College Basketball 2017-18

Dang, Joe’s Cats are thumped by Buffalo. Nobody saw that one coming...or did they? I give you UofL radio analyst (and all around good guy) Bob Valvano (yup, Jim’s brother):

 

Not sure what happened to my post, it's gone (kinda like Arizona ).

Marshall is fun to watch, they start shooting once they get off the bus. The committee does a good job in putting possible cool match-ups in the second round. West Virginia (@FulhamDC ) and the terrific Jevon Carter was too much for Murray State and now it sets up a huge game w/little brother Marshall for the state bragging rights.

@BarryWhite The Hoosier state also has a great 2nd round game in Butler versus Purdue, but a big setback happened today as the Boilers big 7 footer Issac Haas fracture his elbow and is gone for the tourney (hate to see a senior go out like that).

@MicahMan I had an oversight on the earlier post (that's floating somewhere in the cloud) as I hadn't realized Florida State takes on Mizzou today, good luck to the Noles.

 

Though luck for Haas and Purdue. Awful way to end what has been a very good college career.

 

Disappointed that the Racers didn’t compete well against the Huggy bears, but that’s the beauty of this tournament, isn’t it. They outphysicaled and outtalented us. But we’ll be back. But Heather! My, my, MY!!! I was still up and actually found the game about the time the Retrievers started to put it out of reach. My jaw hit the floor and stayed there for the last 8-9’minutes. Kept waiting for the inevitable run from the big boys that never came. So now UVA is the victim of TWO of the biggest upsets ever in college hoops. People are debating whether this is bigger than the Chaminade upset, but for me, it’s no contest. This is IT! Others were arguing ‘Nova’s win over Georgetown at Rupp Arena in the 1985 final is still the biggest, but I ain’t buyin’ that one either. Heck, Providence’s upset of the Hoyas in the Southeast Regional at Freedom Hall in 1987 (which I was fortunate enough to witness in person) was bigger than that. But this? Number 1. No question. Congrats and GO RETRIEVERS!

 

Princeton lost by a point as a 16 seed some years ago; it's great to see someone finally do it. CONGRATS to the Retrievers.

 

I remember that Princeton game quite well Sac, your Tigers outplayed Georgetown and Alonzo Mourning the entire game.

The saying 'where will you be when 16 beats 1?' has been answered and it was awesome to watch!! What a thrill @dcheather that had to be, might as well get greedy and storm the castle again today!

The ending of Michigan-Houston was what March Madness is all about. As crazy and fun for Michigan players and fans to hit the buzzer beater the image (I'll post if I can find it) of the Houston player that missed 2 Free Throws with 3 seonds left (he makes one and worst case scenario they go OT) alone in the arena standing at the line 45 minutes after the game was over will resonate for a long time.

I was a senior in High School in the Chicago suburbs 1985 when the last time Loyola made the tournament and made a run to the Sweet 16. 2 great last second wins for the Ramblers and loved seeing 98 years old team chaplain Sister Jean (still very sharp) interviewed and comparing this team w/great Loyola teams of the past including the 1963 National Championship team.

 

Heartbreaking

 

I agree about the blowouts but it has happened -- #16 Harvard beat #1 Stanford about 15 years ago.

 

All the talk around here now is how the South Regional bracket has parted like Moses at the Red Sea for Kentucky. Regardless of the outcome of the Kansas State-UMBC game going on right now, they'll head to Atlanta as the highest seed left at #5. Despite the craziness of this tournament, they should be heavy favorites to advance to San Antonio from that group. If Virginia, Arizona, Tennessee and Cincinnati had taken care of business (think Zona would have given them a tougher test than Buffalo did?), one of the others probably would have gotten them. Now? They SHOULD handle the winner of K-State and the Retrievers and would then be pretty heavily favored against either Loyola or Nevada. If they do, it's conceivable Cal can get them over the line championship #9. But Duke and Kansas are still lurking.

 

Shout out to UMBC, while the game wasn't pretty, the heart on display was enormous. They had so many chances to take the lead (honestly thought if they had they would've won, the roof was ready to blow off the arena if they could've made that one big shot).

While I agree Kentucky's bracket has the easiest run that I can remember (better add Villanova to the lurking category) to the Final 4, you never know. James, before the tournament I saw Kentucky play a full game once, and that's when UCLA beat them handily on a neutral court, so yes I think Zona could hang w/UK.

Couldn't have gone any worse then for the city of Cincinnati. First UCincy absolutely melted down in blowing a 22 point lead w/11 minutes left to a Nevada team that plays 5 guys practically the whole game. Cross town rival and #1 seed Xavier followed suit by gagging a 12 point lead to Florida State.

While the South region has gotten the headlines for craziness, the West is wide open as well. The Zags take on @MicahMan's Noles, while @AggieMatt sees his A&M battle Michigan in what should be 2 very close games.

 

I wish I had been recording myself when FSU sunk the clinching 3-pointer at the end. I was trying to express my enthusiasm silently to not wake up everyone sleeping in my house. I'm sure it looked pretty ridiculous. This FSU team had one of the worst records of any FSU team to qualify for the tournament and lost their first game in the ACC tournament. I expected nothing from them and had them losing in the first round. I'm happy to have been wrong, but I'm not expecting them to beat Gonzaga either. I'll be happy if I'm wrong again.

 

Sorry I'm late to the dance.....

The committee does a good job in putting possible cool match-ups in the second round. West Virginia (@@FulhamDC ) and the terrific Jevon Carter was too much for Murray State and now it sets up a huge game w/little brother Marshall for the state bragging rights.

Slightly disagree. If they did a good job, this game would not have been played 2,500 miles from either campus, and probably would have started earlier than 9:50 pm on a Sunday night! I'm still tired!

And now thanks to work, I'll be on the other side of the country - Seattle, while WVU travels to Boston!