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[ryseing]

It's that time of year again y'all. Time to pretend to care about college basketball while you make awkward small talk with your coworkers about their brackets. Northwestern is in for the first time, so good on them.

Game times and networks can be found here, as well as here.

GAF Bracket Pool

Yahoo: NeoGAF 2017 Bracket Pool

Password: Syracuse Sucks

DEADLINE IS MARCH 16, 12:15 PM EST

 

[ErasureAcer]

You look pretty in your purple dress Northwestern. Thank you for dancing.

 

[RoKKeR]

Congrats Northwestern... but as a Vandy student, I hope your stay is short-lived.

 

[Alligatorjandro]

Go Gators

 

[Fitts]

Damn no SU. I'm gonna have to avoid some pissed off people for a while.

 

[ryseing]

Damn no SU. I'm gonna have to avoid some pissed off people for a while.

Tell them to win more than two road games next time.

 

[darkside31337]

Seeding this year seem pretty insane. Wichita State - Kentucky round 2 yet again should be nice too.

 

[Bronx-Man]

My Spartans were one win away from making it in.


FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK East Tennessee State

 

[Bessy67]

Hooray, Marquette made it! Too bad we have to play a road game against 7 seed South Carolina...

 

[nillapuddin]

UK here


we got the toughest draw

YOU DONT SAY

 

[thestopsign]

'Ray Bucknell!

I hope they can pull off an upset.

 

[WarMacheen]

Duke ftw, peaking at the right time

 

[chicko1983]

Who is the dark horse this year? So long as Duke and that dude that trips people don't win, I'm going to be happy.

 

[nillapuddin]

Duke goes from a 5 to a 2 in one weekend.

no bias there

UK is the only team in the country that hasn't lost since the first seed preview came out, but yeah no, this is fine.

Spoiler

don't believe we should be a 1, but the fact that duke was in the conversation for a 1 was ridiculous.

 

[Brian Fellows]

Go Blue!

Don't love the match up with Okie St and their small guards but holy shit do I want another shot at Louisville.

 

[ryseing]

UK here


we got the toughest draw

YOU DONT SAY

Wichita in the second round and a UCLA team that beat y'all at home in the S16. Committee had it out for you this year.

 

[Violence Jack]

I don't think I've ever had anything against Duke until this year. I hope they get put out early.

Now watch them win the whole thing....

I'm still taking most of the Big 12 schools to get put out early.

Can the Zags actually make a Final Four this time?

 

[Grover Cleveland]

The salt of people griping over seeding and placements and pretending that the NCAA-media cabal sets up things to favor certain teams/screw others over gives me life.

Especially when the fact of the matter is that the tournament almost without fail sorts itself out and a perfectly deserving team wins.

Duke goes from a 5 to a 2 in one weekend.

no bias there

UK is the only team in the country that hasn't lost since the first seed preview came out, but yeah no, this is fine.

Spoiler

don't believe we should be a 1, but the fact that duke was in the conversation for a 1 was ridiculous.

Head of the committee said they were a 4 coming into the week and were never actually considered for a 1 seed. That was a media-driven narrative to get clicks that apparently worked because you UK fans and the Carolina fans won't shut up about it.

 

[Forearm Star]

Alright lets do this Kentucky

 

[ryseing]

The salt of people griping over seeding and placements and pretending that the NCAA-media cabal sets up things to favor certain teams/screw others over gives me life.

Especially when the fact of the matter is that the tournament almost without fail sorts itself out and a perfectly deserving team wins.

IMO this year is the clearest example yet of the committee doing seedings for storyline reasons. No reason FSU should be a 3 except for the Dunk City/Noles matchup in Orlando. Same with WSU being a 10 for the round of 32 matchup with UK.

 

[jwhit28]

It amazes me that Northwestern has never been in the tournament. Did Chicago have a point shaving scandal or something that destroyed the local schools basketball programs like NYC?

 

[RecRoulette]

Go Big Blue. Kentucky scares me this year, they have potential to go all the way, but also the potential to get knocked out in the first weekend.

Edit: Wait, assuming UCLA and UK make it through the first weekend, they play in the Sweet 16? Goddamn the PAC 12 was loaded this year.

 

[clav]

A first for everything.

It amazes me that Northwestern has never been in the tournament. Did Chicago have a point shaving scandal or something that destroyed the local schools basketball programs like NYC?

Irony is Northwestern hosted one of the first NCAA tourneys. Same school holds a record in longest losing streak in NCAA football Division I.

Northwestern had a recruiting problem for the longest time in a very tough conference. Best Chicago players and Indiana players went to other schools. When you can't recruit locally, it's very hard to win.

Welsh-Ryan Arena is a very small stadium with some old facilities. Some people compared it to a high school gym.

Before Chris Collins, no notable coaches. Who would want to coach at a school with the Cubs playing nearby?

I guess Bill Carmody deserves some credit for making what he had. People still say he was unfortunate due to Kevin Coble's incident, but even so, Bill Carmody's teams had no transition game plan from Princeton Offense and 1-3-1 Defense nor knew how to coach how to box out players, so if a game went spiraling out of control, you could just walk away and know the result.

 

[Bessy67]

Who is the dark horse this year? So long as Duke and that dude that trips people don't win, I'm going to be happy.

I think SMU has a chance to come out of that region.

 

[Elfforkusu]

lmao @ that Wichita vs Kentucky second round matchup. Kenpom #8 vs #4.

