College Basketball

[RedEyedGhost]

Christ, I can't watch the ACC championship anymore. Dickie V and Mike Patrick just admitted that Singler committed a foul that wasn't called. If those two think the refs are missing calls on Duke, then there's no doubt that I will be enticed to a murderous rage if I continue to watch.

The SEC championship is pretty good so far though :thumbsup:

[RedEyedGhost]

How long has Chism been at Tennessee? 6 years? 8 years? 10?? I think it seems he's been there so long because he reminds me a lot of Slay (who may have also worn #4), both in physical appearance and the way they both play (at least what I can remember of Slay's game).

[quote name='Triskele' post='1720157' date='Mar 15 2009, 12.18']What amazes me even more than my dislike of Mike Patrick is how many people I've heard say that they like him. It truly boggles the mind.[/quote]

Are these people deaf?

[quote]FSU has cut it to 11 with 15 minutes left.[/quote]

meh, the refs won't let them get it under 5.

[davos]

I think the 1's should be:

UNC, Memphis, Louisville, Pitt.

I think UConn will get the 1 slot over memphis though. Usually I would agree with that given that UConn played in one of the strongest conferences we've seen in years. Memphis's record is impressive but they simply didn't play much for top flight competition. UConn without Dyson, though, is not a 1 seed. They still are a very good team but their play since he went down has simply not been at the same level. With him they were the clear best team in the country. Without him they are one of a very crowded pack.

[raft]

[quote name='Triskele' post='1720208' date='Mar 15 2009, 15.11']OK, they are saying that this will tie Duke with UNC at 17 ACC championships. But they are not saying whether that's regular season or ACC tournament.[/quote]
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACC_Tournament"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACC_Tournament[/url]

acc tournament championships. i think unc has something like 30 regular season championships.

[Fez]

Well damn.


0-2 All-Time in the MAC Championship.

[davos]

[quote]ETA: Has everyone else noticed that Greg Paulus pretty much doesn't play anymore? That would not be fun to start as a freshman and go down to no playing time.[/quote]

especially since he was one of the top ranked quaterbacks coming out of high school. I wonder if he's questioning his decision to play basketball right now.

[RedEyedGhost]

Three #1's from the Big East... I'm shocked. Louisville definitely deserved the overall #1.

edit 1: and Arizona makes it in as a 12 over 5 upset special.

edit 2: no more rooting for WVU for me :P

edit 3: I want no part of WVU because we are absolute shit against the zone. I sure would love for our guys to get another crack at MSU.

aTm a #9? Wow!

edit 4: WKU over Illinois as another 12 over 5 upset special.

[S John]

Wisconsin and and Arizona didn't even break 20 wins and got in, just don't know what to think about that.

I guess we gotta worry about Dayton first, but Kansas is a pretty tough draw. I'm feeling confident after making a little run in the tournament and having beat a couple top level teams, but another Sweet Sixteen is looking tough. Hopefully Huggins wears the same suit that he wore against ND, Pitt, and Syracuse. Some of the luck ran out of the suit towards the end there but the suit did get us to OT in the semi-finals of the BE tournament. I say that's pretty good for a team projected to finish 9th in the conference. Also we should never ever wear yellow uniforms again in either sport. I've been paying close attention to this and we always seem to play better in blue or white. I'm going to write the AD about this. I'm telling you REG, if we get past Dayton and come out wearing yellow against KU you can rest a little easier.

[Mack Kilimaro]

[quote name='Triskele' post='1720365' date='Mar 15 2009, 19.11']Arizona is very debatable. I'll repeat that it has to be due to their quality wins and their tradition. I don't know if it's fair or not though.[/quote]

I'd be pretty embarrassed to be riding a consecutive tournament streak of Arizona's length and having it only continue by making it in as a 12 seed.

