2014 NCAA Tourney Thread

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:32 am

Another great day of hoops. Don't know if I should just stay up until the MLB opener. I hope the Dodgers are jet-lagged until June.

Or is that 4am Sunday? Or is 4am Saturday actually Sunday their time? And is that a double header (Start times listed as 4am 3/22 and 10pm 3/22). Are the Giants gonna have to do this shit next year? So many questions.

ETA: Most important question--did Vin make the trip to Sidney?

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:41 am

it's different days Howard. Night game followed by day game.

Game 1: 7pm Saturday Sydney Time
Game 2: 1pm Sunday Sydney Time

But for you it's 1am and 7pm Saturday

and yes, Vin Scully is there
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/2014031 ... koala-bear" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:57 am

degenerasian wrote: and yes, Vin Scully is there
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/2014031 ... koala-bear" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That settles it. I'm staying up another two hours. Yay, baseball!

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:08 am

I'll have it on but may doze off.
So many sports full day of basketball the next two days also.
.. there's also cricket and soccer in the morning.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:34 am

2 for 1 is the easiest thing in the world and so many coaches don't get it. Cooley should be fired. Tie game,50 seconds and the ball. Lets kill 15 seconds then if we miss we're fucked. Best thing we can do is OT. Let's give away our only god damned advantage. This fucking planet sucks.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:50 am

howard wrote:Unlike the prior Duke 1st round exits, this was a beat down. Unconscious 3pt shooting kept it close.

And dat post game nae nae doh:

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:44 am

Wait, vcu was up four and fouled a guy taking a three at the end of the game?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:51 am

tennbengal wrote:Wait, vcu was up four and fouled a guy taking a three at the end of the game?

I didn't think it was a foul. Looked like a flop as much as anything. The way the guy landed was contrary to how the supposed foul should have made him come down. The replay wasn't conclusive, but your point stands. stay the fuck away with a four point lead.

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:23 am

A couple random things brought up earlier....

This article came out a few days ago: Ranking the NCAA Tournament coaches by playing career, 1-68

Shirley, the reason you were unaware Ollie played 13 NBA seasons is that "playing" sometimes overstated what he did. Between all of his nomadic ways (11 teams!) and the fact that he played under half the games in a season six times, it's completely understandable.

And a couple other random things that I am taking away from college basketball....

There is a lot of bad coaching.
There are a lot of players who lack awareness/understanding of the game.
There is a massive, massive over-reliance on the three-pointer and the line should probably get moved back close to NBA range.

Post by **Shirley** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:46 am

Jerloma wrote:2 for 1 is the easiest thing in the world and so many coaches don't get it. Cooley should be fired. Tie game,50 seconds and the ball. Lets kill 15 seconds then if we miss we're fucked. Best thing we can do is OT. Let's give away our only god damned advantage. This fucking planet sucks.

That's only going to work if you're sure your team will score twice in consecutive 7 second possessions. That's far from a sure thing with a college team. That's a whole lot easier in the NBA with its ridiculous free half court advancement after a timeout rule.

With some token full court pressure, I can make sure your 7 second second possession only really has 3-4 seconds to find a good shot.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:04 am

Fact: Duke outscored its opponents by a total of 380 points in the first 30 minutes of games, and by a total of 6 points in the final 10 minutes and overtime.

Fact: Tony Romo attended a Duke game this year.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:22 am

Billy Donovan averaged 15.1 points as a junior and 20.6 as a senior, when he led the 6th-seed Friars to the 1987 Final Four and earned Southeast Regional Most Valuable Player honors. Donovan was also named to the 1987 All-Big East First team, the 1987 Big East All-Tournament team, and was an honorable mention All-American.

Sounds like he was Bobby Hurley before Bobby Hurley, and at a smaller school.

