I don't like playing Wisconsin but I do respect their style of play. It isn't about holding the ball late in the shot clock it is about moving the ball and making the other team guard for a full 30+ seconds. Its about making a team spend a lot of energy on defense and about creating mismatches with bigs who can shoot the outside shot. I think Bo has done a heck of a job at Wisconsin.
IMO the reason it doesn't work in the tournament is its too had for that style to work 6 games in a row. When your not playing games at home and playing in big dome arenas once you start to miss shots your doomed. The sure fire way to beat Wisconsin is to get an early substantial lead on them or have them miss shots. If Wisky plays their style of basketball it takes a damn good team to beat them.
As for MSU they play a beat you up style of basketball but will score with the best of them. One ironic thing about Izzo is he has been to a ton of Final 4's but only championship came when Martin broke his leg.
Good stuff.
In regards to Wisconsin, I thought I read somewheres where in Bo's tenure with the Badgers.....they have only ever defeated one higher seed in the NCAA's.
I do agree with you about their style and would add that it aint conducive to blowing people out of the gym. Their games are usually close, and gives teams opportunities at the end.
I am too lazy to look it up but why are there two play-in games to decide 16 seeds, one to decide a13 seed and one to decide an 11 seed? Shouldn't all four games be to decide who the final and 16th seed in that particular region is? What is the rhyme or reason?
They wanted to expand the Tournament from 65 to 68 teams, but they did not want to solely penalize the 16th seeds. Thus, they only added one more play-in game for the 16th seeds. Thus the four worst 16 seeds face off for 2 16 seeds. The other two play-in games are for the last four at-large teams to get it. Since they are basically the beneficiaries of the Tournament expanding to 68 teams, they can't really complain about facing off in the play-in games. There are presumably two 11 seeds because on or two of the 12 seeds got moved around on the seeding lines for reasons other than being worse than the 11 seeds in front of them (geography, avoid rematches, etc.).
Thanks.
So if I am following this correctly; if they had all play-in games for 16 seeds, then that would have involved the 8 lowest-ranked teams. And these 8 teams, more than likely, would have been the representatives of the minor conferences. I am assuming that the losers of these four play-in games are going to get the same amount of money as if they lost a first round game. So it would seem to me, just MO, that those teams would want to play in the play-in games. They would have the eyes of the nation upon them on Tuesday and Wednesday evening instead of just being cut in on from time to time as will likely happen on Thursday and Friday. There entire tourney experience would not have been a beat-down administered at the hands of the #1 seeds. And someone has to win those play-in games. So they would get to play a team more on their level and have a 50/50 chance of playing on Thursday or Friday anyway. Maybe I am misunderstanding, but that is how I see it.
Last edited by texasdave; 03-19-2013 at 10:22 PM.
IIRC, the precedent for the play-in round we have today began in the early '80's. Before the tournament expanded to 64 and 48 teams qualified, there were 4 play-in games in Dayton to determine the four lowest seeds - which were then #12 seeded. It was referred to as the Preliminary Round back then.
Xavier participated in the '83 preliminary round, falling to a very good Alcorn State team, who then gave Patrick Ewing and Georgetown all they could handle in the next round.
Another notable Preliminary round survivor was Richmond in '84, who then proceeded to knock off Auburn - a team with a couple of dudes named Charles Barkley and Chuck Person.
Whatever you do, do your best to not allow the struggles of life to interfere with the pleasures of living.
No one wants to play in the play-in games. If you lose, it's like you were never in the Tournament. Most people don't really start paying attention to the Tournament until Thursday. There have been years I forgot the play-in games were even on.
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/postseason/
Once you click the link for the bracket for, say, 1983, click the "opening round" link.
Warning: This website is addictive. Your free time will quickly disappear.
Last edited by Revering4Blue; 03-20-2013 at 01:43 PM.
Whatever you do, do your best to not allow the struggles of life to interfere with the pleasures of living.
Speaking of free time/ production (or lack of it), fellow Redzoners may not be happy with me posting this link, but here 'tis.
http://vault.ncaa.com/
Classic highlights and complete classic games are here.
Whatever you do, do your best to not allow the struggles of life to interfere with the pleasures of living.
Fair enough, appreciate the apology, and respect your use of a statistic, but I'm not sure that it is even possible to capture what I was speaking to in a stat. I'm sure it is a vetted stat, I was speaking from observation, not sure I'd characterize Matta's OSU as purposefully a slow tempo team with an up tempo style the exception.
"Rounding 3rd and heading for home, good night everybody"
Does anyone know if there is a MM app or site to watch online this year? Do you need to register?
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