This is a general discussion thread for non-Ivy March Madness games.
#16 Siena falls just short of upsetting Duke. The whole game seemed to turned on a missed uncontested dunk by Siena. Still a great effort.
#12 High Point takes down Wisconsin. The winning bucket was scored by a 26 year-old (!!!) 6th year player who had never scored a single 2pt bucket all season. Basically the Jason Kapono of the team. On top of everything else, Ivy teams are constantly playing against 23-26 year-olds now. Can Tosan come back and play his 4th year of college ball with us?
That Miami First Four game last night was about the most entertaining college basketball contest I have seen in some time.
That offense is just so well coached and drilled. Even Carill might have learned a thing or two from the exquisite floor spacing, cuts, passing–and man, has this team perfected the bounce pass–and shooting. Very fun team to watch and overall, a very fun game to see.
Saint Louis is crushing Georgia like it’s a 16-1 game. Robbie Avila took a reduced role this season for the overall benefit of the team and it’s worked like a charm. Says a lot about his character.
GK, You keep saying that the 2022 and 2024 teams were just as good as the 2023 team but it’s just not true. Go back and watch the three NCAA games from 2023. When that team peaked—at just the right time—it was much better than the 2022 or 2024 teams. The interior defense (6 blocks against AZ vs. the Wildcats 1 block!), rebounding (we out rebounded AZ and crushed MO on the Boards!), and offense (Tosan, Ryan Langborg, and Blake Peters sizzled) were outrageous in those games. With a healthy Keeshawn and Caden that year, we were bigger and badder up front than any Princeton team I can remember in the last 50 years. Go back and watch. And enjoy. And stop grumbling about 2024-2026. The Tigers will rise again.
Michael Zannoni of Penn , who was Penn’s best player last ite, is 23 and will be 24 during ivy season next year. Age and experience matter at top levels unless transcendent talent. Ivies need grad year rules which is one more way to compete. They survived with it for one year already.
Completely agree the prohibition of grad players makes zero sense in this age. Ivy could limit the eligibility to players who had played at least one year of Ivy ball prior, if the concern were players coming in for a one-off year. How silly it is that some players have an incentive to spread their credits thin to delay graduation (Zanoni) – or that a 3-year Ivy player who misses a year due to injury cannot stay for their 4th year of eligibility as a grad student. A strength of this conference is the elite education resulting in higher player retention than any other mid-major (except the military academies?) – we should be expanding ways to take advantage of that strength. The argument that IL schools have unequal grad offerings is weak.
As the WSJ noted recently, the NIL/transfer portal has made mid-major Cinderellas a lot less likely.
My thought: Remember when Lehigh upset Duke all those years ago? C.J. McCollum wouldn’t have been a senior on that Lehigh team under the current regime.
High Point, Utah St, St Louis, VCU are all Cinderella mid majors that beat high powered and top NIL D1s so far. Doesn’t seem to me these upsets are less likely