Re: College Basketball 2008-2009

[E.J.]

Michigan needed that. Hopefully they can win one of the last two games.

[Magnetic Curses]

michigan will get the benefit of the doubt as far as bubble teams go. beilein has some history of coaching in some big games in the dance and they have 2 of the most exciting players in the conference, if not the country.

[Guest]

Fantastic game in Seattle between ASU and Washington.

[SouthSideRyan]

Bruce Weber tells the haters to STFU

[E.J.]

Bruce Weber tells the haters to STFU

 

It's hard to take a guy with that voice seriously.

[hawkeyecub]

Fantastic game in Seattle between ASU and Washington.

 

Gah I fell asleep during overtime. Dentmon's ball handling in the last 15 seconds was just sad.

[illiniguy]

Illinois is a fantastic defensive team that can be intensely frustrating on the offensive end due to their inability to get the ball inside consistently, settling for a ton of jump shots. At the same time, they are a poor offensive rebounding team (overall a below average rebounding team, but exceptionally poor on the offensive glass), so if their one jumpshot doesn't fall, they're often not getting to the line or getting a second chance, so every point seems like a chore.

It's very hard to offensive rebound when your bigs are setting screens 20 ft from the bucket. The one bad thing about a motion offense.

[SouthSideRyan]

Bruce Weber tells the haters to STFU

 

It's hard to take a guy with that voice seriously.

 

He had polyps on his vocal chords as a kid.

[UMFan83]

losing to a bad team is really going to help their seeding in the tourney. end up a 7 or 8 seed and it could be a first round exit.

 

C'mon Michigan isn't bad. They are mediocre/above average. Purdue is clearly better, but you are playing on the road in the Big Ten against a team that has toppled Duke, UCLA and Illinois already this year.

 

The announcers were making it seem like yesterday's win clinched Michigan in the NCAA tourney. I am wondering what they are smoking. They are 18-11 (technically 17-11 because one of their wins was against a DII team and the NCAA doesn't consider that), and only 8-8 in the conference. They still have 2 tough road games left (Wisconsin, Minnesota) and the Big Ten tourney. Since we're discussing at-large here, we have to assume Michigan loses in the Big Ten tourney, and for them to even consider a tourney run they have to win one of the last 2.

 

I am wondering if it would help or hurt Michigan more to play on the first day of the tourney. It would help to get a hypothetically easy victory, but it would be against a bad team, hurting the SOS and RPI.

 

I think for Michigan to have a reasonable shot at making it they would have to win one of their last 2 (very preferably Wisconsin) and win 2 Big Ten tourney games, leaving them at (21-13, 9-9) with wins over UCLA, Duke, Illinois, Purdue, @ Wisconsin/Minnesota, and high seeded Big Ten team). Most 21-13 teams have no shot, but with the resume Michigan has built (their only truly horrific loss is to Iowa this year) they would stand a chance. Most years it seems like the talking heads try to find reasons why Michigan shouldn't be in, but now it seems like they are trying to find reasons Michigan should be in.

[SouthSideRyan]

I am wondering if it would help or hurt Michigan more to play on the first day of the tourney. It would help to get a hypothetically easy victory, but it would be against a bad team, hurting the SOS and RPI.

 

Only if you're the 6 seed. Iowa's 101 in the RPI, that wouldn't hurt you to beat them. And Michigan probably has to win out to get the 6.

[UMFan83]

I am wondering if it would help or hurt Michigan more to play on the first day of the tourney. It would help to get a hypothetically easy victory, but it would be against a bad team, hurting the SOS and RPI.

 

Only if you're the 6 seed. Iowa's 101 in the RPI, that wouldn't hurt you to beat them. And Michigan probably has to win out to get the 6.

 

Yeah..you are right other than Indiana, its hard to find a team that would kill Michigan to beat. And the only way to play Indiana is to win out and get help, which will help more than playing Indiana will hurt

 

(before last night)

 

Indiana 202

Iowa 101

Northwestern 80

Penn State 61

Michigan 55

Ohio State 41

Minnesota 36

Wisconsin 29

 

Those are the only teams likely to play on the first day

[bukie]

I was going to say that whoever got the 8 seed would get a rough first round matchup with NW in Chicago, but apparently the BTT stopped rotating this year and is staying in Indy for 5 years.

[UMFan83]

I was going to say that whoever got the 8 seed would get a rough first round matchup with NW in Chicago, but apparently the BTT stopped rotating this year and is staying in Indy for 5 years.

 

No offense to NW, but if the Tourney was in Chicago, I think many of the Big Ten Schools travel to that tourney would send more fans to the games than Northwesterns fans

[Exile on Waveland]

I was going to say that whoever got the 8 seed would get a rough first round matchup with NW in Chicago, but apparently the BTT stopped rotating this year and is staying in Indy for 5 years.

 

No offense to NW, but if the Tourney was in Chicago, I think many of the Big Ten Schools travel to that tourney would send more fans to the games than Northwesterns fans

 

Northwestern often barely has a majority/plurality at many of its home games against particular Big Ten teams.

[Guest]

Fantastic game in Seattle between ASU and Washington.

 

Gah I fell asleep during overtime. Dentmon's ball handling in the last 15 seconds was just sad.

