NCAA March Madness *POLLS ADDED!!!*

[Juno]

as the tourney starts this thursday, march 16 besides monmouth and hampton tomorrow night for opening round (preliminary round.)

who is gonna be sleepers? darkhorses? running some cinderella stories?

seton hall could be the sleeper, they played 6 ranked teams and won 4 times. gonzaga is going to be darkhorse since they don't deserve to be #3 seed. they should be rather at #2 seed in any bracket.

my final four picks are gonna be villanova, duke, gonzaga and uconn but villanova will bring home the title with a 74-69 victory over duke.

how about yours?

goooooo 'nova!

edit #1 - polls added

edit #2 - hampton removed from polls despite losing to monmouth

----------------------------------------------------------
Only one NCAA thread will be allowed to be active

Mod

 

[chuckywang]

But Seton Hall have also gotten blown out by the no. 1 ranked teams (at the time) by a combined 95 (!!) points.

 

[Queasy]

I'm still not getting how Tennessee ended up as a 2 seed and North Carolina as a 3 seed...

 

[SpecialEd]

My initial guess on the final four are:
Duke, Pitt, Uconn and BC

 

[Slap]

Originally posted by: Queasy
I'm still not getting how Tennessee ended up as a 2 seed and North Carolina as a 3 seed...

I guess it was the being #2 in schedule strength and #6 in RPI.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Slap

Originally posted by: Queasy
I'm still not getting how Tennessee ended up as a 2 seed and North Carolina as a 3 seed...

I guess it was the being #2 in schedule strength and #6 in RPI.

Yeah they started out strong against tough competition but they lost four of their last six down the stretch. I constantly hear about how the selection committee takes into consideration performance at the end of the season.

Don't get me wrong, I thought UT basketball had a terrific year and they finally found themselves a coach in Bruce Pearl. I just thought they'd be more of a 3 or 4 seed.

 

[BrokenVisage]

'Nova to win it all, don't give me this BC BS, the ACC was a joke this year other then NC and Duke. 'Nova has one of the highest RPI's and played some of the best teams twice! So, if Ray can see out of both eyes they should be dominating.

Guard play baby, it's been proven to win championships.

 

[Hammerhead]

Air Force? WTF!

 

[bobbybe01]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
'Nova to win it all, don't give me this BC BS, the ACC was a joke this year other then NC and Duke. 'Nova has one of the highest RPI's and played some of the best teams twice! So, if Ray can see out of both eyes they should be dominating.

Guard play baby, it's been proven to win championships.

BC is a pretty solid team, so I wouldn't count them out so quickly. Nova played in the Big East, the best conference this year. They're a good team, but even with Ray I don't know how far they'll get.

Btw, isn't it defense that wins championships?

 

[SpanishFry]

BC - not really an ACC team. They're one year removed from the damn Big East.

Nova - how can you pencil them into the Title without knowing Ray's status? Sure he'll play, but at what % ?

Duke - I like em, but I didn't think I would pick them to go to the Final Four. Looks like they got a good draw.

Syracuse - Everyone likes them to do some damage, but we'll see how they handle somewhere other than MSG.

 

[BrokenVisage]

BC - not really an ACC team. They're one year removed from the damn Big East.

Agreed, BC is new to the ACC so I'm sure a lot of those teams didn't know how to play them, they are a good, tough team though.

Nova - how can you pencil them into the Title without knowing Ray's status? Sure he'll play, but at what % ?

Here's how *I* can pencil them in, after seeing them play more than 3/4 their games this season I have a good idea of how they play and how well they can play. This year, they hardly ever let a game get away from them. They could be down big and almost always they would come back. They are also FAST! On defense, offense, in the half-court and on the fast break they can motor. I think teams are underevaluating them like they did with St. Joes 2 years ago. Also, they specialize in shooting 3's and their guards can actually rebound.

Duke - I like em, but I didn't think I would pick them to go to the Final Four. Looks like they got a good draw.

I hate Duke, but they did get a good draw and I think they can exploit it, but I'm not ready to pencil them into the Final 4 just yet. Too many close games down the stretch, most of their ACC tourny games could have gone either way at the end. I'm almost certain some team will find a way to solve Riddick, he's not going to always make those 20ft 3-pointers.

Syracuse - Everyone likes them to do some damage, but we'll see how they handle somewhere other than MSG.

