BSPN moving the goalposts...

[dsturdy5]

Living in the Boston market, I know that I won't find any discussion of tonight's game on local sports talk. I put on various sports channels on Sirius and the only one not discussing Wrestlemania or not at commercial was BSPN. For my 10 minutes in the car, here is what I heard from basketball savants Mike and Mike...

• Football gets it right, the best team is always playing for a championship
• UConn and UK were both not ranked for the last three weeks of the season (let that sink in)
• They were considered between the 25th and 32nd best teams based on their seeding
• The regular season is meaningless. Mind you, they didn't tell us how they would determine the top 68 teams, let alone seed them, without the regular season
• UConn and UK just got hot at the end of the regular season (despite the 30+ point blow out and UK falling out of the top 25)
• Even if football had a 4 team playoff, you are guaranteed that the four teams playing are the best for the entire season (I think Ohio State would beg to differ)
• You can't think that this is the best way to crown a champion even though there have been 9-7 and 10-6 teams in the NFL do the same thing.

I know it is BSPN, I know I shouldn't listen, I know I shouldn't get aggravated but this is just pure BS. Of course they were not reading e-mails or tweets and they don't take phone calls so this is the new message that America will believe.

 

[storrsroars]

By logical extension, that would imply NCAA hoops has become the NHL and UConn is the NJ Devils and UK is the LA Kings and since nobody watches the NHL, it's not just us who's DOOMED, we've DOOMED the entire sport!

I like it.

 

[cohenzone]

Perhaps, just maybe, possibly, a lot of teams were overrated? But the thing that sticks out about this year is that there was no dominant team among the power conferences, with the possible exception of UF. Wichita was very good and a dominating season, but not in a tough league. UConn was under bracketed by at least 2 spots. Not sure about UK, but for this year, the difference between the 1 and 2 seeds and any other top 30 or so teams was not as big as it can be in most years. UConn basically had a problem with 2 teams this year that were decent to very good teams in LVille and SMU. The major abberration was the Houston loss. That being said anyone who picked us to be in the NC game had to be a UConn fan betting on sentiment and not probability. This is great fun, especially since it's my favorite team that ripped my bracket to shreds.

 

[aceboon]

yea I had M&M on while getting ready for work and they kept saying over and over that UConn was unranked heading into the tourney, so annoying.

 

[phillionaire]

maybe those other "better" teams were just overrated and only got hot during the regular season?

 

[RedStickHusky]

Who cares -- in any sport you win the championship on the day it's played. No trophy's for 25-0 tee shirts.

 

[Rico444]

We're just so damn lucky that the best team in the nation just happened to play their 2 worst games of the season against us, along with the other 4 teams we snuck by.

 

[noeynox]

The Opposite In My Opinion. Doesn't Matter That Florida Was Untested In The Sec. WhenTested, They Folded Like Cheap Suit. Not Worthy Of A National Title, Sorry.

 

[Inyatkin]

maybe those other "better" teams were just overrated and only got hot during the regular season?

Seriously. Do these guys want to see Syracuse in the title game? They were 25-0 at one point, I hear.

 

[amory]

We've had to beat Villanova, Iowa State, Michigan State, and Florida just to get the chance to play in the national championship game.

Kentucky has had to beat Wisconsin, Louisville, Wichita State, and Michigan just to get the chance to play in the national championship game.

These are the 2 best teams in college basketball right now, there's no way to argue that. What do they want to do, just play the regular season and then crown the team with the best record the champion? That's not how it works.

It's funny that everyone loves this tournament when it first starts, and claims to love upsets, and blah blah blah. And then you get a really interesting UConn Kentucky final, and now all of a sudden the tournament is a bad way to decide a champion.

ESPN wanted Florida V Louisville so damn bad. Well, f them.

 

[willie99]

are they suggesting they want a committee to determine who plays in the NC? really?

two tools who $ucked at picking this tournament, now making excuses

both teams have played great in March, are they watching any games?

dudes, FL was there, we took them to the woodshed. We exposed their weaknesses, we beat them down, we won, we're here, deal with it a$$wipes

amazing how these dimwits talk about how great a story it is for a Butler or a Mason or a VCU to make a run, but when we do it's a travesty

just simple shallow stupid people with an agenda of their own to sell

 

[tzznandrew]

Silly. There are 300 something teams: you can't possibly know who the best is unless they play each other. The only thing that would make the "best team" win would be to have best of 3 series or something, which is obviously impractical, and would take away the joy of the tournament.

