2017-2018 College Basketball Thread

[JPhillips]

They wanted it in NYC and the Big East has MSG this week. It will be interesting to see if the two week rest effects B1G teams in any way.

[jbergey22]

Apparently the B1G wants roots on the East Coast now and expand to an even larger conference. I guess Im not sure what the big problem with Indianapolis or Chicago were other than being a more central location for all of the teams fans.

[muns]

Pitt finally gets rid of Stallings. He should have never gotten hired to begin with, but at least the program can move on now. What a crap show it has been.

Pittsburgh Panthers fire coach Kevin Stallings

[Logan]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Apparently the B1G wants roots on the East Coast now and expand to an even larger conference. I guess Im not sure what the big problem with Indianapolis or Chicago were other than being a more central location for all of the teams fans.

I think you're making some big assumptions in that first sentence. They did this...and are seeking an East coast location once every 5 years...because there is a huge B1G alumni presence here and now they have an actual footprint as well. They won't be able to try to get MSG on the right weekend again until after 2026, but I'd expect them to try and outbid the Big East going forward. Either way, setting up the tournament in DC, Brooklyn, Newark, or even Philly once every 5 years is an easy sell with the two schools in easy driving distance plus the huge base of alumni.

[JPhillips]

They also want a bigger presence in the East Coast media markets. Local NYC sports coverage gave the B1G tournament much more air time than had it been in Indy or Chicago.

[MizzouRah]

What a disappointment game that was.

[tarcone]

I bet Miaaou gets in just because Porter, Jr. is playing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

What a disappointment game that was.

Yeah, that turned into a bit of a fizzle.

5-17 from the floor looks pretty bad for the returning one-and-doner ... but then I see how most of the rest of the team shot today & wonder if he really did much damage after all.

Chemistry is a funny thing though.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I bet Miaaou gets in just because Porter, Jr. is playing.

Mizzou was in anyway.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Yeah, that turned into a bit of a fizzle.

5-17 from the floor looks pretty bad for the returning one-and-doner ... but then I see how most of the rest of the team shot today & wonder if he really did much damage after all.

Chemistry is a funny thing though.

Their two best shooters minus MPJ were horrible. I think we were like 0-14 at one point today.

Good to get MPJ some playing time though.. hopefully some of the rust is gone.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Apparently the B1G wants roots on the East Coast now and expand to an even larger conference. I guess Im not sure what the big problem with Indianapolis or Chicago were other than being a more central location for all of the teams fans.

They want cable operators to pick up their network. Simple as that.

It sucks because both Chicago and Indianapolis were great spots for the tourney. So much alumni in both areas and made a great atmosphere.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

They want cable operators to pick up their network. Simple as that.

It sucks because both Chicago and Indianapolis were great spots for the tourney. So much alumni in both areas and made a great atmosphere.

And easy to get to for everyone.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

They want cable operators to pick up their network. Simple as that.

It sucks because both Chicago and Indianapolis were great spots for the tourney. So much alumni in both areas and made a great atmosphere.

Each of those cities will miss out on hosting the tourney once over a 10 year window with the change. Is it really that big of a deal?

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Logan

I think you're making some big assumptions in that first sentence. They did this...and are seeking an East coast location once every 5 years...because there is a huge B1G alumni presence here and now they have an actual footprint as well.

No Logan, it's really part of their secret plot to expand to 16 by adding UConn's imploding athletic program and... UMass? SUNY-Albany? Hofstra? Fordham? Temple?

I do think it sucks that the B1G & ACC both keep trying to expand to NYC & the northeast instead of keeping their central location and rewarding their loyal bases, but such is the thinking of big conferences. If only the northeastern schools could have foreseen this back in the 1990's and actually built a strong northeastern conference. C'est la vie.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Logan

Each of those cities will miss out on hosting the tourney once over a 10 year window with the change. Is it really that big of a deal?

Seems to be rather offensively stupid to most of the fan bases in the core territories, so, yeah in that sense it IS a big deal. (ACC country ain't thrilled about NYC either, SEC likewise doesn't seem overjoyed about St. Louis)

But hey, maybe the conferences will have to learn the lesson about ignoring their core constituencies same as folks like NASCAR have had to learn {shrug}

[Logan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Seems to be rather offensively stupid to most of the fan bases in the core territories, so, yeah in that sense it IS a big deal. (ACC country ain't thrilled about NYC either, SEC likewise doesn't seem overjoyed about St. Louis)

But hey, maybe the conferences will have to learn the lesson about ignoring their core constituencies same as folks like NASCAR have had to learn {shrug}

Do you have to drink all that coffee because you're tired from being so overdramatic all the time?