From wiki.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:29 am

AB_skin_test wrote:
tennbengal wrote:Wait, vcu was up four and fouled a guy taking a three at the end of the game?
I didn't think it was a foul. Looked like a flop as much as anything. The way the guy landed was contrary to how the supposed foul should have made him come down. The replay wasn't conclusive, but your point stands. stay the fuck away with a four point lead.

Yes. Only bad things can happen from contesting the shot in any manner in that spot.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:47 am

yeah i know these kids play all out but why contest it at all, he makes the 3, so what?

There were no timeouts left so after VCU missed the free throw to go up by 5, the coach couldn't remind his players to not contest anything.

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:08 pm

govmentchedda wrote:Sounds like he was Bobby Hurley before Bobby Hurley, and at a smaller school.

I never considered that, because Hurley was twice the player Donovan ever was. Maybe Donovan was a better shooter (and I would not bet on that), but Hurley did everything else much better. Hurley had much more physical talent, he would've scored 30ppg on that Providence team or at any school where he was not surrounded by all that talent. Maybe Danny Hurley.

(Y'all just hate them white players from Duke. Not like me.)

DSafetyGuy wrote:]
And a couple other random things that I am taking away from college basketball....

There is a lot of bad coaching.
There are a lot of players who lack awareness/understanding of the game.
There is a massive, massive over-reliance on the three-pointer and the line should probably get moved back close to NBA range.

Yeah, all of that too.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:42 pm

howard wrote:
govmentchedda wrote:Sounds like he was Bobby Hurley before Bobby Hurley, and at a smaller school.
I never considered that, because Hurley was twice the player Donovan ever was. Maybe Donovan was a better shooter (and I would not bet on that), but Hurley did everything else much better. Hurley had much more physical talent, he would've scored 30ppg on that Providence team or at any school where he was not surrounded by all that talent. Maybe Danny Hurley.

(Y'all just hate them white players from Duke. Not like me.)

I don't remember Hurley scoring as much as it looks like Eddie Munster did. My Donovan-Hurley comparison is based on height, skin color, tournament success, and Ecksteinian-level hustle.

Post by **Shirley** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:36 pm

Yeah, Donovan was a scorer, and pretty darn good one for a little white guard. Hurley was much more of a true point guard, one of the great ones actually. I really hated that fucker in college, but he was damn good. Great handles and vision, but never tried to be too fancy. He had talent all around him, so he always ran the team first and only called his own number when his team really needed it to open up everyone else. He developed into a very dangerous shooter his senior year,

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:42 pm

govmentchedda wrote:My Donovan-Hurley comparison is based on height, skin color, tournament success, and Ecksteinian-level hustle.

Reading Donovan's wiki article, apparently he worked very hard to develop himself as a player, and improved drastically from his first two years riding pine.

Pitino would later say, "I've never in my life had anyone work as hard to improve as (Donovan)."

Gotta respect that. Here is the rest of the anecdote

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:37 pm

Beilein vs. Barnes is off to a start that adequately represents the difference between the two.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:09 pm

Man, Oregon has some shooters!

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:17 pm

That was a cross-country travel. oof.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:27 pm

Why would SYR shoot the 3? Didnt make one all night

There was time to penetrate. Maybe get a foul.

cerrano · Post by **cerrano** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:27 pm

cinderella resides in dayton, oh.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:29 pm

Verne Lundquist, after Syracuse misses the last shot, "Oh, no! I thought he had it!"

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:29 pm

Despite the horrendous flagrant foul call, Orange had their chances. Ennis could make those last two shots 20 times in a row.

ETA: Hey, Verne has had a tough weekend, this and tOSU.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:59 pm

I dont like a favorite going for 3. Send it to OT win 8 times out of 10 as Dayton falters with fatigue.

Plus there is a chance for an +1

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:17 pm

I don't have a problem with the 3; Ennis had a clean look and I'm not sure if there was enough time on the clock for him to get all the way to the rim. But I really thought he should have tried to drive instead of settling for the long 2 on the prior possession.

