Running 2023-24 NCAA Basketball Thread

The committee(s) have a sense of humor:

Nebraska vs. Texas A&M ... in both the men's and women's tournaments.


Trev Alberts left Nebraska to be the Texas A&M athletic director this week.

 

Congratulations to High Point on getting the lone bye in the 15-team CBI Invitational. And after a 33-day layoff, the Chicago State Cougars will be cranking up their postseason run.

 

All times Eastern (which is how you know it’s cut and paste)

Tuesday:
6:40 truTV: Howard vs Wagner
9:10 truTV: Virginia vs Colorado St

Wednesday:
6:40 truTV: Montana St vs Grambling St
9:10 truTV: Boist St vs Colorado

Thursday:
12:15 CBS: Mississippi St vs Michigan St
12:40 truTV: BYU vs Duquesne
1:30 TNT: Creighton vs Akron
2:00 TBS: Arizona vs Long Beach St
2:45 CBS: North Carolina vs Howard/Wagner
3:10 truTV: Illinois vs Morehead St
4:00 TNT: South Carolina vs Oregon
4:30 TBS: Dayton vs Nevada
6:50 TNT: Texas vs Virginia/Colorado St
7:10 CBS: Kentucky vs Oakland
7:25 TBS: Gonzaga vs McNeese
7:35 truTV: Iowa State vs South Dakota St
9:20 TNT: Tennessee vs St Peters
9:40 CBS: Texas Tech vs NC State
9:55 TBS: Kansas vs Samford
10:05 truTV: Washington St vs Drake

Friday:
12:15 CBS: FAU vs Northwestern
12:40 truTV: Baylor vs Colgate
1:45 TNT: San Diego St vs UAB
2:00 TBS: Marquette vs Western Kentucky
2:45 CBS: UConn vs Stetson
3:10 truTV: Clemson vs New Mexico
4:15 TNT: Auburn vs Yale
4:30 TBS: Florida vs Boise St/Colorado
6:50 TNT: Nebraska vs Texas A&M
7:10 CBS: Duke vs Vermont
7:25 TBS: Purdue vs Montana St/Grambling St
7:35 truTV: Alabama vs Charleston
9:20 TNT: Houston vs Longwood
9:40 CBS: Wisconsin vs James Madison
9:55 TBS: Utah St vs TCU
10:05 truTV: St Marys vs Grand Canyon

 

I’m surprised more than a couple of those teams agreed to play.

 

76-team bracket

the last 24 at-large teams in order go into 10-12 play-in slots, top eight for the 10 seeds, next eight for the 11s, last eight for the 12s -- 6 games Tuesday / 6 games Wednesday

This bullshit 16 seeds don't get to play in the tournament is over, the top 36 are locked into the first round so there is an incentive to get as high a seed as possible to avoid the play-ins

 

isn’t there just one 5-12 matchup in each regional?

 

7 of the 8 teams in the 5-12 matchups

 

I believe that is the case, though it is particularly ironic because in the NCAA Hockey tournament, a team hosting a regional MUST be placed in that regional if they make it (for attendance reasons), a situation that has backfired multiple times with 4 (the lowest seeds) playing in their home city.

I'm generally anti-Sparty, but Izzo's boys lost a First Four game to the UCLA team that made it to the Final Four in the bubble in Indiana.

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Now that I'm not skipping class to watch them, when I look at the TV times and groupings I just hope they put Bill Raftery and friends in a city with interesting "amenities," but I forgot that there's a Brooklyn site this year, so they basically just gave Raft a home game.

 

Two of those seven are Gonzaga and San Diego State. It's long been argued that Gonzaga is only cosplaying a mid-major at this point, and the Mountain West is somewhere between a traditional mid-major and one of the power conferences. Plus San Diego State is coming off a Final Four appearance so they're not exactly a nobody, either. The 12-seeds are almost never going to be from major conferences. So that leaves Saint Mary's as the stray in this equation.
Basically, yes, seven of the eight are not from major conferences but it's easy to reason that six of the 12 are major conferences or a very close equivalent. I don't think it's a slap in the face to mid-majors by any means.

 

After a 9-18 season.

 

Way too early 2025 tourney field coming within three days of the championship game. Lunardi is as persistent as crabs.

 

That's right.

For those who aren't familiar with the process, when it comes to schools on the 1-4 line, cities are assigned more or less first-come, first-served by geography.

It's why Marquette is in Indianapolis and Illinois makes a longer trip up to Omaha. Marquette had a better seed and is closer to Indy than Omaha, so it got the site, and since Purdue had the other Indy pod, Illinois had to go further.

So if you're a four-seed, you're most likely traveling pretty far away from home, unless geography works out to be friendly.