2012 NCAA Tourney

Top Ten (by the numbers) for the 2012 NCAA Men`s Basketball Tourney

Man, is this a great time of the year?!?! I should say so...Weather improving...Baseball season upon us...And of course, the Madness...

The FBI estimates that in addition to the legal gambling there will be over $2 Billion in illegal gambling for March Madness...Employers annually lose over $1 Billion in productivity from their employees during the Madness too

In this entry we will take a fun look (I hope!) at a few tidbits re the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament...

Surely we will all want to pay close attention to the top seeds...5 of the last 7 Finals have had a #1 seed (3 of those Finals were #1 seed vs #1 seed), while of the 48 schools to have made the Final Four in the 2000's 35/48 were a Top #3 seed...Cinderella's like George Mason, VCU, and Butler are so damn fun to watch, but the absolute majority of the time the 4 school names printed on the Final Four t-shirts are well known top-seeds

Here is a look at some Top 10 (by the #'s) Final Four tidbits...  

I have to start with 2 quick Honorable mentions for number 11

#11 is the seed that last seasons Cinderella VCU Rams were, and they danced alllll the way to the Final Four

#11 is the amount of times UCLA has won a National Championship...By far the most in NCAA Men's B-Ball

#11 is the amount of Final Four births for Mike Krzyzewski (wow wow wow)

10

10 teams shoot better than 40% from 3-point range in the NCAA...5 are in this year's Tourney...Temple, Creighton, Indiana, plus bombers Colorado State and Murray State actually meet up in the 1st Round! (Who has the Over?!?!)

10 is the number of Conference Champs in the t-o-u-g-h West Region

Fav #10 seed is likely Xavier...The Musketeers have a nice mix of Senior's, plus young talented (and productive) JR's and Freshman too...They draw an underwhelming Notre Dame in Round 1

9

9 out of every 10 #1 seeds make the Sweet Sixteen

9 Blocks per game is the highest in the Country for any team...Kentucky Wildcats

The #9 vs #8 1st Round match-up is a coin-flip...In the 2000's the #8 has a 23-21 record vs the #9's...Heck, that is pretty much the dictionary definition of "coin-flip"...This year I do like the #8 in most of these match-ups, but I will say that I could see the #9 in the South Region - UCONN - and Jeremy Lamb deal with a very balanced Fred Hoiberg squad from Iowa State

8

8 teams in NCAA average over 40 Rebounds per game...2 are in the Tourney - NC and New Mexico State

Memphis (West) and Creighton (Go Bluejays!!!...MidWest...Creighton's Super-Soph Doug McDermott is the highest scorer in the Tourney) are both #8 seeds that are Conference Champs

8 W's per every 10 games played...That is the clip that #1 seeds win at

7

7 Conference Champs are in the East (including UNC-Asheville...(INSANE call here, but I like the Bulldogs to give Syracuse all it can handle in the East #1 vs #16 "battle"...Battle is in quotes because the #1's are a nifty 108-0 vs #16's)

7 teams in NCAA average over 80 Points per game...All made the Tourney...Creighton, UNC-Asheville, NC, Mizzou, Belmont, LIU Brooklyn, plus Iona is in one of the Play-In games

7 is the amount of National Championships Kentucky has won, most in the Field

#7 seed has never made the Final Four...Here's hoping that Kevin Pangos, Robert Sacre and the Gonzaga Bulldogs (#7 in the East Region) are the first...Saint Mary's (#7 in the MidWest...ironically enough the Champs of the WCC where they beat Gonzaga in the Title game) seemingly has a nice path to at least the Sweet 16

7 is the amount of losses Michigan State has...By far the most for any #1 seed in the Tourney

6

6 teams average over 6 Blocks per game in the NCAA...3 are part of the Madness (UCONN...Syracuse...Kentucky)

6 is the number of Conference Champs in the South (where Kentucky is #1)

Murray State (#6 in the West) is the only #6 that I give value to...The OVC Champs are a gaudy 30-1, and the only #6 seed that is a Conference Champ...Feb 9 loss to Tennessee State is the only blemish for 1st time Head Coach Steve Prohm's Racers...They actually avenged that loss in the Conference Title game

