General College Basketball Thread 2020-2021

[brewcity77]

Interesting data, brew. Thanks.

Loyola has to beat GaTech first. That will be difficult enough for them. Then we'll see!

Agreed on all counts. I actually think Georgia Tech might be the tougher matchup for LUC, but they will be hard pressed in both. That said, I wouldn't rule out their potential advancement to the S16 the way I usually do with 8/9 participants and that's largely matchup based. Illinois is a team I could see winning it all or going out the first weekend. They have a really tough half of their bracket.

[PGsHeroes32]

Agreed on all counts. I actually think Georgia Tech might be the tougher matchup for LUC, but they will be hard pressed in both. That said, I wouldn't rule out their potential advancement to the S16 the way I usually do with 8/9 participants and that's largely matchup based. Illinois is a team I could see winning it all or going out the first weekend. They have a really tough half of their bracket.

Certainly bigger upsets have happened. But I just dont see Loyola winning against Illinois. Hell, if it stays close I'd be mildly surprised.

They are great defensively but they haven't faced this before. To lead guards that are magical with the ball. A senior 2G that is about as all around solid as it gets. Then two mammoth guys down low.

Krutwig could be on the bench early and often with sophmore year Theo foul trouble

[MarquetteMike1977]

What conference should a high spending school with no football be in then?  Hilarious blaming this on the conference to justify your own lackluster opinion and not an inept HC

Am not talking about anything you are saying. 1. I said and meant We should not change or switch conferences. 2. Am not blaming it on the conference, am saying the only other option would have been to accept and not decline ESPN's crappy deal to remain with CUSE , UConn, Cincy eight to ten years ago in a hybrid conference. Add some crappy football teams. Agree It would have been a crappier conference but "We would of had more power within it" Agree with You that ship has sailed and agree we should remain in the New Big East. 3. Agree the change I was referring to was in Agreement with You we should change our inept coach.

[MarquetteMike1977]

Agreed. The conference is the least of our problems. Our only real option would be to move down (A-10, Horizon, etc.), and that would turn us from a high-spending school to a mid-spending one.

Agree with You too and said we should not change conferences.

[MU82]

Certainly bigger upsets have happened. But I just dont see Loyola winning against Illinois. Hell, if it stays close I'd be mildly surprised.

They are great defensively but they haven't faced this before. To lead guards that are magical with the ball. A senior 2G that is about as all around solid as it gets. Then two mammoth guys down low.

Krutwig could be on the bench early and often with sophmore year Theo foul trouble

Agree with this.

[Dish]

Why I would wait to fill out a bracket...

Jalen Wilson not traveling to Indy with KU.

[rocky_warrior]

Why I would wait to fill out a bracket...

Jalen Wilson not traveling to Indy with KU.

Yeah, silly to fill out a bracket before Wed with all the covid/replacement options possible coming on Tue...

[brewcity77]

Why I would wait to fill out a bracket...

Jalen Wilson not traveling to Indy with KU.

Haven't finalized anything, but makes me feel better about my EWU pick.

[MU82]

I haven't done my bracket yet, but I know one first-round pick for sure: Nova over Winthrop.

Something like 80% of bracket-pickers are going with Winthrop even though 99.9% of that 80% couldn't name one player on that team.

Nova's gonna win.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

I haven't done my bracket yet, but I know one first-round pick for sure: Nova over Winthrop.

Something like 80% of bracket-pickers are going with Winthrop even though 99.9% of that 80% couldn't name one player on that team.

Nova's gonna win.

I looked at Winthrop's resumé and it's underwhelming. 19 Q4 wins, 0 Q1.  Paper tigers.

[brewcity77]

I haven't done my bracket yet, but I know one first-round pick for sure: Nova over Winthrop.

Something like 80% of bracket-pickers are going with Winthrop even though 99.9% of that 80% couldn't name one player on that team.

Nova's gonna win.

Everyone was picking Murray State over Marquette, too.

[5DollarPitcher]

Everyone was picking Murray State over Marquette, too.

Jay Wright can coach his way out of a paper bag.

[PGsHeroes32]

Everyone was picking Murray State over Marquette, too.

To be fair, everyone could name Ja Morant.

[BM1090]

Everyone was picking Murray State over Marquette, too.

I think Murray State/Marquette was about 50/50. Maybe 55/45. Nowhere near 80%.

Nova still has the best 3 players in that game. There's no Ja Morant on the other side. Marquette finished 34th in Kenpom that year, while Murray State finished 51st. Villanova is 12th (obviously not factoring in the CG injury) and Winthrop is 91. I don't think Nova is capable of a deep run, but I do think Nova wins and covers relatively easily in R1.

