Palehosefan

Great idea on the expansion. It's nice to see that lazy bum Bob finally working.

Good point, and losing Hassan Adams and Chris Rodgers almost seems like an addition, atleast thats what I've heard from alot of Arizona fans. Chase Budinger is a heck of a player as well, when you see him, you think of Napolean Dynamite, but he has ALOT of game. He reminds me of Reyshawn Terry's game this year, long, athletic, pretty outside shot, isn't afraid to mix it up inside with blocked shots and tough rebounds/put-backs.

GT will be back with a vengeance next year. They return their top 7 players, but more importantely they actually add a stud PG in Javaris Crittendon. They will have a nasty lineup like this. PG. Crittendon(elite PG recruit, tall PG, top 15 recruit in nation) SG. Anthony Morrow SF. Thad Young(elite SF recruit, SF/PF combo, top 5 recruit in nation) PF. Jeremis Smith C. Ra'Sean Dickey You won't find 5 better starting lineups in the nation.

DJ Augustin is a very good PG, Durant is a superstar SF type, and they have even more size coming in, especially in the giant Dexter Pittman(6'10 330). Gibson should be back, but who knows there. Having Augustin, Gibson and Durant alone would keep them in every game with their outside shooting ability. All 3 can be lights out shooters, especially Durant. Still, Kansas and Carolina are going to have the deepest lineups, even if Rush and Hansbrough leave.

There's going to be some nasty teams next year. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Big 12 will be the best conference in America next year. Texas and Kansas have a real good chance of being in the top 5. Nebraska and Oklahoma will be decent. Texas Tech and Texas A&M will be tourney teams. Oklahoma State could be as well. Missouri and Iowa State will be tourney contenders. Colorado should be above .500 as well. I don't see a weak link in the entire league, as Baylor is getting in some very good recruits last year and this coming year.

Thanks, good luck to the Illini as well. I agree that the Illini deserved a better thread as well, it's just unfortunate the committee was drunk that night and then passed the liquor to the women's side a night later.

Don't go quite that far. Oden, yes. But Conley is the 4th best PG in his class right now behind Tywon Lawson, Sherron Collins, and Javaris Crittendon. But Conley is the perfect PG to play with the OSU team, he's an un-assuming leader on the floor that can hit a 3 when needed.

Thanks. Why would you click on an obviously labeled women's basketball thread when you obviously hate it? Doesn't make much sense to me.

I know not many care about the women's game, but I have to get a rant off my chest. UNC's women's team, the clear #1 team in the nation, gets Tennessee put in as the #2 seed, Rutgers as the #3 seed, Purdue as the #4 seed, and UNC would play Vanderbilt ON VANDY'S HOME FLOOR in the 2nd round. As much hell as the men's bracket creators get, the women's game is 10x worse. UNC is the clear number 1, and gets one of the hardest brackets in history, starting out in Tennessee, while the Duke women get the #1 seed as a cakewalk in nearby Norfolk, VA. There has to be an investigation.

That's supposed to be the case, but don't tell UNC that. Tennessee gets to play in Greensboro, NC, while UNC is stuck in Ohio. Tennessee is a whopping 17 miles further from Ohio than UNC. Edit: Well I was wrong, Knoxville is actually closer to Dayton than Chapel Hill, so thanks selection committee. Tenn's seeding makes even less sense now, if thats even possible.

UNC was actually 8-2 in their last 10 games, with the losses coming to the #2 team and the #7 team in the nation at the time. UNC lost to a red-hot BC team that should/could have been as high as a 2 seed. The problem is that UNC's SOS is 10, compared to Illini's 60th ranked, but the real problem is the Illini's 200th ranked out of conference schedule. With all that said, I think the Illini should have been switched with Tenn. in the seedings.

