Thursday, March 29, 2012

Palace to host 2013 NCAA men's basketball tournament games

The Palace will be one of eight arenas to host second- and third-round games in the 2013 NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Games at Auburn Hills will be played March 21 and 23.
Tickets go on sale to the public Oct. 13.
Other locations hosting games: Lexington, Ky.; Salt Lake City; San Jose; Austin, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; Kansas City, Mo., and Philadelphia.
The 2013 Final Four will be in Atlanta.

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Monday, March 12, 2012

Can a '4' make the 'Four?'

Michigan is the fourth seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA basketball tournament.
Since the 2000 tournament, 48 teams, four each year for 12 years, have been seeded fourth in various regions.
Three of them have advanced to the Final Four, and none have won the tournament championship.
Kentucky reached the Final Four as a 4 last year.
Louisiana State did it in 2006, and Louisville did it in 2005.

Titans face tall odds against No. 2 seed Kansas

Possible, but unlikely.
That's how one could sum up the Detroit Titans' chances of upsetting Kansas on Friday in the NCAA basketball tournament.
Kansas is the No. 2 seed and Detroit Mercy is seeded 15th in the Midwest Region.
A 15 seed has not beaten a 2 since Hampton struck down Iowa State, 58-57, in the 2001 tournament.

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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

First payoff for McCallum-McCallum pairing at Detroit

Ray McCallum Jr. could have played anywhere in America.
Kansas, UCLA and every other big-time college basketball program wanted the former Detroit Country Day star, but McCallum chose to stay home and play for his dad at Detroit.
Now player McCallum and coach Ray McCallum Sr. are going dancing, NCAA tournament style.
The Titans beat top-seeded Valparaiso at Valpo on Tuesday night to win the Horizon League tournament championship and the automatic NCAA berth that goes with the title.
McCallum Jr., a sophomore guard, had 21 points to lead the Titans to the 70-50 victory over Valparaiso  and Detroit's first NCAA bid since 1999.
The Titans are 22-13. They'll learn Sunday their first-round NCAA opponent.

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Michigan teams 2-1 in MAC first round

It's on to Cleveland for the second round through finals of the Mid-American Conference basketball tournament. Western Michigan, the eighth seed, plays 12th-seeded Northern Illinois and 11th-seeded Central Michigan takes on Toledo, the seventh seed, in quarterfinal games Wednesday night.
In first-round action Monday, fifth-seeded Eastern Michigan lost to Northern Illinois 55-52. Meanwhile, WMU beat Ball State 69-63 at Kalamazoo and CMU took down sixth-seeded Bowling Green 54-53 at BGSU.
In the 12-team MAC tournament, the top two seeds don't play until the semifinal round.
Akron is the 1 seed and Buffalo the 2.
Ohio is the 3 and Kent State the 4.

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Monday, March 5, 2012

VCU back in Big Dance

Virginia Commonwealth, the Colonial Athletic Association school that rose from the First Four to the Final Four in 2011, has another chance to be the darling of the NCAA basketball tournament.
The Rams defeated No. 1-seeded  Drexel 59-56 in the CAA tournament championship game Monday and earned the league's automatic bid to the Big Dance.
In 2006, George Mason represented the Colonial in the Final Four.
VCU takes a 28-6 record into the tournament.
Drexel, now 27-6, which had a 19-game winning streak snapped by VCU, must wait until March 11 to learn whether it will get a bid to the NCAAs.

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Grizzlies fall; Titans to play for NCAA bid

The Detroit Titans play Valparaiso on Tuesday night in the championship game of the Horizon League basketball tournament. The winner receives a bid to the NCAA tournament.It won't be easy for coach Ray McCallum's club. Valpo (22-10) was the regular-season champion in the Horizon and, as the higher-seeded team for the final, will play on its home court against the Titans (21-13).
Meanwhile, Oakland fell late Sunday night to Southern Utah in the Summit League tournament at Sioux Falls, S.D. The 84-82 defeat ended the Golden Grizzlies' dream of reaching the NCAA tournament. Oakland's record fell to 17-15.

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Friday, March 2, 2012

Can Oakland go 'dancing' with the stars?

Oakland begins play in the Summit League basketball tournament against Southern Utah on Sunday night. The Golden Grizzlies are the third seed and Southern Utah the sixth seed for the tournament that culmiinates with its championship game March 6.
All games are at the Sioux Falls Arena in South Dakota.
Oakland went 11-7 in league games, while Southern Utah was 8-10. The Grizzlies swept the teams' two regular-season games.
Corey Petros, formerly of Eisenhower High School, played in all 31 regular-season games for Oakland. He led the team in rebounding withh 7.2 per game and scored 8.7 points per game.
The winner of the Summit League tournament receives a bid to the NCAA tournament.

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