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NCAA March Madness 2016 - Men's Tournament |OT| Nobody is good this year

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MisterR

Member
^^

What are the odds that the worst Kentucky front court since Cal got here would set the NCAA tournament record for blocks?

Skal is soft on the boards and all the bigs are too foul prone, but they are not unskilled as a group. They just can't compare to Cousins, Davis, Towns and Noel, which would be a hard comparison for anyone to live up to really.

Good news is all the bigs are playing their best right now. Skal has improved a ton, AP is finally playing under the basket. Where he needs to be.
 
Friday

Noon, CBS: No. 7 Dayton vs. No. 10 Syracuse (Brian Anderson, Steve Smith, Dana Jacobson)

12:30, truTV: No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 15 UNC Asheville (Verne Lundquist, Jim Spanarkel, Allie LaForce)

1:30, TNT: No. 7 Oregon State vs. No. 10 VCU (Blackburn/Gminski/Maggio)

2:00, TBS: No. 4 California vs. No. 13 Hawaii (Spero Dedes, Doug Gottlieb, Ros Gold-Onwude)

Approx. 2:30, CBS: No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 15 Middle Tennessee State (Anderson/Smith/Jacobson)

Approx. 3:00, truTV: No. 7 Iowa vs. No. 10 Temple (Lundquist/Spanarkel/LaForce)

Approx. 3:50, TNT: No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 15 CSU Bakersfield (Blackburn/Gminski/Maggio)

Approx. 4:20, TBS: No. 5 Maryland vs. No. 15 South Dakota State (Dedes/Gottlieb/Gold-Onwude)

6:45, TNT, No. 7 Wisconsin vs. No. 10 Pittsburgh (Anderson/Smith/Jacobson)

7:00, CBS: No. 3 West Virginia vs. No. 14 Stephen F. Austin (Lundquist/Spanarkel/LaForce)

7:15, TBS: No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 14 Green Bay (Blackburn/Gminski/Maggio)

7:15, truTV: No. 1 Oregon vs. Holy Cross-Southern winner (Dedes/Gottlieb/Gold-Onwude)

Approx. 9:15, TNT: No. 2 Xavier vs. No. 15 Weber State (Anderson/Smith/Jacobson)

Approx. 9:30, CBS: No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. Michigan-Tulsa winner (Lundquist/Spanarkel/LaForce)

Approx. 9:45, TBS: No. 6 Texas vs. No. 11 Northern Iowa (Blackburn/Gminski/Maggio)

Approx. 9:55, truTV: No. 8 Saint Joseph's vs. No. 9 Cincinnati (Dedes/Gottlieb/Gold-Onwude)
 

iamblades

Member
Just looking through the stats, one potential thing UK should be able to exploit vs IU is that IU is really sloppy with the ball, like bottom quintile in terms of TOV%, while UK is very strong with the ball.

UK is by far the better defensive team in all of kenpoms categories aside from opponents OREB%and FTA given up.

IU is the better shooting team overall(not by as big of a margin as I was expecting though), so UK has to win the turnover and rebound battle I think.

Should be an interesting game.
 

nillapuddin

Member
so disappointed I didnt watch Arizona live

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how did I miss this must see TV?


Matt hit the nail on the head "Stony Brick"

That was probably the worst team Ive ever seen us play in the NCAA tournament, I felt really bad for them.
Also "in Pre-Game that UK missed more shots in warmups than I could remember all year...has extended into game as well"

yeesh, I was having (anytime UK plays in a football stadium) flashbacks.

Is the arena in Iowa have weird dimensions or scale? Or was it just us who struggled?

Remember a few years ago in Houston or something and all the teams shot like crap?
 
There's 1 bracket left in the NeoGAF pool that has no losses. Hunter8man. He's out on a couple limbs with tomorrow's games, though, so it probably won't hold through day 2.

Edit: To be fair, he was also out on a couple limbs today that held.
 

Clydefrog

Member
Seton Hall ruined my perfect bracket. Why the fuck did I pick Seton Hall.

Oh well, I'll probably crumble now. Got some iffy teams making it past the next round...


I'll take last place in any bracket if Hawaii just fucking wins tomorrow. GO BOWS!!
 
I want to say the last time Seton Hall made noise in the tournament was 1989, when they advanced to the championship game (losing to Michigan, beating Duke in the semis). Meanwhile, Gonzaga has been making waves for a while (though never a tsunami). I had Gonzaga.

Edit: Elite 8 in 91, Sweet 16 in 92 and 2000.
 

Clydefrog

Member
I want to say the last time Seton Hall made noise in the tournament was 1989, when they advanced to the championship game (losing to Michigan, beating Duke in the semis). Meanwhile, Gonzaga has been making waves for a while (though never a tsunami). I had Gonzaga.

Yep, I don't know what I was thinking. I got so lucky with my other picks and then I screwed up on an easy one.
 
I want to say the last time Seton Hall made noise in the tournament was 1989, when they advanced to the championship game (losing to Michigan, beating Duke in the semis). Meanwhile, Gonzaga has been making waves for a while (though never a tsunami). I had Gonzaga.

