And now I'm glad I can't see the Coastal game...ugh

This play in game is really a load of crap. It completely cheats the losing team out of the NCAA tournament experience.

Oh man, just realised NC State is playing South Florida in the NIT, unfortunately in Tampa. Sigh, I remember when I could walk to the Sun Dome for a game...

Herb Pope of Seton Hall got ejected from their NIT game against Texas Tech for punching a Tech guy in the balls...twice, on alternating possessions.

That program is a complete fuckin mess.

HARRRRRRRRRR!

W&M has been pretty fun to watch .. hopefully they can pull it off against UNC.

Has UNC always had the strip of color around their belt region? At first I thought they were just wearing really short shirts...

It looks like they wore some kind of throw-backs for their game at Carmichael.

Turnovers late are killing W&M and some bad 3-point shots..

Ah, well.

They should start calling this the Big 10 Tourney.. I think the Big 10 has won this tourney 3 years in a row now. It will be a little tougher this year though; I'm not sure Illilois will be able to win that many games in a row. Northwestern surely won't be able to carry the torch either.

Surprised to see the Hall get torched. Perhaps the Big 12 is the conference to beat. Tech has been a solid team all year other than in conference play.

Just going by tonights results the Big East wasnt very impressive. UConn by 2, USF lost at home, Seton Hall lost at home. Its worth noting for you finalizing your brackets.

That ended up working out really well for the NIT. Fun game to watch in Carmichael with the throw-back unis on UNC. Looked like the atmosphere even gave UNC a little desire to play.

Sorry to wade, bu hopefully you had a good time. It seemed like a great game to witness.

I think a lot of teams under perform in the NIT because it is a mental letdown for the players. Especially those from a big conference

True

It does seem like the team that usually wins this has a lot of good juniors on their team and use this as a building block to a strong season the following year. Often times it seems like the NIT winner has a strong season the following year.

North Carolina seems like a perfect team to win this. Not because of the juniors but because they will have a lot of returning starters and this would be a perfect building block for them to have a great season next year.

We'll see. I didn't watch the whole game, but I think that Pope being out due to his breaking the man code had to hurt Seton Hall. A lot of good teams in the Big 12 though and TTU was clearly in the lower tier.

Wasn't the only one tonight. Chris Paul was just ahead of the curve.

From the wire copy

The Tar Heels even got into the nostalgic spirit, donning the throwback uniforms from the 1957 national championship campaign that they had worn occasionally as part of a yearlong celebration of the program's centennial season.

Radii, is Drew coming back next year? People are speculating that he's gonna follow Alex back home and UCLA, USC, and Pepperdine are possible destinations

My primary bracket really hopes that isn't foreshadowing ;)

(I've got five BE teams in the Elite Eight)

Arizona State falls to Jacksonville at home.

I hate to put too much stock into these NIT games but with the crazy Big East tourny and tonights lackluster performance I am a little hesitent to pick a Big East team in a game as I see close.

This Pac-10 result confirms my thoughts on the Pac-10 this year.

I changed my Final Four tonight which is probably a huge mistake
Original:Kansas, Syracuse, West Virginia, Duke
Revised:Kanas, Kansas State, Wisconsin, Duke

I have Syracuse, West Virginia, Georgetown. Who else do you have? Nova? and?

Sorry Thomkal, but...woohoo! Go CUSA!

I hate the people that say anytime a big-conference team loses a game to a smaller conference one that they weren't "up for it" and didn't care.... but if there's one place in college sports that fits that bill, it's the NIT. (And possibly the CIT.) Go ahead and think that Seton Hall's 2nd best player punching an opponent in the nuts or UConn not getting up for Northeastern has any bearing on Syracuse or WV, but I sincerely doubt it.

Pitt (along with Kansas, Kentucky, and Duke)

Since there is very little to judge teams on outside of the conference you have to take all the resources you have available.

