2014-15 NCAA Basketball Thread

Nice calls BB.

- Colorado State could make a case for themselves over e.g. UCLA.

- Okla. St. in at 18-13? Some others more deserving.

- G'town as a #4 seed while Xavier's a #6 seed? Not sure about that one either - the unpredictable, up and down Hoyas should've been more of a #5/#6 seed - will play E. Wash. at Portland, essentially a home game for E. Washington who should be thrown out of the NCAA altogether for that bloody abortion of a football field of theirs. Btw, EWU alum Colin Cowherd made a donation towards the Roos Football Field 'upgrade' - another reason to dislike that tool.






- Boise St. can gripe about having to play Dayton at Dayton but at the same time, the A10 overall got little respect as Dayton should not have had to play that game in the first place. If Davidson (as an #11 seed) got blown out by VCU in the A10 semis, while Dayton hung tough with VCU in the finals, the Flyers deserved better than e.g. another #11 seed, Texas, who continues to get more "benefit of the doubt" 2nd chances or more 'lives' than a cat from people.

- Oklahoma #3 seed: another up and down team whose #3 seed is somewhat questionable. Did well in the conference tourney, but had a slew of road losses one of which was to Creighton who was a bottom dog-like 4-14 in the Big East.

- Harvard vs. UNC. Too many ready-made jokes regarding this 'oil-and-water' matchup. Suffice to say, guess who's the 'oil' ?

- Northern Iowa #5 seed: dunno about that #5 seed; they're the Gonzaga of the Midwest schedule-wise. Games of note included losses to VCU, Witchita State and .......... Evansville????

- 'Nova got a little bit of the shaft since they got probably the toughest #2 seed (UVA) in their bracket (despite the late love for #2 seed Arizona).

- Little local: Manhattan vs. Hampton. Ok, but should they win did they have to be in UK's bracket? ; )

+110%. Been calling for his lacquered scalp for months. He blows. Get Mark Jackson or go raid thje Jaspers (again) for Masiello, I don't care what he puts on his resume' : )

With Obekpa, I'd have bet St. John's over SDSU. Now with them already depth-strapped and missing their best presence down low, they're history. Bad ending to an underachiving stretch for Lavin and his 'nice recruiting' class. SDSU ends up playing Duke, in Charlotte, NC. Bye Aztecs...

 

Harvard owned up to it and dealt with it. They don't have front-running enablers synchophantically running P.R. interference for them.

Harvard: upon completion of their investigation, they brought charges to those who were guilty which included forcing over 70 to withdraw from the school.

UNC: put pressure instead on the whistleblower -- vs. those guilty.

Mary Willingham: "
“I have a grievence in play. I’ve been retaliated against,” she said. “My work environment is not pleasant. I’m treated differently than other employees in my unit and in the unit around me.”

Joel Curran, vice chancellor for communications and public affair (this 'bottom line' dirtbag pretty much says it all):
“We’re moving on regardless of what her (Willingham's) status is.”

_________________________________________________

St. John's: that wasn't a mediocre team in terms of talent. Lavin's underachieved over the course of his stay in Queens, NY. You don't follow St. John's or the Big East outside of paying (very hollow) "I hope they get in" lip service that's occassionally shoehorned in--however disengenuously--vis a vis the usual Big East bashing, so anything "Big East" from you in all honesty should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Harvard vs. UNC .... man the selection committee has a great sense of humor

 

Dayton playing at home is BS, but it's joke that they are included in the "last 4 in" in the first place.. .they should've been a 8 or 9 seed

Those looking for a potential early Gonzaga "upset"???.. vs. Davidson in the round of 32.
Davidson can shoot the lights out on any given night and I'm not so sure there's much of talent gap there

 

Oh I can. It's their lying that I can't : )

"That doesn't mean that North Carolina is without penalties. The findings agreed upon so far by North Carolina from an independent report may be the deepest and most troubling NCAA academic fraud case ever."

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...cuses-ncaa-case-revealed-about-academic-fraud

 

Wow, great suggestion on Mark Jackson. He is perfect for our school. Dude got let go by Golden State for preaching God and obviously as a alum and a our school being a Catholic University. He is a great leader and teacher for our kids.

Wonder what is Lavin's contract situation and I wonder if Mark would even be interested in pulling a Jim Harbaugh, imagine if Lou Carnaseca convinces him

 

I guess the head of committee was quoted somewhere as saying Dayton was the last team yet there was no debate about UCLA. I think Temple has a better gripe than Colorado State and IMO both deserved in over UCLA. I get that they emphasize SOS and this new bullshit with the eye test if UCLA's performances OOC against Gonzaga, UNC, Kentucky, Alabama and Oklahoma the eye test says they suck. Wow they beat Long Beach State!!! Hey they only lost those 5 OOC games by about 90 combined points.

They also beat Oregon and Utah. Those are their 2 best wins and they also lost on the road to those teams by 18 and 32 points respectively.

Dayton has a gripe absolutely. They shouldn't be in that game but the committee has to make sure the smaller schools take out as many of each other they possibly can so as few as possible get through.

IMO the 2 play in games should have been

BYU/BSU
Temple/Ole Miss

I understand Colorado State has a high RPI but IMO they didn't challenge themselves OOC. They played some good mid majors but they lacked any games against power conference schools. I love the MW but I have no issue with them getting left out.

 

I thought the committee did a poor job. Virginia was better than Duke and somehow got seeded lower. Arizona was also better than Duke.

Indiana had no business getting in.

And as usual, the play in games made no sense. Some of the teams in the play in games were clearly better than teams that were placed right into the 64 team bracket.

You're going to tell me Indiana and UCLA are better than BYU? BYU forced into a play-in game, UCLA and Indiana skated right into the tourney.

Georgia getting a 10 seed? They should've been on the bubble.

Some other atrocities:

Michigan State and Wichita State only getting 7 seeds, Ohio State getting a 10 seed, Utah getting a 5 seed, and Texas getting an 11 seed. All deserved better.

I think Virginia wins the East. I have Louisville making the Sweet 16 and losing to Villanova.

 

Kentucky and 3 two seeds is what I wound up with.

 

I agree with all of that. Indiana & UCLA were the worst.

Every year a big deal is made about the snubs but the seeding is the worst part. That's why we see so many wacky "upsets" in the early rounds, sometimes they aren't upsets, they are just the NCAA doing a horrendous job in seeding

 

Yes, and a good way to see it is when the oddsmakers release lines. This year and last year a bunch of lower seeded teams are/were favored to win their matchups. This is mostly because the committee really has no idea how to seed teams. Aside from 8/9 games (it's more excusable there), it's pretty obvious that in every first round matchup the higher seeded team should be favored to win, but that hasn't been the case. 10s favored over 7s, 11s favored over 6s, some of the 4s and 5s are only small favorites, etc.

They make a few mistakes in terms of setting the field, but that's fairly easy because of all the auto bids and the obvious teams. For that, they just have a few decisions.

Seeding is a lot more complex and they're ill-equipped for the task.

 

The other three tournaments are using a 30 second shot clock this year, as the NCAA tests it out. I guess we could see that implemented for the NCAA tournament next year if they like what they see.


Long time coming.