March Madness 2017

[US 41]

You can change your vote up to either the 15th or 16th (I set the poll for 10 days). The tournament begins the 16th (First 4 in Dayton is the 14th and 15th). If anyone wants to set up a bracket pool that would pretty awesome.

Right now I'm following all of the conference tournaments. I actually went to Arch Madness (MVC Tournament) this past weekend and I will say that Wichita State looks dangerously good again this year. I would not be surprised if they made it to the Sweet 16 this year. For some reason they are projected as an 8 seed playing Kansas in the second round even though Wichita is ranked 20th. I think a 5 seed would be more appropriate for them. They are 30-4 after all.

As far as a national title goes I am not sure if there is one team that is a clear favorite this year. Literally anybody could win it all this year. I'll have to wait until the bracket comes out in 6 days to make my actual pick, but I'm placing my vote on UCLA in the poll for now.

Gonzaga is iffy. They've only lost once, but I am not impressed with them overall. Losing at home to BYU on senior night is not what #1 teams do, especially in the WCC. If a 16 seed were to ever win I think this is the year it could happen (someone upsetting Gonzaga). I doubt I pick the Zags to get past the Sweet 16 if I pick them to get that far.

Duke has to many on the court issues with Grayson Allen, so I think their chances are minimal. The Big Ten seems weak, so I also doubt any teams from there will even get to the Final 4.

Potential cinderellas have to be Vermont, UNC Wilmington and Middle Tennessee. They are all very underrated and if they can win their conference tournaments and get into the tournament they all have the potential to make a run. I also like Princeton's and CSU Bakersfield's (once again assuming they even make it) chances of maybe making an upset in the first round, before bowing out in the second round. If a potential Wichita State run would still be considered a cinderella story then add them to this list too. Overall I don't see very many mid majors making upsets this year, because a lot of the ones that have a chance to will get upset in their respective conference tournaments and will be in the NIT.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

This year the Ivy League is having a conference tournament for the first time, so now all conferences have one. Jacksonville State has made it for the first time ever.

I still remember last year, when I mocked-up all this and inadvertedly predicted correctly the Champion as I replaced all teams but Villanova with Spanish towns and villages, Villanova also being the name of one.

[hbelkins]

Not Kentucky. The preseason #2 team (moved to #1 after Duke lost its first game) has not improved as the season has progressed.  UCLA and Louisville exposed some weaknesses in Calipari's ability to manage a game. And even though the Cats ripped through the first part of the conferece schedule, they've gotten worse. A slow start like they've had the last several games against a good opponent and they're likely not going to be able to come back. I predict a #3 seed and second-round exit.

In my opinion, Bam Adebayo ought to sue De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk for nonsupport. As the year's gone on, Fox and Monk have been playing more for the NBA scouts and less for the team. I wouldn't hesitate to bench them in favor of seniors and Kentucky natives Dominique Hawkins and Derek Willis should Fox and Monk start playing selfishly. Both are capable of being big scorers but both haven't developed a good basketball IQ yet. Hawkins and Willis are a steadying influence and have improved their games.

I'm rooting against Louisville, North Carolina and Duke. Also not a big UCLA or Kansas fan.

[Alps]

I'm pulling for my hometown Seton Hall. With a few big upsets and close calls, they can at least hang with anyone. I doubt they'll win it all, but I'll have at least one bracket hitting the Elite 8.

[kurumi]

I'd like to see the Zags win it this year

[Thing 342]

As much as I'd like VT to win, I think they're pretty much locked in to get bounced by whatever 1/2/3 seed they face in the second round.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Northern Kentucky could make its first appearance in the March Madness... in their first year of elegibility! They are facing Milwaukee tonight in the Horizon League tournament final.

[74/171FAN]

As much as I'd like VT to win, I think they're pretty much locked in to get bounced by whatever 1/2/3 seed they face in the second round.

I am still used to having no expectations for them meaning that they had a great season no matter what the final result is.

