College Basketball 2017-18

West Virginia has been the most impressive team to me after the first weekend. You may quibble about the quality of their competition, and rightfully so, but they took care of business with authority.
Joe,I left Nova out of my lurking category for a reason: I think they’re overrated. I love Jay Wright (I wish we had a legit shot at hiring him at Louisville), but I don’t think they deserved a 1 seed. I think they rely too much on the three and that will jump up and bite you in a tournament. Duke and Kansas are the only teams left to fear, and even they are suspect this season. The Jayhawks lost more games at The Phog since, like, forever. And don’t be surprised if Boeheim doesn’t figure out a way to knock the Dookies out.
Going to be a very interesting weekend.

 

Louisville was thumped at home last night by Mississippi State with a trip to the NIT semis at MSG at stake. This afternoon the interim coach, David Padgett, was informed he will not be retained as Rick Pitino’s permanent replacement. Xavier’s Chris Mack is supposedly the leading candidate for the vacancy, but here’s the problem: both the AD and the President are also interim/acting figureheads. So anybody they hire before filling those positions will be subject to the “that wasn’t MY hire” scrutiny. And there’s that little Federal investigation lingering out there somewhere, sponsored by our friends at the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York office. The first trial is scheduled for April...of NEXT year. And the NCAA can’t even START investigating that until the G-men are done. Ricky P. left quite a mess. But the Cards won’t be alone, will they?

 

No James, the Ville ain’t alone. Arizona’s entire Top 10 class decomitted. Only 7 players return w/leading scorer only at 4.5 per game. Zona is toast until dust is settled.

@FulhamDC, I hope your work responsibilities are done by 4. Seattle has so many great places to watch that WV v Nova game tomorrow.

Today’s games:

Nevada v Loyola; Someone’s Dream season continues to Elite 8. The Pack has lead 4 minutes of the entire 85 they’ve played (first game went OT), I’m going w/Ramblers.

Kentucky v Kansas St; KState has advanced without their best player, Dean Wade (foot). He might try and play tonight. If he does, and is effective this could be a very close game. I’m guessing he won’t and UK will have too much scoring power.

Texas A&M v Michigan; @AggieMatt you ain’t jinxing if you comment. Based on last week’s games A&M looked far better. However, Meatchicken has survived and advanced w/out playing their best which is very dangerous for their next opponent.

Gonzaga v Florida State; @MicahMan, this game doesn’t start until at least 10 pm est (maybe later if the above game goes OT). Will be interesting to see if that effects FSUs shooting %. The Zags aren’t as good as last year’s Runner-Ups, but I think they get a step closer.

EDIT: @BarryWhite Interesting hire for Evansville in Walter McCarty, The mere fact it made national news is a good thing. Being from Evansville and playing at UK is a better thing. Being on both Rick Pitino and Brad Stevens’ staff is the best thing.

 

I grew up across the river from Evansville, so I'm familiar with the Purple Aces. Had no idea Walter McCarty was in play for that job, but it's a perfect fit, on paper. I don't know much about his coaching ability, but the pedigree certainly applies. One of the greatest high school players in the city's history, it's nice to see somebody get a chance to get their first head coaching job back home. They've got a pretty storied hoops history. Won 5 Division II National Championships between 1959-71, although every one of them was contested on their home floor at Roberts Stadium. I grew up hearing about the exploits of Hugh Ahlering, Larry Humes and Jerry Sloan. The coach for all five titles was Arad McCutchan, the first D-II coach to be inducted in Springfield. He retired the season before the program moved up to D-1 in 1977, but they played only four games before the team was killed in a plane crash on December 13th. They've never really recovered from that. Dropped football in '97, so hoops is the only revenue producer. Bobby Watson, the head coach who perished in the crash, was followed by Dick Walters, Jim Crews, Steve Merfeld and, finally, former player Marty Simmons, who was let go last week.
Here's hoping Walter can work some magic along with drawing up the right X's and O's. They moved into a new downtown arena in 2011, so that's a plus. One of the unique traditions of the program is the early use of short sleeved jerseys instead of the traditional sleeveless, tank top style. They've gone back to them on a couple of occasions, but not for very long. Would like to see them stick with it. They are currently using a sleeveless style. Maybe Walter will bring 'em back. Gonna throw in some pics, most of which are from my trip to the Basketball HOF in 2013.

