***Official 2025 NCAA Tournament Thread***

Gunnerclone

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Jul 16, 2010
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going to be a good final four if this game holds. SEC style vs either smooth Duke or raw-dog Houston in the final.
 

CycloneErik

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Jan 31, 2008
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rememberingdoria.wordpress.com
If Auburn holds I feel like the tourney kind of validated the regular season this year.

SEC was the best conference.

The Big 12 wasn't too far behind at the top they just didn't have as many tournament teams and their metrics were probably hurt a bit by a slow Houston and Arizona start.

Big 10 had several good but no great teams. I kept hearing from national media how good the conf was but I never saw any elite teams.

ACC was Duke and nothing else.

Big East was down.

ISU's injuries probably lowered the valuation of the Big 12 a bit, too, but still a clear #2, like you're saying.
 

ExCyment

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Jan 8, 2013
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Some were calling the SEC the best conference ever. Nope. The best this year probably but given far too many opportunities in the tourney.
 

swclone11

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Feb 17, 2024
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Auburn and Florida are both very good teams, but give me Duke or Houston. Coaching matters, especially in late game scenarios, and I was much more impressed by the latter two than the former.
 

RonBurgundy

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Oct 5, 2017
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I feel so bad for Izzo. No more crying.

It was funny when they put up the stat that Izzo had 14 victories when down at half. I wonder what the over/under would be on whether the refs helped MSU over the hump in the second half. Glad it didn’t happen here.
 

jdoggivjc

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Sep 27, 2006
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Some were calling the SEC the best conference ever. Nope. The best this year probably but given far too many opportunities in the tourney.

I would agree. The elite teams were absolutely elite (Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama), and the teams that made it to the round of 32 truly deserved to be there. But the SEC had far too many teams in the tournament, and the ones that were invited with a sub-.500 conference record proved they didn't belong with their performance in the tournament. But there's absolutely no way in hell the SEC deserved to get 14 of their 16 teams into the tourney.