The reality is that this team lost 8 games: 3 to Louisville, 2 to SMU, 1 to Cincy w/o Daniels, 1 to Stanford, 1 to Houston. Louisville is a bad matchup for us. As is SMU. So, with our whole team we lost 7, and against teams not named Louisville or SMU with our whole team, we lost 2. You don't get to do that on a resume, and you have to count all the games you play, but perspective matters.

And matchups absolutely matter. You see that in the NBA sometimes too--a few years ago an 8-seed Memphis was a horrible matchup for 1 seed San Antonio and knocked them out. Or the years LeBron's Cleveland teams were clearly the best, but struggled against Boston or Orlando because they didn't have the interior play, yet against almost anyone else they would win.

 

[dogpause]

Except for possibly the NFL Playoff, March Madness is the greatest sports event of every year. It measures who is the best at the end, who is toughest, and who can play under pressure.

 

[tdrink]

This is the greatest tournament because it really is settled on the court. The biggest downside to the tourney is that so many of the most enthusiastic supporters get their dreams crushed along the way and end up vocally blaming the tournament for it.

 

[uconn_jack]

The contention that a team's ranking after the regular season and before tournament somehow precludes the possibility that they are the best team in the country or undeserving of eventually being ranked top 5 is a complete straw man argument. The season doesn't end after the conference tournaments, the full season ends after the NCAA tournament. Can they honestly say that if UConn (ranked 18th) rattled off consecutive wins against St. Joe's (#31), Nova (#6), ISU (#9), MSU (#11), and UF (#1) in the regular season, that they wouldn't have been ranked in the top 5 ?!?! Same for #28 "unranked" (but still Kentucky) UK beating KSU, Wichita (#2), UL (#5), UM (#7), and Winscy (#12). Being Kentucky, they would be consensus #1.

 

[dtrumpet]

M&M should know better, they aren't that stupid, or maybe they've changed, I stopped listening when their show became one long string of commercials with occasional sports talk squeezed in.

Yes, basketball does get these fluky things happening in its tournament, and thats largely caused by many good players leaving early. The regular season still counts, thats why Duke gets a chance every year to be upset and sent packing by a team seeded much lower! Simply put, the difference between the #1 and #68 teams has narrowed significantly over the years. Its the new normal, but to compare this tournament to football is pure foolishness.

 

[StoweD210]

Claiming that college football "gets it right" is pretty funny coming from those guys. I can guarantee that, as past college football seasons have wound down, M & M have bemoaned the fact that there might be 3 or 4 or 5 teams that are worthy of playing in the title game and said that the NCAA tournament is the best way to determine a champion. Now, because it's not two 1 seeds playing, there's a problem?

As far as saying UConn was unranked heading into the tournament, it's hard to believe that they or one of their minions couldn't take 30 seconds (and that's being generous) to look at the last poll to see who's in it.

 

[noeynox]

Silly. There are 300 something teams: you can't possibly know who the best is unless they play each other. The only thing that would make the "best team" win would be to have best of 3 series or something, which is obviously impractical, and would take away the joy of the tournament.

The reality is that this team lost 8 games: 3 to Louisville, 2 to SMU, 1 to Cincy w/o Daniels, 1 to Stanford, 1 to Houston. Louisville is a bad matchup for us. As is SMU. So, with our whole team we lost 7, and against teams not named Louisville or SMU with our whole team, we lost 2. You don't get to do that on a resume, and you have to count all the games you play, but perspective matters.

And matchups absolutely matter. You see that in the NBA sometimes too--a few years ago an 8-seed Memphis was a horrible matchup for 1 seed San Antonio and knocked them out. Or the years LeBron's Cleveland teams were clearly the best, but struggled against Boston or Orlando because they didn't have the interior play, yet against almost anyone else they would win.

