NCAA Tournament Thread

[Pbdutch]

It’s crazy how important football is to the schools that have football including the mid majors. Look at Delaware and how they left for CUSA. I don’t really see that being a good move for them. Look at UMASS leaving the A10 for the MAC. Not really seeing the big benefit in that either.

Then you look at a school like VCU. Puts all its resources into men’s bball and its paid off tremendously. EVERYONE knows VCU and that’s because of their bball team. I’d love to see Hofstra become the next VCU

[Jojogunne]

Couple of additions. Laurel broke Wilt Chamberlain's scoring recordat Overbrook. John won the rebounding championship as a junior and lost out to Seton Hall's Moslley by something like 1 onehundreth of a rebound!
Don't forget Bernard Tomlin who went from scorer to the point that changed this entire team!

Here's more about the 1976 and 1977 NCAAT teams, thanks to Jerry Beach's incomparable research and knowledge of Hofstra history:

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... chmen.html

And a post about the 2000 and 2001 NCAAT games:

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... -2001.html

So Ken Rood, who played on the 1976 and 1977 teams, also attended the 2000, 2001 and 2026 Hofstra NCAAT games. Has anyone else been to all five games?

[EvanJ]

The only coaches to coach their alma mater in this year's NCAA Tournament and play in the NBA are Claxton and Hubert Davis, who was fired by North Carolina after losing to VCU in the First Round, so Claxton will be the only coach who did that as of when the Tournament ends.

[Polito]

What VCU has done is nothing short of incredible - they are a unicorn, almost the new age Gonzaga - biggest key is they've had a remarkable hit rate on their coaching hires, it's uncanny to be honest lol - kudos to them - would love for us to be on a similar path of program success, although not sure we will get all the way there as there are some significant differences between the two - but there are some things we can learn from them and replicate in our own way. As we all know, now is our time to strike - we need everyone involved to be fully bought in to elevating this program.

That Ken Rood stat is amazing, lol, not sure anyone else can say that?!?

On the football/basketball thing, have to remember the strong media deals is what drives those conference moves, and those media deals are 100% from football - that's how and why those deals even exist - football media deal money is FAR beyond what basketball only has provided to date, it's currently what makes the collegiate athletics world go around. It's certainly not a guarantee for automatic success, programs like UD still finding their way, but those dollars do make a difference.

I'm sure many remember a time when the SEC wasn't much to write about in hoops. It was the all about the ACC. Then football media money exploded, and all of a sudden those power programs started hiring big time HC's, and now here we are with the once all football all the time conference easily one of the best hoops leagues in the country. Basketball money didn't fuel that shift, football did, and hoops benefited.

Anyhoo, not our world for now - we need to focus on what we have, and make SURE that mens hoops is a straight up national mid major power!!

[Jojogunne]

Remember Anthony Dell'Orso? The former Campbell Camel is a significant part of the rotation at the University of Arizona. So far, he has scored 19 points in 53 minutes over three games. Tomorrow, he faces a fellow Australian in 6-11 Oscar Cluff of Purdue.

[HUSID74]

I have also been to all of Hofstra's NCAA first round tournament games.

[Wags]

The closest sites for the first and second round next year are Pittsburgh and Charlotte (other sites are Louisville, Minneapolis, Omaha, Fort Worth, Spokane, and Sacramento).

BUT, maybe Hofstra can get to a Sweet 16 and play in the East? That regional is at MSG. Could you imagine?!

[Wags]

#1 seeds were 134-0 when leading by 15 or more at halftime before today.

1st half: 44-29, Duke.
2nd half: 44-28, Connecticut.

Make it 134-1. What a shot by Mullins. An all-timer.

[EvanJ]

In 2019, Duke was the most picked champion on ESPN. I hate them, and I will never pick them to win a Tournament. I picked them to lose the Final to Virginia. Duke lost the Regional Final by 1 to Michigan State, which kept freshmen Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett out of the Final Four. I picked Virginia to win the Tournament, I was right, and my bracket was 96.5th on ESPN. This Tournament also had me thinking Duke was the best, picking them to finish second, and having them lose the Regional Final by 1, which kept Cameroon Boozer out of the Final Four. Both years I was happy to have Duke losing earlier than I picked them to lose. Winning an NBA championship that requires winning 16 games in two months is a different experience from the Final Four.

The ACC and SEC are done. The Final Four only has teams in conferences starting with Big.

I wonder if this is the first tournament that had Duke and North Carolina both blow 19 point leads and lose.

[Wags]

I wonder if this is the first tournament that had Duke and North Carolina both blow 19 point leads and lose.

I don't know but I would say so, considering VCU's comeback against North Carolina was the biggest in R32 history. So, the chances that UNC and Duke would have both blown leads of 19+ in the same NCAAT before is highly unlikely.