[US 41]

Northern Kentucky could make its first appearance in the March Madness... in their first year of elegibility! They are facing Milwaukee tonight in the Horizon League tournament final.

If Milwaukee wins they will be in the tournament with a 12-23 record! 

Other Championship games tonight include the NEC (St Francis vs Mt St Marys), the Summit League (South Dakota State vs Neb-Omaha), and the WCC (St Mary's vs Gonzaga).

Auto Bids So Far
A-Sun= Florida Gulf Coast
Big South= Winthrop
CAA= UNC Wilmington
MAAC= Iona
MVC= Wichita State
OVC= Jacksonville State
SOCON= East Tennessee State

[Buck87]

I'd like to see the Zags win it this year

That'd be cool. I'd at least like to see them make it to the Final Four for the first time. They've been such a consistent program over the past 2 decades, and that's the next big accomplishment they haven't been able to hit yet.

[hbelkins]

I've never understood why these small conferences, who only hope to have one team in the tournament, continue to have conference tournaments in half (or less) empty gyms where a really strong regular season champion that might actually have a shot of winning a game or two in the NCAA runs the risk of being upset by a team with a losing record. It doesn't matter in a big-time league like the SEC, where Kentucky's going to get in even if it doesn't win the conference championship. Those conference tourneys can't be big money-makers for the leagues or their teams. I'd think they'd want their strongest representative in the NCAA tournament.

[HazMatt]

I've never understood why these small conferences, who only hope to have one team in the tournament, continue to have conference tournaments in half (or less) empty gyms where a really strong regular season champion that might actually have a shot of winning a game or two in the NCAA runs the risk of being upset by a team with a losing record. It doesn't matter in a big-time league like the SEC, where Kentucky's going to get in even if it doesn't win the conference championship. Those conference tourneys can't be big money-makers for the leagues or their teams. I'd think they'd want their strongest representative in the NCAA tournament.

If the money wasn't there, they wouldn't do it.  Not that I don't agree with you, the conference tournaments completely take away any meaning from the regular season.  But it gives conferences a guaranteed revenue stream as well as a nationally televised championship game, which is probably preferable on small budgets with typically weak teams that wouldn't win a game very often in the NCAA tournament.  The conference gets ~$250k for each game one of their teams plays in the NCAA tournament.  Not sure the revenue on conference tournaments, but let's say $50k.  Get $50k and put in a team with a 5% chance at an upset, or try for the $250k with a team with a 10% chance at an upset.  Might as well take the guaranteed money and play the lottery on top of it.

[amroad17]

Northern Kentucky could make its first appearance in the March Madness... in their first year of elegibility! They are facing Milwaukee tonight in the Horizon League tournament final.

The Norse are IN!!!  They defeated Wis-Milwaukee 59-53 to win the Horizon League Championship and punch the ticket to the Big Dance!  Nothing like going from 9-21 to 24-10!  Hopefully, they will not play in one of the Dayton "play-in" games.  They should be a 13 or a 14 seed.

This is a program that twice made it to the Division II National Championship Game in the 1990's, losing both times.  The women's team has won two Division II National Championships.  We wish nothing but improvement for the program in the future (and maybe a few more Tournament appearances).

[amroad17]

Every year I pull for Syracuse.  I have been a diehard fan ever since my teen years, which happens to coincide with the time Jim Boeheim has been the head coach.

I'm sure HB will be pulling for Louisville    I mean Kentucky, even though his post says otherwise.

As far as teams he will be rooting against, there are two he mentioned that he could not warm up to even if he was embalmed with them.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

If the SWAC championship game comes to be Texas Southern vs Alcorn State, the former would be in the March Madness before playing because the latter is ineligible due to "dumb reasons" (Is failing to meet the required Academic Progress Rate a dumb reason for a post-season ban?).

