John Pudner - Page 7

The Pac-12 ended the SEC’s six-year run as the top conference in the NFL Draft by a 1247-1216 score just months after also ending the SEC’s streak of the best seasons by a college conference (see Breitbart Sports story here). It was the first time the Pac-12 topped the draft this century.

Until Arizona’s Stanley Johnson opted for the NBA Thursday night, colleges were on a roll with stars picking the over the NBA or even instead of staying in high school.

Many 2016 March Madness games will be decided in the next five days when stars must choose between the NBA and one more college run.

The initial Value Add Projections for 2016 have Villanova and LSU as Final Four teams after Trevor Lacey and Bobby Portis announced for the NBA Draft Wednesday. Portis projected as the third-best returning player, but his Arkansas team dropped from 6th to 24th after his announcement.

A few years ago I was walking across the bridge in Pittsburgh that leads to the Pirates stadium when a homeless man saw my Marquette shirt and stopped playing his clarinet to yell, “Marc Marotta was overrated!”

The simple story is that three college basketball players were much better than the other 4,000. Each of those was worth more than 11 points a game to his team than what a replacement player would have provided, while no one else was worth even 10 additional points.

In 2004, Duke became the first team with three top 40 Value Add players, and today Duke becomes the first team to top that mark with four Top 40 players after the run by Justise Winslow.

Most were shocked when Breitbart Sports was the first outlet to name Frank Kaminsky as the best center in the country back on February 14, 2014. Winning the title required him to beat the best two NBA prospects, and after scoring 20 points and grabbing 11 rebounds against Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns he now faces Jahlil Okafor.

After a week of hearing religious liberty attacked, my religion doesn’t let me watch the biggest college game of the year Saturday night. This from an Alabaman who drove to Indiana to see the Hoosiers upset Kentucky in a regular

Breitbart Sports ranks the top-100 players with basketball left in them in the NCAA, NIT, CBI, and CIT.

Louisville’s win slipped away when Mangok Mathiang’s shot rolled off the rim with two seconds to play. Gonzaga faded in the final five minutes after Przemek Karnowski drew a double team and passed to All-American Kyle Wiltjer only to have him miss a game-tying open lay-up.

Duke is one of only six teams with three top 100 players at www.valueaddbasketball.com, and 83% of those teams made the Elite 8. Gonzaga is one of the less than 1% of teams without three top 100 players to make the Elite 8, but we are picking their four NBA prospects to expose Duke’s inside defense and pull the upset.

Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith once again showed their ignorance of college basketball this week, complementing a player not playing, saying another player would be the key to Arizona beating Wisconsin before he was outscored 27-6, and backing the Arizona pick that dropped President Obama to 20% against the Breitbart Sports bracket.

With 14:26 to go, Notre Dame’s Pat Connaughton drove to the hoop for a dunk that gave them a 46-42 lead, and Ashley Judd covered her head. The rest of the game was a battle, and with 2:36 to go Connaughton found Jerian Grant 24 feet from the basket and Grant buried the long three-pointer to give Notre Dame a 66-64 lead.

Gonzaga’s 74-62 win increased Obama’s deficit, but different rules could give him a second chance to win his bracket. Meanwhile “Our Mother,” translated as Notre Dame, will try to upset the overwhelming favorite Kentucky just as they did when they

In his first game since yelling, “What the F… is wrong with Barack Obama?” NC State’s Anthony “Cat” Barber will go up against one of only two teams that feature two Breitbart Sports All-Americans.

Count on the New York Times to base a piece on how few people watched Texas Southern in March Madness ($1.134 billion in TV revenue to rank barely behind NFL playoffs) while three other much better March Madness games aired on other channels.

Who moves on to the Elite Eight? Breitbart Sports breaks down the Sweet Sixteen.

The Occupy Movement appears to have spread to basketball courts to address concerns over new Value Add calculations showing the top 1% are now considered “more valuable” than the bottom 44%.

President Obama’s Barack-et had two more double-digit losses to Breitbart Sports picks Sunday, guaranteeing that the commander-in-chief cannot catch Breitbart Sports’s bracket even if the president’s picks on the remaining 15 days of March Madness all come in correct.

When the brackets were announced Gallup measured a net positive job approval rating for President Obama. Since then, Obama has dropped to a -9% (43% approve, 52% disapprove).

West Virginia, which voted 62%-36% against President Obama in 2012, beat his bracket pick Friday, or at least the state’s marquee college basketball team did, to push him behind Breitbart Sports. Then Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins said he does not pay any attention to President Obama.

Best Madness Predictor? If you went with the Breitbart Sports published brackets for each region you are a strong 12-4, but if you simply took the team with the best Value Add player in each game you are definitely winning your bracket at 14-2.

After a record five one-point games in a single day, March Madness resumes at 12:15 pm ET with Kansas against New Mexico State.

Sixteen games play on four networks for the next twelve hours. Skip your local listings and check Breitbart Sports’s tournament TV schedule.

Your bracket must be in by Thursday’s 12:15 ET tipoff between Notre Dame and Northeastern. The table included in the article outlines nine different paths to the title by evaluating the 64 remaining teams using nine separate measures.

Monday we filled in the brackets for the East, West, Midwest and South complete with ratings for each player and each team. That leaves the Final Four, where we have Villanova beating Gonzaga and Kentucky beating Wisconsin. Could Villanova then repeat the 1985 magical win over dominant Georgetown by beating uber-favorite Kentucky?

Gonzaga has their best shot to make the Final Four, and they are virtually even with Duke as the top two teams in the region.

When the No. 1 seed in a bracket already beat the No. 2 seed (Kansas) 72-40 this season, one sees why the top seed plays as such a huge favorite. Two bigger threats to Kentucky than Kansas appear to be Wichita State and Notre Dame, teams who look evenly matched with each other.

Arizona’s guards are more experienced, and they will likely produce twice as many NBA prospects as Wisconsin. But we pick Wisconsin to come out of a virtual toss-up due to putting an even better on the court with Sam Dekker back at full strength.

The East looks the most wide open, with five teams within 10 points of each other when comparing seven categories.

Al McGuire used to say you needed three-and-a-half stars to win a championship – Villanova showed Saturday that having eight really, really good players maybe the best way to win a conference championship grind with no off days between games.

At 270 pounds, Xavier’s Matt Stainbrook won the battle with the 350-pound Joshua Smith for most of the game, scoring 20 points and grabbing 9 rebounds to give Xavier a 53-33 lead. However, he did not get another point or rebound from that point on as the Hoyas turned up the pressure for a ferocious run to fall just short 65-63.

Kris Dunn left no doubt who was the best player in the Big East, despite Jay Wright imploring the Wildcats to surround him. He outdueled the Big East’s co-MVP Ryan Arcidiacono, scoring 22 points while Arcidiacono had only one basket but hit two free throws with 3 seconds left for the 63-61 win.

March is the month of the basketball doubleheader. Thursday afternoon the best team (Villanova in top photo) shut down Marquette. Then Providence fans cheered the best duo in the conference (Kris Dunn and LaDontae Henton) past St. John’s on their home court of Madison Square Garden to set up a meeting between the two teams in Friday’s Big East semifinal.

NEW YORK—If you watched North Dakota State win the Summit League in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Tuesday and then drove straight to New York (1,354 miles) with no traffic, you could have arrived at Madison Square Garden just in time