NCAA Tournament Thread

[OFFNY]

Don't give them any ideas. I'd prefer they go back to 64. Stop letting teams that had seasons like UConn and Texas in the tourney. More teams like VCU and Drexel in the tourney.

Oh, I'm not necessarily advocating for 80 teams. I was simply stating what I think would be needed for it to be a bonafide round of games.

[waroriole]

Oh, I'm not necessarily advocating for 80 teams. I was simply stating what I think would be needed for it to be a bonafide round of games.

Gotcha. You definitely need more than 4 games to call it the 1st round. When only 11% of the teams play, you can't call it a round.

[glenn__davis]

Never said I was rooting for Duke to lose, of course I wasn't. But if they were going to be a fairly early out in the tournament (and in my opinion, that has been their destiny for months), they may as well lose in the first round so the Duke-haters can enjoy it. And I mean that.

As to your accusation that I was trolling the Terps board, please show me the posts you consider trolling. I hope you realize that I grew up rooting for the Terps, and still root for them when they're not playing Duke.

Virtually all of your posts were nothing but criticisms of MD fans for complaining about the refs. Including in a thread in which you yourself admitted you hadn't watched the game at all. I respect you as much as any other poster on this board, but most of your posts were nothing more than troll posts.

I try to be respectful of others' opinions. I pride myself on being able to see things from the other side. But that means when a post rubs me the wrong way, it really rubs me the wrong way.

I should also add that 4 out of 5 people in my house right now are sick, including myself, and I've slept about 5 hours in the past 48. So I'm a bit cantankerous right now.

[waroriole]

Great game. I like both of those teams. It's a shame they both couldn't advance. Shaka Smart really gets everything out of his guys.

[crissfan172]

Great win for Indiana and a tough loss for VCU. VCU ran the final play to perfection, just didn't make the shot.

[Goop]

I gotta calm down and collect my thoughts, but I will say what a hell of a game for both VCU and Indiana. Gotta give credit to Indiana, they played a great game.

[beaner]

Kudos to VCU on a terrific run the past two tournaments. Hope Shaka stays, but wouldn't be shocked if he gets offered the Illinois job ASAP.

Let's also hope Tyler joins his brother in the sweet 16 tomorrow...College Basketball is better when Indiana is relevant, congrats to them.

Really fun tourney as always, though my bracket was shot on Thursday.

[OFFNY]

Kudos to VCU on a terrific run the past two tournaments. Hope Shaka stays, but wouldn't be shocked if he gets offered the Illinois job ASAP.

Let's also hope Tyler joins his brother in the sweet 16 tomorrow...College Basketball is better when Indiana is relevant, congrats to them.

Really fun tourney as always, though my bracket was shot on Thursday.

You talk too much. That's already your third post in the last week. Cut it out.

[Goop]

Ok, now that my blood pressure has returned to normal...

Hell of a game. No doubt about it, Indiana can shoot the ball! Also VCU had trouble defending the inside game, especially early on. Indiana has some tough guys to defend in the paint. When Reddic got in foul trouble, that hurt. Haley is good, but he's a lot slower than Reddic is.

We lived and died by the 3 point shot all season, and tonight was no different. We got plenty of good looks, but just couldn't make them. Free throws killed us too. I thought our defense looked good except we didn't get as many points off turnovers as we should have.

All in all a fun game to watch and congrats to Indiana for the win. This season far exceeded my expectations. After losing four seniors off of last years Final Four squad, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the program. Most wins in school history, a CAA tournament championship, a birth to the Big Dance and a win over a 5 seed in the opening round...I'll take that in a rebuilding year! Go Rams Go!

[hoosiers]

I needed some oxygen as well.

First, wanted to call out Goop for the pre-game good wishes and sportsmanship in the message sent. I left home around 3:30 (otherwise I would have responded in kind) for one of my daughter's soccer games. She plays on an academy team and this is the first round of the spring NJ State Cup. Game was at 5 which means getting there for warmups at 4:15. Of course, refs are late, games starts late, and I get home around the U12 time out in the first half. My daughter's team won 4 nil and she scored - so, not an easy trade, but I'll miss some of the NCAA tourney game for that.

