LOL, it took me until the unveiling of the 3rd bracket to understand why CBS was calling the first round games the "second" round. I don't think the first 4 games constitutes a "round" but what do I know.
The other thing that cracked me up was how pissed Jay Bilas was that Colorado wasn't in the tournament. He couldn't have been more snarky in the post-bracket analysis.
BTW - I know CBS has to put Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith on because TNT has some of the coverage, but those guys know less than zero about college basketball. They need to stick to the pro game. Although I will agree with Barkley that Florida is NOT a #2 seed.
Lots of great sounding games. MSU v. UCLA should be great. Weak grouping there with Florida 2 and BYU 3. Would be easy for a team like MSU (or UCLA) to get to the 8's.
LarryAllen - you got your chance to prove MSU doesn't belong!! Should be a good matchup.
A couple other things:
- How does Pitt, the LAST #1 seed, get Florida (#2 seed??), Wisconsin (coming off a 33 point outburst) and BYU (key player booted off the team) in their region, while OSU, the TOP seed, gets UNC (ACC Champs), Syracuse and Kentucky (SEC Champs)?? Mind boggling.
- Va Tech and Colorado appear to have legitimate complaints, but I just don't see how you leave Alabama out while winning the SEC West with a 12-4 conference record (granted, it is a weak division but still). And, they just beat Georgia twice in the last week.
LarryAllen - you got your chance to prove MSU doesn't belong!! Should be a good matchup.
You misunderstood me. My thing with Michigan State is I don't think they should get in if one of the main reasons they get in is the past. However, I think they are a dangerous team come tourney time as has been proven time and time again. I am just saying that being dangerous at tourney time shouldn't get you in. Beating Purdue last week cemented they were getting in so I can't complain now. As of two weeks ago I did not think they should get in. As for the game itself I haven't decided but I am thinking of going with MSU. UCLA played horrible against Oregon last week. Haven't decided yet. I like picking UCLA to lose early. Then if they win I can be happy they won and if they lose I can be happy for my brackets!
I have not done my official bracket yet but honestly Michigan State (or UCLA if they played like they did a couple weeks ago) could easily get to the 8's. I realize it will be a home game for Florida but really MSU, UCLA, St. Johns or even Gonzaga could come out of that region. It gets tougher at that point as they would have to play Pitt or Wisky possibly but to me this is the most up in the air group. Florida is over-seeded and you have 4 teams that are jekle and Hydes in UCLA, MSU, Gonzaga and St. Johns. Love this week!
Nor Cal gets frozen out of the NCAA men's tournament this year. That is unusual. Typically one or two NO. Cal. teams go dancing.
I thought that St. Mary's should have gotten in this year. If they had won the conference championship game against Gonzaga last Monday night and gotten an automatic bid, I doubt that Gonzaga would have not received an at large bid.
Oh well, one of these days the tournament will expand to 96 teams and then to 128 teams. Even at those numbers, there will be "bubble" teams who complain that they "deserved" to get a bid.
My suggestion it to simply shorten the regular season by two or three weeks, have the conference tournaments played in early February [or just scrap them completely and end the regular season around 2-15] and then have a truly "national" tournament where every Division 1 team, regardless of their regular season record, plays in the tournament. Dump the post season NIT and other post season tournaments. Invite every team to the big dance and let them compete. The cinderella stories would multiply and the entire country can watch there local team compete.
This has been done before at the high school level [i.e. Indiana I think] and it has done very well [Remember the movie "Hooisers"].
I think St. Mary's loss, at home, to Utah State really hurt them. That was their chance to show they belonged in the tourney. You are right though they had a strong case to be in. It's splitting hairs at that point though. Each team has pros and cons.
Just thought Id throw my 2 cents in as being born and raised in my early years in LA Im am still a Big UCLA fan. So the only time my brackets are none biased is when the Bruins are not in the Tournament and since I am in my mid 50s that has not been to often. So whos going to win the big dance UCLA!!!!!!!!!!! (At least until they lose!)
Just thought Id throw my 2 cents in as being born and raised in my early years in LA Im am still a Big UCLA fan. So the only time my brackets are none biased is when the Bruins are not in the Tournament and since I am in my mid 50s that has not been to often. So whos going to win the big dance UCLA!!!!!!!!!!! (At least until they lose!)
