NCAA College Basketball Talk

[VUGrad1314]

What does this mean for the future of NCAA Athletics?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2019/03/08/judge-lifts-ncaa-limits-athletes-compensation-related-education/2887122002/

[M]

Not looking great for LSU and Will Wade.

[crusader05]

If Vandy loses to LSU tonight Heckler may open his front door to find Drew hogtied and left there by some angry Vandy fans.

[VUGrad1314]

Or Gottfried at NCST (though he's already gone)

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/26198799/gottfried-directly-linked-payments

[VUGrad1314]

Fact: Vanderbilt is 0 for 2019.

Last win: New Year's Eve over UNC-Asheville which brought the Commodores to 9-3... 18 losses in a row... Injuries or not that's ugly...

[JD24]

The NCAA selection committee decisions will be very interesting this year. As they have moved from RPI to NET, the criteria used in the rankings had changed to some degree. In the 'RPI days', a team in the Top 40 was almost always selected and Top 50 always had a pretty good chance. Looking at the current NET rankings, these mid-major teams are in the Top 50: Wofford #14 Buffalo #16 Nevada #20 UCF #28 Utah State #30 Saint Mary's #39 Furman #43 Belmont #44 Lipscomb #45 Murray State #49 Not all of these teams will win their conference tournaments and, of course, some are in the same conference and one (Saint Mary's) will be hard pressed to beat a higher team in their conference. Will these teams get selected over teams like TCU, Minnesota, St John's, and Seton Hall that are in the middle of power conference rankings, but have a few marquee wins. I would like to see the mid-majors get the recognition that they deserve, but I am sort of doubtful that will happen. One reason that I love college basketball: despite all of the efforts of the major conferences to create barriers against the mid-majors, you always get mid-major teams that overcome those barriers by developing players and playing great team basketball.

Locks: Wofford Buffalo Nevada Should be in: UCF Utah State There's your cutoff methinks. Everyone else needs to win their conference tournament to get in and pray nobody like Wofford Buffalo or Nevada (unless it's by Utah State) gets tripped up and nobody on the bubble wins their conference tournament. St Mary's needs Gonzaga to leave to get in and Belmont Lipscomb and Murray State need to get out of their low major conferences and into conferences with better overall metrics.

Both Lunardi and Palm have both St. John's and Seton Hall as solidly in at this point.

[justducky]

I watched the OVC games last night instead of the MVC. I would love to see both Belmont and Murray make it (final tonight) but that will take a Racers win and the blessing of the selection committee for a bubble Belmont. I think that should happen. The whole Knicks front office, plus Bulls GM, plus Magic were there watching Morant and the projected early second round Bruins deadeye.

Mussinski sp? sprained an ankle so maybe it comes down to that and how well Adelsparger (who we recruited over Derrik) can fill in. I'll be switching games back and forth tonight.

[VUGrad1314]

Adelsperger went for  7 and 2 last night... I'd say we lucked out getting Smits...

[VUGrad1314]

Not looking great for LSU and Will Wade.

Though they did clinch the SEC title last night without him as they walloped Vandy by 21. Does Bryce survive after this o fer? Serious question. And what does he do if he doesn't? Become an analyst? Collect fat checks doing nothing for three years? Become Scott's assistant at Baylor and try again in 1-3 years? Send out feelers about the possibility of coming home (which will probably be rejected at least this year while we ensure Lottich gets a fair shake?)

[VUGrad1314]

NKU's beat writer is done with the HL:

https://twitter.com/dontribunesport/status/1104071507674873856

And he retweets these two fans:

https://twitter.com/JoeMikeMills/status/1104077230731390978

https://twitter.com/CoachDWMarshall/status/1104196299639922690

Time for the MVC to pounce?

[NativeCheesehead]

NKU is awful uppity for a program with one NCAA appearance.

[VUGrad1314]

NKU is awful uppity for a program with one NCAA appearance.

