Conquer Madness!!! (winners in OP)

[Phil Gates]

What is Maryland doing playing in an ACC tourney????

Or did you mean the B1G ACC Challenge?

[Phil Gates]

Oh also there are 2 MSU vs ND games still going on and I believe ND has to win both to go on.

[Phil Gates]

oops meant UNLV and MSU

[MTIceman41]

Give you props for this man...really add to the value of the site having members like you....but bro no rebounds for MT? Look at my avatar bro...I’m a 20/20 dude man

[Elaterate]

What is Maryland doing playing in an ACC tourney????

Or did you mean the B1G ACC Challenge?

They came from the ACC and I noticed my error about an hour after posting it but didn't want to change it in case someone already read the "article" lol

Give you props for this man...really add to the value of the site having members like you....but bro no rebounds for MT? Look at my avatar bro...I’m a 20/20 dude man

The "CC Times" is going through some cutbacks so not all stats can be printed thoroughly. My editor can be a real ball buster

[jytreberg]

Well, I think Elaterate's articles have done a great job of covering the news up till now, but here are the highlights from the weekend:

• #11 Grand Valley State made a valiant effort to take down #6 Duke, but Duke took two games this weekend, moving on to the next round
• The remaining games finished since last update were all in match-ups that have been decided
• The last match-up to be decided is #7 Michigan State vs. $10 UNLV

August 19th Bracket

[Elaterate]

Duke Vs. Grand Valley St.

Senior Wizz00 did everything he could to break the game open for the #6 seed Duke Blue Devils. The 7-foot Mongolian Beast dunked, found every open man when he was double and tripled teamed, and he even hit his 2nd 3-pointer of his college career to put the finishing touch on what was a remarkable night for the young man.

Wizz00 recorded the only triple-double so far in this years Tournament finishing the night with 31 points, 22 rebounds, 11 assists, and 3 blocked shots to help the Blue Devils beat the Grand Valley St. Lakers 95-68 on Sunday night to advance to the second round of the Conquer Madness!!! Playoffs.

Junior Point Guard G0rgatr0n had a season-best 21 points to go along with with 14 assists. Junior Power Forward bluesblazzer added 17 while freshman phenom playing behind Wizz00-- ultrafit -- scored 13 points coming off the bench.

"It was just a game where I was hitting, my teammates kept finding me," Wizz00 said. "They kept coming back to me, they believed in me enough to keep going and keep pushing, and I just executed on the plays we were running."

Coach itsthegeneral of the Blue Devils said "We practiced better these last two days and it showed. I'm proud of my guys coming out strong like that and not underestimating their opponent."

"Duke really turned the pressure up and our guys started to dribble the ball instead of passing it around," coach catstevens of the Lakers said. "They kept trying to take the ball out of the high post, which basically kept us from cutting as much. We struggled to finish and when we didn't pass it and move it as well as we needed to we let the game get away from us."

With such a remarkable recruiting class with the likes Freshman stollmike (finishing with 17 points) and Hawkeye Pierce (15 points) the Lakers look poised to be back in this Tournament next year. Junior forward casperr led the team with 18 points and 11 rebounds while the teams best player slaylark was limited to minimal action after waking up with the Flu, finishing with just 4 points.

The Blue Devils shot nearly 60 percent from the field and outscored Grand Valley St. 56-30 in the paint.

Tougher tests await the Blue Devils in the coming days as the will be facing the #3 seeded Oregon Ducks in the next round.

[jytreberg]

Another great article by E. I have updated the bracket with the final team moving on, even though their game is not 100% complete, it's essentially over at this point.

From this point on I will only be posting the bracket for round 2 and beyond, hopefully making it a little easier to read in the posts themselves.

August 21st Bracket

[Elaterate]

Michigan St. Vs. UNLV

UNLV fell to the Michigan St. Spartan's men's basketball team Sunday night 102-97 in a double overtime thriller that ended the Runnin Rebels season.

