March Madness 2005

[Yoda]

Well the NHL season is officially over and there's nothing much else on but Golf and Hoops. I figured i'd see if we can't get a March Madness discussion going.
The Big Tournament is approaching us, there are alot of teams that seem to be faultering right before the big dance.

Last night #3 ranked Kentucky was beat by unranked South Carolina by 12.
And then on Saturday #7 Duke loses to unranked Maryland in OT.

Whose the team that's going to do it all this year? Illinois? Kansas? North Carolina?

There's alot of familiar names heading the the AP top 25 list.
1 Illinois Fighting Illini 25-0
2 Kansas Jayhawks 20-1
3 Kentucky Wildcats 19-2
4 North Carolina Tar Heels 20-3
5 Wake Forest Demon Deacons 21-3
6 Boston College Eagles 20-1
7 Duke Blue Devils 18-3
8 Oklahoma State Cowboys 19-3
9 Syracuse Orange 22-3
10 Arizona Wildcats 21-4
11 Michigan State Spartans 17-4
12 Louisville Cardinals 21-4
13 Gonzaga Bulldogs 19-4
14 Utah Running Utes 21-3
15 Washington Huskies 20-4
16 Alabama Crimson Tide 19-4
17 Pittsburgh Panthers 17-4
18 Connecticut Huskies 15-6
19 Pacific 20-2
20 Wisconsin Badgers 16-6
21 Oklahoma Sooners 17-6
22 Maryland Terrapins 15-7
23 Charlotte 17-4
24 Cincinnati Bearcats 18-6
25 Villanova Wildcats 14-6

Whose your pick to win it all?

[BlazeArmy]

A lot of who will win or not depneds on who is seeded where and in which bracket.

I like the Demon Deacons to make the Final 4 but my darkhouse pick would be Utah.
The high fiving mostly white guys can play.

[Dial 9-1-1]

After the beating Kansas put on UBC in the pre-season, how can they not be the favourite?

[BlazeArmy]

Originally Posted by Dial 9-1-1

After the beating Kansas put on UBC in the pre-season, how can they not be the favourite?

It was UBC not UNC.

[Sandman]

A couple of hours down the road there's a great team at Udub. The Huskies haven't been anywhere near the top ten since the days of Marv Harshman, Christian Welp and Detlef Shrempf. This year's team is very young, look for them to stick around for at least the next few years.......Majority of the team is from the Seattle area as well.


Sandman

[lean]

Warshingtun would be medocre without Nate Robinson, whom will be leaving at the end of the year. It would be great to have a national powerhouse 100 miles away but all of the great state talent goes elsewhere. One of the best players to play in the state in the last 10 years is playing for Carolina this year and Marvin never even thought of going to UW.

This thread is a little early, but I will give you my final four (this may change as the Tourny gets closer)

Carolina, Arizona, Syracuse and Wake.

Lean

[BlazeArmy]

Lean

No Illinois?????

[Sandman]

Lean,

You either totally missed my point or you went to Washington State. I can't stand when people say things like "Warshingtun would be medocre without Nate Robinson"

The Spurs would be mediocre without Tim Duncan
The Falcons would be mediocre without Michael Vick
The Idiots would be mediocre without John

Never once did I say they were a national powerhouse, and I would have to disagree.......I think a lot of the local talent stays at UW. Over half of the players on the roster are from Washington. My point is simply:

-Anytime an NCAA team wins 20 games, is near the top of the PAC 10 and is regularly mentioned in the weekly polls. the program is doing well.
-It is also cool to see that most of the kids are from local high schools. Yes, the top recruit went to Carolina, but that still doesn't diminish the fact that just down the road there is a program that is doing a fine job. Especially, after all the crap that has gone down with there once storied football program. Good for the Huskies


Nate Robinson (Seattle WA) 16.3 ppg
Tre Simmons (Seattle WA) 16.1 ppg
Bobby Jones (Compton CA) 11.4 ppg
Jamaal Williams(Corona CA) 10.3 ppg
Will Conroy (Seattle WA) 9.7 ppg

Sandman

[lean]

Blaze,

The fighting Illini will have their bubble burst in the round of 16. They are very good but I just can't see them going deep in the tourny.

Sandman,

I like the Huskies and John is draging the Idiots to medocrity not the other way I would love for the purple and gold to be a national power, but they will need to keep all of their great talent in state and start bringing in some of the high recruits from surrounding areas.

Lean

[knvb]

Sandman how does a fellow dookie supporter feel about them looseing twice in one week to an unranked AND unseated teams after beating UNC? WTF?

This is getting dumb.

[Sandman]

WTF is right.

The way things are going they'll be slotted into the dreaded 8 vs 9 match-up in the brackets.

It appears they basically only used 5 guys last night. The bench provided a couple of points, but more importantly not many minutes. Duke has that problem year after year where their bench just isn't strong enough. Lee Mellchioni! C'mon! DeMarcus Nelson didn't even score last night, where against Carolina he pitched in 13.......

I think they'll bounce back against Wake Forest on Sunday.

