The Final Four!

[HOF]

http://www.ncaa.com/brackets/basketball-men/d1/2011

The Old Guard!
Uconn vs Kentucky

The NKOTB!
Butler vs VCU Virginia Commonwealth University Rams

VCU: Sportscasters said why are they here? Ask the teams they beat!
USC 11
GTown 6
Purdue 3
Florida St. 10
Kansas 1

BUTLER: They're back! 2 years in a row for the final 4 and just missed being champs last year.
Old Dominion 9
Pittsburgh 1
Wisconsin 4
Florida 2

Uconn: 3 Seed
Bucknell 14
Cincinati 6
SDSU 2
Arizona 5

Kentucky 4 Seed:
Princeton 13
West Virginia 5
Ohio St. 1
UNC 2

The sportscasters claimed this was a weak tournament, maybe so. However, there has been many great games along the way.

Uconn 30-9, won the Big East tournament, Jim Calhoun 800 wins, 2 NCAA titles, HOF, the list goes on!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Calhoun

Kentucky 35-8, won the SEC tournament, John Calipari (480 wins) brings his third different team to the final four, could this be his year? Scandal seems to follow Calipari from school to school. Now, it's the one and done claim "John Wall"
http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/calipari_john00.html

Butler 27-9, won the Horizon tournament and is appearing in their second straight final four. NCAA national finalists a year ago, could the Butler get it done this year.
Coach Brad Stevens at 34 years old has amassed numerous wins and brought a small school to national recognition.
http://www.butlersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/stevens_brad00.html

VCU Rams 23-11 lost the Colonial A.A. final to Old Dominion and were an 'At Large' entry that played in the first round formerly called the play-in-game.
http://www.vcuathletics.com/information/directory/bios/Smart_Shaka
This is Shaka Khan's, oops, Shaka Smart's 2nd year as a head coach. He earns 325 000.00 US, he'll probably get a raise or a long term contract that's well deserved.

What we do know is that either an 8 or an 11 will be in the NCAA Final!

There really is no-more David versus Goliath come tournament time.

 

[mjg1]

"Shaka Khan's" too funny!! I almost called him, Shaka Zulu. I still can't believe they beat Kansas, they were my team to win it all.
Now I hope VCU beats Butler, then lose to Kentucky in the final.

 

[maurice93]

I had a long discussion with someone else today concerning the final four teams. He doesn't like the final four because it does not have the best teams.

Well a one and done system, will not get the best team, but I don't their is a feasable best way to crown a champ amongst 345 teams in D-1. We can't have teams play best of seven series.

This is entertaining, and is a generally fair system to crown a "Champ". It may not be the best team, but that is not the point of the tournament.

The top of the field was weaker then anticipated (many analysts were chalking this one for some reason), but the games were for the most part entertaining, except for the first games Friday nght.

The first weekend, the excitement was in many ways caused by a comedy of errors, questioning the brain power of some of these kids, but the second weekend the close games were determined by much more solid play and not stupid mistakes.

As a fan I have been very happy with this year's tournament, while my friend refuses to watch the final four next weekend because he thinks it is too void of the best teams.

 

[HOF]

A comment to the best teams. The best teams were there, and they lost. The historical power conferences just aren't that great anymore. The best 4 teams in an elimination format are there. The top 8 choices

Far too often, they are over-hyped and they should be playing non-conference games against the better teams from as many other conferences they can.

AP Top 25:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/polls?poll=1
Uconn 9
Kentucky 11
Butler and VCA not in the top 25.

USA Today Top 25:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/polls?poll=3
Uconn 8
Kentucky 10
Butler and VCA not in the top 25

Ohio St, Pittsburght, Kansas, Duke all 1's
Notre Dame, UNC, Florida, SDSU all 2's
Syracuse, Purdue, BYU all 3's
Texas, Wisconsin, Louisville all 4's

Just Uconn & Kentucky from the top 16 teams.

The Big East should be renamed the Big Least! 11 teams 1 in the final 4.
No Big 10
No Pac 10
No ACC
No SWC

Complete List of all final four teams:
http://www.fanbay.net/ncaa/final4.htm

1966 Texas Western, UTEP
1974 N.C. State
1976 Marquette
1983 N.C. State (Jim Valvano)
1985 Villanova

We're due for an underdog Champion!

