The Official NCAA Tournament Thread

[Jami]

sepsportsfanatic said:

jami3406 said:

Not to take anything away from GMU, since this is just amazing (win or lose), but UConn isn't much better than Kansas when it comes to wasting the nation's best talent. Seriously - there are like 4 first round picks on that team and they're struggling against GMU? No wonder Calhoun's a prick...I would go crazy trying to coach a bunch of underachievers. Half the time it looks like UConn is more worried about counting their future NBA dollars than winning a game.

I hope you're not directing that solely on Kansas' tournament showing this year. Most of their players were either freshman or inexperienced sophmores. You can't expect a young team like that to go very far in the NCAA Tournament...after looking at their win-loss record at the beginning of the season compared to the middle and the end of the season, Bill Self's coaching of those young men, helped them improve as players as the season gradually wore on.

A job a coach is supposed to do...

I was also basing it on last year, and probably the year before that too. Kansas not playing up to their potential goes back to the Roy Williams days - not just with Bill Self. Last year Kansas had a ton of seniors and still couldn't make it out of the first round. Kansas and UConn historically choke despite having the better talent a lot of the time.

With that said, GMU has played their hearts out for every second of this tournament and deserve to go to the Final Four. This'll probably go down as one of the greatest and most improbable runs to the FF in history, considering the circumstances upon which they entered the tourney. They didn't win a conference tournament or anything to get an automatic bid - this was one of the teams that a ton of people (including me) thought had no business being in the tournament, and then they go and beat 3 of the best programs in the past decade in UConn, UNC, and MSU.

Edit: As for the Florida game, I'm rooting like hell for the Gators. The best chance I have to at least get in the top 3 of my school pool is to have a Final Four of LSU, UCLA, GMU, and Florida, because I'm 95% sure no one had more than 1 right out of those 4, which means I still have a chance to get at least 2nd or 3rd based on my early round picks.

[dkgojackets]

how can you not enjoy george mason winning that game...screw brackets

[bearcat]

A story like GMU makes me feel better about my bloodied bracket.

[JacktheRipper]

david said:

how can you not enjoy george mason winning that game...screw brackets

Which is what I did watching my champion fall.

Right now I want to see Florida win to have a little more SEC pride flowing through the tournament. Two SEC teams in the final four, along with a Pac 10 team and a CAA (amazing still) in the Final Four. Man, Dick V. must be on suicide watch with all of this happening. That and he doesn't have J.J. Redick to pleasure anymore. Anyway, go Gators!

[detroitbasketball]

bsktballr said:

detroitbasketball said:

Villanova won't go much further though.

Screw you, commie!

*last laugh*

[JacktheRipper]

How about that? Two SEC teams (baring a mericle) are in the Final Four. There's a shot at an all-SEC championship game. The best part is, Alabama beat two final four teams this year and was a three point short of knocking off UCLA.

Roll Tide and Go SEC!!

[sep]

The SEC is weak, they just got lucky </sarcasm>

I like UCLA/GMU as the finals with UCLA cutting em down

[ChisAto]

i doubt anybody cares, but this guy on Yahoo, got all 4 Final Four teams right.

tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/men/1143123/viewbracket?&rid=0

His bracket is awesome. On another note, some how, I'm winning the DC bracket. Also, go UCLA! Since my champion is gone, I hope my uncle's alma mater wins it.

[TJFOR3]

how does someone pick that, seriously

[robino2001]

it's a hack (supposedly)

[sep]

Or a real lucky ass guess

[ChisAto]

there's alot of comments about him, some about him supposedly hacking, some about him being a God, and one about him killing Chuck Norris

[JacktheRipper]

Second place isn't too shabby considering I was second to last after the Round of 32. I always do this. If I could just pick the opening rounds better, I would dominate these things.

[detroitbasketball]

Freak has clinched the DC pool, btw.

[ChisAto]

sorry Bama, counted my chickens too early. Freak wins no matter what with 70, I have 69. Buckeyesc rule (suck) gets third with 67, you get 4th, and Sep gets 5th with 62.

[Sportsbuck]

3rd place for me, I did pretty well considering all of the upsets this year.

[detroitbasketball]

Freak correctly predicted the Northwestern State upset and one of the Final Four, and got the rest by picking safe. Shows how crazy it's been this year.

[Freak93]

Yeah, it was a lot of luck, and stupidity. To be honest though, I was set on Florida making the Final Four for a while. Joakim Noah is a beast.

[Just Blaze]

Man, everything is crazy up here in Northern Virginia/ D.C. I live about 20 minutes from Mason and even toured the Campus earlier this year and it is a nice small school (i dont see how it is the largest public school in Virginia though) so with all this basketball hype, I am thinkin about applying there this winter. But seriously, I hope Disney makes a move about this because George Mason is the modern day cinderella.

[dkgojackets]

silverblazer said:

But seriously, I hope Disney makes a move about this because George Mason is the modern day cinderella.