Hasheem Thabeet dominate against Syracuse on Wednesday night you have to be impressed with their defense too. The Huskies play in basketball's best conference too, the Big East.

Still, North Carolina is the best team in the land. Period.

Tyler Hansbrough's (22.8 ppg) numbers are as good as they were last year, but there the hype is nowhere near it was. Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington are both averaging about 15 ppg and in total six players are in double figures.

Coming into the 2008-09 season it was almost as if the Tar Heels had already been crowned number #1. I was waiting for the NCAA to call off the season and cut straight to One Shining Moment. The talking heads on ESPN were even speculating they might not lose a game until February. That's a ton of pressure.

The Tar Heels hit their bump in the road when they fell to Boston College. Next was the lost to Wake Forest. Suddenly UNC looked like the third-best team in the ACC and far from the best in the nation.

Since then we've watched Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Duke, and now UConn take the reigns atop the polls. Meanwhile, North Carolina has been rolling. They've won seven straight games after picking up their fourth straight win at Cameron Indoor Arena and Coach K court. During the latest streak, Carolina is outscoring their opponents by nearly 17 points per game.

The Huskies are contenders, but I'm ready to move Roy Williams' bunch back to the top.

College Hoops connecticut, oklahoma, north carolina, latest polls, tyler hansbrough, ty lawson, wayne ellington, boston college, wake forest, duke

It's Rivalry Week on ESPN.com, which leads us to which are the best rivalries in college hoops...

   1. Duke vs North Carolina - Always a classic and one of the best things about college basketball.

   2. Kentucky vs Louisville - The battle of Kentucky between a couple of basketball schools.

   3. Kansas vs Missouri - Kansas always seems to have a stacked team, but rivalries seem to see alot of upsets.

   4. Texas vs Texas A&M - A huge state known for its football doesn’t damper this heated college basketball rivalry. Look for both of these teams to do well the next few seasons.

   5. Duke vs Maryland - The ACC is full of fast paced, quick scoring teams. The Duke and Maryland rivalry has really been turned up the last couple of years.

   6. Indiana vs Purdue - A Classic Big Ten conference match up.

   7. Cincinnati vs Xavier - Its gotta be a rivalry when the schools are 10 minutes apart.

   8. Florida vs Kentucky - Kentucky has been the better team the last few decades, now its Florida’s time to rule.

   9. Arizona vs UCLA - Two big Pac 10 powerhouses who are historically successful.

  10. Michigan vs Michigan State - Even a better college football rivalry, this rivalry has moved down the list a bit due to a few poor seasons.

*from Campus Grotto

College Hoops best rivalries, duke, north carolina, kentucky, louisville, kansas, missouri, texas, texas a&m, duke, maryland, indiana, purdue, cincinnati, xavier, florida, arizona, ucla, michigan, michigan state

There have been a lot of great catches in college football this year. The catch by North Carolina wide receiver, Hakeem Nicks, against West Virginia in the Meineke Car Care Bowl on Saturday may be the best of them all. There's no doubt this guy will be a first day draft pick come April and will be a factor on Sundays for whatever team selects him. In case you missed it, here's the amazing catch below.

College Football hakeem nicks, north carolina, west virginia, meineke car care bowl

The bowl games finally start this weekend. Fellow GetSportsInfo.com writer, Jeremy Fischer, and myself have put together our picks including how confident we are in them. In case you've never done a pick 'em game like this before, here's how it works. In addition to picking who you think will win the game, you assign a number to that pick as to how confident you think that pick is going to be right. There are 34 bowl games this year (way too many in most people's opinion, but that's beside the point), so the max number of confidence points you can give to one game is, yep, you guessed it, 34. The game you are least confident in you assign one point too, and fill in everything in between.

A lot of office pools are done like this and make it much more challenging than simply picking a winner for each game. As J-Fish states when it comes to doing a pick 'em game like this, "I have seen many strategies and I prefer the one that calls for using the higher confidence points on the bigger BCS games." He goes on to give his reasons as to why.

"Right or wrong, the larger conference teams get more coverage. The more information that is out there, the better informed pick you can make. The more informed you are, the more confident you'll be about a particular selection." Makes sense right? So picking the BCS bowl games really isn't as difficult as picking some of the more obscure games like the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl between Southern Mississippi and Troy that provide more difficulty in not only picking who will win, but deciding how confident you are in that pick.

J-Fish goes on to say, "Unless you fancy yourself as the next Jimmy the Greek, don't over analyze. The amount of games will definitely lead to paralysis-by-analysis." In my opinion, when it comes to picking some of the lower level bowl games, its almost more of a gut feeling when making that selection than anything else.

With all that said, let's get to the picks. What you'll find below is the bowl schedule starting with the first game on the docket all the way to the National Championship game on January 8th. With each pick you'll see both J-Fish's pick as well as my own with a little bit of analysis and how many confidence points (#) we have assigned to the pick we've made. Let's get to it with a look at the BCS games.

