Official 2009-2010 NCAA Basketball Thread

[southsider2k5]

Duke's region is a joke. Their 4 and 5 seeds are circling the drain, big time.

[Jenksismyhero]

Illinois got screwed. Anyone who knows anything about college basketball knows that Illinois is a tourney caliber team. It's a joke that Minnesota got in over them, it's a joke that Utah St., UTEP, Florida, etc got in over them. I dunno how you can fault a team for losing games they're expected to lose. Wow, so Minnesota pulls out a W against Illinois, yet has less quality wins and more bad losses. So now we're deciding that one game means team A is better than team B? Guess Illinois should be in over the FOUR seed Wisconsin, cuz we won 2 out of 3 against them this year. And how does the committee not see that Illinois took OSU to double OT, yet Minnesota gets blasted by 20+? Isn't that some indication of which team is better? Minnesota's only good win in the big ten tournament was against an overrated MSU team without one of its players. Purdue is clearly an average team without Hummel (though it was still an impressive performance). That was just a joke of a decision.

 

Illinois got left out because of money. Illinois, Uconn, UNC and others in the junior tournament in New York. That's the headline. The NCAA knows tickets will sell for the 65 team tourney, they're not so sure of the NIT. This is just to insure that they'll get paid by fanbases that travel well and have a decent TV audience.

 

And the anti-Weber talk is pretty hilarious. Illinois fans are so incredibly delusional (including myself, but I think I have some pretty reasonable expectations). We're a great program, easily one of the top 15-20 in the country. But even in our "golden age" we mustered one f'n Final Four appearance, which was attributable to him. The fire Weber talk should have started 3 years ago when he couldn't pull in a class of three star guys. But they didn't, because he's clearly one of the best coaches in the country, continually taking average talent farther than anyone expected. Look how far SIU has fallen since he left. A once perennial mid-major program is no more.

 

As I've said a thousand times, he relied on three freshman this year. Freshman are erratic and inconsistent. They had no veteran leadership. This was a growing season, much like 2004 when Dee/Deron/Luther/Powell/Augustine, etc sucked at times and were great at times. That's exactly what this team was.

 

Morons in the fan base are going to expect a final four or bust year next year, which is ridiculous. That crap started 2-3 years ago when Richardson and Richmond gave their verbal commitments and everyone else followed. Next year SHOULD be a good year. I expect them to contend for a Big Ten title. I expect them to get a 5+ seed. I expect them to make it past the 1st round of the tournament. Anything after that is just gravy. Any true championship run is still 2-3 years away.

 

 

EDIT: And I should add that I'm not shocked that Illinois didn't get in. It would be a tough sell for the NCAA to put them in when they had such a horrible RPI. To me though, that just proves that relying on the RPI is a joke. You play nobody, you beat nobody, but you can still have a 40 or below RPI. Something's not right there.

Edited March 15, 2010 by Jenksismybitch

[Kyyle23]

And the anti-Weber talk is pretty hilarious. Illinois fans are so incredibly delusional (including myself, but I think I have some pretty reasonable expectations). We're a great program, easily one of the top 15-20 in the country. But even in our "golden age" we mustered one f'n Final Four appearance, which was attributable to him. Fans easily forget the crappy Self teams that couldn't get out of the first round. The fire Weber talk should have started 3 years ago when he couldn't pull in a class of three star guys. But they didn't, because he's clearly one of the best coaches in the country, continually taking average talent farther than anyone expected. Look how far SIU has fallen since he left. A once perennial mid-major program is no more.

 

I would attribute this to the arrival of Lowery as opposed to the departure of Weber. SIU maintained that success for 4 years post Weber. Lowery drove another tourney team(Falker, Shaw) into the ground.

 

 

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Illinois got screwed. Anyone who knows anything about college basketball knows that Illinois is a tourney caliber team. It's a joke that Minnesota got in over them, it's a joke that Utah St., UTEP, Florida, etc got in over them. I dunno how you can fault a team for losing games they're expected to lose. Wow, so Minnesota pulls out a W against Illinois, yet has less quality wins and more bad losses. So now we're deciding that one game means team A is better than team B? Guess Illinois should be in over the FOUR seed Wisconsin, cuz we won 2 out of 3 against them this year. And how does the committee not see that Illinois took OSU to double OT, yet Minnesota gets blasted by 20+? Isn't that some indication of which team is better? Minnesota's only good win in the big ten tournament was against an overrated MSU team without one of its players. Purdue is clearly an average team without Hummel (though it was still an impressive performance). That was just a joke of a decision.

 

I found that funny.

