Official Running NCAA/March Madness thread

And we will agree to disagree. No big deal.

 

Sort of. Michigan State in 2000 played the highest possible seed three times out of five chances. (They don't count the first game you play because that's determined by the committee, not the luck of the draw.) But they are one of only four champions from 1985-present to win all six tournament games by 10 or more points.

 

What it costs the institution is irrelevant.

If you are an out-of-state student student at the University of Virginia, you're paying between $40-50K a year in tuition/living expenses/incidental fees, etc. If you are an out-of-state student on a basketball/volleyball/football/ any other full-scholarship sport, you're paying absolutely nothing, and getting a cost-of-attendance stipend and free summer school hours to boot.

So your scholarship, in real-world dollars that real people pay to UVa every term, is worth somewhere between $800-$1,000 per week. Or, $20-$25 per hour before taxes, based on a 40-hour work week. You will also have preferential registration, personal tutoring unavailable to the average student, preference in student housing, year-round training table, year-round access txo trainers/medical staff for free care for any and all illnesses, and leave without a penny of student loan debt.

You don't have to work a part-time job to make ends meet during the school year and you don't work a full-time job in the summer to make money to defray costs for the upcoming school year.

If your an in-state student, then you're getting 60% of those financial benefits, and all the rest for free as well.

So spare me the hand-wringing for the "exploited" student/athlete, many of whom would not even have a chance in hell of being admitted to the school they're playing for if they were not kinetically gifted.

 

Heard a stat tonight. If you go to KenPom's rankings, Texas Tech has beaten his #2 Gonzaga, #3 Michigan St., and #6 Michigan. Virginia is #1 and Texas Tech is #5. Duke was #4.

That's one helluva tough road to the Final. If Tech takes the title they will have damn well earned it.

 

They were handed, essentially, six home games in the tournament. They didn't have a tourney game more than 250 miles from home, including the regional finals 75 miles down the road.

Kenyon Martin doesn't break his leg, Cincy is the overall No. 1 seed and Sparty is farmed out to Pocatello or someplace for the first two rounds.

 

Magic Johnson was injured and Byron Scott didn't play in the 1989 NBA Finals
I don't hear anyone say the Pistons aren't the 1989 NBA champions
Go back to MLive and post that shit on the Wolverines board

 

2002 Terps a 1 seed beat Wisconsin 8, Kentucky 4 and UConn 2 to get to the Final Four. Beat Kansas 1 in the Semi and Indiana 5 in the Final. Indiana was the only team they faced that wasn’t the highest seed they could possibly play.

How many times has a team won the Finals beating 2 #1 seeds?

 

While we're at it, Kobe Bryant essentially threw the 2004 finals because he was having a hissy fit about Shaq.

 

Butch van Breda Kolff essentially threw Game 7 of the 1969 Finals because he was having a hissy fit about Wilt.

 

Yeah, but I'm talking about KenPom's power rating, not the tournament seeds.

 

I'd buy that. This looks like a high fifties/low sixties game to me.