ESPN video: Wichita State and Play Angry

[IAmWu]

I think this is what's going to be on Gameday:

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/93698/video-wichita-state-and-play-angry

[wu_shizzle]

Very nice, although missing the angriest play of the year...

[BenWSU]

Just showed video then Digger said no final four for us this year. Lame. SDSU blower. Jay Bilas showing some love for us.

[ABC]

I was surprised no one responded to Digger's comment about Gonzaga last year with the obvious.

[ShockerFever]

Well of course you'd pick San Diego State. They beat the FLAGSHIP after all. And ANYBODY who beats the FLAGSHIP, automatically is a National Championship contender and pretty much supersedes WSU in every way.

[Cdizzle]

Digger hates us! Yaaaaay!!! Haven't felt better all year.

I can't stand when everyone hates on Gonzaga from last year. Digger went so far as to call it causality as to why WSU wouldn't make a tournament run this year.

Fun fact: Over the past 20 years, 12 #1 seeds have lost in the Rd of 32. Only one of the 12(Gonzaga) was from a non-power conference. 3 of the 12 were KU. 3 of the 8/9 seeds advanced to the Final Four, including Gonzaga's opponent.

In fact, on the subject of under-performing #1 seeds over that same period, KU has recieved a #1 seed 10 times. 5 times they have lost in the Rd32(3) or the S16(2). Only twice have they reached the F4 with a 1 seed. Seems like KU's always-tough schedule didn't really make them any better when they got to the tournament.

Note: I found this information when looking at history of # of losses 1 seeds had, not some anti-KU crusade. But the facts are what they are.

[Shocker85]

The sad thing is that these blow-hards truly believe that the entire country would prefer to watch the blue-blood programs cruise through the tournament to the Final Four. What they fail to realize is that programs like GMU, Butler, VCU, WSU, etc. give them the stories that draw people in, especially the fringe fans of college basketball.

The NCAA Tournament would be one boring POS if all the top seeds won all the time.

BTW, Digger Phelps is the King of the Blowhards.

[ABC]

Digger hates us! Yaaaaay!!! Haven't felt better all year.

I can't stand when everyone hates on Gonzaga from last year. Digger went so far as to call it causality as to why WSU wouldn't make a tournament run this year.

Fun fact: Over the past 20 years, 12 #1 seeds have lost in the Rd of 32. Only one of the 12(Gonzaga) was from a non-power conference. 3 of the 12 were KU. 3 of the 8/9 seeds advanced to the Final Four, including Gonzaga's opponent.

In fact, on the subject of under-performing #1 seeds over that same period, KU has recieved a #1 seed 10 times. 5 times they have lost in the Rd32(3) or the S16(2). Only twice have they reached the F4 with a 1 seed. Seems like KU's always-tough schedule didn't really make them any better when they got to the tournament.

Note: I found this information when looking at history of # of losses 1 seeds had, not some anti-KU crusade. But the facts are what they are.

Great info. Just like WSU, Gonzaga is being held to a different standard. Was the weak conference the reason all of the power-conference #1 seeds lost in the first couple of games? Surely at some point one of the national basketball experts will bring this up.

[Cdizzle]

Was the weak conference the reason all of the power-conference #1 seeds lost in the first couple of games? Surely at some point one of the national basketball experts will bring this up.

No, they won't. They don't do the research to know these things. Some of those years, the one seeds had really good teams. But if you are going to say Gonzaga was an overrated 1 seed and a product of their schedule because they lost in the Rd32, you also have to say that about the other 11 1 seeds that lost in the Rd32, and they'll never do it. In fact, it's very easy to say that Gonzaga was one of the least overrated of those teams, because their opponent went on to the F4.

Judging a team, or a season, based solely on tournament results is not a good way to look at things. Unfortunately it is the only thing teams like WSU and Gonzaga are judged on.

