2023 NCAAM South Regional Thread (ɐɯɐqɐl∀, ɐuozᴉɹ∀, ɹolʎɐq, ɐᴉuᴉƃɹᴉΛ)

[ChrisP]

Oh come on, State! Pretend that other jersey says "Duke" 🙄

[DoubleBlue]

Oh come on, State! Pretend that other jersey says "Duke" ��

Terquavion heard you. Monster slam!

[kako]

Did I just hear one of the State game refs name was Tim Clougherty???? He's one of the bozos that reffed the UVA/Duke game.

9F

[ChrisP]

Annnnd he steps out of bounds - DOH!

(After leaving a corner 3 wide open). Better muck next year, State

[MartyClark]

Terquavion heard you. Monster slam!

I don't get his parents' desire to give him a crazy first name. I think of turduckens and refer to him as "Turduckian".

[ChrisP]

Furman down 14 at half to the Aztecs. Not exactly making UVA (or, by extension, the ACC) look very good. I had a feeling that Furman would get crushed today. 🙄

At least it doesn't appear a long, drawn out foul fest or OT is likely though 👍

[kako]

SDSU's defense looking very solid, holding Furman to no baskets for 10 minutes+. They have 7 seniors in their rotation. The Mountain West hasn't produced in the tourney for years, but SDSU looks pretty good. Granted, they have just played a 12 seed and a 13 seed now. But I wouldn't relish playing them. They might have a chance against Bama.

9F

[AGDukesky]

SDSU's defense looking very solid, holding Furman to no baskets for 10 minutes+. They have 7 seniors in their rotation. The Mountain West hasn't produced in the tourney for years, but SDSU looks pretty good. Granted, they have just played a 12 seed and a 13 seed now. But I wouldn't relish playing them. They might have a chance against Bama.

9F

Yeah the key has been the ability to get good looks inside. Not sure that will be easy against Alabama though.

[kako]

Yeah the key has been the ability to get good looks inside. Not sure that will be easy against Alabama though.

Well, I said "a chance".

350.jpg

9F

[CameronDuke]

Ole Furman appears they were a one trick pony.

[AGDukesky]

Ole Furman appears they were a one trick pony.

Yeah this feels over. Go #5 seeds?

[CameronDuke]

Yeah this feels over. Go #5 seeds?

Go 5* seeds.

*Duke is alarmingly underseeded .

[Edouble]

And even in 2019 the Cavs got a lot of breaks. First, they had the softest region. Duke was the overall #1, but had the toughest region.

Second, they were extremely fortunate to get past Purdue. As Forde said, the winning shot nearly was late.

Third, in the semis, they played a wounded Auburn team, missing a starter. Even then, it took a bad no call (missed double dribble on Ty Jerome) to allow UVA to beat Auburn.

Fourth, in the finals, Texas Tech had a starter playing on a badly sprained ankle.

I sometimes think about what would have been had Zion and Co. been in that regional. Not that I'm still bitter. . .

We were 4-0 against the Final Four teams that season. I'm still sick about the lack of a Final Four for that team.

For all the good luck that that Virginia team needed to win the championship, they had equal measures of bad luck in several of their tournament upsets, particularly the injury to Hunter in the UMBC loss and the Syracuse game as a whole.

[dukelifer]

Princeton winning big. Bama might walk into the FF.

[Norman Pfyster]

I'm trying to figure out if Princeton's D is that good or they just happened to luck into two teams that (i) can't shoot to save their lives and (ii) can't run an offense to get good looks at the basket.

[DarkstarWahoo]

Omnibus UVA reply, having not read the entire thread:

- These upside-down thread titles are breaking my brain.
- I now personally rate Clark-to-Diakite ahead of Hill-to-Laettner in the annals of tournament passes because it allows for the nice symmetry of the same guy throwing the best and worst passes in tournament history. (My real take is that one of them is 1 and the other is 1a, and I rate Clark ever so slightly higher because of homerism and because it was during live action, and I'd expect to generally see the opposite take here both because of homerism and more considered, very legitimate arguments, and that's a fun offseason discussion at some point.)
- UVA postseason struggles, longer-term: Others have pointed out the injury history in these games, and while tons of teams deal with injuries and bounce back, the right-before-the-tournament wrench does seem to happen a lot to UVA (Anthony Gill in 2014, Justin Anderson in 2015, Hunter in 2018, Vander Plas this year). It's not an excuse, but a lot of the early exits do have that factor in common.
- UVA postseason struggles, shorter-term: Since the title, UVA has had exactly one team that finished in the top 100 in 3-point shooting - the Huff/Hauser/Murphy year in 2020-21 was 23rd, and that team wasn't allowed to practice ahead of its first-round game because of a COVID outbreak started by a Heel. Every other team since Guy and Jerome left has had a pretty significant shooting deficiency. I don't really think it's much deeper than that, although the slow pace and relative lack of possessions certainly magnify bad shooting nights (whether or not there's some degree of anus-puckering going on).
- UVA postseason struggles, 2022-23: This team was a slightly upgraded version of the NIT team from last year, largely with the same players other than contributions from McKneely, Dunn, and BVP. They were improved for sure, but built the bulk of their seeding case early in the year when all that experience gave them an advantage over younger teams. That advantage naturally diminished as other teams gained experience together and they became more and more vulnerable.
- One small observation in the micro: I have no idea what Tony was doing with Kadin Shedrick this year and hope it doesn't bite UVA next season.

At the end of the day, like most teams, UVA is really dangerous when it has NBA talent and a threat to go out early when it doesn't. This was one of the latter years.

