RTC is reporting on the NCAA Second Round games at the San Jose pod today.

Three Key Takeaways.

Oregon Is a Dangerous Team As a Clearly Underseeded #12

1. The Ducks Were No #12 Seed. And they played like it. From the opening tip of this game, Dana Altman’s team played with a moxie and a poise that said, “no way in hell are we a #12 seed!” A lot of pundits suggested that the Ducks would play today as if they had been slighted, and they did. They stepped on Oklahoma State’s neck early, running out to a 19-12 lead and never really looking back. OSU struggled shooting the ball throughout, ending up with a brick-laying 39% performance. For every mini-run from the Cowboys, Oregon always had some kind of an answer — it was clear to everyone in the building, and many of those were Oregon partisans, that the Ducks were the better team. We’re not sure what the NCAA Selection Committee was thinking with that #12 seed, but this proves even more than before how much of a whiff that decision was.
2. Marcus Smart, Not Impressive. (note: after the game, Smart’s right hand was wrapped in ice and he said it was “killing him.” – even if the injury gave him problems after that point in the game, he still could have performed better prior to that point) I voted for Smart as the National Freshman of the Year for the USBWA last weekend, and after this performance — 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting, eight rebounds, four assists, five steals, and five turnovers — I’m not sure what to think. He filled the stat sheet, sure, but he never once really wowed me with either his game or his leadership. I know he’s probably capable of much more, but a truly great point guard gives his team what it needs to succeed. Today, Oklahoma State needed him to go off for 25 points because his typical scoring mates such as Le’Bryan Nash (10 points) and Phil Forte (five points) weren’t actively involved.
3. Dominic Artis is Back and Oregon is a Different Team Because of It. Oregon rose to the top 10 in America driven by its dynamic point guard Dominic Artis before his midseason injury. In the last two weeks as he’s worked his way back into the lineup, he hasn’t looked quite as dynamic or on top of his game as he had before the injury. In the last six games, for example, he had scored a total of 20 points and grabbed two steals. Today against Oklahoma State, though, he scored 13 points and ripped off four steals from a very athletic backcourt. When Artis is performing like this along with contributions from Kazemi and Dotson, Oregon is very tough to beat. Certainly as Oklahoma State found today.

Star of the Game. Arsalan Kazemi, Oregon. If you can forgive his two #rimstuff missed dunks today, he was the best player on the floor for the Ducks. He was obsessively active around the rim on both ends, grabbing a ridiculous 17 rebounds (six offensive) while also going for 11 points in the win. His teammates Damyean Dotson and Dominic Artis were also instrumental to the victory, but Kazemi as the transfer senior wasn’t going to waste his opportunity to get an NCAA win for the first time in his career.

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RTC is reporting on the NCAA Second Round games at the San Jose pod today.

Saint Louis Shut Down the Aggies This Afternoon (Thearon Henderson)

Three Key Takeaways:

1. Saint Louis Was Never Threatened. The Billikens hardly had to sweat against New Mexico State today, as the Aggies really couldn’t put two plays together and never once threatened to make the game interesting. There was a brief period during the second half when NMSU went to a full-court press and caused the Saint Louis backcourt a bit of consternation with consecutive turnovers and some shaky play when they made it past half-court, but that was short-lived. Put simply, it was a methodical defensive clinic, the kind of which you might expect a #4 seed to put on a #13 seed in this round. The stats tell the story: NMSU shot 28% for the game, had a grand total of zero fast break points, and had no answer for Dwayne Evans (his 16 points at the half equaled the Aggies).
2. Smothering Doesn’t Describe It Well Enough. Everyone knows that the SLU defense is legit — after all, it is ranked seventh in the nation according to KenPom, and its 57.7 PPG allowed is in the top 15. But until you see how they simply do not allow good looks at the basket, it’s hard to believe. Every pass, catch, dribble, and of course shot is challenged. I counted only two solid scoring opportunities for the Aggies in the first nine minutes of the game — situations where New Mexico State had clearly solved the defense for a good look. As noted above, the only time they ever made a “run” was in the second half off of their press — when left to depend on their offense figuring out the defense in the half-court, the Aggies were hapless.
3. Sim Bhullar is an Interesting Case Study. First of all, this guy is enormous. There were times as he stood in the paint today where it appeared he was the early puberty kid among a bunch of 10-year olds. The difference between his size — 7’5″, 360 pounds — and everyone else was that stark. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him whenever he was in the game, and on his first two catches in the paint, he couldn’t hang on to the ball. But he calmed down as the game went on, and the big burly freshman actually made a couple nice offensive moves and ended up with four points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks. He needs to lose 50 pounds to have better conditioning, but he’s got a promising future in college basketball.

