FrontRowSportsReport.com: Sports Blog

Remember the first video of “This is why Duke sucks”? Well the anti-Duke video messiah is back just in time for March Madness with “This is why Duke Sucks, Part 2″. This video speaks for itself…

The 2008 NCAA Basketball Tournament selections are set and of course we have teams that are happy and teams that are upset they weren’t selected. Doesn’t matter anymore because we are ready for some March Madness. Below is the complete first round for the 2008 NCAA Basketball Tournament . Be sure to join our FREE 2008 NCAA Basketball Tournament Challenge where the winner takes home $100 - click here to create your free entry.

EAST (Charlotte, N.C.)

Raleigh, N.C.
Friday, March 21
No. 1 North Carolina (32-2) vs. No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s-Coppin State winner
No. 8 Indiana (25-7) vs. No. 9 Arkansas (22-11)

Denver
Thursday, March 20
No. 5 Notre Dame (24-7) vs. No. 12 George Mason (23-10)
No. 4 Washington State (24-8) vs. No. 13 Winthrop (22-11)

Birmingham, Ala.
Friday, March 21
No. 2 Tennessee (29-4) vs. No. 15 American (21-11)
No. 7 Butler (29-3) vs. No. 10 South Alabama (26-6)

No. 3 Louisville (24-8) vs. No. 14 Boise State (25-8)
No. 6 Oklahoma (22-11) vs. No. 11 Saint Joseph’s (21-12)

MIDWEST (Detroit)

Omaha, Neb.
Thursday, March 20
No. 1 Kansas (31-3) vs. No. 16 Portland State (23-9)
No. 8 UNLV (26-7) vs. No. 9 Kent State (28-6)

Tampa, Fla.
Friday, March 21
No. 5 Clemson (24-9) vs. No. 12 Villanova (20-12)
No. 4 Vanderbilt (26-7) vs. No. 13 Siena (22-10)

Raleigh, N.C.
Friday, March 21
No. 2 Georgetown (27-5) vs. No. 15 UMBC (24-8)
No. 7 Gonzaga (25-7) vs. No. 10 Davidson (26-6)

Omaha, Neb.
Thursday, March 20
No. 3 Wisconsin (29-4) vs. No. 14 Cal State Fullerton (24-8)
No. 6 Southern California (21-11) vs. No. 11 Kansas State (20-11)

SOUTH (Houston)

Little Rock, Ark.
Friday, March 21
No. 1 Memphis (33-1) vs. No. 16 Texas Arlington (21-11)
No. 8 Mississippi State (22-10) vs. No. 9 Oregon (18-13)

Denver
Thursday, March 20
No. 5 Michigan State (25-8) vs. No. 12 Temple (21-12)
No. 4 Pitt (26-9) vs. No. 13 Oral Roberts (24-8)

Little Rock, Ark.
Friday, March 21
No. 2 Texas (28-6) vs. No. 15 Austin Peay (24-10)
No. 7 Miami (Fla.) (22-10) vs. No. 10 Saint Mary’s (25-6)

Anaheim, Calif.
Thursday, March 20
No. 3 Stanford (26-7) vs. No. 14 Cornell (22-5)
No. 6 Marquette (24-9) vs. No. 11 Kentucky (18-12)

WEST (Phoenix)

Anaheim, Calif.
Thursday, March 20
No. 1 UCLA (31-3) vs. No. 16 Mississippi Valley State (17-15)
No. 8 BYU (27-7) vs. No. 9 Texas A&M (24-10)

Tampa, Fla.
Friday, March 21
No. 5 Drake (28-4) vs. No. 12 Western Kentucky (27-6)
No. 4 Connecticut (24-8) vs. No. 13 San Diego (21-13)

Washington, D.C.
Thursday, March 20
No. 2 Duke (27-5) vs. No. 15 Belmont (25-8)
No. 7 West Virginia (24-10) vs. No. 10 Arizona (19-14)

Washington, D.C.
Thursday, March 20
No. 3 Xavier (27-6) vs. No. 14 Georgia (17-16)
No. 6 Purdue (24-8) vs. No. 11 Baylor (21-10)

The North Carolina Tar Heels went into hostile territory last night and proved that they belong at the top of the polls. The Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils played a great, close game, however the Tar Heels scored the final 10 points of the game to win 76-68. With the win the Tar Heels claimed the regular-season ACC conference title and #1 seed for the ACC conference tournament.

