Home » Misc » How to score ncaa basketball brackets
How to score ncaa basketball brackets
How do I fill out a March Madness bracket?
The 2022 NCAA basketball tournament is upon us and that means it’s time to start filling out those brackets! If you are still confused about how it all works, take a look at our March Madness for Dummies to help you out. Otherwise, get your groups together and start making your predictions.
How do I fill out my March Madness bracket?
The First Four takes place March 15 and 16, leaving you with the 64 teams who will be in your bracket. They will be divided into four regions - West, Midwest, East, and South. The first round teams have already been decided by the NCAA selection committee. For a list of all participating teams and where they rank, check here.
If you don't have yours yet, here is a printable bracket from CBS Sports with the 64 teams.
In the first round of the tournament, the best teams play the worst teams in each region. For example, the no. 1 seed plays the no.16 seed, the no.2 seed plays the no.15 seed, and so on. The March Madness tournament is a single-elimination bracket, so if a team loses, they’re out.
To fill out the bracket, choose which team you think will win in each round and write their name on the next matchup line.
A tip: In the first round, choose at least one no.12 seed team to advance. At least one no.12 seed has advanced in 31 out of the last 36 tournaments. This year, those teams at no.12 are New Mexico State, UAB, Richmond, and then whichever team wins the First Four game between Indiana and Wyoming.
After you’ve filled out the first round, you just repeat the process for the next rounds, writing the names of the teams you think will advance of those you’ve chosen until you get to the final NCAA championship game. In the final, you can make a prediction about the score to break any potential ties within your group.
Another tip: Pick one of the No. 1 seeds as your champion. It’s extremely rare that at least one of the No.1 seeds doesn’t make it to the final (it’s happened only twice, ever). In the last nine championships, seven have been won by No.1 seeds.
How does scoring work in a March Madness bracket?
Typically, the way scoring works is that you will earn one point for every prediction you get correct in the first round, two for every correct prediction in the second, four for every one in the Sweet 16 round, eight for every one in the Elite Eight, 16 points for any correction predictions in the Final Four, and finally 32 points if you correctly chose the NCAA champion. This way, the better you predict further down the line, the more weight your score carries. The First Four are not typically counted, so scoring won’t begin until the start of round one, so no need to worry about choosing the First Four play-in games. Once the 64 teams are on the board, that’s when the fun begins.
March Madness 2022 Schedule
First Four: March 15 and 16
Round 1: March 17 and 18
Round 2: March 19 and 20
Sweet 16: March 24 and 25
Elite Eight: March 26 and 27
Final Four: April 2
NCAA National Championship: April 4
NCAA Bracket Scoring Systems - March Madness Point Values
Scoring Your March Madness Bracket
How do you score the rounds for the March Madness Office Pool?
We wanted to touch on how to keep score of your College Basketball Bracket and also go over what we feel are the best bracket scoring structures. First off, there is no universal way to score the bracket. There are many different point structures that can be used, but the overall set up for each is basically the same.
If you need a quick and easy way to calculate your bracket totals try our
Points Calculator! We also have the Bracket Scoresheet where you can update the point totals per round and distribute the results to participants!
ESPN, YAHOO, NCAA, FOX Bracket Challenge Winners
Points Per Round
There are 6 rounds to the NCAA tournament, for each correct winner picked, a player is awarded points based on what round the winner is picked in. In most cases, and the way I feel it should be, the points per round increase as the tournament progresses. I have seen pools ran that award 1 point for every game picked correctly no matter which round it is. The chart below shows possible scoring by round systems, if you read further down the page we explain which system we think works best. Check out our Fillable Bracket and our Excel Bracket, which allow you to completely customize your bracket before printing. This includes filling in the points per round, giving your bracket a title, and typing in any notes/rules you want to pass on to the participants.
Sample Scoring Systems
RND 1
RND 2
RND 3
RND 4
RND 5
RND 6
1
2
3
4
6
10
1
2
4
8
16
32
2
4
6
8
10
12
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
3
6
10
15
20
1
2
4
8
12
16
2
4
8
16
32
64
NCAA Point Systems used by ESPN, Yahoo, FoxSports, NCAA.
com and CBS:
These are the top online Tournament Challenge sites.
RND 1
RND 2
RND 3
RND 4
RND 5
RND 6
ESPN
10
20
40
80
160
320
Yahoo
1
2
4
8
16
32
CBS
1
2
4
8
16
32
FoxSports
1
2
4
8
16
32
NCAA.com
1
2
4
8
16
32
As you can see, CBS, FoxSports, NCAA. com and Yahoo all use the same scoring system and even though ESPN has higher point values they are exactly proportioned to the others (each round is 10x the amount of points). Remember the point value shown is for each game, multiply the number of games per round by the points per game/round then add all of the rounds together to come up with the Total Points Possible.