Star of the Game: Dwayne Evans, St. Louis. Evans carried the Billikens in the first half, scoring 16 of his game-high 24 and equaling the entire team output of the Aggies at that point, but it was his play early that calmed his team and allowed their smothering half-court defense to get it going. The junior forward is playing great, going for 16 or more points in all of the Billikens’ last nine games.

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From 68 to 64 — eight squared and four cubed. The perfectly balanced bracket will take a major hit later today, when 16 hopefuls are removed from it and the Circle of March, in a 12-hour window. Today we say hello to the best four days in all of sports, while also saying goodbye to four teams that had wonderful seasons with memories to last a lifetime. Only one of the 64 squads below can survive the Circle — which one will it be?

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.19-20.13)

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Unless you’re a major procrastinator, you probably already have a pretty strong idea of who your Final Four choices will be this year. Maybe you’ve already completed your bracket and put it to bed. Or maybe you’re one of those people who likes to have all available and possible information at your fingertips before making your final decisions. For those of you that fall into the latter camp, this post is for you. We’ve aggregated all of the RTC NCAA Tournament prep materials in one place for your ease of use. We can’t guarantee that you’ll go 63-0 on your selections as a result, but we can assure you that the answers are in there if you look hard enough. Enjoy, and Happy Madness, everyone.

Play RTC Bracket Nonsense. This year’s version of RTC Bracket Nonsense is the best we’ve ever had, because it includes great prizes from Retro College Cuts as well as authentic autographed memorabilia celebrating Atlanta as the site of this year’s Final Four. You can win prizes after each of the three weekends, so don’t forget to sign up by Noon ET Thursday.

Lots of Great Prizes Available This Year – PLAY TO WIN!

The Official RTC Bracket.

• South and East Regions
• West and Midwest Regions

The RTC Podblasts. Our team of NCAA Tournament correspondents joined the RTC Podcast guys this week to break down each of the four regions separately. You can find them all in this single post — give a listen.

Bracket Prep Region Analyses. We dare you to find more thorough breakdowns of each of the four regions. From discussions of potential Cinderellas for both the Sweet Sixteen and the Final Four to the most enticing match-ups for both purists and the mainstream media, it’s all there.

• East Region
• South Region
• Midwest Region
• West Region

Vegas Odds (Along With KenPom & HSAC). Which teams do the bookmakers in Las Vegas favor heading into this year’s NCAA Tournament? How does that compare with some of the better mathematical models out there? Keep these in mind when finalizing your brackets this year.

Bracket Prep: All 31 Automatic Qualifiers. One of the most difficult things to do is to discern which of the mid-majors are poised to pull of an opening game upset. Bracket Prep digs into each of the auto-qualifiers with its Three Bruce Pearls of Wisdom, discussing the kinds of match-ups that are both good and bad for each team. Give it a look before finalizing those choices.

Bracket-Busting the Other 26. The power conference schools get plenty of attention. What about the schools from the Other 26 D-I leagues? In these posts, we break down the ceilings for each of those O26 teams, from #1 seed Gonzaga all the way down to the #16s destined for a very short stay.

• South and West Regions
• East and Midwest Regions

NCAA Tournament Tidbits. A ridiculous number of links about all of the teams gearing up for their opening games this week.

• Tuesday Edition
• Wednesday Edition

A Non-Sports Womans’ Guide to March Madness. When in doubt, pick colors and uniforms. The RTC Babe breaks down her picks for the Final Four.

