bierce

Lucky us. A "neutral" site game against Vandy in Nashville.

Georgia and Arky won today, creating a 4 way tie for seeds 9-12. Pretty sure we'll get Vandy, because it went 0-3 against Arky, MSU, Georgia.

Because college basketball coverage is his professional life, and he has staff researching for him, but for me this is so much mental masturbation.

I think that would require both OU and Texas to get to at least 19 wins, for there to be no upset winners of conference tournaments crashing the dance, and for some other teams on the bubble to falter. Each one of those has a good to decent chance of happening. All of them happening together? Eh, not a particularly strong bet.

That was the AAC tourney in reference to Memphis, and I don't think any other team would warrant an at large bid from that conference.

UC San Diego, maybe Drake because Indiana State was skipped last year. I just can't bring myself to put VCU in there, but maybe the win over Colorado State looks better now. Hard to believe Memphis would be left out if it loses the ACC tourney, and no one else works for me. And the WCC has two certs in Gonzaga and St. Mary's, but Santa Clara or San Francisco might surprise in the conference tourney. Gonzaga played well in beating both USF and Santa Clara on the road by 20 this week, but it is criminally overrated at 8 in NET and Pomeroy.

Boise State's 5 game winning streak which included home wins over UNM and Utah State and got BSU on the right side of the bubble just came to a screeching halt with a 83-73 home loss to Colorado State. Colorado State gets its first q1 win of the season and clinches the 2nd seed in the MWC tournament. Boise State falls to 4th or 5th depending on what SDSU does against Nevada tomorrow. And most importantly, Boise State will lose most of the support it had to be included in the tournament. 2-5 q1, 4-2 q2, and has 2 q3 losses. One of the q2 losses would be q3 if the NET people credited the loss to Washington State as a home loss instead of neutral. Game was played in Boise, just in a different arena. Anyway, the upshot is that Boise State just went from last in to somewhere in the first or next four out with this loss, depending on how the rest of the bubble fares this weekend.

Dayton just beat VCU 79-76. VCU is 2-1 in q1 games, but both are as weak as q1 wins get--road wins over NET 70 Dayton and NET 71 St. Joe's. Both Dayton and St. Joe's will move into the 60s with wins today. VCU is also now just 3-4 in q2 games. Most importantly, VCU has zero wins against the field. It lost at UNM, and it has a hideous q4 loss to Seton Hall on a neutral floor. It did beat Colorado State on a neutral floor, but CSU is on the outside right now. So, the question is whether VCU would still get a bid if it loses in the A 10 tournament. Had it won today, I would say it will get in regardless. Now I think it needs the autobid. There's just nothing of real value on the resume. A reverse split with Dayton, so each team got a q1 win? That's your big selling point?

Those guys are just throwing out every name, writing an article about each one, and none of it includes any insight on who the IU administration is really pursuing.

I was being kind to myself. I first enrolled in 1977, but I went back for two more degrees, the last after a few years' hiatus from academia, and I graduated the last time in 1990, so I called it 40 years ago.

Loucks told the Kings he is taking the FSU job, so two NBA assistants have gotten P5 HC jobs in two days.

I park on E 30th, south side of St. David's if I can't find a spot west of Medical Arts Parkway, grab a meal at Red River Cafe or Snarf's, and walk on down, reliving a lot of memories of days and nights spent on that side of campus 40 or so years ago.

54 brackets were updated yesterday. Near unanimity for all but one spot. Well, OU was left on 44 brackets, but 81.5% is clearly better than the rest fighting for the last spot, so we'll grant it the second to last spot for now. Xavier 19 (hosts Providence Saturday) (Xavier with 82% of winning according to Pomeroy) Boise State 15 (hosts Colorado State tonight) (66%) Texas 13 (hosts OU Saturday) (66%) Nebraska 12 (hosts Iowa Sunday) (73%) UNC 11 (visits Duke Saturday) (16%) Obviously UNC has the chance for the greatest gain, but it is a really small chance. Of course, if any of those teams move up, then someone is likely to move down. Indiana is currently missing from 4 updated brackets. Arky, tOSU, and SDSU are each missing from one. tOSU goes to Indiana Saturday.

