PDA

View Full Version : Discussion thread: West (Anaheim) bracket -- Duke #1 seed



JasonEvans
03-13-2011, 04:27 PM
Please put all comments on the West/Anaheim bracket in this thread. A poll will be posted asking who you think will win the West after the brackets are announced.

-Jason

ajgoodfella7
03-13-2011, 06:04 PM
Heading out west, all right let's get it.

davekay1971
03-13-2011, 06:05 PM
I think the number 1 seed will win it :cool:

1 24 90
03-13-2011, 06:08 PM
Looks like San Diego St. will be the #2 in our bracket.

NashvilleDevil
03-13-2011, 06:09 PM
Let the hate begin.

TampaDukie
03-13-2011, 06:09 PM
Thrilled about the #1 seed due to the team's hard work today.

Doug Gottlieb, wrong again. I'm sure he's used to that feeling.

And what's with Seth Davis saying it's a negative for us to go out west, rather than be in the East? Our fanbase is much more national than regional. He, of all people, should know that.

House G
03-13-2011, 06:10 PM
We won't play Kansas until we get to the NC game.

Exiled_Devil
03-13-2011, 06:10 PM
Looks like San Diego St. will be the #2 in our bracket.

Is it geography over s-curve and over Big East deluge?

Also, suck it, Lunardi.

YourLandlord
03-13-2011, 06:10 PM
http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/000/773/459/107299952_display_image.jpg

#1.

SuperTurkey
03-13-2011, 06:11 PM
Thrilled about the #1 seed due to the team's hard work today.

Doug Gottlieb, wrong again. I'm sure he's used to that feeling.

And what's with Seth Davis saying it's a negative for us to go out west, rather than be in the East? Our fanbase is much more national than regional. He, of all people, should know that.

I always worry about being so far from home. It's a big change in terms of timezones, body clock, etc. But fortunately it's not the first rodeo for our coaching staff.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 06:19 PM
Well they only go out West for 1 weekend. Not like the old days. And I like Seth Davis saying it is a negative b/c it gives less for people to complain about.

NashvilleDevil
03-13-2011, 06:19 PM
Potential of playing Michigan or UT. Should be interesting matchups.

ajgoodfella7
03-13-2011, 06:19 PM
A second round game against Tennessee could be a tough matchup.

ajgoodfella7
03-13-2011, 06:20 PM
TEXAS as our 4 seed?

SuperTurkey
03-13-2011, 06:20 PM
Well they only go out West for 1 weekend. Not like the old days. And I like Seth Davis saying it is a negative b/c it gives less for people to complain about.

Good point. I forgot about pods and whatnot.

So Hampton and Michigan/Tennessee? Assuming we get past Hampton, who would you rather see of Michigan or Tennessee? Tennessee had some serious wins early in the season, such as at Pitt.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 06:21 PM
Jesus, Texas as a 4 seed? And then Tenn or Michigan. I don't care if SD St. is the #2, it'll be a battle to get there.

davekay1971
03-13-2011, 06:21 PM
Texas as a 4 seed?! I know the NCAA doesn't look at KenPom, but man, that's a tough 4 seed!

AlaskanAssassin
03-13-2011, 06:21 PM
Tough! route

NashvilleDevil
03-13-2011, 06:22 PM
Like that San Diego St. is the 2 seed but the 2nd round match-up with Michigan or Tennessee is a little scary.

Faison1
03-13-2011, 06:23 PM
San Diego State, UConn, Texas, and Arizona....that looks like a pretty tough bracket

davekay1971
03-13-2011, 06:23 PM
Tough, tough region. Not sure whether to want to play Arizona in the west or Texas anywhere. If we get past that, UConnvicts and Kemba Walker against Duke and Nolan Smith for the right to go to the final four.

Wow. KenPom's 2, 4, and 6 teams in the same bracket...

AlaskanAssassin
03-13-2011, 06:24 PM
1. Duke
2. San Diego
3. Uconn
4. Texas

TOUGH TOUGH TOUGH

but WE CAN DO IT!

House G
03-13-2011, 06:24 PM
wow we have our work cut out for us

jdk
03-13-2011, 06:25 PM
Yuck.

I still like our chances over any other team in the West.

1 24 90
03-13-2011, 06:25 PM
I said in the Bracketology thread I didn't want any part of Tennessee so I'll root for Michigan. Hopefully they won't be able to score against us.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 06:25 PM
That is another point, having to play Zona in Anaheim is rough as well. I want to see what the other 1 seeds have b/c it can't be nearly as tough as the first 2. That or I just underestimated the depth of college basketball.

TampaDukie
03-13-2011, 06:26 PM
Certainly no free ride, but there's not a team in our bracket I think we can't or shouldn't beat.

Utley
03-13-2011, 06:26 PM
Texas - thought they were a 3 at worst. Weren't they # like 6-7 weeks ago? The last two brackets must be easy after these first two. Michigan is probably no picnic either.

I feel better about the game for the final four then for the elite eight.

Chitowndevil
03-13-2011, 06:26 PM
OUCH. That Tennessee/Michigan second rounder worries me. Both well coached teams, difficult systems to play against, styles we haven't necessarily seen a lot of.

My initial impression is that the top half of the West is absolutely loaded while the bottom is quite a bit softer. Texas is silly talented as a #4 seed- compare this Texas squad to the #4 Purdue squad we faced last year. And Arizona, with probably one of the five or six best players in the country, is no slouch either.

MarkD83
03-13-2011, 06:27 PM
You have to beat someome to get to the Final Four, Texas is up and down and so is Tennessee, UConn is guard oriented and that is Duke's strength. You can see the glass half full or half empty.

CoachJ10
03-13-2011, 06:27 PM
A team that placed tied for 9th place during the regular season (uconn) gets a 3 seed? The unbalanced schedules caused by these mega-conferences makes things way more difficult to understand / evaluate.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 06:28 PM
That is pretty ridiculous. Lunardi had UCONN as a 2 and Texas as a 3 seed. How is BYU ahead of Texas?

Lord Ash
03-13-2011, 06:28 PM
Carolina is a 2 seed after bombing their way through a tournament and barely winning any of the games they were in, and after winning some seven or eight games by a possession this year...

And yet UConn is a 3, and Texas is a 4? What on earth...?

mkline09
03-13-2011, 06:29 PM
The team that could be the toughest is UConn. Not to say Arizona or Michigan or Tennessee aren't tough, but UConn just won 5 games in 5 days. They have some tournament magic going.

NashvilleDevil
03-13-2011, 06:29 PM
That is pretty ridiculous. Lunardi had UCONN as a 2 and Texas as a 3 seed. How is BYU ahead of Texas?

He also had Duke as a 2 seed. He puts more stock in how many teams he correctly picks to get in and not what seed they get.

1 24 90
03-13-2011, 06:30 PM
I think I prefer Texas as a 4 seed instead of Kentucky or Louisville.

Also, looks like Virginia Tech is out especiallly with VCU in!

MarkD83
03-13-2011, 06:31 PM
I am most worried about being in POD in Charlotte with UNC also being there. Duke fans start buying as many tickets as you can.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 06:31 PM
He also had Duke as a 2 seed. He puts more stock in how many teams he correctly picks to get in and not what seed they get.

I'm aware that his seedings aren't nearly as important but an expert has 2 #2 seeds and a 3 seed in our bracket as far as I'm concerned.

duke96
03-13-2011, 06:31 PM
The team that could be the toughest is UConn. Not to say Arizona or Michigan or Tennessee aren't tough, but UConn just won 5 games in 5 days. They have some tournament magic going.

What they just did to win Big East tournament is arguably tougher than what is required to win NCAAT.

delfrio
03-13-2011, 06:32 PM
Yikes, at least we only have to play one team at a time. But that path looks kind of brutal.

wilko
03-13-2011, 06:32 PM
This West bracket looks like the gauntlet of fire..

But if we play like we did today, we can beat anybody.
I like our Momentum, I trust the Coaching Staff this time of year...

Lets Go Duke!

devildeac
03-13-2011, 06:33 PM
We get all the calls/draws/brackets. Bring it.

burns15
03-13-2011, 06:34 PM
I think I prefer Texas as a 4 seed instead of Kentucky or Louisville.

Also, looks like Virginia Tech is out especially with VCU in!

I don't know. I believe the ACC has one more team in the field because Clemson and UNC were placed in the same bracket

jdk
03-13-2011, 06:34 PM
Crap. Just saw Texas is #4 on Kenpom, even though it hasn't been updated to reflect today's games. Will be interesting to see if we can overtake OSU for the #1 spot on Kenpom.

SuperTurkey
03-13-2011, 06:35 PM
I'm not sure I could recover from another loss to UCon in the tourney.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 06:37 PM
I would rather have Louisville than Texas. I'd also prefer BYU (I know they can't have them and SD St.), Purdue, Florida, or even UK. UK isn't a penetration heavy team and relies on the 3. Singler would be able to shut down Terrence Jones and they have nothing inside.
Texas has a great defender in Balbay who could shut down Nolan. Cory Joseph can be a matchup problem with his height and Thompson is a load down low. And that isn't even mentioning Hamilton.

TheMainEvent
03-13-2011, 06:37 PM
A Duke v. Uconn Regional Final would be spectacular. The Huskies seem to be getting hot at the right time of the year and could overwhelm SDSU. We should be able to beat Tennessee without all our pistons firing. Texas will be a challenge but we have the ability match up with them well. Past that, I'd love to see Nolan go up against Kemba.

Does anyone see UNC making a run and giving OSU a good fight in Newark?

billyj
03-13-2011, 06:37 PM
Texas, Uconn, Arizona, SDSU are tough.

And do not want Tenn in 2nd round. That team can beat anyone on a good night.

We have to win it, so the UNC haters will stop complaining about weak bracket.

arnie
03-13-2011, 06:40 PM
Texas, Uconn, Arizona, SDSU are tough.

And do not want Tenn in 2nd round. That team can beat anyone on a good night.

We have to win it, so the UNC haters will stop complaining about weak bracket.

Thug coach did not get in!!!

AlaskanAssassin
03-13-2011, 06:42 PM
hands down the toughest section. not even close. smh.

loran16
03-13-2011, 06:44 PM
Talk about tough.

Well, we'll get through it. Tenn-Mich isn't easy either.

CoachJ10
03-13-2011, 06:46 PM
I would love to get a chance to take down Ohio State...but UNC could be a very difficult matchup for the Buckeyes along the way. Ohio State could get eaten alive on the boards by the Tarholes. The Buckeyes have a lot of weaknesses that have not been exploited yet this year.

NashvilleDevil
03-13-2011, 06:48 PM
Hate is already starting. Dana O'Neil's reaction when Duke was named a 1 seed, "Duke...Ugh" and now the latest meme started by Seth and going to be talked about all week, Duke would have been better off getting the top #2 seed instead of the last #1 seed. Just take care of business boys because we know haters going to hate.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 06:48 PM
It appears that the bottom right bracket has been easier for 2 years? Does the selction committee go in order or what else would explain that? B/c it seems like the Pitt team got the leftovers when I would trade Fla for Texas.

cato
03-13-2011, 06:49 PM
What they just did to win Big East tournament is arguably tougher than what is required to win NCAAT.

Really? Okay, they played 5 games in 5 days, but fatigue is a factor for all of the teams. I'd say it's harder to win 6 straight games against teams that you may never have faced than to win 5 straight against teams you are intimately familiar with. And, they didn't have to play any heavyweights from other conferences.

grossbus
03-13-2011, 06:50 PM
Texas? K owns barnes.

ajgoodfella7
03-13-2011, 06:51 PM
Texas? K owns barnes.

Both of them :cool:

DukeGirl4ever
03-13-2011, 06:51 PM
Has the game time been listed for Friday's game?

rthomas
03-13-2011, 06:52 PM
I will take West. Looks good to me.

1 24 90
03-13-2011, 06:53 PM
Has the game time been listed for Friday's game?

That probably won't be available until late tonight or tomorrow morning.

I hope we get the afternoon session on Friday.

Regenman
03-13-2011, 06:54 PM
No. 10 Texas loses to No. 2 Kansas and gets a 4 seed
No. 12 Florida loses to No. 16 Kentucky and gets a 2 seed.

