The Madness Starts Now

It is now that time of year where offices around the USA are filled with bracket talk as even the most casual of basketball fan finds themselves caught up in the madness of the NCAA basketball tourney.

The appetizer to the main course will be played on Tuesday night when the Winthrop Eagles, tournament champions of the Big South conference, square off against the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions the Southwestern Athletic conference tourney champs. The winner will then face Duke, the top seed of the South Region.

I am taking Winthrop to win and go on to face the Blue Devils.

For the First Round, here are my winning predictions.

Midwest:

Kansas over Lehigh by 20+

N. Iowa over UNLV by 6-10

Michigan St. over New Mexico St. by 12+

Maryland over Houston by 8-12

San Diego St. over Tennessee by 4-8

Georgetown over Ohio by 14-18

GA Tech over Oklahoma St. by 6-10

Ohio St over San Jose St. by 16-20

West:

Syracuse over Vermont by 16

Florida State over Gonzaga by 5-9

UTEP over Butler by 8

Vanderbilt over Murray St. by 10-14

Minnesota over Xavier by 2-6

Pitt over Oakland by 8-13

Florida over BYU by 5-7

Kansas State over North Texas by 20+

East:

Kentucky over East Tennessee by 12-16

Texas over Wake Forest by 4-8

Cornell over Temple by 2-4

Wisconsin over Wofford by 12-16

Marquette over Washington by 7-12

New Mexico over Montana by 20+

Clemson over Missouri by 4-8

Morgan St. over West Virginia by 2

South:

Duke over play-in winner by 12-16

Louisville over Cal by 8-12

Texas A&M over Utah State by 6-10

Siena over Purdue by 4-7

Notre Dame over Old Dominion by 3-7

Baylor over Sam Houston by 14-18

Richmond over St. Mary’s by 8

Villanova over Robert Morris by 20+

Hmm….let the upsets begin…..possible Cinderella’s ….Morgan State, Siena, Cornell, and San Diego State

Wildcats Run Wild to Title

The Perth Wildcats broke open a close match with a huge third quarter blitz to pull away from Wollongong 96-72 to claim their record breaking fifth NBL title last Friday night in Perth.

With the Hawks up by one point at the halfway mark, Perth got and stayed hot for the rest of the match in pulling away by the final count. Check the NBL website for all related stories.

Wild West Showdown for NBL Crown

The NBL finals series will return to Perth for a winner take all game on Friday night after the Wollongong Hawks smacked the Wildcats 75-64 on Tuesday night to even up the ledger at one win each.

Post player Cameron Tragardh returned to form with a 28 point, ten rebound showcase to lead the Hawks who pulled away to win comfortably with a huge fourth quarter. Luke Martin was perfect on three attempts from the land of three on his way to 11 points with Rhys Martin (10 points) and Larry Davidson (8 points/10rebounds) providing additional support.

Kevin Lisch (11 points) and Steven Weigh (10) points led a shaky Perth attack.

The Wildcats will hope for better outings from Shawn Redhage and Martin Cattalini in the decider on Friday night. The action kicks off at 1900 on Fox so tune in.

Wildcats enter the ‘Gong with 1-0 Series lead

The Perth Wildcats will be looking to grab an unprecedented fifth NBL crown tonight in Wollongong. Fresh from a 75-64 match one victory, the ‘Cats will hope for a similar effort in tonight’s stoush at The Sandpit where the welcome will be none too cordial.

The action will be live on Fox Sports 1 from 1930 AEDT so tune in for some riveting action.

Back 4 Real this time

Canberra Capitalises on chance and grabs title #7

In an epic championship battle, the Canberra Capitals grabbed their seventh WNBL crown with a 75-70 win over the Bulleen Boomers on Saturday before a packed house at The Cage in Melbourne.

The atmosphere was electric and took place in front of Australian Basketball royalty with legends Andrew and Lindsay Gaze in attendance. The basketball talent was not restricted to the court as each team had legends or future legends on the sideline in the form of Tom Maher, Gary Fox, and Michelle Timms on the Boomers bench in opposition of Carrie Graf patrolling the sidelines for the Capitals.

Initially the action was furious and defensive and after one quarter Bulleen held a narrow 14-12 lead. Canberra opened the second quarter with seven unanswered points with Lauren Jackson leading the charge after a slow start. The momentum was stalled though as Jackson ran into foul trouble picking up her third before half time. Bulleen steadied their ship to hold a tenuous 33-30 lead at the halfway point.

Bulleen jumped out to a brief eight point advantage to start the second half thanks to a Sharon Milner three pointer and a Jenna O’Hea block that was quickly converted by young gun Liz Cambage. Threes from Nat Hurst and Ms. Jackson pulled the Capitals back into the battle with the teams finishing an evenly balanced third term that had Bulleen clutching to the same three point margin 56-53 going into the championship quarter.

Marianna Tolo began a remarkable defensive run with three blocks of the 203cm Cambage’s shot while Carly Wilson bombed a three to cut the margin to one. From there it was back and forth until an Abby Bishop bomb from beyond the arc put Canberra up 72-70 with a little over two minutes remaining. Down the stretch, Bishop made one of two from the line; Jackson missed a three followed by a miss from Bulleen before Jackson was fouled with less than five seconds left. Jackson drained both free throws to provide the final 75-70 margin.

Natalie Hurst’s 21 points and 3 assists led the way for the Capitals with Lauren Jackson (18 points/15 rebounds), Carly Wilson (12 points), Abby Bishop (12 rebounds) and Marianna Tolo (8 rebounds/6 blocks) all contributing in major ways.

Jenna O’Hea (26 points/7 rebounds/5 assists/2 blocks) paced Bulleen with help from Cambage (16 points/11 rebounds) and Elyse Penaluna (10 rebounds).

Overall the coverage from the ABC network was commendable and could very well show the NBL a thing or two about free to air coverage.

For more stories from the WNBL and All-Star selections please visit the WNBL website.

Ketchin' Up......NBL First

As the 2009-2010 NBL season nears its Valentines Day finally, virtually everyone is in contention for a playoff berth. The Perth Wildcats tops the table with a 13-8 win loss record followed closely by the surprising Gold coast Blaze and steady Townsville Crocs at 12-8. The Wollongong Hawks tenuously hold the fourth spot at 11-10. The current standings could change many times as the season goes through its final rounds with many interesting matches. The Melbourne Tigers hold up the table from the bottom at 7-12 but could play their way into the top four over the next fortnight. The same holds true for the rest of the teams sitting outside of the top group.

This weeks action sees Adelaide face Cairns on Wednesday in Adelaide as the Snakes embark on a leisurely "Doomsday Double" that will not have them facing Perth until Saturday night. Thursday night has Melbourne travelling to NZ to face the Breakers as both teams look to make a late season surge towards title contention. On Friday Adelaide will hit the road and visit the Gold Coast Convention Centre to take on the Blaze before dropping into Melbourne for a Saturday night fight. The Blaze will also hit the road for a Saturday night clash with Wollongong.

There are only four rounds left after this weekend so get out and have a look at Australia's premier basketball competition.

Finally, the Chuck is back blogging!!!

Hello All,

I am finally back on the blog scene after an abscence of a month or so for health and other commiittment reasons. I know there is a lot to catch up on so in the next few days I will be bombarding the blogWaves with info and such.

Glad to be back,

Chuck