Des Moines Saturday tips: Kentucky vs Indiana 4:15pm CT
— jordan cornette (@jordancornette) March 18, 2016
Kansas vs Connecticut 6:45pm CT
THIS IS NOT A FINAL 4. I REPEAT. NOT A FINAL 4
UConn and Kansas have met twice, a home-and-home series in the mid-1990s. In the first game, on Jan. 28, 1995, UConn was ranked second in the country and went to Kansas for a memorable men's-women's doubleheader, sharing the plane ride and all. The UConn men lost 88-59 as Ollie, the Huskies' point guard, was outdueled by Jacque Vaughn, one of his best friends from Los Angeles.
Two years later, in the rematch in Hartford, UConn was shorthanded as Kirk King and Ricky Moore were ruled ineligible because of an NCAA violation. Jim Calhoun installed a Princeton-style offense, trying to limit possessions, and almost pulled off the upset. Kansas eventually prevailed 73-65 as Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz each scored 14. Rip Hamilton scored 21, Rashamel Jones 22 for UConn.
"We could've beat the No. 1 team in the country," Calhoun said after that game. "But they're a great team and that's why they beat us. We didn't lose, they had to beat us."
A little over 19 years later, Ollie is UConn's coach with Moore and Kevin Freeman, who played in the '97 game, on his staff. The Huskies will get another chance to knock off a powerhouse Kansas team, 30-4 and again ranked No.1 in the polls.
Hartford Courant
Kansas reaches 100 points for the 8th time tying UNLV for the 4th-most such games in NCAA tournament history. pic.twitter.com/loZrJ28xL6
— ESPN College BBall (@ESPNCBB) March 17, 2016
No one pulled a Yale. None of the lower seeds morphed into Arkansas-Little Rock.
All four of the blue-blood teams assigned to this site — Kansas, Connecticut, Indiana and Kentucky — did what many expected them to do Thursday. All won their first-round games at Wells Fargo Arena. Only UConn, which trailed by 11 points in the first half, faced significant opposition. So the anticipated marquee matchups on Saturday, Kansas versus Connecticut and Kentucky versus Indiana, will come to pass.
…A No. 16 seed has never beaten a No. 1 seed since the tournament expanded in 1985 to 64 teams. Hundreds of Jayhawks fans seated in the section behind their team’s bench watched Kansas quickly squash any chance of an upset. The Jayhawks built a 21-point lead in the first half and shot 73.7 percent in the first 12 minutes of the second.
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, a sophomore reserve guard from Ukraine who played extended minutes when Wayne Selden Jr. and Devonte’ Graham found early foul trouble, posted a career-high 23 points in 24 minutes on 9-for-11 shooting. He came in averaging only 5.2 points per game. The senior forward Perry Ellis added 21 points. Coach Bill Self cleared his bench in the final minutes.
The ending was especially tough for the Governors (18-18), who had won their previous six games and swept through the Ohio Valley Conference tournament as a No. 8 seed. They expected better from themselves.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” said the junior forward Kenny Jones. “That’s all I was thinking about. A win over Kansas would have blown up the world. We would have messed up Obama’s bracket.” Earlier this week, President Obama picked Kansas to win the tournament.
New York Times
KU has found a weapon off the bench in Svi Mykhailiuk, but is he secretly a trash talker? https://t.co/i5IO0RHXyt pic.twitter.com/rs3EySfo3N
— Kansan Sports (@KansanSports) March 18, 2016
Kansas led by 18 points in the first half Thursday when coach Bill Self jumped out of his chair at Wells Fargo Arena.
“What are you doing?” Self screamed, followed by a few less friendly questions and exclamations.
The Jayhawks, seeded No. 1 overall, cruised to victory over No. 16 seed Austin Peay 105-79 in the NCAA tournament’s South region. The outcome was never in doubt, even as the Governors led after three minutes. Kansas had way too much size and skill.
And that’s the point of Self’s rant. He didn’t care about the score. He knows the Jayhawks, who have won 15 straight as they get ready for ninth-seeded Connecticut on Saturday, are capable of much more this year in the tournament than they’ve displayed in exiting the past two seasons in the round of 32.
“The last couple years,” Self said this week, “we haven’t been whole.”
Self’s 13th team at Kansas is “about as bought-in as I’ve ever seen.”
…The Huskies on Saturday will present a challenge with 7-foot center Amida Brimah, who blocked five shots Thursday in their win over Colorado.
