March Madness

[Vrede too]

Round 2 GO:
Miami (FL) (8) > South Carolina (1). Hurricanes, blow those 'Cocks .
What could be worse than a 49 by an elite MM team? O Really's Miami's 33.
Iowa St. (3) > Georgia (6). Sweet.
Iowa (2) > Creighton (10). Yep.
Stanford (1) > Kansas (8). Stomped 'em!
Maryland (4) > Fla Gulf Coast (12). Of course. Terps rule, 89-65.
Texas (2) > Utah (7). Nice.
South Dakota (10) > Baylor (2). God willing.
God has spoken, twice. 61-47

6 for 7 today, including 1 upset. I'll take it.

[Vrede too]

Round 2 GO:
N. Carolina (5) > Arizona (4). An upset STOMP! UNC is rolling through both MMs.
Tennessee (4) > Belmont (12). , barely.
Villanova (11) > Michigan (3). Yeah, right. Ugh .
N.C. State (1) > Kansas St. (9). STOMPED them, 89-57.
Notre Dame (5) > Oklahoma (4). 60-25 ND at the half . NBA vs high school.
Edit: 108-64.
Princeton (11) > Indiana (3). Yeah, right. Awww, so close.

4-2, including 2 upsets .

Upset, but I didn't have a preference:
Ohio St (6) 79, LSU (3) 64

[Vrede too]

The women's seeders are better, only 4 outliers and 2 of them are 5s.

Round 3, GO:
N. Carolina (5) > South Carolina (1), of course.
Iowa St. (3) > Creighton (10)
Maryland (4) > Stanford (1). Go Terps!
Texas (2) > Ohio St. (6)
Louisville (1) > Tennessee (4)
N.C. State (1) > Notre Dame (5)
Connecticut (2) > Indiana (3)

[Vrede too]

Round 3, GO:
N. Carolina (5) > South Carolina (1), of course. Crap, UNC had a shot.
Iowa St. (3) > Creighton (10) Ugh.
Maryland (4) > Stanford (1). Go Terps! Ugh.
Texas (2) > Ohio St. (6) Whew, almost choked.

1-3.

[Vrede too]

The women's seeders are better, only 4 outliers and 2 of them are 5s.

Round 3, GO:
Louisville (1) > Tennessee (4) Stomped 'em.
N.C. State (1) > Notre Dame (5) Yes, 66-63!
5' 4" Sr G Raina Perez is the heroine at the end - steal, 2/3 court dribble and a layup to take the lead, defensive rebound and 2 foul shots to ice it. N.C. State to the Elite 8 for only the 2nd time ever, last in 1998.
Connecticut (2) > Indiana (3) Stomped 'em.
16 Elite 8s in a row. Nice, but now go NC State!

3-0 Yippie.
Also, Michigan (3) barely beat South Dakota (10).

[Vrede too]

Elite 8
Texas (2) vs Stanford (1). Go basketball.

GO:
Creighton (10) > South Carolina (1). Cinderella.
N.C. State (1) > Connecticut (2). All the way!
Louisville (1) > Michigan (3).

[Vrede too]

Elite 8
Texas (2) vs Stanford (1). Go basketball. Stanford.

GO:
Creighton (10) > South Carolina (1). Cinderella. Crap, stomped em'.
N.C. State (1) > Connecticut (2). All the way!
Louisville (1) > Michigan (3).

Could end up with four #1s, rare I'd guess.

[Vrede too]

Elite 8
Texas (2) vs Stanford (1). Go basketball. Stanford.

GO:
Creighton (10) > South Carolina (1). Cinderella. Crap, stomped em'.
N.C. State (1) > Connecticut (2). All the way! Crap, but it took 2OT!
14 straight Final 4s!
Louisville (1) > Michigan (3). Yippee!

Could end up with four #1s, rare I'd guess.

Or not.

[Vrede too]

Elite 8
Texas (2) vs Stanford (1). Go basketball. Stanford.

GO:
Creighton (10) > South Carolina (1). Cinderella. Crap, stomped em'.
N.C. State (1) > Connecticut (2). All the way! Crap, but it took 2OT!
14 straight Final 4s!
Louisville (1) > Michigan (3). Yippee!

Could end up with four #1s, rare I'd guess.

Or not.

Three #1s and a #2 says something for the seeders.

Final 4, GO:
Stanford (1) > Connecticut (2)
Louisville (1) > South Carolina (1)

[Vrede too]

Champ preference, descending order:

Stanford (1)
Louisville (1)
Connecticut (2)
South Carolina (1)

Ordering them by increasing numbers of letters is purely accidental.

[Vrede too]

Three #1s and a #2 says something for the seeders.

Final 4, GO:
Stanford (1) > Connecticut (2) Crap. Close though.
Louisville (1) > South Carolina (1) Crap.

