NCAATC:
Down by nine points with just over two minutes to play in the National
Championship, Kansas kept fighting and pressuring the tiring Memphis Tigers in a
furious comeback attempt. A Darrell Arthur bucket and a Kansas steal
turned into a three pointer quickly cut the lead to just four points with 1:39
to play and it appeared Kansas wasn't going to go silently if they were to go at
all. After some free throw exchanges, Arthur connected on another jumper
to cut the lead to two with a minute to play. Kansas got a stop but failed
to convert on the other end and sent the shaky free throw shooting Memphis
Tigers to the line in the final seconds. Chris Douglas-Roberts missed two
critical free throws that would have extended the lead but teammate Robert
Dozier bailed him out with an offensive rebound. Kansas was forced to foul
point guard Derrick Rose with 10 seconds to play. Rose had a chance to ice
the game with two makes but connected on just one of two free throws and left
the door open for Kansas to send the game into overtime with a three-point play.
And that's exactly what clutch shooting guard Mario Chalmers did. Chalmers
took a pass from point guard Sherron Collins as the final seconds ticked off and
launched a laser into the sky that looked on target all the way through the net.
The shot sent the game into overtime but Kansas had the momentum and energy to
finish it off while Memphis was tired and stunned at what just slipped through
their hands. Kansas jumped out to a six point lead and never looked back.
The Jayhawks were going to win the National Championship for the first time in
20 years and would do it in dramatic fashion.
The NCAA Tournament Challenge contest came down to two double digit seeds in
the
Championship Round. South Carolina fan 10johnsig
and Nebraska fan 11trevj2012 squared off to lay claim for
the year's best college basketball predictor and the $100 prize. This
year's NCAA Final Four showcased four 1-seeds for the first time in the history
of the NCAA Tournament so it was tough to pick the winners with four great teams
in the mix. trevj2012 was the only participant to pick a winner in the
semifinal games with Memphis beating UCLA so he took a one game advantage going
into the National Championship game. Despite being down a game, johnsig
nailed the National Champion Kansas Jayhawks in the title game while trevj2012
picked Memphis. With the records even at 1-2, the title game's bonus
points made the difference. johnsig was only one point off, guessing a
six-point win to Kansas' actual seven-point margin of victory over Memphis,
giving him 1.90 bonus points and the contest victory. trevj2012 fell short
in the Tournament Challenge Championship round for the second straight year,
falling to John Patrick in
2007.
johnsig finished 20th in the regular season standings with a 60-30(.667)
record but then went on a tear in the post-season tournament. In the
Tournament Challenge, johnsig recorded a combined record of 49-14(.778).
In the first round, he tallied a 25-7 record, second best on the round to
advance easily. He went 12-4 in the Sweet 16 which was also the second
best record for that round. He then picked an Elite Eight best 7-1 record
and a Final Four best 4-0 record to get to the Championship round.
Neither of the two 1-seeds reached the Final Four round. Last year's
defending Tournament Challenge Champion 1John Patrick was
bumped out by 8TwoEgg in the Sweet 16 and this year's
regular season Champion 1tmack62 was knocked out by
12lmontague in the Elite Eight round. Participants
that probably deserved to go further than they did were tiger81(out in the First
Round after a 24-8 record), kst8no1(out in the Sweet 16 by 0.3 bonus points
after a 12-4 record), dj_john69(out in the Sweet 16 on previous round record
after a 12-4 record), tmack62(out in the Elite Eight after a 12-4 record),
TwoEgg(out in the Elight Eight by 0.1 bonus points after a 6-2 record) and
C_hawkfan(out in the Final Four by 0.9 bonus point after a 3-1 record).
Final Four 10johnsig, SCAR 49-14(.778)
11trevj2012, NEB 44-19(.670)
4C_hawkfan, UNC 46-14(.767)
12lmontague, KAN 43-17(.717)
Qualifying participants may submit Round 1 entries into the 2008 NCAA
Tournament Challenge for a chance to win $100.
