2023-24 College Basketball Thread

[RonnieFranchise]

Hoping the evening games are better. Except Marquette these have been a snooze today.

Grand Canyon University is a for-profit Christian institution. It may be completely on the up and up but that combination sets off my fraud sensors.

[willeyeam]

ACC ACC

[RonnieFranchise]

ACC ACC

Shut up Dookie

[MWB]

End of game coaching in these games seems as bad as some nfl games.

[Orlando Penguin]

GCU-Bama was what this kid will be in about 15 mins...

[shafnutz05]

Dogs are getting hammered this weekend.

[Orlando Penguin]

Day 4 musings:

--13 of KenPom's top 14 teams in efficiency made it to the Sweet 16. SD St is 20, Clemson is 23, NC State is 53
--I needed today to be good for the piece of paper. Baylor assured that it wouldn't be. That's what I get for letting myself get swayed by all the talk about how 'Arizona is a bad bet this time of year' instead of sticking to my original guns. Still got 11 of 16 through and 7 of 8 left but I'm probably out of the running in any pools.
--The lack of fundamentals in this tournament has cost a number of teams. Most notably, Baylor, GCU, and aTm cost themselves opportunities by being horrid from the free throw line. In fact, Baylor went 6 of 24 from the 3-pt line and I don't think they made a shot outside of the lane in the last 10 minutes.
--A bad day to be an underdog darling. They all got torched. I pity those who had tickets to the Brooklyn games because they saw a pair of awful games reminiscent of the boring ones I got here last year. I thought one of them would win outright and GCU might have if they would have stopped playing like it was an AAU game. This just happens to be the year that chalk rules. For now.
--The ACC is the first conference to go 8-0 or better in the first 2 rounds in 20 years (the UVA debacle doesn't count since it was in the First Four). NC and Duke were pretty easy to call. NC State is on a magical 1983-like run. Clemson sandbagged for the last 2 months of the season and has decided to revert back to non-conference season form.
--A giant standing ovation for Boo Buie and the end of his magical career. No one exemplified one guy carrying his team the last couple of years like he did at Northwestern. UCONN rightfully swarmed him and he was stifled but when you're that kind of talent, you attract that attention. He was a great ambassador for the program and college hoops is gonna miss him.
--I'll break down the 4 Thursday matchups on Wednesday like I did last year because I'm superstitious and it helped me go something like 14-2 against the spread down the stretch of last year's tournament and after the weekend I had, I need a pick-me-up in that department.

[Orlando Penguin]

STOP THE PRESSES!!! WE HAVE A MONSTER COMEBACK TO FORCE OT IN MEMPHIS!!

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

wtf happened? I stopped watching when the A&M kid was fouled on the 3 point shot and assumed it was over. I’m very upset that I changed it now lol

[King Colby]

What a damn shot.

My question - in that situation on defense, why not put 1 on the ball and have the other 4 guarding the 3 point line?

[Orlando Penguin]

What a damn shot.

My question - in that situation on defense, why not put 1 on the ball and have the other 4 guarding the 3 point line?

Great question. Why you wouldn't put someone on the ball in any circumstance with less than 5 seconds left is beyond me. Normally, I'd foul in that situation but with 1 second left, there's no time to do that and not end up fouling the shooter.

[MWB]

Hard to just guard the three point line, especially with guys running off screens and when shooters really don’t need much space.

[Orlando Penguin]

And as I said in the above post -- free throws. aTm was 24-39 in regulation. Think one extra make would have made a difference? They also had 2 different long shots with feet barely on the line that were 2's instead of 3's.

[King Colby]

What a game. I don't think I've ever seen 4 guys on one team foul out before

[Orlando Penguin]

THURSDAY GAMES:

West -- Clemson vs Arizona (-7 1/2) at LA

I've been down on Clemson since January. They had a really good non-conference season and made it look like they were going to make amends for why they didn't get into last year's Tournament. Then they hit the ACC season and was just...average, including a royal beatdown at the hands of BC in the ACC Tournament. But now they've morphed back into non-conference Clemson and has used their defense to shut down a pair of high-octane offenses. They held New Mexico & Baylor to 34% shooting and got 20.5 PPG from Chase Hunter, who was the 3rd leading scorer on the team this year at just over 12 PPG. So the question is can Clemson's defense hold down their 3rd straight potent offense. Arizona's 5 starters average double figures and Caleb Love has been making it his personal mission to keep the Cats at home for the Final Four and he knows that a matchup with his former team could be on the horizon on Saturday night. It'll be a fun battle down low between Ballo and Hall and if Hall gets into foul trouble early, it could be a quick game over for Clemson. I think Arizona easily moves on and continues to beat down the narrative that they can't make it to the big time.
PICK -- ARIZONA -7 1/2

