March Madness

[Vrede too]

Women

... TONIGHT ESPN. Go:
1 Stanford > 1 South Carolina, 6:00 PM ET

Tight wall-to-wall, exciting finish.
1 South Carolina 65
1 Stanford 66

[Vrede too]

Women 3rd round go:

Sat March 27 go:
3 Arizona > 2 Texas A&M

74 -59 . 1st ever Elite 8, which is weird given the Arizona men's success. Beat 4 Indiana on Monday!

UConn NCAA Tournament Champions:
1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
But now 4 consecutive losses in the semis.

3 Arizona Wildcats 69
1 UConn Huskies 59

Arizona beat 1, 2, 4, 11 and 14 teams. This is even funnier now:
Arizona Wildcats irked after omission from NCAA Women's Final Four promotional video

Go Pac-12, Go Wildcats! But, a Stanford win won't ruin my day.
Go Bruins!

[Vrede too]

Men's trivia: Of the FF only 11 UCLA has ever been champ.

Sat go:
11 UCLA > 1 (30-0!) Gonzaga, but I don't hate Gonzaga.
2 Houston > 1 Baylor, and I do hate Baylor.

College Basketball Las Vegas Odds

Baylor -4 vs Houston. , but possible. Whatever, I want Gonzaga or UCLA to win the next game.
Gonzaga -14 vs UCLA!

Ugh, Houston got routed from the start.

Edit: Holy crap, 25'+ buzzer beater at the end of OT. No team has gone undefeated since IN in '76. Go 31-0 Zags!

[Vrede too]

Stanford -9.0 vs Arizona
https://www.sportsinteraction.com/baske ... ing-lines/

Go Wildcats! But I'm thrilled that both are in it.

[Vrede too]

That was fun!
AP 2, NCAA 1-seed Stanford 54
AP 11, NCAA 3-seed Arizona 53

Arizona proved that it belonged there.
Congrats to Stanford. It's been in the FF so often that I was surprised that it hadn't won since '92.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_ ... basketball

Go Zags!

[GoCubsGo]

So, who are we supposed to be rooting for tonight?

[Vrede too]

So, who are we supposed to be rooting for tonight?

I prefer Jesuits from WA, near where O Really has family, over the fundy, rape covering up, former Ken Starr employers from Texas. Plus, Sister Jean said Gonzaga would win.

[GoCubsGo]

So, who are we supposed to be rooting for tonight?

I prefer Jesuits from WA, near where O Really has family, over the fundy, rape covering up, former Ken Starr employers from Texas. Plus, Sister Jean said Gonzaga would win.

Works for me.

[GoCubsGo]

Well, that was never a game.

Baylor wire to wire.

[O Really]

Ugly.

[GoCubsGo]

Ugly.

Just wasn't fun.

[O Really]

Getting beat is one thing, particularly if you can lose like UCLA did, playing a great game and losing at the end, but getting your ass kicked with lots of turnovers, missed shots, flubbed rebounds and generally un-champion worthy play is going to be painful for a long time.

[Vrede too]

I never really watched, just snippets during commercials. Good thing.

[Vrede too]

One bad season might be accepted as a bad run of luck, fluke, loss of veterans to NBA, yada, but two bad seasons in a row and some heads may have to roll. The team had some very good games, but in a way that made the lack of consistency and overall team quality look even worse. I'm not sure they pay ol' Roy $4 mill a year in the top 10 highest paid coaches so he can tank two seasons in a row.

Whoa, that was fast.
Ol' Roy is out.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... ms-retires

Tonight, repeat from earlier this year:

In Depth With Graham Bensinger
Roy Williams
Season 12, Episode 8
12:00 AM EST on Fox • Stereo • CC

Graham visits legendary NCAA basketball coach Roy Williams at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina; the three-time national champ talks about the missteps that fueled his retirement and illustrates how his career came full circle at UNC.

Or, you can watch clips at your leisure:
https://grahambensinger.com/2021/11/03/roy-williams/

[Vrede too]

Might as well put the women here, not sure anyone else cares.

Belmont (12) 73, Oregon (5) 70 2OT
Villanova (11) 61, BYU (6) 57
Kansas St. (9) 50, Washington St. (8) 40. Darn.