The deadline to make an entry for Round 1 is
Thursday March 20th at 12 P.M. EDT, before the first NCAA Tournament game. Only
entries from the
32 qualifying participants will be taken. Each participant's latest
submitted entry will be used for the contest so if you would like to make a
correction or change any picks that you have previously made, please submit
another entry. Since this is a head to head single elimination contest,
just like the NCAA Tournament, only the participants with the best record in
each tournament round will advance to play the next. An email will be sent
to those who advance for a reminder of when they must submit their next round of
picks. If you haven't yet registered with the site, please do so now so
that you can receive reminders and prizes, should you win. For more
information about the contest and deadlines for each of the rounds or to make
your contest entry, visit the
NCAA
Tournament Challenge home page. Good luck!
Top 25 Weekly Challenge: The 2007-08 Top 25 basketball contest went all the
way down to the last weekend of the 14-week contest to decide a regular season
Champion. Georgia fan tmack62 held a lead of less than a point in the
season standings over Army fan John Patrick going into the final weekend of the
contest -- Week
18. tmack62 finished second in the Week 18 contest with a 6-4 record
and 40.40 points which was good enough to secure the top place in the
overall
standings.
For the season, tmack62 finished 90-40(.692) backed by 557.8 confidence
points which tallied an overall rating of 386.17. In addition to finishing
second in two Top 25 Weekly Challenges during the season, tmack62 also won two
of the contests, including
Week 7 and
Week 9. His college basketball savvy earned him $25, a 1-seed in the
NCAA Tournament Challenge and a place in the CFBPredictions Basketball Hall of
Fame. John Patrick finished Week 18 at 6-4 with 32.90 points, good enough
to hold second position in the season standings with an overall rating of
380.75. Both participants hold the two No. 1 seeds in the
NCAA
Tournament Challenge that will begin next week for a chance to win the $100
prize.
BSC:
For the second time in only five years, LSU has claimed a National Championship.
After soundly defeating the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in the BCS National
Championship game, 38-24, LSU has solidified themselves as, arguably, the
premier program in college football. Among other reasons, LSU has been so
successful over the last several seasons because of their offensive balance,
team speed, dominance in the trenches and the ability to persevere in big games.
In Monday night's Championship game, these factors came to the forefront.
Despite falling behind 10-0 early on after a Chris Wells 65-yard touchdown run
on the fourth play from scrimmage, the Tigers responded with scoring drives on
their next five possessions of the game to break the game wide open with 31
unanswered points. The five offensive drives that put up those points were
impressive but if it weren't for a couple non-offensive plays, LSU's offense may
not have had those opportunities. After LSU tied the game at 10 with a
13-yard touchdown pass from Matt Flynn to Richard Dickerson, Ohio State drove
inside LSU territory and appeared to be set to answer with a field goal.
But LSU's Ricky Jean-Francois broke through the line and blocked the attempt to
give the ball back to LSU, a play that proved to be the turning point in the
game. Flynn led an ensuing touchdown drive ending with a 10-yard touchdown
pass to wide receiver Brandon Lafell to give LSU their first lead of the game.
LSU displayed their touted speed on Ohio State's next possession when LSU
cornerback Chevis Jackson prevented his receiver from obtaining separation and
intercepted a deep pass and returned it back into Ohio State territory.
LSU took advantage of the short field and running back Jacob Hester plowed into
the endzone from the 1-yard line to give the Tigers a commanding two-touchdown
lead of 24-10 at halftime. LSU took advantage of a roughing the punter
penalty on their opening drive of the second half to add another touchdown
through the air, this one to Early Doucet from four yards out. Ohio State
got it back to within two touchdowns going into the fourth quarter following
LSU's only turnover of the game but the Tiger defense rose to the occasion and
prevented any thought of a comeback after that. Ohio State went for a 4th
and 7 inside LSU territory in the fourth quarter but LSU sent a blitz and
linebacker Ali Highsmith hit quarterback Todd Boeckman as he released it,
forcing a fumble and giving it back to LSU. Flynn found Dickerson wide
open in the end-zone for a final dagger two possessions later to cap the
victory.
LSU's spread offense had the Buckeye defense on its heels for all but the
first Tiger possession. LSU's offensive line paved the way for running
back Jacob Hester, which opened up a variety of option plays on the ground as
well as the passing game where Flynn connected on 174 yards to eight different
targets and registered a career-high four touchdown passes. LSU's
defensive speed was used to lock down Buckeye receivers on the outside which
allowed for more aggressive defensive play calling. The result was three
forced turnovers and keeping down the number of big plays for the Buckeyes. The debate will go on about other two-loss teams being worthy of the same honor, but LSU proved they were the best team this year under the current system.
