NCAA Hoops 2018-2019

After all, you do have UK and Duke playing on Tuesday night, so it is time.

Any predictions out there?

IU faithful seem to think the Hoosiers are going to be pretty good. Langford has a lot of hype around him, guy was named pre-season all-Big 10 by the sportswriters and he hasn't played a game yet.

With grown man / Stanford grad transfer / two-time first-team all-Pac12 player Reid Travis joining a few returning sophomores and a gang of talented freshman on the roster, Kentucky looks like a cross between its 2012 and 2015 teams and will win its 9th national championship next April.

and everyone else is scared

Zion is an alien.

His first game highlights are insane.

I hear some tall guy named bol bol is supposed to be playing for one of the local teams. Sounds interesting.

Manute Bols son!

zion is the most charismatic college player since....... idk

Suns are gonna get him

lol poor zion

hi i just learned of zion my goodness what a treat he will be 2 watch

hes like larry johnson with vince carter hops

amazing touch feel creativity confidence and can jump high

really hope he figures out how to shoot

been watching his clips for a couple years and he played in a small time high school league just dunking on tiny children all day lol

*also played aau and all the elite camps so it was no question that he cld hang w the big boys

really hope he figures out how to shoot

― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 7, 2018 8:58 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

such a common theme

he's 30 pounds heavier than larry johnson was

also, holy shit

it doesnt make sense that someone built like him can jump that high

Please cast Zion in the Space Jam remake. He is an alien.

i still wonder about zion size wise for the NBA but his athleticism and playmaking skill are reminiscent of ben simmons, but he's far more polished of a player

hes like larry johnson with vince carter hops

yeah I was thinkin LJ for a comparison too. Partly cause Zion just gives off 90s vibes, maybe it's just the haircut.

what if he dropped like 50 lbs would he be able to dunk from the 3 point line or...

ha. He carries his weight so well, reminds me of LeBron in that regard. Looks so light on his feet.

true. i mean look at this sequence from 2:24-2:35
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_uqYRwjEc8

dat pass tho

dude should be in the nba f this having to watch him waste his talents on coach duKe

just wanna put this somewhere

Least % of Points Returning From 2017-18
1) UT Arlington 3.2% (87 of 2,640)
2) Mount St. Mary's 4.4%
3) UNC Asheville 5.5%
4) Idaho 6.9%
5) Oakland 8.6%
6) Middle Tennessee 10.2%
7) Chattanooga 10.5%
8) Wichita State 12.1%
9) Duke 13.8%

cant believe zion, ambidextrious lefty alien

charlotte was down 24 early 2nd half & came back to beat ok st

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/gametracker/recap/NCAAB_20181110_OKLAST@CHARLO/

Zion 27/16/6 blks/4 asst

he's p good. he should be in the nba right now making nba money. instead he is helping duke, which is bad.

better than helping carolina

carolina is two whole states tho

both are bad

i dunno, petey pablo is from north carolina.

imagined a duked themed version of raise up and repulsed myself

imagined coach k sitting on a chair and repulsed myself

imagined coach k saying "leadership" in the most nasally voice possible and took to the hills

Late in a loss to Nichols College, Fitchburg State's Kewan Platt hit Nate Tenaglia with a right elbow. He has been suspended indefinitely and banned from campus. https://t.co/51qbaTl5oJ pic.twitter.com/BgUBu7Y4wP

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 14, 2018

I've never seen anything like that playing pickup, but def have been on receiving end of guys using the pretext of a basketball game to get away with assault.

Unless Tenaglia was race-baiting Platt, I can't imagine what else would come close to justifying that hit.

yikes villanova

pic.twitter.com/txtlCivMZQ

— Mark Strotman (@markstrot) November 15, 2018

If coach k can just get this scrappy bunch to buy in

sure, they possess the raw ability -- they can jump over the backboard and make every shot. but are they willing to be molded, by careful application of polish discipline, into champions?

i still wonder about zion size wise for the NBA but his athleticism and playmaking skill are reminiscent of ben simmons, but he's far more polished of a player

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, November 7, 2018 11:54 AM (one week ago)

yeah simmons is his best modern comp but style wise and even moreso attitude wise he's got a lot of barkley in him. insane

he's now 32-for-39 from the field in three games ffs

I just did the math and turns out that's really good

pic.twitter.com/txtlCivMZQ

— Mark Strotman (@markstrot) November 15, 2018

wtf is this reaaaaal

i still wonder about zion size wise for the NBA but his athleticism and playmaking skill are reminiscent of ben simmons, but he's far more polished of a player

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, November 7, 2018 11:54 AM (one week ago)

yeah simmons is his best modern comp but style wise and even moreso attitude wise he's got a lot of barkley in him. insane

― k3vin k., Wednesday, November 14, 2018 9:30 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

simmons cant get to the rim zion is a fn genius at it

his touch around the basket creativity etc is mega elite

I mean simmons could get to the rack in college

simmons was being compared to lebron man he had the creativity stuff going too

pll are still doing that its called not watching the plays or something

hes also not tall and simmons is very tall

zion only 5-for-11 today

learn some shot selection already

Got lots of rest for tomorrow.

lol this whole thread so far and not a mention yet of Duke's best player, R.J. Barrett

granted, Zion is much better than i realized. it's insane that if he were in the NBA today, he'd be the second heaviest-listed player (behind Boban) at 6'7".

