official NCAA tournament thread

[homer]

I liked UWs odds against GU, I like them better against Davidson.

[princeginterhallhelms04]

I have memphis losing next round anyways how about a number one seed going down! go miss. st.

[BuckyTuba]

Flowers vs. Curry will be one of the most talked about matchups this week.

 

The Davidson vs. Georgetown game was awesome today. I was there http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif .

[jordanmuehl]

Well, my bracket isn't ruined, but it's not very stellar, either. Hopefully my rather gutsy picks can pay dividends in the coming rounds.

[Blazer25]

in the western kentucky game the guy dribbled down the court, passed to a wide open guy and he hit the 3 to beat Drake. Amazing how a guy with a wide open shot has a better chance of making it than the guy who is trying to go 1 on 5

Was that supposed to be in blue?

 

The kid from Western KY had 3 guys in his face and was fading away on his game winner. Hardly what I'd call a good look or even well run play.

 

Though I do agree with your premise that way too many teams abandon their offense late in the game.

 

 

 

As for Marquette, they relied very little on 3 point shot to win this year. Most of their offense came from guards going to the rim which they do as well as anyone in the country. That combined with their desire to push the ball after their defensive pressure created TO's was why they were so exciting to watch.

 

Marquette's problems this year came when they got lax on defense or when they committed turnovers. Very rarely did they live and die on the "3".

[jason21nl]

The kid from Western KY had 3 guys in his face and was fading away on his game winner. Hardly what I'd call a good look or even well run play.

the guy dribbled up the court and then passed it back, It was a perfect play. There might have been 3 guys close, but they had no chance at blocking the ball.

 

even the announcers mentioned it was a well run play.

[Blazer25]

Announcers...those guys are usually spot on.


Watch it again Jason...that thing was a prayer.

[jason21nl]

i have watched, there was a guy in the corner, and the guy behind. He was spotted up, and had a good luck. It was hardly a prayer. A prayer would have been if the guy would have not passed or what marquette did. If Crean would have drawn up a play, Marquette might have had a better chance at winning.

[Blazer25]

i have watched, there was a guy in the corner, and the guy behind. He was spotted up, and had a good luck. It was hardly a prayer. A prayer would have been if the guy would have not passed or what marquette did. If Crean would have drawn up a play, Marquette might have had a better chance at winning.

 

How can you say the W KY shot was a better play than MU's last look? Because it went in?

 

In fact it was a worse look than McNeal had at the end of regulation and I thought that was a terrible shot.

 

And you think Crean said during the timeout, "Just take it coast to coast and throw it up?" You really think he didn't call some kind of play?

[jason21nl]

Mcneals shot not only came with like 8 secs remaining it was horrible. I'll take the western kentucky shot over a guy trying to drive the lane or throwing up some junk. You pass the ball, you'll get a better look, and with a better look you have a better chance at making the shot.

[Blazer25]

See above...

 

 

And McNeal's shot was taken with about 3 sec left on the clock. There was 8 sec when they inbounded. I agree it was a terrible shot.

 

But the only difference between it and the one the kid from W KY took is that W KY's went in.

 

They were both bad looks.

[jason21nl]

mcneal shot with 6 seconds left, they had plenty of time to set up a good play so no, I don't think he set up a play. I think he probably said put the ball in Mcneals hands and he is going to take the final shot.

 

We'll have to do the agree to disagree on this one. I'll say the Western Kentucky guy got a good look and drained it with 0 seconds left. Mcneal rushed his shot big time with 6 seconds left and was a really horrible shot.

[Oldcity]

Gus Johnson is calling the UW-Davidson game! Life is complete!

[ttsather]

Gus Johnson is calling the UW-Davidson game! Life is complete!

This is the best news I have heard all day.

 

[zzzmanwitz]

1. Western KY

2. Western KY

3. MU loses to Stanford (2nd rd)

4. UW loses to Kansas (Final 8)

5. UNC, Kansas, UCLA, Texas

6. Kansas over UCLA

Solid work Homer.

[homer]

Thanks, although technically Siena was the highest seed to win in the 1st round and Western KY shares highest seed in Sweet 16 with 'Nova.

 

Hopefully I'm wrong about #4 http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[zzzmanwitz]

true, but you were the closest by far from what I read through. Agreed about #4. Go Bucky!

