🏀 2018 NCAA Tournament: Villanova wins National Championship

[TerryP]

An interesting side note to the Nevada win over Texas from last night. We've talked about the number of transfers we are seeing each year in basketball. The five starters for Nevada all transferred in to their program.

 

[RTB X Bot]

 

[TerryP]

hahahaha, getting hit in the pearls.

 

[TUSKtimes]

I haven't read the data on it but there cannot possibly be a year where more brackets were busted before the 2nd round than the carnage of losing both Virginia and Arizona in the great wipeout of 2018.

 

[TerryP]

I haven't read the data on it but there cannot possibly be a year where more brackets were busted before the 2nd round than the carnage of losing both Virginia and Arizona in the great wipeout of 2018.

I'm like you in that I haven't really *looked* at the data and how they are judging things as far as brackets busted. I'm assuming what ESPN means is these busted brackets means fans had a team like 'Zona in their final game and/or winning the NC.

I do recall ESPN announcing last season that the 'Nova loss busted 18 million brackets. I also recall after Saturday's action last season there were a handful of brackets still "perfect."

I'll tell you what gets on my nerves a little is how this tournaments is being framed and how some of these games are "unbelievable" upsets. How are they unbelievable? Seriously, how?

Back in December we started talking about ranked teams losing to unranked teams. By January there was a ranked team that hadn't lost to an unranked team. It continued through the entire season. But all of a sudden we're supposed to be shocked at something we've been watching for three months now?

 

[TUSKtimes]

I'm like you in that I haven't really *looked* at the data and how they are judging things as far as brackets busted. I'm assuming what ESPN means is these busted brackets means fans had a team like 'Zona in their final game and/or winning the NC.

I do recall ESPN announcing last season that the 'Nova loss busted 18 million brackets. I also recall after Saturday's action last season there were a handful of brackets still "perfect."

I'll tell you what gets on my nerves a little is how this tournaments is being framed and how some of these games are "unbelievable" upsets. How are they unbelievable? Seriously, how?

Back in December we started talking about ranked teams losing to unranked teams. By January there was a ranked team that hadn't lost to an unranked team. It continued through the entire season. But all of a sudden we're supposed to be shocked at something we've been watching for three months now?

To be frank, I'm an NBA guy, always have been. The 3 point metric has taken over the sport. From starting the pick and roll and motion offense well back of the 3 point line to the type of player is being utilized in the growing "small ball" era. How much of the 3-ball metric is driving these underdog teams? Teams like SuperNova look like they get it.

 

[TerryP]

To be frank, I'm an NBA guy, always have been. The 3 point metric has taken over the sport. From starting the pick and roll and motion offense well back of the 3 point line to the type of player is being utilized in the growing "small ball" era. How much of the 3-ball metric is driving these underdog teams? Teams like SuperNova look like they get it.

Decked out in his customary Marshall basketball t-shirt and a dark blazer, D’Antoni unspooled what he referred to as his “daggone analytics story”: “The last two championships have been Cleveland and Golden State,” he said, talking about the NBA. “What did they do? You don’t see anybody post up. They just spread that thing out and go.”​

​

D’Antoni became an overnight exemplar of analytics. But can an NBA blueprint remake a mid-major team with subpar talent in the NCAA?​

...​

“If you do just the ordinary, you’ll lose, so you have to do something unusual to beat people more athletically gifted than you,” D’Antoni said.​

...​

And D’Antoni knows all of the percentages. “I’ve told our players the numbers forever,” D’Antoni said. “When you look at offense, it’s not about the overall scheme — it’s about the actions within an offense, and you have to know the best odds for scoring.” Using data culled from the NBA, which D’Antoni contended still applies to the college game, a corner 3, which is worth 1.27 points per shot, is the best shot in basketball. The next best shot? “Any other three,” he said. A lay-up — “a clean lay-up,” D’Antoni stresses — is even better: 1.8 points per shot.1​

​

Which is why Marshall never stops shooting. Roughly 43 percent of the team’s attempts are from beyond the arc, squaring Marshall within Division I’s top 50 (per Ken Pomeroy), and according to Synergy Sports, Marshall scores 1.08 points per spot up (1.17 points per catch and shoot), which is bested by only 23 other DI squads. “I don’t know if there is another team in the country that does as many shooting drills as we do,” said Austin Loop, a junior guard with the third-best overall offensive rating in Division I and who has converted 49 percent of his 3’s. Perhaps not coincidentally, Marshall scores at one of the country’s most efficient clips, dropping 1.11 points per possession, which is the highest ever for a D’Antoni-coached team (and good for the top 60 nationally).​

...​

​

This is related to a thread I posted just before the NIT started about the NCAA using that tournament as an experimental field for rule changes. Among those this year was a difference in the three point line distance. Here's the NCAA release. I suspect we'll see the line move, soon.

