The reigning Division III national champions will enter 2013 with a new head coach. Larry Kehres is stepping down after 27 years on the sideline, according to the school. His son, Vince, will take over as head coach. Kehres originally started as a swimming coach, then moved on to being an assistant football coach. By 1986, Kehres was the head coach.

With Kehres as head coach, Mount Union has won 11 National Championships. The 2012 season was Mount Union’s first national championship since 2008.

Kehres has spent more than 40 years of his life at Mount Union. He graduated from the college in 1971. Kehres finishes his coaching career with a 332-24-3 record. He has a .929 winning percentage, the most ever in college football. His percentage puts Kehres ahead of Knute Rockne, Barry Switzer, Tom Osbourne, Frank Leahy, Bud Wilkinson and Urban Meyer.

Vince Kehres has played for his father and was part of two National Championships as a player. Additionally, the younger Kehres has been defensive coordinator for the program for the last eight seasons, according to the school.

I wrote the post on Mount Union in December, which you can read here. Long story short, Mount Union is definitely the Alabama of Division III football, without any of the Finebaum. They’ve been dominant for so long.

Kehres will remain part of Mount Union as the athletic director.

At first, all I could think was, “Man, this entire thing couldn’t be more awkward.” After looking at it for a few more minutes, though, I’ve made some additional observations:

• The guys in the front row look like they’d rather be anywhere else.
• Nick Saban’s jacket is special.
• I also can’t believe his tie is crooked.
• Mark Richt looks concerned, like he may have just lost control of something.
• James Franklin’s smile is so big because he just offered a kid who’s in third grade.
• Bret Bielema is so happy because he just thought of another witty retort to sling at a Wisconsin fan on Twitter.
• Steve Spurrier appears to have borrowed his suit from someone taller than he is, or he’s starting to shrink.
• Will Muschamp has a funny-looking head.
• Some coaches chose to rep their schools by wearing ties in their school colors. A couple have pocket squares. That was a nice touch.

Happy Friday!

So what all will be shown on the new network? According to today’s announcement:

• Approximately 45 football games
• More than 100 men’s basketball games
• 60 women’s basketball games
• 75 baseball games
• Additional events from across the SEC’s 21 sports

Outside of just sports, programming will also include original and studio shows, spring games, and coverage of signing and pro days.

That’s not all, though, as the digital extension of the network will feature a bunch of additional live events. Each school in the conference will also have a chance to work with the network to create content.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive spoke after the announcement was made:

“The SEC Network will provide an unparalleled fan experience of top quality SEC content presented across the television network and its accompanying digital platforms. We will increase exposure of SEC athletics programs at all 14 member institutions, as we showcase the incredible student-athletes in our league. The agreement for a network streamlines and completes an overall media rights package that will continue the SEC’s leadership for the foreseeable future.”

The agreement between the SEC and ESPN goes through 2034 and ESPN will now oversee the SEC’s official Corporate Sponsor Program. ESPN’s existing media rights agreement with the SEC was also extended through 2034. AT&T U-Verse is the first cable provider who will distribute the network when it launches in August of 2014.

Freshman Breana Stewart was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after completely dominating their two games in the Final Four. She capped her grand performance with a 23 point, nine rebound showing in the championship game (18 of which came in the first half). She made all three of her three point attempts, dished out three assists, had three steals, and blocked three shots. Apparently Louisville could not do to Stewart what they did to Baylor’s Brittney Griner (or they did not get away with it this time).

But it wasn’t just this game for Stewart. She scored 105 points in just five games (she missed UConn’s first round tourney game to rest a sore calf). She scored the most points by a freshman in the tournament (passing Maya Moore’s 93 back in 2000).

I’m guessing if you were not a UConn fan, you probably turned the game off at about the same time I did, just before halftime when you could see the rout was on. It was the most lopsided championship game EVER.

