I won't deny that ESPN covers teams over my way a lot more... As far as hockey, I just don't think it's all that popular in the US...
Yes, hockey has a smaller share of the overall sports market...but I've seen virtually no coverage of it since the college bb conference tournaments. ESPN chases the money, part of the whole Disney philosophy of brainwashing the consumer.
I was wondering if SLU was going to make it after they got bounced in the A-10 tournament. What I don't get is how Xavier made it in, especially over Drexel. Folks up here in Ram Nation were pretty hot at the shabby treatment VCU got from the geniuses at ESPN last year - there was a lot of grumbling about their bias towards the power conferences. We're still hatin' on Jay Bilas around here... ...at least Dickie V was a good sport and ate his crow like a good boy...
I wish we could post brackets on here... Anyway, I got Kentucky, Michigan State, Syracuse, & Kansas in the Final Four, with MSU beating KU for the championship...
Right off the top of my head I've got Kentucky, MSU and UNC in the Final Four and I'm still hemming and hawing over the East - I'm likin' Ohio State or Florida State out of that region (leaning towards the Buckeyes). It's not inconceivable that we could have a rematch of the Big 10 championship in the final (great game yesterday). I'm leanin' towards MSU in the final. Prior to yesterday, I was behind Kentucky. I still can't believe they dumped the SEC championship to Vandy...
I'm fairly certain that the tarholes get bumped off in the Sweet 16 by Michigan... They've got the tools to get that done... In the East, I'm liking FSU to knock off Ohio State, and then they go down to Syracuse in the Elite 8... But, that's just me...
I've got my eye on that UNC-Michigan match-up, too - the Wolverines are one of the teams that I think can upset the apple cart this year (along with Florida State and Mizzou). I can't touch Syracuse after their performance in the Big East tournament. I wouldn't be surprised if Vandy knocked them off, but I've definitely got OSU finishing the job...
The bracket I find most intriguing is the bottom half of the West. It'll be interesting to see how Murray State (best mid-major in the country?) plays, Marquette is solid, the Florida-UVA match-up looks good and Missouri's one of the best teams in the tournament. In the final analysis, the only thing that matters is VCU beating Wichita State...
I think Syracuse will step their game up in the tourney... They played well all season, and I pretty much expect more of that from them...
Oh, I got Wichita State knocking VCU off... And, I think Mizzou will be the team who meets its demise against Michigan State in the Elite 8...
Understandable. Losing in their conference tournaments might be the best thing that happened to teams like Syracuse, Kentucky, UNC, Kansas and your Blue Devils, but teams that struggle down the stretch scare me. I'm going to be looking real hard at teams that finished strong and have experienced players...
I expect your guys will turn things around. What concerns me about Duke (and Kentucky) is the same thing that concerns me about my team - youth. VCU is the 9th youngest team in the country, which means we'll be one of the youngest teams in the Big Dance, if not the youngest...
Very young, very small... Which will either hurt or help us against UK... I hope I'm wrong about us losing to UK, but, to me, 3 things have to happen for us to beat them... 1, we have to be absolutely lights out from 3-point land, and 2, we have to use that shooting ability, which we have, without a doubt, to draw guys like Anthony Davis to the outside, then, cut to the bucket with say, Rivers, or kick it inside to the Plumlees, and, 3, we have to alternate these play styles to keep the game at our pace... This, of course, is assuming we play UK in the Elite 8, and also acknowledging that it is going to be tough to play like this for 40 minutes, but, we can do it...
At least Kentucky won't have the experience advantage on you, and Duke has had the advantage of playing quality competition in the ACC all year. I wouldn't be surprised if you beat Kentucky. And that's the thing about these games and the tournament, in general - anyone can win or lose on any given night. It's a lot like horse racing - everybody's going to have their off and on days - all you can hope for is that your team is solid enough and perhaps multi-dimensional enough to survive a bad night. In our case, VCU's been hot and cold all year on offense, but the thing we've been able to hang our hat on every night is our defense. We're #1 in the country in steals (10.7) and turnover margin (+6.5)... http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/215 http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/519
Nah... Not really... I got most of the little guys getting bumped of in the round of 32, w/ the exception of LBSU, and SDSU... And I got them getting bumped off in the Sweet 16... Unless you count Florida State, since no one has heard from them for a while... But, I got them going down to Syracuse in the Elite 8... I suspect this will be, pretty much, an "establishment" tournament...
Yup - lotsa chalk. I watched quite a few of the smaller conference tournament finals and I wasn't impressed with most of those teams. I see most of the upheaval in the later rounds with some of the top seeds losing to solid, lower ranked teams from the power conferences. I wouldn't be surprised if none of the #1 seeds made it to the Final Four. I wonder what happened to the Pac-12 this year? I don't see a lot of quality out West...
