2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

[mauchow]

WOW....

Northwestern just got jobbed, should be a 3 point game instead a technical and a 7 pt lead.. WOW...

The Gonzaga defender put his hand through the hoop to block the shot and uh.... yeah, Collins flies out onto the floor and got the Technical. Not sure the ref knew that's what he was pissed about though, may have let is slide, might have thought he was begging for a foul

[Jas_lov]

Please hold on, Gonzaga. I'm sick of all the shots of Doug Collins and now this kid with braces.

[Julio Riddols]

That kid is never going to live this down.

[JonInMiddleGA]

After that ref jobbing I'm more than ready to see somebody put an end to the overrated & overhyped Gonzaga deal.

[CrescentMoonie]

Jackée Harry's favorite school is going to beat Arizona tonight.

[MrBug708]

I doubt it

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

After that ref jobbing I'm more than ready to see somebody put an end to the overrated & overhyped Gonzaga deal.

Hey look it's Louisville-in-football-season part II!!

I'm notoriously terrible at predicting this stuff. I was quite good actually in high school, and sometime a few years later I lost whatever it is I had or the sporting world changed or whatever. Having said that, my two cents is that I agree that there is no real favorite, clear or otherwhise, this year. There might be ten teams that could win the title. Put a gun to my head and I'd pick Kentucky; Duke is good enough but they haven't sold me that they aren't going to distintegrate.

How many teams do you think are clearly better than Gonzaga? I'm not hugely impressed with them but they have done quite well relative to the rest and I definitely think they have to be on the short list. I can't name many that I would put above them so I don't really consider them to be overranked. Biggest this year I see is everyone is vulnerable, even moreso than usual. No great teams.

[JPhillips]

This has not been a good day for the refs.

The missed push from Arizona probably cost St. Mary's the game.

[Arles]

They were down by 5 with 1:25 left when it happened. I don't think it cost them the game, they would have still needed a 5-0 run to tie. Still, I agree this wasn't a good day for the refs.

Good win for Arizona though. Interesting that they face Xavier in the Sweet 16 (Sean Miller's old team).

[jbergey22]

The Refs were terrible in the 2nd half of the Arizona/St Marys game. Very physical game and Arizona gets called for 3-4 fouls in the entire 2nd half? Markkanen better get out of town quickly before he gets arrested for assault on Landale.

[Arles]

St. Mary's wasn't as aggressive to the basket as Arizona. Arizona was the faster team and played that way on offense. St Mary's settled for a lot of jumpers in the 2nd half and you don't get a lot of fouls called that way. What hurt St Mary's was going 5-21 from 3 while AZ drove to the basket and only shot 11 3s.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Arles

St. Mary's wasn't as aggressive to the basket as Arizona. Arizona was the faster team and played that way on offense. St Mary's settled for a lot of jumpers in the 2nd half and you don't get a lot of fouls called that way. What hurt St Mary's was going 5-21 from 3 while AZ drove to the basket and only shot 11 3s.

They were pounding it inside to Landale 75 percent of the 2nd half. The calls that Markkenan was getting Landale was not. And a lot of them 3 attempts were late in the game when they were trying to catch up.

[HerRealName]

Why is Ted Valentine even allowed inside an Arena this time of year?

[jbergey22]

That was a super game. Nice comeback by ISU when it looked completely over.

[Arles]

St Mary's had 8 more fouls for the game a few were intentional ones in the final minute. Is it unreasonable for St Mary's to have 5-6 more fouls for the game given the three point discrepancy (+10 3s for SMU) and Arizona's more aggressive driving offense? I think the refs missed a couple calls, but I don't think the overall foul numbers are that off given the style of both offenses in the 2nd half. Arizona had 6 shots outside of the elbow in the 2nd half. St. Mary's had 15. Arizona was just more agggressive to the basket.

[MrBug708]

I dont think foul discrepancy is a good way to determine referee bias.

[INDalltheway]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

That was a super game. Nice comeback by ISU when it looked completely over.

PURDUE back to the Sweet 16! Nice comeback but not enough.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Having said that, my two cents is that I agree that there is no real favorite, clear or otherwhise, this year.

On this we largely agree. There's not a single #1 seed in my final four picks.
There's at least 6, probably 8-10 teams that wouldn't shock me by winning it all.

How many teams do you think are clearly better than Gonzaga? I'm not hugely impressed with them but they have done quite well relative to the rest

When you're carrying an SOS that's 124th (Kenpom), 118th (Sagarin), or 102nd (RPI) it's a lot easier to do "quite well". There's less wear on their tires than most teams in the field and that increases their chances to succeed on these short turnarounds. Yet but for inexcusably poor officiating today they might well have been exposed before the first weekend was done.

