Road to the sweet 16 Mississippi State: Has to beat 4th seed Washington (picked by 78% of Yahoo participants) and probably 5th seed Purdue (picked by 87%) LSU: Has to beat #9 Seed Butler (picked by 52% of Yahoo participants) and then probably #1 seed North Carolina (picked by 98%) Tennessee: Has to beat #8 seed Oklahoma State (picked by 52% of Yahoo participants) and then probably #1 seed Pittsburgh (picked by 97%) Tennessee plays the underdog role much better than it does the favorite. As I see it, Tennessee has the best shot at the sweet 16 but I'm not holding my breath. :?
Auburn won against UT Martin and Florida won convincingly against Jacksonville U. The SEC is moving forward in the NIT. Those two will probably go further in the NIT than Tennessee, LSU, and Mississippi State will in the NCAA.
Looks like the Irish and the Gators could meet if they both win their next game. Irish really didn't look all that good in beating UAB the other night, same problems as all season long. No rebounding, totally reliant on 3 point shooters, no defense to speak of...only way we win is if the 3pt shooter can get going and we outscore people. If the Gators have fast guards and some good rebounders we won't stand a chance.
Here's hoping for that match up Terry. Florida vs Notre Dame, now if we could only play during the football regular season.
Tenn wins....loses to Pitt most likely. LSU...won today.....loses to a strong NC team. The SEC drew the worst seeding and least number of teams I can remember in this tournament. Somebody pissed somebody off imho. I do think Fla would have won a first round game but if paired with an NC or Pitt in the second round .....forget it. And by the way....imvhop.....vhop.....Fla deserved a bid more than SouCar.
That's OK, a once beaten SEC football team will push aside an undefeated team and all is right with the world.
Turns out I was wrong Bill, ND plays the winner of the Creighton/Kentucky game you get somebody else in the next round. Irish did win tonight in an excitiing down to the last second game on a coast to coast layup with 2 secs left.
Gipper.....not sure what you infer there my good man. I have to say that Florida football 2008 left nothing unproven.....agree?
Gipper, Yawn! MCG, the SEC was not that good this year and while I do think S. Carolina and Auburn should have made the tourney I don't see any big deal.
Not too bad of a start for the B10. Michigan, a 10 seed, beats 7th seeded Clemson which at the start of the year seemed one of the ACC's best teams but faded. Purdue wins comfortably but the Gophers got gored by the good doctor's second favorite team. I would be elated but surprised if Beilein can get this team into the Sweet 16 for they are small and not that athletically gifted. But it is fun to root for a team that is well coached and overachieves and can win without the benefit of a Lincoln Navigator free car lease program. :wink:
So....let's recap Tennessee, the SEC East champ bowed out in round 1 in a 77-75 loss to Oklahoma State who was beaten in Rd 2 by Pitt. LSU, the reg. season SEC champ., defeated Butler in Rd 1 before bowing out in a 14 point loss (game was close for a while) to #1 seed UNC in Rd. 2. Mississippi State, the SEC tourney champ, lost in Rd 1 to Washington 71-58. Washington was knocked off in Rd 2 by Purdue. So, the SEC maybe didn't get hosed afterall. Granted, the seeds for the 3 SEC teams didn't do them any favors but you gotta win to have an argument and the SEC went 1-3 overall in the tourney. Over in the NIT, Florida, South Carolina, and Auburn are all out of the tourney. Kentucky is still playing and will face Notre Dame next. I guess these results prove that the SEC was truly mediocre this year in basketball.
The SEC did get some pretty bad seeding in the NCAAS. However...after watching UF's clunker vs. PSU last night the Gators...a #1 seed in the NIT....had everything going for them playing at home and still could not put it away and head to NY....which it seemed as if they were at least trying hard to do. I don't think UF would have lasted longer than the first round in the NCAAs and would have lost in the first round most likely because their seeding would have had them immediately in harms way.
The best thing about all of this is all the teams in the NCAA got a shot to prove on the court how good they were. Seedings do mean a lot and no doubt some seedings leave you scratching your head and so do some of the regions teams get placed in, but still they get to go out on the court and prove their mettle.
Good win for the Irish tonight putting the last hosed SEC team out of the NIT. Could it be we win the right to chant "We're 66!"
Kentucky got hot in the second half and turned what looked like a blowout win for the Irish into a closer than it should have been win for the Irish. Luke Harangody is really fun to watch, he may not ever do much at the next level but as a college player he's really good.
A quick trip to the Scout Kentucky board and I see that they are thinking this is it for Billy G and that the first call will be to Billy D. Terry