NCAA Tournament First Four and Thursday Game Thread
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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I don’t know whether to be happy UVa squeaked into the tourney or humiliated to have to watch a pseudo March madness game on a Tuesday.
Hey Syracuse had to play in that game a few years ago, and made it all the way to the Sweet 16. It's not ideal but as a Syracuse fan I'd rather be playing on Tuesday than doing what SU is doing - which is....absolutely nothing.
All I know is that the CSU kids were PISSED that they didn't get a bye with their resume. The entire Mountain West conference got underseeded.
Probably a bit more accurate to say a First Four team wins an R64 game most years, as only in 2019 did one fail to do so. A First Four team usually makes a Sweet 16 run every 3 or 4 years. We might be due.
2023: 1-2 (Pittsburgh won R64 game)
2022: 1-2 (Notre Dame won R64 game)
2021: 4-2 (UCLA to F4)
2020: NONE
2019: 0-2
2018: 2-2 (Syracuse to S16)
2017: 1-2 (USC won R64 game)
2016: 1-2 (Wichita St won R64 game)
2015: 1-2 (Dayton won R64 game)
2014: 2-2 (Tennessee to S16)
2013: 2-2 (LaSalle to S16)
2012: 1-2 (South Florida won R64 game)
2011: 4-2 (VCU to F4)
Record: 20-24, generally as a 10 or 11 seed. Not bad.
#16 seeds since 2011 in First Four games are 1-24 in R64 (FDU last year). Prior to that there was a single play-in game, all for #16 seeds, and they were 0-10
My favorite time of year. Also, the time of year I foolishly bet on games with teams I’ve never seen play, or at best caught five minutes of on TV once.
All of the TBS, TNT and truTV games will be streamed in the Max app. Unfortunately , they don't have the rights to the CBS games, so those will be in Paramount+.
Howard on a 12-2 run to get it to 3 with a minute left. Too little too late?
14-2! 17 seconds left and they will now foul
14-2! 17 seconds left and they will now foul
Those schools actually want to be there, the $$$ they get can help fund the entire athletic depts.
I really hope some UVA booster bought the committee houses in the Caymans or something to justify why I have to see this terrible undeserving team on my television
Let's remember that the committee said the seeding for Mountain West teams were hurt because their big wins came in conference. But if you look at the teams that made the tournament, the average NET ranking of their best non-conference wins, Big 12: 55.125 Mountain West: 38. So basically the committee has no idea what it's talking about
CSU is excellent in their own right, but Virginia and their sparkling KenPom ranking of 67 are frauds. PC doesn't deserve to be in either, but would be doing a better job than this...
UVA hasn’t won a tourney game since their title. Wonder how long Bennett can skate with atrocious basketball scheming.
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Late to the party here, but I've been saying for two months that Virginia and Kansas are the most overrated teams in the country. The committee should be embarrassed that it chose Virginia over Indiana State - an underdog team that had a compelling season and everyone would be rooting for. Look for Samford to win as well.
As a Syracuse guy, I'm kind of compelled to root for ACC teams in the tournament now (though my heart is still in the Big East). But I cannot really put forth much of an effort to root for Virginia. They're SO boring and tasteless and they're always overrated. So I'm not unhappy at all to see them get absolutely demolished and look terrible in the process, even if it hurts the overall look of my team's conference.
As a Syracuse fan I shared some of that ambivalence. It also stung to watch that UVA debacle knowing that they absolutely curb-stomped the Orange early in the season.
Yeah, well, Virginia regularly does that to Syracuse. It sucks, but it is what it is.
At some point maybe the committee should look at the tournament for what it is, a mini-series that lasts three weeks and which should produce at least entertaining television. UVA basketball is an affront to law abiding rims and backboards everywhere.
As a CSU fan, I'm happy to see that the prevailing narrative from last night is all about UVA sucking and not being deserving and very little credit to the Rams for obliterating them. This team plays better with a chip on their shoulder and I'll bet they still feel disrespected by the national media.
CSU seems like that classic team that looks like a wagon in the non-conference slate, then finds some struggles as teams are wont to do in-conference, and people point to the overall analytics for seeding while still underestimating the difficulty of the MWC (RPI was 4th between SEC and ACC).
What's crazy is that CSU's analytics were pretty good. KenPom currently has them ranked higher than many at-large teams with better seeding: FAU, Dayton, Clemson, TCU, Wash St, Texas A&M, Northwestern, Utah State, South Carolina, Mississippi State. They also have wins over teams ahead of them according to KenPom: Colorado, New Mexico, San Diego State, Creighton.
There was a pure anti-Mountain West bias in the committee, with pretty much every team in the conference being underseeded relative to their analytics. CSU is a much better team than people realize.
I've been to CSU about 20 times in my life for work reasons. I love Fort Collins and CSU is absolutely gorgeous. I love seeing them do well. Let's go Rams!!
