Since there's been so many blow outs, if BU pulls it off last night, they would question why the Big 12 couldn't do the same.
***Official 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Thread***
- Thread starter ClonesTwenty1
- Start date
Since there's been so many blow outs, if BU pulls it off last night, they would question why the Big 12 couldn't do the same.
Yeah, the Cinderella stories are fun for a day or two but they make for bad matchups once you get past the first weekend.
Now we have...
Clemson v. Arizona
San Diego St. v. UConn
Alabama v. North Carolina
Illinois v. Iowa State
NC State v. Marquette
Gonzaga v. Purdue
Duke v. Houston
Creighton v. Tennessee
Lots of tasty matchups.
On Paper, this has to be the most interesting Sweet 16 in years.
I think they are very good but I also wouldn’t look too much into the Northwestern game. They are down two starters and really shouldn’t have won the first game. It’s a reason I’m not big on the Dusty May hire for Michigan. He had one good tourney run but with all the guys he had coming back they really underachieved and has the more talented team against Northwestern where all you have to do is stop one guy and you should win easily.
Their offense though is very difficult to prepare for on a one day turnaround because they run so many different sets. To me the key to them is being ok with Newton scoring just don’t let him set up his teammates. When they have been beaten it’s usually because teams stop Spencer and Karaban from getting good looks from 3 and blowing up their actions so they are forced to try scoring by letting Newton play off schedule. More one on one stuff.
I talked to nearly a dozen peeps at Utah's shellacking of Iowa last night (Utah intentionally held the ball for 30 secs, and Iowas launched a last second long bomb that went in otherwise spread would have been like14 or so, so not at close as the score indicates - was a lead of 18 at one point).
General consensus, including the one Hawkeye fan I spoke to, is that BYU completely deserved it's loss - having been uninspired/uninspiring. Less of an insane rivalry hatred than "that's what you get for falling down on the job".
I had Baylor and Texas in S16. Expected KU to lose, give them pass due to injury taking out their best/2nd best player
Agree on media in some cases, but Big12 also needs to win games if want to claim they are the best. BYU/TCU/TT all losing opening round games stunk. Both ISU and Houston do have good chance to get to E8, and will be no shame if ISU loses there as UConn will be favorite
By the way, my buddy was in Omaha for the weekend and brought me a really cool souvenir. It's an Iowa State Fact Book that must have been discarded or left behind by someone in the media. 200+ pages with bios on the players and staff, with game by game stats and then all kinds of historical records of Iowa State basketball.
The only team that should noybe there this year is nc state who just got hot in their conference tournament
NC State is the lone outlier from Kenpom at #52. Next weekend is going to be an awesome weekend of hoops.
Michigan State and CU jump out to me as being under seeded in a big way this year.
The Eastern most point of the US is in the Aleutians. Texas A&M is closer to them than Houston.
For the sake of my family, I hope that my bio from my time at ISU is heavily redacted.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
Chicago has an East Coast on Lake Michigan, does that count?
This is not wrong at all that Chicago should be Marquette and not Illinois.
I knew a TON of Marquette fans and grads when I lived there and practically no Illini.
When you realize NC State ripped through the ACC tournament and has won 7 elimination games in a row...this is a SUPER chalk bracket like few others. 6seed Clemson is the closest to "Cinderella" and they look like a normal major conference s16 team.
I think it's doing distance from arenas to county centroids.
Marquette on the south side of Milwaukee must be closer to downtown Chicago than Urbana-Champaign.
It's just distances. Not the location of actual fanbases.
For sure but even they have several guys that are legit high major players that can play on any roster. Burns is a nightmare matchup for most teams.
Even Clemson as a 6 seed can make it to the Final 4. They have lots of good wins, a couple of losses that would have been good wins and are loaded with experience and depth.
Grand Canyon, for example, was really fun to watch but they would have been boatraced by UNC whereas Alabama has the horses to make the game interesting. Imagine Yale vs. UConn? Oof
I know, just true either way. I took a train to Milwaukee sometimes, maybe 90 minutes.
I'm about to embark on ESPN's "Second Chance Bracket." My annual stab at redemption, in which I f***-up at least as much as I did with the full tournament challenge. Wish me luck! 