The quotes from above with D'Antoni come from this article: The D’Antoni Basketball Revolution Goes To College

 

[TUSKtimes]

Decked out in his customary Marshall basketball t-shirt and a dark blazer, D’Antoni unspooled what he referred to as his “daggone analytics story”: “The last two championships have been Cleveland and Golden State,” he said, talking about the NBA. “What did they do? You don’t see anybody post up. They just spread that thing out and go.”​

​

D’Antoni became an overnight exemplar of analytics. But can an NBA blueprint remake a mid-major team with subpar talent in the NCAA?​

...​

“If you do just the ordinary, you’ll lose, so you have to do something unusual to beat people more athletically gifted than you,” D’Antoni said.​

...​

And D’Antoni knows all of the percentages. “I’ve told our players the numbers forever,” D’Antoni said. “When you look at offense, it’s not about the overall scheme — it’s about the actions within an offense, and you have to know the best odds for scoring.” Using data culled from the NBA, which D’Antoni contended still applies to the college game, a corner 3, which is worth 1.27 points per shot, is the best shot in basketball. The next best shot? “Any other three,” he said. A lay-up — “a clean lay-up,” D’Antoni stresses — is even better: 1.8 points per shot.1​

​

Which is why Marshall never stops shooting. Roughly 43 percent of the team’s attempts are from beyond the arc, squaring Marshall within Division I’s top 50 (per Ken Pomeroy), and according to Synergy Sports, Marshall scores 1.08 points per spot up (1.17 points per catch and shoot), which is bested by only 23 other DI squads. “I don’t know if there is another team in the country that does as many shooting drills as we do,” said Austin Loop, a junior guard with the third-best overall offensive rating in Division I and who has converted 49 percent of his 3’s. Perhaps not coincidentally, Marshall scores at one of the country’s most efficient clips, dropping 1.11 points per possession, which is the highest ever for a D’Antoni-coached team (and good for the top 60 nationally).​

...​

​

This is related to a thread I posted just before the NIT started about the NCAA using that tournament as an experimental field for rule changes. Among those this year was a difference in the three point line distance. Here's the NCAA release. I suspect we'll see the line move, soon.

The quotes from above with D'Antoni come from this article: The D’Antoni Basketball Revolution Goes To College

I should have guessed with the Thundering Herd. I'm sure someone will do the math on the NIT tourney once it's done. Gotta believe the widened free throw lane opens up the middle and creates more scoring. May take a little more time to get used to a longer 3 point line so fast. But this is the kind of stuff I can see leveling the court for the little man and putting the O back in college basketball for everyone else.

 

[TerryP]

Back in December we started talking about ranked teams losing to unranked teams. By January there was a ranked team that hadn't lost to an unranked team. It continued through the entire season. But all of a sudden we're supposed to be shocked at something we've been watching for three months now?

That's a comment on A&M holding a 22 point lead over UNC with 8 left in the second.

 

[TerryP]

Based on common reasoning:

UNC lost to the Aggies where A&M shot over 40% from the beyond the arc, over 50% from the floor, and had mediocre results from the line. So, based on what I've learned this year, Roy Williams can't coach. He can recruit, but can't coach.

I'm getting this basketball thing. <img alt="" src="https://ih0.redbubble.net/image.567420689.0744/pp,650x642-pad,750x1000,f8f8f8.u2.jpg" style="width: 75px; height: 100px;" />

 

[#80]

The barn 0-18 shooting to end the half only scoring 19 pts.

 

[#80]

LMFAO ....... the barn is down 40.

 

[planomateo]

:rolf:

 

[UAgrad93]

And then there were only 2 remaining from the SEC. UK and A&M advance into the Sweet 16, with the Wildcats having an excellent shot to get to the Final Four! A&M gets a little tougher road to hoe, but they seem to have rebounded from their early exit in St. Louis last week.

 

[RTB X Bot]

 

[RTB X Bot]

 

[TerryP]

 

[TerryP]

:rolf:

Apropos? Irony? It's something that's definitely the walking dead.

 

[TerryP]

Switching gears to the NIT for a minute...

With WKU's win over Okie State last night there's three more teams left in the NIT tournament. Penn State and Utah are two along with Mississippi State.

Stansbury versus Mississippi State...gotta say, that's one I'll watch.

 

[RTB X Bot]