ESPN
Rock Chalk! Kansas dominates Austin Peay, 105-79, to win its 10th straight First Round game. pic.twitter.com/poDFvJPN4d
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 17, 2016
The game’s loudest roar was at halftime, boos streaming from every side of Wells Fargo Arena.
Kansas forward Perry Ellis couldn’t figure out what was going on, and in the layup line, teammate Jamari Traylor thought his team had done something wrong.
Instead — in top-seeded KU’s 105-79 victory over 16 seed Austin Peay on Thursday afternoon in the NCAA Tournament’s first round — fans were responding to the arena’s videoboard, was showing a live feed of the Baylor-Yale game before someone decided to turn it off.
About a minute later, the game returned.
Guard Brannen Greene admitted his eyes were on the screen for a short time. Traylor said he glanced up some before KU director of student-athlete development Fred Quartlebaum told him that the team needed to focus on its own game; he stopped looking up after that.
…About 45 minutes after their victory over Austin Peay, KU players and coaches gathered around an elevated TV in the corner of the locker room. Twelfth-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock trailed Purdue, 75-73, with 25 seconds left in overtime.
“Play to win!” assistant coach Kurtis Townsend yelled out.
“Shoot the three!” added fellow assistant Jerrance Howard.
“Are they a 13 seed?” guard Svi Mykhailiuk asked.
Turns out the Jayhawks are like most of the rest of the country when it comes to the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend — a fact that was evident during halftime as well.
Guard Devonte’ Graham admitted to looking up at the Baylor game a couple times, saying he had the Bears advancing a few rounds in his personal bracket.
“I was shocked. I didn’t expect them to lose,” Graham said. “That’s March Madness.”
Greene, like Lucas, said the sting of previous years was fresh in his mind as he watched Baylor’s season end.
“Me, Wayne (Selden) and Frank (Mason), we haven’t made it past the first weekend yet,” Greene said. “So our real big test is coming up Saturday.”
KC Star
Kansas is destroying the Governors. Which is weird. Usually it's the other way around.
— Matt Galloway (@themattgalloway) March 17, 2016
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk is one of many Kansas University basketball players who, on Thursday, admitted to having a case of the jitters for the Jayhawks’ first game of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
“The court seemed kind of longer. Everything was a lot bigger. But it’s still the same game, same basketball,” Mykhailiuk, a 6-foot-8 sophomore from Ukraine said after the Jayhawks — who led Austin Peay by a mere two points after eight minutes — impeached the Governors, 105-79, in a first-round South Regional clash at Wells Fargo Arena.
Mykhailiuk — he played just three minutes in KU’s Big 12 title victory over West Virginia last Saturday — scored a career-high 23 points off 9-of-11 shooting in 24 minutes. He hit four of five threes, including consecutive treys that opened a 23-6 run that stretched a 12-10 lead to 35-16 at 3:46.
Mykhailiuk, who had a dunk and did not receive credit on the stat sheet for a fierce block but altered a dunk attempt, also played point guard — yes, point guard — next to Lagerald Vick during a 10-0 run that helped the Jayhawks stretch a 61-44 lead to total blowout status in the second half.
…Selden was impressed with Mykhailiuk’s team-steadying performance.
“He’s a special talent,” Selden said. “He’s first-round material. He’s a special player. Him being aggressive, being confident. (It) was good to see.”
LJW
KC Star image
Mykhailiuk, who played only three minutes in the Big 12 Tournament title game against West Virginia, entered with 14:39 left in the first half Thursday. KU coach Bill Self needed help for starting guards Wayne Selden, Frank Mason and Devonte’ Graham, who all battled foul trouble throughout.
Whether it was a coming-of-age performance for the Jayhawks’ youngest player remains to be seen, but it was undoubtedly a confidence booster on college basketball’s biggest stage.
…To be fair, the Jayhawks did score 105 points, so it’s not like the starters were duds. Ellis scored 21, Selden’s 14 points were a personal high in the NCAA Tournament, and Landen Lucas pitched in a career-high 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting. KU made 39 of 70 baskets (55.7 percent) in the rout.
But the story Thursday was Mykhailiuk, who had his first double-digit scoring game since Feb. 27 against Texas Tech. The 6-foot-8, 195-pound guard's dunk was his first of the season.
TCJ
Never a doubt... @KUHoops is moving on. pic.twitter.com/UdY5pnZP37
— CBS Sports CBB (@CBSSportsCBB) March 17, 2016
“I thought Jamari was the best player in the first half, hands down,” Self said, “and he didn’t score a point.”
