The March Madness 2011 Thread

[quote name='JStryke']After last night, I can say this much. At least I still have 6 of my elite 8.[/QUOTE]

I still have 7. I still think Pitt will miss the Elite 8 though.
 
I still have all my elite 8, lost to of my sweet 16 (Louisville and Old Dominion.

Not that it matters as I'm not in any money polls and never got around to entering the CAG contest.

I went 12-4 yesterday, just missed those two and Belmont and Missouri.
 
[quote name='lordopus99']Come on no one was going to pick Morehead St. That was a super reach.

Louisville to me is the only upset so far in the tourney. Every other win was expected in my eyes. It was great though to see these games close.[/QUOTE]

Not exactly the biggest reach when you have the best rebounder to ever play college basketball on your team. I was actually going to pick them until I found out they were playing Louisville. Didn't like how they matched up. Turns out I was wrong.
 
After Day 1, my bracket is still pretty in tact. I am 14-2. Only lost one Sweet 16 team (Louisville), which it seems most lost. My only other mishap so far is Cincy beating Mizzou (little impact as either team I have losing to UConn).
 
[quote name='themaster20000']I don't think UCONN is going to make it.The team is full of freshmans,and sophomores with Kemba Walker leading them.If he has a bad night then there mostly likely going to lose.I think the final four will be Duke/Kansas/UNC/and BYU.[/QUOTE]

I'm with you on the FF. My EE is still in tact and have 14 of my SS still in it. I have UNC beating Kansas for the championship. I would love to see my alma mater take it, but without Davies it's a risk to put them into the FF.

If BYU plays like they did against Wofford, they won't get past the second round...
 
Gus always does a great job.Got another great game going on between Memphis and Arizona.Edit:If Arizona can make there free throws they got this.
 
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[quote name='pitfallharry219']I'm going to kill myself if I have to see/hear that Napa Know How commercial again.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. Of all the repeated commercials, that one is the worst by far.
 
If you want to watch the games without seeing the NAPA dude, try the streaming option since I have yet to hear that annoying song so far.

Ohio State had a great game as the dominated Texas SA. TSA had a number of good scoring chances but could only get offensive rebounds and no second/third/fourth-chance points.
 
[quote name='Nate Nanjo']So which would be a bigger upset? Morehead St. win or if VCU keeps what they are doing, them beating Georgetown?[/QUOTE]

Morehead was a 13 over a 4. This would be an 11 over a 6, so the Morehead win was definitely more of a shocker.

Plus G-town sucked the last part of the season after Wright got hurt, while L'ville was playing very well.
 
Not a shabby first round for my bracket. Missed 8 overall, but only 2 of sweet 16 and none beyond that are gone.

Decent, but not great, first round for the Big East as well, 7-4 overall. Figured they'd flame out worse than that after the record 11 bids. But not real pressure anyway since none of the 11 teams were fringe bubble teams. Unfortunately there's two games matching up BE teams in the second round (UCONN-Cincy and Marquette-Syracuse).

Here's the first round records by conference and the teams remaining I found on another forum. Doesn't include conferences with no remaining teams.


1) Big East -- 7-4 -- Pitt, Notre Dame, Connecticut, Syracuse,West Virginia, Cincinnati, Marquette
2) Big 10 ----- 5-2 -- Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois
3) Pac 10 ----- 3-0 -- Arizona, Washington, UCLA
4) ACC ---------3-1 -- Duke, North Carolina, Florida State
5) Big 12 ------- 3-2 -- Kansas,Texas, Kansas State
6) Mtn West -----2-1 -- San Diego State, BYU
7) Col Athletic - 2-1 -- George Mason, Virginia Commonwealth
8) A-10 ---------- 2-1 -- Temple, Richmond
9) SEC --------- 2-3 -- Florida, Kentucky
10) Horizon ----- 1-0 -- Butler
11) West Coast -1-0 -- Gonzaga
12) Ohio Valley - 1-0 -- Morehead State
 
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Story of WVU's season...only show up on the offensive end for one half. Only scored 22 in the 2nd half after 41 in the first and go down 71-63.

Oh well, I didn't have high hopes this year and had them losing this game in my bracket anyway! Just not enough talent/skill on offense this year. Next year will be much the same unless some freshmen or Juco recruits can step it up right away.
 
I wouldn't say the story of WVU as it is the story of the Big East. Claimed the best conference yet they always fall short in the tourney with all the teams that get invites.

