Bracketology: NC State upgrades their resume in ACC Tournament

T.J. Warren is the ACC Player of the Year

If you haven't heard about the NC State Wolfpack this season, you will hear about them a lot more after tonight's victory over the Syracuse Orange in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.

The Wolfpack are now 21-12 on the season and they don't have great resume wins but they did beat Florida Gulf Coast earlier in the season. The Eagles of FGCU are the regular season champs of the Atlantic Sun conference and will most likely be in the NIT.

Then they have another good resume win against Eastern Kentucky out of the Ohio Valley Conference. Last week, the Colonels of EKU won the OVC Tournament and will be going to the NCAA Tournament. You can now add tonight's win over Syracuse to give them that great resume win.

With the Wolfpack advancing to the semifinals it at least puts them in the conversation for the NCAA Tournament. Let's not forget they also have the ACC Player of the Year in sophomore forward T.J. Warren. Warren is averaging 24.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.

In tonight's big win over Syracuse, he had 28 points and 8 rebounds and played all 40 minutes. With Selection Sunday only being two days away it will be interesting to see where NC State ends up.

NCAA Postseason Tournaments: Blah, Blah, Blah and more Blah

By Gregory Crawford, Managing Editor of the East West Hoops

How about really sprucing up NCAA D-1 basketball. I mean really sprucing it up. Simple way, do away with all postseason conference tournaments. Conference tournaments only cut it with the true basketball junkie.

For sure the game needs to add new fans and develop a new base. There is no better way to do so than to make the regular season count, really count.

Can you believe what kind of games we would get. And on top of that, add on a balanced schedule for every single team. It would work, it just has to have someone have the guts to make the decision.

Per usual, we always want the East West Hoops to be interactive. What do you think about the above comments ?

Wichita State, For Sure Number 1 Seed

By Gregory Crawford, Managing Editor of the East West Hoops

It is shocking, that some people do not think the Wichita State Shockers belong as a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Of course they do, completing the regular season at 34-0 they have to be a lock to be the number 1 seed.

What do you think, are they a deserving number 1 seed and how far will they go in the NCAA tournament? Please comment below and thank you very much.

CAA Tournament: Delaware Blue Hens outlasts Hofstra

(Photo: Mark Jordan/Bluehens.com)

In the first game of the CAA quarterfinals, the number one seed Delaware Blue Hens took on the eighth seed Hofstra Pride. The Blue Hens would go on to win 87-76.

Hofstra started out the game early on fire giving the Blue Hens a run for their money. At the half, The Pride had a 40-37 lead. But then the Blue Hens woke up and had a 50 point scoring outburst in the second half.

The scoring outburst was led by guards Davon Usher and Jarvis Threatt. Usher scored a game high 28 points and was unstoppable for the most part in today's game. Usher also had eight rebounds and shot 4 of 7 from the three point line.

His teammate Jarvis Threatt was the closer down the stretch scoring 22 points in the game and making 6 out 10 free throws from the line.

Still give credit to Hofstra as they only played seven players as they were shorthanded. They got a lot from their players and they definitely did show "Pride."

Delaware now sits and waits for the winner of the 4/5 game between the Drexel Dragons and Northeastern Huskies.

My coach of the year in D-1 basketball

By Gregory Crawford, Managing Editor of the East West Hoops

This is a year that probably 20 people could be the coach of the year in D-1 college basketball. Certainly the favorites have to be Gregg Marshall of undefeated Wichita State and Bill Donavan of Florida.

My powerful vote goes to Rex Walters of the San Francisco Dons of the West Coast Conference. All Walters did was lead his team to a 20-10 season, a 13-5 record is the ever tough West Coast Conference and a number three seed in the WCC tournament.

This great season happened after Walters had his best player and one of the top five players in the WCC leave his team in November after an altercation with a teammate. Losing Cody Doolin at the time time was a big blow, but Walters regrouped his team and the Dons played great basketball in January and February, despite being one of the shortest teams in the country and having no true center.