I'm already surfing Wikipedia in order to pick the 68 eponimously named diseases that will replace the real teams in my mock-up bracket . I'll be predicting a Pearson vs Dravet Championship game in that, although at this time it's still unknown which teams will be "Pearson" and "Dravet" respectively. Last year I did the same using Spanish municipalities instead with a surprising outcome explained in reply #1 (Although my prediction had Miami (FL), disguised as "Ariza", taking the title). It appears I'm good at predicting things: just after the 2015 World Series ended I declared the Curse of the Billy Goat had already been broken by the closure of Alanland thread, and the following year Chicago Cubs won it after 108 years.

[US 41]

Auto Bids from Yesterday's Games
Horizon League= Northern Kentucky
NEC= Mount Saint Mary's
WCC= Gonzaga
Summit League= South Dakota State

The only championship game tonight is in the Patriot League between Lehigh and Bucknell. Then there are no more championship games until the 11th and the 12th (Selection Sunday). There will be plenty of tournament games to discuss the 9th and the 10th though.

[Rothman]

It's too bad Baylor's playing has been somewhat erratic.  You'd think their record would be better just based on the physical attributes of their players (i.e., they've got some serious height and strength) and they're unstoppable when they're clicking on all cylinders.  Still...they can't seem to do that on a consistent basis.

I agree that Kentucky's weaknesses have been revealed to all the world, especially by Louisville.  They won't pull it off.

Gonzaga unfortunately will not do it, despite years and years of trying to win real respect in the tournament.   That BYU game was just...blech.

I'm thinking Villanova or UCLA; probably UCLA.  Meh.

Then again, maybe Grayson Allen will trip enough players so Duke wins it all and Duke fans become more insufferable than ever.

[hbelkins]

I've never understood why these small conferences, who only hope to have one team in the tournament, continue to have conference tournaments in half (or less) empty gyms where a really strong regular season champion that might actually have a shot of winning a game or two in the NCAA runs the risk of being upset by a team with a losing record. It doesn't matter in a big-time league like the SEC, where Kentucky's going to get in even if it doesn't win the conference championship. Those conference tourneys can't be big money-makers for the leagues or their teams. I'd think they'd want their strongest representative in the NCAA tournament.

If the money wasn't there, they wouldn't do it.  Not that I don't agree with you, the conference tournaments completely take away any meaning from the regular season.  But it gives conferences a guaranteed revenue stream as well as a nationally televised championship game, which is probably preferable on small budgets with typically weak teams that wouldn't win a game very often in the NCAA tournament.  The conference gets ~$250k for each game one of their teams plays in the NCAA tournament.  Not sure the revenue on conference tournaments, but let's say $50k.  Get $50k and put in a team with a 5% chance at an upset, or try for the $250k with a team with a 10% chance at an upset.  Might as well take the guaranteed money and play the lottery on top of it.

My alma mater (Morehead State) is in the Ohio Valley Conference. In 1983, the Eagles backed into the NCAA tournament. Akron was in the OVC then, and the Zips were the conference champs in the regular season. Back then, the OVC tournament was a seeded four-team affair. Akron got upset in the first game, and Morehead won both games and got in. Their reward was being sent to Hartford, Conn. to get drilled by Syracuse.

The next year, MSU won both the regular-season and tournament championships. They had to do a play-in at Dayton, beat North Carolina A&T, but lost the next game (I think to Louisville).

Morehead upset its way into the NCAA a few years ago when Kenneth Faried was either a sophomore or junior. When Faried was a senior, Morehead won the regular-season and the tournament and beat Louisville in the first game, but came out flat in the next game and lost to Will Weaver's most-hated team. (My wife hates spiders, too...)

But I remember during one of those years, watching an OVC tournament game on television and seeing a mostly-empty arena in Nashville. The next week, the same place was packed most every game for the SEC tournament.

[SP Cook]

I agree with HB's root against list 100%.  Really I root against all private schools, but especially Duke, which is the epitome of what is wrong with not only college sports, but college.

Glad for NKU, but who came up with "Norse" as a knickname?  The Cincinnati suburbs are hardly viking country, the old joke about the region being that the "old country" was either Munich or Pikeville. 