Traylor, one of several stars off the bench for KU, had eight rebounds in the game’s first 14 minutes, setting the tone early in the top-seeded Jayhawks’ 105-79 victory over the Governors at Wells Fargo Arena.
As he has done so often this season, the 6-foot-8, 220-pound senior was the first player off the bench for KU (31-4), checking in at the 16:14 mark of the first half with his team nursing a one-point lead.
While it took him — and the Jayhawks, for that matter — a few minutes to get comfortable, when he did, he was a force both on the box score and to the naked eye.
One sequence in particular stood out, coming with 8:31 left in the half. When Wayne Selden missed a free-throw attempt, Traylor hustled to his right to grab the offensive board near the 3-point line. When Devonte’ Graham missed a 3-pointer six seconds later, Traylor lunged to the other side of the arc to haul in that rebound, too.
KU would come up empty-handed on that possession, but it wouldn’t deter Traylor. The Chicago native came up with a diving steal on Austin Peay’s ensuing possession, chucked it to Graham, who fed Selden on a dunk that gave the Jayhawks a 26-14 advantage and forced an Austin Peay timeout.
“He had eight rebounds (in the first half), stole possessions and basically changed the energy level,” Self said, “and that was good.”
TCJ
UConn's Kevin Ollie has never lost in the Big Dance. He's the 8th coach ever to win his first 7 tourney games. pic.twitter.com/yKDYWYWfrw
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 17, 2016
Here, too, was seldom-seen Cheick Diallo, racking up nine points and three rebounds and running the floor and blocking a shot in just 7 minutes of play.
“I was not even nervous, because I like to play in the big game,” said Diallo, who had scored 25 points in the entire Big 12 season with his abundant promise limited by rawness, KU coach Bill Self says.
By the time it was over, Kansas would enter into what forward Landen Lucas compared to a “victory formation,” with reserves Tyler Self and Evan Manning inserted in the game.
And then Self applied the ultimate signature by turning toward the end of the bench and calling on Clay Young.
A surge of adrenalin seized Young, who joined the team as an invited walk-on last fall after being a lifelong KU fan, the sort who had dutifully scrawled in Kansas to win every NCAA Tournament bracket he ever filled out.
Now, Young, from Lansing, was playing in one of those very games.
“It’s what anyone growing up where I did would love to do,” he said.
That was the final luxury flourish in an otherwise unremarkable game distinguished by Self’s lavish use of the KU bench, and with it, some welcome seasoning and shrewd rationing of playing time for regulars.
All of which makes for an ideal-as-can-be baseline as the Jayhawks prepare to take on ninth-seeded Connecticut on Saturday.
KC Star
Halftime Sharpie!
Kansas. Sharpie.
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) March 17, 2016
KC Star image
Lagerald Vick was the happiest person in the locker room.
While most on the Kansas basketball team viewed a 105-79 dismantling of Austin Peay in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament as routine, Vick leaned back in his chair and flashed a smile few have seen this season.
“I feel really good about myself right now,” he said.
Vick, a freshman, was understandably pleased. The seldom-used guard came off the bench far earlier than anyone expected to score a career-high seven points in 10 minutes, also finishing with two assists, one block and one steal. He hadn’t played that much since early December. More often than not, he has been a healthy scratch, playing only late in blowout victories.
Things changed Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena.
Kansas coach Bill Self called on Vick with 15 minutes remaining and Austin Peay mounting a desperate comeback push. After trailing 48-28 at halftime, the Governors pulled within 55-40. Then starting point guard Devonte’ Graham picked up his fourth foul and shooting guard Brannen Greene complained of back pain. The Jayhawks needed a replacement, and Vick was surprisingly selected.
He responded immediately by stealing a pass on one end of the floor and scoring a layup on the other. Then he sent a nifty pass to Perry Ellis for a dunk. Before you knew it, Kansas stretched its lead to 71-44.
“He took over the game,” Self said, “for a short period of time where we needed to extend the lead.”
KC Star
An all-time great chant #kubball pic.twitter.com/wKE68rqkRc
— Benton Smith (@BentonASmith) March 17, 2016
KU junior guard Wayne Selden not only made the first three-pointer of his NCAA Tournament career against Austin Peay, his 14 points surpassed his career point total in the tourney.
