My picks to come out of each region are Duke over Sparty in the east. Michigan over Gonzaga in the west. The south is the hardest region to pick because so many of the top seeds have a history of early exits. I think I'm going with Wisconsin over Villanova in the south. In the midwest, I'll take UNC over Kentucky.
In the Final Four, I'll go with Michigan over Duke and UNC over Wisconsin and in the title game, I'll take UNC over Michigan and Roy announces his retirement after the season.
Midwest Region
No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 16 Iona
No. 8 Utah State vs. No. 9 Washington
No. 5 Auburn vs. No. 12 New Mexico State
No. 4 Kansas vs. No. 13 Northeastern
No. 6 Iowa State vs. No. 11 Ohio State
No. 3 Houston vs. No. 14 Georgia State
No. 7 Wofford vs. No. 10 Seton Hall
No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 15 Abilene Christian
South Region
No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 16 Gardner-Webb
No. 8 Ole Miss vs. No. 9 Oklahoma
No. 5 Wisconsin vs. No. 12 Oregon
No. 4 Kansas State vs. No. 13 UC Irvine
No. 6 Villanova vs. No. 11 Saint Mary’s
No. 3 Purdue vs. No. 14 Old Dominion
No. 7 Cincinnati vs. No. 10 Iowa
No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 15 Colgate
West Region
No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson/Prairie View A&M
No. 8 Syracuse vs. No. 9 Baylor
No. 5 Marquette vs. No. 12 Murray State
No. 4 Florida State vs. No. 13 Vermont
No. 6 Buffalo vs. No. 11 Arizona State/St. John’s
No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 14 Northern Kentucky
No. 7 Nevada vs. No. 10 Florida
No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 15 Montana
Here is the NCAA Tournament bracket
East Region
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 16 North Carolina Central/North Dakota State
No. 8 VCU vs. No. 9 UCF
No. 5 Mississippi State vs. No. 12 Liberty
No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Saint Louis
No. 6 Maryland vs. No. 11 Belmont/Temple
No. 3 LSU vs. No. 14 Yale
No. 7 Louisville vs. No. 10 Minnesota
No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 15 Bradley
KirkIsMyHinrich said:
I thought TCU would get in and OU would have been left out, though. I thought TCU was going to get in after I saw OU.
TCU has 0 wins over at large teams this year. ISU ×2 are their only good wins all year. OU's only wins over at large quality teams were Wofford and KU. Neither team deserved an at large by finishing 4 games under .500 in a weak B12 this year.
KirkIsMyHinrich said:
No TCU.
They didn't deserve a bid. I still don't think OU deserved a bid either though.
I think Michigan comes out of the west region.
Syracuse and Baylor should be good 8-9 game. I think Syracuse could upset Gonzaga.
Gonzaga is the final 1 seed out west, Michigan should be the 2 seed.
Pearl doesn't have a great track record in the NCAA tournament and KU already has a win over NMSU so KU did get a friendlier road to KC than they could have received.
Potential second round game against Auburn and potential S16 game against UNC in KC.
KU is 4 seed in Midwest playing Northeastern.
UNC is the 1 in the midwest and play the winner of Utah St./Washington.
South should be an absolute crapshoot with the top 2 seeds being teams/coaches that have historically underachieved in the tournament.
KU probably ends up in Salt Lake City at this point
Rick Barnes is going to be primed for another early exit with a potential 2nd round game against an under seeded Cincy team.
Tennessee gets the 2 seed in the South.
St. Mary's and Villanova in a 6/11 first round match up that should be a good game.
@wissox Wisconsin playing Oregon in a 5-12 game.
KSU is the 4 seed in the south playing UC Irvine in San Jose. Potential KSU/UW second round.
OU got the 9 seed in the south and playing Ole Miss.
Virginia playing Gardner-Webb in the South.
