NC Game Thread (Go Nova)

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

To the astute Big East fan, one may notice the otherwise seemingly odd connection between Villanova and Providence here... of course, Providence being where the Big East was originally launched, and Villanova, whose championship ignited the second stage booster as the USS Gavitt heads towards the stars.

To the Big Ten fans in my office (i.e. Big East haters), however... the mashup simply represents the most sour-tasting donuts they'll ever eat.

Villadonuts, baby!

Nice!  America runs on Dunkin.

[mu03eng]

Do you know who else said that?   A ton of NBA scouts. 
Just cause you got a prediction wrong,  does not mean your stupid

You're right, getting a prediction wrong doesn't mean you're stupid.

[Benny B]

To the astute Big East fan, one may notice the otherwise seemingly odd connection between Villanova and Providence here... of course, Providence being where the Big East was originally launched, and Villanova, whose championship ignited the second stage booster as the USS Gavitt heads towards the stars.

To the Big Ten fans in my office (i.e. Big East haters), however... the mashup simply represents the most sour-tasting donuts they'll ever eat.

Villadonuts, baby!

With apologies -- I meant to eat another donut before the picture so there would be only ten in the box, one representing each member of the conference.

Marquette is one of the French Crullers, of course.  Although you may think the other represents the school of the poor 80 miles south, it just so happens DePaul is the lone blueberry in the box... something you think would make for a solid variety of donut given the storied history of the blueberry, but in reality happens to be more reminiscent of a cupcake than a true donut.

[mu03eng]

Getting worked up over the Power 5 nonsense that the E$PN's of the world push is not worth it. They have reason$ to push the P5 narrative and no amount of hemming and hawing is going to change that. The Big East just needs to keep proving it on the court.

Plus those tournament shares will spend nicely at Marquette, thanks Nova 

[mu03eng]

With apologies -- I meant to eat another donut before the picture so there would be only ten in the box, one representing each member of the conference.

Marquette is one of the French Crullers, of course.  Although you may think the other represents the school of the poor 80 miles south, it just so happens DePaul is the lone blueberry in the box... something you think would make for a solid variety of donut given the storied history of the blueberry, but in reality happens to be more reminiscent of a cupcake than a donut.

I always thought the blueberry best situated for a muffin, which makes sense for DePaul because a muffin can go very very wrong despite having all the ingredients necessary to be outstanding.

[brewcity77]

Well Metcalf, with his take.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/15136968/villanova-wildcats-second-national-title-brings-hope

Hope for the underdogs.  Says that Nova lacks the sex appeal of Syracuse, Louisville, Florida, Michigan State.

So they are the model for the rest of the island of misfit toys teams.

Terrible.  Nova is a perennial powerhouse coached by one of the best coaches in the nation.

Gotta love the self admitted paid troll. I especially like him saying Nova could be the first champ since 1987 Indiana to have no first round picks in the starting lineup. Of course, he incorrectly includes Phil Booth in the starting lineup, ignoring likely future first round pick Jalen Brunson.

[Eldon]

Getting worked up over the Power 5 nonsense that the E$PN's of the world push is not worth it. They have reason$ to push the P5 narrative and no amount of hemming and hawing is going to change that. The Big East just needs to keep proving it on the court.

Plus those tournament shares will spend nicely at Marquette, thanks Nova 

Any idea how much MU gets from Nova's run?

IIRC, Creighton, X, and Butler don't get as much as the other schools so I don't think any pool of money is split evenly 10 ways

[jsglow]

Getting worked up over the Power 5 nonsense that the E$PN's of the world push is not worth it. They have reason$ to push the P5 narrative and no amount of hemming and hawing is going to change that. The Big East just needs to keep proving it on the court.

Plus those tournament shares will spend nicely at Marquette, thanks Nova 

What I particularly enjoyed was that at 11p Pacific Time ESPN was still not allowed highlights (relegated to still shots) and was doing their post game discussion from an empty parking lot across the street.  Poetic justice.

[mikekinsellaMVP]

For Villanova, this was one of the greatest tournament runs of the 64/65/68-Team Era in two regards:

1. Villanova (2-Seed) defeated the top seed it could have faced in each round except for the semifinal against Oklahoma (a 2-seed instead of 1-seed Oregon).

UNC Asheville (15), Iowa (7), Miami-FL (3), Kansas (1), Oklahoma (2), UNC (1)

No previous champion has faced the "seeded minimum" & only one other champion faced the "seeded minimum" plus 1: 1993 UNC.

2. Villanova defeated 5 AP-Top-25 Opponents in this tournament.

UNC Asheville (UR), Iowa (25), Miami-FL (10-tie), Kansas (1), Oklahoma (7), UNC (3)

The only other champions to defeat 5 AP-Top-25 Opponents: 1995-UCLA, 1996-Kentucky & 2009-UNC.

So they also defeated four Top 10 opponents.  WOW.  Got the stats on if any of those other three did that?

[VegasWarrior77]

You're right, getting a prediction wrong doesn't mean you're stupid.

Well played!

[Tugg Speedman]

Gotta love the self admitted paid troll. I especially like him saying Nova could be the first champ since 1987 Indiana to have no first round picks in the starting lineup. Of course, he incorrectly includes Phil Booth in the starting lineup, ignoring likely future first round pick Jalen Brunson.

They make this sound like a bad thing.  Isn't this good for college bball?  You can either get a bunch of one-and-dones (Kent and Duke) or get some really good players and lead a senior dominated team into the tourney (Bucky and Nova ... even E8 MU in 2013).