The ironic thing is UConn blew they other 19-point lead in this tournament, the game before, yet still won, to be able to come back from 19 down and beat Duke the next game.

[Wags]

So yeah, it's definitely the first time Duke and UNC did this in the same tournament because these are the biggest blown leads in NCAAT history:

25: Iona (vs. BYU in the 2012 First Four)

22: Maryland (vs. Duke in the 2001 Final Four)

22: Cincinnati (vs. Nevada, 2018 Second Round)

20: West Virginia (vs. Louisville in the 2005 Elite Eight)
This was after West Virginia survived Creighton by 2, upsetting Wake Forest in 2 OT, and edging Texas Tech by 5 to get there.

20: Tennessee (vs. top-seeded Ohio State in the 2007 Sweet Sixteen)
Lost by 1

19: LaSalle (vs. Clemson in the 1990 Second Round)
Clemson first survived a low-scoring 49-47 scare as a 5 seed against 12 seed BYU, then had the comeback vs. LaSalle, only to...
Lose a heartbreaker by one to Connecticut on the famous Tate George jumper at the Meadowlands.

19: North Carolina (vs. VCU in the 2026 First Round)

19: Duke 2026 (vs. Connecticut in the 2026 Elite Eight)

[Jojogunne]

I wonder how St. John’s feels about UConn defeating Duke yesterday? The Johnnies beat the Huskies twice this past season.

[Wags]

I wonder how St. John’s feels about UConn defeating Duke yesterday? The Johnnies beat the Huskies twice this past season.

They probably feel they missed an opportunity.

But besides beating UConn twice, they also suffered their worst loss of the season (72-40) at UConn.

[HUSID74]

I wonder how St. John’s feels about UConn defeating Duke yesterday? The Johnnies beat the Huskies twice this past season.

They probably feel they missed an opportunity.

But besides beating UConn twice, they also suffered their worst loss of the season (72-40) at UConn.

And let's not forget they lost to Alabama.

[EvanJ]

Thank you Wags for the list.

[Wags]

Men's and women's tournaments expanding to 76:

https://x.com/i/status/2040157662332035546

24 teams will play opening round games for 12 spots.

They have an opportunity to do this right, to give great opportunity to solid 24-8 mid-majors over 17-15 power teams that went 3-8 vs. Q1, and to have those 24 teams all be the last bubble teams without any AQs having to play their way in a second time. But we all know they will screw that up and it will be just the opposite with those scenarios, which at least at the start of the tournament, will water down sports’ greatest event. Even worse, 76 will be the door to 96 and 128.

This wouldn’t be a bad thing if they could be trusted to do it right and not go beyond 76 or if they only went to 72 and used that expansion to exclusively sort out the final bubble teams. But they way they’ll actually do it will be bad news.

[stuball888]

Waxed do you really trust the NCAA to do the right thing??

[JoeyBagODonuts1]

Assuming they expand it evenly (ha), you would have the following contested in the opening round:

• all 4 16-seeds
  2 of the 15-seeds
  all 4 11-seeds
  2 of the 10-seeds

So for the mid majors, teams that should be 14, 15 and 16 seeds will be battling it out in what is essentially a play-in .

What this will do essentially is add opportunities for borderline teams from the major conferences to get in and fight for a chance to be in the top 64, while more teams with automatic bids, who have already earned that chance, will not see the top 64.

[Wags]

Waxed do you really trust the NCAA to do the right thing??

Absolutely not, which is why I said what I did above.

[Wags]

Assuming they expand it evenly (ha), you would have the following contested in the opening round:

• all 4 16-seeds
  2 of the 15-seeds
  all 4 11-seeds
  2 of the 10-seeds

So for the mid majors, teams that should be 14, 15 and 16 seeds will be battling it out in what is essentially a play-in .

What this will do essentially is add opportunities for borderline teams from the major conferences to get in and fight for a chance to be in the top 64, while more teams with automatic bids, who have already earned that chance, will not see the top 64.,

This is not what should happen at all, but we know a scenario like this is exactly what will happen. All AQs should be in and seeded. Then it should be the last 24 bubble teams for the four 11 seeds, the four 12 seeds, and for four other seeds (at 10, 13, or whoever they fit, maybe moving all AQ and other AL seeds around as needed). That would be ideal. They will unfortunately not do that. We will instead have even more AQs playing their way in a second time and yes, of course more bubble spots going to mediocre power teams over a very good mid-majors. It's a shame money rules everything, but that's life. Expansion like this isn't bad in itself. They have a chance to do it right. But I will be completely shocked if they do. And even worse than missing that chance is this eventually opening the door to 96 and even 128.