Piaad 3 Basketball

The Missouri Valley is one of the most respected and consistent college basketball conferences in the nation, so even though the MVC is technically a mid-major league, they’re expected to produce a few quality teams year after year. This season the MVC could send a couple of teams to the NCAA Tournament. If they do, MVC hoops fans will want to rush over to StubHub.com to secure some NCAA basketball tickets to the tourney to see their squads in action. Let’s take a look at the front runners in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Northern Iowa – The Panthers of Northern Iowa currently (as of Feb. 21, 2010) lead the Missouri Valley Conference standings with a conference record of 14-2. Their overall record of 24-3 is also impressive—enough so to warrant their No. 24 ranking in the latest Coaches Poll. Even if Northern Iowa doesn’t secure the Missouri Valley title, they might snag a pretty good bracket position with a committee selection.  Northern Iowa went on a tear through the months of November, December and January, winning 15 games straight and making a real name for themselves. With just two more games on the regular season schedule—against Evansville and Illinois State—the Panthers are confident and strong heading into the league tournament play. N. Iowa is a balanced team that can get stingy on defense. Don’t be surprised if this team plays its way to the sweet sixteen in a month or so.

Wichita State – Right on the heels of Northern Iowa in the conference standings is Wichita State, 22-7 overall and 11-5 in conference.  While the Shockers started out very strong (at one point in the middle of January they were 16-2), they’ve been falling in some puzzling games, and enter the last portion of the season stumbling a bit. Can Wichita State regain its composure and get to the tourney—either through a conference title or an at-large bid? If they do get into the NCAA Tournament, will they fare well, considering they have not been tested by many top-tier teams? Wichita State has played Pittsburgh, Iowa and Texas Tech this year, but that’s pretty much the extent of their competition against big conference teams.

Dark Horses – Illinois State looks like the best team in the chase pack. However, teams like Bradley and Creighton have the tournament history here, and they can rely on their experience with games in the month of March to propel themselves to the next level.  It’s not so unlikely that a team could come from out of nowhere in this conference.  On Feb. 27 Bradley plays Creighton in Omaha, and that ought to be a fun game, even for the casual spectator. These two teams are rivals, and they’re both going to be on their game prior to the conference championship tournament.

The above teams represent our best estimation of the teams in the running at the end of the season. There are quite a few games left, and anything can happen in the conference championship tournament. So don’t be surprised if a Missouri Valley Conference team comes from out of nowhere to end up in your March Madness bracket.

2K gave up the college basketball license and now it’s only EA Sports who’s left playing in this field. Now let’s see what EA Sports has to offer with its NCAA Basketball 09 game. Check out the features of this popular sports game:

Execute your Gameplan

Decide what strategies to execute. You can choose from a list of pre-game strategies. Another tool can help you improve your game – the Game Tempo Meter, which lets you adjust your settings in a jiffy.

Game Engine

You can now use styles of play that authentically college in nature. These include trapping defenses, up-tempo transition game, structured half-court sets – all to make sure that your make the most out of your team’s abilities.

Next-Level Authenticity

NCAA Basketball 2009 for every Division I team, offers styles of play that gives true-to-life experience. Scouting reports (courtesy of the Blue Ribbon™ College Basketball Yearbook creators) and authentic team ratings and other features that make gamers feel realistic team tendencies can be expected.

Set the Tempo

According to aficionados of the game, Set the Tempo is the most important gameplay addition to NCAA Basketball 2009. You can choose from these three tempos – Up Tempo, Half Court and Balanced. Either you speed the game up by applying full court pressure, initiate a half-court set through walking the ball up to the floor, or make the most of what your rival gives you with a balanced attack.

Coaching Feedback (Real-Time)

You can also expect more guidance with the help of your school’s coach. There will be real NCAA coaches giving you feedback in real time while on the sidelines. 

Rosters Sharing

If you have been playing NCAA Football for quite some time and you have been having the time of your life with names of real NCAA Football teams and players, now you can also have that with your NCAA Basketball 2009. EA offers an online roster sharing feature using its Online Locker, which will let you create a dynasty with a custom roster. However, individuals and companies also offer roster upload services. It’s either you update your game console yourself or pay for these service providers to upload the roster names.