(my two posts at top of thread didn't age well.)

RJ really shit the bed on the last three Duke possessions last night.

will be cool if the top three players in the draft are all from duke, cool as in a scifi futuristic dystopia

It will definitely be cool if they squander the talent in March

true ^

also true, re: RJ shitting the bed ^^^

idk, i could be wrong, maybe Zion's better. but RJ looks smoothly unstoppable most of the time. (except not at the end of the Gonzaga game.)

small sample size, but 41% shooting on 21 shots a game on an insanely stacked team is not great. idk, i haven't watched enough to have a real opinion on his game.

https://www.theringer.com/college-basketball/2018/11/29/18116769/rj-barrett-duke-zion-williamson

All of this.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/zion-williamson-is-the-best-college-basketball-player-in-at-least-a-decade

Better than AD? We will see.

https://twitter.com/KentSterling/status/1074077806273929216/photo/1

i grew up in the heart of acc country and have a deep seeded hatred for both unc and duke but coby white is so much more fun than zion or any other freshman i've seen this year. i'm glad this freshman class is so stack so that he can just do his thing without receiving the tray young treatment from espn

lol college basketball is regressive

Zion fouls out late in the 2nd half on this drive to the basket. pic.twitter.com/iVNIXoptIm

— ESPN (@espn) December 21, 2018

always a good call to make coach k's face do that

good night to the steve alford era

fire geno auriemma

weird to hear fox using "roundball rock" for college games

post modernism man

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-northwestern-silences-shrieking-fan-20190110-story.html

People hate that we talk about Zion Williamson so much & I don’t get it. His PER is 43.1. Let me say that again. It’s 43.1. 👀. The avg PER is 15. Zion’s PER is the highest in recorded history of college basketball. #Facts @GetUpESPN

— Jay Williams (@RealJayWilliams) January 10, 2019

dece lol

Fan near me at this Knicks game just tried to start the following chant:

"Z-I-O-N!
Let's hope we never win again!
Zion, Zion!
Let's get Zion!"

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 13, 2019

haha

dude got poked in the eye pretty bad yesterday

lol, burn the ncaa to the ground

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/25902687/ncaa-rules-silvio-de-sousa-kansas-jayhawks-ineligible-2019-20-season

(he's ineligible for two full seasons b/c someone else got paid $2,500)

There's a term in basketball called a "grown man rebound," but this is so far beyond a grown man rebound I dont even know what to call it. MERCY ZION pic.twitter.com/32jZEgp3Ni

— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) February 2, 2019

good lord

#23 nc state just lost, at home, 47-24

they shot 9-54 (16.7%) overall, 2-28 (7.1%) from three

va tech shot 16-45 (35.6%) and won by 23

gimme all the zion highlights

Wow. 6’8 280 pounds with an inside-out crossover and finish in traffic.

Zion shows you something new every game pic.twitter.com/tKrNBkjkPC

— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) February 2, 2019

an athlete like weve never seen before and a naturally baller my god

Zion build reminds me of Larry Johnson.

larry johnson body w gerald greene hops

want to see clips of people trying to take charges from zion

if anyone dared

I dislike that he goes to duke. that's about all I can say against him

feel like w duke becoming just another one and done mill theyve lost their insufferable ~basketball the right way~ hatefulness

Zion Williamson’s mom just now on ESPN: “When he comes home, we watch the cartoon called Naruto. I don’t really know what that is, but we watch it”

— Connor Wroe Southard (@ConnorSouthard) February 2, 2019

This could be the most athletic thing I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/DjaSyNGykl

— Eric Hubbs (@BarstoolHubbs) February 10, 2019

what...

zion more like fly on u crazy bird

is it crazy to speculate on his possibility of joining an olympic track team bc oh my god

i bet he'd be a good long jumper

We did a Valentine’s Day card thing pic.twitter.com/g5QncQl2Zp

— UMBC Athletics (@UMBCAthletics) February 13, 2019

aw

Being a former student athlete myself, the #NCAA is making billions of dollars from these young athletes, so why aren't they paid fairly? Especially when they deal with injuries and their medical bills are not compensated after graduation. #AmateurismIsACon pic.twitter.com/7u8uz0bKAd

— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (@Ahmadinejad1956) March 4, 2019

truth. but it needs to be said tens of thousands more times before it sinks into public consciousness and becomes conventional wisdom.

wiki does not elaborate on what sport mahmoud played

rip kansas' streak

https://lifestyle.clickhole.com/heartbreaking-the-worst-person-you-know-just-made-a-gr-1825121606

Got to say, I kind of hope Auburn keeps up the hot streak and wins it all. Doubt it will happen, but it would be easily the most unlikely left field champion since Villanova back in the 80s.

Texas Tech and Virginia winning would be total outliers too.

I'd say this is Tom Izzo's best chance to win a second title.

I'll watch the games, but my interest is confined to hoping for a close game with some nice plays. Three teams from schools in ex-Confederate states and an Izzo team don't give me much to root for.

Haha “ex confederate states”? That’s a strange grudge to still hold (not that there aren’t some folks in those states still holding it the other way too).