Indy is a 5+ hour drive from Madison. Minnesota is 9 hours away. State College is 3 hours closer to NYC than to Indy, so forget about Chicago. The Michigan schools are 3-4 hours away.

You're making it sound like millions of people are losing the opportunity to go watch basketball in their backyard. It's 20K people trying to go to 7 sessions of basketball. Stop whining.

[Atocep]

Grayson Allen is just misunderstood.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Seems to be rather offensively stupid to most of the fan bases in the core territories, so, yeah in that sense it IS a big deal. (ACC country ain't thrilled about NYC either, SEC likewise doesn't seem overjoyed about St. Louis)

But hey, maybe the conferences will have to learn the lesson about ignoring their core constituencies same as folks like NASCAR have had to learn {shrug}

It IS offensive to their core constituencies, and they should be offended! but they won't be. And even if they are it'll be a cold day in Alabama before anyone there decides to stop cheering for not only Alabama, but to ignore any state within an 8 hour drive.

Just like NASCAR they'll all slowly see it in declining views but never specifically tie it back to why. But they'll dominate the % of eyeballs watching college sports in their area while wondering why overall ratings/interest is down, so they'll blame Netflix etc instead of the destruction of regional rivalries.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

It IS offensive to their core constituencies, and they should be offended! but they won't be. And even if they are it'll be a cold day in Alabama before anyone there decides to stop cheering for not only Alabama, but to ignore any state within an 8 hour drive.

Just like NASCAR they'll all slowly see it in declining views but never specifically tie it back to why. But they'll dominate the % of eyeballs watching college sports in their area while wondering why overall ratings/interest is down, so they'll blame Netflix etc instead of the destruction of regional rivalries.

Except that, in this case, we're talking about basketball not football. It trails spring football in popularity/importance in most of the SEC markets. (Hell, I'm not entirely sure that baseball isn't more popular at Ole Miss, almost certainly is among the students. Gymnastics might be more appealing here in Athens depending upon the demographics).

The last thing pretty much any SEC program not named Kentucky needs (and I'm picking on them here just cause they're the conference probably in the most precarious situation where b'ball is concerned) is to lessen the appeal / interest / visibility ... and moving the conference tournament to the periphery of the footprint just doesn't seem to make a helluva lot of sense.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Logan

Stop whining.

Stop ignoring the critical nature of regional appeal for most conferences.

But you do you, keep fucking that chicken.

[cartman]

Kevin Ollie is out at UConn

[JonInMiddleGA]

Mark Fox reportedly out at Georgia.

[digamma]

We have an Ivy championship game tomorrow between #1 seed Harvard and #2 seed Penn at a neutral site which just happens to be Penn's home court.

And in a year where the Ivy League had 39% of its games decided by one possession, most by any conference in 16 years, both of the semifinals today were huge blowouts.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

[MrBug708]

Something about USC-Arizona fighting it out for the PAC-12 championship, showing all what's wrong about college basketball.

[MrBug708]

Did Davidson knock out ASU or Notre Dame?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by cartman

Kevin Ollie is out at UConn

Wow. Few years back he could have gotten an NBA gig.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The changes to the Selection Show is some of the most asinine shit I've seen in a while.

[bronconick]

Never thought they'd find something worse than the CBS version. Shows what I know.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bronconick

Never thought they'd find something worse than the CBS version. Shows what I know.

Let's remove 90% of the drama, that'll work well don't ya think?

[MrBug708]

Syracuse over SC....ahahahaha

[JonInMiddleGA]

So far we've gotten "Coach MIKE Pearl" and the "Buffalo BILLS"

[B & B]

Literally unwatchable.


"Heres a list of the 32 automatic bids, let me reel them off to start the show"

[JonInMiddleGA]

Did the lights just go out briefly in NY (?)

[MrBug708]

UCLA-Florida isn't a thing. Let's get some new "storylines" guys

[digamma]

That was a giant F U to mid majors, huh?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Clemson - NM State
Auburn - Charleston

Would I dare pick a 12 & a 13 in the same pod?

