NCAAT 2022 Thread

[Jojogunne]

Congrats to the Peacocks of St. Peter's on defeating Kentucky in OT.

Aaron Estrada could have been playing tonight had he not transferred to Oregon.

Also, a familiar face -- Bruiser Flint -- is on the UK staff.

[Wags]

Congrats to the Peacocks of St. Peter's on defeating Kentucky in OT.

Aaron Estrada could have been playing tonight had he not transferred to Oregon.

Several hours before his former school upset Kentucky tonight, Estrada tweeted that he wished he was playing today:
https://twitter.com/Aaron4PF_/status/15 ... 4747820039

[Wags]

Equal number of wins so far (six each) for higher and lower seeds through the first dozen games, post-First Four.

Decent chance for lower seeds to end the day up, 9-7 (San Francisco up one at the half, Vermont only down three with over 7 min left, Akron up 4 with under 14 1/2 left).

[triplec2195]

Equal number of wins so far (six each) for higher and lower seeds through the first dozen games, post-First Four.

Decent chance for lower seeds to end the day up, 9-7 (San Francisco up one at the half, Vermont only down three with over 7 min left, Akron up 4 with under 14 1/2 left).

They all lose in close games Vermont(vs Arkansas) and Akron by 4 and San Fran by 5. They have nothing to be ashamed of for sure.

[Wags]

Equal number of wins so far (six each) for higher and lower seeds through the first dozen games, post-First Four.

Decent chance for lower seeds to end the day up, 9-7 (San Francisco up one at the half, Vermont only down three with over 7 min left, Akron up 4 with under 14 1/2 left).

They all lose in close games Vermont(vs Arkansas) and Akron by 4 and San Fran by 5. They have nothing to be ashamed of for sure.

Yeah, San Francisco-Murray State could've gone either way. Bouyea is so much fun to watch. What a game that was, as expected. Would be a great best-of-seven series. lol

Vermont hung in all game but never really got that one going their way. They did get a very tough out-of-bounds reversal late (after a review) that prevented them having a legit chance at the end.

Akron was the one that should've won of those three. UCLA was chasing them for most of the game and the Zips just let it get away with some very bad decision-making offensively down the stretch. 15-4 UCLA run to close it.

Still, a fun day. And cool to wake up today knowing that Saint Peter's is undefeated all-time against Kentucky (1-0). Delaware's chances are a lot less because of that one, but two 15s in the same year has happened before. If Nova hits 3s, Delaware is cooked, but if not, the Hens may actually have a chance. Nova, like Kentucky, is a weak 2 seed. Good slate of games today, and great start, with Loyola-Ohio State.

Tomorrow's schedule:

12:10 North Carolina/Baylor
2:40 Creighton/Kansas
5:15 Michigan/Tennessee
6:10 Richmond/Providence
7:10 Saint Mary's/UCLA
7:45 Saint Peter's/Murray State
8:40 New Mexico State/Arkansas
9:40 Memphis/Gonzaga

Stupid that because of ratings, they have games in Buffalo and Indy that don't start until the evening, local time (when those could have started at 12:10 pm). That makes UNC/Baylor a morning tip (11:10 am) local time in Fort Worth.

[Polito]

Estrada tweeted that he wished he was playing today:

Brutal for him. Comes to HU on a lot of hope and promise of joining a championship program, only to not even make through the CAAT. Sure hope he gets the chance to and doesn't become just another HU CPOY that sees zero postseason.

Congrats to the Peacocks - that's a heckuva moment - the dream for a mid major. Kudos.

VT had a heckuva run to win their first ever ACCT, and the first 7 seed to do so. Thrilled for those Hokies! Been rooting a long time for them, this was a long time coming. Well earned.

Couldn't keep it going though against Texas. You know why? Because no team can shoot their way to the top from deep every game. And VT is the 2nd or 3rd best 3 point shooting team in the NATION. And even with their strong shooting, the scores were far from high - VT won the ACC by shooting well AND playing strong D.

Yet Speedy and HU think they are going to do it. This is the kind of stuff that makes you want to pull your hair out and smack some sense into them.

All I have seen from EVERY SINGLE winner, EVERY NCAAT team and game, is the team that plays DEFENSE wins. That's how it's done. Especially now.

You would think that lesson would've been learned by Speedy first hand under JM. Yet here we are. Expecting better.

[Wags]

Arkansas holds off New Mexico State, so Hofstra beat a Sweet 16 team this year.

[Wags]

All I have seen from EVERY SINGLE winner, EVERY NCAAT team and game, is the team that plays DEFENSE wins. That's how it's done. Especially now.

To your point, Delaware scored about the same (60) against Villanova as they did in the CAA title game (59) against UNCW, but they obviously couldn't guard Villanova as easily, allowing 80, vs. the 55 they gave up against UNCW in the CAA title game.

[Wags]

A team that lost to St. Francis (10-20), Canisius (11-21), Rider (14-19), and Siena (15-14) twice this year is one of the last 16 teams left to compete for a national title.

Nothing in sports is as unpredictable or allows for as much resilience as college basketball does.

[HUSID80]

Scoring is ALWAYS DOWN come tournament time...not necessarily great defense either...jitters, emotions etc hit almost every team...look at SCORING at the beginning of games.
However, there is STILL plenty of scoring going on; NC 93 points, Baylor 86, Gonzaga 82, Kansas 79, Mich 76, Memphis 76, UCLA 72 and on and on.

