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    • College Basketball

      Almost March so conference tournaments will be held this week and next week with Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament on March 12. So let the Madness begin.

      The ASUN conference tournament kicked off last night with 3 more conference tournaments starting tonight. Last night's winner was Bellarmine who hit a last-second shot to beat North Florida 76-74. No. 1 seed Kennesaw State will host #9 Queens tonight. So Max, get your game face on :)

      Interestingly after tonight's ASUN games, the winners will be reseeded and will compete on Thursday. That makes sense; too much sense, perhaps the NCAA should consider it but I'm sure it won't happen.

    • max, did you go? what can you share?

      When I asked siri what the score was, she said "Kennesaw St. edged past Queens University in the second round by a score of 67 to 66 yesterday.

      My Spartans were victorious last night, although it looked very dicey in the first half and early second. However, they outscored the Cornhuskers by 25 in the second half so won by a score of 80-67. whew. The game with Minnesota that was postponed due to the tragedy on our campus has now been cancelled so we will have one less game than all the other teams (except Minne). This will impact our seed in the Big Ten Tourney. Oh well. Strap on boys.

      What teams are the rest of you fans of?

    • After winning the D2 National Championship in 2004, Kennesaw transitioned to D1 in 2006 and this is their first winning season since then. (3 years ago they were 1-28 and 0-16 in conference and were in the running for the worst ranked team in D1 with Chicago State and a couple others.) They tried to give the game away last night missing 7 of their last 8 free throws down the stretch and missing 2 of 2 with 3.6 seconds left to play. Queens was unable to get a shot off in regulation; a shot just after the buzzer missed badly.

      Joe Lunardi has KSU penciled in as 15 seed facing in 2 seed Texas in the NCAA tourney. I hope I'm wrong, but I think Liberty beats KSU (KSU won the ASun regualr season over Liberty via the head to head tiebreaker) in the ASun tourney final. This would almost certainly put KSU in the NIT. We'll see.

      And since I've got the bracket opened, Lunardi has MSU as a 7 seed facing 10 seed Florida Atlantic in the NCAA.

      It goes without saying that bracket projections and reality are often quite different.
      2,000 miler

    • Trillium wrote:

      Interestingly after tonight's ASUN games, the winners will be reseeded and will compete on Thursday. That makes sense; too much sense, perhaps the NCAA should consider it but I'm sure it won't happen.
      Among the people I regularly talk basketball with I'm the only one who doesn't like reseeding.

      As far as NCAA doing it, I don't think that will happen as it will make "filling out a bracket" a thing of the past. And everybody fills out a bracket. Which increases interest.

      Although...the NCAA can't seem to do anything right these days. So who knows.
      2,000 miler

      The post was edited 3 times, last by max.patch ().

    • odd man out wrote:

      I'm also a Spartan (went to grad school there from '81-'86). This year they are not doing well so I haven't really paid attention. Are they is consideration for the tournament?
      A very big part of the reason for the problems the Spartans have had were the injuries to SF Jaden Akins and PF Malik Hall. Also that there's no killer instinct. I kept yelling at the TV that the Spartans needed to put their feet on the necks of the Hawkeyes when they had the 13 pt lead with 94 seconds to go but I guess I wasn't loud enough. Additionally, too many dumb blank turnovers. (fill in the blank with your choice of a word starting with S or A)

      They're currently 10-8 in conference with OSU for Senior Day on Saturday. Before this week they would have been a lock to win that game but Zed Key is out for the Buckeyes and it seems to have been addition by subtraction as they've won the last 2 games. But Senior Day so we've got that going for us.

      As max said, the Spartans are definitely in March Madness. Now it's pretty mathematical; teams get points for Quad 1 wins, Quad 2 wins, are significantly dinged for Quad 4 losses (looking at you UM who lost to CMU), etc and the number of points depends on where you win or lose the game. In the various brackets put out, the Spartans tentatively are either the 7th, 8th or 9th seed. So, the seeding is TBD after about Friday of the BTT. (since it seems that the committee never takes into consideration the final results of the BTT)

    • My son has the difficulty of rooting for his undergrad team Pitt and his grad school team Duke. His heart leans towards Pitt as he used to volunteer to rebound for the players during practices. Pitt has put together an impressive season. I'd like to see them get deep into the tournament just to have a different name in the mix. And maybe a little satisfaction for all those checks I wrote. :D
      Trudgin' along the AT since 2003. Completed Sections: Springer Mountain to Winding Stair Gap NC, Fontana Dam to Clingmans Dome, and Max Patch NC to Gorham NH

      "The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations...those are pretty good days." Ray Wylie Hubbard

    • I read a nice article about the Pitt basketball resurgence this year after losing seasons the last 6 years in The Athletic a couple days ago (can't link to it as it's behind a paywall). If they beat Miami this weekend they'll finish first in the ACC.

