Top Deals, Steals & Scores: March Madness Week 1

Posted by Stiletto Jen 76 views

Sure, the World Baseball Classic is still going on, Tiger played golf and stuff happened in hockey, but really, all people are talking about this week is March Madness! Yesterday was Selection Sunday and the 65 NCAA basketball teams headed to the tournament were revealed. Meaning: the only thing on everyone’s mind today is their brackets!

Here’s what you need to know to survive the March Madness Dominated Water-Cooler conversations this week:

1. What is March Madness

If you don’t know the answer, you better start with the Stiletto Sports Getting Ready for the Big Dance Guide before jumping into what teams made the cut. The Guide answers all the burning questions: What is March Madness and Selection Sunday, What the heck is a bracket and of course, Why are all the boys talking about Cinderella?

And just in case you (or your significant other) need to be convinced to watch the tourney, here are Elite 8 Reasons to Watch March Madness.

2. The Sassy 64

Fine, it’s not really called the Sassy 64, but it should be! This week, especially today, is going to be filled with chatter about the bracket: who made it, who didn’t, who should have been ranked #1, who will be the Cinderellas and who will go all the way.

First you need to know who made the cut. CBS Sports has a complete quick reference list also. Here is a quick list in order of rank per region.

East

#1 Pittsbugh
#2 Duke
#3 Villanova
#4 xavier
#5 FSU (Florida State)
#6 UCLA
#7 Texas
#8 Oklahoma State
#9 Tennessee
#10 Minnesota
#11 VCU (Virginia Commonwealth)
#12 Wisconsin
#13 Portland State
#14 American
#15 Binghamton
#16 ETSU (East Tennessee State)

West

#1 UConn
#2 Memphis
#3 Missouri
#4 Washington
#5 Purdue
#6 Marquette
#7 California
#8 BYU (Brigham Young)
#9 Texas A&M
#10 Maryland
#11 Utah State
#12 North Iowa State
#13 Mississippi State
#14 Cornell
#15 Cal State Northridge
#16 Chattanooga

Midwest

#1 Louisville : They are also ranked the #1 team of the whole conference
#2 Michigan State
#3 Kansas
#4 Wake Forest
#5 Utah
#6 West Virginia
#7 Boston College
#8 Ohio State
#9 Siena
#10 USC
#11 Dayton
#12 Arizona
#13 Cleveland State
#14 North Dakota State
#15 Robert Morris
#16 either Alabama State or Morehead State (teams play in Wild Card Game Tuesday night)

South

#1 UNC
#2 Oklahoma
#3 Syracuse
#4 Gonzaga
#5 Illinois
#6 Arizona State
#7 Clemson
#8 LSU
#9 Butler
#10 Michigan
#11 Temple
#12 Western Kentucky
#13 Akron
#14 Stephen F. Austin
#15 Morgan State
#16 Radford

3. Bracketology

I give you, the Girl’s Guide to Bracketology. Everything you need to know to make a kick-ass bracket and have fun doing it!

Bracketology 101: the “rules” to filling out the bracket

The breakdowns of each region. Teams are arranged by First Round Matchups to make it easy to compare. Key information like team record, coaching, players, school colors, mascot, and fun random facts to help you make the perfect choices on your bracket!

4. Who You Need to Know:

I’ll definitely go more in-depth later this week when I present the NCAA hotties, coaches and one’s to watch. I also have some guides that I created in January about college players that you should know, but probably don’t—and some of those players will be heading to the Big Dance. But for now, here is just a quick reference lists of names that you will be hearing A LOT.

Players:

Tyler Hansborough & Ty Lawson: UNC,
Gerald Henderson & Kyle Singler: Duke
Blake & Taylor Griffen: Oklahoma

Coaches

Rick Pitino: Louisville, the #1 seed in the whole tournament
Coach K: #2 Duke
Jim Boehiem: #3 Syracuse
John Calipari: #2 Memphis
Roy Williams: #1 UNC
Tom Izzo: #2 Michigan State
Jim Calhoun: #1 seed UConn

Announcers:

Dick Vitale: If you don’t know, I suggest you find out immediately. He is Mr. NCAA and he is downright crazy!
Digger Phelps
Clark Kellogg
Jim Nantz

Stay tuned for more great March Madness coverage!

Enjoy my opinions? Let me know! Leave me a comment or for the full Stiletto Sports experience, follow me on Twitter at StilettoSportsJ

About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!

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