NCAA Basketball 23-24

[Giff]

If they win it all, we have to talk about this being one of the most dominant stretches since UCLA right? They haven’t been challenged in 10 straight tourney games.

[EdRomero]

When was the last time there was such a big blowout of a good team when the winning team was awful shooting 3s?

[EdRomero]

Two quick questionable calls against Nelson so there goes that fun

[Rex]

Alabama went from one murder and zero Final Fours to zero murders and one Final Four this year. What a turnaround.

[Giff]

Alabama went from one murder and zero Final Fours to zero murders and one Final Four this year. What a turnaround.

It’s kinda bullshit they didn’t have to wait 20 years tbh.

[Shirley]

If they win it all, we have to talk about this being one of the most dominant stretches since UCLA right? They haven’t been challenged in 10 straight tourney games.

Yeah, no question. At this point, the most recent comp might be that UNLV team that beat Duke by 30 in the finals and then steamrolled everyone the next season until Duke upset them in the FF. Of course, that Duke team then won b2b titles - so three title games in a row.

The amazing thing is that this team only has a few of the top players from last year's team.

[L-Jam3]

If they win it all, we have to talk about this being one of the most dominant stretches since UCLA right? They haven’t been challenged in 10 straight tourney games.

Yeah, no question. At this point, the most recent comp might be that UNLV team that beat Duke by 30 in the finals and then steamrolled everyone the next season until Duke upset them in the FF. Of course, that Duke team then won b2b titles - so three title games in a row.

The amazing thing is that this team only has a few of the top players from last year's team.

I was thinking of that UNLV team, but then I looked it up, and somehow 12th-seeded Ball State game them Hell and only lost 69-67 in the Sweet 16 during their title year. UConn is just smashing teams for two straight postseasons.

[EnochRoot]

IMO from what I’ve learned after watching Dan Hurley’s UConn tams…His coaching staff preaches a European style of play. They control the pace of play through ball movement and defense. Yeah, it helps when you have Donavan Clingan, but I’m talking about when the 7th, 8th and 9th guys enter the game. The movement largely remains the same, which is in part how you can dispose of a team by halfway through the 2nd half when two of your three starting guards go a combined 1-12 from the floor for the evening.

[DaveInSeattle]

I feel kinda dirty saying this but....I like this 'Bama team. They are fun to watch.

Did you guys see this story from a couple of days ago?


Alabama’s secret weapon: Sign-stealing, note-passing graduate assistants

Indeed, their work crunching tape, studying opponents and creating game plans is a thankless, anonymous grind. Because of the seating configuration at Crypto.com Arena during the Sweet 16 game against North Carolina, there wasn’t any room for several of Alabama’s graduate assistants to sit in the bench area, so they had to be relocated to the front row of a designated fan section directly across the court. The graduate assistants sat in a ticketed section, in front of ordinary fans, and were barred from joining Oats’s full-time staffers on the court during the game. Thankfully, they were at least granted temporary access credentials so they could enter the locker room at halftime and join Alabama’s celebration on the court after the buzzer.

I read it and thought it was just good coaching and prep work.

[A_B]

Baña winning a basketball title immediately after saban retires would be pretty funny.

[EdRomero]

I would be happy to never watch a game involving Zach Edey again.

[EdRomero]

I'd like to see Ebey and Clingan match up.

Clingan will have 2 fouls on him within the first 5 minutes.

[rass]

Oof

[A_B]

Why do big 10 teams get the reputation that they never foul? They just don’t get called.

[EdRomero]

Oof

[DaveInSeattle]

When Ebey air-balled that free throw, I thought "oh no, here comes the collapse". Didn't happen though...

DJ Burns seems like a good hang.

[rass]

Shirley should change his handle to Katelyn (sp?).

[rass]

Edey not using the ladder to cut the net is pretty great

[EnochRoot]

Edey not using the ladder to cut the net is pretty great

Edey holding onto his rage of being looked past by Tennessee’s head coach several years ago, and him choosing to use the post-game press conference to dunk on Barnes instead of thanking his past coaches, family and friends is better.

Who knew that guy was so dark?

[EnochRoot]

Fuck Duke.

[rass]

Fuck Duke.

First coach to ever leave the box totally fair call

[EdRomero]

Fuck Duke.

First coach to ever leave the box totally fair call

1990s John Calipari has no comment

[rass]

Fuck Duke.