So my bracket now sits 27 of 33. I lost 3 Sweet 16 teams (Xavier, Louisville, Georgetown). All Elite 8s still in tact.
 
Yeah, the Big East always seems to underwhelm in the tourney, though they did have 5 in the sweet 16 2 or 3 years ago.

Can't gripe about the 11 bids this year though as none of them were really on the bubble other than maybe Marquette (though they were a lock after winning to in the Big East tourney) and all the teams are clearly stronger than the bubble teams like VT that got left out based on record, RPI, SoS etc.

Just not having a great tourney, and shame there are two Big East matchups in the 2nd round that will throw out 2 more teams automatically.

The Big East is usually just the deepest conference (kind of a duh! since they have 18 teams), but tends to lack more than one legit top 5 team, which I guess is why the tourney teams tend to struggle as most years It's a couple top ten caliber teams, then maybe one to three 10-20 type teams, then another bunch of top 20-30 type teams.
 
What a moronic foul by Butler--up 1 with a couple seconds left and foul Pitt around mid court. :bomb:

Edit: Pitt makes the first to tie it, missed the second and now a stupid foul by Pitt on the rebound to send Butler to the line with under 1 second left!

And Pitt loses! That makes WVUs loss a little less bitter! :D
 
In good shape...2nd place in a group of 51, most possible points left in the group.

Final 4 is Kansas, Ohio State, Duke and Florida with Kansas winning.
 
I put BYU in the Final Four in my bracket....but Florida won't be easy and neither would the KSU/WISC winner.

I had Pitt going out this round, but to ODUrather than Butler.
 
Hell yeah, Florida is still in it baby!
And that was just sad by Pitt. Pretty sure they screwed up alot of peoples brackets lol.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']This is the only time I'll ever root for Michigan.

Edit: Of course they lost, they stink.[/QUOTE]

Exactly :lol:

All right Buckeyes don't let up for second get up by 30 and pull the starters.
 
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[quote name='pitfallharry219']I'm going to kill myself if I have to see/hear that Napa Know How commercial again.[/QUOTE]

There was a NAPA radio ad that I heard several times a day all last summer/fall that just made me want to crash my car into anything solid.

I don't know shit about basketball though so I'm outta here.
 
VCU!!!! Love the lil guys!


UK vs OSU on friday woohoo can't wait. Looks like i'll be calling in sick and taking off next friday and weekend. Wonder why I just earned back a couple points from last year at this same time?? :whistle2:$ Took vacation this past thur/fri otherwise i'd worked all weekend. :lol:
 
Marquette is good. They beat Syracuse in the regular season as well.

Other than Pitt and ND at the top of the pack, there wasn't much difference between the other 9 Big East teams that made the tourney. For instance, Marquette also beat WVU twice, ND once, UCONN once etc.

They only got an 11 seed as they were the last big east team in and their RPI wasn't super great. Talent wise they're more on the 4 or 5 seed line, they just lost a few games they should have won that hurt their standing in the conference and seed in the tourney.

Big East has been a HUGE let down in the tourney though for sure. No shame in Cincy and Cuse losing to other Big East teams, and no shame in WVU beating Clemson then losing a close one to Kentucky. But Louisville and Georgetown's losses were embarrassments, and Pitt should have one as well (though I'm happy as hell they choked as a WVU fan!). St Johns losing to Gonzaga wasn't terrible since they were down a starter. Villanova losing to GMU wasn't a huge upset--Nova had been struggling.

ND is getting stomped by FSU currently which would be another bad loss for the league if they don't come back.

So definitely a let down with a few teams having bad losses in the tourney and a few losing closing games to good teams.
 
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And ND goes down to FSU. So only 2 of the 11 big east teams move on (with 2 being eliminated by other Big East teams).

What a huge let down.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']And ND goes down to FSU. So only 2 of the 11 big east teams move on (with 2 being eliminated by other Big East teams).

What a huge let down.[/QUOTE]

I am super happy. I never expected my team to beat Notre Dame... let alone dominate them all game. The offense finally showed up tonight and it was so nice to see :drool:

It's nice to see the Southwest ran by the underdogs.

Classic Big East to barely make it into the Sweet 16 (only 2 survive).
 
[quote name='MillerTime2523']I'll ask again, was the big east completely over rated this year? I'm starting to think so[/QUOTE]

I think dmaul answered it pretty well above. I don't think the conference is overrated, they have a huge amount of "good" teams. Teams that can win on any given night. This doesn't mean that they are world beaters but can take each other down like we saw in Big East conference play all year. It gives highly competitive basketball with all-around better players than almost all other conferences. I'll try and break it down a little more.

