The Official 2009 NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament Thread!

Brad_Olson

Mosca


Sure, if they beat Louisville we can sit up and take notice. But I can't think of

I guess that question's been answered...
 
Brad

That was one of the worst showings/matchups for a 16 game ever. Remember, Pitt is just squeaking by, and they beat UConn not once, but twice, and soundly both times. Not meaning they'll do it again if the teams meet, but just using it as a yardstick for the relative talent in the field.

What a great finish to the Pitt/Nova game.  Now let's see the Cards do their stuff tomorrow !

Raise your hands high, if you picked Nova in your pool.  Congrats to all two of you!  No, seriously guys and gals.  Congrats to you!  GREAT GREAT PICK!! I hope you win lots of $$$ in your pools.  You deserve it!  

Great game...Best team won.  Their guards...Their foul shooting.... 

Anyone think Blair is going to go pro?  He had a good game, but the free throw misses really hurt.  And in the beginning of the game, Pitt had so much trouble finishing off those close in shots...Whatever

CONGRATS NOVA!!!

Woo, hoo! Great game! EITHER team had enough chances to win, and enough blown chances to lose.

I have a secret... I couldn't lose that one. I'm from Pittsburgh and went to Pitt, but my daughter got accepted to Villanova last week!

Hopefully we'll see more games like this one before the tournament's over.

Without a doubt free throws made the difference.  By my count Pitt missed 4 down the stretch and they turned out to be huge.

I'm dead in my pool and need Louisville and Oklahoma to win tomorrow to at least lessen the hurt, but now I'd like to see Villanova win it all.

Brad

That was a phenomenal game!

And being near Villanova, I guess I had to lean in their direction.

Nice show-stopper ending!

Braad..I'm down with you.  Why not a huge surprise.  It was a great game....

Can you imagine if Pitt would have won the whole thing after the Super Bowl..Combine that with all the positive comments about their foods on this site..It would have been too much in one year.....Just as well
Go Nova!

That game looked like something out of the UFC.I am glad that Nova won.I can't belive the Officals let them play like that,It was more like a NBA game and Prison Ball all in one.

jellybear


That game looked like something out of the UFC.I am glad that Nova won.I can't belive the Officals let them play like that,It was more like a NBA game and Prison Ball all in one.

Yep; waaaay too many fouls called. The refs should have let them play. 

If you've noticed, there's been a concerted effort by the officials to call these games pretty tight.  A ton of fouls called and quite a few technicals for "intent".

I'm glad all these other teams have their fans.  The quite team in this entire conversation is the TarHeels.  It'll be a good game this afternoon for sure.

GO HEELS

Ssssshhhhhh! Don't jinx them,Why do think I've been under the radar?

buffetbuster

I will go with Michigan State, Memphis, Villanova and North Carolina, with the Tarheels winning it all.

Looks like I got three of the Final Four correct. 

BB..Step right up to the buffet table..Congrats to you. 

I started out with the best record I have ever had.  The reason is most all the chalk won..It all caught up to me after the Sweet 16.  My only reach was Siena....You can rarely win this type of thing taking chalk.

I was on top of my pool and now I am near the bottom.  What seems so obvious rarely wins in these things.  Easy come..easy go...

Looking forward to these final games.  Go NOVA

 While I sat home scanning the crowd in Indianapolis to spot these guys, and crying in my beer during the Louisville Loss, 4 of my sons banded together to go to the game itself. Here they are during the pre-game activities.  The only  evaluative comment sent to me after the game was  "It Sucked, but we had a good time"!
 

Hey - Looks like they still had a good time.One guy looks a bit like John Daly...

How about Dem Tar Heels! Nobody here gave them a chance and look what they did to the Sooners !Never,Never count Carolina out.And how many new records did they set yesterday!100 NCAA Appearances !

Jelly Bear..You are absolutely correct!!  You called it..

Congrats...Good luck.

Go Green, go White!

Hey, why not.....

Michigan State beating Louisville didn't surprise me. I watched a much lesser Big 10 team, Minnesota, handily beat Louisville on a neutral court in January so I knew they were vulnerable.

I'm starting to like basketball again. The Big 10, maligned this year as a not so good conference has captured the NIT with Penn State winning and now Michigan State has knocked off its second number 1 seed handily in UConn and will be going to the final dance. Maybe the Big 10 is tougher than thought.

The Big East is not as good as they thought they were. GO HEELS!

GO  HEELS!!!

Jay and Jelly -  The Big East teams played a far more grueling and competitive football basketball schedule amongst themselves.  Witness the NCAA Selection Committee choosing so many of them for the tournament.   They understood what that league was all about.  Kudos to them.

Then Nova plays the best game of the entire tournament (IMHO) and they had nothing left.  The mental and physical strain on these ELITE Big East teams was just too great to overcome in the very late rounds IMHO.

So you guys are under a lot of pressure now..UNC better win Monday against a team that was never expected to get this far. 
So, I congratulate you for getting this far..Jellybear..You were firm in your conviction!  Props to you.  Now let's see if you can close the deal.  Personally, I think you will.  

Tyler looked excellent.  He did a terrific job under the boards..Just terrific! It's gonna be interesting to see how he fares in the pros.   He's very determined and works hard.  Reminds me of some of the old time Celtic forwards, but not as coordinated.  Maybe a Dave Cowens like player?

Good luck Monday guys..... 

Michigan State out-BigEasted U Conn; they played them the same way that Pitt played them in beating them twice this year. They were tough on Tabeet, they scrapped for offensive rebounds and they were efficient on offense. Nice job!

