March Madness 2025

[RedStickBrew]

BYU getting curb stomped by Bama who might score 150 on them if this keeps up

[RedStickBrew]

Bama sets NCAA tournament record for made threes with over 8 minutes left to play

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Yeah, Alabama was going to have a game where they made 15 threes, and they would have beaten anyone. 

Never thought they'd hit 22, though.

[RedStickBrew]

Nate Oates has Alabama playing a similar style to what UW has started to play recently. Fun to watch when the threes are falling

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Yeah, Alabama was going to have a game where they made 15 threes, and they would have beaten anyone. 

Never thought they'd hit 22, though.

Need to get them out of the way tonight so they can go 4 for 31 vs Duke.

[LouisEly]

18 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Late in the 1st half, BYU is trailing Alabama by 8, and BYU is shooting 10% from 3pt range. That's just so precious.😒

BYU ended up shooting 20% from 3 (6-30) and still scored 88.  They needed to shoot 40% from 3 to score 91 against UW.  If the would have shot 20% against UW, UW would have blown them off the court.

What could have been.  Such is the randomness of the NCAA tournament.

[RedStickBrew]

Just now, LouisEly said:

BYU ended up shooting 20% from 3 (6-30) and still scored 88.  They needed to shoot 40% from 3 to score 91 against UW.  If the would have shot 20% against UW, UW would have blown them off the court.

What could have been.  Such is the randomness of the NCAA tournament.

I think the length and athleticism of Alabama on the perimeter likely had something to do with bothering BYU shooters. They really closed hard and made BYU dribble or pass much more the UW did from my observation 

[RedStickBrew]

I really didn’t think Ole Miss would be able match the physicality of MSU in this game. I was wrong. It’s been a fist fight so far 

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, RedStickBrew said:

I really didn’t think Ole Miss would be able match the physicality of MSU in this game. I was wrong. It’s been a fist fight so far 

Considering the quality of the MSU guards I was surprised at Ole Miss' ability to disrupt them defensively, especially early.

Enjoyable game. Glad for Izzo.

Chris Beard is a helluva coach.

[AKCheesehead]

The announcers have said this is like a home game for Purdue. The refs may not have heard, though. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

Even with the 'home' crowd I was surprised Purdue hung around as well as they did. Once UH went up ten I thought that was it.

One of the announcers said Purdue had eleven baskets in the 2nd half & Braden Smith assisted on all of them. If accurate that's incredible.

Starting about midway through the 2nd half it looked like Auburn really got their early-season mojo back after a relative lull. Auburn-Florida would be a hell of a semi.

[HarryDoyle]

So we're down to the Elite 8 and we're one seed ranking away from chalk. When's the last time that happened and any theories on why? 

[JosephC]

So does the SEC now own men's basketball too?  I don't watch basketball at all, just couldn't help but notice that 4 of the remaining 8 are SEC programs.

[RedStickBrew]

53 minutes ago, JosephC said:

So does the SEC now own men's basketball too?  I don't watch basketball at all, just couldn't help but notice that 4 of the remaining 8 are SEC programs.

I would say the SEC schools have large athletic department budgets and have been winning the NIL/transfer portal era. 

[HarryDoyle]

Boy, Florida has not made it easy on themselves all tournament long, but they made it to the Final Four.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Texas Tech had that game. Wow. First, Clayton is just an assassin. Hit two huge threes to take a six-point lead to nothing while Tech was missing front ends. A couple of uncharacteristically bad defensive possessions from Tech too. It just looked like they saw that 9 point lead shrink to 3 in a blink and couldn't regroup.

Florida got a VERY friendly whistle, I thought. Obviously there's the free throw differential, but they were getting some calls on jump shots and on drives that Tech could not sniff on the other end.

Good game. I am rooting for the Houston/TN winner (like both those teams a lot), the Auburn/MSU winner (appreciate that Izzo's done it his way, and have always appreciated Pearl's personality), and, somehow, Duke. I actually like Duke's players. I can't believe it, but it's true. 

Basically, I am anti-Florida and Alabama. Anyone else, okay, tournament gods?

[Jim French Stepstool]

On 3/27/2025 at 9:43 PM, Jim French Stepstool said:

Need to get them out of the way tonight so they can go 4 for 31 vs Duke.

I was exaggerating, but as it turns out not by all that much (8-32).

The missed Alabama shots from 5 ft & closer might've been an even bigger factor.

 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

12 hours ago, RedStickBrew said:

I would say the SEC schools have large athletic department budgets and have been winning the NIL/transfer portal era. 

Yeah, and some of it is just having 16 extremely well-founded schools in a talent-rich area. You outspend people like this, you're just going to hit on a year like this one.

[LouisEly]

I had a feeling that this would not be the year of upsets, and it has turned into exactly that.  Elite eight were three 1 vs 2 and one 1 vs 3.  I thought that there was a clear line between the 2 seeds and the 3-4 seeds.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

On 3/29/2025 at 9:35 AM, RedStickBrew said:

I would say the SEC schools have large athletic department budgets and have been winning the NIL/transfer portal era. 

Yes, and traditionally some of those institutions have developed a rep for being great landing spots if you're an elite athlete & have no interest in 'playing school'. Gotta admit though, with the advent of online classes I think a lot of other places fit the same mold. As for the subject of paying players, it doesn't hurt if you have a framework & funds already in place and have experience in having done it for years before it became legal.

Climate doesn't hurt, either.

[RedStickBrew]

1 hour ago, LouisEly said:

I had a feeling that this would not be the year of upsets, and it has turned into exactly that.  Elite eight were three 1 vs 2 and one 1 vs 3.  I thought that there was a clear line between the 2 seeds and the 3-4 seeds.

 

I think all the elite 8 teams were Bart Torviks top 8 ranked teams this year. There was a pretty clear divide between those top teams and everyone else.

The way things look now it’s Duke at the very top and everyone else a notch below

[RedStickBrew]

1 hour ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Yes, and traditionally some of those institutions have developed a rep for being great landing spots if you're an elite athlete & have no interest in 'playing school'. Gotta admit though, with the advent of online classes I think a lot of other places fit the same mold. As for the subject of paying players, it doesn't hurt if you have a framework & funds already in place and have experience in having done it for years before it became legal.

Climate doesn't hurt, either.

Many of the SEC schools seem to have mega donors that step up and contribute when necessary. Not sure UW and some other Big schools have that either. 

[homer]

26 minutes ago, RedStickBrew said:

Many of the SEC schools seem to have mega donors that step up and contribute when necessary. Not sure UW and some other Big schools have that either. 

Ohio State raised something like $20 million for their football team.

[yourout]

23 minutes ago, homer said:

Ohio State raised something like $20 million for their football team.

Wonder what kind of $$$ Flag will get offered to stay in college another year 

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, RedStickBrew said:

Many of the SEC schools seem to have mega donors that step up and contribute when necessary. Not sure UW and some other Big schools have that either. 

And a number of them are not competing with any pro teams for fan's money.  No pro teams in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arkansas, or Kentucky.  And no pro teams worth spending money on in North Carolina, Louisiana, or Tennessee right now (excluding the Panthers, Florida is debatable).