First coach to ever leave the box totally fair call

1990s John Calipari has no comment

Not sure if CBS was carrying water but they sowed a replay where he was like basically on the Duke bench so…

[Giff]

He’s no Scott Drew!

[rass]

So a lovable almost 300 lb dude is what you need to counteract those Duke “intangibles”.

[Steve of phpBB]

Why do big 10 teams get the reputation that they never foul? They just don’t get called.

Is that their reputation now? It used to be that the only sport more brutal than Big Ten football was Big Ten basketball.

[A_B]

Why do big 10 teams get the reputation that they never foul? They just don’t get called.

Is that their reputation now? It used to be that the only sport more brutal than Big Ten football was Big Ten basketball.

I'll leave this here. Yes, Edey gets some calls, and yes he gets hacked a lot. But there were several very borderline calls on Tennessee that they didn't call on a similar play to Purdue. Purdue deserved to win because Edey dominated the last 5 minutes and UT had no answers, but it just irks me all the way back to Sam fucking Dekker and Wisconsin. They were "fundamentally sound" and "didn't foul" expect that they did over and over and over (and not just against UK in that tourney.)

[Nonlinear FC]

I mean, it's all a matter of where you sit, because I can tell you at least among the MI fanbase, Wisconsin is considered one of the worst in the league when it comes to fouling. Considered pretty much a dirty team for many years. (There's a reason Howard took a swipe at one of their coaches after a game... Well, in addition to his obvious anger management issues.)

I guess I had always assumed the view of B1G basketball is mostly one of pretty rough play that often doesn't translate in March when other conferences' referees start calling that stuff. I mean, you've go the top 2 or 3 teams in the conference that (usually) have final 4/elite 8 level talent, but then you start to get into teams that "play tough D" and things get wonky pretty fast.

[A_B]

The Wisky stuff might be the vestigial end of the Bo Ryan era, which wouldn't overlap much with Howard I don't guess. Certainly I don't watch a lot of Big 10 bball during the season, do I look like a sociopath?

[mister d]

I meant to check on the whole self-fulfilling prophecy of "they don't commit fouls" teams and see how drastically Villanova's FTs against and FT margin have changed in the post-Wright era. They were good for a handful of games every year where the margin of victory was a fraction of the FT differential (and even more drastic when viewed as a % of 2 pointers taken). Not that Wright wasn't an outstanding coach with I'm sure well disciplined teams, but they also benefitted from officials clearly loving the dude and buying into the hype.

[A_B]

I meant to check on the whole self-fulfilling prophecy of "they don't commit fouls" teams and see how drastically Villanova's FTs against and FT margin have changed in the post-Wright era. They were good for a handful of games every year where the margin of victory was a fraction of the FT differential (and even more drastic when viewed as a % of 2 pointers taken). Not that Wright wasn't an outstanding coach with I'm sure well disciplined teams, but they also benefitted from officials clearly loving the dude and buying into the hype.

in 2014-15 Wickonsin was 351st in fouls per game. 12 per game. People basically never even got into the bonus.

[Nonlinear FC]

So, more recently, one of the big reasons for Whisky being labeled a dirty team was really centered around a dude named Brad Davison. You can probably Google him and find clips of some of his horseshit. If W were a more marquee team, he'd be right up there with Grayson Allen in terms of dirtiest college players in the last few decades.

Among B1G hoops fans, he's pretty notorious (not in a good way, obvi).

[Ryan]

My theory is that the midwest schools have always been the almost-exclusive home of lane-clogging stiffs that discourage drives to the hoop, which account for most of the foul calls in college hoops. Creighton is dead last (first) in opponent free throw rate and they have a couple token talls, right?

[rass]

Oof

9 inches off at the apex?

[Ryan]

This game is already cooking

[Giff]

And of course I took the under!

[Steve of phpBB]

So, apparently this Clark woman is pretty good.

[mister d]

Doubtful it mattered but Reese’s 5th foul was a really miserable call.

[Nonlinear FC]

That was just a very very good basketball game. Clark is a generational talent and Reese is very close behind. I'm glad the bullshit drama didn't take over, but... I have to think that LSU were not their usual "id" tonight. I don't want to get sports psychobabble on here, but I think they weren't their normal cocky selves tonight.

[sancarlos]

I’m just happy Kim Mulkey lost.