coolhandgopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2008
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1. Best team ever?The season began with talk about North Carolina going undefeated and ranking among the most hallowed teams ever in NCAA tournament history. We step into the tournament with UNC having lost four times, two of those losses to teams that were squarely on the bubble (Boston College and Maryland). No longer is there talk about greatest team ever, but it still seems to be popular opinion that UNC will claim the national title. Perhaps, but I see a lot of the 2006 UConn Huskies in this year's Tarheels. Possessing four NBA first round picks later in June (Rudy Gay, Marcus Williams, Hilton Armstrong, and Josh Boone), UConn won the vast majority of their games that season and received a #1 seed, but something seemed amiss with that squad. It came to a head when George Mason defeated them in the regional final to garner a trip to the Final Four. Which path will the Tar Heels take this year?
2. 30 Seconds or LessNo, this isn't a cheesy Nic Cage sequel. Instead it is the difference between the NCAA tournament and NIT for Virginia Tech. Before you finished your Christmas shopping, the Hokies had lost three games in agonizing fashion to Xavier, Wisconsin, and Georgia. Those three losses occurred in approximately 30 seconds; in fact, to antagonize Hokie fans further, their season probably came down to about 1 second-the loss to Xavier was due to a buzzer beater from beyond half court and the loss to Wisconsin came at the hands of a Trevon Hughes shot with 0.9 on the clock. (The Georgia loss was ho-hum by comparison, the winning shot coming with 28 seconds on the clock). If Virginia Tech wins those three games, they finish the year 21-11 and are almost assuredly in the tourney.
3. Worst. Conference Champ. Ever.I do believe the 2008-09 LSU Tigers take that prize (among the six major conferences). A few days ago another poster (I believe it was Selection Sunday) informed us that the SEC was historically bad this season. Even with that being the case, you would look at LSU's record and believe they were quite formidable, blowing through the season with a 26-7 overall record and 13-3 mark in conference, besting the nearest competition by three games. Taking a closer look, you see that LSU not only benefitted by their putrid conference competition but also because their division within the SEC was particularly awful. Their non-conference competition featured three other tourney qualifiers, who LSU lost to all in double figures (Utah by 30, Texas A&M by 11 points, and Xavier by 10). You may have believed LSU blossomed when they reeled off thirteen consecutive games in conference, but the Tigers have lost 3 of their last 4, all to non-qualifiers, save Mississippi State (who would not qualified without winning the SEC tournament. It's safe to say, LSU isn't making it to the weekend in my pool.
4. Do they hang the conference tournament banners in the rafters? In the six power conferences, only one of the regular season champs actually won their conference tournament also, Louisville in the Big East. In fact, none of the other top seeds even made it to the conference finals. Will this affect how they perform in the tournament? History tells us that the well rested teams tend to do better in the NCAA tournament, so don't be too scared off by sluggish performances this past week by the big daddies in each conference.
5. We got ém right where we want ém That's the sentiment shared by the 10 seeds in this tournament. Taking a look at teams seeded #8 to #12 from when the NCAA tournament went to a 64 team format in 1986, the 10 seeds have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen the most times (18) followed by 12 seeds (15), 11 seeds (9), and then 8 seeds (8). Where you don't want to land is the 9 seed, which has had teams advance to the Sweet Sixteen the same number of times as 13 seeds have (3 total, in 23 years).
6. Minnesota Pride No, I am not calling out for this legendary Gopher Hole poster-I'm speaking of the leading scorer stepping into the 2009 NCAA Tournament-Albert Lea and North Dakota State's Ben Woodside who averaged 22.8 points per game this season. In addition to Woodside, two other Minnesota prep products are among the Top 20 scorers in this NCAA tournament-Woodside's teammate Brett Winkleman (Morris) at 18.7 and Cornell's Ryan Wittman (Eden Prairie) at 18.5 ppg. A little bit more for you-Woodside and Winkleman combine to form the top scoring duo among teammates in this tournament, (40.5 ppg) outpacing Marquette's Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews (38.1 ppg)
7. Recognize that guy? In addition to the aforementioned players above, there are several Minnesota prep products that you may see while absorbing all the NCAA action: Minnesota-Al Nolen (Henry), Jamal Abu-Shamala (Shakopee), Blake Hoffarber (Hopkins), and Jonathan Williams (St. Cloud Apollo); NDSU-Woodside, Winkleman, Jejuan Flowers (Hopkins), Eric Carlson (Shakopee), Josh Vaughn (Braham), and Freddy Coleman (St. Paul Johnson); Wisconsin-Jon Leuer (Orono) and Jordan Taylor (Benilde-St. Margaret's); Northern Iowa-Kwadzo Ahelegbe (Tartan) and Travis Brown (Richfield); Kansas-Cole Aldrich (Bloomington Jefferson); Ohio State-P.J. Hill (Minneapolis South); San Diego State-Ryan Amoroso (Apple Valley) and Cornell-Wittman.
8. Close, but not quite Only three other NCAA tournament teams have a leading scorer with a lower points per game average than the Gopher's Lawrence Westbrook at 12.4 ppg-Northern Iowa's Adam Koch (12.3), Illinois' Demetri McCamey (11.5), and Akron's Brett McKnight (11.4).
9. The Gophers are tops! There is one statistic I'm almost sure the Gophers are tops among NCAA qualifiers in, and that is players averaged 10 minutes of playing time per game-the Gophers check in at with an astounding 11 players. The next closest I could find was North Carolina with 10 players, but one of those was Marcus Ginyard who only played three games this year.