[CBB_Fan]

Should also note that SoS arguments only matter to us. No one is saying that Syracuse doesn't deserve a #1 seed, no is saying Louisville is a fraud. Heck, SDSU's SoS is weaker than ours and they get a pass. We did what we could to try and better our nonconference SoS (better than four other top 10 RPI teams), but we can't control our conference. Anyway, here is a list of all the times a 1 seed has lost to an 8 seed or lower:

2013: Gonzaga vs 9 Wichita State
2011: Kansas vs 11 VCU
2011: Pittsburgh vs 8 Butler
2010: Kansas vs 9 Northern Iowa
2006: Connecticut vs 11 George Mason
2004: Kentucky vs 9 Alabama-Birmingham
2004: Stanford vs 8 Alabama
2002: Cincinnati vs 8 UCLA
2000: Stanford vs 8 North Carolina
2000: Arizona vs 8 Wisconsin
1998: Kansas vs 8 Rhode Island
1996: Purdue vs 8 Georgia
1994: North Carolina vs 9 Boston College
1992: Kansas vs 9 UTEP
1990: Oklahoma vs 8 North Carolina
1986: Kentucky vs 11 LSU
1986: St. John's vs 8 Auburn
1985: Georgetown vs 8 Villanova
1985: Michigan vs 8 Villanova
1982: DePaul vs 8 Boston College
1981: Oregon State vs 8 Kansas State
1981: DePaul vs 9 Saint Joseph's
1980: DePaul vs 8 UCLA
1979: North Carolina vs 9 Pennsylvania

So only ONCE in the modern era has a current mid-major 1 seed lost to a low seeded opponent, and now it is inevitable that any high seeded midmajor team is a an easy game in the tournament. For comparison, here are the #1 seeded midmajor teams since 1979:

1979: Indiana State (lost in championship game)
1983: Louisville (lost in Final Four to Houston), Houston (lost in championship game)
1987: UNLV (lost in championship game)
1988: Temple (lost in Elite Eight)
1990: UNLV (won championship)
1991: UNLV (lost in championship game)
1996: UMass (lost in Final Four)
2004: St. Joseph's (lost in Elite Eight)
2006: Memphis (lost in Elite Eight)
2008: Memphis (lost in championship game)
2013: Gonzaga (lost in second round)

So one 2nd round, three Elite Eights, two Final Fours, five championship losses, and one championship victory. In other words, a midmajor #1 seed has the same chance of playing in the championship as they do of losing before it, and that is even taking into account a year where a top seeded midmajor stopped another top seeded midmajor from playing in the finals!. My guess is that to get a #1 seed a midmajor team has to go above and beyond what Kansas or Kentucky have to do, and that means they are if anything consistently undervalued.

[Steeleshocker]

That is awesome, I took the major teams to lose in the second round since 2000 and tweeted it at Bilas to use on Digger, since he seems to be defending us today. Maybe it will work.

[BostonWu]

Digger seemed genuinely pissed off when talking about the win over Gonzaga to the point that the host analyst guy mocked him for his Stalin-like diatribe in front of a rather festive Memphis crowd. The likes of Digger and billy fudge packer crowd can go eat a dick. You can just feel their disdain for anything non-power conference related.

[Shock Top]

I love how you can hear Scott Van Pelt say: "That's awesome that they did it [make the Final Four], but I don't know if this ranking corresponds with who they really are this year." (sic)

HAHA!!

He's just a butthurt Maryland grad, who probably can't stand the fact that our "little brother" program is in a far petter position then his "blue blood" program.

I know he was happy when he hired our former leader who "did all he could here". How are you feeling about it now, SVP?

[1972Shocker]

I liked Ron's statement that he even tries to nice angry.

[shocka khan]

For those of you who weren't around 30 years ago, the Digger-hate started about that time. He felt like all he had to do was fly in here and pitch his schtick to Antoine, Dreiling, Aubrey Sherrod and, if I remember correctly Karl Papke. Of course Smithson signed all of them. Then he started whining we were cheaters, bragged about turning us into the NCAA and never recruiting Wichita again.

He is a whiner with a chip on his shoulder, except he's a pansy.

He should be forced to preface all his comments with 'even though I'm STILL but-hurt about being out recruited by the Shocks 30 years ago...'