2022-23 Basketball Thread

[unclevlad]

OH MY...it starts EARLY!!!! 

 

Furman hits 2 FTs to cut the lead to 2 with about 10 seconds left.  They trap the ball in the backcourt...the Virginia point guard tries throwing the ball long.  It's picked off with WAY too much time left...about 5 seconds.  Pass, pass, put it up...GOOD!!  

#13 upsets #4...second game of the tournament!!!  

[unclevlad]

And we can't even get through the first session of the first day...

#15 Princeton 59, #2 Arizona 55

 

Another rousing moment for Pac 12 basketball, the conference of champions...Arizona becomes the first team to lose twice, as a #2 seed.

[unclevlad]

I stopped doing brackets a couple years ago, when it became an exercise in dart throwing...blindfolded.  Still interesting to follow the brackets overall.  ESPN tossed in a new feature:

https://www.espn.com/perfect-bracket/2023/mens/11

 

With the first 3 time slots finished up, 12 games, we're already down to under 3200 perfect brackets left...out of over 20 million.  That will probably drop to well under 2000, even if Houston, UCLA, and Tennessee all win.  The other game is a 7-10;  the votes there are gonna be pretty evenly split.  And if we get a 3rd big upset, well, it'll probably drop to 3 digits.

 

EDIT:  as the night winds down, it looks like the number of perfect brackets will be 658.  Which is still, actually, a lot more than the last couple years.  There were 2 big upsets, but there've been more.  No 12 over 5 or 11 over 6 so far.

[unclevlad]

What does it sound like when a million cats simultaneously decide to sharpen their claws on a million slate boards?

 

That's still less cacophonous than what just happened.

 

#16 Fairleigh Dickinson University 63
#1 Purdue 58

Second time a 16 has beaten a 1.  First time a team from the Northeast Conference has won a game in the tournament...they were 0-31.
Side effect:  there were 22 perfect brackets before this result.  There are now 0.  Purdue was a 23 point favorite.  If you bet $10 on FDU, you just made $200. 

Purdue coach Matt Painter is going to get raked over the coals, and deservedly so.  Purdue's game plan was a disaster.  They have the single most dominant player in Zach Edy...7'4.  They either can't, or won't, get him the ball NEARLY enough.  Instead, they shoot an ABYSMAL 5 of 26 from 3.

 

EDIT:  Gonzaga's opened out to a 20 point lead against Grand Canyon, game in Denver.  They had the FDU-Purdue game on the big screen.  Crowd goes CRAZY watching the game on the screen.

EDIT 2:  Oh yeah.  FDU *did not* win their conference tournament.  They lost in the finals to Merrimack.  BUT, Merrimack was ineligible...they moved up from Division II.  The infinite wisdom of the NCAA Powers That Be mandate the program must then sit out for 4 years before they're allowed to compete.  This is year 4.  

[unclevlad]

BOOM!!!!!  Arkansas picks it up in the second half to knock off #1 Kansas.  

 

Most brackets are now totally splintered.

[unclevlad]

UNC center Armando Bacot has announced he's returning for a 5th season.

 

In itself, that's not terribly significant.  The Athletic points out, tho, the reasoning is.  Bacot is a 6'11", low-post center.  The NBA doesn't like low-post centers.  He was not forecasted to be picked in the draft *at all.*  Play overseas somewhere?  Probably.

 

But today?  He was reported to make about $500K in NIL money this year...and is expected to make around $1M next year.  And that's where the entire college basketball landscape may change...sooner, rather than later.  The NBA draft is only 2 rounds long, and it's for both college and international players.  That's not much, but remember, the roster turnover isn't that high year to year, and the churn is among the last few roster spots, plus injury-based roster slots.  And that pool covers actually much of the 2nd round picks, and of course, covers multiple years' worth of college players.  In many cases, they're looking at the G-League, or playing overseas.

 

Well, if you can pull down fairly good NIL money instead...you have to consider it, if your draft chances just aren't that good.  Especially given that the NBA is considering dropping the minimum age to enter the league, which will mean several more draft slots will go to the kiddy corps.  AND with the insane anarchy that is the transfer portal right now.

[unclevlad]

And that sound rumbling from horizon to horizon was the complete, utter demolition of the tournament bracket.

 

Both Alabama and Houston lose, meaning NO #1 seed will reach the Elite 8.  First time this has happened...almost certainly not the last, tho.  On the ESPN bracket leaderboard, it really shows.  Of the top 18, which range from 770 (out of 880 at this point) to 710, 10 of them will plummet...as their national champ pick is already out.  This includes the solo #1, the solo #2, one of the 2 tied for 3rd, and 3 of the 4 tied for 5th, plus 4 of the 9 tied for 9th.  And several of these will fall back after the last 2 games of the evening.  And overall, if you have 600 and in the SportsCenter group, which has 700,000+ entries...only 0.1% of the brackets are BETTER than yours.