Just baffling....

cato
03-13-2011, 06:54 PM
having to play Zona in Anaheim is rough as well.

I'd be much more worried about SDSU in Anaheim than Zona. First, Zona isn't very good. Second, SDSU is. Third, San Diego is quite a bit closer to Anaheim than Tucson, and I'd guess that the Aztecs in the area vastly outnumber the Wildcats.

hurleyfor3
03-13-2011, 06:55 PM
FWIW, Seth Davis is real hot on Oakland over Texas. Guess there has to be a 13 over a 4 somewhere.

hsheffield
03-13-2011, 06:56 PM
so, in order to buy tickets we need to know if Duke plays in session 1 or session 2.

does anyone know?

YourLandlord
03-13-2011, 06:57 PM
I'd be much more worried about SDSU in Anaheim than Zona. First, Zona isn't very good. Second, SDSU is. Third, San Diego is quite a bit closer to Anaheim than Tucson, and I'd guess that the Aztecs in the area vastly outnumber the Wildcats.

What can you tell me about SDSU? They piled up a ton of wins this season, but really haven't played any "name" teams (besides losing to BYU twice), and many of their conference wins were by a handful of points.

devildeac
03-13-2011, 06:59 PM
It's going to be tough, but I'd love to see another one of these:


http://crazietalk.net/ourhouse/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1915&hilit=duke's+shining+moment

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 06:59 PM
Some positives, we have Rick Barnes and it is March. The last 2 BE teams to play on all days and win the tourney have flamed out. Most notably, Syracuse came in as everyones sleeper in '06 as a 5 and lost in the 5/12 matchup. Similarly, Pitt lost as a 4 seed in the 2nd round.

devildeac
03-13-2011, 07:02 PM
so, in order to buy tickets we need to know if Duke plays in session 1 or session 2.

does anyone know?

We got ours through ticketmaster about 30 minutes ago. There should be 4 games Friday, March 19 and 2 on Sunday. I suspect we'll play the 7PM or the 930 game. Ratings, you know.

Chitowndevil
03-13-2011, 07:05 PM
No. 10 Texas loses to No. 2 Kansas and gets a 4 seed
No. 12 Florida loses to No. 16 Kentucky and gets a 2 seed.

Just baffling....

Hope I don't offend anyone, but I really don't see how you even argue intelligently that Florida is one of the eight best teams in the country. They have FOUR losses to teams rated 100 below in the Pomeroy: Central Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi St, and Jacksonville. Two of those losses were at home.

simmias
03-13-2011, 07:13 PM
We got our through ticketbast*ard, err ticketmaster about 30 minutes ago. There should be 4 games Friday, March 19 and 2 on Sunday. I suspect we'll play the 7PM or the 930 game. Ratings, you know.
Friday, March 18?

It's going to be a pretty pro-UNC crowd. I never understand why K lobbies to play in Charlotte. Half this city went to that damn school.

Mike Corey
03-13-2011, 07:21 PM
NYtimes stat guru Nate Silver puts the Final Four chances as follows:

Final 4 from West regional -- draft predictions: Duke 37%, SDSU 29%, Texas 15%, UConn 6%, Arizona 4%, field 9%.

Southwest -- Final 4 advancement -- Kansas 46%, Purdue 20%, ND 10%, Louisville 5%, Illinois 4%, Vandy 4%, field 11%.

Southeast -- Final 4 -- Pitt 35%, Florida 20%, BYU 10%, Wisconsin 10%, Kansas St. 6%, Mich. St. 5%, Gonzaga 4%, field 10%.

East: OSU 50%, UNC 15%, Syracuse 14%, Kentucky 9%, field 12%.

turnandburn55
03-13-2011, 07:27 PM
Close to home, at least.

The discussion about which bracket is harder than the other should have met its death last year. No bracket survives first contact with the enemy... as soon as an Ohio, Northern Iowa, or St Mary's wins again, this whole discussion becomes academic.

1 24 90
03-13-2011, 07:27 PM
so, in order to buy tickets we need to know if Duke plays in session 1 or session 2.

does anyone know?

Isn't there just one ticket that covers all 6 games of both rounds? I'm not sure you can pick and choose which sessions to attend but I could be wrong.

RoyalBlue08
03-13-2011, 07:29 PM
I don't know a darn thing about Oakland, but I sure hope people are right about their chances because Texas as a number 4 is very scary. It's so hard to predict what is going to happen though. Last year the road looked easy to start, but then the top seeds all held and made the road difficult. Perhaps this year it looks tough (at least the top half of the bracket anyway), but maybe some upsets will clear the road a bit. Either way, can't wait for the games to start. I think right now we are playing as well as anyone in the country. Go Duke!

YourLandlord
03-13-2011, 07:30 PM
I don't know anything about our #2 seed, so here is some research on them:

Looks like they have a core rotation of 6 guys who play 20+ min, then another 5 that play 7-11 min/game. So they got bodies they can rotate in and out to stay fresh.

They avg 13.6 assists/game, so not a lot of ball movement there. 47% FG, so lots of stuff inside.

also, all their players except for 2 are from cali (and 1 of those 2 is from Vegas, other is from IL).

seems like a team with little strategy besides get the ball as close to the basket as possible and try to dump it in, get tip-ins, etc. Gross.

Also, they don't actually use TONS of size.

Of that top 6 in minutes, they are:
6-7 (15 ppg)
6-9 (12)
6-0 (11)
6-8 (10)
6-2 (8)
6-5 (7)

next 5:
6-11 (4)
6-5 (3)
6-2 (2)
6-7 (2)
6-9 (2)

Their guards are fairly short, and their big men aren't exactly massive -- and 3 of their tallest don't even score that much. They might be athletic, but I don't see them crushing the inside based on pure size.

They are basically a PG and four guys 6'6" - 6'8" who can play every position and shoot threes (not well, but they all shoot them). Play hard defensively and run and block shots and attack the glass.

Atlanta Duke
03-13-2011, 07:32 PM
Hope I don't offend anyone, but I really don't see how you even argue intelligently that Florida is one of the eight best teams in the country. They have FOUR losses to teams rated 100 below in the Pomeroy: Central Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi St, and Jacksonville. Two of those losses were at home.

It is possible the top 4 seeds in each region were worked out before today's games so Florida got credit for playing well in SEC conference play with no penalty for losing to Kentucky - the selection committee rep who did the grip and grin interview with Nantz and Kellogg said Duke going #1 out west and UNC going #2 in the east was not impacted by today's Duke win

Who knows - maybe UNC and Florida were penciled in as #2 seeds last Thursday - Carolina did nothing this weekend to support its seed

With regard to the regional, Texas appears to have collapsed as usual - UConn is the team that most concerns me

devildeac
03-13-2011, 07:35 PM
Friday, March 18?

It's going to be a pretty pro-UNC crowd. I never understand why K lobbies to play in Charlotte. Half this city went to that damn school.

Oops, Friday the 18th. I have a meeting I will NOT attend on 3/19 and got my dates confused.

DiabloAzule
03-13-2011, 07:47 PM
What can you tell me about SDSU? They piled up a ton of wins this season, but really haven't played any "name" teams (besides losing to BYU twice), and many of their conference wins were by a handful of points.

SoCal Duke alum with my thoughts on SDSU having followed them over the last few years:

Very dangerous team. Very athletic frontline of White, Thomas and Leonard. Leonard (soph) is one of the more interesting college forwards I have seen (huge arms and hands, rebounding machine, quick enough to guard Jimmer) - Maggette like talent.

Thomas (small PF) and White (big SF) are good but streaky. PG Gay is solid.

Senior heavy team that knows this is it (Leonard will go in lottery this year). Decent depth. Crowds will be huge in Anaheim - SDSU went from 2k in the stands to sell outs this year and first year of large SD community focus (this isn't ACC territory...bandwagon fans).

Just digesting the brackets and this one seems tough as noted above; with that said, I would say SDSU should advance to elite 8 in a "normal" bracket.

Hope this helps.

Go Duke.

DiabloAzule
03-13-2011, 07:54 PM
I don't know anything about our #2 seed, so here is some research on them:

Looks like they have a core rotation of 6 guys who play 20+ min, then another 5 that play 7-11 min/game. So they got bodies they can rotate in and out to stay fresh.

They avg 13.6 assists/game, so not a lot of ball movement there. 47% FG, so lots of stuff inside.

also, all their players except for 2 are from cali (and 1 of those 2 is from Vegas, other is from IL).

seems like a team with little strategy besides get the ball as close to the basket as possible and try to dump it in, get tip-ins, etc. Gross.

Also, they don't actually use TONS of size.

Of that top 6 in minutes, they are:
6-7 (15 ppg)
6-9 (12)
6-0 (11)
6-8 (10)
6-2 (8)
6-5 (7)

next 5:
6-11 (4)
6-5 (3)
6-2 (2)
6-7 (2)
6-9 (2)

Their guards are fairly short, and their big men aren't exactly massive -- and 3 of their tallest don't even score that much. They might be athletic, but I don't see them crushing the inside based on pure size.

They are basically a PG and four guys 6'6" - 6'8" who can play every position and shoot threes (not well, but they all shoot them). Play hard defensively and run and block shots and attack the glass.

SoCal Duke alum who has seen ~1/2 of SDSU's games the last few years:

They are very athletic - great rebounding team (Mich St like at times). Can be poor shooters (both FT and 3's - only 1 or 2 role players shoot the 3 well). Won close conference games on soild team play, especially PG Gay. Players can be streaky but depth is solid (e.g back-up 6'11 300lb center transfer from Illinois).

hurleyfor3
03-13-2011, 07:56 PM
Isn't there just one ticket that covers all 6 games of both rounds? I'm not sure you can pick and choose which sessions to attend but I could be wrong.

Looks like it is possible only to buy tickets for entire regional from ticketmaster. However, there are three separate admissions, for which there are three separate tickets.

I'm planning to go to the regionals in Denver and will be just buying tickets for each session off the street. Only crappy tickets available on ticketmaster, and for (ugh!) face.

Neals384
03-13-2011, 07:56 PM
Well, the West is tough as others have pointed out. But the good news is, Duke will not face a Big East team until at least the regional final (if we get that far). Given our tournament exit in '08 and '09 at the hands of the Big East, I'm delighted! By comparison, in the East regional, Ohio State faces a possible Big East gauntlet of #9 Villanova, #5 West Virginia and #3 syracuse.

grossbus
03-13-2011, 07:57 PM
when will we know game times?

coldriver10
03-13-2011, 07:58 PM
What are you guys' thoughts on Michigan and Tennessee? Granted we shouldn't overlook anyone, including Hampton, but I was just curious what our potential "3rd" round opponent could look like.

Also, Nolan Smith will be on ESPN Bracketology in a few mins.

SCMatt33
03-13-2011, 07:58 PM
Nolan is going to do an interview on ESPN soon for those interested. They just had a shot of him ready for the interview going into a commercial.

1 24 90
03-13-2011, 07:59 PM
Looks like it is possible only to buy tickets for entire regional from ticketmaster. However, there are three separate admissions, for which there are three separate tickets.

I'm planning to go to the regionals in Denver and will be just buying tickets for each session off the street. Only crappy tickets available on ticketmaster, and for (ugh!) face.

We did that in New Orleans last year and ended up getting decent seats and didn't have to pay all the tm fees.

stillcrazie
03-13-2011, 08:02 PM
Nolan is going to do an interview on ESPN soon for those interested. They just had a shot of him ready for the interview going into a commercial.

Thanks. I hope I didn't miss it.

taiw93
03-13-2011, 08:02 PM
Texas will be rough for us, but I don't know if they can get through Oakland and Arizona. REALLY tough draw for them.

OldPhiKap
03-13-2011, 08:05 PM
Thanks. I hope I didn't miss it.

Nope, still coming up.

1 24 90
03-13-2011, 08:11 PM
The more I think about it, Texas should have been the 2 seed with Pitt and Florida should be our 4 seed. Texas played in a better conference, beat better teams and doesn't have those early season bad losses that Florida does. Oh well, go Oakland!

