Results tagged “finalfour”

Last night's NCAA Championship game wasn't much of a battle, with North Carolina jumping out to an early lead and never looking back. Holding a 55-34 halftime lead, the Tar Heals coasted through the second half to defeat the Michigan St. Spartans 89-72 at Ford Field in Detroit to win the school's fifth title.

The past couple of days, everybody has been busy analyzing their NCAA Tournament pool picks when they should have instead been working. Even a financial meltdown and two wars can't keep our Hoopster-in-Chief from finding time to fill in his bracket, too. No way he's letting Rahm beat him! Barack Obama predicted a Final Four of Louisville, North Carolina, Memphis and Pittsburgh -- choosing three #1 seeds and one #2 seed. Pretty pragmatic picks, if we do say so. Most people view UConn as the most vulnerable of the top seeds.

If you're anything like us, you printed out a half dozen brackets last night after the NCAA selection committee set the field of 65 for this year's tournament as you begin to hone in on just the right mix of sure things and upsets to win bragging rights over friends and co-workers.

College basketball's conference tournaments are in full swing this week, meaning that March Madness is soon upon us! The official brackets for this year's NCAA Tournament will be released Sunday evening, after the last conference champs are determined.

With Kansas' victory, we now have a winner in the Chicagoist Tournament Challenge. Out of 90 entrants, l.meuller's el #1 entry took top prize! He compiled 1260 points, which placed him in the 97.9th percentile. Chicagoist is quite impressed... especially considering that we just squeaked into the fourth quintile overall and 70th in our own damn pool.

It's been quite a couple weeks of coming clean for our senator and presidential hopeful. Barack Obama sat down with both local dailies to clear the air about his connection to Tony Rezko last week, and gave a speech to addressing his preacher and race this week.

To enter, click this link to go directly to the group, or go to ESPN's Tournament Challenge, register or log in, and search for Chicagoist. The password is: chicagoist. One entry per person in the Chicagoist pool, please.

The NCAA Basketball Tournament is right around the corner! After conference tournaments conclude this weekend, the official brackets for this year's March Madness will be released Sunday evening.

The NBA's annual draft took place Thursday night, and the Bulls added three new faces to the roster. With the ninth pick--which the Bulls had via the Knicks due to the Eddy Curry trade--they selected Joakim Noah from Florida. If nothing else, he certainly made the biggest fashion statement of the night with his seersucker suit, bow tie and crazy hair. Picking Noah was certainly consistent with GM John Paxson's style of going after players...

Schadenfreude put media professionals and bloggers on stage at their near-monthly Rent Party Friday night for an Alternative Media Slam/ Free For All / Put Down Insult Tournament. The Schad organized this inaugural competition out of respect for our work and because they wanted to see four local institutions sling muck at each other. And sling we did. Before we get into who called who what and who’s momma was being disrespected, let's be...

As the weather has gotten a bit warmer, we've noticed there are more and more things going on. This weekend we've decided to do some nerdy things before we sit at a bar for the Final Four and embellish to our friends how we were so good at basketball in High School but, had to give it up due to . The knee is healing nicely, thanks. We thought we would make it to Facet's...

If you're anything like Chicagoist, you spent Sunday evening poring over the brackets for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. And if you're anything like Chicagoist, you'll repeat this ritual daily until your picks must be turned in for your office pool later this week. Sixty-five teams will fight for a trip to the Final Four. All have hopes and dreams, but only four teams will make it to Atlanta, and only one team will cut down...

The NCAA Tournament never turns out like we think it will, and this year's tournament had even more unepected twist and turns than a typical year. From the numerous upsets, to all the top seeds missing the Final Four, to George Mason making the Final Four, to the large margins of victory in the the Final Four and Championship games. Last night, Florida defeated UCLA 73-57 to claim the NCAA basketball title. With the conclusion...

A busy weekend of sports once again reminded Chicagoist why we are so drawn to watching and investing ourselves in what some consider just games. We got to experience the whole gammut of emotions along with the participants over the course of just a few days. From incredible highs of achieving things nobody thought possible to the sadness of experiencing careers and lives cut short in pursuit of ones' dreams. We began the weekend by...

The people of Chicago have spoken. And apparently, we think a few rounds of Dance Dance Revolution is perfect for getting our swerve on. We saw this press release over at ABC7 listing some of the winners of AOL City Guide Chicago’s “City’s Best 2006” poll. While we quibbled with some of the choices (Home Run Inn for Best Pizza?), the choice of ESPN Zone as the “best spot for first dates” floored us. Sure,...

While the nation celebrated the frenzy of March Madness, basketball fans in Chicago felt more than a little March sadness as we learned that legendary DePaul coach Rey Meyer passed on Friday at 92. Meyer reigned over the basketball program at DePaul for 42 years, along the way developing George Mikan into the first true big man, and taking his program to the Final Four in 1979. A four-time coach of the year, Meyer retired...

March Madness is nearly upon us, with the conference tournaments as a little appetizer before the Big Dance begins next week. The Big Ten Tournament opened play Thursday in Indianapolis, with the 6 lowest seeds facing off to see who would advance to the quarterfinals. 9th seed Northwestern is already headed home after losing the opening game to 8th seed Penn St. 60-42. The same Wildcats team that Chicagoist witnessed take Big Ten Champ Ohio...

There's nothing better than getting somethin' for nothin'. Well, maybe driving with the top down while blaring music, but that won't happen for at least a couple more months. At the 2006 Chicago Auto Show this year there will be free concerts taking place at the Pontiac Garage. We missed last night's concert with the Bo Deans, but tonight on a first-come first-serve basis the Redwalls will play at 7 pm. Two more shows...

A few months back, A Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics was discussed. Chicagoist whole heartedly endorsed the idea. Da Mere also came out in favor of such a bid. It was pointed out, however, that the newly renovated Soldier Field wasn't large enough to accomodate the opening & closing ceremonies or track & field events. So, while we already have many of the necessary venues we'd have to build an Olympic Stadium in...

Where did he come from? When nobody was looking, actor Bill Murray suddenly jumped right on the Illini bandwagon. OK, he's a Chicago native and known Cubs fan. But he didn't go to Illinois, and Champaign isn't exactly Chicago. Nevertheless, in a span of a week he overthrew Ashley Judd as the highest profile college hoops groupie -- and he didn't even have to make the gut-wrenching choice among his team and an auto race...

As any sports fan knows, the biggest story of the weekend was college basketball. The conference tournaments wrapped up Sunday afternoon, leading to the NCAA tournament seedings announcement. As expected, Illinois received a #1 seed on account of their 32-1 record and their winning the Big Ten tourney. But the mood was perhaps more subdued that for most teams in their situation. Friday evening, following Illinois' 68-51 victory over Northwestern, coach Bruce Weber's mother passed...

Having beaten #15 Wisconsin in Madison the other night--snapping their 38-game home winning streak--people are beginning to wonder whether the Fighting Illini can go undefeated this season. With a 20-0 record and ranked #1 in both major polls, are they really that good? By overcoming the Badgers and #24 Iowa in the past week, they've proven they can overcome tough competition and win even when they're not playing their best basketball. However, the Sun-Times warns...