NCAA tournament discussion thread

[Slam21]

Pitt is playing good. The have virtually the same size and athletism. Pitt has a solid coach and guard play.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Pitt is playing good. The have virtually the same size and athletism. Pitt has a solid coach and guard play.

Jaime Dixon and god coach?

[pinstripers]

Last night K State was assessed a technical for dunking within 20 minutes of game time. I would swear that I just watched a Florida player flush a two handed dunk within 5 minutes of game time. Is there an official definition of what a is a dunk as a opposed to a two handed throw down with both hands above the basket? I rewatched it and it was actually two Pittsburgh players that dunked.

We try to get to the Roundhouse early. There is always a dunkathon about 40 minutes prior to gametime. After they come back out of the locker room, no dunks. EVER. Players should know the rules for God's sake. Dropping the ball through the hoop, two-handed, is acceptable and they all do that.

[jocoshock]

Florida - Pitt will be interesting.

So far..

Our bigs need to watch Florida bigs. Rebound and dunk. Rinse and repeat.

[ciaomichael]

Last night K State was assessed a technical for dunking within 20 minutes of game time. I would swear that I just watched a Florida player flush a two handed dunk within 5 minutes of game time. Is there an official definition of what a is a dunk as a opposed to a two handed throw down with both hands above the basket? I rewatched it and it was actually two Pittsburgh players that dunked.

I think the key is the downward motion of your hands. I remember when the dunk shot (it was called "stuff shot" back then) was made illegal in games - mostly due to the dominance of Lew Alcindor. So, along comes Bill Walton and he always made sure to release his hands sideways away from the ball when it was in the cylinder.

[Shock Top]

PITT should have fouled two more times, to prevent exactly what happened to them..

[IlliniShocker]

I can only assume that everyone here is on the edge of their seat watching this Creighton feature at halftime of Pitt-Florida :D

[engrshock]

I think the key is the downward motion of your hands. I remember when the dunk shot (it was called "stuff shot" back then) was made illegal in games - mostly due to the dominance of Lew Alcindor. So, along comes Bill Walton and he always made sure to release his hands sideways away from the ball when it was in the cylinder.

No doubt the players should know the rules. However, what I watched in the warm-up was two dunks. I just wonder why this is not called consistently. They were high enough they did not touch the rim with their hands but they threw the ball down. The definition of a dunk is "Section 22. Dunk - A dunk is a try for goal that occurs when any player gains control of a ball that
is neither in the cylinder nor on the ring and then attempts to drive, force or stuff the ball through the basket."

[HenryMuto]

Eh, I don't see where "almost beat Florida" fits into the resume. End of the day, they were 1-5 against the top 25, 4-6 against the top 50, 14-9 against the top 100, bad loss @South Carolina, 50% on a neutral site, 50% on the road, 2nd SOS, 16th RPI, best win #19 Louisville.

Simple comparison against the 7 seeds:

New Mexico: 3-3 against the top 25 (better), 3-3 against the top 50 (better), 7-5 against the top 100 (worse), 6-2 on neutral (much better), 8-2 on the road (much better), 45th SOS (much worse), 15th RPI (equivalent), bad loss to UNLV (relatively equivalent considering home loss compared to @USCe).

UConn: 3-4 against the top 25 (better), 7-5 against the top 50 (better), 10-7 against the top 100 (slightly worse), bad loss to Houston (equivalent), 5-1 on a neutral site (better), 6-4 on the road (better), 23rd RPI (worse), 34th SOS (worse), best win #1 Florida (better).

Texas: 3-3 against the top 25 (better), 6-8 against the top 50 (equivalent?), 12-9 against the top 100 (worse), 2-2 neutral (equivalent), 5-6 road (worse), 37th RPI (worse), 65th SOS (worse), best win #3 Kansas (better), bad loss @Texas Tech (equivalent).

Oregon: 2-3 against the top 25 (better), 4-6 against the top 50 (equivalent), 9-7 against the top 100 (worse), 18th SOS (worse), 28th RPI (worse), 3-1 neutral (better), 5-5 road (equivalent), best win #2 Arizona (better), worst losses @OSU and @Washington (worse considering x2).

