College Basketball 2014-15

[Markalanbishop]

Wow. Bo Ryan comes out for the press conference and essentially blames the officials for the loss and blasts "rent-a-players" on other teams. Makes me temporarily not hate Duke.

Watch the video at the link below and then tell us if you think the referees were helping Duke in the second half.
There were also questionable foul calls/noncalls down the stretch that went Duke's way. There was also another time when Winslow clearly stepped out of bounds with the ball (they showed it on CBS) and it wasn't called.
Wisconsin must share a lot of blame for the loss of course. They made Grayson Allen look like Russell Westbrook and Frank Kaminsky often acted like a shooting guard rather than a big man. But I understand why the Wisconsin fans are upset with the referees.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/ ... -wisconsin

My point was not so much about the officiating, which was way worse in the semi-final games, than it was about Bo Ryan. If you're upset about the officiating then have the guts to directly state what's bothering you instead of quoting statistics about how his team had the least number of regular season fouls and least number of turnovers as if this is proof that the officials were biased. Secondly, to say that other teams use rent-a-players to succeed and then follow up that with, "there's nothing wrong with that it's just not the way I do things" is classless. IMHO of course. I don't know, the whole Wisconsin postgame press conference just left a bad taste in my mouth. Now, on to the NBA!!!

[rlipps]

I didn't watch a single second of the game, so I can't comment on the officiating. I did see the replay this morning of the out-of-bounds call that went off Winslow, and I'm pretty sure Helen Keller could have determined it should have been Wisconsin's ball, but Duke probably still wins. I also found it pretty funny that Bo Ryan bashes the officials and makes the comment that "we don't rent players here", then it cut back to Greg Gumbel talking about how Bo Ryan handled defeat graciously and with class. Same with the national media narrative I've saw this morning, talking about how Coach K adjusted to the changing times of college basketball with the one-and-done era and what a triumph that was. Same writers are the ones that constantly talk about how UK is killing college basketball doing the same thing.

I'm just really bitter right now and since I hate baseball, it's going to be a long, awful time between now and football season. My wife asked me this morning why I took this loss so much harder than last year's. I told her that last year's run to the championship game was so unexpected and so thrilling with all the big shots Harrison made, it was just cool being the underdog for once and it felt like a magical ride. This year, with all the pressure of being undefeated, anything less than a title was going to be a huge letdown, and I honestly can say this loss hurts worse than the 1992 loss to Duke in the Elite 8 on the Laettner shot. To make matters worse (or better I guess now that we lost Saturday), we drove up to Indy, stayed in a Super 8 that begged for Jason to write a sequel to the original song, and walked around Lucas Oil all day, only to find that the few tickets remaining were way too expensive to buy. We reluctantly retreated to the Indiana Grand casino, hoping to save our money and buy tickets for last night championship game. Alas, Wisconsin had other plans.

I shouldn't care so much about what 18 and 19 year old kids do on a basketball court, but it's just a way of life here. We have no pro sports teams and I don't drink bourbon or care about the KY Derby, so basketball is all I have, lol. Sports shouldn't matter as much to me as they do, but like I tell everyone, music and sports are my vices and I probably care way too much about both.

[Bill in CT]

I thought Tyus Jones was the best player on the court and that's the biggest reason Duke won the game. I can excuse Wisconsin for allowing him to play so well but I can't excuse Grayson Allen. He wasn't even in the rotation when Rasheed Sulaimon was still on the Duke team.

I agree that Bo Ryan shouldn't whine about the "one-and-done" phenomenon especially when Wisconsin just beat Kentucky on Saturday. If he doesn't like it then he should work to change the rule.

[Bill in CT]

"10 reasons UConn could win title number 10"

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-baske ... itle-no-10

[Cotter]

Wisconsin was tossin up so many bricks last night I thought they were building a fucking skycraper.

[Clams]

I didn't watch a single second of the game, so I can't comment on the officiating. I did see the replay this morning of the out-of-bounds call that went off Winslow, and I'm pretty sure Helen Keller could have determined it should have been Wisconsin's ball, but Duke probably still wins. I also found it pretty funny that Bo Ryan bashes the officials and makes the comment that "we don't rent players here", then it cut back to Greg Gumbel talking about how Bo Ryan handled defeat graciously and with class. Same with the national media narrative I've saw this morning, talking about how Coach K adjusted to the changing times of college basketball with the one-and-done era and what a triumph that was. Same writers are the ones that constantly talk about how UK is killing college basketball doing the same thing.

