Mens Hoops and March Madness

[smootness]

Arky beat LSU in Baton Rouge
Bama beat UK
USCe beat Aub
UGA and Usce beat Fla in in Gainesville
So 5-2 against that bunch is pretty good.

it doesn’t have to be all positive 24/7 . Damn I get it this team is frustrating to watch at times and can play bad.
I didn’t get how y’all can’t see the point I’m making and a handful have tried to get across.
The positive posts, tweets , ect are 1 for about every 10 bad.

And this thread proved that .. that’s why I did iit
I wanted to see how many positive responses and good talking points I would get from it . And I proved my point .. go back and read them...

So fans should get excited because we beat teams who beat good teams? If anything, it can lead to reduced excitement because we see that teams like that can get it done against LSU and Kentucky, but we can't seem to.

And once again, the positive talk will come once we have something to be excited about. Yes, we are in the Tournament. Yes, we should (and will) be excited for that. But it's not here yet. So it's hard to get excited about it yet. But we will, I promise you. As for now, all we have is inconsistent and disappointing play that still manages to beat the lower teams in the SEC.

[DancingRabbit]

Good luck Ari

[Gutter Cobreh]

Arky beat LSU in Baton Rouge
Bama beat UK
USCe beat Aub
UGA and Usce beat Fla in in Gainesville
So 5-2 against that bunch is pretty good.

it doesn?t have to be all positive 24/7 . Damn I get it this team is frustrating to watch at times and can play bad.
I didn?t get how y?all can?t see the point I?m making and a handful have tried to get across.
The positive posts, tweets , ect are 1 for about every 10 bad.

And this thread proved that .. that?s why I did iit
I wanted to see how many positive responses and good talking points I would get from it . And I proved my point .. go back and read them...

When you personally start hurling insults and taking shots at people that disagree with you in the 3rd post of the thread, don't you think that skews things a bit???

This team is hard to watch... I don't take anything away from their accomplishments, but when you're down 20+ at UT in the last game - to think they don't deserve some criticism on a message board is a bit naive.

Also, making the tournament is an accolade (no doubt) but for some perspective - there are 67 other teams that also made it. It isn't like we're one of 4 teams in football. Do we celebrate baseball because they made a regional? Isn't it better if we make it to Omaha? I enjoyed our run in the NIT last year more than I would if would have been one and done in the big dance. Evidently, you put more weight into making the big tournament - but understand not everyone views that in the same regard as you do.

[confucius say]

When you personally start hurling insults and taking shots at people that disagree with you in the 3rd post of the thread, don't you think that skews things a bit???

This team is hard to watch... I don't take anything away from their accomplishments, but when you're down 20+ at UT in the last game - to think they don't deserve some criticism on a message board is a bit naive.

Also, making the tournament is an accolade (no doubt) but for some perspective - there are 67 other teams that also made it. It isn't like we're one of 4 teams in football. Do we celebrate baseball because they made a regional? Isn't it better if we make it to Omaha? I enjoyed our run in the NIT last year more than I would if would have been one and done in the big dance. Evidently, you put more weight into making the big tournament - but understand not everyone views that in the same regard as you do.

Going to the NCAA tournament is a big deal. Only 68 of 347 teams go right? That is less than 20%. And only 34 (10%) of the 347 get in as an at large. That is the equivalent of a NY6 bowl game (12 out of 130 football teams get a NY6 game).

For a non basketball school that has been in the wilderness for a decade, that is a huge deal and we don't even harp on it.

[basedog]

Well we are a baseball school, some think we are a basketball school, we aren't. Dancing is a big deal, and yes it's hard to watch when we are down by 20, good thing about this team is overall they have been very competitive.

[basedog]

Going to the NCAA tournament is a big deal. Only 68 of 347 teams go right? That is less than 20%. And only 34 (10%) of the 347 get in as an at large. That is the equivalent of a NY6 bowl game (12 out of 130 football teams get a NY6 game).

For a non basketball school that has been in the wilderness for a decade, that is a huge deal and we don't even harp on it.

Big +1

[confucius say]

I don't think anyone is really upset with the end result from this season, but I certainly understand the viewpoint of being tough to watch at times.

I went and looked through some team stats for this season and really found some interesting stuff. We are currently sitting at #23 in the NET, but we fall in the 100-250 range on so many statistics out of 353 teams.

Here are some negative of note that I have found particularly frustrating (slightly nitpicking I realize):

Turnovers per game: 13.4 (ranks 207th)
Turnovers % per possession: 18.9% (ranks 230th)
Opponents offensive rebounds per game: 8.9 (ranks 234th)
Opponents blocks per game: 3.6 (ranks 264th)
Opponents fouls committed per game: 16.8 (ranks 268th)

We don't do anything extremely well, but we are a pretty solid shooting team with most of those statistics in the 50-100 ranking range. The only two stats that are anywhere close to our NET ranking are steals per game (22nd) and blocks (11th) per game, but that's only translating to 100th in turnovers forced and 137th in opponent FG%.

Really good post with good info.

We don't value the ball or possessions near enough.

[Gutter Cobreh]

Going to the NCAA tournament is a big deal. Only 68 of 347 teams go right? That is less than 20%. And only 34 (10%) of the 347 get in as an at large. That is the equivalent of a NY6 bowl game (12 out of 130 football teams get a NY6 game).

For a non basketball school that has been in the wilderness for a decade, that is a huge deal and we don't even harp on it.

Getting in as an at-large in basketball is not the same as a NY6 in football...

[smootness]

Getting in as an at-large in basketball is not the same as a NY6 in football...

Not even close. For the most part, it's P5 teams fighting for both. Add in the automatic qualifiers and it's probably more like the same number of teams fighting for ~35 spots vs. 11.