The Cardinals jumped out early, as they took a 14-10 lead with 13:52 to go in the first half. Then the Huskies went on a 19-0 run and never looked back. Louisville never made it a game again. The Huskies shot over 50% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc.

Stewart was hardly the only Husky scoring on Tuesday night. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was also in double figures at halftime and finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. Kelly Faris made 4-of-7 three pointers en route to a 16 point game. She also hauled in nine rebounds, but also dished out six assists. Stefanie Dolson finished with 12 points, six rebounds, and five assists. Bria Hartley came off the bench to chip in 13 points and four assists.

Sara Hammond was the only Louisville player to score in double figures. She finished with 15 points and five rebounds. The Cardinals shot just 37.1% from the field. It was a tough way to go out for the tournament darlings, as they were hoping to join the men’s team as national champs.

The game started extremely fast-paced, with Michigan looking like the dominant team early on. Once again, the Cardinals had to rally back from a 12-point deficit to get back in the game and they did just that.

Head coach Rick Pitino:

This team is one of the most together, toughest and hard-nosed teams. Being down never bothers us. They just come back.

Come back they did, but even the day after, people are still questioning some of the calls the refs made. I will agree that there was quite a few questionable ones, especially against the Wolverines, but Louisville went on a streak to catch up before the refs got too out of hand. It almost felt like it was blatant at some points, but in the end, I really think the better team won.

Most Outstanding Player of the game went to Luke Hancock, who came in off the bench and had 22 points. Winning the award makes Hancock the first player in tournament history to win the award as a substitute.

Michigan’s Spike Albrecht had a fantastic first half, hitting basically everything he threw up. Before this game he was only averaging 1.7 points a game and his high had been seven. Monday night he had four straight three-pointers and scored 17 points – all in the first half. The Cardinals defense and fouls made him non-existent in the second half.

Kevin Ware, the injured Cardinals player, was there supporting his team. He was lifted from his wheelchair to cut some of the net down in what ended up being a very moving moment.

It is very possible that the Ville will be looking at a second National Championship in a 24-hour span as the women’s team takes on UConn on Tuesday night.

In the matchup that people have been waiting for since the brackets were revealed on Selection Monday, Big East rivals UConn and Notre Dame played round 4 on Sunday night in New Orleans. The Irish had taken the first three games and players nor Coach Muffet McGraw wanted to talk about the game following their Elite 8 win over Duke to clinch the spot in the Final Four.

UConn coach Geno Auriema talked after the game that the Huskies just needed to win and play better than the Irish, which is what they did. They won the game that mattered the most by an 83-65 final.

Coach McGraw talked to the ESPN analysts before the game and said that UConn’s Breana Stewart was a concern for her. Well, the freshman was not intimidated by the lights of her first Final Four. She scored a game-high 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, with many of those shots coming with her being WIDE open.

It was not the same Notre Dame team that I saw play in the Norfolk Region.

They started out slow, much like they did in both regional games, as both teams had trouble putting the ball in the basket. What kept the Irish in the game was their free throw shooting.

In the second half, UConn kept leaving the door open for an Irish comeback. I thought it would happen, considering how they were a second half team in the regionals. However, they kept forcing the issue, making bad passes and taking poor shots. Plus, when they took good shots, nothing was going in the basket.

All anyone was talking about was how star Skylar Diggins wanted to go out as a champion. Well, UConn’s defense never left her side, with Kelly Faris being the prime defender. The senior All-American was visibly frustrated throughout the game, even putting her hand in front of ESPN cameras to shield herself and declining a halftime interview. This coming from the girl who when things are going well, never shies away from the spotlight. Late in the second half, she gave up. She stopped playing defense (even the ESPN broadcasters took notice) and she stopped getting the rest of the offense involved. She took poor shots and made poor passes (right to UConn players).

