2023-2024 College Basketball

[burgundy]

2 hours ago, Sport said:

Another problem is the game started at 9:30 last night. I learned about UConn's victory on my phone this morning when I woke up as I was fast asleep before the second half. I say this every year, but you cannot convince me that starting the national championship game after 9 on the east coast is helpful for ratings. 

 

It also doesn't help that it was on TBS. Why are championships relegated to cable, late on a Monday night? Who the hell asked for that? The Women's championship game was on broadcast TV, at 3pm on a Sunday. That makes so much more sense, and people actually tuned in to watch the whole game. They should either put both games on Sunday, or shift them each back a day, having Women's on Saturday, and Men's on Sunday. And drop the TBS championship nonsense. But that would be too convenient, so of course they won't do that.

 

 

5 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

The NCAA tournament actually gives me some pause when it comes to expanding the football playoff. We have this huge 64 team tournament where the opening round is usually the top seeds straight thumping the lower seeds, and whenever a lower seed does get through a game or two, they never actually win. The winners are always the same few teams. UConn/Duke/UNC/Whoever has the biggest name recruit/whoever has the top “one and done” coach. Wash, rinse, repeat. It just makes the entire thing feel so bloated and wasteful.  I’m kind of starting to wonder if we’re just going to get the same with football. 
 

I’ve never really liked the tournament, but I basically checked out when Butler (who is the closest we’ve gotten to a small school winning in SO long) lost two title games to two of the most common champions you could possibly find. 

 

Football has already been at that point for a long time, just without the expanded field. I like expanding to 12, as I'd rather there be a slim chance of an outside team winning than no chance  at all. However, the talk of going to 16 is on the verge of being too much. The basketball tournament is incredibly bloated, and while it makes for entertaining early upsets, it's ultimately meaningless.

 

[McCall]

7 hours ago, Unocal said:

 

UConn is an eyesore. tiresome, boring, dull, joyless. Nobody NOBODY asked for another Husky rerun

 

God forbid we get something different. But no, instead we get the outcome nobody wanted.

 

Last night was good vs evil and evil won

 

I gotta say, the irony of YOU saying every word of this post is not lost on anyone.

[floydnimrod]

15 hours ago, burgundy said:

 

It also doesn't help that it was on TBS. Why are championships relegated to cable, late on a Monday night? Who the hell asked for that? The Women's championship game was on broadcast TV, at 3pm on a Sunday. That makes so much more sense, and people actually tuned in to watch the whole game. They should either put both games on Sunday, or shift them each back a day, having Women's on Saturday, and Men's on Sunday. And drop the TBS championship nonsense. But that would be too convenient, so of course they won't do that.

 

The TBS thing was part of the deal when Turner got involved to make sure every game was shown. It rotates every year now I believe. It was on there in 2022 as well, and was supposed to be in 2020.

 

The timing is egregious. I get that it was in a more western time zone than usual, but sporting events are getting increasingly later and later. I'm still going to stay and up and watch the whole thing because to me it's the best sporting event by a wide margin, but I'll still be adjusting my sleep schedule for the next week or two.

 

Even though I watch less and less football each year, I enjoy that the Super Bowl is consistently an early evening start each year.

[TrueYankee26]

On 4/8/2024 at 2:11 AM, Germanshepherd said:

Not rumors anymore 

And a done deal https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/hall-of-fame-coach-john-calipari-to-lead-razorback-basketball/

[Fowler2]

Legendary Stanford Women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer calls it a career  

 

I've always thought Stanford athletics would have a tought time in the NIL & transfer portal era. I don't blame her for bowing out now. 

[Germanshepherd]

52 minutes ago, BottomlessPitt said:

Legendary Stanford Women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer calls it a career  

 

I've always thought Stanford athletics would have a tought time in the NIL & transfer portal era. I don't blame her for bowing out now. 

Also not for nothing, Cameron Brink said part of her decision to go to the WNBA was that she didn’t want to constantly take flights to ACC country during the school year. 

[GDAWG]

11 hours ago, Germanshepherd said:

Also not for nothing, Cameron Brink said part of her decision to go to the WNBA was that she didn’t want to constantly take flights to ACC country during the school year. 

 

Brink made the right decision based on WNBA Mock Drafts which have her at 2 with the Los Angeles Sparks.  

[See Red]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:09 PM, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

I was shocked to learn they won the title last year.

 

I never thought we'd see women's college basketball go from novelty to the more important tournament.

I think it’s more that Caitlin Clark is a huge draw and some combination of UConn and Purdue aren't draws, it seemed a near certainty UConn was winning that game handily, and it started way too late. 

 

UConn’s weird in that they’ve been dominant in college basketball as far as championships but don’t feel dominant because they’re not as consistent as a Duke or whatever.  They had the down years in the AAC, they’ve won as a 7-seed. They don’t get a ton of coverage because they’re not hated or have a huge fan base.  I was hoping maybe this year would make them more hated, since that’s a big part of the fun of winning a lot, but I don’t know that it’s happened since this team was actually fun to watch with how they play.

 

And then Purdue basketball with Edey is just not fun to watch. All-time great player  but it makes for boring basketball. 

[Cujo]

On 3/30/2024 at 11:16 AM, Cujo said:

Go ahead. Cut Coach Cal loose and he'll get scooped up immediately by another SEC school and have more success than UK with whoever his successor is.

 

Any way we can bookmark these things?

 

Also, who tf is Mark Pope? Zero career tournament wins? Have fun, UK! 

[McCall]

11 hours ago, Cujo said:

 

Any way we can bookmark these things?

 

Also, who tf is Mark Pope? Zero career tournament wins? Have fun, UK! 

Safe hire. Alum who was a captain on their 1996 National Championship team.

[Cujo]

2 minutes ago, McCall said:

Alum who was a captain on their 1996 National Championship team.

 

Because that always works! (Juwan Howard, Patrick Ewing)

[floydnimrod]

On 4/12/2024 at 2:22 PM, Cujo said:

 

Because that always works! (Juwan Howard, Patrick Ewing)

Except neither of them had any collegiate (or anywhere?) head coaching experience prior to being hired. Pope has been a head coach for 10 years. Not saying he'll be successful, but it's not really comparable to Howard/Ewing (Or Mullin or Mike Woodson or Penny Hardaway or....). He'd be more comparable to Matt Painter. Anthony Grant, Hubert Davis, and Jon Scheyer are examples of this working but unlike Ewing/Howard they had collegiate coaching experience before landing their current roles, though Scheyer/Davis were only assistants.

[See Red]

If he can make it out of the first round, he’ll be more successful than Cal in the last half decade. 

[BBTV]

I don't know if there's a WNBA thread, but WTF is wrong with this guy?  He's apparently making the "heart hands" gesture.