Pearl champion during Trump presidency fits

I want UVA because the turnaround from first upset 1 seed is cool. And I have family who work there. And David Berman.

my thoughts biases:

bruce pearl is a good coach enormous cheater (but mostly fuck the sec)
fuck the entire state of texas
izzo is a good coach but also a tremendous dick
god bless the acc; tony bennett is handsome; 1-seed loss > narrative

i mean it's not like i *want* a 39-38 national championship game, but given the choices . . .

That’s a strange grudge to still hold

Well, in my lifetime those ex-Confederate states were still actively Jim Crow segregationist states, and the universities in those states were solid bastions of white privilege, whose traditions of racism have not yet disappeared. So, it is very hard for me to see them as having brand new 'storylines' which don't mention that glaring fact.

unlike oregon which...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/07/when-portland-banned-blacks-oregons-shameful-history-as-an-all-white-state/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.28dd5495e4ab

like lets keep it buck, america is a white superemacist backwater stem to stern

not sure i want to defend aimless exactly but sports fandom is built on hatred and unreasonable grudges and pissing on bandwagoners

Auburn/UK & VA/Purdue were fantastic games last week.

Wanted purdue in it so badly

unlike oregon

To continue the derail, Oregon didn't join the confederacy, although it certainly had a lot of copperheads and sympathizers living here at the time of the civil war. In the nineteenth century it enacted some Jim Crow-like laws, but it was nowhere near so systematic as the southern states were. After 1930, roughly speaking, Oregon's segregation morphed to be like that of every other state in the union at the time, enforced by deed covenants and redlining by banks instead of Jim Crow.

I know Oregon's racist history (and present), and it is shameful. But yes, it is still unlike that of Texas, Virginia or godforsaken Alabama.

I'm officially going to the final on Monday, super excited

sick

Baller

lol, wtf, i don't think chuck is going to be able to continue with final four coverage.

ILH IN THE BUILDING!

announcement I'm rooting for Texas Tech because Tubby Smith coached there

sorry Texas Tech!

Rebounding should be a huge factor, because of lots of missed shots. I'm saying, lotta dribbling, lotta passing lotta of missed shots. I see Texas Tech as slightly more likely to prevail. Not going to bet on it though.

Have fun ums!

some scintillating basketball

seats aren't bad

Let's play hoops pic.twitter.com/VUNkTJwnlf

— Matt Helgeson (@MattHelgeson) April 9, 2019

Texas fans outnumber Virginia 2:1 maybe more

iirc everything's bigger in texas

hmm myabe i should watch this

its the big game

wow it's soooo loud when Texas scores

points are starting to happen, the tv guys seem surprised

is this game taking place where the minnesota vikings play

yes US Bank Stadium

it is weird to watch basketball in an NFL sized place and with NFL noise levels

i dont like the raised floor im afraid someone will fall

It is raised bc Zion has the floor on his back, and Bill Simmons is Ayn Rand.

ok that makes sense

kyle guy is the architect that fucks

being informed by ladies that Virgina coach Tony Bennett is a hottie

watching Barkley goof off with the tv crew my god he's a large human

The raised floor is bad cos it just makes me think of the bench having a direct line of site to that Kevin Ware injury...

one of them puked iirc lol

btw this one guy who can shoot huh

lmao they were showing people on the big screen and this dork white kid thought ppl were cheering for him until Ralph Sampson who was sitting behind him had to tap him on the shoulder to sit down

haa

virginia better

it would seem so atm

Game got good

tt decided to guard the guy who can shoot

tie game bb

"bigtime early dagger" lol

hoops flesh wounds

gotta play that off the glass smh

lmao that turnover

college is crazy. it's too bad no one gives a shit about the g league bc theyre actually p good.

badsketball

ot, crazy

cool more time to show commercials from literally the worst ppl on the planet

Lol at culver pulling up with 8 seconds left and then Virginia choking it away

Terrible play call. TTU definitely should’ve gotten something better with its last two shots than two Culver heroball heaves

Not even one screen on that last play lol

xciting finish but yea the commercials are dire as hell

last second shot playcalls are so weird, why does everyone like clearout iso shots?

use da mute button fellas

i use it but my eyes still work

I CANT MUTE MY EYES, FRIEND

close yr eyes too

this game has gotten more exciting as your intrepid sideline reporter has gotten more and more housed off Miller lite

*absorbs ~~~HOOPS VIBES~~~*

damn diakite

Hunters gonna play his way ahead of culver on draft boards

there has been a lil hoisting in this game

terrible replay call smh

good coaching

It’s astonishing that this is the play Texas Tech ran. Not one single solitary screen set. pic.twitter.com/OrjcZob0B2

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) April 9, 2019

Yah hate that overturn call xp

lmao the UVA cheerleaders we're literally holding up three signs that said LETS GO HOOS

v pro-hoos, i approve

This is the ILHoos after all

BIG HOOPS aka the steendunker

a-a-a-and that's a wrap.

it wasn't good, but it was real

Barring an unexpected event, or an accelerated timeline, the Big East is expected to formally announce UConn’s return to the conference in New York City on Thursday, a source tells @CBSSports.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) June 22, 2019

pretty cool

Five-star senior Makur Maker announced his commitment to Howard on Friday morning.

