bierce

Because UConn futzed around much of the year and wound up in the same subregional as Florida. Going down to the wire because Florida left a lot of points at the line. Missed seven ft this half, including two front ends. Make that eight.

I didn't get any buyers on this thread today, and I don't blame any of you. We all missed Arky beating St. John's in the battle of the sleaziest coaches, but at least I can claim my reservations about calling an upset for Creighton or UCLA have or are proving sound. It's not a secret that I'm a Richard Pitino fan, but I don't see UNM beating Michigan State tomorrow. Hurley is a terrific coach, but Florida is playing too well to thin there will be an upset there. Flagg is back for Duke, so Baylor is a longshot. I think Maryland is just too good for Colorado State. So, F it. Oats will always be a utter dirtbag for wearing jackass jackets and not seriously punishing Brandon Miller for taking the murder weapon to a former teammate. Go St. Mary's.

Big East is now down to Creighton and UConn, both big underdogs to 1 seeds in the round of 32.

Arky leading by 6 after missing the front end with 41.8 seconds left in the my coach is slimier than your coach game.

Now the first round is done, I will offer congrats to those who picked McNeese, Drake, or Colorado State. Anybody want to suggest a second round upset? I'm sorry I'm asking only after McNeese went down bigly to Purdue, so you are left with Arky/St. John's, Drake/Tech, Creighton/Auburn, Gonzaga/Houston, UCLA/Tennessee (a 7/2 matchup is the lower limit for an upset for me in this round), UConn/Florida, Baylor/Duke, St. Mary's/Alabama, Colorado State/Maryland, or UNM/Michigan State. None of those leap out to me as a really good bet for the underdog. I suppose UCLA against Tennessee because Barnes still hasn't shook off his rep as an underachiever in the tournament, but he usually loses 2/3 or 4/5 kinds of games. Both are .500 against top 20 teams this year, but to be fair Tennessee split 6 games against top 6 teams, while UCLA never played anyone in the Pomeroy top 6, and while it beat #7 Michigan and # 8 Gonzaga, it did that at home and in an arena a few miles away from home. Auburn hasn't been playing well. Creighton's offense is a beautiful thing to watch for the way it creates open shots, and Creighton makes it hard for opponents to shoot and make 2s, and it does it without fouling, so there is maybe something here suggesting an upset is possible, but I'm not really feeling secure in predicting one in this game, even if Creighton looked a lot better in the first round than Auburn.

Even assuming McCollum to Iowa and Medved to Minn and Wade to NC State, there are still openings at Nova, WVU, and Texas ( or whoever opens when we hire someone's coach).

That's probably it for OU. Down 5 with ball and two open 3pt shooters, a Sooner guard took a contested layup which was blocked. Pretty much game.

BTW, there is a curious thing about Richard Pitino. His buyout was halved to just $375K during the month of March because the UNM AD moved on to Houston. Buyout goes back up to the whopping sum of $500K on April 1 due to the halving period expiring and the annual reduction kicking in. I have completely given up hope we might go that route, but a P5 AD with a head coach opening in basketball who doesn't seriously consider Richard Pitino is guilty of negligence.

Pitino is getting out of the imploding MWC as fast as he can, and he will land good gig somewhere.

Odom to UVa. No surprise there.

Florida on a pace for 50 offensive rebounds after 4 minutes. The record is within reach, whatever it is.

I'm kind of surprised by a couple of things in the UNC-MIssissippi game. Mississippi has rebounded well. Thought that was the one area in which UNC had an advantage. Mississippi has committed quite a few turnovers. They've been very good at avoiding them this year, while UNC has been pants at forcing them. I still think this is beyond UNC to catch up at this point. The Tar Heels have been slow in reaction time for most of the game, but they did a good job to make a game of it.

So did I.

Years and years of having good teams but being poorly seeded or even overlooked entirely because you couldn't beat Gonzaga every single time can take its toll on a person. Then never getting to the second weekend even when you do make the tournament can be the clincher.

I want to see if Florida can set a tournament record for offensive rebounds against Norfolk State. Nah, that's just kind of an amusing side note, but Florida is great at it, and Norfolk State is terrible at stopping it. I suppose it could just left Florida always score with the first shot. I picked Colorado State as my one upset, so this game interests me. If Colorado State loses, then I will be very interested to see if UNM can give Marquette a game or if the MWC will disappear with barely a whimper. Then there will be the matter of where Richard Pitino winds up. But as a matter of just interesting basketball, I think UNC-Mississippi. UNC has beaten everyone it has played except Duke over the last 5 weeks. Most of the teams weren't even bubble quality, but UNC was winning most of the games handily, and we saw what it did to SDSU on Wednesday. Mississippi looked pretty good in the SEC tournament, and it will have the advantage of rest like it did against Arkansas in the SEC tournament, but

Memphis athleticism beating Colorado State passing and motion right now. Dainja is having a monster first half. Baylor always is a great offensive rebounding team regardless of size. The NC team played Vital alongside 3 guards and had the fifth highest offensive rebounding percentage.

We all know the real answer to the question posed by this thread.

Early games going to the wire. Love it. Also loved the NBA continuation call against Mississippi State until it was reversed by another ref. Hell, could have been an f1 as not a legit play on the ball by a guy behind the driver. Obvious intent to commit foul to avoid the driving layup. So now Mississippi State has to reach twice more to finally put Baylor in the bonus. Made both. MSU responds with a basket inside and calls TO. 73-72 Baylor with 29.5 left.

McCollum has Drake playing slowly this season because that was how his current players, nearly all of whom played D2 last year, played their best for him last year in D2. His 2019-20 and 2020-21 teams averaged 83 ppg. But he is Iowa bound.

Yeah, that was a close one. For those who didn't see it, UCSD quickly erased a 14 point halftime deficit, closed to within one before Michigan started to open it up to 10 again. UCSD then closed gradually over the next eight minutes, finally taking a 2 point lead before Michigan responded with a three. UCSD had a couple of chances to regain the lead but couldn't convert. With about a minute left, Goldin was blocked right at the time, complained about no call (I thought it was clean, at least clean enough), and got revenge with a pretty good body bump on a Triton trying to make a layup after recovering a loose ball in the paint. No call there, either. Michigan ran clock, missed a shot, Goldin got the offensive rebound, was fouled, made the ft, and UCSD missed a three that was neither rushed nor a great look in rhythm. I thought the foul by Goldin was pretty obvious, but that's the way things go.

Not really buying that excuse. Dickinson was one of the biggest prizes in the portal 20 months ago, Storr, Griffen, and Mayo were highly sought players in the portal last summer, Kansas had to keep Harris happy, and Adams was second in minutes, so I doubt he played for nothing this year. Sounds like a lot of money had to go into that roster.

UC San Diego could not handle Goldin and Wolf in the first half, but a 9-1 run to start the second half has brought the Tritons to within 6.

Utah State becomes the second MWC team to lose in spectacular fashion.

Hahaha, Kansas. Preseason #1 to 7 seed and first round knockout.

Drake is pulling away from Missouri in the game that had my interest. 43-28 with 12:40 left.