2023 NCAA Tournament

[Jojogunne]

Starting a thread for NCAAT discussion. Our good friend Jay Wright is one of the studio analysts on CBS:

https://www.inquirer.com/college-sports ... 30312.html

[EvanJ]

Our good friend Jay Wright is one of the studio analysts on CBS

We were not in the bracket, but by him saying one of his former teams, we were the first team named.

12 seed Charleston will play 5 seed San Diego State in Orlando. When 5 seed San Diego State was announced, I said I did not want Charleston to be their opponent because I wanted Charleston to play in Des Moines so I could go, and because I did not want Charleston to play another team outside the Power Five and Big East. Then Charleston was announced. 8 seed Memphis against 9 seed Florida Atlantic is another game between great teams outside the Power Five and Big East. San Diego State is in the Mountain West, which got the most bids of the six western conferences. The Mountain West got 4 teams, and the Pac-12 got 3 teams.

All of you are invited to me dad's NCAA Tournament pool. It costs $10, and you can make more than one bracket. It pays 60 percent for first, 30 percent for second, and 10 percent for third. I will e-mail anybody who wants the instructions. You can pay on PayPal or through the mail. You can submit your bracket as a PDF or through the mail, and if it is through the mail, it must arrive by Friday. I will tell you my address if necessary, but I am assuming people want to pay and submit online. You will get score e-mails after the Second Round, Regional Finals, and Championship. If you want, I will e-mail you attaching a PDF of all the brackets sorted by score at that time. I will post basics here like how I am doing, and how many brackets there are.

You can join at https://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-cha ... pID=707314 and the password is flyingdf.

[Wags]

It feels like Maryland hasn't scored since the Big Ten tournament.

13-4, West Virginia at the U12 after trailing 4-2.

[Wags]

Stan Van Gundy is a good addition for the tournament but it may take me a while to not instinctively think of Cleveland instead of Virginia when he mentions the Cavaliers.

[EvanJ]

4 seed Virginia got trapped in their own corner, threw a long pass that was intercepted, and Furman made a three with 2.4 seconds left to win 68-67. I am happy because I have 5 seed San Diego State beating Virginia. 15 seed Princeton took their only lead with 2:03 left and ended on a 9-0 run to beat Arizona 59-55. I am happy because I picked Alabama to win the Tournament, and now the 2 seed in their region is out. 1 seed Kansas was tied with Howard until Kansas made free throws with 4:57 left in the first half, and Kansas pulled away to win 96-68, which is the greatest margin of victory so far. 12 seed Oral Roberts was the only team to go undefeated in their conference, but they lost 74-51 to 5 seed Duke. 1 seed Houston is off to a slow start offensively and trails Northern Kentucky 14-13. I am rooting against Houston because I have Texas, who is the 2 seed in that region, losing the National Final.

ESPN has 3,167 perfect brackets of 20,056,273.

President Biden is not president of the best brackets because he picked Arizona to win the Tournament.

[Wags]

Coach Farrelly’s old team and current team will still be playing basketball on Saturday with Penn State advancing in the NCAA tournament tonight.

[triplec2195]

So UCONN blows out Iona 87-63 today. Is this the swan song for Rick Pitino at Iona? Is he on his way to Jamaica to coach St Johns. Also FDU as a 16 seed hanging tough at least in the first half only down by 1 to Purdue with 7 minutes left in the half.

[EvanJ]

So UCONN blows out Iona 87-63 today.

Iona led 39-37 at halftime, and UConn over doubled Iona in the second half.

Penn State's win by 17 scares me because I hope they don't beat Texas tomorrow. Beating a 7 seed by 17 is more impressive than Texas beating a 15 seed by 20. I picked Texas to lose the National Final.

Purdue trailed early and now leads Fairleigh Dickinson 24-22. I picked Purdue to lose a National Semifinal.

The day games took long enough to slightly delay the night game between Providence and Kentucky, and the last day game ended after the first night game started.

I have 18 of 24 right, and I am in the 84th percentile on ESPN. ESPN has 22 perfect brackets out of 20,056,273. 1 in 911,649 brackets are perfect.

Edit: Fairleigh Dickinson defeated Purdue 63-58. It is the second time a 16 seed beat a 1, and the second time in the last five tournaments. In the Round of 64 before this game, the Northeast Conference was 0-31, and Fairleigh Dickinson was 0-5. The Northeast Conference was last in the Conference NET, and I am assuming it is the first conference ever to get to Selection Sunday with all of its teams in the 300s. Fairleigh Dickinson was tied for second in the Northeast behind Merrimack, who is in their four seasons of NCAA Tournament ineligible when a team moves up to Division I. In the NET through Selection Sunday, Fairleigh Dickinson was 301st of 363. Purdue's problem was shooting threes 5-26. Purdue's last two NCAA Tournament games were losses to a 15 seed and a 16 seed, and I am assuming they are the only team to have consecutive NCAA Tournament games be losses to seeds 15 or 16. I picked Purdue to do their seed expectation and lose in the National Semifinal. Now I have to root against Marquette, the 2 seed in that bracket. Fairleigh Dickinson's win was the 25th Round of 64 game, and the game that made ESPN have no perfect brackets out of 20,056,273. I wonder what the average amount of games it takes to have no perfect brackets is. Purdue and Arizona combined to get 12.8 percent (over 1/8th) of picks to win the Tournament, and they lost in the First Round.

