2020-21 College Basketball thread

Can we get one good game? Please?

 

Sincerely, Artie Lange

 

We got one. Unfortunately, Creighton was pretty much reduced to being a spectator in it.

 

But weren't they bruisers in the recent past? Maybe that was just different personnel. The funny thing is that was kind of the game I was expecting. Michigan didn't make or take a ton of threes, there were a lot of situations with six guys jumping for rebounds within five feet of the rim, but the whole thing looked like someone was playing Florida State's offense on 1.2x speed or something and they couldn't get it together.

Of the remaining teams left, I'd say Michigan at least has a chance to be competitive against Gonzaga, especially if they can summon up one of those games where they just nuke their opponents from space with 3's (Texas A&M in the Sweet Sixteen comes to mind, as does the game at Columbus this year). What it's going to come down to is getting Gonzaga in a five-point game in the last five minutes. Because that's really the only question Gonzaga hasn't answered yet.

 

No one torched Tony Bennett. I said for a great coach he has some head-scratching losses. Like to UMBC. Like to Ohio U, to name the most recent two. You weren't wondering "WTF?" after losing by 20 points to a 16 seed?

No one said Leonard Hamilton was a bad guy. He simply said, "in 33 years as a D1 head coach ... at Power 5 schools [he has] three Sweet 16s. One Elite 8. No Final Four. Two conference titles in 33 years. That makes him Norm Stewart without the conference titles."

Which is 100% true.

 

They were "bruisers," but until Hamilton and the staff in Tallahassee both improved the offensive quality of more of the roster and rounded up a lot more depth, they were known as defensive stoppers. They clamped down and held some better teams from Duke and Chapel Hill to 30 percent shooting or less. Back then, it was defensive stoppers and maybe one really strong offensive player (Toney Douglas, Michael Snaer come quickly to mind) and win rock fights.

I suppose if you consider going into the paint against a team hellbent on shutting you down, that might be "bruisers," but IMO it was reminscent of some of Tom Izzo's better teams in East Lansing: Physical, but knowing how to stop short of being dirty.

Your point about Gonzaga coming through in the clutch being an unknown is still an ... unknown. That's what happened to Nevada-Las Vegas in 1991. Unbeaten, considered unbeatable ... then Duke got them in a close one in the national semifinal and took out the Rebels. Stay Tuned ...

 

Sorry, by bruisers, I didn't necessarily mean unskilled or dirty, but I remember FSU being just huge and interior-focused.

 

It smacked of an attempted takedown by someone embittered because he lost money.

All the charlatans, BS artists, snake-oil salesmen and serial liars out there and he does something that incredibly petty.

 

I know you meant nothing dirty. They've usually been pretty big, now they're absolutely enormous. They were more interior focused – NCSU took 'em out one time in Tallahassee by going over them ... a perimeter specialist went for 31 points – but they defended everywhere.

Back then, you really tried to go over them because their length made going around them a fool's errand and no one was dumb enough to try to go through them – at least not repeatedly.

The last few seasons, Florida State has traded some of that defensive lockdown ability for a little more depth and a lot more offense. Additionally, the depth allows them to play more all-out for the minutes they're on the floor. As long as they are across the roster, their post players aren't as imposing as they once were. For a few seasons, he had at least three 7-footers. Even if none of them have any offensive touch beyond alley-oops and dunks, that's a lot to overcome.

 

SEC is here to save college basketball, as everyone predicted.

 

Second half of UCLA-'Bama turned into a helluva game.

 

Down 11 at half I wasn’t nervous.

Tie game with a little more than two minutes left, I’m nervous.