Arizona's Current Stranglehold on College Basketball

A busy Saturday got off to an amazing start with Arizona heading to Michigan for its toughest game of the season thus far. Flying back to Tucson with a win under its belt, Arizona increased its hold on the overall #1 seed. Let's take a look at that game and all the other best action as teams tune up for conference play.

Iowa Rules the Basketball World (For One Night)

The State of Iowa took center stage on Friday night as Iowa and Iowa State, who are both having excellent seasons so far, squared off for state bragging rights. The Cyclones and the Hawkeyes were seeded on the 5 line and the 7 line, respectively, last week. Going into the game, Iowa had more to gain considering they were going for a road win, and Iowa State needed more help since Iowa will get a boost in strength of schedule since the Big Ten is better than the Big 12 this year. So who came out on top?

How to Improve March Madness

Maryland won at Boston College, avoiding a bad loss, so the Terrapins' resume improves a bit (or at least doesn't fall). There were only five other games tonight, so no need for a recap. I think tonight would be a good night to talk about some ways to improve March Madness. I am simply not much for tradition. If there's a change that we can make to make next year better, implement it. Now. So here are the four most important easy fixes that we could implement fairly easily.

When Basketball Teams Hold Serve

Often times, prepping for an at-large bid means doing exactly what you're supposed to do. Even if you have a somewhat decent team on the schedule, home or away, you need to win those games to secure your berths. That's what happened on Wednesday night, as only one team damaged its tournament resume. All the rest of the important games involved teams not getting upset, which is just as important as filling up the resume with good wins. A couple of teams also are trying to claw their way onto the bubble, and stepped a little closer by beating their inferior competition. Let's take a look at Wednesday's action.

Florida Knocks Kansas Down Another Notch, and Other Games

Kansas is quickly becoming the poster child for the teams that we all thought were elite at the beginning of the season but instead are merely very good (or worse). Can they rebound, or will the Jayhawks and their tournament seed continue to fall?

What a College Football Playoff Should Look Like

The Bracket Briefer likes to wander outside of college basketball from time to time. In this case, it is to look at what a college football playoff would look like if the powers that be did it right. Yes, yes, the BCS is gone, and next year, we have ourselves a four-team playoff, but that would still be riddled with a great deal of problems.

Sunday/Monday Recap

Not much happened on Sunday or Monday in college basketball, so the NCAA recap was condensed into one post. Besides, the new Brief came out last night, so that was plenty to chew on to begin with. The bracket would have remained substantially the same no matter what the results were in these games.

Bracket Brief for December 8, 2013

Seed	Midwest (1) Indianapolis (Fr/Su)	South (4) Memphis (Th/Sa)	East (2) New York City (Fr/Su)	West (3) Anaheim (Th/Sa)
Site 1 16 8 9	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Wisconsin Quinnipiac/Southern Creighton Cincinnati	St. Louis (Th/Sa) Ohio State Davidson St. Mary's Georgetown	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Syracuse Boston U Virginia Michigan	San Diego (Fr/Su) Arizona N. Colo./Winthrop Gonzaga Indiana
Site 5 12 4 13	Spokane (Th/Sa) UMass Drexel Oregon Green Bay	San Diego (Fr/Su) Colorado Fla. St./G. Wash. Kentucky Toledo	Spokane (Th/Sa) UConn LSU/ASU Wichita State UC Santa Barbara	San Antonio (Fr/Su) Iowa State Belmont Duke New Mexico State
Site 3 14 6 11	Raleigh (Fr/Su) North Carolina North Dakota State Baylor Tennessee	San Antonio (Fr/Su) Oklahoma State UAB Missouri Marquette	Orlando (Th/Sa) Florida Louisiana Lafayette San Diego State Illinois	Orlando (Th/Sa) Michigan State Mercer New Mexico BYU
Site 7 10 2 15	St. Louis (Fr/Su) Iowa Harvard Louisville Oral Roberts	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Saint Louis Minnesota Pittsburgh Bryant	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Memphis VCU Villanova Stony Brook	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) UCLA Clemson Kansas North Carolina Cent.

Note: Through games of December 7, 2013. Teams in italics below represent automatic bids. The rankings at the top of each column are based on the overall seeds of the top four teams, so the winner of the regional with the team seeded #1 overall would meet the winner of the regional with the team seeded #4 overall.