NCAA Tourney thread

Now think back to what we saw all year in the Big Ten and tell me what the pollsters were seeing when they were grossly over-ranking that collection of very ordinary teams.

The pollsters correctly had the Zags followed by Baylor above everyone else, and I think Michigan was correctly slotted in that third spot much of the year based upon how UCLA played against them and the Zags. The Big Ten was overrated but they were a good team, and I'd argue that Illinois was legitimately a top 5-6 team despite getting upset by Loyola.

The limited amount of non-league games this year made it easy to overrate the heavily watched Big Ten while severely underrating the PAC-12 due to it often being ignored in the eastern time zone with all of their late weeknight tip-offs.
 
Well, a team brought their A+ game and still came up short. UCLA could not have played any better than they did tonight. Fantastic game though, best, most dramatic finish since Duke/UK in 1992.
 
Well, a team brought their A+ game and still came up short. UCLA could not have played any better than they did tonight. Fantastic game though, best, most dramatic finish since Duke/UK in 1992.
Ppl forget, that was an elite 8 game. Duke had a full week to recover from that game. Gonzaga has less than 48 hrs. Don’t underestimate the physical and emotional toll a game like that has on players.
 
gosh a ruddies on a site with many predictions on a variety of subjects, this could be the champ of them all.
Big deal. I was wrong and predicted the opposite of what actually happened. I'm sure there was a lot of other people that predicted the same as I did.
 
Big deal. I was wrong and predicted the opposite of what actually happened. I'm sure there was a lot of other people that predicted the same as I did.
you mean like the guy who wrote this.
"Gonzaga/UCLA is going to be blowout city."
 
I could possibly really p*ss some people off tonight. In one pool, I'll finish 2nd (just a small pool of 8), 1st will edge me out by 1 point.

In another pool, if Gonzaga wins, I'll finish in both 1st and 2nd. Both brackets are similar and I was just hoping one would be good enough. Both have Gonzaga, Baylor and Houston in the final 4, but 1 had Michigan and the other had Alabama. Both have a Gonzaga/Baylor final with Gonzaga winning both. I had done this before where I entered the same bracket twice. I had some people p*ssed off and asked how someone could win 1st and 2nd. This was years ago before online bracket managers were around, but the pool manager made a rule the following year that if a bracket was entered twice, even tough it was paid for, it would be removed from the pool and money returned. That office pool is no longer around, but I still usually enter 2 with just a few differences. This has worked out for me one other time where I won 1st and 2nd but I'm not aware of anyone being upset at the time, but since it's usually the same people, not sure how they will like seeing it happen again just several years later, if Gonzaga wins.

Either way, I'll get some cash. They pay out 1-3 and if Baylor wins, I'll take 2nd and 3rd.
 
Gonzaga was favored by 14 pts.
My statement was made within a context of him not just predicting a blowout, which was his reiteration of his previous point that it was a game not worth watching. Sad for anyone who believed him, they missed one of the greatest college basketball games in history.
 
This might be as close as it gets. Baylor has already jacked up 14 more shots than the Zags due to offensive rebounds and running off of turnovers. I don't see that getting any better for the Zags with how much fresher Baylor has looked than them so far.
 
Timely run. Baylor led by 15-19 for much of the first half. To get it down to 10 at the half is huge for Gonzaga.
 
Hard to believe they are only down 10. Very uncharacteristic play from Gonzaga but credit Baylor. They are making shots, hitting the glass and forcing turnovers.
 
Zags are drained. Stupid to play the national title so quick after the final 4

Surviving tournament is part of the game isn't it? If they'd been as much better than their opponent as Baylor was, there'd be no "tired" excuse. Not sure how much more tired they'd be anyhow. They played only a few minutes longer than Baylor.

I'd kind of like to see Gonzaga win, just something different than a P5 but I don't much care for that one player that's always mugging and flexing... If Gonzaga could win and he lose, I'd be fine with it.
 
Gonzaga just looks slow out there. Baylor is fast, aggressive, smothering. Plus it helps that they're on fire shooting 3's and fend off every run the Zags have made. Very impressed by Baylor.
 
Gonzaga blew their load v UCLA. I thought Baylor would win after Saturday, but I thought it’d be competitive.

Gonzaga deserves to be criticized for not finishing the deal and winning a Title. You’re not elite without a Title, so all of us this talk about them being the “best program in college basketball” needs to stop.
 
I’ll give credit to this Gonzaga team, they played a legit OOC schedule (Kansas, Iowa, WV, UVA) and I think if they’d ended up on the side of the Bracket playing Houston, this game plays out differently. It’s hard to say they’d win with how Baylor shot the ball, but the turnovers and missed open shots might not have been such an issue.
 
Gonzaga deserves to be criticized for not finishing the deal and winning a Title. You’re not elite without a Title, so all of us this talk about them being the “best program in college basketball” needs to stop.
They had a lot of hype this year as the best team, but I've never heard anyone say that they're the best program.
 
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