College Basketball

[Darkostar]

I actually like the Gophers' chances against OSU, honestly. OSU has had to scrap out two close games, while we had a good win against MSU, and thrashed the Boilermakers, who, both I might point out, were the Co-champs of the conference, along with OSU.

[BLU-RAY]

I love beating K-State. Especially when they're this good.

Minnesota just destroyed Purdue :stunned: Does that push them down to a 3 or a 4?

Damn Rhom, you guys sure got your revenge against Tenn! How do you feel about the MSU rematch? Varnado will definitely play under better control tomorrow than he did in Starksville.

3 fo' sho'.

Also, my sister goes to Gtown and they're on spring break, and apparently they scored tickets to this game. So she, my parents, and some of her friends are all at the Garden.

#$*%&@ West Coast.

[S John]

Fuck Yea. :smoking:

Long live Huggy Bear!

[RedEyedGhost]

That was one great ending to the WVU-G'Town game! Great ending.

[S John]

Yea, that's three in a row for WVU that have come down to the last second. Hopefully, moving forward, we can win a couple games without bringing WV fans, students, alumni, and residents to the brink of cardiac arrest.

[Rhom]

Oh well, with URI needing a miracle to get in, I've got left is routing against Lehigh. If it's brown flush it down.

I can never bring myself to cheer for Rhode Island. It all goes back to 1997 when Murray State went on a run and got a 9 seed (unheard of for a mid major back then) only to lose to RI in the first round as they went on to the Elite 8.

The UT win was most satisfying. If we come to play like that today, MSU won't stand a chance. I do expect Varnardo to be more of a factor today.

Can't believe that Selection Sunday is here!!!

[RedEyedGhost]

The SEC championship game is very good. The refs are really letting them play though, lots of fouls on both sides that aren't getting called. Cousins looks like he's watched too much Tim Duncan, because he acts like he's never committed a foul in his life. MSU's chucking up 25' 3 point shots is going to start biting them in the ass as they start to get worn down (just as it did late in the 2nd half of the UK game in Starksville).

I can't stand Jimmy Dykes, he's freaking terrible.

G-Tech has made a game of the ACC championship too. Andre Dawkins looks like a little kid out there, sure he should only be a senior in high school but he still looks ridiculously young. Did we talk about him losing his sister as she was driving to watch him play a game this December? I think we did but I'm not positive. That has got to haunt him, and to think he never would have been playing in that game if Ksanodbvjapub had recruited more guards.

[Rhom]

:stunned: Whew!!!

At one point in the second half, a graphic showed Lunardi having Utah St as a Last Three In and Miss St on First Four Out. Bullshit. Utah State can't hang like MSU can.

I'm headed home from my dad's so I don't have much to say, but I'd like to put in my .02 dollars on end of game strategy on fouling when up 3. Vitale and other commentators are always in favor of it and I think its ridiculous. Case in point: todays game. With 5 seconds, MSU fouls Bledsoe when Kentucky is hitting 17% from behind the arc. Kentucky makes one, intentionally miss the second and OT is the result. I like their odds better if they had let Bledsoe shoot.

[Rhom]

I'm imagining the final meetings of the tourney selection committee today:

Chair: "Well... it looks like we have it all set. But I see a real problem. Duke is out West. What can we do to make things easier for them?"

Random dude: "What if we put them in the South and told people they are the 3rd number 1 seed?"

Other random: "Wait... we were just talking about making them a 2 seed? Can we really do that?"

Chair: "South. I like it. But lets take it one further and give them the easiest of the other teams too."

Seriously? Duke is the 3rd #1 seed? And they seriously drew that bracket? Its almost shameful. The only way they could make it worse would be if they gave the top 2 seeds the toughest brackets... Oh... Wait... :dunno:

With that out of the way... I'll be hard pressed not to put Murray State into the Sweet 16. I like how they match up against Vandy and once they get out of the first round, who knows what could happen?????

Looking at Kansas' bracket, I find it interesting that both teams that beat them are in their bracket. (Of course, UT and OSU would meet up before Kansas could play them individually.) I think Kansas has the second toughest bracket. The committee did them no favors by putting them in a region with Evan Turner/Ohio State and a Georgetown team that is playing hard right now.

That said... I'd be lieing if I said I felt good about Kentucky's chances in their bracket. I said in another thread earlier this year that being a 1 seed terrifies me because I dread the prospect of being the answer to the trivia question "Who's the only 1 seed to lose to a 16?" And once Kentucky gets past that game with ETSU... we get the possibility of matching up with a former #1 team in the nation. Fantastic. And then there's Wisconsin. Finally in the Elite 8... a match up with the Fighting SJohns of WVU. :tantrum: I would actually prefer to be the 2 in that region with games against Clemson and such instead of the "easier half."

Syracuse and Duke should cruise in their brackets. I'll look at the whole thing some more tomorrow, but these are my initial thoughts.

Oh... and of course, just totally disregard anything I had to say about Mississippi State earlier, clearly Utah State is the better team. :rolleyes:

[BLU-RAY]

I think Kansas got jobbed, they have the hardest bracket of the no. 1 seeds. Ohio State, Georgetown, Maryland, Michigan State, Tennessee? Jesus.

That said, I have Louisville knocking Duke out in the second round, I don't think that Duke will be able to win close, high-pressure games against top-quality opposition.

[RedEyedGhost]

Sure there's a lot of good teams in our bracket, but I'm actually not too worried about it (that's probably a bad sign!). The only favor the committee did for us as the overall 1 seed is that our 8/9 matchup is the least worrisome imo. What happened to the 'S-curve' that they implemented a few years ago? Are they seriously saying that OSU is the worst 2 seed? Really, not 'Nova? I'm not buying that, but after this week's performances Georgetown scares me more than OSU.

