NCAA Tournament Thread

[nwocongo]

Too often we look at a team's tournament run and say, "wow, I was wrong, they clearly belong." No, they don't. The tournament is supposed to be about your body of work BEFORE selection, not after. VCU, regardless of what they accomplish, did not belong in this tournament.

Good point, however of the top 3 or 4 teams people were saying got the shaft, Vtech, BC, St Mary's and Colorado, only one is still alive in the NIT. Again like you said, that has nothing to do with there regular season body of work but its just a little something to think about. I also think they were just as deserving as Michigan State who was only there due to SOS and coach Izzo's reputation. Of the last 4 in they were the most worthy team other than Clemson IMO.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

Good point, however of the top 3 or 4 teams people were saying got the shaft, Vtech, BC, St Mary's and Colorado, only one is still alive in the NIT. Again like you said, that has nothing to do with there regular season body of work but its just a little something to think about. I also think they were just as deserving as Michigan State who was only there due to SOS and coach Izzo's reputation. Of the last 4 in they were the most worthy team other than Clemson IMO.

I see what you're saying about the NIT, but can you honestly rule out the possibility of a mental checkout by those teams. If I truly felt that I deserved to be playing in the tournament and got snubbed, I'd have a hard time getting my mental game ready against teams I didn't even want to play in the first place.

The NIT is different. You have teams that do NOT want to be there; Colorado, VTech, BC, and St. Mary's, and all the other teams that are fucking thrilled to be playing in a post season tournament. The level of intensity changes.

Am I making sense?

 

[Post]

My bracket is absolutely boned!

Thank you Pittsburgh for costing me money. Now I don't really care anymore. I will only root against Ohio State for the remainder of the tournament.

 

[nwocongo]

I see what you're saying about the NIT, but can you honestly rule out the possibility of a mental checkout by those teams. If I truly felt that I deserved to be playing in the tournament and got snubbed, I'd have a hard time getting my mental game ready against teams I didn't even want to play in the first place.

The NIT is different. You have teams that do NOT want to be there; Colorado, VTech, BC, and St. Mary's, and all the other teams that are fucking thrilled to be playing in a post season tournament. The level of intensity changes.

Am I making sense?

Yeah I definitely get it, I took that into consideration in why BC got beat by like 15 or something on their home floor. Thats why they took the consolation 3rd place game out of the NCAA tourney, the teams didn't give a fuck. Back to VCU for a second, I saw Jay Bilas on PBS talking tournament, he was a big VCU doubter and he said what you had mentioned, that by the criteria they should not have made the tournament. He went on to say theres plenty of teams in the NIT capable of making a run in the big tournament like Northwestern, Colorado and Bama.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

Yeah I definitely get it, I took that into consideration in why BC got beat by like 15 or something on their home floor. Thats why they took the consolation 3rd place game out of the NCAA tourney, the teams didn't give a fuck. Back to VCU for a second, I saw Jay Bilas on PBS talking tournament, he was a big VCU doubter and he said what you had mentioned, that by the criteria they should not have made the tournament. He went on to say theres plenty of teams in the NIT capable of making a run in the big tournament like Northwestern, Colorado and Bama.

That's sort of the way I see it to. In a one and done tournament, runs aren't hard to do. I mean, you need look no further than George Mason a couple years ago. They beat how many top teams on their way to the Final Four before getting massacred by Florida? UConn, UNC, and Michigan St? (I left out Wichita St on purpose)

VCU is on a run, that's all.

 

[nwocongo]

That's sort of the way I see it to. In a one and done tournament, runs aren't hard to do. I mean, you need look no further than George Mason a couple years ago. They beat how many top teams on their way to the Final Four before getting massacred by Florida? UConn, UNC, and Michigan St? (I left out Wichita St on purpose)

VCU is on a run, that's all.

