2018 March Madness

DoubleDipper wrote:With all the talk about Gonzaga joining the Mountain West, I began thinking about what the MWC has to gain...and to no one's surprise, it's easy money!

As reported by up7587, GU has been to the Sweet 16 four years in a row, and of course they've now been to the NCAA Tournament 20 years in a row, 19 under Mark Few, I believe.

I have no idea what the payout to the WCC/GU has been over the last 19 years, but by reaching the Sweet 16 this year it is expected the WCC and Gonzaga will divvy-up $3.4 million....and of course even more if GU can keep winning.

But what's interesting is that Gonzaga clearly wants a larger cut of their earnings... I'm know that's one of their major gripes with the WCC. So how much of that easy money would the MWC have to give up in order to lure away the Zags?

The number of WCC teams in the postseason was cut by 50% tonight as both USD and SMC lost at home.

All that free-throw practice during the season didn't help SMC when it was needed tonight, as the Gaels shot less the 50% from the line and lost to Utah, 67-58, and missed out on a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semi-final.

Northern Colorado outscored the Toreros by 16 points in the second half enroute to a 86-75 victory to move on in the CIT, while USD looks for a new head coach.

DoubleDipper wrote:All that free-throw practice during the season didn't help SMC when it was needed tonight, as the Gaels shot less the 50% from the line and lost to Utah, 67-58, and missed out on a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semi-final.

Not just less than 50%, they were 5 of 14, hartwichesque territory. Landale was only 2 of 7, and missed one with 1:41 left in regulation and the game tied. And that loss was an overtime loss. Bennett only played his starters most of the game. Wonder if they ran out of gas in OT?

Even Sister Jean's racket is busted; Loyola-Chicago defeats Nevada 69-68.  Three wins by 4 points total?! An #11 seed in the Elite Eight.

Craziness continues.  Three of the four games were won by the higher seed tonight.  #9 K St beat #5 Kentucky 61-58.  #9 Fla St  beat #4 GU 75-60.  Only #3 Michigan held form, beating TA&M 86-65.

Still one WCC team in the hunt for a postseason championship....USF.

Led by Frankie Ferrari's 18 points and Matt McCarthy's 15 points and 14 rebounds, USF beat Campbell in San Francisco, 66-62, and will now face North Texas for the CBI Championship in The City on Monday night.

Some sanity, finally, in the Sweet 16 bracket games today. Every game features a #1 or #2 seed. The only ridiculous team is #11 Syracuse. So of course they'll beat Duke.

up7587 wrote:So of course they'll beat Duke.  

One can always hope...

How bad did GU play last night? Really bad. They shot terrible: 38.5% from 2P, 25% from 3P, and 62.5% from the FT line. They had 7 assists and 13 turnovers. They only got 6 points from bench players (Fla St had 30).

Hachimura was the only player with a good statistical line. Man, they really missed Tillie.

up7587 wrote:....Man, they really missed Tillie.

Yeah, I was surprised at the lack of depth GU showed last night.  Interesting too that the underclassmen were the ones to keep GU in the game....until they couldn't.

After watching Sr. Jean beat Nevada and K. State sending the UK freshmen to the NBA, the GU game seemed a real dud....or was it just our collective Zag fatigue finally hitting us?

My bracket has Kansas going all the way, but at this point there is no telling what's going to happen.

Refreshing that neither Loyola Chicago, nor its fans are seeking to leave the Missouri Valley conference.

Looks like there will be four religious schools in the Final Four:
Loyola U of Chicago - Jesuit
Villanova U - Augustinian
Michigan - Church of Football
Kansas or Duke - Church of Basketball

wrv wrote:Refreshing that neither Loyola Chicago, nor its fans are seeking to leave the Missouri Valley conference.

Well, to be fair to them and the MVC, Wichita State just left that conference for the American for pretty much the exact same reasons that Gonzaga is looking at the Mountain West. In fact, it's a strangely similar setup and formula, but just VERY accelerated compared to Gonzaga. It's Loyola-Chicago's first appearance in the Tournament since 1985 too!

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:

wrv wrote:Refreshing that neither Loyola Chicago, nor its fans are seeking to leave the Missouri Valley conference.

Well, to be fair to them and the MVC, Wichita State just left that conference for the American for pretty much the exact same reasons that Gonzaga is looking at the Mountain West. In fact, it's a strangely similar setup and formula, but just VERY accelerated compared to Gonzaga. It's Loyola-Chicago's first appearance in the Tournament since 1985 too!

So long as we are interested in being fair, a simple point: Loyola Chicago is not filled with a sense of being overly important, notwithstanding their absence from the tournament. Go Ramblers.

