A tale of two brackets

This year I allowed my 5-year old son to fill out his first bracket for March Madness. He went with SMU, he has a thing for Larry Brown.

While I went with the Big Blue Nation capping a perfect season. 

Prospects Plus: Cape Cod League All Star Game

On Sunday night, the best in the Cape Cod League took to the field in for leagues annual all star game. Here are five players that impressed me while watching the game. 

1. Kyle Code, P, Kentcky: touched out at 97 mph but sat between 94-96. Has a really good motion for a pitcher that is 6 foot 7 inches tall. Looked in total command during his inning of work. A ball didn't leave the infield. 

2. Ryan Perez, P, Judson: throws both right and left handed with good off speed stuff. Tops out at 93 while throwing from the left hand side. Tops out around 90 when he threw from the right side. A really interesting prospect to say the least. Perez struck out the side during his only inning of work. 

3. AJ Murray, !B, Georgia Tech: leads the Cape in HR and RBI. Showed some good defense during his stink in the game.  Murray was named game MVP. 

4. Gio Brusa, LF, Pacific: nice left handed swing. Hit the ball hard she he was at bat. 

The Cover Story: Selection Sunday

Here is a look  at how newspapers around the country covered Selection Sunday. 

Cover Story: The National Title Game

 Kentucky has been crowned National Champions. The Wildcats beat Kansas last night in the national championship game to claim their 8th title. Below are some of the newspapers in Kentucky and Kansas and how they cover the events in New Orleans last night.

Cover Story: The Final Four

Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State and Louisville are headed for the Big Easy for the Final Four this weekend. Here is how some of the newspapers around the country cover the Elite Eight this weekend.

Cover Story: Selection Sunday

Selection Sunday is one of the most stressful days for a college basketball program and this years was no different. A couple of years ago, we posted front pages from around the country detailing Selection Sunday, today we revisit that idea.

Its move in day in Bracketville

In honor of the field of 68 being announced, here is my favorite ad campaign developed for the NCAA Tournament. In 2000, Nike developed the concept of Bracketville and I loved it.It's a whole town dedicated to March Madness

 


The Bracketville Fruit Stand.
 

The Bracketville Hardware Stand

OTWT Mock MLB Draft

The Scouting Staff of OTWT has been locked away in the its bunker for the last couple of days, going over the top prospects in the upcoming baseball draft and coming up with its annual mock draft. Last year, we did it and it did not turn out that well. So here goes.

1 Pittsburgh Pirates: Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA

2 Seattle Mariners: Danny Hultzen, LHP, UVa

3 Arizona Diamondbacks: Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice

4 Baltimore Orioles: Sonny Gray, RHP, Vanderbilt

5 Kansas City Royals: Tyler Jungmann, RHP, Texas

6 Washington Nationals: Alex Meyers, RHP, Kentucky

7 Arizona Diamondbacks: Dylan Bundy, RHP, Owasso (Oklahoma) HS

8 Cleveland Indians: Jed Bradley, LHP, Georgia Tech

9 Chicago Cubs: Bubba Sterling, OF, Gardner-Edgerton (Oklahoma) HS

10 San Diego Padres: Trevor Bauer, RHP, UCLA

11 Houston Astros: Francisco Lindor, SS, Montverde Academy (Fla)

12 Milwaukee Brewers: Taylor Guerrieri, RHP, Spring Valley HS (SC)

13 New York Mets: George Springer, OF, UConn

14: Florida Marlins: Archie Bradley, RHP, Broken Arrow HS (Okalahoma)

15 Milwaukee Brewers: Larry Green, OF, Berrien County HS (Georgia)

16 Los Angeles Dodgers: Tyler Anderson, LHP, Oregon

17 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Brandon Nimmo, OF, East HS (Wyo)

18 Oakland Athletics: Mikie Mahtook, OF, LSU

19 Boston Red Sox: Matt Barnes, RHP, UConn

20 Colorado Rockies: Kolten Wong, 2B, Hawaii

21 Toronto Blue Jays: Josh Bell, OF, Dallas Jesuit HS (TX)

22 St. Louis Cardinals: Javier Baez, SS, Arlington Country Day HS (Fla)

23 Washington Nationals: CJ Cron, 1B, Utah

Coming to a NBA city near you

The NBA season is about six weeks way, but John Wall fever is starting to get a hold of everyone. The OTWT Maryland bureau send this photo earlier today from a Foot Locker. I know he has talent but this shirt is terrible and no one should ever wear it.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

The Front Pages: Selection Sunday

The bids have been handed out and some teams are happy while others are not. Here is how some newspapers around the country covered Selection Sunday.

