NCAA Tournament Thread

[hoosiers]

I'm gonna take a wild guess that you are an Indiana fan, judging by your handle.

That being said, I've been a VCU fan since the early 90's during the Sonny Smith era. Looking forward to a good game tomorrow!

I am an IU undergrad who grew up in Maryland - looking forward to the game tomorrow. Was impressed with the pressure brought against Wichita State and worry about IU's lack of a real point guard and about VCU's pick and roll. IU really struggled defending the p&r - particularly in the loss at Nebraska. The past three years have brought so much losing it is difficult to envision winning big games and easy to worry the VCU defensive pressure will overwhelm. IU is about a 6 point favorite. Out of conference, IU has covered eight straight while VCU is 8-2. Hopefully, it will be a good game.

[ccbird]

Anybody who had Duke or Mizzou in the Final Four deserves to have their bracket busted. I had Duke out in the round of 16 in all my brackets and Florida beating Mizzou in a few brackets. There were also a couple where I had Missou in the Elite 8 but I hated doing it. It was more of not believing at all in Marquette or Murray St. I think Florida probably comes out of the bottom of that draw now.

[PrivateO]

Preach it, Charles!

Refs made the right calls.

[glenn__davis]

I'll say this about SG. He loses with grace. Being an O's fan must transcend other sports.

Yeah, much as I hate that he's a Duke fan, I do legitimately feel a little bad for SG when they lose.

Use to feel the same about Frobby as well, but after his performance on the Terps board this year, not so much.

As for a poster like Pushmonkey, well, their grief only adds to our joy.

[glenn__davis]

Refs made the right calls.

Congrats to your team. I am by no means a fan, but I always find myself pulling for Xavier for some reason.

[Pushmonkey]

Yeah, much as I hate that he's a Duke fan, I do legitimately feel a little bad for SG when they lose.

Use to feel the same about Frobby as well, but after his performance on the Terps board this year, not so much.

As for a poster like Pushmonkey, well, their grief only adds to our joy.

Glad I can bring joy. A fan is a fan. I live in MD so I do follow MD basketball, home town team, I want to see MD be a success and the only time I don't want them to win is when they play Duke. Not sure why the hate toward me, but whatever floats people's boat.

[Dr. FLK]

Plumlee is 9-9....how does he only get 9 shots?

Duke's offense had dreadful spacing all night long. Quiet a few times, they dumped the ball down into Plumlee and Lehigh immediately collapsed 2 or 3 guys on him. The G were all so close to him, that LU could collapse so quickly. And, if Plumlee went back outside, the spacing was poor enough that LU could recover in time.

And did anyone else notice that Rivers played the entire game with his pouty face on? It's like he was mad that Lehigh's guards dared to take him to the rim...over, and over again.

[EagleOriole]

Always a thing of beauty to watch Duke lose...interesting "off-season" ahead for them. Will Mason Plumlee leave? Will "overrrated" Rivers go? Not all is well in K-ville.

[PrivateO]

I posted last night? Haha but seriously, those were the right calls to end the game. Here's a good explanation: http://floppingout.com/questionable-lane-violation-to-end-notre-damexavier-game/

I don't like the rule because they don't call it until crucial moments in most games and I think they should change it, but rules are rules.

Now we just really need to beat Lehigh. A Sweet 16 after this rollercoaster season would be unbelievable. Beating Notre Dame on St. Patty's Day was fantastic.

[mweb]

I don't think anyone is arguing that they aren't technically the right calls. Some just think they should not have been called.

[PrivateO]

I don't think anyone is arguing that they aren't technically the right calls. Some just think they should not have been called.

I can agree with that. I think the lane violation is definitely suspect. But, if a player's jersey is tugged (ie Wells), that is an intentional.

[Sports Guy]

Anybody who had Duke or Mizzou in the Final Four deserves to have their bracket busted. I had Duke out in the round of 16 in all my brackets and Florida beating Mizzou in a few brackets. There were also a couple where I had Missou in the Elite 8 but I hated doing it. It was more of not believing at all in Marquette or Murray St. I think Florida probably comes out of the bottom of that draw now.

Duke should have won last night and if Kelly was back on Sunday(which I have to think he would NOT have been), they had a good chance of beating Xavier, even though Holloway would have had a field day with them.

But unless Colorado beats Baylor, it was unlikely Duke gets past them because of the matchup issues.

I said it before the season, Duke was going to struggle on the perimeter defensively. I think Pushmonkey's analysis is way off base in this thread but the one thing I will say about Coach K and this team is that he did a poor job of adjusting defensively. He is a man to man coach and I know how coaches get in their minds that this is how I do things and I am not changing but K should have used the zone a lot. He learned it from Boeheim with the Olympic teams and should have taken advantage of it this year. I thought that was poor on his part but he probably did have some reason that I just don't see.

Kelly was just so important to them. As I said after they lost to FSU, he was the most important player on the team. He changes the game for them on many levels and not having him just killed them. I feel they get to the ACCT final with him and to at least the sweet 16.

Without him, they just have too many guys who aren't offensive threats and if any of their other offensive threats have an off night, they were going to struggle to win games.

They lost Irving, Smith and Singler off of last year's team. They lacked leadership and experience on this team..which is to be expected when you lose that type of talent. It is really amazing, when you look back at things, that this tea, won 27 games, had a #2 seed and beat the teams that they beat this year.

Last night, they ran into a team that wanted it more and had the best player on the court. Its embarrassing and its awful that they lose that game but at some point, you have to also respect the fact that Lehigh had talent and played a great game...they beat a lot of top teams last night playing the way they did.

As for Mizzou...they were always a paper champ....Very overrated IMO. Their coach isn't good and I knew that was going to hurt them.

Its funny but Duke and Mizzou were very similar this year...3pt shooting, effecient offenses that couldn't play defense...For Duke, they just lacked the athletes to play defense...for Mizzou, they lacked the coaching.

I had Florida beating them and coming out of that side of the bracket anyway...of course, I had them playing Memphis, so that's out the door.

[Sports Guy]

Duke's offense had dreadful spacing all night long. Quiet a few times, they dumped the ball down into Plumlee and Lehigh immediately collapsed 2 or 3 guys on him. The G were all so close to him, that LU could collapse so quickly. And, if Plumlee went back outside, the spacing was poor enough that LU could recover in time.

This was a big reason why Kelly being out really hurts this team.

And did anyone else notice that Rivers played the entire game with his pouty face on? It's like he was mad that Lehigh's guards dared to take him to the rim...over, and over again.

I hope he stays...He may be a lottery pick but the kid needs some maturity. Last night, he was like I can't believe we lost to a bleeping 15 seed and things like that. I didn't have a problem with it because you don't know his tone, facial expressions, etc....but that's not the type of talk you hear from mature college athletes. Its not that it bothers me, it just shows that he has things to work on and maybe needs to be humbled some.

[waroriole]

Good grief. It's the SECOND round of the tournament. Those first 4 games don't count. They're play-in games.

[Goop]

I am an IU undergrad who grew up in Maryland - looking forward to the game tomorrow. Was impressed with the pressure brought against Wichita State and worry about IU's lack of a real point guard and about VCU's pick and roll. IU really struggled defending the p&r - particularly in the loss at Nebraska. The past three years have brought so much losing it is difficult to envision winning big games and easy to worry the VCU defensive pressure will overwhelm. IU is about a 6 point favorite. Out of conference, IU has covered eight straight while VCU is 8-2. Hopefully, it will be a good game.

Yep, I expect a good game too. With IU's ability to score a lot and VCU'S defensive pressure, it should be pretty competitive.