March Madness 2022

[Cancer]

I was on campus, but not present at the game, for the last game John Wooden ever lost, 103-81 to Washington in Hec Edmonson Pavilion.  Supposedly Wooden's only comment to his team after the game was, "You see, gentlemen, it can still happen to us."

 

Wooden's UCLA then won eight straight to close out his career and win the NCAA title for the tenth time in his twelve seasons.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Man, that was awful. When the Peacocks finally crashed down to earth, they crashed hard. 

[Pariah]

Meteors do that. But they burn so bright in the process. 

[unclevlad]

17 hours ago, Cancer said:

 

* yawn *

 

Yet another pale imitation of John Wooden

 

Different eras.  Different games.  Basketball was...not quite a rec league activity, but overall it wasn't on anyone's map.  It's what you played in between football and baseball.  Granted:  not everywhere, but quite often.  Realize:  the 1970 Finals game between the Lakers and Knicks was still run on a delayed basis, after the news, in New York.  THAT is how minor it was.  Even as late as 1980, Finals games during the week were still being shown on tape delay in some cases.

 

Several things changed.  Bird vs. Magic in '79, then with the Lakers vs. Celtics Finals series.  Jordan.  Better marketing.  Better image.  The ABA-NBA bidding wars started salary in the early 70's.  MONEY...which also meant that, yes, there were real careers and real money to be made.  That transformed the college game.  Now throw in Jordan and Nike, basketball camps.  More good players everywhere, more good teams.  The 3 point shot catalyzed all the prior developments, and became dominant tactically.  There's a side effect here, tho, a basic truth:  taking a lot of 3's can shoot you in, or shoot you out of a game.

 

Another factor that can't be ignored:  eligibility rules.  Freshmen didn't become eligible until '72.  So there's an entire year where they get no court time.  They're only practicing.  Then, later, as the money grew in the NBA, there were the early exits, players skipping their college years.  The last couple years, the transfer portal, and even more, the extended eligibility.  Teams were far more consistent year over year.  Now?  It's a remake from one year to the next.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't;  sometimes teams gel early, sometimes late.  

 

I think the better comparison to Wooden is probably Bill Self.  He's kept Kansas at the top of a consistently powerful conference, in this era, for what, 15 years now.

 

Wooden was definitely a genius, tho...and yeah, the way everyone fawns over Coach K and anoints him the GOAT...it's disgusting, but it's the way sports is now.  Like with LeBron...ohhhh, he's the GOAT!!!!!  Conveniently forgetting Jordan and Russell.  (One can argue the big fish/small pond case with Russell as well, but in his era, the talent was also concentrated among VERY few teams.)  Recency bias is huge.

[Cancer]

19 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

Recency bias is huge everything.

 

FTFY

[unclevlad]

It's not everything...quite.  Or maybe that's only baseball.

[unclevlad]

One  of the analysts saw how Justin Moore's calf reacted as he went down, late during Nova's win, trying to cut.  Watching sports generally?  One of the scariest phrases we're learning these days is "non-contact injury"...and unfortunately, yes, this was another.  Torn Achilles.  Quite unfortunate for the kid and the team;  it's an injury with a long recovery time, too.

[Pariah]

I entered into a bracket contest with some of the people at my school. At this point, the only people who aren't completely out are the dance teacher and the financial secretary.

 

I finished 21st out of 23 contestants. So, not quite last. Woo-hoo! 

[unclevlad]

I think the best bracket I ever built, ended up in the top 10%.  Or might've stayed in the top 10% through the Elite Eight...it's been quite a while.

 

More commonly, they were a lot closer to complete flameouts.

[unclevlad]

So obviously with only the 1 game left, the ESPN bracket game's sharply narrowed down.  At most a handful...the best score(s) with Carolina winning, the best score(s) with Kansas winning.

 

The best score so far has Kansas winning.  

There are 2 brackets that are only 10 points...a single first round game pick...behind.  They both have Carolina.  Everyone else is at least 10 more points behind.

 

The tiebreaker is picking the score of the final.

One of the two Carolina brackets?    Didn't set a score.  0-0.  For this *trivial* omission....he basically can't win.  Second is BLOODY!!!! impressive, but it's not winning.

Oh, and...yeah, it matters.  Turns out...the best scores at the end of each round, all get entered into a random drawing for a nice, even $100,000.  (Therefore, probably around 10-12, because multiple brackets were tied most after most rounds.  But not very many of em.)  So the guy who has Kansas?  He's in the drawing now.  

 

On yesterday's games...Kansas came out blazing, and Nova just never had an answer on the inside.  Duke...I don't think they ever entirely gelled, or maybe just played tight much of the time.  Lot of similarity to Coach K's last home game.  They started frosh, frosh, soph, soph, junior...and it showed, I thought, in several games.  And Williams in major foul trouble..only played 16 minutes...really hurt.

 

So one more game.  Got to go with Kansas.

[Pariah]

I expect that the Jayhawks can carry on. If not, their title hopes will vanish like dust in the wind. 

[Cancer]

Just hopelessly human, I suppose.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Sadly, as usually happens, all my dogs are out of the fight, and I just don't have any interest in the championship game. Forced to choose I guess I would pick UNC. 

[Pariah]

What.

 

A. 

 

Game.