I'm just really bitter right now and since I hate baseball, it's going to be a long, awful time between now and football season. My wife asked me this morning why I took this loss so much harder than last year's. I told her that last year's run to the championship game was so unexpected and so thrilling with all the big shots Harrison made, it was just cool being the underdog for once and it felt like a magical ride. This year, with all the pressure of being undefeated, anything less than a title was going to be a huge letdown, and I honestly can say this loss hurts worse than the 1992 loss to Duke in the Elite 8 on the Laettner shot. To make matters worse (or better I guess now that we lost Saturday), we drove up to Indy, stayed in a Super 8 that begged for Jason to write a sequel to the original song, and walked around Lucas Oil all day, only to find that the few tickets remaining were way too expensive to buy. We reluctantly retreated to the Indiana Grand casino, hoping to save our money and buy tickets for last night championship game. Alas, Wisconsin had other plans.

I shouldn't care so much about what 18 and 19 year old kids do on a basketball court, but it's just a way of life here. We have no pro sports teams and I don't drink bourbon or care about the KY Derby, so basketball is all I have, lol. Sports shouldn't matter as much to me as they do, but like I tell everyone, music and sports are my vices and I probably care way too much about both.

A look into the life and sports psyche of one, R. Lipps. Great post man, and sorry about the loss.

[Tequila Cowboy]

Really disappointed that Bo Ryan had to be a douchebag.

[Iowan]

Really disappointed the Bo Ryan had to be a douchebag.

It's kind of his MO. I respect his coaching, but he's always seemed like a huge prick to me.

[beantownbubba]

Not to be argumentative but just to point out the contrast, Boston, known for being such a college town, is totally oriented to pro sports. While a BC or a UMass can occasionally break through the clutter it takes a rare alignment of circumstances for it to happen (can you say Doug Flutie?). Even something as big as a national championship in hockey barely dents the sports consciousness (though in typical Boston fashion the annual Beanpot tournament among 4 of the city's hockey playing schools gets a fair amount of play). Reggie Lewis had a brilliant 4 year career at Northeastern before becoming a star for the Celtics and I don't know a single person who even bothered to get on the subway to go see a game at Northeastern. New York is similar but at least when I was growing up, if you had a good basketball team people would come out to watch (St. John's most years; Fordham, LIU and others on occasion and a fair amount of interest in Syracuse especially when the stars were from the city).

[Gator McKlusky]

Sorry RLipps, you get no sympathy from me, good riddance to Kentucky! I've hated them since they came from behind to beat utah in the championship game in the last 6 minutes. That game was ours dammit!
Then to add insult to injury, the Jazz had to go and draft Scott Padgett and I was forced to cheer for that sumbitch for the next few years!

[beantownbubba]

I don't watch much women's college basketball, usually just big games usually involving UConn. But on that limited evidence, I think last nite's championship game was the worst played game I've seen. Sloppy, sloppier, sloppiest. Neither team played anywhere near their capabilities which made for a boring game, but at the end of the day, Geno has 10 titles and that's impressive.

[Bill in CT]

I don't watch much women's college basketball, usually just big games usually involving UConn. But on that limited evidence, I think last nite's championship game was the worst played game I've seen. Sloppy, sloppier, sloppiest. Neither team played anywhere near their capabilities which made for a boring game, but at the end of the day, Geno has 10 titles and that's impressive.

I didn't think the game was boring at all. It was closer than I would have liked but Notre Dame's defense deserves some credit for that. Moriah Jefferson played incredible defense on Jewell Loyd (the 2nd best player in the country) in the 2nd half which was a huge factor in UConn getting the win. Another one was Stewart getting 15 or so rebounds on a night when her offense wasn't up to her usual standard. I was nervous when Notre Dame cut the deficit to 6 in the second half but then Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis hit a 3 followed by a 2, pushing the lead back to 11. Congratulations to UConn on their second 3-peat and 10th title overall.

[Iowan]

The complete and utter dominance of women's basketball by UConn probably doesn't help the sport's appeal, but I can't imagine World Wide is worried about that today.

Is it still fun, Bill?

[Bill in CT]

Is it still fun, Bill?

It's still fun! UConn doesn't dominate women's hoops now as much as UCLA dominated men's hoops from 1964-1975 (10 titles in 12 years) or the Yankees dominated MLB in earlier periods (4 straight WS wins from 1936-39 and 5 straight WS wins from 1949-53) and I'm sure those fans had lots of fun with each title as well.
UConn loses Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (top 3-point shooter in women's college hoops history) and Kiah Stokes (excellent defender & shot-blocker) but brings everyone else back and has a strong recruiting class (ranked 3rd in the nation). I'm looking forward to watching next year's team to see what they can do.

[Iowan]

Is it still fun, Bill?

