As if that’s not bad enough, the game is in Chicago, which may as well be West Lansing for its huge contingent of Michigan State alums.
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The challenge for the long-time Austin Peay coach and his staff will be to figure out what – if anything – their team can do to win when it faces the Jayhawks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa (3 p.m. Thursday, TNT). It’s all background noise.
In the regional final, Oklahoma’s ability to get in transition disrupts the Bearcat defense and puts the Sooners into the Final Four in Houston.
Sophomore Alexa Hart, a 6-3 forward who helped Africentric win a Division III state title as a senior in 2014, has been a key reason for that success. Michigan State will upset North Carolina to face Kansas in the championship game.
What about the George Masons of today? The third-seeded Wildcats won’t have to leave the area until the Final Four.
Staley swished through a one-handed half-court shot, then broke off into a championship run around the court at Colonial Life Arena to cheers of several hundred fans awaiting the Gamecocks’ seeding and regional location. Maryland was the last outsider to take the crown, in 2002, and the Terrapins were still longtime contenders.
Most of all, in March remember that anything can happen. “All I’m concerned (about) right now is the first weekend”. In a January 5, meeting between Kansas and Oklahoma, the Jayhawks were ranked No. 1 and the Sooners were ranked No. 2. The Pirates knocked off Xavier and Villanova on their way to winning the Big East tournament, yet they were relegated to B-list status with a No. 6 seed.
But you have to keep picking the powerhouses. Even with them being a four seed, they feel slighted that they are seeded as low as they are. They’ll be dead Ducks after facing No. 4 Duke in the Sweet 16.
Kansas enters the tourney having won 14 straight. “I knew Brad well before I hired him at K-State”.
“We’re all just going to focus on Chattanooga”, Hoosiers coach Tom Crean said of their first-round opponent. But with a second conference tournament title in four years, plus a regular season title (their first since 2002) comes an awakening in ambitions. The Volunteers went five-and-five in the last ten games, falling to Mississippi State on the conference semifinals on Saturday. With wins in nine of their last 12, the Governors could bait Kansas into a close game if they rely on Horton for points early. Izzo has ramped up his team like he always does.
The Jayhawks have the toughest region.
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Head coach Dave Loos’s granddaughter Rhyan recently underwent surgery to remove a tumor from an adrenal gland above her kidney just a few months after another one of his granddaughters, Olivia, had brain surgery. It’s not as fun, but it could be more profitable. It’s sad but true.
