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OKLAHOMA CITY | You could see signs, early and often, that perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be for the Kansas State baseball team Sunday in its 15-7 loss to Texas in the championship game of the Big 12 tournament.
Wildcats third baseman Nate Tenbrink committed an error when his throw pulled first baseman Justin Bloxom off the bag on the first batter of the game, leading to a run. In the bottom of the first, K-State loaded the bases with one out but failed to score and in the second had them loaded with no outs and scored just once.
Even ace Brad Hutt, entering in relief, got roughed up as the Wildcats’ seven pitchers allowed a season-high 19 hits.
“We felt good going in,” Hutt said. “We had a big emotional win last night (3-2 over Baylor), but I felt we were ready to play coming to the park. We just ran into a hot team. Everything we threw up there they hit.”
Playing the biggest game in its baseball history, K-State faced a mountain of history in the opposite dugout. Texas, with its six national championships and lettermen like Roger Clemens and Huston Street, can be an intimidating presence in burnt orange.
Seventh-seeded K-State, trying to make its own history, got burned by the No. 5-seeded Longhorns in front of 5,876 at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.
Although K-State lost, junior shortstop Drew Biery thought it was a crucial step for the program, even if it wasn’t the leap the Wildcats anticipated.
“Our goal was to get here and win the tournament. We battled for it all year,” Biery said. “It’s a big step, yes sir. But we really can’t say it’s been a successful one. We got where we needed to be. Now we’ve just got to take care of it.”

kansascity.com

Your bracket may be busted, but here’s your chance to get it right. All the No. 1 seeds are still alive, but will they be upset by a bevy of spoilers? Can you pick every Sweet 16 game?
Can a surprising Villanova team knock off a Kansas juggernaut that has cruised through the first two rounds? Will 10-seed Davidson pull off yet another upset versus No. 3 Wisconsin?
Pick every Sweet 16 game below and see how your picks stack up to the rest of SportsNation!

proxy.espn.go.com

No. 10/11 Stanford advanced to face No. 24/25 Marquette in the second round of the NCAA Tournament after a 77-53 victory over Cornell on Thursday. MarquetteHoops.com’s Jeff Wolf breaks it down
No. 10/11 Stanford Cardinal (No. 3 seed, South Region)
The Cardinal finished second in both the Pac-10 regular season standings, going 13-5, and the conference tournament, falling to UCLA 67-64 in the championship game. In fact, three of Stanford’s seven losses on the season came at the hand of the No. 2/3 Bruins. Yet Head Coach Trent Johnson felt like his team’s rigorous conference schedule helped prepare them for the postseason.
Brook is the team leader in minutes (31.5), points (19.2), and rebounds (8.5) per game. He has played in 24 games and led the Cardinal in scoring 18 times. Brook has also recorded three 30-point performances this season, including a 75-68 victory over
that sent Stanford to the championship game of the Pac-10 Tournament. He didn’t play enough games to qualify for the Pac-10 leader board, but would have been fourth in scoring and fifth in rebounding. He has great hands and a diversified portfolio of post moves, both for going inside and scoring from the baseline.
Robin is not as prolific of a scorer or rebounder, but is still third on the team in scoring (10.0 points per game) and second in rebounding (5.6 boards per game). On the other hand, he is more active on the offensive glass and a more dangerous shot-blocker (he leads the team with 75 rejections). Robin is less involved in the offense and gets a lot of his points off put-backs inside. As one might imagine, he shoots a higher percentage from the field (52.6 percent). However, he is only a 66.7 percent free-throw shooter.

stanford.scout.com

March Madness is online this year for free.
It’s seems no one is immune from the distraction. CBS Sports is streaming NCAA’s games live, and people are tuning in-whether they are at home or at work.
“I woke up this morning and wondered how I’m gonna’ keep up with the tournament,” Mike Messer said.
It used to be all about the brackets.
“I’m looking at the bracket here on line, studying it diligently,” Lanny Porter said.
Now it’s all about watching the video.
“The first two days are actually my most favorite time to watch the tournament,” said Porter.
Messer’s the boss in his little insurance office, so if he’s watching, he’s not going to slap wrists for anyone else watching the game.
“We’re pretty loose about that, if the phone rings or we got something to do, certainly we’re going to get that done first, but everybody here has a team that they like and there is no problem with them checking in and making sure they are still alive in the tournament, ” said Messer.
They are not the exception-lots of people are tuning in.
The free lure has millions tuning in. A workplace study predicts 37.3 million are in office pools and 1.5 million people will watch the game online.
And those workers will waste as much as 1.7 billion dollars of work time. Despite what the report says, some businesses will still get some work done.
“We’re not so distracted that we might get up and leave and go to a place like home or to the restaurant to watch the game, at least we’re still here in the office and trying to get some stuff done,” said Messer.
Published: Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 6:05 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 8:51 PM

