How about this. Joel Klatt is the dumbest sportscaster and the least aware one in all sports. The NCAA basketball Tounsment is the best tournament in all sports! Watching the cinderellas knock off bluebloods is great and if the bluebloodbgetting knocked off is Duke or Kentucky all the better.
I agree on that. Talk about made for tv events. For major conferences they are mostly irrelevant. Oh you have the odd Georgetown or NC State making a run mostly costing some place holder bubble team a slot. But mostly it doesn’t matter in any way. If you must do it, I would do a 4 team tournament. Everyone else have a nice Summer. For smaller leagues you watch far too many regular season champs get knocked off. Happened to Central Connecticut the last 2 years. Win the NEC Regular season but lost in the NEC tournament. Happened to Monmouth a few years ago when they had like 2 losses all season.
Is a bit silly when you think about it - rewarding a team on a little tournament rather than a season long accomplishment. I'm all for doing anything we can to get the best teams out of these conferences in. We don't want totally uncompetetive games in the dance.
2011 was a strange year. No GREAT teams. Just a lot of really good ones. That Butler team was actually very good. I don’t think they were viewed as your typical mid-major. They had been to the Sweet 16 in 2007 or 08, then the title game in 2010 and were back in 2011. In 2010 they missed a shot at the buzzer and lost to Duke by 2. Many writers expected them to beat UConn in 2011. A lot of people thought of them as the Gonzaga of the plains. It’s hard to get to the Championship game 2 years in a row.
That's true, Butler was on a roll. I have recency bias. It is also annoying that I have 25 or 6 to 4 stuck in my head for some completely unrelated reason. apologies to all.
I don't remember it like that. I think UConn was a 5 or 6 point favorite. That 2011 Butler team wasn't as good as the 2010 team with Gordon Hayward.
But, without the BE tourney in 2011, we may have been on the wrong side of the bubble. 19-9
We were nowhere near the bubble. We beat the #2 ranked team, #7, #8, #9, #12. Not a single bad loss, undefeated out of conference, and the Big East was considered the best conference ever that season.
UConn was already in. But they moved up a few seed lines winning the BET.
You’re both right. But, I do have a recollection of the talking heads saying that to ensure getting in, the huskies would need at least one BE tourney win.
Disagree. We were great.
After finishing the season 4-7, we were looking at a pretty bad seed, if not the bubble.
KP wouldnt agree. Hot at right time.
Sometimes things are debatable. This really is not. #1 you forgot just how strong the Big East was that year. In the final AP poll before the BE tournament here are the rankings of BE teams: Pitt 3, ND 4, Syracuse 11, Louisville 14, St John’s 17, West Virginia 20, UConn 21, Georgetown 22, Cincinnati 25. Villanova was the top others receiving votes. Practically every game was a battle of ranked teams. The current #3 in the NBE would cry if they looked at a schedule like that! In the some things never change category, DePaul had 1 BE win and 4 total.
Never lost OOC.
The conferences can give bid to regular season champ like ivy. They would rather have a tournament for revenue and excitement. Most of these teams lose in round 1 particularly post nil. It works great as is
Plus 14-0 in tournaments. I imagine that was the best ever (due to the 5-0). Would require winning two regular season tournaments to reach that.
Correct. I don't think anyone is arguing that an unranked VCU was the 4th best team in 2011
What planet is this idiot on. ? Give me a break