NSDukeFan
03-13-2011, 08:32 PM
I think the bracket looks tough as there appear to be a bunch of inconsistent teams that if you get them on a roll could be very challenging. Michigan lost 6 straight at one point this year (how many tournament teams can say that?); but swept MSU, the last one recently when MSU was playing well, I believe; knocked off Illinois in their tournament; lost by single digits to OSU three times, so could be tough in a one game situation. Tennessee has had some great wins this year, (swept Vandy, beat Nova on a neutral court, Pitt at Pitt <wow>) but has lost 14 times. Who knows what team you will get when you play them? Could be scary in the second round.

Texas seems misplaced as a 4-seed and could flame out early or go all the way. I would say the same about UConn, who has won two very tough tournaments this year (pre-season beating MSU and UK, and of course the Big East.) I like a UConn matchup better than Texas, because I think Nolan could neutralize Walker and if Duke defends like they can I don't know if UConn has enough other scorers.

I don't know much about SDSt., except that Leonard is a great talent, their record is spectacular and KenPom likes them. Thanks for those who have commented about them, though there is a lot of games to be played before I would be concerned at all about them.

Michigan or Tennessee, Tennessee or Michigan? I expect Duke to be ready to play against Hampton (KenPom 211th ranked team, 40 spots higher than Wake). If Duke can play D like they did today and Kyrie is able to play, I like the team's chances next weekend.

SCMatt33
03-13-2011, 08:35 PM
The thing that concerns me the most is the offensive rebounding prowess of UT (both of them) and UConn. We can rebound well, but we generally outrebound the teams we are supposed to and get dominated by the teams we aren't. Michigan and Arizona aren't very good at it, and while SDSU is, the numbers are raw and their numbers might be pumped up by smaller bottom half mountain west teams.

gofurman
03-13-2011, 08:38 PM
The thing that concerns me the most is the offensive rebounding prowess of UT (both of them) and UConn. We can rebound well, but we generally outrebound the teams we are supposed to and get dominated by the teams we aren't. Michigan and Arizona aren't very good at it, and while SDSU is, the numbers are raw and their numbers might be pumped up by smaller bottom half mountain west teams.

what do we know about Michigan and T? I think I want Michigan. UT seems so up and down scare... able to beat anyone or be bad.. T is athletic.

thoughts on T and Michigan? who should we pull for?

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 08:46 PM
I'm pulling for Michigan. Aren't a very good offensive rebounding team, don't go to the line a lot. Just an efficient basketball team who relies on the 3 much more than us. Meanwhile, Duke is a great defensive 3 point team and Duke has always played well vs the Big 10.

Tenn on the other hand is a very good offensive rebounding team who gets to the line a lot and plays within the 3 point line. And they have 3 guys who are in the 6'6-6'8 range so matchups would be a huge issue.

SCMatt33
03-13-2011, 08:49 PM
what do we know about Michigan and T? I think I want Michigan. UT seems so up and down scare... able to beat anyone or be bad.. T is athletic.

thoughts on T and Michigan? who should we pull for?

I think Michigan for sure. They have very little size, while Tennessee has Brian Williams who is the ninth best offensive rebounder in basektball (on a percentage basis). They have more dynamic athletes, but have been really inconsistent. If the good Tennessee shows up, we could have a tough time. I would fully expect us to win no matter what, but I think that we would have to put more energy into beating Tennessee than Michigan which could have an effect at the regionals. Michigan is not a rebounding team, though they shoot better than Tennessee. They have some wrinkles in their game, but we can dust off and update the scouting reports from two years ago, when we played them twice. That small bit of familiarity should help us, since the system isn't too different.

MChambers
03-13-2011, 09:01 PM
I think Michigan for sure. They have very little size, while Tennessee has Brian Williams who is the ninth best offensive rebounder in basektball (on a percentage basis). They have more dynamic athletes, but have been really inconsistent. If the good Tennessee shows up, we could have a tough time. I would fully expect us to win no matter what, but I think that we would have to put more energy into beating Tennessee than Michigan which could have an effect at the regionals. Michigan is not a rebounding team, though they shoot better than Tennessee. They have some wrinkles in their game, but we can dust off and update the scouting reports from two years ago, when we played them twice. That small bit of familiarity should help us, since the system isn't too different.

Don't like having to play Michigan, with that weird 1-3-1 zone Beilein uses (although we seemed to handle it pretty well last March, at least as coached by Huggins). Still remember losing to Michigan 2 or 3 years ago.

Tennessee is 19-14, and about 55th in Pomeroy.

texas
03-13-2011, 09:02 PM
No. 10 Texas loses to No. 2 Kansas and gets a 4 seed
No. 12 Florida loses to No. 16 Kentucky and gets a 2 seed.

Just baffling....

pretty much this. we are baffled by our seeding and not happy about it. now, it's a long way before we can think about a possible matchup with duke, we may not get out of the first weekend.

DukeUsul
03-13-2011, 09:10 PM
I feel bad for all those West region teams who will have to try to play through us to get to the FF.

Zerogee
03-13-2011, 09:21 PM
Jay Bilas has UConn over Duke in the Elite 8 matchup (huge shocker), with Kansas over UConn in the championship game. (other FF teams: Syracuse and Pitt)

Digger Phelps has Duke over UConn in the Elite 8, with Ohio State beating Duke in the semifinal. Ohio State beating Kansas to win. (other FF team: Florida)

Hubert Davis - He doesn't even have Duke in the Elite 8 (another huge shocker). He has Texas over San Diego St in the Elite 8. Kansas beating Ohio State in the championship. (other FF team: Pitt)

Dick Vitale - Duke over UConn in the Elite 8, with Ohio St beating Pitt in the championship game. (other FF team: Louisville)

Interesting note - zero of the four analysts had UNC in the Elite 8, even.

Another interesting note - earlier, Kenny Smith made it clear how he was rooting for UNC, and was asked for his pick "other than UNC" to win it - and still said, "But UNC, yeah!" or something to wrap it up. Can you imagine the uproar if Jay Williams said, "Of course Duke will win it! but ok, if you push me, I'll go with Kansas."

pamtar
03-13-2011, 09:28 PM
As of today Texas is the only real threat - and that's if they're on a roll. I like our bracket.

Plus, I'm betting on #1 suiting up by the second round at the latest. Even if he wasn't, I'd still put actual American dollars on us making the FF....

Greg_Newton
03-13-2011, 09:37 PM
pretty much this. we are baffled by our seeding and not happy about it. now, it's a long way before we can think about a possible matchup with duke, we may not get out of the first weekend.

I don't like Texas being there, but on the other hand, they ARE 4-4 in their last eight, and only played 2 ranked teams in that stretch.

Really, we have four teams that are pretty big wild cards. Tennessee has been flaky, but is an extremely athletic and dangerous team that could give us trouble in the second round. Same with Texas in the third. SDSU is an unknown, really, but UConn is playing as well as anyone in the country now. Will they build on this past week? Or will they be worn out, and flame out early?

I could see any of those four teams beating us, and I could also see us blowing any of them out by 20.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 09:44 PM
pretty much this. we are baffled by our seeding and not happy about it. now, it's a long way before we can think about a possible matchup with duke, we may not get out of the first weekend.

I think Texas should have been the 3 in the SW with UCONN the 2 in that bracket. UK should have been the 3 in the SE. BYU should be the 4 in the East. Fla. should be the 3 in the West and Purdue the 4 in the West.

superdave
03-13-2011, 09:45 PM
Jay Bilas has UConn over Duke in the Elite 8 matchup (huge shocker), with Kansas over UConn in the championship game. (other FF teams: Syracuse and Pitt)

Digger Phelps has Duke over UConn in the Elite 8, with Ohio State beating Duke in the semifinal. Ohio State beating Kansas to win. (other FF team: Florida)

Hubert Davis - He doesn't even have Duke in the Elite 8 (another huge shocker). He has Texas over San Diego St in the Elite 8. Kansas beating Ohio State in the championship. (other FF team: Pitt)

Dick Vitale - Duke over UConn in the Elite 8, with Ohio St beating Pitt in the championship game. (other FF team: Louisville)

Interesting note - zero of the four analysts had UNC in the Elite 8, even.

Another interesting note - earlier, Kenny Smith made it clear how he was rooting for UNC, and was asked for his pick "other than UNC" to win it - and still said, "But UNC, yeah!" or something to wrap it up. Can you imagine the uproar if Jay Williams said, "Of course Duke will win it! but ok, if you push me, I'll go with Kansas."

Interesting. Bilas covered the BET so he's in love with the Big East teams. But look at the past few years when the Big East has been THE conference. Duke won it all in '10 and waxed WV in the semifinals. Unc won it all in '09 with both Big East teams going down in the semifinals. You have to go back to 2004 for the last Big East title.

I think the Big East is loaded with really good teams, but no great ones. Pitt does not scare me. Nor does ND or Louisville or UConn. All very good, all capable of getting to the Final Four, but none are scary.

Also, how much did UConn have to expend to win the BET? How much do they have left in the tank?

Starter
03-13-2011, 09:52 PM
IMO, having watched a good amount of both, San Diego State is definitely better than UConn. They'll do the same thing to Walker that they did to Fredette yesterday.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 10:01 PM
IMO, having watched a good amount of both, San Diego State is definitely better than UConn. They'll do the same thing to Walker that they did to Fredette yesterday.

I forgot when BYU got big men like Oriakhi or had complementary guards like Napier or Lamb. You are correct in that UCONN will only go as far as Kemba's teammates take them, but their freshman grew up very quickly.

But the last 2 teams to run through the BE tournament like UCONN were Pitt and Cuse (4 games in 4 days) and both were out by the first weekend.

But teams with one player seem to be a crapshoot. Curry and Griffin took their teams to E8's while Durant/Mayo lost on the first weekend. But very hard for a team with 1 star to make the FF.

dukelifer
03-13-2011, 10:02 PM
Jay Bilas has UConn over Duke in the Elite 8 matchup (huge shocker), with Kansas over UConn in the championship game. (other FF teams: Syracuse and Pitt)

Digger Phelps has Duke over UConn in the Elite 8, with Ohio State beating Duke in the semifinal. Ohio State beating Kansas to win. (other FF team: Florida)

Hubert Davis - He doesn't even have Duke in the Elite 8 (another huge shocker). He has Texas over San Diego St in the Elite 8. Kansas beating Ohio State in the championship. (other FF team: Pitt)




Dick Vitale - Duke over UConn in the Elite 8, with Ohio St beating Pitt in the championship game. (other FF team: Louisville)

Interesting note - zero of the four analysts had UNC in the Elite 8, even.

Another interesting note - earlier, Kenny Smith made it clear how he was rooting for UNC, and was asked for his pick "other than UNC" to win it - and still said, "But UNC, yeah!" or something to wrap it up. Can you imagine the uproar if Jay Williams said, "Of course Duke will win it! but ok, if you push me, I'll go with Kansas."


Last year Bilas did not have Duke in his FF- either did Digger and Vitale. Hubert did though. Actually- if you look at last year's picks- these "experts" were pretty bad. Billas had 1 FF team- Digger had 0, Hubert had 1, Vitale had 0

ns7
03-13-2011, 10:03 PM
CBSSports just tweeted this:

CBSSports CBS Sports
Friday Nantz-Kellogg on truTV- 12:40 Michigan-Tennessee, then Duke-Hampton. #onCBS UNC-Long Island, then Washington-Gonzaga

I guess we're on around 3pm?

SCMatt33
03-13-2011, 10:05 PM
Don't like having to play Michigan, with that weird 1-3-1 zone Beilein uses (although we seemed to handle it pretty well last March, at least as coached by Huggins). Still remember losing to Michigan 2 or 3 years ago.

Tennessee is 19-14, and about 55th in Pomeroy.

We played them twice in 08-09. We beat them pretty easily on a neutral court, even though we had a bad night from outside (4-19 from 3). This was before Nolan lost his starting job and Jon was moved to the point, and Nolan and Kyle were the top two scorers for Duke with 16 and 15.

They came back and got us at Crisler when Duke had one of those infamous super bad shooting games (Duke started the game 3-27 before hitting 4-6 in garbage time).

I don't mind the 1-3-1 since the coaches have experience scouting it, and the senior have experience playing against it.

Starter
03-13-2011, 10:08 PM
I forgot when BYU got big men like Oriakhi or had complementary guards like Napier or Lamb. You are correct in that UCONN will only go as far as Kemba's teammates take them, but their freshman grew up very quickly.

