Never felt better after a tournament loss
- Thread starter cyatheart
- Start date
There's type of analogies suck. You can't unring a bell. The team that crushed Houston in KC were national title contenders.
How about Nebraska! Almost got that first tourney win this year.
They just need to avoid the 1st half next time. Maybe the 2nd half too.
Yeah but Fran can sometimes win an occasional game in the first week so long as the opponent is way overnatched and unathletic. That's probably kinda fun?
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I don't know if I would say that Houston really struggled that much with Duke's length. Filipowski had a good game when you first look, but he was only 3-9 from two-point range--9 of his 16 points came on threes. Duke did have a good game offensive rebounding, but so did Houston, just a bit less so. Plus, Houston was still playing without one of their three main big men (Roberts, Francis, Tugler) they had during the regular season, so they couldn't play 2 of the three the 4/5 spots like they had for much of the season.
Regardless, it feels silly to say this but maybe it's worth saying: There aren't that many 6'11"+ guys out there who are also very skilled and also mobile enough to play good defense. We're lucky to maybe have one in the pipeline in JT Rock, but those guys don't grow on trees such that every program can just decide to get one for themselves.
I think the defense would have to completely change to utilize a more traditional center like that. Definitely would be a benefit on offense, but I don’t see the ability to throw traps on the perimeter like Rob and Ward did.
I’m more interested in a center like JT. hopefully he can be dangerous enough from 3 so he has to be respected out there and his man can’t sag off. That way the guards can get downhill easier
Gonzaga has made 9 straight S16 and 5 E8's in that time for about 50%. The key is getting to enough S16's that you have to win one to get to E8.
ISU two years ago was lucky to be there, this year they deserved to be there and came up short. Get there again with a top 5 seed and you have another 50/50 as long as you don't get UConn in S16.
ISU two years ago was lucky to be there, this year they deserved to be there and came up short. Get there again with a top 5 seed and you have another 50/50 as long as you don't get UConn in S16.
We have to take the next step to get more offense, just like we did last season to this. We like to play at least one of the bigs up top, imagine one that instead of just catching the ball, could then turn and shoot it or drive it to the hoop. We had none of that this year.
People said the same thing over and over about ISU this year, great defense, but they can go through periods where they struggle to score the basket, getting a better and more talented big in that position is the answer, either that or Milan has to step up even more and become that 15 to 20 point player a game. If one happens we will be very good, if we could get both, we could win a national title.
Please tell me we don't have to share point spreads are not an indication of predicted result; rather a number used for books to earn 50/50 bets (which come to think is better odds than what I-State shot on layups and dunks Thur - Posted on another forum thread).
Yeah that’s exactly my point, it was a toss up game in most people’s minds. The only reason this board acts so shocked is because all season long the Big Ten was getting dumped on so losing to a team that everyone says is trash from a trash conference that can’t handle defense feels like this big loss when in reality it was basically a pick em.
Group-think is a hell of a drug. My take is that from top to bottom, the B10 wasn't a great conference. But the top of the conference was no slouch. I feel like Purdue and Illinois were seeded appropriately, Michigan State was maybe a seed line too high. Otherwise, no complaints.
Similarly I think the B12 was seeded mostly appropriately. I disagree that Iowa State was the #8 overall. 5 or 6 would have been more appropriate. Kansas maybe should have been a 5 seed. Houston and Kansas were never going to get too far given their injury situations. BYU was a surprise (to me), so was Baylor. Overall the B12 ncaa tournament performance has been a slight disappointment, but not the MAJOR one that the media is pushing.
The reason we're so "shocked" about the Illinois game is more due to hating the B10 (mostly because of Iowa our rival and also the media circle jerk). If you had a level head going into the Illinois game, you knew that what happened was a very real possibility. Illinois was on fire and we've shown all season that the offense can disappear. I saw that KenPom or similar rated our performance as an 81. That sounds right on target. That was a B- performance and we still had a chance to win it.
The B10 was not a great conference this season by any metric, now B10 fans are out in force telling anyone that will listen, "see we are really very good conference. "
Everyone thought that there were three teams this year at the top of the food chain, UCONN, Purdue and Houston. Two of those are still playing, Houston was hurt by injuries and lost by a couple of points to Duke.
Illinois is playing well behind the play of Shannon, let see how they do against UCONN, beat them and people will start believing in the B10. The league was also hurt by the perception that its bigger named teams, Michigan St, Michigan and Ohio State were not really good this year, the latter two fired their head coach and MSU finished with a losing conference record.
Its possible for a league to not be great as a whole, but still have a few good teams. Purdue and Illinois have proven to be good teams.
And single elimination tournaments not including all members of a conference are not a reasonable way to measure conference strength.
I can't even go that far. Purdue is a #1 seed good team.
Illinois is a good team that is currently on fire (see NC State). Illinois is by no means bad, but if they get past UConn it won't change my impression that they're somehow a great team that we've all been overlooking. It's March, sometimes momentum is more important than being a great team.
That does cut both ways though. We like to point at the national championships. Personally I prefer kenpom, torvic, etc.
Oh I think Illinois is going to get slaughtered by UConn. I also agree that top to bottom the big ten wasn’t great this year or even very good. The bashing I also totally get, but it was a little weird watching the bashing turn into a real belief that the Big12 was just this unbeatable juggernaut that was head and shoulders above everyone else (minus UConn)
Yeah, I chalk that up to this being a message board.... not exactly a place to expect the most logic based (versus emotional based) discussion. Also I think due to realignment over the past 15 years, we have (as a group) an inferiority complex and at times over compensate.
Considering there is already a thread dumping on the football team when the path to the playoffs has never been easier I agree with the last part
