NCAA Tournament Saturday (Day 3) Thread

[superjohn]

I would be interested in what went down with Pettiford's recruitment. Hurley grew up with his dad and is tight with him.

 

[Kitaman]

Are you looking ahead to a potential final four matchup? I'm just wondering why it matters if we'd be better off facing Creighton or Auburn.

I'm confident we can beat Auburn, I'm never confident we can beat Creighton. Last 2 years I felt they were the only team who could stop us in the Tourney.

 

[Drew]

Watching Auburn beat the piss out of Creighton on national TV to end the Kalkbrenner and Ashworth era

 

[Kolumbo]

There's a very real chance now that every team in the Sweet 16 will be from the B1G, SEC and Big 12, plus/minus Duke. That's an ill wind as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, they received 30 bids and all high quality teams so it makes sense. I think SJU at a 2 seed was the only outsider in the top 16.

 

[Jaker]

Creighton not athletic enough

 

[nelsonmuntz]

In a 1-and-1 situation, foul any player that is under an 80% FT shooter. Don't let them run the clock out.

 

[Askgreek]

Damn I wish Petiford chose UConn

Yeah, was thinking the same thing. His skills are exactly what we are missing.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Turns out that being unable to shoot the basketball makes it hard to win the basketball tournament

Yes, it's a very unlikely path for winning 6 games in a row over 3 consecutive weekends, but they were 4-1 in the post-season. SJU tied our regular season winning-record record before winning the tournament. We never ran into Pitt or Louisville in the NCAAs when they were our toughest foes. I was at the South Regional Finals in 2023 and appreciated SDSU eliminating Creighton from the Final Four. Given that the Committee spread the Big East's 5 bids across 3 regions, I'm essentially forced to be pleased for UConn that St.John's will not be in our path.

 

[BugsyCT]

I can hardly remember a world without Kalkbrenner in a Creighton uniform. Gonna be strange from here on out.

 

[gsmooth]

Damn I wanted Creighton to advance, but this game went about the way I thought it would. Well done, Auburn.

 

[J187Money]

We have to win now. We are the last man standing.

 

[BugsyCT]

We have to win now. We are the last man standing.

Yet again.

 

[superjohn]

UConn goes back to back in the most dominant fashion ever in the 64 team tournament and Waylon is posting over and over that college sports are dead. Lolz

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Hey what do you know, our conference sucks lol

You like to use the second person plural; it mismatches with your posts at times.

 

[superjohn]

What a great career for Kalkbrenner, he'll be missed.

 

[RuffRuff]

Very dry tourny so far, missing monumental upsets and buzzer beaters.

Really is - super chalky and no great moments. At this point not even sure what a great moment was. Lots of blowouts. Best moment may have been that 16 seed play in and it was meaningless. Question becomes is this going to be a thing?

 

[UCan3]

I can hardly remember a world without Kalkbrenner in a Creighton uniform. Gonna be strange from here on out.

This is the first time I have rooted for Creighton ever.

So frustrating.,,,

They lost this game - what horrendous play 2nd half.

Ashworth terrible in 2nd half.

Kalbrenner launching 3s when they were down by 9.

Urgghhhh….

 

[HCCForever]

Should be interesting matchup against the two seven footers of Michigan.

 

[superjohn]

Hey what do you know, our conference sucks lol

Totally. Won 4 of the last 8 national championships.

 

[cellocgg]

On the bright side Creighton doesn't have to worry about losing McDermott

 

[storrsroars]

Really is - super chalky and no great moments. At this point not even sure what a great moment was. Lots of blowouts. Best moment may have been that 16 seed play in and it was meaningless. Question becomes is this going to be a thing?

Can you imagine how crappy this tournament would be if expanded to 78?

 

[superjohn]

On the bright side Creighton doesn't have to worry about losing McDermott

They never had to worry about that, he's turned down a bunch of jobs.

 

[RuffRuff]

There is a damn strong likelihood that the S16 will be 3 leagues and Duke. Very much a sign of where things are heading.

Can you imagine how crappy this tournament would be if expanded to 78?

 

[cellocgg]

Totally. Won 4 of the last 8 national championships.

unfortunately it is 2025 and not 2016, 2018, 2023, or 2024

 

[FfldCntyFan]

We may be watching the end of college sports as we have known it for the last 30-40 years.

I'm old enough to remember when every conference was limited to one bid and when the decision was made to expand, a lot of schools that had previously gone reasonably far in the tournament complained that the additional bids for bigger conferences was unfair to them. This was briefly magnified when in the first tournament that allowed a second bid to a conference, the title game had two Big Ten schools (Indiana beat Michigan).

What we are seeing has been building for half a century, anyone who hasn't seen it has been wilfully obtuse or less than fully interested in what has been transpiring.

You go out of your way to dismiss any mention of UConn having aspirations to join a conference that will be more than an afterthought once the big boys complete the marginalization of conferences like the BE, but sadly, if we don't get out, in a decade or so you will be one of the leading voices complaining about how we got left behind.