Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Examining the Chances of Each Sweet 16 team in 200 words or less

By Charlie Scaturro

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America

What are the chances your bracket still has a shot? If you were banking on Duke, Missouri, or Florida State to make deep runs, chances are you’re done. Even if you still have three of your Final Four in tact, the fact that everyone and their mother picked Kentucky to win the championship means that you could already be out of the running because someone else has the exact same picks as you, the only difference being they somehow had Ohio winning two games, and you ignored them like 98 percent of people who filled out a bracket.

Regardless of where your bracket stands right now, the one thing we know for sure is that there are only 16 teams left that still have a shot at winning the National Championship, but all things aren’t created equal. By virtue of each team’s talent, their projected road through the rest of the tournament, and other variables like injuries/suspensions/who’s peaking at the right time, some teams simply have a better chance of cutting down the nets than others. Here’s a look at the chances of each remaining team to continue their run through the tournament in 200 words or less:

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

40 Random NCAA Tournament Thoughts

By Charlie Scaturro

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images North America
Everyone knows the tournament is here, and as I tried to find a way to make sense of the 68-team field in some kind of a reasonably coherent post, I quickly realized that this would be impossible. The last few days of conference tournament play, bracketology, selection committee’s, “expert” picks, and upset alerts have my head spinning to the point where I feel like everyone’s just shouting at each other and no one can even get a word in edgewise. So I’ve decided that the only way I could preview the tournament here at Send It In Jerome is to start shouting random tournament related thoughts of my own. Here we go…

Monday, March 12, 2012

Fun Facts About Each of the 68 Tournament Teams


Before you fill out your bracket, I've compiled a list of fun facts about each of the tournament teams. Some of them contain valuable information (see: UNLV). Some of them are just intended to be funny (see: Saint Bonaventure). Either way, I'm willing to bet you didn't know most of this, so hopefully you can use it effectively in whatever your selection strategy may be.

#1 Seeds: 

Kentucky – John Calipari has never won a national championship. Anthony Davis does not own a mirror. Kentucky led the nation in blocks per game and average margin of victory.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Argument For and Against a BCS-Style Syracuse-Kentucky National Championship


By Charlie Scaturro

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images North America
You have to search pretty hard to find anyone who truly believes the BCS is the right way to organize a championship (excluding the guys who line their pockets from the system), but after watching what Kentucky and Syracuse have managed to accomplish during the regular season I think it’s fair to ask; would you really have a problem with them playing for a National Championship at the expense of giving any other team a similar chance?

Of course, we know this won’t happen, but if you can suspend your disbelief for around 2,500 words a solid case can be made that this should, in fact, happen.

As with every college basketball season, there have been plenty of entertaining storylines that deserve their share of attention, but it’s hard to focus on much else when two of the nation’s premier programs have posted a combined record of 60-2 at the end of the regular season, and have clearly been the two best teams in the nation from November to March.