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First Round Madness All #8 seeds win! (Score: 1)
by BB on Saturday, March 18, 2006 @ 06:02:35 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
This is interesting. All four #8 seeds won in the 2006 opening round. The 8-9 game is a close pick usually. But interestingly, the nines have a winning record against the eights. I correctly picked Arizona and George Washington, but busted by picking UAB over Kentucky and Arkansas over Bucknell. San Diego State and Wisconsin Milwaukee were my upset picks (1-1). I also thought Seton Hall and Syracuse would prevail (they did not.) I am 21-11.

ESPN Insider has a nice story on the seed-by-seed matchups. [insider.espn.go.com]

Interesting article about CBS HDTV coverage (Score: 1)
by BB on Monday, March 20, 2006 @ 06:21:27 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
It was apparent that only half of the 1st/2md round locations were being covered with High Definition cameras. You could tell, because coverage on the HDTV band would show the game framed by a CBS logo blue border.

Thursday/Saturday First Round games
Greensboro NC (HDTV)
San Diego, CA (HDTV)
Jacksonville, FL
Salt Lake City, UT


Friday/Sunday First Round games
Philadelphia, PA (HDTV)
Auburn Hills, MI (HDTV)
Dayton, OH
Dallas, TX

Since there appears to be 4 HDTV crews, I would imagine that all regional sites will be carried in High Definition.

North Carolina CBS affiliate WFMY had a great article about HDTV coverage of the 2006 NCAA basketball tournament:

http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/local_state/article.aspx?storyid=59649 [www.wfmynews2.com]

With




2nd round (Score: 1)
by BB on Monday, March 20, 2006 @ 12:34:26 UTC
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All the games were good and most of them were closer than the final scores would indicate. Once again Wildcats prevailed in the Villanova over Arizona contest. Lute Olson complained about the home court advantage for Villanova as a #1 seed. 1987 seems a long time ago, but that year the Wildcats clammed out against UTEP in the 1st round of the tournament in Tucson. Lute won the championship in 1997 through Memphis, Birmingham and Indianapolis. The Indiana vs Gonzaga game was the first I have seen in a long time that got over-emotional. Adam Morrison was frustrated because he could not score and started hitting. Hoosier Rodrick Wilmont and Zag Morrison were quickly nailed with technical fouls. Hoosier Marco Killingsworth earned one just seconds later to settle everyone down. Washington ended the Illini run. It was no accident that they were #2 in the Pac-10. The Texas A+M/LSU game went to the last shot. The real surprise might be Wichita State. Although the media have been loving the Missouri Valley Conference most of the season.

Sweet Sixteen memorable moment 1990 (Score: 1)
by BB on Monday, March 20, 2006 @ 13:23:50 UTC
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Clemson was leading Connecticut with 1 second left to play at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford New Jersey in the 1990 East Regional semi-final game. Huskies player Scott Burrell threw a length-of-the-floor pass to Tate George, whose turnaround beat Clemson 71-70. This moment still occasionally makes the highlight reels for NCAA basketball. The crowd in the Meadowlands would cheer loudly each time the replay was shown. In the second game Duke would defeat the UCLA Bruins on their way to to the Final Four.

Third Round part I (Score: 1)
by BB on Friday, March 24, 2006 @ 08:51:37 UTC
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All four number one seeds made it into the Sweet sixteen. Memphis handled Bradley with ease. But Duke was the first one out. With two of the top players in the country, according the the US Basketball writer's association, Duke was a given to win. Most people had Duke at least reaching the final four.

http://www.sportswriters.net/usbwa/news/2006/allamerica060307.html [www.sportswriters.net]

LSU stunned the Blue Devils with defense. Defense will probably be the key to the championship in 2006.

Texas and West Virginia played a nail-biter. Kevin Pitsnogle went down with a bloody nose and had to go to the bench. You could hear him cry out on TV. He cam back into the game just in time to sink the game tying 3 pointer with 5 seconds left. But Kenton Paulino buried the game winning 3 at the buzzer to lift Texas. That would have been the story of the night. However.....

Number 3 seed Gonzaga had number 2 seed UCLA in the bag. The Bulldogs owned the Bruins for 39 minutes and 50 seconds. In the last ten seconds UCLA pulled ahead and eked out a win with strong defensive play.
Adam Morrison was the leading scorer in the country and also a USBWA first team all american. He has been compared to Larry Bird and Pete Maravich. Neither of those players ever went on the win an NCAA championship. The Maravich LSU teams were marginal, although Pete was outstanding. UCLA just worked itself back and held off Gonzaga just enough. Morrison was held to 24 points, 4 below his season average.