Duke the overall 1 seed
Belmont got an at large
MSU the 2 seed in the east
Looks like it should be a Duke/MSU E8
Lawson was bad yesterday. Just about all of his shots were short which meant his legs were spent. Garrett's rebounding and ability to draw fouls on ISU kept it much closer in the first half than it could have been.
Hindsight being what it is, I think KU's best bet yesterday would've been sitting Lawson and switching between Lightfoot and Garrett at the 4 while playing McCormack as much as possible yesterday.
@dylans I just don't like the idea of relying upon a single metric to determine the field. I like the human element involved for better or worse. I don't think using the SoR metric to compare close teams are bad to determine seeding and last teams in if there's debate, but I don't want to use a single metric to determine the field.
What would end up happening is that major conference teams would schedule mostly against major conference teams and hurt mid majors and low majors. Loyola doesn't happen last year with an SoR format, Wofford likely doesn't happen this year because KU wouldn't schedule a team like Wofford.
@dylans The offense changed twice. Once after Doke's injury and then after Garrett's injury.
Having 7 first year players definitely doesn't help anything in regards to consistency with a team.
dylans said:
No identity is the issue. Lost Dok and DeSoussa, so the post heavy high low went to the scrap heap. No one can hit a three with consistency so the 4 guard lineup looks like crap.
The only constants are Garrett is the best defender and Dotson makes the team go. Everyone else is wildly inconsistent.
Sounds like a common issue for a team with a bunch of players in their first year playing for a program.
@kjayhawks How does me saying Texas Tech was the only B12 team I would pick to make a deep run the same as saying the B12 is a great league this year. The B12 was damn good last year sending 3 to the E8. This year outside of KU when healthy, the B12 was severely lacking in quality nonconference wins this year.
kjayhawks said:
@BeddieKU23, @Texas-Hawk-10 is just in an argumentative mood here lately. He just said how much better he thought the b10 was than the B12 tho hes been giving me shit about saying the b12 is weak.😁
When have I said the B12 is better than the B10 this season?
I've gotten called out for saying the B12 only deserves 5 bids this year and that OU and Texas shouldn't have been anywhere near the bubble. I still don't think OU or TCU really deserve bids this year.
In years past, I've argued the B12 is better, but the B12 is running 4th this year behind the ACC, B10, and SEC.
KU's best shot at winning a S16 game is getting Virginia the 1 seed. KU can't outscore the other 3 projected 1 seeds.
@cragarhawk That spike by Lawson sure looked like someone who doesn't give a damn.
cragarhawk said:
@Texas-Hawk-10 okay. Well I personally disagree. But you can stay. And you don't even have to shut up. How's that?... Smh
Of course you do because all you know how to do is shit on 18-20 year old kids.
cragarhawk said:
@Texas-Hawk-10 yes. I did. Earlier in this half. And you keep harping on goddamn legs for friggin teenagers... Don't wanna hear that petty shit. The haven't played inspired defense largely all year. It has nothing to with legs. It's inside. Plain and simple
Tonight is legs, short shots, not moving legs and reaching. Self skipping a shoot around. All signs of tired legs.
cragarhawk said:
@BShark they actually played pretty hard first half overall. Just played without poise and missed alot of shots. This half. Especially early... Took off way too many possessions defensively
And yet you bitched about them being lazy earlier. Don't change your tune now.
cragarhawk said:
@Texas-Hawk-10 I'm calling them out when they don't try hard. That's all. I've never cared of they win. This team largely has played lazy defense this year. Fresh or not. That's what I said. You don't have to agree.
You only talk when KU plays like crap and sing the same song everytime even when it's a bullshit reason.
cragarhawk said:
@Texas-Hawk-10 nah. I'm good. You can give our the trophies for mediocrity if you chose. I don't
Where am I giving participation trophies? Because I don't crap on the team every time they play poorly. This is an inexperienced team that is showing their inexperience. Part of that inexperience with so many young teams is they aren't as well conditioned as the older ISU team that's been there done that.
cragarhawk said:
Lol. They play lazy defense when they're fresh...
