5 Things For March 20th; NCAA Tourney Tips-Off Today

1. Arguably the best sports weekend of the year is upon up.  The first weekend of the NCAA tournament features 48 live games over a four-day stretch.  The action is nearly constant, and the buzzer-beaters, upsets, and great games make it one of the best weekends of the year.

Michigan State plays Delaware today at 4:10.  MSU has become the trendy pick to win the whole tournament.  As Tom Izzo was quoted in this Freep.com article, "They went from being the ugly duckling to the prom queen".

Delaware enters this game at 25-9 overall.  Their non-conference schedule consisted of a close loss to Villanova, a five-point loss to Notre Dame, and a 12-point loss to Ohio State.  They are a good offensive team, ranking 38th in the country in offensive efficiency (www.teamrankings.com).  However they are mediocre defensively and are a very poor rebounding team, ranking second-to-last in their league in defensive rebounding percentage.  Just looking at the numbers, it seems like this will be a very fast paced game, but MSU should have a major advantage on the glass.

2. The high school boys basketball semifinals start today at the Breslin Center.  After two thrilling comebacks, Pewamo-Westphalia looks to continue their run against Muskegon Heights today at 1.  We will have the game for you here on The Game 730 AM.  Here is this weekend's entire schedule courtesy of MHSAA.com.

3. The inaugural Big Ten hockey tournament opens up tonight.  The fifth-seeded Spartans will play Ohio State at 8 tonight.  The winner will play Minnesota Friday at eight.  MSU played OSU to two ties in early February.

4. The Pistons continued their rough slide, falling to the Denver Nuggets 118-109.  Josh Smith was ejected in the third quarter, and finished the game with eight points.  Detroit has not won a road game since January 18th.

5.  Another day, another injury for the Red Wings.  Mlive.com reports that Jonathon Ericsson, the team's #2 defenseman, will miss 4-6 weeks with a broken finger.  In that Mlive article Ansar Khan says that Brendan Smith will move to the top pairing with Niklas Kronwall.  Adam Almquist has been recalled from Grand Rapids to be the team's extra defenseman.