College Basketball: Afternoon Games Open Thread
Auburn looking to pull off the upset. Tight game so far. Northwestern plays Purdue in about an hour.
Grant “foul line” Williams with another trash hook and hold. Absolutely garbage!
Listening to Vitale babble on during the Tenn vs Auburn game makes me so happy that Dackich is calling the UM game tonight.
Dickie V is the worst and has been for awhile.
Shocked Dicki-V is doing this game...is he going to travel to do Duke v. UNC??? He loves the Dukiesss baby.
Looks like Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas for Duke/NC
I think Bilas does Duke games now
I perused the net and kenpom and I think that big ten could be tough to get 8 teams in. OSU (49 in net) is the lowest seed I think in the current bracketologies, but as has been discussed, they're going to lose out unless they get Wesson back and probably not make the ncaa's. Minnesota is at 56 in net, I can't see them getting in unless the make a run in the tourney. That leaves PSU! at 47, IU at 50, and Nebraska at 51. But all those teams have really bad conf records, I doubt they get in, leaving six teams in the tourney, maybe 7.
I think you're focusing too much on the NET ranking instead of full resumes. Minnesota has several quality wins (Washington on Neutral floor, at Wisconsin, Purdue, Iowa) and zero losses in Q3 or Q4.
They're sitting pretty comfortably at this point. If they lose in the first round of the BTT and a lot of other teams steal bids, they might be in trouble.
PSU and Nebraska definitely won't get in.
IU is precarious. They're squarely on the bubble and need to do something in the BTT or hope for low number of bid stealers.
OSU is in a weird position because you wonder how the committee will evaluate them without Wesson. Their resume is on the right side of the cut line but they've clearly been worse without him and you wonder if the committee dings them for that. A win this weekend over Wisconsin probably punches their ticket but a loss puts them at serious risk, right alongside IU needing to probably to win at least one in the BTT and/or hope for minimal bid stealers.
The conference is almost certain to get 7 and could get as many as 9 if IU and OSU make it.
Odds are: 8.
In most opinions, the order of best conferences go like this: ACC, B1G, SEC, everyone else. I keep seeing the SEC with 8 in so the B1G should at least get 8 in They have the damm annually overrated Big 12 with 6 in. I can see where we might only get 7 in if Wesson isnt coming back this year.
I must not have "most opinions." The ACC is strong at the top and bad at the bottom. Wake Forest is awful -- worse than any Big Ten team by a significant margin -- and Georgia Tech isn't very good either. The Big Ten, OTOH, is a little weaker at the top, but there are zero bad teams -- even Rutgers is now up to #70 in KenPom and #97 in the NET. (Illinois is probably the worst team, at #77 KenPom and #101 NET).
KenPom orders the conferences Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC, based on how difficult it would be to go .500 in conference play. (That balances out the effects of really good and really bad teams). That doesn't necessarily mean that the Big Ten should get the most bids, though -- just because the conference is strong doesn't mean that the teams in the conference are bid-worthy. Somewhat paradoxically, it can be a little easier to get more bids in an easier conference because you've got a couple of doormats to prop up everybody else's win totals.
You can't look at things in a vacuum. For every Big Ten team you take out of the field, you have to put another team in. If you don't think Minnesota gets a bid because of its bad NET rating, you must be putting St. Mary's (38, but "next four out" on the current bracket matrix) or Furman (42, ditto) instead. Historically, St. Mary's does not have the kind of résumé to get an at-large bid; they're 1-6 in Q1 games, 2-3 in Q2 games, and 20-11 overall. They're #38 in the NET because of a number of close losses, which is fine for a predictive system, but which shouldn't be a primary criterion for a "what have you done" system.
Furman is a little better, at 1-5 in Q1 and 3-0 in Q2, but not much.
Minnesota, OTOH, is 3-9 against Q1 and 7-3 against Q2. While that's not a fantastic résumé, and they are rightly considered to be on the bubble, it's much better than what these other, higher-NET teams have done.
App idea-Mutes broadcasters but viewers can hear the crowd noise.The "Dicky V.App."
Well, that's good news. There's still hope for a one seed
Nice job Auburn! Down goes Tennessee
huge loss by Tenn, opens the door, but not for Michigan, because last time I said that, UM lost to MSU, so in keeping with the negbang thread, opens the door for Kentucky, the loser of UNC-Duke today (winner will get a 1-seed I think) and MSU.
Florida is currently up 1 on Kentucky at the half.
Maybe this actually opens the door for LSU. Wouldn't that be a hoot? LSU with the sure-to-be-vacated one seed and a huge public embarrassment for the NCAA. Pass the popcorn. ;)
Sadly, Kentucky woke up in the second half and ended up winning, although they didn't quite cover the KenPom (or Vegas) spread.
I still think that if Michigan or MSU wins its next four games, they'd get a 1 seed. I wouldn't mind seeing an upset in the SEC tournament though.
Thank goodness Minnesota knocked off Purdue. Think this is going to be a split decision.
Purdue up by 2, 5 minutes to go in the half. Go Cats!!!
I wonder what Kaleb Wesson did to get suspended indefinitely during OSU's stretch run.
I'm thinking he beat up a starting football player.
No, he probably went to class and was reported by the professor.
Used the letter M in a tweet. Unforgivable!
Getting my first real look at Texas Tech. I think on a neutral floor Michigan beats them by infinity.
Glad teddy v isn't reffing big 10 games anymore.
Purdue is a shockingly weak co-Big Ten champion in a very strong conference
This NCAA Tourney is going to be insane I think. Lots of good teams.
Speaking of the bubble: Texas, what are you doing??
The Longhorns lose by 13 at home, to TCU, on Senior Day to drop to 16-15 overall and 8-10 in conference play. They're locked into the 6 seed in the Big 12 tournament, and they'll get a first round bye and then a game with Kansas.
They're currently #28 in KenPom and #34 in the NET, although the latter will drop as a result of this game. They're a 10 seed on this morning's Bracket Matrix.
If they lose to Kansas, do they get in the tournament at 16-16?? They'd be 5-10 in Q1, 4-4 in Q2, 4-2 in Q3*, and 3-0 in Q4, with a NET likely somewhere in the 40s and three Q1-A wins (neutral vs. UNC, home vs. Purdue, @KSU). (One of their losses is a home game vs #76 Providence; a one-spot move up the ladder will turn that into a Q2 loss instead of Q3).
If they beat Kansas and lose in the semis, they're a virtual lock, right? At 17-16?
Is it me or is Virginia super annoying to watch
When they slow the game down they are very annoying to watch. Similar to Bo Ryan at Wisconsin style of play. I find them very efficient in every thing they do though and when the game moves a little faster, they are fun to watch. Good defense, good ball movement, good shooting
Let's go UNC! (but mainly, let's go fast game that ends before 8PM)
The speed of this UNC Duke game is unreal
Absolutely zero defense as usual. Look like the Big 12 football games
It’s a layup fest I can’t believe it. Inbounds to the free throw line outlet to half court, then hit the wide open cut to the basket. It’s happened like a dozen times
Yaklich would be stroking out already
No way the ACC gets 3 one seeds. Bilas talking about MSU health but doesnt even mention Duke injuries.
I don't see how injuries have anything to do with it either way. Is seeding not based on regular season performance?
Mostly but not entirely. You can go all the way back to Kenyon Martin getting injured for Cinci and it affected their seeding. If Zion comes back they have a great shot at a 1 seed, if he doesnt, they are less likely.
Carolina is so much better than when we smoked them.
They are playing better but they also benefit when they play teams that want to run all game. Teams like Michigan and Virginia cause them to play halfcourt, which is where they struggle at