Round 1 - 32 Games
Round 2 - 16 Games
Round 3 - 8 Games
Round 4 - 4 Games
Round 5 - 2 Games
Round 6 - 1 Game
Total Points Possible for Yahoo, CBS, FoxSports and NCAA.com - 192
Total Points Possible for ESPN Tournament Challenge - 1,920
What system do we use?
Some people prefer to place a great deal of weight on picking the championship game correctly, like in the example 1,2,4,8,16,32. Which basically means the winner of the office pool must correctly pick the winner of the championship game. Others think that picking the most games correctly should weigh more on the outcome, like in the example 1,2,3,4,5,6. I definitely don't like the idea of putting all of the weight on the championship game, you are basically eliminating everyone that does not correctly guess the winner of the tournament. I do however feel that picking the winner in a field of 64(68) does have importance, so I prefer to use the first scoring method in the list above 1,2,3,4,6,10. This gives the people that correctly pick the tournament champion an advantage, but does not completely eliminate the people that didn't correctly guess the champion.
What about the play-in games?
Yes, the NCAA has really threw us for a loop with these new play in games. It wouldn't be so bad if all four of the play-in games were going to make up the 16 seed in each different region. But, the NCAA committee has decided they need to have a couple of 11 and 13 seeds participate in these play-in games instead of two of the 16 seeds. Anyway, you're still wondering how to incorporate these games into your office pool. We wrote a short article titled Do you Count the First Four Games in your College Basketball Pool. This article gives more detail on what you should do with the play-in games, but you basically have 2 options:
Option 1: Just don't count the play-in games, pick your winners based on a field of 64. Option 2: Score the play-in games as you would any game in the first round, or you can also change your entire point system around to be 7 rounds, which could look something like 1,2,3,4,6,8,12. If you use this option, you will have to have your entries received by Tuesday morning before the first play-in game begins.
Other Scoring Methods
You can always add your own twist to the office pool. Some people award bonus points for upsets picked in the first round. If a player correctly picks a lower seed to beat a higher seed, they are awarded double the points for that game.
You could also try a "multiplier pool", where each game you pick correctly, the "seed" number is multiplied by the points in that round.
Example using the 1,2,3,4,6,10 system:
A #1 seed pick in the first round is worth 1 point, a #15 seed would be worth 15 points.
A #1 seed in the 6th round is worth 10 points, a #2 seed would be worth 20 points.
Our new Fillable Bracket allows you to type in the points by round and then print the bracket, no more handwriting on the bracket!
If you need help filling out your brackets check out our Strategy for Winning your March Madness Pool to ensure your best chances of winning your office pool.
Scoring on the Bracket
Some folks may get confused with how to actually score the bracket. Let's use the first round as an example. Each person has picked 32 teams to win their first round game by writing each team's name in the second round of the bracket. Simply circle each team that was picked correctly and draw an "x" or a line through the incorrect games. To score the first round, you will actually be circling the names on the second round of the bracket. You do not circle the teams that are pre-entered in the round of 64. Each circle would be worth the corresponding points per round.
This season, 8 Russians play in the NCAA. How are they? - The Interception - Blogs
Editor's Note: You are reading the user blog Interception, which talks about European basketball. Don't forget that pluses are still the best way to thank the author.
Before the start of last season, I wrote this text. Then I talked to almost all the Russians who were preparing to compete in the NCAA - there were 11 of them at that time - and tried to understand why Russian youth began to leave more massively for American universities. There have never been such a number of Russians in the NCAA.
A year and a half has passed since then, and half of the guys have parted ways: Konstantin Dotsenko is now playing in the Loko farm club, Zakhar Vedischev plays at the base of Krasnodar, Mark Tikhonenko signed a contract with Astana, Andre Toure recently played in Maykop in the second Super League, and Samson Ruzhentsev moved to the Serbian "Mega".
But some remained in America. They were joined by a few more guys who either just left Russia or got into the NCAA from American schools or the NJCAA. In this text, I will talk about all the Russians who play in the first division of the main student league in the world. If last season I wanted to explain why exactly they are leaving, now I have focused on their career.
If you prefer reading, then below is a large text with comments from the players themselves; but this time you have the opportunity not only to read, but also to watch a video about all of our in the NCAA. Inside is my story and a video interview with the guys.
If you watch a YouTube video, don't forget to thumbs up and leave a comment. This will help promote the channel. Subscribe if you love Russian basketball and want to learn more about it.
And now - the promised text about our guys in America.
What is the NCAA
The NCAA, or NCDA, is the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States and Canada. It includes almost 1300 schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions. The teams of these universities are represented not only in basketball - the NCAA also has competitions in American football, wrestling, fencing, bowling, softball, gymnastics, tennis and God knows what else.
