2009 NCAA Tournament Thread

[Groundhog]

I have a 1, 2, 3 and 4 seed in my Final Four, so I'm all good. So far. Not very confident though.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

You think anybody on CBS this weekend has been bad? You should hear what ESPN has used during the women's tournament.

The guy doing the Tennessee-Ball State game keeps going on at length about this upset (Ball State leads by 10 with 4 minutes left, would be a 12 over a soft 5) sounds like somebody is about to beat one of the Wooden era UCLA teams.

It's pretty obvious that he hasn't watched this edition of the Lady Vols, they're quite capable of losing to anybody on any given night and were just 7-7 in their last 14. If it were this year's UConn team, okay, have a cow man. Heck, if UTSA manages to pull off the first ever 15-2 upset against Baylor, go crazy. But this? Ain't much of a shock to me or anybody who's been watching all year, even less than WKU over Illinois.

First time Tennessee has lost in the 1st round.

Fire Pat Summit!!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Fire Pat Summit!!

After this season they may not have to, any sane person in her situation would give serious consideration to retirement.

Only thing I can really put on Pat this year is some recruiting that didn't turn out as expected. The injury problems made a very tough situation even harder but I'd be shocked if all 7 of this year's freshmen were still in Knoxville next season, would be surprised if more than 4 of them were still around actually.

Tonight would have been closer if UT's only big, Kelley Cain, hadn't gone down with a knee injury in the first half after scoring 10 points early but I really don't know if having her would have made up the difference. Ball State wanted to play and win, something sorely lacking far too often in the orange jerseys this year. This crop of players seemed to think having the name across the front of the jersey was a substitute for effort and several of them seemed to never really get past that notion even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by panerd

Yeah there were a couple of times that you would have thought we were down like 20+ by how much they were praising Marquette and that was when we were still leading by 7! Wish I could listen to the radio and watch the game but it is furthar along than CBS. Even when they are praising Mizzou it is the same stories I have heard 1,000,000 times including inaccurate ones like Miguel Paul being related to Chris Paul.

Let's go Tigers!!!! That turnaround at the end changed the next 4 days at work from grueling to somewhat bearable.

It seemed very Marquette biased.. I'm like you though.. watching in HD, everything else is ahead of the game. I can't talk to my dad because his feed is behind mine and he yells before I know what has happened.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

My only complaint about some of the games I've caught is Bill Raftery. He annoys me in CH 2K8, and he annoys me when he does the colour commentary for real games even more. Does he just open up a thesaurus during random parts of the game and start reading out the entries under "strength" and "willpower" everytime any player does anything?

Thank you. I'm glad someone else dislikes this guy. I literally muted the game when he was announcing the other day. He is so worried about his catchphrases that he takes over the telecast.

The best announcers are the ones that you really don't know are there.

[Young Drachma]

In other women's tournament news, South Dakota State made the tourney for the first time and put a beating on TCU in the 1st round. (TCU vs. South Dakota State - Recap - March 22, 2009 - ESPN)

If the Mountain West was smart, it'd invite South Dakota State and North Dakota State to the conference as basketball-only members, coupled with an invitation for Boise State to join outright. Call their bluff, knowing good and well that they won't turn the invite down, because of what it'd do for all of the other sports in their program.

In any case...this program is well developed and plays like a well-oiled machine. If Baylor plays them like they did their first round game which they barely escaped against UT-San Antonio, they're going to be heading home much like Tennessee did today.

Now whether SD State will be able to go on a George Mason-like run is anyone's guess..but I'm telling you now not to be surprised if they go on a run, because their well-coached, are effective shooters and execute better than most of the teams in the country.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

First time Tennessee has lost in the 1st round.

Fire Pat Summit!!

woohoo Ball State! went to grad school there so I was cheering for them and actually picked them to win in the woman's bracket I did. Not really expecting them to win, but hey it's a 5/12 matchup against the weakest Tennessee team ever probably, so what the heck. Still pretty stunned they won.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

You think anybody on CBS this weekend has been bad? You should hear what ESPN has used during the women's tournament.