 

So far, the Elite Eight matchups by seed:
 3 vs 9

3 vs 4

5 vs (6 or 15)

(2 or 3) vs 5

 

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

It was a beautiful thing. All of the traditional powerhouses are gone.

 

Or does Gonzaga count? 

[unclevlad]

Gonzaga and UConn.  

Firsts: 

first team from Mountain West (SD State...UNLV wasn't in the conference in their heyday)

Creighton's first time this deep

 

Rare:

first Conference USA team this deep since 2008

only 3 teams from Power 5 conferences...Big 12 2, ACC 1;  Big East 2, MWC, WCC, and C-USA.  

 

The Big 10 and Pac 12 both fall short...again.  Pac 12 goes 3-4, Big 10 goes 6-8, including the fiasco of a #1 losing to a #16.  The records alone are always a bit misleading;  Big 10 had 6 teams seeded between 7 and 10.  Lots of first round tossups there.  Pac 12 had a pair of #2s.  I don't have the energy to do the work, but I'd love to see a metric:  count the number of games won by each seed line...#3 seeds have 9 so far, for example.  Divide by 4.  Do this for, let's say, every year for the last 10 years, discounting any funky pandemic years.  Don't want to go TOO far back, as there've been so many changes in that time.  What you get is an expected number of wins for a team, given their seed.  THAT lets you compute each conference's expected number of wins...and that could be used for a determination of over- or under-valued conferences.

[unclevlad]

One probably wouldn't call K-State a traditional powerhouse, but they have been a solid program over the years, and 10 tournament appearances since 2008, including Elite Eight runs in '10 and '18.  OTOH, of course, you know what we say about the FAU Owls....

 

 

WHHHOOOOOOO...............?

 

79-76 FAU....

[unclevlad]

Insane.  

 

NO team seeded 1, 2, or 3 makes the Final Four.

 

Not one...not two...but *3* first time schools in the Final Four.  Miami, FAU, and San Diego State.  SDSU is the first team ever from the Mountain West;  FAU is C-USA, which has been one of the revolving-door conferences...17 schools have left the conference for others, in just the last 20 years.

[unclevlad]

Elsewhere, I'm sure all you Kyrie Irving fans are delighted to know that the Mavs have nicely nosedived.

 

They were 29-26 before the trade.  Since, they've gone 7-13.  They won the first game with Kyrie, which put them into a tie for 4th.  They're now 11th, after losing back to back games against Charlotte...the team with the 4th worst record in the league.  With 7 games left, 2 of them are against teams firmly in the playoffs, 4 more are against Eastern Conference teams that are 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th...which means they're all hungry for wins, and the East has a winning record against the West.  

 

Admittedly, the West has been so incredibly tight that they're still only 3 out of 6th, but time and opportunity are running out.  

 

Killer article here:
https://www.basketballnetwork.net/latest-news/the-luka-doncic-and-kyrie-irving-experience-has-been-a-disaster-for-the-dallas-mavericks-thus-far

 

This was written after Friday night's loss, but before today's loss to Charlotte.  

[unclevlad]

Tidbit from the NIT final broadcast.

 

Tickets for the women's final four (Friday-Sunday) are reportedly going for 3x the cost of tickets to the men's final four.  Two influencing factors:

 

--Venue.  Men are playing in NRG Stadium, the home of the Texans.  Yes, a football stadium.  The seating chart shows the mid-court line will be on the 50 yard line, and the entire stadium seating area will be used.  That means, tho, there's lots of Binoculars Highly Recommended seats.  The women are playing in the American Airlines Center in Dallas, home of the Stars and Mavs, and built for basketball.  Also:  71,000 seats, versus 20,000.

--Teams involved.  South Carolina is the undefeated defending champ;  Iowa has possibly a generational talent.  Va Tech is another #1 seed, and LSU has, IIRC, a fairly strong recent history in women's basketball.  The men's side...I'd figure UConn to be a good draw, and Miami to be a decent draw...I say that mostly because they had to be long shots.  FAU and SDSU?  They're both bolts out of the blue.  

 

Personally, I hate having the Final Four in a football stadium.  WEIRD sight lines, bad backdrops, bad for most fans trying to watch.  But they can sell a load of tickets.  Through 2030, they're all in football stadia.  NFL facilities...the homes of the Cardinals, Colts (twice), Lions, Raiders, and Cowboys.  And once in the Alamodome;  San Antonio doesn't have an NFL team, but it's the football home of UTSA.  Still 63,000 seats.  To me, it's important to note that the Spurs ditched the Alamodome due to its oversize nature, and NO NBA team plays in one;  they were, I'm pretty sure, the last ones.

 

  

[unclevlad]

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat...

 

FAU plays a great first half;  SDSU claws back in the 2nd.

 

FAU is up 1, misses a shot with about 6-7 seconds.  SDSU grabs the board, doesn't call TO, works it down...semi-disorganized...but get a turnaround wing 10 footer.....SWISH!!!! as the clock expires as the ball is in the air.

