NCAA tournament 2011 — running thread

I agree to an extent, but Pitt was a 1-seed and Notre Dame had a good case for one, so at least by the NCAA's reckoning, the Big East had two teams with reasonable national title aspirations.

That said, it's not entirely fair to cast off the Big East based on one admittedely lousy four-day weekend. These teams didn't get their 20-plus wins in a vacuum. They were strong throughout the season and deserved their bids, even freefalling Villanova, which still almost beat George Mason.

I do admit that it's funny to think that the Big East had 11 teams enter the tournament but are left with the same number of Sweet 16 teams as Richmond, Va.

 

Realizing that the only two Big East teams not to piss down their legs were the 9th- and 11th-ranked teams from the conference ...

Can anybody *really* make a compelling argument for *any* conference deserving more than half its teams in the field of whatever it will be going forward?

Did you *really* do enough to earn entry into the national title tournament if you weren't even good enough to finish in the top half of your conference?

 

If all conferences were created equally, then I'd see your point. But it's not unfair to say that a team that holds its own in the best league in the country -- be it ninth in a 16-team Big East, seventh in a 12-team ACC or sixth in a 11-team Big Ten -- can be considered one of the best 37 at-large tournament candidates. Good is good, whether they're running roughshod against overmatched competition or fighting among equals in a battle royale.

 

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the schedules teams play leaves no real way to determine the best conference. Bilas can argue small sample size until April, but that is one epic bedshitting the Big East just unleashed.

And I'm beginning to believe that one 16- or 18-game conference schedule and 15 home games against Directional Bumblefuck don't do a whole lot to help us figure out what conferences really are the best.

 

Guys, it's a one-and-done basketball tournament.

There is a reason that cinderellas don't happen in the NBA, but they happen here.

I'm not trying to be a Big East apologist, by any means. At the same time, I think we should be careful about extrapolating too much from a single weekend of single-game elimination basketball.

 

Shouldn't you grow a first one?

 

You're making a parody of your post about parity.

 

2004: Beat 12 seed Pacific in second round, 9 seed UAB in Sweet 16
2008: Beat 12 seed Villanova in Sweet 16, 10 seed Davidson in Elite 8.
2009: Beat 11 seed Dayton in second round.

Florida State-Kansas would be an interesting matchup. Nation's top field goal percentage offense vs. nation's top field goal percentage defense.

 

Shit.

But the point remains.

 

Well the point about VCU having the three best players on the floor doesn't. Johnson may not have played well, but he's definitely better than anyone on VCU.

 

Did VCU even trail after five minutes of either game this weekend? They were head and shoulders above the BCS conference foes they played.

 

The college basketball season is one long hand job from Thanksgiving until last week. These are the games to prove if you are any good.