The Tar Heels blew an early double digit lead and switched leads up until the final 5 1/2 minutes when the Tar Heels went on their 10 point run. “Our perimeter guys took it personally tonight,” said guard Danny Green. “We wanted to come out and knock down shots, play smarter, play better and take the crowd out of the game. We kept our poise when they came back.” Tar Heels forward Tyler Hansbrough finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds and guard Wayne Ellington added 16 points as North Carolina improved to 29-2 overall and 14-2 in ACC conference play.

The Blue Devils, who fell to 26-4 and 13-3, were led by Greg Paulus who had a team high 15 points (12 of which came in the first half). “I still thought we were doing really good things. We just couldn’t get that thing in the hole there,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We were still making winning plays — plays that could win. Obviously, they didn’t turn out to be winning plays.”

Every-time these two team splay each other it is always a good game, hopefully we will see them play at the end of the ACC Tournament and a #1 seed in the NCAA basketball Tournament on the line.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are now the new (for this week at least) #1 ranked team in the nation according to the latest College Basketball poll released a few minutes ago.  The Tennessee Volunteers were only able to hold onto the top spot for 1 week despite Bruce Pearl pleading his case. The Vols beat previously top ranked Memphis Tigers last week but then lost to #14 Vanderbilt a few days later.

The Tar Heels (27-2) were the preseason #1 and spent the first 10 weeks of the season in that spot. The UCLA Bruins moved up from 4th to 2nd, the Memphis Tigers are ranked 3rd followed by Tennessee and the Duke Blue Devils who are ranked 5th.

Here are the full top 25 college basketball rankings for the 17th week of the 2007/2008 College Basketball season.

1. North Carolina (19) 27-2
2. UCLA (6) 26-3
3. Memphis (6) 28-1
4. Tennessee 26-3
5. Duke 25-3
6. Kansas 26-3
7. Stanford 24-4
8. Wisconsin 24-4
9. Texas 24-5
10. Georgetown 24-4
11. Xavier 25-4
12. Butler 27-3
13. Louisville 24-6
14. Connecticut 23-6
15. Purdue 23-6
16. Vanderbilt 24-5
17. Indiana 24-5
18. Michigan State 23-6
19. Notre Dame 22-6
20. Marquette 21-7
21. Drake 25-4
22. Washington State 22-7
23. Gonzaga 23-6
24. Brigham Young 23-6
25. Mississippi State 20-8

After Saturdays night game between then #1 ranked Memphis Tigers and #2 Tennessee Volunteers there was no shock when the College Basketball Poll’s were released today. With the 66-62 victory, the Volunteers are now the number 1 ranked team in the nation - they received all 31  first-place votes.

The loss by the Tigers, which ended their 47 home court winning streak, dropped them to the 3rd spot in the rankings. The North Carolina Tar Heels moved up one to the 2nd spot. The Duke Blue Devils, after losing again last week dropped to #6 - honestly I am shocked they did not drop even more.

Here is the full top 25 College Basketball rankings for the 16th week of this College Basketball Season.

1. Tennessee (31) 25-2
2. North Carolina 26-2
3. Memphis 26-1
4. UCLA 24-3
5. Texas 23-4
6. Duke 23-3
7. Kansas 24-3
8. Stanford 22-4
9. Wisconsin 23-4
10. Georgetown 22-4
11. Xavier 24-4
12. Indiana 23-4
13. Butler 25-3
14. Vanderbilt 23-4
15. Michigan State 22-5
16. Connecticut 21-6
17. Notre Dame 21-5
18. Louisville 22-6
19. Purdue 21-6
20. Drake 24-3
21. Marquette 20-6
22. Washington State 21-6
23. Saint Mary’s 23-4
24. Kent State 23-5
25. Brigham Young 21-6

Big news came out just before the NBA trade deadline - not as big as Shaq going to Phoenix, Gasol going to the Lakers or Kidd to the Mavericks, but it could have major implications in the weak NBA eastern conference. The trade involved 11 players and three teams, but the Cleveland Cavaliers were the obvious focal point of the trade.