Selden entered Thursday with 10 points in four NCAA Tournament games, missing all five of his three-point tries.
He made a three pointer 16 seconds into Thursday’s game, ending the skid. Selden missed his other three three-point attempts but still finished 5 of 10 from the field.
KC Star
This is AWESOME!! #rockchalk pic.twitter.com/liwLTpxRrr
— Andrea Hudy (@A_Hudy) March 17, 2016
Kansas coach Bill Self, with all of that firepower and his weapons in the starting lineup, still had even more he could go to when foul trouble of fatigue became a factor. Loos did not have the same luxury and his team paid for it.
“That’s a big part,” said Kansas City, Mo., native and senior Kahlil Davis of the Jayhawks. “They have good bench play and we couldn’t really do anything about it. They had a counter move for everything. They’re the No. 1 team in the nation and Bill Self is a great coach. Anything we came with, they did something else.”
LJW
LJW image
Vick figured he’d enter the first-round South Regional game, because Brannen Greene’s back has been bothering him. Greene finished with four assists, three steals and no points in 11 minutes.
“He’s really good,” KU junior Wayne Selden, Jr., said of Vick. “People don’t really get a chance to see him. He’s talented, athletic, can really pass and shoot the ball.”
…Freshman forward Cheick Diallo had nine points and four rebounds in seven minutes.
“I thought he was active and looked great out there,” Self said.
“It’s awesome. I’m proud of him (Diallo),” said forward Landen Lucas, who had a career-high 16 points with eight rebounds. “You guys don’t get to see Cheick in practice. He’s so dominant in practice, such a great player. It’s awesome to get him out there and do it on a bigger stage. We’re going to need him and Carlton (Bragg Jr.).
“I think he’s starting to carry what he does in practice into games better,” Lucas added. “We’re pushing for him to get out there and be himself, just play. He’s doing a great job of that.”
…Lucas said he loves when the walk-ons get to play. Tyler Self, Evan Manning and Clay Young played three, two and two minutes respectively.
“It’s like the victory formation in football,” Lucas said. “We’re happy to get those guys out there. It shows we handled business and they got an opportunity. They work hard every day.”
LJW
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As for Diallo, the atmosphere of actually playing in the event he first started watching back in 2012, “when Kentucky won national title,” was much different than he expected.
“I was so scared the first time I saw NCAA Tournament game on TV,” Diallo said. “I was like, ‘Wow. That game was hard.’ But by the time I played today, I was like, ‘That’s an easy game.’ That’s how I was feeling. Today I was so excited.”
Asked in the locker room after Thursday’s victory if the experience had sunk in yet, Diallo was honest.
“I believe a little bit,” he said with a huge grin. “But even now I’m like, ‘Wow. I got nine points in NCAA Tournament.’ I was so happy.”
LJW
KC Star image
Consider this: Among active coaches, Bill Self has the fifth-highest career winning percentage, having notched a victory in 75.9 percent of his games. Only Mark Few (80.8), Roy Williams (78.9), John Calipari (78 percent) and Mike Krzyzewski (76.5) have been more impressive.
But let's dive in a little deeper. Every coach has his own road to the top, particularly to those blueblood jobs that manufacture glory if you're good enough but that can also wreck a great man because only greatness will stand (hello there, Steve Alford, and almost every UCLA coach since John Wooden). Self's road included a start at Oral Roberts that opened with six- and 10-win seasons. That skews things.
Since he arrived at Kansas in 2003, Self has won 82.3 percent of his games. That's better than Few's tenure at Gonzaga, better than Roy Williams at UNC (77.1 percent), better than Coach K at Duke (78.8 percent). Only Cal at Kentucky, in a dead statistical heat with Self, has been as impressive.
It's also better than Adolph Rupp, who spent his entire coaching career at Kentucky and is third all-time in winning percentage.
There are a lot of reasons Self isn't sainted with the same love and respect Cal, Coach K or other luminaries of the game. He's in true flyover country. His teams have often failed out of the tournament too soon (though that's true for most of these guys), and that's stuck despite the 2008 title. And he has come of age as a coach at a time when giants roam the same floors: Cal, Coach K, Roy, Izzo, Boeheim.
This is the year that could finally lift Self to the level of respect he's already earned. He has the team. He has the bracket. Though a challenging UConn team is the next opponent, there are no true giants lurking until the Final Four. A second championship would shine a bright light on just how remarkable Self's career has been.
