The first of four college basketball champions was crowned on Wednesday when Santa Clara won the College Insider.com Tournament title with a 76-69 victory over Iona. These two schools had met only one pervious time, back in the Tournament of Roses at Portland, Oregon in 1960. Santa Clara won that meeting as well, 68-47. The Broncos became the third winner of the CIT, following Old Dominion in 2009 and Missouri St in 2010... Read more

Sixteen ‘sweet’ teams remain and 15 games from now, on April 4 from Reliant Stadium in Houston, the 2011 national champions will be crowned. The selection committee ranked the entire field from 1 to 68 with the last four at-large teams selected and the four lowest-ranked automatic qualifiers playing what was called the "First Four". The winners from the group of at-large teams saw Clemson get a No. 12 seed and VCU a No... Read more

The eyes of the sporting world all descend on Indianapolis this weekend for college basketball's Final 4. Then again, maybe not. More than just a few pair of eyes will be paying attention to Sunday night's game at Fenway, where the Yanks and Red Sox open the 2010 MLB season with CC Sabathia squaring off against Josh Beckett. MLB's traditional Opening Day is set for Monday (April 5) with a 13-game schedule beginning... Read more

Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign coined the phrase, "it's the economy, stupid!" I'll play off that and look at the Sweet 16 coaching matchups in this two-part column. While the world of professional sports is dominated by its best players, the college game typically finds that its schools (teams) are best-identified by its coaches. Accepting that premise, here's a look at the 16 head coaches who have led their... Read more

Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign coined the phrase, "it's the economy, stupid!" I'll play off that and look at the Sweet 16 coaching matchups in this two-part column. While the world of professional sports is dominated by its best players, the college game typically finds that its schools (teams) are best-identified by its coaches. Accepting that premise, here's a look at the 16 head coaches who have led their... Read more

The NCAA selection committee announced its 65-team field late Sunday afternoon. The NIT followed (32 teams), then the CBI (in its third season) and CollegeInsider.com Tournament also filled out their brackets with 16 teams apiece. That means 129 of 347 Division I schools will be playing over the next three weeks (37.2 percent). Compare that to the 68 of 120 football schools which competed in last season's 34 bowl games... Read more

When the 2010 NCAA tournament field is announced on Sunday it will be missing some pretty familiar names. U Conn and North Carolina both played in last year's Final 4 (Tar Heels notched the school's fifth title) but the Huskies bowed out of at-large consideration with an embarrassing 73-51 loss to St John's on Tuesday and the Tar Heels' ACC tournament ended Thursday night with a 62-58 loss to Georgia Tech. Indiana, which... Read more

North Carolina began last season as the unanimous No. 1 in both preseason polls and the Tar Heels confirmed all the hype with one of the most dominating runs in NCAA tournament history. North Carolina won all six of its tournament games by double figures (average victory margin of 20.2 PPG), including beating Michigan State 89-72 in last year's national championship game at Ford Field in Detroit. However, the Tar Heels... Read more

Seven of 30 conference tourneys got underway Tuesday through Thursday (Atlantic Sun, Big South, Horizon League, MVC, Northeast Conference, OVC, and the Patriot League). The only league champ 'safe' for a tourney bid out of this group regardless of the tourney results is No. 12 Butler (26-4) from the Horizon. The Bulldogs were the lone school to go through its respective conference unbeaten (18-0) and the Bulldogs will... Read more

Rumor has it that Beatles were not too concerned when the 1910 Fruitgum Company released the song "One, Two Three Red Light" in the late 1960s (with good reason). However, as I sat down at my computer Monday night, that song came to mind. I guess because on Saturday both No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Kentucky lost (first time nation's top-two teams had lost on the same day since January of 2006) and then No. 3 Purdue, playing... Read more