The 11 player trade involved the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls and Seattle Supersonics. The Cavaliers got Lebron James help inside and outside with the acquisition of center Ben Wallace and forward Joe Smith from the Bulls and forward Wally “World” Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West from the Supersonics. To get Lebron his supporting cast the Cavaliers traded guard Larry Hughes, forwards Drew Gooden and Cedric Simmons, and guard Shannon Brown to Chicago and forwards Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall to Seattle.

The Cavaliers will also get the Bulls 2nd round pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. The Supersonics will get guard Adrian Griffin from the Bulls as part of the trade.

Cleveland G.M. and former Duke Blue Devil, Danny Ferry was able to put this deal together just before the 3 p.m. trade deadline. This trade is by far the biggest trade he has been able to pull off and might be a last-ditched effort to keep Lebron in Cleveland and prevent him from jumping in a couple years to the Nets (Jay-z + Brooklyn + Lebron = awesome).

So what exactly are the Cavaliers getting? Well with Wallace they are getting a defensive force down-low. Wallace has averaged 8.8 rebounds and 1.60 blocks per game - Wallace is not a scoring threat as he is averaging only 5.1 points per game. Some feel that Wallace’s best days are behind him, his recent numbers are below his averages - for most of his career he has averaged double digit rebounds. Szczerbiak is another role player who can shoot it from behind the arc. Wally is averaging 13.1 points per game and is shooting .428% from 3-point land.

Again, is this enough to push the Cavaliers over the edge and keep Lebron in Cleveland? I don’t think so, how big of an improvement is Wallace over Drew Gooden? Enough to help them beat the Lakers, Suns or Mavericks? I don’t think so. To me this was a desperate move to do something, anything, to try and make their star happy.

Remember when we were all talking about how when the Duke Blue Devils lost to Wake Forest on Sunday it was going to be a wake up call for what many people thought was the best team in College Basketball? Yeah, that did not happen. Last night down in lovely Coral Gables Florida the unranked Miami Hurricanes beat the Blue Devils 96-95.

The Hurricanes (18-7) beat the Blue Devils (22-3) for the first time in 45 years last night, at one point scoring 15 straight points and led by as many as 20 points in the second half but gave most of those points back in a Duke rally late in the game. Duke once again showed its knack for turning over the ball, this time Duke turned it over 23 times - a season high.

This is Duke’s second loss in four days, not exactly the kind if momentum you want to have at the tail-end of the College Basketball season.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski tried to make sense of what was going on. “Our team — there’s something missing this week. We are not the same team these last two ballgames. It’s almost like someone has come in and invaded their bodies.”

The Hurricanes got help from all over the court from all of their players. Dwayne Collins led Miami with a career high 26 points and 7 rebounds. The Blue Devils were led by sophomore Jon Scheyer who scored a game high 27 points.

So were do the Blue Devils go now?  First Coach K needs to get his players focused and make them forget these two loses, they have some tough games ahead and have the chance to regain that Duke swagger by beating the North Carolina Tar Heels on March 8th - just in time for the tournament.

Well, we saw another crazy week in College Basketball where some of the top teams lost creating more shifts in the polls. The Memphis Tigers (25-0) stayed on top of the polls for the fifth straight week, while the Tennessee Volunteers (23-2) moved up to #2 after the Duke Blue Devils lost to Wake Forest last night. Having the Tigers and Volunteers atop the polls couldn’t have come at a better time as the two teams play each other this Saturday in Memphis.

Ironically the North Carolina Tar Heels moved up to the 3rd spot, while the Blue Devils dropped to #4 - didn’t the Blue Devils beat the Tar Heels not so long ago?  The Kansas Jayhawks also dropped a couple of spots, now ranked #5,  after their loss to Texas. The Texas Longhorns made the biggest jump of the week moving up 4 spots to #7 after their big win over Kansas.

Here is the full Top 25  poll for the 15th week of the 2007 - 2008 College Basketball Season.

