We Talking Bout Preseason...Preseason

College basketball just crowned North Carolina national championship but Rivals.com has already released its preseason Top 25. Georgetown comes in at #19.

1. Kansas
2. Syracuse
3. North Carolina
4. Purdue
5. Michigan State
6. Duke
7. USC
8. Villanova
9. Texas
10. Tennessee
11. Butler
12. Connecticut
13. West Virginia
14. Wake Forest
15. Ohio State
16. Washington
17. Arizona State
18. Michigan
19. Georgetown
The buzz: The young Hoyas flopped in Big East play. Georgetown loses Jessie Sapp and DaJuan Summers, but will count on center Greg Monroe to take on a bigger role as a sophomore.
20. Siena
21. Minnesota
22. Louisville
23. Xavier
24. Kansas State
25. Illinois

DMV Madness

March madness starts today, and the DMV will be represented by the Maryland Terrapins, Morgan State Bears, and the American University Eagles. Here are the relevant stats for each team as they go for the NCAA trophy.

Tournament Schedule
# 10 Maryland will play #7 California on CBS at 2:55pm Thursday
#14 American will play #3 Villanova on CBS at 7:20pm Thursday
#15 Morgan State will play #2 Oklahoma on CBS at 9:40pm Thursday

Team Records
Maryland finished the season at 20-13
American finished the season at 24-7
Morgan State finished the season at 23-11

Coaches
Maryland- Gary Williams
American-Jeff Jones
Morgan State-Todd Bozeman

Key players
Maryland-Greivis Vasquez 17.2 ppg
American-Garrison Carr 17 ppg
Morgan State-Reggie Holmes 16.9 ppg

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Alright DLR, March madness is finally here with all the highs and lows of college basketball. This is my favorite time of year, where you have 65 teams looking to win the championship trophy over a 3 week time period. So in honor of this momentous event, we have composed list of "Why We Love College Basketball in the Month of March."

1. The straight up college competitive spirit- These young dudes don't get paid money to play (the schools are making a killing off of them), and receive very little fame but this tournament brings out the best competition in all from small schools like Morgan State to schools like North Carolina.
2. Besides the tournament of 64, March also provides us with all the conference tournaments. These are big because the winner receives automatic bids, so a team with a losing record could make the NCAAs if they can win the conference, which makes for big drama. Anyone see the 6 overtime game in the Big East tourney? Classic!
3. Underdogs a-plenty. This is always the story of the NCAAs - who will get upset by the lower seeded teams? It is a beautiful thing to see a team that nobody gave a chance to win pull off a great victory and mess up everyone's office brackets! Does anyone remember 11th seeded George Mason going all the way to the Final Four? Bet nobody had that one in their brackets.
4. The pure fun and strategy of filling out your NCAA printable brackets. This is one of the things I love the most. Sometimes it takes skill but most of the time just dumb luck in picking who will win the tourney.
   
5. The chance to win money for something you love. Most people have an office pool or go in with a network of people paying $5-$20 to see if their brackets will beat everyone else's. Some people do it for fun, and some people take it very seriously. But either way, if you guess all the right teams you could get a substantial sum of money for the big dance.
6. Time away from doing actual work in the office. This is one of my favorites. The Thursday and Friday on which the tourney games start are said to be the least productive days of work of the year in the US. In my office we turn on the game in the main meeting room and that is pretty much where I stay until the end of the day (Hope my boss is not reading this). Now, you can even streamline the games on your computer without anybody knowing.
7. Chillin' with your friends watching some good b-ball. This is a great time to get with your buddies and have some food and drinks at your house, or go to your sports bar of choice and toss back a few. Either way, you have 3 weeks of drinking and eating while watching free entertainment.
   
8. Selection Sunday starts it all. The last couple of conference tournament finals are played early in the day, then at 6pm the selection Sunday show comes on. On this program, we are allowed to see the teams that made it and the teams that just missed the cut. It also shows the seeding for each team and we even get a breakdown from the decision makers and why they picked certain teams over another. This is the first glimpse of the seedings and regions.
9. The regions play an important role in this event and is always an interesting factor. For example, Louisville is the number 1 team overall, so they are placed in the Midwest region so their fan base will be in full effect because they don't have to travel that far. The same goes with the Tarheels in the South - a very important variable in these games.
10. And finally, one of the greatest parts of this tournament is at the end when the winner cuts down the net and they play the "One Shining moment" song. While they play this song, they show the replays of all the great plays, moments, and players from the whole three weeks of competition.
    

