Worst/most boring 1st round ever?

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan · Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:30 pm

Maybe I'm just bitter because my bracket is already fucked (lost 4 sweet 16s and had Duke in the Final 4), but were Thursday and Friday not the most boring opening round in recent memory?

32 games, 2 bonafide upsets. We're only 2 days in, and VCU and Winthrop are the only potential Cinderellas. Even all the 5 seeds won!

Plus there was a noticable dearth of buzzer beaters. With a few notable exceptions, most of the 1st round games were snoozers. Unless you're a fan of a highly-seeded team, this tourney has been a letdown so far (although I will admit there have already been a few entertaining games today).

MgoBlue-LightSpecial · Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:34 pm

The major conference teams are just really deep this year. I don't think too many people expected to see a lot of upsets because of this. Louisville just lost a gut-wrencher, but even as a 6 seed they were probably just as dangerous as some of the 1-3 seeds.

I wasn't disappointed by the lack of upsets, but moreso the lack of competitiveness in the first round games.

L45B · Post by **L45B** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:36 pm

Pretty much agree with you, M-Dub. Seems like most of the Thursday/Friday games were blowouts. Not very exciting. And maybe the one game today (so far) that was worthy of madness involved my Buckeyes. Not very appreciated.

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan · Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:17 pm

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:The major conference teams are just really deep this year. I don't think too many people expected to see a lot of upsets because of this. Louisville just lost a gut-wrencher, but even as a 6 seed they were probably just as dangerous as some of the 1-3 seeds.

I wasn't disappointed by the lack of upsets, but moreso the lack of competitiveness in the first round games.

I guess I just found it surprising considering how often the P-word (parity) seems to be thrown around in the CBB world. I'd say this year's first round provides pretty strong evidence against supposed parity. Just about every low seed played like they deserved that seed. Shit, even all the 7s beat the 10s, which isn't that significant of a mismatch. It's just surprising and a little disappointing to only see two double-digit seeds standing after the first round.

On a side note, I was making fun of this chick at work who didn't pick any major upsets at all and picked all 4 #1s to make the final four. I was like "You can't pick all 1 seeds! That never happens!" Meanwhile, she's probably in 1st place now.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial · Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:49 pm

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan wrote:I guess I just found it surprising considering how often the P-word (parity) seems to be thrown around in the CBB world. I'd say this year's first round provides pretty strong evidence against supposed parity. Just about every low seed played like they deserved that seed. Shit, even all the 7s beat the 10s, which isn't that significant of a mismatch. It's just surprising and a little disappointing to only see two double-digit seeds standing after the first round.

And the funny thing is, one of this year's "big upsets" was VCU over Duke, but if you toss the seeds out of the picture, this probably wasn't much of an upset. This wasn't an "any given day"-type win for VCU, VCU was just flat out the better team, and in unofficial reality, probably beat what was really an 8 or 9 seed caliber team.

On a side note, I was making fun of this chick at work who didn't pick any major upsets at all and picked all 4 #1s to make the final four. I was like "You can't pick all 1 seeds! That never happens!" Meanwhile, she's probably in 1st place now.

Yeah, you'll always have a few people like this, and while they may place decently in the overall standings, they'll never walk away the winner. You just gotta take a stab at a few upsets and hope you get lucky, so you're not just matching points with everybody else. Besides...what fun is it rooting for all the higher seeds to advance?

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan · Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:37 am

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote: Yeah, you'll always have a few people like this, and while they may place decently in the overall standings, they'll never walk away the winner. You just gotta take a stab at a few upsets and hope you get lucky, so you're not just matching points with everybody else. Besides...what fun is it rooting for all the higher seeds to advance?

Heh. My problem was, I picked waaay too many upsets. I think I picked eight 11-15 seeds to make it out of the 1st round. Consequently, I was dead last after Thursday, right behind an unborn fetus (some dude filled out a bracket for his yet-to-be-delivered baby).

Screw_Michigan · Post by **Screw_Michigan** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:43 am

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan wrote:Consequently, I was dead last after Thursday, right behind an unborn fetus (some dude filled out a bracket for his yet-to-be-delivered baby).

yes, those are the losses that hurt the most.

War Wagon · Post by **War Wagon** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 2:39 am

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan wrote:Maybe I'm just bitter because my bracket is already fucked (lost 4 sweet 16s and had Duke in the Final 4), but were Thursday and Friday not the most boring opening round in recent memory?

[snicker] Dude... Duke in the Final Four? Which CBB season were you watching this year? When the other folks in your pool saw that, they were all like, "thanks for playing, mang". [/snicker]

As for the lack of upsets in the 1st round, those higher rated teams and their fans certainly didn't mind. Maybe the seeding committee actually got it right this year.

But some of the games today were simply oustanding, all made possible by the lack of upsets in the first round. How many times have you seen some cinderalla team squeak out a win the first day (usually because the higher seeded team pissed down their leg) only to get bitchslapped in the 2nd round? That's what usually happens.

Myself, I'll take those 1st round blow-outs to see the extremely competitive, high level of play we saw today and will most likely see tomrrow as well. I think this is shaping up as one of the finest NCAA tourney's ever.

Shoalzie · Post by **Shoalzie** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:51 pm

Thursday and Friday weren't all that impressive but yesterday was tremendous. Today could be even better...

RadioFan · Post by **RadioFan** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 9:00 pm

After Thursday and Friday, Saturday and today had no where else but to be better. Don't get me wrong, I'll take 30 boring/noncompetitive games and a 1st-round Duke exit any year, but sheesh. Arguably the worst two opening days in decades.

Cicero · Post by **Cicero** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:41 am

Shoalzie wrote:Thursday and Friday weren't all that impressive but yesterday was tremendous. Today could be even better...

Totally agree. The teams from the major conferences look to be much improved from the past couple of years.

Shoalzie · Post by **Shoalzie** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:59 am

Hard to say if the commitee let in more mid-major at-larges that the result would be different. Some people get such a boner for upsets but really, I just like seeing good games more than anything. George Mason was a nice story last year until they got steamrolled by the eventual champs. Cinderellas are nice to watch until they get taken out back and given a savage beating by a superior team. I think we'd just assume see the 4 best teams meet up in the Final Four and give us 3 great games instead of seeing Mason crash the party and get worked over in an eyesore of a game. These games on Saturday and Sunday didn't offer much in the way of upsets but they were entertaining games and we're bound to get some great games next weekend. I don't see a lot of seperation between the best team and the 16th best team remaining...I wouldn't be shocked if every game in the next round is deciding by single digits.

T1B

Worst/most boring 1st round ever?

Worst/most boring 1st round ever?

Re: Worst/most boring 1st round ever?