Selection Sunday-NCAA tournament thread

Does that make Dwyane Wade his Roseanne?

 

That was quite a perfunctory handshake between Crean and Boeheim. Do those two dislike each other?

 

No one could possibly like Jim Boeheim.

 

But he is a clever coach. Weird that Syracuse sprung that gimmicky zone defense on an IU team that clearly did not expect it.

 

I'm very happy for you. I'm sure you will walk with your chest out on campus tomorrow, proud that you knew what the fanbois did not. This makes up for that pesky Big Ten Conference regular-season championship.

 

A. Men.

 

To be fair, Crean only knew for four days he was facing Syracuse.

 

Ha! Indeed.

IU fans think screaming "We're Back!" and pointing at dusty banners will make us Duke or Kansas. Think this is our ceiling under Crean. It's a nice ceiling. But it also means that Michigan State remains the dominant Big Ten program.

 

I don't know if you will find this comforting tonight, but I find Crean a little like Roy Williams (Roy is probably a little better game coach, but the way Indiana looked clueless against the zone tonight reminded me of Roy having no idea Kansas threw a triangle & 2 at him last year). There are going to be some very frustrating nights, like tonight, but if Crean continues to have great players year in and year out he's going to get to more Final Fours and maybe win one eventually.

 

I agree. Williams' coaching job against Georgetown in the 2007 Elite Eight was mystifyingly bad. He won the title two years later.

 

I understand all this, gentlemen. And I get the possibilities.

But I hate going into games thinking that the team will win based on overwhelming talent. I hate thinking Indiana has the fourth or fifth best coach in the league, and that someone like Bo Ryan with much less talent, will always eat his lunch.

I wish IU had a great COACH, someone who wins the chess game. Who steals conference titles with third-place talent, or who can make a couple of Final Four runs from a 3 or 4 seed. I know not all programs have that. But Kansas and Duke do. Michigan State does. Ohio State does. Butler does.

I appreciate what Crean has done to bring the program back to relevance, wish IU could get a guy like those other dudes. Is that greedy? Probably.

 

One of the announcers said "effort trumps talent any day of the week."

Not sure I agree.