I am stressed out, will explain later months from now, but in the meantime I thought I deserved a NCAA Elite 8 (womans) upclose seat, 3/31.

Sadly not IOWA nor the price to see them, LOVED watching her break the record, a pal watched in person, lucky him.....

My first womans game ever, and my third live big basketball ever....

#1 1970-something Celtics, Larry Bird etc, I think, my pop took me

#2 2012 Blazers vs Lakers, took my asshole biz partner and he said "its better on the TV"

#3 Winners of Gonzaga-Texas vs NC State-Stanford

birds first season in boston was 79-80.

watched a little of the womens tourney, mostly clarks game. not a pretty win. saw that south carolina is undefeated so they must be the favorites.

SCHOOL RECORD CONF. WIN FINAL FOUR
(1) South Carolina Gamecocks 32-0 16-0 -155 -800
(1) Iowa Hawkeyes 29-4 15-3 +500 +110
(3) LSU Tigers 28-5 13-3 +900 +140
(2) Stanford Cardinal 28-5 15-3 15-1 +160
(3) UConn Huskies 29-5 18-0 16-1 -125
(1) Texas Longhorns 30-4 14-4 20-1 125
(1) USC Trojans 26-5 13-5 20-1 175
(3) NC State Wolfpack 27-6 13-5 30-1 +450
(2) UCLA Bruins 25-6 13-5 35-1 +450
(2) Notre Dame Fighting Irish 26-6 13-5 35-1 +750
(3) Oregon State Beavers 24-7 12-6 60-1 12-1
(4) Gonzaga Bulldogs 30-3 16-0 100-1 10-1
(5) Baylor Bears 24-7 12-6 100-1 11-1
(5) Colorado Buffaloes 22-9 11-7 100-1 15-1
(4) Indiana Hoosiers 24-5 15-3 100-1 25-1
(7) Duke Blue Devils 20-11 11-7 150-1 +850

so if odds rule than I will see 4th best pick vs 6th.....Stanford vs Texas

this one has 5 vs 6 but more or less.

South Carolina -150

Iowa +650

LSU +800

Connecticut +1200

Stanford +1400

Texas +1400

UCLA +2500

USC +2500

Notre Dame +3500

NC State +4000 Oregon State +8000 Indiana +10000 Baylor +12500 Colorado +12500 Duke +12500 Gonzaga +15000

sb good, looks to be equals, Oregon made it to Elite 8, I assume an upset
- Skinny 3-29-2024 6:04 pm

i know notre dame and usc have highly touted freshman. stanford and connecticut are perennial powerhouses and south carolina seems like top dog at the moment. lsu won last year. thats the extent of my knowledge. iowa just has clark. and its oregon state. im sure they would appreciate a local making the distinction.
- dave 3-29-2024 6:33 pm

I know nada but watched Texas dominate and Stanford struggle.......how can you be great every game......that said SC have not lost one game

NC State +4000 Oregon State +8000

BOTH IN

i watched bits of both of those games. some ugly stretches where neither gonzaga or stanford could hit the side of a barn. meanwhile i turned off the knicks game in "disgust" as they were down 18 early to one of the worst teams and it turned into a classic where a knick had 61 which was 1 shy of a team record but missed a 3 pt shot at the end of overtime to lose. biggest downside in the cord cutting era is the ease with which you can flip back and forth between channels.
- dave 3-30-2024 6:59 am

Yah Gonzaga looked off key
- Skinny 3-30-2024 11:06 am

they shot 26% on the night. im sure the averages are much lower in college but thats abysmal. i think their 3 pt percentage was 20%. they averaged 48% shooting in season admittedly versus on average worse opponents but still. laid an egg.
- dave 3-30-2024 11:34 am

the big rematch.

fun day tomorrow
- Skinny 4-05-2024 12:35 am

being in person was awesome
- Skinny 4-05-2024 12:36 am

1-2-5-8 off the list I posted
1 vs 8 and 2 vs 5
- Skinny 4-05-2024 12:38 am

espn must be kicking themselves for scheduling the womens final for 3pm eastern so that they could air an early season baseball game in primetime.

i hadnt even seen that iowa v ct was espns most watched basketball game ever and its second most watched game of any sport.

wow!!!
- Skinny 4-08-2024 2:38 pm

BRISTOL, Conn. -- South Carolina's victory over Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the women's NCAA championship game Sunday had a preliminary audience average of 18.7 million on ABC and ESPN. The only sporting events in the United States to draw a bigger TV audience since 2019 have been football, the World Cup and the Olympics.

The audience numbers are expected to increase when Nielsen releases its final numbers Tuesday. Nielsen said the audience peaked at 24 million.

It's the most-watched basketball game since 2019, when the men's NCAA title game between Virginia and Texas Tech averaged 19.6 million on CBS.

uconn is college basketball royalty though. men are about to win 6th title to tie unc for 3rd most all-time and women are 1st with 11 wins.