2011 Final Four

[MDC]

Uconn over Kentucky

VCU over Butler

UConn over VCU-Kemba puts in a performance of a lifetime, Rams hang around, but fall short

[HedleyLamarr]

I'm not sure how often an occurance it is....

There's more BCS conference teams in the NIT Final Four than the NCAA's Final Four.

[JQK]

VCU by any other name would be the favorites in this thing. They've CRUSHED teams...

[Jigga]

VCU by any other name would be the favorites in this thing. They've CRUSHED teams...

You're the third person I've *heard* make that point today. The more I think about it, I'm starting to agree. I would love to see VCU knock off UConn. However, give me either of them or Butler. I just don't want Kentucky cutting down the net. Calipari is easily the sleaziest sleazeball at the Annual Sleazeball Convention.

[NJTank]

Shaka Smart is going to be highly sought after following the tourney, so VCU may win the tournament but I will be shocked if he stays in Richmond much longer. He would be a great fit at NC State, he has a ACC type personality.

[dfwabel]

Shaka Smart is going to be highly sought after following the tourney, so VCU may win the tournament but I will be shocked if he stays in Richmond much longer. He would be a great fit at NC State, he has a ACC type personality.

What is an "ACC type personality"?

Roy Williams and Tony Bennett are polar opposites in terms of personality and on-court demeanor than Gary Williams and Mike Krzyzewski.

Smart is 52-20 overall and while this run is great to watch, he inherited a team from Anthony Grant which won the CAA for three straight years only to coach them to 5th and 4th place.

The guy who NC State fans want may the most have the "Just Cause" tag placed on him, which would keep him from coaching. That's Bruce Pearl since he can follow in the footsteps of Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano as one who at NC State also broke rules and landed the school on probation.

[Jamikel]

I don't think Smart would have trouble recruiting talent to NC State. What kid wouldn't want to play for a young dynamic coach at an ACC school? Heck, even Sidney Lowe brought talent into Raleigh, and he was a HORRIBLE coach.

Yes, there are a lot of question marks about him, but he has a huge upside. And let's be honest, considering how laughably bad NC State has been for most of their existence post-Valvano, they're probably not going to get a more established winner.

[yh]

I don't want to create any unnecessary panic but the ancient Mayans actually predicted that VCU and Butler would play in the 2011 Final Four.

G'bye, friends.

[AnythingChicago]

I don't want to create any unnecessary panic but the ancient Mayans actually predicted that VCU and Butler would play in the 2011 Final Four.

G'bye, friends.

For the lack of a better acronym, LOL.

[DPV713]

According to my buddy, him, his cousin, and his uncle helped correctly pick one of two Final Four predictions on the ESPN Bracket Challenge. He said his aunt picked VCU, her alma mater. His cousin picked Kentucky because he said Calipari doesn't lose. He picked UCONN because of Kemba, and his uncle picked Butler because they're Cinderella (and VCU is just there?) Don't know if I believe him, but it sounds cool.

Anyway, I think it's gonna be UCONN/Butler and Kemba explodes in the Championship to bring the title home to Connecticut.

EDIT: Also, I love VCU's coach's name. Shaka Smart. Brilliant.

[Lights Out]

VCU over Butler

Kentucky over UConn

VCU over Kentucky, and a loud shriek is heard in the vicinity of the BCS headquarters as a small mid-major is actually allowed to win a basketball championship.

However, I wouldn't be opposed to Butler winning it all either. Even Kentucky winning would be fine with me. I'm just tired of Kemba and his media hype train.

[jhans203]

VCU over Butler

Kentucky over UConn

VCU over Kentucky, and a loud shriek is heard in the vicinity of the BCS headquarters as a small mid-major is actually allowed to win a basketball championship.

However, I wouldn't be opposed to Butler winning it all either. Even Kentucky winning would be fine with me. I'm just tired of Kemba and his media hype train.

That's how I have felt about BYU and Jimmer the past couple of months.

[NJTank]

Shaka Smart is going to be highly sought after following the tourney, so VCU may win the tournament but I will be shocked if he stays in Richmond much longer. He would be a great fit at NC State, he has a ACC type personality.

What is an "ACC type personality"?

Roy Williams and Tony Bennett are polar opposites in terms of personality and on-court demeanor than Gary Williams and Mike Krzyzewski.

Smart is 52-20 overall and while this run is great to watch, he inherited a team from Anthony Grant which won the CAA for three straight years only to coach them to 5th and 4th place.

The guy who NC State fans want may the most have the "Just Cause" tag placed on him, which would keep him from coaching. That's Bruce Pearl since he can follow in the footsteps of Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano as one who at NC State also broke rules and landed the school on probation.

Good coach who also shines in press conferences and is a personality who is capable of becoming the face of a university. One who knows the mid Atlantic region and is capable of playing with the big boys in Durham and Chapel Hill and capable of taking away recruits.

[dfwabel]

Shaka Smart is going to be highly sought after following the tourney, so VCU may win the tournament but I will be shocked if he stays in Richmond much longer. He would be a great fit at NC State, he has a ACC type personality.