Junior guard bfunny27 led the Spartan's with 29 points on 10-for-18 shooting along with seven rebounds. Seniors artillery77 and dustin800 added 15 points each as the Spartan's shot 57 percent from the field for the game. The #7 seeded Spartan's outscored UNLV's bench by a decisive 27-12 margin.

"I can't take anything away from our guys," Spartan's Head Coach DBandit70 said. "They battled tonight and I thought in many ways played well enough to win and they found a way to finish it in the end to get the win."

Senior Point Guard Phil Gates of the Spartan's had a game winning three-point shot just miss as time expired in regulation and the game was sent to an extra period. Neither team could separate in the overtime, forcing a second overtime. The #10 seed UNLV converted multiple and-one chances in the first overtime to force the second extra period.

Both teams came bursting out of the gates in the first half with back-to-back three-pointers from both teams. Michigan St. buried another from beyond the arc a minute later to bring their lead to 12-6 four minutes into the contest.

The Spartan's continued their hot shooting from beyond the arc the remainder of the first half, shooting an astonishing 7-for-12. However, the Runnin Rebels found their shooting stroke as well, erasing a nine-point Spartan's lead with an impressive 20-to-11 run, including three shots from beyond the arc.

After tying the score at 32, the teams traded baskets for the closing minutes of the half. dustin800 paced the Spartan's with 10 first-half points and Phil Gates pitched in nine of his own, all from beyond the arc. Spartan's shot 59 percent from the field and took a narrow 40-38 lead into the break.

The Runnin Rebels quickly tied the contest at 45 just a minute into the second period. From that point, UNLV scored eight of the next 13 points, including six in a row to take a narrow three-point advantage with just under 16 minutes remaining in the game. The teams traded baskets for the following several minutes with neither stringing together more than four-straight. UNLV momentarily pushed their lead to seven after nailing back-to-back shots from beyond the arc, but the Spartan's quickly responded with 13-6 run to tie the contest at 70 with just over five minutes left in the game.

"They're an extremely senior laden team," UNLV Coach mint-murray said of the Spartan's. "They never panicked and were able to make big shots there when they needed to."

UNLV's sophomore point guard Bullinger scored six points in the first overtime, but neither team created any separation going basket for basket throughout. In the end it was bfunny27 scoring the last five points of the game that made the biggest impact.

"Their guard got loose there in the second overtime and we weren't able to keep him in front," UNLV's center mcshanester29 said. "That really ended up being the difference."

Michigan St. will face their toughest test of the year when they face the #2 Seeded Maryland Terrapins in the next round

[Elaterate]

Still 6 active games but all series have been decided. Will wait until no team has 2+ active games before I send out next rounds games.

[Elaterate]

Will be sending out invites for next Round tomorrow morning when I get home from work... Good Luck everyone!!!

[jytreberg]

We are starting to get some games finishing in round 2 and at least one match-up is gaining ground. Here are the highlights for round 2 so far.

• #2 Maryland has jumped out to a 3-1 lead over #7 Michigan State, including taking two games on Michigan State's home map.
• #3 Oregon and #6 Duke each took a game in their series leaving them deadlocked at 1-1
• #4 South Carolina took their first home game against #5 Kentucky to take a 1-0 lead in that series.

September 9th Bracket

Conquer_Madness_Bracket_20190909.png (9.87 KiB) Viewed 8732 times

[jytreberg]

Not much in the way of games finishing up this week, but we do have one match-up making progress:

• #3 Oregon and #6 Duke exchanged wins in the last two days, bringing their series to a 2-2 tie. It's down to a best of 5 games left, all but one of which are on Oregon's home map! Can Duke pull the upset?

September 11th Bracket

Conquer_Madness_Bracket_20190911.png (9.88 KiB) Viewed 8713 times

[Elaterate]

Can Duke pull the upset?

Nope

[jytreberg]

Five games finished since my last update yesterday so we have some movement in three series. Here are the highlights:

• #2 Maryland logged their fourth victory over #7 Michigan State taking a commanding lead in their series and needing only one more victory to secure a spot in the semi-finals.
• #4 South Carolina and #5 Kentucky swapped road wins, but the higher seeded Gamecocks still hold a 2-1 lead in the series.
• #1 Ohio State took down #8 Princeton in two games on Princeton's home map to take a 2-0 lead in their series.