But basketball is a very popular sport in the association. Both guys and girls have three divisions, which are ranked by strength. This text is only about those Russians who compete in the first, strongest, division.
The NCAA has a playoff called March Madness. When knockout games start, the whole country switches from professionals to students. Although during the season, the teams also have enough attention from fans: the clubs play in large and good arenas, many people come to the matches, the games are shown on television, and sometimes on national television. There are even universities whose fans spend the night in front of the arena in the hope of having time to buy a ticket.
So the NCAA is a really serious tournament, albeit a student one.
How many Russians are there
I have spent an hour and a half of my life checking the composition of all the colleges that are represented in the first division. There are 358 of them. I broke my eyes, learned about the existence of several countries and even about the presence of basketball in these countries, but still I counted all the Russians.
I got eight people, and now we will get to know them better. The sequence on my list doesn't mean anything, it's just that way because I talked to the guys in that order.
I hope I haven't missed anyone. Please write in the comments if you know someone whom I have overlooked.
Evdokimov is the newest member of the NCAA Division I. He joined the Charleston Cougars - the name of the team of the University of Charleston from South Carolina - in early December last year.
This university belongs to mid-major. In the American system, there is a gradation of universities by strength - from low-major to high-major. Mid-major is the middle level. Most Russian guys perform at universities that fall into this category.
Before moving to the USA, Nikita played for the youth team of Lokomotiv-Kuban and for the national team. Last summer, the defender represented the Russian under-20 team at the Euro Challenger, although he himself was only 18.
Evdokimov has an interesting story about how he fell in love with basketball. In fact, it is strange that he did not go to handball, because his dad is the famous Russian handball player Yegor Evdokimov. Six-time champion of Russia, champion of Spain, champion of Belarus, champion of Ukraine, participant of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. At the dawn of his career, Yegor Viktorovich played in his homeland, in the Chelyabinsk region, the city of Snezhinsk. Nikita was born there.
- I fell in love with basketball when I was 9 or 10 years old. My cousin and grandmother and I went on vacation to the Crimea. There was a playground where I constantly ran and played. Grandma suggested trying to sign up for basketball. And before that, I didn’t consider basketball as a sport at all ... But I went to a training session and instantly fell in love. Didn't miss it at all. Then Lokomotiv saw me at the Russian Championship. Together with a team from my city, from Chekhov, we took fourth place, and everyone was very surprised. I was seen by coach Petar Marinkovic, who called me to Loko, ”recalls Evdokimov.
He says that he could have been in the red-green system even earlier. He was invited to the Yug-Basket camp - this is a camp organized by the club and within which it looks for players in its youth system - but then Evdokimov was with relatives in the United States and could not come.
He ended up in the Loko system in 2017. True, Evdokimov says that, even while playing for Krasnodar, he often thought that he actually wanted to try his hand at American basketball. He has relatives living in the USA, he has been there more than once, and when the chance to move to the university appeared, he did not hesitate for a long time.
Evdokimov learned about the university's interest in him in advance, so he spent the summer with benefit: he trained individually with personal trainers in Moscow and Cyprus, where his father plays handball. There, the defender, at the request of the university coach, worked hard on three-pointers and performed at least 500 long-range shots a day.
Evdokimov will be coached at the College of Charleston by Pat Kelsey, a strong specialist who is widely known in college basketball. He once worked with Jeff Teague and Chris Paul.
Alex is not short for Alexander, but his passport name. He was not born in Russia, but in Canada, his parents went there to give birth to Alex. In this country, he lived the first year of his life, after which he left for Moscow. In memory of Canada, Alex has citizenship (he has a double one).
But he started playing basketball in Russia.
— I started playing basketball at Gloria when I was 10-11 years old. People came to my school - and I studied at an ordinary secondary school - who were looking for young guys who were ready to play basketball. They came into my class, saw that I was tall, did a couple of tests, asked me different questions and invited me to practice. I studied at Gloria for a long time, then I got into the MBA Junior Junior League, from there I was taken to the Super League. I played there for literally a year, and after graduating from high school I decided that it would be wise to go to the United States. I contacted Skryagin (Alexander Skryagin, ProFuturo Sports, - note "Interception"), because he was the only person who knows more about moving to the USA than me. We talked to him, I dropped my highlights to him, and he helped me find a school, - says Kotov.
Alex arrived in the US in 2017 and entered the Montverde Academy. This is a very famous program that prepares players for the NCAA. Kotov spent a year in Montverde and won the championship with this team, the result for the season is 35-0. Alex's partners then included, for example, RJ Barrett, who now plays for the New York Knicks in the NBA, and Turkish Efes center Philip Petrushev.