Absolute worst matchups all year for us were Louisville and SMU. Their guards were good enough to neutralize our strengths, and their front courts were a little too physical for us AT that point. We have really toughened up in the interior, and Ollie has been masterful at shuffling guys in and out to keep them from fouling out. In other words, we have improved throughout the year and especially in this tournament. The suppossed superiour front courts of Florida and Michigan State didn't exactly have the field day "the experts expected".

 

[CTBasketball]

The contention that a team's ranking after the regular season and before tournament somehow precludes the possibility that they are the best team in the country or undeserving of eventually being ranked top 5 is a complete straw man argument. The season doesn't end after the conference tournaments, the full season ends after the NCAA tournament. Can they honestly say that if UConn (ranked 18th) rattled off consecutive wins against St. Joe's (#31), Nova (#6), ISU (#9), MSU (#11), and UF (#1) in the regular season, that they wouldn't have been ranked in the top 5 ?!?! Same for #28 "unranked" (but still Kentucky) UK beating KSU, Wichita (#2), UL (#5), UM (#7), and Winscy (#12). Being Kentucky, they would be consensus #1.

Incorrect. Duke right now, is #1 in all the poles. UNC is a close 3rd right behind Kansas.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I wonder if Mike & Mile have avatars on the Syracuse Fan blog? There are a lot of folks there complaining that 1) UConn and Kentucky did not win their conference title nor regular season title and should not be playing for the national title (neither did 'Cuse), and 2) both UConn and Kentucky are what is wrong with college basketball and are thus 3) going to boycott the final by not watching it. Maybe they are just worried about ratings if every person in upstate NY does not watch the game. All 10 folks.

With every sport, the challenge in the regular season is to qualify for the playoffs, no matter the record, and then get hot. UConn had Kembra Walker in 2011 and now Bazz in 2014. The Patriots were 11 and 5 going into the playoffs only for Tom Brady to emerge out of nowhere to help them win Super Bowl XXXVI in 2001. There have been several NBA teams that fell asleep during the regular season before waking-up for the playoffs (Lakers, Celtics, Heat, etc.). I remember a rookie goalie named Ron Hextall carrying a mediocre Philadelphia Flyers team to game 7 of the Stanley Cup against a loaded Oilers team in 1987. How many times has a 'weaker' MLB team beat a 'stronger' team because that team has 2 really good starting pitchers and little else? This is the drama of sports.

 

[CTMike]

Annoyed the hell out of me that Greeny kept dropping the word flukey. Sorry, but we've beat regular season and post season conference champs far and wide, along with beating the "media champs" Michigan State and Florida. That's the work of a good team. It's earned respect, not excuses.

 

[HuskyHawk]

These guys know nothing about college basketball. Very few of the so called experts know much about it either.

That said, they are correct in that a single elimination tournament will rarely choose the same team as a multi-elimination event, as is used in all the pro sports but Football. As expected, Football more often has a team with a poor record as champion (although the Cardinals have done it in baseball a few times). So which is the best team? It doesn't really matter. The fact that the 2007 Patriots would beat the Giants 9 out of 10 times doesn't matter, because the Giants won the game that counted. It's the same thing in this tournament...every one of these teams has the change to be the winning team each time they play, only the champion does it every game.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Annoyed the hell out of me that Greeny kept dropping the word flukey. Sorry, but we've beat regular season and post season conference champs far and wide, along with beating the "media champs" Michigan State and Florida. That's the work of a good team. It's earned respect, not excuses.

You are being a little over sensitive. Every sports fan knows winning only 30 games (and counting) in D-I Basketball means you are simply a fluke. Hell, we only have 9 or ten wins against the RPI top 50. We only beat the number 1 team in the country twice....just twice. So ya see....we are certainly a fluke. Don't you feel silly now???

 

[WestCoastHusky]

What these clowns should be discussing is why Dokies and UNC are over seeded every year with home state advantage. They should talk about what a joke some of those rankings are. Duke/Fruits ranked ahead of UCONN? Based on what?

 

[Dogdeacon]

You listed to the wrong sports radio this AM. Dennis & Callahan who are usually and almost always the wrong sports radio had Calhoun on about 9:30. I caught the last half of it, good interview and lots on Kevin Ollie being the right guy for the job & integrating UConn program tenets, his NBA experiences and his personal strength of character.
JC - "One last thing, UConn will win tonight. I don't just think that, I BELIEVE IT!"