5

5 is the amount of Conference Champs in the MidWest (where UNC is #1) 

#5 vs #12...This is traditionally THEE match-up to pay attention to...21 of the last 23 years a #12 has upset a #5 in Round 1...In the 2000's the #12 has won 18 times vs #5, and 11 other times the #5 had to sweat out a win that was 5 points or less...If you are looking for a Final Four pick outside of a Top 3 seed then the #5 actually packs more punch than the #4 seeds...#4 seeds have 3 Final Four appearances in the 2000's, with 0 National Championship games...The #5 though has 5 Final Four in the 2000's, plus 3 National Champ games

So while your bracket absolutely requires a #12 upset over a #5, don't just discard the #5's either...

#5 in the MidWest Temple was a #5 seed in 2010 too and they were defeated in Round 1 by Cornell (no doubt making Andy Bernard very happy)...This year Temple is again a #5 with a 1st Round opponent being the winner of the California vs South Florida (I like South FLA in that game)

#5 in the South is Wichita State...The Shockers are certainly my fav #5 seed in this field (they play last years Cinderella VCU Rams...Kudos to Shaka Smart for getting his Rams back into the Big Dance)

Both New Mexico (#5 in West) and Long Beach State (#12 in West) are Conference Champs...The East also has Conference Champ vs Conference Champ in the #5 (Vandy) vs #12 (Harvard) match-up...By the way kudos to Tommy Amaker and the work he has done to revive Harvard B-Ball and get the program back in the Tourney for the first time in decades

5 is the number of National Championships for Indiana and North Carolina

4

...as in Final Four...Here is my take...Kentucky (great chance to be the Champs)...Mizzou (survival of the fittest in that West Region...Why I separate Mizzou from that pack is their ability to make Free-Throws)...Ohio State in the East (but come on Gonzaga!)...North Carolina in the MidWest (that #7 Saint Mary's team could be a Cinderella in that Region) 

4 is the number of National Championships for Duke

4 #1 seeds all making the Final Four has happened one time, 2008

3

3-ball your thing?!?! The Tourney has some 3-point sharp-shooters...Joe Ragland (Wichita State)...Jordan Hulls and Matt Roth on Indiana are bombers...Doug McDermott on Creighton was born to shoot and score the basketball...Georgetown will need to be sure to get out on Belmont (S) Guard Drew Hanlen in their 1st Round game as Hanlen is a skilled chucker...

2

Amazingly only 1 #2 seed is a Conference Champ (Mizzou)...

The 20 year anniversary of that classic 1992 game between Duke and Kentucky will get a lot of play potentially as Duke is the #2 in the South (Kentucky #1)

#2 seeds have made the Final Four 10 times in the 2000's

Only #2 Mizzou (West) had a good record vs Ranked teams (6-2)...Ohio State 7-5...Duke 5-3...Kansas just 5-4

1

Only one #1 seed won their Conference Tourney (Michigan State)

Norfolk State (MEAC Champs) and South Dakota State (Summit) are both making Tourney appearance numero uno

1, as in there can only be 1 Champ...Kentucky lost guys like Brandon Knight, DeAndre Liggins, Josh Harrelson, and the Enes Kantner thing never worked out, yet John Calipari continues to work the Wildcats into an absolute B-Ball factory...Their depth is amazing with Anthony Davis, Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb, Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, Darius Miller, and Kyle Wiltjer all giving great depth and skill every game...UK was 6-0 vs Ranked foes this season...UK scores, defends, and rebounds very very well...Hardly an out-on-the-ledge pick, but man there is just so much to like about Kentucky IMO

Shout-out to the Ragers!

Loved the entry? Hated the entry? Anything in-between? Your questions/comments/concerns etc always welcomed

craig.ballard@hotmail.com 

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2011 World Series Preview

2011 World Series...St Louis Cardinals vs Texas Rangers

How did we get here?!?!

