@mr_woogers Also, in my opinion BYU is better than Missouri, Rutgers, Maryland and Michigan State, all of whom beat Illinois. BYU is a solid ncaa tourney team. Also, if you want to throw in teams that folks barely beat, let's talk about Ohio, who Illinois was extremely lucky to escape. How many losses does Gonzaga have again?
@mr_woogers Also, in my opinion BYU is better than Missouri, Rutgers, Maryland and Michigan State, all of whom beat Illinois. BYU is a solid ncaa tourney team. Also, if you want to throw in teams that folks barely beat, let's talk about Ohio, who Illinois was extremely lucky to escape. How many losses does Gonzaga have again?
You're Cherry Picking. Early season games don't mean much. Virginia is down this year - for them. Kansas is down this year - for them. The best team Gonz. played was probably Iowa or W. Virginia and that was a very close game. Those games were early on. Gonzaga has no losses because they play in a crap conference. No way they would be undefeated in the Big 10!
BYU missed layups and 15 footers all over the place 2nd half and this game was extremely close until the last minute or two. BYU is a solid NCAA team, currently unranked. The final score is BYU fouling and Gonz. making their FTs. Gonz. has not been challenged much in the last three months, other than two close games with BYU.
BYU (projected #8 seed) is not as good as Missouri (a projected #6 seed) or Rutgers (#8 seed) or Michigan ST (#9 seed) IMO. MSU had a rough start to the year, but they have a lot of talent and have played themselves into the tournament with wins against Illinois, Ohio St, and Michigan. There are no easy games in that conference whereas the WCC is mostly easy games.
Illinois has no bad losses. Losing at #19 Rutgers is not a bad loss. They have beaten Ill., Indiana twice, Mich. St., Purdue, Syracuse, Maryland, Minnesota, etc. They are headed to the dance and have been ranked for a good part of this year. Missouri was ranked in the top 10 at one point. Ill. beat Duke by 15 - Duke is not as good as usual, but they have beaten Virgina!
I've watched a lot of basketball this year, and going by the eye test, Illinois has been great lately, winning at #23 Wisconsin, blowing out #2 Michigan there without Dosunmu, and at #7 Ohio State. Would not be surprised to see them go a long ways or even make the Final Four.
I do think the Zags are very good, but I'd like to see them play Michigan or Illinois, who is really peaking right now.
@mr_woogers Not sure where you are getting your seeding info, but it's not accurate. Rutgers and Michigan State are both on the bubble and no better than 10 seeds. Missouri is playing their way onto the bubble. Early losses in their prospective tournaments could knock any off those teams out of the tournament. You have very bright rose colored glasses when it comes to the big 10 teams. Anyone can rationalize their arguments, but the fact remains Gonzaga played plenty of good teams and are undefeated. They will be the overall #1 seed, so the experts obviously think they are good. Take a pill and enjoy the tournament!
Butler critically hurts Xavier's ncaa tourney hopes and helps Drake! If the committee selects Xavier and not Drake it will be quite the snub!
Duke puts Louisville squarely on the bubble. Duke probably needs at least 2 more ACC tourney wins to play their way into an at large bid.
Butler critically hurts Xavier's ncaa tourney hopes and helps Drake! If the committee selects Xavier and not Drake it will be quite the snub!
Xavier should be out. What a poorly coached team. Not only did they blow a huge lead but they fouled for no reason up 1 with 5 seconds left. Think they thought they had a foul to give.
Not accurate? LOL! Fact is, nobody really knows at this point. Conference tournaments will change things. I just searched the Internet with Bing and these projected seeds from Jerry Palm popped up - as accurate as anybody else's guess at this point. I think Palm is pretty respected in the field.
Early in the season, Gonzaga played #6 Iowa, #9 W. Virginia, #12 Kansas, and #15 Virginia. That's a tough non-conference schedule. In their league, the only tough games were BYU.
Illinois played #2 Baylor, #4 Michigan, #6 Iowa, #10 Ohio St twice, #19 Purdue twice. They also played Rutgers, Wisconsin, Duke, and Michigan St who have all been ranked at some point this year. Way tougher schedule. Their last three games were against #23 Wis (at the time), #2 Michigan, and #7 Ohio St. All road games which they won, two without their best player. Impressive play against some excellent teams.
FYI, when the Zags beat Iowa, Iowa's guards couldn't hit the broadside of a barn - 18% from three. Garza ate the Zags up though - 30 pts and 10 rebounds. Gonz. might struggle against a team with a good big man and guards that can shoot it. (Michigan, Illinois for example.)
By far the best basketball I've seen this year was in the Big 10. Not even close. That league is just full of great players. The National Championship is up for grabs this year IMO.
Duke out of the ACC tourney due to covid protocol. More good news for Drake!
The NCAA is blowing it. This is the year they should have included ALL teams and used the conference tournies and rankings to place teams in geographical brackets. (And make the NIT a losers round, with the NIT champ have a shot at the final 4. (Or 8 or somewhere.)) A modified double elimination. It's been a crazy year when whole teams quarenteed because one asymptotic player tested positive causing crazies W-L stats.
“The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.”
-- Al McGuire
Virginia takes down Syracuse on a buzzer 3. Probably helps Drake
Both Kentucky and Duke are going to miss the Big Dance, this is a very strange year indeed!
Jerry Palm has MSU and Wichita as #9 seeds. They both lost in the 1st round of their tournaments. That may help Drake!
He has Drake playing Syracuse in a play-in - #12 seeds - and Loyola as a #10 playing Florida - that's a good matchup for both I think.
Baylor beat Kansas St. by only 6 today. Drake beat KSU by 10. Drake beats Baylor by 4!! 😀
Ohio St. barely beat Minnesota - has to play Purdue tomorrow - Boilers beat them twice this year.
Rutgers beats Indiana and gets another shot at Illinois. They beat them by 3 at Rutgers on Dec. 20. Can they do it again?
Georgetown upset Villanova. UNC upset Va. Tech.
The NCAA is blowing it. This is the year they should have included ALL teams and used the conference tournies and rankings to place teams in geographical brackets. (And make the NIT a losers round, with the NIT champ have a shot at the final 4. (Or 8 or somewhere.)) A modified double elimination. It's been a crazy year when whole teams quarenteed because one asymptotic player tested positive causing crazies W-L stats.
There was some talk about that. Would have been fun. Think they decided to play all the games around Indy - for safety reasons maybe? Some games at Purdue. Would be tough to schedule all teams in those limited locations. Also, too out of the box for the NCAA!
