College Basketball Thread
 

Louisville, man my team is playing ball right now. Good bench, had well over 20 offensive rebounds today against a strong Syracuse team at Syracuse. Louisville is playing lights out ball right now.

Here is a thread to give your team some props and bragging rights for you in late March and early April.

Pitt wins it all. Mason back to the sweet 16 & checks out.

Oh yeah, Maryland out first round.

Texas should make the tournament and lose
1st or 2nd round. PG position weak, post play
weak, defensive effort good but wild. We constantly
over run shooters, no idea how to close out properly.

Oklahoma, for those that have seen them play,
have a very good starting 5 but after that... neh.

Kansas is very young.
ATM and Baylor are pretenders.
Missouri is feeling good about playing
nobody.

Pgardn's Big 12 report.
Bad year for the Big 12.

It has been a bit of a strange year to be a Tigers fan. They looked horrible in the first half @Nebraska, terrible in the last four minutes @OK State, and completely miserable against Illinois. And yet, they are 17-3 (4-1) with victories over Cal, USC, and at OK St. Basically I have no idea how good they actually are. The next two games (@KSU and vs. Baylor) should reveal a lot. They might be decent.

Best game may have been against Xavier.
A while back though.

Texas started off nicely and has just played poorly.
I am very disappointed.

young Kentucky on the improve in a very weak SEC. They have a tandem that can carry a team on a long tourney run, although I'd be happy with an elite 8 run. :D

AZ needs a real coach

Getting near the end of the first part of the
conf. schedules.

Lets see who can improve.

I wonder if Duke will die.
I dont know if they can get any better.

Louisville's been playing well and 'Mardo is another local kid that I got to see, so it's cool to watch him succeed.

Their problem is similar to that of Memphis. Very difficult to score on, but inefficient on offense. I think Louisville has a few more weapons than Memphis, but I don't think either team can score enough to get to Detroit.

I live here in l'ville and have seen them play in person several times even managed to score SWEET seat on the first row behind the Card bench. Man Pitino gets into it and he is constantly on this one poor asst. coach Machelli or something like that. But i can say that the Cards bring there defense wherever they go and that i think is huge b/c some nights it ain't your night off. but a good d will keep you in it. I think that it also helps to have 10 pretty good players on your team as well as it seems they can come in waves and the games i have been to the other team is usually struggling with about 8-9 mins to go in 2nd half. Love there defense.Go Cards!!!

I really hate the Big East. They are so overrated this year. People are mistaking what they are. They are a conference with several good teams but no great ones. There is a lot of parity there. Last night, Pitt, Syracuse, and Georgetown all lost. Some will point to that and use that as evidence that the bottom half of the league is really tough but I see it as the top half is just not that tough. I don't think any team in the Big East could win the ACC.

King - the 4 best teams in the big east are

Marquette , Pitt , Louisville, and U Conn

lumping Syracuse and G'town in with the top part of the league is not accuarte they are more in the middle of the league

Look at G'town loss at Duke , and convince me that none of the big 4 in the big east couldn't beat a duke unc or wf on a neutral court

That's arguable but certainly plausible. On the other hand though, I think Clemson would struggle to go 10-8 in the Big East.

I have hated the Big East for 20 years... UNC and Wake, are for my money, the best two teams in the county, and I'm not sure that when Wake's freshmen get a bit more experience that they won't be the team to beat.

There's no question that the ACC is better top to bottom. Still, UConn, Pitt, and Louisville are all Final Four threats, which gives the Big East as many as the ACC has. People also are sleeping on the Pac-10, which should produce 5 tournament teams and maybe up to 7 if some of the other power conferences beat themselves up.

ASU and Herb Sendek - sleeper for the final 4

I see it the opposite. I think that top to bottom, the Big East is better but the top four from the ACC are better than the top four from the Big East. I just don't understand some of the talk that I heard in the early season that the Big East this year might be the toughest conference in history. Hell, it's not even the best the Big East has seen. Remember back in the mid-80's when Georgetown, St. John's, and Syracuse were final four threats every year? I believe it was 1985 when the conference had three teams in the final four.

No way they get 7 unless they start knocking off the teams in their own league. Arizona, Stanford, and Washington St should all wind up around 8-10 or 7-11 in league so while one may step up and grab a 6th bid I can't see two stepping up and finishing .500 or better in league. And even if that happens it could be at the expense of USC. Seven would be a huge stretch. The Big Ten has a much better shot at 7.

No doubt. James Harden is the goods, and it was nice to see them win a defensive battle at Arizona last week. If they can become more consistent on that side of the ball, they're scary. I know I'll be loading up on 'em in March since they'll probably be underseeded.

they won in Pauley a couple of weeks ago (not that this UCLA team is anything special) but when kids start winning where they had always lost , they start to believe that anything is possible ...

