[Guest post by DRJ]

Are you watching? It’s on now.

Overtime. Final Score: Kansas 75, Memphis 68.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

We’re just hours away from tip-off in the battle of the No. 1 seeds. Time to make your picks:

6:07 PM EST - UCLA-Memphis.

8:47 PM EST - Kansas-UNC.

UPDATE 1: Memphis won the first game 78-63.

UPDATE 2: Kansas beat North Carolina 84-66.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

No doubt hoping to lay to rest memories of his woeful bowling exhibition, Obama has challenged Indiana 18-year-olds to register new voters for a chance to play a 3-on-3 basketball game with him:

“Barack Obama will play three-on-three with students — and possibly a former Indiana University basketball star — as he taps the state’s rich basketball tradition to help get out the vote for next month’s primary.

An 18-year-old high school student who registers 20 people to vote will choose two students to help challenge the Democratic presidential candidate on the court, said Kevin Griffis, a spokesman for Obama’s campaign in Indiana. If the winning student decides not to play, he or she can choose all three players.

Obama’s team could include Calbert Cheaney, a former NBA player and NCAA basketball player of the year, and a college student who registers 30 new voters.”

Indiana’s primary is May 6.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The 2008 NCAA Basketball Final Four is set. Memphis and Kansas joined UCLA and North Carolina, and it will be all-No 1 seeds at the Final Four. In today’s games, Memphis dominated the Texas Longhorns, winning 85-67, while Kansas squeaked by a valiant Davidson squad 59-57.

The Final Four begins Saturday, April 5, at the Alamodome in San Antonio. UCLA will face Memphis and North Carolina takes on Kansas. The winners of each game will play in the final Monday, April 7.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

UCLA won BIG over Xavier to claim the first slot in next week’s Final Four:

“Surprise, surprise. UCLA is back in the Final Four.

After flirting with trouble for two rounds, the top-seeded Bruins blitzed Xavier 76-57 Saturday to earn their third straight trip to the Final Four and record 18th overall.”

Congratulations to UCLA and Bruins fans everywhere.

UPDATE: North Carolina held off a determined Louisville 83-73 to claim the second spot. The final two spots will be determined tomorrow.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The Elite Eight are set. Today’s match-ups are (all times EST):

6:40 PM — Xavier at UCLA
9:05 PM — Louisville at North Carolina

Tomorrow’s games will be (again, all times EST):

2:20 PM — Texas at Memphis
5:05 PM — Davidson at Kansas

Here are my picks for the Final Four: Xavier, NC, Memphis, and Kansas. However, like most of America (outside Kansas), I’m secretly cheering for Davidson.

I could go either way on the UCLA-Xavier game. I think UCLA is the better team but they’ve had trouble all year with teams that are fast on the perimeter like Xavier, so I think this is a bad match-up for UCLA. I don’t want people to think I’m a PAC-10 hater because I’ve been negative on that conference in the tournament. I really like PAC-10 football, especially the West Coast offenses, but I thought their basketball prowess was overrated this year.

Here are my picks on the Final Four, but I’ll do another post next week for those picks: Memphis at North Carolina in the final, and NC will take the championship. Basketball is a big man’s game and I think NC has the best one(s) this year.

Add your picks in the comments. Half the fun is watching the games but the other half is trying to pick’em in advance.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Davidson is up 15 on Wisconsin with 9 minutes to go in the first round of the Sweet 16. I don’t know who will win but Davidson is the highlight of the tournament.

To top it off, the Davidson Trustees paid to send any student who wanted to go to the tournament, including free bus, hotel and tickets. What’s even more impressive is that the $100,000 cost is being paid by the Trustees individually.

You gotta love that.

UPDATE: Davidson beat Wisconsin 73-56. How sweet it is!

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Let’s review the brackets as of Saturday evening:

East.

No real upsets here. The top seed beat the lower-seeded team in every case except #9 Arkansas’s win over #8 Indiana. Washington State beat Notre Dame to make it into the Sweet 16. The remaining 3 teams will be determined tomorrow.

South.

Just like in the East, all the top seeds in the South made it past the first round. In the second round, Stanford beat Marquette by 1 in Overtime to move into the Sweet 16. Michigan State and Pitt are in progress, with the winner going to the Sweet 16. The remaining 2 teams will be determined tomorrow.

UPDATE: #5 Michigan State beat #4 Pitt and will take on the winner of Memphis-Mississippi State next week.

West.

There were a few upsets in the West, including #9 Texas A&M over #8 BYU and #12 Western Kentucky over #5 Drake. But the big news was #13 San Diego’s 1-point win over #4 Connecticut.

In addition, West Virginia made it to the Sweet 16 by ending Duke’s run in the second round. West Virginia will face Xavier, who beat Purdue today. The third Sweet 16 team from the West will be the winner of UCLA-Texas A&M, which is in progress. The fourth team from the West will be determined tomorrow.