Fair point. I would also say they're a program that knows when they are getting screwed and is committed to excellence from the whole institution on down  and wants better for itself. I will concede that this is a somewhat odd thing to complain about but I bet this has more to do with the tournament BS than anything else. That cut deep. You can tell.

[VUGrad1314]

Anyone wanting to see Belmont in the tournament should be cheering for Wofford tomorrow.

[bigmosmithfan1]

Yeah, although using the phrase "beneath us" is a realllly bad look for a team with NKU's, uh, very modest track record so far, he's got a point. We'd have been furious with a "showdown" like this putting the Summit League on equal footing with us when we were in the HL. Also, they've just seen the HL office lie to their membership in order to screw everyone besides Indy out of an opportunity to host the conference tournament. They're certainly justified in not taking anything that comes from the HL at face value and wanting to look for a new home.

(All that said, as a stand-alone scheduling agreement, it's harmless. Some of these teams definitely struggle to get decent home games in the non-conference, and this guarantees a midmajor home-and-home every two years).

[JD24]

The NKU reporter needs to understand that there probably isn't a program in the country holding pep rallies for a game vs. NKU either.

[VUGrad1314]

In spite of how crappy the HL was to everyone but IUPUI I wonder if it's the best or most professional look for a beat reporter to be spouting off like this. It feels too direct too public and it might negatively affect NKU in its quest to leave and in the future in the HL if they can't leave.

[valpo84]

13-14, he's a beat reporter for a commuter school in a low mid-major conference.  You value NKU way more than they have earned or deserved.  They are probably at best the 5th program in Kentucky and 6th program in Cincinnati/NKU media market behind X, UC, Kentucky, Ville and Ohio State (not to mention Miami, IU and Dayton all having attention in that media market).  They are essentially Wright State or Cleveland State.  They should not be considered for the MVC.  Yes, the HL has once again lessened itself and in those actions hurt its members.  But, reality is the Summit and HL are basically the same interchangeable programs with similar conference and overall records.  Western (the only remaining original 8 of the AMCU-8) had maybe their biggest win in 2 decades by beating the Summit's #1 seed Saturday. 

[bigmosmithfan1]

The other thing this guy should remember is that the HL , in the process of doing NKU a favor and admitting them a year before they were tourney-eligible almost certainly helped prevent VU from getting an at-large bid that year, even though we beat them handily twice. NKU was an absolute RPI anchor that year. If we had been able to replace even one of those two games with a Top 150 opponent, there's a good chance the Crusaders nab the at-large bid we just missed out on.

[VUGrad1314]

That's true I had forgotten about that. NKU killed our SOS that year... It's funny not all of LeCrone's moves are bad the man just has no timing. If there's one thing Butler Valpo and NKU fans can agree on it's that the HL has no ability or no desire to protect or do anything for its flagship members.

[VULB#62]

In that regard (protecting flagships), this year's Arch Madness proved the exception at least in one respect:

     No matter the righteousness of the quest,
     No matter the pureness of soul,
     No matter the bravery and integrity of the knight,
     Sometimes, my friends, in the end the dragon wins.

But just like the dance itself, underdogs are what makes CBB so viewable and exciting.

I wanted Loyola to go through and give the the MVC a repeat high profile name in the NCAAT, but it was not to be. I do not admire Wardle   But I do not begrudge his kids this opportunity. I hope they get past the first round for their sake and the sake of the MVC.

[wh]

That's true I had forgotten about that. NKU killed our SOS that year... It's funny not all of LeCrone's moves are bad the man just has no timing. If there's one thing Butler Valpo and NKU fans can agree on it's that the HL has no ability or no desire to protect or do anything for its flagship members.

I think we need a little history lesson here to put this in perspective. The HL had the perfect system for protecting its flagship programs - the top 2 seeds received double byes and the championship game hosted by the highest remaining seed. It threw it all away 4 years ago and it's been downhill ever since. The Detroit tournament was a complete attendance bust, location-wise it favored 2 schools over the other 8 (especially Oakland), yet they consistently squandered that advantage. Now that Detroit flopped, LeCrone's moving it to his backyard, and everyone's up in arms, except IUPUI.