We’re approximately 24 hours ahead of the opening tip from the field of 64, and the RTC Podcast crew has spent some time putting together a short preview podblast for each of the four NCAA regions. We invited four of our correspondents to the party to help us work through the brackets — Brian Otskey (@botskey) for the East Region, Kevin Doyle (@kldoyle11) for the South Region, Bennet Hayes (@hoopstraveler) for the Midwest Region, and Andrew Murawa (@amurawa) for the West Region.  We may not nail every one of our picks, but we had a blast recording these and hope you enjoy listening to our coverage on these four ‘blasts.

East Region

South Region

Midwest Region

West Region

We’ll bring everyone back next week to look forward to the regionals. Happy March Madness!

The Madness is just around the corner and through nearly 48 hours post-reveal of the bracket, there’s been no shortage of number-crunching, analysis, and commentary about what is going to happen over the next three weeks. Betting markets are often a good benchmark indicator in terms of the overall public perception of the quality of teams, so every year we always like to make it a point to review what Las Vegas thinks about each region — each region’s odds have been normalized to 100% to show a truer snapshot of each team’s odds. This year, we’ve also added another couple of columns showing what the advance metrics of KenPom and HSAC have to say — there are some notable differences among some of these teams, so that’s certainly worth tracking as well.  (note: all Vegas odds were derived on Tuesday afternoon from The Greek.)

We’ll provide each region’s snapshot view below, followed by some light commentary, starting with the East Region…

No surprise that Tom Crean’s top-seeded Hoosiers are the favorite here, with #2 Miami (FL) and #4 Syracuse to follow. #3 Marquette is not a Vegas favorite, but they’re clearly valued more highly by the advanced metrics of HSAC and KenPom. By the same token, #6 Butler, with its recent Final Four history in tow, is given a much better chance among the oddsmakers than the metrics guys. With a separation between the top seven teams and the rest of the field, the East Region feels a bit more open in the middle, but don’t forget that #1 Indiana is the biggest favorite in both Vegas and KenPom of any of the four regions.

The South Region has six teams breaking the five percent threshold in Vegas, but all three views show really only four teams in this race. The advanced metrics folks really like #3 Florida, which makes sense as they’ve been very high in efficiency statistics all season. Vegas agrees, but not quite as much, giving the Gators a slightly-better-than-quarter chance of winning this region, while #1 Kansas, #2 Georgetown and #4 Michigan are all relatively good picks as well. Public perception of #8 North Carolina is quite a bit higher than what the metrics suggest, but that’s really the only other team where such a disparity exists.

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The NCAA Tournament is here and there’s more news, commentary and analysis than any of us can possibly keep up with. To make things a little easier, we’ll bring you a list of daily links gathered about teams in each of the four regions all the way through the Final Four.

Midwest Region

• Louisville did not really get rolling until the final month of the season, thus the question has emerged: Can Rick Pitino lead the Cardinals to a national title?
• Colorado State coach Larry Eustachy confirmed his commitment to the school by saying, “It’s my final job in college.”
• Missouri coach Frank Haith is still waiting for his transfer-heavy roster to click as the NCAA Tournament is set to begin.
• Could Oklahoma State‘s late-game ability overcome its lack of NCAA Tournament experience?
• Oregon big man Arsalan Kazemi is enjoying a storybook ending to his collegiate career with the Ducks.
• Saint Louis starting forward Grandy Glaze does not have very impressive statistics, but he provides a lot of energy that helps spark the Billikens.
• Memphis had a great regular season, but what it is really looking for is the first NCAA Tournament win of the Josh Pastner era.
• The match-up between Middle Tennessee State point guard Bruce Massey and Saint Mary’s point guard Matthew Dellavedova is going to be key in Tuesday’s First Four game between the programs.
• Michigan State coach Tom Izzo acknowledged that he will be very disappointed if his team falls short of its goal of a deep NCAA Tournament run.
• Creighton coach Greg McDermott‘s impressions of Round of 64 opponent Cincinnati: “Cincinnati will test you with their length and toughness and athletic ability.”

