"Who you got" in the NCAA tournament?

F

FreddyBrown

Moderator
To me the tournament is the single greatest sporting event in the world, hands down. It's not nearly as much fun as when the Hawks are in it, but even "if" we aren't I'll be fired up. My teams to root for this year in addition to the Big Ten (other than Illanoy) will be Duke, Tennessee, UNI, and anyone playing Kansas, Syracuse or Kentucky.

Who you got?
 
FreddyBrown said:
To me the tournament is the single greatest sporting event in the world, hands down. It's not nearly as much fun as when the Hawks are in it, but even "if" we aren't I'll be fired up. My teams to root for this year in addition to the Big Ten (other than Illanoy) will be Duke, Tennessee, UNI, and anyone playing Kansas, Syracuse or Kentucky.

Who you got?
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I will root on Pearl.

As for the tourney, I will enjoy it somewhat, but the steady downturn of Iowa hoops has taken away most of my love for the sport. That and the general difference in Big Ten basketball from an entertainment standpoint between now and the 1980's. Its like Big Ten basketball is one of the few things that has gotten worse as time has moved on.
 
Depending on the regions, I could see a Syracuse-Kansas final. Kentucky doesn't have enough 3 pt shooting to win it all. I love watching Syracuse play.
 
JonDMiller said:
I will root on Pearl.

As for the tourney, I will enjoy it somewhat, but the steady downturn of Iowa hoops has taken away most of my love for the sport. That and the general difference in Big Ten basketball from an entertainment standpoint between now and the 1980's. Its like Big Ten basketball is one of the few things that has gotten worse as time has moved on.
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Jon, I agree with you here although I'm not quite sure why I feel Big Ten hoops has gotten worse. Would be interested in your take on it.

Perhaps what I'm seeing now is less a sense of team play or even team play built around one or two stars. Instead, some nights Big 10 basketball feels like hockey on sneakers. Night in and night out you never know what conference officiating crews or going to call or let go, and thus players have less of a chance to develop.

It also feels like there is less basketball skill being coached in the conference now, and in some cases a boring style of play. There's less grace or athleticism. Players come and go more often (transfers, NBA, disqualification) and there's less of a chance for development of a story line from one year to the next. (The personal battle between two players continues into the next year and the year after that.)

Funny, because supposedly the conference took on strong coaching talent in the last five years or so who were going to develop superstar programs. Hasn't quite worked out that way, yet.
 
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For the sake of picking somebody different then everybody else, I will say WVU is going to be a tough out, but of course its tough not to like Syracuse, Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Villanova. If Evan Turner keeps playing like superman, Ohio St could be sneaky too, they are not very deep though. If Okie St sneaks in they could win a game or two with two guys like James Anderson and Obie Munelo.
 
Big Ten hoops seemingly is a 60 something to 50 something slugfest that is not aesthetically pleasing on the whole. Sure, there are some teams that are fun to watch...but the majority are not, or at least, are not consistently fun to watch.

The 1980's Big Ten basketball was a thing of beauty.
 
FreddyBrown said:
To me the tournament is the single greatest sporting event in the world, hands down. It's not nearly as much fun as when the Hawks are in it, but even "if" we aren't I'll be fired up. My teams to root for this year in addition to the Big Ten (other than Illanoy) will be Duke, Tennessee, UNI, and anyone playing Kansas, Syracuse or Kentucky.

Who you got?
Click to expand...

First sentence fail...
 
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