f13.net

I know we usually don't talk about this except Madness time, but wanted to say RIP to Big Rick. Huge part of Utes basketball.

Aww.  :heartbreak:

Always liked him.

Seperately: LOL UCLA

Damn that sucks. I heard that he was stepping down due to his heart, but didn't realize it was going to get him so soon.

It does suck. It sucks even more that his death at 64 was probably preventable.  :sad:

He's the kind of guy that would only step down if it was some serious shit.  I don't think he did anything but coach basketball, and he was one of the good guys.  NCAA basketball will miss his wit and uncanny ability to coach players and teams to reach high above their talent level. 

Also, yes, UCLA is a dumpster fire. 

I'm now sure how many of these type of games we (Arizona) can win.  Save some magic for the tourney, fellas.

From all the screaming on Twitter it sounded like CU got hosed by the refs. Confirm/deny?

Could have gone either way. It wasn't Packers/Seahawks, but it was awfully close.  I probably would have given them the bucket, partially because I don't think we deserved to win.

Miller has some experience coaching teams at tournament time and his teams tend to improve over the course of the year (unlike Roy Williams and Krykrewski), so I wouldn't worry.  I expect a final four run from Arizona and possibly a NC. 

God, this Notre Dame-Louisville game is fucking nuts. 

Man, I wish I had gotten to watch the Cal game today. Sounds like Crabbe might have moved himself up a couple draft slots.  :grin:

 :facepalm:

I'll be thankful once we're out of the top 10.

There's no clear cut "great" team this year, just like there's no clear-cut "great" players.

I'm just going to go ahead and say this year sort of blows so far. It reminds me of the 2007 college football season. That was the "Year of the Upset" and the national champion had 2 losses to teams with a combined losing conference record. LSU was a shitty national champion that year. The basketball champ will likely be a shitty national champ this year.

As such, 2008 was a pretty awful draft year for the big named schools. The only proven good players were coming from random places across the country in football. Matt Ryan came out of BC. Flacco came out of Delaware. Chris Johnson from East Carolina. Matt Forte from Tulane. Ray Rice from Rutgers. Overall though? That draft is pretty awful and forgettable.

Some NBA teams are going to get a steal from a player out of a small program, but I don't think Zeller, or Noel, or McLemore are gamechangers at the next level. They are barely gamechangers at this level.

This year's draft sucks monkey balls.  There won't be 10 players from the first round in the league still after the three year mandatory contract is up. 

The fact there has been no chatter about this tournament at all sort of speaks to the shitty season.

However, I will say there are some good upsets. Harvard, Ole Miss, and Oregon, although Oregon was seeded incorrectly.

Also, Gonzaga's days are numbered. They suck so hard. Why the hell are they a one seed.

Side note, scoring is apparently impossible now. Teams are playing with talent that's so thin, the average score yesterday was 63 per team. That's bad.

Seems like a pretty normal college basketball score to me.

It's not normal.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/21/tournament-perspective-reasons-ncaa-basketball-has-been-down/2003489/

In 2005? UNC put up 96 on their opener as a 1 seed. Washington put up 97 in a 2nd round game. The finals were 77-63, 79-78, 90-89, 93-79, 65-60, 93-85, 67-66, 65-56, 88-82.

70s and 80s were common scores. Now? 90s are unheard of, 80s are extremely unlikely except in a whitewash, and 70s aren't the norm at all.

I just want to say that Illinois beat half of the #1 seeds this season.

And Illinois just doesn't have a lot of talent this year at all.

So, like 7 of the teams you listed above scored in that neighborhood. I really don't think it is a weird number to see in college basketball at all.

Of the several dozen college basketball games I've attended, far more of them had a team score 60-something than score 80-something, unless my memory is really failing me.

Several articles talk about the lack of scoring this year. Scores regularly in the 40s and 50s as finals, even in losses, are awful. I'm just pointing out something the rest of the sports world has agreed upon. Scoring is down. The reason is unclear.

http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/03/13/why-is-college-basketball-scoring-in-decline-one-experts-take/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/01/14/college-basketball-scoring-on-pace-to-be-lowest-in-60-years/1834109/
http://www.chron.com/sports/college-basketball-men/article/Men-s-college-basketball-scoring-hitting-new-lows-4244885.php
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1555317-why-is-scoring-down-in-college-basketball

Also I should point out that 63 points per team is the lowest since the 50s.

