March Madness 2019

[The Buscher]

What an idiot on New Mexico State.  Take the damn layup to tie the game!

[gunnar hendershow]

I may have underestimated how far Murray St can actually go in this tournament. Ja Morant is amazing.

[The Buscher]

Virginia losing to the #16 seed at the half.  Is it deja vu all over again?

[Pooker]

Nah, they were just messing with everybody in the first half.

[The Buscher]

Ughhhhhh, fuck Duke 

[Pooker]

Feel bad for the kid that missed that last shot...but man, what a finish! Two in a row like that for Duke. Like Zion said after the game, this is madness.

[gunnar hendershow]

Duke's magic finally runs out. Not a Final Four many of us predicted that's for sure.

[Pooker]

Well, fuck. Hell of a game. It's a shame all three of Duke's freshmen are leaving. One and done really sucks the fun out of college ball. 

[Meacon Keaton]

You’re a Duke fan from Utah? Duke fans are the worst.

[gunnar hendershow]

16 minutes ago, Pooker said:

Well, fuck. Hell of a game. It's a shame all three of Duke's freshmen are leaving. One and done really sucks the fun out of college ball. 

Yeah from a coaching perspective it's gotta suck too. Like you don't recruit them and they go somewhere else to beat you. But if you do recruit them you have to tailor your team and strategy around someone leaving after one year, and it can really mess with consistency. One reason Michigan State is so consistently competitive is because Izzo has a coaching style and he coaches his players up to a level where they can all benefit his team. With Duke this year, outside of the freshmen, they had a lot of talent but these new players jumped in and changed some of the team identity. It really let them down in the tournament going up against teams that had 7-8 guys who were all cogs in the machine, whereas Duke relied on 2-3 guys (really 2, Zion and Barrett) to do the work.

[Meacon Keaton]

2 minutes ago, damsher hatfield said:

Yeah from a coaching perspective it's gotta suck too. Like you don't recruit them and they go somewhere else to beat you. But if you do recruit them you have to tailor your team and strategy around someone leaving after one year, and it can really mess with consistency. One reason Michigan State is so consistently competitive is because Izzo has a coaching style and he coaches his players up to a level where they can all benefit his team. With Duke this year, outside of the freshmen, they had a lot of talent but these new players jumped in and changed some of the team identity. It really let them down in the tournament going up against teams that had 7-8 guys who were all cogs in the machine, whereas Duke relied on 2-3 guys (really 2, Zion and Barrett) to do the work.

They were talking about that in one of Kentucky's earlier round games. The commentators were like "Poor John Calipari! He just doesn't have the depth!" And I just shook my head. Of course he doesn't have the depth. He recruits five Top-30 players every year, knowing full well they won't be there the following year. Hard to feel sympathy for a guy that lives-and-dies by the one-and-done rule. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Just now, Meacon said:

They were talking about that in one of Kentucky's earlier round games. The commentators were like "Poor John Calipari! He just doesn't have the depth!" And I just shook my head. Of course he doesn't have the depth. He recruits five Top-30 players every year, knowing full well they won't be there the following year. Hard to feel sympathy for a guy that lives-and-dies by the one-and-done rule. 

He's kind of been benefited by Coach K going after all the premier one-and-done talent now too, it would give him time to recruit the top talent that isn't NBA caliber. Meanwhile someone like Tom Izzo is gonna recruit a guy who was only getting looked at by DII schools and turn him into a 12 minute a game player by his senior year. It's just a different paradigm, and I'd take the consistency.

[Pooker]

16 minutes ago, Meacon said:

You’re a Duke fan from Utah? Duke fans are the worst.

I'm more of a University of Utah fan but since we typically don't have that great of a basketball team, I've always rooted for Duke in the tournament. I've always liked Coach K. I've never understood the hate Duke gets. I was talking to my sister in law last weekend about her hatred for Duke and all she could say was she didn't like Coach K but couldn't give me a reason why.

I'm really hoping the NBA does away with the age limit. Let the top players go right to the NBA if they want to right out of high school. It's not like them playing one year of college ball is doing them any good.

[The Buscher]

Fuck Duke!

[Meacon Keaton]

1 hour ago, Pooker said:

I'm more of a University of Utah fan but since we typically don't have that great of a basketball team, I've always rooted for Duke in the tournament. I've always liked Coach K. I've never understood the hate Duke gets. I was talking to my sister in law last weekend about her hatred for Duke and all she could say was she didn't like Coach K but couldn't give me a reason why.

 

My dad went to UNC for starters. And two, have you ever been to Duke? Preppy, yacht club, country club swag, vest wearing, pretty boy douchebags galore. They're so far up their own ass it's not even funny. If you spot an African-American on their campus, you best believe he's a football or basketball player because they love them some rich white people. 

[GhostMachine]

I'm just glad Duke and Kentucky are both done.

 

[Pooker]

12 hours ago, Meacon said:

My dad went to UNC for starters. And two, have you ever been to Duke? Preppy, yacht club, country club swag, vest wearing, pretty boy douchebags galore. They're so far up their own ass it's not even funny. If you spot an African-American on their campus, you best believe he's a football or basketball player because they love them some rich white people. 

Makes sense. At least you have a couple good reasons to hate them. Most people seem to hate them just because it's the cool thing to do. I've never been to the campus but from your description of it, I would probably end up hating it.

[Benjamin]

When the only number 1 seed you didn't pick to enter the final four is the only one to advance to it  

[Meacon Keaton]

1 hour ago, Pooker said:

Makes sense. At least you have a couple good reasons to hate them. Most people seem to hate them just because it's the cool thing to do. I've never been to the campus but from your description of it, I would probably end up hating it.

It’s a gorgeous campus. It just reeks of white privilege.

[DMN in the House]

15 hours ago, Pooker said:

I'm more of a University of Utah fan but since we typically don't have that great of a basketball team, I've always rooted for Duke in the tournament. I've always liked Coach K. I've never understood the hate Duke gets. I was talking to my sister in law last weekend about her hatred for Duke and all she could say was she didn't like Coach K but couldn't give me a reason why.

I'm really hoping the NBA does away with the age limit. Let the top players go right to the NBA if they want to right out of high school. It's not like them playing one year of college ball is doing them any good.

They're a fake 'blue blood' who didn't win a title until 1991, whereas all the real blue bloods (UCLA, UNC, Indiana, Kentucky, and Kansas) all have titles from before freshman were allowed to play and the dunk was brought back.

They're basically the Miami of college basketball, except they recruit the type of people who call the cops when the Miami recruits show up to have a BBQ at the park.