Maker is the highest-ranked prospect to commit to a historically Black college or university since the ESPN recruiting database started in 2007. https://t.co/fA90tQxZQR

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 3, 2020

wow, i didn't even realize howard was division i, i would have figured d3. they haven't played in the tournament since '92.

thon's cousin, too!

chicken dinner

Cade Cunningham is the real deal. pic.twitter.com/oR7koKCBHr

— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) December 12, 2020

this is messed up: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/floridas-johnson-critical-stable-condition-collapsing-court/

I feel like this should be the only thing in sports anyone is talking about right now. This kid is in a medically induced coma now.

i am having a hard time with this one honestly trying to avoid it

None of the 13 winningest programs in D-I history are currently ranked in the AP Poll

1. Kentucky
2. Kansas
3. North Carolina
4. Duke
5. Temple
6. Syracuse
7. UCLA
8. Notre Dame
9. St John’s
10. Indiana
11. Arizona
12. Utah
13. Cincinnati

— Bryan Ives (@awaytoworthy) February 8, 2021

don't worry, espn still makes sure to mention duke, unc, and kentucky during every unrelated broadcast

you know ND is #8 on that list from being old

hai mookie

rude imo

lmao st johns

how bout them michigan wolverines

they sure wolvered

they’re the wolvest

Don't let the days go by

klassy

https://i.imgur.com/U3zyr63.jpg

I feel like ESPN is really trying to make Jay Bilas a thing

he is orders of magnitude better than dan dakich or dickie v

10 years since gus johnson ;_;

xpost - i don't dislike him, they just seem like they are trying to make him a stephen a smith type thing

tell me who to watch in this tourney please. havent paid attention at all this year.

it is a voyage of discovery

bilas is actually very funny and laid-back in person, which is not at all the vibe i've gotten from him on tv

go gauchos! (tomorrow)

krzyzewski coaching tree is looking pretty crappy right now

wojo out at marquette, collins has to be about done at northwestern, capel/brey/hurley/dawkins/k himself all missed the tourney

quin snyder's doing pretty well tho #GoJazzGo

#FireCoachK

have him find out when that student paper journalist asks him to comment on his reported firing in a press conference

Buckeyes about to get bounced

wau

Happy to see OSU get bounced. Michigan State, too. Now Michigan must fall asap.

appreciate the big 10 hate

except tonight i have to root for wisconsin i guess

cade cunningham is forcing things, not demonstrating that feel that scouts rave about

roy williams' first first-round loss

I'm kinda curious to figure out who is actually any good. Did not seem like the big conferences played as much this year.

Arkansas is going to be a tough out, they might shoot cold but their defense is pretty nasty. If they are hitting threes, pretty tough to beat.

Wisconsin looked really good, just a very efficient club. They played well against NC.

OSU probably a bit of a look down gas after that B10 final. That was a heck of a game and they fought hard twice to get back in the game at the end.

oral roberts legit looked good

the abmas dude is a bucket getter wouldn’t be surprised if they make it past Florida

legend

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ew8mep6WUAMNa9J?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

So close gauchos

how bout those bobcats

xp bodacious cowboys will never be welcome in the second round

but my alligator shoes

PAC-12 got almost no respect this season from national media, but Oregon State, UCLA, USC, and Colorado all easily advanced to the round of 32. U of Oregon advanced through forfeiture, but they were the regular season PAC-12 champions.

Big-10 teams were adulated by the media and have shown poorly so far.

I'm kinda curious to figure out who is actually any good. Did not seem like the big conferences played as much this year.

i don't understand what this means. definitely some cancellations but for the most part most of the big conferences got through the vast majority of their seasons.

there is plenty of data available to know who is "actually any good"

That Abilene Christian team is ridiculous

they have that stank of a team that magically causes 25% FG percentage for 3 rounds

I really think UCLA will destroy them next game, but their anti-basketball is entertaining in a sick kind of way

their offense was painful to watch, and their D was *intense* ... I can't believe they won that game. if i was a Texas fan i'd be sick.

Welp.

we love an upset dont we folks

Ohio State, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State are gone. Still have to knock out Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and Wisconsin.

aimless talkin a lot of crap for a guy whose team got a covid bye

unless you’re a beavers fan in which case, kudos

all this dumb small sample size theater about “the big ten couldn’t have been good se they keep losing early” is annoying enough to take away from the joy i should feel from ohio state and illinois getting booted

*since they

Baylor Bears are tremendous fun to watch. It's going to be hard not to root for them unless a cinderella team meets them in the final four.

talkin a lot of crap for a guy whose team got a covid bye

(shrugs) A covid bye in the first round is a totally neutral happenstance that reflects nothing on the team that gets it, either good or bad. They'll either survive to advance or not, based on their game play. Now, if the Ducks got a second bye, things would be getting totally out of hand.

I can't believe they won that game

Abilene went 20 for 67 from the field, Texas went 18 for 40. Attempting 27 more shots than the other team doesn't happen a lot in basketball, it's nuts

yes an average shooting performance with that kind of disparity would usually result in a 30 point win

thoughts from today:

Baylor finally looked like Baylor again. every team could use a Mark Vital.

story of the tournament so far: Kevin Obanor (and Max Abmas)

if Loyola plays like they played against Illinois, they can beat everyone but Gonzaga (and maybe Baylor). that was an incredible performance, and Cameron Krutwig is an absolute treat to watch.

