Time For Basketball Teams to Open Practice

As basketball teams around the country get ready to kickoff practice for the 2010-11 season on Oct. 15, here are two stories (a men's and a women's) from the NCAA staff about the seasons getting ready to begin.

Midnight Madness Takes the Court this Weekend Nationwide; Regular Season Set to Begin November 12

David Worlock, Associate Director of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship

INDIANAPOLIS - Some 345 NCAA® Division I men’s basketball teams begin their journey on the road they hope will culminate at the Final Four®, as official practices will be conducted across the country this weekend. Many teams and their fans will gather across the country in arenas late Friday night to celebrate Midnight Madness, the annual celebration that marks the start to the season. Practices are permitted to begin after 5 p.m. Friday.

ESPNU will televise its Midnight Madness special featuring extensive whip-around coverage from top college basketball programs around the nation Friday at 9 p.m. ET. Coverage will focus on several men’s programs including defending national champion Duke, as well as Kentucky, Memphis, Gonzaga, Kansas State and St. John’s. The University of Connecticut women’s program – the two-time defending national champion, which is riding a 78-game winning streak (10 short of the UCLA men's record for consecutive victories in NCAA Division I basketball) – will also be featured.

Coming off a thrilling conclusion to the 2009-10 season that saw the Blue Devils win the men’s title after Butler’s half-court shot caromed off the rim, the upcoming season promises to give college basketball fans around the world more excitement.

However, the Madness is not limited to March.

Non-conference games in November feature contests such as Ohio State-Florida, Texas-Illinois, Kansas State-Gonzaga, Kansas-Arizona, Missouri-Georgetown and Tennessee-Pittsburgh. Blockbuster tilts continue in December with matchups such as Duke-Butler, Syracuse-Michigan State, Kentucky-North Carolina, Washington-Texas A&M and Temple-Villanova. And that’s just a small sampling.

In addition to the dozens of individual non-conference games, there will be several multi-team events that promise to feature matchups between the nation’s top programs. The NCAA has historically identified these events as ideal opportunities to use experimental rules, and this year is no exception. In May, the Men’s Basketball Rules Committee approved the experimental use of an expanded arc at two feet from the center of the basket. This identifies an area on the floor where a secondary defender is not able to establish legal guarding position. The committee felt the rule change made last year reduced the number of collisions at the goal; this year’s experimental rule calls for the area to be slightly expanded.

The men’s championship also enters a new era, with the announcement earlier this year that the tournament field will expand to 68 teams beginning with the 2011 championship. Under the new format, there will be four first-round games, to be played in Dayton March 15 and 16 and known as the First Four®. It will feature two games involving teams playing for the right to advance as No. 16 seeds that will play top-seeded teams in the second round, and two other games featuring the final four at-large teams selected to the field. Second- and third-round games will be played March 17-20. Host cities are Denver, Colorado; Tampa, Florida; Tucson, Arizona; Washington D.C.; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Regional sites will conduct games March 24-27 and include Anaheim, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Newark, New Jersey; and San Antonio, Texas. The 2011 Men’s Final Four will be held April 2 and 4 at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Tournament tickets can be purchased by visiting www.ncaa.com/mbbtickets.

The NCAA reached a deal in April with Turner Sports and CBS worth $10.8 billion over 14 years for the television, Internet and wireless rights to the tournament. As part of the agreement, all 67 games of the championship will be shown live across four national networks—CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. Previously, fewer than 10 tournament games were guaranteed to have a full national audience.

The bracket, which will be revealed Sunday, March 13 on CBS, is constructed by using the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee’s principles and procedures, which can be located at www.ncaa.com/media. This year’s committee is chaired by Gene Smith of Ohio State. He is joined on the committee by Stan Morrison of University of California, Riverside; Jeff Hathaway of Connecticut, Lynn Hickey of University of Texas at San Antonio, Mike Bobinski of Xavier University, Doug Fullerton of the Big Sky Conference, Dan Beebe of the Big 12 Conference, Ron Wellman of Wake Forest University, Scott Barnes of Utah State, and Steve Orsini of Southern Methodist University.