I used to take that approach with the Bruins but it's better for my mental pysche to have them exiting early in my bracket. If they lose it makes the loss much less painful. If they win I am still happy they win even if it messes up my bracket. UCLA just has a strange team this year. I have watched them a lot and can't figure them out. At times they look great but more often they look mediocre with no great shooters, no great rebounders and turnovers galore.
<< <i>LarryAllen - you got your chance to prove MSU doesn't belong!! Should be a good matchup.
A couple other things:
- Va Tech and Colorado appear to have legitimate complaints, but I just don't see how you leave Alabama out while winning the SEC West with a 12-4 conference record (granted, it is a weak division but still). And, they just beat Georgia twice in the last week. >>
How do you leave out Alabama you ask? Easy... They had an RPI of 80. I'll leave it to you to find out the last time an at-large bid was given out to a team with an RPI that low. Everyone and their brother are complaining about UAB getting in and UAB has an RPI of 31. Schedules matter....The other thing is that its really not fair to say that Alabama "won" the SEC West. There is no trophy or title that the SEC gives out to teams with the best conference record on one side of the bracket. There is an SEC tournament that decides the conference champion, and in that tournament Alabama fell behind by 24 points at one point and wound up being embarrased by Kentucky (semis, not the finals). One other reason AL got left out is that their non-conference schedule was the 284th most difficult in the country. Blame the AD and coach for that one.
And then Florida gets embarassed in the finals by Kentucky, even though Florida was the SEC regular season champs and was ranked three notches higher than we were, yet we only get a 4 and they get a 2. But that's okay though; you know the saying about don't get mad, get even?
I have a feeling Ohio State is going to get quite disappointed in the second weekend...
I have UCLA losing in the second round to Florida and Utah State losing in the 3rd round to Pitt.
My theory is that both MSU and K-State have been under-achievers this year and both have played up and down basketbll (some great games and some horrible ones). UCLA over-achieved and has a cast of players with great high school resumes who are still proud of those accomplishments. Only one or two Bruins really hustle much; the rest hang out and are soft. Utah State always beats down the WAC but then has trouble in the tourney. They play great fundamental basketball but do not have the athletes to compete with the big boys. If their coach would go to a bigger school he would build a powerhouse program. I could see him going to a place like Boise State or Utah and having great success. I should add my theories aren't worth much as I have never won a big pool!
If any of you enjoy NCAA hoops check out the ESPN best case/worst case article. It has very funny/accurate snipits for every team. Example:
UC Santa Barbara (15)
Best Case: Infused with confidence after a surprising Big West Conference tournament championship run, the 18-13 Gauchos are ready for Florida. They are embraced by the 15,000 Kentucky fans in Tampa and ride the hot shooting of underrated Orlando Johnson (21.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3 assists) to a stunning halftime lead. UCSB keeps it close before losing in the final minutes, leaving the court to a round of applause from Big Blue Nation. And when it's over, the Gauchos get to return to Santa Barbara, Califl., which is not to be confused with, say, Starkville, Miss.
Worst Case: A team that lost to North Dakota State early, then dropped eight Big West games, is in no way ready to face the SEC champions. Florida treats the Gauchos the way its football team treats an FCS opponent, roaring to a 21-4 lead and playing everyone in a game-long mismatch. Mechanical problems on the flight home force an emergency landing and overnight stay in Starkville.
Looked great for 32 min. But hey Living in the Baltimore area and being a Ravens fan I am used my teams blowing big leads in big games! At least we won this won! I am off to Chantilly to set up at the CSA Sports Memorabilia show. Should be on the front wall, will be the guy with 2 cases of Tickets Mostly graded baseball plus a couple of cases of old baseball and autos. If your in the area come on by and intro. yourself! Mark
<< <i>Michigan State played a great second half- I think at the end of an exciting game, they proved worthy of the invitation for those that had doubts >>
If UCLA hadn't missed so many free throws and turned to sloppy play, this would have remained a blow out. This seems to happen frequently in games like this. They likely still deserved an invite though. Izzo seemed to have difficulty getting the team to keep focus and play to their potential this year. I wonder how much of the Izzo /Cleveland fiasco had anything to do with this, if anything. I suspect he only entertained offers from the Cavs for financial leverage at MSU, but I wonder if the players think he was considering bailing on them.
