2014 NCAA Tournament - Bracket Ramblings I

For the first time ever I did not fill out my brackets right away.  I sat with them for a day and thought about the games and even tried to analyse them.  That's a big departure from my usual "get the brackets, devour the brackets" method that I've employed since I started filling them out.  I'm a believer in only doing one bracket and once it's filled out I'm not second guessing myself and changing anything.

That's the last time I do that.

This year I filled out my brackets after I watched countless shows with analysts telling me their Final Fours.  Because of this, my selection process changed from who I think is going to win to "I don't want to pick the same thing as everyone else."  So instead of having Michigan State win the national title like I had planned to do for weeks, I'm now the sucker who will be ripping up his brackets after Iowa State loses to North Carolina or Providence and my champion is out.  I've loved Iowa State all year.  I think they are a Final Four caliber team but, come on, Iowa State doesn't win national titles.  I just didn't want to have the same thing as everyone else.  But that's not the spirit of doing brackets.  It's fill them out as accurately as you can.  It's going to be some kind of variation of Michigan State, Florida, Louisville, Kansas, Michigan and Arizona playing for the national title.  I know that.  We don't live in a world where we are watching Iowa State/Wisconsin on the final Monday.

Next year I go back to normal.  Fill them out immediately.  No outside influence.  Go Cyclones.

My NCAA Bracket Thoughts

-One of the two most talked about topics is Louisville getting a 4 seed.  I personally had them as a 3 seed but I have little problem with a 4.  There really isn't that big of a difference.  The American Athletic Conference was not a very good conference.  Sure, it was top heavy but 40% of the conference fell below the 150 RPI line and a 5th team (Houston) was only a 143.  When half your conference is considered a bad loss you have to make it up in non conference.  Louisville's best non-conference win was Southern Miss who is currently sporting a 3 seed in the NIT.  Their overall non-conference strength of schedule is 159.  They do pass the eyeball test but that can't be reason enough for a two or three seed bump.

-The second most talked about topic is SMU's exclusion from the dance.  Again I have no problem with it.  See above regarding the problems with the AAC and realize that SMU lost to two of those bottom feeders and lost in their first conference tournament game to Houston.  SMU's non conference SOS was 303.  I wouldn't have complained if they did get in, but I'm not up in arms that they didn't.  I had them in over BYU.  BYU got rewarded for playing a tough schedule and a couple of top 50 RPI wins but they are not the same team without Kyle Collinsworth.  They should have been left out with out their second leading scorer, leading assist and rebound guy.

-Ultimately I think the committee did a solid job with who was left in and out of the field.  It was such a weak bubble that you really can't complain with any team that was left out.  I do have some seeding issues like UMass as a 6 seed and Gonzaga as an 8.  There was actually a moment during the bracket reveal where I thought that UMass might be in trouble even making the field.  I thought they should have been in but based on where I saw other A10 teams being seeded, the thought did cross my mind.

-This is a tough year to pick upsets.  Normally there are a few that really stick out to me.  But not this year.  Teams like Stephen F. Austin, NC Central and Manhattan were teams I was looking at pre-bracket reveal that I was targeting to move on with the right match up.  None of those teams got the right match up.  The only lower seed "upsets" I'm probably leaning towards are Providence and Iowa/Tennessee which aren't really upsets to me.

-A lot of people are saying how tough Wichita State's region (Midwest) is.  But that South region is insane.  Without Embiid I don't think Kansas makes it out of the first weekend if they have to play New Mexico but if Florida, Cuse and UCLA were all in different regions they might have all had a shot to get to my Final 4.  Then having VCU and Ohio State sitting there as the 5 and 6 seeds.  It's a brutal region.  Even more so if Kansas can stay alive long enough for Embiid to come back.

-It's interesting to me that Louisville might have to beat Wichita State and Michigan again on it's way to a national title.

-If a 16 seed upsets a 1 this year, is it unreasonable to think Warren Buffet had something to do with fixing a tournament game?  I don't really think there are any live 16 seeds this year though.  Coastal Carolina is technically closer to the arena than Virginia but that's not enough for me to come close to considering it.  If Texas Southern beats Cal Poly then Aaric Murray would be the biggest guy on the floor against Wichita State.  But if that guy could lead his team to a SWAC regular season championship then I'm not banking on him handing Wichita State their first loss of the year.

