Cool Hand Lucroy

I'm not into that for a bunch of reasons. Probably not the best thread to delve into why. I do wonder why we need the video display, though. That just seems odd. I'm willing to give it time to get a little better and more smooth too.

Super small sample, but I don't really like this so far. It does delay the rhythm of the game. Hopefully, it gets better. Definitely impressed by the Sox catcher going 3 for 3, though. Cool to watch players with a strong command of the strike zone. Illuminates a difficult to see skill.

Appreciate it! Good calendar shift for the sport. Was a bad look to have the portal officially open prior to the Sweet Sixteen.

It's an awful spot when an institution like the NCAA maintains what (to me) was an absurd position about "student-athletes" for decades, and then the courts strike down everything and basically make any type of regulation impossible. I think this era will be short-lived. Either we'll get full breakaways by the upper-echelons (which would be awful, but we've been steadily heading there for a while, and I'm becoming more and more resigned to it), or we'll have something like a CBA, either by sport or by division. Maybe this will come with full-on unionization, or maybe it'll just come via the NCAA enforcing very strict rules around allowable spending (and those rules standing up in court). I think the genuine NIL model that most folks thought was reasonable and fair is so far away from what this has become, it'll be hard to get back there. I hope we do, but... In the meantime, not only are we in weird, pseudo-regulated space, but the regulations change every time someone files a court case. It's bonkers. Sigh. No such thing as the good old days, but we've definitely traded one absurd situation for a different absurd situation. It just seems to me there has to be an actual balance of power in college sports, rather than the old system (the NCAA and the schools make the rules) or the new one (where the players and the boosters run the show).

We're not that far from teams basically just being offshoots of the university. It'll be like the club system in Europe, only with the jerseys of the schools. If we ever really had the "Michigan State University Independent Athletic Collective," would I yell about it? I don't know. It would be far from my preferred sporting system. It would also be more honest than what we had for most of the last century.

Are other coaches/programs selling ad space on the sleeves? I know that kind of branding is everywhere, so maybe it's just my impression of Gottlieb that leads me to think this feels more extreme. As for the clip itself, it feels real on-brand. Big-time talk radio energy there. Thanks for sharing!

I mean, High Point's guards were better. Blackwell had 5 turnovers. Martin 23 pts, 10 assists, 1 turnover. Boyd was good, but I don't think there's a question that High Point's guards won them the game. The matchup was a lot worse than I thought it would be, that's for sure.

You're absolutely right about the difficulty of teaching defense in the portal era. I think two guys that can do it are Pitino and Otzelberger. Granted, both the guys have a lot of returners to complement some transfers. But I don't think it's coincidence that they'll both get second weekend games. Grant Mccasland got run pretty good yesterday, but he might be in that category as well. Juries out on McCollum, since he's had this roster core for a while, but he's also proof that you can win A LOT playing what's basically Dick Bennett ball.

Kentucky looked like they'd never seen guys actually try to defend before. That roster looked so so limited.

Some great games today. Three close finishes with three games still to go. Huge credit to Iowa. Playing slow still works! They just ground Florida down and won without even shooting that well from three. Stirtz played one of the worst games I've ever seen from him, and somehow Iowa won. The South region is now Thursday of the Big Ten tournament. Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. It's also probably the most fun regional from a storyline perspective. Illinois-Houston is an absolute delight of a matchup. Euroball versus guys who will fight you every possession. Awesome. And Iowa has been a really, really tough matchup for the Huskers this year. Nebraska beat them in OT at Pinnacle Bank and lost by five in Iowa City, in a game played in the 50s. Glad this tournament got a big surprise. It needed it.

Stephen F. Austin had Thomas Walkup, who was Brayden Smith before Brayden Smith. That team was awesome. Or the kid from Oral Roberts whose name escapes me. Gotta love guards in March.

They certainly surprised me. A lot of people got introduced to Robert Martin, future pro, this weekend.

Good call. Even Indiana's coaching carousel shows how tough it is to sustain S16 success. Or look at Kentucky totally turning on Cal, who's now entering his second straight S16. My goodness, Rick Barnes gets this chatter all the time. In CBB, everyone always wants you to win one more game. If Gard had made three S16s in the last four years, people would be talking about how he couldn't win the big one for failing to get to E8s and FFs. I mean, Nebraska fired Tim Miles and hired Hoiberg, who took...SEVEN YEARS to get that program to where it is now. I'd rather Wisconsin not have the toxic culture of Indiana.

