2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

Non-Phish General
#44

Props to your Spartans Stevo. Izzo does it year after year. He builds “national” championship teams not “Big Ten” Champion teams like Wisconsin. I gotta admit that it looks good for Wisconsin up against Davidson, but after that they are toast against Kansas. With the way Curry is playing for Davidson you never know, but Bo Ryan will not let Stephen Curry beat his team. They will simply be out manned against Kansas though.

Also Tennesse has not impressed me at all. Pearl better get his boys in shape as Louisville is looking tough and North Carolina is looking flat out dominant. I still don’t think UNC will take the title though. When they play upper echelon teams their lack of D shows. After the beating they put down on Arkansas it was probably a good thing Indiana didn’t have to face that.

Honestly wasn’t that surprised seeing Indiana lose to Arkansas. Their season was in the shitter after the Sampson situation. D.J. White showed the kind of player he is though. All heart all man. He will be a solid pro. Eric Gordon on the other hand, didn’t impress me one bit through the tail end of the season. He may be a top 5 pick in the draft, but I don’t think he will be that great in the NBA. He is small at 6’4 and his jump shot is too inconsistent. Most of his points towards the end of the year came at the foul line. He isn’t going to be able to penetrate and draw fouls in the NBA like he did on the college level. Imagine Gordon driving through the trees in the NBA. I think even the likes of Erick Dampier or Troy Murphy could cause fits for Gordon in the lane.

Well I’m still sticking with UCLA to win the tourney despite not playing too impressively right now. They just always seem to pull the games out and they can flat out play D. They have a good inside outside game. Collison and Love will not allow their team to lose.

#45

Man, I miss my old Doniac Schvices…I still have all the old issues. And maybe it’s me, but wasn’t the order-by-mail system a LOT cheaper. It seemed that once they went to the online ordering, the tickets went up by $10 and they added in a bunch of internet fees. Or maybe that’s just me but I remember getting seats for shows as early as 1998 for $27 bucks.

I’m with ya Fee…I can’t imagine one guy beating any Bo Ryan Wisconsin team. You saw it with K-State where Beasley was killing them in the first half and Bo made adjustments and he was next to useless in the second half.

And be fair to Tennessee…Butler is a VERY tough team…I had them winning that game on my bracket…I would have been shocked if Tennessee had blown them out. Louisville’s going to a challenge though…I’d take Pitino over most of the coaches in a field and his team is just solid throughout. Should be a good one.

You’re totally right on Eric Gordan…he does get a LOT of points at the line. However, after seeing him for his first few games I turned to my brother and said “Well…he’s ready for the NBA…he knows how to collect fouls.” Yeah, he’s small but if he can charge the lane and get folks to foul him, then who knows. But NBA defenses may completely own him so he may have to work there. I had Arkansas losing but only because they looked like crap every time I saw them…I picked against Villanova for the same reason. And doesn’t Arkansas’ coach look like he’s British? I swear he does.

And UCLA has been winning close games all year…the tourney is no different…sadly, it may bite them in the ass eventually.

Stevo

#46

Fuckin wacky azz tourney so far! 2 out of 2 million entries on espn.com got the entire sweet 16 correct! I guess i still have a chance but the final four and chip winner has to go down perfect for me!

#47

I haven’t calculated points or anything, but I don’t think I can win our league.

At best, I can get 5 of the Elite 8 and 3 of the Final 4, and only 1 of the National title game (thanks for nothing, Roy Hibbert). Since a few other people have UCLA winning, my best bet is probably a middle-of-the-pack finish.

Oh well.

^
I think I saw a piece on that on ESPN…one of the 2 that did it was some kid??

#48

Yeah, so far so good on my sweet sixteen picks…at least what’s left of them…

Strangely I wasn’t very sure on many picks but I knew that Louisville would take down Tennessee. In the Pitino/Pearl coaching matchup, it’s not even close. That wasn’t the most exciting basketball, but it was sure fun to watch. Although, it was kind of creepy how it was close the whole game until the final five minutes then Tennessee couldn’t hit the side of a barn and before I know it, they’re cutting away to show UCLA.