September 12th Bracket

Conquer_Madness_Bracket_20190912.png (9.88 KiB) Viewed 8695 times

[jytreberg]

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! It seems like there is some bad luck in the air for a few teams as they are on the verge of elimination.

• #3 Oregon took down #6 Duke in two more games yesterday, bringing the series to 4-2 in favor of the Ducks
• #4 South Carolina took down #5 Kentucky yet again to take a 3-1 series lead.
• We could have the right side of the semifinals bracket set this weekend!

September 13th Bracket

Conquer_Madness_Bracket_20190913.png (9.89 KiB) Viewed 8664 times

[jytreberg]

Happy Monday everyone. We have our second semi-finals team after the weekend's games completed with two remaining to decide.

• #7 Michigan State is clinging to life with another win over #2 Maryland who still leads the series 4-2
• #5 Kentucky took two games from #4 South Carolina, evening their series at 3-3
• #1 Ohio State is working on a sweep of #8 Princeton, but already has a 5-0 lead, pushing them through to the semi-finals

September 16th Bracket

Conquer_Madness_Bracket_20190916.png (10.79 KiB) Viewed 8619 times

[jytreberg]

I was holding off posting an updated bracket for a bit, but it looks like all series are decided at this point even though the Kentucky/South Carolina match-up still hasn't finished enough games, there is at least one firm win for Kentucky to take the series and give us our first upset of the bracket stage.

I imagine Elaterate will be sending out semi-final game invites once we get all teams down to 1 game or less in this round.

September 23rd Bracket

[Elaterate]

I was holding off posting an updated bracket for a bit, but it looks like all series are decided at this point even though the Kentucky/South Carolina match-up still hasn't finished enough games, there is at least one firm win for Kentucky to take the series and give us our first upset of the bracket stage.

I imagine Elaterate will be sending out semi-final game invites once we get all teams down to 1 game or less in this round.

Conquer_Madness_Bracket_20190923.png

Correct...

[Elaterate]

Ohio St. Vs. Princeton

The Ohio St. Buckeyes made their case Monday night with an 94-71 victory over Princeton to earn a spot in the Final-4 (Semi-Finals) which was their only reasonable goal this season.

"I think this team might go down as one of the best teams in Conquer Club basketball history," coach All Black Rugby said. "Not as the most talented, and not on style points -- but because they encompassed what the word 'team' means."

Power Forward MTIceman41 delivered on his promise of getting back to his usual 20/20 routine finishing the game with 23 points along with an amazing 26 rebounds which was needed as the Buckeye's Senior center Astoriana suffered a minor sprain in his ankle during warm-ups. Junior guard emilywink added 19 points on 6-9 shooting while collecting 13 assists to add to her stat sheet.

"I didn't want to force any shots and they play tough defense," emilywink told us after the game adding " I tried to be aggressive like last game but when they closed the door on my opportunities I was lucky enough to find the right guy to make the shot." Teammates MTIceman41 and davekettering benefited the most from emilywink's ability to find the open man with davekettering finishing the game with 22 points and 7 rebounds.

Princeton came into the game with high expectations for themselves as they should have after cruising past their opponent in the opening Round but a collective effort by starters Ukey(18pts), iAmCaffeine(14pts, 11 Assists), uckuki(11pts), and Zidan-21(10pts, 14 Rebounds) wasn't enough to help the Tigers continue their dream season.

One thing Ohio St. has always been able to do all year is shoot the ball -- a nation-leading 53 percent this year -- and Tuesday night was no exception. The Buckeyes went 10-for-18 from 3-point range.

Princeton coach Robespierre__ said after the game,"When you're playing a great team like Ohio St. and those guys step up and make the plays, there's not a lot you can do. They made some incredible plays on us."

Ohio St. will face Kentucky this coming weekend @BigWham's Mansion to determine who will play in the Championship!

