2023-2024 B1G Basketball Thread

[ELA]

I want two. JMU and then Dook.

I either think Wisconsin loses to JMU, or reaches the Sweet 16.  That's what I'm battling with.  I think if they beat JMU, they beat Duke, but I'm waffling on who to pick between UW and JMU.

I used to shy away from teams who played 4+ games the prior weekend, particularly Big Ten and SEC teams, who played the last of those on Sunday, but that strategy hasn't gone great recently

[847badgerfan]

At least they get to rest up some, since they play very late on Friday.

[MaximumSam]

Where do you get the nerve to accuse me of sniveling? 

Because you are going on like my ex-wife. "Admit I am always right and you are always wrong!" "Two years ago you said something condescending!" 


Like I have said maybe ten million times, my biggest concern was blowing things up and starting from scratch. I would be pretty pessimistic if all our players entered the portal while we dithered around finding a new head coach. Perhaps it is due to my relentless pessimism in the capabilities of college administrators, but I am pleasantly surprised that BjorkSmith moved as quickly as they did. It is very unusual to pay a big buyout to can a guy only to hire the dude sitting next to him, but it alleviates my major concerns and hopefully Diebs kills it next year.

Clearly, things can still go south, especially after next year, but right now I'm pretty stoked.

[MaximumSam]

I'm going on a road trip Saturday with my three girls - hopefully they like watching basketball in a bar with their old man.

[Abba]

So how does the Holtmann contract work now with him taking a new job with Depaul.  Is Ohio State completely off the hook, or still pays some offset of his salary?

[medinabuckeye1]

So how does the Holtmann contract work now with him taking a new job with Depaul.  Is Ohio State completely off the hook, or still pays some offset of his salary?

My understanding is that the salary he receives offsets the buyout. 

I haven't seen details of his contract with DePaul but my understanding is that it is likely about half as much as he was making at Ohio State so that would cut the buyout in half from roughly $20M to roughly $10M.

[847badgerfan]

Madison, WI is named after James Madison. UW was founded some 60+ years prior to JMU (founded as a normal school for women in 1908 and named JMU in 1977).

[bayareabadger]

One win for UW will be enough for me. Two would exceed expectations. 

Zero will make me sad and fill me with a kind of dread. 

[MarqHusker]

I will probably attend my first ncaa tournament game since the very weird Covid tournament which was exclusively held in the Indy area.   Glad Marquette is in a different session from Purdue.  Makes for a cheap date Friday afternoon. 

[medinabuckeye1]

The Geography of the NCAA Tournament:
Here are this year's first/second round sites with the two "pod leaders" hosted at each site:

Brooklyn:

• #1 UCONN
• #4 Dook

Charlotte:

• #1 UNC
• #2 Tennessee

Pittsburgh:

• #3 Kentucky
• #3 Creighton

Indianapolis:

• #1 Purdue
• #2 Marquette

Memphis:

• #1 Houston
• #3 Baylor

Omaha:

• #2 Iowa State
• #3 Illinois

Salt Lake City:

• #2 Zona
• #4 Kansas

Spokane:

• #4 Auburn
• #4 Bama

Note that there is one site in the Mountain Time Zone (SLC) and one in the Pacific Time Zone (Spokane) but there is only one top-4 seed from those two time zones (Arizona) so three #4 seeds from the Eastern and Central Time Zones have to get shipped out west where they will likely be at a geographic disadvantage if they are lucky enough to make the second round:

• #4 Kansas is likely to face #5 Gonzaga in the second round - in Salt Lake City
• #4 Bama is likely to face #5 St. Mary's in the second round - in Spokane
• #4 Auburn is likely to face #5 SDSU in the second round - in Spokane

This isn't some random thing that just happened to occur this year because there were more teams from the Eastern and Central time zones than usual.  Nope, it is ALWAYS this way.  The NCAA has to know better and yet EVERY year they intentionally disadvantage a few teams from the Eastern and Central time zones and give an unfair and unearned advantage to a few teams from the Mountain and Pacific time zones. 

Specifically, over the last 20 tournaments (2004-2019 and 2020-2024) here is the number of top-4 seeds from each time zone:

• 8.65 average Eastern, range of 6-11
• 5.20 average Central, range of 2-9
• 0.60 average Mountain, range of 0-1
• 1.55 average Pacific, range of 0-3

Combining EST/CST and MST/PST we get:

• 13.85 average Eastern and Central, range of 12-16
• 2.15 average Mountain and Pacific, range of 0-4

Based on this, there *SHOULD* be seven first/second round sites each year in the Eastern and Central time zones and one in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. 


Can anyone explain to me why the NCAA chooses to do this?  It simply can't be accidental.  They obviously know what teams have been selected each year and they know that nearly every year a few eastern #4 seeds get shipped west to fill in unneeded western sites.  Why do they choose not to fix it? 

[847badgerfan]

They almost always do that to Wisconsin. It's maddening.

Especially 2019. They stuck 5 seed Wisconsin and 12 seed Oregon in the South region. Same for 4 seed KSU and 13 seed UC-Irvine. OK fine.

Then they made them all play in the San Jose pod. WTF.

Oregon and Irvine won.

[ELA]

Just heard that the last time a 1 and 2 met in the Elite 8 was MSU-Duke in 2019.

[CatsbyAZ]

I'm fairly confident that Northwestern is in and Ohio State is out but according to the NCAA's own NET system:

• #49 Ohio State
• #53 Northwestern

Despite Jake Diebler’s 6-2(?) takeover to end the Buckeyes season, it’s a GOOD thing the Buckeyes didn’t sneak into the Tournament (IMO). Because it pins a SECOND non-tournament season squarely onto Holtmann and reinforces how much he failed Ohio State. Holtmann deserved to be fired before he should’ve even had a chance to miss the tournament AGAIN.

Chris Holtmann is a substandard coach, now where he belongs, at a substandard basketball program – DePaul.

(Now onto Jake Diebler - I will save my comments for the new basketball season thread later.)


https://twitter.com/DePaulHoops/status/1769777781628371144

[grillrat]

As a side-semi-off-topic....

I am actually somewhat annoyed that OSU didn't get in.  Not that I think they deserved to get in, just that the radio coverage sucks.

I live in the Columbus area.  97.1 The Fan is the Columbus area sports radio station.  They are obviously, very OSU centric.  I accept that......but...

Here we are, the week of March Madness, what many consider to be the biggest American sporting event of the year (or at worst, #2 behind the Super Bowl).

And when I turn on the radio every morning and every evening for my commute to / from work, what is the station covering this week?

OSU spring practice.  NFL draft.  NFL trades.  OSU women's basketball.  Spring Break stories.

They have talked about men's college basketball over the last 3 weeks more than average, but 95% concerned Holtman getting fired and whether Diebler should have been hired.

Otherwise.....nothing.  March Madness may as well just not exist.  Maybe my commute is just always at a time they never discuss it, but's it's been this way for months now.  The week of the Super Bowl, they spent about 60 to 75% of their time covering it.  I get that they have a demographic that they are appealing to, but it borders on the level of ridiculousness how little they are talking about it.