komu.com

Brandon Browne wasn’t at the 2007 NCAA Wrestling Championships, but he did live the experience.
In fact, Browne, his teammates and his coaches say it still serves as motivation and inspiration for a Nebraska team that has put together one of the most historic wrestling seasons in school history.
Today, Browne and seven of his Husker teammates will take the mats in St. Louis and be among the teams expected to contend for the title.
It’s something that may not have been possible if it weren’t for the emotional ripples created when NU’s Paul Donahoe won the 125-pound national title last year.
Donahoe, then a sophomore, overcame his biggest nemesis — Oklahoma’s Sam Hazewinkel, who had dominated their three previous meetings — with an overtime takedown and earned college wrestling’s top prize only 30 miles from his hometown of Davison, Mich.
In the back of Donahoe’s mind was his longtime friend, Chase Metcalf, who had died during their high school years.
The emotion Donahoe had been keeping inside finally welled up and broke through. As his hand was raised at the end of his match, Donahoe screamed and wept. He sprinted into the waiting arms of his Husker coaches and began the celebration.
Nebraska coach Mark Manning remembers the immediate aftermath of Donahoe’s win as a turning point for the Husker program.
It was only the ninth individual national title in school history and, Manning said, served as an inspiration for the young Husker lineup that competed at the NCAA meet last season.
“When Paul walked back off the mat and came back into the warmup area, I’ll never forget the look on the faces of our freshmen — Craig Brester, Stephen Dwyer, Jordan Burroughs,” Manning said.
“They saw Paul do it, and it helped with their believing. They understood that they have a chance to do that, too. Sort of, ‘If Paul did it, I can do it.’”

journalstar.com

Coppin State and Mount St. Mary’s kick off March Madness with tonight’s play-in game, which will whittle the NCAA tournament field to 64 — and throw the winner into the gladiator pit against North Carolina. But that’s for later. For now, it’s time for both schools to enjoy the spotlight — and wonder at the oddity of meeting in Dayton, Ohio.
“On some levels, it doesn’t make much sense,” Kevin Van Valkenburg acknowledges in the Baltimore Sun. “Two Baltimore-area teams, separated by 45 miles, traveled west almost 500 miles to be here yesterday. Tonight, they’ll play an NCAA tournament game that, one could argue, is not really an NCAA tournament game. It is a bizarre scenario, almost like holding a family get-together in a stranger’s house in a state that no one involved has any connection to.”
Chris Vann and Mount St. Mary’s have Cinderella dreams. (Associated Press Photo)
Should the Mountaineers and Eagles even be playing? Is the play-in game — first held in 2001 — a fun addition to March Madness, or an atrocity? The latter, says Newsday’s Erik Boland. As he notes, the play-in game’s origins date back to 2001, when the Mountain West Conference became eligible for an automatic bid.
“The simple solution in 2001 was also the right one: lessen by one the number of at-large bids to 33 and add the Mountain West tournament winner to the automatic-bid stable for a total of 31, thus keeping the 64-team field intact,” he writes. “After all, if an 18- or 19-victory team from the ACC, Big Ten or Big East gets left out, does the tournament really suffer that much? But the power conferences, who receive the majority of at-large bids, … didn’t want to lose the money that comes from bids and is filtered to conferences and member institutions. The at-large number stays at 34, the big-league cabal told the NCAA, and that’s the way it’s going to be. The NCAA capitulated and concocted the play-in scheme, an annual double-deal to a pair of schools from smaller conferences that deserve better.”

blogs.wsj.com

BracketBrains.com helps college basketball fans identify likely upsets, make better bracket pool picks for 2008 NCAA basketball tournament.
Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) March 15, 2008 — TeamRankings.com today announced BracketBrains 2008, a web-based service that uses powerful statistical technology to help NCAA basketball fans make smarter 2008 March Madness bracket pool picks. A free demonstration of BracketBrains is available now at http://teamrankings.com/ncbtp/index.php?aff=100000005.
"Conventional wisdom regarding how to make good NCAA bracket picks is often disproved by analyzing historical data," said Mike Greenfield, a Stanford-trained computational scientist and co-founder of TeamRankings.com. "For example, sportscasters from media outlets such as ESPN and CBS Sportsline love to discuss how teams with strong end-of-season momentum are well positioned for success in the NCAA tournament. In fact, 'streaking' tournament teams have generally underperformed expectations when one considers the historical performance of similarly seeded teams."
"Unfortunately," adds Greenfield, "when it comes to making March Madness picks, very few college basketball fans have the technical aptitude, data, or free time to perform a detailed statistical analysis of every possible NCAA tournament bracket game."
To help NCAA basketball fans make more educated bracket choices, TeamRankings.com created BracketBrains. The web site touched a nerve with guessing-weary office pool entrants last year, attracting hundreds of thousands of March Madness fans in the days after the 2007 NCAA tournament bracket was announced by the NCAA Selection Committee.

