NCAA Basketball 20-21 Catch-All

Well... gotta beat Duke a 3rd time.

Is that really a bad thing? Any time someone beats Duke, an angel gets nachos

Maybe they'll have used up all their good shooting yesterday against BC. I should have taken some time off this week. So much basketball to watch!

Yeah hopefully they will not shoot 50% from 3 against us tonight.

ND comeback and buzzer beater over Wake last night was great. Otherwise ACC tourney games have not been close so far.

Edit: I watched Gonzaga get scared last night but they survived.

There we go, another good finish. Miami survives Clemson.

Stele wrote:

There we go, another good finish. Miami survives Clemson.

Miami definitely tried to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in those closing seconds!

Ugh, Duke looked fairly put together in that game. Bigger problem was that Louisville couldn't throw it on the ocean in the second half. Sorry Stele. I think you're probably still in, but now it's a bit more precarious.

Yeah I'd feel ok except just 3 seasons ago, we beat FSU 2 of 3, including in the 8-9 ACC tourney game. Everyone assured us we were in, that was basically a play in game.

Then FSU got in, crediting a good win over Louisville... and we got sent to NIT.

Committee does whatever the hell they want, metrics be damned. So who knows?

Stele wrote:

Yeah I'd feel ok except just 3 seasons ago, we beat FSU 2 of 3, including in the 8-9 ACC tourney game. Everyone assured us we were in, that was basically a play in game.

Then FSU got in, crediting a good win over Louisville... and we got sent to NIT.

Committee does whatever the hell they want, metrics be damned. So who knows?

This is true, I recall that scenario. And I definitely think that somewhere in the back of their minds, they're just looking for a reason to include Duke.

In other news... Good lord, I did not expect a beat down like that over Notre Dame. Kessler nearly had a triple double! Hopefully we didn't exhaust ourselves to the point where we can't compete with VT tomorrow, but that was a nice win.

And this morning Duke has positive covid test and season's over. WTF.

Guess FSU gets win by forfeit tonight?

Be nice if they'd let Louisville play...

Stele wrote:

And this morning Duke has positive covid test and season's over. WTF.

Guess FSU gets win by forfeit tonight?

Be nice if they'd let Louisville play...

Yeah, came here to post that... No indication of where the positive test came up. If it was a player or someone on the floor, then could Louisville be impacted by virtue of contact tracing? Erg.

[edit]

Ah, probably not:

https://twitter.com/MattNorlander/st...

Hah #11 seed Cal beats #6 stanfurd in the first round of the pac-12 tourney. The only reason we're the #11 seed is because Arizona has a post-season ban.

Now we get to play Colorado who happened to be one of our 3 conference wins this year.

Cal basketball (mens and womens) is in such a sorry state now its pretty pathetic. Cal women won ONE game this year... I'm not going to pretend I follow women's hoops closely enough to judge, and I know there were some key injuries, but I don't think there's any scenario where one win in a 17 game season is acceptable.

Also for context, Cal beat stanfurd last year in basically the same position at the pac-12 tourney. I have to fact check this... but that may have been the last college basketball game played in the 19-20 season

all right I checked. we were the 2nd to last game scheduled in Vegas, so we weren't the last game.

Yeah Louisville seems safe. Reports it was a walk on that didn't play for Duke. Still, have to do daily testing for 7 days. Hopefully committee still puts us in and doesn't decide to preemptively replace us.

FSU gets the first ever triple bye for ACC tournament. And they could get back to back trophies by only winning 2 games. Since they gave them the trophy without playing last year. Crazy.

Kentucky down 14 to Miss St at half.

Syracuse beating Virginia.

Some good games early today already.

UVA with the buzzer beater to forego overtime. I thought Syracuse might have had em there for a bit, particularly as they squandered a 4 pt lead late. But a 3 point dagger as time expired carries them to the next round.

Kentucky done. 9-16. They paid Cal a million per win this year. Hahahahahaha

Georgetown beat Villanova by 1 in Big East. 23 for 23 FTs, and needed every one.

Some really great games today.

Stele wrote:

FSU gets the first ever triple bye for ACC tournament. And they could get back to back trophies by only winning 2 games. Since they gave them the trophy without playing last year. Crazy.

They gave us the regular season title not the tournament title. It’s a separate award and we earned it. UVA got the regular season title this year.

