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2018 NCAA Tournament Thread


CBFan

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It is big dance time and that first week is always my favorite time with bracket busting upsets, 5/12 traditional upsets, big last second shots.

I was surprised to see Oklahoma in over St. Mary's and Missouri's seeding.

I was glad to see SBU in the play in 11th seed game.

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8 hours ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Good article bay area never thought about USC until now.  Which is worse Arizona State or Oklahoma getting in over them?

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  • SluSignGuy changed the title to 2018 NCAA Tournament Thread
13 minutes ago, moytoy12 said:

Because you were expecting SBU to be left out?  SBU got a screw job. 

The bright side for SBU and for SLU is that you get a full NCAA unit for each game you play, including the play-in game. Units are worth ~1.7mm (spread out over 6 years). If you assume they have a 50% chance of winning the first game and thereafter their chances are the same as if they would have just played as a normal 10 or 11 seed, the extra game has an expected value of $850k. That goes a long way in Olean...

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33 minutes ago, moytoy12 said:

Because you were expecting SBU to be left out?  SBU got a screw job. 

See USC if you think it was unreasonable for me to think the SBU might not get selected.  Expecting the selection committee to make sound decisions would be silly based on the selection committee’s body of work for years. 

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St. Mary's Wow CANNOT believe they did it to them again. They were ranked #20 in the last poll.  Well guess we'll see what happens with the Mountain West rumors.  

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15 minutes ago, willie said:

Not sure how I would feel if this was one of our players but I think he should be suspended for the whole weekend. If they played on Thursday-Saturday he wouldn't have been eligible. 

If it was SLU, he'd be expelled from school.  Then Ortiz would write an article about how Travis Ford recruits alcoholics to the program and the parents should reconsider sending their kids to a school where other DUIs are a rampant part of life on campus. 

Meanwhile back at Mizzou, he'll get a one-game suspension, score 25 in their second round game vs. Xavier, and the Post writers will wax poetically about redemption and the qualities of character instilled by Cuonzo Martin.  

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25 minutes ago, SShoe said:

If it was SLU, he'd be expelled from school.  Then Ortiz would write an article about how Travis Ford recruits alcoholics to the program and the parents should reconsider sending their kids to a school where other DUIs are a rampant part of life on campus. 

Meanwhile back at Mizzou, he'll get a one-game suspension, score 25 in their second round game vs. Xavier, and the Post writers will wax poetically about redemption and the qualities of character instilled by Cuonzo Martin.  

-very well said, unfortunate and seemingly accurate

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As usual, Bill Plaschke of the LA Times hit the nail on the head.  I thought what Plaschke alleges re the scandal was the explanation, and am glad he said it.  Is it a mere coincidence that USC (RPI 34) and Louisville (RPI 38)  are OUT?  Of course, no tears will be shed for Louisville here.  But if the NCAA is making a preemptive strike, it did so without due process, as Plaschke notes.
 
USC, the 2nd Place team in the Pac-12 at 12-6, and the 2nd Place team in the Pac-12 Tournament, with an RPI of 34 and strength of schedule of 37, should clearly be in the NCAA Field.  There is no basis for USC's exclusion, period.
 
Putting Arizona State, RPI 66, which tied for 8th Place with Colorado in the Pac-12 at 8-10, was the #9 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, and got bounced by 12 points by 8 seed Colorado in the 8 vs. 9 "First Round" of the Pac-12 Tournament, in the NCAA ahead of 2nd Place USC is an utter farce.  Why even have a conference season?  See USC Coach Andy Enfield's comments.
 
And Oklahoma, which lost 8 of its last 10 games, has no business being in the NCAA field ahead of USC either.
 
As for St. Mary's, the Gaels (28-5, RPI 40) got snubbed yet again, which has become a staple of Selection Sunday.  But at least in SMC's case, the WCC was only #13 in conference RPI this season.  The Pac-12 was #5, ahead of the #6 Big Ten.  The Pac-12 got only 3 teams.   USC is old money LA, a major traditional Power 5 Football Power, hailing from the Nation's second largest city by far.  Obviously, this snub of USC is not going to go without objection and repercussions.  Let me put it this way, there is a major difference between snubbing USC and repeatedly snubbing St. Mary's.
 