Jungle noises (Score: 1)
by BB on Friday, March 24, 2006 @ 08:58:19 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
Both the Texas/WVU game and the Gonzaga/UCLA game had female spectators there screaming at the top of their lungs. They sounded like howler monkeys going "whaaaaaauuUUUP!" They must have been right by the crowd sound pickup microphones. I would guess that the microphones are mounted near the backboards to pick up the ambient court and spectator audio and provide the stereo effect. My suspicion is that the howlers were LSU and Gonzaga band members. The bands are usually covered with microphones just in case the broadcasters want to dial in the school songs. One memorable night as ESPN was covering the PAC-10 tournament in 1988, a distressed band member was heard to say: "F***! Ya HEAR that ESPN?!? F***!" right into the coverage mike...

It sure makes it difficult to listen to a game.....

More HD coverage (Score: 1)
by BB on Friday, March 24, 2006 @ 10:42:40 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
The local CBS affiliate had scheduled only two games with "look-ins" to the other two of the night. However, since both the Texas-West Virginia games and UCLA-Gonzaga games were so excitiing, a message board appeared on the HD side notifying users that they could turn to the standard channel for updates. Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas are my favorite broadcast pair right now. Gus Johnson and Len Elmore are my least favorite. I really do not care for Billy Packer, but Jim Nantz does a great job. Also, Billy knows when to shut up sometimes. Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery are doing a great job too. I do not know what CBS was thinking by pursuing Dick Vitale as was rumored. Dick is a novelty act for the crappy middle of the conference matchups to lend some livelyness to what would otherwise be a boring game. He is not really suited to the seriousness of the tournament in my mind. It is clear he loves college basketball. But during the tournament games, the announcers just need to stay out of the way.

If I were a bettor, I would say the the footage of Adam Morrison rolling into the fetal position and crying into his jersey will be replayed throughout the rest of the tournament broadcasts. His emotion certainly portrayed the agony of defeat. CBS is doing its best job ever of tournament coverage between the HD and standard broadcasts as well as the MMOD.

Third Round Part II (Score: 1)
by BB on Monday, March 27, 2006 @ 12:16:50 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
Villanova handed Boston college a real shock in the Minneapolis regional semi-final. The game was exciting with another overtime finish. Jared Dudley from BC nailed a three, which was followed by a blocked wildcat shot to send it into OT. The amazing play by Villanova to get the ball inside to end it was a stunning finish. Florida pretty much handled Georgetown. John Thompson did the play by play on the Westwood one radio network from the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Meanwhile Washington too Connecticut to overtime in Washington DC. The Huskies previaled, but it was Connecticut's that won out. CBS covered most of the importants parts of each game quite well. George Mason prevailed over Wichita. I wonder if they have anything left. At least they are close to home.

On the same night, there was also coverage of the the NCAA Hockey tournament for both men and women in Division I. It seems strange, but I think that the women hockey players are some of the best looking athletes. They do not look like hulking bruisers without their pads.

Division II Championship (Score: 1)
by BB on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 @ 19:08:03 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
Winona State wins

Video of the final minute UCLA vs Gonzaga (Score: 1)
by BB on Thursday, March 30, 2006 @ 18:48:25 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
UCLA fans check this out:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3F66Cs9M6pc [youtube.com]
(CBS broadcast from the stream of MMOD)

Then: Check out this video of the same moment taken by a member of the UCLA varsity band:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW-vMeKuBDg&search=ucla%20vs%20gonzaga
 [www.youtube.com] 

Florida defeats UCLA in championship game (Score: 1)
by BB on Tuesday, April 04, 2006 @ 11:03:18 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com

More on that here:
http://www.group29.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=106

Billy Packer and Jim Nantz did a nice job covering the semi finals and finals. Since all three games were never close, they were able to comment as if we were watching a documentary. I did not hear much complaining about the lack of excitement. Joakim Noah dominated as a center is supposed to. Give strong conference play credit. Both UCLA and Florida lost conference games, but came on strong to win their conference tournaments. The SEC does not have round robin play, so it is harder to judge the teams against each other. South Carolina, the NIT champion, has to be seething over the two point differential in the championship game of the SEC tournament. A win would have put them in the NCAA tournament and given them a victory over Florida.

Dick Enberg had to cover a whole lifetime worth of NCAA basketball in three minutes. Not an enviable position. Then Greg Gumbel gave Dick some lip about his metallic pink tie. Dick looked back at the camera as if to bore a hole in his wardrobe manager with his eyes.

Most of the excitement happened in the first four rounds. The Northwestern Louisiana stunning 3 pointer was the play of the tournament.

Gus Johnson and Len Elmore royally screwed up in the last 10 seconds of the Gonzaga game. No one was able to tell the viewers that UCLA and Gonzaga had just had a jump ball and the possesion arrow was pointed to UCLA. The truck crew screwed up too, because there were no camera shots of the possesion arrow.

