College Basketball

[Hagbard Celine]

I notice there isn't enough college basketball talk going on. It's March...come on, let's step it up.

I'm sick of going to the ESPN message boards.

Get Excited.

[PK]

Nothing to get excited about. UCONN's got it all locked up.



Or, did you mean the men?

P

[jets fan]

ESPN's Bracketology (http://espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology/index.html) has the UCONN men as a 4 seed and they indicate that their seed is on the rise. They'll have to talk to Villanova tonight, but I think if they win the Big East tournament, they'll be a sure 3 seed.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jets fan on 2002-03-07 12:13 ]</font>

[Han Solo]

Who do you think gets the last #1 seed, assuming Kansas, Duke, and Maryland have theirs pretty much locked up? Bearcats or Sooners?

[jets fan]

I vote for Oklahoma. They're ranked higher on the AP Poll (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings?poll=1) and on the ESPN/USA Today Poll (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings). They're also higher on the RPI (http://espn.go.com/ncb/rankings/rpi.html) rankings. Plus Cincinnati lost to Rick Pitino and Louisville (it still sounds weird to say their names together) last week.

We'll see, though. Selection Sunday is a tough thing to predict sometimes!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jets fan on 2002-03-07 12:49 ]</font>

[Dr T Non-Fan]

I see the Pac-10 getting at least two #2 seeds. Too bad they're beating each other to a bloody pulp this weekend. 'zagnuts will get a #3.
Sooners for last #1.

[UWO]

I don't see how they get a second #2 seed. Isn't Oregon at #9 right now, with Arizona back at #14 ? I don't know if the losing finalist in the tournament can move up to a #2 without a whole lot up big upsets among the top 8-12 teams.

[quentin cassidy]

my team got 'squeezed' out of an ncaa tournament bid last night against 'nova, so i'm not as excited about the tourney this year as i usually am.

i'll be rooting for the rest of the big east now, although i have a hard time believing there will be any teams left by the end of next weekend (sweet 16). those were some ugly games yesterday. st. johns and bc played horrible (both shooting <30% for a full half), but still might have secured their ncaa bids.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: quentin cassidy on 2002-03-07 13:20 ]</font>

[Hagbard Celine]

Quentin, Pitt looks good today agains BC and UConn is definitely for real. They beat AZ, stayed within 10-15 of MD in the beginning of the season, and lost to OK by one basket at the end of the game. After they played 'Zona, 'Zona's coach said the Huskies were the best team they've played yet this year. That's some nice praise!

Also, Miami could do some damage.

There are definitely some Big East Teams that could win some games in the tourney this year and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see my Huskies make it to the Elite 8.

As for the final #1 spot, I'd like it to go OK. Mostly because I dislike Cinci and Huggins and I think OK deserves it more than 'Bama. Also, because UConn came so close to beating OK...

Get Excited!

[Dr T Non-Fan]

PAC-10 is a favorite among the selectors. JMO. And, anything can happen in the other tournaments.
The two finalists will have to be the favorites of the PAC-10 tourney. Else my prediction goes down the river.

[Anonymous]

Congrats to Duke. 4th straight ACC tournament title.

[quentin cassidy]

hc,

i went to the big east tourney final on sat -what a game! i agree, pitt and uconn could both do some damage, although i don't know if they can keep up with some of the ncaa's most high-powered offenses. they'd really have to try to slow the tempo and keep the game in the 50s-60s. i don't think the BE deserved 6 bids though.

[Dr T Non-Fan]

Only one #2 seed for the PAC-10.
Zags will do some arse-kicking this year. Three losses. One by a team they beat twice.

[WWSituation]

If Brandin Knight can't play, I don't see Pitt going far. UConn, however, is on a major roll.

I'm putting Kent State in the Elite 8.

[Elessar]

I think UConn's a lock to go to the Elite 8, given their bracket. If they're still hot going into the (presumably) Maryland game, they could definitely shock a lot of people by winning. At any rate, I'm pretty psyched. Go Huskies!!

[Kid Rock]

The West Region is possibly the toughest regional bracket I have EVER seen.

Cincy and Oklahoma were both top 5, conference champions
Pac-10 and Big-10 Champions are 3-4
Gonzaga, #6 in the nation, #6 in the West
Xavier and Hawaii are both solid champions of mid-major conferences
UCLA is always talented, beat Kansas
Mississippi has beaten good teams this year
Missouri as #12

Watch the region go chalk!

[Mick Fan]

All that and you forgot about UCLA. They're an enigmatic team, but if they can get it going, they can win the West as well! What a region!