So not only are the two teams that beat us this year in our bracket, but the last three teams to beat us are because MSU knocked us out of the tourney last season. However, Michigan State doesn't worry too much, because I know Cole and Sherron would love to get revenge for last year. Honestly I don't think that they'll beat Maryland though.

They didn't do your guys any favors either, Rhom. Duke's bracket is a joke, and Syracuse has a nice path to the E8 too. I do not understand why the two top 1 seeds got more difficult routes than the bottom two 1 seeds, and I would have loved to face Duke in the Final Four, but nope they're the 3rd #1 seed :rolleyes: I liked the excuse that Onuaku might be injured and that's why Syracuse got bumped down. :lol:

Time to buck the trend of the overall #1 not winning the tourney! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!

Oh well, with URI needing a miracle to get in, I've got left is routing against Lehigh. If it's brown flush it down.

I think the Jayhawks can take care of that for you. ;)

[Rhom]

On the way in just now, Mike and Mike were talking about the S Curve as well. They said that Ohio State and WVU were clearly numbers 5 and 6 in the conversation for the 1 seeds and they want to ask the chairman why they got put in the brackets with the overall 1 and 2 (he's supposed to be on later this morning). I agree that its bologna. I know there's geographic considerations and blah, blah, blah... but if Villanova can head away from the East, then by golly, so can WVU!

[Rhom]

I set up a bracket for us on Yahoo Sports. (I think that's who we used last year.)

All you have to do is follow the above link and choose "Join a Group"

The Group ID# is 96318

The Password is grrm2010

ETA: I set it so we can have 2 brackets each if you want to have multiple entries.

In the bracket I'm in from a Kentucky blog I follow, I had to go ahead and put UK as the champs. But with this one, (if I'm honest) I may really struggle to put them past WVU.

[S John]

I'll sign up for the bracket when I get home.

On WVU, I'm actually pretty torn about how far I'll have them going. No doubt that we can beat anyone on a given day, but all the criticisms I've heard of WVU over the past few days are valid. The biggest one being: WVU lets opponents back in the game. I watched all three of our Big East tournament games, and in all of them we blew an 8 or more point lead in the second half and allowed the other team to come back. G'Town could've sunk a 3 and beat us. Same with ND. As I wached those games (though I'm a homer) I did feel like WVU was the better team, but that won't matter if you let teams hang around. What happens if we encounter a scrappy New Mexico team in the Sweet Sixteen and fail to put the hammer down? Though I do expect us to make it as far as the Elite 8, I wouldn't be shocked to see this particular flaw come back to bite us sooner than that.

And in regards to a possible Elite 8 matchup with Rhom's Wildcats... I have to say that Kentucky is the more talented of the two teams. At the least, they have much better guards. But, WVU's strength of schedule was one of the tops in the country, downright brutal, so I certainly believe that we can play with anyone. Actually I really hope this game happens. If we make it that far there's no shame in losing to Kentucky, and it would be a glorious win if we pulled it off.

My instincts tell me that Duke will be beaten early. I think that Louisville is a decent bet to take them out in Rd. 2. However, it seems to me that everyone is kind of hating on Duke and when that happens, I worry. Still, I wish that WVU was the #2 in Duke's bracket. They scare me much less than Kentucky. I'm fairly confident that WVU would beat Duke.

And finally, I do agree with DVD that Kansas kinda got screwed. Thats a damn tough bracket for the overall #1.

[BLU-RAY]

In, I put in two brackets, I really hate the seedings, though, as I think Kansas' bracket has three of the four biggest non-1-seed Final Four threats... and Kansas is my overall pick, which means a lot of the rest of my bracket is very chalk.

[BLU-RAY]

I don't think they're unbeatable; but I think ideally my FF would include four of the following: KU, Kentucky, Georgetown, tOSU, WVU. WVU is in Kentucky's quadrant, and Ohio State and Gtown are in KU's.

[The Meereense Knot]

I can never bring myself to cheer for Rhode Island. It all goes back to 1997 when Murray State went on a run and got a 9 seed (unheard of for a mid major back then) only to lose to RI in the first round as they went on to the Elite 8.

I don't have much choice in the matter since I'm a native.

I think the Jayhawks can take care of that for you. ;)

It's not as much fun rooting against them because it's not football. But I went to Lafayette, where the favorite cheer is "Fuck Lehigh" even when we're not playing them. So while I can't say I hope they die of some disease, if the whole team were to get arrested for trying to rob a bank I wouldn't complain.

[S John]

In, I put in two brackets, I really hate the seedings, though, as I think Kansas' bracket has three of the four biggest non-1-seed Final Four threats... and Kansas is my overall pick, which means a lot of the rest of my bracket is very chalk.

Hmm, I think I'm going to do two as well. That way I can make one that satisfies my inner homer and make another that is born out of heartless calculation.

[BLU-RAY]

Hmm, I think I'm going to do two as well. That way I can make one that satisfies my inner homer and make another that is born out of heartless calculation.

Unfortunately, with Stanford out of the tournament, I'm left pulling for Georgetown, which is a team that can final-four (or could if they weren't in KU's bracket) but can't win due to lack of depth, which means I can't really satisfy my inner homer; I guess I'm gonna root for the Jayhawks if they beat Gtown.

OTOH, I do get to be a Louisville fan for a day.

But my two brackets look depressingly alike right now; I'm going to have to go back through them tomorrow.

[Rhom]

Piss... Vitale picked UK to win the title.

We're doomed!!! :crying: