College Basketball: Tournament Time

[Rhom]

10 minutes ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Heh, I don't know if we get by ND or not, but I think the winner of that game takes down Gonzaga. If the Zags were a 4 or 5 with a few losses I'd be more worried about them. As a 1, I think all the pressure lies on their shoulders, and that's not good for a mid-major. 

That being said, I'd rather see the Zags win the title than a blue blood, any day.

Bite your tongue sir!!!!   

[RedEyedGhost]

13 minutes ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Heh, I don't know if we get by ND or not, but I think the winner of that game takes down Gonzaga. If the Zags were a 4 or 5 with a few losses I'd be more worried about them. As a 1, I think all the pressure lies on their shoulders, and that's not good for a mid-major. 

That being said, I'd rather see the Zags win the title than a blue blood, any day.

I hope you guys do end up playing ND.  That would be a great battle of styles, with their less than 10 TOs a game.

I'd rather see the Zags win than any other blue blood.

 

And I'll just leave this here, poor woman:

 

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

27 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Bite your tongue sir!!!!   

Lol. I know, I know. But nothing I say will ever effect any game. I'm not that superstitious. I just never ever like when these mid majors get a 1. Wichita St. got one a few years back and boom, out. Zags have never faired well with a high seed before, if I recall correctly. It's too much pressure for them, I think. I know Zags are a good, very good team. Eh, it's just how I see it shaking out. Not saying we can even get by ND. As, @RedEyedGhost says, that will be a very interesting game should we meet.

Now, how about UK and the Elite 8 that's your birth right? That's a brutal bracket right there sir.

[dbunting]

I'm in, used my Westeros FFL name! Barrowtown represented! 

I will qualify my poor performance in advance, haven't watched a full game all season!

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Now, how about UK and the Elite 8 that's your birth right? That's a brutal bracket right there sir.

Is brutal.  But to win a title, you gotta win some games.  Normally, if you're a high enough seed; you don't really have to beat anyone tough to get to an E8 though.  This year, UCLA is a bit of an anomaly at that spot; but I think its probably more likely that they are underseeded a bit.

And WSU/Dayton are both solid teams, but if you can't beat a team of that profile; you don't belong in the S16 anyways.

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I hope you guys do end up playing ND.  That would be a great battle of styles, with their less than 10 TOs a game.

I'd rather see the Zags win than any other blue blood.

 

And I'll just leave this here, poor woman:

 

The sad thing is, some people will watch that video and think its an actual UK employee. 

[RedEyedGhost]

16 minutes ago, Rhom said:

The sad thing is, some people will watch that video and think its an actual UK employee. 

Whaaaaatt?

I haven't watched it yet, but I saw another pop up on my recommendations for Stephen A Smith's Closed Caption Transcriber.  Looking forward to checking that out.

[Rhom]

9 minutes ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Whaaaaatt?

I haven't watched it yet, but I saw another pop up on my recommendations for Stephen A Smith's Closed Caption Transcriber.  Looking forward to checking that out.

You know, its presented as very matter-of-fact and doesn't go overboard with anything it claims.  It all sounds almost believable if you were an outside person and inclined to believe that sort of stuff.  Then she's showing her office and a grumpy janitor walks in and says she stole his office.  That's almost at the end of the video.  Nothing else in there is over the top comedy or ridiculous.

FAKE NEWS!

[RedEyedGhost]

The study abroad bit was pretty OTT.

[Rhom]

11 minutes ago, RedEyedGhost said:

The study abroad bit was pretty OTT.

A bit.

And REG... I must say, this is the most I've seen you post during the work day in a long time.  And there's not even any games being played today!   

[RedEyedGhost]

it's in between patients... And I'm getting quite the pile of unfinished charts stacking up.

[KingintheNorth4]

7 hours ago, Ded As Ned said:

Bumping to the latest page.  

I'm in.

[RedEyedGhost]

2 hours ago, dbunting said:

I'm in, used my Westeros FFL name! Barrowtown represented! 

I will qualify my poor performance in advance, haven't watched a full game all season!

I think we might as well shut our bracket down right now, because we've got our winner!  (100% serious) 

[Rhom]

9 minutes ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I think we might as well shut our bracket down right now, because we've got our winner!  (100% serious) 

Definitely.