What is an "ACC type personality"?

Roy Williams and Tony Bennett are polar opposites in terms of personality and on-court demeanor than Gary Williams and Mike Krzyzewski.

Smart is 52-20 overall and while this run is great to watch, he inherited a team from Anthony Grant which won the CAA for three straight years only to coach them to 5th and 4th place.

The guy who NC State fans want may the most have the "Just Cause" tag placed on him, which would keep him from coaching. That's Bruce Pearl since he can follow in the footsteps of Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano as one who at NC State also broke rules and landed the school on probation.

Good coach who also shines in press conferences and is a personality who is capable of becoming the face of a university. One who knows the mid Atlantic region and is capable of playing with the big boys in Durham and Chapel Hill and capable of taking away recruits.

So in two short weeks, your opinion has been formed since this comment?

"Purdue will have no problem beating St. Peter's in the second round, as they are well experienced at winning in March, they will also find things easy in the third round as they will beat USC who will easily beat a Virginia Commonwealth team who has no business in the field of 68 before beating the banged up Georgetown team, that has not won Chris Wright and his injured left hand."

His sample size still tells me that he is a 3rd to 4th place coach who has had all the stars align to get to this point this season.

[dfwabel]

FYI everyone. Tomorrow, "Frontline" on PBS will premier Money and March Madness. If you cannot DVR it, it will be available online as well. I honestly would never believe much of anything from Sonny Vaccaro.

Press Release:

This March, the nation will once again go ?mad,? as more than 140 million people tune in to watch one of the biggest sporting events on earth?the NCAA men?s basketball tournament. But ?March Madness? isn?t just a basketball tournament. It?s become big business, with television rights alone worth $10.8 billion over 14 years.

In Money and March Madness, airing Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman (Post Mortem, The Card Game) takes a hard look at the economics of the annual NCAA tournament?a cash cow for amateur athletics that generates enormous dollars for everyone except the players themselves, raising basic questions of fairness that are now leading a handful of influential figures to challenge the way the NCAA operates.

Chief among the NCAA?s critics is Sonny Vaccaro, a former executive at Nike, Adidas and Reebok who was a key figure in the commercialization of college and high school basketball in the 1980s and ?90s. In his first in-depth interview since leaving the world of sports marketing, Vaccaro tells FRONTLINE he?s had a change of heart after years of helping big corporations profit from amateur athletics. Now, he says, he?d like to help the players get in on some of the profits. ?Unless the people who make the rules and the people who divide the money up come to their senses, there?s no recourse for the student-athlete,? says Vaccaro. ?Everybody has a right except the player. The player has no rights.?

The question of paying players in big-time college sports has been raised for years, but now it?s gaining new force, thanks to a class-action suit that Vaccaro and others helped initiate on behalf of former players. The suit challenges one of the pillars of college athletics, a contract that the NCAA forces all players to sign which bars them from earning any money at any time from their college playing careers.

?The case is terribly important,? says Andrew Zimbalist, an expert on sports economics. ?It goes to the core principles of the NCAA?s amateurism. ... If you look at it economically from afar, you say here?s an organization that, in the name of amateurism, has imposed a plethora of restrictions, a large number of which seem to be consistent with trying to maximize the economic return that the schools get. ... In practice, the NCAA functions as a trade association for the athletic directors and the coaches and the conference commissioners.?

?Who are these people making all this money?? former Final Four MVP and current Chicago Bulls star Joakim Noah asks Bergman. ?And shouldn?t the kids, once their college careers are over, shouldn?t they get a piece of that? This is something that needs to be exposed.?

But the new president of the NCAA, Mark Emmert, defends the amateurism of college basketball and rejects any form of payments to players. ?I think that it would be utterly unacceptable to convert students into employees,? Emmert tells Bergman. ?The point of March Madness, of the men?s basketball tournament, is the fact that it?s being played by students. ... What amateurism really means is that these young men and women are students; they?ve come to our institutions to gain an education and to develop their skills as an athlete and to compete at the very highest level they're capable of. And for them, that?s a very attractive proposition.?

All eyes now are on the pending outcome of the class-action suit against the NCAA. ?You?ve got to get a decision here,? Vaccaro says. ?It?s amateurism or it isn?t. Say yes or say no. If it?s yes, then take care of the kids. If it?s no, then the kids should be free to do what they want and shouldn?t have to sign [away their rights on] scholarship papers.?

[NEW.ERA]

I'll take VCU over Kentucky in absolute thriller.

[dfwabel]

For Monday night, Jennifer Hudson-->OUT for "One Shining Moment".

Luther Vandross' version returns.

[Kevin W.]

For Monday night, Jennifer Hudson-->OUT for "One Shining Moment".

Luther Vandross' version returns.

FTW.

[NJTank]

YES!!!!

[tBBP]

Let's see what Shaka and his boys do with this little tidbit:

Doug Gootlieb just deemed Smart the "most overrated coach in the Final Four". This should go over well.