It's still fun! UConn doesn't dominate women's hoops now as much as UCLA dominated men's hoops from 1964-1975 (10 titles in 12 years) or the Yankees dominated MLB in earlier periods (4 straight WS wins from 1936-39 and 5 straight WS wins from 1949-53) and I'm sure those fans had lots of fun with each title as well.
UConn loses Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (top 3-point shooter in women's college hoops history) and Kiah Stokes (excellent defender & shot-blocker) but brings everyone else back and has a strong recruiting class (ranked 3rd in the nation). I'm looking forward to watching next year's team to see what they can do.

As the fan of several perennial losers, I always wonder if it stays fun. I've saw 2 Blackhawk Stanley Cups in a 5 year period, and that's the closest to "dynasty" it gets in my rooting interests, so I honestly don't have much frame of reference on this sort of thing.

For example, I almost felt bad for rlipps throughout the year as there was no way this season could be fun for him without a title.

[rlipps]

Is it still fun, Bill?

It's still fun! UConn doesn't dominate women's hoops now as much as UCLA dominated men's hoops from 1964-1975 (10 titles in 12 years) or the Yankees dominated MLB in earlier periods (4 straight WS wins from 1936-39 and 5 straight WS wins from 1949-53) and I'm sure those fans had lots of fun with each title as well.
UConn loses Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (top 3-point shooter in women's college hoops history) and Kiah Stokes (excellent defender & shot-blocker) but brings everyone else back and has a strong recruiting class (ranked 3rd in the nation). I'm looking forward to watching next year's team to see what they can do.

As the fan of several perennial losers, I always wonder if it stays fun. I've saw 2 Blackhawk Stanley Cups in a 5 year period, and that's the closest to "dynasty" it gets in my rooting interests, so I honestly don't have much frame of reference on this sort of thing.

For example, I almost felt bad for rlipps throughout the year as there was no way this season could be fun for him without a title.

Sadly, that's probably right Iowan. As time goes on, I'm sure I"ll be able to put this season in context and realize what a great accomplishment starting 38-0 was, but right now, it just feels like an utter failure. Once they got into conference play without a loss, the rest of the season was basically spent worrying about not losing instead of just enjoying the wins.

[beantownbubba]

Mostly for Iowan, but there are more of you out there, I know it:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/wom ... than-mens/

I do wonder about the last paragraph as it relates to the relative popularity of the men's and women's tournaments, though: "But you don’t tune in to witness madness; you tune in to witness greatness."

[Iowan]

Mostly for Iowan, but there are more of you out there, I know it:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/wom ... than-mens/

I do wonder about the last paragraph as it relates to the relative popularity of the men's and women's tournaments, though: "But you don’t tune in to witness madness; you tune in to witness greatness."

It's an interesting premise, and I think he's right about women's college basketball drawing a higher percentage of the elite talent among their gender than men's college basketball.

I still don't know if that explains why a handful of programs are so damn much better than everyone else.

[blackwll]

Y'all see the Shaq-Dale Brown 30 for 30 on ESPN? Quite well done. Brought a tear to my eye and I hate (well, dislike) LSU. 30 for 30 is on a roll.

[rlipps]

Iowa St. has tabbed Steve Prohm from Murray St. to replace The Mayor. Thoughts Iowan?

[Iowan]

Iowa St. has tabbed Steve Prohm from Murray St. to replace The Mayor. Thoughts Iowan?

He seems like a good coach. There were rumors that Mark Few and Gregg Marshall were each interested in the job, but our AD wouldn't match what they wanted (even though we could afford it), and if that's true I'll be irate.

But Prohm is an obvious up and comer who has won a shit ton of games at Murray State and plays a very similar brand of basketball. If he can recruit, we're going to be alright I think.

[TW_2.0]

Iowa St. has tabbed Steve Prohm from Murray St. to replace The Mayor. Thoughts Iowan?

He seems like a good coach. There were rumors that Mark Few and Gregg Marshall were each interested in the job, but our AD wouldn't match what they wanted (even though we could afford it), and if that's true I'll be irate.

But Prohm is an obvious up and comer who has won a shit ton of games at Murray State and plays a very similar brand of basketball. If he can recruit, we're going to be alright I think.

Alabama boy. Always a good choice.

[Iowan]

Iowa St. has tabbed Steve Prohm from Murray St. to replace The Mayor. Thoughts Iowan?

He seems like a good coach. There were rumors that Mark Few and Gregg Marshall were each interested in the job, but our AD wouldn't match what they wanted (even though we could afford it), and if that's true I'll be irate.

But Prohm is an obvious up and comer who has won a shit ton of games at Murray State and plays a very similar brand of basketball. If he can recruit, we're going to be alright I think.

Alabama boy. Always a good choice.

I hope someone gets him a nice winter jacket.