Episode 53 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Big South

Today's Know Your Mid-Majors focuses on the Big South Conference, based entirely in the Carolinas and Virginia.

One summer change for this conference: VMI will leave for the SoCon.

The 2013-14 schools of this conference are:

• Campbell
• Charleston Southern
• Coastal Carolina
• Gardner-Webb
• High Point
• Liberty (founded by Jerry Falwell)
• Longwood
• Presbyterian
• Radford
• UNC Asheville
• Virginia Military Institute (VMI) (leaves for SoCon in summer 2014)
• Winthrop

 


 Click here to download.

Final Four is set.

The Final Four is set:

Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

Neither Mike nor Tim got a single team through to the Final Four.  Tim did come closest, having two of his Final Four make the Elite 8.

Next recording session, and this is confirmed: Mike, batsu game!

Tim's champs fall

Tim picked the Arizona Wildcats to win the 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Arizona bowed out last night in the Elite 8:

Arizona 63
Wisconsin 64

That said, Tim did pick a better bracket than Mike (whose champs were out on Day 2).  Tim also has one Final Four team still in it (Michigan State) while Mike has none.

The last of Mike's Final Four has fallen

So, how bad is Mike's bracket for the 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament?

His champion - Duke - was out in the first round.

Two more of his Final Four - Gonzaga and Syracuse - were out in the second round.

The fourth and final part of his Final Four - Virginia - went down in the Sweet 16.

Mike only managed to get 2 of the Elite 8 correct: Connecticut and Florida.

Contrast that with Tim, who also had Duke and Syracuse but still has Arizona (who knocked out Gonzaga) and Michigan State (who just knocked out Virginia) alive.

Mike is very much do for a batsu game.  Stay tuned...

Episode 52 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Big Sky

Today's Know Your Mid-Majors focuses on the Big Sky Conference.  This conference is in the western US and occupies that area known as Big Sky Country (better known as Montana).

One change in summer 2014: Idaho joins the conference from the WAC.

The 2013-14 members of this conference are:

• Eastern Washington
• Idaho State
• Montana
• Montana State
• North Dakota
• Northern Arizona
• Northern Colorado
• Portland State
• Sacramento State
• Southern Utah
• Weber State

Audio used in this episode includes some more Rams "Smack Cam" audio courtesy of Montana alumnus Tremaine Johnson as well as a clip of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" in honor of the Eastern Washington Rick-roll video (click here to see that video).

Click here to download.

Bracket Health After 2 Rounds

After the first two rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, here is how everyone in our bracket pool looks:

Name	Round of 32 Correct	Sweet 16 Correct	Elite 8 still alive	Final 4 still alive	Champ 2 still alive	Champion still alive
Mike	21/32	7/16	4/8	1/4	0/2	No
Tim	21/32	9/16	4/8	2/4	1/2	Yes
Jason*	22/32	10/16	3/8	2/4	1/2	No
Phil's Mom^	19/32	6/16	3/8	1/4	0/2	No

* The only other participant in our bracket pool is Sunflower Brew's resident beer guru, Jason Leib.

^ Phil's Mom, of course, made her picks on Tony Kornheiser's radio show.  But we love Phil's Mom, so we include her bracket here.

Episode 51 - 2014 MLB Preview

Mike and Tim look at the upcoming Major League Baseball season and make their predictions.

Division	Mike's Pick	Tim's Pick
NL East	Washington	Washington
NL Central	St. Louis	St. Louis
NL West	San Francisco	LA Dodgers
NL Wild Cards	Atlanta Cincinnati	Colorado San Francisco
AL East	Boston	Tampa Bay
AL Central	Detroit	Kansas City
AL West	Oakland	Texas
AL Wild Cards	Cleveland Tampa Bay	Boston Detroit
NL Champions	Washington	San Francisco
AL Champions	Boston	Tampa Bay
World Series Champs	Boston	San Francisco

Who's right? We'll know this fall.



Click here to download.

Dukies out in first round. Mike, BATSU GAME!

You may have seen the final already:

Duke Blue Devils 71
Mercer Bears 78

This game ruined a lot of brackets, including both Mike and Tim's brackets, as both had the Dukies making the Final Four.

It's actually worse for Mike: he had Coach K's team winning the whole thing.

