First 2009 March Madness thread

[gales0678]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

Same thing people said the year they beat Illinois. When you have much better players across the board than your opponents, chances are that you'll win more than you'll lose. That's the case with UNC. They have better players than any team in the country top to bottom. It's that simple. They play enough defense. People are acting like they need to slow the game down and beat teams 50-48 if they want to win. That's just not true. Look at the team they won the title with a couple of years ago. Look at the Memphis and Kansas teams that played in the final last year. You have to be able to score the ball to win and they have the best offense in the country and play enough defense to get the job done. For me, the key is not how they play defense throughout the game but how they play it in stretches when it counts the most. There's no way this team is an early exit team.

i agree no early exit , but , not lock in the final 4 either

[SniperSB23]

So, tough to see St Marys getting in now. Neutral court wins over Providence and San Diego St help as well as the bracket buster win over Utah St. But they didn't show up against Gonzaga last night and have the neutral court loss to bottom of the bubble UTEP. Not sure if the resume is there. Mills might need to pour in 50 in that game they added this week against some crappy Big Sky team to show he's 100% for them to even get serious consideration.

BTW, was pretty funny last night when I was at the bar and they did one of the blind comparisons. Since it was before the Siena game I looked at the comparison and was like, 'oh, that's stupid to compare Siena and Niagara, obviously Siena looks a lot better'. Then they put up the teams and it turned out to be Siena and South Carolina. So I'm willing to reconsider South Carolina but I still have a tough time seeing them be left out with even one win in the SEC tourney.

[jwkniska]

86 Cincy from the NCAA's. they just got beat in the first round of the Big East by 10 by DePaul (0-18 in big east and 0 for 2009 prior to it)

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by jwkniska

86 Cincy from the NCAA's. they just got beat in the first round of the Big East by 10 by DePaul (0-18 in big east and 0 for 2009 prior to it)

They had a lot of work to do to get themselves back in consideration but that is just pathetic. They'll have a tough time getting a high seed in the NIT at this point.

Wonder if the bubble will sort itself out like it has the potential to. All of the following are likely to happen:

Minnesota beat Northwestern
Florida beats Arkansas
South Carolina beats Miss State
New Mexico beats Wyoming
Michigan beats Iowa
Penn St beats Indiana

Then you'd just need two minor upsets to occur and your field is pretty clear:
Arizona beats Arizona St
San Diego St beats UNLV

Either of those lose and it opens to door for UNLV or USC to play themselves in. Could be as easy a bubble to figure as you'll ever see. Of course they call this March Madness for a reason, the likely seldom happens.

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by jwkniska

86 Cincy from the NCAA's. they just got beat in the first round of the Big East by 10 by DePaul (0-18 in big east and 0 for 2009 prior to it)

Cincinnati was already finished after losing to South Florida and Seton Hall to finish the season. Good for DePaul.

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Cincinnati was already finished after losing to South Florida and Seton Hall to finish the season. Good for DePaul.

Bad for Providence. They had a slim chance of getting in if they beat Cincy but beating Depaul will do nothing for them. Now they have to beat Louisville to even have a chance. Big Ten could get 8 of 11 in while the Big East only gets 7 out of 16, so bizarre.

[jwkniska]

Originally Posted by SniperSB23

Bad for Providence. They had a slim chance of getting in if they beat Cincy but beating Depaul will do nothing for them. Now they have to beat Louisville to even have a chance. Big Ten could get 8 of 11 in while the Big East only gets 7 out of 16, so bizarre.

any beat by a bubble team early in a conference tourney should get them in. big east deserves 8.

[herkhorse]

Cleveland State

[philcski]

Originally Posted by SniperSB23

Bad for Providence. They had a slim chance of getting in if they beat Cincy but beating Depaul will do nothing for them. Now they have to beat Louisville to even have a chance. Big Ten could get 8 of 11 in while the Big East only gets 7 out of 16, so bizarre.

...and I can see the Big Ten only advancing 1 team to the sweet 16, maybe even 0. Even Michigan State has flaws that a 7-10 seed could exploit.

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by philcski

...and I can see the Big Ten only advancing 1 team to the sweet 16, maybe even 0. Even Michigan State has flaws that a 7-10 seed could exploit.

Committee sometimes does weird things with the lower seeds so if any of the should be 14 seeds (North Dakota St, Stephen F Austin, Binghamton, Portland St) wound up a 15 seed then I'd say Michigan State has flaws that a 15 seed could exploit.