Running 2023-24 NCAA Basketball Thread

I just want to put these two groups of people in a cage and watch them fight. Or, the murderous AI war machine robot Yale is funding will do, I suppose.

 

There appears to be a significant amount of “Look
at me!” going on.

 

Some Auburn fan on Reddit told a story this year about how he was in a car wreck and Mark Sears’ mom was his nurse and took tremendous care of him.

The he added a “But fuck Bama” because that’s what the rivalry is about.

 

I guess if you're happy with UO in the Big Ten, that makes sense. And that's fine. And I'm probably crazy but I remain optimistic about OSU's athletic future, although I'm not deluding myself, it will be at a slightly lower level.

But the only reason the Pac-12 broke up, despite terrible leadership, is conference revenue stream. The league would have added SDSU and SMU, remained pretty much within its traditional footprint, eventually made a ton of money via Apple, historic rivalries wouldn't have been ended, and the Pac-12 would have survived, prospered and remained a P5 entity, even without USC and UCLA.

All other realignment hasn't completely destroyed a conference. In all the other realignment, teams continue to play the majority of their traditional rivals and conferences (for the most part) maintained their traditional footprint.

 

No, I'm not happy at all about the Ducks being in the Big Ten. Like I said, I don't root for revenue streams. I would be much happier in a Pac 12 with a lesser TV deal. I don't care how much the school is making.

The athletic department gets a nice payday, but I get Oregon versus Rutgers instead of ASU or Washington State or Stanford. That sucks.

On the bright side, I can actually see their games on TV now.

 

A little late to this party, but when they were in the GLIAC, Hillsdale was generally consistently good not great in men's basketball and just about everything at the D-II level. The GLIAC I remember largely bit the dust about eight years ago as private schools like Hillsdale, Northwood, Findlay et al walked away rather than try and compete with state-funded schools like Grand Valley State, Ferris State and Wayne State (and avoid 10-hour bus rides to the UP to play Tech and Northern Michigan). I believe the Chargers do similarly pretty good these days.

D-2, or at least that D-2, can be some really good competition if you find the right people. When I was at Tech, they found a Lebanese goofball who had like two years basketball experience after his family emigrated to Canada and he turned into a dominant big man (I believe he's still playing professionally in Lebanon). Ashland in Ohio has won like six national championships in 15 years after they found a girl from a conservative home who wasn't comfortable at Wright State and went on to lead the school to titles as a player, assistant and head coach.

 

It just pays more.

 

It is that Hillsdale but not all 1,500 or so undergrads are Trump's footsoldiers. Good friend of mine went there in the late 2000s because he wanted to go to a smallish liberal arts college near where he grew up in the Detroit suburbs. He's certainly not wild about some of the headlines out of there (and I love throwing in a Margaret Thatcher joke or two) but he just got his English degree and ended up as an ink-stained wretch in several sports capacities for about 10-12 years. Probably to the left of even me.

 

Maybe someone needs to poach the James Madison AD. Basketball having an impressive year. Football has managed the transition from FCS as well as anyone ever and actually built a brand for itself. Softball was in the WCWS a couple of years back. All of this in DMA 175 between a pair of ACC schools.

 

He's retiring in a matter of weeks.

 

Nice.