Cade is obviously a *very* poised and skilled basketball player, but as a consensus #1 pick, i'm decidedly underwhelmed.

excited for what feels like (but isn't really) bonus hoops on Monday! upset watch: Ohio over Creighton and ... maaaaybe LSU over Michigan?

Cade feels like a guaranteed NBA starter but not at all a surefire allstar

i wouldnt use the tourney to judge that necessarily, his play all year has been unreal.

Attempting 27 more shots than the other team doesn't happen a lot in basketball, it's nuts

― Wayne Grotski (symsymsym), Sunday, March 21, 2021 4:23 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

uconn attempted 24 more than maryland & was p much never truly in the game lmao

everyone always overreacts to the tourney, it’s the nature of the beast

cade is about as close to being a surefire allstar as you can get outside those surefire superstars like zion, brow, kd etc, he single handedly pushed his team into the tourney with a series huge games against quality opponents then got swarmed once he got there, and hes a freshman so i mean most freshman dont even play that good anyway, not sure theres ever been a freshman with his combo of polish and star potential before tbh, like there have been more talented freshman but hes very talented and already so advanced at basketball, and his game/physical talents are just made for the nba

he's an old soul

yeah I guess he's a better shooter than he was in these last couple games, and in the NBA teams won't be able to key in on stopping him if there's other great players on his team. all-star is a high bar is all

theres no guarantee of anything but its not for nothing that hes been the consensus top pick in what is generally considered to be a stacked draft

i wld say if theres one knock on him its that he might not be a true 1A scorer, might not quite have that true bucket getting instinct thats gonna get him into the top 5 scorers, has more of an all around game, cld maybe see a team talking themselves into jalen green over him for that reason, tho i mean cade did put up 40 against a top ten team so idk

re: his shooting, he was a 40% 3pt shooter for the season

his shot was the biggest concern coming out of high school but yeah he was money all year

took difficult off the dribble looks too

i wld say if theres one knock on him its that he might not be a true 1A scorer, might not quite have that true bucket getting instinct thats gonna get him into the top 5 scorers

he was a point guard in high school, he looks to create first. he can take over with his scoring when he wants to, but i think he's better when he works within the flow of the game and doesn't try to force his own shot.

cade is basically what michael porter jr. would've been in college if he didn't get hurt

naw porter is savant shooter and otherwise pretty clueless, cade plays like 7 year nba vet

his playmaking is crazy, watching a 6-8 freshman run the pick and roll like nba point guard is wild

tru, porter doesn't have the mental game, just the ridiculous range and mobility for his size

i admire iowa's dedication to playing absolutely no defense at all

defense is lame

they've pioneered the art of the "reverse close-out," when they move away from the shooter as he puts it up

deep psychological tactic

his playmaking is crazy, watching a 6-8 freshman run the pick and roll like nba point guard is wild

― lag∞n, Monday, March 22, 2021 12:43 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah didn't catch the whole game but he's extremely polished and should be decent right away. doesn't look like a top-end athlete so he might not be a superstar but surely "a pick you can feel good about" halliburton style.

he has good athleticism, absolute top end athleticism is great but its not like you need it to succeed in the nba, as far as physical profile hes pretty much exactly like jayson tatum

the nba has messed with my brain so I keep turning on these games and expecting teams to have unintuitive uniform colors, but, no, they’re pretty much what i’d expect.

Maybe not the best idea to have all 5 players crash the offensive glass? pic.twitter.com/pkYd9gcGwx

— Eric Shapiro (@eric_shap) March 22, 2021

not sure how i feel about this post-pandemic world where west coast basketball is 'good'

Still have to knock out Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and Wisconsin.

The NCAA seeding committee put eight Big 10 teams in the tournament and predicted that five would advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Four of them lost their first game. Three lost their second game. Only Michigan is still alive and they still have to win their second game to advance.

It's not so much that the Big 10 is bad, but they were greatly overrated.

talkin a lot of crap for a guy whose team got a covid bye

whatcha think now?

iowa, purdue, and ohio state losing isn't shocking. illinois losing kinda was.

the big ten was vastly overseeded, especially iowa and their completely shambolic defense, i agree, but i think it is once again a fool's errand to judge an entire conference's quality based on the small sample size of the ncaa tournament.

lemme revise, ohio state losing to oral roberts was shocking, but ohio state losing early was not.

basically all random

there's more parity now than a few decades ago, but "all random" is just plain wrong when you're talking about a game that requires such high levels of skill.

just plain wrong

the concept of 'randomness' is hard for humans to grasp

ok!

there's a lot of luck involved, but it's hardly random

it's not all random, but the sample size is so small that anything can happen. isn't that why we love it so?

it's inevitable that the a conference like the big ten crapping out in the only tournament most people pay attention to will draw some overreactions, and yeah maybe they do deserve to be overreacted to in this case. but you also gotta overreact to rutgers, maryland, and wisconsin outperforming expectations.

it's not all random, but the sample size is so small that anything can happen. isn't that why we love it so?

