Running 2023-24 NCAA Basketball Thread

Tough ticket.

 

They could play it at Memorial Gym. Or U Hall, if it's still standing.

 

Dalton Knecht having a quiet, foul-plagued night in Tuscaloosa, which is going to make what he does to Bama in the last five minutes even more painful.

 

They suck. Odd team. Fail the eye test.
The Hokies and Irish have cannibalized the ACC. They have killed Virginia and Wake Forest and may have done the same to Clemson.

 

But we’ll always have 2019. Which is more than I ever thought I’d see and more than most will see.

 

It is not. The plot of land will be occupied by another football player palace.

 

Sorry not sorry to ruin Wake's season. But Forbes looked great in a hoodie.

 

Cory Alexander was tearing into Joe Lunardi and his thoughts on the ACC that included supposed NET manipulation by other conferences. This could go in a lot of different directions, and I'm wondering if some higher-ups with the WWL are going to ask the on-air sorts to settle down ... or intentionally do more to stir the pot because WWL and trying to make Lunardi out to be much more than he is.

Clemson was supposed to be the third or fourth team, then it started picking up losses before gathering it back up and righting the ship ... well, before getting dropped in South Bend. Then it was Virginia before the Cavaliers started taking on water, then Wake and two losses this week. Will Pitt possibly take up the fourth or possibly fifth ACC team argument? Syracuse? Beyond Chapel Hill, Duke and likely Clemson, there are no perceived ACC locks.

 

Looks like I — and many others — threw dirt on Gonzaga’s NCAA tournament streak too soon. After a key road win at Kentucky, the Zags have been rolling, including a dominant payback win at Saint Mary’s tonight. Ike is a load inside, and Nembhard and Hickman are iron men guards who rarely leave the floor, and the Inland Northwest’s own Anton Watson is the “glue” guy and X-factor.

 

The ACC is weird enough that my Hokies could go on another four-day run in D.C. No one is going on a five-day run, though, so finding a way out of the bottom six this week is pretty key. VT is 8-10 and is behind NC State and FSU at 9-9. Tech finishes at Louisville and with Notre Dame at home. Very winnable games. State has the toughest road (vs. Duke, at Pitt). FSU goes to Pitt and hosts Miami. FSU owns the tiebreak over VT; VT owns it over State. Fairly confident that if Tech gets to 10-10, they'll avoid play-in day in D.C.

 

Man, I hate to be hyperbolic, but if the ACC fails to get more than three teams in to the tournament in the same year that its undefeated football team was left out of the CFP, I think it rapidly accelerates the conference's implosion.

 

Surely bringing in Stanford, Cal and SMU (fresh off a loss to Texas-San Antonio) is the shot in the arm they need!