2016-17 NCAA Basketball Thread: This is March.

[Seadragon76]

25 minutes ago, BlackBolt3 said:

NIT with the pettiest matchup in recent history.

 

I find this hilarious as all hell.

[OnWis97]

Pretty quiet selection day.  No truly egregious snubs.  No rankings that were way off the mark.

 

It was nice to see Northwestern's reaction.  It seems like most recent years they've had a shot and fallen short.  It's nice to see them in.

[stumpygremlin]

8 hours ago, OnWis97 said:

Pretty quiet selection day.  No truly egregious snubs.  No rankings that were way off the mark.

 

It was nice to see Northwestern's reaction.  It seems like most recent years they've had a shot and fallen short.  It's nice to see them in.

I'd have put in Illinois State over Vandy, but that's me. Other than that, there really weren't any, I agree.

[Seadragon76]

I've heard some people mention Syracuse should of got in. Really?

 

A team that can't win on the road in over a conference champion like Illinois State or a team like Vanderbilt that got red hot at the right time? No... not happening.

[buckeye]

 

 

 

[DS729]

11 hours ago, OnWis97 said:

Pretty quiet selection day.  No truly egregious snubs.  No rankings that were way off the mark.

 

It was nice to see Northwestern's reaction.  It seems like most recent years they've had a shot and fallen short.  It's nice to see them in.

Eh... I'm not so sure. The bubble was really weak this year, so all of the teams that missed out really weren't that good. But the selection committee shafted Wichita State for what feels like the fourth or fifth year in a row. They're the eight-rated team on KenPom, they should be at least a 5, at worst a 7. Plus they have to play Kentucky in round 2. Other than that, I agree with you. Talking heads on ESPN were complaining about Duke, but Duke has lost 8 games, including some really sketchy games and has been wildly inconsistent all year. The selection committee did a much better job this year as compared to last. 

 

On a side note, I'm bummed out by the Bouchett injury, I really liked Oregon to win it all before that news. I have Villanova, Arizona, Oregon, and UNC in the Final Four with Arizona beating UNC in the championship game. This year is weird, I genuinely have no clue who's going to win, I could easily see 10 or 11 teams winning it all this year. Should make for an interesting tournament. 

[crashcarson15]

On 3/8/2017 at 10:01 PM, sc49erfan15 said:

 

I'm a fan of a perennial one-bid league, my thoughts are as follows:

 

1. I like conference tournaments. I don't feel as if they "nullify the entire regular season" any more than the Big Dance nullifies the NCAA regular season, the NFL playoffs nullify the NFL regular season, etc. There's always some chance that the regular season champ will drop a game in the conference tourney - but that's the nature of playoffs. The current structure (regular season champ gets NIT bid if they lose in the conference tourney) works well for small conferences, in my opinion.

 

2. I've been a part of conference tournaments played at a predetermined site as well as at the regular season champion or "highest seed remaining" format. Both have their pros and cons, but as an alum, it's very nice to know that "the Big South Conference Tournament will be held March 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in Waffleton, North Carolina" and schedule accordingly. It's a pain to try to make travel arrangements last-minute if there's an upset and the game site changes. It also often results in lower attendance and a lackluster atmosphere if that happens, or if two "visiting" teams are playing in a "home" team's gym. The Big South is even one of the more geographically compact conferences (~6.5 hours maximum distance between members, most are within 4 hours or so), I can't imagine what die-hard fans of the Big Sky do.

 

Also, speaking of low-major conferences, hosting the tournament at the regular season champion sounds like a great idea until Charleston Southern, Longwood, or High Point win the regular season and you're stuck hosting your conference tourney at a place that seats 881, 1807, or 1750, respectively.

 

 

 

This came up a few years ago, Charleston Southern nearly hosted a game and it wasn't even a guarantee that ESPN could get in the place and have the room to set up their equipment and film. When Coastal Carolina hosted Winthrop in the 999-seat Kimbel Arena in the 2010 Big South final, I had one of 25 tickets allotted to the visiting team's fans. Winthrop's team managers had to hide in the locker room and sneak out later to watch the game.

 

Point is, there's no perfect way to do it.

 

Have it at a predetermined neutral site or regular season champ's gym? Allow fans to schedule in advance, but run the chance of Winthrop and UNC-Asheville playing at Campbell (3 hours away from Winthrop, 4 hours away from UNCA) for the championship. 

Have it at the highest remaining seed? Possibility of a better atmosphere, but possibility of logistical issues (for more than just fans) as well.

I think my favorite conference tournament setup remains what the Horizon used to do a few years back — first-round games were at higher seed, quarters and semis at No. 1 seed as a neutral site for the others, then championship was a few days later at the highest remaining seed. Kept there from being too much traveling around, but also guaranteed a good crowd for the conference championship game. Of course, it works because all the HL gyms are pretty large, but there’s nothing I hate more than watching a conference title game at some random 9,000-seat neutral-site arena with 1,500 people in the crowd.