― voodoo chili, Monday, March 22, 2021 2:56 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

there is a huge degree of randomness in a single elimination tournament this is not that hard to understand, it is in fact the whole reason why march madness is once of the most popular sporting events there is

i was agreeing with you, mostly. i do think that the crowning of a champion is ultimately less random and the teams that wind up winning it all tend to be teams that were very good all year long

i know you were agreeing with me, but qualifying the randomness with a cohort of good teams will tend to beat the cohort of not good teams is what you do when any individual contest has a high degree of randomness

there is a huge degree of randomness in a single elimination tournament this is not that hard to understand, it is in fact the whole reason why march madness is once of the most popular sporting events there is

― lag∞n, Monday, March 22, 2021 2:57 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

tho tbf the shear number of games is also a big part of it

jalen suggs from gonzaga might be better than cunningham. he looks like he could be a better version of klay thompson

suggs is a creator

if he was 6-8 with 7ft arms he wld def be going ahead of cade

as far as flaws in cade’s game go... hard to know what this means based off one season of college play tho

As great as Cade Cunningham has been from 3-point range as a freshman (40%), his 47% shooting inside the arc is on the low side for an NBA-bound guard. We're seeing that issue tonight as Cunningham is 2-of-6 on 2-point attempts.

— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) March 22, 2021

yeah also his team was not talented so defenses could really load up on his drives, but on the other hand its true he doesnt look like a naturally dominant scorer off the bounce

i think you could say the same for tatum kawhi paul george etc

yeah you're hoping he evolves like those guys did

he seems really smart and good at developing basketball skills i can see why teams wld be willing to be on him

going to be fun debating cade/suggs/green etc. for a couple months.

gonzaga is so good

going to be fun debating cade/suggs/green etc. for a couple months.

― call all destroyer, Monday, March 22, 2021 2:56 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

evan mobley plays later today, too

if it's a 4-player draft, Minny's pick being top 3 protected is huge. Either they get a great player or the Warriors do

might be closer to a 5 player draft

even higher draft lottery stakes then. poor wolves fans

it's pretty much destiny that GSW will get a great player with our pick

Driving around to deliver a computer at work, Doug Gottlieb on the radio I thought had a pretty good take on the B10 failures. Gottlieb stated that the B10 pretty much all the teams play a standard 5 with a center style offense and he thinks they were not really prepared to defend the perimeter as so many schools now play the spread the floor look for a 3 type offense.

Dunno if that's valid or not but Illinois' problem was they couldn't handle pick n roll. Loyola only made 4 3s on them.

big ten teams all choking but michigan moving on is basically my ideal outcome as a u-m fan

re: illinois, it felt a combination of bad coaching, dosunmu laying an egg, and human adonis kofi cockburn getting sonned by off-duty plumber cameron krutwig

Iowa seemed occupied with being horrible today

https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/1374813738260369408

Just watched a replay of Loyola/Illinois, Krutwig is so fun to watch

Loyola is an 8 seed. Oregon State is a 12 seed which was picked to finish dead last in the PAC-12 this year, but instead is in the Sweet Sixteen. Why do I have no doubt that CBS will play up Loyola as the lovable underdog?

Congratulations, Beavers! Go, Ducks!

what are the stereotypes surrounding oregon vs. oregon state?

in the broadest terms U of Oregon is Niketown, with Phil Knight as Sugar Daddy bankrolling the program's high ambitions, while Oregon State has to recruit into podunk Corvallis and find overachievers and overlooked talent in order to compete.

Local gocery outlet onve had surplus ou and osu ice cream. Playing both sides.

xp ty

is eugene actually flashier than corvallis, or is it just nike money?

feel like a big beavers problem is that they're third on the list of OSUs behind ohio state and ok state, but maybe that's just eastern bias

lol at gamecocks fans expecting USC to stand for them before the trojans tho

eugene is no los angeles or san francisco , but there's no question that it is flashier than corvallis

do a lot of portlanders casually cheer on both teams?

as rivalries go, it's a friendly one

I'd pick Jalen Suggs over Cade.

Skill levels are comparable, but Suggs wins out because of his motor.

Cade is just (seemingly) passive enough to make me worry that he won't have the impact he *should* have.

Florida State shat the bed.

if by shat the bed you mean got out-executed by a much better team, then sure

I was thinking more along the lines of at least half a dozen unforced turnovers, silly fouls, and missing a ton of wide open threes. But, taking all those into consideration, it is more than fair to say Michigan out-executed them.

do a lot of portlanders casually cheer on both teams?

― Wayne Grotski (symsymsym)

i'd echo aimless in that UofO/OSU is rarely a bitter thing, but statewide there's a pretty pronounced urban/rural divide (UofO being a classic lib arts campus while OSU is historically more of an agricultural school, tho it's transitioned to a lot of biotech etc type in-demand sciences in recent decades)

xp seems like they played a team that didn’t make those mistakes and also assisted on 19 of 29 field goals

happy trails to ol' roy

I'm kinda surprised and pleased that UCLA beat Michigan. Gonzaga is definitely looking like the top dog this year. Baylor is intermittently fantastic, but uneven. Houston and UCLA would have to play over their heads to beat either 1 seed.

Flashback: Duke upsets UNLV in 1991 Final Four

i was there

also yikes am i old

crazy women's games, Aari McDonald rules

well this is a beatdown

this game has almost been too good to mention but @ 1 pt second half raftery said “sucks that D” regarding zags offensive movement/passing

lol

ok that was pretty good

gonna see that shot replayed a million times

incred ending

wild

i watched exactly 7 minutes of final four mens this year and it was those last 7 minutes.

suggs is going #2 now huh

the suggs play i liked even better was the block at the rim and bounce pass in transition a bit earlier. really high-level stuff.

there’s basically no way suggs isn’t a multiple time all star

god imagine getting a top2 pick in this draft, fuck

I would still take Mobley number one but there’s food for thought here

how is it not cade, srs question, i dont watch college hoops

most people seem to think its cade but theres a lot of guys this year the orders prob gonna come down to whos picking

JALEN SUGGS! THE BLOCK! THE PASS!