My Open Letter To Steve Lavin

Dear Coach Lavin,

Tough loss today.  I'm writing this prior to your press conference which I'll skip as I'm sure you'll spin the loss like you always do.  The guys "played hard til the bitter end" or "kept fighting" or whatever other cliche you'll throw out there.  The fact of the matter is that this season has been a colossal disappointment.  I know you're goal is to make St. John's a consistent winner and a program that doesn't have to sweat out Selection Sundays.  But quite honestly, we're not any closer than we were four years ago.  I'm a Mets and Jets fans too, so I'm familiar with being asked to be patient and that the "plan" will eventually come to fruition.  But the last two years was the waiting part for St. John's.  This team is an NCAA Tournament caliber program.  The NIT is supposed to be a one year stepping stone to the NCAA tournament the following year.  Look no further than the team we beat in the NIT last year and the team we lost to in the second round.  St. Joseph's and Virginia are both improved and are going to the tournament like they were supposed to.

I'm by no means writing you off as St. John's coach.  I do want you here.  The caliber of player you've brought in have been a breath of fresh air after the Mike Jarvis and Norm Roberts years.  But something has to give.  Your guys are juniors and sophomores.  This was the time. 

I know you're probably at the podium making it seem like the NCAA Tournament is still a possibility, but I assure you, it's falling on deaf ears with the selection committee.  It was as soft a tournament bubble as I can remember and by the time a few bids get stolen in these conference tournaments St. John's won't even be mentioned as a bubble team.  This season can only be described as a failure.

Again, the once proud St. John's basketball program will be playing on weekdays during the NCAA Tournament is happening.  Please try to figure it out next year.  We've waited long enough.

Sincerely,
Keith

The Ball is Tipped...College Hoops 2013-2014

Although it doesn't come with the pomp and circumstance of MLB's Opening Day or the anticipation of the first weekend of NFL games, college basketball(and their television partners) seem to be making an effort in recent years to put some quality games together for the opening night slate.  Last year we had Kentucky/Maryland and UConn/Michigan State.  The Syracuse/San Diego State aircraft carrier debacle did put a slight damper on the evening but at least the effort was there.  Compare that to the opening night of games in 2011 where we had Arizona/Valparaiso, St. John's/William & Mary and Mississippi State/Eastern Kentucky.  That was it.  Even as a die hard college basketball fan those three games don't really move the needle (although as a die hard St. John's fan, it moved mine).

This year it looks like(on paper) that there are even more watchable games on tap for opening night.  Everyone is talking about UConn/Maryland, Oregon/Georgetown and Duke/Davidson.  I'm looking at three lesser talked about games that I think should be interesting watches:

-Boston College at Providence:  This is an under the radar game no one is talking about.  I'm very high on Providence.  Brandon Austin is one of the early front runners for Big East Rookie of the Year so his suspension hurts some but this team returns the Kadeem Betts, LaDontae Henton, Kris Dunn and leading scorer Bryce Cotton.  And once they get Austin back, that's a formidable starting five.  I haven't seen them picked higher than 6th in the Big East.  It wouldn't shock me at all if they finish in the top half of the conference.  Boston College has a chance to be sneaky good too.  Oliver Hanlan, Ryan Anderson and Joe Rahon are three solid options.  BC has a good chance to finish in the middle of the pack in the ACC which will classify as a pretty good season going forward in that mega conference.  I think we are looking at two teams here that, at worst case, on the NCAA Tournament bubble come march.

-St. John's vs. Wisconsin:  I have no questions about Bo Ryan's ability to coach defense but I am curious as to how defensive oriented teams like Wisconsin handle the new rule changes.  Win or lose this game, Wisconsin will be in the tournament and towards the top of the Big 10.  This is a big game for St. John's and the new Big East.  As much as Steve Lavin is trying to keep the expectations lowered, this is an immensely athletic roster  which should make the NCAA Tournament.  An early season win against a Big 10 power would be a nice statement for the Big East and St. John's.