This Oregon-Wisconsin game is really good. Hoping that Oregon pulls the upset but they're getting killed on the glass right now.

ETA: Man, Oregon could not buy a rebound on that last possession. Wisconsin got so many chances before Brust finally hit that 3.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:16 am

Verne really hates Dayton.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 1:06 pm

Stanford is playing some bipolar basketball right now

howard · Post by **howard** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 1:11 pm

I am as big a fan of Tex Winter as anyone. But Stanford is running John Wooden's offense. As anyone who played high school hoops in Cali in the late 60s/early 70s can instantly recognize, cause if you didn't run it, half the teams you played ran it.

(Obvs, a ton of overlap between the High Post and Winter's Triple Post. Frankly, Wooden probably borrowed from Winter's 1962 book, and from K-State's success.)

Refs are killing Stanford with ticky-tack whistles. Stanford killing themselves against the press.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 1:32 pm

What took Kansas so long to run these 3 point plays?

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 1:35 pm

degenerasian wrote:What took Kansas so long to run these 3 point plays?

Ugly shot on that last one.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 2:37 pm

rass wrote:
degenerasian wrote:What took Kansas so long to run these 3 point plays?
Ugly shot on that last one.

Yup went to that guy a 3rd time. Stanford had it covered.

Stanford played hard. The shot blocking was phenomenal.

Great game going on now.

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 3:25 pm

Wichita State looks really good. I've watched a lot of Kentucky this year, and I really don't think they're playing that badly this game. Wichita State has just been too good. I think they have a legit shot at 40-0 if they can keep playing like this.

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 3:28 pm

Also, I think Julius Randle is going to be a damn good pro. If Joel Embiid's health issues can clear up, the teams who end up with top 5 picks in the NBA draft are going to be in good shape.

Post by **brian** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:26 pm

So it's flagrant foul when you elbow a guy in the head except when it's a close game in the last 10 seconds?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:54 pm

brian wrote:So it's flagrant foul when you elbow a guy in the head except when it's a close game in the last 10 seconds?

1) It was a basketball move

2) SUCK IT!

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:57 pm

Getting back to last night, Ennis should have driven on both possessions. Syracuse only came back late because he was successful driving repeatedly, either by scoring, being fouled, or both. Overtime is not a bad option, even with Grant having fouled out.

By the way, Syracuse's scoring breakdown last night was 40 points in the paint, 11 free throws, and one 17' jump shot (by Grant).

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:33 pm

Getting back to this...

DSafetyGuy wrote:There is a lot of bad coaching.
There are a lot of players who lack awareness/understanding of the game.
There is a massive, massive over-reliance on the three-pointer and the line should probably get moved back close to NBA range.

Three of the five games where a team that lost by two points did so by missing a three-pointer at the buzzer - VCU on Friday, Syracuse yesterday, and Wichita State today. All were the higher-seeded (and, by extension, theoretically better) team and should have welcomed overtime under the thought that playing longer means the better team normally comes out on top.

When Marshall had Wichita State call time out with three seconds to go down two, I wanted them to lose.

Post by **Shirley** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:46 pm

DSafetyGuy wrote:Getting back to this...

DSafetyGuy wrote:There is a lot of bad coaching.
There are a lot of players who lack awareness/understanding of the game.
There is a massive, massive over-reliance on the three-pointer and the line should probably get moved back close to NBA range.
Three of the five games where a team that lost by two points did so by missing a three-pointer at the buzzer - VCU on Friday, Syracuse yesterday, and Wichita State today. All were the higher-seeded (and, by extension, theoretically better) team and should have welcomed overtime under the thought that playing longer means the better team normally comes out on top.

When Marshall had Wichita State call time out with three seconds to go down two, I wanted them to lose.

Yeah, I wondered about that timeout as well. Better to attack the rim while the defense is scrambling. Score and maybe get fouled. That seems like a better option to me than a forced three-pointer for the win.