NCAA basketball 2017-18 catch all.

I didn't see the game, but there had to be some serious home cooking going on in Lawrence with the Jayhawks' 77-69 win over West Virginia. They needed a 19-3 run to finish the game to pull it off.

Worse, KU took 35 free throws in the game. West Virginia took... TWO!

Regardless, Kansas' shot at a 14th straight title likely comes down to a game in Lubbock, as Texas Tech and Kansas are both 10-4. Tech beat Kansas in Lawrence earlier this season.

Jayhawker wrote:

I didn't see the game, but there had to be some serious home cooking going on in Lawrence with the Jayhawks' 77-69 win over West Virginia. They needed a 19-3 run to finish the game to pull it off.

Worse, KU took 35 free throws in the game. West Virginia took... TWO!

Regardless, Kansas' shot at a 14th straight title likely comes down to a game in Lubbock, as Texas Tech and Kansas are both 10-4. Tech beat Kansas in Lawrence earlier this season.

I watched the end of the game, and KU just played really really hard. KU's lone big man played about 10 more min than normal, and basically willed the team to victory.

A poor shooting decision by a WVU player int that sequence led to a made bucket by KU, and a double technical on Huggins.

Strange game, but a good one.

WVU likes to shoot 3s, and I think was about -70 on the season on FTs vs their opponent, so maybe -3 per game. But yeah, 33 is... too much to attribute to style.

In other news, UNC is getting it together, winning 5 in a row, and looking like the defending champs. They steamrolled Louisville last night, building a 19 point lead about 10 minutes in, and Louisville never got closer than 7 the rest of the way. Ugh.

If the Cardinals don't win 2 of their last 4 (Duke, NCSt, VaTech, and UVa), they are looking at an NIT bid instead of the real tournament.

This is the second time I've heard how well Tech is doing this year. What's the story?

Well, after last night, I 'm feeling pretty good about Kansas going forward. They shellacked Oklahoma last night, jumping out to a 10-0 lead and really, just hammering them the rest of the way. But what really has me excited is that Udoka Azubuike picked up 3 fouls early, and only played 18 minutes.

Mitch Lightfoot, who continues to look like the least likely Big 12 forward you will ever see, picked up 3 blocks and a couple of dunks in 7 minutes. The kid lacks the strength and athletic ability of everyone he is facing, but makes up for it in just being determined to play smart and efficient. But when he has to ;lay more, he gets really exposed. So De Dousa's 13 minutes, with 10 points and 6 rebounds suddenly gives the Jayhawks 3 possible big men to play.

De Sousa is a freshmen that just became eligible in January after graduating early. So far, he has had little to zero impact in the games. He's young, and just started practicing wit the team. Last night was the first glimpse of why the kid was such a prized recruit. After putting in 11 minutes over his first two games, he has been playing 2 or less minutes a night. But if he is ready to take on double digit minutes, Azubuike is going to become a beast. At this point, Azubuike has to avoid foul trouble to such an extreme that it is affecting all of his play, from tip-off forward.

And after OU embarrassed him by fouling Azubuike down the stretch of the last game, where he went 0-6, he has gotten serious about his free throws, going 7-10 against WVU the other night, and 18-30 since that game. He only had one free throw last night, but missed it.

Even if Tech loses at OSU tomorrow night, if they beat Kansas on Saturday, they will have the number one seed in the tourney, al though they will be tied. Kansas' shot at a 14th title pretty much changes on their game next Saturday.

Overall, not really much there, to be honest. I mean, it's a sleazy part fo the business, but this report is mostly on the player and agents. It's really just another part of why the One and Done thing really needs to go away. The kids seriously don't care about school, and aren't planning to be there long enough to care about the damage they might do.

Kansas finally got named, with Josh Jackson's mom getting a $2,700 loan from an agent. I thought that was already investigated, to be honest, but maybe it was another player. Regardless, I don't think these loans are on the schools, unless the coaches are helping make them happen, or at the very least, are aware. I mean, we all know this is going on. But you can't suspend or dismiss a player until you actually know something for sure. And Kansas has held players out if there is a question. They finally lost billy Preston this season because the kid got tired of waiting for the NCAA to rule on his case, but Kansas held him out all season.

Personally, as part fo paying players, they ought to let the kids sign the shoe contracts, sign with agents, and maintain the rights to their images, which they should be compensated for when used in advertising by the school, as well as anyone else they decide to work with.

There may be some regulations that need to be put in place, but if the NCAA just allowed the players to earn the same way coaches are, it would be a more fair way to do business. NCAA football and basketball generate way too much revenue for the players to continue to be left out of the loop. and in basketball, where the NBA's policy leads to One and Done, that scholarship they do get is not worth much at all.

Yeah well if Louisville loses a whole season of wins for a few hundred dollars, then those players getting thousands on the side are going to lose a whole season too.

Kentucky has two different players from two different years listed. If they vacate 2013 and 2017, Kansas will be back on top of all-time wins.

Y'all see where the FBI has wiretaps of Arizona's coach talking to a recruit about paying him 100k?

I'll be honest, I've heard there might be that kind of money out there for the top recruits (in football, the college sport I pay most attention to), but I didn't really believe it until now.

I kind of feel like this FBI thing is going to blow the lid off of all kinds of cheating throughout the university sporting world. I mean, now we know they're wiretapping people, and apparently have been for some time. Who knows what else they've got behind door number two?

Kansas gets it done on the road, beating 6th ranked Texas Tech 74-72 in Lubbock to guarantee a share of their 14th straight Big 12 title. And it was a hell of a game. although Kansas was never behind at any point, and only let let TT tie it up once late, the game was mostly played with Kansas leading by 4-6 points, and their leanest lead was 11 points, just briefly.

