96 team tournament and Michigan
Not that it means anything since the 96 team idea is still not official but Joe Lunardi put out his prediction of what a 96 team bracket would look like and he has Michigan as a 15 seed in the East Region.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/bracket?id=5071629
If only Doc Brown and Marty would let John Beilein borrow the DeLorean(Sp?).
JB is already naked in my hot tub.
Apparently no one got the Hot Tub Time Machine reference.
April 15th, 2010 at 11:19 AM ^
Apparently nobody wants to imagine JB naked.
Here we are predicting a bad season, and we're in comfortably?
Arizona St better watch out for Saint Louis in that classic 13/20 matchup!
Also, I guess Northwestern can already start celebrating their first Tournament appearance. Go Cats!!
A 96 team tournament or predicting a field and seeding this early.
April 15th, 2010 at 11:20 AM ^
...WWL marketing strategy #JL0001: Continue to establish branding of "Joe Lunardi, Braketologist".
Nothing more, nothing less.
Completely agree. Lunardi is ridiculously overhyped. Every year they hype how he picked 63 out of the final 65 teams. How hard is that? Half the seeds are autobids. Of the remaining, the majority of them are teams that are easily in anyway (Syracuse, Gonzaga, etc.). In the end it only comes down to 3 or 4 for slots that may really be up for grabs. IIRC Lunardi was only so-so on his Florida or Virginia Tech predicitions.
Until we know where every recruit is going and every one that is going pro, its hard to do any projecting in college hoops.
That said, I've said two things all along.
This 96-team tournament wont be nearly as bad as most of you all are being led to believe. Its more hoops. And, it makes the regular season way more intersting for more teams and more leagues.
And, Michigan has plenty of reason to expect a better season next year despite the losses of Harris and Sims.
I welcome that 15/23 game. And look forward to ditching work to watch it.
April 15th, 2010 at 11:20 AM ^
...I refuse to get worked up about a structure that will practically guarantee that Michigan will make the NCAA tournament every year. No, I'm not worried about any "devaluation" of the accomplishment.
Just about everyone is against the 96-team field except for the people in the tournament committee. You would think that they'd take a hint. Ah, more reasons to hate the NCAA.
April 15th, 2010 at 10:25 AM ^
NCAA to expand tournament to 4096
http://www.theonion.com/video/ncaa-expands-march-madness-to-include-409…
April 15th, 2010 at 12:47 PM ^
That's what I wanted to see here. I like Pram to make the Tremendous 256, but my brackets always get ruined in the round of 1024.
April 15th, 2010 at 11:07 AM ^
A #16 will definitely knock off a #1 now.
April 15th, 2010 at 11:13 AM ^
This is Northwestern's chance to finally make the tournament
April 15th, 2010 at 11:50 AM ^
If what I've heard about a majority of coaches being in favor of the tournament to keep their jobs, I think it will have the opposite effect. More coaches will their job than now because they did not make the big(ger) dance. No Big 6 school (and many so called mid-majors) will not put up with losing out on a 24 seed.
96-team tourney would be a terrible idea, but it would obviously help M a lot. We weren't even close to making it last year, and next year could be about the same or worse... the Big Ten will be loaded (Purdue, Sparty, O$U, Illinois, and Wisconsin will be very good, and Northwestern and Minnesota will be about as good as us).