CBS
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As games get started this week, one thing the sports analytics community largely agrees on is this: Kansas is the team most likely to win the NCAA tournament.
Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight have the Jayhawks with a 19 percent chance to win, Ken Pomeroy published their chances at 15 percent, and ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI) tournament projection was in between at 17 percent. All of those chances are at least 2 percentage points better than the chances of the next team in the field.
That doesn’t mean you should sell all you have and place a bet on the Jayhawks. Being the “favorite” in the NCAA tournament could also be phrased as “expected to lose, but after most others.”
So, although Kansas is the top team in The Associated Press poll, the coaches poll and ESPN’s Strength of Record (SOR), as well as the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, the Jayhawks simultaneously are the team most likely to win the title, and yet not -- based on most analytical measures -- the best team in the country.
…Virginia ranks higher than Kansas in adjusted scoring margin, which is one of the best predictors of team performance, but the Cavaliers have a much more difficult path than the Jayhawks. Virginia has potential games against Purdue and Michigan State, who are both underseeded according to BPI and have favorable traveling arrangements to Chicago for the regional final.
Kansas, on the other hand, has a very favorable potential trip to Louisville for the Sweet 16 against a weaker field. Kansas would potentially face Maryland, which is slightly overseeded, or California, which is currently projected to have only a 21 percent chance to win its Sweet 16-round game.
So, despite not ranking as high in metrics such as BPI and adjusted scoring margin as Virginia, Kansas’ path gives it a better chance to win.
ESPN
Boston Herald image
Uncle Anthony, as he prefers to be called, has been dubbed a “new American hero” for his dunk clock, even as he’s been picked at for overshadowing his nephew’s slamfest.
Pitts, of Mission Hill, said he has heard the criticism before. “It goes in one ear and out the other. ... I can’t control this. I’m making the same noises when I’m all by myself.”
The enthusiasm started soon after Selden was born, Pitts said. “I came home from school, held him and he’s been my boy from then on.”
Selden’s grandfather, a basketball referee, took the young Selden to his games, Pitts said, and Selden played in the Boston Neighborhood Basketball League.
The courts in Mission Hill also gave Selden an edge.
“Growing up in the streets we were from, it’s rough. You get a type of ‘grrr’ — an ‘it’ factor you can’t teach,” Pitts said.
The amped-up uncle said he put pictures of Selden in his jewelry almost like a locket when the kid was young. “It was a way of showing my love,” Pitts said.
Selden transferred from John D. O’Bryant High School in Roxbury to the private Tilton School in New Hampshire, where he was a McDonald’s All-American player. Selden then chose to go to Kansas University.
“When he signed with Kansas, I just thought to make a clock and wear it,” he said.
Pitts, who works with teenagers in the state’s child welfare system, was intense throughout the first-round game yesterday. When Selden dunked in the first half, Pitts exploded with energy, the red clock around his neck flinging around.
Pitts and his friends quietly discussed buying plane tickets for the next game — but the conversation was hushed to not jinx the game in front of them.
Today, Pitts and his clock are flying to Iowa, where Kansas meets UConn tomorrow.
Boston Herald
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A college basketball game without a band present ... it's just not the same, is it? Drake's women's team was facing that, though, for its WNIT opener Thursday night in Des Moines, Iowa. The school is on spring break, and the Drake band members aren't on campus.
However, Drake got a capable substitute: The Kansas band was in Des Moines for the Jayhawks' NCAA men's tournament game Thursday afternoon.
After the top-seeded Jayhawks beat Austin Peay 105-79 at the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Des Moines, the Kansas band traveled the 3½ miles to Drake's Knapp Center to play at the Drake-Sacred Heart women's game.
The KU band went 2-0, as the Bulldogs won 95-59.
Drake coach Jennie Baranczyk told espnW that Bulldogs athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb has gotten to know Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger over the years, and she called him to ask if KU's band might be able to help out. Zenger gladly arranged it.
"How cool is that?" Baranczyk said. "They even learned our fight song. I'll be cheering for Kansas men to win."
ESPN
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David Koch and Barack Obama, fierce opponents in politics, agree on one thing: The University of Kansas will win the NCAA national basketball championship.
Both men have created tournament brackets that place the Jayhawks number one.
“Only Kansas and NCAA Basketball can bring folks together from both sides of the aisle and in between,” Koch joked. “Go Kansas!”
Koch probably knows the game better than most. At MIT he earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering in 1963 – and was a 6-feet-5-inch star.