[stuball888]

Wow biggest upset in NCAA history

[EvanJ]

Fairleigh Dickinson lost to Hartford, who had the worst NET of 363 teams on Selection Sunday. Fairleigh Dickinson's arena seats 2,000. I wonder if it is the smallest arena for a team that won an NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game.

I did not have any correct picks of a double-digit seed, and I am still in ESPN's 88th percentile. ESPN's fans of Hofstra group has 263 brackets. 52 (19.8 percent) have their champion eliminated. That includes brackets that picked most or all worse seeds, including one that picked Fairleigh Dickinson to win the Tournament.

In Albany, they are going to finish at about 1:00 A.M. I read that the NCAA lets media stay for four hours after the end of mandatory press conferences, so the four hours could end after 6:00 A.M., and then the arena has to be available for practices tomorrow afternoon.

During out NIT game, I will root for 5 seed San Diego State over 13 seed Furman.

[Wags]

Wow biggest upset in NCAA history

Even against 14-20 Texas Southern, they were considered "16b" not "16a" so yeah, it may be - especially considering that they weren't even supposed to be there after losing to Merrimack (who was ineligible for the NCAAT) in the NEC final. NC State-Houston, Nova-Georgetown, many others, and this was a weak 1 seed (I had Memphis beating Purdue in my bracket), but given what I said before, I think I have to agree that this may very well be the greatest upset ever.

It was literally David taking down Goliath. They are the smallest team in the nation and somehow Zach Edey, at 7-4, 305, did not get a FGA (and only 3 FTA) over the final 9:24. Just brilliant coaching and incredible belief and hate to say it because I like him and feel bad for him with Purdue vs. small NJ schools two straight years now, but that is a really bad job by Matt Painter. How can you not find a way to not get Edey a shot over that long of a stretch to close it and really, to not exploit that huge size mismatch all game long?

Best sporting event in the world. Period.

[triplec2195]

When I looked at this matchup I said to myself why bother FD is going to get blown out by 40 but I watched the 1st half score still thought they would be blown out in the 2nd half. Like has been said the BIGGEST upset of all time in the NCAA tourney and by all accounts FD didn't even belong there after losing to Merrimack. FD must have watched a lot of the ST Peters highlights from last year and totally bought in. A real embarrassment for Purdue.

[stuball888]

Their NET was I believe 301

[Wags]

When I looked at this matchup I said to myself why bother FD is going to get blown out by 40 but I watched the 1st half score still thought they would be blown out in the 2nd half. Like has been said the BIGGEST upset of all time in the NCAA tourney and by all accounts FD didn't even belong there after losing to Merrimack. FD must have watched a lot of the ST Peters highlights from last year and totally bought in. A real embarrassment for Purdue.

FDU came out and was up, 19-13. Didn't shock me because I knew FDU would have great belief and that Tobin Anderson really meant it when he told his team after they beat Texas Southern, the more he watched Purdue on film (maybe you're right, maybe that included highlights of SPU vs. Purdue last year) the more he felt they could beat them. And I also thought Purdue was a weak 1 seed and would lose to Memphis (or FAU).

But when Purdue scored the next 11 and went up 24-19, I thought (probably like most), "That was nice while it lasted, but now Purdue will take control." I thought they'd lead by about eight at the half and win by 14-15. Not blow out FDU, but take control and win fairly comfortably with FDU putting up a good fight.

However, when FDU fought back from 24-19 and actually took the lead at the half, at 32-31, I was thinking, "Wow, this looks like SPU vs. Purdue again and FDU may really not go away in the second half." And sure enough, they kept hanging around as the second half wore on. And when that happens in a matchup like that, the underdog is playing as loose as can be and the favorite - and we saw it from Purdue last night - was playing as tight as a drum and completely felt the pressure over the last 8-9 minutes or so.

I figured going against the smallest team in the nation, there was no way that Edey wouldn't get like 35 & 22. For him to get 21 &15 (good usually) against THAT team, with that kind of size advantage, was a bad game. But it was also a terrible approach from Purdue. How do they not exploit that size advantage? Yes, FDU was surrounding him and making others beat them, but they HAD to find a way to get him the ball more. He took 11 shots (made 7) while three other starters took 10 each and bricked a lot of them. He should have had at least half of those 41 total shots from among those four. And for him, with his size, going against FDU and its size, to get NO shots over the final 9:24 was a great testament to FDU's preparation, belief, and end execution, but also terrible coaching and an awful approach by Purdue. That was probably the most shocking thing of all in that game, which now be historic forever more.