If you go through Syracuse who have they beat outside of conference games? I think the cuse is going to do fine but in a game in which I could flip a coin(Syracuse, Kansas State) I might as well take the information tonight and use it.

The same Seton Hall team that lost to Texas Tech by 15+ tonight has beaten Notre Dame, Pitt, and Louisville on their home floor.

The same Texas Tech team that beat Seton Hall on their home court got pounded by Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma State on the road. The games werent even close.

I dont think even Pope or not caring can make a 30+ point difference.

Texas Tech has also beaten UTEP and Washington. Since they finished 4-12(Big 12) perhaps the Big 12 is just loaded with good teams.

Ive been saying that Big 12 is underrated and Big East is overrated and getting shit on all year (reg season)

Going all the way up unto saying CUSE was overrated right up until the week they became #1. Then.........


I bet Lville ML to win outright.

I bet G'town to beat them in the tourney.

------------------------------------------------------------------

This means nothing (now, I got paid)

I know that.

Also, know that I watch more basketball than anyone in my yearly tournament pool of around 50. Most likely more than anyone in this forum. Still.

Havent won the bracket championship in over a decade.

I need to pay better attention to your comments. Any bets you like for the first round?

I like UTEP plus the points. I also like the Gophers. Anytime an 11 seed is favored over a 6 seed something fishy is going on.

I make more 2h bets than full game ones to see whats happening.


Really like ODU to win over ND, as long as its fairly officiated.

(Note: it will be fair or totally Irish sided)

Was it entirely losing Pope? No - Seton Hall also shot 5-26 from 3. Plus, sometimes shit happens in NCAA ball even when teams do care. Seton Hall beat Pitt then lost by 25 less than 2 weeks later. Texas Tech beat Ok St a month after losing by 29. I've watched less college bball this year than any I can remember, but I can guarantee a game between also-rans says nothing about which conference's top teams are better. If you're changing Final Four picks based off that, you had absolutely no conviction in the first place - but its the NCAA tournament. Pick a fair amount of chalk and then just names out of a hat - like B&B said, knowledge /=/ winning NCAA pools.

You are right. It is impossible to know how the top teams compare against each other based on conference results. You cant tell if Syracuse is better than Kansas State because they havent played the same teams.

What you can tell is who has played better competition as the results come in. The fact is the 9th,10th, and 11th best teams in the Big East all struggled tonight while the 10th best team in the Big 12 tonight dominated the 10th best team in the Big East on the road.

You can make a case that UConn wasnt up for todays game(doesnt make sense in my mind as they just got destroyed the last time out), Seton Hall had a guy kicked out or South Florida played a hot team. Its not simply these 3 events that sent the alarm bells ringing. If you watched any of the Big East tournament you would know it was the crazy. Three teams most of us considered threats to win it all lost their opening game. Lets just say that I think the Big East results in the postseason have been shocking. And there have been too many of them to simply ignore it.

What I hate is how this perpetuates the BCS schools are better crap. If UNC and UConn were put on the road, as they realistically should have been in the first round, they both lose last night. The home court advantage gave them both just enough push to win.

One of the MANY things I really hate about the "new" NIT selection process.

Interesting information I heard this morning about seeding. The NCAA selection committee was in contact with Mizzou regarding Justin Safford's injury this past weekend. I don't think it mattered all that much as far as where Mizzou would have been seeded before the injury (judging from the other B12 teams, Mizzou would have probably been a 7 instead of a 10, so they still would have faced a similar 2nd opponent if they won), but it does make a lot more sense why Coach Anderson dragged out the conversation of whether Safford would play in the NCAA tournament. On Monday, he clearly stated that Safford was out for the rest of the season while refusing to do that previous to the selection show.

UNC (a day after they beat Ohio St. handily) Cal, Florida, Memphis and Cornell.

At least some of those seemed impressive at the time.

It was good enough to give them the #3 non conference RPI.

Interesting. I obviously need to look again at the resume of some of these Big East teams and go over my bracket.