Special. #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/wgkwwY9HxV

— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) April 4, 2021

there’s basically no way suggs isn’t a multiple time all star

people said the same about christian laettner

amazing sequence in crunch tiiime xp

i fucking hate that timme guy and his moustache celebration tho its gross

lol he would be like a top-5 prospect in 1994

was that the one who looked like a grad student

xp

people said the same about christian laettner

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, April 3, 2021 10:23 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

christian laettner and jalen suggs are not similar players!

he is the one who dunks on the play in that video above xp

that celebration is legit obscene

suggs doesn’t quite have the athleticism of drose or westbrook, but he’s not far off, and his jumper is wayyyy ahead of either of theirs

that's gotta be one of the greatest basketball games ever

_there’s basically no way suggs isn’t a multiple time all star_

people said the same about christian laettner

th they were both good in college tho, think about it

tbf christain latner made one allstar game which is only one short of multiple

there’s been 3 amazing final four games that have ended in long distance buzzer beaters in the last 5 years (villanova-UNC, duke-butler) which can only happen in college bcuz you can’t advance the ball lol

suggs looks like a combo of devin booker and klay thompson to me

i can't even believe i'm commenting on this but laettner's career was on the lower end of expected outcomes.

Suggs got to live out every kid's dream right there

ucla mightve considered preventing him from walking into that shot

he’s by far the most athletic guy on either team and he was going at full speed, they weren’t gonna stop him without putting him on the line

yea idk why 4/5 ucla guys were running back to to their own basket m/l w 3 seconds left

wow someone should tell every basketball player about that incredible hack xp

kinda love watching timmie play he’s like the ideal college player

yeah he’s gross but was awesome in the game.

it’s tough for college kids to organize themselves like that with no time out, smart decision by few to go with the flow

if any ucla player just makes suggs take a different line this shot gets so much more difficult

The final sequence between Gonzaga and UCLA was wild. Such a fun game with an all-time great finish. pic.twitter.com/XnKX0WZDBW

— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) April 4, 2021

welcome to college ball

where are they all running to!

class

maybe they are going to the beach

Gonzaga and UCLA combined to shoot 58.2%, the highest combined FG Pct in a Final Four game since the 1985 national title game (Villanova-Georgetown: 63.0%). pic.twitter.com/BQXkSxeWOd

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 4, 2021

nova shot 79% from the field in that game and won by 2

Jalen Suggs, Mr Minnesota in FOOTBALL. https://t.co/uw83r8eOUa

— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) April 4, 2021

mr sports

amazing

future 'Suggs Knows..." campaign

he's a relative of terrell suggs

i remember video of christian laettner scrambling for a 60 yard touchdown as well

how is it not cade, srs question, i dont watch college hoops

― class project pat (m bison)

i explained this above, Suggs looks like he cares and Cade does not

this thread could use more people who actually watch / enjoy / don't look down on college basketball

produces deep insights

lol

lol this whole thread so far and not a mention yet of Duke's best player, R.J. Barrett

granted, Zion is much better than i realized. it's insane that if he were in the NBA today, he'd be the second heaviest-listed player (behind Boban) at 6'7".

― alpine static, Thursday, November 22, 2018 1:14 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

shots fired

lol i was just searching for the explanation of why to take suggs over cade, which is tbf a much more defensible position than barrett over zion

^ Seems like a big zing now, but even though everyone knew Zion was a shoo-in for first pick, but Barrett went pretty damned high, too, and that was well within the consensus about Barrett's NBA potential.

ok man

cade is gonna be the top pick bcuz he's a wing. i think suggs has a higher floor tho, there just aren't many guards who have his skillset. at the absolute worst he'd at least be avery bradley with better shooting if his offense just doesn't develop at all. cade will need his athleticism to show up more and i think there's some questions about how well he'll be able to score inside the arc, he's a very good shooter tho

i don't think it's true that cade doesn't care. i think the implication is that cade sometimes floats thru games, but it's more noticeable w/ him bcuz he isn't playing w/ anyone nearly as good as him. it's not really comparable to suggs who plays w/ a first team all american (kispert) and and a second team (timmie) and can have stretches of games where he has little impact but his team still kicks ass. i find it hard to watch cade put up 40 on the road vs OSU's rival ranked in the top 10 including taking like every shot in the final minute and blocking a shot and say he doesn't care

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liqpAnLcTT4

one of the things about college basketball culture is demonstrativeness and passion 4 tha game are completely conflated, when really a steady determined disposition like cades is prob more suited for nba success, tho obvs all sorts of personalities can work

i dont think cade over suggs is any sort of "slam dunk" but cade just is a prototypical 2021 nba player, and hes really good, suggs is also very well cut out for the nba but doesnt quite have the positional flexibility everyone is looking for, hes a guard where cades a wing, however suggs could easily turn out to be the better player, or someone else, one of the g-league ignite© guys i mean

seems like a good year for tanking, rly wish the spurs had committed to the tank sooner, tho they are off to a great run of Ls lately

great year to tank for sure, kinda funny the nbas anti tanking measures actually make it more profitable for teams who arent the absolute pits to tank, and if you are the pits might as well tank anyway right