[Polito]

FDU has a FIRST YEAR HC and a roster built with D2 players. And just beat a team on the biggest college hoops stage that waxed HU by 19. Incredible feat, kudos to them.

Kansas State also with a FIRST YEAR HC, super 1 yr turnaround, darling all year long, and hot pick in the NCAAT. P5 example, but NOT a blue blood by any stretch of the imagination.

I don't want to hear anymore all the excuse making for new coaching staffs and how long it takes to build a winner and how we can't expect winning at a high level and blah blah blah. It absolutely can be done. It IS being done. It HAS been done. And it WILL be done more in the future. I expect Speedy and HU to make the NCAAT in 3 years. Not outrageous one bit. That's what we should ALL expect, including this admin.

First 2 years for Speedy and HU have been good. 20 win seasons. A regular season champ and an NIT. BUT that's not "great". The CAA stinks. HU isn't doing some amazing thing that no one else is like many try to claim. Matter of fact, there are others doing more, at all levels.

So next year he needs to dance. Period. I don't care who comes back or doesn't. It's dance or bust in 3 years in todays market if you want to be considered top flight / doing big things at any level. Otherwise, you're like all the rest.

[Jojogunne]

Another huge win for Princeton today, taking down Mizzou after upsetting Arizona.

[Wags]

Another huge win for Princeton today, taking down Mizzou after upsetting Arizona.

The Rounds of 64 and 32 are really 16 "mini-Final Fours" (four per region) to end up with the Sweet 16.

If you look at it like that, Princeton, by FAR should have been the worst team in their own "mini-Final Four" with them, Arizona, Missouri, and Utah State. And yet, they won it.

[triplec2195]

Maybe HU could learn something from this Princeton team that we beat early in this basketball season. They seem to be tough on the boards for a mid major and have competed with the so called BIG BAD BOYS!! lOVE TO SEE A team like Princeton go for a run in the NCAA'S.

[EvanJ]

I am up to 98.6th percentile on ESPN. If the better seeds win today (except for Florida Atlantic vs. Fairleigh Dickinson where it doesn't matter), I will have sole possession of first of 263 people in ESPN's Fans of Hofstra group. The groups also provide a way of comparing how many fans teams have. Fans of Duke has 29,767, which is 113 times as many as us.

Edit: I got 10 games right in the Second Round. My percentile peaked at 99.2, and is now 96.8. I am tied for 12th of 263 in ESPN's Fans of Hofstra group. https://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-cha ... D=74047679 is my bracket.

The games are late, so I am happy that the Sweet Sixteen start times are earlier than last year. The earlier doubleheader was moved up from 7:09 P.M. to 6:30 P.M., and the later doubleheader was moved up from 7:29 P.M. to 7:15 P.M. The remaining games will be on CBS or TBS. Here is the schedule:

Thursday March 23:
7 Michigan State vs. 3 Kansas State at 6:30 P.M. at MSG on TBS
8 Arkansas vs. 4 UConn at 7:15 P.M. at Las Vegas on CBS
9 Florida Atlantic vs. 4 Tennessee at 9:00 P.M. at MSG on TBS*
3 Gonzaga vs. 2 UCLA at 9:45 P.M. at Las Vegas on CBS

Friday March 24:
5 San Diego State vs. 1 Alabama at 6:30 P.M. at Louisville on TBS
5 Miami vs. 1 Houston at 7:15 P.M. at Kansas City on CBS
15 Princeton vs. 6 Creighton at 9:00 P.M. at Louisville on TBS
3 Xavier vs. 2 Texas at 9:45 P.M. at Kansas City on CBS

* The second games of doubleheaders have start times announced two-and-a-half hours after the first game, but those games normally start at least fifteen minutes than that, so my guesses for start times are 9:15 P.M. and 10:00 P.M.

There will not be any 1 vs. 4 games. I picked an Elite Eight of all 1s and 2s, so I can get four games right. When you cannot get a game right before it starts, you want the team picked by fewer people to win. That makes me root for Michigan State (7.9% percent compared to 20.4% for Kansas State), Arkansas (picked by 4.8% compared to 23.2% for UConn), Florida Atlantic (1.8% compared to 19.0% for Tennessee), and Princeton (1.2% compared to 12.2% for Creighton). In addition, some people who picked Florida Atlantic and/or Princeton to win in the Swet Sixteen made intentionally bad brackets and have no chance at finishing above me. In the least important games for my bracket, I want to see Florida Atlantic win because they only have 3 losses, and Princeton to win because we beat them.

[triplec2195]

Just looked over the box score of the MSU game versus Kansas State saw that former NE guard Tyson Walker played 41 minutes and had 16 points 6-16 5 assists and only 3 turnovers. He has played really well for Michigan State. On the other hand our former player Iyiola played 2 minutes for Kansas State no points 1 turnover and 1 foul. He averaged 3.5 points a game playing 11 minutes.