Hackett: do you like Len Elmore's picks? Len Elmore ESPN analyst | @LenElmore Final Four: North Carolina, Gonzaga, Virginia, Wichita State National Champion: Gonzaga all of espn's "expert" picks: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...-final-four-national-champion-ncaa-tournament even Vitale has Gonzaga over duke. of those experts 8 have Gonzaga reaching FF, 4 have 'Nova
Hey Junc, all joking aside, and I REALLY want your honest answer here... Let's say we lived in a Bizzaro world where the ACC had the same quality year as the WCC. UNC gets a 2 Seed, Would you be concerned that they did not play a top 64 tournament bound team in 100 days?
of course. I feel being tested is a big part of being a top team. Does that mean Gonzaga cannot win? No but I think it does hurt them. I don't think UK was tested much either, I think the SEC was wildly overrated almost trying to reinforce UK's dominance but UK is obviously the huge favorite. The great thing about this tourney(and sometimes crappy thing if you have a top team) is any team can be picked off any game outside of the 1 vs. 16 and that will happen at some point(maybe duke this year?). The bets team rarely wins it all in CBB.
I agree with this totally, although you can not compare Gonzaga's out of conference schedule with Kentucky's.
Hard to see a situation where I'd pick Duke for the FF, especially when they're a #1. Duke has probably underperformed its seeding more than any other school in the past 10 years. I could see them losing to SD State. Not all years are created equal. Some years there's a clear dominant choice. In those years, they win at least 40% of the time, I'd say. No one would ever agree on what constitutes a clear dominant choice, but UK this year qualifies. Kentucky would be favored by 4+ points against any other team. I'd still put them at less than 50% to win it all, though.
I saw a stat on coaches in the Tourney and since 2000 K is in the bottom 5 vs. seed expectation. People still have this 80s/90s perception of duke for some reason. they have made 1 FF in last decade and just 4 in last 2 decades. w/ all that said I think this team is better built to make a run than any they have had in recent years and they have a cakewalk until the elite 8.
I hope for similar results against duke. good teams? sure but teams duke should easily beat if they are playing reasonably well. they should have been a 6-7 seed, instead they got a 4. I will be surprised if they win a game in this tourney. according to RPI GU had 12th toughest sched behind duke. according to BPI 5th toughest.
OK, so let's do it. If North Dakota State AND Georgetown win, I win If Gonzaga AND Eastern Washington win, you win. Any other combination is a push. Deal?
