This thread did not have a whole lot of activity, but today marks the Official start of March Madness. Well Sort of. Conference tournaments start later this week.
Seems to be some apathy for March Madness this year. Maybe it will start to rev up this weekend. Tourney Bracket is announced Sunday evening.
Conference tournaments have started. The Big East Tournament has an odd structure. top 4 seeds get two byes. Numbers 5-8 seeds get one bye.
I think the format is pretty good for the Big East. if one of the bottom seeds gets going, it might get them another NCAA berth, not that the tournament needs another Big East team in the tournament.
I’m not apathetic, I’m stoked. My only problem is actually watching the games. The last several years has seen me have children, so once I get home from work, I have to actually, you know…do stuff with them, which of course hampers me watching regular season games, as they always seem to be played on Tuesday or Wednesday nights around 7:00pm, which is right in my finish dinner/do homework/take bath/read stories wheelhouse.
I work every Saturday and most Sundays too, so those games are usually missed as well. I can’t recall a season like this one before where I’ve kept up with my Wildcats more via the internet and highlight blurbs than actually catching the games. I’ve seen two all season, and even those not in their entirety.
I had to make a choice after last season (OK, I was given an ultimatum): Bengals football or UK basketball as “my time” to “ignore my family for awhile”. I love both equally but since Sunday afternoons are more conducive to my schedule, the Bengals won out. I don’t miss any of those games, though my wife may try. Its my final line in the sand of my selfish manhood…
I’ve actually got to the point where I prefer to follow the UK games over the 'net rather than watching or listening to the the live stream. I live in AUS so the only choices are the live video stream, the audio stream and the updates via the 'net. Maybe I’m too bloody old (66) to withstand the stress or I’m too bloody cheap to pay for the extra broadband download. Probably a combo of the two.
The SEC conference tourney is always fun. I love reading about how it’s a ‘sea of blue’ at whatever the conference venue is (was it last year when the tornado hit the dome in Georgia? I was watching the live video stream then.), The Uk fans travel so well, even for football which is a joke at UK. It’s in Nashville this year so it should attract a large UK fan contingent being so close.
Well I’m off to see my beloved UC Irvine Anteaters lose in the Big West Tournament for the, let’s see… 19th year in a row? 19 for me anyway. Since we’ve never won our conference tourney, we’ve never been to the Dance. If we manage to screw things up in an interesting way this year, I’ll report back. Otherwise, you guys enjoy things like rivalries and excitement and winning, and I’ll skulk quietly back to my little world of obscurity, heartbreak and endless disappointment.
skulk… skulk… skulk…
Two years ago. Last year was Tampa, which was notable only for being Billy Gillispie’s Last Stand. Had he not smarted off with the “it’s not my job to be an ambassador” crap, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
The most entertaining parts of the tornado tournament were Dave Baker calling T.G. Shuck at WKYT to talk about the tornado and a few Kentucky fans managing to sneak into an otherwise-empty Georgia Tech arena for Saturday’s game.
UK gets the noon game on Friday this year, which means I will not be getting anything accomplished at work Friday afternoon. Thursday’s slate is highlighted by what should be a pretty good game in South Carolina vs. Alabama and then the three crap games that follow it (LSU-UT, Auburn-Florida and Georgia-Arkansas.)
The good news for the SEC is that the title game is at noon Sunday, which gives the committee plenty of time to adjust the brackets if necessary (for example, if one of the Mississippi schools managed to get the auto bid and sneak in a la Georgia two years ago.)
The latest Bracketology has Vandy getting Murray State in a first-round game, a matchup that I would not want if I were the Commodores. Say what you want about the relative merits of the Racers, but any team that goes 30-4 in the regular season is dangerous. Sure, their closest near-win against a big team was California early in the year when we didn’t know the Pac-10 was crap, but it’s still a close game.
I went to Ga Tech during the [extremely] lean years of Dwayne Morrison. Before Bobby Cremins. GT had just joined the ACC and we weren’t even close to being competitive. The “TIT” was barely occupied for many of the non-acc games when Dwayne Morrison was coaching.
Yep. They’ve moved up the Big XII final too, so that things like OSU winning the tourney in 2004, and not getting the 1 seed they deserved according to the committee because it’s the last game of the day.
Hey, whaddayaknow, UCI out in the first round of the Big West Tournament. This is my surprised face -----> :eek: I’d really like to go to an NCAA Tourney game someday (with a vested interest, that is), but I’m beginning to suspect it may not happen in my lifetime.
All the upsets in the Big East tourney have me wondering, are the better teams over rated or is the parity so pronounced that even the bad teams are better than we think?
Anyway, we get to see how Coach Cal performs in a tournament setting tomorrow. There is a bit of a shadow over his NCAA tourney performance as he’s never taken that last step to a NCAA title despite getting very close. This UK team has not been intimidating this year despite heaps of talent, the invariable hype that accompanies that talent and loads of potential. I would like to see intimidation now.
Dammit, Minnesota! You could’ve waited until like one second left in the half to take your shot, and Purdue would have had a single digit score for the half.
Can anyone justify to me why Duke would get a #1 seed over West Virginia, the BIG EAST Champs? That seems like an absolute crime. The only reason I can think is because of the Duke tradition.