But the last 2 teams to run through the BE tournament like UCONN were Pitt and Cuse (4 games in 4 days) and both were out by the first weekend.

But teams with one player seem to be a crapshoot. Curry and Griffin took their teams to E8's while Durant/Mayo lost on the first weekend. But very hard for a team with 1 star to make the FF.

Yeah, those other guys are pretty good, I'm just saying. If Walker shoots 10-for-25 like Fredette against SDSU, UConn won't win a tournament game like that. I think San Diego State is real tough, man.

superdave
03-13-2011, 10:19 PM
Here's our bracket with the KenPom rankings beside it:

1 Duke 2
2 SDSU 6
3 UConn 17
4 Tejas 4
5 Arizona 25
6 Cincy 23
7 Temple 38
8 Mich 40
9 Tenn 55
10 PennSt 39
11 Mizzou 34
12 Memph 85
13 Oak 69
14 Buck 90
15 N Col 122
16 Hamp 211

Tejas appears to be out of whack. Their big games this year - L vs. Kansas in B12T, W @ Kansas, L vs. Pitt in November, L vs. UConn and W's over Unc and Michigan State. It really is a mixed bag vs. top teams. They also have some bad losses -SoCal, Nebraska, Colorado. I'm wondering if their defensive efficiency (#1 via KenPom) is inflating their ranking. Any of you stats gurus think that's possible? I would not bet on Rick Barnes though. Dont see it.

Reddevil
03-13-2011, 10:39 PM
For the second weekend how would travel work? Would the team stay on eastern time or get acclimated to pacific time? I know often NFL teams try to stay on their own "home" time, but they don't have to do it for four days. Anyone know?

mehmattski
03-13-2011, 11:12 PM
Here's our bracket with the KenPom rankings beside it:

1 Duke 2
2 SDSU 6
3 UConn 17
4 Tejas 4
5 Arizona 25
6 Cincy 23
7 Temple 38
8 Mich 40
9 Tenn 55
10 PennSt 39
11 Mizzou 34
12 Memph 85
13 Oak 69
14 Buck 90
15 N Col 122
16 Hamp 211

Tejas appears to be out of whack. Their big games this year - L vs. Kansas in B12T, W @ Kansas, L vs. Pitt in November, L vs. UConn and W's over Unc and Michigan State. It really is a mixed bag vs. top teams. They also have some bad losses -SoCal, Nebraska, Colorado. I'm wondering if their defensive efficiency (#1 via KenPom) is inflating their ranking. Any of you stats gurus think that's possible? I would not bet on Rick Barnes though. Dont see it.


Texas' rating isn't inflated, it's just based on their fairly extraordinary January. They played nine games (five home, four on the road). In seven of those games, their defensive efficiency was the best or second best that opponent experienced all year. This included an 87.9 DE in Allen Fieldhouse, and a 77.2 DE at Texas A&M. Since defensive efficiencies are adjusted by opponent and by site, it adds up to Texas having the best adjusted defensive efficiency by a wide margin. Message: margin of victory matters.

Granted, recently they've been less dominant, with poor efficiencies in their three losses. Is that regression, or teams playing better on offense the second time around?

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 11:14 PM
Zona in Anaheim or Texas? Not sure how much Anaheim would be pro-Zona as anywhere would be anti-Duke.
But Zona by all accounts seems to be Williams. Historically, big men are bound to get in foul trouble and they seem to have plenty of 6'6-6'8 guys but nobody with great size so Duke should have 3 guys (excluding Kyle) to throw 15 fouls at Williams. And have to expect they'll be able to pick up a chippy offensive foul or two.

Meanwhile, Texas is loaded with talent (and perhaps this is a case of the Pac 10 getting no respect), but Jordan Hamilton/Singler seem to be very similar players. They have a better post game and their guards are serviceable especially with a 6'3 PG in Joseph who and a shutdown guy with Balbay who could cause Nolan some issues.

sporthenry
03-13-2011, 11:21 PM
Yeah, those other guys are pretty good, I'm just saying. If Walker shoots 10-for-25 like Fredette against SDSU, UConn won't win a tournament game like that. I think San Diego State is real tough, man.

Well walker shot 8/22 vs Pittsburgh and UCONN still won. They also won @Texas when he shot 8/27. Of course they lost games when he shot poorly, but UCONN is far from just Kemba at least in the same light BYU is Jimmer. And in that Pitt. game, they only went 3/12 from the 3 so it means that Lamb and their guards can get to the hoop which doesn't go cold in the tournament. It'll take more than just shutting Kemba down to beat UCONN. Not saying SD St. won't do it b/c I don't know enough about SD St. but I think Kemba would be happy to defer to his guards and Oriakhi if SD St. tries to double him or take the ball out of his hand.

Starter
03-13-2011, 11:30 PM
Well walker shot 8/22 vs Pittsburgh and UCONN still won. They also won @Texas when he shot 8/27. Of course they lost games when he shot poorly, but UCONN is far from just Kemba at least in the same light BYU is Jimmer. And in that Pitt. game, they only went 3/12 from the 3 so it means that Lamb and their guards can get to the hoop which doesn't go cold in the tournament. It'll take more than just shutting Kemba down to beat UCONN. Not saying SD St. won't do it b/c I don't know enough about SD St. but I think Kemba would be happy to defer to his guards and Oriakhi if SD St. tries to double him or take the ball out of his hand.

Great points, backed up by stats. I do think SDSU is a better team than Connecticut -- and perhaps Duke -- but I can't argue any of your logic there.

loran16
03-14-2011, 12:03 AM
http://www.basketballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=673 if you haven't seen it. It gives the percentage odds for each team making each round of the tourney.

Duke has the 2nd best chance of winning it all, but only the third best chance (by a tiny margin) of making the F4, due to it's tough bracket:

Texas ranks as the 5th most likely team to win it all, and SDSU is ranked as #7.

sporthenry
03-14-2011, 12:04 AM
Great points, backed up by stats. I do think SDSU is a better team than Connecticut -- and perhaps Duke -- but I can't argue any of your logic there.

Well you know more about SDSU than I do so I will defer to you and I rely on the eye test so I respect what you say. But if Duke gets to SDSU, I'll be happy enough and I like Duke on 2 days rest vs. a mid major who seems to struggle to score at points.

Starter
03-14-2011, 12:31 AM
Well you know more about SDSU than I do so I will defer to you and I rely on the eye test so I respect what you say. But if Duke gets to SDSU, I'll be happy enough and I like Duke on 2 days rest vs. a mid major who seems to struggle to score at points.

SDSU was No. 6 on KenPom -- adjusted defense is fourth -- so it's not really just an eye test, a phrase I feel often has a negative connotation. I watched about 6-7 of their games this year, including all three against BYU, and San Diego State is a really physical, strong team down low with a solid senior point guard with a knack for clutch shots in D.J. Gay and an absolute stud in Kawhi Leonard. If Duke plays with the defensive intensity they played with today, I'd feel pretty good about the matchup. But they'll need to be ready for a very physical game.

San Diego State would have a slightly shorter trip to get to the game, too.

Greg_Newton
03-14-2011, 12:40 AM
SDSU was No. 6 on KenPom -- adjusted defense is fourth -- so it's not really just an eye test, a phrase I feel often has a negative connotation. I watched about 6-7 of their games this year, including all three against BYU, and San Diego State is a really physical, strong team down low with a solid senior point guard with a knack for clutch shots in D.J. Gay and an absolute stud in Kawhi Leonard. If Duke plays with the defensive intensity they played with today, I'd feel pretty good about the matchup. But they'll need to be ready for a very physical game.

San Diego State would have a slightly shorter trip to get to the game, too.

Yeah, it's worth noting that SDSU is an hour and a half from Anaheim. UConn and Duke - if they play them - will basically be playing them in a true away game. It would make the second year in a row in which we've played our Elite 8 game in our opponent's home state.

sporthenry
03-14-2011, 02:07 AM
SDSU was No. 6 on KenPom -- adjusted defense is fourth -- so it's not really just an eye test, a phrase I feel often has a negative connotation. I watched about 6-7 of their games this year, including all three against BYU, and San Diego State is a really physical, strong team down low with a solid senior point guard with a knack for clutch shots in D.J. Gay and an absolute stud in Kawhi Leonard. If Duke plays with the defensive intensity they played with today, I'd feel pretty good about the matchup. But they'll need to be ready for a very physical game.

San Diego State would have a slightly shorter trip to get to the game, too.

Personally, I like the eye test more and see no negative connotation with it. The only problem is we have different eyes. Are they a good penetration team? Against BYU the first two times, theys eemed to settle for outside shots.

uh_no
03-14-2011, 02:07 AM
What they just did to win Big East tournament is arguably tougher than what is required to win NCAAT.

maybe not the NCAAT, but the regional for sure....i am not looking forward to what I suppose will be the elite 8 matchup from this region :|

-bdbd
03-14-2011, 02:53 AM
Thrilled about the #1 seed due to the team's hard work today. ...And what's with Seth Davis saying it's a negative for us to go out west, rather than be in the East? Our fanbase is much more national than regional. He, of all people, should know that. Seth is NY-based and is probably focusing on Duke's fanbase bing stongest in the East - NC and then NYC (or DC) areas. He could also be focusing on the region's #2 seed playing the 3rd and 4th rounds, potentially, in front of a home crowd, just a couple hour from campus. (Ugh!) All that siad, I think our fanbase is stronger in SoCal than it might have been in New Orleans.


Is it geography over s-curve and over Big East deluge?
At least for the four #1 seeds it is based on the s-curve -- IOW, the #1 overall (OSU) gets the regionals location closest to them (NJ), then the overall #2 (KA) gets the next most closest Regionals locale (San Antonio over N.O. and LA), same for # 3 overall (Pitt - New Orleans over LA). Thought NJ might have been our favorite, I suspect we're not overall displeased with LA.


TEXAS as our 4 seed? I think they dropped a lot with poor play over their last ten games or so. But they are talented enough to compete well with anybody - not exactly the weakest #4 seed we've seen.



So Hampton and Michigan/Tennessee? Assuming we get past Hampton, who would you rather see of Michigan or Tennessee? Tennessee had some serious wins early in the season, such as at Pitt. On ESPN the talking heads were commenting that Tenn. has some serious overall athleticism - there's that word again (!) - that may give Duke fits. Go Maize and Blue!!!


A team that placed tied for 9th place during the regular season (uconn) gets a 3 seed? The unbalanced schedules caused by these mega-conferences makes things way more difficult to understand / evaluate. U-CON's march through five (5!!) BET games was epic. Walker is just on fire! (I'd love to see a Nolan-Kimba matchup in the Elite-8.) And of course there's little love lost between the two HC's and their programs. I actually have U-CON beating SDSU in the Sweet 16, setting up some great TV (UCON-vs-Duke) coming from Anaheim in 13 days or so...


I think I prefer Texas as a 4 seed instead of Kentucky or Louisville. Also, looks like Virginia Tech is out especiallly with VCU in!
The ESPN analysts - including Digger, Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis, Dick Vitale - were railing on about the "outrageous" VCU selection over VPI. And Seth G. issued a statement that was VERY biting, repeatedly insinuating that "someone on that committee obviously had an agenda... and it didn't include Va Tech." Jay Bilas had the best line of the night: "You know, we talk every year about these (bubble) teams and whether or not they pass the 'eye test.' Well this one (VCU over VPI) doesn't even pass the laugh test!" (to loud chuckles around the analyst table)


I am most worried about being in POD in Charlotte with UNC also being there. Duke fans start buying as many tickets as you can. I have been fretting about that all weekend as I sat in the Greensboro Coliseum watching NC pull out one miracle comeback after another. If Mia or Clemson hangs on, there's a very good possibility that NC gets dropped a rung and very well may not be coming to Charlotte. That said, I don't expect it to be nearly as bad as a fgew years ago when we basically played our 1st and 2nd round games in a hostile Charollte arena. As that year NC had been assured of playing there for weeks, and so their fans had gobbled up all available tickets. Not that they won't be there in force, but at least the Duke (and non-NC) fans should have anticipated this opportunity and acquired a lot of the tickets already. We'll see.