For the Rangers this has been an unreal season...The dizzying highs of a return trip to the World Series, and the devastating lows of having Shannon Stone try to catch a throw into the stands from Texas LF Josh Hamilton only to lose his balance against the railing and plummet to his death (right in front of his 6 year old son...I do not want to just write a piece that is a downer, but the Shannon Stone story about what happened that night is unbelievable...I will spare you the details here, as you know we are together on blogspot, or Sports Talk because we want to have fun talking sports, but I would encourage you to look into the story of Stone's death...I personally have not looked at life the same way since that July 8 fateful day)

More lows were in-store for the 2011 Rangers as their leader and Team President Nolan Ryan was hospitalized for a recurring heart condition...This was all on the heels of losing 2010 star Cliff Lee out of nowhere to the Phillies...

The off-season did produce a big move though...The Rangers had a built-in upgrade at SS as stud-in-the-making SS Elvis Andrus was about to enter his 3rd season and big things were expected (big things produced too...career high Hits/Doubles/Runs/RBI's/SB's/Batting Avg) but the player to Andrus' right (3B) was going to be new as Texas added slugger Adrian Beltre...AB had a monster season (.296...32 HR's...105 RBI's) and the assumption was that Mike Young would be traded to make room for Beltre...Young was kept by Texas, and as a result the Rangers had the ol' "cake and eat it too" as Young (a career .300 hitter) had career highs in Batting Avg/RBI's, and career low for Strikeouts...The Rangers also made a trade with YOUR TORONTO BLUE JAYS to add another bat in Mike Napoli...Nap played 1B/C/DH and he hit like crazy (career highs in '11 for Batting Avg/Hits/Doubles/HR's/RBI's/Runs/BB's)...A fantastic line-up (that featured the defending MVP in Josh Hamilton) got even deeper...


The Starting Pitching lost Lee, but sure did its part to help the Rangers repeat as AL West Champs...73-39 record, plus a Bullpen already skilled with the likes of veteran LH Darren Oliver, plus stud-in-the-making Closer Neftali Perez added 'pen studs Mike Adams and Koji Uehara (only 2 hurlers on the Rangers with WHIP below 1.00)


The Rangers used all of the above to earn a 96 W campaign...In the Play-Offs it has sure been all of the above, plus Nelson Cruz has entered his name into Post-Season lore...Cruz has 2 HR's and 7 RBI's in the 11th Inning alone in the Post-Season!  How many players will not have that kind of production for an entire series/Play-Off run?!?! As twitter would say #impressive...Cruz is setting Play-Off records for HR's/RBI's/Drama...This Rangers line-up was shut down by San Fran in the 2010 World Series, but this 2011 line-up looks drought-proof (waaaay too much talent and depth)


For St Louis the path was different...Like on a historic level different...The only other team to make the sort of comeback to get into the Play-Offs as the 2011 Cards did was the...well ironically enough 2011 Rays...The difference is that the step-up Pitching (especially in the bullpen) and the timely (and volume) hitting for St Louis has continued in the Play-Offs, while the Rays were dispatched in 4 games by Texas...


Tony LaRussa is (again) in the World Series, and he (again) brings an impressive O (remember the Bash Brothers O's Tony had in the early 90's in Oakland)...Star Albert Pujols had career low's in Batting Avg (.299) and RBI's (99) but still we see those aren't exactly embarrassing #'s...Phat Albert was joined in St Louis by Matt Holliday a few months back, and in 2011 he was joined by Lance Berkman (NL 2011 Comeback Player Of The Year), and later at Trade Deadline the Cards made a move to get Rafael Furcal to be their SS...At the end of August St Louis was a DOA (as far as making the Play-Offs) 10.5 games back of Hotlanta...but...while the Braves had a September swoon for the ages the Cards continued to get better and better while bats like Jason Jay, David Freese, Yadier Molina, Allen Craig, and guys like Pujols and Berkman were en fuego the last several weeks of the season...All of that even masked the fact that slugger Matt Holliday missed 35+ games with nagging hand injuries...This added up to put the Cardinals (despite playing in the NL where the #8 and #9 hitters are punchlines) as the #5 O in MLB (#1 O in NL...Only NL club in MLB Top 6)