So as you fill out your brackets, take time to think about the things that make this holiday "March Madness" special and enjoy the next couple of weeks...I know I will!

Click on this link to access a printable bracket for this years games!

One Hell of a night!!!

WOW, I heard of a player putting his team on his shoulders but this is ridiculous. Last night Texas Tech forward Mike Singletary found his team down 20 pts in the second half to Texas A&M in the Big 12 conference tornament. With the motivation of playing another day Singletary single-handedly scored the last 29 POINTS to push the Red Raiders to a 88-83 win. This dude came of the bench no less and eneded up scoring 43 pts for the game. Singletary said of the performance “I was just in the zone, I think...We didn’t want to lose this game. We didn’t want to go home.”

DLR would like to tip its hat to Mike. Truly a great individual performance!

College BBall Rankings!

March Madness is upon us and a BIG win for the Maryland Terps Sunday as they needed a quality win on the road and they got that against NC State. While it may take a couple of more wins, it is a far cry from losing to Morgan State and all the Gary Williams bashing. GTown on the other hand is a done deal even though they beat Villanova by 2 points. The new #1 team which has already been to the top multiple times this year is the UCONN Huskies. I will venture to say that this will be the team to beat in the NCAA's coming up in a couple of weeks. With the conference torny's starting next week you had better get you information in order cuz its Bracket time baby! Here's this weeks AP top 25.

AP Top 25

1. Connecticut (67) 27-2 1,792

2. North Carolina (3) 25-3 1,678

3. Pittsburgh (1) 26-3 1,612

4. Oklahoma 26-3 1,576

5. Memphis (1) 26-3 1,543

6. Louisville 23-5 1,462

7. Duke 24-5 1,340

8. Michigan State 23-5 1,302

9. Kansas 24-5 1,190

10. Wake Forest 22-5 1,158

11. Villanova 23-6 913

12. LSU 25-4 894

13. Marquette 23-6 860

14. Gonzaga 23-5 837

15. Missouri 24-5 795

16. Washington 22-7 704

17. Xavier 23-5 629

18. Clemson 22-6 564

19. Purdue 22-7 545

20. UCLA 22-7 497

21. Arizona State 21-7 347

22. Butler 25-4 302

23. Illinois 23-7 287

24. Florida State 22-7 272

25. Syracuse 21-8 99

College BBall Rankings

We are in the second week of February and things are heating up in college basketball. The Big East is still looking like the strongest conference with 6 teams in the top 25, but the ACC is right on their heels with 5. Speaking of which there are 2 big games tomorrow night: Syracuse vs UConn in the Big East and the old classic North Carolina vs Duke in the ACC. So get a jump on the NCAA office pools this year and check out the new AP top 25 of the week. March is only 2 weeks away....

AP Top 25

1. Connecticut (67) 22-1 1,795

2. Oklahoma (3) 23-1 1,710

3. North Carolina (2) 21-2 1,672

4. Pittsburgh 21-2 1,583

5. Louisville 18-4 1,423

6. Duke 20-3 1,350

7. Wake Forest 18-3 1,242

8. Memphis 20-3 1,237

9. Michigan State 19-4 1,214

10. Marquette 20-3 1,137

11. UCLA 19-4 1,131

12. Clemson 19-3 1,097

13. Villanova 19-4 989

14. Xavier 20-3 893

15. Butler 21-2 762

16. Kansas 19-4 751

17. Missouri 20-4 395

18. Arizona State 18-5 389

19. Gonzaga 17-5 361

20. Purdue 17-6 353

21. Utah State 23-1 317

22. Illinois 19-5 303

23. Syracuse 18-6 280

24. Ohio State 17-5 216

25. Florida State 18-5 182

College BBall Rankings

Looks like nobody wants to be #1 and keep this coveted spot anymore. We went from the Tar heels to Pitt to Wake Forest and now Duke is numero uno. I dont know about yall but this makes for a great basketball season. Duke may only hold on for 1 more day as the Blue Devils face Wake forest on Wed. night. In other news Gtown has fallen to #25 after 3 straight losses. SMH.
So be sure to check out this game and keep and eye on the Big East as we look for yet another top contender next week.