Aside from those abovementioned features, there are still so many features that will make the die-hard fans of NCAA basketball shout for joy. These other features include Rival Challenge, and the ability to upload and save videos to EA Sports World.

The NCAA Basketball Tournament is among us. This tournament is a looking glass for human hope, excellence and positive social change. It is, in short, a microcosm of the human existence, with all of its exuberance, tragedy and triumph. The NCAA Basketball Tournament is American sports.

The excitement and tradition of “March Madness” or the NCAA Basketball Tournament as we know it today has been shaped by many significant events in NCAA tournament history: The first NCAA men’s basketball tournament was held in 1939 with the first NCAA tournament championship game held at Northwestern on March 27, 1939. Only eight teams competed in two regions. Oregon defeated Ohio State in the championship game, and the West region held a third-place game.

Although the NCAA basketball tournament now determines the national champion, that was not always the case. Until the 1950′s, the NIT was considered a more prestigious tournament than the NCAA basketball tournament, and teams often chose to enter the NIT and bypass the NCAA tourney. Because of this dichotomy, two of the best centers of the 1940′s never met in an NCAA basketball tournament. George Mikan’s DePaul team traditionally entered the NIT, while Bob Kurland’s of Oklahoma.

In 1973, with the championship game held on Monday night for the first time, UCLA behind Bill Walton’s 44 points on 21 of 22 shooting, won its seventh straight championship, defeating Memphis State. NC State, led by David Thompson, ends UCLA’s title run in 1974, defeating the Bruins in the national semifinals in double overtime.

The following year, the NCAA tournament expanded to 32 teams, and then allowed more than one school from each conference to participate. Prior to this ruling, the restriction prevented several great teams from competing in the tournament, including the 1974 Maryland team. They finished the season nationally ranked #4, yet lost the ACC Conference final game to top-ranked NC State prior to the start of the tournament. After that, the NCAA began to allow more than one team per conference to participate. In 1976, Bobby Knight’s Indiana Hoosier squad completed an undefeated season with a victory over Michigan in the championship game. The Hoosiers are the last team to go undefeated and win the title.

The tournament expanded to 40 teams in 1979, and teams were seeded for the first time. “Magic” Earvin Johnson leads Michigan State over Larry Bird and Indiana State to win the national championship. The game drew the attention of millions throughout the country; its 24.1 TV rating remains the highest ever for a college basketball game and is still considered one of the greatest match-ups in NCAA Tournament history.

Expansion followed in 1980 to 48 teams, and then in 1983, to 53 teams. In what many believe is the greatest Cinderella story in college basketball, North Carolina State’s Lorenzo Charles dunks the ball as time expires in the 1983 championship game to lead the Wolfpack to a 54-52 win over heavily favored Akeem Olajuwon and Houston. Perhaps no one figure in college basketball history more personified the spirit of March Madness than Coach Jim Valvano. His underdog North Carolina State Wolfpack did what many consider a miracle by making an incredible run through the 1983 Tournament. Culminating in the defeat of the highly touted “Phi Slamma Jamma” squad from the University of Houston, Valvano was rocketed into the media limelight and quickly became the symbol of exuberance and enthusiasm. He discovered soon afterward that he had bone cancer, and for a short time became a commentator for college basketball. Before his death at age 47, he was named the recipient of the Arthur Ashe award for courage at the first ESPN ESPY awards. It was at this time he announced the formation of the V Foundation for cancer research.

In 1985 the tournament expanded to 64 teams. A Villanova Wildcat team shot a 22 for 28 field goal percentage to defeat Patrick Ewing and defending champion Georgetown in the championship game. Villanova remains the lowest seed (#8) to win the championship. In 1991, Duke upset undefeated UNLV in the semifinals and went on to win the national championship. In 1997, Arizona, led by Mike Bibby, Jason Terry and Miles Simon, becomes the first school to defeat three #1 seeds en route to the national championship, winning against Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky.

The NCAA Tournament’s popularity has grown to rival that of the World Series, the Olympics and the Super Bowl. CBS Sports in 1999 negotiated an 11-year, $6 billion agreement for television, radio, Internet, corporate marketing, licensing, publishing, home video and Hoop City rights for the Division I men’s basketball championship.

Today the NCAA basketball tournament is one of the most watched tournaments of the year. Always exciting you never really know who is going to end up on top!