-Florida Gulf Coast at Nebraska:  I know, I know.  Nebraska has been widely considered the worst team in the Big 10 during the preseason but if you're a college basketball fan and got swept up in Dunk City last March, don't you want to see if Joe Cooley keeps these guys playing with the same style and fearlessness?  Don't you want to see Brett Comer throwing lobs to Chase Fieler?  Aren't you curious to see what the transfers from high majors, Jamail Jones(Marquette) and Nate Hicks(Georgia Tech), add to the team?

Honorable Mention:
-Buffalo at Texas A&M:  The start of the Bobby Hurley era at UB.

A Quick Thought on the Mike Rice Situation

Really quick on Mike Rice, he should have been fired and now he was.  Now the focus will be on Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti and should he retain his job.  In my opinion I can't make that decision without knowing whether or not his coaching methods calmed down after his suspension and fine earlier in the year.  A part of me respects the fact that he gave Rice another chance and opted to try to "rehabilitate" him over firing him immediately.  Now your hearing stuff like, "how can Pernetti fire him now when he saw the tape and chose not to fire him in the fall?"  To me, the answer is obvious.  Now that the tape became public, Mike Rice will never be able to walk in to a recruits house and win the living room ever again.  This day in age, every recruit and their family will see this video.  No parent is going to be okay with their son playing for Rice and subjecting them to that kind of treatment.  The video hampers him from being able to be an effective college basketball recruiter which cripples his ability to put a quality team on the floor.  Maybe Pernetti believed in Rice's coaching ability and second chances.  It's not what I would have done, but I can't fully fault him for that.

Some Quick Bracket Thoughts

**The "first round" tournament games will always be the play-in-games to me and therefore will be referred to as such.

It's been stated over and over, but Oregon is wildly under seeded.  I understand they got bumped a line for procedural reasons but I don't see how Oregon was not the highest seeded Pac-12 team let alone two seeds lower than Colorado and six seeds lower than UCLA.  They slumped to a 5-4 record after Dominic Artis got hurt but still finished second in the conference regular season and won the tournament.  I honestly thought that once Oregon got a 12, that Cal and Colorado were in trouble.  In the bracket that me and my friend do each year, we had them as a five figuring Arizona and UCLA would be around the 6 or 7 area.  

I'm a big supporter of the mid-majors but I'm still curious as to how Middle Tennessee State is in over Tennessee.  It's fine they had the #6 Strength of Schedule in the country but I think scheduling is only half the battle.  They have to win some of them.  Their best win was at home to Ole Miss (who as a 12 seed might not have made the tournament without Sunday's win).  And not for nothing, look at that schedule and tell me how that's the 6th best in the country.  Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled for them and honestly am more intrigued by what MTSU can do in this tournament than what a middle of the pack team from a lousy power conference can do.  I'm just surprised is all.

The selection committee says they don't set up potential match-up on purpose.  I don't believe them.  I was actually shocked that with Kansas as a 1 seed and Missouri as a 9 they didn't try to set that up as a potential round of 32 game.  I started thinking, "Hmm.  Maybe they don't set those up on purpose" as they announce Roy Williams could be sitting there facing Kansas in the second round.  Guess they weighed that as more interesting than rekindling an over 100 year rivalry that was killed just this year.

Goodbye Bracketbusters

The storm that is conference realignment in college sports has left a lot of destruction in it's path but one of the least talked about casualties of all these changes is the ending of ESPN's Bracketbuster event.  This February 22 and 23rd will be the 10th and final edition of the event.  It started as an 18 team event that swelled to as high as 142 teams last year.

I'm sure I'm a little more biased towards this event as University at Buffalo graduate who attended most of the home games when I was there as well as making the trek to Cleveland for the MAC Conference tournament whether or not Buffalo even advanced to the Gund.  After college I moved back to Long Island so it was tough to get to see many games so the potential of getting a game on ESPN was always exciting.  It gave me a reason to care about their RPI despite a zero percent chance of an at-large NCAA Tournament birth.  I believe that this is the 9th year that Buffalo is participating.  They were far away from a televised game this year but in their 9 years they were good enough to get three of them televised.  So that was always a treat.

The spirit of the event was to get the mid-major schools a chance for one more opportunity to get a  quality win before the season ended.  A lot of these higher quality mid-majors are the class of their conference and probably wouldn't have another opportunity for another good win once non-conference season ends.  In a few instances it was really useful and really worked.  Look at VCU's run to the Final Four in 2011.  If they don't get that win at Wichita State during Bracketbuster weekend then they don't even make the tournament.

