2015 NCAA Tournament thread

People conveniently forget that the most popular second round upset pick that year was UWM over Florida. I think Florida had gone five straight seasons getting bounced in the first or second round.

 

Duke may very well be that good. But they still had a pretty easy run. That's not their fault, it's just the way it works out sometimes.

 

No, it is no longer debatable to anyone with common sense who's been paying attention over the last decade. Every one of those guys Zag listed, plus Trey Lyles, would be wise to leave.

Although, in the case of the Harrisons, not for the same reason as the others. With those two it's basically to cut their losses. They were originally projected as lottery picks when they left high school, now they're barely second rounders. The longer they stay at UK the worse their draft position gets, and that ain't likely to change with Calipari bringing in recruits like Isiah Briscoe (the nation's No. 1 rated point) to play their positions next year.

The ole canard about "staying in school to try to improve your draft stock" has proven to be laughably flawed. Guys who try that nowadays see their draft position drop with the extra year as often as they see it rise. And, if you get injured in that extra year, you can disappear entirely from the draft map.

 

After reaching the 2000 Final Four, Donovan's Gators...

2001: Second-round blowout loss to Temple
2002: First-round loss to Creighton
2003: Second-round blowout loss to Michigan State (scored 46 points back when doing that was humiliating)
2004: First-round loss to Manhattan
2005: Second-round loss to Villanova

I thought the '05 team was hitting their stride, was very talented, and would win it all. When they fizzled as always, I said I would never pick them again in bracket pools. Whoops.

 

That's fair. I thought when the field was announced that Duke probably had the easiest road to Indy out of any of the #1 seeds.

 

Top 5 seed each time. I think they were a No. 2 when they got their asses kicked by Michigan State. That was in Tampa in front of what might as well been a home crowd. That was an all-time ass-kicking.

 

That would mean two more semesters of those pesky classes.

 

Indeed it was. Izzo in March, man.

 

Wisconsin has not played well and has missed a shitload of free throws. Still, tied at the half.

 

Yep. Not their best performance...by a long shot. Dekker needs to perform better in the second half.

 

Blair Kerkhoff ‏@BlairKerkhoff 6m6 minutes ago
Last halftime tie in an NCAA title game: 1988, 50-50, KU-Oklahoma, the 50th NCAA championship