I'm beginning to wonder if the existence of the proprietary pay-for-play stats sites (i.e. kenpom) has a net-negative effect on seeding. The selection committee becomes a jury instructed to discard information that would help them make a more informed decision. Whereas, before the sites were on the radar, they could secretly "cheat" and use all available data. (I have no evidence that this actually happened, but it seems like ... why not?)

Ideally they would just use the advanced metrics, but IMO you can't justify that when all the data is effectively paywalled. Would need an open source data set and some collective methodology on how point spreads are treated -- if you really wanted to solve the problem, that is. Bad seeding does create interesting storylines...

 

[Karl2177]

It seems like winning the Big 12s lifted us up to a 5 seed. After reading a bunch of sites talking about Nevada, they play like we do but don't have the same depth. They also are much lower than us on defensive efficiency, so I'm taking Iowa State past the first round.

 

[perfectchaos007]

Another year, another chance at a 16 seed upsetting a 1 seed. One year, before I die, it will happen. Come on SDST!!! You're our best hope this year!

 

[mreddie]

Putting U of A against the Jebus Schools and VCU, no way they are getting out of that.

 

[nny]

I'm not in KY anymore, but I'll be rooting for you, Go Big Blue!

 

[anarchycupcake]

Come on Purdue, let's actually get somewhere this year... and no better year than the one IU didn't make it. It's 5:16 PM (PST) and IU still sucks.

 

[ErasureAcer]

How tough is it to make a bracket pool? Come on OP.

 

[JLG-]

Go Bruins

 

[Squirrel Killer]

It amazes me that Northwestern has never been in the tournament. Did Chicago have a point shaving scandal or something that destroyed the local schools basketball programs like NYC?

They're a football school.

 

[Dosia]

Just got back from Vegas, and ready to watch my Cats march into Glendale. Best time of year

 

[Omadahl]

Hurray! Another year of hearing Creighton fans talk about how good their team is only to watch then lose in two games. I loathe that team and their fans.

 

[Brian Fellows]

Hurray! Another year of hearing Creighton fans talk about how good their team is only to watch then lose in two games. I loathe that team and their fans.

They were really good until Watson went down. They are pretty beatable now though. It's hard to replace a guy who dishes out 8.5 assists per game and gives you almost 13 points per game.

 

[thefro]

lol, IU declined a home game in the NIT since they're scared of Crean getting booed/nobody showing up

Game is at Georgia Tech despite them being a #6 seed (IU is #3).

 

[TheSchwab_7]

Hurray! Another year of hearing Creighton fans talk about how good their team is only to watch then lose in two games. I loathe that team and their fans.

You from NE? I think Creighton will lose in the first round. Would be interesting to see Dana Altman vs Creighton though.

I remember our local sports radio shows saying Creighton would be at least a #2 seed before they lost Watson to injury/sexual assault.

I was hoping Omaha would make it in, but maybe next year. UNL sucks.

 

[ErasureAcer]

Tip times, channels and announcers are now out. Find at your fav sports website.

CBS games on Thursday are Fighting Irish vs Tigers, Mountaineers vs Bison, Wildcats vs Play-in, Badgers vs Hokies.

Dont forget PS Vue has multi channel now. Watch 3 of the 4 games all at the same time.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

Fuck Imma be on a plane when Duke plays Troy.

 

[nillapuddin]

Kempom vs Selection Committee

Big changes

Wichita State (-30)
Seton Hall (+19)
Kansas State (-17)
Maryland (+18)
USC (+16)
Minnesota (+15)
Arizona (+14)

 

[Zaphod]

I can't tell if I should be offended at Wichita St getting a 10 seed or excited that the committee set us up as a spoiler. Either way, having so many mid-majors face each other in the first round is a joke.

 

[Nestled_Grizzly]

I'm gonna to have to root for ETSU since I'm going to school there.


Go Bucs!

 

[ryseing]

How tough is it to make a bracket pool? Come on OP.

Yahoo is being a PITA right now, mainly due to this being the only time of year anyone uses Yahoo. It'll be up tomorrow.

 

[nillapuddin]

Wichita in the second round and a UCLA team that beat y'all at home in the S16. Committee had it out for you this year.

worst part is, our AD got on the committee this year, guy is a bit of a wimp though.

(not allowed to be in the room when they discuss UK btw)

also, committee has it in for us, every year


fwiw: wichita has zero wins against teams in the tournament, but that stat could be an outlier, know nothing about their team this year

 

[Silkworm]

I'm gonna to have to root for ETSU since I'm going to school there.


Go Bucs!

Gator Bait!

;-)

Seriously, congrats to ETSU for making the dance. However I'm hopeful the Gators can beat ETSU to advance to the next round. At least ETSU isn't Vandy, so that gives me some cause for optimism! :-D

 

[Proelite]

Hooray, Marquette made it! Too bad we have to play a road game against 7 seed South Carolina...

Duke fans, the few that there will be, would not let this happen. Expect us to make minimal noises if you guys score and isn't getting blown out.

 

[Proelite]

Fuck Imma be on a plane when Duke plays Troy.

Let me know your number so I can break the news to you first if we get upset.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

As a Mizzou fan I think I'd rather not make the tournament at all than lose in the first round like we always do

I'm not sure who I'm pulling for this year. Purdue making some noise would be cool, I suppose. I also like watching Oregon do their thing.

 

[tmac456]

Come on Purdue, let's actually get somewhere this year... and no better year than the one IU didn't make it. It's 5:16 PM (PST) and IU still sucks.

lol little brother

Purdue actually going to win a tournament game for the first time in what, 4 or 5 years?

Go Vermont