ZoomSlowik

OSU, Duke, Notre Dame, Wisconsin OSU over Notre Dame in the big one St. John's in the Elite 8 Missouri in the Sweet 16 Edit- Re-did my bracket a bit after re-thinking things a bit.

NU with a home game. Now how the heck do they distribute tickets?

How does the #1 overall seed get the toughest bracket two years in a row?

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 13, 2011 -> 05:42 PM) UConn hot right now. I don't like their matchup with Duke at all. Not enough outside shooting. Walker would have to outscore Smith and Singler combined or come damn close for them to beat them IMO.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Mar 13, 2011 -> 05:34 PM) Looks like Pitt will get the cupcake bracket. I'm guessing Florida as the two, and BYU as the three. Looks like you're right. That is a pretty sweet draw.

Figures. If Texas doesn't beat Duke, I don't think anyone in this bracket will.

Seriously, how does the #1 overall seed get THAT bracket? Several teams I'd want to avoid in UNC, Syracuse and Kentucky.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Mar 11, 2011 -> 06:38 PM) We strongly strongly disagree then. 7 of the 10 in last year's class have all-star potential. 5 of them have superstar potential. This year's class, Irving IMHO is the only one who looks like he can be a perennial all-star, but I don't see him as a superstar. Barnes I don't think is that stud guy people made him out to be, just like with a lot of recent UNC recruits. We don't know much about Kanter. The rest on that list are meh, and yes, that includes Sullinger who I think will be a 17/9 player at max potential. I'd take the middle ground between your respective views, leaning slightly toward nite (keep in mind that so far 2010 doesn't look nearly as strong as the previous 3 or 4 drafts thus far, which is somewhat expected given it's still early). On the 2010 side: -I would say Wall and Cousins are both far better than anyone in the 2011 class (though the latter is a nutjob, which clearly hurts his stock). -Monroe already looks like a pretty solid big man. -Aminu and Johnson both look like more viable NBA players than Jones right now because they have more SF skills. -It's not a good sign for the 2011 class when a 6'7" 'tweener (Williams) and a 6'9" PF that doesn't have explosive athleticism are projected in the top-5. -It's also not a good sign for 2011 when there are two true PG (Irving and Walker, the latter being more of a scoring PG in college) and no sure-fire centers (Kanter is the only one that looks like a center based on listed size and weights). On the 2011 side: -The Euro guys are a HUGE wildcard that none of us know a ton about. This is especially true with Kanter, who I think probably would be slotted 1st or 2nd if he had been eligible. -You could make a good argument that Jones is about a push with Favors and that Barnes is about as good as Turner (Turner was WAY more productive but Barnes probably has more upside). Like most classes, you'll probably get 3 all-star/fringe all-star types and 5 or so decent starters/good role players. The problem is good luck figuring out which guys those are.

I can't believe you guys went this long without mentioning Carlos Boozer as a comparison for Sullinger (Brand had better length and way more blocked shots). As long as he doesn't eat his way out of the league like Sweetney and May, I think that's about the best comparison: a guy that can't really protect the rim, but he has a good scoring touch down low and will get his fair share of rebounds.

Some bad shots by NU down the stretch.

Technical my ass. (Edit- I guess they got him for throwing the mouth piece? I guess, still kinda weak.)

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 11, 2011 -> 12:49 PM) Drew Crawford, can you play worse in those last few mins? He's been incredibly annoying this year. He's probably NU's most talented player but keeps finding ways to not make an impact.

Curletti with the flop. Gotta love the Euro influence.

Coble would have helped, but I personally question how much. While they clearly could have used his scoring ability, especially in some of those games where Shurna couldn't get a shot off and Crawford was barely there, he doesn't help their main issues with defense and rebounding. Several of their losses were by wide margins, the only close ones were the two MSU games and OSU. Obviously that last one would be a huge resume builder, it's a different game though so who knows. A legit big man like Mbakwe would really make them dangerous, but it's been a while since NU had a real big man (I don't mean combo forwards like Shurna, Coble and Vukusic).