Not that I get to sling much mud with Maryland being another big-conference school that's slipping in with one of the last at-large bids, but hey, when three out of the last four years saw us in the NIT or something like that, it's just good to be back in there. I'm depressed that I even had to write the previous sentence.

[Rhom]

Arizona = BS.

I've been out of town all weekend for a wedding and unable to post, but the above quote pretty much sums up my only major thoughts on the bracket.

Additionally... I'm dealing with a paper jam of epic proportions here at the office and I am therefore unable to print any brackets! Its driving me crazy!!!

ETA: So here's the [url="http://www.nit.org/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/nit/sports/m-nit/auto_pdf/Bracket"]NIT bracket[/url] for those of us heartbroken and forlorn souls that are wandering lost because the NCAA tournament selection committee could only show favoritism to one undeserving team with a long streak of NCAA appearances.

Now that I've looked it over, I really want to see us against Creighton in the second round. (Of course we have to get past a solid UNLV in the first round.) I still have problems accepting mid-majors as legit national powers and I know that many people were clamoring for Creighton to be in the NCAA tourney and they spent at least part of the year ranked IIRC. With Kentucky being significantly down, I’d like to see just how strong Creighton really is. Can they handle a weak Kentucky program? Or are they just the paper tigers I always assume midmajors to be?

[Nymeria Sand]

Well...Pitt, UConn, and Louisville are all #1 seeds. (Syracuse is a #3...I would never have imagined that in November.) That's almost as good as Georgetown, Villanova and St. John's in the Final Four way back when. :)

[Rhom]

John Clay covers the UK beat for the Lexington Herald-Leader and he says in his blog post today that [url="http://johnclay.bloginky.com/2009/03/16/this-could-be-an-interesting-day/"]this could be an interesting day.[/url]

[quote name='John Clay']This could be an interesting day for several reasons:

1) As you might expect, the rumor mill is in need of some coolant. There is quite a bit of speculation that if Kentucky is going to make a decision on Billy Gilllispie’s future it would come before the Cats play its NIT game Tuesday night. The thinking is that if you know the decision, one way or the other, why not go ahead and say before the Cats take the floor? There is also talk that if UK decides to part ways with its coach, the national impact (and criticism) might get lost or lessened in all the NCAA Tournament news. Then again, we haven’t heard anything about a Barnhart-Gillispie meeting, and in fact Gillispie practiced the team Sunday to start preparing for Tuesday.
2) Gillispie is scheduled to appear on the SEC teleconference at around 11:20 a.m. today.
3) Kentucky says that Gillispie and players will be available to the media today to talk about the matchup with UNLV. The time has not been set.
4) It sure looks like the first men’s game in Memorial Coliseum since 1976 will be a sell-out. There were long lines in front of the Coliseum ticket office. Meanwhile, Ticketmaster had only singles in the upper levels remaining this morning. Ticketmaster started selling the tix last night on-line.[/quote]

:stunned:

I'll be following this for the next several days it looks like until the AD comes out and either says "He's outta here!" or "This has been a disappointing year, but we support Coach Gillispie."

[S John]

[quote name='Rhom' post='1720721' date='Mar 16 2009, 08.06']because the NCAA tournament selection committee could only show favoritism to one undeserving team with a long streak of NCAA appearances.[/quote]

:lol:

[quote]Well...Pitt, UConn, and Louisville are all #1 seeds. (Syracuse is a #3...I would never have imagined that in November.) That's almost as good as Georgetown, Villanova and St. John's in the Final Four way back when.[/quote]

Yea, the Big East made out pretty well. I'm excited to see how it plays out and if the Big East will live up to expectations.

[Eponine]

[quote name='Rhom' post='1720721' date='Mar 16 2009, 08.06']ETA: So here's the [url="http://www.nit.org/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/nit/sports/m-nit/auto_pdf/Bracket"]NIT bracket[/url] for those of us heartbroken and forlorn souls that are wandering lost because the NCAA tournament selection committee could only show favoritism to one undeserving team with a long streak of NCAA appearances.[/quote]

Any other NIT people interested in going to NY for the semis if your school makes it?

