Two #1 seeds go down; very surprising day.

Didn

We crapped the bed today - sorry BE.

Any other situation I would be rooting for a team like GMU to make the FF. Sucks for us UConn faithful, but it's great for college basketball as a whole.

Bummer for Nova today as well - 0 teams in the FF for the Big East. Gotta wonder if the rugged in-conference schedule took its toll.....?

CardHouse Wrote:When was the last time a least one BE, Big 10, ACC, and Big 12 team failed to make the Final Four?

Well, I found my answer; it looks like it was 1975 with UCLA, UofL, UK, and Syracuse. Since the Big East wasn

Quote:

BugsyCT Wrote:We crapped the bed today - sorry BE.

Any other situation I would be rooting for a team like GMU to make the FF. Sucks for us UConn faithful, but it's great for college basketball as a whole.

Bummer for Nova today as well - 0 teams in the FF for the Big East.

Welcome to the club. Misery loves company.

BugsyCT Wrote:We crapped the bed today - sorry BE.

Any other situation I would be rooting for a team like GMU to make the FF. Sucks for us UConn faithful, but it's great for college basketball as a whole.

Bummer for Nova today as well - 0 teams in the FF for the Big East. Gotta wonder if the rugged in-conference schedule took its toll.....?

Villanova never had an inside game; in a one-and-done situation, there is always the potential to have a bad shooting day and lose; this is what happened to Villanova today:
FGA: 18-73 (24%)
3-Point: 4-23 (17%)

UConn on the other hand had the full package; they should have found a way to win.

Sorry Bugsy, this NIT UofL fan should be giving you props for a fine overall season, but right now I

CardHouse Wrote:[quote="CardHouse"]When was the last time a least one BE, Big 10, ACC, and Big 12 team failed to make the Final Four?

Well, I found my answer; it looks like it was 1975 with UCLA, UofL, UK, and Syracuse. Since the Big East wasn

Yes, everything about today sucked basketballs. I have no interest in what's left.

CardHouse Wrote:[quote="CardHouse"]When was the last time a least one BE, Big 10, ACC, and Big 12 team failed to make the Final Four?

Well, I found my answer; it looks like it was 1975 with UCLA, UofL, UK, and Syracuse. Since the Big East wasn

First time a mid-major reached the final four since the field was expanded to let in at-large teams from power conferences. Deck has been stacked against mid-major champs as they had to go through more rounds and getting a worse starting seed than some at-large teams. George Mason gets a rare at-large for a mid-major and look what happens. Michigan State, North Carolina, and UConn were at-large bids from the top 3 ranked conferences. No fluke here George Mason showed Izzo, Williams and Cahoun the door. Billy Packer and Jim Nance ........proved they nothing very little about basketball outside the Big East and ACC. Perhaps CBS should have these guys sit in a arena in the MVC, CAA, MAC, WAC, Patriot, MAAC, Sun Belt or Horizon and see how hard those tourneyments are played compared to ACC, Big East and Big Ten teams going through the motions because they had at-large bids locked up in December. Uconn never played a must win game until March. For a mid-major, every game is a must win. Perhaps that non-conference home cupcake schedule in December came back to bite Calhoun.

OUBOBCATJOHN Wrote:Deck has been stacked against mid-major champs as they had to go through more rounds and getting a worse starting seed than some at-large teams. George Mason gets a rare at-large for a mid-major and look what happens. Michigan State, North Carolina, and UConn were at-large bids from the top 3 ranked conferences.

I think the mid=majors did about as will as could be expected considering their percentage of at large teams. About half of them seemed to advance through each round of the tournament. Their seeds could have been a little higher but I don't think they probably warranted having at most 1 more team in the tourney. If anything a MVC and CAA team should have replaced two other mid majors.