Just shut up and take the attitude over to KUSports with the rest of the people who crap on this team every game.
Lazy defense because they aren't moving their legs because their legs are done. KU is reaching for everything now.
KU's legs look done.
KirkIsMyHinrich said:
Texas Hawk 10 said:
KirkIsMyHinrich said:
Why the hell are we skipping shoot-around?
Did you watch the first half. KU's legs are tired. That's why they're shooting so bad and why they didn't have a shoot around. ISU didn't shoot that well either. They only made 3 more FG's in the half. Both teams sucked at the line. The 3 pointers ISU made are the difference.
Right, because shoot-around is so hard on your legs when you're 20 years old. Give me a break. We need to be in the gym shooting as much as we possibly can.
Most of KU's misses have been short. That's always a major sign of tired legs. When KU is playing in the final game every night, KU has had the least rest of anyone in the B12 tournament.
Grimes was already cramping last night, they're definitely tired.
truehawk93 said:
Texas Hawk 10 said:
KirkIsMyHinrich said:
Why the hell are we skipping shoot-around?
Did you watch the first half. KU's legs are tired. That's why they're shooting so bad and why they didn't have a shoot around. ISU didn't shoot that well either. They only made 3 more FG's in the half. Both teams sucked at the line. The 3 pointers ISU made are the difference.
3? Jacobson, Wigginton, and Haliburton
KU made 10 FG's, 0 3FG's and 2 FT's. ISU made 13 FG's, 3 3FG's, and 3 FT's. Those 3 pointers and extra FT is the 10 point difference.
There is major fatigue on both sides tonight. FT's are bad for both sides is the biggest indicator.
KirkIsMyHinrich said:
Why the hell are we skipping shoot-around?
Did you watch the first half. KU's legs are tired. That's why they're shooting so bad and why they didn't have a shoot around. ISU didn't shoot that well either. They only made 3 more FG's in the half. Both teams sucked at the line. The 3 pointers ISU made are the difference.
BeddieKU23 said:
The big 10 had 9 teams with losing records in conference play. What a great conference
Not 9 teams and the top and middle of the B10 are still better than the top and middle of the B12 this year.
@KirkIsMyHinrich A big difference between Kansas and LSU and Purdue is that LSU and Purdue each won their regular conference titles. The SEC and B10 are very good leagues and you have to be a good team to win those leagues.
Self and Hoiberg are close friends and Hoiberg could give Self plenty of insider info on the Bulls.
But I agree that I don't see any merit to this one. The guy who's claiming this says he wants to be like Adam Schefter, but Schefter has quality insiders.
kjayhawks said:
I think there is a good chance we can get a 3 seed and have a chance to play in KC again if we can pull it off tomorrow. Everyone outside of KU fans will cry but I think you have to reward not only the best SOS but the most quad 1 wins.
If KU moved to the 3 line, they'd have to jump both Texas Tech and Houston to stay in KC. It might be more advantageous to KU to be the top 4 seed so they could be in KC that way.
@HighEliteMajor I don't see KT talking if he's let go because that would essentially black ball him from coaching if he did that.
The only way KT turns on Self is if it's in a federal courtroom under oath as part of the FBI investigation. He won't turn on Self if it's just the NCAA because the NCAA doesn't have the power an authority the FBI does.
Woodrow said:
I don’t understand why people think Danny wants to come back and be a assistant coach. He can get a job at a lesser school and try to rebuild his resume. There is no reason for him to come back and be a assistant. Plus we need assistant coaches that can recruit.
I don't think even smaller schools will be looking at Danny right now. An assistant or broadcaster gig are most likely his next step if he's fired after this season.
Coming back to Kansas if there's an opening, also seems possible at this point to create some breathing room with the NCAA, is a very plausible scenario. Danny now has connections he didn't have his first go around as an assistant coach.
I would not be surprised if Kurtis Townsend is let go after this year. Especially if Danny Manning is available which seems likely at this point.