PS I can't stand Duke...

AP Top 25

1. Duke (62) 18-1 1,789

2. Connecticut (6) 18-1 1,694

3. Pittsburgh (3) 18-1 1,647

4. Oklahoma (1) 19-1 1,539

5. North Carolina 17-2 1,529

6. Wake Forest 16-1 1,509

7. Louisville 15-3 1,351

8. Marquette 17-2 1,209

9. Michigan State 16-3 1,136

10. Xavier 17-2 1,084

11. Texas 14-4 1,017

12. Clemson 17-2 929

13. Butler 18-1 916

14. Arizona State 16-3 834

15. Syracuse 17-4 808

16. Purdue 15-4 724

17. UCLA 15-4 544

18. Memphis 16-3 530

19. Illinois 17-3 401

20. Gonzaga 14-4 381

21. Villanova 15-4 276

22. Saint Mary's 18-1 247

23. Washington 15-4 218

24. Kentucky 16-4 217

25. Georgetown 12-6 189

College BBall Rankings

In this weeks rankings we see that the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest have fought their way to the number 2 spot. With a big win over North Carolina the Deacons are looking strong in the ACC. Pitt is still #1 while the best conference (BIG EAST) continues to beat up on each other and now have 8 teams in the top 25.
FYI..
#12 Georgetown faces #3 Duke on Saturday in a big match up. LETS GO G'TOWN BEAT THOSE DUKIES!!!!

AP Top 25

1. Pittsburgh (70) 15-0 1,798

2. Wake Forest (2) 14-0 1,686

3. Duke 14-1 1,678

4. Connecticut 14-1 1,549

5. North Carolina 14-2 1,461

6. Oklahoma 15-1 1,440

7. Michigan State 13-2 1,356

8. Syracuse 16-1 1,232

9. UCLA 13-2 1,222

10. Clemson 16-0 1,153

11. Texas 12-3 1,009

12. Notre Dame 12-3 1,008

13. Georgetown 11-3 908

14. Marquette 15-2 752

15. Xavier 13-2 710

16. Arizona State 14-2 573

17. Butler 14-1 521

18. Minnesota 15-1 508

19. Purdue 12-4 490

20. Louisville 11-3 433

21. Baylor 13-2 364

22. California 15-2 299

23. Villanova 13-3 229

24. Tennessee 10-4 198

25. Michigan 13-3 153

College BBall Rankings!

Its a new year and the NCAA regular season conference games have started. Unfortunately for the former #1 Tarheels that means losing to the Boston College Eagles on Sunday. Georgetown looked good against UConn but took a loss to Pitt. Saturday and did not look good the second half. (Update: G'Town just lost to Notre Dame. SMH)
That being said Pitt has moved to number #1 in da country and some how Duke jumped 3 spots to #2. A Wednsday matchup with Stephen Currry and Davison should test Duke's new status. Check out the rest of the rankings for the first week of 2009. (Big East is pretty tough)

AP Top 25

1. Pittsburgh (70) 14-0 1,798

2. Duke 12-1 1,660

3. North Carolina (2) 13-1 1,651

4. Wake Forest 13-0 1,553

5. Connecticut 12-1 1,474

6. Oklahoma 13-1 1,358

7. Texas 11-2 1,348

8. Michigan State 11-2 1,269

9. Georgetown 10-2 1,208

10. UCLA 12-2 1,162

11. Syracuse 14-1 1,113

12. Clemson 14-0 968

13. Notre Dame 10-3 802

14. Purdue 11-3 774

15. Tennessee 9-3 533

16. Xavier 11-2 483

17. Boston College 13-2 453

18. Marquette 13-2 436

18. Villanova 12-2 436

20. Arizona State 12-2 374

21. Butler 12-1 341

22. Minnesota 13-1 290

23. Baylor 12-2 289

23. Louisville 9-3 289

25. West Virginia 11-2 230

College BBall Rankings!

