NCAA Tourney: Major upsets don't happen because...

[BooCocky]

I personally blame the shot clock and this occurred to me the other day while watching Sportscenter. In 1985 when the Wildcats went on their amazing run they had something in their favor. The ability to control the tempo of the game. That overtakes all the talent in the world. Some of those possessions lasted longer than 35 seconds and it helped a lot when you realize they only shot the ball ten times in the second half making nine of them. They shot 78% from the field. Something that is unheard of. In 85 the shot clock was nonexistent, is the shot clock the biggest reason why we don't see major upsets in the final four or the NCAA tournament?

My Opinion: Yes, because talent will win the game the majority of the time. The strong athletes will take control of the game and lesser talented teams seem to fade away when they have to go score for score with the other team. If you don't agree with me, tell me why, then give me what you think is the biggest reason why major upsets do not happen.

 

[gd]

It's definetly one of the major reasons as if effectively just shortens the game. I couldn't even imagine having college basketball without the shot clock today as it would effectively make it the most boring sport of all time. You can also point to how big schools can reload extremely quickly while the smaller schools have to rely on developing players over 4 years.

However, I don't think you can say major upsets don't ever happen anymore. Sure, we haven't had any 16s win and there hasn't been a 15 for awhile, but there's been more than a couple 14 seeds and George Mason, as an 11 seed, making the final four in recent memory.

 

[Big Sexy]

First off there still are a lot of major upsets. Just this year Northern fucking Iowa beat the number one ranked team in the tournament. If you're only talking about final four upsets and championship game upsets then even when there wasn't a shot clock the only major upset ever was Villanova over Georgetown. The only teams ever to make the final four that were lower then an eight seed were LSU as an 11 seed in 1986 and George Mason as an 11 seed in 2006 and both of those years there was a shot clock.

Besides if there was no shot clock then like GD said college basketball would be extremely boring. Major upsets don't happen in the final four and championship game because eventually talent does prevail. Like I said before Villanova is THE ONLY major upset in the championship game so you're really just grasping at straws here.