Strange to see IU win the straight up part of the game by so much, but have that advantage entirely negated by an inability to handle the press - Hulls was awful. I am sure it is tough to lose for VCU fans after the missed free throws and a very open three a minute or so before that. The game was there for VCU to win on their terms. Losing to a coach, fan base and team as classy as VCU would have okay with me.

Great press conference by Smart. I'd like to see him stay and build something at VCU if it is sustainable there, but otherwise maybe he can come upgrade the Big Ten coaching ranks by replacing Weber at Illanoy - a program capable of reaching a pretty high level with a good coach.

On to Kentucky. It's been a great ride this year and, while it is nearly over, it is nice to see the kids who committed to IU knowing there were 20 loss seasons in their future enjoy this little run.

[ccbird]

I wonder how the early part of his tourney compares to past years in terms of scoring since there's not much of it.

Since Thursday, there's only been 3 games that have totaled 150 points, one of which being a 1-16 blowout. That's out of 35 games!

Meanwhile, 7 games have failed to reach 120 points.

Brings me to one of my pet peeves about college basketball. I despise the 35 sec shot clock. 35 sec is entirely too long. Just going to 30 will make a big difference. If they actually went down to 25. Wow.

[beaner]

CBS created "One Shining Moment" in 1987..

In 1986, this was their closing theme, Barbara Streisand, wow. Anyway, Terps fans, look for a young Mark Turgeon at 2:04..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5fndu61HRI

[Goop]

I needed some oxygen as well.

First, wanted to call out Goop for the pre-game good wishes and sportsmanship in the message sent. I left home around 3:30 (otherwise I would have responded in kind) for one of my daughter's soccer games. She plays on an academy team and this is the first round of the spring NJ State Cup. Game was at 5 which means getting there for warmups at 4:15. Of course, refs are late, games starts late, and I get home around the U12 time out in the first half. My daughter's team won 4 nil and she scored - so, not an easy trade, but I'll miss some of the NCAA tourney game for that.

Strange to see IU win the straight up part of the game by so much, but have that advantage entirely negated by an inability to handle the press - Hulls was awful. I am sure it is tough to lose for VCU fans after the missed free throws and a very open three a minute or so before that. The game was there for VCU to win on their terms. Losing to a coach, fan base and team as classy as VCU would have okay with me.

Great press conference by Smart. I'd like to see him stay and build something at VCU if it is sustainable there, but otherwise maybe he can come upgrade the Big Ten coaching ranks by replacing Weber at Illanoy - a program capable of reaching a pretty high level with a good coach.

On to Kentucky. It's been a great ride this year and, while it is nearly over, it is nice to see the kids who committed to IU knowing there were 20 loss seasons in their future enjoy this little run.

Thanks for the kind words my friend. Can't say enough good things about the IU fans, you guys are a passionate bunch with a great basketball history!

I hope Shaka stays. I know he's gonna get offers from the Power 6 schools, but he's got a good thing going at VCU. He's revered not just at VCU, but the entire city loves him. VCU is building a brand new multimillion dollar practice facility, has done numerous upgrades to the Siegel Center in recent years, and we sold out every home game this season. And the fan base is great and loves the team! Next year the team will be all players he recruited, so maybe that will keep him around. Shaka has also stated recently in an interview that he likes that he doesn't have to compete with football here. If he does decide to leave, then I would wish nothing but the best for him and hope that Norwood Teague can find us another great coach!

Good luck against Kentucky. I'm tired of hearing about them so I'll be pulling for you guys to take them out!

[crissfan172]

Brings me to one of my pet peeves about college basketball. I despise the 35 sec shot clock. 35 sec is entirely too long. Just going to 30 will make a big difference. If they actually went down to 25. Wow.

Oddly enough, one of my pet peeves about the NBA is the 24 second shot clock because it's not nearly long enough.

[PrivateO]

Gotcha. You definitely need more than 4 games to call it the 1st round. When only 11% of the teams play, you can't call it a round.

You mean a tournament shouldn't have a 60-team bye???