Hey, we did pretty damn good in front of a semi-hostile audience in Greensboro this weekend!! :rolleyes:


-BD "Hey, NC's path ain't all that easy, running through Syr in NYC area and then #1 overall seed OSU" -BD

hurley1
03-14-2011, 02:54 AM
i think duke's A game beats anyone else in the bracket...ohio state and kansas are the toughest......duke should soundly beat all of the rest....especially with irving back....and, he will play in the tourney....

-bdbd
03-14-2011, 03:12 AM
On ESPN, commenting on the strengths of the various regions (and probably recalling the haters' venom from last year about Duke's "easy path" (Ha!)) :

(Snickering) Well, the NCAA Selection Committee certainly did Duke no favors (this year) with who they put in the bracket."

The upper six or so teams in this bracket are overall very possibly the strongest top-6 of any of the four regions.

BD- "Hey, we'll deal with it. Bring em on." -BD

gam7
03-14-2011, 03:27 AM
On ESPN, commenting on the strengths of the various regions (and probably recalling the haters' venom from last year about Duke's "easy path" (Ha!)) :

(Snickering) Well, the NCAA Selection Committee certainly did Duke no favors (this year) with who they put in the bracket."

The upper six or so teams in this bracket are overall very possibly the strongest top-6 of any of the four regions.

BD- "Hey, we'll deal with it. Bring em on." -BD

Well, if we take care of our business, we'd only have to play at most 2 of those top 6. And everyone else in our bracket has to deal with the possibility of playing Duke.

-bdbd
03-14-2011, 03:31 AM
Ooops! I meant to say tht that was a Jay Williams quote...
:o

On ESPN, commenting on the strengths of the various regions (and probably recalling the haters' venom from last year about Duke's "easy path" (Ha!)) :

(Snickering) Well, the NCAA Selection Committee certainly did Duke no favors (this year) with who they put in that bracket."

The upper six or so teams in this bracket are overall very possibly the strongest top-6 of any of the four regions.

BD- "Hey, we'll deal with it. Bring em on." -BD

gam7
03-14-2011, 03:36 AM
The more I think about it, Texas should have been the 2 seed with Pitt and Florida should be our 4 seed. Texas played in a better conference, beat better teams and doesn't have those early season bad losses that Florida does. Oh well, go Oakland!

Texas is 4-4 in its last 8 games, including 2 losses to non-tournament teams (although one of those losses was to Colorado who should be in). I haven't watched them play much, but it seems to me that they may not be playing quite as well now as they were in the middle of their conference schedule.

sporthenry
03-14-2011, 04:07 AM
Texas is 4-4 in its last 8 games, including 2 losses to non-tournament teams (although one of those losses was to Colorado who should be in). I haven't watched them play much, but it seems to me that they may not be playing quite as well now as they were in the middle of their conference schedule.

Well Texas' losses came at a bad time, but it was a mere 3 weeks ago when just about every analyst was in agreement they were the best team in the country. Last year, they were #1 at one point, but that was the January 18th poll, so there drop to an 8 seed was much easier to fathom as they weren't even ranked going into the tournament. They were a top 10 team before conference tourney and probably should go up with only a loss to KU while BYU/Purdue had much worse losses.

But compare Duke with Texas. Texas lost on the road to two conference foes similar to Duke. (All 4 teams are in a relatively similar pool with Dukes being a little better). They both also lost to the other top team in their conference. So the only difference seems to be a home loss to K-state? Certainly Duke is ahead of Texas but does that 1 game and a few RPI differences in Va. Tech/FSU compared to Neb/Colorado really mean a 4 seed for Texas.


I'm aware some other things go into it and Texas had 3 other losses but Texas getting a 4 is very perplexing unless they dropped a line b/c of BYU but it seems very unfair that BYU gets to dictate so much of the seeding b/c of their inability to play on Sunday. They should be the one to drop a seed line if anything. But either way, Texas ain't no 4 seed with the likes of Fla., BYU, Purdue, or even Syracuse ahead of them.

wilko
03-14-2011, 06:58 AM
Hummm no point getting bent out of shape about it... we have play the games 1 at a time..

To Sum (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7-2Etc6c_0) no matter how you slice it this is still true...




I hope a Pope chooses the name "George Ringo" one day.....

SCMatt33
03-14-2011, 10:28 AM
One thing I'm a little wary about is having to go from a Friday-Sunday sub-regional to a Thursday-Saturday regional. (Assuming they make it that far) the team would have to drive back from Charlotte Sunday, get one day at Duke on Monday, travel across the country on Tuesday, have practice and media obligations Wednesday for a Sweet 16 game on Thursday. This is mitigated a little since our opponent for the Sweet 16 is in the same boat, but unless we get Memphis or Oakland, they won't have nearly as far to travel.

PumpkinFunk
03-14-2011, 10:39 AM
One thing I'm a little wary about is having to go from a Friday-Sunday sub-regional to a Thursday-Saturday regional. (Assuming they make it that far) the team would have to drive back from Charlotte Sunday, get one day at Duke on Monday, travel across the country on Tuesday, have practice and media obligations Wednesday for a Sweet 16 game on Thursday. This is mitigated a little since our opponent for the Sweet 16 is in the same boat, but unless we get Memphis or Oakland, they won't have nearly as far to travel.

If we're lucky, we'd be leaving for Anaheim on Tuesday morning. I can see the team leaving as early as Monday night simply because they will want some time Tuesday to practice in the arena as well, and with a long flight (6 hours) Coach K might want the team to go out early and get an extra night out there rather than having the jet-lag still hitting hard on Wednesday/Thursday.

BluePanda
03-14-2011, 11:31 AM
Texas in the Sweet 16 is just ridiculous, but if we beat Tennessee, Texas, SD State (or UConn), Ohio State, and Kansas on way to a national championship then we will have truly earned it.

But then again I wouldn't necessarily mind the Michigan, Oakland, Temple, UNC (for pure awesomeness), Butler (won't happen but again, awesome) path either.

UrinalCake
03-14-2011, 12:12 PM
A couple of thoughts:

- I think the Selection Committee had Duke and UNC penciled in leading up to the ACCT final. If UNC had won, they would have taken our spot at #1 while we would have been the #2).

- So a week after ESPN releases a Fab 5 documentary, and Jalen Rose comes out making inflammatory comments about Duke, we get a potential second round matchup between Duke and Michigan. Conspiracy, anybody? 8-)

texas
03-14-2011, 12:17 PM
so it turns out oakland university isn't in oakland, who knew? i'm guessing this means we won't get MC Hammer at the game, oh well. also, they go by OU which naturally invokes some rival hatred.

the good news is we get marv albert calling our game . . . YES!

94duke
03-14-2011, 12:54 PM
A couple of thoughts:

- I think the Selection Committee had Duke and UNC penciled in leading up to the ACCT final. If UNC had won, they would have taken our spot at #1 while we would have been the #2).

- So a week after ESPN releases a Fab 5 documentary, and Jalen Rose comes out making inflammatory comments about Duke, we get a potential second round matchup between Duke and Michigan. Conspiracy, anybody? 8-)

I believe this is contrary to what the committee chair said when asked this question last night at the end of the selection show.

MaxAMillion
03-14-2011, 01:00 PM
Texas scares me...they are probably the one team in our bracket that has the talent top to bottom to match up, I don't understand how they got a #4 seed. I also don't get how UF got a #2 seed. If we get by Texas, I think Duke will make it to the final four.

-jk
03-14-2011, 01:19 PM
I believe this is contrary to what the committee chair said when asked this question last night at the end of the selection show.

I'm not sure anything the Chair of the Selection Committee (any year, not just this year) says about the process is dispositive.

-jki

hurley1
03-14-2011, 01:25 PM
A couple of thoughts:

- I think the Selection Committee had Duke and UNC penciled in leading up to the ACCT final. If UNC had won, they would have taken our spot at #1 while we would have been the #2).

- So a week after ESPN releases a Fab 5 documentary, and Jalen Rose comes out making inflammatory comments about Duke, we get a potential second round matchup between Duke and Michigan. Conspiracy, anybody? 8-)

not to mention fisher is the coach at sdsu , who is also in our bracket......i hope we play them.....i want to see coach k spank fisher's butt one more time......

hurley1
03-14-2011, 01:26 PM
Texas scares me...they are probably the one team in our bracket that has the talent top to bottom to match up, I don't understand how they got a #4 seed. I also don't get how UF got a #2 seed. If we get by Texas, I think Duke will make it to the final four.

nobody scares me.....line em up and we will shoot them down.....

RepoMan
03-14-2011, 01:36 PM
I am most worried about being in POD in Charlotte with UNC also being there. Duke fans start buying as many tickets as you can.

I agree with this comment 100%. That dynamic is a bummer. I'd rather play just about anywhere else than in Charlotte with UNC fans. Will be like a road game in 2nd round

jipops
03-14-2011, 01:46 PM
If we get to the Sweet 16, it is no shoe-in we'll matchup with Texas. The Longhorns may still have to get by Arizona and the best pro-prospect not named Kyrie Irving in Derrick Williams. The guy is a force and opens things up for the Zona shooters.

OldPhiKap
03-14-2011, 01:55 PM
I agree with this comment 100%. That dynamic is a bummer. I'd rather play just about anywhere else than in Charlotte with UNC fans. Will be like a road game in 2nd round

Tennessee will show in Charlotte as well. Might be some rough sailing.

Better think back to the game @ Md.

wgl1228
03-14-2011, 03:14 PM
I have not read through this whole thread so forgive me if this has been said. I think Temple or Penn. St. will defeat San Diego St. in the 2nd round and St. Johns will take out BYU as well in the Southeast. I was just not impressed with these teams and despite their RPI they played nobody except each other.

gw67
03-14-2011, 03:54 PM
I've only seen SDSU play once or twice this year but I came away with the opposite impression. They have a strong frontcourt and Leonard may be more highly regarded than Singler by the pros. Their backcourt is better than average and four of their top seven players are seniors. I don't think that they are capable of beating the Devils but I would be surprised if they lost in the first or second round in Tucson. BYU may be more vulnerable to an early round loss but they are playing their games close to home in Denver.

gw67

noyac
03-14-2011, 04:01 PM
I know it is fun to discuss these things and to a point I enjoy it too but until it all shakes out there is no way of knowing anything. The experts thought Kansas had a tough bracket last year with OSU and Georgetown but it turned into (5) MSU vs. (6) Tenn. for the trip to the Final Four. That is what is so great about the tournament and why we all love it.

I think it boils down to what teams are playing their best basketball on both ends of the floor and what we saw yesterday was a determined Duke team that reminded me of last years team. Nolan was playing in your face defense against VT and UNC more than I have seen him all year. I saw a fire in their eyes that makes me believe that they are once again the best team in the nation.

The experts like to dole out upsets and the minions like to eat it up and say "Please sir, I want some more," but the simple fact is Duke is a number one seed and we are better than every other team in our bracket.

NashvilleDevil
03-14-2011, 04:11 PM
Tennessee will show in Charlotte as well. Might be some rough sailing.

Better think back to the game @ Md.

UT had no idea what pod they were going to be in or if they were going to the tourney so that could limit the number of fans. While I do agree that UT fans travel well their women's team will be getting a 1 seed and it may be better for Vols fans go to Knoxville than go to Charlotte. I also think that Duke having the earlier game may help with having to deal with an anti-Duke/pro-UNC crowd.

Troublemaker
03-14-2011, 04:23 PM
Definitely a tough road, but this Duke team is also constantly improving and playing with confidence and moxie. We have a team that's really coming together with a 7-man rotation that all contribute significantly, plus outstanding intangibles and senior leadership. However, we face a daunting bracket and the usual daunting mathematical odds of winning 4 in a row (40% chance according to Pomeroy's log5). My heart says Houston in April, my head says Durham. We will see.

Back to that 7-man rotation, though. It's really impressive how the supporting players have improved and carved out bigger roles for themselves from the start of the season until now. Mason, then Kelly, then Curry all jumped a level around midseason. And towards the end of the season, Miles and Dawk have jumped a level, improving this team yet another notch. Those 5 role players plus the two seniors combine to make Duke a very good team. Not as good as Ohio St, but as good as anyone else in the country, imo.

