The NCAA is set to announce the host cities for the 2012 through 2016 Final Fours. Ten cities have put in bids for the event ... meaning half will go home disappointed.
Ranking the field:
1-Indianapolis: This is NCAA headquarters and they love having the Final Four here. Since the 2010 Final Four will be held in Indy, expect the new Lucas Oil Field to get the 2015 or 2016 event.
2-New Orleans: The NCAA loves N'Awlins (four previous trips) and it will have been at least a decade since the last one at the Superdome (2003). The dome seems to be in fine shape and they are also trying to land a Super Bowl in the (somewhat) near future. I think the NCAA gets this done in 2013 or 2014.
3-Phoenix: I think that Phoenix/Glendale is the next great stop for sporting events. The Super Bowl was a huge success a the new stadium and I think the Final Four would love to grab some of that. I see the 2012 or 2013 Final Four getting awarded here.
4-San Antonio: San Antonio has become a bit of a great place to have a Final Four. They have had three of them from 1998 to 2008. I think the love affair could continue with the 2016 event. However, one strike against the Alamodome could be that they have been there quite a bit of late.
5-North Texas: The new digs and the potentially amazing capacity makes this very, very attractive. Imagine over 100,000 watching the NCAA Championship game! It could happen. The strike against it could be the fact that this means over-Texas-ing this event (San Antonio in '08, Houston in '11 and now Dallas?). If Dallas pulls this off, it could steal San Antonio's bid down the road.
While basketball fans love stats, none really want to hear about boring numbers like graduation rates, grade-point averages and surveys.
College coaches care about those things, which is why they have the Knight Commission meetings. The Knight Commission has been striving for academic reform in college athletics for decades and, over the past four year, punishing programs who fail to meet certain academic and graduation requirements.
"While I like to see everyone who reaches college earn a degree," Hewitt said, "we need to find more effective ways to achieve our goals. I do have a problem with putting numbers out there, saying 'Meet these numbers or else. You're turning education into a race."
"I'm getting tired of coaches getting beat up," Hewitt said, "when I think we are doing a very responsible job."
He kind of has a point. Hewitt also said that these pressures on coaches to keep their athletes' grades up may/has forced some of them to steer those students to easier courses. The ACC has discussed this issue in their conference meetings.
Early Saturday morning, SEC director of communications, DeWayne Peevy, told ESPN.com by phone from Atlanta that Georgia and Kentucky would play at noon Saturday in a makeup of the postponed quarterfinal on the campus of Georgia Tech at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, instead of the storm-damaged Georgia Dome. The first semifinal pitting Tennessee and Arkansas would take place at 6 p.m. while the second semifinal between the winner of Kentucky-Georgia and Mississippi State will tip at approximately 8:30 p.m.
Alexander Memorial Coliseum holds just over 9,000 people so the league is limiting attendance to just the players' families, cheeleaders, bands and the normal credentialed people. There will be refunds for people who held tickets to the semifinals and beyond.
Word is that the SEC wanted to just name co-champions by having the Kentucky-Georgia game on Saturday and both semifinals on Sunday. However, the NCAA told the conference that not having a conference championship game would force the committee to take away its automatic qualifier.
The big highlight from last night's Georgia Tech 77-74 win over NC State was an alley oop to Tech's Jeremis Smith (the dunk is replayed at the end of the clip above). Smith is no stranger to a nice dunk, as you can see here on Virginia Tech, here on Boston College and here on Duke.
NC State looked like garbage again. Brandon Costner and Gavin Grant combined for just three field goals -- and nine turnovers. State's leg to stand on, their defense, allowed the Yellow Jackets to shoot nearly 60% for the game. Yikes!
It was also the first time since 1996 that Georgia Tech has won in Raleigh.
When you are the #1 team in the nation, you usually get the opponent's best shot. Last night, top-ranked North Carolina received Georgia Tech's best punch. A nip and tuck game throughout, the Tar Heels used a "goal line stand", so to speak, to leave Atlanta with an 83-82 victory.
It was close to the end. [Georgia Tech's] Jeremis Smith hit two free throws with 1:13 remaining to make it 82-82, and Georgia Tech squandered a chance to go ahead when Morrow missed a jumper from the corner with the shot clock running down.
Green was fouled by Peacock on the rebound, and walked to the other end of the court to shoot two. Only one went in, but that was enough to give the Tar Heels another victory.
The win snapped a four-game losing skid at G-Tech for Carolina. If the Yellow Jackets had held on, they would've joined Duke and Virginia as the only schools to beat UNC five straight times on their home floor.
Carolina also joins Duke and Boston College as the lone unbeatens in ACC play ... and Kansas and Memphis as unbeatens overall.
The injured man, a disc jockey at the club, was in serious but stable condition, the Haaretz newspaper reported. Bynum had a hearing in Tel Aviv and was to remain in custody until Sunday, the Maariv newspaper reported.
Bynum plays for Israeli champion Maccabi Tel Aviv. A group of basketball players were at a Tel Aviv nightclub when they became involved in a fight, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Maccabi Tel Aviv spokesman Nitzan Seraro identified the arrested player as Bynum and said he was at the nightspot celebrating his 25th birthday. Bynum was accosted inside the club by people who later smashed his car windows, Seraro said.
Bynum played at Tech from 2003-2005 (he transfered from Arizona after his sophomore season) and was on the Jackets' team that lost to UConn in the 2004 National Championship game. He had a cup of coffee in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors.