Two interesting stats came up during the game. One, Kansas had won 7 straight road games against teams ranked in the Top 10 dating back to 2012, the longest streak in NCAA history. Beating TT extended that to eight games. Two, since Bill Self has bene the coach at KU, the Jayhawks have won 82% of their conference games. No other Big 12 team, during that span, have won more than 60%.

Now, if they can just get something done in the tourney this year. I still don't think they have the depth to win the 6 straight games they will need to win the title. IF they are hitting threes, like they did in the first half tonight, they are hard to beat But that is not a good way win consistently.

Also, while DeSousa's performance against OU made me hopeful that he could be another big to shore up their front court, he never touched the court today. Self still does not have the confidence in him to give him important minutes. Part of the difference is that Azubuike didn't get three fouls until late, and Lightfoot only picked up one. I doin think he might have helped in rebounding if they inserted him for awhile with Azubuike or Lightfoot when Garrett was sitting with fouls. TT really hammered the offensive glass.

I guess it is time to start thinking about brackets!

Third stat I thought was interesting - since Bill Self took over, the Jayhawks have never been swept in a season by a conference opponent. Texas Tech came into this game looking to be the first, and Devonte Graham said "Nope." I have no idea how this shot late in the second went in (@ 4:10 in the video, doesn't seem to want to start there):

And VT beats Duke.

Anybody can beat anybody this year. March should be fun.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Y'all see where the FBI has wiretaps of Arizona's coach talking to a recruit about paying him 100k?

I'll be honest, I've heard there might be that kind of money out there for the top recruits (in football, the college sport I pay most attention to), but I didn't really believe it until now.

I kind of feel like this FBI thing is going to blow the lid off of all kinds of cheating throughout the university sporting world. I mean, now we know they're wiretapping people, and apparently have been for some time. Who knows what else they've got behind door number two?

Have you seen his contract? Firing him for cause gets him 100% of his base pay, but firing without cause gets him 50% of the base. Isn't that backwards?

That does seem odd, but it kind of makes sense if you think about what the intention of the clause is. Instead of viewing it as a punishment for firing Miller, consider it a benefit of Miller's. If he gets fired without cause, he probably get another job, maybe making more. If he gets fired for offering a player $100K, then he might never coach again, and would "need" the money more.

Jayhawker wrote:

That does seem odd, but it kind of makes sense if you think about what the intention of the clause is. Instead of viewing it as a punishment for firing Miller, consider it a benefit of Miller's. If he gets fired without cause, he probably get another job, maybe making more. If he gets fired for offering a player $100K, then he might never coach again, and would "need" the money more.

I didn't think of that, thanks. But it magnifies the way coaches are compensated and treated vs the players.

I quit.

Basketball is dumb.

Stele wrote:

I quit.

Basketball is dumb.

Welcome to my world.

I love basketball! Devonte Graham at 3:38 is my world.

Gotta enjoy it now. This is not a team built to win in the tournament.

Ego Man wrote:
Stele wrote:

I quit.

Basketball is dumb.

Welcome to my world.

5 points in .9 seconds.

It's impossible.

But it happened.

Looks like the rubber match against Louisville. 2 teams who didn’t win at home playing on the road. Oh wait, since we are the higher seed, we are the Home team. We are doomed.

Back to back one and dones?

Yeah we really blew it losing Saturday (or Thursday). Being the 6 seed would have been much better.

Now a game we are barely favored to win (1 point, 51% kenpom), so basically a toss up. And if we win... UVa again that we've lost to maybe 6 straight. Ugh.

This is Jeopardy...

8-24
Last in conference scoring offense
Last in conference scoring defense
#320 Scoring Average in NCAA
13 losses by 15 or more
8 losses by 20 or more
#345 in TO/Assist Ratio in NCAA
Lost to Chaminade in the Maui Invitational *BY 24 PONTS*

Spoiler:

W T F is California Golden Bear Basketball?

Jayhawker may need to start the March Madness thread. I'm going to be very nervous on Sunday about Louisville and if we miss out not in the mood.

March Madness thread is up and ready. I'm just reusing the ESPN group from last year, so you are still officially the commish, Stele.

Jayhawker wrote:

It's that time of year again.

It's free. It's fun. It's guaranteed to make you crazy.

Everyone is invited to join the GWJ March Madness Bracket Challenge! One bracket to rule them all! This is at ESPN because Yahoo started expecting too much info to join.

You can sign up now with the password: stan

Selection Sunday is coming up, and you will be able to fill your brackets out then.

Rock Chalk!

The thread is in Everything Else for now. Certis will move it to Sports, but this way we can get a few more people to join that don't necessarily come to the sports forum, but would still like to play.

Thanks bro.

Somehow, UNC survives a sloppy 5 min finish in their 3rd game in 3 days for a win over Duke. Losing a 16 lead via a frantic 13-0 push by the blue devils had me shouting incoherencies at the TV, but the heels somehow held on.

That loss will likely end any talk of Duke moving to the bottom of the 1 line. Even with Xaviers loss yesterday, I don't think they drop off.

San Diego St's win over Nevada... ugh. The bottom bubble team just might have gotten a deathblow to their post-season hopes.

Tyrian wrote:

San Diego St's win over Nevada... ugh. The bottom bubble team just might have gotten a deathblow to their post-season hopes.

Fear the spear.

Yeah that's why I'm worried about Sunday. Louisville the last or next to last team in in most predictions.

Popping in to say my alma mater is one win from the dance.

GO HERD!!!

SDSU seals the Mountain West tournament for the auto-bid. Sorry any bubble teams.