The Final Countdown

The NCAA Tournament starts to come to an end for another year, this year the final four is Louisville, Michigan, Wichita State, and Syracuse. The newest members are the Louisville Cardinals who defeated the Duke Blue Devils and the Michigan Wolverines who took down Florida in a landslide.

The Wolverines beat the Gators by exactly 20 points, 79-59. Nik Stauskas was the main reason that the Wolverines won, he 22 points and literally couldn't miss. He went 7-8 from the field and 6-6 from the 3 point arc. Trey Burke played just as well if not better, Burke had 7 assists, 8 rebounds, and 15 points, at point guard for the Wolverines of Michigan. Patric Young and his Gators were out of it almost the whole game and his 8 rebounds and 7 points couldn't do anything about it.

As for the Cardinals Russ Smith was probably the top performer in this game, his only competition was Mason Plumlee of Duke. Plumlee had 12 rebounds and 17 points, Smith had 23 points and a pair of steals. Gorgui Dieng played great for the Cardinals as well as Russ, maybe better. He had 14 points and 11 rebounds to push his team to a 22 points victory of 85-63.

Post who you think will win the tournament in the comments box as well as the runner-up!

By David B.

The Irish's luck Runs Out

The Florida Gators had their first reps last night, they got to play the Northwestern state Demons. The Gators played some of their best basketball with Patric Young and Erik Murphy playing explosively well together. Young had 9 rebounds and 16 points, Murphy had 18 points and 8 rebounds. The final score of the game was 79-47.

The Ohio State Buckeyes played some great basketball against the Iona Gaels, the Buckeyes' elite players Sam Thompson, DeShaun Thomas, and Aaron Craft played very well together in their teams win. Thhomas had 24 points leading all players this game, Sam Thompson was a close second with 20 and a leader in rebounds with 10. Craft had a great game as the facilitator he is, Craft had 7 assists and 6 steals. The Gaels guard Tavon Sledge had 20 points for his Gaels. The final score would end up being Iona 70-Ohio State 95.

The three point shooting teams Notre Dame and Iowa State played on Friday. Notre Dames' whole team was cold except for Jack Cooley and Ton knight both with 14 points. Melvin Ejim a tall forward was guarded by Jack Cooley and he likes the three ball so it lead to Cooley being taken away from the hoop and he couldn't get rebounds. Ejim had 17 points and 8 rebounds that game.

That is the end of the round of 64, the scores from the round of 32 will be out as soon as possible!

By David B.

Noel Finished

  Last night the Kentucky Wildcats were dominated by the Florida Gators.  That isn't the main storyline though, the main thing is the injury of Nerlens Noel.  When chasing after a defender on a hustle play, Noel banged his knee into the basket support and buckled his knee.  He was in serious pain, and the Wildcats had to carry Noel to the locker room.  The only good news out of this story is the fact that Noel did fly back with the team to Lexington, Kentucky.  Nerlens Noel has a torn ACL and will be out for the rest of the season.  This hurts the Wildcats in many ways.  For example, this team was getting back to normal and back to NCAA Tournament contention.  Now, Kentucky has a much lower chance of getting into the tournament.  This also hurts Noel's future career.  After sustaining an injury in college, he might not recover from it, meaning his knee won't have enough strength.  This could also affect his draft position if he enters the NBA Draft.  The team that selects him will have to make sure his knee is strong enough, then let him play.  We have seen these type of injuries to star players; Wes Welker, Adrian Peterson, and Derrick Rose.  Both Welker and Peterson are football players in the NFL.  Derrick Rose is on the Chicago Bulls, in the NBA and still isn't playing.  Peterson was the fastest to recover.  More and more ACL injuries have been popping up, but the rehab time has been getting shorter and shorter.  The usual time table for recovering from an ACL injury is 8-12 months.  Now, most recovering time is only 6-8 months.  I don't think Kentucky is going to be the team they were last season, and have to work extra hard to get into the NCAA Tournament in March.

By Ameen I.