NCAA tournament 2011 — running thread

And yet the 11th and 9th place teams in the Big East got through to the Sweet 16

 

He made a good point, though. Where is the NBA talent in the Big East? Pitt was a No. 1 seed, and who will we ever hear from again from that team?

To me, there are three teams in this tournament with a chance to win it: Duke, Ohio State, Kansas.

 

You're incorrect. UConn played in Hawaii -- no control over the outcomes there.

Not playing a mid-major on the road is a common trait among the majors.

 

Sounds like Wake Forest during the Tim Duncan years. And as those Wake Forest teams learned, if you're so dependent on rhythm that you get unraveled by aggressive defense that easily, you're not going to win a national championship.

 

And it's why it's horseshit that they get higher seeds and more teams in the tournament. A good third- or fourth-place mid-major team might play a handful of top 25 teams on the road, lose four of them, then fall two wins short of a tourney bid while Big East teams load up on home games, get wins and get in with a worse record.

 

Both Barkley and Smith showed up Pitino badly in that last segment, Barkley talking about the Big East and Smith discussing the five count in the Arizona-Texas game. They're outshining anyone CBS has had in the studio. And for all the fawning over Gus Johnson, give me Marv Albert anyday.

 

Florida State-Notre Dame is one of my NCAA nuclear device games.

 

It would help, too, if FSU would lose this pesky tendency to make open shots.

 

It's just like football: The big schools can get a sellout at home if it schedules an eighth grade JV team, so why go on the road for a mid-major?

 

Slim Pickens landed on my territory two days ago.

 

Marv Albert has been great. He should have been announcing this tournament years ago.

 

I'm not saying they should.
But they should stop punishing the teams that have to go on the road - and putting VCU in was a step in the right direction. Give me an 18-20 win mid-major team over a 18-22 win major team any day.