***Official 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Thread***

i can't tell if he's serious or not
To your Iowa boards.
Oh he's serious. In fact, his statements are a strategically toned down version of what he's really trying to say. His tactic is relatively effective, and it allows him to hang around and be covert about it.

If you call him out for being what he is, he generally just ignores it or says something cryptic/benign, instead of defending himself or denying it, let alone proving your accusation wrong and establishing his credentials as one of us.

It used to really bother me, but now I'm borderline impressed and thoroughly entertained by it at this point.
 
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Oh he's serious. In fact, his statements are a strategically toned down version of what he's really trying to say. His tactic is relatively effective, and it allows him to hang around and be covert about it.

If you call him out for being what he is, he generally just ignores it or says something cryptic/benign, instead of defending himself or denying it, let alone proving your accusation wrong and establishing his credentials as one of us.

It used to really bother me, but now I'm borderline impressed and thoroughly entertained by it at this point.
Go back and read my posts from the past. Let me know if you still think I am a hawk fan in disguise.
 
I’m getting classic Hoiball/early Prohm vibes from Illinois. Can score at will, defense optional, can out talent lesser teams, and constantly plays from behind until the switch flips (I believe they had double digit deficits in all conference tourney games). They’ll beat two lower seeds to get the S16 similar to us in 2016. Then we ran into Virginia (similar to us this year) in Chicago.
It's not apples to apples, buts it's not a bad comparison either. Open court transition, iso ball, high ball screens. Relies on shot making and athleticism. Defense and toughness? Not so much.
 
Everyone worried about the Big 12, SEC is struggling just as much. They're 1-2 so far (including NCAA and NIT) with a blowout loss, and is staring down the barrel of 1-3 with South Carolina struggling right now

We could totally suck this year (not that we will), and unless we do that 23 years in a row we're still better than the Big Ten.

The media spin is always ridiculous.
 
We could totally suck this year (not that we will), and unless we do that 23 years in a row we're still better than the Big Ten.

The media spin is always ridiculous.
Basing your conferences worth off Kansas’s championships (and Baylor’s forgot that one) is a wild take.

The tournament has been and always will be a bad metric for determining the best team. Paths are wildly different, some easy, some insanely hard, players get hurt, games are single elimination in different time zones. It’s a lot of variables.

Doesn’t make it not incredibly fun and entertaining though, just makes it hard to draw and real conclusions. That’s what makes it madness and awesome!
 
It's not apples to apples, buts it's not a bad comparison either. Open court transition, iso ball, high ball screens. Relies on shot making and athleticism. Defense and toughness? Not so much.
I’m not saying Illinois is bad or anything. I think they are pretty good and play an entertaining style of basketball. Just watching them last week and today…something felt familiar. Definitely a team that can make a deep run of shots are falling.