You can win playing MANY different styles...you need talent, a belief in your system and LUCK! Just ask St. Peter's

[triplec2195]

A team that lost to St. Francis (10-20), Canisius (11-21), Rider (14-19), and Siena (15-14) twice this year is one of the last 16 teams left to compete for a national title.

Nothing in sports is as unpredictable or allows for as much resilience as college basketball does.

This has the makings of one of the all time great Cinderella stories. Lets hope this fairy tale continues.

[Captain]

Estrada and St Peters and Dunbar at Iowa State both are thinking about what might have been for them.
Should be great motivation going forward.

[EvanJ]

https://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-cha ... roupID=214 has the results of ESPN's Fans of Hofstra group, which has 236 brackets. A bracket titled "This bracket will lose" is tied for first. It predicted St. Peter's to lose in the next round, and correctly predicted Round 1 wins by them, New Mexico State (12), Notre Dame (11), TCU (9), Richmond (12), Iowa State (11), and Miami (10).

Edit: The last game of the weekend ended at 12:40 A.M. (11:40 for me). I had to worry about my champion Arizona against 9 seed TCU. It was close, and when Arizona went up 9, I knew there was enough time for TCU to come back. TCU went up 3. With 12.X remaining, Arizona made a three to tie it. With 2.2 seconds left, Arizona stole the ball from TCU, but Arizona should have been called for a foul, and both teams were in the double bonus. Even if TCU drew a foul and made 2 free throws, 2.2 seconds is enough time to get a decent three-pointer to win in regulation. Arizona went to the basket and scored, but it was shot too late, and it went overtime. TCU got many offensive rebounds, but Arizona got two offensive rebounds at the end and won 85-80.

I got 22 games right in Round 1, and 10 games right in Round 2. I am 86.5 percentile on ESPN, and I'm tied for 31st through 44th of 236 Hofstra fans. If Arizona wins the tournament, I expect to be in the top 8 percentile on ESPN for the third consecutive tournament, and make money for the second time in three tournaments. I'm looking forward to finding out how I did in my dad's pool. 12 brackets (people can make more than one) picked Gonzaga, 7 picked Arizona, 2 picked Kansas, and 1 picked Round 1 loser Kentucky.

Edit: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... ment-picks has the Final Four picks before the tournament by 55 people. 24 (43.6 percent) picked Gonzaga, 15 (27.3 percent) picked Arizona, 10 (18.2 percent) picked another remaining team, 4 (7.3 percent) picked eliminated Kentucky, and 2 (3.6 percent) picked eliminated Tennessee. Kansas (3), Purdue (2), Houston (2), Duke (1), UCLA (1), and Texas Tech (1) were the other remaining teams who somebody predicted to win. That means half of the Sweet 16 were picked by at least one of 55 people. Kentucky was the fourth most common pick among all ESPN brackets and the third most common pick among these 55.

[EvanJ]

I am tied for fourth through sixth of 22 people in my dad's pool, which keeps getting fewer brackets. It had 31 brackets last year. I win if this happens:

1 seed Arizona wins Final
1 seed Gonzaga goes to Final Four
Left side Finalist is not UCLA (it could be Gonzaga but doesn't have to be)
2 seed Duke defeats 3 seed Texas Tech
1 seed Kansas defeats 4 seed Providence
8 seed North Carolina defeats 4 seed UCLA and/or 1 seed Kansas defeats 10 seed Miami or 11 seed Iowa State

Edit: To get first, I also need 11 seed Michigan to defeat 2 seed Villanova in a game I picked 3 seed Tennessee to win.

[joeg1]

We didn't play D as it should be played because ours was an essentially flawed roster. Speedy was trying to put lipstick on a pig by cheating with help defense, thus exposing our flanks to 3 pointers. Teams would kill us in the post otherwise. And Estrada can cry me a river. You make choices in life and you live with them.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

[triplec2195]

We would have been better off with Cramer getting more playing time. We would sacrifice Offense for defense though. He played big down low but with injuries etc. who actually knew what was going on. No need to cast aspersions towards our best player of course he shouldn't be looking back just one of those things that happen in life. Learn from it and move in a forward positive direction. Kudos to St Peters always love this time of year for the David's to slay the Goliath's. It's almost like GOOD vs EVIL!!

[Wags]

Estrada can cry me a river. You make choices in life and you live with them.

He didn't say anywhere that he regretted his choices. He simply said he wishes he were playing in the NCAAT this year (I believe, he meant, with Hofstra) like any DI player in the country who missed the tourney wanted. He said that hours before St. Peter's played Kentucky, not after they won that game or the Murray State game. I don't think he deserves criticism for that.

[Wags]

Arkansas has come a long way from its loss Hofstra, which transitive property-wise, is now the best team in the NCAA tournament without having made the NCAA tournament.

Gone, 'Zaga.

[stuball888]

Nova and Jay Wright in the elite 8

[triplec2195]

Arkansas has come a long way from its loss Hofstra, which transitive property-wise, is now the best team in the NCAA tournament without having made the NCAA tournament.

Gone, 'Zaga.

Let's not forget Houston and what could've and should've been and Houston is doing all of this without Marcus Sasser. How about that.