Posts from the March Madness Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

When you think of basketball venues nowadays, Madison Square Garden doesn't top the list as it used to. That's a shame because it truly was the Mecca of hoops in this country and it wouldn't be a bad thing if it could return to form.

Due to a massive upcoming renovation, MSG could become the center of the basketball world once again. Well, maybe not the center -- but in the neighborhood. MSG is hoping that the upgrade will allow them to get back in the NCAA Tournament picture.

The World's Most Famous Arena last hosted an NCAA tournament game back in 1961. It has hosted seven Final Fours and has hosted NCAA Tournament games in 17 seasons.

Sure, the N.I.T. holds its title there, the Big East Tournament is held there ... and there are many tournaments and neutral site games held there during the season. However, nothing in college hoops is bigger than The Big Dance and MSG has been left out for a long, long time.

The renovations are said to be done by 2011 ... giving them a timetable to make a run for a site in the 2012 tournament. Right now, the tournament committee is thinking about future sites to hold the tournament. Obviously, having the NCAA Tournament in New York City, the largest market and basketball capital, would make March Madness even more ... maddening.

Now, getting the Final Four is out of reach (the NCAA has a domes-only policy now), but getting the East Regional semi-finals and finals isn't out of the question. The NCAA loves placing it in East Rutherford's IZOD Center, so moving it across the river would be outstanding.

A class action suit has been filed against the NCAA and Tickmaster, claiming the two organizations violated racketeering laws by making ticket purchasers pay a non-refundable fee to enter a lottery for the right to purchase tickets to high-profile sporting events including the NCAA Tournament.

"The NCAA and Ticketmaster have come up with a scheme that would make a Vegas bookie blush," said Rob Carey, an attorney representing the named plaintiff. "We will show that this NCAA practice has illegally taken millions of dollars out of consumers' pockets."

The defendants in the suit are from California and Indiana -- two states that only allow lotteries if they are run by the state or are for licensed charities.

There is two ways to look at this: the class action suit was made by sore losers who couldn't get their hands on tickets and want to spoil the fun for everyone. Or that these people are right. Well, there is a third way: they are both right.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford has sent a letter to the Division I men's basketball committee requesting that conference strength be added to the list of criteria considered when the NCAA tournament field is selected.

Coaches say they plan to remind the media more often next season about the conference's strength.

ESPN's Joe Lunardi is one of the best know bracketologists in the nation. Every year, the World Wide Leader strolls him out to tell us common folk where our favorite college basketball teams may be in the NCAA Tournament.

Take that for what it's worth.

So, with nothing to do right now, Lunardi has already thrown up his bracketology for 2009. Why not now? I mean, we still have guys announcing for the NBA Draft (and some that are may come back), coaching changes going on, transfers, recruiting and so many other intangibles.

However, if you really do care about it ...

-North Carolina, Duke, Pittsburgh and Texas are the #1 seeds
-Notre Dame, Kansas, UConn and Arizona are #2 seeds
-The Big East has 9 teams in the dance.
-UCLA is a #7 seed
-Florida is a #3; Virginia Tech is a #4; Ohio State is a #5. None of those schools were in this year's tournament.
-Davidson gets a #8 seed
-UNC gets to play in Greensboro and Boston before the Final Four. Remember that Boston is now an ACC city.

Hat tip to Awful Announcing on this one.

ESPN's Jay Bilas was a guest on Dan Le Batard's radio show and they got into it. The main topic of discussion was race in basketball (mainly at Tyler Hansbrough's pro prospects).

It didn't seem to be what Bilas wanted to discuss. I mean, it is only the national championship coming up and I'm sure that Jay was prepared to talk about that. Le Batard instead hit him up with weird questions about scenarios if Hansbrough was black or Michael Beasley was white.

After a heated exchange, Bilas got off this classic blast -- "Take offense ... it's stupid"

Memphis nearly won the 2008 NCAA Tournament but let it slip away in the closing moments. It would have given Memphis and Conference USA their first national championships ... and the first title for a "non-BCS" school since 1990.

Yes, it has been 18 years since UNLV (then from the Big West Conference) crushed Duke for the national championship. Since then, the ACC has won six, SEC has won five, Big East has won three, Pac-10 has won twice and the Big XII and Big Ten each winning once (see the list after the jump).

The last non-BCS team to win a title before UNLV was Louisville (who was in the Metro Conference) in 1980 and 1986. Marquette was an independent when they won the championship in 1977. Interesting that both Marquette and Louisville were members of the C-USA until 2005.

Just getting to the Final Four is quite the feat. Memphis joins George Mason ('06), Louisville ('05), Marquette ('03), Utah ('98), UMass ('96) and Cincinnati ('92) as non-BCS schools getting to the Final Four since those great UNLV teams. Of those teams, only Memphis and Utah advanced to the title game.

Did you miss Monday night's National Championship game? Were you a disgusted Kansas fan that turned the channel thinking your team was done and miss the comeback? Do you want to see where Memphis let it get away and stew about those "if we just" moments?

Hell ... do you want to see a great basketball game? Well, you can.

ESPN Classic is going to replay the Kansas-Memphis game on Tuesday night at 11:00pm EDT. It will be shown following the conclusion of the women's National Championship game pitting Tennessee and Stanford (that will be on ESPN).

See the first overtime title game since 1997. The first championship for Kansas since 1988. The (seemingly) only good game in the entire NCAA tournament this year.