I think Syracuse did this with Onuaku.

On Friday, they issed a sunny side up press release, that was vague as to the nature and duration of his injury, but that he was expected at practice on Monday. Sunday night, after the bracket was announced, Boeheim said that he was doubtful to practice all week, and for the weekend's games, and that their hope was he'd be ready for the second weekend.

Final Coaches poll with how each coach voted week to week.

Top 25 coaches' poll: Every coach, every ballot from 2009-10 season - USATODAY.com

Pretty cool to look at, but seriously, Fran McCaffrey should never be given another vote again.

I think the coaches poll is so stupid in both BB and FB. I bet 70% of us see more teams than the coaches do. They are focused on who is in front of them. How many times has McCaffrey seen New Mexico or Butler play?

Luckily for the BE teams in the NCAA, Seton Hall and UConn stink and aren't a reflection on their programs.

The two teams you refer to as "stink" have beaten Pitt, West Virginia, Villanova, Georgetown, Notre Dame and Louisville this year.

Which is why some are questioning how good those teams really are. But no need to speculate very long. We'll know a lot more by Sunday evening. That's the beauty of college basketball.

Both teams were capable of beating anyone in the conference and both were capable of losing to anyone.

Seton Hall has serious issues in their program and it's shown in their inconsistent play. Bobby Gonzalez ended up benching their best player at one point because he got sick of his bullshit and as we saw last night Pope has his own issues. This was a team that was fully capable of imploding the way it did. I don't think it was a shock to any Big East fan.

UConn beat Texas, WVU, and Notre Dame. However, they also lost to Michigan, Providence, Saint John's, and Cincy twice. This was a poorly coached UConn team and Calhoun's time away from the team probably had a lot to do with it. They had lost 4 in a row heading into last night's game and looked awful against Saint John's in the BET.

Assuming Ed Davis goes pro they'll only be returning 2 starters. Before Davis' injury they started Drew/Ginyard/Graves/Davis/Thompson. Henson and Zeller got more minutes when Davis went down so that probably helped.



I don't read a much local rumor type stuff, but I do listen to a fair amount of local talk sports radio and I have never heard this discussed.

If Drew transferred UNC would only be returning one starter.

Some people are conveniently forgetting the Big East running roughshod over the nonconference portion of the schedule.

What are you talking about? I LOVE the way that guy votes!

This is what I was just looking at actually(tourny teams games against top 9 seeds)
Syracuse
beat Cal 95-73

West Virginia
beat Texas A&M 73-66
beat Ohio State 71-65
Lost Purdue 62-77

Villanova
beat Maryland 95-86
lost Temple 65-75

Pitt
Lost Texas 62-78

Marquette
beat Xavier 71-61
Lost Florida St 56-57
Lost Wisconsin 63-72

Louisville
Lost UNLV 71-76
Lost Kentucky 62-71

Georgetown
beat Temple 46-45
beat Butler 72-65
beat Duke 89-77

Notre Dame
N/A

8-7 vs teams seeded 9th or higher.

cheer all you want Jeebs, UAB certainly deserved to win that game. Coastal really needs to get more physical if they want to take it to the next level.

Just for the record, the Big 12 had the top record against the other power conferences (28-12) and the ACC is second (24-21). The Big East was third.

Nice - we can throw Kentucky and Duke out too since they lost to South Carolina and NC St respectively. Among top Big 12 teams Baylor's got losses to Alabama and Colorado and Kansas St lost to Iowa St last week. Shit happens, particularly if you're playing extremely talented headcases like SH and UConn are full of - exactly the type to pack it in during the NIT.

Relax

This is for people interested which obviousy you arent interested in comparing conferences. Basically it sounds like you dont agree Seton Hall and UConn stink so why are you giving me shit about it?

I don't think you can use the transitive property when discussing college basketball. Just because team A beat team B and Team B beat team C it doesn't mean team A is better than C. When dealing with 18-20 year old kids there are a lot of other factors involved.