The Swamp

Thought I'd start a new one due to the out-of-date title on the previous thread.

So, how about them Explorers?

In accord with re-establishing the Swamp's gambling addiction: Lines for the Sweet Sixteen

Miami -5.5 Marquette
Ohio State -4 Arizona
Indiana -5.5 Syracuse
Wichita -4 LaSalle
Louisville -10 Oregon
Kansas -2 Michigan
Duke -2 Michigan State
Florida -13 Florida Gulf Coast

Loving Ohio State and Marquette with those numbers.

Don't think Florida is 13 better than Gulf Coast. Ohio State doesn't impress me much... or maybe it just the hitch in the PGs jumper. Havent seen Marquette but I like Miami a lot.

I'm finally sold that this Louisville team is unbeatable.

SNY.com (the website for the regional TV network covering NY area sports) has a blog for Syracuse sports. I wrote a fairly extensive preview of the Syracuse-Indiana Sweet 16 game as my column for this month, if anyone here is interested reading. As you might expect from the website, it does focus more on a Syracuse perspective of the game.

Also, I'll be the second guest on their weekly podcast, which is being recorded today. The first one is Terry Hutchens, the Indiana beat writer from the Indianapolis Star. I can post the link to that when it is available, if anyone is interested.

MisterDick's comment in the NIT thread reminded me of a rant I need to make. I have heard a number of times over the past few days, from a number of different people on a number of radio shows (and news articles) about how great FGCU is and how their style is awesome. The guy then goes on to complain about how most coaches choke the life out of their players, but FGCU plays that wide open, fun style and LOOK, they're winning big now!

Ugh.

Yes, there's no doubt that FGCU has played well and been fun to watch - for the last two games. Why do these guys think they were a 15 seed? This team has lost to East Tennessee State, Lipscomb (twice!), Stetson, and Maine!

The bottom line is that playing exciting, run-and-dunk pickup ball is fun to play and watch, but it leads to WIDE swings in performance. When it's all going well and you can outrun your opponent, you look awesome. When it's not going well, you absolutely suck.

If Andy Enfield gets a job at a better program and tries the same system, he's gonna flame out in a couple of years once other teams get a read on what his team does. Ask Pete Gillen how running and pressing all the time with no discipline works in the big leagues.

DSafetyGuy wrote:SNY.com (the website for the regional TV network covering NY area sports) has a blog for Syracuse sports. I wrote a fairly extensive preview of the Syracuse-Indiana Sweet 16 game as my column for this month, if anyone here is interested reading. As you might expect from the website, it does focus more on a Syracuse perspective of the game.

Also, I'll be the second guest on their weekly podcast, which is being recorded today. The first one is Terry Hutchens, the Indiana beat writer from the Indianapolis Star. I can post the link to that when it is available, if anyone is interested.

Said podcast, which will automatically start when the page loads or can be downloaded from iTunes. (Guess I'm a company shill.)

Pretty cool, DSafe!

Thats a lot os syracuse knowlwdge in the article. Nice work

Thanks, guys. I have just been informed that the preview currently is the lead story on sny.tv, as well.

Special thanks to the three New York metropolitan area hockey teams and the Knicks being off and the Nets playing a late-nighter in Portland.

tOSU past 'zona like they was standing still.

Miami just took a dump on my brackets. That wasn't the team I watched this year.

These end of game reviews in this sort of situation are just stupid. Ruins it.

Here's a discussion I've been having, um, elsewhere on the Internet. When you're tied and the other team has the ball for the last possession, I think there are some situations where fouling (or at the very least pressing and accepting the foul as a possible result) is the right call. You may give up the lead but you get the ball last in exchange for that. Chris Sheridan wrote an article a few years ago saying that that's a common strategy in international ball. Why not do it? I think it's the percentage play against any offense that is remotely efficient.

Gonna barf gonna barf gonna barf ...

Come on Smyrna. This is awesome. I went through the entire SI this week and nothing on LaSalle. Crazy, right?

With Marquette pulling it out over the U, I am now tied for 2nd in a pool with 951 entrants. Means nothing now. But if the Gators win it all, I will cash. Not a great cash pull as it is mostly for my buddies kids AAU team.

Lets go Explorers!!! Philly represent!!

