NCAA tourney

[tya1]

Virginia goes down in history. First #1 seed to ever lose to a #16. Not only did they lose, but they lost by 20. But did you remember that UMBC head coach Ryan Odom started as an assistant coach at Furman? He was hired by Larry Davis when Davis became head coach in 1997. Odom was at Furman for two years. #16 seeds are now 1-135 in the NCAA tournament. If you are the betting sort remember - a #16 has never lost in the second round. But I guess anything can happen now. BTW, I hear Little Caesar's was offering free food on April 2 for lunch if a #16 beat a #1. Make your plans accordingly.

A bunch of players we recruited lately were busy in the tourney. Jon Elmore, who we recruited hard, was the star for Marshall as they stunned Wichita State. I should also add that Elmore signed with VMI originally but left under bitter circumstances. (He signed but never actually played there.) Cameron Krutwig, freshman at Loyola-Ill. scored 11 to help them knock off Miami (FL.) Three guys played for Bucknell in their 4 point loss to Michigan State. In total about 11 players we offered just among the sophomore and freshmen classes were playing.

Eight players have now asked for their release at Pittsburgh after they fired their coach. Has any D1 team ever had to replace everybody? Pittsburgh getting close.

Butler beat #7 seed Arkansas by 17 points on a neutral floor. Furman lost by 17 AT Butler. Can we claim transitive principle?

[apaladin]

It will never change but I get so sick of the committee thinking the 8th, 9th, 10th place team in the 5 big conferences with 13, 14 and 15 losses are better than other conferences best teams. Dick Vitale said it best, "they continue to reward mediocrity". When did the SEC all of a sudden become a basketball powerhouse? 8 teams, really? Guess what, after Clempson beats Auburn tonight the SEC will have one team left: Kentucky. So 7 of the 8 SEC teams couldn't make it thru the first weekend. Same with the ACC, only Duke, UNC and Clempson will make it with the only surprise being Clempson. Clempson got a great draw! So 6 of the ACC's 9 teams didn't make it thru the first weekend. So 13 of the ACC/SEC 17 teams didn't make it thru the first weekend. Why not give some of these bids to deserving teams instead of rewarding mediocrity, We ll know why and that is why it will never change.

[Fessor]

It will never change but I get so sick of the committee thinking the 8th, 9th, 10th place team in the 5 big conferences with 13, 14 and 15 losses are better than other conferences best teams. Dick Vitale said it best, "they continue to reward mediocrity". When did the SEC all of a sudden become a basketball powerhouse? 8 teams, really? Guess what, after Clempson beats Auburn tonight the SEC will have one team left: Kentucky. So 7 of the 8 SEC teams couldn't make it thru the first weekend. Same with the ACC, only Duke, UNC and Clempson will make it with the only surprise being Clempson. Clempson got a great draw! So 6 of the ACC's 9 teams didn't make it thru the first weekend. So 13 of the ACC/SEC 17 teams didn't make it thru the first weekend. Why not give some of these bids to deserving teams instead of rewarding mediocrity, We ll know why and that is why it will never change.

I honestly believe Notre Dame, Syracuse, or BC would have won the SoCon and UNCG would have finished last or near last in ACC with a sub-500 overall record in the process, if they were to have swapped conferences.

Also, UVA has the yips as a program when it comes to the NCAA tourney. There's nothing about the UMBC game that justifies letting more mid-majors into the field. That game only justifies putting Bob Rotella back on the UVA payroll.

As for any upsets, agreed that that the gap isn't what it once was; there's more talent than ever before. Add in big schools losing players early to NBA (although not the case with UVA or NOVA and others) and there's more parity. However, what's more at play is that the mid-majors who are there are generally there because they won their conference tourney (i.e., they're hot at the right time). So, if you start letting in mid-major teams that didn't win their tourney (i.e., aren't playing their best in March), I doubt you'll see them have the same level of success as mid-major teams that earned their conference tourney bid.

[apaladin]

Nobody was comparing the ACC to the SoCon. There are other conferences that are much better than the SoCon that deserved teams in. They should limit it to 6 or 7 teams from any one conference which would make the tourney better and make the regular season mean more. Of course this will never happen.

[tya1]

The upsets are rolling in this year. #2 seed North Carolina was whipped by Texas A&M by 21 points today. Syracuse knocked out #3 seed Michigan State too. That means 2 #11 seeds have made the Seet 16 for only the 4th time. And #2 Cincinnati just lost a stunner to #7 Nevada 75-73. That wasn't the biggest upset by seeding but the circumstances were amazing. Cincinnati had a 20 point lead with 10:48 left in the game. ESPN rated Cincinnati a 99.7% chance of winning at that point. Clemson currently leads SEC regular season co-champ Auburn by 32 with around 17 minutes to go in the game.

