March Madness Thread

[IrishSpartan]

Todays selection sunday, whose excited! According to Lunardi, MSU would face ND in the second round so personally i can't wait to possibly see that matchup.

Edit: Also looks like that matchup will basically be a home game for MSU since it will be played in Auburn Hills.

 

[KPENN]

Lunardi's good about who gets in and who's out but he's not very accurate on exact matchups

 

[IrishJayhawk]

Lunardi's good about who gets in and who's out but he's not very accurate on exact matchups

Very true.

Rock Chalk

 

[STLDomer]

Worst part of this years march madness:

Seeing Doug Gottlieb every single day

Seriously he is unbearable and grouping him with Seth Davis makes it worse, they look like they absolutely hate each other

 

[STLDomer]

MW region is strong

 

[gkIrish]

Gonzaga, Ohio state, and New Mexico are going to be the 1 2 and 3in our bracket. Not a bad draw

 

[JughedJones]

Gonzaga, Ohio state, and New Mexico are going to be the 1 2 and 3in our bracket. Not a bad draw

Not at all.

ND has a real chance of going pretty deep.

 

[peoriairish]

Worst part of this years march madness:

Seeing Doug Gottlieb every single day

Seriously he is unbearable and grouping him with Seth Davis makes it worse, they look like they absolutely hate each other

Anyone else think Gottlieb and Jimmymac could be twins?

 

[STLDomer]

Georgetown got the easiest path to the Elite 8 IMO

Florida doesn't have "it" IMO, doesn't win close games

 

[irishff1014]

ND will have their hands full with Ohio state.

 

[arrowryan]

ND will have their hands full with Ohio state.

Notre Dame will have their hands full with Iowa State

 

[jakerbluegold]

I live in Ames Iowa, the home of the Cyclones. As soon as it was announced, my phone started blowing up.

Everyone knows I'm an ND fan, but I'm also ISU alum. It's going to be a great game to watch!

 

[STLDomer]

Notre Dame is the #27 overall team according to the committee

 

[gkIrish]

Iowa state is a really bad matchup for us

 

[FearTheBeard]

Iowa state is a really bad matchup for us

Just curious i havent seen them play why does everyone think iowa state is a bad matchup for us??

 

[IrishSteelhead]

Ohio State is hot right now, and are a proven tourney team. If we can beat Iowa State, that will be a very tough matchup. I have Ohio State going deep.

 

[gkIrish]

Just curious i havent seen them play why does everyone think iowa state is a bad matchup for us??

Fast-paced team that makes a bunch of threes. Our bigs are going to have to guard on the perimeter. In other words, not like most Big East teams that we are used to playing.

 

[gkIrish]

Ohio State is hot right now, and are a proven tourney team. If we can beat Iowa State, that will be a very tough matchup. I have Ohio State going deep.

I actually think we match up pretty well with OSU. They don't shoot that well, have defensive-minded bigs, and have no bench. If we can get Craft or Thomas into foul trouble they will struggle to score.

 

[STLDomer]

Fast-paced team that makes a bunch of threes. Our bigs are going to have to guard on the perimeter. In other words, not like most Big East teams that we are used to playing.

Lotta people comparing Iowa State to Villanova, including Brey and EA

 

[gkIrish]

Lotta people comparing Iowa State to Villanova, including Brey and EA

Yeah that might be a fair comparison but I think ISU is better. I think we win but it won't be easy.

 

[KPENN]

How's Nova this year guys? I haven't seen all their games i just know they've had a few big wins

 

[KPENN]

Georgetown got the easiest path to the Elite 8 IMO

Florida doesn't have "it" IMO, doesn't win close games

They are good at blowing out teams outside the top 75

 

[Woneone]

I actually like both match-ups.

Iowa State is going to try to push the pace, but I think our style is about as bad a match-up for them as they could get from a 7-seed. Auguste and Knight are going to need to play well on the defensive end. I don't think Cooley or Sherman are going to be able to keep up with their bigs on the perimeter. Having Scott Martin would be huge in this game.

More importantly, in my opinion, neither OSU nor ISU have a legit inside defensive presence. I think we can really hurt both teams with our bigs.