1. Memphis 25-0
2. Tennessee 23-2
3. North Carolina 24-2
4. Duke 22-2
5. Kansas 24-2
6. UCLA 22-3
7. Texas 21-4
8. Butler 24-2
9. Stanford 21-4
10. Wisconsin 21-4
11. Georgetown 20-4
12. Xavier 21-4
13. Connecticut 20-5
14. Indiana 21-4
15. Purdue 21-5
16. Vanderbilt 22-4
17. Michigan State 20-5
18. Drake 23-2
19. Washington State 20-5
20. Saint Mary’s 22-3
21. Notre Dame 19-5
22. Texas A&M 20-5
23. Louisville 20-6
24. Marquette 18-6
25. Kansas State 18-6

Just in time for the next College Basketball rankings, the #2 Duke Blue Devils were upset late last night by the unranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The Demon Deacons not only beat the 2nd ranked Blue Devils, but beat them convincingly 86-73.

The Demon Deacons (16-8, 6-5) snapped Duke’s 12 game winning streak, were led by Jeff Teague who scored a game high 26 points and James Johnson who put in 24 points and a game high 16 rebounds. The Demon Deacons , who played at home and won their 3rd straight game, were not fazed by the heavily favored Blue Devils. “I watched them on TV and I dreamed about Carolina and Duke,” Teague said “Playing Duke, they’re going to pressure you. That’s why I want to play. I’m not an All-American or nothing, but I want to go out and try to beat one.”

The Blue Devils (22-2, 10-1) had one their previous 12 games by an average of 14.3 points. The Blue Devils only loss this season was by one point in overtime to the Pittsburgh Panthers. Duke was led by freshman guard Nolan Smith who scored 21 points and senior guard Demarcus Nelson who had 18 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

In the end it was the Demon Deacons defense that did Duke in, at one point the Blue Devils were held without a field goal for more than 7 minutes. But, the Blue Devils were also plagued by foul trouble and  started the game with a lack of energy. “Tonight, we played like we’ve already done something, and the team that had to win won,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We have to always play like we have to win. That’s the sign of a champion. That’s a part of learning. We have some young guys who haven’t been champions before, and they’re trying to learn how to be that. Sometimes the best lessons are ones that are taught in defeat.”

The soon to drop Blue Devils now head to Miami to try and get their winning ways back, the Demon Deacons have a tough road trip ahead as they play the North Carolina Tar Heels.

With 4 of the top 10 teams losing last week, we saw a good amount of shifting going on in the Top 25 polls released today. The Memphis Tigers and Duke Blue Devils remained the top 2 teams in the country but after them every team seemed to change their rank.

With the loss by the North Carolina Tar Heels to the Duke Blue Devils, the previously ranked #3 Tar Heels dropped only a couple spots to #5. The Kansas Jawhawks took over the 3rd spot with the Tennessee Volunteers moving up 3 spots to a season best #4 rank.

Other big movers included the Stanford Cardinals who have been moving steadily up the rankings the past few weeks - the Cardinals are now ranked 7th. UCLA made a move in the wrong direction after their upset loss to the Washington Huskies - the Bruins dropped from #4 to #6 and to be honest they could have dropped further.

Memphis has been at the top of the college basketball polls for 3 straight weeks and collected all 31 first place votes in the ESPN / USA Today poll. With a great deal of the top 25 teams heading into tough conference games this week I am sure these rankings will change dramatically yet again next Monday.

Here is the full ESPN / USA Today Top 25 Poll for the 14th week of the College Basketball Season.

1. Memphis (31) 23-0
2. Duke 21-1
3. Kansas 23-1
4. Tennessee 21-2
5. North Carolina 22-2
6. UCLA 21-3
7. Stanford 20-3
8. Georgetown 19-3
9. Michigan State 20-3
10. Butler 21-2
11. Texas 19-4
12. Indiana 20-3
13. Xavier 20-4
14. Wisconsin 19-4
15. Drake 22-1
16. Texas A&M 20-4
17. Connecticut 18-5
18. Notre Dame 18-4
19. Vanderbilt 20-4
20. Washington State 18-5
21. Saint Mary’s 20-3
22. Kansas State 17-5
23. Purdue 19-5
24. Pittsburgh 18-5
25. Marquette 16-6