Alex left Montverde not immediately for the NCAA, but for the NJCAA. It is an association of junior colleges and is also often referred to as Juko. A common story for those who feel like they're not ready for the NCAA yet, but want to play hard and improve. Kotov spent two years in this association, after which he moved to the NCAA, to the Illinois State Redbirds team. This is also a representative university of the mid-major category.
Alex has six months left to study at the university, but he can play in the team for another two and a half years. This happened because the players have the right to use the redshirt option. In fact, this is the right of the player to extend his career at the university, even if he has already graduated from the university. Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA).
In general, these rules are very complicated.
- Due to an injury in my second year at the NJCAA, I opted to save the year. That's plus one season. In addition, this year I had a lot of misunderstandings with the coach, it all started last year. I thought that it would be possible to influence it somehow, to establish relations with him in the summer, but it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. Therefore, after a huge number of meetings, we came to the conclusion that this year it would be easier for me to also take the option to save the year. So this year I'm graduating from university, getting an education, but I still have, roughly speaking, two seasons to play in the NCAA, - says Kotov.
Lakhin is the only Russian who represents a high-major university. This means that the university where Vitya plays often goes to the "March Madness" and has a tangible chance of winning the NCAA.
And the story of Lakhin began in Anapa. The parents wanted to send their sons - Vitya and his brother Vasya - to some kind of team sport so that they would play together. And chose volleyball. But because of the coach, they did not last long in the volleyball section and eventually went to basketball.
Lahin started in fourth grade but quickly rose to the city team. And in the Krasnodar Territory, if you play for the city team, then you are in full view of the Lokomotiv scouts. Vitya did not play Loko on a permanent basis, but by the 7-8th grade he was regularly on the team to participate in the Russian championships. The Railroaders took him as a reinforcement player - this is a common practice in children's competitions.
Further - a matter of chance. Loko juniors played in the final stage of the Russian championship and met CSKA twice - in the group stage and in the semi-finals. Lakhin gave two good games and ... received an invitation from the "soldiers".
At first he did not think of moving anywhere and stayed to finish the season in the south. But summer came, and he still went to see it. He was offered to stay after the first practice. Vitya talked to his parents and a month later he arrived at CSKA.
- The first season was probably the most emotional, full of some moments, memories. Because my brother and I arrived for the first time in a big city. On the one hand, this is a great freedom, because there are no parents nearby, but, on the other hand, this is also a great responsibility. Because you have never done the things that your parents did for you before, like laundry, cleaning, all sorts of small things. Even a waste of money: you never thought about it before, you were given - you spent it. And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya.
Lakhin reached the final stage of the youth Euroleague with CSKA and spent a pretty good season overall. Alexey Zhukov, the head coach of the “army” CYBL, left to work as an assistant in Nizhny Novgorod, and Maxim Sharafan came to CSKA from Lokomotiv. He worked with Vitya for three years, and during this time Lakhin managed to understand that he wants to play in Russia only at the highest level - in CSKA - and if it doesn’t work out, then it’s better to leave.
- I realized that it would be very difficult for me to get into the base. This is a top club with the highest goals, and as a young player I need to be not even the same as everyone else, but better, because I have no experience. It was necessary here and now to show some level and bring results. Let's be realistic, there were no players who can immediately enter the CSKA system and show something like that for a long time. Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya.
But not everything was so simple. Back in Russia, Lakhin managed to get injured. He fell in the game moment, and his knee hurt. The medical staff did not suspect anything, and Vitya continued to train. The state of health worsened, but then the pandemic came, everyone went into self-isolation, and the center just went home. The knee was still swollen, but the pain was slowly receding. Vitya did not train and therefore did not feel any signs of deterioration. He already knew that he was leaving for America, and just waited for all the permits.
The injury happened in February and the departure was due in September. In the summer, Lakhin himself did an MRI, which showed that he had ... a torn meniscus. He took the results of the examination to the surgeon who scheduled the operation. Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee.
Everything should have been fine, but when he started running, the pain returned. Lakhin did another MRI, and it showed that the same meniscus was completely torn. The doctors said that it would take six months to recover. Therefore, Vitya simply missed his first season in the NCAA.
— All this time I didn't train, but I was always with the team: in scouting, in the locker room, in training. All lessons were online, and we lived in an apartment with the team. So that year helped me a lot, because even though I didn’t play, I was in the system and I knew the guys. It was my year of adaptation - to a new culture, to people, to new faces, to food. I had the same feeling as when I came from a small town to Moscow. You leave Russia for any other country - even to America, even to Italy, even to Spain - and you go through the same thing, Lakhin believes.
He adds that the Cincinnati had a new head coach at the end of last season and it was a difficult moment. A new specialist was appointed the day before Lakhin's departure to Russia, when he did not yet understand whether he would remain in the team for the next season or not. Whether to leave it, decided the new head coach. But in the end, the center managed to meet with him before departure and find a common language. The coach wanted to protect the Russians in the squad.
