NCAA Conference And National Tournament Thread - Lets Get It On!

[The Nid Hog]

Nah, you forgot the Dook jab so your correction is null. Besides, it still does not negate that K is the best coach in the NCAA. Yeah, as a Kansas fan I can say that because it is the truth. I still like it when you go home early.

Cheesrs, Todd

Coach K is a heck of a coach and he regularly puts together great teams out of kids that just aren't that good as individual athletes. I think that's pretty remarkable and it shows how dependent they are on him.

Not to derail the thread, but anybody interested in the Carolina/Duke rivalry should check out this book. One of my buddies told me that if you buy it outside of the general Chapel Hill area, it has a different cover. It isn't as good a book about sports obsession as, let's say, Fever Pitch, but it's a good read.

 

[whavens]

Sweet sixteen. Unfortunately it is for the opportunity to play UK again. I am happy to be going though. Been too long since IU won two games in the NCAA. Not back all the way yet, but we are coming back. I think a lot of IU fans are smiling tonight. Plus the Big Ten is making a respectful showing.

 

[Bobbers]

Go Badges!! Go big 10.

 

[Phog Allen]

No fear Nid. This is tourney time so anecdotal reference is fine. Besides, it means I am reading something other than gas bag Duke Vitale's ACC/East coast slobberings. I am sure there is a suicide watch at his house since Duck exited in the first round.

Whavens, really glad to see Indiana back in the tourney and not in some token way. It was bad enough the way they handled the Knight situation but they topped it by hiring Kelvin friggin Sampson. I was stunned and rightly concerned that a brother blueblood institution would touch this guy. His graduation rate was the worst in the Big12 and I believe the entire ncaa. Always a warning sign. Then as he departed the Sooners the debacle of innapropriate recruiting calls and other violations came and I thought to myself what has Indiana gotten itself into. It didn't take long to find out. I am so glad Tom Crean has them turning around. He is a good coach and Indiana deserved that. Hopefully you guys will be back in the top ten soon. Best of luck with Kentucky. As you well know those boys are hard to beat. I can't cheer against either team since they are both great programs so I will just congratulate whoever the winner is right now.

Now Kansas has to deal with Purdue and our history with them is not great.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Patman27]

UofL to the sweet16! They have been tough to watch games, but the effort on D has been great. Behanan and Dieng have been fantastic. I can't wait to see the Michigan St (probably) game. Any more wins by this UofL team is just icing on the cake...BEast champs...Sweet16. I'm loving this March.

I, too, am looking forward to the UK/IU rematch. It is great that IU made it to the second weekend this year and fun that UK gets a chance to prove their worth. If I lived closer to vegas, a 2 team teaser for UofL and UK might be in order. Oddest ticket of the weekend?

 

[whavens]

I tell you what, even with all his success, I felt better being an IU fan the last four years than I did while Sampson was at IU. Such a clean program, and such a dirty hire. made absolutely no sense. The administration and board at IU still have a lot of explaining to do on this one, from what I hear that hire was not the AD's to make, he was told who to hire. It really does feel good to be back, especially in a clean fashion. I love this time of year, Good luck to all that still have teams in. I guess I have 2 UofL fan. My dad was a 1951 UofL Med School grad. So I grew up watching the Cards. But of the 6 kids, 5 of us have at least one degree from IU.

 

[Phog Allen]

Well guys, my fears came true but somehow these kids pulled it out. Kansas probably should have lost the game. Purdue played supremely for most of it. The main thing that kept us in it was defense in the second half. Just as I feared they were not focused coming out of the gate and it nearly did them in. Robbie Hummel went off for 7/8 from three point land in the first half! Kansas just doesn't allow that sort of wide open shooting. Just doesn't happen. I thought Self was going to pull his hair out in great gobs. Hats off to that kid.