January 1st
ROSE - Penn State vs. USC
JFISH: USC (34) - Too much defense.
DICO: USC (32) - Too much USC! PSU hasn't seen anything like the Trojans this year. Ask OSU how things worked out for them. Plus this is a "home game" for the Trojans.

FEDEX ORANGE - Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech
JFISH: Cincinnati (22) - 1st BCS bowl berth will drive the Bearcats.
DICO: Cincinnati (10) - Special teams could be the difference in this game. Mardy Gilyard for the Bearcats is one of the best in the country in the return game. A chance to finish the season in the Top 10 will push the Bearcats to a win.

January 2nd
ALLSTATE SUGAR - Utah vs. Alabama
JFISH: Alabama (32) - Utah hasn't faced a defense like this.
DICO: Alabama (33) - See JFISH's comments...the Utes will have a hard time stopping the 'Bama offense as well.

January 5th
TOSTITOS FIESTA - Ohio State vs. Texas
JFISH: Texas (33) - Too much speed on defense, and the Horns will be playing angry because of the whole BIG XII, BCS screw job.
DICO: Texas (31) - QB Colt McCoy will be too much even for a good Buckeyes' defense. Terrelle Pryor will see what team speed on defense is all about against the Longhorns.

January 8th
FEDEX BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP - Florida vs. Oklahoma
JFISH: Florida (26) - Tebow/Harvin will find a way.
DICO: Oklahoma (22) - Bradford leads the most potent offense in the country. Even with the loss of DeMarco Murray at RB, the Sooners won't miss a beat. Expect a high scoring affair.

COMPLETE PICKS (ALL 34 GAMES) 

College Football college bowl game pick 'em, bcs, national title, wake forest, navy, colorado state, fresno state, memphis, south florida, byu, arizona, southern miss, troy, boise state, tcu, hawaii, notre dame, florida atlantic, central michigan, west virginia, north carolina, wisconsin, florida state, miami (fl), california, northern illinois, louisiana tech, nc state, rutgers, missouri, northwestern, maryland, nevada, western michigan, rice, oklahoma state, oregon, houston, air force, oregon state, pittsburgh, boston college, vanderbilt, kansas, minnesota, lsu, georgia tech, south carolina, iowa, georgia, michigan state, nebraska, clemson, penn state, usc, cincinnati, virginia tech, ole miss, texas tech, kentucky, east carolina, utah, alabama, buffalo, connecticut, ohio state, texas, ball state, tulsa, florida, oklahoma, butch davis, pat white, noel divine, jahvid best, chase daniel, lesean mccoy, jacquizz rogers, shonn greene, javon ringer, knowshon moreno, matt stafford, mardy gilyard, graham harrell, michael crabtree, colt mccoy, terrelle pryor, tim tebow, percy harvin, sam bradford, demarco murray

There weren't many changes in the polls this week as all but three ranked teams won their games. One difference of note from last week to this week is that the number of first place votes are now spread out between three teams, not just two. The votes are now split between Alabama (42), Texas Tech (21) and Florida (2). The reason for that is due to the Florida Gators domination of South Carolina this weekend.

The Gators have been rolling over the past couple months, going 6-0 now after their surprising loss to Mississippi. To think, had they not lost that game, the Gators would likely be the number one team in the country. With the 56-6 smackdown they laid on the Gamecocks this weekend, the Gators have put themselves in prime position to make the BCS championship game should they beat Alabama in the final game of the season and then go on to win the SEC championship game. If Texas Tech should falter against Oklahoma next weekend or in the Big 12 championship game should they make it there, that would help the Gators' chances as well.

Other than Florida stealing a couple of the first place votes in this week's AP Top 25, there weren't many moves up or down in the rankings. South Carolina fell back out of the Top 25 after losing to Florida. Florida State fell out as well after losing to Boston College Saturday night. With those two teams falling out of the Top 25, two teams must replace them. Those two teams would be Miami (FL) and Oregon. North Carolina fell from No. 20 to No. 25 after being beat by now No. 22 Maryland. The only other significant movement was Cincinnati and Pittsburgh moving up to No. 19 and No. 20 respectively.

The complete list of the AP Top 25 looks like this:

1. Alabama 11-0
2. Texas Tech 10-0
3. Florida 9-1
4. Texas 10-1
5. Oklahoma 9-1
6. USC 9-1
7. Penn State 10-1
8. Utah 11-0
9. Boise State 10-0
10. Ohio State 9-2
11. Oklahoma State 9-2
12. Missouri 9-2
13. Georgia 9-2
14. Ball State 10-0
15. TCU 9-2
16. BYU 10-1
17. Michigan State 9-2
18. LSU 7-3
19. Cincinnati 8-2
20. Pittsburgh 7-2
21. Oregon State 7-3
22. Maryland 7-3
23. Miami (FL) 7-3
24. Oregon 8-3
25. North Carolina 7-3

College Football ap top 25, alabama, texas tech, florida, south carolina, florida state, miami (fl), oregon, north carolina, maryland, cincinnati, pittsburgh