The other benefit of Bracketbusters was getting rare exposure to see some of the mid-major tournament teams before the brackets come out.  Look at last year's tournament teams.  Wichita State, New Mexico State, Long Beach State, Davidson, Iona, VCU, Ohio, Creighton, South Dakota State, Murray State, UNC-Asheville and St. Mary's all got televised games.  Three of those teams won a game in the tournament and Ohio went to the Sweet 16.  If you watched the UNC-Asheville/Ohio game, you're on the Walter Offutt and DJ Cooper bandwagon before someone like Digger Phelps and Dick Vitale tell you Ohio is potential upset pick.  Maybe you know who J.P. Primm and Matt Dickey were before they almost became the first 16 seed to beat a 1 seed (Syracuse).  

It was a great and useful event and it's a shame it's ending.

Thoughts on my First Trip to the Barclays Center

On Saturday I made my first trip to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival triple header.

I heard some negative things about the exterior but I actually had no problem with it.  I thought the whole promenade area outside the main entrance was very well done.  The 360 degree screen is a very nice touch.  I can see why people might be put off by the "rust" color of the exterior but I don't mind it.  It's a nice change from the concrete looking boxes that everyone else seems to play in.  I'm willing to see how it ages before I bash it's outside aesthetic.

Even though I'm now in my mid-30's and have been to hundreds of sporting events, I still feel the anticipation of walking through the gate and seeing the playing surface in person .  My favorite thing about the Barclays really plays off that.  Normally when you enter a venue, you start on the concourse and have to find your gate number, walk through the narrow hall and into the arena.  Here, you get your ticket checked and straight ahead you are already looking at the scoreboard and you can walk right up and overlook the court.  It's something that I've never seen at a sports venue before and something I greatly appreciated.

I didn't like everything about it though.  Other than the overlook of the floor, the rest of the building doesn't really have a lot of personality.  It was just nice and new but nothing special.  A lot of good food options though.

Even though I am in my mid-30's and should have reached the point where I just buy tickets where I want to sit, I'm still a "buy the cheap seats and move down" guy.  Next time I go to the Barclays Center I will most definitely just buying my tickets in one of the lower two sections.  The level 200 is just too steep of an angle for me personally to enjoy a basketball game.  Probably my least favorite view of an indoor sporting event I've ever had.  Luckily for me, I was able to move down to mid-court about 10 rows off the floor for the middle game of the triple-header and were able to give the usher a few bucks to sit us in the lower section for the third game.  But I don't want to take the chance of not being able to move down next time I'm there.  For viewing a game, I'll take the Garden over the Barclays every time.

NCAA Tournament and Championship Game Thoughts

In the interest of not flooding this blog with NCAA Tournament posts over the last month I decided to hold back until the Championship Game.

I follow a lot of college basketball guys on Twitter and they are making me feel like not going to this Final Four is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. I love college basketball and I love New Orleans. I get a pit in my stomach every time I read a NOLA-centric tweet by those guys.

As a whole this tournament hasn't been that exciting. It's been a good watch with the two 2-15 upsets and everything but to go through a whole tournament without a buzzer beater is disappointing. There were a few moments that you wish happened: the ref making the right call and giving UNC-Asheville a chance to make history against Cuse, Rob Brandenberg's three pointer to fall for VCU against Indiana, . If they give the ball to Asheville like they should have they have a chance to tie it up and the one that would have been the feel good story of the tournament with Robbie Hummel hitting that game tying three pointer against Kansas. This tournament could have used that one. I'm not even counting Wisconsin's last shot against Syracuse. That one just rubbed me the wrong way. Jordan Taylor had 15 seconds to make a pass or two to set up a better shot. Instead he had a hero complex and just dribbled himself in to a bad shot attempt. Although if Josh Gasser was able to throw in that offensive rebound attempt, Taylor's shot would have been wiped from my memory.