In the closing seconds when Notre Dame pulled their starters, the cameras were focused on Diggins. Junior Kayla McBride (5-of-20 for 16 points) could be seen telling her “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” It’s a team sport Kayla and it was a team loss. No one played well for the Irish, including Diggins. Diggins went just 3-of-15 from the field for ten points and dished out eight assists. But she also had six turnovers. Natalie Achonwa struggled inside against the UConn size and went just 2-of-6 from the field (ten points) despite collecting seven offensive rebounds.

So UConn moved to the finals (wasn’t this considered a down year?) to face another Big East foe, Louisville. The Cardinals have both their men and women in the tournament finals. The women have been the darling of the tournament, beating the top seeded Baylor Bears, then Tennessee, and coming back to beat Cal on Sunday night (they were down by ten points at halftime). They are the first team with a seed lower than a four to win a Final Four game (they are a five seed). The Cardinals also went to Bourbon Street in New Orleans to celebrate.

Louisville came out to play better defense in the second half, as they held Cal to just twenty points on 30% shooting. The Bears shot 58.6% from the field as they led 37-27 at the half. Louisville also took better shots in the second half.

Antonita Slaughter scored 18 points, all on three pointers, and Bria Smith made 6-of-7 shots totaling 17 points for the Cardinals. The win was a bit of a shock considering the off night of star Shoni Schimmel, who explained at halftime that Cal’s defense was on her “like white on rice”. She did score in the clutch with a jumper to give Louisville the 57-54 lead with 2:06 to go.

So Louisville and UConn will meet for the second time this season in the national championship game on Tuesday night at 8:30pm ET on ESPN. The Huskies won the regular season game back on January 15th, 72-58.

The Cardinals rallied from a 12-point deficit on Saturday night against the Wichita State Shockers to win, 72-68. The Cardinals were really the only No. 1-seed to live up to the pre-tournament hype and stay consistent throughout the tournament.

Michigan took on basketball powerhouse Syracuse to win their way in, 61-56. The Wolverines basketball program has had an exciting season – and especially this last week – as guard Trey Burke swept all the major National Player of the Year awards. He won the Naismith, Oscar Robertson and the Wooden award.

Louisville athletics is looking to finish the 2012-13 athletic year with a bang, the women’s basketball team is also the championship game, playing against UConn. The football team won the Sugar Bowl over Florida and their baseball team has been solid.

Sometimes it is just certain school’s “times” and I think this time belongs to the Ville. I have been saying that I believe they will win it all since January and I truly believe that to still be true.

The game is set to tip-off at 9:23 EST on CBS from Atlanta, Georgia.

Louisville rallied to beat Duke after their teammate, Demarcus Ware, left the game after a horrific broken leg.

The Cardinals’ head coach Rick Pitino said this after the game:

“We won this for him. We were all choked up with emotion for him. We’ll get him back to normal. We’ve got great doctors, great trainers.”

Louisville’s Russ Smith scored 23 points and Gorgui Dieng had 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

Duke played Louisville hard until the injury timeout. Russ Smith led the Cardinals on a 12-6 run to finish the half with a 35-32 lead. Smith started the second half right where he left off. He made all three of his free throws. Peyton Siva then hit a nice jumper to start another run for the Cardinals. That 20-4 run sealed the win for Louisville to move onto the Final Four in Atlanta.

Syracuse Defeats Marquette

Syracuse defeated Marquette to move onto the Final Four in Atlanta. Marquette looked flat through out the game and let Syracuse’s defense dominate them.

Marquette only managed to score 39 points in this game. They only shot 23%. They went long stretched without scoring and they couldn’t get a shot to drop.

There was a star studded crowd at this game. President Barack Obama and Redskin’s quarterback Robert Griffin III were in attendance.

Syracuse heads to Atlanta for the Final Four.

This is not a happy mascot.

Welp. The Gators were trounced by the Wolverines today, which means the national champion in basketball won’t come from the SEC this year, as there are no teams from the conference left in the tourney.

