i don't pick brackets anymore: but South Alabama

[King Crimson]

it seems utterly pointless to me to pick a 64 team bracket from start to finish....and the media hype, fetishism of picking the upsets, etc. kinda makes me nauseous anymore.

but S. Alabama coached by Ronnie Arrow is a team to think about.....though i'd guess they are in the 9-11 seed range so not the ballbuster cinderella network wetdream upset.

i guess this can be thread to t'row out some others *before* the bracket comes out.

[Terry in Crapchester]

Does South Alabama get an at-large bid at this point?

I'm not saying that they needed an auto bid to get into the tournament, but that was assuming, on my part, a loss to Western Kentucky in the conference final. A loss in the conference semis, in a conference that's not particularly strong, and on their home court no less, might have done them in. OTOH, their RPI is pretty strong, but RPI is not nearly as important (or accurate, for that matter) a criterion as it once was.

If South Alabama gets in, that'll mean, in all likelihood, that both the Sun Belt Conference and the WCC stole a bid. Possibly the CAA as well. That could be a bit of bad news for some of the teams on the bubble.

[King Crimson]

Does South Alabama get an at-large bid at this point?

I'm not saying that they needed an auto bid to get into the tournament, but that was assuming, on my part, a loss to Western Kentucky in the conference final. A loss in the conference semis, in a conference that's not particularly strong, and on their home court no less, might have done them in. OTOH, their RPI is pretty strong, but RPI is not nearly as important (or accurate, for that matter) a criterion as it once was.

If South Alabama gets in, that'll mean, in all likelihood, that both the Sun Belt Conference and the WCC stole a bid. Possibly the CAA as well. That could be a bit of bad news for some of the teams on the bubble.

hard to say. the Jags lose to Middle Tenn St. who was also their last previous loss. ironically, SA beat San Diego on their home floor, the Jenny Craig Pavilion, by 22 earlier in the year.

rpi is funny, it was THE criterion before it became so public, but the "committee" likes to keep the actual selection seem like some black box affair of immeasurables. like "virtue" or something....and obviously, marketability. before that, rpi was the secret formula. Fran Fraschilla said it out loud the other night, KSU may be a bubble team but Beasley gets them in with star power. Bobby Knight gets Tech in a few years ago with a head to head loss to Colorado, who EVEN has a better conference record....but Tech is in, CU is out. Nobody is tuning up to see Ricardo Patton. the pod system, another device of marketing to protect the higher seeds and "traditional powers" who draw viewers, gives Bill Self and Kansas a "miracle" run in his first year playing games in KC and St. Louis. incredible! You are a 2 or 3 seed playing a semi-average KU in Kansas City in the second round...yeah, right. thanks a lot NCAA.

i'll tell you this, if South Alabama was a "mid major" from the midwest, i'd bet they'd get in. the NCAA seems to love those white boys from the heartland who shoot the heck out of the three ball and make bounce passes. that's the "Cinderella" mythology they sell. student athletes who play for love of the game and fundamentals and are coached by incarnation of Norman Dale like Homer Drew. now, runnin' and jumpin' brothers from SOUTH Alabama, i dunno.

i overstate for effect.

[Degenerate]

Agree about the committee's thinking on the "marketing" of S. Alabama. Not much media coverage down there. There's no cachet. Never mind that Alabama and UAB pulled off stunners in the same year and made deep runs a few years ago. I think there's something to be said for the allure of the "Hoosiers" set.

I'd rather go back to the old way with the entire subregional at one site. The pod system has definitely made things worse and not better. Instead of Duke or North Carolina getting two free home games in-state to begin the tournament, now it's Duke and North Carolina. I guess the committee thought it had egg on its face the year that Maryland, Georgetown and George Mason all were sent across the country to same Boise subregional back in '01 or whenever it was. Well, guess what? Those games sold out and most of them had crazy finishes that the crowd ate up.

And yes, KU gets as close to a home game as possible. KU going to Omaha is a bigger lock than Dookie V crying on ESPN about some shit Big East or ACC team being left out of the field come 7pm ET Sunday.

Villanova getting to play on its de facto home floor a few years ago was unforgivable.

[King Crimson]

Agree about the committee's thinking on the "marketing" of S. Alabama. Not much media coverage down there. There's no cachet. Never mind that Alabama and UAB pulled off stunners in the same year and made deep runs a few years ago. I think there's something to be said for the allure of the "Hoosiers"set.

obviously Butler is a good team, but here's the photo on the yahoo college basketball front page touting the Tournament:

[Screw_Michigan]

that's because they're playing tonight for the horizon league title.

[King Crimson]

that's because they're playing tonight for the horizon league title.

yup.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

I'm still down with the brackets. And the sickness.

I asked around at work to see if anyone is interested in doing a bracket pool. One guy is going to run a contest that doesn't start until the Sweet 16 begins. There will be 16 participants, and apparently you're randomly selected a team in which you must root for to win the whole thing. Oh, and it's a $15 entry fee.

Me: :gay:

I suggested to him if you're going to run a piece of shit pool, you might as well make it somewhat interesting for the participants. Having absolutely no say over your team is way stupid. So I suggested to him to do a lottery where folks draw numbers from 1-16 to determine an order in which people get to select the team of their choice. He was down. But I'm probably still out.

[Dinsdale]

Big Sky Champion Portland State is going to win the FF.


Pretty cool, since they had shut down the hoops program for years. It's nice that the biggest school in the state is doing something in sports, besides just hiring a class-clown as a football coach. It's timefor something memorable for them, since the last time anyone even said the words "Portland State Hoops" was when Freeman Williams was tearing D1 a new a-hole.

They're actually playing some darn fine basketball these days. Ken Bone has done a great job at the helm. They've got a couple of really nice players in Deonte Huff and Jeremiah Dominguez. Hard to recruit any kids outside of the area, since PSU is a textbook example of a "commuter school," and almost every student there is from the area, athletes included.


GOOOOOO VIKINGS!!!!!!! Unless the Ducks pull off the miracle bid, and end up playing PSU in the tourney... then screw PSU. Speaking of -- Ducksfans are in a win/win situation right now. If they pull off a couple of conf. tourney wins and Get In, it's a tourney berth. If they are left out, that dude who can recruit with the Big Boys and pull kids he has no business getting, but then can't coach them to save his life will be gone. It's long been speculated that Mark Few has been biding his time for years and years, waiting for "his" job to open up... just in time for a $200 mil hoops arena. Good times ahead for Oregon Hoops.

[GrizBearStare]

PSU handed Montana their second or third worst home loss of all time at the end of the season. Something like 106-58. It was absofuckinglutely brutal.

I am very impressed with them this year and will be pulling hard for the BSC champs to rep us well in the dance. Go Viks!

[Dinsdale]

PSU handed Montana their second or third worst home loss of all time at the end of the season. Something like 106-58. It was absofuckinglutely brutal.

Almost like Neil Lomax was in uniform... except Neil was there before they joined the Big Sky... so it was kind of a lame analogy. But I still felt the need to drop Lomax' name in a thread about PSU blowing teams out.