***Official 2026 NCAA Tournament Thread***

[David Freshman1982]

I hope you can will McCollum to UNC and DeVries to Iowa into existence. Make it happen.

If McCollum doesn't exploit this completely transparent "Elite Eight!!" berth BS into the UNC job, he's an idiot. He'll never get a second chance, and he'll never back into another Elite Eight! berth at EIU. That said, I can't imagine he's more than option #3 or 4 at best for the UNC folks.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Butler made back to back championship games playing very similar.

Exactly how Ben Jacobson has won 400 games without recruiting more than 4 hours outside of Cedar Falls.

The fewer possessions, the more coaching matters.

 

[CIAFarmer]

Davis fouls every rebound. They finally called him.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

If McCollum doesn't exploit this completely transparent "Elite Eight!!" berth BS into the UNC job, he's an idiot. He'll never get a second chance, and he'll never back into another Elite Eight! berth at EIU. That said, I can't imagine he's more than option #3 or 4 at best for the UNC folks.

I would actually take the bet that he's a consistent 2nd weekend guy no matter where he's at

 

[cmhawks99]

I didn’t pretend when I attended Iowa State and it was a great, life changing experience for me. I graduated and I’m proud to be a Cyclone.

I realize by posting this I’m also highjacking this thread, but I couldn’t resist.

It’s fine & you should. I think some fan bases have a hard time understanding that’s their experience. It’s not necessarily the experience for the other hundreds of thousands of kids that went to any university..

There are Michigan fans, Notre Dame fans, Purdue fans, Wisconsin fans, and yes, even Iowa State fans all over Chicago land and plenty of them didn’t go to those universities. Plenty of them had parents that might’ve gone, but they didn’t.

My uncle, who is only six years older than me, who went to Iowa State. Sent a daughter to Michigan and she likes to talk **** about fans who didn’t go to the universities they root for, and I remind her all the time…. Michigan has a 100,000 seat stadium and it isn’t all alumni.

 

[awd4cy]

If McCollum doesn't exploit this completely transparent "Elite Eight!!" berth BS into the UNC job, he's an idiot. He'll never get a second chance, and he'll never back into another Elite Eight! berth at EIU. That said, I can't imagine he's more than option #3 or 4 at best for the UNC folks.

If he gets Iowa to an elite eight in year one, why wouldn’t he believe he could do it again or even go further, and why should we not believe that either?

 

[CY88CE11]

It's stupid for a 2 seed to have homecourt advantage over a 1 seed. What's the point of "rewarding" a team a 1 seed if they have to play on the road to get to a Final 4. I don't know, they should figure out a way for it to make sense.
If Iowa State was the 1 seed and had to go on the road in a regional final, how would you feel about it?

That it would be unlucky and would suck, but why would they go out of their way to send the top 2 seed further away? life isn't always fair. Florida got the closest site to their campus.

 

[12191987]

So, move the whole region to Florida? You know these are set years ahead of time, right?

Easy: Make Houston the #1 and Florida the #2.

Basically it is the opposite of the 2000 Midwest region.

 

[madguy30]

Houston >>> Florida.

Perhaps, but I read on here how Fla would win by 25.

 

[Letterkenny]

Krivas' ability to move his feet at 7'-2" is impressive. He moves around like a 6'-8" guy.

 

[CY88CE11]

Easy: Make Houston the #1 and Florida the #2.

Basically it is the opposite of the 2000 Midwest region.

I'm not against this argument. Florida looked real good against SEC competition, but pretty mid outside of conference play.

 

[cmhawks99]

If McCollum doesn't exploit this completely transparent "Elite Eight!!" berth BS into the UNC job, he's an idiot. He'll never get a second chance, and he'll never back into another Elite Eight! berth at EIU. That said, I can't imagine he's more than option #3 or 4 at best for the UNC folks.

Well I’m spitballing here, but much like TJ I think Iowa actively recruited a guy from the state of Iowa…he may leave & he may not. I don’t expect TJ to leave Iowa St, so….

I think what you mean is, I hope to hell BM leaves Iowa

 

[NYCYFan]

That it would be unlucky and would suck, but why would they go out of their way to send the top 2 seed further away? life isn't always fair. Florida got the closest site to their campus.

It's in Houston, halfway across the county lol.

Anyway, we'll just agree to disagree.

 

[AuH2O]

If McCollum doesn't exploit this completely transparent "Elite Eight!!" berth BS into the UNC job, he's an idiot. He'll never get a second chance, and he'll never back into another Elite Eight! berth at EIU. That said, I can't imagine he's more than option #3 or 4 at best for the UNC folks.

Well, first all he has ever done is win at every stop.

Second he’s at a place that let Fran stick for 20 years and get rich with almost no expectations. He’s basically earned a lifetime contract already.

 

[cmhawks99]

I'm not against this argument. Florida looked real good against SEC competition, but pretty mid outside of conference play.

Well, let’s see if that holds up under cross-examination… They lost to Arizona by six, Duke by one, and UCONN by four all teams better than Iowa?

 

[ISU_Guy]

Houston game: first one to 40?
Houston looks like crap

 

[CY88CE11]

It's in Houston, halfway across the county lol.

Anyway, we'll just agree to disagree.

Then send them to DC, which is further away? Again, you don't seem to understand how this works. They can't change the sites after they seed the tournament.

 

[AuH2O]

Houston going to get to 25 by half?

 

[cyclone82]

Easy: Make Houston the #1 and Florida the #2.

Basically it is the opposite of the 2000 Midwest region.

The way it should have been

 

[Cyclonepride]

Houston would be up by 10 if they could shoot. Instead, they’re down 7 and might have to repaint the rim at halftime