The guy doing the Tennessee-Ball State game keeps going on at length about this upset (Ball State leads by 10 with 4 minutes left, would be a 12 over a soft 5) sounds like somebody is about to beat one of the Wooden era UCLA teams.

It's pretty obvious that he hasn't watched this edition of the Lady Vols, they're quite capable of losing to anybody on any given night and were just 7-7 in their last 14. If it were this year's UConn team, okay, have a cow man. Heck, if UTSA manages to pull off the first ever 15-2 upset against Baylor, go crazy. But this? Ain't much of a shock to me or anybody who's been watching all year, even less than WKU over Illinois.

Well yeah Tennessee has been struggling this season, but a struggling Tennessee is still a pretty good team. I can understand the announcers going on at length about it. First time Ball State is in the tourney, Tennessee has never lost in the first two rounds, won what like 7 national championships? Most would still expect Tennessee to win in a game like this.

[larrymcg421]

One of the more interesting NIT matchups in a while with St. Mary's facing Davidson.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

One of the more interesting NIT matchups in a while with St. Mary's facing Davidson.

Yep, out of plain view..just as the NCAA wanted.

[Young Drachma]

Here's a piece on Eric Devendorf on being a dad and a student-athlete.

[Young Drachma]

CBI Quarter-finals
Charleston v. Richmond
Stanford v. Wichita State
Northeastern v. UTEP
Vermont v. Oregon State

CollegeInsider.com Tournament Quarter-Finals (CIT)
=========
James Madison (20-14) @ Liberty (22-11)
Belmont (20-12) @ Old Dominion (22-10)

Oakland (23-12) @ Bradley (19-14)
Idaho (17-15) @ Pacific (20-11)

Unlike the CBI tournament, teams in this tournament get their road expenses paid and the home teams get their take above $2850.

And in this tournament, they barred losing teams unlike the CBI.

No TV deal for this tournament until the championship game.

collegeinsider.com does a mid-major Top 25 poll during the year. So...they just fashioned this tournament to be like a mid-major NIT, whereas the CBI was losing records and teams with "names" playing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

First batch of preliminary TV ratings for the tournament are in, up 9% over last season nationally
The first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament may have been light on upsets, with virtually all the high seeds prevailing easily, but it was heavy on viewers.

Thursday’s opening-round coverage on CBS was up 9 percent compared to last year, according to Nielsen overnights, from an average 4.3 household rating and 10 share to a 4.7/10.

All but one of the day’s four windows of games saw improvement versus 2008, with the second afternoon telecast up 0.4, to a 3.7, the second-highest rating in the past four years, and the two primetime windows both up 0.5.

That wasn’t the only area where CBS saw year-to-year improvements. Its March Madness on Demand online platform recorded its best-ever opening-day traffic as well.

The site’s video player drew 2.7 million unique visitors, up 56 percent versus last year. Those visitors watched 2.8 million hours of live video and audio streaming, 65 percent better than last year.
Media Life Magazine - Solid early bounce for March Madness

I was curious to see those because just a little while ago I got the weekend numbers in detail for Atlanta which were very different, down game to game across the board in 25-54, significantly by Sunday (game 2 Sunday down 3.8 to 2.4, last game down from 4.2 to 3.5).

Curious thing I noticed too, all of the CBS lineup from 60 Minutes through Cold Case up in Atlanta by more than double vs last year, with 60 Minutes posting a 5.5 vs a 3.5 for the game while last year the game had a 4.2 that dropped to a 2.6. Downright peculiar looking stuff, even for a market that frequently runs contrary to the national numbers.

I imagine the games themselves probably account for the drop here, last year on Sunday you had Tennessee in the middle game, UNC in the finale while this year was Pittsburgh followed by Louisville.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just saw Dick Vitale say that the best matchup of the weekend was Duke-Villanova. Seriously? Good God.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Just saw Dick Vitale say that the best matchup of the weekend was Duke-Villanova. Seriously? Good God.

Duke vs anybody would be his best matchup of the weekend

[sterlingice]

JIMGA- How's tv viewership in general this year? I thought cheap (or free) entertainment always got a boost in viewers/participants from a bad economy.