And I think the triple bye is going to hurt us especially since we needed to win a couple games to get off the 5 seed

Michigan State announces basketball team will now be called 'MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage'

Well, as long as the players get a cu.... what's that now?

Ah.

I see.

Woosh. I was pretty pessimistic after the way unc played in the first half, but they surprised me in the second. I have to imagine some of it was just sheer exhaustion on the part of the hokies. They were super aggressive in the 1st half, but seemed to taper off.

Great win for the Tarheels, I just hope they have something left in the tank for FSU.

VaTech first game in 2 weeks after covid pause.

Good luck with FSU

Stele wrote:

VaTech first game in 2 weeks after covid pause.

Good luck with FSU

Yeah, though they were allowed to practice in this stretch/pause, unlike the previous.

Thanks for the wishes, I suspect we'll need them. Can't imagine the UNC players are going to be anywhere near full strength, despite the nearly continuous subbing.

Sorry carlbear. So close to overtime. Valiant comeback the last few minutes.

Also Bill Walton is insane

Oh crap -

https://247sports.com/college/virgin...

"With positive COVID test, No. 1. seed Virginia is out of ACC Tournament; Ga. Tech will play winner of UNC-Florida State in championship game Saturday night — A positive test in the Virginia program ousts the top-seeded Cavaliers from the ACC Tournament and advances Georgia Tech to the championship game. They will face the winner of tonight's game between UNC and Florida State"

Same thing happened to my former employer, UNI. It makes me think that all of this may be a bad idea.

What happens in the NCAA tournament when a team wins, and is disqualified because of the COVID-19? A lot of people are going to be really upset in their brackets

Syracuse now in the same boat as Louisville yesterday... wishing they had beat Virginia, wondering if they got infected by playing.

NC A&T also dropped from their conference tournament yesterday. Not as widely covered as Duke, but honestly they were more likely to make NCAA tournament than Duke.

Add Kansas to the list --

https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...

[edit]

Honestly, this is probably why we shouldn't really be playing college sports. This is just going to keep happening. The so-called 'bubbles' clearly are medical security theater (like most of the on-court precautions), and these high-profile exposures are showing the vulnerabilities in how they're designed.

With everything being concentrated in Indianapolis for the big tournament, this is going to get worse. Any positive case and your season is done.

But forge on! Forge on in the name of the almighty dollar!

Tempers flaring today... Michigan coach Juwan Howard gets ejected from a game via double technical after getting into a shouting match with Maryland coach Mark Turgeon. Apparently a verbal exchange about people coming out of the coaches boxes and turned into Turgeon charging towards Howard to the point where the Michigan team and coaches had to hold him back.

I have to say, that's not a fight I'd pick if I were Mark Turgeon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYEt...

Yeah the conference tournaments did half-ass bubbles. Not waiting a week between end of season and the tournament and making sure a week of tests before any games. And letting Duke drive back and forth instead of staying there.

And now NCAA says 7 days of no positive tests or team is replaced. But UVA and Kansas would either have games 7 or 8 days from now... so how the hell are they going to pull that off? NCAA puts them in on Sunday and then replaces them at the end of the selection show?

Needed to have a full week between everything and again, testing before letting anyone in. And only fans allowed with vaccines.

Hell that's what they really need. Selection Sunday, and then vaccination Monday for the 68 teams that are in. Then wait a full week and let them play.

Stele wrote:

Yeah the conference tournaments did half-ass bubbles. Not waiting a week between end of season and the tournament and making sure a week of tests before any games. And letting Duke drive back and forth instead of staying there.

And now NCAA says 7 days of no positive tests or team is replaced. But UVA and Kansas would either have games 7 or 8 days from now... so how the hell are they going to pull that off? NCAA puts them in on Sunday and then replaces them at the end of the selection show?

Needed to have a full week between everything and again, testing before letting anyone in. And only fans allowed with vaccines.

Hell that's what they really need. Selection Sunday, and then vaccination Monday for the 68 teams that are in. Then wait a full week and let them play.

Well, but you really need ~2-3 weeks after vaccination for full efficacy? Even if it was the single dose J&J vaccine, we'd need to push the tournament another week or so.

As for Kansas / UVA, I honestly have no idea. It seems impossible to coordinate for that window, and yet they're going to try.

Florida player double elbowed Fulkerson in one of the more egregious things I've seen in basketball this year.