IMHO, Butler has been the BEST team the past two years! They don't have the best players, but they utilize Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success brilliantly. Coach Brad Stevens works incredibly hard without recruiting the McDonald's all americans.

Shaka Khan, Shaka Zulu SHAKA SMART isn't an up and comer, he's there and will have a great career.

Remember the greatest coaches were young once too.

 

[maurice93]

These are clearly not the best four teams in the land - but as I said the tournament is meant to crown a champion, not the best team. To me that is the beauty of the tournament. You never know what could happen - Some years the best teams make it, some years they don't. In some years where you think their is parity, it goes totally to form.

We can talk about evolving Parity but the same thing has been said since about 2000, and for a three year period from 2007-2009 we had a historically high number of one seeds making the final four (8 over a 3 year period)

Butler has not been the best team in the country the last two years. It has clearly been Kansas. They were the clear best team in the land last year, and one of the two best this year. But best team is merely a label, champions are earned. Butler started the season at 14-9 was brutal, and was dumb play by ODU away from not even getting out of the first round. But they have won their games and deserve the chance to play in the final four and the title - but that does not make them the country's best team the last two years. The tournament is done to determine a champion, not necessarily the best team.

As for your top conference teams being overhyped, look at something subjective like Sagarin and KenPom
The Big East had 11 of the top 32 KenPom teams heading into the tournament. They were overseeded as they got quality wins against each other, but they still deserved 11 teams in the tournament.

As for underdog champs, you would need to also include Kansas (a 6 seed in 1988) and Arizona (a 5 seed in 1997 who knocked off three consecutive #1 seeds to get the title). So the last true underdog to win was Arizona.

Since then looking at the champs list, 11 of the 13 teams to win I think were one seeds. The only exceptions I think were Syracuse and Florida who won as 3 seeds. So we are already getting a "surprise" champion ether way.


EDIT - I just looked at your link, and noted that UConn won it is a 2 seed. How was that team only a 2 seed wth Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon along with a supporting core of Charlie V, Josh Boone, Marcus Williams, and Hilton Armstrong. I seem to remember them as big favourites but I guess they were not.

 

[HOF]

These are clearly not the best four teams in the land - but as I said the tournament is meant to crown a champion, not the best team. To me that is the beauty of the tournament. You never know what could happen - Some years the best teams make it, some years they don't. In some years where you think their is parity, it goes totally to form.

We can talk about evolving Parity but the same thing has been said since about 2000, and for a three year period from 2007-2009 we had a historically high number of one seeds making the final four (8 over a 3 year period)

Butler has not been the best team in the country the last two years. It has clearly been Kansas. They were the clear best team in the land last year, and one of the two best this year. But best team is merely a label, champions are earned. Butler started the season at 14-9 was brutal, and was dumb play by ODU away from not even getting out of the first round. But they have won their games and deserve the chance to play in the final four and the title - but that does not make them the country's best team the last two years. The tournament is done to determine a champion, not necessarily the best team.
As for your top conference teams being overhyped, look at something subjective like Sagarin and KenPom
The Big East had 11 of the top 32 KenPom teams heading into the tournament. They were overseeded as they got quality wins against each other, but they still deserved 11 teams in the tournament.

As for underdog champs, you would need to also include Kansas (a 6 seed in 1988) and Arizona (a 5 seed in 1997 who knocked off three consecutive #1 seeds to get the title). So the last true underdog to win was Arizona.

Since then looking at the champs list, 11 of the 13 teams to win I think were one seeds. The only exceptions I think were Syracuse and Florida who won as 3 seeds. So we are already getting a "surprise" champion ether way.


EDIT - I just looked at your link, and noted that UConn won it is a 2 seed. How was that team only a 2 seed wth Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon along with a supporting core of Charlie V, Josh Boone, Marcus Williams, and Hilton Armstrong. I seem to remember them as big favourites but I guess they were not.

Fair enough Arizona and Kansas weren't in the top 16 in those years you quoted, so sure they were underdogs no problem with that. In 2004, Duke, Kentucky, Stanford and St Joseph (PA) were the number one seeds. St. Joseph was a number one seed in the tournament. They held AP #1 a good part of the season, finished the regular season 27-0, Jameer Nelson won the Wooden award, Delonte West was his sidekick, and Coach Phil Martelli was Coach of the Year. They lost to Xavier in the A-10 tournament. They progressed to the Elite 8 and lost in the final seconds to Oklahoma St 64-62.
In that final four, Uconn beat Duke; Georgia Tech beat Oklahoma St. UCONN won the NCAA.