Makes me think of the 2000 tourney with the final 4 MSU(1) Carolina(8), Wisconsin(8) and Florida(5). Some people were saying why the hell is Wisconsin at 18-13 in the tournament, and they got a pretty favorable draw, of course they had to beat Zona(1) but they got to play an overrated 4 seed LSU, and play 6 seed Purdue in the Elite 8, Carolina was matched up with a 7 in their Elite 8 game. Sometimes getting a good draw and playing an overrated team in your first game can give a lower seed VCU or Mason a couple years back confidence to make a run and who knows if Kansas chokes, VCU could be matched up with Richmond for a final 4 bid.
Enough of that, on to last nights games. Derrick Williams carried Zona through the 1st half and I don't know what happened at half time but the role players all stepped up and out played, out defended and out hustled Duke, 55-33 2nd half. This was what I figured would be Duke's demise, as soon as Smith has a poor game it's over, Singler is not good enough to carry them past a team like Zona, Irving played great but without Smith showing up it got real ugly. I didn't see much of Williams this year because I live in an ACC market, but holy shit, if he sticks around Arizona is my early favorite for next year.
Wisconsin, I just don't know what to say about that, the leaders on that team all looked like walk ons last night. Congrats to Butler.
BYU's 1 on five style finally caught up with them, Jimmer 3-15 from 3...once you hit 2-10 or whatever he was, stop with the 25-30 ft. jumpers and attack the hoop. Florida definitely came prepared for him after last years game.
Uconn looked like they could have blown out SDSU at a few points but let them hang around, still looked pretty good in what was essentially a home game for the Aztecs. I'm really looking forward to the Zona game.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

Yesterday was a sad day for me as a Duke fan. Until I went to my university's baseball game and we blew out THE Ohio St. University. I rocked a sign that said "Thanks for playing a Little Sister Of The Poor"

Anyhow, I digress. Duke had no answer for Williams. Irving was a stud, but Nolan Smith decided to take the night off. It was sad to see Singler end his Duke career on such a lackluster effort by his team.

That being said, I had a sneaking suspicion we were going to lose. Duke has never won a Sweet 16 game playing in the West region. After last night we are 0-5.

 

[Mac Attack]

Let's go UCONN! I have them winning it all and it looks better and better the more the top seeds continue to fall. Butler although is the dark horse I think right now they might be the best team on the right side of the brackets.

 

[Kenny Powers]

This has been the most exciting tournament I've seen in years. I can't believe the highest seed in the tournament is a 3 this year. VCU vs. Butler should be a good game. UCONN vs. Kentucky definitely won't disappoint considering the close games Kentucky has had in the tournament. I don't expect any shutouts in either game.

Congrats to my Kentucky Wildcats for finally making it to the Final Four in 13 years! Its still a tough road ahead, but I think UK is capable of pulling out some more victories.

 

[Megatron]

I have to agree with what people have been saying in that this has been one of the better tournaments in quite some time. Thanks to the NCAA spreading the games across 4 networks, the tournament experience has been a lot better. Plus, there's been a lot of great games going into overtime or down to the last possesion.

Do I think the teams in the final four are the 4 best teams left? Absolutely not. But that's the beauty of the tournament. You don't bring your best for even one game, and you'll be going home like everyone else. Whether you're a top seed or a 16 seed. While there's some negatives to this, the positives far outweigh it, which is why this is the greatest 3 weeks in all of sports.

As for who I think will win it all? Honestly, I'm really loving Butler right now. They're the best defensive team, full of guys who have been there before, and know how close they were to winning it all last year. Brad Stevens is really making his name as one of the great coaches in basketball, and if they can shut down the 3 point attack of VCU I don't see why they can't get to the Championship game again and win it this time. I'm hoping for a Butler/UK final, because I love Butlers style of play and Kentucky hasn't won it all since 98, while UConn has won it twice since then.

However, I'll be rooting for the winner of the Butler/VCU game to win it all, because who doesn't love to see the underdog play? Also, let's hope these last 3 games are how the whole tournament has been, down to the wire and exciting.

 

[Freddy4190]

I live 10 minutes away from Virginia Commonwealth University. The morale in Richmond is so high with VCU making it to the Final Four. I was a bit disappointed that Kansas wiped the floor with Richmond, but it's all better now that VCU took care of Kansas. I think they're gonna make it to the Championship game, they are on a damn good roll but I wouldn't ever underestimate Butler. It's an exciting tournament. Go Rams!