On to the Championship Game tonight. I cannot be more impressed with what Kansas has done this year. This was the year they were going to have to rebuild. They weren't even picked to win the Big 12 (preseason 3rd behind Baylor and Missouri). I know Bill Self has a national title under his belt but even if they lost to Ohio State on Saturday, it's by far the best coaching job of his career. All that being said, I look across at Kentucky and can easily see them running away with the game tonight. Kentucky having an eraser around the basketball does not play in to Thomas Robinson's strengths. He likes to bully his to the rim for baskets. And with Anthony Davis around waiting to help it looks like a 4-15 type of game for Robinson. For Kansas to have any shot at winning tonight Tyshawn Taylor needs to hit some shots from outside. He's 0-20 from three in the tournament. Actually, as a whole, Kansas is going to need to live on the outside.

The line is Kentucky -6.5. I haven't decided how I'm going to bet it yet. My head is telling me Kentucky but I really want to root for Kansas. It may be a prop Championship Game. We'll be live blogging it here so I'll make my picks during that.

NCAA Tournament - Potentially Live Lower Seeds

Taking a look at the potential of the lower seeds in this year's tournament:

16 Seeds

UNC-Asheville, Mississippi Valley State, Western Kentucky, LIU-Brooklyn, Lamar, Vermont

Most "live" 16 Seed - LIU-Brooklyn

Unfortunately they got Michigan State which is not a great matchup for them (like any 1 seed would) but they have Julian Boyd, Jamal Olasewere, Jason Brickman and C.J. Garner who were all last year and no what it's like to play a giant of a college hoops program. They actually played a decent game against UNC last year. Gave serious consideration to UNC-Asheville. Five upperclassmen scoring in double figures led by Matt Dickey and J.P. Primm.

15 Seeds

Loyola(MD), Lehigh, Norfolk State, Detroit

Most "live" 15 Seed - Lehigh

I feel that Duke is a weak 2-seed this year. Lehigh has some star power in C.J. McCollum where if Lehigh can pull it off it will be on McCollum's back. He's just the type of guy who has potential to become a tournament darling. He will play in the NBA. Detroit is more talented but in taking opponents into account, Kansas is a tougher opponent than Duke. Ray McCallum would be a tournament darling too if they could pull the upset.

14 Seeds

St. Bonaventure, South Dakota State, BYU, Iona, Belmont

Most "live" 14 Seed - Belmont

Belmont has the perfect formula for an upset. They are a high scoring team that as a whole shoots the three well. They've played a giant this year and lost by 1 at Duke and Columbus, Ohio will be alot more friendly environment than Cameron. Take in to account that Georgetown is susceptible to early tournament upsets recently( especially to mid-majors Davidson, Ohio and VCU in their last three tourneys) and I'm taking them to win in my brackets. I gave some thought to Iona. They are more talented than Belmont but they aren't a better team. I'm not sure they get past BYU in the play in game and Marquette is a tougher tournament opponent than Georgetown. The 14's have some good players that can make them all worth looking at in Nate Wolters (SDSU) and Andrew Nicholson (SBU)

13 Seeds

Montana, New Mexico State, Davidson, Ohio

Most "live" 13 Seed - New Mexico State

I'm actually taking Montana and New Mexico State in my brackets (a 14 and two 13's, my bracket will be done quickly) but if I'm picking only one I'm going with New Mexico State. New Mexico State will be able to neutralize Cody Zeller with their size and rebounding ability. They don't shoot the three well but they are a good offensive rebounding team. The thing that kept me from putting Montana largely has to to with Wisconsin.

12 Seeds

Harvard, VCU, Long Beach State, California, South Florida

Most "live" 12 Seed - South Florida

Four out of five of these 12-seeds could win a game or two with the right draw(with California being the team I don't believe in). Unfortunately for Harvard and VCU they drew Vanderbilt and Wichita State. New Mexico won't be able to intimidate Long Beach State after the teams they played this year but missing Larry Anderson for the first game makes me weary. A part of me doesn't think that South Florida should be in the tournament but they play the perfect style to pull off some upsets. They do have trouble scoring but they also play good defense so they should be in tight games.

NCAA Tournament Bracket Reactions

Above is what a friend and I came up with for our projection of what the bracket should be.

As you can see we missed two teams. Iona and California got in over Seton Hall and Tennessee. But we also had 14 teams mis-seeded.