Clearly better? It's a relatively lackluster field so an exact number is tougher than it would be normally. But I don't believe they warrant anything above a three seed all things considered.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Hey look it's Louisville-in-football-season part II!!

Incidentally, that was borne out rather well I'd say.

I'm just hoping the same holds true here as well.

[CrescentMoonie]

So...who intentionally tries to run their team plane off the runway next year to reenact what Michigan is doing?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

I dont think foul discrepancy is a good way to determine referee bias.

I can't find it now, but there's a rating system for all NCAA referees that's posted online. Shows their bias in campus and neutral court games.

[kingfc22]

Hate seeing schools like Wichita St. getting absolutely screwed by the committee. This game should be for advancing to the Elite 8 or Final 4 yet it is just to get to the second weekend.

[Young Drachma]

Quite the seeding job in the sense of getting the $ teams they wanted to see, but shortsighted by the NCAA though no surprise.

[Thomkal]

bummer, great defense by Ky at the end though.

[mauchow]

Hopefully they will avoid the St Mary's/Wichita issues going forward with using analytics/vegas additions to the seeding...

[miami_fan]

Please let this ARK-UNC gamw come down to Roy drawing up a last second play.

[CrescentMoonie]

When did Chris Webber become a decent announcer?

[EagleFan]

Wasn't that a travel? If it wasn't a charge or block it had to be a travel.

[CrescentMoonie]

You have to call either travel or charge there. Gutless job by the refs.

[Radii]

block or a travel yeah, i don't see how you no call that.

[EagleFan]

Sucks when the refs end up being part of the story at the end of the game.

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by CrescentMoonie

You have to call either travel or charge there. Gutless job by the refs.

And on top of the air ball/obviously blocked shot they gave to UNC the play before. They're giving this one to Carolina.

[wustin]

Arkansas also missed two key free throws, they were also scoreless for the last 3 minutes, they also dribbled the ball around 20+ seconds before heaving up a shot.

The ironic part about this game is that the refs helped Arkansas immensely against Seton Hall.

[wustin]

dola

8 minutes in and the refs already has South Carolina in foul trouble against Duke lol. I want to see Duke win an important game where they don't have the free throw advantage Jesus Christ.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by wustin

8 minutes in and the refs already has South Carolina in foul trouble against Duke

fwiw, South Carolina was 297th in the country in personal fouls per game (as in, among the worst in the nation), averaging 20.5 per game.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by wustin

Arkansas also missed two key free throws, they were also scoreless for the last 3 minutes, they also dribbled the ball around 20+ seconds before heaving up a shot.

The ironic part about this game is that the refs helped Arkansas immensely against Seton Hall.

It looked like every other Mike Anderson team in a key spot in a tournament format. We saw it for a few years at Mizzou. It's fun to watch, but provides way too many chances for players to screw it up in clutch moments.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by wustin

dola

8 minutes in and the refs already has South Carolina in foul trouble against Duke lol. I want to see Duke win an important game where they don't have the free throw advantage Jesus Christ.

Hey look! Duke whining. That's new.

[murrayyyyy]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

It looked like every other Mike Anderson team in a key spot in a tournament format. We saw it for a few years at Mizzou. It's fun to watch, but provides way too many chances for players to screw it up in clutch moments.

I'm not even sure it was that. Too many guards were cramping or having hamstring problems in the game. I don't think they had enough left after wasting everything from 17 down to taking the 5 point lead. 35 mins of hell was pretty entertaining though and hopefully the next 2 classes are as good as advertised.

[Butter]

You know who's a great coach? That Kim Anderson.

[wustin]

Duke's last 11 points came from guess where? You got it! The free throw line.

[CrescentMoonie]

Has Coach K ever recruited someone who isn't a whiny douchebag?

[Young Drachma]

Forget a 96-team bracket or whatever, just make the whole damn thing double elimination after the 1st round.

[wustin]

I fucking swear the last month watching Duke play. All of their close games the last minute takes like half an hour.

[hoopsguy]

So I'm about to be 0-4 in the East bracket. But can't imagine too many people sent teams besides Nova/Duke to the Final Four ....

[wustin]

South Carolina had 23 points in the first half followed up with 65 points in the second half.

[Atocep]

Hell of a showing by the ACC.

[MrBug708]

Lonzo Ball show

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Yet but for inexcusably poor officiating today they might well have been exposed before the first weekend was done.

You may well be right about Gonzaga, but I'll just say that there are only 2-3 teams that didn't have a real close call. Obviously at least a few Final Four contenders already gone. Almost everyone left has a chance at some level IMO.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Hell of a showing by the ACC.

Yea Lunardi, Ken Pom, all the pundits sure had that conference pegged!

[wustin]

https://thekicker.com/tough-but-fair...st-of-tourney/