I was not enamored with the Creighton of Omaha AD ripping St. Mary's schedule on National TV.  Put some bite behind your bark and send your Creighton (RPI 44, worse than snubbed USC, worse than snubbed St. Mary's) team out here to play at St. Mary's.  Dayton played at St. Mary's this season;  I was there.  Creighton rhymes with Dayton, correct?   It wasn't that long ago that Creighton was a mid-major itself playing in the mid-major Valley, and Creighton of Omaha is sitting in St. Louis U's Big East seat today.
 
The Creighton AD admitted that Davidson's pilfering of that NCAA bid (in the A10 Final) is the bid that would have gone to Notre Dame.
 
For those that think SLU should be locked in perpetuity in the mid-major Missouri Valley Juan Bid dungeon, note that the A10, even in a down year, has 3 NCAA Tournament teams (Rhode Island, St. Bonaventure, and Davidson), the same number as the American (Cincinnati, Wichita State, and Houston), the same number as the Pac-12 (Arizona, UCLA, Arizona State).  The A10 has its issues, its warts, including perpetual officiating (referee) issues.  SLU is on a remote Midwestern island in the A10, with the nearest school, Dayton, 5 hours away and the next nearest, Duquesne, well beyond driving distance.  But even with this year's Conference RPI of 11, the A10 remains a multi-bid league, and as usual, Juan Bid has visited the Valley.  Having been snubbed by the Big East, the A10 remains the next best place for SLU for now.
 
St. Mary's hosts Southeastern Louisiana, the regular season Southland Champion, Tuesday night in the NIT on ESPNU.  Tickets are reasonably priced, so I might go.  I passed on the watch party over in Moraga yesterday.  The event, held at a Moraga pizza parlor, was probably like an inquest.
 
USF (CA) hosts Colgate Wednesday night in the CBI.  That one is a possibility for attendance too.  Plenty of good seats will be available.  My #1 rooting interest on the Left Coast rests with our Jesuit brethren, the USF Dons.
 
 
 
 
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30 minutes ago, brownindians said:

Bay Area Billiken - NO California team should be able to play in the NCAA Tournament because are a Sanctuary Country. And it breaks my heart.

 

LOL!  That is an interesting assessment, brownindians.  You may have a point.

But look at it this way, the NCAA took the big public school, UCLA, from the UC System, supported by the taxpayers of the Golden State, fostered by the California State Government, who made us a Sanctuary State, and snubbed the big private school, USC and the little Catholic, Christian Brothers school, St. Mary's, nestled as it is in the rolling hills of Moraga.

That is an interesting "Last Four" game in Dayton tomorrow between your Bonnies and UCLA.  Will Bob Lanier for the Bonnies, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) and/or Bill Walton be in attendance for the Bruins, the Sons of Westwood?  Walton does travel to UCLA Tournament games.  He is the most interesting TV game analyst out there, IMHO.  You never know what he is going to say.

FWIW, I did pick UCLA to win tomorrow in my initial trip through the ballot.  But playing Tuesday is a very short turnaround time for UCLA after a 4 hour flight.  That seems to always be a factor for Cal, but UCLA has a much higher basketball pedigree.

 

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I think that the Missouri Valley Conference may be a perpetual one-bid league for the foreseeable future.  This is all a result of Creighton leaving for the new Big East, and Wichita State leaving for the AAC.  At least in years past the MVC could get multiple bids by having someone other than Creighton or Wichita State winning the Arch Madness tournament.  Creighton and Wichita State were often valued high enough to get At-Large bids.  The other schools just don't get the scheduling opportunities to prove their worthiness for the Big Dance.

I'm not sure that any other MVC can get to the level where they get games scheduled with Top-tier DI programs.  With Omaha and Wichita no longer in the MVC, Chicago and Des Moines are the largest cities in the conference but Drake and Loyola don't appear anywhere near close to making a "big leap" to a Creighton/Wichita State level.

I don't see why SLU would even entertain the idea of moving to the MVC.

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1 minute ago, Matty Light said:

I think that the Missouri Valley Conference may be a perpetual one-bid league for the foreseeable future.  This is all a result of Creighton leaving for the new Big East, and Wichita State leaving for the AAC.  At least in years past the MVC could get multiple bids by having someone other than Creighton or Wichita State winning the Arch Madness tournament.  Creighton and Wichita State were often valued high enough to get At-Large bids.  The other schools just don't get the scheduling opportunities to prove their worthiness for the Big Dance.

