2016 March Madness (and conference tournaments)

[ET21]

Butler and Purdon't are gone. Nice to see Yale advance

[US 41]

Butler and Purdon't are gone. Nice to see Yale advance

Butler's still in, they beat TX Tech.

I was UALR's biggest fan today. Purdon't totally choked the game away. Letting UALR go on a big run was so funny. Then Purdue blames the refs. Haha go home Boilermakers!

Hopefully Wichita St can hold on to their 12 point half time lead. Wichita hasn't exactly played great. Also LOL at Arizona's head coach. He is literally sweating it out over there. I've never seen anyone sweat that much before. You can almost see through his shirt.

UNC having only a 1 point lead over #16 FL Gulf Coast makes me glad I picked them to lose in the Sweet 16. 

[brownpelican]

I'm a little ticked at how they did Wichita State. First, you make them an 11-seed, then make them play a play-in game. Really?

[74/171FAN]

Butler and Purdon't are gone. Nice to see Yale advance

Hopefully Wichita St can hold on to their 12 point half time lead. Wichita hasn't exactly played great. Also LOL at Arizona's head coach. He is literally sweating it out over there. I've never seen anyone sweat that much before. You can almost see through his shirt.

UNC having only a 1 point lead over #16 FL Gulf Coast makes me glad I picked them to lose in the Sweet 16. 

I am not shocked by the Wichita State upset at all as they have become super dangerous the last few years (I picked them and Gonzaga to win with little thought).

I have UNC losing to Kentucky in the Sweet 16.  To me they are too inconsistent to win it all.

[kurumi]

"So how does Yale. Out-rebound Baylor?" I love this answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtNffYyHl8M

[HazMatt]

I'm a little ticked at how they did Wichita State. First, you make them an 11-seed, then make them play a play-in game. Really?

And they get the 12PM game Saturday after 9PM Thursday and a play-in.  Fix is in, boys.

[Big John]

And the brackets bust with Michigan State losing.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

What, nobody gave a cent for Middle Tennessee in their brackets? I see, with such a high seed, nobody cared, and now they crashed the brackets by surprise...

Oh, and North Carolina ended beating Florida Gulf Coast by 16 points. BTW, had Stetson beaten Florida Gulf Coast in the Atlantic Sun tournament final, due to a penalty North Florida would have entered March Madness instead.

[ET21]

Butler and Purdon't are gone. Nice to see Yale advance

Butler's still in, they beat TX Tech.

I was UALR's biggest fan today. Purdon't totally choked the game away. Letting UALR go on a big run was so funny. Then Purdue blames the refs. Haha go home Boilermakers!

Hopefully Wichita St can hold on to their 12 point half time lead. Wichita hasn't exactly played great. Also LOL at Arizona's head coach. He is literally sweating it out over there. I've never seen anyone sweat that much before. You can almost see through his shirt.

UNC having only a 1 point lead over #16 FL Gulf Coast makes me glad I picked them to lose in the Sweet 16.

Wow my bad lol. I think I meant Baylor but typed Butler and didn't give a second thought 

[US 41]

Then late last night Northern Iowa hit a half court shot at the buzzer to beat Texas by 3. Yesterday literally defined March Madness.

-----------------------
In the Older than Noel pool below are the current standings (the best bracket of each person after the first round).

Pianocello is currently in the lead with 25 correct picks, Scott is in second with 24, I'm in third with 22, Brian, Jim, and Kenny are all tied for fourth with 21, Buck87 has 20, and Alps has 19.

[1995hoo]

I almost wanted Yale to beat Duke....almost.

[1995hoo]

If Charles Barkley had E-ZPass, this wouldn't happen 

[jp the roadgeek]

My bracket- Dead
My team- Dead

Now, someone please just knock off Duke.

[kurumi]

UConn women were up 41-4 at the end of the first quarter in Round 1, and led 93-28 before taking the foot off the gas and coasting to a rather sedate 101-49 finish.

[US 41]

UConn women were up 41-4 at the end of the first quarter in Round 1, and led 93-28 before taking the foot off the gas and coasting to a rather sedate 101-49 finish.

Doesn't women's basketball always come down between UCONN and Notre Dame? I think 13, 14, and 15 seeds (Harvard won as a 16 miraculously) have never won in the women's tournament. Men's basketball had all three happen on the 18th.

Hopefully today the tournament is a little more "mad". The only true upset yesterday was #11 Gonzaga beating #3 Utah. Hopefully a few more of the remaining mid majors will advance today (SFA, Middle TN, VCU, Hawaii, N Iowa, St Josephs). I think Middle Tennessee, Stephen F Austin, and Hawaii have the best chances to move on. Mid Major Previews below.

