Player Highlight: Willie Veasley - Butler

Willie Veasley - Butler

Willie Veasley is a 6'3 senior guard/forward on Butler. He isn't quite big enough to be a strong forward, or a good enough ball handler to be a guard, but he's the toughest guy on the court. He averages about 10 points and 4 rebounds a game.

From Freeport Illinois, Veasley broke his high schools career scoring record in January of his senior year, while scoring his own career-high 40 points.

Last year he sat out his first four games with a knee injruy, and then came back in the season with three rebounds in nine minutes against Ohio State.

This year in the NCAA tournament Veasley was the main rock in Butler that brought his team all the way to the championship.

One game he defended one of the best forwards in the league, Syracuse's 6'7 All American Wes Johnson, to the next game guarding one of the fastest players, Kansas State's 6'1 guard Denis Clemente.

On their last game against Duke, Willie really let his defensive skills shine but his offense just wasn't enough this time to overcome the Blue Devil's. He scored only 2 points and had 3 assists at the end of the game.

Willie is still looking to play after he graduates, but where is another question.

Player Highlights: Butler, Brian Zoubek - Duke

Brian Zoubek - Duke


Brian Zoubek, Duke's senioer 7'1 center helped aim his team to the championship this year. He grew up in Philadelphia, and averaged 24.7 points, 12.3 rebounds and 4.2 blocks a game in high school. He was rated No. 24 in the Rivals.com top 150 prospects of 2006.

At Duke he started every year except his sophomore year, when he broke a bone in his left foot and was in crutches and had rehab until early winter.

He ended his senior year by becoming No. 4 on Duke's all-time list in offensive rebounds and set his school's single-season record of 145.

Brian majors in history and also participates in Role Model Speaker Series at the Emily K Center. You can tell Brian is a role model on the court by leading his team to victory against Butler on Monday.

Championship Game

Round of applause for Butler who really put it all out there tonight to try and beat Duke. No such luck as Duke, beat them 61-59 in the last minutes of the game. It was a close one up until the end, and the Bulldogs had a few chances to win it. I even thought the desperation half court shot was going to go in. Still Duke pulled out on top proving to be the best team in the league.

End of the Final 4

Butler beat Kansas. I love when this stuff happens. The underdogs come out on top, and the big schools with all the money end up crying. It is sad, but it's fantastic for Butler. I'm cheering for them to beat Duke now!

Speaking of Duke, they beat Baylor, no real surprise here.

What we really want to know is what happened to Kansas? Or was Butler really just that good? The Bull Dogs Gordon Hayward scored 22 points, helping to defeat Kansas 63-56. Shelvin Mack also scored 16 points while Willie Veasley and Ronald Nored played powerful defense.

April 5th is what counts, hopefully Butler will keep up it's game and can take on No. 1 seed Duke. I'm sure if that happens there could actually be no winning brackets in the world!

Finally the Final 4

This year there has been no set best team in the tournament. Everyone has had a chance, and only one No. 1 seed ended up in the Final Four. This goes to show that anything can happen.

I was reading an article on some polls. According to Scaredmonkeys.com, Thirty-one percent of people that voted said that they think the Duke Blue Devils will win, while 33% of total voters HOPE that Butler will win.

I think I can probably agree with this. Upsets keep things interesting!

Player Highlight: Delvon Roe - Michigan State

Korie Lucious, a sophomore guard for Michigan State. Lucious is a great long range shooter, as well as a quick controlled guard. He grew up in Wisconsin where he averaged 21.6 points and 6 assists a game in high school. As a senior he was rated the No. 78 player in the ESPN 150, including the No. 10 point guard.

Since attending Michigan state, as a Marketing Minor, he has played in all 38 games averaging 3.2 points on the season. He's fourth on the team in 3 pointers and has already had 3 double-figure scoring games.

Michigan is going to the Final Four after defeating rival Tennessee this past weekend. Within the last minutes of the game, 5'11 Korie Lucious got one of his own teams rebound and giving Michigan the ball passed it back to Morgan who got the foul and kept possession of the ball until the game was over and Michigan won the game they clearly deserved.

As only a sophomore Lucious is bound to do great things in the future, and hopefully in the rest of the tournament as well.

