NCAA Games Thread

[astonmartin708]

Paul Mills has now made it farther in the tournament at a Mid-Major with 2 star recruits than Frank Haith has in a 17 year head coaching career at multiple power conference schools.

Haith had us as the 3rd seed in the conference tournament though! Can't forget that!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Arkansas hasn’t been to the sweet 16 in 25 years Oru has never been to the sweet 16 but was in the elite 8 in 1974 I guess their were only 16 teams in the tournament then and we haven’t been to the sweet sixteen in 21 years 2000 our elite eight year

25 teams in the tourney that year. Only conference champs and independents were invited.

I remember them losing to Kansas in the regional finals but not much other than that.

 

[Original TULSAFAN]

How exactly did OK State land Cunningham?

Weird.

 

[libertychamp]

How exactly did OK State land Cunningham?

Weird.

Aka Tisdale at ou and his high school coach mins was hired as an assistant where Cunningham’s brother is on the osu staff an assistant coach

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

The inadvertent publicity and media exposure they’re getting right now is priceless. The image on ESPN.com is of ORU and the headline of them upsetting Ohio State. Their the primary image on the ESPN App when you open it. They were the lead in on ESPN SportsCenter no less than 100 times last night between replays and reruns across their networks. They were mentioned hundreds of times on CBS and their coverage ALL NIGHT. I’d love to see how many hits their website and social media accounts have gotten in the past day. And this one singular event will lead to 500 additional applications to the school and probably a bump in enrollment of 100 or so and like it or not, that bump will be driven by an event like this in a specific niche they fill in the higher education realm.

The publicity is priceless. I couldn’t count the number of times they showed the ORU kids having fun, both at the game and at the Mabee Center, although I didn’t know they were allowed to dance.

Mrs. Babe reminded me that the old Footloose rules are long gone.

 

[rivalcane]

the big10 is so overrated.

#1 Illinois -- OUT
#2 ohio st -- OUT
#4 purdue -- OUT
#11 michigan st -- OUT

 

[loca2874]

Wow Oklahoma state is moving

 

[tulsahurricane0530]

And here comes OSU. From down 11 to down 3 in a minute

 

[loca2874]

Back to 7

 

[loca2874]

It’s safe to say that OSU is going to win

 

[libertychamp]

It’s safe to say that OSU is going to win

Lol

 

[nevadanatural]

I predicted an OSU win before the game even started. I haven’t been as impressed with the Cowboys this year as many on here have been. It’s been a fun day of basketball. Tomorrow will be a letdown and I’m going to have to miss the end of the Abilene Christian game due to a dental appointment, who knew they would be playing games on a Monday.

 

[HuffyCane]

The stupid thing with Zaven is no one paid attention because he played 1A football. If they had taken any of it seriously you simply know that a guy who is 6’4 225 LBs and can run like he can and is the athlete he is, you can find a spot in the field for him. Wasnt Austin Box a QB coming out of HS who ended up playing S and eventually LB at OU? It just takes someone with a little imagination and vision to take a chance on kids like that (and a plan). Gillespie had a plan and it worked really well.

Box played QB and LB for Enid. Several recruiting services rated him the top linebacker in the nation iirc.
Collins played QB and S for Hominy.

Collins had the quickness and athleticism as a prospect. He did not have the speed for safety in college and it was an open question whether he would bulk up and could play LB. We took a chance and it paid off.

 

[ba11game]

Arkansas hasn’t been to the sweet 16 in 25 years Oru has never been to the sweet 16 but was in the elite 8 in 1974 I guess their were only 16 teams in the tournament then and we haven’t been to the sweet sixteen in 21 years 2000 our elite eight year

I believe there were 25 teams that year and ORU was one of16 byes.

 

[Original TULSAFAN]

The Big 10 (aka the NCAA) sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TU_BLA]

Box played QB and LB for Enid. Several recruiting services rated him the top linebacker in the nation iirc.
Collins played QB and S for Hominy.

Collins had the quickness and athleticism as a prospect. He did not have the speed for safety in college and it was an open question whether he would bulk up and could play LB. We took a chance and it paid off.

I think my point was too many coaches lack imagination to find or even create a position for a kid who has insane athleticism. Why did we end up with Charles Clay, a guy who ended up in the NFL for 9 years? Because SEC and ACC schools projected him as a LB/edge rusher because he wasn't "fast enough" to be a RB? Because Gus had a plan to use him as an H-Back and to get the ball in his hands. It's why Self went after Reed and Swanson and KJ.

Bill Self has lost that edge of finding game changes...he has the Kansas name behind him now so he only goes after "sure fire" prospects. He'd do well to find a couple of Dante Swansons to fill in the depth on his roster because KU was pretty bad this year.