      Losing last night to a bad Notre Dame team lowered them from a projected 9 seed in the NCAA tourney to a projected 10 seed.
      2,000 miler

    • Congrats to Kennesaw St. who are going dancing! They beat Liberty 67-66 so won the Atlantic Sun Tournament.

      MSU started the day out with the 8th seed in the Big Ten Tourney. As a result of today's games, they climbed up to the 4th seed so a double bye.

      Teams in the Dance so far:
      Ohio Valley: Southeast Missouri State
      Big South: UNC Asheville
      Missouri Valley: Drake
      Atlantic Sun: Kennesaw St

    • Nice comeback win for local team Xavier. And Pitt made the most of their play-in opportunity.

      And coincidentally, they get to play each other in the next round.
      Trudgin' along the AT since 2003. Completed Sections: Springer Mountain to Winding Stair Gap NC, Fontana Dam to Clingmans Dome, and Max Patch NC to Gorham NH

      "The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations...those are pretty good days." Ray Wylie Hubbard

      The post was edited 1 time, last by StalkingTortoise ().

    • odd man out wrote:

      one minute to play. FDU#16 up 5 over #1 Purdue.
      Youtube TV offered a quad screen where this was one of the four games. I switched to just this game over the last two minutes and watched the upset.

      There's gonna be a lot of sad Boilermakers at work on Monday.
      Trudgin' along the AT since 2003. Completed Sections: Springer Mountain to Winding Stair Gap NC, Fontana Dam to Clingmans Dome, and Max Patch NC to Gorham NH

      "The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations...those are pretty good days." Ray Wylie Hubbard

    • I was out walking during the game, but the sports show I was listening to cut to the radio broadcast near the end of the game so I was able to hear the ending.

      Fairleigh Dickinson shouldn't have even been in the tourney.

      Merrimack won the Northeast Conference regular season AND beat Fairleigh Dickinson in the finals to win the conference tourney.

      But since they are in year 4 of their transition from D2 to D1, they run afoul of that stupid NCAA rule...
      2,000 miler

      The post was edited 1 time, last by max.patch ().

    • StalkingTortoise wrote:

      Youtube TV offered a quad screen where this was one of the four games. I switched to just this game over the last two minutes and watched the upset.
      I got this email from YouTube TV a day or two ago. I wonder how "select" our group really is. :)

      We’ve picked you to try out our latest feature
      Get excited! You’re one of the select few who get to experience multiview. Watch up to 4 March Madness® games at the same time, on 1 TV screen.* Look for live multiview streams in your Top Picks for You section when you open the YouTube TV app on your TV.
      2,000 miler

    • And now #15 Princeton beat Missouri to progress to the Sweet Sixteen.

      The Big Ten went 5-3 in the first round. Three of those teams play tonight: Penn State, Northwestern and Maryland. I don't think any of them will get through to the Sweet Sixteen.

      Lastly, congrats to the Tennessee Volunteers for beating the Dukies!

    • Trillium wrote:

      And now #15 Princeton beat Missouri to progress to the Sweet Sixteen.

      The Big Ten went 5-3 in the first round. Three of those teams play tonight: Penn State, Northwestern and Maryland. I don't think any of them will get through to the Sweet Sixteen.

      Lastly, congrats to the Tennessee Volunteers for beating the Dukies!
      big 10 always seem to underperformed in March.

    • CoachLou wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      I'd love for the national championship game next year to be Iowa and UCONN.

      Clark vs Bueckers.
      She has been injured more than she's been healthy. Quite frankly, I'm not surprised she has torn up her knee AGAIN! She has toothpicks for legs and must weight 90lbs if that.
      Well I guess that is one problem I do not have to worry about. ;)
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • max.patch wrote:

      I'd love for the national championship game next year to be Iowa and UCONN.

      Clark vs Bueckers.
      Caitlin Clark put on a show last night as Iowa upset 36-0 South Carolina in Final Four action. 41 points against tough defense (number 1 in the country) and either scored or assisted on 75% of Iowa's points. Scored 16 of Iowa's 18 points in the 4th quarter and assisted on the basket she didn't score. Incredible performance and a great game to watch.
      2,000 miler

      The post was edited 1 time, last by max.patch ().