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

JIMGA- How's tv viewership in general this year? I thought cheap (or free) entertainment always got a boost in viewers/participants from a bad economy.

The latest study was released in late February, shows viewing up to 151 hours per month for the average viewer which is an all-time high.

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/...4q08_final.pdf

Several interesting tidbits in that study btw, including
31 percent of Internet activity occurs when consumers are also watching television.

At 7 hours, 11 minutes per month, “timeshifted TV” is watched at double the pace as video online. But young viewers (18-24) watch video on the Internet and on a DVR at the same rate: about 5 hours per month.

Men continue to watch video on mobile phones more than women, and women continue to watch video on the Internet and television more than men.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Noticed an article in the Memphis newspaper where the writers and Memphis players were drawing the conclusion that their performance yesterday against the Maryland press in the second half will somehow equate to them breaking the Mizzou press. The fans on the fan boards seem to be following that lead.

This just in.......there's a big difference between a press run by a 10th seeded Williams-coached team and a press run by the 3rd seeded Anderson-coached team. No guarantees that Mizzou will win, but there's a huge difference between those two presses.

I'm concerned about the prep time that Calipari has in this matchup. It's a lot easier to get ready for Mizzou with 5 days of preparation than it is to do it in 24 hours, which is what the next team will have if Mizzou wins. Anderson's going to need to throw some wrinkles into the system just to keep Calipari guessing.

[CleBrownsfan]

anybody know where I can find out what game is going to be televised in my area on Thur/Fri.?

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The latest study was released in late February, shows viewing up to 151 hours per month for the average viewer which is an all-time high.

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/...4q08_final.pdf

Several interesting tidbits in that study btw, including
31 percent of Internet activity occurs when consumers are also watching television.

At 7 hours, 11 minutes per month, “timeshifted TV” is watched at double the pace as video online. But young viewers (18-24) watch video on the Internet and on a DVR at the same rate: about 5 hours per month.

Men continue to watch video on mobile phones more than women, and women continue to watch video on the Internet and television more than men.

The timeshifting numbers have to be a bit weird to really get value from. Is an all-out "average" really telling us that much? Because an average for someone that owns a DVR is clearly different from someone that doesn't own one. If you're in advertising, wouldn't you rather just know how many of them have a DVR and how often they use it?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Interesting stat to chew on. These are the records of the Sweet 16 teams against the other Sweet 16 participants.........

North Carolina: 3-0
Arizona: 2-0
Louisville: 5-1
Xavier: 2-1
Pittsburgh: 3-2
Connecticut: 4-3
Villanova: 3-3
Duke: 2-2
Michigan State: 2-2
Missouri: 2-2
Syracuse: 3-6
Kansas: 2-4
Memphis: 1-2
Oklahoma: 1-2
Purdue: 1-3
Gonzaga: 0-3

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Noticed an article in the Memphis newspaper where the writers and Memphis players were drawing the conclusion that their performance yesterday against the Maryland press in the second half will somehow equate to them breaking the Mizzou press. The fans on the fan boards seem to be following that lead.

This just in.......there's a big difference between a press run by a 10th seeded Williams-coached team and a press run by the 3rd seeded Anderson-coached team. No guarantees that Mizzou will win, but there's a huge difference between those two presses.

I'm concerned about the prep time that Calipari has in this matchup. It's a lot easier to get ready for Mizzou with 5 days of preparation than it is to do it in 24 hours, which is what the next team will have if Mizzou wins. Anderson's going to need to throw some wrinkles into the system just to keep Calipari guessing.

He was not comparing the two presses. He was simply stating Mike Anderson might want to think twice about pressing after Memphis literally shredded the Maryland press.

Memphis has the athletes and length that will tear almost any press apart. Very few people are successful at running with Memphis and winning. Memphis is something like 93-2 the past three years when scoring at least 75 points.

[Ksyrup]

I don't watch much basketball, but of course I enjoy March Madness - at least the first 4 days, anyway - but I have to say that at this point, I'm desperately pleading for 2 phrases to go away or a moratorium be placed on their usage for the next 3 weeks - "chalk" and "long."