Nolan's the NPOY candidate and creator and emotional leader. Kyle brings the toughness and great size and shutdown defense on the wing, sporadic scoring outbursts, and quiet intense leadership. Seth is a sharpshooter who keeps Nolan rested by sharing on-ball defense and ball-handling duties. Mason grabs defensive boards and blocks shots and helps spearhead the defense with his talk from the backline. Miles brings great energy and strength and piles up offensive boards. Both brothers are adding hook shots to their repertoire. Ryan is a great big man sub off the bench who can spread the court and makes smart decision on both offense and defense. Finally, Andre is an opponent-scaring sharpshooter coming off the bench who can heat up at any time and swing games, and his defense is improving.

It's just a relatively complete team. A very nice 3-man rotation of bigs and a nice 4-man rotation on the perimeter. We definitely could use one more good ball-handler/creator off the bench, especially for potential matchups against defensive stalwarts Texas and SDSU. Maybe, just maybe, the basketball gods will allow that player to reappear for Duke in two weeks. At that point, we would have pretty much the perfect 8-man rotation.

gam7
03-14-2011, 04:27 PM
I have not read through this whole thread so forgive me if this has been said. I think Temple or Penn. St. will defeat San Diego St. in the 2nd round and St. Johns will take out BYU as well in the Southeast. I was just not impressed with these teams and despite their RPI they played nobody except each other.


I've only seen SDSU play once or twice this year but I came away with the opposite impression. They have a strong frontcourt and Leonard may be more highly regarded than Singler by the pros. Their backcourt is better than average and four of their top seven players are seniors. I don't think that they are capable of beating the Devils but I would be surprised if they lost in the first or second round in Tucson. BYU may be more vulnerable to an early round loss but they are playing their games close to home in Denver.

gw67

I agree with gw67. I mentioned this in another thread a couple weeks ago, but I have seen SDSU play several times, and they are very, very good. They actually remind me quite a bit of Baylor from last year. Temple and Penn State play at SDSU's preferred tempo (slow) and SDSU should cruise into the Sweet 16 (assuming they overcome early round jitters). I like Duke's chances against SDSU, but SDSU is far from a pushover.

Bluedog
03-14-2011, 04:52 PM
I also think that Duke having the earlier game may help with having to deal with an anti-Duke/pro-UNC crowd.

While that's true for the first round, the second round times have not been determined yet. And it's not like we really should fear an away game against Hampton, so the crowd is really only applicable for the second round. Hopefully if we're the second game, UNC loses to Washington so their fans just have no life left and go home....

Overall, while it's a tough bracket (I think the second toughest behind the East - Ohio State got somewhat jobbed), it's doable. I'd probably rather have TX as the 4 than Kentucky or Louisville. Neither TN nor Michigan scare me. Tennessee, though, has had multiple personalities this season with some great games and some pathetic ones. Michigan hasn't really ever looked too explosive to me, but I guess with their weird 1-3-1 zone we could have some issues if we don't shoot well. Temple - PSU seems like a very weak 7-10 matchup. Who would you rather play, Washington or Temple? UNC is going to have their hands full (although Washington better not overlook UGa for that matter).

MChambers
03-14-2011, 04:57 PM
Not sure if this belongs here, but did anyone notice that during the show yesterday, CBS cut to a shot of a team, supposedly Duke? The team didn't seem all that impressed with Duke being a #1 and, more importantly, my son and didn't recognize any of the players. I thought Coach K had employed ringers so that the team could get back to Durham.

Later in the show, they showed another shot of the team, and it turned out it was Kansas.

burnspbesq
03-14-2011, 06:37 PM
The team that could be the toughest is UConn. Not to say Arizona or Michigan or Tennessee aren't tough, but UConn just won 5 games in 5 days. They have some tournament magic going.

UConn matches up very badly with SDSU.

It took the Aztecs three tries, but they finally figured out how to mostly shut down Jimmer. It won't take them three tries to figure out how to mostly stop Kemba. And UConn has no answer for Kawhi Leonard.

If we get to the elite eight, I think it is much more likely that we will be playing SDSU as opposed to UConn.

sporthenry
03-14-2011, 07:01 PM
UConn matches up very badly with SDSU.

It took the Aztecs three tries, but they finally figured out how to mostly shut down Jimmer. It won't take them three tries to figure out how to mostly stop Kemba. And UConn has no answer for Kawhi Leonard.

If we get to the elite eight, I think it is much more likely that we will be playing SDSU as opposed to UConn.

Why does everyone think UCONN is Kemba? UCONN is hardly one player like Davidson or BYU. And I haven't seen much of Kawhi Leonard and I doubt UCONN shuts him down but they have Coombs-McDaniel and Roscoe Smith (a name most should recognize) who are 6'7 and 6'8 respectively.
UCONN has the bodies to throw at SDSU and SDSU isn't a very deep team and if foul trouble becomes an issue, UCONN will have the bigs left. UCONN has Oriakhi, Olander, and Okwandu. SDSU has Malcom Thomas. That is often the difference between mid majors and majors is that the majors have bodies and mid-majors can get away with having only 1 big man in conference but not against power conference teams.

wilson
03-14-2011, 07:04 PM
Why does everyone think UCONN is Kemba? UCONN is hardly one player like Davidson or BYU...You're right, but I don't think it's at all unreasonable to say that if you can contain Walker, UConn becomes considerably less formidable.

sporthenry
03-14-2011, 07:33 PM
You're right, but I don't think it's at all unreasonable to say that if you can contain Walker, UConn becomes considerably less formidable.

So if you are a 1 seed and you hold Kemba to 8-22 shooting you would say that you should win? B/c Pitt did that last week and lost. Sure he shot 8-23 and they lost to WVU but Lamb was also 2-8 in that loss as compared to 6-9 in the win vs. Pitt.
Or Texas held him to 8-27 when they lost to UCONN and Napier was 6-10 and Roscoe Smith 6-11. UCONN isn't a team that you can double Kemba to get it out of his hand like teams did to Jimmer or Curry b/c his supporting cast can win him a game. Not to mention, Kemba relies on driving a lot more than Curry/Jimmer did. Kemba shoots 34% from 3 so the best way to stop him wouldn't be to take it out of his hand but force him to become a jump shooter and limit his opportunities in the open court.

ajgoodfella7
03-14-2011, 08:25 PM
Here's a fairly in-depth breakdown of every team in the West Region:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=AqlVdedtHhrHDFUj9GaNwG3evbYF?slug=ys-2011ncaawestteams

hurleyfor3
03-14-2011, 08:34 PM
Can someone explain Tennessee to me? I'm not sure their profile is a whole lot more impressive than Virginia Tech's. Within the SEC the only interesting thing they did was sweep Vanderbilt. Somehow they managed to play Belmont twice at home. They beat Villanova... in November. They beat Pitt... in December, and reminiscent of VPI's signature win. Since the beginning of February they look like they tried to play their way out of the tournament.

Fourteen losses. How worried should I be if they're our R32 opponent?

(I'm just going to call them the Round of 64 and the Round of 32; can't get my brain around the "first round" now being the "second round".)

cptnflash
03-14-2011, 08:35 PM
Not worried at all about UConn, and something just doesn't feel right about SDSU. I think we either lose in the round of 16 to Texas/Arizona, or we make the final four. Hopefully the latter.

MB in MD
03-14-2011, 08:49 PM
I hear a lot of talk about Texas being underseeded (probably true) and a tougher matchup for us than we deserve. But think about how they feel. Instead of having to face a 2 or 3 in the sweet 16 they are looking at us!

ajgoodfella7
03-14-2011, 08:55 PM
Can someone explain Tennessee to me? I'm not sure their profile is a whole lot more impressive than Virginia Tech's. Within the SEC the only interesting thing they did was sweep Vanderbilt. Somehow they managed to play Belmont twice at home. They beat Villanova... in November. They beat Pitt... in December, and reminiscent of VPI's signature win. Since the beginning of February they look like they tried to play their way out of the tournament.

Fourteen losses. How worried should I be if they're our R32 opponent?

(I'm just going to call them the Round of 64 and the Round of 32; can't get my brain around the "first round" now being the "second round".)

I have to admit I am a little worried... they are talented, extremely athletic, but extremely inconsistent... I always get worried about crapshoot teams that can be great at times because you just never know.

hurleyfor3
03-14-2011, 09:02 PM
I have to admit I am a little worried... they are talented, extremely athletic, but extremely inconsistent... I always get worried about crapshoot teams that can be great at times because you just never know.

Except I don't see a whole lot of "great" in the results.

Michigan impresses me far more. Very respectable losses to tOSU (four points) and Kansas (overtime). No bad losses at all since the end of January. They look more like a six or seven seed.

sporthenry
03-14-2011, 09:09 PM
I have to admit I am a little worried... they are talented, extremely athletic, but extremely inconsistent... I always get worried about crapshoot teams that can be great at times because you just never know.

The scary part about Tennessee is that they have a star who can carry them past the first weekend in Hopson. All it takes is 2 good games from him and they are in the S16. And all of their losses are close. 4 of their conference losses came to UK/Fla. And they lost to a good UGA team and an underrated Ala. team. While not great losses, they were close games that could have went either way. 2 OT losses and 3 1 point losses in their schedule. Their last game vs UK came down to the wire and they were leading in the 2nd half in the game vs Fla.

ajgoodfella7
03-14-2011, 09:09 PM
Except I don't see a whole lot of "great" in the results.

Michigan impresses me far more. Very respectable losses to tOSU (four points) and Kansas (overtime). No bad losses at all since the end of January. They look more like a six or seven seed.

Well they had the capability to blow out Pitt, in Pittsburgh... I agree, there isn't a whole lot of it, but I still would feel uneasy about playing them.

Wander
03-14-2011, 09:13 PM
Can someone explain Tennessee to me? I'm not sure their profile is a whole lot more impressive than Virginia Tech's. Within the SEC the only interesting thing they did was sweep Vanderbilt. Somehow they managed to play Belmont twice at home. They beat Villanova... in November. They beat Pitt... in December, and reminiscent of VPI's signature win. Since the beginning of February they look like they tried to play their way out of the tournament.

I know you already know this, but where the games are played matter. Tennessee beat Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Villanova in New York, Vanderbilt in Nashville, and Georgia in Athens. Virginia Tech has only one win in their entire season as good as any of these, and that of course was beating us at home. They have zero road wins as good as any of these. That's the difference, and it's justifiable.

I guess I should edit to say this doesn't mean I think we'll lose. They concern me a little bit because they're a good team, but no more than George Mason, Villanova, or Butler would.

hurleyfor3
03-14-2011, 09:21 PM
Here are Tennessee's wins since the start of February. All rankings Pomeroy.

At #220 Auburn
Swept #131 South Carolina
At #32 Vandy
SEC Tournament vs. #102 Arkansas

against seven losses. Go back another week and you pick up wins at #70 MIssissippi and home against #231 Lsu.

Fine, they're tournament worthy, that was a bit harsh. Still looks like a 6/11 matchup rather than an 8/9.

ajgoodfella7
03-14-2011, 09:24 PM
The scary part about Tennessee is that they have a star who can carry them past the first weekend in Hopson. All it takes is 2 good games from him and they are in the S16. And all of their losses are close. 4 of their conference losses came to UK/Fla. And they lost to a good UGA team and an underrated Ala. team. While not great losses, they were close games that could have went either way. 2 OT losses and 3 1 point losses in their schedule. Their last game vs UK came down to the wire and they were leading in the 2nd half in the game vs Fla.

I was actually at the Tennessee / Pitt game earlier this year so I am basing my entire opinion off that one game. Admittedly, it's the only game I've even seen Tennessee play this year. But coming out of the game, I thought they were a top 10 team for sure. Not exactly sure of what has happened to them since (besides the whole Pearl suspension thing), but I just know how much they manhandled Pitt in that game. I think they only won by like 8 points, but it seemed like 20. I know its only one game, but it definitely left an impression on me.

ajgoodfella7
03-14-2011, 09:27 PM
Here are Tennessee's wins since the start of February. All rankings Pomeroy.