 

I had not heard McCarty’s name connected to the position either. The rumor around town was UE was pursuing Calvert Cheany but I’m not disappointed with the appointment. It will be interesting to see if he can recruit to Evansville which I think was Marty’s biggest problem. As Jump mentioned UE has a lot of history but not much of it is recent. Jim Crews had some good years here but that has been a few years back.

 

These start times are ridiculous! I had to stay up until 12:30 to see the end of the game and I'm no longer a whipper-snapper college student. I'm stunned but happy that FSU won, even if they did take out one of my Final Four picks. Asking them to take out the #1, #4 AND #3 seed in a bracket to reach the Final Four is a pretty tall order. I have to give the edge to Michigan, especially since they so easily handled A&M who I thought looked unstoppable vs North Carolina.

 

@MicahMan The Noles just took it to Gonzaga for the full 4o, not one of Leonard Hamilton's better teams, but it doesn't matter once you get to the tourney. Will be a big underdog against Michigan, but another win and it will be guaranteed that a #9 or #11 seed will play for the National Championship (KState is a #9 Loyola #11).

All the favorites left going tonight;

Clemson v Kansas; On paper a football school vs a basketball school seems like an easy call, but Clemson is used to this level of competition. I'll say Kansas, but they are always a perplexing loss waiting to happen.

West Virginia v Villanova; This is a terrific matchup. I'll go w/Jalen Brunson and his 4 to 1 assist to turnover ratio to handle the Mountaineer pressure, but this could come down to execution in the last 30 seconds.

Duke v Syracuse; They played earlier at Duke and the Dukies beat the Orange at their 60-44. The one positive note for Cuse is they did dictate pace, so they'll attempt to ugly-fy it again.

Purdue v Texas Tech; Evans is a really good guard for Tech, but I'll go w/the Boilers in a close one.

Heading to the mountains so the dust will be settled for the Final 4, can't wait.

 

I haven't enjoyed a college basketball game as much as I enjoyed watching Kansas State beat Kentucky in quite some time. Every time I thought Kentucky was going to wrestle control of the game away from K-State they found an answer. In my mind I certain Kentucky would come back and win when Xavier Sneed picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench. K-State did struggle but they never broke and that final drive through the middle of Kentucky's defense to get to the rim and win the game is a classic NCAA underdog tournament moment.

 

@SoCalJoe They might not necessarily be done buy 4 pm, but they will be left unattended. There's a WVU alumni group here in Seattle, (Who knew??) and they meet at a brew pub called the Elysian Bar. Looks like a great place, although there appears to be about a dozen more just like it in a 2 block radius!

Let's GO Mountaineers!

 