/rant on

It seems like since last year's tournament, where all 4 #1 seeds made the Final Four, the term "chalk" has been increasingly thrown around, And right now, it's being overused so much I want to fucking kill somebody. ESPN.com has a headline "Sweet Chalkers." Every moment I turn on a game or sports radio, I hear someone telling me the tournament is chalk right now. Fuck you and your chalk. I hope the Trite Expressions guy is taking notes right now.

And same goes for long. For some reason, I associate this one with Jay Bilas, although I have no clue who started it. What was wrong with "dude is tall"? Why are basketball players "long"? If you're over 6 feet, chances are you're tall and have a long wingspan - that pretty much goes without saying. Why is a special term needed to describe that? It fucking annoys me to no end.

OK, I'm done for now.

/rant off

[gstelmack]

I had never heard the term "chalk" applied in this manner until this post and reading articles today. And I still have no clue what the heck it's supposed to mean. I think I'm better off for that.

[Ksyrup]

Have you not been watching the tournament? It's like every third word out of their mouths. As I understand it, it refers to all the games going the way of Vegas' favored betting lines - "taking the chalk" means picking the favorite to win. Perhaps the bettors here can vouch for that. But that's what I take it to mean. ESPN.com's Sweet Chalkers article is about how no Cinderella's have made the Sweet Sixteen. it's beyond fucking annoying to me for some reason. Maybe it's because EVERYBODY and their mother is using the term all of a sudden.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

What was wrong with "dude is tall"? Why are basketball players "long"? If you're over 6 feet, chances are you're tall and have a long wingspan - that pretty much goes without saying. Why is a special term needed to describe that? It fucking annoys me to no end.

I tend to think of "long" as different than someone who plays "wide" (which you rarely, if ever, hear) although the two players are the same height. Their reach or wingspan is part of the equation but I think it often gets applied with consideration to physical style as well. Big men who block your shot when you come to them aren't generally long. Bigs who get blocks and/or rebounds that require them coming to you/the ball are the ones I think of as "long".

From the tournament, just going with examples I'm familiar with, Tennessee's Wayne Chism at 6'9 242 sometimes plays long. UT's Brian Williams at 6'10" 267 (generously) does not. 6'7's Tyler Smith & J.P. Prince also appear "long" at times while 6'8 Renaldo Woolridge definitely doesn't.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Have you not been watching the tournament? It's like every third word out of their mouths. As I understand it, it refers to all the games going the way of Vegas' favored betting lines - "taking the chalk" means picking the favorite to win.

I thought it simply meant the higher seed consistently advancing, nothing to do with the betting lines. As in the "chalk" lines of the bracket.

[MJ4H]

I cringe every time a player is on the bench "getting a blow."

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

As I understand it, it refers to all the games going the way of Vegas' favored betting lines - "taking the chalk" means picking the favorite to win. Perhaps the bettors here can vouch for that.

In the old days of sports betting in Vegas, the favorite in each matchup would be written on the board in chalk. So if you took the favorite, you were 'betting the chalk'.

I have no clue why its use is suddenly so prevelant given that it's a relatively old term.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

He was not comparing the two presses. He was simply stating Mike Anderson might want to think twice about pressing after Memphis literally shredded the Maryland press.

Memphis has the athletes and length that will tear almost any press apart. Very few people are successful at running with Memphis and winning. Memphis is something like 93-2 the past three years when scoring at least 75 points.

Here's what happened the last time that Memphis faced a Mike Anderson-led team.......

Tigers Fall On The Road To UAB - MEMPHIS OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE

As far as stats go, it's hard to take them seriously when we're talking about Conference USA. Any one of the top 4 seeds in this tournament would have had little trouble putting up huge numbers if they were in Conference USA instead of Memphis. Memphis struggled against the 15 seed and beat a 10 seed. They really still haven't faced anyone in this tournament.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

In the old days of sports betting in Vegas, the favorite in each matchup would be written on the board in chalk. So if you took the favorite, you were 'betting the chalk'.

I have no clue why its use is suddenly so prevelant given that it's a relatively old term.

