NCAA Hoops 2018-2019

aimless talkin a lot of crap for a guy whose team got a covid bye

unless you’re a beavers fan in which case, kudos

all this dumb small sample size theater about “the big ten couldn’t have been good se they keep losing early” is annoying enough to take away from the joy i should feel from ohio state and illinois getting booted

*since they

Baylor Bears are tremendous fun to watch. It's going to be hard not to root for them unless a cinderella team meets them in the final four.

talkin a lot of crap for a guy whose team got a covid bye

(shrugs) A covid bye in the first round is a totally neutral happenstance that reflects nothing on the team that gets it, either good or bad. They'll either survive to advance or not, based on their game play. Now, if the Ducks got a second bye, things would be getting totally out of hand.

I can't believe they won that game

Abilene went 20 for 67 from the field, Texas went 18 for 40. Attempting 27 more shots than the other team doesn't happen a lot in basketball, it's nuts

yes an average shooting performance with that kind of disparity would usually result in a 30 point win

thoughts from today:

Baylor finally looked like Baylor again. every team could use a Mark Vital.

story of the tournament so far: Kevin Obanor (and Max Abmas)

if Loyola plays like they played against Illinois, they can beat everyone but Gonzaga (and maybe Baylor). that was an incredible performance, and Cameron Krutwig is an absolute treat to watch.

Cade is obviously a *very* poised and skilled basketball player, but as a consensus #1 pick, i'm decidedly underwhelmed.

excited for what feels like (but isn't really) bonus hoops on Monday! upset watch: Ohio over Creighton and ... maaaaybe LSU over Michigan?

Cade feels like a guaranteed NBA starter but not at all a surefire allstar

i wouldnt use the tourney to judge that necessarily, his play all year has been unreal.

Attempting 27 more shots than the other team doesn't happen a lot in basketball, it's nuts

― Wayne Grotski (symsymsym), Sunday, March 21, 2021 4:23 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

uconn attempted 24 more than maryland & was p much never truly in the game lmao

everyone always overreacts to the tourney, it’s the nature of the beast

cade is about as close to being a surefire allstar as you can get outside those surefire superstars like zion, brow, kd etc, he single handedly pushed his team into the tourney with a series huge games against quality opponents then got swarmed once he got there, and hes a freshman so i mean most freshman dont even play that good anyway, not sure theres ever been a freshman with his combo of polish and star potential before tbh, like there have been more talented freshman but hes very talented and already so advanced at basketball, and his game/physical talents are just made for the nba

he's an old soul

yeah I guess he's a better shooter than he was in these last couple games, and in the NBA teams won't be able to key in on stopping him if there's other great players on his team. all-star is a high bar is all

theres no guarantee of anything but its not for nothing that hes been the consensus top pick in what is generally considered to be a stacked draft

i wld say if theres one knock on him its that he might not be a true 1A scorer, might not quite have that true bucket getting instinct thats gonna get him into the top 5 scorers, has more of an all around game, cld maybe see a team talking themselves into jalen green over him for that reason, tho i mean cade did put up 40 against a top ten team so idk

re: his shooting, he was a 40% 3pt shooter for the season

his shot was the biggest concern coming out of high school but yeah he was money all year

took difficult off the dribble looks too

i wld say if theres one knock on him its that he might not be a true 1A scorer, might not quite have that true bucket getting instinct thats gonna get him into the top 5 scorers

he was a point guard in high school, he looks to create first. he can take over with his scoring when he wants to, but i think he's better when he works within the flow of the game and doesn't try to force his own shot.

cade is basically what michael porter jr. would've been in college if he didn't get hurt

naw porter is savant shooter and otherwise pretty clueless, cade plays like 7 year nba vet

his playmaking is crazy, watching a 6-8 freshman run the pick and roll like nba point guard is wild

tru, porter doesn't have the mental game, just the ridiculous range and mobility for his size

i admire iowa's dedication to playing absolutely no defense at all

defense is lame

they've pioneered the art of the "reverse close-out," when they move away from the shooter as he puts it up

deep psychological tactic

his playmaking is crazy, watching a 6-8 freshman run the pick and roll like nba point guard is wild

― lag∞n, Monday, March 22, 2021 12:43 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah didn't catch the whole game but he's extremely polished and should be decent right away. doesn't look like a top-end athlete so he might not be a superstar but surely "a pick you can feel good about" halliburton style.

he has good athleticism, absolute top end athleticism is great but its not like you need it to succeed in the nba, as far as physical profile hes pretty much exactly like jayson tatum

the nba has messed with my brain so I keep turning on these games and expecting teams to have unintuitive uniform colors, but, no, they’re pretty much what i’d expect.

Maybe not the best idea to have all 5 players crash the offensive glass? pic.twitter.com/pkYd9gcGwx

— Eric Shapiro (@eric_shap) March 22, 2021

not sure how i feel about this post-pandemic world where west coast basketball is 'good'

Still have to knock out Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and Wisconsin.

The NCAA seeding committee put eight Big 10 teams in the tournament and predicted that five would advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Four of them lost their first game. Three lost their second game. Only Michigan is still alive and they still have to win their second game to advance.

It's not so much that the Big 10 is bad, but they were greatly overrated.

talkin a lot of crap for a guy whose team got a covid bye

whatcha think now?

iowa, purdue, and ohio state losing isn't shocking. illinois losing kinda was.

the big ten was vastly overseeded, especially iowa and their completely shambolic defense, i agree, but i think it is once again a fool's errand to judge an entire conference's quality based on the small sample size of the ncaa tournament.

lemme revise, ohio state losing to oral roberts was shocking, but ohio state losing early was not.

basically all random

there's more parity now than a few decades ago, but "all random" is just plain wrong when you're talking about a game that requires such high levels of skill.

just plain wrong

the concept of 'randomness' is hard for humans to grasp

ok!

there's a lot of luck involved, but it's hardly random

it's not all random, but the sample size is so small that anything can happen. isn't that why we love it so?

it's inevitable that the a conference like the big ten crapping out in the only tournament most people pay attention to will draw some overreactions, and yeah maybe they do deserve to be overreacted to in this case. but you also gotta overreact to rutgers, maryland, and wisconsin outperforming expectations.

it's not all random, but the sample size is so small that anything can happen. isn't that why we love it so?

― voodoo chili, Monday, March 22, 2021 2:56 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

there is a huge degree of randomness in a single elimination tournament this is not that hard to understand, it is in fact the whole reason why march madness is once of the most popular sporting events there is

i was agreeing with you, mostly. i do think that the crowning of a champion is ultimately less random and the teams that wind up winning it all tend to be teams that were very good all year long

i know you were agreeing with me, but qualifying the randomness with a cohort of good teams will tend to beat the cohort of not good teams is what you do when any individual contest has a high degree of randomness

there is a huge degree of randomness in a single elimination tournament this is not that hard to understand, it is in fact the whole reason why march madness is once of the most popular sporting events there is

― lag∞n, Monday, March 22, 2021 2:57 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

tho tbf the shear number of games is also a big part of it