Category: NCAA Men’s Basketball

Why isn’t North Carolina in the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament?

You might have noticed UNC is missing from the field of 64.

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament field is set, and hopefully you have your bracket filled out by now.

But if you’re like a lot of people joining in on the fun without having paid much attention during college basketball’s regular season, then you’ve probably noticed a big omission from the field of 64. A team you’re used to making deep runs. A team you’d probably have pushed through to at least the Sweet 16.

That team is North Carolina, one of men’s college basketball’s true blue bloods. Where in the world are the Tar Heels?

The answer is they simply didn’t do enough to qualify for the tournament. It’s as stunning to the avid college basketball fan as it is to the casual viewer. One year after reaching the national title game, UNC just wasn’t good enough.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The Tar Heels started the season as the AP preseason No. 1 team and a lot of people bet on them to make it back to the title game. But a four-game losing streak early in the season knocked them out the poll, and they only returned once in December as the 25th-ranked team before struggles in conference play knocked them out the rankings for good and put them on the tournament bubble.

As a last gasp to make the NCAA tournament, UNC needed to win the ACC tournament or at least add some impressive wins to its resume last week. Instead, the Heels were bounced by Virginia in the quarterfinals. That put the nail in the coffin.

Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams back in the 1980s, UNC is now the first team to miss the Big Dance after being the No. 1 preseason team.

And when the Tar Heels missed the NCAA tournament, they then quickly declined an invitation to the NIT.

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Barack Obama’s March Madness brackets feel like they were filled out last-minute, just like the rest of us

He picked Duke to win it all on the men’s side!

It’s the tradition we all love to dissect every year: Barack Obama filled out his men’s and women’s March Madness brackets, and surprisingly, he didn’t pick a No. 1 team to win it all on the men’s side.

But — and with all due respect to the former president — it kind of feels like he’s like the rest of us, filling out his bracket last-minute.

He picked Duke, a No. 5 seed, to win it all, even though there’s some buzz first round opponent Oral Roberts could upset the Blue Devils. This feels like, eh I don’t know who’s going to win, let’s just go with Duke because they’re Duke. I know people who are thinking like that!

On the women’s side? South Carolina. A better pick in my opinion given that they’re the favorites to repeat.

And here’s the funny part: He forgot to fill in one matchup on the men’s side. Oops!

March Madness cheat sheet: Everything you need to fill out your bracket and win your bets

Everything you need to know for a successful (and profitable) run through March Madness

Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Pitt played their way into the main bracket with victories on Tuesday night’s First Four action in Dayton. Fairleigh Dickinson, Texas Southern, Nevada and Arizona State will try and join them Wednesday evening, but no matter what happens, things get real on Thursday as the action kicks off in earnest.

There has been a lot of content flying around and it can be hard to keep track of all the advice.

Don’t panic. The FTW crew has you covered with this handy guide to point you in the direction of all the answers your endless questions require. March is certainly madness, but you can rest easy knowing all the hard work has been completed for you.

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Scott Drew offered to help his brother’s team after Grand Canyon’s gear didn’t make it on the plane

Who else always forgets something when they travel?

Who else always forgets something important when they travel? Grand Canyon can relate.

When it comes to the NCAA tournament, the actual travel can be a new experience for plenty of teams. Some schools — particularly mid-majors — don’t often (if ever) charter flights to away games.

And for Grand Canyon’s 820-mile journey from Phoenix to Denver, the NCAA chartered the team’s flight so the Antelopes could make it safely and quickly to their first round matchup against Gonzaga. GCU’s equipment, however, is a different story.

According to Matt Norlander, when GCU arrived to Denver, the team was surprised to find out that its uniforms, bags and athletic gear did not make it to Colorado with them. Evidently, some confusion over equipment transportation for chartered flights had GCU in a rough spot ahead of Friday’s game. But hey, the brother of GCU coach Bryce Drew, Baylor’s Scott Drew, was more than happy to help.

With both Baylor and GCU in Denver for the opening weekend, Scott said that he was going to hook the Antelopes up — a fellow Nike program — with whatever gear they need. So, basically GCU was going to practice in Baylor gear while it awaited the arrival of its actual equipment.

