NCAA tournament 2011 — running thread

You prove you are no good with that thought.

 

Too bad that logic is not applied to football. Except there, we are supposed to believe one game after 50 days of inactivity somehow determines who is "best."

 

It's been mentioned here already, but I'll second (or even third) the motion.

Barkley and Smith have been fantastic. And this is coming from a guy who groaned when he heard Barkley was going to be doing the NCAA games. But damn, it's been great.

 

I don't know who else may be covering the tournament and may have noticed this. During press conferences, the NCAA media relations guy refers to the players as "student-athletes" -- "Do we have any questions for the student-athletes?" Not even the coaches are buying in to the spin campaign, calling them players instead. I found this funny.

 

The Big East defense is interesting. It's sort of the opposite of the SEC defense in football. The SEC's regular-season record in football is good, not great, but the bowl record is through the roof. And its defenders say the record when the lights shine brightest is what you need to know and the critics counter that you need to look at the whole body of work, the SEC enjoys regional advantages in bowls (many are played in the SEC footprint), etc., etc.

We have just the opposite discussion happening here. The Big East is, arguably, to basketball what the SEC is to football. But it just stunk in the post-season after a great regular season. The Big East was the No. 1 RPI conference, which reflects what it did out of conference. But when the lights were shining the brightest...

 

I first noticed that sometime in the 90s. Doesn't bother me.

 

Doesn't bother me. I just find it funny.

 

Davidson was waaaaay under seeded in 2008.

 

How does your last point have any merit? The Big East is like the SEC? How? The SEC wins the national championship in football basically every year, and the Big East hasn't won a national title since 2004 I believe (UConn). Big East chokes when it matters most.

 

One thing I've taken from this weekend is that there seemed to be an abnormal amount of poor end-of-game play. The Texas 5-second count, the fouls at the end of Pitt-Butler, the lack of urgency on the final attempt by Texas, the backcourt violation on Syracuse, the inbounds pass from Washington.

Granted, I thought the 5-second count was a bad call, but it just seems like a lot of games this weekend were lost rather than won.

 

That's why the comparison is interesting to me. It's interesting to see how the supposed best basketball conference is defended when you bring up the context of how the supposed best football conference is defended. For one conference in one sport, the post season is EVERYTHING. For another conference in another sport, the post-season is "just a one-and-done tournament," like it's the preseason NIT or something.

I'd say this: The preseason NIT is "just a one-and-done tournament." The NCAA tournament is not "just a one-and-done tournament."

 

Burn!!!