Here's some truth. NC State is no pushover. Their defeat of G town was not that surprising to me. Not the way they've caught fire. If KU comes out like this game they will lose by twenty. I HOPE Kansas has these ******* attack games out of their system. Good lord, they have maybe the NCAA player of the year in Thomas Robinson and one of the best pg as well. I am not slighting Purdue in the least but a thirteen loss team should not have challenged us that hard. FOCUS! It is everything. I feel we have not looked coordinated at all. Outside shooting is way off too. Our backup pg Elijah Johnson had to come off the bench with 18pts to save us. One of them a big time trey at theend of the game from WAY downtown. This does not bode well for dealing with St or UNC. I cannot deal with much more of this Heart Attack Hawks stuff. Go out and put one away!

Cheers, Todd

 

[xXClockwork]

Cincinnati! Ohio first state to put 4 teams in the sweet 16 in the same tournament.

 

[BingeAndPurge]

How 'bout them Buckeyes!

 

[xXClockwork]

How 'bout them Buckeyes!

I'm both a fan of Cincinnati and Ohio State, but was rooting for the Bearcats because I am from Cincinnati (my stepfather graduated from Ohio State). It was definitely a hard fought game.

 

[StillShaving]

Does anyone think that the CBS/TBS/TNT/True-TV sharing for the first weekend and CVS/TBS split for the second weekend takes a lot of excitement out of the air? March Madness was not only about individual teams and their last second heroics, but the sense so that many good games were being played at the same, which increased the excitement level. For those of us who have canceled cable TV service and rely on OTA broadcasting many of the games are missing. Next year I may buy the 64 game online package and not worry about cable or OTA. But to echo Troy Aikman's comments about the future of the NFL, I think this effort by NCAA to grab more eyeballs will have negative effects over the long term.

 

[Phog Allen]

I heartily agree about the TBS/TruTv/TNT debacle. Yes, debacle. I too am a cable or satellite non-subscriber. I went ahead and paid the $3.99 charge for the online streaming package. I did not mind it but it rubbed me the wrong way for other reasons than the money. First, and this is pure basketball blueblood snobbery, I am a Kansas fan and they are a number two seed in the tourney this year. As far as I am concerned they should have been on the OTA broadcasts on CBS. Another thought enters my mind as well. I think Duke, UNC, and a few other top drawer programs suffered the same fate. I suspect the NCAA knew fans of those programs would be willing to pay for the pleasure of viewing them. As long as it does not start exceeding the $3-7 mark I can stand it. Much more of it and I will be watching at a sports bar or some other person's home.

It works okay, just beware of a software glitch when you register. I used a hotmail account and could not log back in. I kept getting an error saying I had no account associated with the email address! I had to call the number the NCAA gives out for customer service. Oh boy I thought. This will take a LONG time. They answered the call in moments but it did take nearly a half hour to work it out. I had to call my credit card company to verify an actual charge occurred and then talk to the lady on the phone from NCAA at the same time. I new better than to hang up and try again. Anyroad, it came down to the hotmail account being listed with www in front of it. I knew I didn't do that and she told me it had occurred a number of times. So she finally straightened it out and I caught the last half of the KU/Purdue game. Ugly as it was. Just beware. If you do the streaming package set it up as soon as possible BEFORE the tournament starts. You can have any bugs worked out by the time they start. Just saying.

Cheers, Todd

 

[TstebinsB]

Let's go Tar Heels! They owe Kansas for that beat down the Jayhawks put on them in 2008.

 

[BingeAndPurge]

How 'bout them Buckeyes!

+1

 

[Phog Allen]

Hi guys. I realised my post from yesterday was way too long and really covered two subjects. NCAA touney games and the streaming issues. So I cut and pasted most of that post here to keep it a bit more in line with the thread. I am still a bit nervous about today's game with UNC. I think I will be able to tell in the first five minutes if it will be one of "those" games I have discussed or whether the team will be focused enough understand it is big boy time. Here's the paste.

Now to business. Ugh. Kansas looked bad again last night against NC State. Not all of it. Defense was FEROCIOUS. Our center Jeff Withey had TEN blocked shots. Nearly an NCAA record behind only Shaquille O'neil and one or two others. That now makes two Jayhawks in the top five all time of blocked shots in a single NCAA tourney game. And we kind of sort of held their three point shooter in check. Kind of. We fouled him twice on three point shots and he made all six free throws. And our point guard has gone to sleep. Once again our backup pg had to make a big time shot to keep the Wolf Pack at bay. Elijah Johnson drove the lane on an in bounds pass and scored a way too easy layup. This made it a three point spread the 'Pack couldn't get a good shot off at the end. Whew.

