2018-19 NCAA basketball season

[hbelkins]

Kentucky got screwed. Not by the seeding, necessarily, but the geography. Not getting to play in Louisville, with the possibility of having to play Kansas in Kansas City.

[Henry]

My Bruins are not in it, so I'm designating this an "anything goes" season. Good luck to all 68 teams!

[SP Cook]

Kentucky got screwed. Not by the seeding, necessarily, but the geography. Not getting to play in Louisville, with the possibility of having to play Kansas in Kansas City.

Correct.  The SEC was clearly the best conference this year, yet UK is sent to Jacksonville - Kansas City in a bracket with Kansas, just 40 miles away with 1000s of alumni in the KC metro.    Mississippi State is shipped to San Jose, Florida to Anaheim, Auburn to Salt Lake City also pointing toward Kansas City, Ole Miss draws Columbia and Tennessee Columbus, both heading to Louisville.  LSU gets Jacksonville. 

Meanwhile Duke gets not only an easy draw, but sent to Columbia and then to DC, where it has 1000s of alumni.  As always. 

They put Minnesota, coached by fraudster Richard Pitino, against Louisville, formerly coached by fraudster Rick Pitino. 

[hbelkins]

Kentucky got screwed. Not by the seeding, necessarily, but the geography. Not getting to play in Louisville, with the possibility of having to play Kansas in Kansas City.

Correct.  The SEC was clearly the best conference this year, yet UK is sent to Jacksonville - Kansas City in a bracket with Kansas, just 40 miles away with 1000s of alumni in the KC metro.    Mississippi State is shipped to San Jose, Florida to Anaheim, Auburn to Salt Lake City also pointing toward Kansas City, Ole Miss draws Columbia and Tennessee Columbus, both heading to Louisville.  LSU gets Jacksonville. 

Meanwhile Duke gets not only an easy draw, but sent to Columbia and then to DC, where it has 1000s of alumni.  As always. 

They put Minnesota, coached by fraudster Richard Pitino, against Louisville, formerly coached by fraudster Rick Pitino.

I never knew of Pitino the Younger ever having done anything crooked.

I saw him play as a high school junior varsity player for Lexington Catholic in Lee County's gym back in 1994.

[1995hoo]

Uhhhhhh.......

[csw]

Kentucky got screwed. Not by the seeding, necessarily, but the geography. Not getting to play in Louisville, with the possibility of having to play Kansas in Kansas City.

Correct.  The SEC was clearly the best conference this year, yet UK is sent to Jacksonville - Kansas City in a bracket with Kansas, just 40 miles away with 1000s of alumni in the KC metro.    Mississippi State is shipped to San Jose, Florida to Anaheim, Auburn to Salt Lake City also pointing toward Kansas City, Ole Miss draws Columbia and Tennessee Columbus, both heading to Louisville.  LSU gets Jacksonville. 

Meanwhile Duke gets not only an easy draw, but sent to Columbia and then to DC, where it has 1000s of alumni.  As always. 

They put Minnesota, coached by fraudster Richard Pitino, against Louisville, formerly coached by fraudster Rick Pitino.

Uhhh, the SEC was the best? Not the Big Ten or ACC?

[Brandon]

Kentucky got screwed. Not by the seeding, necessarily, but the geography. Not getting to play in Louisville, with the possibility of having to play Kansas in Kansas City.

Correct.  The SEC was clearly the best conference this year, yet UK is sent to Jacksonville - Kansas City in a bracket with Kansas, just 40 miles away with 1000s of alumni in the KC metro.    Mississippi State is shipped to San Jose, Florida to Anaheim, Auburn to Salt Lake City also pointing toward Kansas City, Ole Miss draws Columbia and Tennessee Columbus, both heading to Louisville.  LSU gets Jacksonville. 

Meanwhile Duke gets not only an easy draw, but sent to Columbia and then to DC, where it has 1000s of alumni.  As always. 

They put Minnesota, coached by fraudster Richard Pitino, against Louisville, formerly coached by fraudster Rick Pitino.

Uhhh, the SEC was the best? Not the Big Ten or ACC?

Never interfere with another man's fantasy.

[Alps]

Oregon is a hot team right now.  I like their chances to make the Sweet Sixteen.  Unlike previous Duck squads, this one thrives on D instead of the three.  Had Oregon stayed hot from behind the arc in a couple tournaments, they would have taken the title but the inevitable cold spell comes along to say "season over".  At least playing solid defense with timely shooting from long range can cut down the swings from hot to cold. 

