For the third straight season, the Butler Bulldogs are the regular season champions of the Horizon League. For fans and second-year head coach Brad Stevens, though, this title has to be a little more sweet than last year's -- due to lowered expectations because of the significant losses from last year's stout squad.
The clinching win Saturday, however, was anything but easy. Cleveland State used 14-2 spurt in the second half to take a small, brief lead. The game see-sawed back and forth the rest of the way.
One of the biggest gripes against former CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer was that he didn't respect the mid-majors. He famously complained that there were too many mid-majors in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. That was the year that George Mason upset Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn to get to the Final Four.
This will be the first Packer-less tournament in decades as he retired after last year's Final Four. It's a shame for him because he would have loved the makeup of the brackets this time around. Going against the recent trends, it looks as if the major conferences will get most of the at-large bids, leaving the mid-majors out in the cold.
One of the thing repeated by punditry, whenever you tuned in to see Davidson and Steph Curry, was that the Wildcats were not a better team when compared to last year's squad. That has proven true most of the year. While Davidson has been a good team at times and Steph Curry is one of the best players in college basketball, Davidson is not a consistently good team. They are a bubble team in a mid-major conference. Their case was not helped by Butler beating them at home 75-63.
The game was important for both teams, to confirm and even clinch that they are an at-large worthy teams. A game that would take the pressure off of having to win their respective conference tournaments. Butler can now breathe a little easier if they do not take the Horizon Conference Tournament. Davidson, though, must win the Southern Conference to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Headlining: The beauty of a Tuesday column, at least this season, is that whoever ends up No. 1 can do so with an asterisk based on Monday's games. (*In case you didn't know already, Pittsburgh beat Connecticut.) And it appears that next week, we'll likely have a new No. 1 team in the nation. That will likely be Blake Griffin and the Oklahoma Sooners. Which is fitting, considering Griffin dropped a rediculous 40-point, 23-rebound Valentine's Day stat line on Texas Tech Saturday night.
Duke and North Carolina were separated by a single game in the ACC standings heading into Sunday; little did Duke know it, but they nearly had a chance to tie the Tar Heels again. However, games against Boston College and Miami, respectively, ended the wrong way for the Devils.
Boston College 80, Duke 74: The same problems that have plagued the Blue Devils all season -- point guard play as well as lack of an inside presence -- came into play again Sunday afternoon.
The Davidson Wildcats and Stephen Curry have been a disappointment this season, relatively speaking. Curry is leading the nation in scoring, which is quite impressive, but the Wildcats don't seem nearly as dangerous this year as they did in 2008.
Part of that could be that they no longer retain "sleeper" status. Or part of it could be that they no longer have the heavily underrated Jason Richards manning point for them. Or maybe they just have three losses to nationally-ranked teams. Either way though, they'll be playing the highly-ranked Butler Bulldogs on February 21 in the headlining game of ESPN's Bracket Busters.
Mascot costumes aren't cheap. Butler has two anthropomorphic bulldog costumes. The cost of each runs $13,000. So, you can imagine if they were to be lost or stolen, the small Indiana school would really do what it could to recover them rather than shell out the money for new ones. Well, it looks like foul play.
Butler recently sent out an e-mail to students asking for help in recovering the costumes, which cost about $13,000.
The costumes were last seen last month, when a student dropped them off at Hinkle Fieldhouse, said university spokeswoman Courtney Tuell. School officials said they believe the canine costumes were stolen, not just misplaced.
How did they manage to let both be stolen? If they were concerned enough to have two costumes, you would think they would try to keep them in separate locations in case of theft.
They have offered a reward, but at only $100 that seems quite cheap. That's not even 1/100th of the replacement cost. $1000 would seem like a better starting point.
Butler, in fact, seems resigned to not getting the costumes back since they ordered a new one. The problem is that it will take until November before it is ready. That's tolerable for the football season since Blue II -- the live bulldog mascot is still around.