I think it more of an attitude thing with Wade. He seems to delight in flouting authority. I don't think that will fly with the university administration. But I'm not a fly on the wall in CDC's office.

If you are really looking at "from a salary viewpoint," then Lloyd is the first to take off the list. Altman is probably second since he's in Nike backyard. I suspect we can afford any of the remaining coaches if CDC is willing to pay the money, but each has his sticking points. Dutcher is 65. McDermott is 60. I still think (or maybe I'm being too wishful) that CDC will look for a potential generational hire. Then again, Musselman is also 60. Jans most definitely does not excite me. Gard won't excite anyone who didn't really care for Bo Ryan ball. I found a lot of beauty in it, but a lot of people didn't. Wade is affordable, but not at all desired by our administration according to Gerry. Cronin seems to have a screw loose. Otzelberger is nearly deified in Ames, but his buyout is easily manageable. But I'm an outlier who thinks we should go for an up and coming coach rather than an established one. Otzelberger and Wade are the only guys on your list who really pique my interest.

By which standard is Musselman "familiar with the area?" He was an SEC coach for a few years, true. He got one great recruit from Texas (Anthony Black), but he never landed any other HS recruits from Texas, so I don't quite agree with the selling point of him being Texas-savvy.

Musselman lost a bit of luster with the craptastic season Arky had last year, calling into question his ability to integrate players from the portal. He seemed to do fine with it in 2022-23, but last year was a disaster. He spent part of his youth in San Diego, went to college in San Diego, and spent most of his adult life in California/Nevada/Arizona, and he seemed to be always looking to get back to the west coast. He's not really happy with the travel demands at USC, but he knew they would be there when he took the job. So I don't know if he is very interested in leaving USC, but give him another year of wondering if the entire state is going up in flames, then he might.

Would he be greeted with pitchforks?

One team beat Gonzaga, Louisville, and Michigan OOC. The other team didn't. Whole resume and all that.

And if we beat Georgia, then our second round game would be against Missouri or A&M. I'm not sure how tiebreakers work, but Mississippi lost to both, so I don't see it getting 5th seed even if it wins in Gainesville this weekend.

It is, but Florida is clearly in the lead now after going 3-1 against Auburn, Tennessee, and Alabama, while playing only Tennessee at home.

Brackets updated yesterday are nearly uniform in including Indiana, Arky, and tOSU, with Boise State leading for the one of the two remaining spots. The other is currently a toss up among OU, Nebraska, Xavier, and Texas with UNC leading the rest of the teams with a smattering of votes. OU has a pitiful conference record, but the win last night should put it back in the field according to the matrix, but we would likely pass it with a win Saturday. The question will be whether we can catch some others and pull away from the scrum.

I agree. The teams that were already out of it are getting even farther out of it, but the real bubble teams won. Nothing of interest on the schedule tomorrow, but things get interesting on Friday. MVC tournament starts, VCU can maybe wrap up an at large bid by beating Dayton, and Colorado State goes to Boise State.

Porter Moser has gotten serious. He's wearing a suit and tie instead of a stretchy shirt showing off his man-boobs. OU wins ninety something to eighty something after all the unnecessary fouling and free throws are over.

There are times when I think a coach would be better off losing than using his use it or lose it timeout. I just saw one. Louisville was on a complete roll against Cal, on a 7-0 run to build a 15 point lead, got a stop with less than 30 seconds left and started walking up the floor, the players obviously knowing they had the last possession. So Kelsey called a timeout. I mean, you have to, right? Uh no, you really don't. Louisville ran a play and was whistled for an offensive foul on a screen outside the arc. Cal missed a couple shots at point blank range, so no real harm done, but when your team is on a roll, you have a big lead, and the opponents are on their heels, then why stop the action to let the other team regroup? And that is where coaches like Self beat all hell out of a lot of coaches. He has absolutely no qualms about calling a timeout at any point in the first half if he thinks he needs to get his guys on the right page. He knows that holding that thing in his pocket until the last possession of the first half is really f'ing dumb.