During the summer Vitya worked in the USA on his body and improved his skills. The season began in October, and in December, Lahin was the best freshman of the week in his conference. By the way, he has a situation similar to Alex: academically, Lahin is a sophomore, but he is considered a rookie in the team.
Andrey Savrasov, Georgia Southern Eagles
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 23. 7 minutes average
11.9 points (51.5% 2-point, 30% 3-point, 73.1% free throws), 6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.4 block shots, 0.9 interceptions, 1 loss Andrey's first coach is a well-known Russian specialist Oleg Aktsipetrov.
— I remember that at first I had very different hobbies: football, basketball, taekwondo… But after the first two or three years of training, I realized that basketball is really mine, that I want to do just that. Slowly, I began to play for the sports school of the Admiralteisky district, for the Zenit Junior Junior League, played for the Russian national team U16, U18. We went to different tournaments, and somewhere the scouts saw my game and invited me to the USA, says Savrasov.
Andrey moved to America three years ago - in January 2019of the year. Now he is finishing his third year at the university, in the American education system it is possible to start studying in the middle of the academic year and, accordingly, then graduate also in the middle of the academic year.
Savrasov managed to play for the Texas Tech team, where he spent a year and a half. The first six months he did not play, he spent in redshirt mode - he trained, worked on his body, was with the team, but did not play for it. But the next season already played in the status of a freshman, that is, a freshman.
Andrei didn't get much playing time, but he still wanted to stay at the university. It was a high-major, and Savrasov wanted to prove that he deserved another role.
But then I talked to the head coach, and together they decided that it would be better to change the university in order to continue their career. The coach even helped find a new team, and that's how Savrasov ended up in Georgia, in the Georgia Southern Eagles team. This is a mid-major university.
Now in his second year with the new team, he is in the starting five and generally has a good role on the court. In theory, Andrei can play for the university for another two years, although he graduates from the university in a year.
Vladislav Goldin, Florida Atlantic Owls
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 16.5 minutes average
5.7 points (47.9% 2-pointers, no 3-pointers, 52.2% free throws), 5.5 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 0.6 block shots, 0.4 interceptions, 1.3 losses He played with his 2001, but at some point the team just fell apart and disappeared.
Goldin was sent to play by the year 2000, and the coach of this team turned out to be familiar with the coach of CSKA-DYuBL. Vlad and another guy were offered to the "soldiers" - just to look at them. But the screening went well, and after one of the training sessions, Vlad was offered to move to Moscow. New school, new surroundings, heavy loads, training twice a day - Vlad says that the first six months in the capital were the most difficult time in his life.
- At that time, I probably did not quite understand where I was moving and how much it changed. To be honest, I didn't even really know what DUBL was. Wasn't very knowledgeable. Youth League, Junior Team, Superleague… I knew the tournaments where we played: first the Southern Federal District, then the Russian Championship. When I found out that I was already in Moscow and had to go to the CYBL team for a tryout, I even got scared. But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin.
Prep school is short for preparatory school. In essence, this is an opportunity to play basketball in the USA before going to university.
In October 2019, Vlad entered Patnam School in Connecticut. This is a small private school about an hour from Boston. Together with the team, Goldin became the champion of America in the championship among preparatory schools.
After that, Vlad was called to Texas, to the Texas Tech team - to the same team where Andrey Savrasov played for a year and a half. Goldin saw that this was a big and serious high-major team, saw the conditions for training and accepted their invitation without hesitation.
— In Texas, things are a little different. The way we played there was not like the way I played before, so the first experience was difficult. And then the head coach left us, replacing TexasTech with Texas. Most of the coaching staff left with him, and our team did not quite understand what to do. Only the assistant coach remained with us. And in the end, I decided to move to another team, to Florida, - say Goldin.
Due to the coronavirus, Vlad has the same situation as most student athletes: academically he is a sophomore, but the last sports season did not count, so he is a freshman in the team. Goldin has three years left to study, and he can play four more.
He himself says that his current team plays more European basketball, so he feels great there.
Alexander Glushkov, Appalachian State Mountaineers
2021/22 stats: 7 games, 4. 7 minutes average
2 points (60% 2-pointers, 0% 3-pointers, 33.3% free throws), 1 .1 rebounds, no assists, 0.1 blocks, 0.1 steals, no losses
Born in Vladivostok, Glushkov started playing basketball at the age of 13 when he went to summer camp. I came home and told my father: "I want to play basketball." Parents sent Sasha to the section.
Glushkov's first coach is Eduard Sushko. After a year of working with him, Sasha was invited to the Spartak-Primorye system. He played in the Junior Junior League for a year, after which the entire management of the team and almost the entire squad moved to the PSC Sakhalin. At the same time, the base of the club remained in Vladivostok. Glushkov spent a year in the new club, after which he received an invitation from Moscow, from the IBA. His coach Alexander Antipov invited him.