[confucius say]

Getting in as an at-large in basketball is not the same as a NY6 in football...

How so. Mathematically, as I set out above, 10% of eligible football teams get a NY6 bowl and 10% of eligible basketball teams get an at large bid. Just bc society views it differently doesn't change the numbers

[confucius say]

Not even close. For the most part, it's P5 teams fighting for both. Add in the automatic qualifiers and it's probably more like the same number of teams fighting for ~35 spots vs. 11.

What!? That is so wrong. Almost half the teams slated to get at large bids are non power 5.

Seton Hall, Buffalo, Gonzaga, Houston, Villanova, central Florida, Belmont, temple, St. John's, cinncy, VCU, Utah State, Nevada, Wofford.

All of those are slated in as at large teams today. That is 14 of the 34 at large bids.

[ScoobaDawg]

What were your expectations for an NIT team coming back the following year? Were you expecting to be a 1 or 2 seed?

I think a major problem with our fan base in most sports is an unrealistic expectation of what that particular team should do. When you have unrealistic expectations it is hard to get excited about a generally positive thing. This team had the same up and down game last year. Yes, we added some quality freshman but we didn't add a Zion that would come in and immediately take us to the next level.

This is another good building block year for our basketball program. If yall will sit back and enjoy Howland you won't be disappointed with our basketball program over the next several years.

I am not saying we shouldn't have high expectations, I am saying we should have realistic expectations that improve incrementally over time as a program continues to improve. If we had been to several NCAAT over the last few years and this became a trend like it did with Stans then yes, getting mad would be in order.

I think the "problem" for some people is unrealistic expectations based on other factors. MSU has played for 3 national championships in the past 5 years. Finished 3rd another time. Have been to 9 straight bowl games in football and Ranked #1 in the nation for several weeks. So Baseball, Football, and Women's Basketball are all excelling to historic levels and Basketball is turning it around. Add on the fact Howland has been to the final 4 twice and then the run to the NIT Final 4...and then everyone wants instant results now a days...

I don't know what to expect in the NCAA's until I see who the opponents we will be paired with. Plus.. Will we have Nick??? and will Peters ever find himself again...?

Just enjoy the ride boys... whatever the high mark is this year.. it's the low water mark for next year...and that's exciting.

[BrunswickDawg]

I think the "problem" for some people is unrealistic expectations based on other factors. MSU has played for 3 national championships in the past 5 years. Finished 3rd another time. Have been to 9 straight bowl games in football and Ranked #1 in the nation for several weeks. So Baseball, Football, and Women's Basketball are all excelling to historic levels and Basketball is turning it around. Add on the fact Howland has been to the final 4 twice and then the run to the NIT Final 4...and then everyone wants instant results now a days...

I don't know what to expect in the NCAA's until I see who the opponents we will be paired with. Plus.. Will we have Nick??? and will Peters ever find himself again...?

Just enjoy the ride boys... whatever the high mark is this year.. it's the low water mark for next year...and that's exciting.

I would add to it that many people believe that our run from '02-'09 meant we were at a higher level on the totem pole then we were. That run also built huge expectations in our younger alums for where we "should be", more so then those of us who were on campus during sucky years. I know that my basketball expectations are tempered by having only gotten 1 good team in my 4 years on campus ('95)

[smootness]

What!? That is so wrong. Almost half the teams slated to get at large bids are non power 5.

Seton Hall, Buffalo, Gonzaga, Houston, Villanova, central Florida, Belmont, temple, St. John's, cinncy, VCU, Utah State, Nevada, Wofford.

All of those are slated in as at large teams today. That is 14 of the 34 at large bids.

Partly fair. However, some of these will win their conference tournament. Let's say Gonzaga, Wofford, Buffalo, one of the Big East teams (you missed Marquette, but I'll add them), one of the American teams, one of Utah St/Nevada, and Belmont win their conference tournaments (Murray St. has a real shot of winning the Ohio Valley tourney, but if they do, Belmont likely doesn't get in).

That means you have the P5 teams fighting for 34 spots. The actual number of at-large bids is 36, not 34; then take away 7 of the teams you listed that we'll assume win their conference tournament, and then add back 5 spots for P5 conference tournament champions.

Then you have 11 P5 spots in NY6 bowl games. So, yes, the math is pretty much correct. The bottom line is that there are far more at-large spots open in the NCAA Tournament for P5 teams than NY6 bowl slots. It is asinine to count all the teams in D1 as though teams 150+ in basketball are comparable to football teams that are 50+.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I think the "problem" for some people is unrealistic expectations based on other factors. MSU has played for 3 national championships in the past 5 years. Finished 3rd another time. Have been to 9 straight bowl games in football and Ranked #1 in the nation for several weeks. So Baseball, Football, and Women's Basketball are all excelling to historic levels and Basketball is turning it around. Add on the fact Howland has been to the final 4 twice and then the run to the NIT Final 4...and then everyone wants instant results now a days...

I don't know what to expect in the NCAA's until I see who the opponents we will be paired with. Plus.. Will we have Nick??? and will Peters ever find himself again...?

Just enjoy the ride boys... whatever the high mark is this year.. it's the low water mark for next year...and that's exciting.

TRUTH. Perry and Woodard get another offseason to develop. Tyson, Ado, and (hopefully)Nick will be back. Add in DJ Stewart, Oduro, and maybe get some minutes out of a freshman(King?) and you've got a chance to be really good again next year. The interesting thing to watch will be what Lamar does. Looking more and more like he might come back.

[shannondawg]

Wow it took one post ,and shocker it was from you, to make a negative post ... it took you 1 minute to sabotage a thread..
All I am saying is enjoy the ****ing ride..

You surprised?