The RTC Babe is back this year to give her unique take on what we call March Madness.

March Madness is like the guy version of the Oscars. We spend weeks analyzing and guessing who will get a bid and then, once teams are selected, we spend another several days predicting the outcome. I like to think of right now — the days leading up to the Big Dance — as the red carpet. Sadly though there is lot less fashion to critique unless you want to include Digger’s daily tie selections or the occasional coach sporting a bold look (i.e., Pitino’s KFC getup.)

I have noticed a few trends this season, though. Expect to see a fair amount of neon colors on the floor. Especially bright greens and orange hues. But just like last year’s grey fad, this trend will be relatively short-lived in the Tournament. I’d recommend not picking teams with too much brightness in their outfits.

No. Just no.

Something else I’ve seen a lot of this season is bold patterns. It’s risky, but when worn correctly, can look amazing.

Some Things Are Better Ideas Than Others

As far as accessories go, watch for bold statement pieces, specifically those that are giant and head-shaped. They’re a personal favorite of mine. The more crazy heads I see in the crowd, the better I like that team.

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And there you have it. With the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee’s bracket that was released on Sunday night, there are now only 68 teams left competing for the 2013 national championship. There will be no back-to-back champion, as Kentucky was relegated to the NIT along with eight other bubbling teams. Now that the Circle of March has been reduced from a robust 310 competitors all the way down to the final 68 over the last two weeks, this is where the real fun begins! Onward to 66…

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.17.13)

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Welcome to the sixth annual RTC 2013 Bracket Nonsense. Last year we were on the Road to New Orleans with a Pistol Pete Maravich jersey as our grand prize. The year before that we went with a Clyde the Glide Houston Cougars jersey. Prior to that it was a Hickory High School (Indiana) jacket. You get the point. We love our nostalgia and celebration of the game through retro gear. Luckily, this year we happen to have partnered up with the company that without question is making the coolest retro college basketball shorts, jerseys and other items within the industry — Retro College Cuts, “where old school meets new school.” Between the prizes RCC is supplying along with our own swag, there’s no excuse for not playing this year! Here’s what you need to know:

• Group Name: RTC 2013 Bracket Nonsense
• Group #: 66079

We’ll have three different prize levels this year — one for each weekend — and they’re all pretty awesome.

Lots of Great Prizes Available This Year – PLAY TO WIN!

• First Weekend Prizes: The player who gets the most points during the Second and Third Rounds will win a free t-shirt of their choice from RCC (for what it’s worth, the Philly Big 5 one is phenomenal). Additionally, to celebrate the 1977 Final Four played at the Omni in Atlanta and won by Marquette, RTC will also throw in a really neat authentic souvenir Media Pin that was given out at that year’s event (above left). Big Al would be proud.
• Second Weekend Prizes: The player who picks the most correct games during the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight rounds (using the second weekend results only) will win a free pair of retro game shorts from RCC. Plus, to celebrate the 2007 Final Four played at the Georgia Dome and won by Florida, RTC will throw in an autographed championship photo of Gator MOPs Joakim Noah (2006) and Corey Brewer (2007) (above center).
• Grand Prizes. The player who wins RTC 2013 Bracket Nonsense with the most total points after the Championship Game will win a version of the 1990 Lethal Weapon 3 Georgia Tech throwback shorts from RCC (to honor the ATL, of course), as well as an additional free pair of retro game shorts and a t-shirt of their choice. To remember the 2002 Final Four, also played at the Georgia Dome and won by Maryland, RTC will give away a commemorative basketball signed by former head coach Gary Williams (above right). The runner-up this year will also receive a free pair of shorts and a t-shirt from Retro College Cuts.

Kenny Anderson’s Retro Shorts Will Be Yours For Winning RTC 2013 Bracket Nonsense

There you have it. Some great prizes are on the line this year, and you can win something each of the next three weeks. Don’t forget to sign up before Noon ET on Thursday! Happy March Madness!