NCAA Tournament – Page 7 – North Platte Post Archive

Six Big Ten Teams Selected For NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

Posted on March 16, 2014

INDIANAPOLIS — Six Big Ten teams were selected to participate in the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Wisconsin will represent the conference in this year’s tournament.

Michigan, the Big Ten Champion, is the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region and will travel to the Milwaukee second and third round site. Up first for the Wolverines is No. 15 Wofford, with the winner facing either No. 7 Texas or No. 10 Arizona State. Michigan is making its 21st appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fourth consecutive trip. The Wolverines boast a 41-20 record in the tournament. Michigan has made five appearances in the Final Four, including last year, and won the 1989 National Championship.

Wisconsin is the No. 2 seed in the West Region and will travel to the Milwaukee second and third round site. The Badgers will take on No. 15 American with the victor facing the winner of No. 7 Oregon vs. No. 10 BYU. Wisconsin will be playing in the NCAA Tournament for the 20th time and making its 16th straight appearance. The Badgers are 25-18 in their previous trips and have made two Final Four appearances, including winning the 1941 title.

Michigan State is the No. 4 seed in the East Region and will visit the Spokane, Wash., second and third round site. The Spartans will face No. 13 Delaware in the second round with the winner facing either No. 5 Cincinnati or No. 12 Harvard. Michigan State is making its 28th NCAA Tournament appearance and 16th consecutive. Michigan State boasts a 56-26 mark in the NCAA Tournament with eight Final Four appearances, including the 1979 and 2000 national championships.

Ohio State is the No. 6 seed in the South Region and will start at the Buffalo, N.Y., second and third round site. The Buckeyes will face No. 11 Dayton with the victor taking on the winner of No. 3 Syracuse vs. No. 14 Western Michigan. Ohio State is making its 26th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and sixth consecutive. The Buckeyes have a 43-23 record in the tournament and nine appearances in the Final Four, including a national championship in 1960.

Nebraska will be the No. 11 seed in the West region and will play at the San Antonio second and third round site. The Cornhuskers will face No. 6 Baylor in the second round, with the winner of that contest taking on either No. 3 Creighton or No. 14 Louisiana Lafayette. Nebraska is making its sixth NCAA Tournament Appearance and its first since 1998.

Iowa is a No. 11 seed in the Midwest Region and will play Tennessee in a First Four game in Dayton, Ohio. The winner of that contest will travel to Raleigh, N.C., for its second and third round matchups. They will take on No. 6 Massachusetts with the winner facing either No. 3 Duke or No. 14 Mercer. Iowa’s appearance is the 23rd in school history and its first since 2006. The Hawkeyes have a 27-24 record in NCAA tournament games as well as three Final Four appearances.

Note: records do not include games that were later vacated.

Creighton, Nebraska are on NCAA Collision Course

Posted on March 16, 2014

The state of Nebraska will have two teams in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the first time since 1991 — and they would meet if they win their openers Friday in San Antonio.

No. 3-seeded Creighton will open against No. 14 Louisiana and No. 11 Nebraska will play No. 6 Baylor.

Creighton (26-7) is in the NCAA tournament for the third year in a row. Nebraska (19-11) had to sweat until its name was called, but it didn’t take too long. The Huskers are in the tournament for the first time since 1998.

The crowd of 2,000 at Pinnacle Bank Arena erupted when Nebraska appeared on the big screen at the team’s NCAA Selection Show watch party.

Creighton, Nebraska are Hosting NCAA Watch Parties

Posted on March 16, 2014

Creighton and Nebraska will be hosting NCAA Selection Show watch parties on Sunday.

Creighton invites fans to join players and coaches at the on-campus D.J. Sokol Arena in Omaha as they find out where and when the Bluejays will play next week. The Bluejays are assured of playing in the tournament for the third year in a row.

Nebraska’s watch party is at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. The Cornhuskers lost to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament Friday and hope for their first NCAA bid since 1998.

If the Huskers make the NCAA field, it will mark the first time since 1991 that both Creighton and Nebraska have played in the tournament in the same year.

Doors at Sokol Arena and Pinnacle Bank Arena open at 4 p.m.

NCAA Selection Committee Faces Complex Choices

Posted on March 12, 2014

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA tournament selection committee will have some tough choices this weekend.

It must determine where to seed Kansas in lieu of Joel Embiid’s back injury. It must evaluate where to put unbeaten Wichita State and how it views Syracuse, which has lost four of its last six. It must still find the top 36 at-large teams in a bracket that committee chairman Ron Wellman believes will be the most wide open he can remember.

And all of it must be finished by Sunday night.

Wellman told reporters Wednesday that committee members will be in touch with schools about injuries and may even come up with multiple brackets as a backup plan to help them deal with Sunday afternoon games.

Committee meetings begin Wednesday afternoon.

NCAA OK with Dayton Playing in First Four at Home

Posted on February 27, 2014

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Every March, the University of Dayton hosts the NCAA’s First Four, four games over two days which open the annual 68-team extravaganza.

What would happen if one of those eight teams was the host Flyers?

As it turns out, the NCAA doesn’t have a problem with the long-shot possibility of Dayton playing on its home court.

NCAA selection committee chair Ron Wellman says there are always partisan crowds in the NCAA tournament, even though teams don’t play on their home floor anymore. So it’s no big deal.

For his part, Flyers coach Archie Miller says his team is willing to travel the half mile to its own arena or even to Russia — as long as it’s in the field.

NCAA Selection Committee Hopes for More Fairness

Posted on February 12, 2014

The chairman of the Division I men’s basketball committee believes changes made last August to the way teams are bracketed in the NCAA tournament will result in a fairer March Madness.

Ron Wellman also said Wednesday that there have been no discussions of expanding the field beyond 68 teams, and that officiating emphases put in place in the regular season to create greater movement will carry over to the NCAA tournament.

The new bracketing rules should be apparent to most college basketball fans.

Previously, the selection committee tried to keep schools from playing rematches before the regional finals, sometimes moving teams multiple seed lines in the process. Wellman said relaxing that policy allows the committee to honor their seeding, creating a fairer overall bracket.

$1 Billion Offered for Perfect Tournament Bracket

Posted on January 21, 2014

DETROIT (AP) — Correctly predicting the outcome of every game in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is no layup. There’s now a $1 billion prize waiting for anyone able to pull off the feat this spring.

Quicken Loans Inc. announced Tuesday that it will team with investor Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway on the “Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge.”

The Detroit-based mortgage lender says any qualified entrant who correctly predicts the winners of every game in the tournament will be paid in 40 annual installments of $25 million. A winner also can elect to receive an immediate $500 million lump-sum payment or share in that payment if there’s more than one perfect bracket submitted.

Submissions are limited to one per household.