For the second time this season, Georgia Tech was upset - this time by Winthrop, 79-73. The loss left the Jackets having some 'splaining to do:
"I'm disappointed in these two losses," Hewitt said. "People are going to point to the conferences they come from, and rightfully so. But we know that they were good basketball teams, and we had to play good games to beat them, and we didn't."
"We made mistakes on the perimeter that really allowed them to capitalize," Hewitt said. "We left [Michael Jenkins, 20 points] open. We missed rebounds on free throws. We were not finishing plays. We got comfortable."
That's not a good thing to watch your team relax with a 10-pt lead. Especially since this is Winthrop: a program that has been to 7 of the last 9 NCAA tournaments. This goes with their home opening loss to UNC-Greensboro last week.
I've been somewhat critical of Paul Hewitt in the past and will continue to be. Hewitt surprised everyone by getting to the 2004 NCAA title game but has underachieved since. Yes, they lost Thad Young and Javaris Crittenton this year ... but what really did they do with them last year?
Georgia Tech opened up the 2007-2008 season with a stunning 83-74 loss to UNC Greensboro ... their first home opening loss since 1980.
I think it was us not handling our box-out responsibilities," said Tech senior forward Jeremis Smith. "There was a couple of times when I looked across the lane, and saw a man wide open and I thought, 'Damn, they're about to get this rebound,' and that's exactly what happened."
It didn't help that Tech guard Lewis Clinch, likely to be one of the Jackets' leading scorers, made 2 of 13 shots, or that Tech went scoreless for 4:51 in the second half as the Spartans pulled away.
Today's agenda: practice, and then a long bus ride to Nashville, where the Jackets play at Tennessee State on Sunday. head coach Paul Hewitt said, "Probably the best thing that could happen to us is that we're going right on the road."
UNC-G was 0-24 against ACC schools heading into this game. They used a 31-13 run to start the 2nd half (mainly due to hitting the boards) to pull away from the Jackets.
Hewitt arrived here preaching effort and defense, and in March 2004 his team personified that ideal. Pretty much everything since has been a diminishing return. Effort and defense are no longer constants, and the offense here has never been a work of art. What does that leave? Special teams? The bullpen?
Who are the main men? Ra'Sean Dickey returns to Ga Tech as one of the ACC's top big men. Too bad he is academically ineligible for the first semester. Lewis Clinch returns to the Yellow Jackets after being booted off the team last year. Clinch was the leading scorer last year before his dismissal.
What are the team's strengths? The Jackets have some shooters. Clinch is a huge boost back; Anthony Morrow is one of Tech's all time greatest downtown threats. Once Dickey gets back, he and Jermis Smith form a formidable frontcourt. Tech is also one of the few teams that can rotate out big men.
When will we see them struggle? This program hoped that Thaddeus Young and Javaris Crittenton would've been around at least this season ... and not having Dickey for the first semester stings. Since they aren't, this team will lack the scoring punch they felt they coulda had. If they aren't hitting from deep ... they are done.
Why should anyone care? People forget that the Yellow Jackets are just a few years removed from losing to an awesome UConn team in the National Championship game. The fact that Tech keeps losing guys to the NBA shows that head coach Paul Hewitt can recruit ... it's keeping the guys around a little bit longer that's key.
How stable is the program? Hewitt seems to be a good fit in Atlanta and the program and has been able to bring talent in.
Where will they finish in the ACC? Georgia Tech has the ability to get back to the NCAA tournament if thinks can break their way. Still, they need to get some good play out of a point guard spot that is a bit dry.
Name you didn't know, but will: Gani Lawal may be the next of in the line of quick fixes for the Jackets. Lawai is a Chris Bosh kind of player that, if he moves along at Bosh's pace, could vault Ga Tech into the upper half of the conference.
The ACC has released the 2007-2008 schedules for the member schools. You can see all twelve ACC teams' schedules here.
Toughest Non-Conference Games: at Indiana, at Vanderbilt, Kansas, at UConn, at Georgia
ACC Teams Facing Only Once: Boston College, Duke, Florida State, Maryland, NC State and UNC.
Toughest Stretch: Tech doesn't have too many hell weeks in their schedule. However, traveling to NC State and Virginia, hosting Maryland, then going to Wake Forest, UConn and Clemson is a pretty ugly time. Having 5 of 6 on the road mostly against teams that will be looking at a tournament bid.
Biggest Game: December 18 vs Kansas. The Jayhawks could be the #1 team in the nation when they come in and will be a big non-con game to see how they will fair in ACC play ... which will be two weeks away.
The NCAA is set to announce the host cities for the 2012 through 2016 Final Fours. Ten cities have put in bids for the event ... meaning half will go home disappointed.
While basketball fans love stats, none really want to hear about boring numbers like graduation rates, grade-point averages and surveys.
With the damage suffered to the Georgia Dome by severe weather during the end of the 
When you are the #1 team in the nation, you usually get the opponent's best shot. Last night, top-ranked North Carolina received Georgia Tech's best punch. A nip and tuck game throughout, the Tar Heels used a "goal line stand", so to speak, to leave Atlanta with an 
Former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket Will Bynum has been 
For the second time this season, Georgia Tech was upset - this time by Winthrop, 79-73. The loss left the Jackets 
Who are the main men? Ra'Sean Dickey returns to Ga Tech as one of the ACC's top big men. Too bad he is academically ineligible for the first semester. Lewis Clinch returns to the Yellow Jackets after being booted off the team last year. Clinch was the leading scorer last year before his dismissal.
The ACC has released the 2007-2008 schedules for the member schools. You can see all twelve ACC teams' schedules 