 

[nwocongo]

Another choke from Bill Self and Kansas, this is why I had major hangups about picking them to win it all. I know that no game in the tournament is a cake walk but how many times is that he's been knocked off by mid major? I can remember Northern Iowa last year, a few years back they got knocked out in the 1st round two years in a row by Bucknell and Bradley. I'm not saying Self isn't a great coach but that's something people always bring up about him, maybe its just bad luck but whatever it is its gotta be haunting Kansas fans. Kansas could never manage a title under Roy Williams either, despite having some great players and teams who were championship favorites. Kansas absolutely shot themselves in the foot 15-28 freethrows and 2-21 from three, their seniors Reed and Morningstar a combined 2-16 from the floor. Gotta give VCU credit though, held off the Kansas push in the 2nd half and made shots when they needed them.
Kentucky just about fucked themselves at the line as well but unlike Kansas, the threes were falling all day for Kentucky. I thought the biggest factor was getting Henson in early foul trouble, he was no match for Terrence Jones, and taking him out of his game seemed to knock the wind out of Carolina.
Being from Indiana and having to suffer through all the shitty Indiana seasons since 2002, I am now rooting for Butler, imagine what they'd look like if Gordon Hayward had returned instead of going to ride the Utah Jazz bench. I now live in NC right smack in the middle between Carolina and Duke's campuses so I'm just glad their both done, I won't have to hear from the drunken trust fund frat boys at Carolina or the stuck up, holier than thou know it alls from Duke for a while. I also get one more year of enjoying Bobby Knight's record before having to give Coach K his props for taking it next year

 

[ROCKY VS CENA OMG]

Another choke from Bill Self and Kansas, this is why I had major hangups about picking them to win it all. I know that no game in the tournament is a cake walk but how many times is that he's been knocked off by mid major? I can remember Northern Iowa last year, a few years back they got knocked out in the 1st round two years in a row by Bucknell and Bradley. I'm not saying Self isn't a great coach but that's something people always bring up about him, maybe its just bad luck but whatever it is its gotta be haunting Kansas fans. Kansas could never manage a title under Roy Williams either, despite having some great players and teams who were championship favorites. Kansas absolutely shot themselves in the foot 15-28 freethrows and 2-21 from three, their seniors Reed and Morningstar a combined 2-16 from the floor. Gotta give VCU credit though, held off the Kansas push in the 2nd half and made shots when they needed them.
Kentucky just about fucked themselves at the line as well but unlike Kansas, the threes were falling all day for Kentucky. I thought the biggest factor was getting Henson in early foul trouble, he was no match for Terrence Jones, and taking him out of his game seemed to knock the wind out of Carolina.
Being from Indiana and having to suffer through all the shitty Indiana seasons since 2002, I am now rooting for Butler, imagine what they'd look like if Gordon Hayward had returned instead of going to ride the Utah Jazz bench. I now live in NC right smack in the middle between Carolina and Duke's campuses so I'm just glad their both done, I won't have to hear from the drunken trust fund frat boys at Carolina or the stuck up, holier than thou know it alls from Duke for a while. I also get one more year of enjoying Bobby Knight's record before having to give Coach K his props for taking it next year

I wouldn't say this year's Kansas team choked. They went farther than any other 1 seed and made it to the Elite 8.

 

[Goliath Uterus]

The tourney sucked ass this year, easily the worst tournament I've ever seen. The VCU/Butler and Uconn/Butler games were absolutely awful games, especially for a seminfinal and final. I honestly think the NCAA should make the national title game a 3 or 5 game series, and/or shorten the field, so a whole bunch of shitty teams don't make it so far...

Also, I cannot believe KU lost to a bunch of scrubs.... again. VCU is not a good basketball team, not even close, and we got nervous and let them take the game. KU played 10 good minutes of basketball, and in that 10 minutes they brought the lead down from a bout 17 to 3, and the players somehow started letting an undersized, undertalented team outplay them for the rest of the game.

 

[Megatron]

Uh, in terms of excitement, this was one of the better tournaments in recent memory. Yeah, the National Championship game left a bad taste in most peoples mouths, but there were (I think) 17 games that went down to the wire, with 5 in overtime. UConn/UK was a great game, and VCU/Butler was very competitive until about the last 4 or 5 minutes. Was UConn the best team in college basketball? Debateable, but they played their best at the right time, which is more then what anyone else can say.

In fact, even with MSU bouncing out right away, I'd say this tournament gets about an 8 out of 10 on a scale of entertainment. The first weekend makes this tournament, and there were a lot of great games early on (and pretty much all the way to the final four).