End of the Elite 8

Joe Mazzulla scored a career high 17 points for West Virginia today, helping push the team toward the first Final Four since 1959. WVU defeated No. 1 seed Kentucky 73-66. Kentucky is definitely one of the top teams in the entire tournament this year, stacked high with future NBA players; Eric Bledsoe, DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall. West Virginia, handled their offense brilliantly the entire game. The teams are pretty evenly matched but WVU just out did Kentucky and took the next stop in the Final Four.

The Final Four now looks like, VWVU v. Duke, and Michigan St. v Butler. This could go anyway these teams all have it in them, but there is only one top seed in the mix.

Day 1 Sweet 16

Sadly Cornell’s luck ran out when they lost to Kentucky in the first round of Sweet 16 Thursday night. They didn’t really have a chance up against the No. 1 seed losing 62-45.

Ruining my predictions already... No. 5 Butler played a powerful game defeating No. 1 seed Syracuse 63-59. Butlers’ Willie Veasley played incredible defense ending with three steals, and 13 points. Ronald Nored also finished with five steals and hit a clutch 3-pointer.

Still while Syracuse was making a comeback, they just couldn’t overcome their turnovers and Butler had a well deserved victory, knocking off another top seed in the tournament.

West Virginia, Kansas State and Kentucky all beat the lower seeds and will be moving on to the next round, Elite 8 later this weekend.

Katie's Predictions

I am no college basketball genius, nor have I followed very many tournaments in the past. Still, watching March Madness pretty religiously this year I think I can make a few predictions. Not having a bracket, only hearing the whining and complaining, I think the top 2 teams will be Syracuse v. Duke.

I think that most of the teams in the Sweet 16 could make it, but I feel like this year these two teams have the passion and the skill to make it all the way. I would say Michigan, but I feel like after play Norther Iowa they might not be as prepared as usual to play a great team like Syracuse or Kansas.

On the other side I know that Kentucky is an amazing team with a ton of probably NBA recruits and they're favored a lot to win, but I still feel like Duke's offense is just outstanding this year, which would out do even Kentucky's starters defense.

Syracuse v. Duke would be an exciting game, who would win? Ya got me.

Player Highlight: Ryan Wittman - Cornell

Cornells’ Senior Forward Ryan Wittman had an excellent games this weekend making history for the Ivy League school.

He averaged 17.8 points and 4 rebounds per game this past year, while setting the Ivy League record with 107 3 pointers. Ryan was named Ivy League Player of the year for 2009-10, and NABC All-District selection for 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, along with other Ivy League awards.

He was born and raised in a small in Minnesota, moving to Ithaca New York to attend Cornell where he majors in Agriculture and Life Sciences. His father was actually a Big Ten Player in 1983 for Indiana. He was a former NBA guard and former head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Hopefully Wittman will bring out the best of Cornell in the Sweet 16 this weekend.

Second Day Second Round

After today’ games very few people have a chance at making any money on their brackets. There are always upsets, but it seems like this weekend was just the mother of them all. One more today was Cornell beating Wisconsin. Not very many people saw that coming, making it a good game to watch. This is the furthest that an Ivy Leagues teams gotten in years.

However, the most exciting game today was No. 5 seed Michigan v. No. 4 seed Maryland. Michigan’s Korie Lucious hit a three right at the buzzer to gain a victory against Maryland 85-83. These are the kind of games that make you love college basketball far more than the NBA.

Just keeping up with Duke, Syracuse and Purdue; all 3 won their games this round. Syracuse defeated Gonzaga, Duke beat California, and Purdue defeated Texas A&M in an exciting overtime game 63-61.

It’s hard to say which team did the best this week, since a lot of them played better than ever before, and a few sunk well below their skill level.

First Day of Second Round

Many people have been feeling the madness of this tournament after this first round. Still, there are more crazy unexpected upsets.

Probably the biggest upset in the NCAA tournament so far, Northern Iowa defeats Kansas 69-67. Where the heck did this come from? I know I've mentioned in an earlier blog that I love upsets. I love when the underdog comes out on top... but watching those Kansas players at the end of the game almost brought tears to my own eyes. How surprised were the players on No. 1 seed Kansas, a top team losing out in the first round to No. 9 seed in the last 30 seconds of the game. Unbelievable.

I saw a Twitter Post : "After tonight, no one in the world has a perfect bracket."

Who knows but many of the people I've talked to had Kansas in the Final 4 or at least the Elite 8. This is shocking to everyone, including the Northern Iowa players I'm sure.

