Tourney time! Time for some generic questions!
1 - Who do you have in the tourney title game?
2 - Who's the mid-major with the best chance of a George Mason run? And you can't be like Bobby Knight and say "nobody".
3 - Speaking of...have you seen much of Knight on ESPN? I actually enjoy him quite a bit. Anyway...thoughts?
4 - Did Mizzou make the right call in (supposedly) turning down a CBI bid?
5 - No need for picks today, I guess. Instead...random thoughts from the gallery?
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rptgwb: Short and sweet edition...
1 - UCLA pulls out a close one over Kansas in title game.
2 - My best guess would be Davidson, especially if Stephen Curry is hot and they catch Georgetown on an off-night.
3 - He's brought good analysis and an interesting point of view to the studio, but his demeanor and tone is starting to piss me off a bit. He comes across as "I'm too important to be here discussing basketball with you guys," and I found it funny that he got in a verbal battle with Rece Davis on whether or not he was a "media member." More than anything, he looks damn happy to be out of Lubbock, and I can't say I blame him.
4 - Absolutely, yes. Bury this season as soon as possible and wait for the new blood next season.
5 - Mmm.... spring football.
Michael Atchison: Tourney time! Time for some generic questions!
1 - UCLA and Carolina. How’s that for chalk?
2 - Davidson. Stephen Curry gives them enough offensive explosion to have a puncher’s chance against Georgetown in round two, and after that, that half of the Midwest bracket opens wide. Anyone think Wisconsin is invincible? Southern Cal? Kansas State?
3 - I’ve caught him a little. He’s good, but the other guys on the set handle him with kid gloves. There’s a certain "please don’t kill me" element to all the questions they give him.
4 - This is news to me (I’m on the road typing on a very small keyboard and not paying much attention). But without any other context, I’d say no. I’m sure the seniors would have checked out, but playing ball –any ball – is good for the guys coming back.
5 - Doug Smith got robbed.
mizzourobot: 1 - Memphis over UNC. I think people are seriously underestimating a team that only had one loss this year, weak conference or not.
2 - Kent State! Why? Because they won me a shit ton of money in 2002, that's why. Actually Xavier, even if they don't like the label.
3 - Hearing him speak in rational tones makes me woozy, so I try and avoid it. It just messes with my world.
4 - I think so. Let's just get this season over with and concentrate on next year. Anyone want to take a crack at guessing where the projections for Lyon come in at, average, before he inevitably returns to Mizzou next year?
5 - Hey gents, don't we need to discuss the gun incident at some point in this roundtable?
The Beef: 1 - Alright...what a fantastic day....just wish I was home for it...flipping back and forth between the March Madness thing on cbssports.com and the live updates for the NCAA Wrestling on Intermat will make for a tough day...especially when work gets in the way.
I am with Atch and have UCLA and NC in the title game. I am not as confident about UCLA when I hear that they are a bit dinged with Love and MBah whatever his name is. I will be curious to see how (and if) they match up with UCONN (if only because I am not sold UCONN will pull their head out of their ass in time to get there), but NC is just too strong, especially if Lawson can rest up a little more over this week and be ready to go for a stretch run.
2 - I could certainly see Baylor losing in the first round or getting to the Sweet 16....to me if they are hitting they have a great chance (like Davidson with Stephen Curry, only a little deeper). Given what I saw in the ACC Finals, I could see Clemson getting through kU because of the pressure they put, but they are not really a mid-major.
3 - I have seen a little of Knight and have enjoyed him, but the thought about him being treated with kid gloves is certainly correct in my head as well. Still good odds he calls out Digger at some point though in the coming weeks.
4 - I believe they did make the right call, if I understand the "bidding" process. I don’t see any good reason to be in on the ground floor of this tournament given the other teams that made it, and yes, while playing would have helped those coming back, getting rid of the seniors I think would actually help more. And given how many minutes the seniors would and do play in games, I don’t think they really help with the maturation of the non-seniors.
5 - Hmm...I am with Atch (again) on the Doug Smith thing...just surprised by that. I am REALLY curious to see what Mizzou Baseball does against a very good Baylor team this weekend. If they put forth another 3 day effort like they have the last two weekends from Crow, Berger and Gibson, it becomes scary-time in CoMo for what they could end up doing.
Doug: 1 - Yep, going homer here... Kansas and UCLA.
2 - Everybody seems to be on the Drake, they can certainly make it to the Sweet 16, I think that'll probably qualify as the deepest run for a mid-major this year.
3 - I think he brings a refreshing attitude to the desk. He's not a stuffed shirt and doesn't seem to care so much about how he appears on camera. I will say, he is pandering to all colleges everywhere by talking about getting 128 teams into the tournament, that was stupid.
4 - Given the fact the CBI was asking $60,000 from participating schools, MU would have probably been a road team and had no gate money to use in paying off the $60k, yes, it did make sense to turn it down from a strictly financial standpoint. I said so a few weeks ago, this season just needed to be over for MU.
5 - Oh, here's a random thought... I'll be live-blogging during the sessions today and tomorrow for KCTV.