A similar discussion elsewhere on the interwebs narrows it down to horse racing.
Might be right, might be wrong, but makes a certain amount of sense.
http://boards.ign.com/college_basket.../161289032/p1/

edit to add: Same conclusion tentatively offered here as well, narrowing it even further to British horse racing
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1251

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

A similar discussion elsewhere on the interwebs narrows it down to horse racing.
Might be right, might be wrong, but makes a certain amount of sense.
http://boards.ign.com/college_basket.../161289032/p1/

That's correct. It's the same concept. Just betting on horses instead of teams. Chalkboards were used for all of that stuff because the odds were being changed pretty often.

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

I cringe every time a player is on the bench "getting a blow."

I giggle

[Logan]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

I cringe every time a player is on the bench "getting a blow."

During the Pitt-Ok State game, Bill Raftery must have said "he took a bang from the rear" about a dozen times.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Have you not been watching the tournament? It's like every third word out of their mouths.

I've been in-and-out watching the games, but with my parents in town I didn't get to watch many of the Saturday / Sunday games, so didn't watch much as the trend built. I've certainly been reading the term enough today though. I'm with you.

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Here's what happened the last time that Memphis faced a Mike Anderson-led team.......

Tigers Fall On The Road To UAB - MEMPHIS OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE

As far as stats go, it's hard to take them seriously when we're talking about Conference USA. Any one of the top 4 seeds in this tournament would have had little trouble putting up huge numbers if they were in Conference USA instead of Memphis. Memphis struggled against the 15 seed and beat a 10 seed. They really still haven't faced anyone in this tournament.

That is incorrect. The last time Memphis played a Mike Anderson coached team, they won 57-46 in the CUSA tournament.

You really should do a little more fact checking before posting, but can we ever expect that out of you?

Your argument of them not facing anyone in this tournament applies to almost every team in the sweet 16. That is one of the benefits of getting a high seed, you know?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

That is incorrect. The last time Memphis played a Mike Anderson coached team, they won 57-46 in the CUSA tournament.

Your argument of them not facing anyone in this tournament applies to almost every team in the sweet 16. That is one of the benefits of getting a high seed, you know?

Obviously, I checked the regular season, hence the reason for the oversight.

Actually 11 of the Sweet 16 teams have beat a single digit seed at this point. So most of the survivors have already played a tough team at this point. The teams that have not faced anyone better than a 10 seed are.......

Kansas
Michigan State
Memphis
Xavier
Oklahoma

Xavier and Memphis are the obvious teams that have something to prove at this point because they were in much weaker conferences than the other teams and haven't faced much competition in the first two rounds. We'll see how they fare in the next two games.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

I cringe every time a player is on the bench "getting a blow."

Duke had a lot of problems with their ball squirting out.

[sterlingice]

Let's go revisit some of what I posted early in the thread as predictions:

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I have 23 "gut" picks so far that I'm pretty happy with, tho in pencil so far and subject to change. The rest I'll need to read up some more and once I have the whole previous part of the bracket filled out, then I can do the last 7 games (I always seem to do my bracket as "sub-regions").

Midwest
Louisville and Michigan State seem to be on a collision course. I have Wake and Kansas winning their first games but that's all I have so far in this bracket. I really worry about Kansas's second game against WVU so I just can't do that one at all yet. Also, I have to look at Utah/Arizona.

Guess I didn't have to worry about WVU. Whoops on Wake- still, no one really had that one. I actually had Cleveland State in my upset bracket. But I also had Arizona State and Washington in the Elite 8 there so take that for what it's worth.

West
I have the top 4 all winning their first game and Memphis winning their second. That's it. I could see Mizzou making some real noise here but I don't know much about Marquette. I also don't see UConn making the Final Four- they have to lose somewhere in the bracket because they aren't the same without Dyson.

UConn is looking strong, but last I checked, you don't get to carry over your margin of victory to the next game so what you've done so far means nothing for the next game.