And then it was a matter of chance, and a year later Sasha was already flying to the USA to study at school.
— I came to Moscow and played there for a year. When we were preparing for the Summer Spartakiad in Krasnaya Pakhra at the Trinta base, a coach from the USA arrived there. He was familiar with Alexander Antipov, because before that our guy had already played at the same school. He came just to relax, but he also wanted to look at the players. He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov.
Now Sasha is in his second year, but as you know, last year doesn't count. So Glushkov is considered a “freshman” in the team and can play for the university for another three and a half years, while he has two and a half to study.
When Sasha arrived at the university, he weighed about 90 kg. But now he has noticeably added muscle mass. He began to grow muscles during the last season, but he did the main work in the summer. Due to problems with visas, he could not go home to Russia, and he went to a friend in Houston. There he lived for a month, ate a lot and rocked. As a result, he entered the new season in excellent physical shape. True, the coach still does not really trust him.
Glushkov University is a mid-major who, last year, entered March Madness for the first time in 20 years. Sasha was not released then, but he nevertheless felt the atmosphere of the main student event of the year. Here's what he says about it:
- It was ... unbelievable (unbelievable - approx. "Interception"). Very cool feeling. 64 top teams, all at the highest level. We had two or three hotels, each floor was dedicated to a specific team. I don’t know how much it could be called the same “March Madness”, because, of course, all the measures were taken anyway. We had a quarantine, we had to be tested every day. And so everything was at the highest level,” recalls Glushkov.
David has probably the most atypical fate among all our guys who now play in the first division of the NCAA.
Didenko was born in the north, in the city of Yakutsk. He remembers his childhood quite vividly: he says that the city authorities allowed not to go to school at -45 degrees Celsius, and if the thermometer was only -43, you had to pull yourself together, stick yourselves into a thick down jacket and stomp to school.
— I had a healthy down jacket, maybe five centimeters. I walked around like a big bubble. When I was 8 or 9 years old, we had -57 degrees in winter. Very cold. I didn’t leave the house for two days,” Didenko recalls.
In 2010, David ended up in the USA even before he started playing basketball. He was 10. His older sister was leaving for New York to study English, and David just went with her for a month.
While still in Russia, they found him something to do in the USA. On the classifieds website, the family looked at a message from a Russian coach who lived there, his name was Boris Karebin. The coach was needed so that David would not just mess around in the States.
But the boy got so caught up in basketball that he eventually wanted to stay. Parents allowed, and he went to an American school. Karebin trained him in Brighton Beach, this is a Russian-speaking area, so immersion in American culture was gradual.
— I first lived in New York, where I arrived, and then I traveled. Lived in Florida, then studied in Georgia, in Tennessee. I travel a lot around the country - sometimes I live there, sometimes there. Somehow I quickly learned English, apparently because I was still young. Literally in a year. In Russia, I studied English for three classes, but could not learn it. Here I first lived with my sister, she pushed me to talk to people, and somehow everything turned out by itself, - says Didenko.
David spent his first year after school in Juko. Remember the story of Alex Kotov? This is the same league that prepares players who have not yet grown up to the NCAA. But already in the second year, Didenko ended up in the first division, at the University of Georgia.
He is currently a UT Martin Skyhawks player, where UT is the University of Tennessee. Accordingly, David now lives and studies in this state. He has a year and a half left at the university, and he can still play the same amount at the university level.
At the same time, he is 21 years old and automatically enters the NBA draft next year. In mocks - that is, expert predictions - he is not drafted, but he still has to play the whole season, so everything is in his hands.
Last on the list - not by value, but simply because he is the only Russian I could not contact - Pavel Zakharov from California Baptist Lancers.
Zakharov was born in Sør-Varanger, Norway. In Russia, Pasha played for the Zenit youth team and helped CSKA play in the youth Euroleague, and in 2018, after playing for the Russian U18 team at the European Championship, he left for the Montverde Academy. We talked about it a little earlier.
He was considered a four-star recruit. In American sports, when they want to talk about the prospects of a particular player, they talk about him in terms of stars, and four stars is very good. Such an assessment helped him get into the Gonzaga College in the NCAA - this is one of the top programs, which, for example, reached the NCAA finals last season, having suffered its first loss of the season in this very final. Pasha then did not go to the parquet. A year before, the team did not get into the "March Madness" only because the championship was stopped due to a pandemic.
Zakharov spent two seasons at this university and moved to the California Baptist Lancers in the summer of 2021. Most likely due to playing time, because, obviously, it was much more difficult to get it in Gonzaga. But even at the new university, he still has an average of 10 minutes on the floor and one and a half rebounds. By the way, about playing on the shields: the height of the Russian center is 213 centimeters, in America these guys are called seven-footers.
