NCAA 2nd Round Games for Sat March 18

[djcon57]

Not sure what you saw in Tennessee as they lost 6 of their last ten games b4 the NCAAT, lost their excellent PG in the process, and then beat the mighty Louisiana squad by three as they only scored 58 points. In any event good call.

I think just about everybody knew Purdue was the fugazy #1 seed. Didn't expect them to lose to FDU though.

I explained it back if you look at my posts. Duke is young. They needed to avoid experience early

 

[Day2]

Maybe Duke will be just another team under Scheyer after all.

Solid coaching from Barnes closing this out. Dennis Gates owned him this year, though.

 

[bpo57]

Has anyone asked JB lately who's going to win the tourney?

JB liked Duke to win it all and CoC was his dark horse. Oops been one of those years for JB.

 

[GoSU96]

If you went back to playing in the actual regions like they used to, you could reseed each round. So there wouldn't be any travel issues. You can have 1/16, 4/13, 5/12, 8/9 all in one site and 2/15, 3/14, 6/11, 7/10 all in another. IMO that would be a better way to determine a champ. I hate that FAU could make a S16 by beating an 8 and a 16 seed. Or that San Diego State can by beating a 12 and a 13 seed. Or that Missouri can by beating a 10 and a 15 seed. That is more luck of the draw.

So we would have...

East
Tennessee vs FDU
Duke vs FAU
Marquette vs Michigan State (same)
Kansas State vs Kentucky (same)

South
Alabama vs Furman
San Diego State vs Maryland
Baylor vs Princeton
Creighton vs Missouri

Midwest
Houston vs Auburn (same)
Indiana vs Miami (same)
Texas vs Pitt
Xavier vs Penn State

West
Kansas vs Arkansas (same)
UConn vs Saint Mary's (same)
UCLA vs Northwestern (same)
Gonzaga vs TCU (same)

For the S16 you stay in your region but those teams are reseeded. Same for the F4 getting reseeded.


The great thing is you can still for the most part keep the brackets. Since most people fill it out digitally it is pretty easy to have the matchups auto fill.

Let's say you picked Purdue, Memphis, Tennessee, Oral Roberts, Providence, Kansas State, USC, Marquette in your bracket. Then the next round in your bracket it would be Purdue vs Oral Roberts, Tennessee vs Memphis, Marquette vs Providence, Kansas State vs USC. Next you have Purdue vs Providence and Kansas State vs Tennessee. And finally Purdue vs Tennessee, with Tennessee in the F4. So you would be 3-5 in that 1st round, still have two S16 teams left, one E8, and one F4.

A solution in search of a problem

 

[ROCcuse]

Amazing. God Bless America.

If Alabama loses tonight and UConn loses tomorrow I'll be happy however the rest of the tournament turns out.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Not sure what you saw in Tennessee as they lost 6 of their last ten games b4 the NCAAT, lost their excellent PG in the process, and then beat the mighty Louisiana squad by three as they only scored 58 points. In any event good call.

I think just about everybody knew Purdue was the fugazy #1 seed. Didn't expect them to lose to FDU though.

They lost their starting point guard late in the season. Roles had to change. As a result, they have gotten bigger and more physical. This was an example if grown men playing against freshman. You can tell how much SU has to do to get bigger and stronger. I hope Red is taking a look at his strength and conditioning program. SU has to playa more physical brand of ball.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Maybe Duke will be just another team under Scheyer after all.

Solid coaching from Barnes closing this out. Dennis Gates owned him this year, though.

They were overhyped off two weeks of play.

 

[kingtidge]

JB liked Duke to win it all and CoC was his dark horse. Oops been one of those years for JB.

My ACC loyalty...

I will root for just about any team vs. Dook... Doesn't matter who.

Maybe not G'town, but that's about it.

 

[bpo57]

I explained it back if you look at my posts. Duke is young. They needed to avoid experience early

Fair point although just about everybody is more experienced than Duke. I also took from you, maybe incorrectly, that you thought Purdue and Tenn were exceptionally strong #1 and #4 seeds. We know that's not the case with Purdue and while Tennessee looked very solid today they've not been playing well for about a month now. I do agree with you that they have a great shot to get to the F4 now.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Marquette is being slept on. They had a great season.

 

[HOFCeluck]

Pour one out for Obamas bracket

 

[crv1728]

I was in last place in my family pool, filled with idiots that never watch college hoops. Thank God they all picked Duke. I had Tennessee!. Out of the cellar now, baby!

 

[djcon57]

Fair point although just about everybody is more experienced than Duke. I also took from you, maybe incorrectly, that you thought Purdue and Tenn were exceptionally strong #1 and #4 seeds. We know that's not the case with Purdue and while Tennessee looked very solid today they've not been playing well for about a month now. I do agree with you that they have a great shot to get to the F4 now.

Was incorrect. My comment about the draw was the experience in the first and second round

 

[jncuse]

I was doing well in my money bracket on Bet365 (117th out of 90,000 brackets before today) so it sort of tempted me at times to sort of want Duke to win since I have them in the elite 8.

Usually I don't care about them, because I am nowhere close to the 99.9% percentile at any point.

Freaking brackets. Took out much of the enjoyment I should have had watching Duke lose. I'm happy to see them lose, but I should have been happier.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

I liked it when they stuck to geography. The champions of each regional would the championship team of that region of the country and you could have great post-season rivalries between the major conferences of the region. The Final Four was a meeting of champions. They ended that because of the UCLA dynasty. People though the Bruins had a competitive advantage out west. But, let's face it, those UCLA teams didn't need it. Wooden was 20-2 in the Final Four, (not counting consolation games). He had a competitive advantage over the entire country.