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But let’s return to the “how??” of all this. Grand Canyon said that the airline failed to deliver the equipment, but this was a chartered plane on an empty tarmac. It wasn’t like they were flying through a commercial terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor where they checked bags at the desk with regular travelers.

Given a recent NCAA memo on equipment procedures, it sure seems like GCU’s equipment staff made a mistake.

GCU’s equipment manager should have been there to ensure the equipment made it on the plane and was properly unloaded off of it. With a Friday game, there’s still time to sort out the mishap. But in the meantime, GCU sure was lucky that Scott Drew was around in Denver — and that Baylor packed extra equipment.

8 must-watch NCAA tournament matchups (NC State vs. Creighton!) ahead of the NBA draft

Arkansas vs. Illinois will have potentially seven future NBA players on the floor!

If you want to watch future NBA players in the NCAA tournament, you have to know where to look.

While it is hard to predict what will happen during March Madness, the one thing we do know is that there are countless college basketball players who will make the case for why they deserve to eventually hear their name called in the NBA draft.

We don’t know how the brackets are going to shape up, but we know the matchups for the opening round. With that in mind, here are the games you have to watch if you want to see as many future pros as possible.

THE BRACKETS ARE BACK! The USA TODAY Sports Bracket Challenge is back! $1 MILLION grand prize for a perfect bracket, $25,000 prize for top bracket. Free to enter, 21+. Terms apply, void where prohibited by law. See Official Rules. Play now!

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Mattress Mack tossed a combined $4.05 million on Houston to win March Madness and the payout is astronomical

Mattress Mack is ready to fill up some more wheelbarrows with cash

It wouldn’t be a major sporting event without Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale dropping massive amounts of money on a bet and offering up just as ridiculous a sale at his regional furniture stores.

Sure enough, the retail magnate is back for March Madness and he’s actually been wagering on his national title favorite for a quite a while now. The Houstonian is backing the No. 1 seed Houston Cougars (no surprise there) and he won’t even have to travel should the program reach the championship game.

The 2023 Final Four is being played at NRG Stadium in Houston.

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But about those wagers. Early in the season Mack put down $1.05 million on Houston (+850) at FanDuel Sportsbook, added another $1 million on Houston (+900) at DraftKings and dropped $1 million on Houston (+800) at Caesars Sports. As the tournament drew closer, Mack dropped another $500,000 each on Houston at BetMGM (+1000) and Barstool Sportsbook (+900).

That’s a $4.05 million wager for an astounding $39.475 million payout including his stake. It wouldn’t be surprising if Mack adds a little more onto his bet if Houston advances to the Final Four, either.

After skipping out on a Super Bowl bet this year, he’s likely got plenty of cash remaining from the $75 million payout he earned on the Houston Astros’ 2022 World Series title. Those winnings don’t go right into his pocket, however. He has to pay out customers who took advantage of his gambit.

This time around anyone who spends more than $5,000 on purchases in his stores gets their money back if Houston wins the NCAA tournament. With the Final Four in Space City, surely some visiting fans will consider heading over to his stores to make some big purchases if Houston reaches the title game.

Of course, that’s the whole point of this thing, isn’t it? Big sales, big bets, big profits. Anyway you look at it, Mack tends to come out a winner.

This UNC student asked a hilarious — but extremely real — question after finding out Tyler Nickel entered the transfer portal

This is pure comedy.

College coaches across sports have been complaining about the transfer portal for years at this point. Clearly, they don’t appreciate the autonomy and agency it gives student-athletes.

If we’re being honest, their arguments generally don’t hold very much weight. They certainly can’t hold a candle to the problem this UNC student is about to have as Tyler Nickel is entering the transfer portal.

UNC student, Shivan Shah, had a very real — and hilarious — question about one of his classmates after he found out Nickel planned on leaving UNC. Shah just wants to know what this means for their group presentation next month.

Honestly, I feel this. Nickel’s transfer is cool or whatever, but Shah is trying to get that good grade.

But through it all, Shah has no complaints. These are only jokes. He was completely understanding and had nothing but complimentary things to say about Nickel.

