Did Your Team Survive 1st Weekend Of The NCAA Tournament?

[Phog Allen]

Kansas did. They were fortunate to win against Western Kentucky. Only their defense kept them from disaster in their first game. I will solidly back them as the best D in the country this year. Whithey is a pure beast and Travis Releford can shut down any guard in the country in straight up man to man. Offense is what infuriates me.

This team is the worst Jekyll and Hyde in the NCAA when it comes to offense. They go completely to sleep at times. Stupid unforced turnovers, and main scorners missing layups. At times it has really bitten them. I thought it would again today the way they started against UNC. Then they STOPPED turning the ball over and clamped down even harder on D. Now we're talking. The guards finally decided to score(well Relefird anyway) and this opened up Jeff and Kevin Young inside. UNC essentially could not face up against Jeff. That sealed it.

Am I happy? Yes, we survived. Am I confident? I hate to say it as a trueblood crimson and blue man but I am not. It all goes back to guard play. We are too inconsistent for me to say things are arighted. I will also say if Kansas is on the only team who will beat them is Kansas. No arrogance intended by that. With that D they are brutes but the guards have to show up. It's all up in the air anymore n the first weekend but Sweet Sixteen is where the bull-hish stops. Play like Friday with Michigan next week and it's over. Rock Chalk baby! Lets hear about your team.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Rockminer]

I'm still trying to get over the fact that the Shockers beat Gonzaga. Even more surprising is they will be the lower seed in the next round. I don't expect a championship but it's pretty cool none the less.

 

[Mike H]

My team did not survive the first round NIT.

 

[Reckoner]

As an FGCU alumni and current instructor, I'm over the moon! It's going to be a fun week coming up. The bride's a lifelong KU fan, my brother graduated from Michigan, my pops works at UF, and the bride and I graduated from FGCU.

GO EAGLES!

 

[mdevine]

As an FGCU alumni and current instructor, I'm over the moon! It's going to be a fun week coming up. The bride's a lifelong KU fan, my brother graduated from Michigan, my pops works at UF, and the bride and I graduated from FGCU.

GO EAGLES!

Congratulations! My wife and I have a Condo in Fort Myers and it is a lovely place. I absolutely love it there. I wish your team luck, but as an Ohio State grade, my heart lays with the Buckeyes.

Mike

 

[dillon_b12]

As a Louisville Cardinals graduate and fan, I have to politely disagree with your belief that Kansas has the best defense in the country.

 

[Phog Allen]

Politeness noted! Look at the stats. Kansas has the straight up best defensive field goal percentage in the NCAA this year unless it has shifted at the end of the regular season. And Jeff Withey is top three in nearly every category of blocked shot stats. I'll take it! http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/149

And if we make it to the FF I really hope Louisville is out. Way tough this year.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Dirk-Lerxst-Pratt]

As a UNC guy I find the tone of your posts incredibly hostile and degrading.

Seriously, congrats to KU. You guys deserved it...again I hate watching Carolina get owned over and over by KU, but, ball don't lie.

Mike H. UK will be so stacked next year. The problem will be if your current starters can handle being guys coming off the bench, because Calipari is always going to put his best five on the floor. Feelings be damned.

 

[CB1]

Congratulations! My wife and I have a Condo in Fort Myers and it is a lovely place. I absolutely love it there. I wish your team luck, but as an Ohio State grade, my heart lays with the Buckeyes.

Mike

Me too!! Close one last night. Gotta love 4 Big Ten teams in the sweet 16!

 

[whavens]

Yeah, my Hoosiers made it through the weekend. Depending on which team shows up they could beat Syracuse by 15-20 or could get beat by 10. Hard to tell with this group. I'd have to agree with Louisville being the best defensive team in the country though, FG percentage just means you defended after the other team got the ball across half court, my bet is that teams got the ball across half court a lot more against KU than they did against Louisville. and those back court steals generally lead to wide open layups.

 

[dillon_b12]

I'd have to agree with Louisville being the best defensive team in the country though, FG percentage just means you defended after the other team got the ball across half court, my bet is that teams got the ball across half court a lot more against KU than they did against Louisville. and those back court steals generally lead to wide open layups.

