NCAA tournament 2011 — running thread

[Mystery Meat II]

It is my belief, and it's just a belief, that the Big East situation this year is just an exaggeration of what most often happens to the conference with the most at-large bids, that is, it has a lot of first and second round losers. Part of this is math, as more bids equals more chances to lose. But I think more of it comes from attrition. Play in a conference where the eighth place, or 11th place team is NCAA capable, there are no nights off from December on. This is wearing.
As for the Big East this year, it had a lot of good teams, but no one would've called any of them great, or even excellent. So some of them ran afoul of the law of averages. It doesn't mean the conference was overrated, just that it had a high class average because of its many B students, not because it had a couple of valedictorians at the top.

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.

 

[mb]

Realizing that the only two Big East teams not to pish 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?

 

[Mystery Meat II]

Realizing that the only two Big East teams not to pish 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.

 

[mb]

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 bedshirtting 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 Bumblefork don't do a whole lot to help us figure out what conferences really are the best.

 

[Dick Whitman]

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.

 

[Care Bear]

Jay Bilas is the Tom Verducci of college hoops: Conflicts out the ass and as likely to take accountability for anything he writes or says as I am to grow a second deck.

Shouldn't you grow a first one?

 

[Cosmo]

If, and it is a big if, the NBA ever goes to a mandatory two years or three years past your high school graduating class to enter the NBA, then all this parody in college basketball will be over.

Chuck hit it right on the head noting that the Big East has only one great player in the entire conference. That is the same amount, or only one more great player than the CAA, MEAC, Horizon, A-10, Patriot and all the rest.

And watching the Purdue/VCU game, VCU probably had the three best players on the floor.

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

 

[kingcreole]

Traditional bed-shirtters doing a lot of bed-shirtting in this tournament. I'd worry if I were a Kansas fan.

Never worried. Illinois had no answer for the Morris twins.

You know, Kansas has more wins in the NCAA tournament since 2000 than any other school. So KU chokes every year, except for when it doesn't.

And coming up in their bracket: Seeds 10, 11 and 12. The kinds of teams Kansas loses to in the tourney (see: Bucknell, Northern Iowa).

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.

 

[93Devil]

If, and it is a big if, the NBA ever goes to a mandatory two years or three years past your high school graduating class to enter the NBA, then all this parody in college basketball will be over.

Chuck hit it right on the head noting that the Big East has only one great player in the entire conference. That is the same amount, or only one more great player than the CAA, MEAC, Horizon, A-10, Patriot and all the rest.

And watching the Purdue/VCU game, VCU probably had the three best players on the floor.

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

shirt.

But the point remains.

 

[dreunc1542]

If, and it is a big if, the NBA ever goes to a mandatory two years or three years past your high school graduating class to enter the NBA, then all this parody in college basketball will be over.

Chuck hit it right on the head noting that the Big East has only one great player in the entire conference. That is the same amount, or only one more great player than the CAA, MEAC, Horizon, A-10, Patriot and all the rest.

And watching the Purdue/VCU game, VCU probably had the three best players on the floor.

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

shirt.

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.

 

[poindexter]

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

 

[poindexter]

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.

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.