March 16, 201511 yr I've not been real high on Nova this season. I watched them this past weekend in the BEast tournament, and they won me over. They were ridiculously good. I'm not sure how they'd do against some of the big dogs (Kentucky, Duke, Wisconsin, Arizona, etc.) but I think they'll be a tough out. Their best OOC win is either a neutral site game against VCU (admittedly when VCU was still at 100 percent I believe) or at home against Syracuse. That's not much to go on. I just don't know enough to feel confident about them. I wonder if they are good enough defensively.
March 16, 201511 yr I wonder if they are good enough defensively. They're the #13 rated defense according to KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency. They're one of only 3 teams (Arizona and Kentucky are the others) that are top 15 in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency.
March 16, 201511 yr Same here. They may well get to the Final Four or win the national title. GT, MTGL, & UKMF are all believers and those guys know their hoops. Still, I'll believe it when I see it. I did see the Big East title game on Saturday night and what they did to Xavier was impressive. I think they're quite good, I just don't know how far they can go. Part of the problem is that I just don't trust anything in that bracket. My gut tells me that Louisville has about a 50/50 shot of dropping that opener to UC Irvine. Then my gut tells me that they gave UNC everything they could handle until the final minutes and are playing halfway decent basketball if they can keep their heads screwed on straight for 40 minutes at a time. I also don't think much of Oklahoma at that three seed. Virginia is solid but they play so slowly and deliberately I wonder how they'll fare if they follow their recent trend of getting down in games early and trying to fight back. It's a bracket full of teams I don't trust as much as it's one of teams I don't fully know.
March 16, 201511 yr They're the #13 rated defense according to KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency. They're one of only 3 teams (Arizona and Kentucky are the others) that are top 15 in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency. I must have looked at it wrong before. I thought I saw they were outside of the top 20. :thumb:
March 16, 201511 yr My gut tells me that Louisville has about a 50/50 shot of dropping that opener to UC Irvine. Then my gut tells me that they gave UNC everything they could handle until the final minutes and are playing halfway decent basketball if they can keep their heads screwed on straight for 40 minutes at a time. I had originally thought Louisville would want to go out west, but I have to think you guys like the draw you were given. What you say about the bracket being full of untrustworthy teams in spot-on IMO.
March 16, 201511 yr I had originally thought Louisville would want to go out west, but I have to think you guys like the draw you were given. What you say about the bracket being full of untrustworthy teams in spot-on IMO. Other than UD having to play in the play-in which makes a short week disastrous for an undermanned team like the Flyers, I'm a fan of the draw both my schools received here. I think it's as good as can be hoped for the Cardinals. After having legitimate gripes about seeding in recent years, I think the NCAA may have paid the Cardinals back by giving them a seed at least a line higher than they probably deserve. Dayton gets to play a home game Wednesday night and then (hopefully) play a Providence team that's far from invincible. Don't know how this is all going to shake out... but yeah... I like my spot.
March 16, 201511 yr Cheapest ticket for the East Regional play-in between Boise State and Dayton currently over $100 on Stub Hub for a seat in the top corner three rows from the top. The NCAA is finally going to get what it wants out of the play-in: a capacity crowd full of paying customers.
March 16, 201511 yr Other than UD having to play in the play-in which makes a short week disastrous for an undermanned team like the Flyers, I'm a fan of the draw both my schools received here. I think it's as good as can be hoped for the Cardinals. After having legitimate gripes about seeding in recent years, I think the NCAA may have paid the Cardinals back by giving them a seed at least a line higher than they probably deserve. Dayton gets to play a home game Wednesday night and then (hopefully) play a Providence team that's far from invincible. Don't know how this is all going to shake out... but yeah... I like my spot. I was wondering what you thought about Dayton's situation. Seems to me that they should have been higher than 11, but at the same time, they get to play at home.
March 16, 201511 yr Cheapest ticket for the East Regional play-in between Boise State and Dayton currently over $100 on Stub Hub for a seat in the top corner three rows from the top. The NCAA is finally going to get what it wants out of the play-in: a capacity crowd full of paying customers. Wife went last year when Xavier played, and sat in the top corner. Paid much less than $100 for both tickets. Dayton being there is going to skyrocket the prices.
March 16, 201511 yr I was wondering what you thought about Dayton's situation. Seems to me that they should have been higher than 11, but at the same time, they get to play at home. Definitely thought UD would be higher than 11, but I suppose I get it. We don't have a truly great win this year and the NCAA is never going to give a smaller conference team the benefit of the doubt. The short week is troubling. Dayton only has seven scholarship players (and would be six if not for handing a scholarship to a walk-on back in January) and they're already running on fumes after the three games in the A-10 tournament. I'd have liked a full week of rest ahead of playing. That said, it's hard to argue that we paid the price to get the benefit: lower seeding sure, but the play-in is at home and if the Flyers win, it's a short trip up on I-70 over to Columbus for the game on Friday, in another arena that will be packed with Dayton fans.
March 16, 201511 yr I'm decidedly in the minority today among Dayton fans in that I'm not really convinced the Flyers got a raw deal on this one. Here are the numbers for the last few teams into the field if you're curious: What this chart and the the NCAA's rep on the selection show last night talking up UCLA and Texas demonstrate to me is the way the committee has figured out how to preference major conference teams without looking like they're being unfair. He kept talking about UCLA's strength of schedule and all the tough games they play (and even how close they were to Arizona). UCLA won exactly three of their 11 games against Top 100 competition.
March 16, 201511 yr I'm decidedly in the minority today among Dayton fans in that I'm not really convinced the Flyers got a raw deal on this one. Here are the numbers for the last few teams into the field if you're curious: What this chart and the the NCAA's rep on the selection show last night talking up UCLA and Texas demonstrate to me is the way the committee has figured out how to preference major conference teams without looking like they're being unfair. He kept talking about UCLA's strength of schedule and all the tough games they play (and even how close they were to Arizona). UCLA won exactly three of their 11 games against Top 100 competition. The NCAA's reasoning is very flawed in my opinion, and frankly not at all fair to teams not in the power conferences.
March 16, 201511 yr The NCAA's reasoning is very flawed in my opinion, and frankly not at all fair to teams not in the power conferences. It's definitely not fair, but it helps explain why Dayton's trustees and the university president have done everything short of publicly dropping to their knees and begging the Big East to open up expansion talks again.
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