Pixelation problems? (Score: 1)
by BB on Tuesday, April 04, 2006 @ 14:15:39 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
It seems that a number of people experienced pixelation problems.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=663545 [www.avsforum.com]

http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/04/04/how-was-the-national-championship-game-broadcast/ [www.hdbeat.com]


I watched the game on the over-the-air broadcast WCCO-DT 4.1 using just an in-room antenna. The only time I would experience pixelation is if someone knocked the antenna over.

Ads for Slither movie (Score: 1)
by BB on Friday, April 07, 2006 @ 06:41:18 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
They are really pushing the Slither Movie

See the Group29 Expectation review here.

http://www.group29.com/modules.php?name=ExpectationReviews&rop=showcontent&id=263

Ads for Lucky Number Slevin (Score: 1)
by BB on Friday, April 07, 2006 @ 07:21:35 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
I like the looks of Bruce Willis in this one.

http://www.group29.com/modules.php?name=ExpectationReviews&rop=showcontent&id=264

Move over Slither, you are stinking up the place!

March 23rd 2006 (Score: 1)
by BB on Thursday, June 01, 2006 @ 13:27:57 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
Sports Illustrated has named the top 25 moments in college sports for the 2005-2006 season. Note that there is still college world series NCAA softball and baseball yet to be played.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/sioncampus/05/11/top25.moments/index.html [sportsillustrated.cnn.com]

TWO of them are directly connected to the UCLA vs Gonzaga game on March 23rd, 2006.

18. J.J. Redick and Adam Morrison cry, March 23, 2006: The two biggest names in college basketball saw their seasons end the same way ... in tears. In Sweet 16 action, Redick's Blue Devils bowed out to LSU while Morrison's Zags lost a heartbreaker to UCLA, 73-71.

9. UCLA reaches the Final Four by scoring the last 11 points against Gonzaga, March 23, 2006: For 37 minutes, Gonzaga was in control, leading by as many as 17 in the first half. But the Bruins did the impossible, dominating the final three minutes of the game and taking the lead with 11 seconds left on a layup by Luc Richard Mbah a Moute to secure a 73-71 win.

The call: UCLA vs Gonzaga and Gus Johnson's heart attack (Score: 1)
by BB on Thursday, June 01, 2006 @ 13:37:07 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
GJ Gus Johnson - Play by Play announcer
LE Len Elmore - Color commentator

GJ: They throw it to Morrison. He holds on.

LE: You don't want to foul Morrison. You make him get it over half court. You know you got to foul...

GJ: And a steal! Farmar! Inside! The freshman... up OHHHH! And they go in front! Raivio. Last, chance, to dance! Mbah a Moute!

LE: Unbelievable!

GJ: Oh what a game!

LE: Unbelievable.

GJ: What. A. Game!

LE: Unbelievable!

GJ: UCLA! Unbelievable!
(In the ensuing chaos, Mbah a Moute steals the ball from Derek Raivio and forced a jump ball with the possession arrow to the Bruins. Gus is so freaking stunned, he cannot even call the game.)

LE: Are you kidding me!?!
GJ: After being down by 17... Heart, Break, City!

LE: Holy Mackerel

GJ: 2.6 to go. UCLA has CLIMBED the MOUNTAIN!

Yahoo sports poll (Score: 1)
by BB on Monday, December 04, 2006 @ 10:04:33 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
 In the fall 2006 Yahoo Sports poll, UCLA defeating Gonzaga in the sweet sixteen is fourth place among the college basketball stories of the year.

1. George Mason advances to the Final Four
2. Florida Wins Championship
3. JJ Redick sets ACC scoring mark
4. UCLA rallies to beats ZAG in sweet sixteen

It was certainly the game of the year.

Gus Johnson (Score: 1)
by BB on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 @ 12:57:55 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
I forgot to add that Greg Gumbel told viewers after the replay of the UCLA Gonzaga game that Gus Johnson would be out of the hospital in time for the next game.

Gus Johnson Part II (Score: 1)
by BB on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 @ 13:03:28 UTC
(User Info ) http://www.group29.com
I forgot Gus's call at the end of the game.

Johnson: “Hollis comes into the game. He’ll guard the ball. Pendergraft the inbounder.” Elmore: “On any long pass, trying to get it to halfcourt, you still want to get after the ball like you’re a cornerback in the …” Johnson: “In the frontcourt (voice rising) … Batista with the C-A-A-ETCH! THAT’S IT! WHAT A COMEBACK! UCLA DEFEATS GONZAGA, 73-71, AFTER BEING DOWN BY 17!”


Gus Johnson is only the most underappreciated play-by-play guy in the NFL [wwwedit.profootballweekly.com]



That last "CATCH" is what burnt his vocal cords.