East -- San Diego State vs UCONN (-10 1/2) at Boston

San Diego State isn't being helped by the schedule and the travel. They finished their game in Spokane on Sunday night and flew back to SD. Then they got on another plane Tuesday to fly cross-country to Boston for Thursday night's game. That right there could be worth 3-4 points for UCONN already, not that they really need it. The Aztecs will need an epic defensive effort in order to shut down the UCONN express. Meanwhile, I'd imagine that UCONN will use a combination of Clingan and Karaban to harass Ledee as much as possible. If they frustrate Ledee into bad shots and turnovers, this will be over quick much like the national championship game. At first, I thought this number was too high but SDSU has a way of going into long scoring droughts and UCONN's defense is just the type to cause those droughts.
PICK -- UCONN -10 1/2

West -- Alabama vs North Carolina (-4 1/2) at LA

If it wasn't for Colorado-Florida, I'd have said this matchup would be most likely to have both teams in triple digits. Bama has played zero defense all season and fortunately in their first two games, neither did their opponents. Actually, Grand Canyon played some decent defense on them but played an undisciplined brand of ball on offense that prevented them from finishing the job. North Carolina will play defense but they also have no problem getting into a scoring battle with you. They averaged 82 PPG this season and played a number of games where they let up 75+. Over/under seems about right at 174 and I could easily see this being a 92-87 type game. But in whose favor? I prefer the team with defense. If that team with defense has a bad shooting night, they won't get anywhere close to that 174 number but they can still win the game. This is the one matchup of the four on Thursday where I believe the underdog has a very good chance at an outright win (and picked it as such in my alternate bracket). But as I've thought about it more, I think Hubert > Oats and coaching will matter in this game.
PICK -- ALABAMA +4 1/2 (NC to win outright)

East -- Illinois vs Iowa State (-2) at Boston

This is a classic clash of styles. Illinois is #1 in offensive efficiency according to KenPom. Iowa State is #1 in defensive efficiency according to KenPom. Which style reigns? Iowa State is the second-worst efficient team offensively left in the field but Illinois is the second-worst efficient team defensively left (only ahead of Bama, of course). Iowa State has proven that it can score, as they averaged 73 PPG in running roughshod through the Big XII Tournament. Illinois has three big-time scorers in Shannon, Domask, and Hawkins who have carried the Illini on their late-season run after their choke at Penn State. I think Iowa State looks at them and laughs and locks them up in the same handcuffs that they've put other teams' best scorers in (Jones of Wazzu 8 pts, Shead & Cryer of Houston combined 17 pts, Walter & Dennis of Baylor combined 10 pts). Defense usually carries a team in these Tournament settings even if it doesn't get the attention that it should. Iowa State will live up to their stats and will march on to their first Elite Eight since 2000.
PICK -- IOWA STATE -2

[RonnieFranchise]

Screw the NCAA. Take the damn ball.

[Dickie Dunn]

**** Arizona gonna **** my survivor pool. And **** the knobs like Joe Lunardi hating on the ACC all season. Best conference in all the land and should have had more teams in the tournament.

[shafnutz05]

Arizona is a perennial joke. They underachieve every year.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Az has gr8 uniforms tho

[MR25]

Here i am seeing all of you complain about Arizona, and I look and the 2nd half only just started lol

[RonnieFranchise]

Hey NCAA real quick, one game in Boston, one in LA, which one do you start first?

[Ad@m]

Later Arizona

[MR25]

[Orlando Penguin]

**** Arizona gonna **** my survivor pool. And **** the knobs like Joe Lunardi hating on the ACC all season. Best conference in all the land and should have had more teams in the tournament.

It doesn't work like that. Pitt should have been over Virginia but that's it.

[Orlando Penguin]

Arizona is a perennial joke. They underachieve every year.

Their hoops IQ was negative-30. Final Four talent, NIT brain. Caleb Love built an entire neighborhood for Habitat for Humanity tonight. But hey, great job getting all that NIL money.