The official NCAA Tournament discussion thread...

..discuss

As a current student at Arizona...I've got them going all the way. I had season tickets this year, and lemme tell you, when they're clicking on all cylinders, there's noone around that can compete. Our depth and balance is just too great...we have so many weapons at our dispossal. Every guy on our bench that gets decent minutes could go and start for any 1 or 2 seed team.

When we get into the overtimes and such that are so prevalent in the tourney...our depth will really shine, and our guys rarely get into foul trouble since we rotate so frequently.

I think our only competition is Kentucky, and unfortunately, they're on the same side of the bracket as us, so we won't get to play them in the final game.

Unfortunately, we have a history of playing down to our competition, as we have 3 losses on the season, all of which were to unranked opponents. So statistically speaking, if we make it to the sweet 16, we're good to go.

The west is stacked, it's going ot be an exciting tournament, and I want to hear some other peoples picks.

i'll be the first to say it. No one gives a f**k.

Uh...the NCAA tournament is the most expensive investment a broadcast network can make...it's one of the most popular events in sports.

You sir don't know what the hell you're talking about.

I can see Texas going a long way. It always seems like guard play comes up huge for the teams that go far in the tournament (Juan Dixon, Mateen Cleaves, Khalid el-Amin) and I like T.J. Ford a lot. I haven't looked over the entire bracket and thought about which way I want to go with it entirely yet, but Texas is my early choice.

College basketball is boring

I would rather watch ESPN televise poker or something.

Akronn wrote:

College basketball is boring I would rather watch ESPN televise poker or something.

I agree. NHL hockey is more worthy of my time.

TJ Ford is good, but not that good. When you look at his shooting percentage and scoring it's not good at all. Yes his 7 assists a game make up for it but I don't see enough talent around him to carry them to the final 4.

Xion - As for Arizona, you are pretty cocky for just losing to one of the worst teams in the Pac 10 dude. Arizona is great, but you match them up with a team with a quick backcourt, that holds their opponent to a low FG% and they may have problems. Not to mention they still have injury issues if I am not mistaken. Illinois can win this game.

I don't think Arizona is as good as you are trying to build them up. If you wanna talk about a team that is f*****g awesome, look no further than Kentucky. And the m***********s have as close to a cake walk to the final four as you can get too. There is no such thing as playing down to opponents. Arizona just can't consistantly hit all cylinders. This is not a good sign for a team trying to make the final 4. Especially in a f*****g bracket like the west. I mean jesus christ. If you don't bring your A game about every game after round 2 you are done.

Don't get too cocky man you're setting yourself up. I hope your team feels the same way you do because with that attitude the way Illinois has been playing they will get ripped pretty bad.

Well we've beaten both Texas and Kansas in the regular season.

I agree, consistency is our biggest issue, but on the UCLA issue, you've gotta give them credit.

UCLA started the season ranked 14th...they have talented players, they had a serious morale problem, and Lavin is a moron. They really brought their A-game...and our shooting went ICE cold. Everyone goes cold once in awhile, and that was our game. Gardner went 2 for 20 from the field, and 0-12 from 3 point land. He was a serious contender for pac-10 player of the year.

Olson said before the game that the Pac-10 tournament was worthless, and he kept a bunch of our starters that have been injured off and on on the bench a good portion of the game...we really didn't care about the loss, and it just gave us a week of rest before the tournament rather than having to play 3 games in 3 days.

Duke is horrible on the road...I really think they're going to fall apart.

I think Kansas is going to be our elite 8 game...and as for Illinois...whatever, heh...they weren't ranked number 1 80% of the season.

Xion wrote:

Well we've beaten both Texas and Kansas in the regular season. I agree, consistency is our biggest issue, but on the UCLA issue, you've gotta give them credit. UCLA started the season ranked 14th...they have talented players, they had a serious morale problem, and Lavin is a moron. They really brought their A-game...and our shooting went ICE cold. Everyone goes cold once in awhile, and that was our game. Gardner went 2 for 19 or some ridiculousness. Olson said before the game that the Pac-10 tournament was worthless, and he kept a bunch of our starters that have been injured off and on on the bench a good portion of the game...we really didn't care about the loss, and it just gave us a week of rest before the tournament rather than having to play 3 games in 3 days. Duke is horrible on the road...I really think they're going to fall apart. I think Kansas is going to be our elite 8 game...and as for Illinois...whatever, heh...they weren't ranked number 1 80% of the season.

