2020-21 College Basketball thread

Nantz and Raftery are about to jizz in their pants over Boeheim's son kicking ass.

But he is really really good.

 

Certain women’s sports catch fire in certain niches too. Alabama vs. Georgia gymnastics not so long ago had honest-to-God scalpers outside because the meets were sold out. There are a handful of Big 10 schools where volleyball is a big deal. And the last several years it seems like the road to OKC has generated more buzz than the one to Omaha.

 

Usually true. But the women also had the first 16 seed over a top seed when Harvard took out Stanford ... in Palo Alto, as it occurred after the NCAA had the top four seeds in each regional host a sub-regional. This occurred many, many years before UMBC took out Virginia on the men's side.

While the women's tournament is quite a bit more chalk-y in the earlier rounds, the gaps have closed somewhat. And, in a season like this where it's Connecticut and the Other 63, it probably will be interesting.

But yeah ... the WWL hasn't had live NCAA Tournament action in a long, long time. NCAA made sure to squeeze a bunch of money out of the Tiffany to get exclusive rights for itself and its Viacom partners.

 

Most 1 vs. 16 matchups are going to be routs for either gender. What women’s basketball needs is for the 11th-40th best teams to develop to the point where they won’t get regularly humiliated taking the floor against the top 10.

 

And while we are at it, men’s basketball needs an overhaul so that it isn’t a shock when both teams somehow break 60 points before the last media timeout in a tournament game. Too many of these feel like elective dentistry.

 

Stanford was without its two best players in that game but the NCAA still seeded them #1. That would not happen today.

 

Wow, Rutgers is good at a sport.

 

Syracuse, of all teams, saves the ACC from complete disaster. Bad day for the Mt. West.

 

I think ESPN had a few of the first couple play-in games when that started in the late 90s?

 

... which will be dismissed out of hand by old-school ACC fans.

All season, Syracuse came across as the only school who could stink enough one night to be blasted by BC, then could come back and take out Florida State 24-48 hours later.

Good Syracuse can make a run ... if Bad Syracuse doesn't show up.

 

Buddy Boeheim's past four games:
35-68 FG (.515)
19-43 from 3 (.442)
12-13 FT (.923)
101 points (25.25 ppl)

Even in its worst recent years, the ACC always had a Final Four contender. Not this one.
UNC: Out after suffering its most lopsided NCAAT loss in 52 years.
Duke: Couldn't beat the Trumpandemic or enough of its basketball foes to qualify for the tourney.
Ga Tech: Conference tourney champion felled by the Trumpandemic when Moses Wright had to watch from a hotel room as his mates collected zero offensive rebounds late into the game.
Dabo U: It's spring footbawwwl season.
Hokies: See Dabo U.

Now Virginia will take to the court if the NCAA, which doesn't seem troubled by Kansas' three positive tests and has let the Jayhawks operate normally, lets the Cavaliers out of the Trumpandemic Halfway House in time to play Ohio U.
FSU: Should be fine against UNCG.

Syracuse: Could be interesting.

The truth is that no conference is going to cover itself in glory.

 

The Big 12 went 3-0 today, including avoiding what I think was a popular upset pick with Oklahoma State beating Liberty.