But before teams start dancing their way through NCAA March Madness®, they will have a little fun with Midnight Madness and the practices this week. The journey on the Road to the Final Four® actually begins in October with this tradition that started nearly 40 years ago when Lefty Driesell had his University of Maryland team go for a run on the campus’ track minutes after midnight on the first day of allowable practices. Approximately 3,000 fans attended the event and it became a tradition that spread across the country and now features a variety of activities to entertain thousands of fans. Many of the practices are televised live locally and carried live via video streaming across the Internet.



Start of Practice and Midnight Madness Celebrations Signal Beginning of 2010-11 Women's College Basketball Season; Regular Season to Begin November 12

Rick Nixon, Associate Director of the Division I Women's Basketball Championship

INDIANAPOLIS - The journey down a road that hundreds of women’s basketball teams hope will culminate with a trip to the Women’s Final Four® has begun, as official practices are being conducted across the country this week. Many women’s programs have started their preparations thanks to a new NCAA rule this year that permits women’s teams to begin practicing 40 days before their first game. Several other teams will gather in arenas late Friday night to celebrate Midnight Madness, the annual celebration that marks the unofficial start to the season.

ESPNU will televise a four-hour ESPNU Midnight Madness special featuring extensive whip-around coverage from top college basketball programs around the nation on October 15 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU HD. The University of Connecticut women’s program – the two-time defending national champion, which is riding a 78-game winning streak (10 short of the UCLA men's record for consecutive victories in NCAA Division I basketball) – will be featured along with several men’s programs including defending national champion Duke University as well as Kentucky, Memphis, Gonzaga and Kansas State. The Huskies will be the first women’s team to be showcased during Midnight Madness programming since the show debuted on ESPN platforms in 1993.

The question entering the 2010-11 women’s season centers on Connecticut’s winning streak and which teams will stand between the Huskies and a run at a third straight national championship. Non-conference play will provide an early indication as Connecticut faces Baylor on Nov. 16 in the State Farm Tip-Off Classic in a rematch of a 2010 national semifinal contest. A rematch of the 2010 national championship game will occur when Connecticut plays Stanford on Dec. 30.

Additional non-conference women’s matchups will take place across the country in November and December with key and important games featuring Rutgers-Stanford (Nov. 14), Texas-Stanford (Nov. 28), Oklahoma-Duke (Dec. 5), Tennessee-Baylor (Dec. 14), Stanford-Tennessee (Dec. 19), Xavier-Duke (Dec. 21), Xavier-Stanford (Dec. 28) and Rutgers-Tennessee (Dec. 30) to name just a few.

An experimental rule to be applied during exhibition play will involve the continued effort to examine the distance of the three-point line. The Women’s Basketball Rules Committee has requested institutions to record shooting percentages from both the men’s and women’s lines from one home exhibition game. This information will provide the committee with significant data on how many three-pointers are actually being taken from behind both the men’s and women’s line.

Conference play will feature key matchups as teams vie to win a conference championship and continue to build a resume worthy of earning their way into the championship field. The 64-team women’s tournament field will be announced Monday, March 14 on ESPN. First- and second-round sites include Albuquerque, New Mexico; Columbus, Ohio; Durham, North Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; Salt Lake City, Utah; Spokane, Washington; Stanford, California; University Park, Pennsylvania; Auburn, Alabama; Charlottesville, Virginia; Cincinnati, Ohio; College Park, Maryland; Shreveport, Louisiana; Storrs, Connecticut; Waco, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas, with games set for March 19-22. The four regional sites will be Dayton, Ohio; Spokane, Washington; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Dallas, Texas on March 26-29. The Women’s Final Four will be April 3 and 5, 2011 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Tickets for all sites can be purchased by going to www.ncaa.com/tickets.

The women’s bracket is constructed by using the committee’s principles and procedures, which are located at www.ncaa.com/finalfour. Members of the 2010-11 Division I Women’s Basketball Committee include chair Marilyn McNeil of Monmouth University. She is joined on the committee by Sybil Blalock of Mercer University, Greg Christopher of Bowling Green State University, Leslie Claybrook of Rice University, Rich Ensor of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Heather Gores of Gonzaga University, Dru Hancock of the Big 12 Conference, Carolayne Henry of the Mountain West Conference, Chris Massaro of Middle Tennessee State and Kathy Meehan of St. John’s University (New York).