At #220 Auburn
Swept #131 South Carolina
At #32 Vandy
SEC Tournament vs. #102 Arkansas

against seven losses. Go back another week and you pick up wins at #70 MIssissippi and home against #231 Lsu.

Fine, they're tournament worthy, that was a bit harsh. Still looks like a 6/11 matchup rather than an 8/9.

I have no doubt that they aren't the same team as they were in December, but like I said, the Tenn / Pitt game left a lasting impression on me. My opinion of their potential is based on that one game, which is the only game I can remember seeing of them this year.

sporthenry
03-14-2011, 09:32 PM
I was actually at the Tennessee / Pitt game earlier this year so I am basing my entire opinion off that one game. Admittedly, it's the only game I've even seen Tennessee play this year. But coming out of the game, I thought they were a top 10 team for sure. Not exactly sure of what has happened to them since (besides the whole Pearl suspension thing), but I just know how much they manhandled Pitt in that game. I think they only won by like 8 points, but it seemed like 20. I know its only one game, but it definitely left an impression on me.

Yeah, it was a 20 point game with 10 minutes to go and Hopson was a ridiculous 10-13 for 27 points and he is 6'7. They also start another guard who is 6'6 but I'm guessing Singler draws Hopson. But I agree they beat Nova (who was a top 10 team) and blew out Pitt in Pitt and they looked very dangerous. And if Goins hits a 3, they all of a sudden beat Fla. They aren't better than Duke but it takes one game and they aren't a team like California where Duke can just show up and win.

devildm
03-15-2011, 10:13 AM
Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but the West's top four seeds are all in the top 10 of this weeks AP poll (Duke #3, SDSU #6, Texas #8, UConn #9). I've still seen comments this year about how Duke has the easiest road to the final 4...goes to show the blind hatred people have. I still think it's funny that #2 seed Florida is ranked 15 in the AP poll.

superdave
03-15-2011, 03:21 PM
No one in our bracket scares me, but plenty of landmines are laying around. I think Duke takes it based on senior leadership, really good D and newfound offensive balance.

Arizona -Texas is an intriguing matchup. I pick Zona based on having an elite player and it's just so easy to pick agains Barnes' coaching. Texas' deviation from the standard this season has been high - very inconsistent.

My biggest upset is Mizzou over Cincy and UConn to reach the Sweet 16. I've got SDSU as this year's K-State - inspired play, big shots, but falling in the Elite 8.

NashvilleDevil
03-15-2011, 03:50 PM
Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but the West's top four seeds are all in the top 10 of this weeks AP poll (Duke #3, SDSU #6, Texas #8, UConn #9). I've still seen comments this year about how Duke has the easiest road to the final 4...goes to show the blind hatred people have. I still think it's funny that #2 seed Florida is ranked 15 in the AP poll.

Joe Lunardi will not shut up about this when discussing the brackets. He picked Duke to the Final Four because of their "easy" bracket. As with all things espn I have learned to just ignore it.

The Gordog
03-16-2011, 09:52 PM
Does anyone know what time we will play on Sunday if we are fortunate enough to be there? All the brackets I see do not give times....

-jk
03-16-2011, 10:07 PM
Does anyone know what time we will play on Sunday if we are fortunate enough to be there? All the brackets I see do not give times....

I think CBS/Turner won't decide until they know all the match-ups - i.e., they'll let us know Friday night, late. My hope is that if we win and UNC wins they do a Duke/UNC double header at noon and 2:30. Of course I hope UNC loses, but that's a different thread.

-jk

tommy
03-16-2011, 10:37 PM
Rivals/Yahoo has a story up here (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=ap-tennessee-pearl) saying that Tennessee's AD doesn't know if Pearl will be back next year, that his job will be evaluated after the season, etc.

Who knows whether this could cause the Vols players to rally around their coach, get super focused, and cause problems in this bracket, or whether they would view him as a lame duck and check out? Or maybe neither.

“We don’t know the answer today,” Hamilton (the AD) said when asked if Pearl would be coach next season. “We’ve done a lot of soul searching about the direction of our program, and we’ll continue to do that, and we’ll decide after we’re out of the NCAA Tournament what direction it is that we’re going to go next.

“I love Bruce Pearl,” he said. “I think he’s done tremendous things for our basketball program, tremendous things for the Knoxville community, tremendous things for our University, but we’re also in a very unique situation right now with what we’ve gone through over the last nine months, our notice of allegations, other things we’re looking at with the program. We’ll make those kinds of decisions when we finish the NCAA tournament as to how we’re going to move forward.”

“The jury is out with what’s going to happen on that. He knows that, by the way,” Hamilton said.


Anyone interested in an orange sport coat in a 46 regular?

adukeforduke
03-17-2011, 03:09 PM
Im sure this has already been asked earlier in the thread so I apologize in advance. Who do you feel is an easier second round opponent, Michigan or Tennessee. I personally will go with Tennessee simply because they are more athletic than Michigan. Of course, all the controversy surrounding Pearl makes their team probably the most dysfunctional in college hoops right now. I really not too concerned with either opponent. Just curious what you guys think.

adukeforduke
03-17-2011, 03:15 PM
Honestly, I hope we get to play Uconn in the tournament. The only thing sweeter than knocking Kemba Walker out the tournament would be to beat UNC again. God I would love to see Kyrie and Nolan just completely shut down Walker. Then Nolan scores 40 with 10 assists proving that he is the better player:)

TNDukeFan
03-17-2011, 04:14 PM
Wait, wasn't that a travel? Temple's guy was pivoting with his left foot anchored, moving his right foot, then stepped through on his right foot and picked up his left before he shot.

I had Temple, so no sour grapes here, just curious...?

wilson
03-17-2011, 04:16 PM
Wait, wasn't that a travel? Temple's guy was pivoting with his left foot anchored, moving his right foot, then stepped through on his right foot and picked up his left before he shot.

I had Temple, so no sour grapes here, just curious...?No. He kept his pivot (the left foot), jumped off the right foot, and released the ball before coming down. So no travel.

wilson
03-17-2011, 04:58 PM
With regard to the San Diego St-Northern Colorado game, let me just say, for the one time in my life...
Go UNC!
Ugh. I need a shower.

wilson
03-17-2011, 05:56 PM
The overall quality of play in the San Diego State-Northern Colorado game so far has been, in my opinion, rather mediocre. This Aztecs team, if performing as it has to this point, does not particularly scare me.

cato
03-17-2011, 06:37 PM
The overall quality of play in the San Diego State-Northern Colorado game so far has been, in my opinion, rather mediocre. This Aztecs team, if performing as it has to this point, does not particularly scare me.

Do not sleep on the Aztecs. They thrive off of their D, so many of their games look ugly. I haven't had a chance to watch the game today, but from generally following the score online, it seems typical. A tight game, with a long stretch where SDSU held the other team scoreless and built a large margin.

ETA: final score: 68-50. When you hold the other team to 50 points, an 18 point win is a pretty big win.

gam7
03-17-2011, 06:46 PM
Do not sleep on the Aztecs. They thrive off of their D, so many of their games look ugly. I haven't had a chance to watch the game today, but from generally following the score online, it seems typical. A tight game, with a long stretch where SDSU held the other team scoreless and built a large margin.

ETA: final score: 68-50. When you hold the other team to 50 points, an 18 point win is a pretty big win.

Agreed. I've said it before and I'll say it again: SDSU is very good. Considering that the school had never won an NCAA tournament game in its history until today, I think this was a solid win. Obviously Temple will be a tougher matchup, but Temple likes to play at SDSU's preferred tempo and as a result, I think the Aztecs will win fairly comfortably next round.

gofurman
03-17-2011, 10:07 PM
Agreed. I've said it before and I'll say it again: SDSU is very good. Considering that the school had never won an NCAA tournament game in its history until today, I think this was a solid win. Obviously Temple will be a tougher matchup, but Temple likes to play at SDSU's preferred tempo and as a result, I think the Aztecs will win fairly comfortably next round.

one at a time... who knows who will even be there... respect all opponents ! Destroy Hampton.

though i would still be willing to look at michigan / UT - I want Mighigan .. UT has a higher ceiling I think ..think Marquette athleticism is what I think of with UT. That always scares me. UT rebnds better too. Michigan pre-season wasn't thought to be ncaa worthy while UT was top 10 pre-season... I think this is telling to what they are possibly capable of

others thoughts on UT / Michigan and who you would rather play?

bl33dblu3
03-17-2011, 10:26 PM
I think CBS/Turner won't decide until they know all the match-ups - i.e., they'll let us know Friday night, late. My hope is that if we win and UNC wins they do a Duke/UNC double header at noon and 2:30. Of course I hope UNC loses, but that's a different thread.

-jk

I'll be traveling back from ATL on sunday. so, i got the dvr to record all the games. no tbs/tnt games at 12 or 2:30....so that narrows it to TRU tv at CBS, until the evening games

hurley1
03-18-2011, 01:41 PM
I have seen several posts on here with people saying they are scared of Tenn.....playa please !!!......they make enough mistakes for duke to beat them easily....nothing to be scared of with tenn.....

NashvilleDevil
03-18-2011, 01:49 PM
I have seen several posts on here with people saying they are scared of Tenn.....playa please !!!......they make enough mistakes for duke to beat them easily....nothing to be scared of with tenn.....

They do make plenty of mistakes but I think people are scared if they put it all together for one game. See the posts about how they went to Pittsburgh and easily beat them.

sporthenry
03-18-2011, 02:04 PM
I'm more than happy to play Michigan. They are a very efficient team but don't seem to do anything amazing. Singler and Nolan have experience against the zone. And their offensive rebounding normally isn't this good.

Indoor66
03-18-2011, 02:05 PM
They do make plenty of mistakes but I think people are scared if they put it all together for one game. See the posts about how they went to Pittsburgh and easily beat them.

At the moment it doesn't look like they will play on Sunday - MI is killing them at the beginning of the 2nd half.

BD80
03-18-2011, 02:12 PM
I'm more than happy to play Michigan. They are a very efficient team but don't seem to do anything amazing. Singler and Nolan have experience against the zone. And their offensive rebounding normally isn't this good.

It will be fun to watch Nolan, Kyrie, Seth, Kyle, Andre and Ryan obliterate the zone.

I think the Plumlees will each have double digit rebounds.

Based upon UT's level of preparedness today, Pearl should be fired. Right now UM has hit 9-11 in the second half.

HaveFunExpectToWin
03-18-2011, 02:14 PM
Not watching any Big Ten games this year, I hadn't realized that Tim Hardaway's son was playing for Michigan. His dad has one of my all time favorite basketball player voices.

"I got skillz" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJQuKJtyaUw)

wilson
03-18-2011, 02:15 PM
I am pleased to see what appears to be a convincing Michigan win. I'm not saying that Michigan won't give us a game on Sunday, but I definitely think Tennessee's ceiling was higher.

6th Man
03-18-2011, 02:28 PM
Means absolutely nothing, but I find it interesting that our road to the Final 4 COULD come against teams we played for the NCAA championship in past years. Minus Hampton of course. Michigan in '92, Arizona in '01, and UCONN in '99.

NashvilleDevil
03-18-2011, 02:30 PM
At the moment it doesn't look like they will play on Sunday - MI is killing them at the beginning of the 2nd half.

It has been a clinic by MI since TN was up 6. And I love seeing a Tim Hardaway on the court. Have missed the UTEP two step in the league.

ice-9
03-18-2011, 02:34 PM
Michigan looks good - they play hard, together, and the offense is junky and confusing but works. Scouting and preparation are going to be key for our defense; I do wish they were the first vs second opponent of the weekend.

It's going to be a tough game. Here's to the Vols tiring them out.

sporthenry
03-18-2011, 02:38 PM
On another note, Texas looked good but beatable. They neutralized Benson b/c of Tristan Thompson's size but I don't expect him to have nearly as much success on either side of the ball vs the Plumlees as they won't force much inside and will provide an athletic big for Thompson to play over. I think Singler would match up well with Hamilton.
Curry and Dawkins will be able to cover Balbay since he isn't an offensive threat. Joseph appears to be a freshman as he struggled down the stretch so pressuring him similar to KM might be effective. Their bench of Lucas and Brown scares me a bit b/c they can shoot so hopefully we can guard them. Apart from Brown going off from 3 though, Duke should be fine if KI is effective for 15-20 minutes.