Loyola Chicago, Michigan, Villanova and Kansas. After all of the early drama and a 16 seed beating a 1 for the first time ever in the men's tourney, we have two 1 seeds, a 3 and an 11. The Ramblers are the fourth 11 seed to make it to the final weekend: LSU in '86, George Mason in '06 and VCU in '11. The lowest seed ever to win it all was 'Nova in '85, an 8, when they beat Georgetown at Rupp Arena. So, in short, this is when Cinderella's ride usually turns back into a pumpkin. Could that change this year? Given what we've seen so far, yeah, I think it could. A lot of good teams got outplayed, some decisively, by underdogs, who then proceeded to lay an egg in the next outing. K-State executed a nearly perfect game plan and, as the right honourable gentleman from Warrick noted, overcame significant foul trouble to prevail against Kentucky. But then they fell decisively to Loyola. The Mountaineers dominated two teams they should have, but didn't give 'Nova as much trouble as they should have. UMBC and Buffalo won big against Virginia and Arizona, but then crashed out immediately. And where the heck did Michigan come from? After finishing behind Sparty, the Boilers and Ohio State during the regular season, they ran through the conference tournament and have now won 13 in a row. John Beilein is pretty darn good coach.
What happens in San Antonio? I think whoever wins the Villanova-Kansas contest will win next Monday night. Underdog lovers will all be rooting for Sister Jean and the Ramblers, as will I, but whether they or Michigan advance, Bill Self and Jay Wright have been there and done that most recently, and I think they've got the horses to do it again. But....but, remember 2013? Beilein's team very well could have beaten Louisville in that final, so he's certainly almost been there and done that too. It usually doesn't matter when you get to the Final Four, but the Wolverines are the hottest team left standing.
Should be an interesting Saturday.

 

I thought the foul trouble was part of the plan.... or the refs’ plan at least.

https://deadspin.com/amazing-conspiracy-theory-has-officials-screwing-kentuc-1824046187

 

HA! Cal’s never been concerned about free throws, but they sure as hell lost it at the charity stripe.
I’m kinda bummed today about another school in our field of vision, Western Kentucky, crashing out of the NIT to Utah. My spouse and many of my high school friends and current co-workers and media colleagues are alums. They had two very impressive road wins at So. Cal and Ok. St to get to New York, only to commit two charges in the final minutes (one of them highly questionable) against Utah. Another mid major with an interesting legacy. Ed Diddle clutched a red towel for most of his tenure as head coach, thus leading to the tradition. And John Oldham's '71 team reached the Final Four with mostly Kentucky kids before before falling to Howard Porter's Villanova team. Their achievements were vacated (sound familiar?) because center Jim McDaniels supposedly signed with an agent before his eligibility expired. Look for Rick Stansbury to get them back into the big dance on a regular basis.

 

Not too many things better in US sports then the Final 4 double header.

Loyola v Michigan: Two tough, hard-nosed, and disciplined teams. Would love to see the Ramblers play for it all on Monday night, but I think it's the end of the line.

Villanova v Kansas; Brunson v Graham is a 4 star, old school, point guard matchup. I had Nova over Michigan in the Final in my bracket (of course aside from the those 2 my picks were a dumpster fire) so I gotta stick w/Jay Wright's squad, but these two could play 100 times and it go 50-50.

 

Villanova is impressive.

 

I'll be rooting for 'Nova, but I think Michigan will spring the upset. John Beilein is a heckuva coach, especially for a guy at a football school. I still think Villanova relies too much on the the three, but you can't argue with the results. They won't shoot as well as they did against the Jayhawks, but it might be enough. Something tells me it's just Michigan's...and Beilein's...time. Hatter, I think as long as Jerry's World and the big room the Texans play in are around, the NCAA will keep coming to Teg-zas. Lots of seats for lots of fannies. And I assume they're air conditioned.

 

One of the great things about the tourney is the last game has no affect on the next (it truly is survive and advance). Going by Saturday's games you would think this will be a Villanova blowout tonight. Loyola outplayed Michigan for the majority of the game before running out of gas in the last 8 minutes and unable to keep the big German, Mo Wagner off the glass. Nova put a hurting on Kansas from the opening tap, and never let up.

Michigan will muck it up, defend the 3 and grind for the 40 minutes. However, Villanova can win that way also and have some bodies to put on Wagner. Should be a very physical game, so hoping the refs set the tone then let the kids play. Villanova was the best all around team at the beginning of the Madness and should be the team cutting down the nets at the end.

 

All year the pundits said there were a bunch of 'good' teams, but no 'great' team, obviously they were wrong. Villanova beat an SEC team, 3 Big 12 squads, and the Big 10 champ all by double digits to prove they were a couple of notches above good.