Arena The Madness Has Begun!: NCAA Basketball Discussion

that's for st johns I'm guessing, yeah that was brutal

 

As my basketball crazy son said, "St. John's might as well started shooting with their eyes closed. They could not do any worse".

 

Well, we gave Texas a decent fight for a quarter and dropped 61 on them. I'll take it as a women's 16 seed.

 

Duke crushes Baylor to reach the sweet 16. Florida survives a scare from U Conn. My alma mater St. John's crashes and burns.

 

Good goddess that is why we love March Madness

 

They were robbed. The Maryland player took 3 full steps.

 

Gut-wrenching loss for the Rams! I love buzzer-beaters but not against my teams. It really shouldn't have come to that...I think CSU played better overall, but the threes weren't falling like they have been during this hot stretch. The FAR exceeded expectations this year (picked 7th in the MW)...great coaching job by Medved!

Speaking of the coach, it's already been reported that he's been hired by Minnesota. It was bound to happen...he's from MN, went to school at Minnesota, was an assistant for a year, was a candidate a few years ago. Colorado State is a high mid-major program...so often a launching pad for coaches between levels. I have a lot of family connections to the state of Minnesota. Hope he does well.

And yeah, that UConn-Florida game was fantastic!

 

Gators in the Elite 8.

 

That was ugly. But Sparty moves on!

 

Gators to the Final Four.

 

Try to temper your excitement just a bit.

 

To be fair, the Gators had a miraculous comeback there!

Lots of chalk this year!

 

Counterpoint: **** Florida

 

"Dynamite drop-in, Monte. That broadcast school has really paid off."

@Psych_Jedi The portal/NIL might have killed the mid major Cinderellas at least in it being something you can count on almost every year. If a mid major starts showing some talent, a struggling big conference school can just got out and buy a bunch of players from it.

And look while that is awful for college sports, I cannot blame the kids for taking the $$$ especially since these schools show zero loyalty to them. In particular their coaches. These dudes are not even bothering to leave once the season ends they are bolting during the tournament!

 

Fair point.

Yeah, I agree with that. My Colorado State Rams were a buzzer-beater away from being the top cinderella...and they're really a high mid-major. I think mid-major runs will be more rare...though sometimes the talented players are revealed during such runs. But yeah, it's the big money conferences now. And yeah, the transfer timing is crazy (same thing in college football--during the bowl season).

 

Duke to the Final Four!! First for Jon Scheyer as a head coach.

 

Duke rolls Alabama by 20. Nice try SEC. Next.

 

I picked Duke to win it because of their Defense. Duke’s perimeter defense is off the charts good and set up to make their opponents really work hard at getting open 3’s. I think that coaches will be taking note, and be implementing this in the future.