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It is that time. Think your brackets are the best every year? Well put your knowledge of college basketball to the test and join our FREE 2008 NCAA Tournament Challenge - that’s right, its free to join and the winner takes home $100. It’s that simple. So why not do a bracket where you can actually win something? Join Today because time is running out - login information is below.

2008 NCAA Tournament Challenge

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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)

Yes I said it - M.M.M.F.! What does M.M.M.F. stand for? March Madness Mascot Fight of course! In one corner you have the IUPUI Jaguar and in the other corner you have Oral Roberts Eagle. These two school with maybe the worse names in the history of College Basketball played each other to see who got their ticket punched to the NCAA Tournament - Oral Roberts won and will soon be a 16th seed. Go Oral! Oh and on the topic of school names IUPUI stands for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Why cant they just shorten it to IPI or something? Every time I see IUPUI I think of ICUP. Also don’t forget to join our FREE 2008 NCAA Tournament Challenge - winner takes home $100! Anyway - here is the video…

We, like every sports fan, love the NCAA Tournament. So, in order to make it even more interesting we started a free 2008 NCAA Tournament Challenge over at Yahoo to see which FrontRowSportsReport.com reader is the best of the best. The FrontRowSportsReport 2008 Tournament Challenge is free to join, free to play and the winner takes home $100 cash. So do you think you are the best at picking teams? Is your brackets the best every year? Well prove it…and take home $100 in the process. Login information is below…

2008 NCAA Tournament Challenge

http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/register/joinprivategroup

Group ID: 18542

Password: frontrowsportsreport

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

Future #1 draft pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, Michael Beasley, continues to show why he is the leading candidate for Player of the Year. Last night against the 5th ranked Texas Longhorns Beasley put up a game high 30 points and 15 rebounds, that kid can score on anyone. However, Beasley was once again not enough as the Kansas State Wildcats lost to the Longhorns 74-65.

The Longhorns (24-4) were led by D.J. Augustin who put up a team high 24 points, 5 assists and 4 steals. This was the Longhorns 8th straight win as they seem to be playing their best basketball of the season just in time for March Madness. However, they will need more help from other players to go far in the NCAA tournament. Last night the team was carried by the Longhorns two guards and did not get much help from anyone else on the offensive side.

Kansas State (18-9) could not get it going (outside of Beasley) as Texas shut down the Wildcats offensive (outside of Beasley) with an aggressive zone defense. The Wildcats shot just 32 percent on the night and were just 7 of 27 from behind the arc on their way to losing their 3rd straight game.

Watching this game last night I saw two teams heading into different directions. Texas, even with little offensive help from most of their starters, played tough defense (outside of Beasley) and should make a good run at the Final Four. Kansas State on the other hand has the best player in the nation - and that might win them a few early games in the NCAA Tournament, but for them to get to even the sweet sixteen they will really have to be more then a one man show.

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.

The 8th ranked Georgetown Hoyas lost for the 2nd time in 3 games, this time the Hoyas lost to the unranked Syracuse Orange 77-70 up in Syracuse.

The Orange led by as much 21 points in the first half and stopped a couple of the Hoya’s late comebacks. The Hoyas were killed early by turnovers and general sloppy play. The Orange are only the second team all season long to score more than 70 points on the Hoyas.

The Orange (17-9) were led by guard Paul Harris who scored 22 points and freshman forward Donte Green put in 18 points. The game was almost a must win for the Orange in their quest to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive - they have only 5 games remaining. “This is definitely a quality, key win,” said Paul Harris after the game. “But at the same time we have to keep believing in ourselves.”

The Hoyas (20-4) were led by Jonathan Wallace who scored a game high 26 points and had 6 assists. Hoyas 7 foot 2 center Roy Hibbert was limited to 11 points and only 3 rebounds.

The Hoyas now head to Rhode Island to play the Providence Friars and the Orange head to Kentucky to play Louisville. Else where in the Big East #17 UCONN survived South Florida 74-73.

A NCAA report released today accuses Indiana Hoosiers basketball coach Kelvin Sampson and his staff of violating numerous recruiting rules and restrictions. Sampson broke restrictions that were imposed because of his previous recruiting violations at Oklahoma - namely restrictions related to telephone recruiting. The NCAA  also accuses Sampson of lieing about it to the school and to the investigators.

According to the report, Sampson “failed to deport himself … with the generally recognized high standard of honesty” and “failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance within the men’s basketball program.”

Hoosiers Athletic Director Rick Greenspan pledged his full support to the NCAA as they continue investigations into the 5 major violations listed against Sampson. In a statement released by the school, Sampson expressed his disappointment with the allegations and viewed each one seriously.

Violations of NCAA rules can result in a wide range of punishments, including post-season ineligibility. The school has until May 8th to provide a written response with a formal hearing coming sometime over the summer. Indiana is currently 20-3 and ranked #12 in the nation.

Click here for the official NCAA document and full list of allegations against Coach Sampson and Indiana University.