Tag: Men’s NCAA Tournament

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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Saint Peter’s fans went ballistic as the No. 15 Peacocks upset No. 2 Kentucky

Party on, Peacocks.

St. Peter’s University undoubtedly scored the biggest victory in the school’s history on Thursday night as the No. 15-seed Peacocks upset perennial powerhouse Kentucky in the first round of the men’s NCAA tournament. The Wildcats — which were the No. 2 seed in the East Region — were favorites to make the Final Four out of the East, having even better odds than No. 1-seed Baylor (per Tipico Sportsbook).

Instead, the Peacocks used sound defense and timely offense to force overtime and eventually emerge with the major victory.

Back in Jersey City, New Jersey, some of the 2,355 undergraduate students gathered to watch their team in the Big Dance. They were obviously elated to see the Peacocks pick up the school’s first ever NCAA tournament victory:

Party on, Peacocks.

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Texas A&M fans were livid over the Aggies’ shocking men’s NCAA tournament snub

The biggest snub of March Madness.

Every year, there is going to be a team that feels like they got absolutely robbed by the NCAA tournament selection committee. That’s just inevitable when there’s a 68-team tournament and a handful of teams vying for limited at-large bids.

But it’s pretty difficult to argue against Texas A&M’s case to make this year’s NCAA tournament. The Aggies bounced back from an atrocious January and early February that saw them lose eight straight games, closing out to win 8 of 10 with ranked wins over Alabama, Auburn and Arkansas. They reached the SEC title game where they lost Sunday to Tennessee, but the Aggies certainly felt like they did enough at 23-12 to lock up one of the final bids.

The committee just didn’t see it that way at all. In a huge surprise, Texas A&M not only missed the tournament but it was also designated as the fourth replacement team — meaning that the committee had three teams ahead of the Aggies.

The Aggies were clearly penalized for the eight-game losing streak, but the overall resume should have been enough to get A&M in the field.

No wonder fans were upset over the tournament’s biggest snub.

When is Selection Sunday and other March Madness dates to know

So many games, so many locations, so many dates. We’ve got them all here for you.

The days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer and buzzer-beaters are increasing in frequency.

All the typical signs that March Madness is here have arrived in earnest, and it’s time to prepare your loved ones for the fact you’ll be unable to leave your couch for large stretches of time over the next few weeks.

But just when will you need to block off your calendars? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with all the dates you need to know on both the men’s and women’s side from Selection Sunday to the Final Four.

All odds via Tipico

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Has there ever been a better one-man bench mob than this dude for our latest Cinderella, Abilene Christian? No.

Let us all bring the energy of Paul Hiepler to everything we do.

Abilene Christian — which is a real school, I fact checked it, this is a very professional blog — beat Texas Saturday night in the NCAA Tournament, 53-52.

So if you’re keeping score at home, our official Cinderellas are: Two 13 seeds, North Texas and Ohio, 14th-seeded Abilene Christian and 15th-seeded Oral Roberts.

Not a bad group. Thanks, March.

I’m not here to give you any quick-fire analysis of this one. It’s obvious from the score that the Wildcats probably worked to control the tempo; a slower pace favors the less-skilled team. Texas turned the ball over 23 times. Already we have the ingredients for a tournament upset.

But, ALSO, Abilene Christian had this guy:

The horns down! He did the horns down!

Look, we’re accustomed to the fact that most Cinderella teams don’t last. We love them briefly and they leave us and that’s what this is.

But can we please keep Paul Hiepler around a bit longer? Literally just place him in the arena and film his reaction to whatever is going on. Put it on TruTV. You don’t have any other programming scheduled for that channel, TV execs.

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