2013 NCAA tournament

Discounting (a) the obvious complaints about the officiating in the NCAA championship game (even though that likely had a significant impact on the outcome), and (b) the fact that Michigan was the youngest team in the NCAA tournament field, IF Michigan had beaten Louisville, the head coaches of the last five teams that Michigan would have beaten in the NCAA Tournament were:

VCU’s Shaka Smart; overall record of 111-36 (.753); in the NCAA tournament in three of his four seasons as a head coach and won the post-season CBI tournament in his first season as a head coach; made the Final Four in 2011, his second season as a head coach; considered one of the nation’s top young college coaches.

Kansas’s Bill Self; overall record of 507-164 (.756); 2008 NCAA champ; in the NCAA tournament every year since 1999; twice in the Final Four and seven times in the Elite Eight.

Florida’s Billy Donovan; overall record of 450-186 (.707); 2006 and 2007 NCAA champ; except for 2008 and 2009, in the NCAA tournament every year since 1999; in the Final Four three times and six times in the Elite Eight.

Syracuse’s Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim; overall record of 920-314 (.746); 2003 NCAA champ; except for 2002, 2007 and 2008, in the NCAA tournament every year since 1999; four times in the Final Four, runner-up twice and in the Elite Eight six times; two-time assistant coach of USA Olympics gold-medal team.

Louisville’s Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino; overall record of 664-230 (.735); 1996 champ with Kentucky and 2013 NCAA champ with Louisville; except for 2002 and 2006, in the NCAA tournament every year since 1999; in the Final Four seven times; in the Elite Eight eleven times.

By comparison, the coaches of the last five teams Louisville beat on its way to the championship were:

Colorado State’s Larry Eustachy; overall record of 428-267 (.615); in 22 seasons as college head coach, in the NCAA tournament five times and only twice past his opening game.

Oregon’s Dana Altman; overall record of 483-279 (.634); in 24 seasons as college head coach, in the NCAA tournament nine times and only three times past his opening game; post-season CBI champ in 2011.

Duke’s Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski; winningest men’s Division One head coach in NCAA history; overall record of 957-297 (.763); NCAA champ in 1991, 1992 and 2010 with Duke; in the NCAA tournament every year since 1999; in the Final Four ten times; in the Elite Eight 13 times; two-time head coach of USA Olympics gold-medal team.

Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall; overall record of 333-153 (.685); in 24 seasons as college head coach, in the NCAA tournament nine times and only three times past his opening game; post-season CBI champ in 2011.

Michigan’s John Beilein; overall record of 598-360 (.624); in 21 seasons as Division One head coach, in the NCAA tournament eight times, six since 1999, and only once in the Final Four and twice in the Elite Eight. 

The outcome was disappointing, but the run to the championship game was magical.  Well done, Coach Beilein and the Men of the 2012-13 Michigan Basketball Team.

MGoPoll:  I am stuck on if I want to drink tonight or not. I can't correlate my drinking habits to the team winning or losing. I did not drink during SDSU, VCU, Florida or 'Cuse. I did drink (heavily) during Kansas. What I cannot do is start the game not drinking, then begin drinking in the second half. I am 99% positive that is the reason we lost to Indiana at home. (1st half - zero beers and a Michigan lead, 2nd half - 2 beers and Michigan lost).

Up-vote for engaging in ALL OF THE BEERS

Down-vote for a sober night

Speaking of superstitions. What are you doing to secure victory for the boys in blue (or maize) tonight? Sadly, for me, I haven't wore  Michigan related clothing during game day all tourney long. So I will be rocking a plain white t-shirt tonight.

Feel free to posbang if you want. Today is kind of a big deal. Go Blue and Good Luck to our amazing Basketball Team!

http://www.umhoops.com/2013/04/07/video-mitch-mcgary-glenn-robinson-iii-...

http://www.umhoops.com/2013/04/07/video-trey-burke-tim-hardaway-jr-and-c...

Thanks to UMHoops for providing the video.  GO BLUE!

I just used the wayback machine to look at the Sagarin predictor ratings from early January (games through 1/3). Notice anything?

1. Duke
2. Louisville
3. Florida
4. Indiana
5. Kansas
6. Syracuse
7. Michigan
8. VCU
9. Ohio State
10. Minnesota

Wichita State was 19, Michigan State was 23, Marquette was 54, FGCU was 127.

Marquette was a bad miss, but on the whole these were a better predictor of tournament results than the ratings in March. You'd have done pretty well, filling out a bracket based on these.

Sometime later I'll check to see if this was true in prior years, but in the meantime I'll make a suggestion: is it possible that performance in non-conference games, against the full variety of styles of play that you'll eventually see in the tournament and against teams that you aren't familiar with (nor they with you), is a better predictor than conference play? It's been a while since we've seen M light up a zone like we just saw for a few minutes in the first half against Florida, because except for Northwestern nobody in the B1G plays it.

Let the games begin!

This is a reminder (a final reminder from me) to fill out those brackets by 12:20 PM tomorrow afternoon for the ESPN Tourny Challenge MGoBlog Community group. A link to the group is provided below. If you would like to join the group, just sign up and fill out a bracket. I could have sworn there was a mod who said if enough people signed up there could be some MGoPoints given to the winner. ;-)

Group Name: MGoBlog

Password: WeOn! (no spaces, capitilize the W and the O, exclamation point)

Also below I have provided a link to FREE LiveStreaming for ALL tournament games on your home computer or laptop. If you would like to watch all the tournament games on your phone for FREE, a link has been provided below to GooglePlay and iTunes so you can download the app if you like!

ESPN Tourny Challenge MGoBlog Community Group - http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/group?groupID=2997&selGrp=2997&entryID=38148

March Madness LiveStreaming - http://www.ncaa.com/march-madness-live/

March Madness Live Google App - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ncaa.mmlive.app&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd

March Madness Live Apple App - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ncaa-march-madness-live/id423246594?mt=8(        

(not sure if above link will work, app works for both iphone and ipad)