[apaladin]

The committee just really mucked it up this year. Clempson really had a cakewalk to the sweet 16. How can you give Auburn a 4 seed and Kentucky a 5? Alabama with 15 losses mainly got in because they beat that awful Auburn twice. What a joke. In the south region the highest seeded team in the sweet 16 will be a 5.

[fufanatic]

My main beef with the tournament is minor. I don't think any conference champion should have to play in the Dayton play-in games. Those games should be exclusively for the last at-large teams in the field. While it would be nice to have one or two more mid-majors in the field, I get it. It's very hard to decide how good those teams are when their resumes can't even come close to comparing to the bigger schools. While a team like Syracuse probably didn't deserve to be in the field, they've played outstanding since getting in. Three wins in five days. I guess that's what makes the tourney so much fun.

[Fessor]

Nobody was comparing the ACC to the SoCon. There are other conferences that are much better than the SoCon that deserved teams in. They should limit it to 6 or 7 teams from any one conference which would make the tourney better and make the regular season mean more. Of course this will never happen.

What other conferences would those be?

[apaladin]

Nobody was comparing the ACC to the SoCon. There are other conferences that are much better than the SoCon that deserved teams in. They should limit it to 6 or 7 teams from any one conference which would make the tourney better and make the regular season mean more. Of course this will never happen.

What other conferences would those be?

How about: WCC(St. Mary's 29-5), Conf. USA(MTSU 25-8), Sunbelt(Louisiana 27-7), Summit South Dakota 26-9).

[apaladin]

Nobody was comparing the ACC to the SoCon. There are other conferences that are much better than the SoCon that deserved teams in. They should limit it to 6 or 7 teams from any one conference which would make the tourney better and make the regular season mean more. Of course this will never happen.

What other conferences would those be?

How about: WCC(St. Mary's 29-5), Conf. USA(MTSU 25-8), Sunbelt(Louisiana 27-7)

[Fessor]

Nobody was comparing the ACC to the SoCon. There are other conferences that are much better than the SoCon that deserved teams in. They should limit it to 6 or 7 teams from any one conference which would make the tourney better and make the regular season mean more. Of course this will never happen.

What other conferences would those be?

How about: WCC(St. Mary's 29-5), Conf. USA(MTSU 25-8), Sunbelt(Louisiana 27-7)

Three teams. That's it? None of those teams wins more than 3 games in the ACC either.

[apaladin]

Just your opinion. Are you on the committee? I guess Virginia didn't lose to UMBC, Miami didn't lose Loyola and VPI didn't lose to a 15 loss Alabama team. The ACC is lucky they have 4 teams left. Syracuse has been very lucky, FSU should have got beat last night and Clempson got a very easy draw. If you are not on the committee you should apply because you think just like they do. A mediocre team in the power 5 conferences is obviously better than anyone outside those conferences.

[Fessor]

Just your opinion. Are you on the committee? I guess Virginia didn't lose to UMBC, Miami didn't lose Loyola and VPI didn't lose to a 15 loss Alabama team. The ACC is lucky they have 4 teams left. Syracuse has been very lucky, FSU should have got beat last night and Clempson got a very easy draw. If you are not on the committee you should apply because you think just like they do. A mediocre team in the power 5 conferences is obviously better than anyone outside those conferences.

Who is the better team, UVA or UMBC? If only one could get a bid, whose season was more deserving, UVA or UMBC?

[Fessor]

Nobody was comparing the ACC to the SoCon. There are other conferences that are much better than the SoCon that deserved teams in. They should limit it to 6 or 7 teams from any one conference which would make the tourney better and make the regular season mean more. Of course this will never happen.

What other conferences would those be?

How about: WCC(St. Mary's 29-5), Conf. USA(MTSU 25-8), Sunbelt(Louisiana 27-7), Summit South Dakota 26-9).

These teams are 3-4 in the post season, with St. Mary's still alive and accounting for two of the three wins. MTSU, Louisiana and South Dakota won a total of one post season game. MTSU's season ended with a 16 point loss to Louisville, the 9th place ACC team.

Not a very compelling argument to change the selection process.

[apaladin]

Nobody was comparing the ACC to the SoCon. There are other conferences that are much better than the SoCon that deserved teams in. They should limit it to 6 or 7 teams from any one conference which would make the tourney better and make the regular season mean more. Of course this will never happen.

What other conferences would those be?

How about: WCC(St. Mary's 29-5), Conf. USA(MTSU 25-8), Sunbelt(Louisiana 27-7), Summit South Dakota 26-9).

These teams are 3-4 in the post season, with St. Mary's still alive and accounting for two of the three wins. MTSU, Louisiana and South Dakota won a total of one post season game. MTSU's season ended with a 16 point loss to Louisville, the 9th place ACC team.

Not a very compelling argument to change the selection process.

Maybe because they know they should have been in the NCAA and really wasn't into the NIT? NC State, Miami, Arizona, Texas, UNC, Florida, Arkansas, Michigan St., have a total of 2 wins with all these games against non-power 5 teams, so you can make the argument both ways.