[fondybrewfan]

My picks:

 

UNC/WSU - North Carolina

Louisville/Tennessee - Tennessee

Kansas/Villanova - Kansas

UW/Davidson - UW

Memphis/Mich St - Michigan State

Stanford/Texas - Texas

UCLA/Western Kentucky - UCLA

Xavier/West Virgina - West Virginia

 

Regional Finals

North Carolina over Tennessee

Wisconsin over Kansas (I just cant pick against my team, ever)

Texas over Michigan State

West Virginia over UCLA

 

Final Four

North Carolina over West Virginia

Wisconsin over Texas

 

Final

North Carolina over Wisconsin

 

 

Do I think UW makes it to the final game, probably not, but I just cant bring myself to picking against them. That is unless it is against North Carolina, I just think that no one is going to beat that team.

[SeriesFinale]

UNC and Wisconsin can't play in the finals; you have your Final Four pairings wrong

[RU Rah Rah]

The media love affair with Davidson is already somewhat out of control, although they certainly deserve at least some of it for knocking off a #2. The Curry kid went for 30 and 25 -- just in the second halves of those first two games, respectively.

 

What's amazing to me, in watching discussions of the tourney on national TV, is the almost total lack of discussion about UW. I am not a crazy Badger fan (this despite having a grad degree from there), but the lack of respect seems ridiculous. This is a team with a great chance of going to at least the Elite Eight, and it's like they are not even playing.

[SeriesFinale]

I'm also surprised...this is a team that won its major conference regular-season and tourney championships, knocked off media-favorite Texas in Austin, lost only four times (all to tourney teams), has senior leadership and strong coaching, is playing the stingiest D left in the tourney, and is firing on all cylinders right now. I know they're not the most exciting or glamourous team, but I feel they have a good shot at making the Final Four and possibly beyond but the only thing close to a mention in, say, Bill Simmons' column today was how his FF pick USC lost to an "enigmatic" KSU team. "Enigmatic," almost seeming to imply that the Badgers beat the "bad" KSU team.

[pitchleague]

going back to the WKY 3-pter to win, I seem to remember thinking it was a horribly lucky, poorly-chosen final shot when I first saw the initial angle. But then they showed the same shot from the floor angle and despite having 3 guys "in his face", they really weren't. He was spotted up a good 3 or 4 feet behind the arc and had plenty of room to get the shot off, even with 3 guys jumping after his shot.

 

It wasn't the prettiest end-game play but it worked.

 

And somebody else asked if Crean just asked to "take it up the length of the court and throw up a shot" or something along those lines. I know you were joking but for those that don't realize it, sometimes, that's all a coach can do. I've seen it happen on my college team where the coach made sure the best ballhandler/shooter took it up and drove the lane while the rest cleared out. Sometimes that is the play.

 

At other times, the coach will draw out an elaborate play but since the play is based on the assumption of "X" defense, they go with it. If the defense is doing something totally different, the play either goes nowhere--fast--or the players have to adjust on the fly, resulting in some form of playground hijinks that looks haphazard. And that's what I've seen all too much this tourney.

 

When I was a coach, we had a bunch of end-game plays in our playbook, practiced them every day, and ran them like a fine-oiled machine. Unfortunately, we didn't get to use them once (we were either up big or down big) but we were prepared if we did. Would they have worked? Who knows?

[zzzmanwitz]

ESPN is dead to me. I was watching their "new predictions" last night on sportscenter. They said Kansas would win the Midwest region. Fine, I can accept that, in fact I agree they will still probably win the region, but to say they will win because (I quote) "they are the best defensive team remaining in the tournament" is downright horrible analysis. Just completely wrong. I would say there are at least 4 teams that are better defensively than Kansas (Wisconsin, Wash St., Stanford, and UCLA. I may even throw Louisville ahead of Kansas defensively). Anyways, that's my little rant. Here are my picks.

 

NC over Wash St.

Louisville over Tenn

Kansas over Nova

Wisky over Curry (and Richards)

Michigan St. over Memphis

Stanford over Texas

UCLA over W. Kentucky

WV over Xavier

 

NC over Louisville

Kansas over Wisky

Stanford over MSU

WV over UCLA

 

Kasas over NC

Stanford over WV

 

Kansas over Stanford

[homer]

per ken pomeroy, Kansas is 4th best in the country on D and 4th best in the Sweet 16 (guess who's #1?):

http://kenpom.com/stats.php?y=2008&s=12

[BuckyTuba]

In Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant's Weekly Update (not to be confused with Saturday Night Live Weekend Update), the site Vice President took out 30 seconds of his webcast to shout out to a certain Badger graduate in the Operations department who left the site VP a note asking why his Florida Gators missed making the NCAA Tournament this year.

 

The video went out to 600 plant workers. I'm sure I'll be pretty popular when I head over to the site for the first time later in the day.