Louisville.

Oh my. Looking solid.

Cal. Painful to watch. The whole game was just awful.

Well, I'm happy with things so far.  :grin:  Nothing more satisfying than beating teams you're supposed to beat.

Gonzaga  :facepalm:

Glad I didn't bother to watch. I have been ignoring CBB all season and now I am glad I did  :awesome_for_real:

We all knew it would happen.  I just thought it would be next round. 

The seeding this year was hilariously wrong, and the tournament is bearing that out.

Gonzaga, Georgetown, and New Mexico? Not 1-3 seeds.

Oregon? The fact they are a 12 is a sham. Arizona as a 6? They are a #3 team at worst. The bias against West Coast was heavy there.

The fact that Big East teams got big bonuses for being middle of the pack? Most of them are out. The A-10? They got huge credit and higher seeds, while teams like Creighton and Witchita State got 7-9 seeds. Yet guess who's still hanging around? Witchita is in the 16, and Creighton actually has a good shot at beating Duke today. After today, there's a very good shot none of the A-10 teams are left.

You did not just say this... did you?  If Creighton keeps it within 10, I'll be impressed. 

If Duke blows out Creighton I'll be shocked. They had trouble getting to double digits on Albany.

Duke's much worse on the boards, they don't score as much, and their conference play this year wasn't exactly top notch.  In fact, when you've pulled Duke away from that falling down shack of a home stadium? They are pretty shitty. They were 5-4 on the road in an ACC that was basically not good beyond the 4th slot. Six other conferences got more invites to the 64.

I think Duke could lose. Will they? Maybe not, but I don't think it's a runaway. I think they are in for a fight that may cost them dearly if they overlook a good Creighton squad.

Yeah, everyone here in SW Florida is flipping the fuck out over our FGCU victory over Georgetown and breaking everyone's bracket picks.   :awesome_for_real:

Ohio State survives by the thinnest of margins on the closest of calls. Thus is their sports life.

It won't last long. Their defense is so very very suspect.

Saving.

If they play that brand of half-assed-no-rebounding defense against Arizona, it won't be close. They will get their doors blown off.

They had to shoot 50% from 3, and 51% from the floor just to edge out a 3 point victory. I would hesitate to say that's their shooting day of the year.

Man Illinois got screwed by the Refs late with a bad out of bounds call.

But hey, no one in Champaign seriously expected this batch of players to win as many games as they did.

Yep they did.

And this Duke game is a fucking disaster. It's 43-32 with less than 10m to go. Holy shit, people can't shoot at all. Duke is shooting 35%, Creighton is shooting a mindboggling 28% from the field. Creighton was literally #1 in shooting in the NCAA this year. I'm stunned.

Go figure that when Duke can't buy a bucket, the other team can't throw it in the ocean.

Ugh. 29-16 at the half in the Marquette and Miami game.

It's the sweet 16, and a team is scoring in the fucking teens at a half.  :facepalm:

ggwp

Fuck those guys.

I'm still amazed they can shoot 50% from 3 in 2 consecutive games. Arizona played well, but they just couldn't defend in the second half at all.

Also, now OSU gets to play Witchita or La Salle? Why not just put the Buckeyes on the plane to Atlanta now? I didn't realize how ridiculous that division was coming down the stretch.

Wow and now Indiana is getting run early, Miami is out. There's a very real chance Kansas can lose to Michigan tomorrow, and Duke to Michigan State. If Louisville trips over themselves, we could be looking at a final four with no one seeds at all, and maybe not even a couple of 2s.

I honestly believe that the winner of the Duke v Michigan State game will be the tourney winner.

Feel free to laugh at me when I'm wrong.

If I was guessing, I'd say the teams that have looked the best to this point were Michigan State, Michigan, and Louisville. I wouldn't be shocked to see any of those if not two of them in the four. The team that would shock me the most of the 1-4 seeds left would be Marquette.

EDIT: Indiana is on the ropes.

No real shock that Marquette is getting dismantled by Syracuse. They were in way over their head for a couple of games now, barely escaping against inferior talent.

Ohio State should have no problem with Wichita is they control the rebound battle. They have size on that team. Then, they get to pick their poison against Louisville or Duke in the Final Four.