 

That said, for a certain class of smaller leagues — think the ones with one good, 12- or 13-seed team — I think it would be extremely beneficial to not hold conference tournaments. The Horizon provides a perfect example once more, especially last year — Valparaiso was extremely good (finished runners-up in the NIT and ranked #42 in KenPom) and could’ve made a Sweet 16 run in the NCAA tournament, but they had to play a conference tournament to “prove” what we already knew and lost an overtime game on a neutral site. It was silly; instead of being represented by Valpo or even Oakland, who also could’ve done damage, Green Bay instead went to the tournament. Happened this year, too.

 

For conferences that both (a) typically have one really good team and (b) that team isn’t good enough for an at-large berth, conference tournaments are detrimental in the long run.

[sc49erfan15]

3 hours ago, crashcarson15 said:

I think my favorite conference tournament setup remains what the Horizon used to do a few years back — first-round games were at higher seed, quarters and semis at No. 1 seed as a neutral site for the others, then championship was a few days later at the highest remaining seed. Kept there from being too much traveling around, but also guaranteed a good crowd for the conference championship game. Of course, it works because all the HL gyms are pretty large, but there’s nothing I hate more than watching a conference title game at some random 9,000-seat neutral-site arena with 1,500 people in the crowd.

 

That's what the Big South did this year. The first round was at the highest seed (#10 Presbyterian at #7 Campbell, #9 Longwood at #8 Charleston Southern) on Tuesday; Quarterfinals at the regular season champion (Winthrop) on Thursday; Semifinals at regular season champion (Winthrop) on Friday; Championship at highest remaining seed (which ended up being Winthrop) on Sunday.

 

Obviously I liked it because my team was the host, but I think it would've been a fair setup if anyone else had won the regular season.

 

That said, Winthrop is in Milwaukee vs. Butler this Thursday. Bought a one-way ticket to Chicago today - I'll take the train to Milwaukee and figure out my return journey (most likely a 15-hour bus ride from Chicago to Atlanta) when the time comes. It's Madness!

[goalieboy82]

if i was a betting man, i would take South Dakota St over Gonzaga.  

 

[Seadragon76]

6 minutes ago, goalieboy82 said:

if i was a betting man, i would take South Dakota St over Gonzaga.  

 

 

I know Gonzaga literally defines the word 'paper tiger' come March, but really? Even if that Daum kid drops 50, it wouldn't be enough.

 

Now, if I was betting man myself, I'd make these picks:

-Middle Tennessee and Vermont to the Sweet 16

-Gonzaga out in the 2nd Round

-At least one game for Michigan in their practice jerseys

-Grayson Allen doing something stupid

[ninersdd]

54 minutes ago, Seadragon76 said:

 

I know Gonzaga literally defines the word 'paper tiger' come March, but really? Even if that Daum kid drops 50, it wouldn't be enough.

 

Now, if I was betting man myself, I'd make these picks:

-Middle Tennessee and Vermont to the Sweet 16

-Gonzaga out in the 2nd Round

-At least one game for Michigan in their practice jerseys

-Grayson Allen doing something stupid

I'd add Lavar Ball(Lonzo's dad) saying something stupid, but that's already happened with him wanting a billion dollar shoe deal for his sons and saying he could've taken Jordan in his prime.

[Jbadger9]

Predictions.....

-Gonzaga out in Sweet 16

-Purdue to Final 4 (I actually picked them to go that far in my bracket)

-Biggest Upset- Florida Gulf Coast over Florida St.

-Michigan St. advances to the 2nd round and beats Kansas

-Grayson Allen gets hurt punching wall in locker room, out for rest of the tournament 

-Winner.........

NORTH CAROLINA

[Seadragon76]

1 hour ago, ninersdd said:

I'd add Lavar Ball(Lonzo's dad) saying something stupid, but that's already happened with him wanting a billion dollar shoe deal for his sons and saying he could've taken Jordan in his prime.

 

Dude should know that you never get high on your own supply... even if that supply is three extremely talented kids that can play.

[TheRicSlick]

Here's a nice little video about the highest scoring basketball game ever, and how the narrator disagrees about the final score. That's not even the most interesting part of the video, to me it's the fact that I learned DeVry (Yes, that DeVry) once had a basketball team. 

 

 

 

[BlackBolt3]

That whole series by Jon Bois is outstanding. I'd advise everyone to watch it, you'll find something you'll like.

[TheRicSlick]

The first "upset" of the tourney. But let's be serious, MTSU was criminally under seeded.

[OnWis97]

1 minute ago, rickyISking said:

The first "upset" of the tourney. But let's be serious, MTSU was criminally under seeded.

Minnesota may have been a bit over-seeded as well.  

[ninersdd]

I wonder how that Vanderbilt player feels. What a huge mistake.

[See Red]

9 minutes ago, ninersdd said:

I wonder how that Vanderbilt player feels. What a huge mistake.

 

That'd have been something if he nailed the full-courter for the win, though.  I feel pretty terrible for him, but there's not really an excuse for not knowing the situation.  The first and last games of the early games were good, everything in between was forgettable.

[dfwabel]

24 minutes ago, OnWis97 said:

Minnesota may have been a bit over-seeded as well.  

Their non-conference schedule was pretty suspect as they only lost one game, but weren't ranked until beating Purdue in mid-January, but turned out to have four tournament teams in it with them going 3-1.  Beat Mt. St. Mary's, Vandy, and Arkansas but lost to FSU.

 

Lil' Pitino is a average coach at best.