Another surprising loss was Villanova to Saint Mary’s. Saint Mary’s Omar Samhan outplayed everyone else on the court completing the game with 32 points and seven rebounds, getting this No. 10 seed team to beat No. 2 seed Villanova.

I’m interested to see how Saint Mary’s and Northern Iowa will do in the Sweet 16, and further if they make it.

Player Highlight: Ishmael Smith - Wake Forest

My random player highlight for this round is Ishmael Smith from Wake Forest. Okay, you're probably thinking that this wasn't just a random pick. You're right, I just loved his last second shot against Texas.

Smith scored 15 points on Thursday as well as contributing 5 assists. This is including his jumper within the last 1.3 seconds of overtime, winning the game for Wake Forest in an unexpected upset over Texas.

Smith is a senior attending Wake Forest, majoring in Religion. He was the only player in Wake forest history to score 1,000 points and 600 assists. He took place on the team as a captain for 3 years, and a 3 year starter (His Jr. year he sat out the beginning of the season due to an injury.)

Ishmael, nicknamed "Ish," is originally from Charolette North Carolina. He ranked No. 28 point guard in the country in high school, and No. 82 prospect nationally.

When trying to request Ishmael Smith on Facebook, Facebook informed me that "This user already has too many friends." Is that even possible?

Smith has averaged 13.2 points this season, and 4.9 rebounds. He is looking to play in a European league after he graduates but isn't sure of anything specific yet.

Now that we know a bit more about Ishmael Smith, I'm excited to see him play in the next round next week!

Second Day of First Round

Day 2 didn’t have too many surprising results. Duke effortlessly killed Arkansas 73-44. One of the best players on the Blue Devils, Kyle Singler, had 22 points and 10 rebounds for Duke. The team never trailed behind, and made DI basketball look pretty easy.

Quite the opposite, No. 5 seed Temple struggled today losing to Cornell. This was the first win for an Ivy League team since 1998. Unfortunately a few of my friends go to Temple University and I was rooting for them expecting a win, although Temple hasn’t won a first round within the last 5 years.

Wisconsin got in a sticky situation almost losing to Wofford in this round, but they pulled through within the last few minutes when it really counted.

There wasn’t much excitement this round, Purdue defeated Siena, 72-64, and Michigan St. beat New Mexico in a close game, 70-67.

First Day of First Round

Pretty interesting first round with a few upsets. First off, living in Washington DC and having a few friends that go to Georgetown, I really had faith that the Hoyas would pull through against No. 14 seed, Ohio. Surprisingly Ohio stepped up their game and were in the lead almost entirely the whole game. They weren't really threated by the Hoyas at all, their lead scorer having 28 points. Let's see if they can keep up this playing in the next round vs. Tennessee.

Another game I watched tonight was Wake Forest v. Texas. This was a great game down to the buzzer with Wake Forests' Ishmael Smith scoring a last second shot to bring them in the lead 81-80. This was only a small upset but still another interesting game.

No. 2 Villanova who cut it pretty close tonight, luckily made it past the first round and an embarrassing upset to beating No. 15 Robert Morris 73-70 in overtime.

Although these weren't the biggest of upsets, there has definitely been some whining about brackets and swears towards Villanova. Hopefully the team will step it up in the rest of the tournament. Tomorrow is the second day of Round 2 and the only teams I'm really rooting for tomorrow are Duke and Temple! Let's see if there are any more surprising upsets tomorrow!

Before Tip Off

It is that time of year when all the college boys start filling out their brackets and betting on their final teams. This March, like all the ones in the past, I have followed along with the tournament but I have yet to actually fill out a bracket. I usually just enjoy watching those who have freak out after losing money when their top picked teams lose to an underdog.

From those who do follow the NCAA tournament religiously, I have heard a few of the favored Final 4 picks. The teams I've heard most about getting to the Final 4 are: Kansas, Duke, Michigan, Purdue, and Syracuse. These are top teams from big schools and always make it pretty far in the tournament.

Still, every year there are upsets, and I find that the most exciting part of all. I feel so good for those teams that no one bets on who win, and I laugh at those boys who lose ridiculous amounts of money betting on the team everyone things will win.

Tonight the first round will begin. I'll most likely be watching the Wake Forest v. Texas, Nova v. Robert Morris, and Georgetown because those are the ones that my friends will be watching. My brother and dad are just as obsessed with March Madness as the worst of them, and their favorite teams have always been Duke and Villanova. Since I didn't bet on any games myself, I'll probably be routing for them throughout the tournament.