Offical NCAA Tournament thread

[cheebs09]

Iowa hasn't been to a Sweet 16 since 1999.

Tough to fire a guy coming off a 2 seed, but is any Iowa fan happy McCaffery is their coach?

[Oldgym]

Iowa hasn't been to a Sweet 16 since 1999.

Gonna be juuuuuuust a bit longer.

[MuggsyB]

The Ducks thumping Iowa is probably the least surprising result of the 32 rd.  As for the B14??  Unless Mich or Mary win the chip this will be the most epic and embarrassing performance by a conference in the history of the NCAA tournament.  And I guarantee the talking heads will say something like "they beat each other up during the year and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah".

[naginiF]

The Ducks thumping Iowa is probably the least surprising result of the 32 rd.  As for the B14??  Unless Mich or Mary win the chip this will be the most epic and embarrassing performance by a conference in the history of the NCAA tournament.  And I guarantee the talking heads will say something like "they beat each other up during the year and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah".

HA! Literally just said that as they left the court!

[rocky_warrior]

The Ducks thumping Iowa is probably the least surprising result of the 32 rd.

Really?  Iowa was #2 in efficiency this year (Ducks 13). Defenses roughly the same.   B10 certainly not living up to the hype.

[rocky_warrior]

Is CBS aware their commentary audio is not working?  Just a music video for the game, lol.

[Miss Katie’s]

So the Pac12 is solid.  Who knew?

[GooooMarquette]

So the Pac12 is solid.  Who knew?

Bill Walton?

[oldwarrior81]

So the Pac12 is solid.  Who knew?

Yep.  This guy has been telling us about the greatness of the Conference of Champions for years.

[MuggsyB]

Really?  Iowa was #2 in efficiency this year (Ducks 13). Defenses roughly the same.   B10 certainly not living up to the hype.

I'm not much on analytics, my comments are based on the eye test of these two teams.  Oregon as usual has playmakers all over the floor and very good overall athleticism.  The box score indicates they had no answer for Garza but basically did enough to neutralize Iowa's perimeter players. What I do know is if you're a terrible defensive team and your plan is to try to outscore a team with way more speed and more versatile scorers you're going to lose. 

[rocky_warrior]

I'm not much on analytics, my comments are based on the eye test of these two teams.  Oregon as usual has playmakers all over the floor and very good overall athleticism.  The box score indicates they had no answer for Garza but basically did enough to neutralize Iowa's perimeter players. What I do know is if you're a terrible defensive team and your plan is to try to outscore a team with way more speed and more versatile scorers you're going to lose.

OK.  Odds also had Iowa as 5 point favorites.  Just not as obvious as you make it sound 

[BM1090]

OK.  Odds also had Iowa as 5 point favorites.  Just not as obvious as you make it sound 

Easy pick 

[Uncle Rico]

Crapshoot

[muwarrior69]

After this, I actually kinda wish they'd switch it to Sat-Tue.  More advertising $ for them on the weekend (more games), and people don't have to make as many excuses to leave work (probably less lost productivity) mon & tue.

...also does anyone think having the entire tournament at a single site will catch on? Just on the surface look at all the travel expenses being less and the players could do all their class work online, but then all the smaller communities that host the early rounds would lose out.

[Mr. Nielsen]

The Ducks thumping Iowa is probably the least surprising result of the 32 rd.  As for the B14??  Unless Mich or Mary win the chip this will be the most epic and embarrassing performance by a conference in the history of the NCAA tournament.  And I guarantee the talking heads will say something like "they beat each other up during the year and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah".

Chris Spatola from ESPN on Sirius XM asked if it was a mistake going to 20 conference games in the Big Ten.

[cheebs09]

...also does anyone think having the entire tournament at a single site will catch on? Just on the surface look at all the travel expenses being less and the players could do all their class work online, but then all the smaller communities that host the early rounds would lose out.

I think there’s too much money in hosting it. Plus, I don’t know how Duke and UNC would function without their home games in Charlotte or Greensboro. You can see it was difficult on them this year.

[rocky_warrior]

Good fight by a short handed Oklahoma team. They seem to love long 2s, but hey, if it works.

[Mr. Nielsen]

...also does anyone think having the entire tournament at a single site will catch on?

No.

[BM1090]

Gonzaga is good. Didn't feel like they played all that well. Comfortable win.

[GooooMarquette]

...also does anyone think having the entire tournament at a single site will catch on? Just on the surface look at all the travel expenses being less and the players could do all their class work online, but then all the smaller communities that host the early rounds would lose out.

No. They managed to find enough hotel rooms for 68 teams and very small groups of fans, but the room demand will be dramatically greater when full crowds are allowed back. No way they could do it in Indy. Vegas might be the only real option, and I don't see that happening.

[rocky_warrior]

No. They managed to find enough hotel rooms for 68 teams and very small groups of fans, but the room demand will be dramatically greater when full crowds are allowed back. No way they could do it in Indy. Vegas might be the only real option, and I don't see that happening.

Agreed. But the NCAA would be wise to keep this in their pocket as a backup/emergency pandemic plan in case it comes up in the future (ala 2020).

[GooooMarquette]

Agreed. But the NCAA would be wise to keep this in their pocket as a backup/emergency pandemic plan in case it comes up in the future (ala 2020).

Absolutely.

It would be negligent for any large organization not to make the lessons learned from 2020 part of their disaster planning. Schools, sports leagues, businesses, governments - all should have 'pandemic' plans moving forward.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

There's no way Texas should have ever lost to this team.

[DegenerateDish]

That’s a tough spot for Abilene, won their Super Bowl late Saturday night, getting ton of attention, and turning around playing Monday afternoon. UCLA was never a good matchup for them to begin with, and Abilene’s legs have to be wobbly.

UCLA isn’t playing great (3rd game in 6 days), but if Abilene can find some legs before the first media timeout in the second half, they’ll have an outside chance.

[BM1090]

Creighton can be prone to droughts so you never know with them, but they are running Ohio out of the gym. Ohio looks lost on both ends.