This is almost all I know about Pavel Zakharov.
It seems that the Russians in the first division of the NCAA are over. If you know someone else that I forgot, please write in the comments.
Thank you for your attention! I will be glad if you share the text or video with your friends who are interested in young Russian players. Well, thumbs up, comments, subscriptions to YouTube - everything is traditional.
If you want to keep a close eye on Rosbasket, subscribe to my Telegram channel. There I regularly publish news, insiders, interviews and analyzes.
Photo: official websites of clubs, personal archives of players; twitter.com; instagram.com; cskabasket.com
10 interesting facts about the three-point shot.
Three-pointer evolution and insane records.
Three-pointer evolution and insane records.
THREE-POINT SHOT TAKES MODERN BASKETBALL. HOW IT HAPPENED AND WHAT CRAZY RECORDS HAVE ALREADY BEEN SET - LET'S UNDERSTAND IN THIS ARTICLE.
Initially, there were no three-point shots in basketball. The NBA introduced the arc just before season 1979-80, but it all started earlier.
1967 November 13th. ABA (American Basketball Association) Indiana loses to Dallas 116-118. Jerry Harkness of Indiana gets the ball at his ring, time is running out and all he can do is throw the ball. Jerry does this, the ball hits the backboard and falls into the ring.
Indiana players at first thought they were going to play overtime… But then they were told that it was all over – they won, it was a three-pointer. This is how basketball began to change. This was the first year the ABA introduced the three-point shot.
The NCAA introduced the 3-point arc even later, in 1986. In high school basketball - 1987. Largely because of this, newcomers to the NBA did not hit in the first season from behind the arc. Michael had about 20% shooting accuracy for the first 5 years in the top league.
Initially, there were no three-point shots in basketball. The NBA introduced the arc just before the 1979-80 season, but it all started earlier.
1967 November 13th. ABA (American Basketball Association) Indiana loses to Dallas 116-118. Jerry Harkness of Indiana gets the ball at his ring, time is running out and all he can do is throw the ball. Jerry does this, the ball hits the backboard and falls into the ring.
The Indiana players at first thought they were going to play overtime… But then they were told that it was all over – they won, it was a three-pointer. This is how basketball began to change. This was the first year the ABA introduced the three-point shot.
The NCAA introduced the 3-point arc even later, in 1986. In high school basketball - 1987. Largely because of this, newcomers to the NBA did not hit in the first season from behind the arc. Michael had about 20% shooting accuracy for the first 5 years in the top league.
What happened next and what are the records?
Ray Allen made the most 3-pointers in his career (2973). Of the current basketball players, Stephan Curry is closest to him, 3rd place and 2495 accurate long-range shots.
Curry also holds records:
Most three-pointers in a season = 402;
Most consecutive games with at least one long shot = 157;
And second in NBA 3-pointers per game = 13, also scored by Zach Lavigne;
Curry's partner Clay Thompson scored the most 3-pointers in a single NBA game, 14 shots. They say he missed the morning workout before that ... Well, his bow with a bandage on his head that day deserves special attention.
Three-point shot distance varies by league. In the NBA, the maximum distance is 7.24 meters, while in the NCAA it is 6.32 meters, and in FIBA competitions it is 6.75.
Enough about the NBA, here are some interesting numbers from other tournaments.
The Grinnell College Pioneers hold the NCAA team record for three-pointers. They scored 42 (!) shots out of 88 attempts.
The best field goal percentage in a season in NCAA history belongs to GSW coach Steve Kerr. In 1988, he shot from behind the arc 57.3%, having made more than 100 attempts.
Canada holds the team record for shots scored in FIBA tournaments. They made 24 hits in the fight for the opportunity to participate in the Olympics.
In the VTB United League, Yegor Vyaltsev's individual record for hits is 12.
And where would such an article be without the Guinness Book of Records? In a minute, Anthony Miracola scored 31 times. Try to beat this result in training...
Do you also want to score three-pointers and improve your shot? Watch the video with 3 tips on the channel #thisyourplatform
Do you want to take your first steps in basketball or improve your basic skills? We have a Basic Basketball Skills workout for you. See the schedule and sign up:
SIGN UP
Coach: Yury Bespalov
- Professional player of the INANOMO 3x3 team; - Champion of Russia 3x3 2019; - Winner and medalist of the MOFB championship; - 2017 MLBL Summer League MVP; - Multiple participant of the Moscow Open; - Champion of Moscow 3x3 2017; - MVP GrunisCup 2017.
If you liked the article and the workout, don't forget to share it with your friends.
MORE ARTICLES FROM
BLOG
We write useful articles about basketball training, basketball shoes and everything related to this great game.