I actually think they could get the to the second weekend, but I also think they're amazing run in the Big East was helped by the fact that 'Nova beat them on their senior night with the biggest NCAABB crowd ever watching it. McNamarra had to be crushed because with a win it would almost gaurantee them an NCAA bid. So they got behind him and obviously he did what he did to win them the tourny.

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: Slap

Originally posted by: Queasy
I'm still not getting how Tennessee ended up as a 2 seed and North Carolina as a 3 seed...

I guess it was the being #2 in schedule strength and #6 in RPI.

Obviously RPI didn't help teams like Missouri State. It seems the committee just picked and chose the stats they wanted for each team to justify either including them or excluding them. The whole things just seems.....random. They justified their inclusion of Air Force by saying they played tough teams OOC, but so did Cinci. Why aren't they included? The reasons they included certain teams didn't seem to come into play for the teams they excluded. That was my main problem this year.

 

[Juno]

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: Slap

Originally posted by: Queasy
I'm still not getting how Tennessee ended up as a 2 seed and North Carolina as a 3 seed...

I guess it was the being #2 in schedule strength and #6 in RPI.

Obviously RPI didn't help teams like Missouri State. It seems the committee just picked and chose the stats they wanted for each team to justify either including them or excluding them. The whole things just seems.....random. They justified their inclusion of Air Force by saying they played tough teams OOC, but so did Cinci. Why aren't they included? The reasons they included certain teams didn't seem to come into play for the teams they excluded. That was my main problem this year.

it might be based on how many RPI top25 teams they played, how many RPI top50 teams they played. winning against top teams could land them berths to the tourney.

 

[Juno]

goooooo 'nova!

 

[Juno]

bumpppppp!

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: Juno

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: Slap

Originally posted by: Queasy
I'm still not getting how Tennessee ended up as a 2 seed and North Carolina as a 3 seed...

I guess it was the being #2 in schedule strength and #6 in RPI.

Obviously RPI didn't help teams like Missouri State. It seems the committee just picked and chose the stats they wanted for each team to justify either including them or excluding them. The whole things just seems.....random. They justified their inclusion of Air Force by saying they played tough teams OOC, but so did Cinci. Why aren't they included? The reasons they included certain teams didn't seem to come into play for the teams they excluded. That was my main problem this year.

it might be based on how many RPI top25 teams they played, how many RPI top50 teams they played. winning against top teams could land them berths to the tourney.

Air Force didn't have one single RPI top 50 win.

 

[Juno]

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: Juno

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: Slap

Originally posted by: Queasy
I'm still not getting how Tennessee ended up as a 2 seed and North Carolina as a 3 seed...

I guess it was the being #2 in schedule strength and #6 in RPI.

Obviously RPI didn't help teams like Missouri State. It seems the committee just picked and chose the stats they wanted for each team to justify either including them or excluding them. The whole things just seems.....random. They justified their inclusion of Air Force by saying they played tough teams OOC, but so did Cinci. Why aren't they included? The reasons they included certain teams didn't seem to come into play for the teams they excluded. That was my main problem this year.

it might be based on how many RPI top25 teams they played, how many RPI top50 teams they played. winning against top teams could land them berths to the tourney.

Air Force didn't have one single RPI top 50 win.

didn't air force win the conference?

 

[BigPoppa]

5 Nevada vs 12 Montana. I can see this being one of the typical 5/12 upsets. Of course i'm also incredibly biased.

 

[Juno]

anyone?

 

[snoopdoug1]

Originally posted by: BigPoppa
5 Nevada vs 12 Montana. I can see this being one of the typical 5/12 upsets. Of course i'm also incredibly biased.

i can't

 

[Juno]

Originally posted by: snoopdoug1

Originally posted by: BigPoppa
5 Nevada vs 12 Montana. I can see this being one of the typical 5/12 upsets. Of course i'm also incredibly biased.

i can't

well that's quite possible for 12th seeded to beat 5th seeded. there were some surprises last year.

 

[wvtalbot]

I wouldnt be suprised if WVU makes it into the final four.

 

[MaxDepth]

UNC?

 

[Vin0134]

Originally posted by: wvtalbot
I wouldnt be suprised if WVU makes it into the final four.

West Virginia could go to the Final Four or lose in the second round and no one would really be surprised.

Also, Allan Ray is 100% ready to go, so Villanova FTW!

 

[BrokenVisage]

I hope Nova tops Duke in the finals like you have it OP.. my favorite NCAABB team (#2 favorite overall to the Flyers) over my most hated NCAABB team (#2 hated overall to the Yankees) would be SUPERSWEET! I was too young to see them beat Georgetown live.