Not to look ahead, but if we did play OSU, I think we'll really miss Scott Martin (again). D'shawn Thomas is a match-up nightmare Martin would have had the size and speed to really give him problems.

 

[STLDomer]

Apparently Iowa State has opened as the favorite at -1

“@beyondthebets: Games where lower seed is favored: Minn -3.5 vs. UCLA, Mizz -2 vs. Colo St, Iowa St -1 vs. ND.”

 

[Irish4Life09]

Worst part of this years march madness:

Seeing Doug Gottlieb every single day

Seriously he is unbearable and grouping him with Seth Davis makes it worse, they look like they absolutely hate each other

Doesn't he have some students to rob from?!?!?

 

[IrishLax]

I cannot believe how close we were to having a great draw. At first I thought we were going to be a 6 in the west (Wisconsin/Kansas State seemed like locks for #4/5 in some order) where we would get to play New Mexico as the #3 seed. I was thrilled. Gonzaga also seemed like most vulnerable #1 seed when you look at who they've actually played/beaten this year.

And then.... we get slotted behind Arizona and have to play a team that IF they are hitting their 3s can/will beat anyone in the country. How the hell does the committee justify this? Look at the 6 seeds:

Notre Dame (25-9)
Best wins: Louisville (#1 overall seed, RPI #3), Marquette (#3 seed, RPI #12)
Worst losses: St. Joe's (RPI #81), Providence (RPI #88), St. john's (RPI #93)

UCLA (25-9)
Best wins: Arizona x3 (#6 seed, RPI #15)
Worst losses: Arizona State (RPI #87), USC (RPI #119), Cal Poly (RPI #165), Washington State (RPI #192)

Arizona 25-7) <-- the Wildcats getting seeded ahead of ND makes sense to me
Best wins: Florida (#3 seed, RPI #6), Miami (#2 seed, RPI #4) both in mid-December when neither team was playing well.
Worst losses: USC (RPI #119)

Memphis 30-4)
Best wins: None. Not a single win over a tournament team, much less a quality win.
Worst losses: Xavier (RPI #90)

Butler (25-8) <--- Also a team that deserves to be seeded over ND based on early season triumphs over two teams that would end up as #1 seeds despite recent struggles.
Best wins: Gonzaga, Indiana, Marquette. All big time wins.
Worst losses: Xavier (RPI #90)

Really UCLA more than anything is the miffing one. Tons of bad losses, no really "quality" wins... same record as ND... most recent accomplishment was getting beat by a #12 seed. Memphis also makes you go "WTF?" though. Didn't beat a single team that is any good at all this year. Not one. It seems like the only logical explanation is that the committee weighted the archaic RPI really strongly... which is basically a reflection of how good your "bad" OOC teams are on your schedule. If you patsies go 0-30 versus 15-15 it has a huge impact. Oh well. Looking like another early exit... but hopefully we'll at least grab a W against Iowa State before our game against OSU. Ohio State is a brutal matchup for us at every position on the floor.

 

[STLDomer]

Iowa State this year:

@ KU L
@ OU W
Okie W
@ OU L
KU L (this game went to a couple OTs)
@ Baylor W
@ Texas L
@ KSU L
Baylor W
OU W
@ Okie L
KSU W
Texas W
@ KU L
@ UNLV L
@ Cincy L

That's 8-8 against teams I would say are quality competition.
There's a couple bad losses in their that total to 11 total losses

 

[SaltyND24]

I really just need for us to come out and establish an inside presence with Cooley and our other bigs...Guard the perimeter and kill them on the boards...Can't afford for Atkins to take bad fouls and spend a lot of time on the bench in this game.

 

[STLDomer]

UCLAs seeding makes no sense to me either. I don't see them as one of the 24 best teams, ecspecially w/o Jordan Adams.

 

[SaltyND24]

UCLAs seeding makes no sense to me either. I don't see them as one of the 24 best teams, ecspecially w/o Jordan Adams.

Truth...I hope Minnesota took their bipolar meds and comes to play...if they do, they'll straight mop the floor with UCLA in my opinion!