What An Opportunity!
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@drgnslayr said:
OU is playing for a better draw in the conference tourney and definitely for a higher seed in March. We are set for the conference tourney, and pretty much set as a 2 seed in March.
If you look at bracketmatrix.com, there is an unusually strong consensus on the #1 seeds and the #2 seeds, but after that not so much.
We are practically a lock for #2 going to Omaha, but in which region? The more we win the later we meet Kentucky.
Oklahoma could be a #4 at worst, at best a #3. I don’t know if “better” 3s get a better draw in the tournament. Anyone?
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@ParisHawk All I know is you have to be UNC or Duke to get the best draws.
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@brooksmd Duke especially. I feel like every year they somehow have their first games in North Carolina. Makes me crazy!
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I can’t help but wonder with Cliff’s rebounding if last night if we’d have had much more success.
It was also interesting to see the guys step up in Perry’s absence. They played with way more resolve and determination when he wasn’t on the floor. That’s not a knock against Perry, but it could really benefit us over the next few weeks. Jamari wow, and for all the times we’ve dogged on him this year. He won that game for us.
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“Duke especially. I feel like every year they somehow have their first games in North Carolina. Makes me crazy!”
I’ve had similar feelings. I looked into it a little bit and I think because one year UNC gets to stay home and another year Duke gets to, that we think each team gets it every year. It hasn’t happened as much as we think, although I would say the NCAA does get them home when they can.
KU happens to be in a state that just doesn’t have any sites to host a sub regional. North Carolina has a lot of D1 programs that are significant which means they also have arenas that are NCAA worthy.
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@wissoxfan83 Here’s my philosophy (cuz I know everyone is interested
) - I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bit of a letdown with Perry out on Saturday. The idea behind that is when they were thrust into a desperate situation (Perry being injured) they responded in great fashion. Kind of like the stories you hear about a little old lady lifting a car off of a toddler or whatever. They just reacted. With urgency.I’m afraid if they have a few days to mull it over, they’ll be overwhelmed (oh, what do we do without Perry??? ) and play like it. I hope I’m wrong. I have been before.
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I watched a few of the talking heads last week going over bracketology. Joey “Toupee” Lunardi has Wisconsin in Kentucky’s regional (Cleveland). One of the guys asked the question “why would the committee do that when Wisconsin isn’t the 4th rated 2”. The answer was it’s either they get their closest regional, which the committee likes to do for 1s and 2s, or they’d travel to Syracuse (East Bracket), Houston (South Bracket), or LA (West Bracket).
Right now we are looking at these 1s
- UK (Midwest)
- Virginia (East)
- Duke (South)
- 'Nova (West)
These are the twos
- Wisconsin
- Kansas
- Gonzaga
- Arizona
Hard to say which of the two, Arizona or Gonzaga, gets the West bid. Does the non-LA team out of those two get the next most western site of Houston? And then KU to Cleveland and Wisconsin to Cuse? Or do you give KU and Wisconsin their closest sites which are Houston and Cleveland respectively?
Gonzaga really screwed it up by dropping to a 2 with their L this week!!
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If every thing stays the same and Wisconsin ends up a very strong #2, hell is going to be raised if they are put in Kentucky’s bracket. And I’ll be leading the charge!
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@wissoxfan83 By the way, I’ve been watching Lunardi for weeks diss WIsconsin. I can’t stand the guy now! Wisconsin has one loss all year playing at full strength, to Duke, when Duke shot like 70%. Their point guard Traevon Jackson has been out with a broken foot, who’s return keeps getting pushed back. We’ve lost two games with him out, and we infamously lost to Rutgers when Kaminsky was out and Jackson missed the 2nd half when he broke his foot. I really think we (Wisconsin) can knock off Kentucky this year but would prefer to have the opportunity to do so as late as possible in the tourney!
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@wissoxfan83 Well he may have won it, but those 2 ft’s by Devonte “Icewater” Graham and that block by Lucas gave him the opportunity.
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@nuleafjhawk “Here’s my philosophy (cuz I know everyone is interested
)”I gave you an up vote just for that first sentence.
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@nuleafjhawk All that plus they put a lot into that game last night to (1) get the championship outright, (2) senior night, (3) 30+ final home game win streak and (4) undefeated season at home. Saturday gives them nothing but the pride of winning as a champ on the road in the psuedo Big 12 conf. I still say HCBS should sit all the starters and give the game to the bench.
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@wissoxfan83 Heard a talking head on tv this week say that Wisc in his opinion was the only team that could beat Kensucky.
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@nuleafjhawk don’t forget about the geese theory! Honk Honk!
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@Crimsonorblue22 what is OU playing for?
I’ll take a stab at that one…OU is playing for Lon Kruger to score a " I Beat KU" cash bonus, just like Huggie did…I have no idea of the validity of this scenario, but it sounds good…
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@KUSTEVE ha ha, marbles!
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@drgnslayr Why not rest the starters Ellis (knee), Mason (42 mins vs WVA) and Selden (was limping with rolled ankle vs WVA), and put the bench (Mickelson, Lucas, Svi?) against OU and the B12 tourney? Get the starters fresh for the March run? By the way, any chance a coach (Self) would hold a player (Mickelson) out of games (except vs. WVA out of necessity) to reprogram the player to get ready for the March run? Opponents don’t have much info or stats on him since he hadn’t played. Perhaps I’m dreaming- that Mickelson will be lights out against unsuspecting teams & their footers with his blocking in March. Thoughts?
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@HawksWin I say, play that kid! Hunter that is. Rest Mason, Selden if his ankles bad, get Svi and BG going!
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@Crimsonorblue22 They could play Hunter from now on, and that would be fine as frog hair with me.
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Brannen should play all 40 minutes just to find his shot before the tournament.
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@wrwlumpy svi too!
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I think all our scholarship players are going to see PT in Norman… and should.
But I’m also thinking Self wants to win this one. Continue the “play tough” teachings. It wouldn’t be good to let off the gas now and expect them to pick it up later.
I kind of wonder if this hasn’t been a problem in other Self March performances. We’ve often dogged through the B12 tourney, perhaps to get rested and not risk injury. But then the guys also come out slow in March games.
Not sure how well it goes to “amp down” players and then expect them to “amp up” with the snap of Self’s fingers later.
Even though we are struggling through these recent games, it seems they are becoming tougher guys. Often feels more like a team of men now instead of boys. But we need to keep the push on.
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@drgnslayr I’m not sure what I think about the conference tourney. It’s definitely good bb, but I worry, especially w/our league, that it’s a huge strain on the beat up bodies. So undecided.
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I know. Me, too. And after last night… who wasn’t banged up?
On the other hand… these kids all think they are ready for the NBA. Better get used to getting beat on constantly…
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@Crimsonorblue22 Football?
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@drgnslayr particularly liked this line:
But at some point, we have to get back to Xs and Os. Our current strategy is one for teaching… and useful for winning. But somewhere down the road we need to get back to attempting to run effective offense.
Relying on 80% FT% with high volume is fools gold.