St Louis' starting rotation features 4 SP's with era's in the 3's (Chris Carpenter, Jamie Garcia, Kyle Lohse, and Edwin Jackson)...The club was roundly criticized outside of Missouri for their Trade Deadline move of sending CF Colby Rasmus to the Jays for RP's Octavio Dotel, Mark Rzepczynski, and the a fore mention Edwin Jackson, but those close to the club knew that was a trade of "good riddance" as Rasmus and his peeps had become an irritant with a bad attitude instead of the stud-in-the-making they thought he was...Hindsight being what it is we see now that the Cards made a mega-Don move with that trade...As good (actually great) as the Cards O has been, it is the pitching, in particular RP, that has guided the team back to the World Series for their first trip to the Fall Classic since they won it all in 2006 (eerily similar by the way as that 2006 team got hot at the right time and rode LaRussa's managerial brilliance to the Championship) 


What a match-up...2 Managers with now multiple World Series appearances...2 teams making return trips to the WS...

2 teams using O first, with a definite assist from the Pitchers each game...2 teams who used Aug trades to bolster their Pitching, and shore up a bat off the bench...

2 teams who each could have made a huge trade (Texas could have traded Mike Young after signing Beltre, and when St Lou failed in Spring Training to re-up long-term with Phat Albert they could have made a big deal too) but decided to make a run without trading a (big) bat...

2 teams who each solidified their O with Off-Season additions (Beltre for Texas, Berkman for St Louis)...

2 teams getting guys other than their stars to carry the O through the Championship Series (Rangers rode Cruz, while Freese led the Cardinals)...


Ironically it was All-Star MVP Prince Fielder (Brewers) who set up the fact that St Louis will have Home Field for the World Series (PLEASE do not get me started on how redonkulous it is to have an Exhibition game decided anything, much less Home Field for a Championship series) and further irony is the Cards Round 1 victim was the Phillies who swept the Braves on the final weekend of the Regular Season to allow St Louis to complete their historic comeback


Texas is the only team of the 2 that utilizes the Running Game...

St Louis is the team with the better eye at the plate (will Walk waaaay more that Texas)...

The only team in MLB that had batters strikeout at the plate less than St Louis was...Texas!

Both clubs are Extra-Base Hit machines...


0.05 is the amount that separates these 2 teams as far as Team ERA (wow, about as close as you can get)...

Despite using about 5 different Closers in 2011 the St Louis Cardinals had waaay more Saves than did the Rangers...


Starting Pitching - although St Louis' SP's have surely been hot for several weeks, on the whole it was Texas who had (by far) the most Quality Starts from their SP's...Waaaay more Shutouts for this Texas Staff too...


C-L-O-S-E series here folks...If you watch Sports Talk then A) thank you for watching...B) then you know I have handing out Game Balls to various Cardinals for over a month now as they have been wonderful for several weeks...you also know that C) I have been predicting that the 2011 World Series Champs would be the Texas Rangers for several months now so no sense in changing that now that we actually are at the World Series and Texas is playing!



I see the tiniest bit more in the O for Texas...I see the tiniest bit more RP for Texas...I see a lot more SP for Texas...Bottom line is I see the Rangers winning the 2011 World Series


craig.ballard@hotmail.com

Sports Talk Oct 6

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17720996

Just copy and paste this address into your internet address bar, or highlight the address and use the "Open Link" option...Enjoy (I hope!!!)

1st Segment = Game Balls/Lame Ball

2nd Segment = NFL Week 5 picks/tidbits

3rd Segment = Final 2011 season Good/Bad/Ugly Jays talk

craig.ballard@hotmail.com

Sports Talk Sep 29

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17584505

Just copy and paste this address into your internet address bar, or highlight the address and use the "Open Link" option...Enjoy (I hope!!!)

13:50 mark Sportsnet Hockey Central Producer Paul Bromby with some great NHL talk

craig.ballard@hotmail.com

Sports Talk Sep 22

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17443156

Just copy and paste this address into your internet address bar, or highlight the address and use the "Open Link" option...Enjoy (I hope!!!)

1st Segment = Game Balls/Lame Balls

2nd Segment = NFL Week 3 picks/tidbits

3rd Segment = Jays talk

craig.ballard@hotmail.com

Sports Talk Sep 15

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17296847

Just copy and paste this address into your internet address bar, or highlight the address and use the "Open Link" option...Enjoy (I hope!!!)

16:00 mark mlb.com Jays writer Gregor Chisolm (Jays talk at its finest!)

craig.ballard@hotmail.com