Went to the games Friday in Charlotte. We had some horrible games. Michigan over TN by about 30, then Duke over Hampton by about 40, then UNC over LIU by 15 or so, and then UGA v. U-dub which was close but who really cared. Long day. Games didn't end until after midnight. My wife was a trooper though and made it. We left the Duke game early but otherwise sat through all of them. Still a fun time but wished we had better games.
Washington, Texas and Syracuse all had one horrible inbound play at the end of the game that cost them the game. Washington and Texas were ahead by 1 inbounding, Huskies had the pass stolen and Texas had a 5 second call. Syracuse with the game tied went over and back getting the ball in. It's amazing how one mistake at the end can end it for a team.
Edited to correct: Texas was up by two when the 5 second call was made. That was a quick 5 seconds too.
although my picks have been kind of bad in my bracket, it's still possible I can win if things fall the right way.....it was just for fun with some folks I used to work with and their kids but hey bragging rights are bragging rights!! al.
Why was that a choke? FSU is the best defensive team in the nation (at least in terms of FG% against). It shouldn't come as a surprise that a team that doesn't have anyone that can really create their own shot couldn't beat a team that rotates effectively, and has great interior defense.
What stands out to me most in this tournament is how DUMB players are these days. I've only watched about 50% of the games, but there were at least 5-6 plays where you just ask yourself, WTF was that guy thinking?
I mean, just consider the end of the UNC/Washington game. Taking a half-court shot with 3 seconds left on the clock is moronic. What's even more moronic is trying to catch a ball that is going out of bounds that you don't have to catch! What takes the cake is taking a 2-pt shot when you need a 3 to tie it!
The Butler/Pitt ending, the Texas 5-second call, the Syracuse backcourt violation....there are probably a handful more that I'm missing too.
I am a Pac 10 homer and even I could see that was a VERY quick 5 seconds. I think the ref got confused because that just wasn't 5 seconds. AZ got lucky.
I watched that play live, and didn't think there was anything wrong with the 5-second call. Seemed like the Texas inbounder tried to get to his 3rd option....by that time, 5 seconds is usually up. Regardless, you can't let the ref even get to 4 count in that spot.
If that was a quick 5 seconds, CBS would have gladly tried to drum up some more controversy that wasn't there (like they did with the end of UNC/Wash).
The Big East has to be embarrassed by their showing. Further, all of the hype surrounding them has proven to be only that. Just hype. They'd likely all be gone if they didn't actually have to face each other in the second round.
<< <i>The Big East has to be embarrassed by their showing. Further, all of the hype surrounding them has proven to be only that. Just hype. They'd likely all be gone if they didn't actually have to face each other in the second round. >>
In my opinion, the Big East is still the deepest conference in the nation. The conference is a dog fight night in and night out. Nobody can argue that those 11 teams weren't 11 of the top 68 teams in the country....the only problem is that they do not have that top tier national title contender this season. Pitt and Louisville are definitely the biggest disappointments in my opinion. Notre Dame's loss is not that big of a shock to me when you think of a jump shooting team like ND going against a great defensive team like FSU. It was just a great match up for the 'Noles.
In my opinion, the Big East is still the deepest conference in the nation.
They have 100 teams (or so it seems) so of course they are deep. The media makes a big deal about the Big East getting the most teams ever to get into the tourney in one year. They got about 68% of their conference is. That's not record setting. A few years ago I believe the Pac 10 got 7 teams in (70%) and I believe they ACC may have done better in some years. Yes, the Big East has a lot of good teams but they also just have a lot of teams. I think ESPN over-hypes the Big East more than any other with the ACC second. They were the higher seed in several games they lost this weekend. Tells me they were over-hyped.