 

[TU_BLA]

HOUSTON: They've now been given the easiest path to the Final Four that they could have ever hoped for. They do need to pull their heads out of their butts and start playing more focused though. Their battles with us the last couple of seasons should prepare them well for their game with Syracuse who plays a similar zone concept to us. That should open up the offensive glass for them as well. Their matchup in the next round would be Oregon State or Loyola. At some point you've got to think Oregon State's run of over-achieving has to stop. Couple of their guys are playing out of their minds right now. Houston's biggest problem would be Loyola. A well-coached and disciplined team that doesn't have any glaring weaknesses. Their #8 seed is a failure on the NCAA and a glaring hole in the way the NET rankings are calculated (as well as the bias that is seemingly built into the NET). At 25-4 they deserved a 3 or 4 seed with 5 being the lowest I would have gone with them. The game against Illinois wasn't ever really close.

It is conceivable that Houston could make the Final Four without ever playing a single digit seeded team.

 

[TU_BLA]

Watching the Iowa and Oregon game. Oregon has a 16 pt lead with 20 minutes left. Oregon scored 54 pts in the 1st half. Iowa is not nearly as athletic as Oregon and Oregon is running all over the place. Garza has had a decent game but Oregon has limited the efficiency of the other Iowa players. (I'll say something more about Garza later). The B1G is big and slow and lumbering for the most part. The biggest factor for the conference's failure in the NCAA against so called lower seeds, is they simply don't play any defense in that conference. The question isn't if Oregon reaches 100 pts, it's when. All of the talking heads talked about the offensive efficiency of B1G teams...maybe the question and analysis should have been how poor their defensive efficiency has been.

Luka Garza: He may be a good college player but I don't see how he is going to make it in the NBA. He's not a true stretch 4 and he's too slow to be an effective 5. He's not a particularly quick leaper so I would suspect his ability to be a rim protector or an efficient rebounder in the NBA would be diminished.

What the B1G's failure in this tournament also signifies is a catastrophic failure of the NET as a metric to rank and seed teams as the built-in bias has done a disservice by over valuing blow out wins against sacrificial lambs

 

[loca2874]

I’m moving on from the weak B1G! Time for Oklahoma vs Gonzaga

 

[I.I.]

Altman is one of the top 5 coaches in America. He and Boeheim are the toughest NCAA tournament coaches. Mark Few is right there. Few said the first thing he looks for in recruiting is great fundamentals of basketball, shooting, passing , dribbling , ( several Europeans and Aussies) along with tremendous effort. He doesn’t mention athleticism or length.

 

[TU 1978]

He was interested in chemical engineering or forensic chemistry and may have wanted a higher academic school like Army, AF , etc. Ruffin would have sold him on TU if asked.

And yet ORU has neither degree. At TU he could have majored in chemical engineering like Ruffin and I did.

 

[nevadanatural]

This year’s Gonzaga team is a little different than previous teams in that they have less bulk but major quickness and the same superior shooting. I’ll disagree with Bla on Garza, he didn’t have a good game he had a great game but he showed why having one great player doesn’t a basketball team make. I don’t know whether Garza will have an impact in the NBA or not but his rebounding and three point game will give him a shot.

Go Abilene Christian!

 

[Original TULSAFAN]

Watching the Iowa and Oregon game. Oregon has a 16 pt lead with 20 minutes left. Oregon scored 54 pts in the 1st half. Iowa is not nearly as athletic as Oregon and Oregon is running all over the place. Garza has had a decent game but Oregon has limited the efficiency of the other Iowa players. (I'll say something more about Garza later). The B1G is big and slow and lumbering for the most part. The biggest factor for the conference's failure in the NCAA against so called lower seeds, is they simply don't play any defense in that conference. The question isn't if Oregon reaches 100 pts, it's when. All of the talking heads talked about the offensive efficiency of B1G teams...maybe the question and analysis should have been how poor their defensive efficiency has been.

Luka Garza: He may be a good college player but I don't see how he is going to make it in the NBA. He's not a true stretch 4 and he's too slow to be an effective 5. He's not a particularly quick leaper so I would suspect his ability to be a rim protector or an efficient rebounder in the NBA would be diminished.

What the B1G's failure in this tournament also signifies is a catastrophic failure of the NET as a metric to rank and seed teams as the built-in bias has done a disservice by over valuing blow out wins against sacrificial lambs

The NET was created by the Big 10 in cahoots with the NCAA. The Big 10 controls every decision the NCAA makes.

 

[URedskin54]

Cronin's team is getting away with murder on D like his cincy teams used to

 

[Bill Lowery]

Anyone watching Creighton/Ohio? It’s what could have been. Christian Bishop is putting on a show for Creighton. Lots of dunks, one-handed offensive rebound slams, etc. 8 pts and 6 rbs in 1st half. Kim English thought he’d come to Tulsa.

 

[I.I.]

Cronin's team is getting away with murder on D like his cincy teams used to

Cronin is a good coach but not a happy guy.

 

[Original TULSAFAN]

Big 10 sucks

 

[TU_BLA]

LSU within 1 of Michigan at half. But again, this shows that no one in the B1G plays any defense. Michigan is simply a good offensive team and they’re on right now. I also think Juwan Howard is on his way to being a great coach. But they don’t play quality defense.