Rick

I thought they should have been in the bubble conversation even if they lost the championship, but fortunately they rendered that point moot. No love for the Pac 12. If the entire conference is devalued, then you devalue the games they play against themselves. The inverse is why the SEC is king in football.

[nexus73]

Oregon is a hot team right now.  I like their chances to make the Sweet Sixteen.  Unlike previous Duck squads, this one thrives on D instead of the three.  Had Oregon stayed hot from behind the arc in a couple tournaments, they would have taken the title but the inevitable cold spell comes along to say "season over".  At least playing solid defense with timely shooting from long range can cut down the swings from hot to cold. 

Rick

I thought they should have been in the bubble conversation even if they lost the championship, but fortunately they rendered that point moot. No love for the Pac 12. If the entire conference is devalued, then you devalue the games they play against themselves. The inverse is why the SEC is king in football.

Exactamundo on conference quality Alps!  Pac-12, The Conference Of Champions, has turned into the Pathetic-12 in football and basketball.  Thanks to Stanford in Olympic sports, Oregon in track and Oregon State in baseball, we as a group do continue to add to our conference trophy case but those are sports with tiny TV audiences and are not the revenue producers that football and basketball are.

As for the SEC, Alabama's rise in football has been coopted by Clemson of the ACC, who has defeated the Tide in two of three title games.  After we get past those two teams, who else do we have as actual contenders though?  In terms of conference depth, the SEC rules. 

Rick

[Alps]

Oregon is a hot team right now.  I like their chances to make the Sweet Sixteen.  Unlike previous Duck squads, this one thrives on D instead of the three.  Had Oregon stayed hot from behind the arc in a couple tournaments, they would have taken the title but the inevitable cold spell comes along to say "season over".  At least playing solid defense with timely shooting from long range can cut down the swings from hot to cold. 

Rick

I thought they should have been in the bubble conversation even if they lost the championship, but fortunately they rendered that point moot. No love for the Pac 12. If the entire conference is devalued, then you devalue the games they play against themselves. The inverse is why the SEC is king in football.

Exactamundo on conference quality Alps!  Pac-12, The Conference Of Champions, has turned into the Pathetic-12 in football and basketball.  Thanks to Stanford in Olympic sports, Oregon in track and Oregon State in baseball, we as a group do continue to add to our conference trophy case but those are sports with tiny TV audiences and are not the revenue producers that football and basketball are.

As for the SEC, Alabama's rise in football has been coopted by Clemson of the ACC, who has defeated the Tide in two of three title games.  After we get past those two teams, who else do we have as actual contenders though?  In terms of conference depth, the SEC rules. 

Rick

But you're playing into my point - conferences are self-contained. With limited games between conferences, it's all academic as to who is "better". I think the SEC is overrated and top-heavy, while the Big 10 and Big 12 are the best football conferences top to bottom (except Kansas, sorry). Meanwhile, in basketball, the Big East beat each other up and ended up with only 3 bids this year, but they were stronger than that and deserved more. Not detracting from the ACC either.

[MantyMadTown]

Oregon is a hot team right now.  I like their chances to make the Sweet Sixteen.  Unlike previous Duck squads, this one thrives on D instead of the three.  Had Oregon stayed hot from behind the arc in a couple tournaments, they would have taken the title but the inevitable cold spell comes along to say "season over".  At least playing solid defense with timely shooting from long range can cut down the swings from hot to cold. 

Rick

And they just beat Wisconsin yesterday. Fuck.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

No team from the First Four survived the First Round. All previous years at least one of the four went further.

Also, no team with a seed higher than 13 managed to upset its First Round rival. Last year we had the UMBC shocker...

[TheHighwayMan3561]

No team from the First Four survived the First Round. All previous years at least one of the four went further.

Also, no team with a seed higher than 13 managed to upset its First Round rival. Last year we had the UMBC shocker...

Yet no mention of all four 9 seeds winning (which are hardly upsets, but I digress), three 12s and theee 10s getting through?

[Alps]

No team from the First Four survived the First Round. All previous years at least one of the four went further.

Also, no team with a seed higher than 13 managed to upset its First Round rival. Last year we had the UMBC shocker...

It has been a relatively calm year, albeit one with a lot of poorly seeded 12s. Maybe they'll consider that next time. Belmont ought to have won.

[jp the roadgeek]

According to ESPN, after the Florida State victory, there was exactly 1 perfect bracket out of ever 17 million brackets in their bracket challenge.