Mike will almost certainly get the batsu game for this, but we will withhold final judgment until after both brackets are considered dead.

Tim's championship team, Arizona, is leading Weber State as of this blog posting.

Phil's Mom's Bracket 2014

Regular listeners of our podcast will know I'm a fan of Tony Kornheiser's radio show, which I listen to via podcast (and it's famous podcast delay).

Mr. Tony has an annual tourney tradition: getting the bracket from Phil's Mom, the mother of a former producer of said radio show.  She is known for blindly picking games and mispronouncing the school names ("Markwet" especially comes to mind).  In 2006, she famously picked George Mason to win the tourney - and they got to the Final Four.

Here's Phil's Mom's bracket for 2014:

South Region (Florida as 1 seed):
1st Round winners:
Florida
Colorado
Stephen F. Austin
Tulsa
Dayton
Syracuse
New Mexico
Kansas

Sweet 16:
Colorado
Tulsa
Syracuse
New Mexico

Elite 8:
Colorado
Syracuse

Regional Champ: Colorado

East Region (Virginia as 1 seed):
1st Round winners:
Virginia
Memphis
Cincinnati
Delaware
Providence
Iowa State
St. Joseph's
Villanova

Sweet 16:
Virginia
Cincinnati
Iowa State
St. Joseph's

Elite 8:
Cincinnati
Iowa State

Regional Champ: Iowa State

West Region (Arizona as 1 seed):
1st Round winners:
Arizona
Gonzaga
North Dakota State
San Diego State
Baylor ("Bay-lore")
Louisiana-Lafayette ("La-Lafayette")
Oregon
American

Sweet 16:
Gonzaga
San Diego State
Baylor
Oregon

Elite 8:
Gonzaga
Baylor

Regional Champ: Gonzaga

Midwest Region (Wichita State as 1 seed):
1st Round winners:
Cal Poly (winning the play-in over Texas Southern)
Kentucky
Xavier (winning the play-in over NC State)
Louisville
UMass
Mercer
Texas
Wofford

Sweet 16:
Kentucky
Louisville
UMass
Wofford

Elite 8:
Louisville
UMass

Regional Champ: UMass

Final Four: Colorado over Iowa State; Gonzaga over UMass

Championship: Colorado over Gonzaga

Episode 50 - NCAA Tourney Preview

Happy 50th episode of the Winning Side Coaches!

Today Tim and Mike fill out their brackets for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Here are Tim and Mike's respective Final Fours:

Tim: Syracuse, Michigan State, Arizona, Duke
Mike: Syracuse, Virginia, Gonzaga, Duke

Champions:

Tim: Arizona
Mike: Duke

You can play along with Tim and Mike on Yahoo's tourney brackets.  Click here to get started.

Remember, the tournament begins Thursday.



Click here to download.

2014 NCAA Tournament Automatic Bids

Here are the teams that have earned their conferences' automatic bids for the 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Major conferences:
ACC: Virginia
Big Ten: Michigan State
Big 12: Iowa State
Pac-12: UCLA
SEC: Florida

Mid-majors we've done Know Your Mid-Majors on as of Selection Sunday:
American Athletic: Louisville^
Atlantic 10: St. Joseph's
Atlantic Sun: Mercer^
Conference USA: Tulsa^
Missouri Valley: Wichita State
Ohio Valley: Eastern Kentucky
Southland: Stephen F. Austin
SoCon: Wofford
Summit: North Dakota State
Sun Belt: Louisiana-Lafayette
WAC: New Mexico State
West Coast: Gonzaga

Mid-majors we will do Know Your Mid-Majors on after Selection Sunday:
America East: Albany
Big East: Providence
Big Sky: Weber State
Big South: Coastal Carolina
Big West: Cal Poly
Colonial: Delaware
Horizon: UW-Milwaukee
Ivy League*: Harvard
MAAC: Manhattan
MAC: Western Michigan
MEAC: North Carolina Central
Mountain West: New Mexico
Northeast: Mount St. Mary's
Patriot: American
SWAC: Texas Southern

*The Ivy League does not hold a conference tournament.  The conference's automatic bid goes to the regular season champion.

^Indicates a school that is changing conferences over the summer.

