College Basketball, Ncaa Men's Basketball Tournament | featured news

First, Morehead State won one for the underdogs. Then, Richmond. Then, Gonzaga. A 13 seed, a 12 and an 11 turned Denver into Upset City on Thursday and gave America an early refresher on why the NCAA tournament is also known as March Madness.

The NCAA men's basketball tournament and the entirety of March Madness are considered by many to be the pinnacle of the playoff experience in sports. And by "many" we mean "those who are too daft to understand that the Stanley Cup Playoffs are superior in nearly every way."

WashPost: Thursday and Friday can't get here fast enough because the NCAA tournament is wide, wide open. If we've learned anything over these first two weeks of March, it's that not all that much separates the best from the rest.

The selection committee made its choices. Now, it's America's turn. The country's biggest office pool, otherwise known as March Madness, serves up the usual smorgasbord of choices, starting with Kansas, the overall top seed in the 65-team NCAA tournament bracket released Sunday.

North Carolina teammates Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson, along with Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet, are among 11 players named to the John R. Wooden Award All American team. Hansbrough and Lawson will lead the Tar Heels against Villanova in Saturday's national championship semifinals. Thabeet and the Huskies play Michigan State in the other semifinal in Detroit.

Connecticut, the No. 1 seed in the West Regional, beat Missouri 82-75 on Saturday for the first team to qualify of the Big East's four that reached the regional finals.

The second berth was assured as soon as the East Regional semifinals were over on Thursday. Villanova earned the trip to Detroit with a 78-76 victory over top-seeded Pittsburgh in the final.

Dante Cunningham scored 14 points with 11 rebounds and third-seeded Villanova beat Duke for the first time in more than 50 years, taking advantage of the Blue Devils’ poor shooting to win 77-54 Thursday night and advance to the NCAA regional final.

Hasheem Thabeet scored 15 points and had 15 rebounds, and Connecticut overcame a sluggish first half to defeat Purdue 72-60 in the NCAA West Regional semifinals on Thursday.

Levance Fields took the big shots himself, hitting a 3-pointer with 50.9 seconds left, then scoring off his steal as the top-seeded Panthers reached the regional finals for the first time in 35 years with a 60-55 win over Xavier on Thursday night.

Sun Devils are smothered by Syracuse's zone and Eric Devendorf's shooting.

With Syracuse's season on the cusp of slipping away, Eric Devendorf picked the perfect time to be at his best.