Michigan 79, Florida 59

This was probably not how the Gators envisioned their time in the Big Dance ending. After coming from behind to beat FGCU on Friday, UF couldn’t work that same magic against the Wolverines. UM went on a 13-0 run to start the game, and the Gators didn’t score until the 16:30 mark.

Florida had repeated multi-minute stretches where they didn’t make any baskets, but the Wolverines did, which made it pretty tough for them to cut into Michigan’s lead. Midway through the first half, the Wolverines were up 25-8, and they led by as many as 24 points before taking a 47-30 lead into the locker room.

Things temporarily got a tiny bit better for UF in the second half. They went on an 8-3 run to start the half, which pulled them to within 11 points. Both teams went through some lengthy scoreless stretches, but UM had built up a big enough lead that the Gators still didn’t pose much of a threat. The Wolverines were back on top by 20 points midway through the half, and Florida couldn’t get themselves much closer than that for the remainder of the game.

Will Yeguete led the Gators with 13 points, seven rebounds, and a steal. Nik Stauskas had 22 points and three assists to lead the Wolverines. UF was outshot 46.2 percent to 41.1 percent and both teams had 34 rebounds.

Florida finishes the season 29-8 overall and they went 14-4 in conference play. Michigan improves to 30-7 overall and was 12-6 in the Big Ten.

Wisconsin bowed out early to Ole Miss in the first round, and Illinois and Minnesota couldn’t make it past round two. Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Indiana all kept the Big Ten hopes alive by advancing to the sweet 16.

SWEET 16

Here’s where things started to fall apart. Indiana got knocked off by Syracuse 61-50, failing to make it past the Sweet 16 yet again (last year they were bounced out of the Tourney by eventual Champs Kentucky). Michigan State also fell to Duke by a similar margin, 71-61. That left Michigan and Ohio State as the two teams that could continue on to the road to the Elite 8, and perhaps history.

Ohio State battled with Arizona, and managed to scrape by with more late-game antics to grab a spot in the Elite 8. Aaron Craft didn’t make the last shot, but he did dish the ball to LaQuinton Ross for a last-second 3. The teams were tied 70-70, but Ohio State wanted to go ahead and get this game over with. Ross swooshed the ball into the basket as time ran out, and OSU would head to the next round. See The Poisonous Nuthouse for more.

Michigan also wanted to keep fans at the edges of their seat, and rolled out perhaps one of the best comebacks in the Tournament this year (oh quiet Marquette fans, this win was for a ticket to the Elite 8!). The Wolverines trailed Kansas by 14 points with more than 7 minutes left, and that’s when Trey Burke turned it ON. Burke was the reason the game went into overtime, and he scored all of his 23 points in the second half and in overtime.

The Wolverines were still down 8 points with 1:16 to go, and thanks to Burke, they were able to crawl back into the game. Glen Robinson III also made a layup in that last minute to help out, but it was Burke’s 3-pointer with 5 seconds to go that tied the game up, 76-76. Burke scored another 5 points in overtime, and the Wolverines outlasted the Jaywhawks to move on to the Elite 8.

ELITE 8

Two Big Ten teams made it to the Elite 8, but only one came out alive.

Ohio State made a habit of overcoming a large deficit in Tourney games, but this time things didn’t work out quite as well. Ninth-seeded Wichita State shocked everyone by beating Ohio State and moving on to the Final Four.

The Buckeyes scored just 22 points in the first half, while the Shockers had 35. Though things worked out better for OSU in the second, they were just too far behind to really come back. Last-second heroics failed to materialize, and Wichita State celebrated a 70-66 win. Wichita State will play the winner of the Duke/Louisville game going on right now.

Aside from that close call against Kansas, Michigan has had an easy time skating through the Tournament. Today was no exception. Up 47-30 at halftime, it was going to take a major meltdown this game to the Florida Gators.

Michigan finished off with an easy 79-59 win, and will be the last team to represent the Big Ten this year. They will move on to the final four and will face Syracuse next week.