basketball

Louisville and Ohio State became the first two teams to advance to the 2012 Final Four in New Orleans next weekend. Here’s a recap of Saturday’s regional finals.

So, the four-day marathon known as the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament is now in our rearview mirror. If your bracket busted like a cheap watch, you may not care too much about the rest of March Madness, so here are some ways to pass the time until a national championship is crowned:

Ohio, Cincinnati and Xavier all won on Sunday to join Ohio State in the NCAA basketball tournament round of 16. Top-seeded North Carolina and Michigan State also won to advance to the regional semi-finals. Here’s a full recap of the day’s action in the NCAA tournament:

The higher-seeded team won every NCAA tournament game played in men’s Division I basketball on Saturday. Top seeds Kentucky and Syracuse were among the teams which advanced to the regional semifinal round next week. Here’s a recap of all of the NCAA tournament action from Saturday:

Sure, the Cal-South Florida NCAA Tournament play-in game wasn't that great, but its suckiness may have revealed that one of the cameraman covering the game might have had a thing for the South Florida dance team and cheerleaders -- because they sure got a lot of air time. Hmmm...wonder why?

Higher-seeded teams won all but two games during Thursday’s play in the second round of the NCAA basketball tournament. VCU and Colorado were the only lower-seeded teams to record victories. Here’s a recap of all of the day’s action in the NCAA tournament:

Behold my friends! The Monster has made his picks for the 2012 NCCA Tournament.

It's tourney time! Get those Bracketbusters picks in, because March is officially Mad, and we have the song to prove it.

Bracketology noun 1. A term invented by some ESPN marketing wonk implying that there is actual science behind picking which schools will be selected to play in the NCAA Tournament; made to stick because ESPN owns the TV rights to the entire world except for, ironically, the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and don't you just know they're pissed about that.

Now, we know. Last week, we showed you video of a play-by-play announcer going nuts (as in: kicked in the...) as Chicago's Marist RedHawks won on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer... He, and they, did it again -- Marist shredding its opponent, and announcer Brian Snow shredding his vocal cords.

Maybe it's the Chicagoland legacy of Harry Caray. Possibly John Belushi. Or, maybe they're just mixing Caray's and Belushi's respective favorites, beer and cocaine. Anyway you look at it, Chicago is breeding some amazingly over-the-top play-by-play announcers, and Marist High School is where they're cutting their teeth.

We've seen ex-UTEP dunk artist Randy Culpepper do his thing here in El Paso, but arguably the best dunker around is 5'9" TDub of Team Flight Brothers. Add ESPN, a little Dub Step, some spectacular slow-motion photography, SportsNation's Michelle Beadle, a car and Venice Beach and...BOOM!