There is no question Walters is a wonderful coach, it really showed this year and for that reason, he is my national coach of the year.

And since the East West Hoops is all about interactive, who is your national coach of the year? Be sure to make your opinions known in our comment section and thank you.

Can Doug McDermott lead Creighton to the Final Four?

[Photo: AP/Nati Harnik]

The Creighton Blue Jays out of the Big East Conference are making a name for themselves as the beasts of the east. Creighton, who was originally apart of the Missouri Valley Conference is making it known that they are tough and are challenging for a Final Four.

But their superstar player in senior forward Doug McDermott is the reason why the Blue Jays could be contending for a Final Four. McDermott, who is moving up the NCAA Division I scoring list, is making a case for himself to be a first round pick in this summer's NBA Draft. All signs point to McDermott being a first round or lottery pick.

This season, McDermott is averaging 26.0 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Personally, this is the best basketball he has played in his entire career. Despite McDermott's shooting prowess he has intangibles that any coach would love to have on their team. It just so happens that McDermott's head coach is father.

Whenever Doug McDermott is on the floor, he demands attention but is also a leader. When the Blue Jays need a big shot, McDermott is there to give it to them. He is the complete total package. Now when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, can he lead Creighton to the Final Four? Yes. The Blue Jays will probably be a two seed in the field of 68 and will have a good chance of making it far.

This season, they have proved that they can beat the good teams such as the Villanova Wildcats twice. But only time will tell if the can go all the way to Arlington, Texas in April.

Around The NCAA, Men's Basketball

By Gregory Crawford, Managing Editor of Alford/Crawford East West Hoops

Jahii Carson----With Carson playing his home game for Arizona State yesterday, a blowout win over California, it is really important to keep in mind that Carson stayed that extra year, that extra year that is so vital to becoming a successful professional basketball player.

Carson is the glue of the Arizona State team and he is for sure going to be an excellent pro, even with his small stature. One Pac-12 coach recently told me, "Carson is one of the best players I have ever seen as far as court awareness. He never misses an opportunity to take advantage of defensive mistakes and at the same time to make his teammates on the floor look better."

Everyone is going to have lots of fun watching Carson next year in the NBA, that is a given. Projection: Middle to late first round pick, that probably is a mistake, as whoever gets Carson, will be getting a wonderful player.

Officiating----There has never been a year in my 50 plus years of watching NCAA basketball where there has been as much controversy about NCAA basketball calls.. Perhaps it is just the expanded media coverage that magnifies this, but at the same time, the officiating really is not that good for my money. And it has nothing to do with Duke/Syracuse, the call by Tony Greene was absolutely correct, I have watched it over and over.

What is obvious, the fact officials are working too many games, too many nights in a row. As independent contractors, they have every right to do so and make a huge amount of money, who can blame them.

But the flip side is that it really hurts the game of basketball and all of these people owe a lot to the game, which is some cases has made them much money for the pay they get and equally famous, so they can go outside of games, host referee camps and give speeches which bring in added revenue to each individual.

NCAA basketball coaches, you are just going to have to live with officiating in some cases being sub-par, because until we have a centralized officiating system, where all games are assigned out of one office, not through conferences, the game will continue to be hurt by bizarre calls and bizarre actions by officials.

Just think about it, if you worked any job 10 straight days, your performance on the that 10th day, is not going to be as effective as the first day. We often seem many officials working several days in a row, it is a problem, but only can be solved by a centralized officiating system, which appears right now to be way down the road.

Mark Cuban----Cuban is sometimes wrong and sometimes right. He sure is right about the D-League being a better option for many players wanting to play professional basketball than the NCAA. The one and done rule needs to change.

It needs to change to this. If a player goes into college, he must complete at least two years of school, before he can head to professional basketball. If he wants to go right into the NBA out of high school, he can do as such, as well.

Obviously the competition is much greater in the D-League, but the option of two years of college should be available, as many players blossom much later than they expect too.

Gregory Crawford @wchoops