Villanova- Jay Bilas put it well by saying they got in on their total body of work, played a respectable game for how they had been playing prior to the tourney. I think they went 5-10 to close the season.

Gtown- Different team with Chris Wright and he wasn't really ready to come back I don't think. They needed him back quicker.

STJ- Another team with their second leading scorer out= bad news in the tourney

Louisville- Just got outplayed by a more determined team. Should they have won? Yeah but theres going to be a couple big first round upsets.

Syracuse- An example of bad execution down the stretch. Also Marquette got lucky with this matchup as they see Syracuse and breakdown tape on them all year.

WVU- Tough game, but pretty much what was expected with seeding.

Cincinnati- Destroyed Mizzou and then got beat by in conference familiar opponent UConn.

Pitt- Ran into battle tested Butler. Definitely should've won based on seeding but their play always seems to get them out of the tourney. Team is based on rebounding, great for reg season bad for postseason.

Notre Dame- I have no clue. Didn't really get to watch these guys this year seemed like their style was a turrrrible matchup against Fla State though. Teams based on 3-pt shooting can be hot, but if the shots not failing its no bueno.

Note that all of this is coming from a Memphis, C-USA fan. I have no real bias whatsoever outside of C-USA. I think the Big East has been the best conference year in and out for a while but they do seem to have a lot of trouble in the tourney. Why? The only real thing that I could say other than prep problems which they probably don't have, is that these guys are 18, 19, 20 year old kids and not always consistent.

Marquette's run will most likely end at UNC but UConn has a shot if they can stay hot to make a run at the FF, most likey EE I think though.
 
[quote name='thamaster24']I think dmaul answered it pretty well above. I don't think the conference is overrated, they have a huge amount of "good" teams. Teams that can win on any given night. This doesn't mean that they are world beaters but can take each other down like we saw in Big East conference play all year. It gives highly competitive basketball with all-around better players than almost all other conferences. I'll try and break it down a little more.

Villanova- Jay Bilas put it well by saying they got in on their total body of work, played a respectable game for how they had been playing prior to the tourney. I think they went 5-10 to close the season.

Gtown- Different team with Chris Wright and he wasn't really ready to come back I don't think. They needed him back quicker.

STJ- Another team with their second leading scorer out= bad news in the tourney

Louisville- Just got outplayed by a more determined team. Should they have won? Yeah but theres going to be a couple big first round upsets.

Syracuse- An example of bad execution down the stretch. Also Marquette got lucky with this matchup as they see Syracuse and breakdown tape on them all year.

WVU- Tough game, but pretty much what was expected with seeding.

Cincinnati- Destroyed Mizzou and then got beat by in conference familiar opponent UConn.

Pitt- Ran into battle tested Butler. Definitely should've won based on seeding but their play always seems to get them out of the tourney. Team is based on rebounding, great for reg season bad for postseason.

Notre Dame- I have no clue. Didn't really get to watch these guys this year seemed like their style was a turrrrible matchup against Fla State though. Teams based on 3-pt shooting can be hot, but if the shots not failing its no bueno.

Note that all of this is coming from a Memphis, C-USA fan. I have no real bias whatsoever outside of C-USA. I think the Big East has been the best conference year in and out for a while but they do seem to have a lot of trouble in the tourney. Why? The only real thing that I could say other than prep problems which they probably don't have, is that these guys are 18, 19, 20 year old kids and not always consistent.

Marquette's run will most likely end at UNC but UConn has a shot if they can stay hot to make a run at the FF, most likey EE I think though.[/QUOTE]

It is all excuses. A lot of teams have similiar issues. For example, we (FSU) have been without "our star" the ACC Defensive Player of the Year Chris Singleton for multiple games. He currently is only playing 10 min-ish (due to his foot surgery) and yet we have knock off good teams like a fully healthy ND team (note Bernard James, our best big man, was on an IV prior to gametime).

The Big East plain and simple looks overrated. This isn't the first year their teams have messed over brackets due to people buying into those teams. They didn't have these excuses last year when they also were exiting early (Nova screwed over a bunch that year). The Big East, for the most part, can't play against good/great teams. Period.

Why? The only real thing that I could say other than prep problems which they probably don't have, is that these guys are 18, 19, 20 year old kids and not always consistent.
Click to expand...

That excuse can only be used for UConn, who is still playing and looks to actually be the best of the conference. The rest of the teams in conference are ran by upperclassman (i.e. JR and SR).
 
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