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You have got to buck up, man. You cannot drag this negative energy into the tournament!
On a neutral court...
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8 comments:
I would like to thank the Chairman of the Boards aka Chris Lux for his hospitality, as usual, in hosting this meeting of the minds. I look forward to another season of dominating Matt with my college basketball picks and prowess, much like I did during my undergraduate years and even the weekend I was publicly Jaded and made Matt motorboat it. That being said, on with my picks. I have a bold prediction for the year: the state of Tennessee could have two teams make the final four this year. We all know Memphis is loaded and their conference is a hall pass to a 30-win season, but Bruce Pearl and Co. are legit and will get battle tested all year in a physical and deep deep SEC conference. So marinate on that for a minute.
1 California-Los Angeles
2 North Carolina
3 Memphis
4 Tennessee
5 Kansas
6 Georgetown
7 Indiana
8 Louisville
9 Washington State
10 Oregon
11 Marquette
12 Gonzaga
13 Texas
14 Michigan State
15 Southern California
16 Duke
Lux when you coming back down to the A
hartzell,
Tennessee will be good, top 10 and they will win the SEC. But I dont see the SEC's best with a one seed, especially over the big east. To say that the SEC is deep is not really telling the truth. There are some good teams, but maybe only one top 15, and three in the top 25. I don't think Arkansas is a top 25 caliber team personally. Then you have several teams who will win one or two big games, and hover around .500 in SEC play. So if you could point out to me the case for the SEC being "a physical and deep deep" conference that would be great.
Lofton can get them to the final four though. nice two seed, and regional final team. But lets remember the meltdown they had last year against Ohio State.
The only other exception I'll take with your rankings (glad your on the Wash St. bandwagon) is you are awfully high on Texas. You think USC is better than Arizona?
Nice Duke insert.
Matt.
Didn't even mention Kentucky. Soft conference.
Matt....I have to say the the freshman looked good for your boys last night. Mr. Flynn may be the best freshman in the big east, we'll just have to see if he can keep up the effort. I would like to point out that Cuse only be Siena by the score of 97-89. I do believe that JMU beat Siena by the score of 100-88 and therefore would like to point out the fact that in theroy JMU has beaten the Cuse this year. Futhermore my boy Kyle Singler is not a "autistic" player, but may very well be the ACC freshman of the year. Just some food for thought...hope your boys don't have another early season meltdown at home.(Lets go St. Joes)
M. Drury
Matt,
I'll save you from bashing the Pac-10 because of USC's loss even though I'm shocked you haven't done it yet. I personally think they need to be cut some slack (much more so than UNC) because they were missing 3 heavy rotation players due to injuries. Mayo does look legit though and where's the Wash State meltdown you were talking about? California just beat a CUSA team and Washington just beat Utah. Should I point out some of the Big East losses or Syracuse's loss if it wasn't for a prayer shot to St Joes? Cincy looks great by the way.
Hartzell,
[Insert Aerosmith - Jaded music here]
I love the UCLA pick, they are ridiculous. Not sure when I'll get back to Atlanta but what regional final are we going to in March?
A few items for this wonderful day:
1- Washington State: what are we in, january? Wash state has played Eastern Washington and Boise State, and won both games...great that proves that the pac 10 is mighty. Their upcoming games are Idaho, Montana, MVSU (miss valley state?), Air Force and at Baylor. WOW! Maybe one of those teams will land a spot in the new postseason tourney, but don't hold your breath. Wait for the 12/5 game at Gonzaga. Lets see what happens then. After that they play four Division 2 schools, and what is up with the Pac10 playing the Citadel. Thats weird.
2- Interesting to note that you are shocked that I didn't start picking at the USC loss, but you wanted to make comments about a "hypothetical" loss to St.Josephs. Not a prayer shot either, Flynn can play and he will cause problems later in the year. Nice start for the team though. We'll see who wins that NIT in NY.
3- Big East losses. Are you serious. Cincinnati and South Florida are terrible. DePaul went to Creighton. That is the 12th best Big east team going to play the 2nd or 3rd MVC team. I will say this, Mercer. Wait for Oregon State to play Colorado State, lets see what happens there.
Cal beat Southern Miss...wow thats a great game. You know who else beat a C-USA team: VCU. There are only 5 C-USA teams that have not lost, so solid argument there.
Big East losses: Belmont, Bowling Green, Creighton, Buffalo and Cleveland State. (all by teams who won't play in MSG in march). Now the BE losses have been pointed out.
Cincinnati is missing more of their production than USC was when they lost to Mercer. Cincy's best player is gone for the year. But if you want to compare the 15th or 16th BE team against the 4th or 5th P10 team all year...thats fine go for it.
Matt.
Well I'm glad you're finally admitting how many crap teams are in the Big East and you've done a terrific job highlighting the why. There is one shit team in the Pac 10, one!
I didn't say Wash St's wins proves anything about the Pac 10. I just wanted to point out that the meltdown hasn't happened yet and considering how those games were played, most likely never will. I'm still amazed that you think a team returning 4 starters can have a meltdown but to each his own.
Cincy's best player is gone for the year so what's the point in discussing he's missing? Unless he's coming back later, Cincy right now is Cincy in February.
Are you really making fun of out of conference scheduling? UConn and Cuse barely play anything but shit teams at home, let alone on the road (ie, outside of NY) most years. Also, if you're in the Pac 10, you don't need to challenge yourself all that much early. When Cuse plays 5 teams as good as UCLA/Oregon/Zona/WSU/SU not once but twice in Jan/Feb, you give me a call.
How can a meltdown occur this early in the season. That wouldn't be a meltdown, that would be a catastrophe. The meltdown will occur starting with that Gonzaga game like I said.
Also called the Oregon State loss to Colorado State, but even I didn't think it would be by that big of a margin.
I enjoy reading your comments because whenever you mention the Big East you always leave out the likes of Georgetown, Louisville, and Marquette, and instead go after a young team and a rebuilding project (UCONN). So you compare UCLA to Syracuse, I am okay with that because of the strength of the Big East.
You always have to challenge yourself. The argument that Pac10 teams do not need to challenge themselves early on is crap. The Pac10 is not this strong every year. USC, Wash State, and Arizona State are coming on as of late, they are not established powers that you find in other conferences, mainly the Big East. BE teams shouldn't have to schedule too difficult teams either when you have to face Louisville, Georgetown, Marquette, Pitt, Villanova, Syracuse, UCONN, and Notre Dame. While they may not play every team twice, the good teams in the BE play the other squads that are of the same caliber twice (most of the time). There are 18 games both ways, and in some cases it is more difficult in the BE because you do not have the home and home, sometimes just traveling to that other site.
If Pac10 teams do not have to challenge themselves then why do it. UCLA, USC, and Zona have very respectable out of conference schedules. So do some BE squads, but Washington State does not have that good of a schedule, and they will trip over pieces of it.
Okay Syracuse does not play many teams outside of NY, thats fine, but how many of UCLA, USC, and Cal's games are outside of California?
As long as we can agree that these are the best two conferences in the nation, I will argue all day who is one and who is two. Traditionally, the BE is better than the P10, does that mean that is the case this year, certainly not, but we will see.
I love you Lux.
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