Hey Dick?!

[Gert T 0]

Seriously, does Dick Vitale not know the math, he'd love to see Creighton & Southern Illinois both in and Butler no matter what, yet still thinks Texas Tech and Colorado should be in too, I mean does he even look who's on the bubble or just think there are 65 at-large bids?

 

I do think both Creighton and Southern Illinois should be in, but I have no sympathy for a team like Butler who lost in the first round of the Horizon League tournament. I mean how many other conferences had a team lose in the first round and still get an at-large. What do you all have the conference breakdown at, here's mine, of course subject to change.

 

SEC-6

Big Ten-6

Big East-6

Pac 10-5

ACC-4

C-USA-4

A 10-3

MWC-2

MVC-2

 

Every other conference one each

 

Also, I had Fresno penciled in as the WAC champ, how about that? There must be some serious violations there if they are declaring themselves ineligible two weeks before the tournament. Oh well they slept with the dogs and they are getting their fleas.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Digger Phelps is just has bad. Wasn't he the one of who said 0-8 on the road Colorado should make the tourney.

[Guest phoenixrising]

I have a question. Do the winners of the conference tournaments get automatic bids regardless of record? Like let's say UCLA stays in eighth place in the Pac-10, and they get to the tournament, their coach remembers to be a coach and stop making cute remarks about getting fired and tanking the team, and managed to not only beat Arizona but win the whole thing? It's a very long shot, but I was wondering what would happen.

[Guest Will Scarlet]

Do the winners of the conference tournaments get automatic bids regardless of record?

 

I am 99% sure they do. It almost never happens, but they do get an automatic bid if they win their tournament. I believe a few years back, a really terrible low major with something like 10 wins managed to run the table in their tournament. They were a 16th seed and lost soon after, but they made the tournament.

 

EDIT: I was thinking of Fairfield who made the tournament in 1997 with an 11-19 record. Ironically, they were no pushovers, and damn near beat No. 1 seeded North Carolina and even had the lead at halftime before falling 82-74.

[Guest ant_7000]

Conference Championship Tourney winners get an automatic bid, but its unlikely that a bad team from a major conference can pull that off because the lower seeds would have to play consecutive games back to back. one year Illinois 98 team was on the bottom of the Big Ten during the regular season and they end up playing in the Conference Championship game (they lost thou because they played 3 games in like 4 days) but if they won that game with a 15-19 record they would've got in.

[Guest Choken One]

Didn't Arkansas pull that off with a 14-16 record by running the table in Conf. Tourny and manage to reach the second round in the Field of 64?

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

The ACC is only putting in 3 teams (Duke, Maryland, Wake Forest) UNLESS one of the other teams wins the ACC Tournament, which is entirely possible considering that each of the top 3 have been beaten by one of the bottom teams this year (Maryland lost to GT and Virginia, Wake lost to Virginia and Duke Lost to FSU), all of which have 9 or more losses in conf. play and are hovering at or below .500 overall. The ACC isn't as good as in previous years, although I think that people will start realizing it this year.

[Guest CanadianChris]

What about the Big 12? Didn't see that in the original list.

 

As for losing a first round tournament game, I think the Butler nonvitation was horrible, almost as bad as Gonzaga dropping to a 6. If it was any of the top 10 conferences, they would've gotten an invitation without a second thought. I read this morning, though, that a few of the mid-major tournaments have been restructured so that the top seeds get byes to the semifinals, so we should see less of that.

 

The only reason Dick Vitale thinks Texas Tech should be in is because of Bob Knight. If Duke was in their spot, he'd say the same thing about them. He always pulls for his buddies.

 

And yes, if you win your conference tournament, you get an automatic bid, regardless of record. If 0-23 North Carolina A&T miraculously won their conference tournament, they'd be in.

[Guest Blackston]

Iowa's won the tournament when they were a serious bubble team (6th in the Big Ten). Last year, they almost did it again from 8th place, before getting beat by the Bucks in the Finals. Even though it is a long shot, this is the great thing about this coming week. Everyones team still has a chance to win the whole thing (except Michigan, and Fresno State). I wouldn't be surprised if one of the teams playing on the first day of the Big Ten Tournament took home the whole thing, considering how rotten the conference has been this season.

[Guest swan]

They should add one more round and invite 128 teams and do away with the post season NIT. That way nobody can bitch. What the hell is one more game when you play 30+ as it is?

[Gert T 0]

I think the 4th ACC will be NC State, because I think they'll win one more game and everyone seems to have a hard on with a winning ACC record never not getting in. But I could see NC State as a 10 or 11 seed. I also think Colorado getting in as a 12 because if they win against OK State ( @ home ) and I believe Nebraska they'll have 19 wins before conference tourney.

[Gert T 0]

Sorry I guess I didn't get the Big 12, I think they'll get 6, with currently Colorado over Texas Tech

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Texas Tech will make it over Colorado if it's between the two teams.

 

They shouldn't add another 64 teams. Teams who don't make it have themselves to blame for not making it.

[Guest cabbageboy]

Well, I don't mind the talk of good conferences getting in 6 teams. What I scoff at is this crap like the Mt. West getting in 4 and the Big East with 6. The Big East should get in Pitt, Cuse, ND, UConn, and maybe Seton Hall if they can keep doing well. This talk of BC is silly.

 

Is it just me or is Arizona a fairly unimpressive #1 ranked team that is 24-2? Sometimes they look dominant and yet some games they seem to just screw off (like vs. Oregon St). I think a team that plays a grinding, physical style will give them all sorts of trouble come tourney time, since that is a style that they see rarely in the run and gun Pac 10. The only team that plays sorta like that is Stanford....and they beat Zona once and lost by 3 the other time.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Lot's of turmoil going on in college hoops. Georgia is in hot water, Harrick for the 3rd time looks like he cheated. St.Bonaventure postponed the rest of the season, and might be kicked out of the A-10. Fresno St. who won the regular season WAC title, banned itself from NIT or NCAA play.

[Guest phoenixrising]

Georgia - Did you hear Harrick's interview with Dickie V? Sounded like he did his best to dodge the questions, and Dickie kinda let him get a way with it because they are friends and fellow coaches. It sounded at least to me that Harrick is being less than forthcoming. I believe Jim Harrick Jr. resigned yesterday, so I wonder if the investigation will keep going or stop with a scapegoat. As for Harrick, the only thing that keeps me from totally unloading on him is because he won the championship with UCLA in 1995. However, he's the epitome of winning by any means necessary. Would you rather play by the rules and lose, or break the rules and win? Interesting dilemma.

 

St. Bonaventure - The A-10 should throw them out and they should disband the entire team. I may be less than kind to losing teams and players in bad games, but in the end I accept that those teams came out and tried their best and just couldn't get it done. Quitting outright pisses me off. So what if you can't make the tournament? At least play for your school or something. I think their scholarships should be rescinded - if they don't want to play for the school, then they sure as hell don't need the free ride through college either.

 

Fresno State - Sucks that the players got the rug pulled out from under them, because Fresno State was a good bet to win the WAC tournament. But someone should have caught this earlier. They dropped the ball.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

This is what I hate most about Vitale. He let's coaches get away with murder. When Harrick was fired by UCLA, it was a outrage and unfair. Forget that Harrick was guilty, he's a coach and Vitales buddy so he's the one being treated unfairly.