NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament - 2015 Edition

[Atlhogfan1]

I agree on the officials.  Fouls 1 and 3 on Okafor were weak.  1 changed the game. 

[jbcarol]

Jim Polzin @JimPolzinWSJ  ·  42s 42 seconds ago
Final: Duke 68, UW 63. Duke's four freshmen combined for 60 points.

[ChicoHog]

All about getting hot at the right time.  they couldn't win their own conference tournament but no one will remember that.  Plus they got a good draw in the tournament with some upsets but did have to beat a #1 for the championship.  first time Coach Mike has done that in 4 tries. 

[hogville38]

Most remarkable Duke NC game win yet!

LET'S GO DEVILS!

Is this why the smites are back lol -1 to u

[Hogsmo Kramer]

Ah well better than KY winning it. 

[ChicoHog]

I agree on the officials.  Fouls 1 and 3 on Okafor were weak.  1 changed the game. 

wasn't the first one when he leveled Kaminsky?  that was obvious. I think a couple of other ones were questionable but he hit Kaminsky pretty hard on that one.  that was a no-brainer. 

Okafor is a good player.  Should be one of the top picks if not the top in the draft.  Duke will reload as usual like UK and be good again.  they always are. 

[Razorback_Mack]

Most remarkable Duke NC game win yet!

LET'S GO DEVILS!

Who would pull for a snot nosed private school? I have no respect for an institution that dictates standards by socioeconomic status and family heritage. That's a joke to me.

[hogville38]

Dekker 0 for 6 from three.

Dekker was a no show pretty much but so was Okafor really.

[HawgnCorona]

To be honest Dook gets it share of one and doners too...but they are part of a proven system. Am I a Dook fan? No...Not even on your life. However, they have some integrity about what they do. Others, meh! Not so much...

[ronmahony]

I sure wouldn't mind having Allen around as a point guard. That dude I believe is the main reason they won this game.

[HawgnCorona]

WPS!!!!

[HawgnCorona]

Well the doors is open/ajar--if you read the tea leaves-- all he has to do is walk thru it.

[Hogsmo Kramer]

Man we gotta get one of these again.

I'm so sick of seeing teams I hate win these, time for the hogs to eat again.

Soon, I hope, soon.....

[moses_007]

All about getting hot at the right time.  they couldn't win their own conference tournament but no one will remember that.  Plus they got a good draw in the tournament with some upsets but did have to beat a #1 for the championship.  first time Coach Mike has done that in 4 tries. 

Duke didn't win the ACC regular conference title either.  They wound up 3rd in the ACC, or so it appeared.

[carolinahogger]

Who would pull for a snot nosed private school? I have no respect for an institution that dictates standards by socioeconomic status and family heritage. That's a joke to me.

Walk the Duke campus during classes and you see surprisingly few preppy looking white kids.

[jbcarol]

ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfo  ·  9h 9 hours ago

Frank Kaminsky: 1st player with 20 points/10 rebounds in semifinal and title game since Carmelo Anthony for Syracuse in 2003

[jbcarol]

 ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfo  ·  9h 9 hours ago

9.3 percent of the 11.57 million Tournament Challenge brackets correctly picked Duke to win the national championship

[MountieDawg]

To be honest Dook gets it share of one and doners too...but they are part of a proven system. Am I a Dook fan? No...Not even on your life. However, they have some integrity about what they do. Others, meh! Not so much...

Duke kept a player on its team for over a year that had committed 2 sexual assaults on campus.  As far as the proven system they have 5 titles with 1 coach. Kentucky has 8 with 5 different coaches. Define a proven system, he had to go to 1 and done's to keep up with CAL.

[jbcarol]

 David Bassity @D_D_Bass  ·  10h 10 hours ago

Only one shot of Ron Hunter falling off his stool in One Shining Moment? Think we were shorted 19-24 times

[jbcarol]

 Rob Dauster @RobDauster  ·  2h 2 hours ago

The 2015 NCAA tournament's edition of 'One Shining Moment' (VIDEO) http://wp.me/p1aWjM-2cQ7

[Breems]

Boring tournament when Duke or Kentucky win.

[HawgnCorona]

Duke kept a player on its team for over a year that had committed 2 sexual assaults on campus.  As far as the proven system they have 5 titles with 1 coach. Kentucky has 8 with 5 different coaches. Define a proven system, he had to go to 1 and done's to keep up with CAL.

Whats your point?

[jbcarol]

 Chris Low @ClowESPN  ·  11h 11 hours ago

Nailed it. RT @RickBroering Twitter: Refs ruined the game. Bo Ryan: It's a shame refs screwed up. Twitter: Bo Ryan is scum for blaming refs.

