T1B

Pitt over Xavier
Duke over Villanova
UNC over Gonzaga
Syracuse over Oklahoma
Louisville over Arizona
Mich St over Kansas
Purdue over UCONN
Memphis over Missouri

Xavier over Pitt (my bracket has differently but I digress...)
Nova over Duke
UNC over Gonzaga
Oklahoma over Syracuse
L'ville over Zona
Kansas over Michigan State
UConn over Purdue
Memphis over Mizzou

Louisville
Mich St
Conn
Memphis
Pitt
Villanova
NC
Syracuse

Pittsburgh
Duke
Gonzaga
Oklahoma
Louisville
Michigan State
Connecticut
Memphis

I'm in first place in Fu's pool and I still have a shot at nailing the Elite 8, so I'll stick to my picks.

Pitt over Xavier
Villanova over Duke
Gonzaga over North Carolina
Syracuse over Oklahoma
Louisville over Arizona
Kansas over Michigan State
UConn over Purdue
Memphis over Missouri

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:Pitt over Xavier
Duke over Villanova
UNC over Gonzaga
Syracuse over Oklahoma
Louisville over Arizona
Mich St over Kansas
Purdue over UCONN
Memphis over Missouri

For shits and giggles I'll rank them with confidence factor, 1 being the most confident.

1 Louisville
2 UNC
3 Mich St
4 Pitt
5 Memphis
6 Syracuse
7 Duke
8 Purdump

Xavier
Villanova
UNC
Syracuse
Arizona
Kansas
UCONN
Missouri

Louisville
Michigan State
UConn
Memphis
Pittsburgh
Duke
UNC
Syracuse

Shoalzie wrote:Pittsburgh
Duke
Gonzaga
Oklahoma
Louisville
Michigan State
Connecticut
Memphis

I'll do the confidence thing as well...
1. Pittsburgh
2. Memphis
3. Connecticut
4. Michigan State
5. Duke
6. Louisville
7. Oklahoma
8. Gonzaga (a long shot but I'd love to see one surprise out of this round)

If we get chalk, it would make for some epic regional finals.

Pittsburgh
Villanova
Gonzaga
Oklahoma
Louisville
Kansas
UConn
Memphis

Mega props to Mizzou for exposing the fraud that is Memphis. I hesitantly put Memphis in the elite 8 and should've known better.

I wouldn't call Memphis a fraud. They did make it to the final game last year and lost in OT.

I would say that Mizzou is peaking at the right time... getting better every game it seems. To my utter jaw dropping amazement.

I don't know what Mike Anderson is feeding this kids, but whatever it is, I'm getting in line at that buffet.

Memphis was a fraud. That team last year was absolutely loaded and was the exception, not the norm, for a team that rolls through a bunch of scrubs in CON-USA. You simply cannot compare this year's Memphis team to a team that had Rose, CDR, and Dorsey.

People, including myself, should've taken more notice to their out of conference losses to Syracuse and Xavier. Those are not bad losses, but those are the caliber teams you will have to beat in the tournament. Rolling through Rice, SMU, Marshall, etc., tells me nothing. Those losses should've been big red flags.

These games on right now are effing awful, btw. Just got home and haven't seen much, did Flynn get hurt or something?

The last tip-in by Griffin on that long outside shot was sick.

Believe the Heupel wrote:

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:These games on right now are effing awful, btw. Just got home and haven't seen much, did Flynn get hurt or something?

He got trucked by Griffin on a breakaway and fell on his tailbone. Probably should have been a charge.

M Club won't be happy about this.

The Ville's up by 40 and throws down a jam with 4 seconds left. Stay classy.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:The Ville's up by 40 and throws down a jam with 4 seconds left. Stay classy.

the parts of that game i saw, looked like Louisville had 7 guys on the floor.

Louisville looks scary. If MSU beats Kansas, I'm worried about a Memphis-style beatdown like they got last year, down by 30 at the half.

Kansas looks like they'll take out MSU.

I've got a feeling Gon is gonna pull a major upset against Carolina.

.m2 wrote:Kansas looks like they'll take out MSU.

Can't say I disagree with that based on what I've seen so far. MSU needs to clean up on the glass to win and they're not doing that.