With the year 2008 coming to an end, we see that the Tarheels of Carolina are still the #1 team to beat. Georgetown provided a great upset on Monday night by handeling UConn so we should see a bit of a shake up when the new rankings coming out next Tuesday. Lets GO HOYAS!!! Check out the rest of the field from the AP top 25 rankins...

AP Top 25

1. North Carolina (72) 12-0 1,800

2. Connecticut 11-0 1,719

3. Pittsburgh 12-0 1,641

4. Oklahoma 12-0 1,600

5. Duke 10-1 1,511

6. Wake Forest 11-0 1,351

7. Notre Dame 9-2 1,231

8. Texas 10-2 1,193

9. Purdue 11-2 1,160

10. Michigan State 9-2 1,058

11. Georgetown 9-1 1,015

12. UCLA 10-2 991

13. Syracuse 12-1 863

14. Tennessee 8-2 854

15. Villanova 11-1 691

16. Gonzaga 8-3 608

17. Arizona State 10-1 602

18. Louisville 8-2 588

19. Baylor 10-1 580

20. Clemson 12-0 563

21. Minnesota 12-0 351

22. Xavier 9-2 327

23. Michigan 9-2 237

24. Ohio State 9-1 219

25. Butler 10-1 166

College BBall Rankings

We have seen some pretty good match ups this holiday season (UConn vs Gonzaga) and there is plenty more action to go before conference play starts. The top 10 is looking pretty solid (dont know about #10 Purdue) and Georgetown is creeping up slowly but surely. Here is this weeks Top 25 ranking...

AP Top 25

1. North Carolina (71) 11-0 1,775

2. Connecticut 10-0 1,693

3. Pittsburgh 12-0 1,618

4. Oklahoma 11-0 1,580

5. Duke 10-1 1,486

6. Wake Forest 10-0 1,294

7. Gonzaga 8-2 1,154

8. Notre Dame 8-2 1,116

9. Texas 9-2 1,108

10. Purdue 9-2 1,083

11. Michigan State 8-2 907

12. Georgetown 8-1 880

13. UCLA 8-2 873

14. Xavier 9-1 861

15. Ohio State 8-0 766

16. Tennessee 8-2 758

17. Syracuse 11-1 742

18. Villanova 10-1 594

19. Louisville 7-2 521

20. Arizona State 9-1 477

21. Baylor 9-1 466

22. Clemson 12-0 462

23. Minnesota 10-0 198

24. Michigan 8-2 183

25. Missouri 9-1 71

College BBall Rankings

Now that college football is on hiatus (until the many bowl games start in a couple of weeks), DLR will present the college basketball AP rankings each week to keep the readers up to date on the best bball teams in the country. The number 1 team will get the top prize of having their picture on the post for that week LOL. So check out the best site in the DMV because we will definately keep you informed on the latest ballin action! Let's go G'Town!!!!

AP Top 25

1. North Carolina (72) 9-0 1,800

2. Connecticut 8-0 1,715

3. Pittsburgh 10-0 1,646

4. Oklahoma 10-0 1,585

5. Texas 8-1 1,473

6. Duke 8-1 1,347

7. Xavier 9-0 1,233

8. Gonzaga 7-1 1,225

9. Louisville 6-1 1,176

10. Wake Forest 9-0 1,101

11. Syracuse 9-0 1,005

12. Notre Dame 7-2 992

13. Purdue 8-2 765

14. UCLA 6-2 756

15. Georgetown 7-1 750

16. Tennessee 6-2 683

17. Ohio State 6-0 576

18. Villanova 10-1 571

19. Michigan State 6-2 506

20. Arizona State 8-1 431

21. Baylor 8-1 420

22. Davidson 8-1 398

23. Memphis 5-2 350

24. Marquette 8-1 240

25. Clemson 10-0 196

Coaching great calls it quits...

Legendary Arizona Wildcat coach Lute Olson calls it quits after 25 years of coaching. After much consideration the coach that won a championship in 1997 and mentored numerous NBA stars (Gilbert Arenas, Mike Bibby, Terry Glen and others) will finally hang his hat and the west coast bball power house will have to find somebody to fill his shoes. His final record at AZ was 589-187. Check out this report from espn.com