<< <i>The Big East has to be embarrassed by their showing. Further, all of the hype surrounding them has proven to be only that. Just hype. They'd likely all be gone if they didn't actually have to face each other in the second round. >>
In my opinion, the Big East is still the deepest conference in the nation. The conference is a dog fight night in and night out. Nobody can argue that those 11 teams weren't 11 of the top 68 teams in the country....the only problem is that they do not have that top tier national title contender this season. Pitt and Louisville are definitely the biggest disappointments in my opinion. Notre Dame's loss is not that big of a shock to me when you think of a jump shooting team like ND going against a great defensive team like FSU. It was just a great match up for the 'Noles. >>
Well, as it's been explained many times during the selection process, the committee has to pick the top 30 teams or whatever because of the automatic berths. So no, I don't feel that the other 10 Big East teams selected were in the top 30 or so. I just believe that the committee bought in to the hype. No matter. UConn was the only team that I actually felt could make a late run and I only felt that way because of their conference tourney run. I also felt that may be a reason that they could bail out early (mentally fatigued).
Guess that ESPN will have to stop talking about the Big East now and start telling us how great the SEC will be in football this year after they've gotten their star players bought and paid for.
From Jay Bilas: "Big East deserves criticism because it has underperformed. But, it was still the best league. No great team, few pros, but top conference."
I should know better than to even mention any conference on this forum. At the end of the day who cares anyways... despite what most think, the last time I checked a team wins the title not the conference.
Dirtmonkey, what other teams do you think were better? St. Mary's which lost in the first round of the NIT? Virginia Tech? Nope, they lost in the second round of the NIT and the same can be said for their ACC brother Boston College. Obviously you can't take the NIT as a realistic evaluation because by then team's are disappointed by being there, but they certainly aren't proving the selection committee wrong by losing early. Then you look at teams like Alabama who was a bubble team and got KILLED by Kentucky in the SEC tournament. That was their chance to make an impression and they dropped the ball.
Those were the bubble teams....who would you take over St. Johns, Louisville, or Georgetown who proved their worth the whole year beating top competition in and out of conference? I don't think Villanova should have been in because they limped their way into the tournament....besides that, I don't see how you could go against any other Big East team's resume. And the lowest seeded Big East team Marquette, even beat Xavier in the first round, then took out Syracuse (or were they not deserving either?)...looks like Marquette earned their spot.
Like Bilas said, the Big East underperformed but you can not rationally tell me that any of those teams (despite Villanova) were not worthy.
I should know better than to even mention any conference on this forum. At the end of the day who cares anyways... despite what most think, the last time I checked a team wins the title not the conference.
Unless an SEC team wins then the WHOLE SEC is a WINNER!
Nice to see AZ keep a little bit of respect for left coast hoops after SDSU and BYU couldn't win very winnable games. I really thought the first two games were great games. I was shocked to see AZ beat down Duke like that. I still can't believe it. It looked like AZ was just too athletic for Duke.
Also, loved the Butler upset. That guy can take any coaching job in the country this off season!
3 out of my 4 final four are still still alive. Only Pitt is dead. I got UNC as national champion. Let's go Tar Heels!
Comments
The other thing that cracked me up was how pissed Jay Bilas was that Colorado wasn't in the tournament. He couldn't have been more snarky in the post-bracket analysis.
BTW - I know CBS has to put Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith on because TNT has some of the coverage, but those guys know less than zero about college basketball. They need to stick to the pro game. Although I will agree with Barkley that Florida is NOT a #2 seed.
A couple other things:
- How does Pitt, the LAST #1 seed, get Florida (#2 seed??), Wisconsin (coming off a 33 point outburst) and BYU (key player booted off the team) in their region, while OSU, the TOP seed, gets UNC (ACC Champs), Syracuse and Kentucky (SEC Champs)?? Mind boggling.
- Va Tech and Colorado appear to have legitimate complaints, but I just don't see how you leave Alabama out while winning the SEC West with a 12-4 conference record (granted, it is a weak division but still). And, they just beat Georgia twice in the last week.
You misunderstood me. My thing with Michigan State is I don't think they should get in if one of the main reasons they get in is the past. However, I think they are a dangerous team come tourney time as has been proven time and time again. I am just saying that being dangerous at tourney time shouldn't get you in. Beating Purdue last week cemented they were getting in so I can't complain now. As of two weeks ago I did not think they should get in. As for the game itself I haven't decided but I am thinking of going with MSU. UCLA played horrible against Oregon last week. Haven't decided yet. I like picking UCLA to lose early. Then if they win I can be happy they won and if they lose I can be happy for my brackets!
