NCAA Basketball Tips

On November 11, 2011, North Carolina and Michigan State will play the first ever college basketball game on the deck of an aircraft carrier positioned in the San Diego harbor. This will be the 2009 NCAA basketball title game rematch.

There will be seating arrangements for about 7,000 viewers. In the event of rain the game will be played below the flight deck. So far no tickets are being sold. The game will be played within a makeshift, stadium seating arena constructed on the deck of an as yet undetermined ship, dubbed the Carrier Classic.

What could get really interesting is if there’s rain on the day in question, as in fact, as far as gimmicks go, this one ranks pretty high. The game will be played below the flight deck, presumably in front of some much smaller crowd in the event of inclement weather.

Thursday, ESPN announced that, it will televise the game on Veterans Day. It will be the first men’s college basketball game to be played on the deck of a U.S. military aircraft carrier, what the network said.

No tickets will be on sale to the public as the current proposal only allocates seating for approximately 7,000 audience topside. Considering the location and the specific date, we imagine that the crowd will be mostly of veterans and military personnel.

Connecticut beat Butler 53-41 and Kemba Walker scored 16 points to give Jim Calhoun his third national championship. This was a huge achievement as something of this sort was possible by only four other coaches. In the sports betting odds too, Connecticut were the favorites to win.

To a Final Four-record low 18.8 shooting percentage (12 for 64), the Huskies did it with defense holding the Bulldogs. After winning five games in as many days to win the Big East title, Connecticut capped one of college basketball’s best postseason runs, winning six games in the NCAA tournament.

In the final seconds for Arizona, Derrick Williams and Jamelle Horne missed 3-pointers, allowing the third-seeded Huskies (30-9) to hang on for their ninth victory in 19 days. It also allowed them a trip to Houston next week. Last year, after missing the NCAA tournament entirely, coach Jim Calhoun’s tireless team is headed to UConn’s fourth Final Four.

While battling foul trouble for the fifth-seeded Wildcats (30-8), Williams had 20 points. Before six points by Lamb, the Wildcats led with 6 minutes to play.

In the NCAA title game, Butler set a woeful 19 percent record, which was the worst shooting percentage and in its 53-41 loss to Connecticut, he had managed just 12 field goals.

Shelvin Mack was held to 13 points. In the first five games, he averaged almost 22 points and leading scorer Matt Howard had seven on 1-of-13 shooting.

Butler moved on with a 70-62 victory against Virginia Commonwealth, while the Huskies reached the championship game by beating fourth-seeded Kentucky 56-55.

The Purdue Boilermakers will be taking on the Southern Illinois Salukis this coming Friday night. This game appears to be a rather lopsided matchup. The Boilermakers have the 9th ranking in the nation.

The Southern Illinois Salukis will really struggle to keep up with Purdue in this matchup. The team has managed to win one of their 3 games on the season, but they will be playing against a much higher quality of team when playing the Boilermakers. At this point in the season the Salukis have the 252nd best offense in the nation. They are averaging almost 66 points per game on the season.

They have struggled on offense in part because they struggle to move the ball around. The Salukis average just 11 assists per game. This is an extremely low total. If they hope to keep up with Purdue they will really need to work the ball around in order to get open shots.

The Salukis will also need to shoot the ball better against the Boilermakers if they hope to keep up. They have the 159th best shooting percentage in the NCAA at 44.4 percent.

The Boilermakers are solid all around and they beat their opponents by moving the ball around. The Boilermakers average 24.3 assists per game. This is the 2nd best total in the NCAA.

These assists have helped them score 87 points per game on the season. The Boilermakers are 3-0 on the season and they will be the heavy favorites to win this one.

The Colgate Raiders will play against the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils in NCAA Basketball action on Friday.

These two teams will square off in what should be a very lopsided matchup. The results of their season so far already show that these teams are in different directions.

The Blue Devils disposed of Princeton in impressive fashion to start the season. They are ranked as the best team in the nation and there will be high expectations surrounding them. This game against Colgate should be a fairly easy matchup by all accounts.

Colgate managed to drop their first game to Binghamton. Binghamton has very little notoriety around the nation and a team that expects to compete with Duke probably has little hope if they cannot beat Binghamton.

Colgate has a history of starting out their seasons poorly. Last season the Raiders started off the season with nine straight losses. This season they lost their first easy test and now they will face Duke. All signs point to this team starting off on another losing streak.

Colgate will need to enter this game with the idea that they are going to try to get better as a team with this game. They need to come out and play their game rather than allowing Duke to dictate the way they play. If they can play their game they can at least prepare their team for the rest of the season.

This game should be an easy test for the Duke Blue Devils this weekend against the Colgate Raiders.