Tag: March Madness 2023

LSU’s Alexis Morris perfectly recreated Joe Burrow’s legendary locker room cigar pic

What an iconic moment connecting the school’s teams.

There were a lot of incredible highlights from the aftermath of LSU’s 102-85 national title game win over Iowa on Sunday afternoon.

You had Angel Reese mocking the Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark with her own celebration (which later had people applying some awful double standards). You had Reese and Seimone Augustus sharing an awesome and emotional moment together.

But lost in the shuffle might have been what Alexis Morris was up to. On her Instagram, the guard shared a photo of herself, in uniform, smoking a cigar while holding the national championship trophy. In case anyone needed a reminder, it’s an homage to Joe Burrow’s legendary locker room cigar pic after he took LSU’s football team to a 2019 national title game win.

What a great callback after another big-time championship for the school:

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Two LSU legends, forged in greatness, forever memorialized with a celebratory cigar picture.

The NCAA’s start time for the men’s national title game is way too late

It’s absurd an important game starts so late.

Not that this isn’t the norm, but if you’re on Eastern Standard Time, you might want to drink some coffee before the men’s national title game tonight.

Connecticut and San Diego State will not officially start until around 9:30 Eastern. That’s right, 30 minutes before 10 o’clock (on the East Coast) on a Monday evening, with work the next day, meaningful basketball will be played. That is just patently absurd.

I’m aware that fans in other time zones are a bit luckier, and this has a heavy hint of East coast bias. But come on now. This is a championship game. It’s a little ridiculous that even one time zone has to deal with this tip-off time.

Never mind that, hello — one invested fanbase, Connecticut — is in the Eastern time zone!

College basketball fans, especially those in the east, aren’t happy.

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5 photos that perfectly capture Lamont Butler’s buzzer-beater against FAU

Lamont Butler is magic

If you haven’t seen the shot Lamont Butler hit at the buzzer to send San Diego State to the national championship game on Monday night go ahead and get familiar with it now.

It’ll go down as one of the more iconic shots in men’s NCAA tournament history. Right up there with Mario Chalmers, Kris Jenkins, Christian Laettner and Jalen Suggs.

We’ll be watching it again and again for years to come.

But before the replay gets lodged in our memories forever, take a look at Butler’s magic from a few different angles and bask in all the March Madness glory.

More College Basketball

SDSU coach Brian Dutcher explains why he didn’t call a timeout before amazing Final Four buzzer-beater

“I ran out of plays so I decided not to take a timeout.”

San Diego State had a timeout remaining as the clock neared an expiration, but Brian Dutcher trusted his players and didn’t use it.

After trailing Florida Atlantic by as many as 14 points earlier in the game, SDSU had a chance to secure the victory. SDSU big man Nathan Mensah grabbed a rebound following a missed shot by FAU, then Lamont Butler took the ball up the floor in transition.

Butler stepped up on the biggest stage and managed to take an incredibly impressive off-the-dribble jumper from midrange. The shot went in for a thrilling buzzer-beater, earning a trip to the national championship.

After the game, Dutcher was asked why he chose not to call a timeout and draw up a more intentional possession in a set offense.

Dutcher was perfectly candid about the decision to instead let everything just happen within the flow of the game:

Here was the full quote from Dutcher:

“I ran out of plays so I decided not to take a timeout. So Lamont said if we get the rebound, let’s get downhill, send all three bigs to the rim. He got downhill and made the play.”

SDSU was an average team when it came to their typical shot quality after a timeout, but they were also relatively inefficient in a transition offense during the tournament.

This decision was bold but brilliant and it worked like a charm.

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John Cena had an excellent reaction to Caitlin Clark using his signature wrestling taunt

Looks like everyone actually can see Clark.

Caitlin Clark is used to making headlines.

The potential National Player of the Year is one of the best players in college basketball history. But after dropping a 41-point triple-double to take Iowa women’s basketball to its first-ever Final Four, Clark drew attention from someone a little more … outside the ropes, if you will.

When Clark performed legendary WWE wrestler John Cena’s signature taunt, “you can’t see me,” during her Elite Eight performance vs. Louisville, the college basketball world went wild.

It also eventually saw Cena himself drawn to Clark’s move. He had a rather appropriate reaction to the player everyone could see but still couldn’t defend.

That’s right, Mr. Cena.

One might say that everyone can see Clark, and, you guessed it: her time is now.

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Caitlin Clark seemingly telling Hailey Van Lith ‘you can’t see me’ after 41-point triple-double was so cold

What an absolutely savage way to rub a win in.

At this stage in her prolific career, Caitlin Clark has more than earned the right to carry herself how she pleases on the court. After the Iowa women’s basketball star outdueled Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith in the Elite Eight, Clark’s reacting gesture was probably only something she could pull off.

For most of the night Sunday, Clark and Van Lith were locked in an epic shot-for-shot battle. But Clark was just a noticeable step (or two) better than her former Team USA teammate, dropping 41 points, 12 assists, and 10 boards in an epic triple-double on one of the biggest stages.

No wonder Iowa won 97-83. Clark was that much better.

After nailing a three in the waning moments, Clark appeared to turn to Van Lith and give her a classic “you can’t see me” gesture with her hand. WWE wrestler John Cena would be proud of a move he popularized being used in such a cold-blooded manner:

PHEW. Imagine being as good as Clark, the likely National Player of the Year, backing your play up and then also seemingly rubbing it in.