Champ preference, descending order:

Stanford (1)
Louisville (1)
Connecticut (2)
South Carolina (1)

Ordering them by increasing numbers of letters is purely accidental.

Go Connecticut (2) > South Carolina (1) on Sunday.

[Vrede too]

Go Connecticut (2) > South Carolina (1) on Sunday.

I try to be tolerant, but a bunch of 'Cocks playing for the Women's Championship is going too far. Call me a traditionalist, but the winning women should be dogs.

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[Vrede too]

UConn broke its recent semifinal jinx this year, but it had never been beaten in the final before. Amazing.

[Ulysses]

Don't be mad, be happy.

Besides, it's already April.

[Vrede too]

(post: childish gibberish)
(signature: obsessed butthurt )

Awww. , Useless. So much for "Ignored". You fail again. Plus, Useless, you've been busted too many times for anyone to believe you're not reading my posts, anyhow. It's just your excuse for cowering. Awww.

[Vrede too]

May not last, but:

Halftime
8 Loyola Chicago 33
1 Illinois 24
Illinois has never led and the last tie was 2-2.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... =401310888

Damn.

Go Sister Jean.

Loyola won this 2021 MM 2nd round game , then lost to 12 Oregon State in the Sweet 16.
In 2022 10 Loyola lost to 7 Ohio State in the 1st Round.

Sister Jean turned 103 yesterday! Her mind still seems sharp and she attributes her longevity to good food, "hopefully" good prayer and hanging out with youth.

[Vrede too]

Idle thought - Do booths selling jerseys and other gear inside basketball tournament venues get renamed 'Merch Madness'?

Aha, still might be happening in the tourney, but I'm not original: Link

[billy.pilgrim]

Idle thought - Do booths selling jerseys and other gear inside basketball tournament venues get renamed 'Merch Madness'?

Aha, still might be happening in the tourney, but I'm not original: Link

Can you say, "$".

[Vrede too]

Study: Athlete abuse spikes at March Madness, targets women

The abuse college athletes face on social media, including threats of violence, spikes during March Madness, with women basketball players targeted three times more often than men, according to a study the NCAA released Thursday.

Eight out of 10 abusive posts sent to college athletes on social media occurred during the NCAA tournament, the study found. One athlete received more than 1,400 abusive messages over two weeks.

Overall, 6% of abusive posts flagged during the study were violent, and 96 social media accounts were referred to the NCAA and law enforcement for further investigation. One example the NCAA included read, "Im gonna wait for you outside the arena to beat the f--- out of your knees with a spiked baseball bat."

... The NCAA emphasized that the analysis covered only public-facing threats, not private messages, where, according to Signify executives, harassment is likely worse.

... Of the 16 types of abuse the study identified, sexual abuse directed at men's and women's athletes was most prevalent, at 18%. In women's gymnastics, 92% of sexual messages came from bot accounts encouraging users to access sexual content, the report found. Once Signify reported the activity, the platform suspended the bots. Other common forms of harassment listed included sexist abuse, racism, and homophobia and transphobia.

ESPN reported Tuesday that abuse by "angry sports bettors" is an increasing type of harassment. The prevalence of sports betting messages marks a change from past Signify studies, according to Hirshler.

"When we started doing this work about four or five years ago, we were predominantly dealing with a lot of racist issues," Hirshler told ESPN. "It just goes to show that [betting] has moved into a very significant area of the work that we do, in terms of the volume of abuse that's triggered by angry gamblers, sports betting and match-fixing."

Eighteen of the 38 states that offer legal sports betting, as well as the District of Columbia, prohibit licensed sportsbooks from offering college prop bets, a ban the NCAA supports. Sportsbooks and industry advocates have argued that legalization allows for better regulation, but Baker believes legalization has encouraged more people to participate.

"The numbers of people involved in this have skyrocketed once it became legal," he said.

Baker is especially concerned about the impact of prop betting on individual players' statistics.

"I despise the idea that we put these kids in the position where people would expect their individual performance to be more important than the performance of their team," he said.

Patrick Chester, who advises NCAA schools on gambling issues, said athletes are increasingly asking how to deal with bettors requesting money. Chester said athletes have told him they have received requests for money from fellow students and even family members who had gambled on their games.

fellow students and family members.

"It started off with mainly online abuse and general threats," Chester, a senior director for international advocacy group EPIC Global Solutions, told ESPN. "But something has happened in the last couple years, where asking for reimbursement has become more prevalent. In their mind, they're owed something."

... Connor McCaffery, a men's basketball assistant coach at Butler who played at Iowa and is dating Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark, said in a news release that he has experienced this type of abuse himself and seen its impact on loved ones. "There must be more done to address this toxic behavior impacting sports at all levels," he said....

Even dating someone makes you a target.