OFFICIAL March Madness Thread

On Wisconsin!

Racist crap?

I buy into the hype. I love the first weekend of the tournament. My interest wanes after that.

This will be an interesting tournament this year ... some random thoughts:

1) #1 seeds were really protected this year. I don't really look at any of them getting draws where I'm busy thinking that they have bad matchups for them. Duke has a waltz into the Regional Final IMO. Putting UNC as a 4 in Wisconsin's bracket is the worst type of matchup for UNC and one that Wisconsin should be able to combat. Put UNC in Villanova's bracket and you may have a matchup that creates problems. Put UNC in Kentucky's bracket and you make Kentucky at least go through a team that might be able to match up with them physically/athletically. Louisville and Georgetown are 2 of the softest 4 seeds I've ever seen.

2) UCLA getting into the dance (and not even being in the first four games) is a fucking joke and all about the $$$. Same with Indiana and to a lesser extent Texas who is probably the best team of the group but has had plenty of chances to prove whether or not they were a contender or not.

3) The Missouri Valley Conference continuously gets underappreciated by the Committee. What has the WCC done lately? Yet Gonzaga gets a 2 seed. When you look at their resume, it was Charmin soft by their standards this year. Instead, the MVC Tournament champs get a 5 seed for being nothing more than a 30-3 team. The MVC regular season champs get a 7 seed for being 28-4. The MVC has been to a Final Four in the last 2 years; was a #1 seed last year (and the Kentucky team that beat them by 2 not only lost in the Final, but probably played their best game of the tournament in that game), and one of the teams that has branched out from that conference (Creighton) has not been overmatched in their transition into the Big East. The seeding for these teams is just a flat out miss by the Committee.

4) Let's be honest, the most fun during the Tournament is the first weekend and the upsets. I expect the following teams to make a bit of noise the first weekend: Buffalo, Wichita St (will beat Kansas), Wofford, Belmont (Virginia's lack of scoring combined with Belmont's ability to shoot will make this a close game), Stephen F Austin, Eastern Washington, and Davidson (offensive efficiency could create significant problems for Gonzaga).

5) Kentucky's path to the title isn't a forgone conclusion IMO. To beat Kentucky, you have to be able to do a couple of things well: control tempo, avoid turnovers, and find some way to neutralize Kentucky's height. Since only a handful of teams can matchup with their height, the more likely way to beat Kentucky will be to have versatile bigs that have the ability to step out, space the court, and force Kentucky to either come out and guard with their bigs or go small themselves as their guards are the weaker part of their team. Notre Dame's offensive efficiency could create challenges for Kentucky with potentially only a day to prepare. Wisconsin is probably the 2nd best team in the country and if they don't make it to the Final Four, then Arizona would be the next logical choice in the West and they have the required size, strength, speed to be able to slug out a game with Kentucky. Then, in the National Title game, you have the potential of a team like Duke (perhaps greater top end talent than Kentucky), Villanova (strong guard play), and my sleeper team in Iowa State (similar to Notre Dame in offensive efficiency).

The whole thing is annoying. Obviously the product is wretched at times and that's 80% of it. The commercials are even worse. Oh look, you made a commercial with some office dork using a random, unreliable, stupid way to pick winners for his pool. Then the Sea World whale picked New Mexico St over Duke. Isn't that cute and amazing. Then there's the commercials in which Betsy, the mild mannered secretary who doesn't know Oral Roberts from UCLA wins the office pool! Wow, what a fucking story. DIAFF.

I get it's capitalism but maybe we can stop calling Coca Cola and ATT "corporate champions" because they sponsor a collegiate basketball tournament?

@Tequilla, you're still on the Creighton bandwagon? They were horrible this year and were plungered by Baylor last year.

The MVC sucked this year. Northern Iowa only ranked opponent was Wichita State. Those two teams were the only good teams in that conference. They are good teams, but it's tough to say they should be seeded higher based on the conference's past results in the tourney.

Of course Gonzaga is overrated. Welcome to 2004.

What is wrong with Louisville as a 4 seed? They were ranked in the top 15 in the last poll and just beat Virginia a few days ago.

I fully get that Creighton was terrible this year. And when getting back to last year, Baylor was a terrible matchup for what Creighton did and we all know that in a tournament setting it's as much about matchups as anything else. My point being that you take a team like Creighton that 2 years ago was a MVC champion with a 13-5 conference record (and a Wichita St team that got to the Final Four), then last year they go to the Big East and finish 14-4 in that league, and people still think that despite that success plus Wichita St going to the Final Four just two years ago that the MVC isn't a legit conference and at minimum the premier mid-major conference ahead of the WCC (assuming that a league like the A10 is between high major and mid-major).

The whole who have you played argument to me is difficult as a lot of these teams can't get the games scheduled that we all want them to play. Most higher end programs won't play home and home games against these teams (hard to blame them for that). But at the same time, not sure it makes that much sense for these teams to just play one off games on the road in what then turn into self-fulfilling arguments that want to say that the high majors are clearly superior.

When it comes down to it, I think you start seeing the value of a league through their performance in the NCAAs. When you get programs getting deep into the tournament, or when you watch their quality in those kinds of situations (see Wichita last year in the loss to Kentucky in what was arguably one of the top 3 games of the entire tournament from a quality standpoint), I feel like you need to keep that in mind when evaluating the quality of a conference and the top end teams there.

Gladstone said:

This might be the year the Zaggots break the S16 barrier. Very favorable matchups for them. Davidson and Iowa? With Iowa State in the S16? Shit.

Iowa State is a TERRIBLE matchup for Gonzaga IMO. Probably the worst team that they could run up against in the field because their bigs will not be able to guard Iowa St's bigs on the perimeter. Possible that Gonzaga may be able to play a zone ... but Iowa State shoots the ball way too well for that to work out over 40 minutes.

SteveInShelton said:

I could actually see Oregon giving Wisconsin a hard time. A team of mostly white guys usually doesn't do a whole lot anyways. Could definitely see Wichita St. beating Kansas, who for the first time in who knows how long has a garbage lineup this year. I agree with others in this thread, I'm not as excited for the tournament this year.

Have you missed the part where Oregon has really struggled on the inside this year - see any game they played against Arizona where they got manhandled off the court because they couldn't grab a rebound. Wisconsin will give them the same problem. And I don't get the whole "white guy" thing given that the same group got to the Final Four last year and probably wins the title if not for Harrison making a low percentage shot at the end.

Oregon could have had the potential of getting deep against a team that is undisciplined and plays limited defense. If they were the 8 against Duke, I could see them getting hot and having a shot. But they've consistently shown all year that when playing against a team that plays focused defense with a strong ability to rebound they've been in huge problems.

Kansas doesn't have a garbage team ... but it's not as strong as they normally are. Self has probably gotten the most out of his team. Oubre is pretty good ... just a bit inconsistent for my taste. Wichita State's metrics this year are comparable to last year. Should this game happen, this should be one of the better games of the tournament.