Great Xavier/WVU game though…that Duncan kid is an absolute MONSTER in the low post…it seems he gets every rebound, no one stops him in the low post and hits his free throws. Only problem is he’s been in foul trouble in practically every game.

Anyway, I’m hitting the bar right after work tonight to get read for the Spartan game. It’s going to be total frickin chaos. Last time the Spartans made the Sweet Sixteen they beat #1 Duke in one of the coolest games I’ve ever been able to watch…I saw it at the bar and I was POUNDING beers and was so bloody happy that we finally took Coach K. I still think back on that game with found memories. It’ll be tough, but maybe they can do it again…with the great and powerful Izzo, anything is possible.


GO STATE!!

Stevo

#49

Since I have no vested interest in that game, I will be rooting for MSU because they’re a Big 10 school and I’ve always like Izzo.

#50

Dear Lord…what a collosal beatdown in the first half of that game. Memphis was totally and completely on fire for that entire half…everything they threw in the air went in…I felt like I was watching the Alex English Denver Nuggets of the 80’s where they always shot within ten seconds of the shot clock and scored massive amounts of points.

Even worse, the Spartans went on like a 19-4 run in the second half and it didn’t even matter!!

Of course, the worst was that the Kansas game was just as bad so it’s not like I could start watching that game. In fact, basically all the games last night ended up as total duds but it was fun as hell watching that piece of crap Bo Ryan get totally owned by Stephen Curry. That dude’s a frickin machine…he can’t be stopped!!! He can’t miss!!! He’s a monster!!! At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he threw down 50 points on Kansas to get to the Final Four. I really wouldn’t. If he could own the Wisconsin and Georgetown defenses like that, then who knows what he can do.

Plus he spells his name the same as mine…us Stephens have to stick together.

Stevo

#51

Yeah, but he’s an un, you’re an een.

#52

Look for me and the Alabama Jama in the bleachers at Ford Field tomorrow!

#53

Will you be holding the “Fluffhead” sign?

#54

No, i’ll be holding the Davison sign only to be singled ouy by a Davidson fan telling me that i spelled Davidson wrong. At which time i will kick him in the balls and yell “GO DAVISON”!

#55

Even better!!

UCLA looked awfully tough tonight.

#56

Damn checked the standings today and I’m in last place. Pathetic. I can’t believe that all 4 #1 seeds made the final four. Actually I can’t believe this has never happened before. Is that statistic right? It’s just hard to belive. There has been alot of tournaments.

Actually I think it is, but they are going by when the tournamnet was expanded to 64.

#57

Au contraire, mon frere…you are in 10th, I am in 11th by a considerable margin.

Ugh.

You have 8 more points than me and 6 more correct picks!

#58

Hurray! I’m not in last anymore. Of course I had Stanford losing in the Finals so we’ll see how long that lasts.

Seriously, Texas had the exact same issues that MSU did against Memphis. Texas don’t win without their guards and they had loads of trouble against Memphis’ huge guards. Oh well.

Awww poor Davidson…I was pulling for them and they almost did it. Even better, Gus Johnson finally got to let loose at the end and we had some classic Gus screams during some of those final three attempts. Good times.

Sadly, I’ll probably miss a majority of the Final Four games on Saturday since I have to be at a wedding. Ug. I guess that’s one good thing about the Spartans not making it since I would have had to disappear from the wedding for three hours which wouldn’t have gone over well.

Stevo

#59

I will be victorious!

#60

Here’s how the bracket would have panned out had wins been based on the median income of each school’s graduates:

http://www.payscale.com/2008-march-madness-predictions.htm?basketball

#61

::starting to think he should have went to Stanford::

#62

when was the last time all number 1 seeds where in the final four?

#63

^Never