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2011-2012 NCAA Basketball Thread


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Just in case anyone isn't sick of the IU alums relishing this return...

They never told Tom Crean how deep the rot went.

 

It was April 1, 2008, and this was the joke: Indiana’s new basketball coach somehow understood the disaster he was inheriting. But he couldn’t because nobody could, because on the day he arrived from Marquette to take this job, he saw the five national championship banners dangling in Assembly Hall and knew only that it was Indiana and the name “Indiana” would withstand the crimes of his predecessor, Kelvin Sampson.

 

Then, on April 3, the day after the welcome news conference backdrops had been pulled down and the last TV truck rolled away, the team’s academic advisor told him there were 18 F’s on the team. That struck Crean as an outrageous number until half an hour later, when the academic director told him there were actually 19. And that’s when Crean knew this was much worse than he could have imagined.

 

For there is a message in 19 F’s on a 14-player team with an armada of tutors whose primary task is to make sure the players pass. It says the decay is much broader than a rogue coach who made too many illegal phone calls. It says oversight has disappeared, that the players no longer care, that the delicate pilings holding up a wobbling basketball program are about to topple and the whole thing is on the verge of collapse.

 

Sitting nearly four years later in a conference room overlooking the team’s practice court, Crean gives a dry chuckle.

 

“Everybody wants to talk about a honeymoon,” he says. “Well, people can think what they want; the honeymoon was over that day.”

 

Of all the stories in the NCAA tournament – the finally-made-its, the last-second shots, the upset champions – this might be the best of them all: how Tom Crean revived the Indiana Hoosiers after Sampson left them for dead.

 

By all rights, Indiana shouldn’t be playing New Mexico State in the round of 64 Thursday night or have finished 25-8 and in fourth place in the Big Ten this fast. Not when, after the 19 F’s, came the departures of Eric Gordon to the NBA and Jordan Crawford to Xavier and the dismissals of Armon Bassett, DeAndre Thomas and Jamarcus Ellis. Not when two recruits renounced their commitments and Gordon made allegations of uncontrolled drug use by Indiana players.

 

But it wasn’t until Crean took a call from one player’s mother offering to keep her son at Indiana if Crean kindly would ignore the player’s two positive drug tests that he grasped the calamity this was about to become. The program was in ruins. In the end, after the suspensions and defections, he was left with two walk-ons who had scored a combined 36 points in their Indiana careers.

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For all the Mizzou fans who were upset with their number 2 seed:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03...ch-madness.html

 

The numbers match what I originally thought, while Mizzou was given the 2 seed, they actually have a better draw than MSU the 1 seed. The reason is that Memphis is the strongest 8 seed (30% chance of making the sweet 16) as compared to Florida 23%.

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QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 08:39 AM)
so, i have to pay to watch the games online this year? i dont remember that being the case before.

 

CBS games are still free. The TruTV/TNT/TBS games are free unless you don't have cable. If you do you can log in to your cable provider and watch the games.

 

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QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 09:00 AM)
CBS games are still free. The TruTV/TNT/TBS games are free unless you don't have cable. If you do you can log in to your cable provider and watch the games.

I thought that was the cass, but I cant find the Cable Provider option on the NCAA March Madness site. they want me to pay 3.99.

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For all the Mizzou fans who were upset with their number 2 seed:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03...ch-madness.html

 

The numbers match what I originally thought, while Mizzou was given the 2 seed, they actually have a better draw than MSU the 1 seed. The reason is that Memphis is the strongest 8 seed (30% chance of making the sweet 16) as compared to Florida 23%.

 

As an MSU fan, I'd trade spots in the bracket with Mizzou in a heartbeat.

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hmm, i dunno. when i hit the march madness live link there was a pop up asking for my cable provider

 

edit: ok, i see where you're at now. i think if you just skip past that screen asking you to log in or pay it gives you the scoreboard. i'm sure once the games start there will be a link to watch live (the CBS feeds anyway)

Edited by Jenksismybitch
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Not sure of everyone's opinions, but I really enjoy Greg Anthony in studio for college hoops. Also enjoyed Jay Williams and Gottlieb last week and usually Doug gets on my last nerve.

 

Doug got on my last nerve in 1996 when he accused me of being anti-Semitic.

 

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QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 11:48 AM)
So the live feed system sucks. I can't believe they're charging for this. They purposefully put only 2 games on CBS for "free," the rest are pay games.

 

They are all supposed to be available free

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QUOTE (Rex Hudler @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 02:35 PM)
Count me as a crotchety old tradionalist, but I just don't like teams not wearing white as the home team. Colors should be worn on the road!!

I don't know if it makes you old, but it certainly makes you weird to care about such a thing.

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QUOTE (danman31 @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 02:36 PM)
I don't know if it makes you old, but it certainly makes you weird to care about such a thing.

 

Maybe so. But gray and yellow or whatever color are not home uniforms. Call them light vs dark if you want, I just don't like it.

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Seems like usually, if I have more than one pool or sheet, where I make a few different picks... the losses get spread out and neither sheet ends up that good.

 

Today, assuming Colorado hangs on, I have one sheet (the Soxtalk one) where I will be 10 for 16, and another (at work) where I will be 15 for 16. The work pool has actual money involved, so I'm not complaining.

 

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QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 11:19 PM)
Seems like usually, if I have more than one pool or sheet, where I make a few different picks... the losses get spread out and neither sheet ends up that good.

 

Today, assuming Colorado hangs on, I have one sheet (the Soxtalk one) where I will be 10 for 16, and another (at work) where I will be 15 for 16. The work pool has actual money involved, so I'm not complaining.

Speaking of jinxing...

 

Never count your bracket points before they hatch!

 

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