A thread to talk about all things NCAA Tournament.
Start with your thoughts on the selection and bracket.
14 SEC teams in. Wow
Elvis, Brea and Amzil make the tournament. Congrats guys! Make us proud.
We certainly didn’t deserve a bid, but fun fact: Dayton had more quad one wins than North Carolina and Xavier combined. And making VCU an 11 seed is a joke, but they got a good draw that gives them Sweet 16 potential.
And making VCU an 11 seed is a joke, but they got a good draw that gives them Sweet 16 potential.
Looks like VCU maybe needed to win today to get in.
Couple thoughts that come to mind for me:
- Two teams, Arkansas and Kentucky, had completely new rosters this year and made the tournament. So there is a blueprint for massive roster turnover.
- Utah State has made the tournament three years in a row, with three different coaches. Again making a change does not always mean a setback.
Comparing us to AR, probably not. But Ky, no way
I am 99% sure Calipari had a bunch of $ at Arkansas to build his team this year, iinm there was talk earlier about how Arkansas was underachieving given their NIL investment.
I’m pretty sure Cowboy’s owner and Arkansas alum Jerry Jones opened his wallet and said how much do you need?
A lot of questions in this year's brackets.
Michigan was the #3 seed in the Big10 tournament and beats #2 Maryland and #5 Wisconsin to win the title.
Net rankings: #10 Maryland, #15 Wisconsin, #23 Michigan.
NCAA bracket seeds: #3 Wisconsin, #4 Maryland, #5 Michigan.
What's up with the love for Wisconsin?
Was squeaking by Michigan State on Saturday so big that it out-weighed losing to Michigan on Sunday? Does Maryland losing to Michigan in a thriller on Saturday neutralize their superior conference record and NET ranking? Does Michigan's conference record equal to Maryland and beating both teams to win the Big10 tournament mean nothing?
If someone can make sense of it, I'm interested to understand.
If someone can make sense out of it ....
There hasn't been any understanding as to the seeding and selections since the wheel was invented ...
Although there are ground rules, over the years changes are made from time to time with the only rule that is followed consistently is the one where to quote the Chair of the Selection Committee: "the committee decided that ________ (fill in the blank) deserved to be in and given the seeding assigned" End. Of. Story.
What the heck happened to San Diego State last night? They got their doors blown off. Did half the team stay in California? North Carolina was only favored by 4.5, NC won by 27. NC was up around 40 at one point.
UNC couldnt miss. You make shots, you can drill anyone. They would have beaten all but 4-5 teams in the country last night with that shooting performance. Their guards are real quick -- thats what killed us in the 2nd half in Maui.
When you get into these lose-and-you-are-out scenarios, you really have to be ready to play from the tip, your opponent is going all out, the intensity/focus is much higher, crazy stuff happens.
UNC has a chip on their shoulders.
Sounds like a lot of _avier fans at The Arena tonight.
Rumor is Texas is gonna pink slip Rodney Terry. Three NCAAs in three years. But it's the machine of Texas. They spit out Shaka too.
And Sean Miller is his rumored replacement.
Source: Texas will let go of basketball coach Rodney Terry after three seasons
UT is all about the boosters. They booted Rick Barnes, caused Shaka to think twice and leave and now Perry. Even with the new arena basketball at Texas is not that important overall.... except to the boosters.
Upset alert...start of 2nd half
12 seed McNeese State 31
5 seed Clemson 13
13 points in the first half?!?!
6 seed BYU 24
11 seed VCU 24...6 minutes left in the first half
Well- VCU really showed the world how tough the big bad under-rated A10 is huh? One word: embarrassing
Wow Clemson got it down to a 2 point deficit as time expired
McNeese State 69
Clemson 67
I was at the Providence site games yesterday and this game had a lot of WOW's.
First, Clemson scoring only 13 first half points was unreal. It was like they had never played offense in their lives before. They were perplexed on every trip down the floor and couldn't get a good look to save their lives. And the looks they did get they couldn't have hit water if they were in a boat in the middle of the Narragansett Bay in Providence.
Secondly, the athleticism of McNeese St. was through the roof. They might not have as much skill as many teams in the tourney but there is no one that can match their athleticism.
Lastly, that last minute comeback, although coming up just short, was quite incredible too.
Drake upset Missouri, I think Drake was an 11 seed. I think MO was a 6.
And I was watching some of the Texas Tech game, and they had a graphic showing that TT was the national runner-up in 2019, Virginia won the 2019 title. I didn't remember at all that TT was the runner-up, shows you how your memory fades if you aren't a fan of the school under discussion.
That Texas Tech team had Davide Moretti, who is the brother of the Moretti that played for FAU the other night.
We have played Drake a few times in the most recent past. I though they always gave us a good fight. Not sure we have played them at their place. Seems to me it was always a home game for us.
Mustapha Amzil had 4 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in New Mexico's win over Marquette.
He does a lot of good things on the floor but man has his offensive game just continued to decline since his debut in Dayton.
When Amzil walked down the ramp at UD Arena straight out of prep school and scored 22 points against LaSalle, I thought AG had really found something. Didn't really happen for him here, but we'll always have this:
Bad enough St John’s get to play at home in RI, but this one announcer is so pro St John’s it is sickening. AR still with the slim lead 68-66 with 3 minutes to go. St John’s is shooting 30%.
AR wins 75-66 in the battle of ex KY coached.
If the ncaat were expanded to 80 teams, per Torvik, the results would feel more equitable, not so heavy with p5 teams.
In:
West Virginia
Indiana
Boise State
SMU
Ohio State
Wake Forest
Villanova
San Francisco
Nebraska
Dayton
Cincinnati
UC Irvine
First Four Out
Santa Clara
George Mason
North Texas
Northwestern
Next Four Out
Stanford
Bradley
Saint Joseph
Pittsburgh
I think I've got this correct. There are 68 nccat teams, 31 autobids, 37 at large bids. Of the 37 at large bids, only 4, 11%, SDSU, Utah State, NM, and Gonzaga, went to non-p5 schools.
In my above post, 4 of the additional 12 at large bids, 33%, went to non-p5 schools, so 80 bids would be more equitable for non-p5 schools.
Watching the Kentucky game and so far they have run two sets specifically for Brea for open shots in the first 10 minutes of the game...more than we ran for him in four years.
Boy we could have used Brea this year.
And he was more than a one trick pony today.
Brea with 23 pts today. Plus 13 in the first game