I'm sure they will get the higher seeds next year. Their performance in years before this one really didn't justify it. If you want to add more smaller conference schools just to diversify the field I'm ok with that. Teams like Seton Hall, Alabama and Wisconsin can't make a great case for needing to be in the tournament. They do have a case as far as being a little better then teams like Hofstra and Creighton though. But they can only resolve that on the court and that can't happen.

Idea! Maybe the play in game(s) should be bubble teams. Let the two worst teams enter the first round and have 8 bubble teams play to enter the first round. That would be good basketball. Mid major against BCS.

Go GMU.

robertandjody Wrote:

OUBOBCATJOHN Wrote:Deck has been stacked against mid-major champs as they had to go through more rounds and getting a worse starting seed than some at-large teams. George Mason gets a rare at-large for a mid-major and look what happens. Michigan State, North Carolina, and UConn were at-large bids from the top 3 ranked conferences.

I think the mid=majors did about as will as could be expected considering their percentage of at large teams. About half of them seemed to advance through each round of the tournament. Their seeds could have been a little higher but I don't think they probably warranted having at most 1 more team in the tourney. If anything a MVC and CAA team should have replaced two other mid majors.

I'm sure they will get the higher seeds next year. Their performance in years before this one really didn't justify it. If you want to add more smaller conference schools just to diversify the field I'm ok with that. Teams like Seton Hall, Alabama and Wisconsin can't make a great case for needing to be in the tournament. They do have a case as far as being a little better then teams like Hofstra and Creighton though. But they can only resolve that on the court and that can't happen.

Idea! Maybe the play in game(s) should be bubble teams. Let the two worst teams enter the first round and have 8 bubble teams play to enter the first round. That would be good basketball. Mid major against BCS.

Go GMU.

I still think the NBA has sucked the life out of the Elite teams. Villanova is the only team I can think of that was actually experience heavy. George Mason and the Bucknells of the world never have to worry about NBA defections.

Let's put a little perspective on the tourney. No #1 seed made the Final 4. One #2, one #3 and one #4 made it. This was the year of the upset and I don't think the BCS conferences can be talking smack about any other BCS conference. The SEC can talk it up a bit but their Final 4 teams needed some good fortune to make it. Same with UCLA. This was the year of the upset with more close games then I can remember.

George Mason replaces Memphis in the Final 4. We see that the higher seeded "mid-majors" won about 50% of their games in each round. They were underdogs in many of these games so I expect some of these teams to get higher seeds next year.

The "mid-majors" showed their worth. Were they shortchanged? 8 at-large bids out of 34 is not a terrible number. If next year the committee sees fit to bump that number up to 10 or so there shouldn't be any major complaints that I can see. We'll have discussions as to whether teams like Missouri State and Hofstra should get spots over either Air Force, Utah State or Cincinnati, Michigan.

Lots of high drama this year.

What was UNLV when they won their championship? Didn't they play in the Big West?

kardphan Wrote:Villanova is the only team I can think of that was actually experience heavy. George Mason and the Bucknells of the world never have to worry about NBA defections.

WVU had the experience. Of course maybe you were only discussing the Elite 8.

CardHouse Wrote:[quote="CardHouse"]When was the last time a least one BE, Big 10, ACC, and Big 12 team failed to make the Final Four?

Well, I found my answer; it looks like it was 1975 with UCLA, UofL, UK, and Syracuse. Since the Big East wasn

ultraviolet Wrote:[quote="CardHouse"][quote="CardHouse"]When was the last time a least one BE, Big 10, ACC, and Big 12 team failed to make the Final Four?

Well, I found my answer; it looks like it was 1975 with UCLA, UofL, UK, and Syracuse. Since the Big East wasn

SilverSpring_Hoya Wrote:What was UNLV when they won their championship? Didn't they play in the Big West?

UNLV won the national championship in 1990. They were upset by Duke in the semifinals in 1991. That was "Black Saturday" for hundreds of thousands of brackets around the nation and across the globe. I remember it not so fondly. The Running Rebels played in the Big West until joining the supersized WAC in 1996 and bolting with the MWC exodus in 1999.