I'm not sure that any other MVC can get to the level where they get games scheduled with Top-tier DI programs.  With Omaha and Wichita no longer in the MVC, Chicago and Des Moines are the largest cities in the conference but Drake and Loyola don't appear anywhere near close to making a "big leap" to a Creighton/Wichita State level.

I don't see why SLU would even entertain the idea of moving to the MVC.

They don’t 

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Really tired of hearing NCAA spin on why teams like St. Mary's left out-they just didn't have a tough enough schedule.  Heard yesterday that teams like them just have to figure out how to play tougher teams. Why doesn't the NCAA figure out a way to force some scheduling .  You can't play teams that won't play you!

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4 minutes ago, Billboy1 said:

Really tired of hearing NCAA spin on why teams like St. Mary's left out-they just didn't have a tough enough schedule.  Heard yesterday that teams like them just have to figure out how to play tougher teams. Why doesn't the NCAA figure out a way to force some scheduling .  You can't play teams that won't play you!

St. Mary's turned down games vs Creighton and Rhode Island.

https://www.thescore.com/ncaab/news/1503099

 

 

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20 minutes ago, Billboy1 said:

Really tired of hearing NCAA spin on why teams like St. Mary's left out-they just didn't have a tough enough schedule.  Heard yesterday that teams like them just have to figure out how to play tougher teams. Why doesn't the NCAA figure out a way to force some scheduling .  You can't play teams that won't play you!

I think the NCAA could do this but they would need a network partner because the NCAA doesn't do anything unless there is $$$ to be made.  I really like the whole Bracket Buster Saturday idea but I think it ended because ESPN pulled out of it.  Must not have been making them enough money.

It was a really good way of helping bubble Mid-major teams get paired against each other later in the season to show how strong they were.

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8 minutes ago, Billboy1 said:

Must be more to the story-teams probably wanted a two for one type series.

Exactly, or perhaps that was a buy game at Creighton with no return visit?  The key is what is not said in that tweet/report.

I would be very surprised if St. Mary’s turned down a straight home and home with Creighton.  St. Mary’s just played a home and home with Dayton.

If St. Mary’s turned down a home and home with Rhode Island, that would be a mistake Basketball wise, not so much budget wise. 

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1 hour ago, SShoe said:

If it was SLU, he'd be expelled from school.  Then Ortiz would write an article about how Travis Ford recruits alcoholics to the program and the parents should reconsider sending their kids to a school where other DUIs are a rampant part of life on campus. 

Meanwhile back at Mizzou, he'll get a one-game suspension, score 25 in their second round game vs. Xavier, and the Post writers will wax poetically about redemption and the qualities of character instilled by Cuonzo Martin.  

Best and truest post I’ve seen on this board in a while. 

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-remembering a point Jay Bilas tried to make yesterday, he said Mich ST and AZ should have been 2 seeds, then he was asked at the expense of who? and he said he hadn't had time to look into that yet

-it seems there are two ends to the argument the committee tried to make, the guy spouted the tough schedule played by Syracuse, okay, their overall SOS is 19 but their non-con is 172 and their rpi is 45 -- then there is Mid TN, their overall SOS is 90. but their non-con is 13 and their rpi is 33, continuing to reward the big boys from my view

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The NCAA Committee moves the goal posts to fit its narrative.  What applies in one case is inapplicable in the next.  Devaluing the conference season, especially the conference season in a Power 5 Conference like the Pac-12, like what just happened, is highly questionable, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

It is one thing to snub little St. Mary's;  it is a (Trojan) horse of a different color to shaft the University of Southern California.

My goodness, that was an incredibly foolish move by whomever is responsible for that snub of USC.  There will be repercussions down the line.  There will come a time again when a representative from the Pac-12, as Bill Walton calls it, "The Conference of Champions," chairs the NCAA Tournament Basketball Committee.  The Pac-12 just was snubbed in the College Football Playoff, and really got shafted yesterday by the NCAA Tournament Basketball Committee.

In the old days, the Pac-12 had Lute Olson of Arizona to give his annual State of the Pac-12 speech before the Pac-12 Tournament.  There has been a lot of coaching upheaval in the Pac-12 in recent years.  There is no coach with the standing of Lute Olson to stand up there and condemn the naysayers Back East who are asleep when many Pac-12 games are played.

 

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