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College Basketball - 2015 Tournament


RedEyedGhost

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Well WVU gets a shot at UK next. If my memory serves, it was the Mountaineers who ejected Kentucky the year John Wall played for the Wildcats, though I can't recall if it was in the Sweet sixteen or the elite 8.

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:D



We're still dancing! All I wanted was a Sweet Sixteen. Now, I'm good for the rest of the year and anything else is a bonus. Very tired from being up so late to watch the Cards win though. But I really love how they played yesterday, they were very focused and much more cohesive than they have been all year.



Plus, Terry Rozier is back!!! :bowdown:


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Well WVU gets a shot at UK next. If my memory serves, it was the Mountaineers who ejected Kentucky the year John Wall played for the Wildcats, though I can't recall if it was in the Sweet sixteen or the elite 8.

Elite 8... But this game won't resemble that in the least. For one, WVU doesn't play the same style of ball that they did then. For another, UK didn't have a reliable outside shooter in that game. Although, if Devin Booker can't find his shot between Louisville and Cleveland in the next couple of days, we still may not...

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So now that Mississippi State has fired Rick Ray, an interesting name has emerged at the top of their list - Ben Howland.



I know he's been out of coaching for a few years, but I for one do not want to see a guy who made three consecutive Final Fours coaching a rival school's team. I'm a little surprised that a program like State is the best he can do. Hopefully if he does succeed there it will be a stepping stone to something better.


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So now that Mississippi State has fired Rick Ray, an interesting name has emerged at the top of their list - Ben Howland.

I know he's been out of coaching for a few years, but I for one do not want to see a guy who made three consecutive Final Fours coaching a rival school's team. I'm a little surprised that a program like State is the best he can do. Hopefully if he does succeed there it will be a stepping stone to something better.

I've heard those rumors as well, I like the potential there.

I don't agree with the decision to fire Ray after only three years, but if you have a chance at a real upgrade like Howland then I can't argue with it.

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WVU kentucky will be very interesting. This isn't a good matchup for Kentucky at all, although their absurd talent advantage should carry them through.

It is interesting. We handled Arkansas' press to the tune of a 30 point win, but I recognize that WVU is another beast entirely. Their depth will be a challenge since the impediment to most teams playing this way against UK is foul trouble. Gottlieb was commenting during the Maryland game that it could give UK fits because "the Harrisons aren't great ball handlers." What he failed to mention is that they are fully 6 inches taller than most of the pressing guards they'll be playing. Additionally, Tyler Ulis beat Arkansas' press so effectively that we wound up running several 5 on 2 breaks without being in transition.

I think Kentucky wins by 15, but it'll be a hard fought 15.

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So now that Mississippi State has fired Rick Ray, an interesting name has emerged at the top of their list - Ben Howland.

I know he's been out of coaching for a few years, but I for one do not want to see a guy who made three consecutive Final Fours coaching a rival school's team. I'm a little surprised that a program like State is the best he can do. Hopefully if he does succeed there it will be a stepping stone to something better.

My buddy and I just this weekend were talking about how it seems a bit strange that Howland hasn't resurfaced anywhere yet. Sure, things didn't end great for him at UCLA, but it's not like he went down in flames, Larry Eustachy-style, and even if one does, it's hard to keep a good coach down for long.

I would pull the trigger quick if I was State.

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At some point the Tournament committee is going to have to acknowledge that the current ranking protocols consistently underrate the Pac 12.



It seems that every year the Conference as a whole "exceeds their seeds" (ie 9 or lower seeds winning in the first round more often than 8 or higher seeds lose). But every year we hear that the league is "weak". And every year they show up for the tourney and play well.


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At some point the Tournament committee is going to have to acknowledge that the current ranking protocols consistently underrate the Pac 12.

It seems that every year the Conference as a whole "exceeds their seeds" (ie 9 or lower seeds winning in the first round more often than 8 or higher seeds lose). But every year we hear that the league is "weak". And every year they show up for the tourney and play well.

How so? Zona could have been a 1. Utah probably should have been a 4. Oregon at 8 was fine. UCLA was way higher than an 11 on talent, but not on production. Those teams are the ones that really screw up the process, because sometimes they start playing up to their talent levels during the tourney and its not fair to the teams who get paired with them. But I don't think you can ignore UCLAs awful season and give them a higher seed just because they have a lot of taelnt.

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Does Howland have any ties to Mississippi? I just can't fathom why he would go there. His buyout may have stated that to get the full payout he couldn't coach for so long? Or maybe he just wanted to take it easy after the shit that went down in LA, and I would say he went down in flames.

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Does Howland have any ties to Mississippi? I just can't fathom why he would go there. His buyout may have stated that to get the full payout he couldn't coach for so long? Or maybe he just wanted to take it easy after the shit that went down in LA, and I would say he went down in flames.

No ties that I'm aware of. Looks like a done deal, though.

I am not pleased.

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Bring on the 'Cats!

I think WVU will press early to test the waters but may revert to a half court zone - which they have done a couple of times this year. They'll try to play their game until Kentucky makes them stop. The press clearly frustrated Maryland last night but Kentucky is just so loaded and athletic that I'll be surprised if they don't figure out how to beat it at some point during 40 minutes of play and Huggs will have to adjust.

I actually think that Kentucky is a particularly bad match up for WVU. WVU's best chance is to make it an ugly physical game, but Kentucky has great athleticism and size. Mountaineers are going to have to have a great shooting night as well and we haven't had many of those this year.

Anyway, extremely happy to have made it to the sweet sixteen either way, that was about the best i had hoped for this year. AND very excited at getting to take a shot at Kentucky and to potentially play the spoiler role.

Eta - Devin Williams was a monster last night. We'll need a repeat if that on Thursday and a better game out of Staten.

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Starkville is obviously a hell hole, but there's a lot of talent in the state of Mississippi. He can, and probably will, win there.

Plus as lousy as the SEC is, it's not hard to win so long as you're OK playing 2nd fiddle to Kentucky (and usually 3rd to Florida).

Hell, if Andy Kennedy can win 9-11 games per year in the conference Howland should be winning at least 13.

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