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NCAA National Championship Wisconsin v Duke (+1, 140 o/u) CBS TV 9:18pm EDT thread

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With all of the top players in the country Kentucky could not overcome the Obama curse. He picked them to win and just like Bibi, Wisconsin was able to win in a huge upset. Maybe he will pick Hillary.

".....The hard-nosed Wisconsin Badgers did what nobody else could Saturday night — knocking off the Wildcats 71-64 behind 20 points and 11 rebounds from Frank Kaminsky and a clutch comeback down the stretch. Now, it's Wisconsin heading to the final to play Duke, an 81-61 winner over Michigan State in the earlier — and much less entertaining — semifinal. "It gives us another 40 minutes, I know that," said Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who leads the Badgers to their first final since 1941. And Kentucky has a long ride home, finishing the season at 38-1 — two wins short of...

Final Four live on TBS, TNT.

MADISON (WITI) — Governors Scott Walker and Steve Beshear offered up a friendly wager on Friday, April 3rd in anticipation of the NCAA Final Four men’s basketball game on Saturday. Governor Walker bet an assortment of Wisconsin cheese and sausage, and root beer, that the Wisconsin Badgers will win, while Governor Beshear wagered Kentucky bourbon for a University of Kentucky Wildcats victory. In a news release, Gov. Walker said the following: “The Badgers have had an incredible season thus far and have represented Wisconsin admirably both on and off the court. As we face the Kentucky Wildcats in the Final...

NCAA President Mark Emmert says the association is "very pleased" with revisions to Indiana's religious objections law that critics feared would lead to discrimination against gays and lesbians. Indiana lawmakers unveiled an amended bill Thursday morning.

Indiana's controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act has disrupted the travel plans of UConn coach Kevin Ollie and his staff. They're boycotting the Final Four in Indianapolis and the annual National Association of Basketball Coaches convention that coincides with it in compliance with Monday's order from Gov. Dannel Malloy's prohibiting all state of Connecticut employees from traveling to Indiana.

Vladimir Putin scheduled the war to retake the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – for the first half of the last Final Four college basketball game. He anticipated, correctly, that the President’s focus would be on his brackets instead of Russia’s plan to recapture its former glory. The signs were all there – prior aggression in Georgia, the invasion of Ukraine, the unscheduled “maneuvers” in both Russia and Belarus adjacent to the panicking Baltic States’ borders, the provocative military flights into their airspace and that of nearby Sweden. And the administration, fixated on pushing through its domestic agenda...

Add Keith Olbermann to the now trending #BoycottIndiana mob looking to punish the state over its new religious freedom law — a law that closely mirrors the 1993 Chuck Schumer sponsored, Bill Clinton signed Religious Freedom Restoration Act:

The first thing to do after you win a huge NCAA tournament game is CURSE OUT THE PRESIDENT ON LIVE TV!

The rims seemed tight. So did Villanova. The Wildcats missed so many shots — gimme layups, uncontested jumpers, airballed 3's — that it was no surprise the first thing to fall was their Final Four target. No wonder it came to this: The 'Cats were the first to go from a top seed to No. 1-and-done. North Carolina State, a program that authored one of the early chapters on March shockers, can add another stunner to the list: The Wolfpack are back in the Sweet 16.

On Thursday, University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari reacted to his team’s performance or lack thereof in his halftime interview during Kentucky’s game against Hampton, an inferior opponent.

Not long ago, in a galaxy not so far away from wherever Comcast placed truTV in your cable lineup, the era of the dominant men’s college basketball team was over. Last year, no team had more than a 15 percent chance of winning the NCAA men’s tournament, according to FiveThirtyEight’s pre-tournament forecast (Louisville was the best bet). In 2011, the nominal favorite was Duke, with a 22 percent chance. In 2012, it was Kentucky, at 27 percent, and in 2013, Louisville led with a 23 percent chance. While two of those favorites (Kentucky in 2012 and Louisville in 2013) happened...

Did you fill out a March Madness bracket this year? In many states, if you put money in a pool, that's illegal! The NCAA website warns, "Fans should enjoy ... filling out a bracket just for the fun of it, not ... the amount of money they could possibly win." Give me a break. Americans bet more money on March Madness this year than on the Super Bowl. Politicians can't quite make up their minds about gambling: They approve certain casinos and promote state lotteries but crack down on sports bets and some charity poker games. It seems that government...

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is betting bottles of big name bourbon on the Final Four game when the University of Kentucky takes on the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday in Dallas. Beshear and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made a friendly wager Tuesday on the game, betting items from the signature industries of each state. The Kentucky bourbon basket wagered by Beshear will include some of the state’s most well-known Bourbon brands such as Woodford Reserve, Maker’s Mark, Four Roses, Elijah Craig and others as well as glasses and apparel. If Kentucky wins, Beshear will receive a gift of some of Wisconsin’s...

UConn beats Michigan State.

March 27, 2014 New Bevin ad clads McConnell in Duke gear By Alexandra Jaffe Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) primary challenger, businessman Matt Bevin, is working to make sure McConnell is forever linked with the wrong team in the state’s bitter basketball rivalry with Duke University. Bevin is debuting a new ad during Friday’s Kentucky versus Louisville basketball game that features a cutout of the Senate minority leader bedecked in a blue Duke jersey. It’s a reference to a McConnell campaign video launched earlier this week that mistakenly featured a shot of Duke’s 2010 championship team celebrating their win — a...

On his Twitter page, Maher cracked “wise” on Saturday, comparing unpaid college basketball players to slaves in the American colonies: March Madness really is a stirring reminder of what America was founded on: making tons of money off the labor of unpaid black people — Bill Maher (@billmaher) March 22, 2014

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Sen. Mitch McConnell's latest campaign video hit all the necessary Kentucky high points: horse racing, bluegrass — and Duke basketball? The campaign was scrambling this morning to remove an online video that features a split-second clip of Duke basketball players celebrating their 2010 national championship. The mistake comes as the basketball-crazy state of Kentucky prepares for the biggest game of the year. Kentucky and Louisville face off in the Sweet Sixteen on Friday night.