March Madness 2008

[Akileese]

Well, I figured now is a good time to start the thread. The regular season is wrapping up soon enough and its rivalry week (Duke/UNC Wednesday night). So who do you like? Who's your favorites?

I'm gonna go with the perennial under achievers Kansas. They're the most experienced team and they have the most talent out of any team in the country. The K-State loss really worried me, but I think that was a fluke above all else.

[Antoine]

What's the story with UNC's injuries? How does Lawson look? What about that 6th man they lost really early on, is he out for the season?

[Regime]

I'm good for a few years with my Gators and basketball. Few weeks I will get pumped for it, dunno who will take it.

[Genjiro]

Hard to not be on the Memphis bandwagon, they've beaten some great teams, and beaten most of them soundly.

[Sinter1]

Memphis will lose somewhere down the road. Hard to pick against Carolina when they're healthy but we'll see how the match up with Duke. Personally haven't been following NCAA Bball too intently this year. Mainly following my school's team the Binghamton Bearcats. After starting 1-7, we're now 10-11 and 6-3 in conference. Kevin Broadus the former Georgetown assistant has us poised for our first NCAA Tournament bid ever if we can win our conference championship.

[Pharazon]

Still pretty much half the conference season to go.

I haven't seen Carolina play too much this season but I've heard lately that their D isn't that great. You simply need a good D to get through the tournament, so they'll need to improve that.

Kansas has been really impressive. If I had to pick a team right now it'd be them, but who knows.

Memphis has been a really bad free throw shooting team; there's no way they'll make it through the tournament if they keep shooting under 65%.

Most experts seem to agree that the Pac-10 is the best conference this year from top to bottom. I watch a lot of Pac-10 games, and there is a lot of talent this year, but I dunno if i could see anybody but UCLA or Washington St. having a legit shot. Still, the Pac-10 should get 7 teams in so I'm lookin forward to see how they do.

UCLA only lost Afflalo from last years team, and they picked up Kevin Love, who has lived up to every bit of the hype. He's Tyler Hansborough with a lot more skill. You can pencil in 20 and 12 for him every game. I'd give UCLA nearly as much chance as Kansas to win it all, just not sure they quite have enough offensive firepower.

Wash St. returns pretty much their whole team from last year that made the sweet 16. They play really solid D and don't make a lot of mistakes.

USC has been impressive even though they're so young. They came that close to beating both Kansas and Memphis early in the season, and did beat UCLA. Mayo has been off and on, but they have a really good freshman forward and a couple good sophmores as well. They play good D and have enough offense to give themselves a shot at making waves in the tourney, but too much youth and not enough size or depth will prolly hold them back.

Stanford has been playing pretty well, up to #10 or so now i think. They're my team but I just don't think they'll have the guardplay to do much in the tourney. Brook Lopez though is quickly becoming maybe the best center in the country. Every week he's been reminding me more and more of Tim Duncan. Serious offensive and defensive skills.

[Akileese]

Yeah. UNC just tries to outscore you and doesn't play great D. I could completely see them running into a run and gun mid major who hurls up a ton of 3s and lose. It's not even their perimeter or interior defense specifically. They're not a solid defensive team. As a plus though, they can consistently score at least 80 a night so in theory, you've got to play good defense or be able to score a ton.

But yeah, defense does win championships. Also, even though there's still about 10 games left for most teams in the conference tournament, the days of getting 5 or 6 days off are over. Most teams play on 2 or 3 days down and occasionally getting 4. So while it takes about a month to play the first 6 or 7 conference games, the last 10 take about the same time which is awesome.

Personally, I'm a UCONN fan (living in CT and all) and I think they're peaking too early. They're absolutely on fire right now, but it's only February and that's a bit too early.

[Ham n Cheese]

lol it's barely February.

I've been a UNC basketball fan all of my life (thought I was going to go pro as a kid, following MJs footsteps) which was okay until they won the title recently and I was known as a bandwagoner. Anyway, UNC and Texas are the only teams I really care about and since both will be in the tournament regardless it's hard to care much about the regular season. I think both can go to the final four this year too as long as they aren't bracketed together again. Outside of that I guess I'll root Big 12 throughout (minus Kansas).

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

I'm not a big college basketball fan, but if my WSU Raiders can get past Butler again this year, there's a good chance we can at least make an appearance. Which is always good, becuase we get dirty cheap tickets, since we never accomplish anything normally

[Genjiro]

Best team I've watched this year is Louisville, when they're healthy and playing well. I hope to see WVU make the tourney in Huggins first year, which would be a huge accomplishment given he is using someone elses players (Belien's) who are completely opposite from the guys he recruits (big and physical). 16-6 for WVU is pretty damn good though so far, and we got robbed against Georgetown (bs no call on goal tending to win the game!).

[Cowbell]

I think Texas has been tested the most so far this year. They know they can play with anyone and beat the best which is huge come tournament time. I hope they can get a 2 or 3 seed. If they get a 4 it might be too much to ask.

[Regime]

Originally Posted by Ham n Cheese

lol it's barely February.
.

Kinda what I was thinking but hey he's in a big hurry to change the subject.

Don't blame em lol.

[Akileese]

Originally Posted by Regime

Kinda what I was thinking but hey he's in a big hurry to change the subject.

Don't blame em lol.

Nothing to do with football. I'm actually in a rush for spring training more than anything. The point was, it's rivalry week. Today and tomorrow is when the big games really start so I felt it was the right time. I mean, I was surprised there wasn't a thread when the season started. College basketball is easily as much fun to follow as college football.

[Jadaki]

If UNC has Lawson and his ball pressure they can win it all, he needs to be healthy. They give up a fairly high shooting %, but they shoot an even better %, take more shots and make more free throws than their opponents take. They could also stand to get slightly better production out of the 6th and 7th men.

Memphis was the most impressive team in the pre-conference schedule, but they might get over confident beating up what could pretty much be a mid-major conference.

Kansas is solid, so is UCLA. I'm not sold on Wash St's ability to get to a final four, I just don't think they can beat the top 5-6 teams in the country consistently enough to get to the final four though they may come out of a really tough conference and prove me wrong.

This could actually be another solid year from the mid major conferences. There are a couple scary teams in the MVC who will make some waves at tournament time, count on it.

[Genjiro]

Originally Posted by Akileese

College basketball is easily as much fun to follow as college football.

I call shenanigans on that last statement! Sad part is, most of the kids who used to make watching college bb great go straight into the pros now. The OJ Mayos and such will maybe last through their freshman seasons before they go as well, the days of Tim Duncan four years at Wake and then to the NBA are long long gone.