“I like to say that being the best athlete at MIT is like being taller than Mickey Rooney,” he told The Eagle in 2014. But he averaged 21 points per game over three years, a school record, and scored 41 points once, a single-game record that stood from 1962 until 2009.
KU is not the only Kansas team that Koch, a Wichita native, follows.
He has the Wichita State Shockers reaching the Sweet 16 in his bracket.
“I have always been a Kansas fan for 50 years,” he said. “They have a stellar team and a terrific coach. I am also a big fan of Coach Marshall and wish the Shockers all the best and have them advancing to the Sweet 16. But I think this is the year for the Jayhawks.”
Wichita Eagle
.@BenMcLemore has a message for his @KUhoops squad as they're live in March Madness action...https://t.co/l2iJFILRYM
— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) March 17, 2016
5 more to go! #RCJH #GoKu #Believe
— Jeff Hawkins (@Jeff_Hawkins_KU) March 17, 2016
Rock Chalk! #kubball
— Russell Robinson (@Next718star) March 17, 2016
VOTE DAILY
VOTE Perry Ellis for the @SnrCLASSAward everyday until March 21:https://t.co/dl5O6fPhZs #kubball pic.twitter.com/tN3gzQJ16o
— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) March 4, 2016
Vote here for Perry Ellis for the @Wendys #WoodenAward! https://t.co/RJMOeYKHdv
— ESPN College BBall (@ESPNCBB) February 10, 2016
Kansas junior guard Wayne Selden Jr., has been named one of five finalists for the 2016 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award.
Kansas senior forward Perry Ellis has been named one of five finalists for the 2016 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award.
VOTE HERE DAILY!
13.02 million brackets were entered in ESPN's Tournament Challenge.
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 17, 2016
Most popular title picks:
• Kansas: 25%
• MSU: 22.3%
• UNC: 14.6%
“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!”
Big 12/College News
After a wild first day of the 2016 NCAA tournament, just 14,525 -- or 0.1 percent -- out of the approximately 13 million Tournament Challenge brackets were a perfect 16-for-16 on Thursday. In comparison to previous years:
- 2015: 273 out of 11.57 million were a perfect 16-for-16 on the first Thursday (0.002 percent).
- 2014: 18,471 out of approximately 11 million were a perfect 16-for-16 on the first Thursday (0.2 percent).
The twin upsets by 12-seeds Yale and Arkansas-Little Rock over Baylor and Purdue, respectively, really shook up the field. Plus, a pair of upsets by 11-seeds -- Gonzaga over Seton Hall and Wichita State over Arizona -- heightened the bracket-busting madness. Overall, the better seeds went 9-7 on Thursday.
ESPN
UPDATE: pic.twitter.com/0Dj6nQfCs7
— SB Nation (@SBNation) March 18, 2016
March Madness has generated $8.2 billion in TV ad revenue since 2006, according to research firm Kantar Media; 2015’s tournament, in which Duke won its fifth title, brought in $1.19 billion. (Neither Turner nor CBS comment on ad sales figures.) Outside of the Super Bowl, it’s the ad world’s biggest annual sports bonanza.
You can’t quite compare the business of March Madness to a one-day free-for-all like the Super Bowl, which still commands the biggest audience and highest premiums on TV, but per Kantar’s estimates, the NCAA’s version of the postseason only lags behind the NFL’s postseason in ad revenue, and outdoes the NBA’s postseason, which runs from April through June.
In fact, NCAA men's basketball has consistently beat the tar out of the NBA in postseason TV ad spend since 2011, when CBS partnered with Turner to show all 67 of the tournament's games nationally. Prior to that, CBS showed much fewer games nationally. The change allowed for the national ad dollars to flow in, and flow they did, goosing TV spend an additional $307 million from 2011 to 2012.
Exact viewership for the NCAA championship game depends somewhat on the teams playing, but as with most other live sports, audiences are growing steadily, and last year’s Duke-Wisconsin final drew a record 28.3 million pairs of eyeballs. For comparison: The sixth and last game of 2015’s NBA Finals, between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, drew 23.25 million viewers on ABC. ESPN’s 2016 College Football Championship (which isn’t run by the NCAA) in January drew a TV audience of 25.7 million.
…This year, for the first time, the championship game will air only on TBS, the first time it will only run on a cable network and the culmination of a six-year process that began with CBS, originally the sole broadcaster of the tournament, partnering with Turner in 2011.