The 2007 season saw the most and some of the largest upsets in college
football history so it was no surprise to see more upsets occur during bowl
season. No. 8 Kansas proved they belonged in the BCS by knocking off ACC
Champion No. 3 Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, 24-21. Kansas finished as
the only BCS conference team with one loss with a 12-1 record. No. 9 West
Virginia trounced Big 12 Champion No. 4 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl with a 48-28
route. West Virginia compiled 525 yards of offense with 349 of it coming
on the ground. West Virginia was the only team with an interim head coach
that was able to overcome coaching losses and win their bowl game.
Michigan's Lloyd Carr was leaving his post as head coach but still had a final
game to coach in when his team went up against Heisman winner Tim Tebow and the
high-powered No. 12 Florida Gators in the Florida Citrus Bowl. Michigan opened
up the playbook and out gained the Gators by 125 yards while the Wolverine defense made plays to slow down Urban Meyer's spread option attack. Carr was sent off with a
41-35 victory. No one gave Oregon much of a chance to beat No. 21 South
Florida after the Ducks lost all three games since quarterback Dennis Dixon went
down with an injury. But the exact opposite result ended Oregon's season
on a high note by smashing the up-and-coming Big East program, 56-21 in the Sun
Bowl, thanks to five forced turnovers. No. 24 Boise State was suppose to
dispose of East Carolina in the Hawaii Bowl, but instead, the nation got a heavy
dose of East Carolina running back Chris Johnson. Johnson racked up a
staggering 223 yards and scored two touchdowns for the Pirates who upset Boise
State, 41-38.
Aside from upsets, the bowl season provided several more intriguing games. Many wanted to see what the only undefeated team in the country, No. 10 Hawaii,
had to bring to the table when playing a big time BCS opponent on the stage of
the Sugar Bowl. The answer was, not much. No. 5 Georgia pretty much
had their way with the undermanned squad from the islands and the Bulldog
defense was in Colt Brennan's face the entire game. Georgia ran up and
down the field on the Warriors to the tune of 41-10. Another match-up that
left many skeptical was in the Rose Bowl which pit No. 7 USC and No. 13
Illinois. Once again, the underdog was outmatched. USC's defense
forced a fumble during the third quarter deep in their own territory that
thwarted an Illini comeback bid and the Trojans were off to the races after
that, turning in four consecutive touchdown drives to blow the game open for a
49-17 victory. A team that probably should have been included in the BCS
party was No. 6 Missouri. Missouri completely dominated Arkansas in the
Cotton Bowl, 38-7, and did so uncharacteristically for a passing team.
Running back Tony Temple was fed the ball 24 times and had a breakout game with
a whopping 281 yards and four touchdowns. No. 19 Texas played like many
expected them to play all season when they took on No. 11 Arizona State in the
Holiday Bowl. The Longhorns appeared to be on a mission and it came out on
the field. The defense almost entirely shut down the Arizona State ground
game by surrendering only 22 yards and forcing the Sun Devils to be
one-dimensional on offense. As a result, the Texas defense teed off on the
ASU passing attack and forced five turnovers which gave UT's offense a chance to
put up big points. Texas gave the ball to five different running backs who
accounted for 300 yards and six touchdowns. One of those backs was Jamaal
Charles who rushed for 161 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Colt
McCoy added 174 through the air and another touchdown in a 52-34 route.
The win gave Texas its seventh consecutive 10-win season.