The matches tomorrow should be the best, and most competitive. Duke and Louisville should be really good, and Florida v. Michigan should be high flying.

eh.  I didn't really see Ohio State going out like that.  Bad calls aside, you can't win a game if you don't make the shots.  Ah well.

I don't think many expected Ohio State to lose to Wichita.

The fact they were winning with 50% shooting or more from 3 finally caught up with them. Eventually you go cold from 3, and you have to do something else. Ohio State didn't start doing it until about 10m left in the game, and they almost came back.

That being said, they got beat on the offensive boards, they got beat on blocks, steals, threes, and their best player went 2-12 from the floor. It's pretty impossible to overcome that.

Ohio State beat themselves.  They went into the game believing that they would easily roll over Wichita.  The first half showed a lack of preparation, lack of mental focus, and overconfidence.  When they got it together, all Wichita had to do was make a few plays and the game would be over. 

It was a dreadful game to watch. 

That's almost mind boggling to me though. They won their last two games by last second shots. They weren't steam rolling anybody just by rolling the ball out on the court. You have to blame the players for that as much as the coach not impressing upon them to play through the media hype.

Dear god. The Ware injury. I'm in tears. So horrible. I can't even describe it.

I walked away for a minute and came back to this, did he destroy his knee or something?  I've never seen this kind of reaction out side of serious looking neck injuries, but he seemed to be conscious and moving around, so I didn't think it was anything like that.  What happened?

EDIT: I'm hearing now compound fracture?

If you saw the Tyrone Prothro injury, that's remotely the only thing I can compare to it.

It was horrible.

Watch a kung fu movie, wait for the part where the hero grabs someones arm and literally snaps it in half over his shoulder and there is a hue piece of bone sticking out.  It was EXACTLY like that, that was bar none the most disturbing thing i've ever seen happen live.

This is a very different Louisville team from the one Duke beat early in the season.  Duke has no answer for their speed.  I was very wrong about Duke winning this one. 

Wichita and Syracuse have their work cut out for them. Louisville might have destiny on their side. I think Syracuse could stifle Michigan's quick offense and go to the finals.

There's a chance we could get a Big East finals rematch in the tournament. The media would lose their minds, especially since it would draw the NY market.

First Final Four in women's basketball in school history.  :drillf:

UConn is gonna be rough though.

I think UGA is in there too!

Oh no wait, Cal beat them. Back to not caring.

Good god, Kentucky has a fuckload of badasses coming in next year.   :awesome_for_real:

That means they have a year or two tops to make good of it.   :why_so_serious: 

Fixed.   :oh_i_see:


Oh, and glad to see your team fire Tubby Smith to hire Ricky P's kid.  What a fucked up scenario, right?  I think he's going to suck.

I was just happy to see a team other than hockey do well.  The Tubby Smith thing made no sense to me.  Maybe someone can explain why they let him go. 

Everybody says that Tubby is an awesome guy and he's just absolutely super, etc., but I'm not all sure about that.  I know that one of the primary reasons that he left UK wasn't because he was "forced out", but that he insisted on being able to hire Saul as an assistant.  Sure, that may have been a convenient way for UK to get rid of him, but not even Adolph Rupp could hire his kid.  The nepotism rules there are pretty stout.  Plus I've had a few acquaintances that have had run ins with him that weren't exactly pleasant.  He's no Mike Rice or Bobby Knight though, so maybe it's par for the course.  By contrast, some folks I knew managed Pitinos restaurant in Lexington and he was a lot more approachable (oddly enough).  Well, maybe that was just if you knew the right people.

In summary, people are dicks..   :oh_i_see:

If those were the best they can do for refs I see no reason to ever watch NCAA basketball again. What a wild game with great stories but there were just too many questionable and outright blown calls to enjoy it.

If that's all you took away from that game, you should stop watching. That's one of the best finals in years. Probably since the Kansas v. Memphis OT game when Coach Cal was at Memphis.

EDIT: Oh and expect to hear Michigan fans whine about fouls. Never mind the fact that the refs gave Louisville 22 fouls to Michigan's 15, and all the shots that came with that.

This.  Was an excellent final and the better team won.  You could see the momentum change in the second half.  The refs had little impact on the outcome.

I couldn't help thinking that I was watching Teen Wolf with little Spike Albrecht getting busy in the first half.  Then his amphetamines wore off......