Ohio Valley Conference champion Jacksonville State (it is the Jacksonville in Alabama, not Florida) is in in the Alabama River watershed, not the Ohio.  Of course whoever wins the Missouri Valley Conference every year not be in the Missouri Valley, as no team in the league is (5 are on the wrong side of the Mississippi, in fact) ; the Atlantic Sun has a team in New Jersey;  the Atlantic 10  (which has 14 members) has teams in Ohio and Missouri;  the Big East has a teams in Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Illinois; the West Coast has a team in Utah; the Atlantic Coast has 3 schools on the Gulf side of the Eastern continental divide (and one right on it) and one on Lake Michigan;  and the Pacific 12 has one team on the Atlantic half of the continent and one in the Great Basin. 

I think teams play conference tournaments, one because their masters in Bristol, CT tell them to, but more importantly, two, because it gives a team something to shoot for rather than just give up in mid-January.  I don't think it really matters which team a one-bid conference sends they are not going to win anyway.   I do think that conference tournaments should not be on home courts. 

Another geographical deal.  The ACC women's tournament was in Myrtle Beach, nearer to South Carolina which is in the SEC, and the SEC women were in Greenville, which is next to Clemson, which is in the ACC. 

Remember Georgetown?

[hbelkins]

Northern Kentucky was the Norsemen for years. Then political correctness became a thing on college campuses (campi) and Norsemen and Norsewomen became the unisex Norse.

I guess they're the Norse because the campus is very close to the northernmost point in the state.

Interesting fact: Whatever they call the downtown arena in Cincinnati now is going to be closed next year for yet again another remodeling, so the University of Cincinnati is going to play its home games in NKU's arena. I didn't even know NKU had an arena, and I guess Xavier and UC hate each other so much that there was no consideration for UC playing its home games on its side of the river.

I presume the downtown arena is what used to be known as Riverfront Coliseum. Of course since Cincy stupidly tore down one perfectly good stadium and built two new ones in its place, anything is possible.

[Buck87]

Interesting fact: Whatever they call the downtown arena in Cincinnati now is going to be closed next year for yet again another remodeling, so the University of Cincinnati is going to play its home games in NKU's arena. I didn't even know NKU had an arena, and I guess Xavier and UC hate each other so much that there was no consideration for UC playing its home games on its side of the river.

I presume the downtown arena is what used to be known as Riverfront Coliseum. Of course since Cincy stupidly tore down one perfectly good stadium and built two new ones in its place, anything is possible.

The arena being renovated is UC's on campus Fifth Third Arena at the Shoemaker Center.

You would expect the logical arena for them to use during the interim would be the downtown US Bank Arena (formerly known as the Riverfront Coliseum), but from what I've heard from a good friend that's a UC grad, the relationship between UC and the operators of US Bank Arena is bad enough that it resulted in UC agreeing to play their games next year at UNK instead.

[1995hoo]

I'd like to see either UVA (my undergraduate school) or Duke (my law school) win it all. Neither one will. UVA has trouble playing offense for a full 40 minutes. Duke's too inconsistent and a couple of the players are too immature.

[US 41]

I've never understood why these small conferences, who only hope to have one team in the tournament, continue to have conference tournaments in half (or less) empty gyms where a really strong regular season champion that might actually have a shot of winning a game or two in the NCAA runs the risk of being upset by a team with a losing record. It doesn't matter in a big-time league like the SEC, where Kentucky's going to get in even if it doesn't win the conference championship. Those conference tourneys can't be big money-makers for the leagues or their teams. I'd think they'd want their strongest representative in the NCAA tournament.

If the money wasn't there, they wouldn't do it.  Not that I don't agree with you, the conference tournaments completely take away any meaning from the regular season.  But it gives conferences a guaranteed revenue stream as well as a nationally televised championship game, which is probably preferable on small budgets with typically weak teams that wouldn't win a game very often in the NCAA tournament.  The conference gets ~$250k for each game one of their teams plays in the NCAA tournament.  Not sure the revenue on conference tournaments, but let's say $50k.  Get $50k and put in a team with a 5% chance at an upset, or try for the $250k with a team with a 10% chance at an upset.  Might as well take the guaranteed money and play the lottery on top of it.