10. Memories of Cinderella Some fanbases of highly seeded teams might have pangs of anxiety when seeing their matchups against lower seeded teams with a history of upsets. Here's a short list of programs in this year's tournament who have advanced from double digit seeding in the past to make their mark on the tournament: Northern Iowa (1990); Chattanooga (1997); Cleveland State (1986); Utah State (1991); VCU (2007); and Western Kentucky and Siena, who both staged big upsets just last year.
2. 30 Seconds or LessNo, this isn't a cheesy Nic Cage sequel. Instead it is the difference between the NCAA tournament and NIT for Virginia Tech. Before you finished your Christmas shopping, the Hokies had lost three games in agonizing fashion to Xavier, Wisconsin, and Georgia. Those three losses occurred in approximately 30 seconds; in fact, to antagonize Hokie fans further, their season probably came down to about 1 second-the loss to Xavier was due to a buzzer beater from beyond half court and the loss to Wisconsin came at the hands of a Trevon Hughes shot with 0.9 on the clock. (The Georgia loss was ho-hum by comparison, the winning shot coming with 28 seconds on the clock). If Virginia Tech wins those three games, they finish the year 21-11 and are almost assuredly in the tourney.
3. Worst. Conference Champ. Ever.I do believe the 2008-09 LSU Tigers take that prize (among the six major conferences). A few days ago another poster (I believe it was Selection Sunday) informed us that the SEC was historically bad this season. Even with that being the case, you would look at LSU's record and believe they were quite formidable, blowing through the season with a 26-7 overall record and 13-3 mark in conference, besting the nearest competition by three games. Taking a closer look, you see that LSU not only benefitted by their putrid conference competition but also because their division within the SEC was particularly awful. Their non-conference competition featured three other tourney qualifiers, who LSU lost to all in double figures (Utah by 30, Texas A&M by 11 points, and Xavier by 10). You may have believed LSU blossomed when they reeled off thirteen consecutive games in conference, but the Tigers have lost 3 of their last 4, all to non-qualifiers, save Mississippi State (who would not qualified without winning the SEC tournament. It's safe to say, LSU isn't making it to the weekend in my pool.
4. Do they hang the conference tournament banners in the rafters? In the six power conferences, only one of the regular season champs actually won their conference tournament also, Louisville in the Big East. In fact, none of the other top seeds even made it to the conference finals. Will this affect how they perform in the tournament? History tells us that the well rested teams tend to do better in the NCAA tournament, so don't be too scared off by sluggish performances this past week by the big daddies in each conference.
5. We got ém right where we want ém That's the sentiment shared by the 10 seeds in this tournament. Taking a look at teams seeded #8 to #12 from when the NCAA tournament went to a 64 team format in 1986, the 10 seeds have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen the most times (18) followed by 12 seeds (15), 11 seeds (9), and then 8 seeds (8). Where you don't want to land is the 9 seed, which has had teams advance to the Sweet Sixteen the same number of times as 13 seeds have (3 total, in 23 years).
6. Minnesota Pride No, I am not calling out for this legendary Gopher Hole poster-I'm speaking of the leading scorer stepping into the 2009 NCAA Tournament-Albert Lea and North Dakota State's Ben Woodside who averaged 22.8 points per game this season. In addition to Woodside, two other Minnesota prep products are among the Top 20 scorers in this NCAA tournament-Woodside's teammate Brett Winkleman (Morris) at 18.7 and Cornell's Ryan Wittman (Eden Prairie) at 18.5 ppg. A little bit more for you-Woodside and Winkleman combine to form the top scoring duo among teammates in this tournament, (40.5 ppg) outpacing Marquette's Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews (38.1 ppg)
7. Recognize that guy? In addition to the aforementioned players above, there are several Minnesota prep products that you may see while absorbing all the NCAA action: Minnesota-Al Nolen (Henry), Jamal Abu-Shamala (Shakopee), Blake Hoffarber (Hopkins), and Jonathan Williams (St. Cloud Apollo); NDSU-Woodside, Winkleman, Jejuan Flowers (Hopkins), Eric Carlson (Shakopee), Josh Vaughn (Braham), and Freddy Coleman (St. Paul Johnson); Wisconsin-Jon Leuer (Orono) and Jordan Taylor (Benilde-St. Margaret's); Northern Iowa-Kwadzo Ahelegbe (Tartan) and Travis Brown (Richfield); Kansas-Cole Aldrich (Bloomington Jefferson); Ohio State-P.J. Hill (Minneapolis South); San Diego State-Ryan Amoroso (Apple Valley) and Cornell-Wittman.
8. Close, but not quite Only three other NCAA tournament teams have a leading scorer with a lower points per game average than the Gopher's Lawrence Westbrook at 12.4 ppg-Northern Iowa's Adam Koch (12.3), Illinois' Demetri McCamey (11.5), and Akron's Brett McKnight (11.4).
9. The Gophers are tops! There is one statistic I'm almost sure the Gophers are tops among NCAA qualifiers in, and that is players averaged 10 minutes of playing time per game-the Gophers check in at with an astounding 11 players. The next closest I could find was North Carolina with 10 players, but one of those was Marcus Ginyard who only played three games this year.
10. Memories of Cinderella Some fanbases of highly seeded teams might have pangs of anxiety when seeing their matchups against lower seeded teams with a history of upsets. Here's a short list of programs in this year's tournament who have advanced from double digit seeding in the past to make their mark on the tournament: Northern Iowa (1990); Chattanooga (1997); Cleveland State (1986); Utah State (1991); VCU (2007); and Western Kentucky and Siena, who both staged big upsets just last year.