 

And anyone who follows college basketball at all knows Illinois did not deserve to be in this year's tournament. No bubble teams got screwed this year. The closest to having a case is probably Virginia Tech.

[Chisoxfn]

Iowa to fire Lick. Press conference to be held today to announce he will not be returning as coach at Iowa.

[RockRaines]

I found that funny.

 

And anyone who follows college basketball at all knows Illinois did not deserve to be in this year's tournament. No bubble teams got screwed this year. The closest to having a case is probably Virginia Tech.

Illinois would have had tied the most losses ever by a tourney team I believe if they made it.

[RockRaines]

I'm sure it's been said, but I think the committee did a particularly bad job this year. Lot's of issues with seeds.

 

Ohio State and West Virginia arguably should have been a 1 seed, yet they are in the same region as Kansas/Kentucky, the top 1 seeds? Bulls***. Then Kansas has to deal with the best 3 seed as well. Hilarious. Duke and Syraucse have by far the easier regions.

 

Also, some of the other seedings to me were off. Cornell should have been higher than a 12, Siena should have been higher than a 13 (hell, they might be favored in that game), Gonzaga is better than an 8, Notre Dame way too high as a 6, Wake is too high and arguably shouldnt have even been in and on and on. I know there's always going to be issues but to me it seems this year there were a lot of "WTF?" moments when I watched the seedings announced.

OSu got screwed and were ranked at the 8th overall team. Not really sure how they came to that conclusion. WVU should have been a 1 seed with no doubt.

[iamshack]

Illinois would have had tied the most losses ever by a tourney team I believe if they made it.

 

 

Obviously, you mean an at-large selection.

[Jenksismyhero]

I'm willing to bet that they set a record this year for the team with the most "quality wins" to not make it. But I'm too lazy to look that up

[ChiSox_Sonix]

I'm willing to bet that they set a record this year for the team with the most "quality wins" to not make it. But I'm too lazy to look that up

 

With what? 5?

 

Hell, UConn had a terrible year and their list of "quality" wins is arguably better. (I'm in no way advocating the Huskies had any right to be anywhere near any sort of discussion for the tourney, by the way)

 

[kjshoe04]

Every team you named, minus possibly minnesota, had a significantly better season than illinois.

[whitesoxfan99]

Every team you named, minus possibly minnesota, had a significantly better season than illinois.

 

Florida, Utah St. and UTEP certainly didn't have significantly better seasons than Illinois.

 

Illinois:

Overall: 19-14

Conference: 10-8

Top 50: 5-9

51-100: 1-1

101-200: 5-4

200+: 8-0

 

Florida:

Overall: 21-12

Conference: 9-7

Top 50: 3-8

51-100: 4-2

101-200: 8-1

200+: 6-1

 

Please tell me how Florida had the clearly better season? Florida's good wins were a home game against Florida St., a home game against Tenn, and a neutral court against MSU. Illinois beat Wisconsin on a neutral court, MSU at home, won at Wisconsin, at Clemson and home against Vanderbilt. Illinois's wins are much more impressive. Florida basically had one less bad loss than Illinois although their loss to South Alabama at home is significantly worse than any loss Illinois had. I'm not saying Illinois should definitely have been in but people acting like these other teams had clearly better seasons is just as laughable as an Illinois fan saying they certainly should have been in.

 

 

[kjshoe04]

Getting to 20 wins was the dealbreaker there. I would have liked miss st. over florida or illinois personally. When I said that I was only thinking more about UTEP and Utah State. I forgot he even mentioned florida.

[Felix]

Illinois got screwed. Anyone who knows anything about college basketball knows that Illinois is a tourney caliber team. It's a joke that Minnesota got in over them, it's a joke that Utah St., UTEP, Florida, etc got in over them. I dunno how you can fault a team for losing games they're expected to lose. Wow, so Minnesota pulls out a W against Illinois, yet has less quality wins and more bad losses. So now we're deciding that one game means team A is better than team B? Guess Illinois should be in over the FOUR seed Wisconsin, cuz we won 2 out of 3 against them this year. And how does the committee not see that Illinois took OSU to double OT, yet Minnesota gets blasted by 20+? Isn't that some indication of which team is better? Minnesota's only good win in the big ten tournament was against an overrated MSU team without one of its players. Purdue is clearly an average team without Hummel (though it was still an impressive performance). That was just a joke of a decision.

lol enjoy watching your team in the NIT

 

blah blah blah MSU was missing Allen blah blah blah Purdue was missing Hummell

 

Let's ignore the fact that Minnesota played without their starting point guard for Big 10 play and their two top recruits (FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON). Whatever. That means nothing.