This pretty much sums it up. In our first two NCAAT games, we've caused 47 turnovers. In the Colorado State game first half, we made more field goals than they attempted. CSU was 20-0 when they shot ~43% or better. They shot ~47% against us and lost by 27.

Ken Pomeroy has been calculating his "Adjusted Defense(points allowed per 100 possessions)" statistic for about 20 years. We have the lowest value of any team.

That being said, Withey is a beast.

Our weak point, like KU, is that our offense struggles sometimes. Like last year, we don't have great shooters.

 

[Phog Allen]

Hard to argue with Loiusville's D. I would also say that dismissing defensive field goal percentage as something that just happens after the other team gets it past half court is a bit overdone. Stingy field goal defense keeps lackluster offensive performances from becoming losses. KU is a perfect example this year. Without the ability to defend the goal they are no where near a 1 seed. Not by a league. They lose four or five more games without it.

What really spooks me about Louisville is that turnover margin. KU has been a turnover machine at times. It is about the most frustrating thing in the world to watch. Our senior PG(not his natural position) has a bad habit of going to sleep with the ball handling. Try this stuff with these higher seeds and it is going to be blowout time. I just cannot account for the guard play this year. Bill Self is always lauded for his handling of big men but if you look over his career he has always had outstanding guards. Ben McClemore has scored two points the entire tournament. He is our leading scorer! This is a prescription for disaster if he does not get it going. They kind of restarted Sunday but who knows whether Jekyll or Hyde shows up this weekend. I really hate it we don't have a Russ Rob or Colllins this year at point to back these bigs up. Withey has come so far and Kevin Young as well. These two are warriors. And Travis Releford has been invaluable this year. He was the only guard to light it up Sunday.

I just have a sense of dread about the tournament this year. The Michigan game has me spooked. Ten minutes of that Western Kentucky crap and it is bye bye. And don't give me an ulcer by sizing up a KU/Louisville match up. If nothing else Pitino is Pitiino and until I see him out of the tournament I just don't pick against him. It should be a wild ride for us but I have to be honest and say I do not see the Jayhawks going past this weekend.

Cheers, Todd

 

[whavens]

Sorry, I probably should have stated things a little differently, I have't looked at the stats, but I would bet Louisville has a pretty decent half court defense as well, coupled with their full court press makes for a pretty formidible opponent. Given the choice, if I was a coach, I would rather face Kansas than Louisville, no offense, but they press from the opening tip and don't let off until the game is decided or someone proves they can consistently beat their press. That doesn't happen often. Personally though, if IU makes it to the finals, I am hoping they don't have to play either one of them. So come on upsets! I am just happy that we have gotten over the Kelvin Sampson fiasco and have righted the ship with a coach with some integrity and class. And if I calculate correctly, this is 1100 posts.

 

[LaxinMaximus]

I'm at Illinois right now. Pretty peeved about the OB call in favor of SD State, but that's the beauty of sports!

That being said, what we Evans Scholars do instead of brackets is have a House Tournament Auction. Each team is auctioned off - 16 seeds first, then 15's and so on - until we have a total purse. The first round is set at a dollar amount and the rounds double in winnings after that. Our first round is $50 so the winning team will make $1600. I bought Colorado for $30 (accidentally bet against my own team; whoops), Oklahoma for $30, Montana for $5 and last but not least, FGCU for $5. Since none of my teams has won money besides them, I'm only up $30 so far, but if you look only at FGCU, they've netted $95 on themselves.

Thank you FGCU you magnificent little team! The guy who bought Georgetown spent $410. He was pretty miffed. Hopefully they'll ride their Cinderella story past Florida on Friday to make me a little bit more money

 

[Phog Allen]

Whavens, no problem at all. And like you, I would rather not face Indiana or Louisville. KU has simply been too lax with the ball. And that pressure D of Louisville is a prescription for disaster.