[MTIceman41]

Ohio St. Vs. Princeton

The Ohio St. Buckeyes made their case Monday night with an 94-71 victory over Princeton to earn a spot in the Final-4 (Semi-Finals) which was their only reasonable goal this season.

"I think this team might go down as one of the best teams in Conquer Club basketball history," coach All Black Rugby said. "Not as the most talented, and not on style points -- but because they encompassed what the word 'team' means."

Power Forward MTIceman41 delivered on his promise of getting back to his usual 20/20 routine finishing the game with 23 points along with an amazing 26 rebounds which was needed as the Buckeye's Senior center Astoriana suffered a minor sprain in his ankle during warm-ups. Junior guard emilywink added 19 points on 6-9 shooting while collecting 13 assists to add to her stat sheet.

"I didn't want to force any shots and they play tough defense," emilywink told us after the game adding " I tried to be aggressive like last game but when they closed the door on my opportunities I was lucky enough to find the right guy to make the shot." Teammates MTIceman41 and davekettering benefited the most from emilywink's ability to find the open man with davekettering finishing the game with 22 points and 7 rebounds.

Princeton came into the game with high expectations for themselves as they should have after cruising past their opponent in the opening Round but a collective effort by starters Ukey(18pts), iAmCaffeine(14pts, 11 Assists), uckuki(11pts), and Zidan-21(10pts, 14 Rebounds) wasn't enough to help the Tigers continue their dream season.

One thing Ohio St. has always been able to do all year is shoot the ball -- a nation-leading 53 percent this year -- and Tuesday night was no exception. The Buckeyes went 10-for-18 from 3-point range.

Princeton coach Robespierre__ said after the game,"When you're playing a great team like Ohio St. and those guys step up and make the plays, there's not a lot you can do. They made some incredible plays on us."

Princeton will face Kentucky this coming weekend to determine who will play in the Championship!

Love it man!!!
Our coach gets a little jealous because those Princeton guys know how to party...we had a good time hitting the clubs (just don’t tell coach he has a temper )

[Elaterate]

Oregon Vs. Duke


When it comes to NCAA Tournament experience, all of the Oregon Ducks are like freshmen -- because they'd (the players) never been here until now. Fortunately for the Ducks, their actual freshmen are playing far beyond their ages.

Freshman misteryforall had 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and Oregon earned its first Final-4 berth by beating Duke 97-85 on Monday night in the second round of the tournament.

"It's funny, we never really put a goal on how far we can go, just because we didn't know what we had," Oregon coach Elaterate said. "We've kind of attacked the entire season as a work in progress. ... With a young team, you kind of have to do that.

ZaBeast finished just shy of a 20/20 for the day with 20 points and 19 Rebounds while Freshman guard Kaiser Szami tallied 16 points and 11 assists and Junior forward caymanmew collected 17 points on a solid 7-8 shooting night to help Oregon advance to the Semi-Finals.

Wizz00 scored 25 points for the Blue Devils, who have been eliminated from the tournament in second round for only the second time ever in their schools tournament history. They played without guard G0rgatr0n, who tore his left A.C.L. in the first round against Grand Valley St. Forward bluesblazzer scored 11 points while freshman ultrafit ended the game with only 9 points.

Duke coach itsthegeneral mentioned after the game,""I thought misteryforall played extremely hard, and did many, many things out there that needed to be done, and at times needed to be done by two people, not just one. That kid has a bright future ahead of him."

The Ducks, in the tournament for the first time since 2005, had never advanced past the second round in their 12 previous appearances. Now they're on to BigWham's Mansion, to take on second-seeded Maryland in the Final-4.

[Elaterate]

Maryland Vs. Michigan St.


Maryland didn't just win, they dominated from the opening minutes and a near perfect day at the foul line was enough to beat Michigan State 99-68 in the second Round of the Conquer Madness!!! Playoffs.

Sophomore guard Bariclaw, 8-for-8 from the line, had 26 points and 12 assists for the No. 2 seed Terrapins, which used its size advantage for a 52-36 edge on the boards Tuesday night. Maryland's mdhill grabbed 19 of those Rebounds (4-5 from the line) while sophomore elddir pulled down 14 rebounds to go along with 18 points (3-3 from the line).