I don't see an argument that Kentucky was clearly better than any of them. I would have put them over Texas, Oregon, and UMass, but I don't have a major issue with them being under them. End of the day, Oregon had two wins better than Kentucky's best win, Texas had two wins better, even UMass had two better wins. Kentucky lost 10 games and missed 80% of their opportunities to pick up great wins while playing in a worse conference than the A-10. I don't have a real issue with them as an 8.

I'll give you that Kentucky was a 6/7 seed by most people on Bracket Matrix. That 1-5 against the top 25 with only a home win over #19 Louisville is what made me think Kentucky would fall -- they had a great SOS, but how much credit do you get for your SOS when you go 1-5 against the teams that are the bulk of that SOS?

Kentucky's RPI was 17 which in RPI terms was nearly a 4 seed and had a SOS of 3 and non conf SOS of 9. 14 top 100 wins and 4 top 50 wins with 1 loss outside top 100
Consider Kansas got a 2 seed with 9 losses because their SOS was 1 and Kentucky with 10 losses gets an 8 seed with SOS of 3.

SD State was a 4 seed with RPI of 15, SOS of 88, NON CONF SOS of 123, only 3 top 50 wins and 6 top 100 wins.
New Mexico 3 top 50, 7 top 100 wins
North Carolina RPI 25, 5 top 100 wins, 11 top 100 wins, 3 losses vs 101+ teams

RPI of 17 and only an 8 seed! RPI takes into account all those losses but because they had such a good SOS and 14 top 100 wins it has them ranked higher than my other teams seeded ahead of them in the RPI.

[HenryMuto]

WSU opens as a 3.5 point favorite.

Interesting

[HenryMuto]

Amazing that my favorite team this year and my 2nd favorite team last year had to play you guys in the NCAA tournament and possibly be knocked out both years by you guys. Little did I know this was going to happen when I came here years ago to root on your team.

[ShockTop]

Amazing that my favorite team this year and my 2nd favorite team last year had to play you guys in the NCAA tournament and possibly be knocked out both years by you guys. Little did I know this was going to happen when I came here years ago to root on your team.

Why can't John Legend be classy as you?

[Play Angry]

Kentucky is a decent team but we're gonna steamroll them by double digits.

[Rlh04d]

Kentucky's RPI was 17 which in RPI terms was nearly a 4 seed and had a SOS of 3 and non conf SOS of 9. 14 top 100 wins and 4 top 50 wins with 1 loss outside top 100
Consider Kansas got a 2 seed with 9 losses because their SOS was 1 and Kentucky with 10 losses gets an 8 seed with SOS of 3.

SD State was a 4 seed with RPI of 15, SOS of 88, NON CONF SOS of 123, only 3 top 50 wins and 6 top 100 wins.
New Mexico 3 top 50, 7 top 100 wins
North Carolina RPI 25, 5 top 100 wins, 11 top 100 wins, 3 losses vs 101+ teams

RPI of 17 and only an 8 seed! RPI takes into account all those losses but because they had such a good SOS and 14 top 100 wins it has them ranked higher than my other teams seeded ahead of them in the RPI.

RPI has never had the correlation to seeding you're implying here. New Mexico's RPI was 12, better than Kentucky's, yet they were a 7 seed. I would put New Mexico higher than Kentucky regardless. Gonzaga was one RPI slot lower and also an 8 seed.

I personally don't care about Kentucky's SOS, because you should actually have to win games to get credit for a tough SOS. 6 games against the top 25 RPI does wonders for creating a strong SOS, but 1-5 against those teams is bad. Minnesota's SOS was #7 ... they don't seem to have been rewarded for it. Alabama's was #4.

Kansas got a 2 seed because their SOS was 1 ... AND they actually beat a lot of the teams that made their SOS so strong. 4-4 against the top 25, 12-7 against the top 50, 18-9 against the top 100. Their record against the top 50 was better than Kentucky's against the top 100.

Each of SD State, New Mexico, and North Carolina had better win % against the best teams they played, and all had better wins. I don't buy the idea of "NM only had 3 top 50 wins, Kentucky had 4!" NM had six opportunities, Kentucky had 10. NM's record is better.

[Rlh04d]

Pitt has played like complete garbage this half.