It is the most frustrating thing I have seen in the Bill Self era. The guy has really done the best coaching job of his career. He lost two lottery picks last year and two other senior starters. We have two outstanding players but they were both backups last year. Two of our incoming recruits goofed their academics and were ineligible. Still, Self coached Thomas Robinson to the finals of the national player of the year voting. He missed it to Davis of Kentucky. The guy has 27 double doubles this year. The most in the NCAA. He is a monster on the inside. And our pg has at times gone off the scale this year. Several 25 + point games and his turnover ratio got lower and lower each game. So yeah, in a way they have been better than ever expected. They were picked to finish fifth or sixth in the Big X11 this year and only went out and won it by a two game margin in a grueling 18 game conference season. Self has coached them out of his mind at times. And sometimes the whole team looks out of its mind as well.

They have this annoying habit of starting games very sluggishly like they are lost in their own little world. They get behind to teams they shouldn't. They look bad and then in the final minutes mount these Herculean comebacks or manage to pull away. It is infuriating and perplexing at the same time. How can a team that took that much coaching up be so danged disengaged at times? Self looks like he has aged five years this season! I can tell you this. They may have gotten away with it with these lower seeds but come Sunday, if they play like this for ten minutes Carolina will beat them by 25 points. They led the Wolfpack by 8 with a few minutes left and needed Johnson's heroics to put it away. The only solace I take is that after just a such a debacle on the road in Missouri(up 8 with two minutes left but lost the game) they went on a bloody tear in the conference. I hope this was their wake up call and "Missouri-itis" of the tournament. Wake up 'Hawks or you're going home tomorrow.

Cheers, Todd

 

[auk1124]

Congratulations to Louisville, first in the Final Four this year. I was amazed they somehow won the Florida game - Florida beat the stuffing out of them basically all game long, and Siva had foul trouble on top of that. But they scratched back and pulled out a win.

 

[Phog Allen]

Kansas in the Final Four! Wow, I never thought they could pull this off. If you realise how decimated this team was after last year's graduation and early departed players coupled with the fact two top recruit scholarship players were ineligible, it is a testament to the coaching staff. These kids were picked to win exactly zero this year.

Ohio St. Oh boy. We bested them earlier this year but Sully was out. I am sure they want payback. It will be real hard going for KU. I am just a happy basketball fan right now and I am content to play on house money. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Cheers, Todd

 

[Gruder]

Congrats to you and all of Jayhawk land tonight, Todd -- I like Kansas's chances against OSU.

It's been a good day for basketball! On my end of the country, a UK/UL Final Four game is a once in a lifetime dream. Saturday can't come fast enough!

 

[Phog Allen]

Thank you Chad. Kentucky looks unbeatable right now. OSU is also hitting a certain stride right now and even if we get past them we are facing eitheyour UK with Calipari looking for revenge for 2008 or Pitino who is always just so easy to get by yeah? He is like coach K. I count him out of the tourney when I see him lose. My best hope is those two teams beat each other senseless and whoever is standing has a tough time getting back up for us. Of course OSU is going to have something to say about that first. Of course if we lose I'm pulling for Kentucky.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Phog Allen]

Okay guys, the day is here. Final Four time. Louisville vs Kentucky and Kansas vs Ohio State. Should be battles all the way. I know Kentuck' is supposed to steam roll Louisville and everyone else in the tourney and should at that. But we're talking Pitino here so all bets are off. To me he is like Coack K. I count him out of the tournament when I see his teams go home. As far as KU and Ohio St. Everyone assumes OSU will roll us because when we played early in the season they did not have Sullinger. Probably a pretty good bet but this KU team is LEAPS better now than then. So I am hoping OSU takes this game for granted. Oh, and if we get past them today is it too much to hope for that Louiville and UK beat themselves stupid and expend so much energy getting it done the winner will have nothing left in the tank for the championship game with us? Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Cheers, Todd