bukie

FT difference: Bulls: 2-3 Heat: 11-14

Ok, looks like the "Let Bosh lose the game with his shooting" strategy isn't going to work today, may want to try defending him.

VCU about 15 minutes away from potentially stealing an at-large bid.

Really, the only interesting thing about the Hawks being 6 back of the Wings now is that they technically control their own destiny for the division again (though the other 13 games will likely have more to say about it than the 3 h2h matchups).

Wisconsin, Purdue, BYU, and SDSU are at least in the discussion at this point, and BYU and SDSU's profiles are much better than many think, despite being in just the #6 conference. EDIT: UNC, too, now that I think of it.

Morehead State wins the OVC. Harvard beat Princeton to clinch a share of the Ivy title. Now Princeton has to beat Penn next Tuesday to force a one-game playoff for the bid. Butler beat Cleveland State in the Horizon semis. Cleveland State has the weirdest RPI profile ever. 3rd best team in the Horizon league (the 11th best league!) and yet they have an RPI of 40(!) despite losing to Butler 3 times and their best win being at home over a decent Iona team. I guess what I'm saying is for the love of God, NCAA, stop using RPI numbers and use a respectable metric.

6 points behind Detroit after Phoenix comes back to win in a shootout.

Second to Detroit, but yeah.

You're right, it only took him 5 years to develop into a below average wing player. I'm just saying, what was the best college team of the past 10 years, UNC 2005? A team of Felton, McCants, May, Marvin Williams and Jawad Williams doesn't compete with the 13-69 Atlanta Hawks in 2005. It's a completely different level of play, and no college team comes close.

This I don't necessarily agree with. I honestly think there have been quite a few college teams over the years that could beat this Cleveland team especially when they were without Sideshow Bob and Mo Williams. The college 3 point line neuters the one on one game a lot because everyone is so packed in. You put a team like the Fab 5 or a guy like a 21-22 year old Lebron or Durant on a decent college team against a bad NBA team using NBA rules and I think they could take them. Any player in an NBA rotation would star on the best college teams in the country. It would be no contest. Cleveland would win by 30+. A star? Marvin Williams was just a guy on UNC and got drafted #2 overall. You put Rose, King, Jackson, Howard, and Webber up against the 91 TWolves and you've got a game on your hands. When Jabbar was a freshman at UCLA he beat the defending national champion varsity team basically by himself. I don't think it's a stretch to say you put a talent like that on a good college team they could beat a bad NBA team. There have certainly been college teams over the years with more star power than certain drecks of the NBA. Marvin Williams isn't an NBA rotation player. Only the best of the best college players are even above average in their first year in the NBA after college, after an offseason of pure conditioning and training. I don't think you realize the gap between the college and pro games, especially now.

This I don't necessarily agree with. I honestly think there have been quite a few college teams over the years that could beat this Cleveland team especially when they were without Sideshow Bob and Mo Williams. The college 3 point line neuters the one on one game a lot because everyone is so packed in. You put a team like the Fab 5 or a guy like a 21-22 year old Lebron or Durant on a decent college team against a bad NBA team using NBA rules and I think they could take them. Any player in an NBA rotation would star on the best college teams in the country. It would be no contest. Cleveland would win by 30+.

UNC may jump Duke in the polls this week.

Belmont wins the Atlantic Sun championship easily, negating any need to discuss their at-large qualities. It'll be interesting to see where the committee seeds them, because they'd be a nightmare 12 seed, let alone a 13 seed.

Yeah, if they'd blitzed the rest of the MVC like Belmont they'd have more of an argument, but they didn't even win the league. Plus, the MVC was pretty bad this year overall.

UNC Asheville wins the Big South, and earns the first NCAA bid.

Up to the minute Big Ten tourney standings: 1. Ohio State 2/3. Purdue/Wisconsin 4/5. Illinois/Michigan 6/7. Michigan State/Penn State 8/9. Northwestern/Minnesota 10. Iowa 11. Indiana

In the Big Ten? Sure. In college basketball? Not even close. Iowa is a top-25% team in college basketball.

Oh, one other auto bid up for grabs tonight as Harvard hosts Princeton. If Princeton wins, they get the Ivy bid. If Harvard wins, then Princeton plays Penn to see if they can earn a rematch with Harvard.

Actually, since there's an additional 4 teams in the mix, if everyone could send me a list of their top 10 teams, in order, we can get an early start on the S-Curve to have enough time to complete the whole thing.

Illinois-Michigan in the 4-5 game. If PSU wins, they're the 6 seed and MSU is 7th, otherwise PSU is 7 and MSU is 6. Minny-NW in the 8-9 game, also. Iowa 10th, Indiana 11th. Wisconsin 3rd if Purdue beats Iowa.

That's probably not true either. You think 5 random posters could average even 40% from the line? If I was one of the randoms, yeah. Free throws are easy to make if you have any clue what you're doing. I have to imagine that some of the bigger hoops fans on here have played some organized bball somewhere along the line. It's not that FTs are hard, it just takes practice, and I seriously doubt the majority of posters here regularly do FT practice.

Also, with the win last night, the Bulls officially surpassed last season's win total.

That's probably not true either. You think 5 random posters could average even 40% from the line?

Huh? The "not saying it made a difference in the outcome of the game" was a disclaimer in the vein of "No offense, but you are a dick".

They've clearly shown throughout the year they can play with anyone in the country (and play down to anyone in the country...at least UIC won 2 more games after the UI win this year...). They have only been out of one game this year in the second half, and even their other worst losses were just collapses in the last two minutes rather than not having a shot.