OTWT: Bracketology

The Committee has made their choices and the games will start later this week. For the last week, the OTWT Bracketology Department has been breaking down the teams and the numbers. So here we go:

• Early estimates on Nike Basketball teams by Region: South: 10, Midwest: 12, West: 16, East: 13. 51 of 65, according to Nike Basketball's twitter. They should just rename this the Nike Invitational.
• I have this feeling that this more double digits seeds will win first rounds ground then any other years. Look at some of the double digits seeds: San Diego State, Florida, Georgia Tech, Cornell, Siena. All have good match ups.
• For the last team in the tournament UTEP has a really good match up in Butler. Has the makings of a 5-12 upset.
• What must Kentucky be thinking. Sure a number one seed in the East but a possible second round match up with a team that might be as talented as them in Texas, not what Coach Cal wanted to see.
• The bottom half of the South Regional sets up perfectly for Villanova and Baylor. There are not that many good teams in that half of the bracket.
• I have to agree with Jay Bilas on this one, this might be the weakest year for at large teams in the last decade. People can not bitch about Illinois and Mississippi State they have to get more quality wins and they will be in. It's that simple.
• I was a big fan of them at the start of the season and I will stick with them during the tournament. The biggest upset of the tournament will come when Texas beats Kentucky in the second round in New Orleans.

John Wall Dance is everywhere

Everything that John Wall does is news is in for the Big Blue Nation, now something is becoming national news, The John Wall Dance. Wall broke the dance out at the Midnight Madness and it seems to sweeping the nation. Kids, hunters, and old people are doing the dance. Here are some of the best of the best from around the web. He you can even become a fan of it on facebook, so it must be big.

The Hunter doing the John Wall Dance

John Wall Dance through History

John Wall Dance on the Great Wall of China

Cover Story: SI College Basketball Previews

Coming to a mailbox near you in the next couple of days the Sports Illustrated College Basketball Preview. Again this year, the magazine has gone with different regional covers.

Kentucky

Michigan State

Kansas

Villanova

Washington

UConn

A new way to recruit

For the last couple of year the world of recruiting has started to change. Instead of players keeping their views on their recruitment underwraps, players are taking all of the their thoughts to the public, while others are coming up with tech savy ways of announcing which programs they will play for.

St. Patrick's Guard Kyrie Irving has been at the front of using social media during the process. Irving, who has signed on to play at Duke, has been keeping people up to date with his views with his twitter account. In October, Irving let the world know that he was hanging out with fellow top recruit Tobias Harris at Kentucky. In addition to the twitter, Irving also has a ustream channel that he takes questions from different fans. The twitter aspects of recruiting appears to be growing with 2010 basketball class: Will Barton (Memphis), CJ Fair (undecided), Josh Shelby (undecided), and Kendall Marshall (North Carolina) all have accounts, some of them are open to the public while others are protected. These few just show how much social media is growing when it comes to recruiting.

On Friday, Harrison Barnes took announcing his college pick to a different level. After giving a speech about the final six six schools that were involved in the recruiting process, Barnes said he would Skype the college coach that he was committing to after a couple of seconds Roy Williams face popped up on the screen. I guess the days of just picking a hat up and putting it on are almost over.

Social media is continuing to grow and over the next couple of years many other top high school players wilil be turning to social media.

Questions that need to be answered in college basketball

The preview mags are out and people are starting to talk about the college basketball. There are a ton of stories lines and questions that need to be answered. Here are just a couple that OTWT has thought up.

• People talk about Carolina being a top five type of team. They are going to be so young, I just can't see it. I will get a first hand look at Carolina on Nov. 19 and then give a full report.
• How much trouble will Coach Cal get Kentucky in. There has already been issues with uber recruit John Wall. Look at Cal's record at UMass and Memphis, he always leaves a mess.
• Super recruiting class always don't lead to great thing. Like a Seton Hall during the early 90's. This is a warning to Kentucky fans.
• Could Kansas be this years North Carolina. I think so
• With all of the talk of Kentucky, Kansas, and Michigan State; Some people are forgetting about Villanova. Jay Wright has the program moving in the right direction. A great recruiting class and great returning guards usually lead to great things.
• How long will it take for before an assistant at FIU accuses Isiah Thomas of doing something wrong. Maybe after the North Carolina game.
• Sean Miller, Arizona and Anthony Grant, Alabama will be success in their new spots, while Mark Fox, Georgia will not get the job done because of lack of SEC ties.
• Texas freshman Avery Bradley will have the biggest impact of any freshman in America. With him at the point, Texas has a shot to be at the Final Four.
• My Final Four before the season even tips off: Kansas, Texas, Villanova, Michigan State.

The Cover Story: College Basketball

It seems like only yesterday that North Carolina cut down the nets at Ford Field in Detroit, but a lot has changed since they did that, Coach Cal went from Memphis to Kentucky and North Carolina reloaded.

In honor of midnight madness tomorrow night here are the covers of the Sporting News College Basketball preview issues:

Washington

California

Arizona

Texas

Kansas

Michigan

Illinois

SEC

Tennessee

Miami

Kentucky

North Carolina

Pittsburgh

Washington DC

UCONN