[jbcarol]

 George Schroeder @GeorgeSchroeder  · 

Duke 68, Wisconsin 63. Final box:

[Adam Stokes]

New Mexico State gets the Adam Stokes Award for being the worst team in the tournament.  The reasoning behind such is that they lost to a team (Kansas) who lost to a team who lost to a team, etc., all the way to the finals.

[Biggus Piggus]

Duke kept a player on its team for over a year that had committed 2 sexual assaults on campus.

That is a distortion. Duke kept a player on its team until it was obvious that the player no longer belonged on the team. Your appetite for being wrong knows no end.

[carolinahogger]

As far as the proven system they have 5 titles with 1 coach. Kentucky has 8 with 5 different coaches. Define a proven system, he had to go to 1 and done's to keep up with CAL.

2010 National Championship, 2015 National Championship.  There are two definitions for you.

[jbcarol]

 AP Top 25 @AP_Top25  ·  Apr 6

Duke title caps dominant ACC NCAA Tournament run -- 17-5. Big Ten was 12-7. http://apne.ws/1NPIeFJ  (@oskargarcia)

[jbcarol]

NBC Sports: The audience watching on CBS Sports saw the angle in the photo (at link), which drew outrage when the call was overruled. However, officials never saw that angle, NCAA Head of Officials John Adams told SiriusXM College Sports on Tuesday.

All four of our officials were involved in the review. We never saw on our monitors what everyone saw at home. If you can believe that.

    I saw [the angle] after they had left the monitor, and actually thought about [it]. Is it in my prerogative to get up, run over to the table, buzz the buzzer, and tell them to come back and look? And that's how critical I thought the play was and concluded that this is a job for the guys on the floor, and I've never done this before, why would I do it tonight and perhaps change the balance of the game?

    They had already left. It'll be one of the things we follow up on. We had been told time and time again that, 'Nobody at home will see anything you didn't see' and I'll tell you that's not what happened last night. And that's not an excuse that's just laying it out there for you.

[jbcarol]

Daniel Poneman @SwagAir  ·  Apr 6

Chucky Okafor (Jahlil's dad) has started a parade in the streets of Indy. A literal parade. He hired a bucket boy. Can't make this up.

[jbcarol]

12-year old wins bracket pool but is too young for grand prize drawing

12-year old Sam Holtz of Hawthorn Woods, Illinois managed to finish tied atop the ESPN Bracket Challenge, beating out more than 11.5 million people in the process. That's quite the achievement for Holtz, who's currently in sixth grade and missed just six games in the entire bracket.

Unfortunately for Holtz his age prevents him from being entered into the prize drawing, with there being a vacation to Maui and a $20,000 Best Buy gift card being the two prizes up for grabs in the random draw. ESPN rules state that entrants have to be 18 years of age or older in order to be eligible for the prizes.

[jbcarol]

NBC Sports: The audience watching on CBS Sports saw the angle in the photo (at link), which drew outrage when the call was overruled. However, officials never saw that angle, NCAA Head of Officials John Adams told SiriusXM College Sports on Tuesday.

NCAA VP of men's basketball championship: Officials did see all angles of controversial out of bounds call

"Unfortunately, John misspoke yesterday," Gavitt told ESPN.com after his OTL appearance. "The officials did indeed have the camera angle that was shown on the CBS broadcast. It was the last angle they did see. They likely did not stay long enough with a review to see that angle magnified. But they made their determination based on the two-minute review and the camera angle that was shown on CBS and with that determined that there wasn't indisputable evidence to overturn the call. You need to have indisputable evidence by rule to change the call. The facts are they did have the angle the viewers had."

Jeff Goodman @GoodmanESPN  ·  13h 13 hours ago

Four finalists to replace John Adams as NCAA head of officiating, per sources: JD Collins, Ed Hightower, Joe DeRosa and Reggie Greenwood.

[jbcarol]

This from CBS:

CBS Sports and Turner Sports' exclusive coverage of Monday night's NCAA Tournament men's national championship between Duke and  Wisconsin on CBS scored a 17.1/27 HH rating/share to deliver the highest overnight rating for the NCAA men's national championship in the metered markets in 18 years (1997; 18.0/28, Arizona-Kentucky), based on Nielsen metered market ratings.

The broadcast's 17.1/27 is up 33 percent over last year (12.9/21; Connecticut-Kentucky) and peaked with a 20.1/34 from 11-11:30 p.m. ET.