What a game for Clark and what a memorable moment over a rival.

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Darrion Trammell broke down in tears after sending San Diego State to school’s first Final Four

“I’ve been dreaming of this my whole life.”

It may have come with a degree of controversy to some, but San Diego State’s men’s basketball team is on to the Final Four.

After defeating Creighton 57-56, San Diego State will feature on the last weekend of college basketball for the first time in the program’s history dating back to its first tournament berth in 1975. Before this year, San Diego State had never advanced past the Sweet 16. (The win also gave us a very sweet brotherly moment between San Diego State’s Adam Seiko and Creighton’s Arthur Kaluma.)

The young man who sent San Diego State to the Final Four was Darrion Trammell, who made a clutch free throw in the closing moments to give his team the final winning margin.

And when Trammell was interviewed in the postgame, the guard was almost immediately moved to tears at what he and his team had accomplished:

What a beautiful moment for Trammell and San Diego State. It’s these kinds of interview soundbites that make March Madness all the worthwhile.

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March Madness Sweet 16 2023 announcers: Who’s calling the men’s NCAA tournament on CBS and TBS?

Here’s who’s calling games for the 2023 March Madness Sweet 16.

And then, there were 16.

That’s right, we’re down to the Sweet 16 in the men’s NCAA tournament starting Thursday, with March Madness 2023 in full swing.

If you’re here, you might be wondering: Who’s calling the game you’re watching? And that’s what we’ll answer for you.

As has been in the case in recent years, games will air on CBS and TBS, with four different venues hosting for the next two rounds. That means you’ll get a bunch of different announcing teams for each game.

So let’s run through the various voices you’ll hear over Thursday and Friday on those two networks (all times local):

MORE: All 68 men’s March Madness mascots, ranked

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Markquis Nowell revealed he was actually trash talking Isiah Thomas before throwing the alley-oop pass to Keyontae Johnson

Markquis Nowell might be the coolest player in college basketball right now

Just when you thought things actually couldn’t get any cooler with Markquis Nowell’s epic performance against Michigan State, it just keeps going.

Nowell made the play of the night when he threw a lob pass to his teammate, Keyontae Johnson, in the final moments of Kansas State’s game against Michigan State. That’s already cool on its own.

It’s not the play people are obsessed with — it’s what happened before it. It looked like Nowell was actually arguing with his coach about something before catching his teammate cutting using his peripheral vision and tossing the lob. That’s what it looked like initially. Jerome Tang even played it up a bit like that’s what actually happened.

But now, Nowell himself is telling us a different story.

As it turns out, while he was arguing with his coach, he was also trash-talking Isiah Thomas and Mateen Cleaves. They were both in the Michigan State section and Nowell told them to “watch this” before he tossed the alley-oop.

He was asked about that moment in the postgame press conference and had so much fun with it.

“Yeah, I was talking to Isiah Thomas because I think he had a friend over there, and he was rooting for them. And I’m like, y’all not going to win today, and I just kept looking at him for some added motivation. But it was nothing but cool vibes with them over there. “

That’s just amazing, man. Not only did Nowell have the guts to throw that extremely dangerous pass in such a sensitive moment, but he did it while trash-talking an NBA legend. That’s just wild.

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He was certainly right about the good vibes, though. Thomas loves him and thinks he’s got an NBA future.

That’s some high praise from the Hall of Famer. After watching Thursday’s game, though, it’s hard to disagree with him.

Opinion: The beauty of March Madness is defined by underdogs

What is it about March Madness that gets fans hooked?

Every year in March, millions of fans are glued to their televisions and find themselves rooting for teams they have never heard of. Rooting for those teams as if they had followed them their whole lives.

This year, there were 20,056,273 brackets made on ESPN despite a 1-in-120 billion chance of a perfect bracket. What is it about March Madness that gets fans hooked?

The truth is that we all love an underdog story. People pull for Cinderella every tournament as they hope and pray the clock doesn’t strike midnight for those schools. Let me throw some teams at you: [autotag]Lehigh[/autotag], [autotag]Saint Peter’s[/autotag], [autotag]Oral Roberts[/autotag], [autotag]Florida Gulf Coast[/autotag], [autotag]UMBC[/autotag], and this year [autotag]Princeton[/autotag] and [autotag]Fairleigh Dickinson[/autotag].

These teams are a combined 15-15 in the NCAA Tournament since 2010. That doesn’t sound bad, but since 2010, there have been 868 tournament games in total. These seven teams make up only 0.03% of games in that time. The closest any of these teams have gotten to a national championship was Saint Peter’s, who went all the way to the Elite Eight last year. Princeton has a chance to tie that feat if it can beat Creighton this week.

What is it about the March Madness format that makes it so special? Why doesn’t that format work in other sports? I think it’s because the games are one-offs. The format doesn’t work in baseball and softball because the underdogs have to win a three-game series. It doesn’t work in football because there is too much parity.

This would be like lining Akron up against Georgia in college football. It wouldn’t work even in a one-off. It would be a cupcake game. They would lose by at least 28.

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. The “one shining moment” that endures the test of time. You may not know who these teams are when they enter the tournament, but you’ll never forget their magical run in March.

That is the beauty of March Madness.

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