NCAA Tournament and Bracket

[bearcatbret]

With the MSU loss, the SEC is guaranteed to have a team in the final game. Auburn ran off 12 or so unanswered points in the first half and MSU just could not recover.

[swilsonsp4]

If Arizona’s two high percentage FT shooters had made the front end instead of missing twice, we’d have two Big 12 teams in the final four. If only one had made it AZ probably would still have won.

TX Tech, rather than AZ.

[longtimefan]

TX Tech, rather than AZ.

Thanks, I had my Big 12 teams mixed up. It was TTU.

[leeraymond]

I heard Kelvin Sampson's postgame comments on XM College Sports Radio, and he made some interesting comments. When the interviewer asked how the Cougars have fared so well away from home, Sampson said, "Knuckleheads don't win on the road. Good kids win on the road. We have good kids. They take to coaching."

In response to another question, this time regarding the consistent strength of the defense, he said that, when they are practicing their defensive principles in their shell, they never run their offense against it. They know what their opponents will run and practice that. For instance, the Cougars don't use pin-downs, but teams they play do. So, they drill on that.

Very good post. Gives insight into why Sampson is probably a future Hall of Fame coach. Sampson always has something insightful to say when he is interviewed.

"Knuckleheads don't when on the road". Something to think about.

[sedz]

I wonder if the high major and top seed dominance this year is the new normal with NIL, or if it's an aberration due to the Covid year. There are so many 5th or even 6th year seniors who have trickled up to the top over the last half decade. That ends after this year, and we'll mostly go back to 4th year seniors who shouldn't be quite as dominant.

The top seeds this year are 4 of the top 10 teams ever on Kenpom. Duke is same Duke of old, featuring top high school recruits. But Houston has three fifth year seniors in Roberts, Cryer, and Wilson. Auburn has Broome and Caldwell. And Florida has Alijah Martin, who best illustrates this idea by having a great 4 year career at FAU but then tacks on an extra season at Florida. That won't be happening anymore.

[sedz]

Alabama's roster is full of 5th year seniors with Sears, Nelson, Omoruyi, and Youngblood (plus Wrightsell who was injured in November).

Broome, Roberts, Cryer, and Sears had All-America caliber seasons as 4th year seniors, then they tacked on yet another year. Even among teams that didn't advance that far you have Ryan Kalkbrenner, Caleb Love, Johnell Davis, RJ Davis, Hunter Dickinson. I think the college basketball landscape will look a little different as that goes away.

[bearcatbret]

Nobody has mentioned the NIT. There are no Big 12 teams left. Here are the brackets with the final 4. 2025 NIT bracket: Schedule, scores, TV channels for the men’s tournament | NCAA.com

[London 'Cat]

Houston struggling against Duke but starting to come to life.

[bearcatbret]

Houston struggling against Duke but starting to come to life.

I was going to post the same thing. Each time I have watched Duke this year, they seem to go on a big run to end the first half. Maybe Houston can withstand it.

Florida won in what was a close game towards the end. It seemed that Auburn through the first 25-30 minutes would cruse through the rest of the game but Florida came back.

[sedz]

What a comeback!

[longtimefan]

I’ve seen it all now. Great job by Houston.

[bearcatbret]

Wow, every time that it seemed that Duke was going to win, Houston made a small run to cut into the lead. With all of the hype around Duke this week, it seemed that everyone thought that they would be champs. I even believed that no team would beat Duke. With Kansas winning in 2022 and Baylor in 2021, if Houston wins, it will make Big 12 champs in 3 of the past 5 years. I just do not want the SEC to win.

[sedz]

A big part of Houston's comeback was forcing Flagg to take midrange shots. Flagg dominated most of the game with a 28 BPM, but in the last 8 minutes he went 0 for 4 from midrange (2 for 10 for the game) and didn't get to the rim once. Even the best player on the best team can't resist the siren of a midrange jumpshot, and it cost them.

Huge game for Cryer, who had 9.1 net points and kept Houston in the game making 6 of 9 from three (4 of those makes came in a 5 minute window around halftime to trim a 12 point deficit to 5, and another kicked off the rally down 14 with 8 minutes left). Roberts put up 11 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 assists.

[longtimefan]

Houston defense held Duke to 8 points in the final 8 minutes, out scoring them 25-8. Incredible defense.

[Lobot]

As per usual when the team I'm rooting for starts looking like they're cooked, I leave the room and just listen until they catch up. I thought Houston was completely done last night at 1:26 and I turned the game off entirely. I started to go to bed thinking by bracket was done with Houston losing.

I only picked three brackets this year on two different websites. I used my gut feeling for two of them and they're doing very, very well which is not normal for me. The one I picked using purely ESPN analytics did turrrrrrrible to quote Barles Charkley, and I'm completely out of the running in that one. Go figure?