"Obviously, it was a great win for us," Maryland coach itake said. "I'm not sure how we did it, to be honest with you. Transition defense, we did that. And we probably rebounded the best we have all year."

artillery77 scored 24 points, but was 8-for-25 from the field, for the 7th-seeded Spartans, who had just one double-figure scorer in the game.

The Terrapins' other big edge was making 27-for-31 from the foul line for the game while Michigan State missed great chances to narrow Maryland's lead before the end of the first half and in the opening minutes of the second half.

"I'm very disappointed," Michigan State coach DBandit70 said. "For how hard we worked all year to get to this point and then to not show up the way we did is frustrating but I believe these kids will bounce back from this and be back next year to go further in this Tournament," adding ""bfunny27 got in foul trouble early and we just don't have the bodies right now from our bench to replace that kind of talent."

Seniors Phil Gates and dustin800 both ended their college careers with 9 points each for Michigan St.

The Spartans have been to six Final-4s since 1999, the most of any team. But that didn't help when craigv (17 points, 9-9 from the line) and Bariclaw kept attacking the basket and going to the line.

Maryland will be facing Oregon in the Final-4/Semi-Finals hosted @BigWham's Mansion. Coverage can be seen on our livestream CC3 network this Friday @ 4pm E.T.

[Elaterate]

Kentucky Vs. South Carolina


After 40 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime Kentucky coach groovysmurf let out a big sigh at the podium before saying," I'm not sure I'm going to have any nails left if all our games are going to be like this."

A nail-biter it was. JPlo64 scored 28 points for Kentucky, and South Carolina coach shoop76 was ejected near the end of the second half as the 5th seeded Wildcats held off the 4th seeded Gamecocks on Tuesday night in overtime by a score of 107-104.

Coming off a close win against Kansas in the first round, that was uglier than the score indicated, groovysmurf made her team run all practice. She kept screaming "Kentucky!" at them to remind them that they aren't anywhere near the elite team she came to Kentucky to lead.

"I refuse to give in to difficult moments. And I thought our team was giving in to us not playing well, to our record," groovysmurf said.

Coach shoop76's ejection marked a turning point for South Carolina who had a 7 point lead. Arguing a foul call the referee's made right in front of him the official was a little quick to give a Technical Foul to the coach who admitted,"I lost my cool after getting the T" and immediately received another one for an ejection. After he left, Kentucky responded with a 18-7 run and, after a three-point play by freshman mudpuppy (18pts, 10 rebounds), Kentucky had a 91-87 with just 1:30 left in regulation.

South Carolina's Senior shooting guard Tin Trumpet was having none of that drilling a 3-pointer to end Kentucky's run and close the gap to within one point with just under 1 minute remaining. The teams traded baskets before South Carolina's team leader Enormastitz (27 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists) hit two crucial free throws with 3 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

The teams traded baskets back and forth in overtime as well but the not the same kind. Kentucky's JPlo64 and madmom (21 points) sank a pair of 3s each to start overtime while South Carolina's GeneralTaken and akabob2 made a couple put-backs after missed 3 point attempts by the Gamecocks. A few more back and forths like that with some key free throws made by Denise (15 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists) was enough to earn the victory for the Wildcats.

The Gamecocks shot just 26.9 percent from the field. They only stayed in it thanks to 33-of-40 shooting from the foul line and outrebounding the Wildcats 46-38.

GeneralTaken scored 25 points for South Carolina, 15 of them of free throws. He made all four foul shots on shoop76's technicals.

"I wish I didn't get thrown out of the game, so that I could fight with our team," shoop76 said after the game.

groovysmurf didn't say if she will scream "Kentucky!" at her team next practice. But she will remind them of what they need to do if they want to make the Conquer Madness!!! Championship series.

Kentucky will be facing the #1 seeded Ohio St. Buckeyes in the Final-4/Semi-Finals this coming weekend.

[Elaterate]

Semi-Finals games will be sent out either tomorrow or the next day. Good Luck Everyone!!!