Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

I thought I'd post the future NCAA tournament dates so I have them when I need them. Year Championship/Final Four Dates Championship/Final Four Location Sweet 16/Elite 8 Dates Sweet 16/Elite 8 Locations Rounds of 16/32 Dates Rounds of 16/32 Locations 2019 April 6,8 Minneapolis, MN March 28,29,30,31 Louisville, KY Anaheim, CA Washington, D.C. Kansas City, MO March 21,22,23,24 Salt Lake City, UT Des Moines, IA Jacksonville, FL Tulsa, OK Columbus, OH Columbia, SC Seattle, WA 2020 April 4,6 Atlanta, GA March 26,27,28,29 Indianapolis, IN Los Angeles, CA Houston, TX New York, NY March 19,20,21,22 Albany, NY Spokane, WA St. Louis, MO Tampa, FL Greensboro, NC Omaha, NE Sacramento, CA Cleveland, OH 2021 April 3,5 Indianapolis, IN March 25,26,27,28 Minneapolis, MN Denver, CO Memphis, TN Brooklyn, NY March 18,19,20,21 Providence, RI Boise, ID Detroit, MI Dallas, TX Wichita, KS Lexington, KY Raleigh, NC San Jose, CA 2022 Ap...

The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is over, and there was quite a bit of carnage. For the first time ever, a 16 seed beat a 1 seed as UMBC defeated Virginia 74-54. I figured that a 16 seed would win eventually, but I figured it would be a close game and come down to the last possession. UMBC won by 20. Incredible. Virgina was a 20.5 point favorite in that game, which is the second-biggest favorite to lose an NCAA game since the field expanded to 64+ teams in 1985. (Missouri lost as a 21.5 point favorite in 2012). On Sunday of the round of 32, another 1 seed in Xavier lost. This means that for the first time since 2004 there are 2 top seeds that didn't make the sweet 16. Not only are 2 top seeds out, but Cincinnati and North Carolina (both #2 seeds) also lost in the round of 32. So the top 2 seeds in both the South and West regions are out. From a betting standpoint, favorites were 16-15-1 ATS in the round of 64, with 8 losses straight-up. That's fairly typical of that...

This past weekend I went to see (almost all of) the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St Louis. We came in on Thursday for two games and saw a very impressive 22 point, 19 rebound performance by Alize Johnson of Missouri State. Friday was a long day with 4 games, but they were all close games. The first two games were decided by 4 points and 2 points, with the second one being decided on a basket with 1.2 seconds to go in the game. The two evening games were decided by 7 points and 4 points. Saturday's semifinal games were decided by 8 points each, but the second game went to overtime before Illinois State pulled away from Southern Illinois. I wasn't able to stay for the championship game on Sunday, but I didn't miss much as Loyola Chicago beat Illinois State by 16 points. All in all, it was a fun weekend and really interesting to see a lot of tournament games in a short amount of time.