[unclevlad]

UConn builds a big first half lead, withstands a rugged run by SDSU who can't get closer than 8, then stretches it out at the end.

 

76-59.

 

An amusing aspect, in the ESPN brackets...it came down to the tie breaker.  The best bracket before the final had SDSU;  had they won, it was gonna be the champ.  There were 2 UConn brackets that were the best score there, so it was gonna be the tiebreaker...final score.  One had it 79-71, the other 78-56.  So an 8 point spread for one, 22 for the other.

 

If SDSU had hit a 2 at the end...it would've been 15, to split the difference.

Mind, that part of things means nothing...there's no prize, just bragging rights.  Anyone who picked UConn got an entry into a prize drawing, but that's several thousand people.

 

5th title in less than 25 years.  More than anyone else in that time frame.

[unclevlad]

Oh, how droll....

 

Going into the games last night, Dallas was a game back of OKC...but OKC had the tie breaker.  So, Dallas had to win both, OKC lose both.

 

Chicago comes into Dallas.  Before the game even starts, Dallas announces Kyrie and 4 other key players...won't play.  For precautionary reasons.  Doncic plays the first quarter plus a bit...then sits out the rest of the game.  Bulls may have been sitting players too...but they're basically locked into their slot in the play-in, so it doesn't matter.

 

Bulls win by 3.  OKC lost too...but Mavs are still eliminated.

 

To spice this up, Dallas traded a top-10-protected pick to the Knicks.  What this means:  if that pick would be in the top 10, it's deferred until next season.  

 

Dallas and Chicago were both tied for the 10th pick going into the game.  Dallas is now #10 all alone, and if they lose again...and they've already said they're sitting players out against San Antonio.

 

The league is now investigating the Mavs for tanking...which Mark Cuban's done before.

[Pariah]

Minnesota gave up five players and five draft picks to get Rudy Gobert, and now he won't be available for their play-in game.

 

Rudy Gobert suspended by Timberwolves, won't play vs. Lakers in play-in game

 

Danny Ainge looks like a freakin' mastermind at this point. 

[unclevlad]

But The Athletic pointed out, this is the 7-8 game, so the loser has the 2nd chance.  

 

I'll grant, tho, that Ainge won the trade.  It's weird, in that SO MUCH of it is so far into the future...the draft picks include picks in 27 and 29.  But the T'wolves couldn't make the playoffs, so spending that much counts as a flat-out loss, IMO.  And they won 4 fewer games this year with Gobert.  Subtraction by addition?  The examples this season of that, and addition by subtraction, are pretty strong this year.

 

 

[Pariah]

The strongest example of subtraction by addition this season is, of course, Kyrie Irving.

 

To the surprise of almost exactly nobody, except possibly Dallas.

[unclevlad]

For this season, yes.  No contest.  Cuz Westbrook joined the Lakers last season.

 

Yeah, it's fair to say that Kyrie to Dallas was about as successful a move as Russell to Denver.....

[unclevlad]

So last night it was the T'wolves;  tonight it's the Raptors.

 

T'wolves just fell apart...12 points in the 4th quarter, despite the Lakers playing pretty badly on offense themselves.  And, note that 3 of the 12 tied the game with 0.1 seconds left, because of a reckless closeout by Antonio Davis, who fouled Mike Conley.  (The first FT hit the front of the rim and *crawled* over, just to add another touch of drama.)  And Clutch Points noted that they took no shot within 22 feet...in the last 8 minutes.  No focus, no plan, no adjustments, just meltdown.  That's been the criticism all year, and having 2 players go Seriously STUPID to take them out of this game, is all the support we need.

 

Tonight?  Raptors up 19 at one point.  Up 12 in the 4th.  AT HOME.  Knock brought up against both teams was shooting...well, Raptors shoot 18-36 on FTs.  Poor FT shooting would be 25-36. 

Instead, they lose by 4.  They're toast.  T'wolves have a chance to redeem;  OKC is finishing off New Orleans...which means both 10 seeds have won...so they travel to Minnesota.  If the T'wolves fail this test, then there I suspect there will be numerous players getting bounced.  Coach, maybe, but my feeling is players.  The team culture is a serious problem.  

[unclevlad]

Mavs get fined $750K for the blatant tanking.

 

Slap on the wrist.  With a wet noodle.  I'll grant that tanking's a big problem, but if you can't start with this EGREGIOUS offense, then...when?

 

Hoping for OKC to keep their rally going...which is quite the surprise given the debacle they've been recently.  And the T'wolves...man, they don't deserve to advance.  Bulls vs. Heat...don't care.  Don't expect much from this one.  Who knows, if there's a decent baseball game on, I may watch that.  

[Pariah]

Warriors' Draymond Green requests ankle X-rays after controversial play with Domantas Sabonis

[unclevlad]

I'm hoping Green gets suspended for 2 games for that act.

[Pariah]

Draymond Green apologists bug me. I just read an article on CBS Sports about how the suspension is wrongly punishing fans as much as Green.

 

Blegh.