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We provide simplified sports coverage, sports basics, and one-liners that will keep you from feeling like an outcast on game day. Think of us as a sports survival guide for the sports impaired. NASG More in Orange (Mouse Over Here)
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Summarizes the top three stories from around the web
1) OSU, Duke, KU, and Pitt #1 Seeds
2) Duke Crushes UNC
3) Cris Collinsworth Takes a Boat ride
  • Overview
  • NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Picks
  • Blank NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket

NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament

Click here for NASG Tournament Picks!

Temple Basketball Player

Who’s in it? Eventually, 64 teams.  There will initially be 68, but eight teams will play for the last 4 slots in the tournament.  The 68 teams come from a pool of 345 Division I basketball programs and are picked by the NCAA Selection Committee who release seeding on Selection Sunday.  There are 345 basketball programs that are affiliated with 32 conferences.  31 of the 32 conferences get an automatic bid for their conference champion.  The only conference that does not get an automatic bid is the Great West Conference.  That is fine, 99.9% of basketball fans couldn’t name a single school in the Great West Conference.  Also, There are 6 Division I schools who are not affiliated with a conference.

Conference Championships: 30 of the 31 conferences that receive an automatic bid have conference tournaments at the end of the season to determine the conference.  This makes things interesting.  It is feasible that a school loses every regular season game, but wins the conference tournament and advances to the NCAA tournament (only to get their butts handed to them by Duke).  There is only one conference that determines their conference champion by regular season victories and that is the Ivy League. 

What about the rest? Once the conference tournaments are over, 31/68 slots for the NCAA tournament are set.  The remaining 37 slots go to the remaining 314 schools in what are referred to as “at large bids.”  This is done by the NCAA selection committee.  Typically, the best schools who do not receive an invite to the NCAA tournament will receive invites to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). More...

 

Printable NCAA College Basketball Bracket

The Picks

Need a bracket now! NASG's NCAA Basketball Tournament picks will keep you from having to pick teams because you like their mascot. This bracket should keep you in the office pool and at least mildly interested in the tournament. More...

 

Printable NCAA College Basketball Bracket

The Bracket

This printable bracket has all of the teams competing in the 2011 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament More...

 

Ohio State leads the field of 68 teams in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney, along with fellow #1 seeds Duke, Kansas University, and Pittsburgh University.
The Duke Blue Devils beat the University of North Carolina 75-58 for the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, putting another notch in future hall of fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski's (pronounced shu-shefski, AKA Coach K) tally.
Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver, and current NFL announcer, Cris Collinsworth found himself floating down the river for dinner.  He was dining at Jeff Ruby’s waterfront restaurant, a Kentucky eatery located on a barge moored on the Ohio River.  Rising river levels seems to have contributed to the barge breaking away from its hold on shore, stopping only when getting stuck on a bridge.
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Chooses the remaining 37 teams for the “at-large” spots.  These are typically the better teams that failed to win their conference tournament.  The selection committee will use the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) which leads to a few surprises every year…thus, forcing people to refine their “bracketology” for the next year.
Sunday March 13th 6:00pm on CBS. This is when the NCAA Selection Committee releases the 68 teams selected for the NCAA DI basketball tournament.
Officially stands for the National Invitational Tournament.  It is “the other tournament” for teams that didn’t make the NCAA tournament. Unofficially, basketball fans have referred to this as the “Not Invited Tournament.”