I blame it on his time in Athens. That area is contagious.

Sigh.

I know where the 3 part came from, I had the 3 free throws they hit in my mind when I was typing. Where the 48 part came in would be anybody's guess.

Cal just got eaten alive by Maryland in the final 8 minutes. For all the good Jerome Randle can do, he makes terrible decisions at times that cancel out the positive. Maryland is a well-coached ballclub with a bigtime talent in Vasquez. I don't see them beating Memphis, but they aren't a bad team.

Mike Montgomery got out coached. That was one of the worst games ive seen a coach coach in. Hey Mike, Maryland isnt that good, you might want to make a half time adjustment and throw out any kind of zone offense to your club so that arent just stick with Randle throwing the ball away due to everyone else just standing around.

I mean I know its a shock to have a team play a zone againt the best 3 point shooting team in the nation, but Mike chose to sit down on the bench the entire game with his thumb stuck up his ass. Im simply amazed at that game.

I'm unfortunately stuck with Michigan - Clemson where both teams are shooting 20% from the field midway through the half.

I'm getting Nova - American where 14 3s have been taken in the first 9 minutes - 8 were good.

I like the MMOD. Even more silly is that I have one game on tv and another on my laptop :)

SI

Washington came to play, great game.

Clean up the fouls a little and they will give Purdue all they can handle

If they keep letting Michigan mug Clemson and play "Big 10 style" basketball, the Tigers have no shot.

Ok, this American-Villanova game is fun :D

SI

Manny Harris is legit. He says he's coming back, le'ts hope so because he probably isn't a first rounder, and he'd be a front runner for B10 POTY next year.

Nova is playing very sloppy basketball right now.

We really need a pass-first point guard (sorry Scotty Reynolds/Corey Fisher)

What has the general attitude been towards Oliver Purnell at Clemson? Anybody here familiar with Clemson basketball? I used to watch him when I was younger at Dayton and he loved there. I remember a lot of general sadness when he left.

Ok, so I watched a couple of minutes of the Michigan/Clemson game to close out the half and that's pretty much all I'll be watching of that game. Ugly as sin

SI

This block of games is an emabarassment of riches, they probably should have put one the 7/10 games in the late group to guarantee something competitive there. I could see that group coming up ugly....

I do the same thing, plus my cable provider is giving us 2 different feeds, so I can cover 3 games, the wife has Yoga tonight, all is good

American!

I went to Dayton, and my wife went to Clemson. I was sad when he left UD, but felt he would get Clemson back to respectability, and he has done that. If he loses in the NCAA's this year, it will be 2 back-to-back 1st round NCAA exits so there will be a bit of grumbling, but all in all, football is 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at Clemson, so he has a bit more leeway than a coach at a more even-keeled school would have. Just getting Clemson ranked on a regular basis is probably good enough for most at the school. He has a long term contract at Clemson, the fans seem to like him, and he seems to like the fans, so I think he will probably close out his career there.

Bad News: I have Nova going to the final 4.

Good News: If American pulls this off and VCU wins like I think they well, VCU gets a much better matchup.

Raise your hand if you just nervously checked your brackets to see how far you have Villanova going

Too bad VCU won't pull it off because I have UCLA going to the Sweet 16, tyvm.

So, I know I am getting ahead of myself... but does anyone see Jeff Jones getting another shot at big-time coaching? He has done really nice things at American U., and I know he had some success at Virginia before being let go (not sure of the circumstances on that one)... but if they beat Villanova, he will look awfully attractive as a new hire to some school out there.

I'm so odd on this. As long as there's no money involved, I don't really mind if my bracket gets screwed...because I imagine everyone else in my pool is getting screwed too.

And I had 'Nove in the Elite 8, so yeah, thankfully there's no money involved. :D

Final Four, here.

But fuck it. I would love to see them get beat.

I'm ok with my bracket getting screwed. I have a whole $5 on the entire tourney in one pool so I'd rather just have a more entertaining tourney. We've had far too few upsets the last 2 years with all 1's making it last year and only 3 or 4 upsets total the year before. Dust up that chalk!

SI

Zags need to wake up. Playing very lethargic.

