Today's nutkick, courtesy of Marquette's late meltdown, will likely prove fatal to my chances. Thanks a fucking lot, MONTY!!!

How does a Ben Howland coached team allow 89? That's the part I don't understand

This was the most allowed all year, and this team has been over-performing all year, which means they really haven't had the talent and guts to play Ben Ball. This is a team that lost three players from last year to early exits to NBA... all three are starting in NBA. It left a big hole that the freshmen just couldn't make up. And essentially they played all year with no center.

And Villanova were brilliant.

That play in the UCLA-Villanova game when 'Nova was already up like 20+ in the second half and one of their guys dives completely horizontal to knock the ball loose from a Bruin sums up the difference between teams with heart and those without.

Jerel Mc Neal went 3-for-6 on late free-throws. Make two of those, & the fear prolly doesn't get to Lazar Hayward. Simple lay-up after 3/4-court pass gets it to overtime.

Fuck.

(Also: while I want Louisville in the Final Four, a Kansas-Missouri nat'l semifinal would be all kinds of awesome. I would go to Columbia & burn a few buildings, in solidarity, even.)

I was out of town since late Friday afternoon until today so I missed your, once again, misguided outrage at perceived chest beating. I was hanging out in our 70 degree weather by a lake.

Absolutely no one argued in this thread that the SEC was bringing a Final Four team or even an Elite 8 team to the dance. I argued early in the thread that the conference got hosed by getting only 3 teams in and I still stand by that. Had Miss. St. not won the conference I would've been fine with UT, LSU, South Carolina, and Auburn getting in.

I think the Tourney format pretty much screwed them because some cinderella's won their tourneys and knocked them out. But I absolutely think SC and AU shoulda been in over Minnesota or couple of Big 10 teams. Not sure why the Big 11 escaped the kind of scorn the media put on the SEC this year. I think the teams that got in also got shafted on their seeding as well. The only one I'll eat crow on is Miss St. I drank the Kool-aid on them but LSU won a game and took UNC inside 2 minutes and UT lost one at the wire. All this is splitting hairs really because there are going to be 63 losers in this tournament but before the first ball was tipped I think the SEC's bubble teams were screwed.

But enjoy it while you can Montague. The Big East is enjoying a good tourney but there have been plenty of years when the conference was on a millk carton.


I'm now on board the UNC train.[/i]

Double post.

Also, what do any of you think is the significance of all #1 seeds making it to the Final Four last year and every 1-3 seed still in the tourney this year. The mid-majors, for the most part, have been non-factors.

FemDerris and I had a discussion about this at dinner last night. Is parity dipping? I heard the selection committee is now putting the higher seeds closer to home, not just the #1 seeds. Is that a factor?

Where are the One Hit Wonder programs this year? Remember Greg Oden and OSU? Yeah they got in the tourney but nothing on the level of their Championship game run.

Just some questions rattling around....

That's the first thing that popped into my head when I sat down and actually looked at the remaining teams. Only 1 double-digit seed and a #5 seed (Purdue) are the outliers from just starting out with a 16-team tournament. Match this year with last year's all #1's Final Four, and I'm at a loss to explain how this is happening.

I mean, at first glance, it doesn't seem that extraordinary, but this is the first time EVER that all #1-3 seeds made it from all four regions. And last year was the first time EVER that all #1's made the Final Four. How has it never happened before? Is it just a strange coincidence?

VCU's anthony grant is reportedly looking at a big pile of money to go to alabama, but if I was him, I'd want that Kentucky job somethin' FIERCE.

It be that the NCAA is getting better at rating teams and assigning seeds. Even if that were so, I'd still expect an upset once in a while... and there really haven't been any.

I think it's waaay too soon,but I've heard several different people mention Travis Ford at OSU. Maybe only because he's a UK guy.
That said,Grant is gonna get paid somewhere.

i think that's part of the reason they are getting the glowing love they are getting right now, because the were shell of their former self for so long.

they are my least favorite Philadelphia team, but fuck it, go nova.