While audiences may have to adjust to the channel change — although, several industry insiders point out, the number of viewers who will actually think of it as an adjustment is up for debate, as people tend to watch games, rather than channels — for the Turner and CBS production and sales teams, it’s just business as usual.
Link
"How did Yale out-rebound Baylor?" https://t.co/5UapBDXaoo pic.twitter.com/LhsghxHkWT
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) March 17, 2016
I hope you’re happy, everyone who rooted for a Baylor upset in the first round of the NCAA tournament — look what we’ve got now.
Yale will play Duke on Saturday in the second round of the tournament, and the rest of America will be stuck watching two teams that no one wants to win. It’s the Insufferable Bowl, and we’re all losers for having to watch it.
On one side, you have Duke, which is Duke, the most hate-able college basketball team in the world. My mom went to Duke and I can’t even get behind this team. They’re led by Grayson Allen, the sneering, floor slapping, dirty play artist who looks like a cross between Prince Joffrey and Ted Cruz and acts like if Christian Laettner was even more arrogant, which I didn’t think was possible.
FTW USA Today
There will NOT be any wet floors on this guy's watch. https://t.co/VXkblKbTcu
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 17, 2016
#SadLobster is the new #piccologirl: https://t.co/LdF8yg2JaD (h/t @CBSSportsCBB pic.twitter.com/ztphm9hTJT
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) March 18, 2016
Yale had the biggest win of the NCAA tournament and went absolutely bonkers https://t.co/ab2ZvSbtVU pic.twitter.com/BFPnaKkHW1
— Andrew Joseph (@AndyJ0seph) March 17, 2016
Leron Black arrested in February. Jaylon Tate arrested last week. Kendrick Nunn arrested this week.
— Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) March 17, 2016
Not a good trend for Illini basketball.
NCAA TOURNEY
Use #MarchMadnessMoments to post your social moments. We may feature them in our social moments of the day video.
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 17, 2016
ncaa.com: 2016 NCAA Tournament Schedule w/game times
Announcing crews, etc
Find out the tournament history for specific seeds, teams, coaches or conferences.
NCAA Tournament Brackets and History interactive tool
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Recruiting
Thanks to my local McDonald for showing me love, much RESPECT, I feel honored □□□□ pic.twitter.com/AcUsLYFJAq
— udoka tim (@TimUdoka) March 17, 2016
Blessed to say that I have received the Arizona Gatorade player of the year. All the glory to God.□□□□□ pic.twitter.com/bsZPd1fY6V
— Mitch Lightfoot (@Mitchlightfoot) March 17, 2016
Congrats to Trae Young for being named Oklahoma Gatorade player of the year #nextchapter #Gymtimehoops pic.twitter.com/IzvwZvQbZQ
— Gym Time Hoops (@GymHoops) March 17, 2016
Five-star prospect Thon Maker has scheduled an Arizona State official visit for April 18, his guardian told azcentral sports Thursday.
The 7-foot-1, 225-pound power forward from Athlete Institute in Ontario already has visited Kansas. He also has official visits set up with UNLV (this week) and Notre Dame (April 25). He has visited Indiana and St. John's unofficially.
Maker -- who has a close relationship with ASU assistant coach Brian Merritt -- is one of the prized recruits left in the 2016 class. Some consider him a one-and-done prospect, although guardian Ed Smith has said the elite big man will keep his options open.
azcentral.com
Recruiting Calendar (updated for 2016)
My Videos:
Late Night in the Phog
Bill Self Camp KU Alumni games
60 Years of AFH Celebration
Legends of the Phog game
2011-12 Final Border War
KC Prep Invitational
Jayhawk Invitational
and more, now on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/kcjcjhawk
The 7-foot-1, 225-pound power forward from Athlete Institute in Ontario already has visited Kansas. He also has official visits set up with UNLV (this week) and Notre Dame (April 25). He has visited Indiana and St. John's unofficially.
Maker -- who has a close relationship with ASU assistant coach Brian Merritt -- is one of the prized recruits left in the 2016 class. Some consider him a one-and-done prospect, although guardian Ed Smith has said the elite big man will keep his options open.
azcentral.com
Recruiting Calendar (updated for 2016)
My Videos:
Late Night in the Phog
Bill Self Camp KU Alumni games
60 Years of AFH Celebration
Legends of the Phog game
2011-12 Final Border War
KC Prep Invitational
Jayhawk Invitational
and more, now on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/kcjcjhawk
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