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Mar 11, 2011 -> 12:19 PM) I haven't watched much big ten basketball this year outside of the big 4...Other than Shurna, is Northwestern actually any good? Thompson has actually been their best player most of the year, Craft is giving him fits though. Shurna has been off most of conference play struggling with a high ankle sprain. He'd light up the lesser teams and not do much against the good teams that are more physical defensively. Crawford is up and down, he can make an impact if he's aggressive but often settles for 3's (and his stroke has been off of late) and challenged mid-range jumpers.

Ugly game so far, neither team can make a shot. A bunch rimming out for NU, that is probably going to come back to bite them later.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 11, 2011 -> 04:06 AM) If you log into yahoo, you can visit your fantasy profile and find your team. http://profiles.sports.yahoo.com/user/R5FL...YVMVJVHY53KMDXY http://archive.fantasysports.yahoo.com/arc.../2010/147061/11 You can also go to the keeper league home page and click on "all-time", go to 2010 and see all of the rosters.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 8, 2011 -> 04:53 PM) I literally havent watched the guy since college, does he not play in the post at all? I wouldn't say he never goes down low, but it's not his strength. His attempts within 10 feet and his conversion rates are fairly low when compared to other bigs that can score like Dwight, Amare, Boozer, Aldridge, Randolph and Griffin (Pau is pretty low as well, but he beats Love by 9% at the rim and 2% in the 3-9 foot range. Jefferson is another guy that's only slightly higher but converts a better percentage). He still has an insane offensive rating though because he can hit 3's and takes almost seven FT's a game at 86%. 5 offensive rebounds a game doesn't hurt either.

Besides the two ball-dominant guard issue, they'd have a similar problem to the Heat with their star big man. Love is a terror on the glass so they'd be better there, but he's not really a low post guy (he gets fewer shots at the rim than Bosh did in Toronto, and many come on putbacks) and he's not particularly agile or a threat as a shot-blocker on defense. Just like the Heat, they'd need someone to protect the rim at the center spot, which would be hard to do with limited cap space.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 7, 2011 -> 07:11 PM) The auction would be next year, right? If so I'm down. Auction leagues are a totally different animal. I don't have the time to deal with it this year. Especially when I've been preparing for the upcoming draft in a couple weeks or whatever. I'd also be cool with simply resetting the league with a regular draft next year as well. Any changes definitely wouldn't be until 2012.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 7, 2011 -> 06:43 PM) Again. Start a new God damn keeper league if you want new keepers. What's the point in participating in a keeper year after year if they just get reset? First off, I edited. Second, this league goes back pretty far. 2006 was the first year of this league, so it's not like we're doing this in year 2. We've also replaced half of the original owners (you were not in the first year for instance). Third, not everyone trades/changes their keepers every year like you.

I'd be open to re-setting the keepers next year to reconfigure the rosters a bit and give the newer teams a shot at guys they missed. However, last time I suggested that it didn't go over so well. What I'd REALLY love to do one of the following: 1) Re-start with an auction. You would be able to keep as many/few guys as you want, but the price paid for him would carry over (most leagues add $5 a year. For instance, let's say you grabbed Gordon Beckham for $8 this year. It'd be $13 to keep him for 2012, $18 in 2013, ect.). 2) A new draft with pick-replacement for keepers. For instance, for 2012 you'd lose your 1st to keep Pujols or your 8th for John Danks (hypothetical). Much like with the auction setup, the pick lost would go up 2 or 3 rounds so if you snag the next stud you can't keep him as your 18th rounder forever. I like these because it adds more strategy to who you keep rather than simply taking your 3 best hitters and your 2 best pitchers (or vice-versa). I'm also 90% sure Yahoo lets you do this rather painlessly (I know for sure you can do the pick replacement).

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 3, 2011 -> 09:05 PM) I think that Zoom makes them the first 5 automatically before we even draft. So, they go on the roster ahead of time. Yeah. I can't set the keepers until we finalize the league roster though.

You don't HAVE to keep 5 to make it work, but that's the way we have it set up. Otherwise I would definitely ditch one of my pitchers for an extra pick (though that's a little different because you're required to keep two starters).

Is there any interest in an auction league? I'll start one if there are enough interested players. It can take a REALLY long time to draft, but I find it a lot more interesting than a standard snake. Just post in this thread if interested and we'll see if we have enough players (has to be at least 10 in my book, ideally 12).