MChambers
03-18-2011, 02:40 PM
Michigan looks good - they play hard, together, and the offense is junky and confusing but works. Scouting and preparation are going to be key for our defense; I do wish they were the first vs second opponent of the weekend.

It's going to be a tough game. Here's to the Vols tiring them out.
If we beat Hampton, Michigan is an interesting matchup, because they are a jumpshooting team. They rarely get to the free throw line and they also take a ton of 3s. Of course, we usually do a good job of taking away the 3.

On defense, we did a good job against a 1-3-1 last year in the tourney. As I recall, one key is getting the ball to a good passer at the top of the lane. You get a lot of good shots if you do that, using ball reversal. Singler, Kelly, and Mason all might be able to play the role of being the big with the ball there.

Duvall
03-18-2011, 02:41 PM
Here's to the Vols tiring them out.

Yeah, I wouldn't count on that. The Volunteers look more like conscripts right now.

House G
03-18-2011, 02:41 PM
Man, Tennessee laid an egg. Sorry to see Bruce Pearl out. Michigan appears well-coached and alarmingly unathletic--sound familiar?

wilson
03-18-2011, 02:47 PM
Sorry to see Bruce Pearl out.Why? The way I see it, his players pretty much laid down and died on him today, because he's a lame duck, owing to the fact that he committed several egregious NCAA violations and then lied about it to anyone who would listen.
I have at times enjoyed Bruce Pearl's spirit, and I think he's a pretty good coach, but he deserves what's coming to him.

OldPhiKap
03-18-2011, 02:49 PM
Wow, Tenn looked TERRIBLE! And Michigan played very solid.

NashvilleDevil
03-18-2011, 02:53 PM
They rarely get to the free throw line and they also take a ton of 3s. Of course, we usually do a good job of taking away the 3.

They attempted 1 free throw today and missed it.

House G
03-18-2011, 02:54 PM
Why? The way I see it, his players pretty much laid down and died on him today, because he's a lame duck, owing to the fact that he committed several egregious NCAA violations and then lied about it to anyone who would listen.
I have at times enjoyed Bruce Pearl's spirit, and I think he's a pretty good coach, but he deserves what's coming to him.

I was being sarcastic. Pitino, Lavin, Pearl, Greenberg (oops, he wasn't in the tournament).

wilson
03-18-2011, 02:55 PM
They attempted 1 free throw today and missed it.According to Ernie Johnson, they are the first team in NCAAT history to make zero free throws. And they still won by 30. All the evidence you need that Tennessee quit. Michigan played well, but not that well.

wilson
03-18-2011, 02:57 PM
Sorry to see Bruce Pearl out.


Why? The way I see it, his players pretty much laid down and died on him today, because he's a lame duck, owing to the fact that he committed several egregious NCAA violations and then lied about it to anyone who would listen.
I have at times enjoyed Bruce Pearl's spirit, and I think he's a pretty good coach, but he deserves what's coming to him.


I was being sarcastic. Pitino, Lavin, Pearl, Greenberg (oops, he wasn't in the tournament).Oops. Sorry. At least I did a decent job (I think) of summarizing the reasons underpinning your schadenfreude.

MChambers
03-18-2011, 02:58 PM
According to Ernie Johnson, they are the first team in NCAAT history to make zero free throws. And they still won by 30. All the evidence you need that Tennessee quit. Michigan played well, but not that well.

According to Pomeroy, Michigan is 339th in the country in FTA/FGA. They also don't get many offensive rebounds. Interesting how extreme they are in so many measures. 12th highest in taking 3s.

OldPhiKap
03-18-2011, 03:12 PM
Tennessee didn't offer much in the way of defense today from outside. Like a shooting drill.

weezie
03-19-2011, 09:56 AM
Pat Riley was in the arena last night. Does he ever look good! Wow!
Rode in the elevator with him at the hotel. Encouraged him to take a good, long look at Harry Barnes and he laughed.
Then, suddenly, I found myself wishing husband had been detained somewhere far away.:D

turnandburn55
03-19-2011, 02:57 PM
From Luke Winn:

http://tourney.si.com/2011/03/18/day-at-the-dance-big-blocks-caa-power/?eref=sihp


Oh, and refs? The nation’s best shot-swatters are on to your whistle-swallowing ways in endgame situations. When asked about their defensive decisions, one day apart, Faried and Williams offered identical rationales:

Faried: “I said, they’re not gonna call this foul, because it’s the last shot. I’ve learned over the years that they don’t call that foul.”

Williams: “Late in the game most refs don’t call that. That’s why I went up so hard to try to block it and save the game.”

Wonder what Jared Jeffries' opinion is on this..........

devildeac
03-19-2011, 08:18 PM
Meanwhile, Temple and SDSU tied at 61 with about 26 seconds left in OT and SDSU with the ball after a Temple miss.

devildeac
03-19-2011, 08:21 PM
Meanwhile, Temple and SDSU tied at 61 with about 26 seconds left in OT and SDSU with the ball after a Temple miss.

SDSU misses shot with 2-3 seconds left. Going to second OT now.http://crazietalk.net/ourhouse/images/smilies/42.gif

arydolphin
03-19-2011, 08:26 PM
Obviously it's only one game, but SDSU is in double overtime with Temple, who Duke handled without much trouble earlier this season. Based on what I'm seeing, I'm not very impressed with SDSU, even if they get through to the Sweet 16. They do have the possibility to play a Butler-like game plan from last year, aka slow pace and tough defense.

Vincetaylor
03-19-2011, 08:35 PM
Obviously it's only one game, but SDSU is in double overtime with Temple, who Duke handled without much trouble earlier this season. Based on what I'm seeing, I'm not very impressed with SDSU, even if they get through to the Sweet 16. They do have the possibility to play a Butler-like game plan from last year, aka slow pace and tough defense.

I'd be shocked if UConn doesn't go to elite 8. I wasn't impressed by SDSU at all. Temple should have had it, but they were done in by missed layups and really terrible time management. The game was really close, but really poorly played.

devildeac
03-19-2011, 08:36 PM
And Temple totally fell apart in the second OT, scoring 3 points in the first 4:30 on 1/7 shooting. SDSU up 71-64 with about 10 seconds. Dang.

SCMatt33
03-19-2011, 08:46 PM
And Temple totally fell apart in the second OT, scoring 3 points in the first 4:30 on 1/7 shooting. SDSU up 71-64 with about 10 seconds. Dang.

They fell apart in both OT's. They did a tremendous job at getting the game to OT and defending the last possession in regulation, but starting with about a minute left in the first OT, they REALLY fell apart. They had the ball with a full shot clock and about 1:05-1:10 left where they could run their normal offense and get a shot with 45-50 seconds left and get a really good 2 for 1 opportunity, but they ran it all the way down and SDSU got it with the shot clock off. They got really lucky to make it to the second OT and just gave it away. I think the biggest play was down four, they got a drive down the middle for an open layup, but left it short. San Diego State promptly gave it back to Temple on the outlet pass, and they should have had an and-one, but after powering through the contact, Temple missed the lay-in and only hit one of two from the line. They had so many chances in the second OT, but really came up small with the bright lights on.

Bluedog
03-19-2011, 08:52 PM
Temple looked completely inept on offense. All of their players were afraid to take wide open 12 foot jumpers and continued to pass. They'd run 25 seconds off the shot clock by doing nothing and then pass four more times in the last five seconds and somebody would finally realize that they have to shoot. SDSU wasn't impressive either, but that doesn't mean they can't turn it on when they get basically a home court next weekend. In any event, based on that game, SDSU isn't very scary...But we have to take care of business first (and I expect UConn/Cincy to knock off SDSU if they play like they did tonight).

diveonthefloor
03-19-2011, 10:20 PM
Cincy? Are you serious!?!

Halfway through the first half, could be a decent sized upset.
May be a long night.

NashvilleDevil
03-19-2011, 10:32 PM
Cincy? Are you serious!?!

Halfway through the first half, could be a decent sized upset.
May be a long night.

Cincy needs to stop fouling. UConn has more than half there points from the foul line right now.

Trinity'10
03-19-2011, 10:38 PM
No way that was a flagrant foul... Don't know what game those refs are watching.

Bluedog
03-19-2011, 10:39 PM
And Cincy just gets hosed on a terrible flagrant foul call. Guy clearly going for the ball when Kemba was going up for a dunk. It always seems like Uconn gets to the charity stripe far far more than their opponents.

mr. synellinden
03-20-2011, 12:37 AM
From Luke Winn:

http://tourney.si.com/2011/03/18/day-at-the-dance-big-blocks-caa-power/?eref=sihp



Wonder what Jared Jeffries' opinion is on this..........

He might want to talk to Nasir Robinson or Shelvin Mack before answering.

-bdbd
03-20-2011, 01:28 AM
I assume most Duke fans will normally root against NC@CH regardless. But it seems to me that we have an extra rooting interest in the first Charlotte game on Sunday. So, if the Huskies can pull the upset - especially if by any decent margin - as the ACCT is my barometer, then 2/3 of the NC@CH fans will be gone by the end of the first game in Charlotte. It would leave a lot fewer 'haters in the stands for the second game of the day. Not that I need any extra incentive to pull for Washington there!!! :rolleyes:

If we were fortunate enough to pull it out vs Michigan - gosh, I am just so thrilled to get the opportunity to take on Jalen's old school this year in particular - then I'm guessing most Devil fans would pull against Texas, yes???

Move clock! Can't wait for 2:45 EST Sunday!!!

GO Huskies!!!

...

loldevilz
03-20-2011, 03:55 AM
Not to look to far ahead, but after watching UCONN today it seems to me that Duke absolutely needs to get Kyrie Irving back 100% and in the starting lineup for the elite eight matchup if Duke gets there. And there is little doubt in my mind that UCONN will be there after watching SDSU play today.

Duke will need to be able to put Kyrie and Nolan constantly switching off on Kemba so he cannot breathe let along score. As much as I love Nolan, I truly believe that Kemba gets the better of Nolan in the one-on-one matchup. Kyrie on the other hand has a nice history of shutting down great point guards like Kalin Lucas and Jacob Pullen.

On the offensive end, we will need his ability to get those easy buckets, because God knows there won't be many of them in that game.

billyj
03-20-2011, 06:05 AM
Not to look to far ahead, but after watching UCONN today it seems to me that Duke absolutely needs to get Kyrie Irving back 100% and in the starting lineup for the elite eight matchup if Duke gets there. And there is little doubt in my mind that UCONN will be there after watching SDSU play today.

Duke will need to be able to put Kyrie and Nolan constantly switching off on Kemba so he cannot breathe let along score. As much as I love Nolan, I truly believe that Kemba gets the better of Nolan in the one-on-one matchup. Kyrie on the other hand has a nice history of shutting down great point guards like Kalin Lucas and Jacob Pullen.

On the offensive end, we will need his ability to get those easy buckets, because God knows there won't be many of them in that game.

Nolan is a far better option at guarding Kemba. Kyrie, even prior to injury, gets crossed over sometimes. Not sure if it's focus or just lateral quickness in response time.

Indoor66
03-20-2011, 07:52 AM
Nolan is a far better option at guarding Kemba. Kyrie, even prior to injury, gets crossed over sometimes. Not sure if it's focus or just lateral quickness in response time.

Maybe it is experience?

dukeblue4ever
03-20-2011, 08:49 PM
We've got 'Zona next. Personally, I'm scared of Derrick Williams, but I think that if we shut him down Arizona still has a good supporting cast. The first half of the Arizona-Texas game was proof of this.

However, I'd still prefer Arizona to Texas—I was convinced that Texas could stop us.

ajgoodfella7
03-20-2011, 09:15 PM
We've got 'Zona next. Personally, I'm scared of Derrick Williams, but I think that if we shut him down Arizona still has a good supporting cast. The first half of the Arizona-Texas game was proof of this.

However, I'd still prefer Arizona to Texas—I was convinced that Texas could stop us.

I'm confident that Rick Barnes would have found a way to stop Texas had it come to that.

superdave
03-20-2011, 09:24 PM
I'm looking forward to Arizona. They are a good team with a really good player in Derrick Williams (19 and 8). At 29-7 on the season, they've done some winning.