I'm not too confident that St Josephs or VCU can knock off Oregon and Oklahoma, especially after the way Dayton (the A-10 regular season champs) played against Syracuse.

Northern Iowa is kind of iffy. It depends which UNI team shows up; the one that beat IA State and UNC or the one that lost to Missouri State. The SEC wasn't exactly great this year and it would be kind of cool if the MVC could knock 2/3 of the SEC out of the tournament.

I feel like SFA should be able to beat Notre Dame. They handled West Virginia perfectly fine and I don't think Notre Dame is as good as West Virginia.

Middle Tennessee is also kind of iffy. Last year UAB (also from CUSA) beat Iowa State, but then lost to a UCLA team that probably didn't actually belong in the tournament. On the other hand Middle Tennessee beat Michigan State and is going to be facing a Syracuse team that also probably should have been in the NIT, not the NCAA. Syracuse's zone and size may also create some issues. If Middle Tennessee can shoot the way they did against Michigan State I think they'll win. I don't know if they shoot that good all the time though.

I think Hawaii should and will advance to the Sweet 16 today. They are a very good team that almost beat Oklahoma. Maryland hasn't played as good late this year as they did earlier in the season. Heck South Dakota State gave them a run for their money and I was not very impressed with SDSU when I watched 2 of their games in the Summit League tournament. Remember #13 Ohio that lost to #1 UNC in OT? This Hawaii team should give Kansas a scare (if they win today). 

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Doesn't women's basketball always come down between UCONN and Notre Dame? I think 13, 14, and 15 seeds (Harvard won as a 16 miraculously) have never won in the women's tournament. Men's basketball had all three happen on the 18th.

#13 seeds have actually reached as far as the Sweet Sixteen in the women's tournament. That Harvard win over Stanford back in 1998 is the only instance of a #16 beating a #1 in both genders, as it has never happened in men's tournament (the closest instance was when Murray State managed to force an overtime against Michigan State back in 1990).

[US 41]

First it was SFA, now it's UNI. I'm so tired of the cheating by refs in D1 basketball.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

First it was SFA, now it's UNI. I'm so tired of the cheating by refs in D1 basketball.

Refs didn't screw UNI. Everything that happened to UNI was their own fault.

[Thing 342]

Haven't had time to really pay attention to the tournament (thanks, professors who decide to load up on the exams the week back from spring break), but I had Michigan St going all the way, which should tell you something about how my bracket is going.

[US 41]

First it was SFA, now it's UNI. I'm so tired of the cheating by refs in D1 basketball.

Refs didn't screw UNI. Everything that happened to UNI was their own fault.

Yes, but there was no foul on the "and one" and Washpun was getting fouled in the corner with a ref standing right there. Then you had all the stupid reviews allowing TX A&M to draw up plays with free timeouts. TX A&M got a free timeout once in exchange for taking 0.2 off the clock. Really?

What I don't understand is how can you not inbound a freaking ball? They choked, but the refs did them no favors in the end either.

[ET21]

Haven't had time to really pay attention to the tournament (thanks, professors who decide to load up on the exams the week back from spring break), but I had Michigan St going all the way, which should tell you something about how my bracket is going.

MSU is out

[NWI_Irish96]

First it was SFA, now it's UNI. I'm so tired of the cheating by refs in D1 basketball.

SFA got more than their share of breaks in their second game.  Not sure why you think they were cheated.  Pretty clear block got called a charge on Pflueger which by itself created a 4 point swing.

[1995hoo]

Haven't had time to really pay attention to the tournament (thanks, professors who decide to load up on the exams the week back from spring break), but I had Michigan St going all the way, which should tell you something about how my bracket is going.

MSU is out

I believe that was his point.

[US 41]

In the NIT Tournament it is all mid majors in the Final 4. Valparaiso will play BYU, and George Washington will play San Diego State. I'm honestly looking forward to the NIT Final 4 more than I am the rest of the NCAA Tournament. Gonzaga is really the only team left that I sort of care about in the NCAA Tournament now; although I will be cheering for TX A&M when they play Oklahoma even though they beat Northern Iowa. You have to give credit where credit is due. Most teams that are down by 12 with 44 seconds to go would have just gave up. I still think there were some very questionable calls (and no calls) in those last seconds that all favored TX A&M, but you still have to love the effort by the Aggie players. Unless they end up playing Gonzaga in the championship game I'll be cheering for Texas A&M the rest of the way.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Wow, Villanova has made it to Elite Eight. US 41 said they wouldn't get past Sweet Sixteen. I wanted Miami to win the tournament, due to the town I had replacing it in my bracket. Anyway, most, if not all, of the brackets went bust already in First Round. I doubt there's any bracket getting it right by now.