 

[Original TULSAFAN]

Big 10 got two 1 seeds...
Totally legit.

 

[cmullinsTU]

Big 10 got two 1 seeds...
Totally legit.

They started with 9 teams in, barring a Maryland upset of Alabama, Michigan is the only team left from Big 10, right? If that's correct I believe the Sweet 16 will include one team from the following conferences:

1. AAC (Houston)
2. Big 10 (Michigan)
3. Summit League (ORU)
4. Missouri Valley (Loyola-Chicago)
5. WCC (Gonzaga)

The remaining 11 teams will come from the Big 12 (which will have 2 teams only if Kansas wins tonight), Pac 12, SEC, and ACC.

 

[TU1NNJ]

LSU within 1 of Michigan at half. But again, this shows that no one in the B1G plays any defense. Michigan is simply a good offensive team and they’re on right now. I also think Juwan Howard is on his way to being a great coach. But they don’t play quality defense.

Put an experienced coach in Phil Martelle right next to him on the bench. That is a sign of a smart guy.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

They started with 9 teams in, barring a Maryland upset of Alabama, Michigan is the only team left from Big 10, right? If that's correct I believe the Sweet 16 will include one team from the following conferences:

1. AAC (Houston)
2. Big 10 (Michigan)
3. Summit League (ORU)
4. Missouri Valley (Loyola-Chicago)
5. WCC (Gonzaga)

The remaining 11 teams will come from the Big 12 (which will have 2 teams only if Kansas wins tonight), Pac 12, SEC, and ACC.

The Big East may still have a couple of teams playing.

 

[cmullinsTU]

The Big East may still have a couple of teams playing.

Oops, thanks for catching that. I meant to include them in my list in the last sentence. They were omitted by mistake.

 

[Tu Geo]

UConn only got in because they didn’t have to play Houston, Memphis, Wichita and Tulsa twice this year.

One of the talking heads had UCONN as his final four sleeper. LOL.

Go TU!!!

 

[loca2874]

They started with 9 teams in, barring a Maryland upset of Alabama, Michigan is the only team left from Big 10, right? If that's correct I believe the Sweet 16 will include one team from the following conferences:

1. AAC (Houston)
2. Big 10 (Michigan)
3. Summit League (ORU)
4. Missouri Valley (Loyola-Chicago)
5. WCC (Gonzaga)

The remaining 11 teams will come from the Big 12 (which will have 2 teams only if Kansas wins tonight), Pac 12, SEC, and ACC.

Kansas is not winning this game lol

 

[cmullinsTU]

Kansas is not winning this game lol

They just need to out score USC by 22 points in 12 min I don’t know why you’re being so negative!!!111

 

[Tulsafanzz]

The Big 10 & the Big XII were seeded to have 5 teams each in the Sweet Sixteen. Both conferences only have 1 team in the Sweet Sixteen.

So glad they both failed. It would be non stop talk of 2 conferences dominating the tournament with 10 of 16 Sweet Sixteen teams.

The Big 10 even had 2 #1 seeds & 2 #2 seeds. That is an embarrassingly bad performance. But the latest CBS graphic I saw showed the Big 10 at 7-8, so it still makes them look far more respectable than their actual performance.

 

[TU_BLA]

Kansas getting absolutely hammered right now. They only have 1 timeout left and there’s still 17+ minutes left to play. I don’t know if the PAC 12 slow played things all year but UCLA, USC, and Oregon all like to get up and down the court and can really score the basketball. UCLA plays that hard nosed Mick Cronin defense too. USC can protect the rim and really forces teams to try and beat them from the outside. Add Oregon St to the mix and 1/4 of the Sweet 16 comes from the PAC 12. 2 Big East teams and if you really want to piss off UCONN, the only two teams worthy of a bid from that conference.
I am also going to revise my thinking. Alabama is playing really really good basketball right now on both ends of the court. Perhaps the one high seeded team to play up to their seeding.
Think how good Gonzaga is too. They played so so today and OU had Reaves who played outstanding today. Gonzaga still won by 16 pts. IMO it’s pretty clear that Baylor and Gonzaga are the two best teams by a lot and they have 2 of the best coaches as well. After those two, Alabama and the 3 PAC 12 schools (I think Oregon State’s run ends in the next round).

 

[TU_BLA]

Kansas is now down 27 pts and I don’t think Bryce has even taken his warmups off. Maybe he’ll transfer.

 

[cmullinsTU]

Barring the biggest comeback in NCAA history, the Sweet 16 will consist of:

1. PAC 12 - 4 teams (USC, Oregon, UCLA, and Oregon St)
2. ACC - 2 teams (Florida St and Syracuse)
3. SEC - 2 teams (Alabama and Arkansas)
4. Big East - 2 teams (Creighton and Villanova)
5. AAC - 1 team (Houston)
6. Summit League - 1 team (ORU)
7. WCC - 1 team (Gonzaga)
8. Missouri Valley - 1 team (Loyola Chicago)
9. Big 12 - 1 team (Baylor)
10. Big 10 - 1 team (Michigan)