We could debate Kansas being the best team in the NCAA the last two seasons that hasn't won! The best teams use Wooden's pyramid of success. Butler can play with and can win against the big boys. Who did Kansas lose to, the #68 team in the tournament VCU!

The big conferences just don't play enough non-conference games against other powers and smaller conferences.

 

[friendz4evr]

Early on, I said Obama gave the kiss of death to Kansas. Butler, the little guy that could. Go DAWGS!

 

[HOF]

Things that make you scratch your head and looks unusual ... Virginia Commonwealth Rams where did they come from ... People would even question why they are in the tournment and now they are in the Final 4 and Holly shit does Butler's coach look young ..

Brad Stevens Butler's coach is 34
Shaka Smart VCU's coach is 33

 

[popsiclepete]

Big East was overrated this season. Average teams where parity was confused with high competitiveness. However, the parity this season with no great teams and no great players has made this the best tournament in the NCAA for a while as a whole and the best tournament I have seen in any sport for a while.

11 teams from one conference is just too many. No conference should have that many teams in the tourney. It doesnt make sense. And I know I will get criticized for for saying this but I would rather have seen a team like Harvard who hadnt been in the tourney since like 1948 (had a great year) who lost on a buzzer beater to Princeton (who took Kentucky to the buzzer in the first round) make it instead of an 11th Big East team.

The Mid Majors for me are what make this tournament. Dont get me wrong I love watching the great teams and great players go up against one another (like UNLV and Duke back in the day as an example). But, watching the mid majors go up against the Power Conference teams is what makes this tournament for me.

I am hoping for a VCU and UCONN final with VCU winning.

One final point, I cant stand fans who cheer for the conference when their team is eliminated as if that makes them feel bettter since their team lost. Cheering for your rival is stupid. Would Leaf fans cheer for the Canadiens if the Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs? Would Yankee fans cheer for the Red Sox? Would Blue Devils cheer for Tar Heels? Its just dumb.

 

[K Douglas]

I am hoping for a Butler championship, although I think Kentucky will win it all. Then again the way my brackets went this year I'm probably way off.

 

[maurice93]

Big East was overrated this season. Average teams where parity was confused with high competitiveness. However, the parity this season with no great teams and no great players has made this the best tournament in the NCAA for a while as a whole and the best tournament I have seen in any sport for a while.

11 teams from one conference is just too many. No conference should have that many teams in the tourney. It doesnt make sense. And I know I will get criticized for for saying this but I would rather have seen a team like Harvard who hadnt been in the tourney since like 1948 (had a great year) who lost on a buzzer beater to Princeton (who took Kentucky to the buzzer in the first round) make it instead of an 11th Big East team.

The Mid Majors for me are what make this tournament. Dont get me wrong I love watching the great teams and great players go up against one another (like UNLV and Duke back in the day as an example). But, watching the mid majors go up against the Power Conference teams is what makes this tournament for me.

I am hoping for a VCU and UCONN final with VCU winning.

One final point, I cant stand fans who cheer for the conference when their team is eliminated as if that makes them feel bettter since their team lost. Cheering for your rival is stupid. Would Leaf fans cheer for the Canadiens if the Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs? Would Yankee fans cheer for the Red Sox? Would Blue Devils cheer for Tar Heels? Its just dumb.

My opinion on the matter is to not confuse overrated with overseeded -- I agree they were average, but many BCS at larges who were worse then those teams also got in. Based on objective metrics, and the Big East's success in OOC play, the Big East did deserve 11 teams. However, as I posted on my blog posts on a certain board that I am not disclosing, the Big East was going to be overly seeded due to the effect caused by beating each other -- they also had an abnormal amount of road wins in conference compared to others. (they were close to 40% which is unheard of -- it also adds stars to your resume). Those factors led to too much hype, and better resumes. But Sagarin and KenPom still supported 11 seeds, and even their resumes (even if you discounted for the above)

I would certainly have loved to seen teams like Harvard, Missouri St, and St. Mary's in the tournament (in other years it may be an extra CUSA, A-10, Colonial or MVC team). But those teams did not have to replace the Big East teams like Nova or Marquette - think Georgia, Clemson, USC, Michigan St, Penn St, Michigan. There was alot of candidates instead of Big East teams to reaplce. But if you insist on repacing the Big East in better not be to bring in VTech, Colorado, Bama or BC. Its to bring in the Harvard's of the world.