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AP Photo Michigan State’s Drew Neitzel can’t wait for the NCAA tournament to start Thursday. “You can rest in April,” he said.
EAST LANSING — The healing power of the NCAA tournament cured whatever pain Michigan State was experiencing from its rough treatment over the weekend and regular-season failings.
The NCAA tournament selection committee Sunday night rewarded the Spartans for their 25-8 record, good power rating and strength of schedule with a No. 5 seed in the South Region.
They will play their first-round game against Atlantic 10 conference tournament champion Temple (21-12) on Thursday in Denver’s sold-out Pepsi Center.
Michigan State’s streak of 11 straight tournament appearances is fifth in the nation behind Arizona (24), Kansas (19), Kentucky (17) and Duke (13).
A victory will put MSU in Saturday’s second round against the winner of the game between Big East tournament champion and No. 4 seed Pittsburgh and No. 13 Oral Roberts, which won the Summit League tournament title.
• What: First round of the NCAA tournament
• Where: The Pepsi Center (19,555), Denver
• TV/Radio: CBS; Spartan Radio Network
• Seeds, records: MSU (No. 5; 25-8), Temple (No. 12; 21-12).
• Series history: Temple leads, 6-5.
• Last meeting: MSU won, 69-52, in the 2001 South Region’s championship game in Atlanta.

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MORE: Rivals.com’s Drive for 65 - Forecasting the NCAA field
When a team that had to play twice in one day has a legit chance to go to the NCAA Tournament, you know it’s been a wild March already.
Sunday promises to be wild, too, as the unveiling of the NCAA Tournament field of 65 draws near with the promise of a lot more intrigue.
A couple of things to watch for:
• Two long shots remain alive in two “Big Six” conferences: Georgia, which won twice in one day in the SEC tourney, and Illinois in the Big Ten tourney. Those teams have no shots at NCAA bids unless they win their tournament final, which means there will be an awful lot of bubble teams doing an awful lot of fingernail-chewing. Plus, both games are set to tip at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time; that means each should end around 5:45 p.m. — or 15 minutes before the field is unveiled. What that means, of course, is that the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee is going to have to have some contingencies in place if Georgia and/or Illinois should win.
• The No. 1 seeds are up in the air. Memphis and UCLA are locks for No. 1s. North Carolina is a lock for a No. 1 — and maybe even No. 1 overall — if it beats Clemson in the ACC final; actually, the Heels look good for a No. 1 even if they lose to the Tigers. But SEC regular-season champ Tennessee, which was upset in a tourney semifinal by Arkansas, could fall to a No. 2, especially if Texas wins the Big 12 tourney. The Longhorns play Kansas in the final, and the Jayhawks also have a shot at a No. 1.

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never back down when following the exciting action of NCAA March Madness, Coke Zero has made its decision. Accepting offers to relocate to San Antonio, site of this year’s NCAA Men’s Final Four, for three weeks to watch every minute of the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship are: Steven Book, from Rochester Hills, Mich.; Ryan Hohanshelt, from Boone, Iowa; Stacey Rice, from Oswego, N.Y.; and Dustin Tinney, from Ft. Worth, Tex.
“Just like Coke Zero never backed down when it created a cola with real Coca-Cola taste and zero calories, true NCAA basketball fans never back down in their devotion to March Madness,” said Caren Pasquale Seckler, group director, Low Calorie Colas, Coca-Cola North America. “We’ve ‘hired’ a group of passionate individuals who we feel are best suited to complete their challenging job duties in San Antonio.”
On Sunday, March 16, the four new ‘hires’ will take up residence at ‘CokeZeroVille,’ located beneath the official giant Coke Zero NCAA Tournament Bracket at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. From that moment until Saturday, April 5, they will reside in a 40-foot Coke Zero-branded motorcoach outfitted with six flat-screen televisions, satellite television service and AT&T broadband Internet access — all the tools necessary for them to carry out their new job assignments.

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