March Madness picks thread

[ddthetide]

how do you have a 3pt-line in D1 basketball and have a 59-49 game?

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by ddthetide

how do you have a 3pt-line in D1 basketball and have a 59-49 game?

40-minute game and 35-second shot clock?

[Cannon Shell]

Louisville -6
55/50

Iowa St +9
33/30

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Louisville -6
55/50 L

Iowa St +9
33/30 W

+75


Louisville should be a lot better than they are. It is like they have 8 guys with a basketball IQ of 17

[GPK]

ACC tourney starts today. Thankfully the olympics are over, or I'd probably be watching Curling instead. Conference is beyond pitiful this year and I just don't see any team making to the sweet 16 this year.

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

fsu son

[GBBob]

Originally Posted by hoovesupsideyourhead

fu son

ftfy

[ddthetide]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

40-minute game and 35-second shot clock?

more like, players in the game today CAN"T shoot! 3-pointers have ruined the game. JMO.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by ddthetide

more like, players in the game today CAN"T shoot! 3-pointers have ruined the game. JMO.

I dont think that is true. The main reason is that there is a breakdown in the traditional high school/college development years. AAU is a complete cluster **** which has not only further corrupted the recruiting process but lessened the importance of high school coaches. Many of the AAU coaches are strictly hustlers who are looking to make a buck off the players by packaging them to a school or riding their coattails. The residual issue is that the recruiting process that AAU teams use starts early and many of these kids become deluded into thinking that they are better than they already are and they dont work on things that will make them better team players.

That and the fact that the NBA allows players in after 1 year after years of having no age restriction has thinned out the talent at the higher levels. You see the list of guys every year that declare for the draft that either dont get drafted or wind up in the D league or overseas because they thought they were much better players than they really are. Those players would be polished players if they stayed the 4 years. But very few of the better teams have seniors or even many juniors as key players which leads to mistakes via inexperience or the fact that these guys in many examples have just been so much more talented than the competition that they never really learned how to play.

[Cannon Shell]

South Carolina +2
110/100 L
-35

[Cannon Shell]

Wake Forest -3.5 L
110/100

-145

[Cannon Shell]

Stanford +250 ml W

+115

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

South Carolina +2
110/100 L

Darrin Horn went into a coma for about 10 minutes. they basically tried to run out the clock up 15 with 12 minutes to go. Then as bama chipped away they didnt force the action and kept using up 30 seconds a possession but getting terrible shots. Terrible job

[ateamstupid]

Nice first half effort by Wake. Aminu is so overrated it's ridiculous.

[ddthetide]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

I dont think that is true. The main reason is that there is a breakdown in the traditional high school/college development years. AAU is a complete cluster **** which has not only further corrupted the recruiting process but lessened the importance of high school coaches. Many of the AAU coaches are strictly hustlers who are looking to make a buck off the players by packaging them to a school or riding their coattails. The residual issue is that the recruiting process that AAU teams use starts early and many of these kids become deluded into thinking that they are better than they already are and they dont work on things that will make them better team players.

That and the fact that the NBA allows players in after 1 year after years of having no age restriction has thinned out the talent at the higher levels. You see the list of guys every year that declare for the draft that either dont get drafted or wind up in the D league or overseas because they thought they were much better players than they really are. Those players would be polished players if they stayed the 4 years. But very few of the better teams have seniors or even many juniors as key players which leads to mistakes via inexperience or the fact that these guys in many examples have just been so much more talented than the competition that they never really learned how to play.

i won't disagree but their skills are poor and the play is poor overall. the old unc, duke, umd, unlv, ucla teams would crush these teams.

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by ddthetide

i won't disagree but their skills are poor and the play is poor overall. the old unc, duke, umd, unlv, ucla teams would crush these teams.

College football sucks worse.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by ddthetide

i won't disagree but their skills are poor and the play is poor overall. the old unc, duke, umd, unlv, ucla teams would crush these teams.

Of course they would. They all had NBA bound juniors and seniors leading them for the most part. It used to be coaches would have an established team and every year add a top recruit or two and work them in as the others left. Now coaches recruit the very best players knowing that they are one and done and wont give a damn about anything outside of getting their numbers and increasing their draft stock.

Look at the all decade team for the 2000's as chosen by SI
SF- Shane Battier
PF- Tyler Hansbrough
C- Emaka Okafor
SG - JJ Redick
PG- Jay Williams

Obviously they didnt pick one and done guys but guys who had close to complete careers. These guys were all good college players but none of them of them are better than average NBA starters and Hansbrough and Redick arent even that. (Williams never got a chance so who knows)

But...lets look at some of the best basketball players who were of college age in the 2000's.

SF- LeBron James (0)
PF- Chris Bosh (1)
C- Dwight howard (0)
SF- Carmello Anthony (1 year)
SG - Kevin Durant (1 year)
PG - Chris Paul (2 years)
SG- Dwayne Wade (2 years)*sat out Fr year when not eligible
PG- Deron Williams (3 years)
SG- Joe Johnson (2 years)
PF - Amar'e Stoudamire (0)
C- Andrew Bynum (0)

Compared to the 80's and even the 90's when Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant were the only top players not to attend college, it has stripped the college game of the very best players. Sure we got a year of Durant and Anthony but can you imagine what kind of careers they would have had as 3 or 4 year players? Think they would be on the All Decade team? Imagine LeBron at UCLA? Think of building a college team at kentucky around Howard? Kobe said he would have gone to Duke if he went to college.

You cant compare NCAA basketball now to the teams that you remember as being great. The original dream team in 1992 versus last years is the best example

Jordan (2 years)
Barkley (3 years)
Magic (2 years)
Bird (4 years)*sat out 2 years
Mullin (4 years)
Ewing (4 years)
Malone (3 years)
Stockton (4 years)
Robinson (4 years)
Pippen (4 years)
Drexler (3 years)
Laettner (4 years)

2008 Dream team
LeBron (0)
Kobe (0)
Bosh (1)
Howard(0)
Anthony (1)
Kidd (2)
Paul (2)
Williams (3)
Wade (2)
Boozer (3)
Prince (4)
Redd (3)

[ateamstupid]

Kent State -5
110/100

Florida -5 1/2
110/100