Va Tech has been a consistent presence in the NIT and we don't really expect much more, although we've had some good games against better teams, but it breaks my heart that Stephen Curry isn't taking us to the NCAAs instead of also playing in the NIT for Davidson.

[Rhom]

I've now made my picks for our bracket pool... I find myself curiously at odds here. I have Kansas, Memphis, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma as my Final Four and I have Pittsburgh beating Memphis for the title.

I don't like how that looks... but there's not really anything I would change as I glance over the bracket either. Hrmmmm...

[S John]

[quote name='Rhom' post='1721067' date='Mar 16 2009, 13.41']I've now made my picks for our bracket pool... I find myself curiously at odds here. I have Kansas, Memphis, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma as my Final Four and I have Pittsburgh beating Memphis for the title.

I don't like how that looks... but there's not really anything I would change as I glance over the bracket either. Hrmmmm...[/quote]

Yea I'm having a hard time with mine and I'm still working on it. I've just been staring at Syracuse / Oklahoma, USC / Boston College, UCLA / Villanova, Purdue / Washington, and Wake / Utah.

[RedEyedGhost]

[quote name='Rhom' post='1721067' date='Mar 16 2009, 11.41']I've now made my picks for our bracket pool... I find myself curiously at odds here. I have Kansas, Memphis, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma as my Final Four and I have Pittsburgh beating Memphis for the title.

I don't like how that looks... but there's not really anything I would change as I glance over the bracket either. Hrmmmm...[/quote]

Wow, even I don't think I'll be picking KU in my final four this year :leaving:

I'll sit down, and take a close look at the bracket tomorrow or wednesday.

WVU -> MSU -> Louisville is an extremely tough road for such a young team. If WVU is hot from 3 in the first half, then we won't make it out of the first weekend.

[Rhom]

[quote name='S John' post='1721186' date='Mar 16 2009, 15.03']Yea I'm having a hard time with mine and I'm still working on it. I've just been staring at Syracuse / Oklahoma, USC / Boston College, UCLA / Villanova, Purdue / Washington, and Wake / Utah.[/quote]

Yeah, there's a few that are sticking points for me as well. Although, I have VCU beating UCLA.

I printed a blank bracket and wrote down all the mascots for the teams on it... tonight, I will sit down with my girlfriend's five year old daughter and get her to pick an entire bracket. I want to see how bad she beats me!

:rofl:

[Rhom]

[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1721196' date='Mar 16 2009, 15.11']WVU -> MSU -> Louisville is an extremely tough road for such a young team. If WVU is hot from 3 in the first half, then we won't make it out of the first weekend.[/quote]

Agreed, but I actually have Wake beating Louisville. :dunno:

Again, I look at that and think "Really? Kansas in the Final Four?!!? Seriously?" but as I look over the bracket, I wouldn't change anything.

[RedEyedGhost]

[quote name='S John' post='1721186' date='Mar 16 2009, 13.03']Yea I'm having a hard time with mine and I'm still working on it. I've just been staring at Syracuse / Oklahoma, USC / Boston College, UCLA / Villanova, Purdue / Washington, and Wake / Utah.[/quote]

Syracuse / Oklahoma: OU easy - Warren and Johnson will keep 'cuse from collapsing the zone on Griffin.

USC / Boston College: This one's tough, my gut says USC, but I'll have to look close at it before I decide.

UCLA / Villanova: This one's easy, too - 'Nova. UCLA's vaunted recruiting class has been a major bust and they just don't have what it takes to hang with a top notch 'Nova squad.

Purdue / Washington: Another very tough one, my gut says Purdue (I'll have to look at their Tempo numbers before I decide though. If they're real similar, then Purdue should handle them pretty easily).

Wake / Utah: My gut says Wake, but I'm a major conference homer.