Update:

[Alps]

With Auburn romping, there are 2 perfect brackets left through 40 games: one on Yahoo, one on NCAA.
https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/114576
https://bracketchallenge.ncaa.com/picks/bracket/2550349

[MantyMadTown]

I'm pretty impressed with how Auburn has been. They just beat Kansas in a blowout.

[hbelkins]

I'm pretty impressed with how Auburn has been. They just beat Kansas in a blowout.

Bruce Pearl vs. the Tarholes. I'm rooting for a massive earthquake.

[Alps]

I'm pretty impressed with how Auburn has been. They just beat Kansas in a blowout.

Bruce Pearl vs. the Tarholes. I'm rooting for a massive earthquake.

Classy.

[ilpt4u]

I'm pretty impressed with how Auburn has been. They just beat Kansas in a blowout.

Bruce Pearl vs. the Tarholes. I'm rooting for a massive earthquake.

I'm partial to Giant Meteor. They do have a good rivalry with Massive Earthquake, tho

[oscar]

It has been a relatively calm year, albeit one with a lot of poorly seeded 12s.

Is Oregon one of them you had in mind? I was angry, but impressed, with how the 12-seed Ducks put away the 13-seed UC Irvine Anteaters. Suffocating defense, and the Anteaters had no answer for the Ducks' 3-point shooting.

[nexus73]

It has been a relatively calm year, albeit one with a lot of poorly seeded 12s.

Is Oregon one of them you had in mind? I was angry, but impressed, with how the 12-seed Ducks put away the 13-seed UC Irvine Anteaters. Suffocating defense, and the Anteaters had no answer for the Ducks' 3-point shooting.

Oregon finished 6th in the Pac-12.  That is why they only got a #12 seed after winning the Pac-12 tournament.  After losing their supposedly top player (Bol Bol) to injury after around 10 games, the Ducks went into a funk.  Finally. they found a combination of players to work and played decent D.  Where they lack: Watch the O.  You will see the guy with the ball trying to make a play while four others are usually just standing around.  When the guy with the ball finally passes it to the next player, the same thing happens.  Eventually you see a 1 on 1 matchup for a drive to the basket or a three point shot.  Now so long as the 1 on 1 favors the Duck player, that's a win.  If the trey is successfully shot, that also is a win.

It is when the other team can match up athlete on athlete that this scheme breaks down.  Suffer a cold stretch of long range shooting to go with that and it is bye-bye Oregon.  Since Virginia is the top seed in the region Oregon is playing in, expect no worse than a draw in terms of raw talent since both teams get high end recruits. 

Oregon has lost in the tournament when their 3 point shooting goes south.  Had it not done so in two of those tournaments, there would be two National Championship trophies of recent vintage sitting in Eugene to go with the one from 1939, which was the first year there was an NCAA basketball tournament.  Back then the NIT was the more prestigious one by the way.

Rick

[MantyMadTown]

I'm pretty impressed with how Auburn has been. They just beat Kansas in a blowout.

Bruce Pearl vs. the Tarholes. I'm rooting for a massive earthquake.

I'm partial to Giant Meteor. They do have a good rivalry with Massive Earthquake, tho

What?

[ilpt4u]

I'm pretty impressed with how Auburn has been. They just beat Kansas in a blowout.

Bruce Pearl vs. the Tarholes. I'm rooting for a massive earthquake.

I'm partial to Giant Meteor. They do have a good rivalry with Massive Earthquake, tho

What?

The general idea, when picking between or among things/teams an individual detests, the best solution is to make all competing parties lose. In Zero Sum contests (one winner, one loser), its generally not possible for all contestants to lose.

One way to ensure everyone loses: disaster strike, like a massive earthquake or giant meteor. Hence a statement like rooting for a massive earthquake or giant meteor. Its a metaphoric way to say one wants both/all teams to lose

[MantyMadTown]

I'm pretty impressed with how Auburn has been. They just beat Kansas in a blowout.

Bruce Pearl vs. the Tarholes. I'm rooting for a massive earthquake.

I'm partial to Giant Meteor. They do have a good rivalry with Massive Earthquake, tho

What?

The general idea, when picking between or among things/teams an individual detests, the best solution is to make all competing parties lose. In Zero Sum contests (one winner, one loser), its generally not possible for all contestants to lose.

One way to ensure everyone loses: disaster strike, like a massive earthquake or giant meteor. Hence a statement like rooting for a massive earthquake or giant meteor. Its a metaphoric way to say one wants both/all teams to lose

Oh. I thought they were nicknames for the teams themselves. I wasn't sure which teams you were referring to.