[kako]

For all the talk about double-digit seeds and tournament upsets this year, I just recognized the fact that only 1 double-digit seed made the S16: Princeton.

Not sure if there's a definitive reason why. Certainly there are more upsets because the talent on NCAA teams is spreading out across D1 now, as opposed to before when talent had to sit on someone's bench and bide their time unless they were willing to sit out a year transferring (and even get permission to transfer!). The transfer portal has made a difference. Still, the upper seeds got most of the slots in the 2nd weekend. Why?

-One possibility that could explain this is that the lower seeds can certainly win a game, but then they get excited and can't get themselves together enough to win 2 games in a row. They might have not been just happy to be in the tourney, but they are certainly happy now that they won a game. And they lose focus.

-Another possibility is that while the talent level of players have spread out, the talent level spread among coaches is still the same. Perhaps lower level coaches and staffs aren't good enough or experienced enough to game plan for the 2nd round so quickly. The higher seeds, expecting to win, may perhaps devote some resources to scout and plan all possible teams, while the underdogs don't even think about the 2nd round at all.

-Another possibility is that the higher seeds still have great talent, and they are simply just better. If a team would have underclassmen sitting on their benches or only getting minimal minutes, those players might transfer and do better at another school where they can start and get experience. However, the school where they transferred from still has the talent to win, so they can and do often.

Not sure at all, and there could be other reasons. So I'd be interested to see what people think.

9F

[Orange&BlackSheep]

No, it's certainly not fair. No such generalization is. However, school reputations are school reputations. And Zona gagged, again, big time.

9F

Hello, friends. Long time, no contribute, but lurk I have. Several points I would like to make in response to some questions within this thread.

(1) We do in fact play good defense. We have athletes at every position (we had 6 blocks to Arizona's 1 block) and were not outrebounded in either game last weekend. Freshman Caden Pierce has Indianapolis Colt WR Alec Pierce as a big brother.
(2) Arizona had some early success dumping the ball into the post and the result of which was their focus on repeating that strategy. This seemed to have their guards playing out of rhythm and hesitant to pull the trigger. That coupled with the fact that their bigs are both black holes meant a pass inside always resulted in a shot for better or worse. I can't remember any kickouts to open shooters.
(3) We shot the ball horrifically from 3 with many of those being open looks. And yet there we were still in the game. Senior guard Ryan Langborg came up huge for us taking tough shots to take the lead then go up three. His confidence continued against Missouri as he consciouslessly chucked 'em up from anywhere and everywhere en route to 15 first half points.
(4) Our thrashing of Missouri was one of the least stressful basketball games I have witnessed since 1998 when we were absolutely rolling teams on our way to a AP Top 25 ranking and #5 Seed.
(5) We have been listed as "other" at the top of this thread yet remain one of four teams left. Do better DBR

In homage to Max Johns (Princeton '22), bench/practice player extraordinaire for the Blue Devils this year, I humbly request full-throated support from The Brotherhood and Duke nation as we face Creighton this Friday in Louisville. I flew out to Sacramento in one of my life's greatest decisions to witness the glory of downing Arizona and earning a lifetime of bragging rights over Duke-hating Richard Jefferson. I will be driving to Louisville to bear witness. Be with me in spirit.

I remain the Grandson, son, nephew, nephew, nephew, brother, brother, and cousin to Duke grads which makes me:

the Orange&BlackSheep of the family

O&BSheepSacramento.jpg

[kako]

Hello, friends. Long time, no contribute, but lurk I have. Several points I would like to make in response to some questions within this thread.

(1) We do in fact play good defense. We have athletes at every position (we had 6 blocks to Arizona's 1 block) and were not outrebounded in either game last weekend. Freshman Caden Pierce has Indianapolis Colt WR Alec Pierce as a big brother.
(2) Arizona had some early success dumping the ball into the post and the result of which was their focus on repeating that strategy. This seemed to have their guards playing out of rhythm and hesitant to pull the trigger. That coupled with the fact that their bigs are both black holes meant a pass inside always resulted in a shot for better or worse. I can't remember any kickouts to open shooters.
(3) We shot the ball horrifically from 3 with many of those being open looks. And yet there we were still in the game. Senior guard Ryan Langborg came up huge for us taking tough shots to take the lead then go up three. His confidence continued against Missouri as he consciouslessly chucked 'em up from anywhere and everywhere en route to 15 first half points.
(4) Our thrashing of Missouri was one of the least stressful basketball games I have witnessed since 1998 when we were absolutely rolling teams on our way to a AP Top 25 ranking and #5 Seed.
(5) We have been listed as "other" at the top of this thread yet remain one of four teams left. Do better DBR

In homage to Max Johns (Princeton '22), bench/practice player extraordinaire for the Blue Devils this year, I humbly request full-throated support from The Brotherhood and Duke nation as we face Creighton this Friday in Louisville. I flew out to Sacramento in one of my life's greatest decisions to witness the glory of downing Arizona and earning a lifetime of bragging rights over Duke-hating Richard Jefferson. I will be driving to Louisville to bear witness. Be with me in spirit.

I remain the Grandson, son, nephew, nephew, nephew, brother, brother, and cousin to Duke grads which makes me:

the Orange&BlackSheep of the family

O&BSheepSacramento.jpg

Other than people protecting their brackets, I would think there are few posters on DBR that wouldn't like to see your team win. Best of luck!

9F

[Bob Green]

San Diego State playing tough defense against Alabama. This one is interesting as halftime approaches.