East
I have Pitt winning 2 but I worry about a potential match with Florida St. Duke and Nova winning their first games are easy, too. But, like Radii said- the bottom half of this one is pretty tough. I don't think we can just write in VCU as a perfect token upset like everyone on ESPN liked. And I really think Nova has a pretty easy first two with home games in Philly but I want to look at Nova vs VCU/UCLA before "inking it", so to speak. Similarly, Duke has a lot of warts so I need to see how this goes before advancing them too far.

Didn't have the hard matches done at this point so everything was correct so far.

South
The top half is easy. Carolina wins twice, tho their second game is interesting. I like Western Kentucky over Illinois but the Zags will beat either of them after beating the Zips. As I said above, the only thing I can figure out in the second half of that bracket is OU winning their first game.

Correct on all counts here. Wasn't very deep, tho.

So, there's my preliminary bracket- maybe 1/3rd done...

SI

This was a basic skeleton and pretty much was right except for the Midwest. Still, with a rough sketch, everything should be pretty much correct since I was only writing in things I was "sure" about.

The other post I had won't have much clarification until after the next pair of rounds so I'll check that out this time next week.

SI

[DataKing]

A few observations of mine from this past weekend (apologies if any of this has already been discussed, but I don't have time to read the whole thread up to this point):

1. I do have to toot my own horn just a little bit. For the first time in my life, I went 16-for-16 after the first weekend (and that's on just 1 bracket...I'm not one of those people who fills out 374 brackets and then claims genius when one of them turns out good).
2. Is it just me, or is Gus Johnson less annoying than in years past? Has Captain Overreaction toned things down a bit this year? Perhaps Len Elmore (one of my favorite broadcasters) is having a good influence.
3. I was pretty impressed with the video quality of MMOD.
4. I found it funny that for 3-days straight, drama seemed to build over the course of the day, so the last games of the day were the closest and most exciting. On Friday night, at one point, two different games were in OT at the same time. At one point Sunday night, the three games going on simultaneously had a combined point differential of five.
5. Overall, a very good opening weekend to the tournament. I enjoyed it (as always).
6. This was probably pointed out yesterday, but I do have to point out the monster performance by Cole Aldrich against Dayton. Granted, Dayton doesn't have a legit low-post player, but still: 13 points, 20 boards, 10 BLOCKS!!! Cole is the first guy since Shaq to have a blocks triple-double in the tournament.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by DataKing

6. This was probably pointed out yesterday, but I do have to point out the monster performance by Cole Aldrich against Dayton. Granted, Dayton doesn't have a legit low-post player, but still: 13 points, 20 boards, 10 BLOCKS!!! Cole is the first guy since Shaq to have a blocks triple-double in the tournament.

This was also pointed out yesterday.

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Could've been a quadruple double, if they had called all those fouls he actually committed.

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Obviously, I checked the regular season, hence the reason for the oversight.

Actually 11 of the Sweet 16 teams have beat a single digit seed at this point. So most of the survivors have already played a tough team at this point. The teams that have not faced anyone better than a 10 seed are.......

Kansas
Michigan State
Memphis
Xavier
Oklahoma

Xavier and Memphis are the obvious teams that have something to prove at this point because they were in much weaker conferences than the other teams and haven't faced much competition in the first two rounds. We'll see how they fare in the next two games.

You are really grasping for straws here. Memphis demolished a team from the ACC. Your argument is that North Carolina and Duke really have not played anyone in the first two rounds, but because they played in the ACC they are battle tested.

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

This was also pointed out yesterday.

Funny.

[Radii]

I'd like to propose that no one but Mizzou B-Ball fan and GoldenEagle be allowed to post in this thread between now and Thursday, unless it is to incite/egg on one of the two of them.

Its possible that the next 3 days between these two in this thread could be the best thing to ever happen on a messageboard ever.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Radii

I'd like to propose that no one but Mizzou B-Ball fan and GoldenEagle be allowed to post in this thread between now and Thursday, unless it is to incite/egg on one of the two of them.

Its possible that the next 3 days between these two in this thread could be the best thing to ever happen on a messageboard ever.

I dunno, the Flasch BF/GF/1R thread that introduced flere diagrams and the Maximum Football threads are pretty high bars to attain, but I'm willing to go along for the ride to see where this one goes...