Edited March 15, 2010 by Felix

[kjshoe04]

lol enjoy watching your team in the NIT

 

blah blah blah MSU was missing Allen blah blah blah Purdue was missing Hummell

 

Let's ignore the fact that Minnesota played without their starting point guard for Big 10 play and their two top recruits (FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON). Whatever. That means nothing.

Congrats to you guys. Minnesota deserved it.

[Felix]

Congrats to you guys. Minnesota deserved it.

Thanks. I think we did too

[kev211]

I love seeing Illinois fans attempting to justify why they should be in the tournament.

[kev211]

Any of the other Valley fans here think UNI got completely hosed on a 9 seed. Probably more like a 7.

[Jenksismyhero]

lol enjoy watching your team in the NIT

 

blah blah blah MSU was missing Allen blah blah blah Purdue was missing Hummell

 

Let's ignore the fact that Minnesota played without their starting point guard for Big 10 play and their two top recruits (FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON). Whatever. That means nothing.

 

Ah, there's the cocky attitude that was missing for a decade in that 0-28 stretch.

 

All i'm saying is that Minnesota gets in over Illinois because of the last two games it played, which aren't as impressive as the numbers would indicate. But whatever, you got in, we didn't, so good luck.

[Soxbadger]

Part of the problem for Illinois is that 2 of their best wins were against Wisconsin, and one of them was with out Leur. The Big 10 tournament game was a good win, but Wisconsin played their worst game of the season and Illinois barely beat them in the end. Had Illinois not let Wisconsin back in the game, I think we could be looking at a different result.

 

Another reason Illinois was left out, was because Minnesota made it in. I just feel that the tourney capped the Big 10 at 5 bids this season, and even if Illinois and Minnesota had made it to the Big 10 final, only one of them was getting in.

 

[kjshoe04]

Any of the other Valley fans here think UNI got completely hosed on a 9 seed. Probably more like a 7.

Yes 100%. That pissed me off. A team that is 28-4 out of the Valley is very good. They should have been no higher then a 7. I personally think they should have got a 6. I can't wait until they give Kansas a scare.

[Felix]

Ah, there's the cocky attitude that was missing for a decade in that 0-28 stretch.

 

All i'm saying is that Minnesota gets in over Illinois because of the last two games it played, which aren't as impressive as the numbers would indicate. But whatever, you got in, we didn't, so good luck.

I'm not trying to be cocky at all, but all this Illinois whining is just getting old as hell.

 

We beat two of the three co-champions in the Big 10 in back-to-back days. Regardless of who they were missing (and again, we were missing JUST AS MUCH), that's damn impressive. You can try justifying it all you want, but the fact of the matter is that the Gophers went 7-3 in their last 10 games, including a one-point loss to Purdue (which we should have won) and wins over Wisconsin, Illinois, a PSU team that "no one wanted to play", Michigan State and Purdue. On the other hand, Illinois went 4-6 down the stretch and lost to us in Illinois.

 

With that in mind, there is no way you can convince me that Illinois deserved the spot over Minnesota. Had you beaten us at Assembly Hall, I'd be able to understand your reasoning. But you guys did absolutely nothing to earn a tournament bid down the stretch, and because of it, you're in the NIT.

Edited March 15, 2010 by Felix

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Yes 100%. That pissed me off. A team that is 28-4 out of the Valley is very good. They should have been no higher then a 7. I personally think they should have got a 6. I can't wait until they give Kansas a scare.

 

That's of course assuming they beat UNLV, which I'm not so sure they will. That said, I agree they should have been ranked higher. It's a joke especially considering Cal, Clemson and ND got the seeds they did.

 

[whitesoxfan99]

Getting to 20 wins was the dealbreaker there. I would have liked miss st. over florida or illinois personally. When I said that I was only thinking more about UTEP and Utah State. I forgot he even mentioned florida.

 

Last post on this subject but Miss St. had a worse resume than Florida or Illinois. They had more bad losses than either Illinois or Florida. Lost a 11 games which isn't out of line with Illinois and Florida and they had less top 50 wins than both. The only reason they had a decent SEC record is because they were in the SEC west. They were 0-4 against Florida, Tennessee, Vandy, and Kentucky during the regular season.

[kev211]

That's of course assuming they beat UNLV, which I'm not so sure they will. That said, I agree they should have been ranked higher. It's a joke especially considering Cal, Clemson and ND got the seeds they did.

UNI is going to beat UNLV. I know UNLV is good, but UNI is older more experienced, and a better team.