Now for the perspective. To their credit, Butler took greatest advantage of the double bye format, then Valpo when Butler left. The other programs grew increasingly more frustrated and bitter by their repeated lack of success post-Butler, thus all of them except UIC (and Valpo) voted for the Detroit move. Of course Oakland and Detroit would vote for it, but think about the others. They voted for it, even though the location would favor 2 competitors over themselves. They voted for it knowing they were forfeiting any future opportunity to host the semi finals and championship games in their own buildings. That's how jealous the conference's old guard programs were that upstart Valpo came along and became the new king of the hill when Butler left.

Therefore, I could give a fxxk about any of these programs and their crybaby feelings about their tournament moving to Indy. Rather than earn their way to the top as we did, they plotted against us and began a downward spiral that continues to the present day. So, what's next for the good old HL? Ongoing discord, the impending flop of the Indy 4-team mini tournament, it's demise, LeCrone's firing, and Big D, Jimmy, and all the other prognosticators blaming everyone but their own programs for the HL's further swan dive into the abyss. It's such a satisfying feeling when justice is served.

[justducky]

I do not admire Wardle

Standing alone has never bothered me so I will reaffirm my support for Wardle and his outdated  methods. The last time we went to war on Wardle was March-April 2014 and the heated exchanges ultimately led to Milanmiracle dropping off our board. I was just too stubborn or stupid to leave and I haven't gotten any smarter in the interim. So if it is now me (less Milan) vs this board--I'm liking my odds.

I hope they get past the first round for their sake and the sake of the MVC.

Every Valley fan is now a Bradley fan and every Bradley fan is now a Wardle fan.

[FieldGoodie05]

I do not admire Wardle

Standing alone has never bothered me so I will reaffirm my support for Wardle and his outdated  methods. The last time we went to war on Wardle was March-April 2014 and the heated exchanges ultimately led to Milanmiracle dropping off our board. I was just too stubborn or stupid to leave and I haven't gotten any smarter in the interim. So if it is now me (less Milan) vs this board--I'm liking my odds.

I hope they get past the first round for their sake and the sake of the MVC.

Every Valley fan is now a Bradley fan and every Bradley fan is now a Wardle fan.

I wasn't on the board in 2014 so forgive me for asking for clarification.  Are you saying you support Wardle?  I don't have the brain power (head cold) so just tell me like it is...

[bbtds]

The other thing this guy should remember is that the HL , in the process of doing NKU a favor and admitting them a year before they were tourney-eligible almost certainly helped prevent VU from getting an at-large bid that year, even though we beat them handily twice. NKU was an absolute RPI anchor that year. If we had been able to replace even one of those two games with a Top 150 opponent, there's a good chance the Crusaders nab the at-large bid we just missed out on.

False. We are kidding ourselves if we really think that the selection committee was letting Valpo into that year's Big Dance.

[bbtds]

I do not admire Wardle

Standing alone has never bothered me so I will reaffirm my support for Wardle and his outdated  methods. The last time we went to war on Wardle was March-April 2014 and the heated exchanges ultimately led to Milanmiracle dropping off our board. I was just too stubborn or stupid to leave and I haven't gotten any smarter in the interim. So if it is now me (less Milan) vs this board--I'm liking my odds.

I hope they get past the first round for their sake and the sake of the MVC.

Every Valley fan is now a Bradley fan and every Bradley fan is now a Wardle fan.

I wasn't on the board in 2014 so forgive me for asking for clarification.  Are you saying you support Wardle?  I don't have the brain power (head cold) so just tell me like it is...

It absolutely killed me to sit right behind the Bradley fans as they won the championship game because the UNI player had a brain fart committed a technical foul allowing the Bradley player to make 4 FT in a row. Wardle and the Braves we're handed that game.