UPDATE: Texas A&M was the 6th-ranked team in the Big 12 Conference (it was 8-8 in conference play) and it’s taking UCLA down to the wire. The game is tied at 47 with just over a minute to play. No matter how this game turns out, the PAC-10 looks very weak right now.

UCLA won 53-49 51-49 [see comment 14] but it was close to the end. What’s even more amazing is this was in Anaheim and basically a home game for UCLA.

Midwest.

There were some big upsets in the Midwest, including #10 Davidson over #7 Gonzaga, #11 Kansas State beat #6 USC, #13 Siena over #4 Vanderbilt, and #12 Villanova beat #5 Clemson. The 12-seed Villanova will face #13 Siena tomorrow. You don’t see that every day.

#1 seed Kansas made it safely through the first and second rounds and is off to the Sweet 16, as is #3 Wisconsin. The remaining 2 teams from the Midwest will be determined tomorrow.

Good luck to all.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

It’s game time and CBS Sports is offering the games for free online, so you don’t have to choose between basketball and Patterico. Here are some early results from Round 1:

Xavier beat Georgia.
Kansas beat Portland State.
Michigan St over Temple.
Marquette beat Kentucky.
Pittsburgh beat Oral Roberts.
UNLV over Kent St.
Purdue beat Baylor.
Stanford walloped Cornell.

There are several games in progress. The only surprise I see is that USC trails Kansas ST 37-27 at the half.

UPDATE: ABC reports that Obama picked the brackets but he picked relatively few upsets:

“For a man who purports to know his basketball, it is surprisingly free of unconventional picks. And he may have handed Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., a potent electability argument: Can America trust a man who, when he picks up that phone at 3 am, does not select a single 5-12 upset?

Bottom line: This is the bracket of a cautious politician who is not immune to political pandering.”

ABC also claims that Ben Smith caught Obama doing a flip-flop when he picked Pittsburgh over Stanford in the brackets, but he told a radio station he was picking Stanford:

“UPDATE: Politico’s Ben Smith e-mails to point out that choosing Pittsburgh was a flip-flop: Obama told a North Carolina radio station Thursday morning that he would be choosing Stanford OVER Pittsburgh to get to the Final Four. So he was against Pittsburgh before he was for it?”

So much for change …

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The brackets are out. The four No. 1s are: North Carolina (East), UCLA (West), Kansas (Midwest), and Memphis (South).

A good viewable bracket is at CBS Sportsline. Pick away and enjoy what promises to be a good basketball tourney.

I, of course, pick Texas and the Big 12. The rest of my family knows I’m an easy mark but I can’t help it.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Vince Young is a former quarterback of the University Texas Longhorn football team. He led his team to many exciting wins, a few exciting near misses, and a 2005 National Championship in which he was named MVP. Young left Texas after his junior year to be the 3rd pick overall in the 2006 NFL draft and the first quarterback taken.

I admire Vince Young’s ability to lead his team and to perform as a football player, but I respect him after reading this article in the Austin American-Statesman:

“Vince Young is making another comeback at Texas. This time, it’s in the classroom. The Tennessee Titans quarterback who led Texas to the 2005 national championship is back in class this semester, working toward his degree in education.

“I just wanted to come back and finish up because I wanted to show not only myself and my family, but all the people that have respect for me, that school is the key,” Young said Monday. He’s taking 12 hours this semester with still more to come.

“You can never stop getting knowledge, and the kids that left school early and went to the NFL, you’ve still got to come back and get your degree because you can always have that for life,” he said.”

Young said returning to school was his idea, and that he’s getting more out of it because he’s more mature and paying better attention to the teacher. He’s also getting “high Bs” but he hopes the As are coming.

As they say at UT, the Eyes of Texas are upon you … all the live long day.

– DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

The Houston Chronicle reports that Bob Knight resigned today as basketball coach for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. His resignation is effective immediately:

“Texas Tech men’s basketball coach Bob Knight stepped down Monday as head the Red Raiders head coach, school officials confirmed.

Knight, who became the first male coach in Division I history to reach 900 career wins last month, apparently gave no indication to the school that he was leaning in this direction until some time early Monday afternoon. Last year, Knight became the all-time winningest Division I coach when he hit 880 victories after 40 seasons.

Knight has spent the last six years coaching at Tech, but he most well known for his tenure at Indiana from 1971 until he was fired in 2000. Knight, who’s 41-year career comes to an with a 902-371 career record, had one year remaining on his current contract with Tech.

Knight’s son, Pat Knight will succeed his father as the head coach of the Raiders. He has been the head coach designated since 2005 and under that deal automatically gets a five-year contract. “

I guess Knight accomplished all he wanted to and he’s decided to turn the reins over to his son Pat. It’s strange to do it in mid-season, though, and it makes me wonder if there’s more to this story. The Red Raider fan sites think it may be health-related.

Then again, it could be classic Bob Knight.

EDIT: Come to think of it, here in West Texas we’ve had more than our usual number of dust storms the past two weeks. Maybe he got sick of the dirt. I wouldn’t blame him for that.

– DRJ