You would need to reduce the field, cap conferences at 5 teams to make it fair, and figure out where conferences go. Adding more quality to the NIT wouldn't be a bad thing. Look at the Europa league recently.

East (9)- Big East, ACC, America East, A10, CAA, Ivy, MAAC, NEC, Patriot

South (10)- SEC, AAC, ASUN, Big South, CUSA, MEAC, Southern, Southland, SWAC, Sun Belt

Midwest (6)- B1G, Horizon, MAC, MVC, OVC, Summit

West (7)- B12, P12, Big Sky, Big West, MWC, WAC, WCC

Those are pretty much right regionally except for the B12. They probably should be South but then the West is too weak, especially after realignment.

So this year would be something like...

East
1. Marquette vs 16. FDU
2. Xavier vs 15. Colgate
3. UVA vs 14. Princeton
4. UConn vs 13. Vermont
5. Duke vs 12. Iona
6. Creighton vs 11. Charleston
7. Miami vs 10. Providence
8. NC St vs 9. VCU

South
1. Houston vs 16. North Texas
2. Bama vs 15. Texas Southern
3. Tennessee vs 14. A&M CC
4. Kentucky vs 13. Howard
5. A&M vs 12. UNC Asheville
6. Missouri vs 11. Kennesaw St
7. Memphis vs 10. Louisiana
8. FAU vs 9. Furman

Midwest
1. Purdue vs 16. Cleveland St
2. Indiana vs 15. Indiana St
3. Northwestern vs 14. Morehead St
4. Michigan St 13. Youngstown St
5. Iowa vs 12. Bradley
6. Drake vs 11. Toledo
7. Oral Roberts vs 10. SEMO
8. Kent St vs 9. Northern Kentucky

West
1. Kansas vs 16. UC Santa Barbara
2. UCLA 15. Montana St
3. Texas vs 14. Grand Canyon
4. Zona vs 13. Utah St
5. Gonzaga vs 12. TCU
6. Baylor vs 11. USC
7. K State vs 10. Boise St
8. San Diego St vs 9. Saint Mary's


If you notice that Midwest is hard to find enough teams. The following teams would have been in the NIT instead:

ISU, MD, Arkansas, Illinois, Auburn, WV, Penn St, Miss St, Pitt, Arizona St, Nevada

Besides Iowa St those are all 8-11 seeds so it isn't the worst thing in the world to send them to the NIT, which all of a sudden is a better field.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Most fouls aren’t intentional but they are fouls none the less.You think you should be able to hit a guy in the face with the ball and it be legal?

If it is accidental 110%

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Offensive players trip guys all the time when setting illegal screens

1. They don't have the ball
2. It is an illegal screen which is a foul anyway

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Reseeding would destroy the very thing that makes the tournament great. I don’t want to hear “It would help ensure that the best teams advance.” I couldn’t care less about the “best teams.” You want to advance. Win the game in front of you.

You are winning the game in front of you either way.

Look at WV. They took a last second shot and lost to MD. And if the shot went in they would have played Bama. Instead had they been lucky they would have been placed against Memphis and then had FDU. If FAU makes the S16 it is because of luck not because they proved more than WV. Do we really want teams advancing because of the luck of the draw?

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Would be the worst decision known to man.March Madness is all about the bracket and has made the NCAA billions of dollars and to change it would be ludicrous.

There is still a bracket. Anyone with half a brain would get used to it after 2-3 years and totally forget about how it used to be.

 

[JustPherU]

There is still a bracket. Anyone with half a brain would get used to it after 2-3 years and totally forget about how it used to be.

Wow just wow.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

How many sports have had re-seeding?
I seem to remember hockey had it for a while before their current format.
Did the NBA have it for a while?

Anyway, I'm not in favour of it at the NCAA tournament.
Under a re-seeding it would be;

#4 Tennessee vs #16 FDU
#5 Duke vs #9 FAU

My 4 comments would be:
#1 FDU made the tournament fair and square. They just beat the #1 seed -- why should they not be rewarded by it?
#2 Why should a #4 seed in Tennessee get to face a #16 seed in round 2, while other 4 seeds are facing #5 seeds or #12 seeds? What did they do to earn that advantage compared to other 4 seeds.
#3. Why is the NCAA messing with changing the bracket when its what brings in the interest of so many casual fans?
#4. For $$ reasons, I don't think the NCAA has any desire to change the pod system which it would need to do.

1. A sport like BBall really should be a best of 3. That won't ever happen though.

2. If you reseed everyone you need to have a week between each round which isn't realistic. The best you can do is whomever is in your pod/sub region.

3. There will still be a bracket and when you will it in online it will auto fill. The casuals don't need to figure anything out.

4. How is the money any different? You protect the top seeds which helps with TV contracts and attendance.

 

[Orangezoo]

I explained it back if you look at my posts. Duke is young. They needed to avoid experience early

Duke has looked really good of late. The reality is - just how poor the ACC was this year is shining through

 

[upperdeck]

if you re-see you are telling the 16 seed you have to beat the 1-2-3-4 to get to semi bracket.. They got the better draw by beating the best team they should get some reward

and the reverse, why should the 1 seed get to the play the 16-15-14-13 if upsets happen?

 

[upperdeck]

Duke being 8-8 when they dont have their top 7 players is a telling stat on how little depth they actually have for all the talent they recruited

 

[Orangezoo]

Arkansas can keep Musselman. Obviously he can recruit with all that SEC money but his tactics and leadership.. meh. Such an undisciplined team.