[jbcarol]

 Matt Jones @KySportsRadio  ·  2h 2 hours ago

Interesting side note...I am told that Andrew Harrison is signing with the same agent as Frank Kaminsky

[jbcarol]

 NCAA March Madness @marchmadness  ·  Apr 7

Big Ten/ACC challenge? Not of late. The ACC has won 6 straight title games vs the Big Ten: http://on.ncaa.com/1y16J0L 

[jbcarol]

 Gary Parrish @GaryParrishCBS  ·  9m 9 minutes ago

Add the Wooden Award to Frank Kaminsky's list of trophies. Just announced. The Wisconsin senior swept the significant awards this season.

[jbcarol]

 Paulsen @paulsen_smw  ·  21h 21 hours ago

ICYMI: Duke/Wisconsin was the most-watched basketball game, college or pro, since Bulls/Jazz Game 6 in 1998: http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2015/04/final-four-ratings-duke-wisconsin-most-watched-national-championship-since-1997-cbs-ncaa-tournament-march-madness/ ...

Monday's Duke/Wisconsin NCAA Tournament National Championship Game earned a 16.0 rating and 28.3 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen fast-nationals — up 28% in ratings and 33% in viewership from Connecticut/Kentucky last year (12.4, 21.2M) and up 14% and 21%, respectively, from Louisville/Michigan in 2013 (14.0, 23.4M).

The Blue Devils' win ranks as the highest rated title game since Connecticut/Duke in 1999 (17.2) and the most-watched since Arizona/Kentucky in 1997 (28.4M). Duke's last three championships — this year, 2010 against Butler (23.9M) and 2001 against Arizona (24.0M) — rank as the three most-watched college basketball games since 2000.

Overall, Duke/Wisconsin ranks as the highest rated and most-watched basketball game (college or pro) since Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals (22.8, 35.9M). The previous highs were the 17.2 for Connecticut/Duke in 1999 and 28.2 million for Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals.

Compared to other sports, Monday's game topped every Major League Baseball telecast since Red Sox/Cardinals Game 4 in 2004 (18.2, 28.8M), including the last two Game 7s of the World Series. It outdrew every World Cup match ever on U.S. television, including the record audience of 26.5 million for last year's Germany/Argentina final. It topped all-but-one of last year's Winter Olympics telecasts, trailing only the Opening Ceremony (17.0, 31.7M).

It could not, however, match January's College Football National Championship Game, which drew 34.2 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks (33.4 million on ESPN alone).

Dating back to the Elite Eight, Monday's championship game was the seventh straight NCAA Tournament telecast window to hit a multi-year high in ratings and/or viewership. That includes a 22-year viewership high for the Wisconsin/Kentucky national semifinal on TBS.

[jbcarol]

 ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfo  ·  29m 29 minutes ago

Jahlil Okafor: 6th Duke freshman to enter NBA Draft after 1 season with school. Each of the other 5 was picked in Top 13 of the draft

[jbcarol]

 Brendan F. Quinn @BFQuinn  ·  4m 4 minutes ago

Wisconsin announces Sam Dekker will enter NBA draft.


#dekk3r

[jbcarol]

12-year old wins bracket pool but is too young for grand prize drawing

12-year old bracket contest winner makes good use of $1,000 gift card from Best Buy

12-year Sam Holtz beat out more than 11.57 million contestants in the ESPN Bracket Challenge, finishing tied for the top spot as he missed just six games on the entire bracket. Unfortunately for Sam his age meant that he was ineligible for entry into random grand prize drawings for a trip to Maui and a $20,000 Best Buy gift card, but ESPN will be sending him a gift bag for his efforts.

The gift bag wasn't the only prize Holtz received, as Best Buy decided to give him a $1,000 gift card...

In addition to getting himself an XBox One, Holtz also "purchased" one to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation...

[Fort Dweller]

12-year old bracket contest winner makes good use of $1,000 gift card from Best Buy

Awesome

[jbcarol]

It turns out, Sam Holtz will be heading to Hawaii after all.

Holtz is the 12-year old that won ESPN.com's bracket challenge, beating out some 11 million other brackets to win thanks to Duke's national title. But being that he's not 18 years of age, he was disqualified from the drawing that would have given him a shot at either a $20,000 gift card to Best Buy or a free trip to Maui for the Maui Invitational.

He was eventually given a $1,000 gift card by Best Buy and a gift bag from, but his rewards aren't yet done being given out.

On Monday, Scout.com announced that they would be donating a trip for Holtz, his brother and his parents to Kaanapali Alii Resort in Maui for a week-long vacation.

"I'm pretty excited," Sam told Scout. "I'm still thinking that this isn't real."

He used part of his Best Buy gift to donate an XBox One to Make a Wish