6 SJU
11 GONZ
3 BYU
14 WOF
7 UCLA
10 MSU
2 FLA
15 UCSB
I thought that St. Mary's should have gotten in this year. If they had won the conference championship game against Gonzaga last Monday night and gotten an automatic bid, I doubt that Gonzaga would have not received an at large bid.
Oh well, one of these days the tournament will expand to 96 teams and then to 128 teams. Even at those numbers, there will be "bubble" teams who complain that they "deserved" to get a bid.
My suggestion it to simply shorten the regular season by two or three weeks, have the conference tournaments played in early February [or just scrap them completely and end the regular season around 2-15] and then have a truly "national" tournament where every Division 1 team, regardless of their regular season record, plays in the tournament. Dump the post season NIT and other post season tournaments. Invite every team to the big dance and let them compete. The cinderella stories would multiply and the entire country can watch there local team compete.
This has been done before at the high school level [i.e. Indiana I think] and it has done very well [Remember the movie "Hooisers"].
I used to take that approach with the Bruins but it's better for my mental pysche to have them exiting early in my bracket. If they lose it makes the loss much less painful. If they win I am still happy they win even if it messes up my bracket. UCLA just has a strange team this year. I have watched them a lot and can't figure them out. At times they look great but more often they look mediocre with no great shooters, no great rebounders and turnovers galore.
<< <i>LarryAllen - you got your chance to prove MSU doesn't belong!! Should be a good matchup.
A couple other things:
- Va Tech and Colorado appear to have legitimate complaints, but I just don't see how you leave Alabama out while winning the SEC West with a 12-4 conference record (granted, it is a weak division but still). And, they just beat Georgia twice in the last week. >>
How do you leave out Alabama you ask? Easy... They had an RPI of 80. I'll leave it to you to find out the last time an at-large bid was given out to a team with an RPI that low. Everyone and their brother are complaining about UAB getting in and UAB has an RPI of 31. Schedules matter....The other thing is that its really not fair to say that Alabama "won" the SEC West. There is no trophy or title that the SEC gives out to teams with the best conference record on one side of the bracket. There is an SEC tournament that decides the conference champion, and in that tournament Alabama fell behind by 24 points at one point and wound up being embarrased by Kentucky (semis, not the finals). One other reason AL got left out is that their non-conference schedule was the 284th most difficult in the country. Blame the AD and coach for that one.
-Michael
Always buying Bobby Cox inserts. PM me.
I have a feeling Ohio State is going to get quite disappointed in the second weekend...
D's: 54S,53P,50P,49S,45D+S,44S,43D,41S,40D+S,39D+S,38D+S,37D+S,36S,35D+S,all 16-34's
Q's: 52S,47S,46S,40S,39S,38S,37D+S,36D+S,35D,34D,32D+S
74T: 37,38,47,151,193,241,435,570,610,654,655 97 Finest silver: 115,135,139,145,310
73T:31,55,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,80,152,165,189,213,235,237,257,341,344,377,379,390,422,433,453,480,497,545,554,563,580,606,613,630
95 Ultra GM Sets: Golden Prospects,HR Kings,On-Base Leaders,Power Plus,RBI Kings,Rising Stars
Two of the teams I like, Utah State and UCLA have really tough opening games. I am picking both of them to lose.
My theory is that both MSU and K-State have been under-achievers this year and both have played up and down basketbll (some great games and some horrible ones). UCLA over-achieved and has a cast of players with great high school resumes who are still proud of those accomplishments. Only one or two Bruins really hustle much; the rest hang out and are soft. Utah State always beats down the WAC but then has trouble in the tourney. They play great fundamental basketball but do not have the athletes to compete with the big boys. If their coach would go to a bigger school he would build a powerhouse program. I could see him going to a place like Boise State or Utah and having great success. I should add my theories aren't worth much as I have never won a big pool!
UC Santa Barbara (15)
Best Case: Infused with confidence after a surprising Big West Conference tournament championship run, the 18-13 Gauchos are ready for Florida. They are embraced by the 15,000 Kentucky fans in Tampa and ride the hot shooting of underrated Orlando Johnson (21.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3 assists) to a stunning halftime lead. UCSB keeps it close before losing in the final minutes, leaving the court to a round of applause from Big Blue Nation. And when it's over, the Gauchos get to return to Santa Barbara, Califl., which is not to be confused with, say, Starkville, Miss.