[Rhom]

41 minutes ago, RedEyedGhost said:

it's in between patients... And I'm getting quite the pile of unfinished charts stacking up.

Oh trust me... that's a regular day around here.   

On the plus side, my software is cloud based so I can finish them up at night!   

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

5 hours ago, Rhom said:

Is brutal.  But to win a title, you gotta win some games.  Normally, if you're a high enough seed; you don't really have to beat anyone tough to get to an E8 though.  This year, UCLA is a bit of an anomaly at that spot; but I think its probably more likely that they are underseeded a bit.

And WSU/Dayton are both solid teams, but if you can't beat a team of that profile; you don't belong in the S16 anyways.

That being said, if you look at my bracket, I have UK vs Duke in the NC. I think those two are playing the best ball right now. I got Duke winning and that was a hard decision. But, when I do a bracket I don't do much contemplation. 

Fox, is absolutely one of my favorite players to watch in NCAA ball right now. I love that dudes game. I do think, even though UK sorta goes as Fox goes, that if they continue to pound it in to the bigs, they have a good a chance as anyone. I can't say I like UK (I don't, only because they get whoever they want, year in year out), but I love so many of their players and when the are hitting on all cylinders, such a fun team to watch. 

ETA: Prediction: Fox will be a better NBA player than Lonzo Ball. I know @Triskan doesn't understand why I think this way, but, that's what my intuition tells me.

[Ded As Ned]

9 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

And I'll just leave this here, poor woman:

 

I searched a good hour for a decent comeback to this earlier today, but alas there isn't as much hate for KU out there on the interwebs as there is for UK.  So I'll save it for when KU chokes out  as Mr. Bradley Bucknell likes to say... 

[RedEyedGhost]

1 hour ago, Ded As Ned said:

I searched a good hour for a decent comeback to this earlier today, but alas there isn't as much hate for KU out there on the interwebs as there is for UK.  So I'll save it for when KU chokes out  as Mr. Bradley Bucknell likes to say... 

Mr. Bradley Bucknell?  He's good friends with Robert Morris isn't he?

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

16 minutes ago, Triskan said:

Hey MSJ - I'm definitely a Lonzo Ball supporter in terms of not thinking he's a guaranteed LeBron, but I'm not that big of an apologist after that.  I am basically an utterly shameless west-coaster that wants to see the Pac-12 do well.  

That said, Fox does not have the paradigm-shift stuff that Ball has.  Monk does, maybe.  

Rhom - Back me up on this?

I could very well be wrong @Triskan. I've watched and heard all the great things said about him. It's just a feeling, like with all these other "families" that try and create these elite athletes and push their agenda. 9/10 turn out to not be what they are hyped to be. Maybe that's it. He will be a good NBA OH, make everyone around him better, but, he'll certainly be no Steph Curry. I liked the kid everytime I watched him. 

[RedEyedGhost]

36 minutes ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

I could very well be wrong @Triskan. I've watched and heard all the great things said about him. It's just a feeling, like with all these other "families" that try and create these elite athletes and push their agenda. 9/10 turn out to not be what they are hyped to be. Maybe that's it. He will be a good NBA OH, make everyone around him better, but, he'll certainly be no Steph Curry. I liked the kid everytime I watched him. 

I don't know.  Just look at what UCLA was last season: 15-17 on the season.  Their two big additions are Ball and Leaf, and we know that Alford suddenly didn't become a great coach, yet they're scoring 12 more points per game shooting 6.5% better from the field, 4.2% better from three, and 5.4% better from the stripe, five more assists per game, one more steal, two more blocks, and turnovers have stayed constant.

So the blocks can be attributed to Leaf (1.4/game) and Anigbogu (1.3/game in just 13.1mpg), but everything else really has to be attributed to Ball - directly looking at that +5apg (and FT% because Ball is not great at that).  That number is staggering, and I was so not expecting that as I just looked up those numbers now.

He's a damn good player and really transformed that team.  I don't know if he'll be able to do that in the NBA, but it will be interesting to watch.  Especially the drama with his crazy ass dad.