That Bama job is a black hole: no one watches Basketball, and if they do it's to complain about how much they hate it, how sorry the coach is and how they wish it was football season. No joke, on Finebaum yesterday (the highest rated radio show in the entire state, broadcast in every market from 2-6, and all sports talk) football calls out paced basketball 10-1.

This state is fucking SORRY.

Indeed. They hold the fate of my bracket in their hands.

If they get to the Final Four I probably have a 50/50 shot at winning my pool but if they go down this weekend it'll be a long shot.

ABD.

The Big East fell off in basketball in the mid-90s, when they attempted to commit to being a football conference (adding Tha U... before it warmed up on the hardwood) & lost a coupla coaches (John Thompson, Jr., at GU; Rollie Massimino losing his mojo at 'Nova), but even in that the Pitt programme (which I hate more than SEC football) was building it's head of steam, Boston College pulled off a run to the Elite Eight ('94 or '95?), & St. John's weathered the retirement of Lou Carneseca -- before it all blew up when it came out that Mike Jarvis was a creep.

Now, with the addition of the stronger C*USA teams -- outside of Memphis, & I suppose UNC-Charlotte -- the conference should be secure for awhile (even for the lose of BC, Va Tech, & Miami). Georgetown fell off, due youth, this year, & St. John's is a hole, still, but in a given year, I suspect, at least three schools from among Louisville, West Virginia, Pitt, 'Nova, Marquette, Connecticut*, Providence, & G'town should be in the top 15 nationally.


*Also won a nat'l championship in the late 90s, to go with the aforementioned BC run. Question, then -- when was the Big East down?**

**& an SEC question: chance of Billy Donovan winning a third nat'l title, at UF (or anywhere else)? Got Florida to the title game in '00, then won 'em in '06 & '07. So, over 8 years, three final game appearances. This compares favourably to Bob Knight's record at IU: nat'l titles in '76, '81, '87, with last final four in '91. Over nineteen years, starting in '73, three titles, &, I think, two other final four. & at Duke, Krzyzewski got the Devils to their first final (with him) in '86, with his next nine over the course of 19 years. So, a lot more than Donovan -- though only one more title -- but even so, he's fallen off. I say BD has to win his next one in the next four years, then. How was his recruiting class this year, then?

i think donovan ends up in the nba one of these years.

I think you answered your own question. The 90's are when they were down. I don't consider one Elite 8 run and 1 Nat'l Championship being dominant. UConn kept that league relevant for years. I base all that on the 80's when the Big East was almost guaranteed to have a team in the Final Four almost every year with GU, Louisville, Nova, UConn all being perennial contenders.

As for Billy D, the issue is assistant coaching IMO. They got the #1 recruiting class in '07, a top 10 class in '08 and are working on another good one this year. So it's not the players and I don't think he just forgot how to coach. He has had his coaching staff raided over the past couple of years with Anthony Grant, John Pelphrey, and Donnie Jones all now heading up DI programs. All former assistants.

Prolly so. But I think the window is still narrowing.

& since I mentioned Rat-face, above, I should add he's lost his share of assistants, but (at least at first) it didn't mess up the Devils's stride*.

*Unintentional steps joke. But, no, Duke never travels.

Tonight will likely tell the tale for my bracket. If Pitt and Mizzou win, look out. If they don't, I'll likely be back here later; crying on my keyboard.

If Mizzou wins, I'll be crying & completely surprised at the same time.

While I don't want it to happen, a KU-Mizzou National Semifinal would be amazing. I would expect fisticuffs between PopTodd & LooGAR, here, as well.

Xavier looks for real and Pitt is playing sloppy. I haven't seen this many air balls in a game since grade school.

I'll be officially eliminated with a Pitt defeat. I should have never picked a school whose athletic department is led by a person who was fired by Nebraska for sheer incompetence. It also doesn't help that they have never beaten a team with a seed lower than #6 in the history of their program.

Well sure Xavier blew that lead