[LoneStarGirl]

Originally Posted by Radii

I'd like to propose that no one but Mizzou B-Ball fan and GoldenEagle be allowed to post in this thread between now and Thursday, unless it is to incite/egg on one of the two of them.

Its possible that the next 3 days between these two in this thread could be the best thing to ever happen on a messageboard ever.

lol

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Radii

I'd like to propose that no one but Mizzou B-Ball fan and GoldenEagle be allowed to post in this thread between now and Thursday, unless it is to incite/egg on one of the two of them.

Its possible that the next 3 days between these two in this thread could be the best thing to ever happen on a messageboard ever.

SI

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Noticed an article in the Memphis newspaper where the writers and Memphis players were drawing the conclusion that their performance yesterday against the Maryland press in the second half will somehow equate to them breaking the Mizzou press. The fans on the fan boards seem to be following that lead.

This just in.......there's a big difference between a press run by a 10th seeded Williams-coached team and a press run by the 3rd seeded Anderson-coached team. No guarantees that Mizzou will win, but there's a huge difference between those two presses.

I'm concerned about the prep time that Calipari has in this matchup. It's a lot easier to get ready for Mizzou with 5 days of preparation than it is to do it in 24 hours, which is what the next team will have if Mizzou wins. Anderson's going to need to throw some wrinkles into the system just to keep Calipari guessing.

Don't forget Calipari had what, 2 games a year for 4/5 years against Anderson at UAB? Its not so much that Maryland success = Mizzou success as it is that they know Anderson's system. If they could adapt to Maryland's press on the fly, they should be able to beat the Mizzou press if they know it is coming and have time to prep for it.

That said, the team in CUSA that has given Memphis the most trouble over the last 10 years were those Anderson coached UAB teams.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Obviously, I checked the regular season, hence the reason for the oversight.

Actually 11 of the Sweet 16 teams have beat a single digit seed at this point. So most of the survivors have already played a tough team at this point. The teams that have not faced anyone better than a 10 seed are.......

Kansas
Michigan State
Memphis
Xavier
Oklahoma

Xavier and Memphis are the obvious teams that have something to prove at this point because they were in much weaker conferences than the other teams and haven't faced much competition in the first two rounds. We'll see how they fare in the next two games.

Uh... This means what? Maryland beat Cal which was a #7 seed. So if they played a team that lost they would have proven something? Memphis came out of the gate poorly this year. They went 6-3, losing to Xavier (neutral site), Syracuse (home), and a Georgetown (road) team that fell apart a month after they played Memphis. After those three losses, Calipari changed the lineup and Evans moved to PG. Since then, they have won every game, including going on the road and demolishing Gonzaga.

Have they had an easier road than other teams in their conference? Sure. But they have won those games. They won every single one of them. How many times do top teams stumble at some point in the season? They have not, that counts for something. Is this team the best Memphis team in the last 4 years? No, they are probably the third best, but unlike previous seasons, there are probably 10 teams that could win this thing, and Memphis is one of them.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

Uh... This means what? Maryland beat Cal which was a #7 seed. So if they played a team that lost they would have proven something? Memphis came out of the gate poorly this year. They went 6-3, losing to Xavier (neutral site), Syracuse (home), and a Georgetown (road) team that fell apart a month after they played Memphis. After those three losses, Calipari changed the lineup and Evans moved to PG. Since then, they have won every game, including going on the road and demolishing Gonzaga.

The Cal loss was an unfortunate one. With their outside shooting, they definitely had a much better opportunity to beat Memphis as I mentioned before that game when I said Memphis should root for Maryland to win.

Memphis is a good team and Calipari has been playing the 'no one respects us' card in the meetings and pep talks. It almost resulted in a first round loss, but hopefully for Memphis, they've learned from that situation. The key will obviously be Mizzou's defense by Tiller and Taylor. If they rattle Evans early, Memphis is in big trouble. If Evans only gives up 1-2 turnovers, it's good for Memphis.

For Mizzou, if Lawrence or English gets hot, it's going to be a rough night for Memphis.