Oh yeah. I'm with you. Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, Bo would have absolutely been of that list.

100 to all of this. I'll add the BYU game last year, where you just run into a team firing on all cylinders, a team with Richie Saunders in peak form (if he's healthy on this year's BYU, that's a title contender), and you play probably a B game overall. But you hang in and are right there at the end. What are you gonna do? That's this tournament. It happens to everyone! Badgers are fine. I even think this year Gard got a team to get A LOT better over the course of a season. That's a new trick, at least in terms of the amount of improvement. I wish the GG detractors would at least recognize how much that guy has adapted. He never seems to think he has it all figured out, and that flexibility doesn't get headlines. It's also a fantastic quality in a coach (and, usually, a person).

You're not wrong to say Bo has a much more successful NCAAT resume than Gard. Gard isn't Bo. I don't think anyone is arguing that. If you take a look around CBB teams like Wisconsin everywhere are struggling. Look at the Big East. Heck, look at the ACC. Power is consolidated at the very top of two leagues, and everyone else is chasing and hoping to get a nice draw in the tournament. Gard has kept UW hoops relevant. That's not going to get a lot of credit. But it is MASSIVE given how the sport has changed. You can't fairly compare Bo and Gard because there's no way Bo thrives in this landscape. The "built by Gard" thing is also a bit of a dodge. I get it. But Gard took over a roster in compete turmoil (that team lost to Western Illinois!) and had them within a possession of an Elite Eight. Obviously, everyone wants a Sweet 16. For the Badgers, that's always the goal. But it's so hard to do that, and all Gard has done is put the team in the best spot to achieve in every year but a couple. Given how this could've gone, this is like an 85th percentile outcome.

These are are juicy tidbits. Love it! Would not be surprised at all if there's more to the story than "nobody would play us." I want more of these good mid/high major games, but getting them requires breakong orthodoxy on all sides. Gottlieb just feels like a publicity hire, but the GB team got better as the year went on. That's something, I guess.

Broken clocks for me. High Point looked like a dud. But part of the fun is being shocked, right? Been an above-average tournament so far. Still missing some real Cinderella spice, but maybe Utah State does something crazy today. That would probably be the closest thing. One of these years a 1-4 seed will lose on the first round again. Never expand the tournament! (But I am sure we are headed to at least 72 next year).

High Point very impressive. Johnston had a couple rim out with under 3 to go that would've given HPU the lead. Those were the shots that went in against the Badgers. That's the way the ball bounces. Nebraska-Vandy delivered. Wow. What a final sequence. No timeouts. Fluid. Trading buckets. Then the near miss. Happy for Hoiberg and the whole state. Not sure people realize how unique Nebraska is. It's the only high-major where there are no pro teams in the state and NO D1 football competitors. It's just all Nebraska all the time (apologies to Creighton fans, but I imagine many of them are happy to root for the Huskers on the gridiron and in a lot of other arenas too). You felt that in OKC. Not a great day of games, but a very good night. Gonzaga quietly leaves the WCC. Tomorrow's best tip looks like Iowa State-Kentucky or UCLA-UCONN, but it's a solid day all-around. Be curious to see if either one seed gets pushed. I think there's a big upset lurking somewhere, but it's probably with one of the two seeds listed above. Here's to at least 3 close finishes.

I mean, yeah, I will totally admit that mids have to just adapt and take more buy games. No reason for St. Thomas not to just take a check to play at the barn. Imagine High Point and Miami had some of those chances too. The Zombie MCC/Horizon is a helluva league. Iconic tourney upsets, three FFs, and an immortal nun. You know GB decision making is questionable when they think hiring Gottlieb is the way to relevance. But I digress (sort of).

Hard to run a mid these days. I definitely miss the GB glory days. Lotta good energy around the MCC/Horizon for a long, long time, but conference realignment probably hurt that league more than any other. Must have been 08 or 09 that GB beat UW. I think Crean also lost at Fort Wayne a while back. Lately, the trend seems to be taking recruits back to hometowns. Did Duke play at Maine with Pratt last year? I think so. UNC always seems to have one in-state or regional roadie. Davidson or Wofford or Charlotte. Easier when you have a dozen schools to choose from. Be kind of fun for Minnesota and St. Thomas to home and home, and Iowa really dropped the ball by letting go of their in-state showcase (I bet the gate there was GREAT!), but I'll stop beating that particular dead horse now.