Here's the list, its on page 176. http://www.ncaa.org/library/records/basket...all_records.pdf

Don't know about the others, but DC has 15. UNC) 4 Kentucky) 7 Connect.) 2 Mich. St) 2 However, since 1978, the DC bracket has almost 33% of the championships. Since 1990, 44% of the championships. Since 1996, 60% of the championships.

It was just out there, I tried to resist. But I couldn't do it. As for Kansas, even though I have them in the final 4, they do have an amazingly tough path. Having to face a talented, hot team like Pittsburgh in the 2nd round almost seems unfair.

There, its fixed now.

Minnesota would take one of them. The other could end up falling into someone's lap like Indy or even Pittsburgh.

Well then, there aren't any openings left.

I could easily see that happening as well. That's the toughest game on our side of the bracket.

Rowand and I have a mutual damned relationship going with college basketball, so its cool.

I have UNC in the elite 8 as well, losing to UConn.

I've got Texas-Kansas and UConn-Florida as my final four in my bracket for ESPN. I seem to be in love with frontcourts at the moment. But I also like all four because of solid guard play as well.

I do. Randy Foye is a great player admittedly, but I think Afflalo would match up well with him. Nardi floats on the perimeter too much and jacks up bad shots. Allan Ray is nice, but he's an under-sized 2 guard that is a blackhole, yet barely shoots 40%. The Nova guards are great, but its mostly out of neccessity. Their low assist numbers really bother me as well. For as much as they play, and as much as they jack up 3's from passes from each other, you would think one of them would be averaging atleast 4 assists a game, especially considering they all play atlest 29 minutes a game. I do love Lowry and Foye, but I think Aaron and Jordan would match up well. Bozeman's size and ballhandling would also cause matchup problems for any of the Nova guards. I think it would be a tremendous matchup.

Forgot to answer your last two quotes. As for UCLA, I would take Afflalo, Farmar, and Cedric Bozeman over the Villanova quartet, especially with the eye injury. I like Horner, Henderson and Haluska over Paulus/Dockery/Redick because the Iowa triplet is much more interchangible than the Duke trio. Redick is the one man show, and if he's having an off night, the other two guys don't have the scoring ability to keep their team afloat without Shelden and McRoberts dominating inside.

Thanks for the response. Here is my reasoning. I like Noah, Horford, and Corey Brewer over Davis, Thomas, and Mitchell. It's very close I will admit, but I think Florida's trio will be fresher considering they average 25.6 mpg as a group compared to LSU's 31 mpg for the 3. I also like the fact that both Horford and Noah are shooting over 62% from the floor, while Davis is only at 51% at his size with Thomas at 59.8%. As for KU over LSU as well, again its very close, but I really like the talent level of Wright, Kaun, Giles, Jackson, and Rush. That's five big bodies they can throw at the 3-4-5 level and not lose much. Glen Davis is eventually going to wear out at 6'9 330 pounds playing over 31 minutes a game, but I admit, if Tyrus Thomas comes back healthy, they can play with anyone down low.

I think very few teams in the nation can matchup up with UConn in the frontcourt. Florida, LSU, Texas, Kansas, and Georgetown might be the only squads that matchup up well against UConn frontcourt wise. LSU, and Georgetown wouldn't have enough in the backcourt to stick with them. But Florida, Texas, and Kansas would be formidable opponents inside and out. i would have included Duke, except that they have nobody at the SF spot who could remotely match up with Gay. Here's my top 5 frontcourt's, and top 5 backcourts in the tourney. Frontcourts: 1. Texas 2. UConn 3. Florida 4. Kansas 5. LSU Backcourts: 1. UCLA 2. Villanova 3. Tennessee 4. Ohio State 5. Iowa Guys like Ronald Steele, JJ Redick, Dee Brown, Shannon Brown, Carl Krauser, Gerry McNamara, Mike Gansey, Brandon Roy, Rajon Rondo, etc don't have enough help from their backcourt mate to make the list for me. Marquette was a close choice, but being so young, they turn the ball over too much for my liking.