Duke by three
Sandman

[Yoda]

DAMNIT CH!
Turned on Golf to watch for half an hour before the Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma St. and golf was on rain delay. ABC announcer says they'll switch over to watch the last minute of Iowa and Kansas as Iowa was holding on for the win.
They flip over for 10 seconds, then all of a sudden i'm staring at Randy Bachman's face!!! WTF?
Guess they were a little slow on flipping over to local content

Now i'm following 30 second updates on espn.com!


DAMN CH!!

[Yoda]

Final in OT
IOWA ST. 63 - Kansas (2) 61

That's 2 overtime losses in a row for Kansas. Not the kind of performances you want right before the Big Dance.

[sensei_hanson]

ESPN released it's All-America team today. The Worldwide Leader does things a little differently, putting together a starting five instead of a "top-five". Anyways, here's who they chose:

C - Andrew Bogut, Utah (also named Player of the Year)
F - Wayne Simien, Kansas
F - Sean May, North Carolina
G - Chris Paul, Wake Forest
G - JJ Redick, Duke

Dodgy because 1) there are three ACC players chosen, but none from the Big East or Big Ten, and 2) No Illini players whatsoever. I guess they had to pick JJ given how he's carried Dook (and "sack of dung" teammates like Randolph) on his back all season, but if I was to eliminate a guard, I'd get rid of Redick and put Deron Williams on the team. The Illini need representation....they're 29-0. I guess what kills Illinois in these types of awards is that nobody can agree on who's the best of the three guards - although it seems to be narrowing down to either Williams or Luther Head.

War Conference Tournaments Starting in 6 days,
War The Score televising Conference Tournaments,
War Bruce Weber's Tangerine Blazers,
-Dickie V.

[sensei_hanson]

And, since I've already mentioned it - here are the broadcast dates for The Score's coverage of the ACC and Big East tournaments:

ACC Quarter-Final March 11 at 12:00 pm ET

ACC Quarter-Final March 11 at 2:30 pm ET

Big East Semi-Final March 11 at 7:00 pm ET

Big East Semi-Final March 11 at 9:00 pm ET

ACC Semi-Final March 12 at 1:30 pm ET

ACC Semi-Final March 12 at 4:00 pm ET

Big East Final March 12 at 8:00 pm ET

The March Madness tourney begins on Thursday, March 17th.

Also, this Sunday on CBS, the national telecast calls for the Duke @ UNC game to be shown at 1pm our time.

[sensei_hanson]

What a day Sunday was for college hoops. Talk about a plethora of close games! Illinois-Ohio State goes down to the last shot, with one of my storied "big white donkeys" (Sylvester) knocking down a huge three for a Buckeye victory. So much for the undefeated Big-10 season the Illini looked to have in the bag.

UNC and Duke put on another classic display, with Marvin the Magnificent converting a huge hoop-and-harm with 17 ticks left for one of the bigger wins in Dean Dome history. Sadly, the fans stormed the court after the game, an action which is usually reserved for big upsets, or tourney-clinching victories. UNC was ranked 4 spots ahead of Dook coming into this game...it looked bad on the Tar Heel nation. Act like you've won something before (to be fair, it was UNC's first ACC season title in 12 years).

Wake-NC State was another classic, with Chris Paul running the length of the floor and converting his runner as time expired. Deacons win, 55-53. Paul was also involved in a nasty crotch-punch incident, flooring NC State's Julius Hodge with a low blow.

Florida beat Kentucky for the first time in four years, on yet another close finish at the buzzer. Florida is now a MAJOR sleeper for the NCAAs. Will be interesting to see how they do in the SEC tournament.

Getting hyped for March 17th,
-Sensei.

[Yoda]

Juan Mendez takes the Purple Eagles to NCAA tournament for the first time in 34 years. Scored 27 points in MAAC Championships.

Juan Mendez

Any other Canadians to watch this year in the Big Tourney?

[bertrum]

Originally Posted by Yoda

Juan Mendez takes the Purple Eagles to NCAA tournament for the first time in 34 years. Scored 27 points in MAAC Championships.

Juan Mendez

Any other Canadians to watch this year in the Big Tourney?

I think Levon Kendall gets about 6 mins per game with Pitt. Mendez looked good the other night but had nobody altering any of his shoots. He can score inside and out though. Go Purple Eagles. In Calgary we get every Gonzaga game on TV from the Spokane station.

[Yoda]

Did anyone see this?
Wake Forests Chris Paul get's caught sacking NC States Julius Hodge during their game.
He will have to miss the ACC quarter final game now.

Here's a video and article. Video is 21 seconds long, but you have to watch a 30second GMC commercial to get to it.


Deacons vs. NC State Sack

[Sandman]

For a team that is suppose to be favored to take it all this year, Carolina have to be concerned.........Struggling against Clemson and losing to Georgia Tech does not bode well for the boys in baby blue.........The way things are going they'll be in tough against the #16 or #15 seed............Reddick slammed in 35 points today.............He's had trouble duplicating big efforts in back to back games........oh well Duke in the final again.......

Sandman