Official 2025 March Madness Thread

[NormanConnors]

Cash was robbed in 2020 man...

That was our year to get another one, championship level sqaud with an elite closer

 

[aceboon]

How do you work in sports media covering college sports for a living and try to argue that midmajor guys moving up to the power conference level is not NIL driven . Shorty must think we're stupid

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

How do you work in sports media covering college sports for a living and try to argue that midmajor guys moving up to the power conference level is not NIL driven . Shorty must think we're stupid

I think this year there are just too heavy teams and Covid players on major conference teams.

Colorado State was one play away from sweet 16. New Mexico played Michigan State extremely tough. Etc.

Cal isn't at UK to lose to double digit seeds

Matt Painter figured out how to not choke against double digit seeds too.

 

[RammerJammer]

Tennessee and Alabama were worthy of a 1 seed? Neither team is better than Houston. Duke can't help if the ACC was trash. At least 5 of their non-conference opponents made the tournament: Auburn, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona and Illinois.

Alabama beat Houston this year…

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

^^dope account to follow for B1G heads

 

[RammerJammer]

I see people complaining about the lack of Cinderellas but also said the UConn/Miami/SDSU/FAU Final Four was boring

 

[GoldenGlove]

to the Bulls at 9. I still have Newell and Maluach ahead of him as far as bigs go

Catching up on Newell, his athleticism does make a lot of sense for Chicago at that position. Even more sense understanding that they are going to be building around Giddey... adding a vertical lob threat would be dope.

I like him more than Maluach. With how Chicago places, out of the 3 Newell may be the most ideal

 

[TUA TAGOVAILOA]

That's nice. Still not better than the monster Big East conference at its apex.

Tennessee and Alabama were worthy of a 1 seed? Neither team is better than Houston. Duke can't help if the ACC was trash. At least 5 of their non-conference opponents made the tournament: Auburn, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona and Illinois.

Bama beat Houston and would’ve been a 1 seed if we had theirs or Duke schedule.

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

I see people complaining about the lack of Cinderellas but also said the UConn/Miami/SDSU/FAU Final Four was boring

MFers want cindarellas in the first two rounds, but then want to watch the elite play each other in the final 4 rounds.

"where are the cindarellas?"
*cindarellas go far*
"this tournament lacks star power!!1!"

Most of these complaints are just code for "my team already lost"

 

[Rigby.]

How do you work in sports media covering college sports for a living and try to argue that midmajor guys moving up to the power conference level is not NIL driven . Shorty must think we're stupid

Nicole and other big MSM writers got a vested interest in ignoring the elephant in the room on most topics. I don’t know where her/ESPN’s spin is on NIL for a fact, but it’s usually protecting the SEC in some capacity.

That being said, I do think realignment is a significant factor. Not as big as NIL pulling up the best of from the lower levels, but it does matter. Like the AAC, which was never particularly deep, is now like a 1 bid league. Memphis gains nothing from January on in conference play lol. Of course, Houston would never be a “Cinderella”, but they are now the face in what is arguably the pre-eminent basketball conference. That does hurt, parity wise

 

[RammerJammer]

Nicole and other big MSM writers got a vested interest in ignoring the elephant in the room on most topics. I don’t know where her/ESPN’s spin is on NIL for a fact, but it’s usually protecting the SEC in some capacity.

That being said, I do think realignment is a significant factor. Not as big as NIL pulling up the best of from the lower levels, but it does matter. Like the AAC, which was never particularly deep, is now like a 1 bid league. Memphis gains nothing from January on in conference play lol. Of course, Houston would never be a “Cinderella”, but they are now the face in what is arguably the pre-eminent basketball conference. That does hurt, parity wise

Nicole works for NBC and was shytting on the SEC during the Playoffs

Anyways, coaches leaving small schools plays a big part too, you’ll probably never see a Mark Few again, you look at a guy like Dusty May who took FAU to the Final Four then took the Michigan job and took some of his players with him and I’m sure Will Wade gonna do the same thing going to NC State

 

[Thatrogueassdiaz]

They were a 16 team conference when they sent 11 and the SEC sent 14 with the same number They also only had 2 teams make the S16

If you mean when they had 3/4 in the F4, that’s still easily on the table for the SEC. Hell, 2/4 could be an absolute with the potential of Aub-OM and Ark-Florida as E8 possibilities

2 teams? Are we both talking about 09 Big East? UConn, Pittsburgh, Villanova and Louisville all made the regional finals that year. None of these SEC teams are on the level of the big East in its heyday.

Anyway it doesn't matter. We will see how this all plays out.

 

[GoldenGlove]

 

[ReturnOfJudah]

 

[daemonova]