The added Greatness of that epic UCLA vs Gonzaga game, was that not only was it a rematch of the Final 4, overtime thriller won at the buzzer 2 years ago by Gonzaga, it was a rematch of much of the same stars:Timme Watson Strawther Jaime Jaquez Tyger Campbell etc etcIncredibly rare in the era of 1 and Done and Transfer portal.

That's a lot richer experience than seeing Kentucky and Duke roll out entirely new teams 1 year from the next.

Same thing with those great Jay Wright Villanova teams from 2016 to 2018 the same cluster of players, year after year. Hope the sport still retains some more of that in the transfer and 1 and done era.  

Congrats to Jim Larranaga, on back to back Elite 8s.

The first Coach in history to make back to back Elite 8s as a 5 seed or lower.  

As our GW Coach, CC spent nearly 20 years helping build this with JL, congrats to CC as well, Miami's success is very good for GW too

Last edited by The Dude (3/24/2023 11:47 pm)

If Florida Atlantic, why not GW?

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Congrats to UConn and Dan Hurley, the #1 Computer team going into today and much of the year and they looked very much part in all 4 NCAA Tourney games.

Looking like 2018 Villanova the only other team in history to win every game by this big a margin. 

Wish The A10 was capable to hang on to a Coach this good but alas, bigger things were in the future for a guy like Hurley who stayed at Rhode Island about as long as one could hope for   

Congrats as well to Florida Atlantic! what a story they are.... terribly underseeded with top 10 Computer #s and proving they too were no fluke

Great tourney for the non power programs... and even the newly formed Big East with its Missouri Valley, A10 and American schools combo outperforming the true Power 5s[/color]



 

Last edited by The Dude (3/25/2023 10:46 pm)

Big thing about FAU is all these guys played together last year. It wasn’t some portal magic.

So for GW to ever do it, we really need some roster consistency. Not gonna happen until 24-25 at a minimum.

It’s why SLU and Dayton were so disappointing this year. They actually brought back their key guys and should’ve been FAU.

"America's Greatest Coach" flames out again.  Amazing.

17 years ago, a very young CC with George Mason as a young assistant was Final 4 Bound

1 year ago a very senior, now Associate Head Coach CC lost in the Elite 8
Today, those players are Final 4 bound. 

CC played for almost 2 decades the Tommy Lloyd role.  So Kudos, and above all kudos to Miami and Jim Larranaga.  Jim has to be HOF bound with this resume.   What a career.

 

AT Hiker wrote:

As I watched Coach Larranaga being interviewed after the great win, I imagined Coach Caputo in the same role in a couple of years! 

At Miami? 

The non Power 5 clearly the story of this tourney, also What a tournament for The Big East:

UConn has dominated all 4 games and enters The Final 4 #1 KenPom team in the nation and  the clear presumptive favorite for the title

Creighton lost in the final 1.1 second in the Elite 8

Xavier made The Sweet 16

Other than Marquette bombing out as a 2 seed in round 2 great tourney for The Big East.  

 

It's time to offer a little nuance to the P5/non P5 discussion just to offer some clarity on the issue.  First and foremost, this tournament still offers automatic bids to I believe 31 schools who have earned the right to represent their conference, almost always by winning their conference tournament.  At least up until now, there has never been any discussion about changing this.  (Not saying it isn't a conceivable consideration down the road but for now, there has been zero evidence of this.)  So let's be clear that no committee has ever sought to exclude any of these schools who win their conference tournaments.

Those non P5/BE schools who have had success in this year's tournament include Gonzaga, San Diego State, Furman, Florida Atlantic, Princeton, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Houston.  Two footnotes:  first, FDU should not have actually been in the field, but Merrimack is still ineligible as a new D1 program.  And while Houston was technically an at large because they lost their conference final to Memphis, everyone knows that Houston had a ton of injury problems and was one of the best teams in the country all season long.

The others on this list all earned their right to be there and were able to capitalize.  So if you would like to believe that the midmajors were blatantly ripped off insofar as not enough of them making the Dance to begin with, then it's far more instructive to look at those midmajors who did make the field as at-large teams.  There weren't very many:

Nevada lost in its play-in game to Arizona State
Boise State lost to Northwestern in the first round
Utah State lost to Missouri in the first round
Houston won a few games but if we look at this like we should, that Houston should be the AQ and Memphis the at-large, Memphis lost to Florida Atlantic in the first round.

Excluding Houston, only St. Mary's pulled off a first round win over VCU before falling in the next round to UCONN.

When analyzing these results, in all objectivity, why would anyone think that the midmajors deserved more at large slots?  Who would these teams be?  Hofstra, after the College of Charlston lost in the first round?  Dayton, after VCU lost in the first round?  New Mexico, after the 3 Mountain West at large schools went winless?  Nobody from the AAC, MVC, or WCC.  Perhaps the singular case that could be made would be North Texas, out of Conference USA, who is still alive in the NIT (as is UAB but they really couldn't have been considered), had strong computer numbers, and was the runner-up to Florida Atlantic.

After the seemingly countless numbers of posts whining and complaining about how the little guys are disrespected and deserved more at-large bids, the summary is that:

1) Many of these teams who were automatic qualifiers made the most of their opportunities.  So yes, the midmajor Automatic Qualifiers did have (and are having) an excellent tournament.
2) Because #1 took place by no means should infer that other schools from these conferences are deserving.
3) Based on the tournament's results, North Texas is literally the only non P5-BE who has a legitimate case for being upset over not having been selected.