Round 2 GO:
Miami (FL) (8) > South Carolina (1). Hurricanes, blow those 'Cocks .
N. Carolina (5) > Arizona (4).
Iowa St. (3) > Georgia (6).
Iowa (2) > Creighton (10).
Stanford (1) > Kansas (8).
Maryland (4) > Fla Gulf Coast (12). Of course.
Texas (2) > Utah (7).
Tennessee (4) > Belmont (12).
Villanova (11) > Michigan (3). Yeah, right.
South Dakota (10) > Baylor (2). God willing.
N.C. State (1) > Kansas St. (9).
Notre Dame (5) > Oklahoma (4).
Princeton (11) > Indiana (3). Yeah, right.

[O Really]

Might as well put the women here, not sure anyone else cares.

Yep. I'm all for equal funding of womens' sports, equal facilities and opportunity, yada, and there are some sports that the womens' version is better to follow/watch. For me, basketball isn't one of them.

[GoCubsGo]

Might as well put the women here, not sure anyone else cares.

Yep. I'm all for equal funding of womens' sports, equal facilities and opportunity, yada, and there are some sports that the womens' version is better to follow/watch. For me, basketball isn't one of them.

Misogynist.

[O Really]

Might as well put the women here, not sure anyone else cares.

Yep. I'm all for equal funding of womens' sports, equal facilities and opportunity, yada, and there are some sports that the womens' version is better to follow/watch. For me, basketball isn't one of them.

Misogynist.

I prefer womens' gymnastics, tennis, volleyball, soccer, ice skating, and others I enjoy both versions. But for basketball, you can't beat a bunch of mostly huge guys pounding on each other to stuff the ball in the net from 10 feet away.

[GoCubsGo]

Might as well put the women here, not sure anyone else cares.

Yep. I'm all for equal funding of womens' sports, equal facilities and opportunity, yada, and there are some sports that the womens' version is better to follow/watch. For me, basketball isn't one of them.

Misogynist.

I prefer womens' gymnastics, tennis, volleyball, soccer, ice skating, and others I enjoy both versions. But for basketball, you can't beat a bunch of mostly huge guys pounding on each other to stuff the ball in the net from 10 feet away.

I get it. A big difference in the games besides speed is that the men's game is also played above the rim with an added degree of athleticism which mostly isn't evident in the other sports you mentioned.

[Vrede too]

Yep. I'm all for equal funding of womens' sports, equal facilities and opportunity, yada, and there are some sports that the womens' version is better to follow/watch. For me, basketball isn't one of them.

Depends. I agree during most MM games, but went years attending Lady Griz games when they were dominating the Big Sky and the men were mediocre. We once set an arena record with 8600+ (?) when the Lady Griz and MT St were both undefeated and nationally ranked. The place was rockin' and the Lady Griz won. Never got past the 2nd round in MM, though.

Robin Selvig

Robin Selvig (born August 21, 1952) is an American women's college basketball coach. Selvig completed his 38th and final season as head coach of the Lady Griz women's basketball team at the University of Montana, in 2015-16. Selvig finished his career ranked eighth among all women's basketball coaches in victories with 865.

He could have gone for the big bucks of a national contender at any point, but chose to keep his family in Missoula.

Anyhow, GoCubsGo is correct that you're a sexist pig for saying it out loud.

Round 2 GO:
Iowa (2) > Creighton (10).

Oh well, I don't hate Creighton, and it was a very exciting finish to 62-64 and their first ever trip to the Sweet 16.

Aside: What's a Nebraska team doing in the Big East?

As war ravages Ukraine, a coach's relief initiative spreads through March Madness

Tara VanDerveer has seen the images of once-beautiful cities reduced to rubble. Of destruction in the Ukrainian capital she once visited, and throughout the country that women she once called her “cousins” call home.

It was “really, really, very hard” to watch Russian forces bombard Ukraine, VanDerveer, the Stanford women’s basketball coach, said. It was difficult to follow news of a war that has killed thousands. And so, sitting at home on Thursday, on the eve of a tournament she hoped to win, VanDerveer decided to act.

That afternoon, she issued a challenge. She pledged $10 to humanitarian relief in Ukraine for every 3-pointer made in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. She hoped other coaches, fans, and anybody engaged in the tournament would join her.

Slowly but surely, over March Madness’ first weekend, they have.

“Absolutely, I'll jump on that,” Georgia Tech’s Nell Fortner said. She and VanDerveer’s sister, Heidi, were the first, but not the last.

“I'm in. I'm all in,” Auburn men’s coach Bruce Pearl said Saturday. He promised to “up” the ante, to “help the Ukrainian people survive” the war....