My alma mater (Morehead State) is in the Ohio Valley Conference. In 1983, the Eagles backed into the NCAA tournament. Akron was in the OVC then, and the Zips were the conference champs in the regular season. Back then, the OVC tournament was a seeded four-team affair. Akron got upset in the first game, and Morehead won both games and got in. Their reward was being sent to Hartford, Conn. to get drilled by Syracuse.

The next year, MSU won both the regular-season and tournament championships. They had to do a play-in at Dayton, beat North Carolina A&T, but lost the next game (I think to Louisville).

Morehead upset its way into the NCAA a few years ago when Kenneth Faried was either a sophomore or junior. When Faried was a senior, Morehead won the regular-season and the tournament and beat Louisville in the first game, but came out flat in the next game and lost to Will Weaver's most-hated team. (My wife hates spiders, too...)

But I remember during one of those years, watching an OVC tournament game on television and seeing a mostly-empty arena in Nashville. The next week, the same place was packed most every game for the SEC tournament.

Interesting fact is that starting next year the OVC tournament is going to be in Evansville. I'm already planning on going to both the semi finals and the conference championship game next year.

Interesting fact: Whatever they call the downtown arena in Cincinnati now is going to be closed next year for yet again another remodeling, so the University of Cincinnati is going to play its home games in NKU's arena. I didn't even know NKU had an arena, and I guess Xavier and UC hate each other so much that there was no consideration for UC playing its home games on its side of the river.

I presume the downtown arena is what used to be known as Riverfront Coliseum. Of course since Cincy stupidly tore down one perfectly good stadium and built two new ones in its place, anything is possible.

The arena being renovated is UC's on campus Fifth Third Arena at the Shoemaker Center.

You would expect the logical arena for them to use during the interim would be the downtown US Bank Arena (formerly known as the Riverfront Coliseum), but from what I've heard from a good friend that's a UC grad, the relationship between UC and the operators of US Bank Arena is bad enough that it resulted in UC agreeing to play their games next year at UNK instead.

I hope that part of the agreement was that UNK gets to play a "home" game against Cincinnati next year  . That would at the very least be a somewhat interesting game I think.

[Rothman]

Duke's too inconsistent and a couple of the players are too immature dirty.

FTFY.

[SP Cook]

Greater Cincy indoor venues, I think:

US Bank Arena, nee Riverfront Coliseum is the site the infamous The Who concert stampede.  It was built in the mid 70s, and UC played there until they built their own place.  I have not been there in years, but I gather that it has pretty much been neglected.  UK would play a "home" game there every now and then until the mid-00s.   It holds 17K or so.

The Cincinnati Gardens was built in the 40s and is one of the last remaining of those classic big city arena buildings.  It was the home of everything in Cincy until Riverfront got built, and Xavier played there until 2000.  The owners sold it last summer and is no longer in use.

The Cintas Center which holds 10K was built as Xavier's  on-campus arena.  Xavier and UC hate each other and there is no way UC would have played there for the year.

Fifth-Third (which is a dumb name for a bank) Arena, nee Shoemaker Center is UC's on campus arena built in 89, it holds 13K or so.  This is the building that is being renovated, forcing UC to find a temporary home.

BB&T Arena (BB&T has like 20 sports venues named for it, most of them inherited from other banks it bought)  nee Bank of Kentucky Center is NKU's arena, built in 08.  It is really nice for a school NKU's size and, unlike most on campus college arenas, is revenue positive for the school.  NKU's location (right off the interstate and just suburban enough to have reasonable parking and close enough to downtown to not be a trip)  makes the 9K venue very competitive for many shows. 

Cincy's leaders have been arguing about building a new large arena since at least the early 90s.  Like most things in the Queen City, all they do is argue about it.    Unless Cincy gets a major league indoor sport, which is unlikely, it won't happen.