In other bowl game action, Texas Tech rallied late by scoring 17 points
in the final three and a half minutes of the Gator Bowl to beat No. 20 Virginia,
31-28. Kicker Alex Trlica made a 41-yard field goal to give Tech the
three-point lead with only a couple seconds remaining. Quarterback Graham
Harrell completed 44 passes for 407 yards and three touchdowns. It was the
second year in a row that Texas Tech has overcame a large deficit to win a bowl
game. The Red Raiders trailed by 31 in the Insight Bowl last year before
charging back to beat Minnesota in overtime. Tennessee quarterback Eric
Ainge totaled 365 yards passing and two touchdowns to lead the No. 16 Vols to a
21-17 Outback Bowl victory over No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 23 Auburn forced overtime
to beat No. 15 Clemson, 23-20, in the Chik-fil-A Bowl and Kentucky finished off
a successful season by defeating a personnel depleted Florida State, 35-28, in
the Music City Bowl. Oklahoma State knocked out Indiana, 49-33, in the
Insight Bowl where Cowboy quarterback Zach Robinson threw for three touchdowns
and ran for two more. California overcame a 21-0 deficit in the first half
to beat Air Force, 42-36, in the Armed Forces Bowl, Alabama held off Colorado to
win 30-24 in the Independence Bowl and Penn State beat Texas A&M in the Alamo
Bowl, 24-17. SEC Coach of the Year Sylvester Croom saw his Mississippi
State Bulldogs finish off a break out season with a 10-3 Liberty Bowl win over
Central Florida, No. 14 Boston College won in a dogfight in the Champs Sports
Bowl over a pesky Michigan State, 24-21, BYU blocked a last second field goal to
preserve a 17-16 victory over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl and Florida Atlantic
won its first bowl game in school history by lighting up Memphis in the New
Orleans Bowl, 44-27.
The Bowl Series Challenge contest was a battle up until the end, where Texas
Tech fan jgarc22 pulled away with an impressive 27-5 bowl game record and 450.9
out of 528 points to win the contest. He picked upsets of Oregon over
South Florida in the Sun Bowl and Kansas over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl
while, at one point during the contest, won 12 games in a row. jgarc22
beat out 89 other participants for the $100 prize and his closest competitors
were two games back at 25-7. Those included, South Carolina fan HAWKEYE
who finished in second, Rutgers fan RUCookie placed third, Miami fan miami024
came in fourth, Kansas fan RockChalk7598 finished in fifth place and USC fan
Bruce Hardin rounded out the top six. There were four games that a large
majority of participants missed, which included, East Carolina(2%) over Boise
State(98%) in the Hawaii Bowl, Oregon(18%) over South Florida(82%) in the Sun
Bowl, Michigan(8%) over Florida(92%) in the Citrus Bowl and West Virginia(13%)
over Oklahoma(87%) in the Fiesta Bowl. The average score for the contest
was a 20-12 record and 343.12 points. The Upset: East Carolina defeated 24Boise State,
41-38...2% picked East Carolina The No-Brainer: 22Cincinnati defeated Southern
Mississippi,
31-21...91% picked Cincinnati The Big One: 2LSU defeated 1Ohio
State,
38-24...79% picked LSU
NCAATC:
Down by nine points with just over two minutes to play in the National
Championship, Kansas kept fighting and pressuring the tiring Memphis Tigers in a
furious comeback attempt. A Darrell Arthur bucket and a Kansas steal
turned into a three pointer quickly cut the lead to just four points with 1:39
to play and it appeared Kansas wasn't going to go silently if they were to go at
all. After some free throw exchanges, Arthur connected on another jumper
to cut the lead to two with a minute to play. Kansas got a stop but failed
to convert on the other end and sent the shaky free throw shooting Memphis
Tigers to the line in the final seconds. Chris Douglas-Roberts missed two
critical free throws that would have extended the lead but teammate Robert
Dozier bailed him out with an offensive rebound. Kansas was forced to foul
point guard Derrick Rose with 10 seconds to play. Rose had a chance to ice
the game with two makes but connected on just one of two free throws and left
the door open for Kansas to send the game into overtime with a three-point play.
And that's exactly what clutch shooting guard Mario Chalmers did. Chalmers
took a pass from point guard Sherron Collins as the final seconds ticked off and
launched a laser into the sky that looked on target all the way through the net.
The shot sent the game into overtime but Kansas had the momentum and energy to
finish it off while Memphis was tired and stunned at what just slipped through
their hands. Kansas jumped out to a six point lead and never looked back.
The Jayhawks were going to win the National Championship for the first time in
20 years and would do it in dramatic fashion. 