They are an inspiration.

The last chance to see a WCC team in action this season is tonight when the North Texas Mean Green are hosted by USF in the final of the CBI Championship series.

The game is on ESPNU beginning at 7pm PDT.

USF is favored by 5.

DoubleDipper wrote:The last chance to see a WCC team in action this season is tonight when the North Texas Mean Green are hosted by USF in the final of the CBI Championship series.

The game is on ESPNU beginning at 7pm PDT.

USF is favored by 5.

Not true. The CBI championship is a best of three. USF will also play Wednesday, and Friday if necessary.

up7587 wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:The last chance to see a WCC team in action this season is tonight when the North Texas Mean Green are hosted by USF in the final of the CBI Championship series.

The game is on ESPNU beginning at 7pm PDT.

USF is favored by 5.

Not true.  The CBI championship is a best of three.  USF will also play Wednesday, and Friday if necessary.

Thanks for setting me straight!

I assume the second (and third) game is at North Texas....where the Mean Green is 12-6 this season.

DoubleDipper wrote:I assume the second (and third) game is at North Texas....where the Mean Green is 12-6 this season.

Correct.

USF opened up a big first half lead, and went on the beat North Texas 72-62 in the initial game. Now they just need a split in Denton TX to win the CBI championship.

On the Women's side of March Madness, the brackets are not near so scrambled. All four #1 seeds made the final four: UConn, Louisville, Miss. St and Notre Dame, who used a big 2nd half to beat #2 Oregon for the final spot. Between them, the four #1 teams have lost a total of 6 regular season games. ND has three losses, to UConn and Louisville x2. Louisville lost twice, to UConn and #3 seed FSU. And Miss. St lost once, to #2 seed So. Carolina. In other words, the four teams combined only lost to two teams not in their group, and nobody worse than a #3 seed in the tourney.

Our friend, freshman Souley Boum (remember, he scored a "career high" 26 points in the Chiles Center) scored 16 points in 20 minutes, but USF seemed totally out of sorts on the Mean Green court, and fell to North Texas, 69-55.  

The two teams play for the CBI Championship on Friday in Denton.

That great display of 3P shooting by USF on Monday was totally out of character. On the season, they were 9th in 3P% in the WCC. They shot a more typical 30% tonight on 9 of 30. And they only shot 57% on FTs. Of course, they only got 7 attempts. North Texas only shot 11% (2 of 18) on 3Ps, but they got off 18 more total shot attempts, got 16 offensive rebounds, and made 13 of 16 FT tries. They had 7 steals, and won the TO battle 3 to 16!

I thought USF looked a lot better tonight than they did on Wednesday, but North Texas looked even better in their 88-77 defeat of the Dons to win the CBI Championship.

Not sure if it was USF's plan to foul UNT's Roosevelt Smart, but it was not a smart move as Smart went 14/14 from the line while scoring 25 points.

I honestly believe UP has better athletes than does USF, but somehow the Dons work much better together as a TEAM, and it took them all the way to the CBI finals.

With only Chase Foster missing from this year's lineup, USF should be back in the top-4 in the WCC next season.

If you watched the record crowd (3,198) pour onto the court in celebration in Greely tonight you'd know that winning the CIT Championship was a very big deal for Northern Colorado fans.  

UNC was led by senior Andre Spight who set a Big Sky record for points in a season with 846, breaking a mark that had stood for 52 years, in UNC's 76-71 over U. of Illinois Chicago.

UNC's second year coach turned his team around from 11-18 last year to 26-12 this season with the CIT Championship.....something I bet most Pilot fans would "settle for" in a heartbeat.

It didn't get any madder in March than yesterday's Women's Final Four in Columbus.

Both games went to OT with Mississippi State downing Louisville in the first game

The second game was a fierce back and forth affair that saw UConn down by 5 to Notre Dame with just 21 seconds left in regulation, but then tying it and forcing OT.

In the OT it was tied with just a couple of seconds left when Notre Dame hit from just inside the arc to give the Irish the 91-89 victory over previously unbeaten UConn. The Huskies semi-final loss was their second in a row after last year's loss to Mississippi State, and their fourth semi-final loss to Notre Dame since 2001. UConn finishes the season at 36-1.

Notre Dame (34-3) has been playing with a short bench much of the year as four of the Irish players have gone down with what can only be described as the curse of women's basketball, ACL tears.

Last year Mississippi State (37-1) broke UConn's 111 game winning streak in the their Final Four semi-final win, but they then lost to South Carolina in the final.  Tomorrow's final between the Bulldogs and Irish could be redemption for the Bulldogs or the first National Championship for Muffet McCraw's Irish since their only championship in 2001.