Wow...IU looks awful....like they had no idea Syracuse was going to play zone...

Don't you want to walk up to Dr. John Giannini and do the whole "I've got a little bursitis in my shoulder, do you recommend heat or cold" routine?

No dog in it, although I'd like to see LaSalle win because a couple of Swampers have ties there. But dayuuuum this has been an awful game.

Rex wrote:Here's a discussion I've been having, um, elsewhere on the Internet. When you're tied and the other team has the ball for the last possession, I think there are some situations where fouling (or at the very least pressing and accepting the foul as a possible result) is the right call. You may give up the lead but you get the ball last in exchange for that. Chris Sheridan wrote an article a few years ago saying that that's a common strategy in international ball. Why not do it? I think it's the percentage play against any offense that is remotely efficient.

I was actually wondering if Arizona wouldn't have been better off not making that free throw that tied it up. If he had missed, they are down one with 21 seconds left. Craft had just missed a free throw. Arizona would have fouled quickly and would have had a pretty good chance of getting the last possession with 15 or so seconds left, down 2.

Nah, I guess being tied, and playing D to try to get to OT is statistically better, but I like the idea of having the ball last.

Btw, I picked this Syracuse upset. It makes up a little for my pick of Miami in the finals.

well...that sucked...

I don't know if missing the free throw is the right call, but once you are tied in the last :35 and the other team has the last possession, your win probability has to be somewhere around 20-30 percent (assuming OT is a 50/50 proposition, and it's pretty close to that most of the time). Don't you need to be a little proactive when your WP is that low?

The old Brian might have thrown a dig Mr. D's way, but I know how much that shit hurts. They had a very non-zero chance of going to the Final Four. That's once in a lifetime stuff for a mid-major. Some (most?) of you guys will never understand.

Honestly, a dig wouldn't faze me right now. It would be like mocking me because the supermodel wouldn't blow me again. Fully aware this is likely the best I'll ever see and made sure I enjoyed it.

mister d wrote:Honestly, a dig wouldn't faze me right now. It would be like mocking me because the supermodel wouldn't blow me again. Fully aware this is likely the best I'll ever see and made sure I enjoyed it.

In that case...nah, I'm just kidding. I'm not going to say I was rooting for La Salle (Wichita State is a mid-major too and I had a pretty decent sized bet on them), but I know the path you're walking. Sweet 16 is about the best I could ever hope for as a Central fan. They've been close a couple times in my lifetime. Maybe again one day.

Now you guys know how I feel when UK played in the Outback bowl once.

So, Doug Gottlieb, huh?

rass wrote:So, Doug Gottlieb, huh?

Keeping it real....representing for the oppressed white male!

viewing Greg Gumbel's reaction, technically for a moment there were two white people on the set.

It's a quiet day on facebook in Hoosier country.

lolz.

BSF21 wrote:It's a quiet day on facebook in Hoosier country.

lolz.

Yeah, I have a few Indiana fans on Facebook and they were crowing and talking shit all season. Not so much today.

Rex wrote:Here's a discussion I've been having, um, elsewhere on the Internet. When you're tied and the other team has the ball for the last possession, I think there are some situations where fouling (or at the very least pressing and accepting the foul as a possible result) is the right call. You may give up the lead but you get the ball last in exchange for that. Chris Sheridan wrote an article a few years ago saying that that's a common strategy in international ball. Why not do it? I think it's the percentage play against any offense that is remotely efficient.

I think there's definitely a place for it, especially if you are not in the double bonus, and if you have the opportunity to foul a player who's not a good free-throw shooter. Other factors may be whether you think you stand a chance in OT (for example, maybe one of your starters has already fouled out), or whether you've got a couple three-point shooters who are really hot and you'd happily put the game in their hands.

However, in a defensive struggle where nobody can buy a basket, it would seem to be poor strategy. In the NCAA where shooting percentages definitely trend toward less than 40% (especially in the last few minutes of a game), you could argue that the odds are against that strategy.

Why do the refs need 15 minutes to figure out a punch to the balls?

If only there was a larger screen somewhere

Johnson got it in the Johnson!

This tournament just refuses to have close games.

Jeez, McLemore's story sounds like it's out of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch.

Rex wrote:This tournament just refuses to have close games.

....that don't have Ohio State involved in them.