-We chose Seton Hall and Tennessee because they actually beat some people. It looks like the DePaul loss was the dagger for Seton Hall because for me, beating VCU, UConn and Georgetown are better wins than St. Joseph's (Iona's best RPI win) and Oregon (Cal's best RPI win). Tennessee was a reach because it was largely believed that they weren't in the bracket going in to the SEC tournament and would need to play their way in but it was too hard to ignore sweeping Florida and beating UConn and Vandy as well. We didn't have Drexel for the final 2 spots. I love Iona being in the field, I love mid-majors but I just don't think they earned their way in (2 sub-200 RPI losses too). I think this is one of the biggest examples of the selection committee going by the "eye-ball" test that I've ever seen. Cal is only in based on them being in the PAC-12. I'm sure of it.

-I'm not really going to complain too much about seedings but I think Louisville should have jumped Marquette as the 2nd Big East team. We had them as a 2 seed and they got a 4. It seems to me that the committee didn't really weigh the Big East tournament championship. They were probably a 4 seed prior to the tournament anyway.

-Why was St. Louis so comfortably in the tournament as a 9 seed? Other than winning 2 of 3 against Xavier, I don't see where their other good wins came from. And a 198 non-conference schedule doesn't impress me at all. I'm surprised they didn't have to sweat on Selection Sunday.

-I'll admit we underseeded Indiana. I think we were just familiar with Indiana so we didn't dig in to their profile enough. But after looking at them more closely, we were definately wrong. 8-5 against the top 50 is as good as anyone else along that seed line.

-I hate Wichita State and VCU playing in the first round. Two teams I'd really like to root for.

-I will never call the Tuesday and Wednesday games anything other than the "First Four" or "play-in" games. The first round starts on Thursday and the NCAA has to stop kidding themselves.

-It seems this year the selection committee really leaned on the RPI more than I can remember in the past. By the criteria they went by it looks like Marshall was probably closer than we think to a bid since they were the only bubble team with a sub-50 RPI not to make the tournament. It seems like the cutoff was 53 (West Virginia). And that also explains why there are rumors that Oral Roberts was the team that got bumped by St. Bonnie's winning the A10. Their RPI was 55. And back to Iona, theirs was 42 which is literally the only postive number on their profile other than the names on their roster.

The Perfect March

March is the best month of the year. This is how I'd ideally like to spend mine.

March 1st - March 4th
St. Louis, MO

The Missouri Valley tournament is always fun and I've always wanted to go to Arch Madness.

March 5th
Richmond, VA

One day I'd like to see this tourney in it's entirety but I'll settle for what should be a really good Colonial final.

March 6th
Hot Springs, Ark

I'd like to see the Horizon final on the 6th but since I don't know which campus site it'll be at, I head over to Arkansas to see the Sun Belt final.

March 7th - March 10th
Cleveland, OH

I've been to the MAC tournament a few times and it was great. As a Buffalo alum I'm planning to stay until the 10th because they do have a shot to win it this year.

March 11th
Back to Long Island

I have a St. Patty's parade that morning and predicting the bracket all afternoon

March 13th to April 2nd

Zone out and watch the NCAA tournament

Championship Week Predictions

Back from vacation in time for Championship Week!! After the NCAA Tournament it's probably the best part of the college hoops season. I'm going to keep updating the sheet with my predictions as the brackets come out:

Why Automatic Bids Should Not Be Eliminated - Reaction to Jay Bilas' column

On February 15th, Jay Bilas wrote a column in favor of eliminating automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament.

Jay Bilas writes some form of this column every year. He does it because he thinks the mid-major enthusiasts (I am one myself) view him as a power conference elitist trying to force the mid-majors out of the NCAA Tournament. Then in these columns he essentially says, "Hey look, your precious mid-majors will still be in the tournament! And maybe even more of them!" He's probably right but the whole mid-major argument isn't the part that bothers me. Besides, on his Bilas Index he obviously ranks the teams where he does only to fit his own arguments. The mid-majors are taking care of themselves these days. What Jay Bilas doesn't care about is the low-majors.

For some reason Bilas thinks that because a 1 seed has to play a low-major team in the first round somehow diminishes a championship run. I don't see that at all. He seems to think that having a team like Stanford play Kentucky in the first round instead of a team like Stony Brook automatically fixes that. The 1-16 games are only 4 games of the tournament, so why rob these low major schools of an opportunity for a memory they rightfully earned? I'm all for the 1-16 blow outs if it means I get to watch games like last year's Boston U vs Stony Brook's America East final again. To me that outweighs Boston getting beat down the next week by Kansas. And if you get rid of the automatic bids then what happens to Championship Week? Do conferences stop putting on tournaments? They wouldn't mean anything. What would Boston and Stony Brook have played for last year, a banner? Who's watching that? If you're a college basketball fan and your okay destroying something as great as Championship Week then there is something wrong with you.