[JWags85]

I think Murray State/Marquette was about 50/50. Maybe 55/45. Nowhere near 80%.

Nova still has the best 3 players in that game. There's no Ja Morant on the other side. Marquette finished 34th in Kenpom that year, while Murray State finished 51st. Villanova is 12th (obviously not factoring in the CG injury) and Winthrop is 91. I don't think Nova is capable of a deep run, but I do think Nova wins and covers relatively easily in R1.

Yep, Winthrop is a well coached, fun team to watch...but the Big South is horrible.  The second best team in the conference would likely get thumped by DePaul 9 out of 10 games.  And with COVID, they will have faced nobody even remotely in the same realm as even a wounded Nova.

[MU82]

Nova wins. I hope about 100 million brackets get ruined beyond repair.

[MuggsyB]

What about the other 5/12's?

Gtown over Colorado?

UCSB or Creighton?

I would think Tenn takes care of Oregon St.

[JWags85]

What about the other 5/12's?

Gtown over Colorado?

UCSB or Creighton?

I would think Tenn takes care of Oregon St.

Colorado is sneaky very good.  GTown is on a roll, but I think they run out of gas and struggle to stop McKinley Wright.

UCSB is the one to watch for me.  Very efficient offensively, top 15 in the country in terms of keeping TOs low.  Defensively, they are pretty good. They don't defend the 3 all that well, but if Creighton has cold stretches like they are prone to, Gauchos have a nice shot.

I think Tenn handles OSU but double digits easily

[MuggsyB]

Colorado is sneaky very good.  GTown is on a roll, but I think they run out of gas and struggle to stop McKinley Wright.

UCSB is the one to watch for me.  Very efficient offensively, top 15 in the country in terms of keeping TOs low.  Defensively, they are pretty good. They don%u2019t defend the 3 all that well, but if Creighton has cold stretches like they are prone to, Gauchos have a nice shot.

I think Tenn handles OSU but double digits easily

Ya...I think UCSB is probably the most likely upset.  I hate to say it but I would be very surprised if a BEast team makes the S16.  I hope I'm wrong but I don't like the potential rd of 32 match-ups with the possible exception of Creighton if they get there.

[brewcity77]

What about the other 5/12's?

Gtown over Colorado?

UCSB or Creighton?

I would think Tenn takes care of Oregon St.

I think I'd take UCSB against any of the other 5s, but that's the one I feel too many people are on. The Nova one makes more sense because they lost their most important player. We saw how that hurt them against mediocre competition like Providence and Georgetown.

I do like Georgetown and Tennessee to win their games.

[MU82]

I know folks love to pick 12/5 upsets, and I know 12s were 3-1 against 5s in 2019 (and the one 12 that lost, New Mexico State, fell by only 1 to eventual FF team Auburn) ... but 12s went 3-13 the previous four tournaments, including 0-fers in 2015 and 2018.

12s have always been a good "value play," but the way some alleged gurus talk about it, you'd think 12s have owned 5s year after year after year.

I'm thinking this is an 0-fer year for 12s.

Interesting side note: 3 of the 4 BEast teams that are in the tourney are involved in 12/5 games this year -- Nova and Creighton as 5s, GTown as a 12. (UConn is a 7.)

[shoothoops]

Jeff Jackson is the new Commissioner of the Missouri Valley Conference. (Doug Elgin retired after 33 years)

Jackson is hoops heavy, Cornell alum, former assistant at Vandy (Stallings) and Stanford,(Montgomery) and other places, and former Head Coach at Furman, New Hampshire. He was Deputy Commissioner at the Big South Conference and ran hoops in the Big 12 as Associate Commissioner.

[BM1090]

I don't think any 12s win this year. UCSB is the best one and I'm not sure the Creighton matchup is good for them. But they do have some talent.

I can't see Oregon State beating Tennessee. Georgetown is on a run but Colorado is legitimately good. Top 30 in offense and defense.

[MuggsyB]

Is there a #14 seed that has any shot?

[JWags85]

Is there a #14 seed that has any shot?

EWU might be interesting cause Kansas will be without some players, might through them off.

Morehead St is pretty good, gave Belmont 2 of their 4 losses...but they got SMACKED by every decent OOC team they played. Lost by 30+ to OSU and UK, almost 20 to Richmond, and 15 to Clemson which is like 20-25 against most other teams cause of how slow Clemson plays.  So probably not them