bierce

Dumb. Pope was more efficient on offense for Texas than he was for Oregon State. He just had the ball a lot more for Oregon State, because Oregon State was lousy.

Hell of a finish in the CSU Maryland game. CSU hit a three with about 10 second left to go up a point. MD brought it up, called timeout, and ran a play for Queen to drive from the elbow. He hit a banked runner at the buzzer to win it. CSU just couldn't handle Reese and Queen inside. They combined for 32 points and 17 rebounds.

CSU/MD going to the wire. Tied with 45.7 seconds left, MD ball. UNM is playing very fast. Up 16-11 over MSU early. OleMissoleIssoleIppoleI is up 12 with a minute left in the first half.

You and me both. I've been a huge Weaver fan since watching his play at UT-Arlington after learning we were adding him. I do think we believe his defense is better than it is and his offense is worse that it is. When he hits ft, he's a very efficient player on offense. He just didn't hit ft this year. Too many times on defense, he is behind on the first step. The rate at which he closes is pretty remarkable, but sometimes you just can't catch up after the first step. And like Junior Seau for the Chargers, he runs all over the field doing berserker stuff. Looks impressive, but can lead to breakdowns in the team D. But there is no guard in the country I would more want on defense after an opponent has put a shot up. Hellacious rebounder.

I don't think either Weaver or Pope will settle for bench minutes next year. Weaver will want starting minutes in his final year, and Pope isn't about to take a step back.

If Traore from Xavier follows Miller AND proves healthy enough to play, then he will be an option at the 5, and he might be a starter. I have some reservations about his ability to do much on offense at this level of competition, and he isn't a shot blocker, but he is a force on the glass. That said, I hope we find a better option.

So now Xavier is open. Will it call former coach Chris Mack? Will it promote Adam Cohen? Promoting Mack worked. Promoting Travis Steele, not so much. If I'm Richard Pitino, I do not take the Xavier job. Roster is shredded, and the school will always struggle to overcome bigger, better funded schools in its own conference. The choice between Nova and Xavier, if Pitino gets that choice, is an easy choice to me. Medved looks like a lock to Minnesota, McCollum to Iowa.

Miller already has first hand knowledge of what Pope and Weaver can do, so his first order of business with them is to tell them how he intends to use them or if they should look for other landing spots. He had some good things to say about Weaver during the game. He's had some guard combos in the past that weren't real big and in which neither was the primary distributor or shooter, so Pope could have a place, but I don't see him thinking a Pope/Weaver duo can get it done at this level when neither is a plus ball-handler and neither is a dead-eye from the arc.

Is that top 15 based on 2024-25 outlays or estimated 2025-26 outlays, because something tells me that we won't be the only school upping our NIL for basketball by a 20-25%.

I think he's a great coach with a pissy attitude and anger management issues. He had to replace 3 starters and the top 2 in bench minutes from the first championship team. That doesn't make it easy to repeat. Last back to back winner had the benefit of all 5 starters and all top 7 in minutes played returning for the second year.

Two of them when the NIT was the bigger tournament.

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.