Mike's Day at Planet Comicon

You may recall that, as a result of picking worse than Tim on how the 2013-14 NFL season would finish, Mike was given a batsu game - go to Planet Comicon and get an autograph from John Ratzenberger, the actor who played mailman Cliff Clavin on Cheers.

Planet Comicon was this weekend at Bartle Hall in Kansas City.  How did Mike do?

Mike got the autograph and generally had a great time at Planet Comicon.

Episode 49 - Know Your Mid-Majors: SoCon

Mike concludes a string of three straight solo Know Your Mid-Majors segments with the Southern Conference (SoCon).

Interesting fact about this conference: if spawned not one but two of our current major conferences - the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 1932 and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 1953.

The 2013-14 members of this conference are:

• Appalachian State (leaving for Sun Belt in summer 2014)
• Tennessee-Chattanooga
• The Citadel
• Davidson (leaving for A-10 in summer 2014)
• Elon (leaving for Colonial in summer 2014)
• Furman
• Georgia Southern (leaving for Sun Belt in summer 2014)
• Samford
• UNC Greensboro
• Western Carolina (Mike can't pronounce the name of the town this school is located in)
• Wofford

Joining the SoCon during the summer are East Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun), Mercer (Atlantic Sun) and Virginia Military Institute (VMI) (Big South).

Former St. Louis Rams CB Cortland Finnegan, who introduced the "Smack Cam" fad in the Rams locker room in 2013, is a Samford grad.  Therefore, audio from some of Finnegan's "Smack Cam" videos is used in this episode for illustrative purposes only.

Click here to download.

Episode 48 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Atlantic Sun

Mike is solo again for Know Your Mid-Majors.  Today's conference: Atlantic Sun Conference.

The 2013-14 schools of this conference are:

• East Tennessee State (leaving for SoCon in summer 2014)
• Florida Gulf Coast (founded in 1991, this is the newest NCAA DI school - and made the tournament in 2013)
• Jacksonville
• Kennesaw State
• Lipscomb
• Mercer (leaving for SoCon in summer 2014)
• Northern Kentucky
• North Florida
• South Carolina Upstate
• Stetson

 


Click here to download.

Episode 47 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Sun Belt

Mike starts a string of three solo Know Your Mid-Majors with the Sun Belt Conference.

The 2013-14 schools of this conference are:

• Arkansas State
• Arkansas-Little Rock
• Georgia State
• Louisiana-Lafayette
• Louisiana-Monroe
• South Alabama
• Texas State
• Texas-Arlington
• Troy
• Western Kentucky (leaving for Conference USA in summer 2014)

Joining this conference over the summer are Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, both from the Southern Conference.

This edition of Know Your Mid-Majors contains small clips from the Tony Kornheiser Show (during its ESPN Radio incarnation) where he talks about a controversy around Western Kentucky's blob-like mascot Big Red.  Intended for illustrative purposes only.

Click here to download.

Episode 46 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Conference USA

Today's Know Your Mid-Majors deals with the quintessential high mid-major: Conference USA.

The 2013-14 schools of this conference are:

• Alabama-Birmingham (UAB)
• East Carolina (headed to the American Athletic in summer 2014)
• Florida Atlantic
• Florida International
• Louisiana Tech (Terry Bradshaw's alma mater)
• Marshall
• Middle Tennessee State
• UNC Charlotte
• North Texas
• Old Dominion
• Rice
• Southern Mississippi (Brett Favre's alma mater)
• Texas-El Paso (UTEP)
• Texas-San Antonio (UTSA)
• Tulane (headed to the American Athletic in summer 2014)
• Tulsa (headed to the American Athletic in summer 2014)

Western Kentucky (currently in the Sun Belt Conference) joins this conference in summer 2014.

 


Click here to download.

City wins League Cup. Mike is SAFE!

The 2013-14 edition of England's League Cup has come and gone.

Manchester City 3-1 Sunderland

Mike correctly picked City to win this game - and by 2 goals.

As a result, Mike is SAFE and does not have yet another batsu game coming for the time being.

There is still the matter of the NBA regular season as well as Barcelona's fate in the UEFA Champions League.

So far, 5 of the issued 6 batsu games have been completed.  The one outstanding is Mike getting a certain autograph in less than two weeks (he still hasn't got tickets).