You're probably right, though I don't think the Big 11 gets more than 5 either, and may only get 4. MSU, Purdue, Illinois and Minnesota are the only locks. What other three will go? Wisconsin is done, Penn State and Northwestern have no chance. Ohio State is the only other team I could see going from the Big 11.

I still say 5-6 teams from the Pac-10 would be a very good year, and no one's talking about it.

Ohio St is a lock at 9-9 in league. Did Wisconsin have a major injury or are you just saying they are done at 3-5 league? No reason they can't get back to 9-9 which will put their RPI right around 40 and give them a strong case. If Michigan could manage .500 in league they'd likely be in with an expected RPI around 33. Northwestern and Penn St would probably need 10-8 league to have a shot which is doubtful since their RPIs are weaker (not to mention their basketball tradition). Best case for the B10 is that Northwestern and Penn St drop off and start losing like they are supposed to.

i agree with 5-6

PAc 10 as we saw during football bowl season doesn't get much respect

ESPN has Vitale constanly pumping the ACC , as packer did when he was with CBS - media bias big time on the ACC confernce and the eastern schools in general

Even if Wisconsin does get to 9-9, they'd be 18-12 with no quality non-conference win. They have to win 20 games if they want a prayer of getting in. Ohio State has the wins over Butler and Miami (FL), so you're right, they're probably in at 9-9. Michigan would have a solid chance at 9-9 too, but I don't think they're good enough to get there.

Although that win at Virginia Tech could wind up a head to head matchup between two teams right on the bubble. You look at Wisconsin's schedule though and 10-8 is hardly out of the realm of possibility. I can't see a team go 10-8 in the B10, have an RPI around 33 and not get in.

What will be real interesting is if only 4 teams have winning records in the ACC and then those four advance to the conference semis. You have to assume one or two more get in but they are going to be tough to pick between.

That would suck

keep eye on marquette!
 

I think its wide open! Best game of year last night in duke vs wake. You can say what you want, but the big east is loaded and keeps beating each other up. Everyone talks about louisville and uconn, but what about marquette! They are undefeated and playing great. Their guards mcneal, mathews and james may be the best in the nation. With heyward playing good inside they have the ability to win it all. Playing gtown on saturday. Could be a statement game with an easy win against gtown.l

Undefeated in big east play! Also last night nova beat pitt and prov. beat the cuse. So don't tell me the big east isn't tough top to bottom.

The AFC West was pretty evenly matched this year too. Evenly matched does not automatically mean all are good.

Well when they release the 64 teams. I'll bet the big east has the most and will definetly have more than the acc. The big east is the best conference!

Having more tournament teams doesn't make a conference better.

The Big East isn't tough top to bottom. The bottom five teams are a disgrace to the game of college basketball. One through eleven it is an amazing league but those bottom five teams are terrible.

Big East will have the most teams but I also bet Notre Dame won't be among them.

Anyone else get the feeling that Missouri fans haven't seen too many good basketball games? What a bunch of whiners who are clueless about the game of basketball.

Wow, I take half that back. They are a bunch of whiners but it is totally working right now. A 5 second inbound violation called in 3 seconds, pretty funny.

If anyone wants some easy money I will put up $20 if you give me 15-1 that BOTH Kansas and Missouri lose first round in the NCAA Tourney. Both those teams are terrible and too inexperienced to handle March Madness on a neutral court. You'd likely be getting a 3 and 4 against a 13 and 14 and I'd need both to win.

I am too damn happy with the Tigers victory to take much offense at this.....but as for the fans whining, have you ever watched a basketball game where the home fans DON'T whine about the calls? What was so out of the ordinary about the way the fans reacted in that game?
That was a sweet freaking win.

The Big 12 as a whole is having a down year....no question about that. Everybody outside of Oklahoma has some serious problems.
But still, Mizzou has already beaten a fairly respectable USC team on a neutral floor, and also gave a good Xavier team absolutely everything they wanted on a neutral floor before spitting the bit in the end. They have also won several true road games this year...including last week's win at Texas.
Both KU and Mizzou have their flaws, but I think calling them both "terrible" is overstating it a bit.

The crowd was completely and totally lost at times, had no clue what the call was even when it was obvious but ultimately it worked as they got the calls later in the game they needed. No offense intended, I just wasn't impressed by either team tonight and think both are extremely susceptible on a neutral court. Oklahoma is alright but they would rip both teams to shreds.

I'll rephrase my terrible as terrible for a 3 or 4 seed.