Admin
LSU's spread offense had the Buckeye defense on its heels for all but the
first Tiger possession. LSU's offensive line paved the way for running
back Jacob Hester, which opened up a variety of option plays on the ground as
well as the passing game where Flynn connected on 174 yards to eight different
targets and registered a career-high four touchdown passes. LSU's
defensive speed was used to lock down Buckeye receivers on the outside which
allowed for more aggressive defensive play calling. The result was three
forced turnovers and keeping down the number of big plays for the Buckeyes. The debate will go on about other two-loss teams being worthy of the same honor, but LSU proved they were the best team this year under the current system.
Aside from upsets, the bowl season provided several more intriguing games. Many wanted to see what the only undefeated team in the country, No. 10 Hawaii,
had to bring to the table when playing a big time BCS opponent on the stage of
the Sugar Bowl. The answer was, not much. No. 5 Georgia pretty much
had their way with the undermanned squad from the islands and the Bulldog
defense was in Colt Brennan's face the entire game. Georgia ran up and
down the field on the Warriors to the tune of 41-10. Another match-up that
left many skeptical was in the Rose Bowl which pit No. 7 USC and No. 13
Illinois. Once again, the underdog was outmatched. USC's defense
forced a fumble during the third quarter deep in their own territory that
thwarted an Illini comeback bid and the Trojans were off to the races after
that, turning in four consecutive touchdown drives to blow the game open for a
49-17 victory. A team that probably should have been included in the BCS
party was No. 6 Missouri. Missouri completely dominated Arkansas in the
Cotton Bowl, 38-7, and did so uncharacteristically for a passing team.
Running back Tony Temple was fed the ball 24 times and had a breakout game with
a whopping 281 yards and four touchdowns. No. 19 Texas played like many
expected them to play all season when they took on No. 11 Arizona State in the
Holiday Bowl. The Longhorns appeared to be on a mission and it came out on
the field. The defense almost entirely shut down the Arizona State ground
game by surrendering only 22 yards and forcing the Sun Devils to be
one-dimensional on offense. As a result, the Texas defense teed off on the
ASU passing attack and forced five turnovers which gave UT's offense a chance to
put up big points. Texas gave the ball to five different running backs who
accounted for 300 yards and six touchdowns. One of those backs was Jamaal
Charles who rushed for 161 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Colt
McCoy added 174 through the air and another touchdown in a 52-34 route.
The win gave Texas its seventh consecutive 10-win season.
In other bowl game action, Texas Tech rallied late by scoring 17 points
in the final three and a half minutes of the Gator Bowl to beat No. 20 Virginia,
31-28. Kicker Alex Trlica made a 41-yard field goal to give Tech the
three-point lead with only a couple seconds remaining. Quarterback Graham
Harrell completed 44 passes for 407 yards and three touchdowns. It was the
second year in a row that Texas Tech has overcame a large deficit to win a bowl
game. The Red Raiders trailed by 31 in the Insight Bowl last year before
charging back to beat Minnesota in overtime. Tennessee quarterback Eric
Ainge totaled 365 yards passing and two touchdowns to lead the No. 16 Vols to a
21-17 Outback Bowl victory over No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 23 Auburn forced overtime
to beat No. 15 Clemson, 23-20, in the Chik-fil-A Bowl and Kentucky finished off
a successful season by defeating a personnel depleted Florida State, 35-28, in
the Music City Bowl. Oklahoma State knocked out Indiana, 49-33, in the
Insight Bowl where Cowboy quarterback Zach Robinson threw for three touchdowns
and ran for two more. California overcame a 21-0 deficit in the first half
to beat Air Force, 42-36, in the Armed Forces Bowl, Alabama held off Colorado to
win 30-24 in the Independence Bowl and Penn State beat Texas A&M in the Alamo
Bowl, 24-17. SEC Coach of the Year Sylvester Croom saw his Mississippi
State Bulldogs finish off a break out season with a 10-3 Liberty Bowl win over
Central Florida, No. 14 Boston College won in a dogfight in the Champs Sports
Bowl over a pesky Michigan State, 24-21, BYU blocked a last second field goal to
preserve a 17-16 victory over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl and Florida Atlantic
won its first bowl game in school history by lighting up Memphis in the New
Orleans Bowl, 44-27.