Worst Case: A team that lost to North Dakota State early, then dropped eight Big West games, is in no way ready to face the SEC champions. Florida treats the Gauchos the way its football team treats an FCS opponent, roaring to a 21-4 lead and playing everyone in a game-long mismatch. Mechanical problems on the flight home force an emergency landing and overnight stay in Starkville.
LINK
Ready for game time!
Chantilly to set up at the CSA Sports Memorabilia show. Should be on the front wall, will be the guy with 2 cases of Tickets Mostly graded baseball plus a couple of cases of old baseball and autos. If your in the area come on by and intro. yourself! Mark
<< <i>I'll join these discussions when and only when the SEC dominates
Hey, Florida did crush the Gouchos.
Always buying Bobby Cox inserts. PM me.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
<< <i>Michigan State played a great second half- I think at the end of an exciting game, they proved worthy of the invitation for those that had doubts >>
If UCLA hadn't missed so many free throws and turned to sloppy play, this would have remained a blow out. This seems to happen frequently in games like this. They likely still deserved an invite though. Izzo seemed to have difficulty getting the team to keep focus and play to their potential this year. I wonder how much of the Izzo /Cleveland fiasco had anything to do with this, if anything. I suspect he only entertained offers from the Cavs for financial leverage at MSU, but I wonder if the players think he was considering bailing on them.
D's: 54S,53P,50P,49S,45D+S,44S,43D,41S,40D+S,39D+S,38D+S,37D+S,36S,35D+S,all 16-34's
Q's: 52S,47S,46S,40S,39S,38S,37D+S,36D+S,35D,34D,32D+S
74T: 37,38,47,151,193,241,435,570,610,654,655 97 Finest silver: 115,135,139,145,310
73T:31,55,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,80,152,165,189,213,235,237,257,341,344,377,379,390,422,433,453,480,497,545,554,563,580,606,613,630
95 Ultra GM Sets: Golden Prospects,HR Kings,On-Base Leaders,Power Plus,RBI Kings,Rising Stars
D's: 54S,53P,50P,49S,45D+S,44S,43D,41S,40D+S,39D+S,38D+S,37D+S,36S,35D+S,all 16-34's
Q's: 52S,47S,46S,40S,39S,38S,37D+S,36D+S,35D,34D,32D+S
74T: 37,38,47,151,193,241,435,570,610,654,655 97 Finest silver: 115,135,139,145,310
73T:31,55,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,80,152,165,189,213,235,237,257,341,344,377,379,390,422,433,453,480,497,545,554,563,580,606,613,630
95 Ultra GM Sets: Golden Prospects,HR Kings,On-Base Leaders,Power Plus,RBI Kings,Rising Stars
Wow. Don't think Purdue should have been a 3-seed. Doesn't get much worse than that.
Edited to correct: Texas was up by two when the 5 second call was made. That was a quick 5 seconds too.
<< <i>Wow. Don't think Purdue should have been a 3-seed. Doesn't get much worse than that. >>
Unless you count the Notre Dame choke.
Why was that a choke? FSU is the best defensive team in the nation (at least in terms of FG% against). It shouldn't come as a surprise that a team that doesn't have anyone that can really create their own shot couldn't beat a team that rotates effectively, and has great interior defense.
I mean, just consider the end of the UNC/Washington game. Taking a half-court shot with 3 seconds left on the clock is moronic. What's even more moronic is trying to catch a ball that is going out of bounds that you don't have to catch! What takes the cake is taking a 2-pt shot when you need a 3 to tie it!
The Butler/Pitt ending, the Texas 5-second call, the Syracuse backcourt violation....there are probably a handful more that I'm missing too.
I am a Pac 10 homer and even I could see that was a VERY quick 5 seconds. I think the ref got confused because that just wasn't 5 seconds. AZ got lucky.
If that was a quick 5 seconds, CBS would have gladly tried to drum up some more controversy that wasn't there (like they did with the end of UNC/Wash).