[Atocep]

Still basing seeding and selection off RPI.

Terrible

[Scoobz0202]

If they really over valued RPI then USC would be in I would think

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Still basing seeding and selection off RPI.
Terrible

If that was the thing, then we'd be seeing USC and Louisville and probably MTSU instead of Syracuse, OU, and even Florida.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Logan

Do you have to drink all that coffee because you're tired from being so overdramatic all the time?

Indy is a 5+ hour drive from Madison. Minnesota is 9 hours away. State College is 3 hours closer to NYC than to Indy, so forget about Chicago. The Michigan schools are 3-4 hours away.

You're making it sound like millions of people are losing the opportunity to go watch basketball in their backyard. It's 20K people trying to go to 7 sessions of basketball. Stop whining.

It's not just about the travel for the schools. It's also about the alumni. Alumni usually stick to the same region they went to school. So a city like Chicago is filled with alumni from almost every Big 10 school. So if you worked in the city you could take a Thursday off and watch your school play. For a lot of alums, it's the only chance they get to see their school.

Chicago made sense because it's the biggest city with the most varied alumni. I'm guessing Atlanta would be that city for the SEC. And Los Angeles would be that city for the PAC 12.

I won't knock it too hard because it did seem to draw some good crowds. And I guess they had to make Rutgers and Maryland feel part of the conference (it was stupid to add them anyway). But I can tell you buzz about it here (Big 10 country) was non-existent. Doesn't help that they played the previous tournament in DC.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

It's not just about the travel for the schools. It's also about the alumni. Alumni usually stick to the same region they went to school. So a city like Chicago is filled with alumni from almost every Big 10 school. So if you worked in the city you could take a Thursday off and watch your school play. For a lot of alums, it's the only chance they get to see their school.

Chicago made sense because it's the biggest city with the most varied alumni. I'm guessing Atlanta would be that city for the SEC. And Los Angeles would be that city for the PAC 12.

I won't knock it too hard because it did seem to draw some good crowds. And I guess they had to make Rutgers and Maryland feel part of the conference (it was stupid to add them anyway). But I can tell you buzz about it here (Big 10 country) was non-existent. Doesn't help that they played the previous tournament in DC.

Do you think the practice of people taking off work to catch midday sessions of conference tournaments is unique to Chicago? It happened here with the old Big East, it happened with the new Big East, and it happened here again for both the B1G and the Big East over the last week and a half.

I addressed the alumni concentrations in the previous post about the alumni too before Jon got all offended. And sure Chicago makes sense with the biggest alumni base. But NYC doesn't at #2? It surely makes more sense than Indianapolis which clocks in at #6 in one article I saw (behind both DC and Philly, BTW).

What's the level of Chicago buzz when the tournament is played 3 hours away from you half the time?

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by Logan

Each of those cities will miss out on hosting the tourney once over a 10 year window with the change. Is it really that big of a deal?

Yep, adding Rutgers and Maryland increased revenues by 33% and $18 million from Cablevision alone:

https://www.theringer.com/2018/3/9/1...-new-york-city

[Logan]

Originally Posted by OldGiants

Yep, adding Rutgers and Maryland increased revenues by 33% and $18 million from Cablevision alone:

https://www.theringer.com/2018/3/9/1...-new-york-city

The financial impacts are so obvious they're not even worth discussing. I probably wrote it in the famous "Mizzou to the B1G" expansion thread four times. The BTN contract with cable providers said that they could charge something like $0.40/sub if they didn't have a school in the DMA, and $0.95/sub if they did. So the rates went up to millions of subscribers with the stroke of those schools signing on. Adding Rutgers and Maryland was a guaranteed financial windfall for the conference even without adding a single new subscriber.

[Thomkal]

Radford wins the first play-in game. Woot! Big South power!

[MrBug708]

Damn you Steve Alford

[Butter]

This Boise camera angle is the worst.

[cartman]

How did that Rhode Island putback at the buzzer not go in?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cartman

How did that Rhode Island putback at the buzzer not go in?

Buffalo Wild Wings.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Butter

This Boise camera angle is the worst.

Just saw that. Holy hell, that's unwatchable.

[korme]

Poor Wright St