College Basketball 2018-19

[Bullettoothtony]

Odds on Bozich being one of the press guys who actually cheered in the press box when VCU knocked us out of the tournament that year.

 

[deepdarkblue]

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Incredible value on UVA due to Tony Bennett being the worst tournament coach in history.

 

[physicsfactor]

The Bozich guy is a Kentucky/Louisville reporter. That's why he hates Duke's media coverage so much and was pissed about the Louisville game thing.

2. Duke (14-1) — ESPN called and asked why I wasn’t voting the Blue Devils Number One.
...
25. Louisville (11-5) — The Cardinals beat the Tar Heels the way Duke dreams about doing it.

 

[physicsfactor]

I imagine he'll be on the TRUE ROAD GAME bandwagon next season if Duke gets another home Challenge game.

 

[physicsfactor]

Just saw that tomorrow night's Top-10 matchup of VT @ UVA is on ACCN. lol

How shitty are your games to watch when you're an east coast P5 undefeated #4 and hosting your in-state conference rival who is #9 and you can't get national TV coverage? Last year's game at UVA was a thriller that VT won 61-60 in 60 possessions IN OVERTIME. UVA is playing the slowest tempo for the third straight season (6 in a row in the bottom 10), and for some reason Buzz's team is playing super slow this year with very minimal bench minutes used. This should be an awful game.

 

[DurhamSon]

Just saw that tomorrow night's Top-10 matchup of VT @ UVA is on ACCN. lol

How shitty are your games to watch when you're an east coast P5 undefeated #4 and hosting your in-state conference rival who is #9 and you can't get national TV coverage? Last year's game at UVA was a thriller that VT won 61-60 in 60 possessions IN OVERTIME.

Haven't you been following Jon Rothstein, Seth Davis, Tim Brando and Doug Gottlieb? They play 'beautiful basketball' and you're an unsophisticated philistine if you don't agree.

 

[deepdarkblue]

Wake soundly beats NCState, continuing the Duke fuckery this week, I suppose.
RIP, @dub_seahawks

 

[rhfarmer]

I think the ACC basically sucks this year outside of UVA and healthy Duke.

 

[rome8180]

UVA is as far ahead of us in Kenpom as we were of everyone else until like a week ago.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

At least they won’t be in our region. If Jones comes back, man that “where to seed Duke” discussion is gonna be rife with all kinds of hot takes.

Is there any recent precedent where a team looked like an obvious top 5 team, lost a player and sucked for awhile but then got good again in the end? 2011 Duke doesn’t apply because I think they actually earned the 1 seed without Irving, but maybe I am misremembering.

Placing Duke in a region with teams that will be high seeded but have played shitty schedules and don’t have the kind of Kentucky/Kansas/UNC fan base that will scream too loudly about being stuck in a region with an underseeded Duke is probably the Committee’s cleanest path. Someone may have already predicted this but could lead to something like:

West:
1. Gonzaga
2. Nevada (but they really can’t afford to lose more than like one more game)
3. Duke

 

[rome8180]

2011 Duke had four total losses entering the tournament. Plus they had just won the ACC tournament and were #2 on Kenpom. Definitely earned the #1 seed.

 

[physicsfactor]

Duke did earn the 1 seed without Kyrie in 2011. Duke was actually underseeded at #3 overall behind Pitt for some reason and shipped out West when they should have been #2 overall in Pitt's South #1 spot. Pitt had a worse record and had just lost the opening game of the Big East tournament (Kemba's stepback), and Duke had just dominated the ACCT. Oh well.

*Actually, I think the overall seeds were 1 Ohio St, 2 Kansas, 3 Pitt, 4 Duke. I just remember it was obvious to many that Duke should have been the South 1 over Pitt. The perceived strength of the Big East over the ACC gave Pitt far too big of a bump.*

This is just my speculation, but Duke did float the rumor of Kelly returning for the 2012 tournament in an attempt to preserve its #2 seed. Shouldn't have done that, and they could have avoided the embarrassing upset. Oh well.

 

[physicsfactor]

If Tre and the team can return to pre-injury form, this could be the Duke team to finally break the curse of the West region.

 

[rome8180]

I remember calling that 2012 team a "paper tiger." I can't remember how many losses we had, but we should have had more. This is true to an extent every year, but we had multiple come from behind victories.

OTOH, the more talented 2014 team blew lead after lead. That's the reason they will always be most hated in my heart. The

 

[rome8180]

Both 2012 and 2014 I predicted a 2nd round upset on TDD. Turns out I was too optimistic.

 

[CMon85]

K seems to do great when undermanned. What's odd is when we're fully healthy is when we have issues.

But Boozer, Kyrie, the entire Tatum team, etc.

 

[rome8180]

Well, our last two title teams did have great health all season long.

 

[rome8180]

And I'm not sure what was "great" about the Tatum team.

 

[Devilsforlife]

And I'm not sure what was "great" about the Tatum team.

The disappointment.