That's part of the reason I am not in favour of capping a top conference's bids -- they will simply be replaced by worse BCS teams which totally defeats the purpose. Would replacing Villanova with Colorado whose record was grossly inflated by sub 290 RPI teams make sense? What about Marquette with Alabama? Would that have made the tournament better and with better teams? No

If you want to cap BCS at larges as a whole (the total for the 6 conferences) I would be agreeable to that -- actually strongly in support of that as mid majors are what makes the tournament entertaining. But BCS schools will never allow ths -- we are stuck with what we have, and all we can do is hope that 2,3,4 extra spots are made available for non BCS schools next year.

 

[friendz4evr]

Matt Howard's name never comes up in the draft but all he does it seems is win. Maybe the finals tonight may change some perceptions.

 

[HOF]

I love March Madness and so I am not going to be negative but point out the fact that how many Toronto sports fans know
who won the CCCA or Canada's Final 4 or who won the Canadian U Championship this past weekend .. Heck the Memorial Cup is
in Mississauga and ticket sales are going slowly and it isn't even close to being sold out ..

CCAA's were held at Durham College in Oshawa:
Men:
1. Vancouver Island University Mariners (Nanaimo, B.C.)
2. NAIT Ooks (Edmonton)
3. Humber College Hawks (Toronto)
4. University of Northern British Columbia Northern Timberwolves (Prince George, B.C.)
5. Lethbridge College Kodiaks (Lethbridge, Alta.)
6. Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics (Halifax)
7. Vanier College Cheetahs (Ville de St. Laurent, Que.)
8. Durham College Lords (Oshawa, Ont.)

Gold: Vanier
Silver: Lethbridge
Bronze: VIU

#7 won the gold.

Women:
. Collège Montmorency Nomades (Laval, Que.)
2. Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves (Grande Prairie, Alb.)
3. Dawson College Blues (Montreal)
4. Capilano University Blues (North Vancouver, B.C.)
5. St. Thomas University Tommies (Fredericton)
6. Algonquin College Thunder (Nepean, Ont.)
7. Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics (Halifax)
8. Niagara College Knights (Welland, Ont.)

Gold: Montmorency
Silver: Algonquin
Bronze: Dawson

#6 won silver

CIS Men:
Gold: Carleton
Silver: Trinity Western
Bronze: Saskatchewan

CIS Women:
Gold: Windsor
Silver: Saskatchewan
Bronze: Cape Breton

 

[HOF]

Matt Howard's name never comes up in the draft but all he does it seems is win. Maybe the finals tonight may change some perceptions.

Gord Haywood was the 9th pick overall, and he could have stayed at Butler!

Howard will be drafted, but he might be more of a journeyman in the NBA.

He'll certainly be more durable than Greg Oden!

 

[HOF]

Maurice93

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–11_Kansas_Jayhawks_men's_basketball_team

Your beloved Kansas Jayhawks 35-3 overall. They played 12 non-conference games against sub-par teams to pad their record. Take 8 of those games and play big conference teams and the 4 and play mid-level strong teams, and see where the team really stands.

Memphis 13
Texas 10 1-1
Mizzou 19
Texas AM 24

Kansas played 1 team in the top 10 during the season. You claim there are the best team over the past two years. Play teams that matter in non-conference games and don't pad the stats.

The best teams win close games!

 

[Dawgger]

Does anyone have Butler and/or Connecuit left in their bracket? I didn't have a team make the final 4. Love seeing the underdogs do so well.

 

[friendz4evr]

Does anyone have Butler and/or Connecuit left in their bracket? I didn't have a team make the final 4. Love seeing the underdogs do so well.

Had Butler from the start and fervently hope they'll be National Champs.

 

[popsiclepete]

I will probably take Butler tonight and the points.

 

[popsiclepete]

Figures the best NCAA tourney in a while ends in a DOG of a game tonight. Both teams played sub par, with UCONN lifting their game in the 2nd half to do enough to beat a team that shot 18.8 percent from the field lol.

 

[maurice93]

Congrats to UConn, and a great tourney - there was too much stupidity in the first two rounds that caused close games, but the second weekend was determined by great players. Play it again and there is about 15 teams that could win this thing this year.