It would have been nice to see 'Nova put up a better fight, or even win, but NC has the breeding. The final game should be good!

Thanks Ben, I really want UNC to play any Big East Team so when they win no one could argue.Carolina is on a mission after losing to Kansas last year. I like your comparison about Dave Cowens He was one of my favorites growing up.

Good luck Jelly Bear..I hope it is a good game like Mosca said.

It will be interesting to see if the Spartans can reach back for one final emotional high.  I think, in order to do that, they must get off to a fast start.  Get the juices going and hope they have enough to close it out.  Personally, I think they will not have enough gas in the tank left.  I like NC to push it out in the second half.  Hope I am wrong.

Well damn, my alma mater (UCONN) is out, bracket is busted, and I hate that they play championship games in the week

Well ya'll still have the Womens Championship to cheer on!

jellybear


Well ya'll still have the Womens Championship to cheer on!

whoopy dee doo!

JellyBear....Jay..CONGRATS

I turned the game off at halftime and watched Diners Drive-Ins and Dives...

Boy, did that game suck!  I mean really suck!  I say the best game was played in the round of 8..Nova and Pitt...I really enjoyed that game as much as any I've ever seen.

Do I think either of those teams would have put on a better performance tonight?  I don't think so this late in the season with all the games they both played.  Carolina has a lot of great players..Big players!  Hats off to them....Their conference over-all is not as good as the Big East IMHO.  But, they are!  That's all that matters....

I just wish we would have had a more competitive game.

I thought Williams had won one while at Kansas, but am mistaken.

Has any coach won at 2 schools?

Basketball and Bar B Que thats what we do best down here!Way to go Tar Heels!!!

douginvirginia


I thought Williams had won one while at Kansas, but am mistaken.

Has any coach won at 2 schools?

Off the top of my head I don't think so.  I think Rick Pitino's taken 3 teams (Providence, Kentucky, Louisville) to the Final Four, though.
 
I wonder if Blake Griffin noted that Ellington, Hansbrough, and Lawson all came back for their senior year.  To me that's the most impressive part of UNC's win.
 
Brad

Thats the way They roll at UNC, A class act all the way.

Is it really?  4 underclassmen wanted to roll right out of Chapel Hill after the '05 championship:

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1090858/
http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/050505aab.html
 
I would be surprised if this wasn't a major factor in the decision of the 3 seniors to stay this year.  But if Roy Williams is able to get his players to buy into the idea of a 4-year commitment then more power to him; to be fair, he inherited a large part of the '05 team.
Brad

Let us not forget it was Michigan State that easily manhandled two number 1 seed Big East teams to save the Big East the embarrassment of losing bigger to North Carolina. One does wonder how North Carolina managed to lose 4 games last season. They were in a class of their own.

Part of the chemistry in basketball are team matchups, their mysteries and the intangibles at play. North Carolina beat Michigan State by a whopping 35 points during the regular season and despite Michigan State's improvements those mis-matchups were still very evident.

That was a real slamma jamma. The biggest suspense was in what the announcers were going to say next to make it seem like there was a chance for State... (with 5 minutes left) "Well, if they can hit a couple quick threes, that will bring it down to 10, and then we might very well have a basketball game here!", as NC steals and scores to make it 18 again.....

Nice win for NC! It was all earned, every step of the way.

Yes Roy inherited a large part of the '05 team...as well as that team's previous 8/20 season.  In looking at their record you'd think he inherited something special.  He was able to coach that 8/20 team to a National Championship...to be fair.

I was at the Dean Dome last night to watch the game with 15,000 of my closes friends.  What an electric situation.  It was just as good as I remember in '05 when I watched the game from the Dome.  Watching the game from our home court is as close to being at the tournament without actually being in Detroit. 

I'm sure it was a boring game to watch on TV from your couch at home...but if you could have been in the Dean Dome you would feel differently. 

Brad_Olson

 
I wonder if Blake Griffin noted that Ellington, Hansbrough, and Lawson all came back for their senior year.  To me that's the most impressive part of UNC's win.
 

Of the group you mentioned, only Hansbrough came back for his senior season.  Danny Green (was the 6th man last year - no real opportunity to go pro) and Bobby Frasor (torn ACL last year - also no reason not to come back) are the other seniors with no more eligibiliity.  Marcus Ginyard would have joined that group, but was hurt this year and will get a redshirt season next year.  Lawson and Ellington are both juniors - and I suspect that one or both of them will go pro this year.  Lawson was ACC Player of the Year AND won a national championship.  He really does have nothing else to prove.  Ellington would likely be drafted higher than Hansbrough in the upcoming draft.

As for Hansbrough, coming back for his senior year was a great story, but....

* What if the injury that slowed him down at the beginning of the season lingered and he was unable to play up to potential and actually DAMAGED his draft status?  Every agent in America would have used him as the poster child for why kids should go pro.
* Hansbrough was never turning down first pick money - and some argue if he was turning down first ROUND money by coming back to school.
* Hansbrough doesn't face the same financial issues a lot of basketball players face when choosing between school and the pros.  He comes from an upper-middle class family and does not appear to ever have lacked for anything.  Many top college prospects literally do need the money to put food on their family's table.

I remember reading a story back in the day that either Chris Weber or Jalen Rose made their decision to go pro when they saw their jersey selling in the school bookstore for more money than they ever could have afforded to pay for it.  They had to scrape together change to go to McDonald's - but, the university made millions of dollars off of their efforts. 

Bottom line.

Yay Heels.

I stand corrected.  I thought I heard someone say that Lawson and Ellington were seniors but obviously I was mistaken...

Brad