mmmmm...bacon
great point, but in addition to that, Duke also put MP1 in the league (still there), Andre Dawkins (cup o'tea only), and Nolan Smith. We will never know, but i continue to believe that Jon Scheyer would have made a damn fine player in the NBA had he not had his eye poked out (slight exaggeration). Zoubek may have been able to carve out a minor role had he not gotten injured in pre-season camp as well. So even though Duke may not have had the single best player on the court, they had more total pro potential spread amongst its players than did Butler.
These are great points.
Here are some numbers on 2010 and 2015 by the Bart Torvik ranks of the teams we played
2010: 233, 14, 12, 8, 6, 15
2015: 188, 30, 7, 8, 13, 3
If anyone tells you that Duke had an easy path in 2010, you can tell them that Duke beat 5 top 15 teams in the tournament that year.
For comparison, here is UNC's path last year
2017: 218, 35, 25, 7, 12, 1
They did play Gonzaga in the championship, so they earned it in the end, but their path to the championship was likely one of the easier roads to a final.
To be fair, one of those top-15 teams in 2010 was a shell of itself in the tourney. Purdue had just lost its best player for the year before the tournament. But, yeah, we played Baylor in Houston and Butler in Indianapolis. And West Virginia (though their best player tore his ACL in our game) and Cal. It wasn’t an easy schedule. It was easier than it could have been, but not easy.
Here's the record of the SW16 teams in the regular season when they faced other SW16 teams.
W L PCT Duke 3 0 1.000 Villanova 1 0 1.000 Kansas 10 1 0.909 Purdue 2 1 0.667 Texas Tech 5 3 0.625 Florida State 2 2 0.500 Kentucky 2 2 0.500 Texas A&M 2 2 0.500 West Virginia 4 6 0.400 Michigan 1 2 0.333 Clemson 1 3 0.250 Syracuse 1 3 0.250 Kansas State 0 7 0.000 Gonzaga 0 1 0.000 Nevada 0 1 0.000 Loyola Chicago 0 0
My (somewhat fuzzy) memory tells me that the injury happened with only three or four minutes left in the game and Duke winning by almost 10. So it is likely we would have won anyways. I remember Zoubek came over and drew a charge, the WVU player got hurt, and Bob Huggins yelled something like "they get every call!" I also remember the player's last name was Butler, which was notable because our next game was against Butler the team.
Funny that I can recall all of these details, yet I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday
I think that Duke was winning by something more like 20 at the time. The injury was extremely unfortunate, but it in no way affected the outcome. That game had been decided long before. Duke was completely unstoppable that game. I think it’s safe to say that it was the second best game that Duke played that entire season (nothing beats 82-50 and while the beat down of Maryland in Cameron and the emergence of Zoubek was fun, the stakes just weren’t as high). No one would’ve beaten us that day.
Also, I definitey recall that the committee had taken Robbie Hummel’s injury into account when seeding Purdue at 4. That team still had some talent. I won’t lie and say it was the most difficult Sweet 16 test, ever, but it was an appropriately tough draw for a 1 seed in the Sweet 16 and hardly a gimme.
Yes, although I would argue that even a 4/5 was probably a bit too high. They were probably more like a top-25 or top-30 team (so a 6 or 7 seed) without Hummel, not a top-15 team (4 seed).
Again, though, it isn’t like our draw was easy. We still got a top-15 team in Cal in round 2, a top-10 team in the Elite-8 essentially on the road, and a top-5 team in West Virginia. And we played a top-15 team on the road in the title game.
Butler got hurt with about 9 minutes left, with us up by 15 and them with the ball. So, yes, we were likely to win, but it was far from decided.
I'll be interested to see how the Big 12 does. The volume of games for Big 12 among Sweet 16 numbers are skewed because the Big 12 gets a double round robin and the ACC does not. That said, even non-con, KU had just a ridiculous schedule this year and managed it pretty well (other than the two losses to Okie St and the home loss to Az St.). All of the Big 12 teams left have massive weaknesses, and you can argue that K State is the weakest team remaining in the tourney. I wouldn't be stunned if they all lost Thu/Fri. That said, I think KU and even Tech could win it all. I just don't see WVU getting by 'Nova. That's a horrible matchup for WVU, but Huggy Bear has surprised before (2010).
If I were Nova my concern is that even if I beat WV, my perimeter players would have taken such a beating physically that they will not recover quickly enough to be spry for the next game, especially if the next game is against another team with very physical defense like TTech.
The Sweet 16 games start tonight (with the South and West Regions).
First, a few links.
Andy Katz, now of NCAA.com, ranks the 16 teams. Duke, Kansas, and Clemson are in the Top 5, all ahead of Kentucky. The bottom 3 are Nevada, Loyola-Chicago, and Kansas State.
Myron Medcalf, still at ESPN, reseeds the Sweet 16 because he hates overachieving teams and everyone who filled out a bracket. Duke and Clemson are in the Top 3, Kansas is #10, and Kansas State is again at the bottom.
From The Sporting News, CBS defends their exploitation of crying kids in their telecast. Not the players when they lose, the actual children in the stands. My reaction quickly goes from "Well, they're learning a valuable lesson after expectations and disappointment early in life" to "I feel like the camera is lingering on this for too long." Crying Duke Kid from the 2004 ACC Tournament has to be at least college age now, right? What's his opinion? Is he on DBR?
Awful Announcing had its readers rank the broadcasting teams so far in the NCAA Tournament. They liked that Jim Nantz was there to announce UMBC's win over Virginia, but they felt the broadcast "lacked that one moment we'll remember." Four of their top five broadcasting teams made it to the next round, as you'll see below.
Second, the announcers by region.
South (Atlanta), Thursday: Brian Anderson, Chris Webber, Lisa Byington
West (Los Angeles), Thursday: Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner, Dana Jacobson
East (Boston), Friday: Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel, Allie LaForce
Midwest (Omaha), Friday: Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery, Tracy Wolfson
Third, a team name/mascot breakdown of the Sweet 16.
DBR Chat, which was pleasant last weekend, but not in a Jim Nantz milquetoast way, had a continuing discussion about the Chinese Year of the Dog, NCAA Tournament mascots, and the never-ending struggle between cats and dogs.
Felines (4): Kansas State Wildcats, Kentucky Wildcats, Villanova Wildcats, Clemson Tigers
Canines (4): Loyola-Chicago Ramblers (wolf mascot), Nevada Wolf Pack, Gonzaga Bulldogs, Texas A&M Aggies (rough collie mascot)
Bipeds (5): Florida State Seminoles, West Virginia Mountaineers, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Purdue Boilermakers, Duke Blue Devils
Other Animals (2): Michigan Wolverines, Kansas Jayhawks
Fruit (1): Syracuse Orange
Fourth, there will be chat Thursday and Friday nights.
The games Thursday are Loyola-Chicago vs. Nevada, Texas A&M vs. Michigan, Kansas State vs. Kentucky, and Florida State vs. Gonzaga. That's a four dog night.