Our team last year was probably the best we'll ever have. We lost both of our 4 year starting guards before this season and our senior starting center during the season. Season came down to Wiltjer and Sabonis going insane the entire year and thankfully we won our conference tournament. Wiltjer didn't play well but thankfully Sabonis was a beast.
 
Baylor and Purdue were my misses today. Sadly I had Baylor going to the Final Four :(

Risky proposition, didn't work out.

Since the tournament expanded to 64+ teams in 1985, 5 seeds have made the Final Four 6 times, or 4.8% of F4 participants.

Code:
Seed	F4	Pct
1	51	41.1%
2	26	21.0%
3	14	11.3%
4	13	10.5%
5	6	4.8%
6	3	2.4%
7	2	1.6%
8	5	4.0%
9	1	0.8%
10	0	0.0%
11	3	2.4%
12	0	0.0%
13	0	0.0%
14	0	0.0%
15	0	0.0%
16	0	0.0%

The 8 seed is a relative outlier and stands out for 2 other reasons: an 8 seed won the first championship of the expanded format (Villanova), and two 8 seeds made the F4 in the same year (2000, Wisconsin and North Carolina).

Villanova remains the lowest seeded team to win a title, and only 4 titles since 1985 have been won by teams outside seeds 1-3. (4 Arizona in 1997, 6 Kansas in 1988, and 7 UConn in 2014 join Villanova.)

(Data source for numbers)
 

thefro

Member
To be fair, I don't think anyone would have expected a big injury in a non-contact practice to Cal's top scorer.

I picked Hawaii because Obama picked them and because the Pac 12 is overrated. He usually has a really good read on teams he has a personal connection to (Hawaii, Harvard, Illinois teams, etc).

Risky proposition, didn't work out.

Since the tournament expanded to 64+ teams in 1985, 5 seeds have made the Final Four 6 times, or 4.8% of F4 participants.

I don't think that really applies this year since there's so much parity and the NCAA screwed up the seeding.

I was never sold on Baylor though, and I struggled on whether to pick Purdue to win a couple games or not (ended up picking them to win in most of my brackets).
 
13 pick yesterday for me.

What a freaking choke job by the Pac12... I let the fact 7 teams (and being from Stanford) let me give Colorado and USC the nod in the 8-9 games. At least I did pick Wichita over Arizona. And I've got Cal today.

And then I had Baylor making it to the Elite 8.. :(
 

MisterR

Member
Risky proposition, didn't work out.

Since the tournament expanded to 64+ teams in 1985, 5 seeds have made the Final Four 6 times, or 4.8% of F4 participants.

Code:
Seed	F4	Pct
1	51	41.1%
2	26	21.0%
3	14	11.3%
4	13	10.5%
5	6	4.8%
6	3	2.4%
7	2	1.6%
8	5	4.0%
9	1	0.8%
10	0	0.0%
11	3	2.4%
12	0	0.0%
13	0	0.0%
14	0	0.0%
15	0	0.0%
16	0	0.0%

The 8 seed is a relative outlier and stands out for 2 other reasons: an 8 seed won the first championship of the expanded format (Villanova), and two 8 seeds made the F4 in the same year (2000, Wisconsin and North Carolina).

Villanova remains the lowest seeded team to win a title, and only 4 titles since 1985 have been won by teams outside seeds 1-3. (4 Arizona in 1997, 6 Kansas in 1988, and 7 UConn in 2014 join Villanova.)

(Data source for numbers)

8 seeds tend to be talented major conference teams who somewhat underachieved during the regular season.
 
I don't think that really applies this year since there's so much parity and the NCAA screwed up the seeding.

I was never sold on Baylor though, and I struggled on whether to pick Purdue to win a couple games or not (ended up picking them to win in most of my brackets).

There's parity often enough, and people complain of incorrect seedings every year. And yet, the data is what it is. We're more likely than not to see a Final Four filled with 1 and 2 seeds.

8 seeds tend to be talented major conference teams who somewhat underachieved during the regular season.

I don't know if that data holds exactly that, but even if so, those underperforming talented major conference teams would also comprise seeds 5 through 11. Anyway, though the 8 stands out relative to adjacent seeds, it's still just 5 of 124 total Final Four participants, and only 4 percent.
 
There's 1 bracket left in the NeoGAF pool that has no losses. Hunter8man. He's out on a couple limbs with tomorrow's games, though, so it probably won't hold through day 2.

Edit: To be fair, he was also out on a couple limbs today that held.

That would be me. I'm looking back on that Stephen F Austin over West Virginia pick and wondering if I'm already dead when it comes to that game.
 
two of my brackets are 15 of 16, but I had Seton Hall going to the Sweet 16 in one of them.

I picked Austin and Hawaii in all of my brackets so scared I am, yes.
 

maruchan

Member
Why would anyone pick against.. gonzaga when their a 11 seed.. This is where they shine, they haven't had low seed in 12 years or so and last time I think they went to the elite 8..
 

ryseing

Member
Why would anyone pick against.. gonzaga when their a 11 seed.. This is where they shine, they haven't had low seed in 12 years or so and last time I think they went to the elite 8..

Because Seton Hall was on a hot streak in a tough conference.
 
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