For the ninth consecutive year, ESPN and ESPN2 will broadcast all 63 games of the 2011 Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. The network will offer whip-around-style coverage in high definition. This marks the 16th straight year (since 1996) that ESPN will serve as the championship’s exclusive television home.

Before teams start dancing their way through NCAA March Madness®, they will have a little fun with Midnight Madness and the practices this week. The journey down the Road to the Women’s Final Four® begins in October with this tradition that started nearly 40 years ago when Lefty Driesell had his University of Maryland men’s team go for a run on the campus’ track minutes after midnight on the first day of allowable practices. Approximately 3,000 fans attended the event and it became a tradition that spread across the country and now features a variety of activities to entertain thousands of men’s and women’s basketball fans. In addition to ESPNU coverage, many of the practices are televised live locally and carried live via video streaming across the Internet.

Sporting News Magazine Ranks Murray State Men's Hoops 35th in Preseason Ranking

It is never too early to think about basketball season as preseason basketball magazines are already hitting the bookstore shelves.

The Sporting News recently came out and magazine ranked the Top 50 teams entering the 2010-11 season. The Murray State Racers were tabbed the 35th-best team in the country.

Here are the complete rankings from The Sporting News.

1. Michigan State
2. Duke
3. Purdue
4. Kansas
5. Ohio State
6. Kansas State
7. Syracuse
8. Kentucky
9. North Carolina
10. Pittsburgh
11. Villanova
12. Memphis
13. Missouri
14. Gonzaga
15. Illinois
16. Baylor
17. Georgetown
18. Wisconsin
19. Butler
20. Florida
21. Virginia Tech
22. Tennessee
23. Washington
24. Wichita State
25. Florida State
26. Texas
27. Temple
28. San Diego State
29. Texas A&M
30. Xavier
31. BYU
32. Mississippi State
33. N.C. State
34. Minnesota
35. Murray State
36. West Virginia
37. Dayton
38. Marquette
39. UCLA
40. Clemson
41. Northwestern
42. Maryland
43. Arizona
44. Oklahoma State
45. New Mexico
46. Richmond
47. Georgia
48. Cincinnati
49. UNLV
50. Wofford

JSU's Coty Blanchard on ESPN2's First Take

Jacksonville State freshman quarterback Coty Blanchard appeared on ESPN2's First Take on Monday, Sept. 6. Below is the video. Blanchard was named OVC Co-Offensive Player of the Week (along with teammate Marques Ivory) for his part in the Gamecocks upset of Ole Miss on Sept. 4. Blanchard and Ivory later were named National Players of the Week by College Sporting News.

If the video embed does not, try this link: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5539270

Jacksonville State Wins One For the "Little Guy"

Sometimes the underdog pulls one out. That was certainly the case today in Oxford, Miss. as the Jacksonville State Gamecocks topped Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponent Ole Miss 49-48 in double overtime.

Fans were treated to an exciting game that saw Jax State score and convert a 2-point conversion to force overtime and then after a stallmate in the first overtime, score and get a 2-point conversion in the second overtime to pull out the win.

It was the first win for an OVC team against an FBS opponent since 2004, snapping a string of 50-straight losses to the higher-division foes. It was also the first time since the Conference was formed in 1948 that an OVC team topped a team from the Southeastern Conference.

Here is a video of the JSU postgame from today ...





What is great about the situation is that nobody expected JSU to win today. Even though the Gamecocks are nationally-ranked in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) at No. 17 and Ole Miss was picked last in the highly-competitive SEC West, most people thought this would be a win for the Rebels who were playing with transfer quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, a Heisman hopeful at Oregon last season.

What is even better is that Jacksonville State received a big financial guarantee to play the Rebels. So not only did the Gamecocks go home with a victory, but also a check!

