First 2009 March Madness thread

[horseofcourse]

Originally Posted by philcski

This is true. However, at the time, Xavier was FAR FROM a tournament lock. They were 10-9 at one point in the season before going on a tear starting with beating their crosstown rivals Cincinnati, but despite that huge win their profile was shaky because of some bad losses and a very moderate record. They HAD to win that game or sweat out the bubble to even get in the tournament at 20-11. I watched almost every St. Joe's game that year and they hardly even showed up for the game.

I stand by my statement that the A-10 is notorious for having their top seeds flame out when they are locks. I would do it too to get multiple bids.

Of course Xavier was not a lock in '04, in fact they probably weren't in at all if they didn't win the A10 tourney that year...I think that played more a role in their beating St Joe's than St Joes losing on purpose.

[philcski]

Give me 5th place West Virginia and 6th place Syracuse over any 5th and 6th place teams in any other league. MAN these teams are good, I'm fired up to go to the Garden tomorrow.

[philcski]

Originally Posted by horseofcourse

Of course Xavier was not a lock in '04, in fact they probably weren't in at all if they didn't win the A10 tourney that year...I think that played more a role in their beating St Joe's than St Joes losing on purpose.

I think you're missing my point... there's a HUGE financial incentive for the league if the top seed is a lock for an at-large to lose in their conference tournament... and 95% of the time the seed hit doesn't matter... and the A-10 is notorious for having head-scratching results in their conference tournament, even if you don't think my '04 example makes sense.

On that sentiment, Gonzaga did a disservice to the WCC by steamrolling St. Mary's in the final the other day.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by philcski

I think you're missing my point... there's a HUGE financial incentive for the league if the top seed is a lock for an at-large to lose in their conference tournament... and 95% of the time the seed hit doesn't matter... and the A-10 is notorious for having head-scratching results in their conference tournament, even if you don't think my '04 example makes sense.

On that sentiment, Gonzaga did a disservice to the WCC by steamrolling St. Mary's in the final the other day.

I get what you are saying and it makes sense from the perspective of the league that they would want that to happen. But not from the player perspective. You can't tell these players to go out and not give it their best for the benefit of the league. It just doesn't work that way. For one, I think you'd be surprised to learn that for a lot of big time schools, the number one goal of the season is to be the conference champion. Not saying that they don't want to win the national title but the conference championship is a much more realistic goal. These schools in your conference are who you are recruiting against and it's a big deal to be able to say that every year, you have a strong chance to be conference champion and be in the running for national champ. I don't think this can be underestimated. Take a situation like in the ACC with Duke, UNC, NC St, and Wake all being so close to each other. These players constantly see each other in the offseason. Bragging rights are huge and you have them when you are conference champ. Same thing up in the Big East where a lot of the prime players come from the area between NY and DC. Florida or Kansas can win the national championship but that conference championship is very important in the regional areas.

Stunning Big 12 report:

Texas ATM, up 50-29 at halftime,
lost to Texas Tech 88-83. A bench player
scored a Big 12 tournament record
43 points, including a stretch where
he scored 29 in a row. Turgeon
says his team just quit. And they
should not be thinking about any
tournaments right now.

If ATM does not get in because of
at large bids getting scarce, would
this surprise after a loss for a team
that was not a shoo-in?

Aggies proving what Aggies are.

[ateamstupid]

Stop it. A&M is in.

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Stop it. A&M is in.

You need to inform Mark Turgeon.

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by pgardn

You need to inform Mark Turgeon.

All he said is they're not as comfortable as they would've been with a win last night. He says he still thinks they're in, and they are.