 

That was hilarious. Harden just stole the ball for the tying score with such ease and I still have no clue what he was doing on the final shot.

[SouthSideRyan]

I was going to say that whoever got the 8 seed would get a rough first round matchup with NW in Chicago, but apparently the BTT stopped rotating this year and is staying in Indy for 5 years.

 

Which is a joke. You should have the tourney in the marquee city of your area. Big East has it in NY, Pac 10 has it in LA, ACC in ATL, we have it in [expletive] Indianapolis because they named a street after each team. We're operating like we're the Missouri Valley.

[Guest]

Yeah, it's embarrassing the Big Ten tourney is in Indianapolis when the conference has Chicago to offer.

[illiniguy]

Yeah, it's embarrassing the Big Ten tourney is in Indianapolis when the conference has Chicago to offer.

Yep really is a joke, plus it gives IU an advantage every year in the conference tournament.

[Andy]

I was going to say that whoever got the 8 seed would get a rough first round matchup with NW in Chicago, but apparently the BTT stopped rotating this year and is staying in Indy for 5 years.

 

Which is a joke. You should have the tourney in the marquee city of your area. Big East has it in NY, Pac 10 has it in LA, ACC in ATL, we have it in [expletive] Indianapolis because they named a street after each team. We're operating like we're the Missouri Valley.

The ACC tournament isn't always in Atlanta. Last year it was in Charlotte. In 2007 it was in Tampa.

[UMFan83]

Are you sure it wasn't in Atlanta last year? Didn't tornadoes cause some of the games to be postponed/moved? Or was that the SEC Tourney?

[SouthSideRyan]

Are you sure it wasn't in Atlanta last year? Didn't tornadoes cause some of the games to be postponed/moved? Or was that the SEC Tourney?

 

That was SEC. I thought the ACC was moving it to Atlanta, but I'm probably wrong.

[CubColtPacer]

Are you sure it wasn't in Atlanta last year? Didn't tornadoes cause some of the games to be postponed/moved? Or was that the SEC Tourney?

 

That was SEC. I thought the ACC was moving it to Atlanta, but I'm probably wrong.

 

It's going to be in Atlanta 2 out of the next 7 years (including this year). Greensboro gets it the other 5 years.

 

People like the ease of travel in Indianapolis. The stadium is within walking distance of the hotels teams and fans are staying at, restaurants, etc. If I remember right people weren't too fond of the area around the United Center. Plus, the Fieldhouse is generally considered a better facility than the United Center.

 

I don't see why the tournament has to be held in the biggest city. But I don't like the 5 year agreement. I think the tournament should have kept moving between the two sites so that each year there would be different teams with the homecourt advantage. I would even propose doing it at even more sites but I don't know of any more that are centrally located in the Big 10 that would be a good place to go.

 

When they decided they were going to pick 1 place for 5 years though, it seemed obvious that it would be Indy. People seem to enjoy the tournament there more than Chicago and that's what the committee ended up deciding as well.

 

And I think other conferences show that the Big 10 is not alone, either. If the Big 12 wanted to be in the biggest city, it would be Dallas or San Antonio. But their next two tournaments are in the much smaller cities of Oklahoma City and Kansas City.

 

As I already mentioned, the ACC is going to have 5 of their next 7 tournaments be in only the 3rd largest city in NC.

 

The SEC is going to Tampa, Nashville, Atlanta, and New Orleans in the next 4 years. None of those 4 cities are as big as Indy (Atlanta is if you are very liberal about the metro area-the other 3 are definitely not as big).

 

Really, only the Pac 10 and Big East are tied to their biggest cities, and neither of those conferences have a really good alternative to pick either (and in the case of the Big East plays in a site that has huge amounts of college basketball tradition behind it).

[Exile on Waveland]

Indianapolis is a better locale for the Big Ten Tournament than Chicago.

[Derwood]

 

I don't see why the tournament has to be held in the biggest city. But I don't like the 5 year agreement. I think the tournament should have kept moving between the two sites so that each year there would be different teams with the homecourt advantage. I would even propose doing it at even more sites but I don't know of any more that are centrally located in the Big 10 that would be a good place to go.

 

It's not like Atlanta is very "central" to teams like Boston College, or that NYC is "central" for DePaul or Marquette.

 

If you wanted to do a true rotation of Big 10 cities you could do Chicago, Indy, Milwaukee, Detroit and Columbus or something (though the latter would probably be overly unfair)

[CubColtPacer]

 

I don't see why the tournament has to be held in the biggest city. But I don't like the 5 year agreement. I think the tournament should have kept moving between the two sites so that each year there would be different teams with the homecourt advantage. I would even propose doing it at even more sites but I don't know of any more that are centrally located in the Big 10 that would be a good place to go.

 

It's not like Atlanta is very "central" to teams like Boston College, or that NYC is "central" for DePaul or Marquette.

 

If you wanted to do a true rotation of Big 10 cities you could do Chicago, Indy, Milwaukee, Detroit and Columbus or something (though the latter would probably be overly unfair)

 

Yeah. I threw out Columbus because OSU is actually located in the city and it's also not centrally located. Detroit is really thrown out because of its reputation. It would be harder to convince a lot of fans to travel there.

 

Milwaukee would be fine as a 3rd site.