Hard to run a mid these days. I definitely miss the GB glory days. Lotta good energy around the MCC/Horizon for a long, long time, but conference realignment probably hurt that league more than any other. Must have been 08 or 09 that GB beat UW. I think Crean also lost at Fort Wayne a while back. Lately, the trend seems to be taking recruits back to hometowns. Did Duke play at Maine with Pratt last year? I think so. UNC always seems to have one in-state or regional roadie. Davidson or Wofford or Charlotte. Easier when you have a dozen schools to choose from. Be kind of fun for Minnesota and St. Thomas to home and home, and Iowa really dropped the ball by letting go of their in-state showcase (I bet the gate there was GREAT!), but I'll stop beating that particular dead horse now.

Hard to run a mid these days. I definitely miss the GB glory days. Lotta good energy around the MCC/Horizon for a long, long time, but conference realignment probably hurt that league more than any other. Must have been 08 or 09 that GB beat UW. I think Crean also lost at Fort Wayne a while back. Lately, the trend seems to be taking recruits back to hometowns. Did Duke play at Maine with Pratt last year? I think so. UNC always seems to have one in-state or regional roadie. Davidson or Wofford or Charlotte. Easier when you have a dozen schools to choose from. Be kind of fun for Minnesota and St. Thomas to home and home, and Iowa really dropped the ball by letting go of their in-state showcase (I bet the gate there was GREAT!), but I'll stop beating that particular dead horse now.

All completely true. I think it would benefit everyone from a hoops perspective. Obviously, the financials are different. I'd really love to get a look at a budget someday. What do you make from a buy game after the payout? I doubt those $$ have too much impact on player salary pools at the end of the day (I mean, the Badgers share of B1G media deals and NCAAT payouts have to be WAY more, though I understand that that money isn't just basketball specific), but that's based on nothing but gut feeling. Bo definitely played those games, probably partially out of wanting to go back to Philly every so often. I think GB beat one of those Badger teams during their last good year (that I remember). The MTEs have a big role here too, of course. A10 schools with some pedigree can usually get in (Saint Mary's gets in, Belmont or UNI can get in), but you'd love to see some of the bigger ones set aside a spot for a prior season's MAC or Valley champ. Charleston Classic does right by the mids. One more of those kind of things would go a long way. Overall, though, I totally agree that the current orthodoxy makes it seem very unlikely. I really believe it's much more of an "afraid to lose" thing than anything else, but I don't get get to see the financials [shrug].

All totally reasonable, though I think I'd disagree about the "no-win" part. Coaches seem to say this, but good mid-majors tend to rate at Q1 on the road. Borderline Q1 (more Q2) neutral, and Q3 if you play them at home. Where I sympathize is that it's hard to predict how mid-major rosters will do over the long haul. You schedule Baylor in November, on a neutral, it's pretty likely they're not going to be Q3 by the end of the year, because of how the NET works. Drop a game to Miami or Bradley, and there's a MUCH bigger chance that goes to a Q3 or Q4 loss. Definitely not blind to that. Still, scheduling good mid-majors doesn't have to compete with scheduling high-majors in road/neutral environments. It just has to be better than your buy games. Nobody learned anything when the Badgers beat Campbell this year. UW also played 3 MAC schools at the Kohl. Playing Bradley on a neutral is a better game than all of those. So is a home-and-home with UNI or Drake. Especially if you're scheduling the Valley, you know the programs are strong. If every high-major gave up ONE easy buy game and did a home-and-home or neutral-site mini exhibition with the St. Thomases and NDSU's of the world, that's really not a huge sacrifice, and it's much closer to a first-round tourney game than a beatdown of UMKC or something. I DO think the MAC or A-10 and the Valley should be doing an annual challenge. Heck, a Big East-A-10 challenge is a great thing for the sport of basketball, especially in November when you can get non-football campuses really into a televised athletic event. More 5-12 style regular-season matchups would be good for the sport, and I genuinely think it would be good for borderline top-25 high-majors and bubble teams.