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NCAA Basketball Tournament Thread

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Just figured I'd bring this thread up to the top of the page before the games today.

 

Anyway, while I'd like to see an All-Big Ten final, I really don't see Carolina losing today. However, I'm almost certain that they'll lose to the winner of the Illinois/Louisville game. Illinois has been the best all-around team in the country all year, and Louisville's on the biggest hot streak of any tournament team in years.

 

Going with an ultimate prediction, I'd still have to say it's going to be Illinois over North Carolina, because I think that Illinois really regained a lot of their aura against Arizona, and should be going back to their incredible play from earlier in the year. And when the best team in the country's playing at the peak of their game, they're pretty damn hard to defeat. As for Carolina, they'll make it past MSU who's already overachieved to get to this point, but they don't play together as a team well enough to beat the Illini.

 

More predictions?

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Unless Louisville has another comeback in them, looks like Illinois is going to the championship game

 

Fuck

 

EDIT: And again, fuck

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Ok, after that great performance by Illinois, I'm only two games away. The tough one's going to be getting the Spartans to win tonight, as I really don't see Illinois losing on Monday no matter what.

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Michigan State has to start playing shut-down defense right now if they want to come back. If they keep letting May shoot eight footers at will, it won't matter how many threes they hit.

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Damnit. As a Duke fan, now I'm going to have to go to school Monday and here all about this shit. I hope the Illini just straight shuts UNC down. (although that probaly won't happen)

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Since they started seeding teams in 1979, this is only the fourth time two #1 seeds have played for the title (North Carolina/Georgetown '82, North Carolina/Michigan '93, UConn/Duke '99). So it's quite an "upset" that the two favorites made it to the final.

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Well, we certainly did stink up the joint tonight. I'll give Illinois credit, they are easily the best team U of L has played this year. It was so frustrating watching it because Pitino stayed in that damn zone WAY too long (you'd think that WVU game would have taught him something). Hung around until about 10 mins left, down 1, and then finally Illinois figured out the zone and killed us, then by the time we finally got out of it, we were screwed. Also didn't help that Garcia was a complete disaster tonight, going for just 4 pts. in the biggest game of his life. I honestly don't know how he can go pro after such an embarrassing outing.

 

UNC handled MSU tonight about like most figured they would. I really wish UK had been there, at least I might have cared about that game then.

 

It was so strange, this week I wasn't all that enthused about U of L being in the FF and playing Illinois. It was kinda like our big epic climax was the WVU game and really I was emotionally kaput. Tonight's game was something I watched mostly out of duty really, I wasn't really nervous or excited. I wonder if the players felt the same way, as in it was awesome to GET there but once there it was....impossible.

 

But hey, I'll take going 33-5 and finishing #3 in the nation. I'm not sure if I want Garcia to come back or not for his final year (he's stated he's going pro). On one hand he'll be insane next year wanted to atone for this crap tonight, but what if he keeps coming up small against top level teams?

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But hey, I'll take going 33-5 and finishing #3 in the nation. I'm not sure if I want Garcia to come back or not for his final year (he's stated he's going pro). On one hand he'll be insane next year wanted to atone for this crap tonight, but what if he keeps coming up small against top level teams?

He's only going pro b/c he has a very bad family situation and needs the money. Coach told him to go.

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Guest TheDon

I have a little rumor for all of you. Back in 2003 I knew this girl from the bronx and I happened to have a NY Daily Newspaper somewhere around my bedroom. I believe Garcia was on it and she bragged about taking the SAT"s for him. I really didn't believe her at the time but after listening to him during Interviews, I would have put it past someone taking the SAT's for him.

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Since they started seeding teams in 1979, this is only the fourth time two #1 seeds have played for the title (North Carolina/Georgetown '82, North Carolina/Michigan '93, UConn/Duke '99). So it's quite an "upset" that the two favorites made it to the final.

Three very memorable games

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If Illinois and UNC both play up to their potential this game could be epic. Illinois really impressed me with the win over Arizona and I've been following Carolina since McCants and May were freshman and know what their capable of as well

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Pretty much every part of me is saying Illinois should win this tomorrow. They are much tougher than UNC mentally. Last night was like pounding my head against a wall, I swear. U of L would go down, miss a shot, then they would simply hit a 3. This happened seemingly 5 times when we were quite close. They had an answer EVERY time. UNC might have better talent but I dunno. The only thing that keeps me from saying Illinois 100% is the whole "Teams with 1 loss never win it all" thing.

 

As far as Garcia goes, believe me everyone in Louisville knows about his family situation and what not. It's a tough decision really because he BADLY needs his senior year to get better, the guy is simply not ready for the NBA. Just get in his face defensively and he'll go in the tank, bump him off screens, etc. In the paper this morning it said that he was reconsidering going pro and was going to test the waters (not hire an agent) and if he was below top 20 then he'd come back but if he was in the top 20 he'd go pro.

 

If he comes back I think U of L has to be the favorite to win it all next year. If not, well, just another setback on the way to world domination, haha.

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Guest Vitamin X
Since they started seeding teams in 1979, this is only the fourth time two #1 seeds have played for the title (North Carolina/Georgetown '82, North Carolina/Michigan '93, UConn/Duke '99). So it's quite an "upset" that the two favorites made it to the final.

AWESOME fucking game.

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For anyone who cares about the women's side (all three of you), for the first time in five years there'll be a final without either UConn or Tennessee

 

Also, why'd they move the women's FF and championship from Fri/Sun to Sun/Tue? Are they seriously attempting to eclipse the men's tourney?

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Guest Agent of Oblivion

I could hit threes consistently behind that line...

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My mom tried to tell me the other day that an All-Star women's team could beat an average men's team. I just laughed at her.

An all-star women's team wouldn't even beat a lot of high-school boys' teams. If you ever watch the women's game, it's just so unathletic. No one can jump or run the floor. All they do is work the ball around and jack up jumpers or use crappy post moves that would never work on a man.

 

Two telling things on the women's game:

 

1. SportsCenter has to run it like a huge story whenever a woman dunks in a college game or even a WNBA game. In my high school of 200 people, three kids on the boys' varsity team had dunked in games.

 

2. Also on SportsCenter, they did a story on the Tennessee women's team a while back. They said they got their edge by having guys that weren't good enough to actually play on the men's team practice with them. That way, they could get a lot tougher challenge than running with their second string, because these guys that were just playing a little on the side were as good as the best women's basketball team in the country.

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The refs are bad, but that's beside the point. Illinois is missing a ton of open shots and they are not exactly doing an outstanding job defensively (a couple of miscommunication points, especially on baseline out of bounds plays).

 

Just a horrible half by my school.

 

Jason

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