<< <i>The Big East has to be embarrassed by their showing. Further, all of the hype surrounding them has proven to be only that. Just hype. They'd likely all be gone if they didn't actually have to face each other in the second round. >>
In my opinion, the Big East is still the deepest conference in the nation. The conference is a dog fight night in and night out. Nobody can argue that those 11 teams weren't 11 of the top 68 teams in the country....the only problem is that they do not have that top tier national title contender this season. Pitt and Louisville are definitely the biggest disappointments in my opinion. Notre Dame's loss is not that big of a shock to me when you think of a jump shooting team like ND going against a great defensive team like FSU. It was just a great match up for the 'Noles.
They have 100 teams (or so it seems) so of course they are deep. The media makes a big deal about the Big East getting the most teams ever to get into the tourney in one year. They got about 68% of their conference is. That's not record setting. A few years ago I believe the Pac 10 got 7 teams in (70%) and I believe they ACC may have done better in some years. Yes, the Big East has a lot of good teams but they also just have a lot of teams. I think ESPN over-hypes the Big East more than any other with the ACC second. They were the higher seed in several games they lost this weekend. Tells me they were over-hyped.
<< <i>
<< <i>The Big East has to be embarrassed by their showing. Further, all of the hype surrounding them has proven to be only that. Just hype. They'd likely all be gone if they didn't actually have to face each other in the second round. >>
In my opinion, the Big East is still the deepest conference in the nation. The conference is a dog fight night in and night out. Nobody can argue that those 11 teams weren't 11 of the top 68 teams in the country....the only problem is that they do not have that top tier national title contender this season. Pitt and Louisville are definitely the biggest disappointments in my opinion. Notre Dame's loss is not that big of a shock to me when you think of a jump shooting team like ND going against a great defensive team like FSU. It was just a great match up for the 'Noles. >>
Well, as it's been explained many times during the selection process, the committee has to pick the top 30 teams or whatever because of the automatic berths. So no, I don't feel that the other 10 Big East teams selected were in the top 30 or so. I just believe that the committee bought in to the hype. No matter. UConn was the only team that I actually felt could make a late run and I only felt that way because of their conference tourney run. I also felt that may be a reason that they could bail out early (mentally fatigued).
Guess that ESPN will have to stop talking about the Big East now and start telling us how great the SEC will be in football this year after they've gotten their star players bought and paid for.
I should know better than to even mention any conference on this forum. At the end of the day who cares anyways... despite what most think, the last time I checked a team wins the title not the conference.
Dirtmonkey, what other teams do you think were better? St. Mary's which lost in the first round of the NIT? Virginia Tech? Nope, they lost in the second round of the NIT and the same can be said for their ACC brother Boston College. Obviously you can't take the NIT as a realistic evaluation because by then team's are disappointed by being there, but they certainly aren't proving the selection committee wrong by losing early. Then you look at teams like Alabama who was a bubble team and got KILLED by Kentucky in the SEC tournament. That was their chance to make an impression and they dropped the ball.
Those were the bubble teams....who would you take over St. Johns, Louisville, or Georgetown who proved their worth the whole year beating top competition in and out of conference? I don't think Villanova should have been in because they limped their way into the tournament....besides that, I don't see how you could go against any other Big East team's resume. And the lowest seeded Big East team Marquette, even beat Xavier in the first round, then took out Syracuse (or were they not deserving either?)...looks like Marquette earned their spot.
Like Bilas said, the Big East underperformed but you can not rationally tell me that any of those teams (despite Villanova) were not worthy.
Unless an SEC team wins then the WHOLE SEC is a WINNER!
Let the underdogs roar, upset and dance to the final four.
Also, loved the Butler upset. That guy can take any coaching job in the country this off season!
3 out of my 4 final four are still still alive. Only Pitt is dead. I got UNC as national champion. Let's go Tar Heels!
<< <i>Go San Diego State, Butler, VCU and Richmond.
Let the underdogs roar, upset and dance to the final four. >>
We're an underdog and we're only one win away from the Final Four.
D's: 54S,53P,50P,49S,45D+S,44S,43D,41S,40D+S,39D+S,38D+S,37D+S,36S,35D+S,all 16-34's
Q's: 52S,47S,46S,40S,39S,38S,37D+S,36D+S,35D,34D,32D+S
74T: 37,38,47,151,193,241,435,570,610,654,655 97 Finest silver: 115,135,139,145,310
73T:31,55,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,80,152,165,189,213,235,237,257,341,344,377,379,390,422,433,453,480,497,545,554,563,580,606,613,630
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