2015 NCAA Tournament thread

Where's that dude been?

And the tournament never ceases to amaze. I had no sense we'd have this number of double digit seed upsets already.

 

Because Texas was seen to have the more talented team, but one that had underachieved for most of the season, and this Butler team (which is several years removed from those back-to-back finals and with a different coach) was seen as a weak 6-seed that played over its head in the A-10 this season.

And because, in the grand scheme of things, a program with the profile, money and league affiliation of Texas should not normally lose to Butler in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Which leads us to ...

I think we saw the end of Rick Barnes' career at Texas today. He just doesn't seem to have the same drive he used to, and the Orangebloods wanted him gone two years ago, but he bought some time last year with a successful season. I believe that time has run out.

 

Give that kid from NC State 100 more tries and he never hits that shot again

 

Georgetown doing Georgetown shit.

 

Butler is not in the A-10.

 

Excuse me, you're correct. They're in the Big East, which is not the same Beast that it used to be. Late-night brain fart.

 

I just don't think it's fair to group Butler in with UAB and Georgia State at this point. It's not a mid-major. It's a Temple-Xavier-Villanova-level program.

 

What the hell is everybody talking about with Texas being a disappointment by losing to Butler? Is it just to get under Dick's skin?

Butler has been in the top half of the bracket seven times in the last nine years. They are unquestionably one of the top 30 overall "programs" in the nation.

Texas is a big lazy program that thinks it should be good but never is. Not as disappointing as the football program of late, but along the same lines. I guess they were a trendy pick on that 6/11 line, but that's just because people have to pick a trendy pick.

 

Before you start talking about things you don't know much about, Butler matched a program record with five wins over Top 25 teams and spent most of the season in the Top 25.

 

by my count the higher seeds went 12-4. Lots of close games but not an unusual amount of upsets. Ohio State over VCU is an upset only by committee seeding.

 

Aside from unfair, it's just lazy thinking by folks making the knee jerk assumption that a big-name big-money school like Texas should always be expected to beat a little school like Butler.

In the last dozen years or so, Butler has reached the sweet 16 or higher four times, has the two national championship game appearances, has reached the tourney nearly every year, and (as LTL pointed out) has been a top half seed in the tourney 7 of the last 9 years. There's scant few that can claim a comparable record over that period, and those few are the sport's powerhouses.

And this year they were clearly a better basketball team than Texas all season long. Nobody's who's been paying attention should've been surprised by that game. Acting like it's some sort of Georgia State/UAB type surprise is plain silliness.

 

True, but when you have two 14s and an 11 moving on, that's pretty good. And the fact that another 14 lost by 4, a 13 lost in the final half minute and a 12 had a chance in the final minute is nice to see. And it would have been technical upsets with two nines that should have beaten eights, losing by a point each.