[Dr T Non-Fan]

Sorry, but UCLA sucks. It won't know its opponent, nor will it care. Out in Round 1.
In case it's listening: It's Ole Miss. 4 upperclassmen out of 14. Wasted Alabama and Florida recently.
Ole Miss's mentality will have to be, "This is UCLA, the greatest basketball program of all time (ed: the average is falling yearly). This is our chance to prove ourselves."
Edge to Ole Miss, since it thinks it's playing a big game more than does UCLA, who can lose to Ball State and beat Kansas in the same year.

[Troy McClure]

Two comments:

Is this a year that one school sweeps the basketball titles? UConn men are rising, and the women are likely to win it. Duke is a one seed in both tournaments. I think Oklahoma and a few other schools are also very high seeds in both.

Any tips on teams for me to pick (I did not watch enough hoops this year)? We get to pick 10 teams, and we get points based on the games they win, 1 point if they are a 1 seed, up to 9 points for picking a 16 seed, if they win. We get points for every win, so if a 6 seed (worth 4 points) wins 3 games, that's worth 12 points total for picking that team. Extra 20 points if you pick the winner as one of your ten teams. You want to pick teams that got screwed by the selection committee on seeds, or else are low seeds that have a chance to upset, plus you almost have to hit the winner to win the pool. The best values are usually a 10-13 seed, because they actually have a chance to upset, and it's a lot of points. A 1 seed scores at most five points, unless they win it all. I am thinking Gonzaga and Marquette because their seeds were low. Any other suggestions?

[jets fan]

Troy, I agree that the UCONN women have to be considered the favorite to win the women's tournament. The men are rising - fast. But I can't, with a clear conscience, put them in the same league as Kansas and Duke. I am a UCONN fan and I do think they could beat either of those teams (and I will root for them to do so), but if I were laying odds, I'd have to favor Kansas/Duke.

But this is a crazy tournament and there are way too many scenarios to know anything for sure. GO HUSKIES!!! :grin:

[Ducky]

QUAAAAAAACK

[New at pd]

What are the odds of Boston University winning it all?

[Mick Fan]

On 2002-03-11 22:48, Troy McClure wrote:
Is this a year that one school sweeps the basketball titles?

I'd give Duke a better shot before Connecticut. But it's conceivable that either school could win both. Actually, the closest anyone ever came to winning both was Duke in 1999. Both men & women lost in the finals (to Purdue and UConn).

[Patience]

I would give CT the better shot this year. Duke men have been a bit flat lately. Though the tournament is a whole different thing.

Additional history:
Georgia was final four in both in 1983

North Carolina won men's in '93 & women in '94

Connecticut won men in '99 & women in 2000

[Mick Fan]

Hmmm ... Rethinking my position ...

Probabilities of winning nationan championship:

Conn Men -- 3%
Conn Women -- 60%

Duke Men -- 25%
Duke Women -- 5%

Both Conn -- 1.8%
Both Duke -- 1.3%

These numbers are very much subject to debate, but I may agree that Conn has a better shot of sweeping, largely because of their women's team. I'd have picked a larger number for Duke men earlier in the season, but they're too outside oriented this year to win it all.

[Rockhound]

Oh please. I thought we had serious sports fans here. How can there be discussion about girls basketball. What's next, are people going to start talking about the over 50 men's leagues at the Y?

[3rookie]

Well said, RockHound. Women's Basketball should be discussed in some other forum in some other dimension. I am willing to discuss Women's B-ball when they decide to use a regulation basketball and perform gender testing.

[vito]

In my younger days, I hated women's basketball. Now that I have daughters of age 10 and 8, my opinion has completely changed. We watch womens' college games together, just as I watched Laker-Celtic games with my dad.

When I shot baskets in the driveway as a kid, I would pretend that I was Jerry West. I'm glad that my daughters can now do something similar with their favorite women players.

[Elessar]

I'll have to disagree with you too, Rockhound. Women's basketball can be a lot of fun to watch and quite excited if well-played. (Well, I don't know about the WNBA, but college women's b-ball is pretty exciting.)

[Mick Fan]

Women's b-ball is a much better game than it was 5-10 years ago. Women's b-ball features much better teamwork than men. If given a choice, I'd still go with men's, but I enjoy watching women's basketball, too.

That being said, it all starts tomorrow! I'm leaving work early to watch the TV games on Thursday, then it's off to the 'Burgh to see the first & second round games! :grin:

[Rockhound]

I wasn't opining on whether it was fun to watch or not--women's mud-wrestling is very fun to watch.

It's just always troubling to me that there are trying to celebrate the separate athletic programs for humans that have one particular set of physical traits that cause them to be less than adapt athletically (i.e. they are women) and yet we don't similarly try to celebrate others (e.g. the over 50 baseball league, the under 5 ft seven inch basketball league, the under 150 lb football league, etc.).

[Dr T Non-Fan]

Senior golf tour. Wheelchair basketball. Para-Olympics. Special Olympics. Negro League baseball (obs). Warren Miller ski films of complete idiots jumping off cliffs...