1 seeds as your champion. It’s extremely rare that at least one of the No.1 seeds doesn’t make it to the final (it’s happened only twice, ever). In the last nine championships, seven have been won by No.1 seeds.
First off, there is no universal way to score the bracket. There are many different point structures that can be used, but the overall set up for each is basically the same.
Check out our Fillable Bracket and our Excel Bracket, which allow you to completely customize your bracket before printing. This includes filling in the points per round, giving your bracket a title, and typing in any notes/rules you want to pass on to the participants.
com and CBS:
com and Yahoo all use the same scoring system and even though ESPN has higher point values they are exactly proportioned to the others (each round is 10x the amount of points). Remember the point value shown is for each game, multiply the number of games per round by the points per game/round then add all of the rounds together to come up with the Total Points Possible.
I definitely don't like the idea of putting all of the weight on the championship game, you are basically eliminating everyone that does not correctly guess the winner of the tournament. I do however feel that picking the winner in a field of 64(68) does have importance, so I prefer to use the first scoring method in the list above 1,2,3,4,6,10. This gives the people that correctly pick the tournament champion an advantage, but does not completely eliminate the people that didn't correctly guess the champion.
This article gives more detail on what you should do with the play-in games, but you basically have 2 options: 
You do not circle the teams that are pre-entered in the round of 64. Each circle would be worth the corresponding points per round. 
There are even universities whose fans spend the night in front of the arena in the hope of having time to buy a ticket. 
He joined the Charleston Cougars - the name of the team of the University of Charleston from South Carolina - in early December last year. 
Nikita was born there. 
True, Evdokimov says that, even while playing for Krasnodar, he often thought that he actually wanted to try his hand at American basketball. He has relatives living in the USA, he has been there more than once, and when the chance to move to the university appeared, he did not hesitate for a long time. 
2 steals, 0.8 losses 
We talked to him, I dropped my highlights to him, and he helped me find a school, - says Kotov. 
This happened because the players have the right to use the redshirt option. In fact, this is the right of the player to extend his career at the university, even if he has already graduated from the university. Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA). 
So this year I'm graduating from university, getting an education, but I still have, roughly speaking, two seasons to play in the NCAA, - says Kotov. 
Vitya did not play Loko on a permanent basis, but by the 7-8th grade he was regularly on the team to participate in the Russian championships. The Railroaders took him as a reinforcement player - this is a common practice in children's competitions. 
Because you have never done the things that your parents did for you before, like laundry, cleaning, all sorts of small things. Even a waste of money: you never thought about it before, you were given - you spent it. And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya. 
It was necessary here and now to show some level and bring results. Let's be realistic, there were no players who can immediately enter the CSKA system and show something like that for a long time. Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya. 
In the summer, Lakhin himself did an MRI, which showed that he had ... a torn meniscus. He took the results of the examination to the surgeon who scheduled the operation. Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee. 
You leave Russia for any other country - even to America, even to Italy, even to Spain - and you go through the same thing, Lakhin believes. 
7 minutes average 
Youth League, Junior Team, Superleague… I knew the tournaments where we played: first the Southern Federal District, then the Russian Championship. When I found out that I was already in Moscow and had to go to the CYBL team for a tryout, I even got scared. But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin. 
Goldin saw that this was a big and serious high-major team, saw the conditions for training and accepted their invitation without hesitation. 
7 minutes average 
When we were preparing for the Summer Spartakiad in Krasnaya Pakhra at the Trinta base, a coach from the USA arrived there. He was familiar with Alexander Antipov, because before that our guy had already played at the same school. He came just to relax, but he also wanted to look at the players. He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov. 
There he lived for a month, ate a lot and rocked. As a result, he entered the new season in excellent physical shape. True, the coach still does not really trust him. 
3% two-pointers, 37.8% three-pointers, 33.3% free throws), 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.3 blocks, 0.2 steals, 1.7 turnovers 
On the classifieds website, the family looked at a message from a Russian coach who lived there, his name was Boris Karebin. The coach was needed so that David would not just mess around in the States. 
Remember the story of Alex Kotov? This is the same league that prepares players who have not yet grown up to the NCAA. But already in the second year, Didenko ended up in the first division, at the University of Georgia. 
Most likely due to playing time, because, obviously, it was much more difficult to get it in Gonzaga. But even at the new university, he still has an average of 10 minutes on the floor and one and a half rebounds. By the way, about playing on the shields: the height of the Russian center is 213 centimeters, in America these guys are called seven-footers. 
This is how basketball began to change. This was the first year the ABA introduced the three-point shot. 
This is how basketball began to change. This was the first year the ABA introduced the three-point shot. 
They say he missed the morning workout before that ... Well, his bow with a bandage on his head that day deserves special attention. 