When basketball season comes, however, no one really wants to have a live bulldog on the court. At least not with out some rubber gloves and a mop handy.
The Bracket Busters is a series that began in 2003 and was designed to pit mid-majors in inter-conference battles late in the regular season. With ESPN tied in, it brings national TV audiences to places they may normally not go.
It helps these teams immensely by getting them exposure, pumping up their RPI numbers and answers some of those questions about the strength of these mid-major conferences.
102 teams were named to be in this year's event ... which will take place on February 20-21.
The marquee name will be Davidson College, home of Stephen Curry and a Wildcats team that were a shot away from getting to the Final Four.
Other big time mid-majors include Butler, Drake, San Diego, Nevada, St. Mary's, Bucknell and George Mason.
Matchups will be set on February 9th. After the jump are the teams that are participating.
Much has been made about Memphis's inability to make free throws consistently. Our own Michael David Smith relayedJohn Calipari's ridiculous statements about winning yesterday's game with Mississippi State at the free throw line and they deserve to be mocked.
Coaches used to harp on making free throws almost above all else. When teams give you a chance at free points, you best take it or else you'll be going home a loser. This year, though, Memphis was joined by Louisville and Georgetown in making less than 50% from the line but only the Hoyas paid the price. D.J. Augustin of Texas airballed a free throw to set up Miami's last chance to tie their game and the Longhorns only made 12-of-21 overall, but the Canes still fell short. On Saturday, five of the eight winning teams were below 70% from the line.
Can it be that making free throws is no longer a necessary ingredient to winning games? For teams like Memphis and Louisville, talent may indeed trump these shortcomings. But take a look at the two biggest weekend upsets and one near-miss for some evidence about the enduring need to make your foul shots.
The selection committee for the NCAA Tournament says that it doesn't consider specific matchups when they're seeding teams and placing them in the four brackets. It seems hard to believe that when each year brings games with geographical rivals or coaches who have worked together in the past squaring off. This year, you've got O.J. Mayo and Michael Beasley in a freshman fiesta which stretches the credulity of their promise even more.
You've also got the cannibalization of smaller conference schools for the second straight year. Butler drew Old Dominion last year and this time around has to beat South Alabama to get out of the first round. Drake gets the second Sun Belt representative, Western Kentucky, in a 5-12 game and the Midwest region features a pair of matchups between teams outside the BCS conferences. UNLV plays Kent State and Gonzaga faces Davidson in what should be two of the best first round games.
There may seem to be a pejorative connotation to this observation, i.e. the NCAA wants bigger schools to move on and do well, but that's not the point. Four of these teams are guaranteed a second game, after all, and as more teams from outside the big six get to dance, they'll inevitably run into one another. Other than Butler, none of these teams got seeded too low or too high, so there's no problem except for the sneaking suspicion that the committee considers matchups more than they let on. Read FanHouse previews for these teams (and the other 57 as well) in the NCAA Tournament.
NCAA Basketball 
For the third straight season, the Butler Bulldogs are the regular season champions of the Horizon League. For fans and second-year head coach Brad Stevens, though, this title has to be a little more sweet than last year's -- due to lowered expectations because of the significant losses from last year's stout squad. 
One of the biggest gripes against former CBS basketball analyst 
One of the thing repeated by punditry, whenever you tuned in to see 
Ranking the rankings
Bracket Busters 2009
Mascot costumes aren't cheap. Butler has two anthropomorphic bulldog costumes. The cost of each runs $13,000. So, you can imagine if they were to be lost or stolen, the small Indiana school would really do what it could to recover them rather than shell out the money for new ones. Well, it 
Update 2/2/09: The 
Much has been made about Memphis's inability to make free throws consistently. 
The selection committee for the NCAA Tournament says that it doesn't consider specific matchups when they're seeding teams and placing them in the four brackets. It seems hard to believe that when each year brings games with geographical rivals or coaches who have worked together in the past squaring off. This year, you've got 
