March Madness Discussion
- Thread starter tomalak301
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Should have been in MSU's home arena watching the game on the big screens: the place was rockin'! I can barely hear and my voice is gone!
No, I was at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, where MSU usually plays. We watched it on the big screens there. I wish I had been at the real game, but there were only 400 student tickets to go around, though
And I totally agree: Raymar Morgan FTW!
Did you plan on addressing this year or just make a generic comment that has nothing to do with this year? Almost all NIT champions are better than some teams in the field of 64 NCAA tournament teams, so I would say almost every year it's a legit point. The tournament, however, wants to be inclusive, so a team from the MEAC gets in but a better team does not (I have no idea who the MEAC's invited team is, I was just picking on them because they don't have the greatest reputation as a conference).
Is it fair? Probably not, but there are teams from crappy conferences that wouldn't even get noticed if it weren't for the fact that they won their conference who surprise people and win a game or too. So, I wouldn't say "some years it's even a legitimate point." In most years, it's a legitimate point, but that doesn't mean the tournament should be changed.
In this case (addressing the specific comment, which you did not do), Penn State had beaten the Spartans in Michigan State. As MSU is making the championship game, it gives some definite credibility that PSU deserved to be in.
Anyway, after last night, my bracket's destroyed. I guess the only reason to watch the championship is curiosity on who will win (I hope it isn't the Tar Heels, though).
As well as Michigan St. played against UConn.... and boy, they did.... I will be very surprised if they take down North Carolina.
After all that hype about the Big East conference.... and it was well deserved, I might add.... none are left to play for the national championship!
After all that hype about the Big East conference.... and it was well deserved, I might add.... none are left to play for the national championship!
To be fair, Penn St had a pretty weak non conference schedule and their in conference performance was mixed at best. That's not to say PSU didn't have better credentials than some teams in the tournament, but most of those were conference champions, meaning they got an automatic bid. Now, I myself felt including Arizona instead of PSU was a tragic miscalculation... but Arizona won their first two games which is proof that the committee did a better job than many thought.
Oh, I understand why they probably didn't select them (their out of conference schedule was very weak, so it made it hard to know whether or not they deserved to be in). I was just making an argument for since it was a hell of a lot better than the argument against.
Very surprising to see Louisville defeat Oklahoma in the Women's tournament. Too bad that their reward will be an ass-whipping at the hands of UConn. Granted, UConn still has to get past Stanford, but I doubt it'll be too hard for them. Despite the fact that the Huskies ARE undefeated (and, as such, have the opportunity to complete the school's third unbeaten season), I still find these girls to be a tad overhyped.
The thing is, PSU tied for 4th in the Big Ten and was left out when they took 7. Teams that finished below them in the B10 were taken. Get one more point in regulation vs. Iowa and they finish 2nd in the B10 regular season and are in with a pretty good seed. The OOC schedule was the reason they were snubbed - bad losses early in the season to Temple and URI (although ironically Temple got in) and no notable wins. Winning the NIT and beating Florida @ Gainesville (where the Gators lost once all season), Notre Dame and Baylor all by comfortable margins shows that this team was good enough to compete in the tourney.
The win @ MSU wasn't even that close - the team just started choking away a big lead when they couldn't hit FTs when MSU started fouling at the end of the game. Of course, Sparty didn't have Morgan that day, and Battle was on fire (26 pts!).
The win @ MSU wasn't even that close - the team just started choking away a big lead when they couldn't hit FTs when MSU started fouling at the end of the game. Of course, Sparty didn't have Morgan that day, and Battle was on fire (26 pts!).
For clarity's sake, I thought Penn State had a decent gripe over being excluded. It was you who assumed my comment was an attack on the Lions' legitimacy.
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Michigan St had to have alot of things happen to have much of a chance in this game.... and virtually none of it did. They turned the ball over way too many times, and it was often their own fault. They had no answer to UNC's outside shooting, and couldn't hit their own outside shots enough to make drives inside profitable.
The turnovers were bad, yeah, but I noticed their inability to shoot from three-point range even more, since it was the same thing that killed Villanova's chances two nights before.
Something that hadn't really occured to me until it was brought up on ESPN this morning was the fact that we had three #1 seeds from the Big East Conference in the Men's Tournament, and yet it's the WOMEN'S Champonship Game which ended up as an all-Big East matchup. Strange how that worked out.
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