Of course the third option is to cheat your a$$ off ... UNCheat, Syracuse, Lousiville or just shorten this to "ACC"

[brewcity77]

They make this sound like a bad thing.  Isn't this good for college bball?  You can either get a bunch of one-and-dones (Kent and Duke) or get some really good players and lead a senior dominated team into the tourney (Bucky and Nova ... even E8 MU in 2013).

Of course the third option is to cheat your a$$ off ... UNCheat, Syracuse, Lousiville or just shorten this to "ACC"

I don't think it's a bad thing, but the way he writes it is simply incorrect because he includes last night's leading scorer Phil Booth as a starter instead of McDonald's All-American freshman Jalen Brunson. I think there's a very good chance Brunson is a first-rounder whenever he decides to come out. It may be good for college basketball, but it's another example of an uneducated idiot underselling a team in this league.

[jsglow]

One more quick comment. Discount any media outlet that subtly implies that Nova somehow 'stole' the title with a buzzer beater.  The reality is that they largely controlled the second half and that UNC 'stole' the tie with a circus shot that was calmly answered 4 seconds later.

[brewcity77]

One more quick comment. Discount any media outlet that subtly implies that Nova somehow 'stole' the title with a buzzer beater.  The reality is that they largely controlled the second half and that UNC 'stole' the tie with a circus shot that was calmly answered 4 seconds later.

Agreed. I read an article today about how it was UNC's celebration that Nova was having. UNC got the first half lead because they were uncharacteristically hot from three (shooting over double their season average percent) and when the game settled into its rhythm, 'Nova took over. Truly a great game between two great teams, but 'Nova was the better team on the night and it was accurately reflected on the scoreboard.

[Benny B]

Any idea how much MU gets from Nova's run?

IIRC, Creighton, X, and Butler don't get as much as the other schools so I don't think any pool of money is split evenly 10 ways

IIRC, C-X-B don't get any cut of tourney shares earned prior to their joining the conference (2013), but starting in 2014, everyone gets the same cut of shares earned by the conference.

That said, before the AAC/BE split, Big East split tourney revenue 50-50 between the school that earned the shares and the remaining conference members, so if that still holds true, Villanova's run this year to the championship (you don't get more for winning, so UNC earned six shares just as Nova did) will net approx. $9.84M over the next six years, with half going to Nova and half going to the other 9 schools, i.e. Nova's run alone will result in $547,000 paid to MU over the next six years.

EDIT: My understanding is that the BE no longer splits shares 50-50, but rather, the conference takes 100% of the tourney shares, makes fixed payouts to schools who qualified for the tournament (depending on how far they advanced) from those shares, and distributes the rest to the conference.  I'm not sure what the scale is, but I've heard it comes out to something where the team basically ends up with 30-35% of its own shares.  So in the current example, Villanova's run is worth in the neighborhood of $3.4M to Nova and $710k to MU (over the next six years).

[mu03eng]

Any idea how much MU gets from Nova's run?

IIRC, Creighton, X, and Butler don't get as much as the other schools so I don't think any pool of money is split evenly 10 ways

Don't know how much everyone gets but here's an article that articulates how everything is calculated.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2014/03/20/how-a-single-ncaa-tournament-win-is-worth-1-6-million/#657f56f126ca

I know that all the teams in the catholic 7 had to give up their tournament shares to AAC to retain the Big East name, I think X, Butler and Creighton had to as well to exit their conferences.....so I think the Big East is working off of 3 years instead of 6 at this point.

If we assume $275,000 per tournament share(ie. win by Big East conference team) the Big East has won 15 shares since 2014 meaning we would split $4.13 million 10 ways. Note, there is no share for the national title, Nova gets all of that money.

*Edit, Benny's post is much more nuanced then mine. So read his if you want to be....ya know...informed.

[LloydsLegs]

Congrats, Legs.

Savor the moment!

And congrats to you for the prominent Gonzaga Prep representations and mentions!

[Eldon]

Thanks for the info, fellas.  Man that's confusing.

[Eldon]

Love Barkley's reaction

https://www.youtube.com/v/F6GtzRCUmFM

Also note Kenny Smith's fist clench.  I think I remember him saying during the half-time of one of Nova's games that he and Jay Wright are good friends

[Mobot]

Kenny Smith went to North Carolina.  The clenched fist was more likely intended to punch Barkley in the face.

[Benny B]

Kenny Smith went to North Carolina.  The clenched fist was more likely intended to punch Barkley in the face.

Not sure if it was on the alternate feeds, but on TBS, during the timeout before Jenkins' shot, they showed a clip of Kenny Smith's reaction to Paige's shot.  After Jenkins' trey, my wife and I were begging for them to show Kenny's reaction.

So thank you for this, Eldon.

[Spotcheck Billy]

Kenny Smith went to North Carolina.  The clenched fist was more likely intended to punch Barkley in the face.

and Sir Charles' daughter went to Nova

[NickelDimer]

This notion that Nova was short on talent but big on heart is just laughable. Anyone spewing that narrative is embarrassing themself

[brewcity77]

This notion that Nova was short on talent but big on heart is just laughable. Anyone spewing that narrative is embarrassing themself

Brunson is a McDonald's All-American. Archie was a top-50 player, Hart, Ochefu, Jenkins, Bridges and Booth were all top-100. They are the product of good recruiting coupled with experience.

[warriorchick]

Kenny Smith went to North Carolina.  The clenched fist was more likely intended to punch Barkley in the face.

'Nova needs to extend Sir Charles an invitation to their equivalent of Marquette Madness next fall so he can formally and publicly apologize for betting against them all tournament long.