Every year a friend and I get together on Selection Sunday and try to accurately predict the bracket and every year it doesn't come down to "I can't believe we left this team out," often times our reaction is "I can't believe we put this team in." So in my eyes, if you can't crack this bracket the way it is now you're probably not more worthwhile than a small school anyway. Leave it alone.

The Ball Is Tipped....

This year I was lucky enough to have my favorite team kick-off the college hoops season. I feel it gives me an excuse to post specifically about the game under the guise of posting about the start of the basketball season.

St. John's is chock full of interesting stories: 9 new players, top 3 recruiting class, 3 of those players not being eligible to start the season, walk on tryouts out of necessity because they couldn't even run a 5-5 scrimmage at practice and last but not least, Steve Lavin's prostate cancer surgery. Being largely a team of newcomers I'm fully expecting a very frustrating season which I'm okay with thanks to last year and the promise of the future of St. John's hoops.

Tonight's win, I feel is going to be a microcosm of their season. It was a nice 15 point win over a team with a style that does (did) give St. John's fits. Instead of me rehashing the whole game, you can check out the boxscore of the 74-59 win HERE. But I would like go over things I liked and disliked from the game tonight:

DISLIKED:

Free throw shooting - There is nothing in sports more frustrating than a team who can't hit free throws. For the game they were 12-25 (48%). I can't take that. At one point I realized I was only 23 minutes in to the college hoops season and I was already angry. And on such a glorious opening night of basketball too.
The dreadful ESPNU logo - I love everyone else's logo but St. John's is the worst. It has to do with being the Red Storm (which is ridiculous and a whole different post) but it's just terrible and makes no sense.

I know the mascot is a bird but that makes no sense either

Three point defense - This may seem like nitpicking since they did only hold William & Mary to a shade under 35% for the game but they started missing some as they heaved them up in late desparation. They scramble and gamble a lot with their full court pressure which leaves them out of position a lot to jump out and contest a lot of 3s. With 7 guys getting regular minutes I wouldn't mind seeing them call off the pressure sometimes for now. Most of the guys on the floor seem quick and long enough to still get their hands on some balls in the half court defense. I know full pressure is the style but I can't see keeping that up with this little depth.

Rebounding - Like everything in the 2nd half, it got better. But they were out rebounded for the game but closed the gap in the 2nd half. That could largely be attributed to them shooting just about 68% in the 2nd half but it's obviously going to be an issue this year.

Three point shooting - I'm not in panic mode or anything after one game but do you know the last time a St. John's finished the season shooting better than 35 percent for a season?......Neither do I.

LIKED:

The 2nd half defense - Obviously. But what I liked about it is that they got over their jitters and completely overwhelmed William & Mary with their superior athleticism after being down 7 at the half. William & Mary is the anti-St. John's or St. John's 2010-2011 with them returning 12 players and 4 starters from last year. With that kind of experience, it wouldn't have surprised me in the least if the Tribe we able to salt that victory away so it was nice to see St. John's literally take the victory tonight.

JUCOs - During the offseason everyone liked to talk about the freshmen. But this game St. John's was led by God's Gift and Nuri Lindsey. A lot of GG's rebounds were uncontested but he shot a high percentage from the floor and looked the most comfortable at the FT line. He also drew some charges and only commited 1 foul which is going to be very important for this team o have him not foul out. Lindsey on the other hand I was very frustrated with in the first half. Who cares if a guy could get to the line if he couldn't hit any free throws. His FT does need work but he was able to get to the rim and finish a lot and also shot a high percentage when all was said and done. 5 steals didn't hurt either.

LOVED

4 Turnovers!!! - To me that's amazing for such an inexperienced team playing their first regular season game together. I don't believe they turned it over at all in the 2nd half either. That was a +17 differential for the game.

I didn't really mention any of the freshmen but this is getting long and I'm not going to get too excited or panic too much based on one game.