Lucas has also had a lot of floaters go down and out. That's been :brad:

Izzo is tough in the tournament. no doubt about it.

Well, that was pretty much what I expected it to be - a total dog fight. I thought for sure Collins was going to shoot his way to the win. The Aldrich/Collins combo is $$$.

Congrats to MSU, you've earned the right to get slaughtered by Louisville.

Today, I got a one month ban from phog .net.



I don't blame them. It was going to get fugly.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote: Congrats to MSU, you've earned the right to get slaughtered by Louisville.

you never know. like i say, sometimes teams get the "we're just happy to be here" syndrome (whassup Gonzaga tonight)....I don't think Izzo's teams do that.

War Wagon wrote:Today, I got a one month ban from phog .net.



I don't blame them. It was going to get fugly.

one month, that's nothing. they'll rally to season=moral victory-ville pretty quick. even when we suck we won the conference....etc.

King Crimson wrote:

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote: Congrats to MSU, you've earned the right to get slaughtered by Louisville.

you never know. like i say, sometimes teams get the "we're just happy to be here" syndrome (whassup Gonzaga tonight)....I don't think Izzo's teams do that.

If they keep it close but lose, I guess I'll be content. I say that now, maybe not. They've had the propensity to get blown out by teams with great athletes. I think MSU can break the press though.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:

King Crimson wrote:

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote: Congrats to MSU, you've earned the right to get slaughtered by Louisville.

you never know. like i say, sometimes teams get the "we're just happy to be here" syndrome (whassup Gonzaga tonight)....I don't think Izzo's teams do that.

If they keep it close but lose, I guess I'll be content. I say that now, maybe not. They've had the propensity to get blown out by teams with great athletes. I think MSU can break the press though.

i hear ya about the "being content"....but, the mind wanders, these kind of mismatch games have produced some upsets in the past. Izzo as good as anyone about controlling tempo. of course, you may lose by 25.

i would have taken the Sweet 16 at the beginning of the year and even 3 weeks ago no questions asked for OU. on the OU boards i always said this was a legit top 15 team, i don't know what else. Enjoy it for a day watching the other games.

King Crimson wrote:Enjoy it for a day watching the other games.

That's what it comes down to. It's nice knowing it doesn't end on a Friday night, and you get to enjoy the weekend.

The flip side is I could be a real dick to my coworkers on Monday morning.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote: The flip side is I could be a real dick to my coworkers on Monday morning.

They won't notice the difference.

Being at the game I obviously didn't get to hear what was going on, but what the hell was with Morgan barely getting any run? Ditto Roe. I know Izzo wasn't pleased with some of the things those two were doing, especially Roe, but I kept wondering why they never got back in outside of Morgan the final couple minutes. Clearly it worked out in the end though.

The other thing that surprised me was how dominant the Louisville crowd was. I figured with MSU being nearby they'd have a solid crowd but the Cards fans were about 75% of the crowd to 15% MSU, 9% KU and 1% Zona.

You never what'll happen on a given day (see: ND thumping Louisville by 30+) but I can't fathom MSU keeping it within 10 on Sunday.

Shine wrote:Being at the game I obviously didn't get to hear what was going on, but what the hell was with Morgan barely getting any run? Ditto Roe. I know Izzo wasn't pleased with some of the things those two were doing, especially Roe, but I kept wondering why they never got back in outside of Morgan the final couple minutes. Clearly it worked out in the end though.

I'm guessing Roe's knees are starting to buckle a bit. It's late in the season and that surgery is starting to pay the toll. Also, Izzo wanted a big body like Ibok to defend Aldrich in the paint, since that guy was a monster, limiting minutes from Roe. Fortunately they're deep enough with Draymond Green coming off the bench, I'm not too worried about Roe -- the freshman.

Morgan has been a non factor since his illness. They've found ways to win without him.

The other thing that surprised me was how dominant the Louisville crowd was. I figured with MSU being nearby they'd have a solid crowd but the Cards fans were about 75% of the crowd to 15% MSU, 9% KU and 1% Zona.

Doesn't surprise me.

Yeah, Morgan has been a shadow of himself since coming back. I thought Green did a great job of taking it strong inside, something MSU was severely lacking in the 1st half. Aldrich got his first foul with like 4 minutes left in the game.