What is also great about the victory is the recognition that Jacksonville State and the OVC will receive today, the coming week and all year. It is no secret that the league has struggled in football over the past decade. No OVC team had won a game against an FBS foe since 2004 and the league has not won a FCS Playoff game since 2000 (and that was by Western Kentucky, a team that isn't even in the league anymore). With that lack of success comes very little national respect; but one win over a FBS school, a SEC school nonetheless, will help establish the league this season.

It is not the only big win for the OVC over the past six months. Still on a lot of peoples' minds is Murray State's victory over another SEC foe, this time Vanderbilt, in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. That win was the first for the league in the tournament's first round since 1989 and was the first over an SEC team since the 2000-01 season, snapping a string of 71-straight losses to the SEC. In case you did forget, here is a look at some of those highlights:



So in summary sometimes it is tough when the "little guy" goes out and plays hard but comes up just short. A great season for one team in the league leads to a dream trip to the NCAA Tournament only to see that squad get manhandled by a bigger conference school.

But as I've shown you that is not always the case. The past six months have shown that OVC teams can compete with any team out there. So enjoy the victory over an FBS team. See below for more coverage from today's victory,

Other Coverage of the Jacksonville State Victory:
JSUGamecockSports.com - Coverage from JSU's official site
Jacksonville State revels in upset of of Rebels - Sports Network
Ole Miss goes down Hard - ESPN.com
Jacksonville State Rallies in Fourth Quarter, Stuns Ole Miss in Double OT - FanHouse.com
Jacksonville State stuns Ole Miss, 49-48, in double overtime - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Gosh almighty JSU rallies from 3 touchdown deficit to upset Ole Miss - Anniston Star
Upset of Ole Miss is JSU's 'game changer' - Anniston Star
Crowe's gamble pays off as JSU upsets Ole Miss - Birmingham News
Publicity, fan buzz, early ticket sales follow JSU's football victory - Anniston Star

FCS Bracket Projections - Week 1

The selection of the 20-team field for the 2010 Division I Football Championship will not occur until Sunday, Nov. 20 but the Sports Network is already looking towards the newly expanded bracket.

FCS Executive Director Craig Haley will be doing his own version of "bracketology" each week during the season in predicting the field.

In his first attempt at the projection (it is a PDF file), Haley has two OVC teams in the field of 20. He has Jacksonville State as one of the eight teams playing in the first round, taking on James Madison with the right to advance and play national-power Appalachian State (a team he predicts will be the No. 2 national seed). Haley also has Eastern Illinois in the field, giving the Panthers a buy into the second round for a matchup with No. 5 national seed William & Mary.

Haley predicts the other national seeds as Villanova (No. 1), Montana (No. 3) and Southern Illinois (No. 4). Other teams he has in the field now include Elon, Stephen F. Austin, Richmond, Eastern Washington, Delaware, South Carolina State, Liberty, Montana state, Central Connecticut State, New Hampshire, Colgate and South Dakota State.

This year the FCS Championship will be held for the first time at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas. This year's game date is later than normal, as it will be played on Friday, Jan. 7.

Division I Football Championship Subdivision: It's More Than a Game

Take a look at the new commercial promoting the Football Championship Subdivision. The theme of this year's video is "It's More Than a Game."

With the football season just a few days away, there are some important things to remember about the FCS. The FCS is the only Division I group of teams who compete in a football playoff, meaning the champion is determined on the field and not by polls and power rankings.

And whether you like the new venacular of FCS (vs. the previous I-AA), it is all Division I football. Too often I hear people refer to Bowl Subdivision Teams (FBS) as Division I and leave everything else to be lower.

OVC Players in the NFL; DRC Returns to Nashville

At the opening of training camps earlier this month there were 19 former OVC players on NFL rosters. Once training camp ends and the season begins we will do a complete feature on the former OVCers who have made NFL rosters in 2010.

Last night former Tennessee State Tiger Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie came back to Nashville to play in the same stadium he did in college. DRC, now a member of the Arizona Cardinals, played in a preseason game against the Tennessee Titans (Arizona also played a regular season game with Tennessee last season at LP Field).

Below is a photo of DRC with Titans superstar Chris Johnson before last night's game (photo by Don McQuistion).