There's no Timmy for the Spurs in this draft, but there is a Timme, eh?

certainly my post about RJ vs. Zion looks pretty silly now, but in late November of 2018, it did not look nearly as silly. touche, though, i guess.

also, i didn't say Cade doesn't care, i said he looks like he doesn't care. which isn't fair; i don't know how much he cares. maybe instead i should've said i'd rather have an athletic, high-motor 6'4" guy who can play either guard position (i'm not worried about his jumper) than Cade. Cade's obviously very good and i could be way wrong.

admittedly, i am also a college basketball guy more than an NBA guy, and prob shouldn't be speculating about draft picks. i just like Suggs better as a player.

there’s a number of teams who are “tired of losing” and are super excited to make the playoffs this year despite having a zero percent chance of making it to the second round — hornets, knicks, bulls — and are passing up the best tanking opportunity in years

good post as usual, j0rdan, Suggs surely benefits from being surrounded by those guys.

ben simmons didn’t care at LSU and then got into the NBA and really cared, it can be a hard thing to judge when a guy is playing on a college team where he has to do 100% of the work for the team to be good

caring is a hard thing to judge, you certainly dont get to be one of the best 19 year old player in the world without caring, but will you have the superhuman level 24 year old caring required to be a great nba player, its very tough to judge, prob the thing that most makes the draft such a wildly chaotic science

the one exception is very tall guys can get pretty far without caring that much, tho very tall guys are pretty of out of style now, kind of funny the two best very tall guys in the nba both have seemingly non caring dispositions

andrew wiggins also looked like he didn’t care haha

lol

you never got lost in his eyes when he promised to be good at basketball

the degree of difficulty in that cade highlight video was insane, actually really good defense by #24 on OU for the majority of those looks

the thing that really sold me on cade is his playmaking its not the most important thing for a 19 year old wing to be able to run the pick and roll but the fact that he can makes it obvious that hes a baller not just some long arm freak

my understanding is that cade is a tall PG a la lamelo and less a wing

i think hes a wing but hes def got some pg skills

lamelo is in his own category

heartbreaker for arizona in the women's finals

It should be a fun game tonight as long as there aren't dozens of fouls to gum up the flow. Seems like a toss-up in terms of the talent on the floor.

yeah, clearly the best two teams ... now that this is the final, i'm glad their December game got canceled. reduces the noise before and after tonight.

i figure the Zags will find a way, but will not be shocked if Baylor pulls it out.

yeah same

zags have a higher true talent level, with a starting five that'll all be drafted, but baylor is a truly relentless team on both ends. could definitely see them giving the zags similar problems that ucla did.

no real rooting interest (tho the overall grossness of baylor as an institution makes me favor gonzaga a little), im just hopin for good hoops

plus if gonzaga wins tonight, they go on to fight their true nemesis: king kong.

every college basketball "goofy mustache man" sets himself up for the fall. baylor will win, and timme will sob on camera.

you must not be familiar with baylor's matthew mayer

oh no. Michael Jordan is running out of draft picks.

lmao every team has one

baylor is serious

seems clear gonzaga just doesn’t have the athletes outside of suggs. timmie can’t play defense vs this team. i think gonzaga can still win tho if baylor goes cold from three... they might be the better team but are also shooting unsustainably

suggs gonna need to fully take this game over

i support it

best tweet i saw on this game so far (from midway thru the first half):

Gonzaga: we have a high scoring offense

Baylor: we lift with the football team

— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) April 6, 2021

agree Timme is a defensive problem for the Zags. and that if they're gonna come back, it's gonna have to be centered around Suggs (and free throws)

also, every basketball team ever needs a Mark Vital

yeah physically this isn't even close

rip

this game isn’t making a great case for corey kispert’s NBA future. an NBA team could prob get him some more open threes but he’s getting totally washed out by baylor’s athleticism

not a lot of ways to win in modern basketball when you’re the less athletic team, the worse three point shooting team, and the worse rebounding team

one word "backcuts"

the worse rebounding team

matt armstrong has entered the chat

thought exercise: put present-day andre drummond on the zags

they should have some college games where one of the teams gets to have one nba guy

gonzaga would win this game if they had bam

would pretty much solve all their problems, something to consider

xp and it should be completely random across the 450 or whatever nba players

meanwhile it seems suggs could step right into the NBA playoffs

big man named Flo Thamba, matt armstrong just inventing players at this point

in related news, i am so tired of listening to Raftery say "this kid..." after every other play.

this kid, so tough
this kid, so smart
this kid, what a player he is, huh

welp

Oh so this is how you defend against drive n kick offense. Baylor closeouts are ridic.

boring outcome, the mitchell dude on baylor looks legit tho

man baylor plays hard

baylor came out loose and confident. gonzaga came out flat and were a bit tight and tentative all game. zags catch and shoot players caught, started their motion, saw pressure coming, brought the ball back down, and looked to pass, over and over. drives got smothered. baylor allowed the zags no rhythm at all. great defensive game by baylor.

also baylor made all their threes

they are a weird mix of things old grumpy sports columnists love with 3 point ball which they hate