The VCU and Purdue love from everyone baffles me. It sounds like Wade is at least a VCU fan, but the amount of respect UCLA gets for 3 straight final fours is baffling. I think they win comfortably.

I've stated a few times across threads I totaly agree with you.

I think it's because on ESPN, they absolutely loved VCU as the upset special. I went back and forth a little, but ultimately my final bracket had UCLA.

SI

Purdue, I think it's because no one is really comfy with Washington. Frankly, I'm a lot less enamored with Purdue so I had Washington beating them.

SI

that UW- UCONN Nike commercial cracks me up every time

Purdue is my pick to beat Washington and ultimately the team that beats Memphis as well... I just have a good feeling about them especially getting back one of their top players.

I like the guy speeding through Illinois better. It's a great series though.

I like it. The Illinois/Carolina one is a little weaker. I keep getting nervous that there is going to be a Mizzou/UCLA one but I think the commercial is based on losing a lot later in the tournament than Mizzou ever gets to. :)

Gonzaga, you better step your game up, otherwise I'll...be very sad.

And Uconn? Good luck with that one.

If Michigan holds on and Minnesota somehow bounces back to beat Texas, this will be a good day for the Big 10. Illinois sucks, if WKU doesn't beat them I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Ogilvy ejected for throwing an elbow in the clemson/michigan game. Wasn't necessarily vicious, but 100% intentional.

I've got Nova losing next round anyway, so I'd love to see them get knocked off.

It feels like the Zags are starting to wake up

SI

My mistake I meant I had Purdue beating UConn. I don't have Memphis going very far at all.

Anyhow, thanks for correcting me on that. And yes, UConn loses to Purdue in my pool. :)

This is fun.

If Brockman can get Thabeet into foul trouble it could happen

I did a total of two brackets. They don't have much different between them other than in one of them I have Michigan in the Sweet 16 and one of them I have Missouri in the Final Four rather than Purdue.

I love MM!

The Villanova/American feed must be getting pounded on Yahoo Sports. It's rebuffering every few seconds compared to the Zags/Akron feed.

St. Louis likes to think of itself as both a Big 12 and Big 10 city. So we get an awful lot of awful big 10 basketball. (PSU/ILL was one of the worst games I have ever seen in my life) They do seem to be doing allright in the first round. But it will be interesting to see them go up against the ACC and Big East schools.

not surprisingly, I like that one quite a bit as well :D

The circumstances were that he was boinking a coed while married to his UVA sweetheart. I think he's married to the coed now, at least I heard that once. They used two poor recruiting classes as the reason, but being a social embarrassment in C-ville was the deal breaker.

It seems like Clemson always peaks a couple of months too early, limps into the tournament and then absolutely implodes once they get there. Michigan is shooting so well, though, it may not have mattered what Clemson did.

I think it comes down to three things:

1. Eric Maynor. ESPN et al saw him control the game in the tourney against Duke two years ago and hit a game winning shot.

2. Anthony Grant. Coach Grant had the Florida job (where he was a long-time assistant to Donovan) when Donovan was headed to the NBA. He's a very good coach who will be at a BCS program within the next few years (a lot of us CAA fans think next year). He has already turned down BCS schools.

3. Larry Sanders. Sophomore Center with arms like Michael Phelps. He is very active under the basket blocking shots and could give a lot of teams trouble. Larry Sanders and Eric Maynor are both considered NBA prospects - you don't see that on a mid-major very often.


For me personally - I'm a big CAA fan (I have season tickets to William and Mary, a perennial bottom dweller in the CAA). I watch VCU play at least 2-3 games live each year and a few more on TV. When they are good, they are VERY good. This year's team can be streaky, but Eric Maynor is like the mid-major equivalent of Kobe Bryant late in games. (do not take that the wrong way, I'm just saying he takes the game over and puts it on his shoulders - not saying he is as good as Kobe) I have watched Maynor for four years and in about 20 games. He's a very good college bball player (I question his NBA prospects compared to what others think, but that's another story altogether). So - I think they have a very legit chance to win. I don't know UCLA well enough to say how much of a chance, but with their full-court press a blowout seems unlikely.

I'm on the UCLA bandwagon, at least for a couple rounds. Way too many people loved VCU.