The Beef: BLOG WHORE!!
As it pertains to the gun incident...I don’t know. I guess in the end I feel bad for Mike Anderson because he used the words, "no tolerance"....that seems to have hurt him more than anything else he has done in the end. But winning cures most things and people give GP the pass because of the winning, but someone did well to point out that the football team has not been without its issues with Bracey, Stull, the walk-on, Booker....I think GP handled it exactly the right way given its nature, and I think Anderson still did not handle the Horton / Butterfield thing correctly (I think both should have been let go), I don’t know how others fall on this, but it is slightly funny to me to see similar issues and totally non-similar reactions.
Michael Atchison: A lot of agreement between Seth and me today. Anderson's great sin was to refer to an ill-defined policy. That has allowed the past several months to devolve into a definitional debate rather than a discussion of whether he has exercised good judgment when it comes to off-the-court problems.
Doug: And since I'm taking vacation time today and tomorrow, I'm getting PAID for blogging.
Bitches.
The Boy: Seriously...you guys' (Atch and Beef) job is to fire shots at each other, not agree. Where's the fun in that??
1 - My problem is, when I see too many people making my prediction, I change my prediction...even though my prediction was what I thought would happen. So now that UCLA/UNC has been picked a lot, I'm changing mine (to my own detriment, I'm sure). I now have Memphis over Georgetown. I do think UCLA has a tough road simply because they may have to play both ATM and UConn to get to the Elite Eight (where they would crush Duke if given the opportunity), and both of those teams are extremely physical. If "MBah whatever his name is" isn't 100% and Love starts having back spasms again, that may be too tough a road. So I'm blowing that region up.
2 - Davidson is the obvious pick, and I don't even know if you can call Drake or Butler a "mid major sleeper", as they've spent most of the last couple months in the Top 15. Drake draws a big, physical UConn team in the second round, and that's probably not good. And I can't believe Butler got a 7-seed. Okay, I can believe it. GW got an 8-seed with 1 loss a couple years ago. I do love South Alabama and St. Mary's, but I think the Gaels' potential second-round game against Texas is too tough. So I'm going with South Alabama, as their potential 2nd-round game against Tennessee (if they beat Butler) is extremely winnable. Pressure vs pressure. That game would be REALLY fun.
3 - For one thing, Knight has rejuvenated Digger. Digger spent all season being senile and grumpy because all of the whippersnappers around him make fun of him all the time. Now he's just senile. That's an improvement, though he still doesn't make a lick of sense. And I also like Knight because he's the only ESPN analyst who didn't use the term "eyeball test" 139 times over the weekend. Eyeball test. I get it. Virginia Tech passes the eyeball test and South Alabama doesn't because you've seen Virginia Tech play and you haven't seen South Alabama play. They come up with a new way to discriminate against mid-majors every year.
4 - If they did pass it up, and it sounded like they did, then I'm with Doug--it was too damn expensive. And I think I made it perfectly clear that I was satisfied with never seeing the seniors play again after the NU game.
5 - Anderson had room to kick Butterfield off, but probably not Horton. I think our impressions of Anderson's actions (and inactions) had to do with both the term "no tolerance" (which has clearly been stretched beyond any realistic interpretation) and the fact that we all disliked Horton. Replace Horton with Keon or Tiller, and nobody would have been calling for him to get kicked off the team. Of all the problems I have with Anderson, none really have anything to do with how he handled the Athena Five situation. He could have kicked off Butters because it was a second violation, but whatever. I worry about Anderson's actual ability to coach at this level, but I've just tucked those concerns away for next year, when a lot more will be proven to me. I will defend him on his handling of this.
And yes...regarding Pinkel and Anderson, it does show what winning will do for you.
ZouDave: 1 - Went out on a limb and chose UNC over Memphis.
2 - Portland State.
3 - Haven't made a point of watching him. Don't care enough.
4 - Two schools of thought, but I definitely am not upset they turned it down. There's nothing to gain other than experience, because the value of winning won't be much higher than if Mizzou won the Missouri State Title against Vashon or something, but more experience can't hurt. I'm ok with it. I wouldn't have paid attention anyway.
5 - Off to watch basketball for 4 straight days! GO PORTLAND STATE!
The Boy: Yup...it's happening already. Too many people were picking UCLA, so I ended up dumping them in the Sweet Sixteen and upgrading Xavier. Xavier's losing by 9 in the first round. I rule.
Doug: Who rules?
O'Doyle rules!
The Boy:
Michael Atchison: Here come the X-Men! Big run. Up three now.
mizzourobot: Thank God. I can't handle a blow like that in the first game of the day to my bracket.
The Beef: UGA absolutely ran out of gas....4 points in about 9 minutes is not going to get it done in most cases...unless you are playing SLU
The Boy: Pretty sure the 1917-18 Missouri Tigers could smoke SLU with their offensive proficiency.
(And yes, I broke out True Sons again recently...because why not...)
Michael Atchison: Available at Borders Bookstores throughout Missouri, and worldwide at mizzou.com.