This argument would be more convincing than any arguments coaches have made about why the transfer portal is the end of the world. Yet, here we are.

Looks like the coaches out there could learn something from the students. Best of luck to Shah on the project. He should get an A for this tweet alone.

What channel is TruTV? A complete guide to the men’s March Madness network we love every year

Your guide to all you need to know about truTV.

It’s the question we all ask every year for men’s March Madness, and one that’s been embraced by the answer: What channel is truTV on if you have cable?

But what if you don’t have cable? And what else is on truTV?

Never fear. As men’s March Madness gets close to tipping off and the network gets a lot more attention than usual, we have all the answers to those questions (and that’s especially important even before the men’s tournament fully starts, because the First Four is on truTV!).

Let’s dive in with a guide to all important things truTV:

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Crying Northwestern Kid appeared to be back at men’s March Madness and seeing him will make you feel old

Say hello again to Crying Northwestern Kid.

Let’s go all the way back to 2017.

Northwestern was in the men’s NCAA tournament, and on the Wildcats’ way to losing to Gonzaga in the second round, a young man was caught on camera being VERY upset at a call. He was nicknamed Crying Northewestern Kid and the memes are still around today.

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Fast-forward to 2023. Northwestern is back. And so is the kid. But he’s not so young anymore!

First off, the kid was John Phillips, 12 years old at the time. His dad, Jim Phillips, was the Northwestern athletic director at the time. Now Jim is the ACC commissioner … and John was there at the First Four on Tuesday!

A March Madness men’s bracket prediction based on the best NBA talent in the tourney

Do you want to see as many NBA players play as many games as possible? Here is how!

March Madness is almost underway, and with the games beginning soon, you’re probably scrambling to get your bracket filled out.

It’s always great to follow along for Cinderella stories and potential upsets. Maybe you don’t want to fill out a bracket, and that’s perfectly okay. The odds of getting a perfect bracket are virtually impossible, anyway.

There are plenty of alternatives you can try to a traditional bracket, like a survivor pool. However, assuming you do want to fill out a bracket, we’ve got some tips!

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My pal, Charles Curtis, offered his bracket based on just 20 minutes of research. You can check out our brilliant staff’s actual predictions for March Madness, too.

But allow me to show you what a bracket would look like if we based it entirely on what would be the best-case scenario for NBA draft scouting. If you want to take a closer look and zoom in, you can click here.

THE BRACKETS ARE BACK: The USA TODAY Sports Bracket Challenge is back. $1 MILLION grand prize for a perfect bracket.

The goal here was to get as many lottery picks playing as many games as possible. Here are some takeaways:

  1. Arkansas is the No. 8 seed in the West and they have a tough first-round opponent with Illinois. But they also have two likely lottery picks, Nick Smith Jr. and Anthony Black, and two other potential first-rounders with Ricky Council IV and Jordan Walsh. Let me see them play as many games as possible!
  2. Over the last few days, we’ve heard a buzz that Alabama’s Brandon Miller has “closed the gap” on projected No. 2 overall pick Scoot Henderson. If he continues to dominate during the Big Dance, we could see actual movement at the top of the draft.
  3. Duke is a No. 5 seed in the East and they have one of the toughest roads to the Final Four, especially with a challenging opening game against Oral Roberts. But they have three likely first-rounders here (Dariq Whitehead, Kyle Filipowski, and Dereck Lively II) and two more draftable prospects (Tyrese Proctor and Mark Mitchell) as well.
  4. Jarace Walker (Houston), Keyonte George (Baylor), Cason Wallace (Kentucky), Jalen Hood-Schifino (Indiana), Colby Jones (Xavier), Jordan Hawkins (UConn), Kris Murray (Iowa), Terquavion Smith (NC State), and Julian Phillips (Tennessee) are additionally notable prospects who will be dancing.

If you’re curious about these players, you can learn more about why these prospects are the best in the tournament on our rankings published earlier this week.

My best advice when you’re filling out a bracket is that the eventual winner who will tear down the nets is almost definitely going to be one of these eight teams.

But if you’re an NBA fan and just want to see as many future NBA players play as often as possible, this is the way you need to fill out your bracket instead.

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