And as for Tom Crean, I am glad to see a fellow blueblood programme get it right. I absolutely cringed when Sampson was named IU coach. We saw him for a number of years at OU. There was always a cloud surrounding that BB programme when he was there. It escalated to a summit the last year he was there and then Indiana up an hired him. I couldn't believe it. I knew it was problem waiting to happen. And remember, Tom Crean was a top contender for the KU job when Roy left as well. I knew IU would be in good hands when he was hired. And frankly he has been nothing short of superb in the way he put that team back together. Best of luck to you unless we are headed your way. Then I am changing the dates on IU's calenders, mucking up their hotel bookings, cancelling flights, etc. Same for Louisville.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Kostas1]

Hail to the Orange...Hail to the Blue...

Yup, made it out of the first round, and almost into the Sweet 16. But alas, it was not meant to be...this year.

I'm at Illinois right now. Pretty peeved about the OB call in favor of SD State, but that's the beauty of sports!

That being said, what we Evans Scholars do instead of brackets is have a House Tournament Auction. Each team is auctioned off - 16 seeds first, then 15's and so on - until we have a total purse. The first round is set at a dollar amount and the rounds double in winnings after that. Our first round is $50 so the winning team will make $1600. I bought Colorado for $30 (accidentally bet against my own team; whoops), Oklahoma for $30, Montana for $5 and last but not least, FGCU for $5. Since none of my teams has won money besides them, I'm only up $30 so far, but if you look only at FGCU, they've netted $95 on themselves.

Thank you FGCU you magnificent little team! The guy who bought Georgetown spent $410. He was pretty miffed. Hopefully they'll ride their Cinderella story past Florida on Friday to make me a little bit more money

 

[whavens]

Yeah, you run a spotless program for 50 years and then you hire a guy under investigation, makes a lot of sense to me. This has turned into an interesting tournament. I just hate not knowing which team is going to show up for Indiana. Could be the team that is really hard to beat, or the team where the center goes to sleep with .9 seconds left and lets a guy have a wide open layup to win the game. I mean they had the number one scoring offense for a large part of the season and then all of a sudden they have trouble scoring. This team is really hard on your heart.

Whavens, no problem at all. And like you, I would rather not face Indiana or Louisville. KU has simply been too lax with the ball. And that pressure D of Louisville is a prescription for disaster.

And as for Tom Crean, I am glad to see a fellow blueblood programme get it right. I absolutely cringed when Sampson was named IU coach. We saw him for a number of years at OU. There was always a cloud surrounding that BB programme when he was there. It escalated to a summit the last year he was there and then Indiana up an hired him. I couldn't believe it. I knew it was problem waiting to happen. And remember, Tom Crean was a top contender for the KU job when Roy left as well. I knew IU would be in good hands when he was hired. And frankly he has been nothing short of superb in the way he put that team back together. Best of luck to you unless we are headed your way. Then I am changing the dates on IU's calenders, mucking up their hotel bookings, cancelling flights, etc. Same for Louisville.

Cheers, Todd

 

[dillon_b12]

Yeah, you run a spotless program for 50 years and then you hire a guy under investigation, makes a lot of sense to me. This has turned into an interesting tournament. I just hate not knowing which team is going to show up for Indiana. Could be the team that is really hard to beat, or the team where the center goes to sleep with .9 seconds left and lets a guy have a wide open layup to win the game. I mean they had the number one scoring offense for a large part of the season and then all of a sudden they have trouble scoring. This team is really hard on your heart.

Indiana scares me offensively. When they are hitting shots, look out. However, they seem to be very finesse oriented. Other than Oladipo, I'm not sure any of your guys like contact. Zeller, in particular, seems to shy away from physical play.

 

[whavens]

Well they won the regular season title in what most conisder to be the most physical conference. But we don't have any players that could be mistaken for linebackers. Don't get me wrong, I really like this team, they play hard and usually find a way to win, I just wonder if they have the drive to bring home the big trophy. I don't think that Elston cares if he gets banged a bit, he is the only horse we have. It has been a welcome season compared to what Crean had waiting when he got to Bloomington.

Indiana scares me offensively. When they are hitting shots, look out. However, they seem to be very finesse oriented. Other than Oladipo, I'm not sure any of your guys like contact. Zeller, in particular, seems to shy away from physical play.

 

[FiveOhNine]

Nope.....and its becoming a pattern of behavior. Women are still in it though!