Yes. Arizona is good. But you hit the nail on the head when you said Zona went cold from the field. Thats their weakness. They go cold pretty often. When you guys play a team that actually plays defense it will compound the problem. As for giving UCLA credit, are you crazy? THEIR RPI IS 156!!!!!!!! This team doesn't deserve the title of division 1. They sukkazz. Lucky for them Lavin will be gone after this year. He's spose to be fired monday.

As for Illinois, laugh all you want. Ever since they got their players back from injury they have been a damn meat grinder. They have been missing the full strength of Luther Head and Roger Powell much of the season. You put them in the lineup healthy and thats a 25 point 10 rebound boost right there. Ever since Powell's been back they beat:

Northwestern by 29
Minnisota by 24
Indiana by 26
Michigan State by 30

Over their last 9 games they have won by an average of 18 points. Maybe they havn't been #1 80% of the season, BUT most people who have seen them lately will agree they are easily playing as good as anyone in the country including Arizona. It's no coincedence they took off the same time they got their starting 3 and #1 reserve back. You wanna look at head to head matchups and Illinois matches up very well with Arizona.

so, who's your final four janoth? i'm guessing kentucky and illinois are in there?

Kentucky
Illinois
Maryland
Syracuse

Look at past final fours and tell me how often the actual number 1 seeds actually make it. Then take into account teams are much more equal this year than years past. The south is wide f*****g open. There are no good picks in this region so I am going with a team that at least has the experience. Sorry but I am not high on texas at all. They could make it because TJ Ford is a baller, but I really don't see them making it. If there is a region where they will make it thats it, though.

Kentucky is an obvious choice. They would have to pull the choke job of the century to not win that joke of a bracket. The commitee handed them a final 4 appearance on a silver f*****g platter.

East is another region I don't know about. I wanna pick Oklahoma but they have injury issues so I am going with Syracuse. They are good. Won at Breslin center earlier this year. Welmont(sp) gets away with the hook on every f****n possesion. Anthony is a baller. All in all another region begging to be won.

West. f**k if I know. I am picking Illinois because I am an Illinois fan, but I still have good reason. They are destroying everyone they play. A lot of top teams are playing like shit right now. Illinois is not one of them. Kansas, Arizona, Illinois, or Duke could come out of this region. This region will come down to luck more than anything else.

Arizona, as that was also my college. My sister goes there and went to LA to see them lose to UCLA this weekend.

One team that might be interesting is Missouri in the midwest.

they're pretty hot right now.

Mizzou is totally unpredictable. They could make the Elite 8 or get knocked out in the first round. Who knows. No telling how well they'll play on a given night. Ricky Paulding is the man though

SYRACUSE!!!!!!!!! wu wu !!

Kentuck and Arizona would have to be the front runners here.

Florida lives and dies on the 3 pointer and if they get hot no one will beat them.

Went to the Missouri and Oklahoma game today and Oklahoma looks weak. They won't go very far.

Syracuse sucks as does Texas.

Janoth...if we go cold so "often", how'd we manage to go the entire regular season with only 2 losses....and we're undefeated against top 25 teams..so we step it up when we have to.

That 37 point turn around against Kansas earlier this season was a testimony to what we can do.

Clevinger wrote:

Florida lives and dies on the 3 pointer and if they get hot no one will beat them.

The problem with one-game playoffs is that if anybody 'gets hot' nobody will beat them. Now keeping in mind that the gap between haves and have-nots is still pretty wide even within this tournament (how does that happen? It's like there's 30 quality programs in the entire country), you still get tons of upsets. In fact, only twice in the last 20 years has there not been at least one team seeded worse than 11th in the sweet 16.

It's a longshot gambler's paradise

Xion apperantly i'm not the only one that has this opinion.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=175

I'm sure I could find plenty more links in support...it takes a lot of support from AP journalists to keep getting voted #1 for 80% of the season

I'm not saying you don't have a point...I'm just saying I think we'll be able to overcome our problems when the time comes.

We beat Texas..we pulled it together against Kansas..we beat every top 25 team we were put up against.

We may be vulnerable to the upset because we go cold sometimes, blah blah blah, but the reality is, I think we're the only team capable of beating Kentucky right now.