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

[AuH2O]

This is why I think it’s funny when fans get so mad at “late whistles”. A late whistle tells me the ref was watching the play, then processing what actually happened, then blowing the whistle.

100% - I get so tired of fans complaining about late whistles. It is a great thing that refs are blowing the whistle late to avoid anticipation fouls. I'm not sure if it has been a point of emphasis to officiate this way, because it should be, and I'm glad we're seeing more of it in college.

Officiating is still pretty bad in general in CBB, but that's one small step to avoid a few terrible calls.

I also can live with missed fouls. But I hate phantom fouls. Whether it's calling penalties in football or fouls in basketball, I've always been in the camp of "if you call a foul or penalty, you better be damn well sure you saw it."

 

[ClonerJams]

I know Michigan State hasn't been good all year and they probably shouldn't have been in the tournament, but I'd be real nervous if I was a North Carolina fan.

 

[AuH2O]

A single game has little statistical significance, but if one conference has three of the Elite 8 or half the final 4, most people would take that as an indication that that conference is strong, at least at the top. Likewise if 7 of our 8 teams lost in the first round, people could justifiably claim the Big XII was over-rated. The final test of a conference's strength is how they do against teams from other conferences, esp. on neutral courts.

Reality in college sports is that non-con games are the only metric we have prior to the tournament and playoff. It's what, maybe 35% of the total games. Then in all cases a good portion of those non-con games are pretty meaningless blowouts against bad competition. So when you get down to it, before the tournament, there are only a small handful of actual meaningful non-con games that tell us about relative strength of conferences.

So it's highly possible that conference strength projections can be a little off. Now, the Big 12 has clearly been the best league over a decade. There's too much data suggesting this overwhelmingly. But in a given year is it possible that it's overrated? Sure.

 

[Cyched]

Glad we played yesterday and won. Watching the rest of the first round today is going to be bliss

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Why do I want to put a mortgage payment on that UNC line?

I did, although I did the moneyline

 

[isufbcurt]

This is why I think it’s funny when fans get so mad at “late whistles”. A late whistle tells me the ref was watching the play, then processing what actually happened, then blowing the whistle.

It tells me the ref was watching the play and if it's a miss they will call a foul and if it is made they won't, which is ******* stupid.

 

[jcf817]

It tells me the ref was watching the play and if it's a miss they will call a foul and if it is made they won't, which is ******* stupid.

THIS

 

[keepngoal]

This is why I think it’s funny when fans get so mad at “late whistles”. A late whistle tells me the ref was watching the play, then processing what actually happened, then blowing the whistle.

It's how refs let them play. I have seen it all over the place, it isn't a conspiracy against the Clones.

 

[herbicide]

100% - I get so tired of fans complaining about late whistles. It is a great thing that refs are blowing the whistle late to avoid anticipation fouls. I'm not sure if it has been a point of emphasis to officiate this way, because it should be, and I'm glad we're seeing more of it in college.

Officiating is still pretty bad in general in CBB, but that's one small step to avoid a few terrible calls.

I also can live with missed fouls. But I hate phantom fouls. Whether it's calling penalties in football or fouls in basketball, I've always been in the camp of "if you call a foul or penalty, you better be damn well sure you saw it."

I do think a lot of those 'anticipation' fouls are for things/practices the officials may have warned the offending player not to do anymore. But of course a lot of them are for things like last night too.

 

[herbicide]

It tells me the ref was watching the play and if it's a miss they will call a foul and if it is made they won't, which is ******* stupid.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. For instance a borderline call/no call on the floor that would take away a made shot, I am perfectly fine with the ref swallowing the whistle. Generally I don't think a 'foul' should ever directly reward the offending team.

 

[cyclones500]

I hadn't seen the Samford phantom foul live, just watched the replay. Awful. If Timberlake hadn't gone down, I wonder if ref would have called it - sucks because he went down only because of momentum + hand got caught on the rim attempting to dunk.

 

[Cydkar]

Glad we played yesterday and won. Watching the rest of the first round today is going to be bliss

Had we lost I'd be watching Netflix. Not kidding, I wouldn't watch a second of the tournament.

 

[JP4CY]

Listening to some Greeny this AM on ESPN radio and had a guest on and they said UK is probably ready to move on from Cal. Said he's not very portal friendly.
First name: Oats but said buyout is $18 mil.
Second name: Otz but said buyout is $17 mil.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

I hadn't seen the Samford phantom foul live, just watched the replay. Awful. If Timberlake hadn't gone down, I wonder if ref would have called it - sucks because he went down only because of momentum + hand got caught on the rim attempting to dunk.

The ref is also way behind the play. No excuse not to be down at the baseline and he hadn't even gotten to the free throw line.

 

[AuH2O]

It tells me the ref was watching the play and if it's a miss they will call a foul and if it is made they won't, which is ******* stupid.

That certainly does happen, and it is pretty dumb. But that's not all the late whistles, and not what I'm referring to. The intent is a guy is going up in traffic and refs anticipate a foul and call it right away before they actually see it (or when it turns out to be clean).

There are lots of late whistles that are outside of that situation, and it's a good thing to reduce the number of fouls that are due to anticipating a foul rather than actually seeing it.

 

[CoachHines3]

Listening to some Greeny this AM on ESPN radio and had a guest on and they said UK is probably ready to move on from Cal. Said he's not very portal friendly.
First name: Oats but said buyout is $18 mil.
Second name: Otz but said buyout is $17 mil.

so theyre gonna pay Cal 33 million to get rid of him and then pay 17 or 18 mil to hire another coach?

 

[trevn]

so theyre gonna pay Cal 33 million to get rid of him and then pay 17 or 18 mil to hire another coach?

SEC! SEC! SEC!

 

[dahliaclone]

Crazy stat is just saw.

No team west of Texas has won the MBB national title since 1997. Before that only UNLV and UCLA won it since 1975. Three titles west of Texas in basically 50 years.

 

[Big_Sill]

Nah, this aint it.

The tournament just adds data points. But we already have a bunch of other data points. And those say that the big 12 is clearly the best. An underperformance in the tournament might add more data points that weakens that a bit, or a good performance might strengthen it, but it really won't change the whole picture all that much.

Ok, so you are in the group who thinks that the NCAA tournament is not the ultimate indicator of conference strength, which is a fair take. I'll I'm asking is that people be consistent if that is their position. Too many people want to have it both ways.

 

[herbicide]

Crazy stat is just saw.

No team west of Texas has won the MBB national title since 1997. Before that only UNLV and UCLA won it since 1975. Three titles west of Texas in basically 50 years.

A large cause of this statistically speaking is the number of participating schools east of Texas vs the number of schools west of Texas. I don't know and am far too lazy to look it up, but I bet that ratio doesn't make that stat so crazy.