2020-21 College Basketball Discussion and Pick'em Thread

[GeorgiaModerate]

Finally an exciting game today in UCLA-Alabama.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

The teams I've been rooting for in the Sweet Sixteen games are 0-7 so far...

[GeorgiaModerate]

UCLA and Alabama scored almost as many points in a 5-minute overtime as Loyola and Oregon State did in an entire half.

[YE]

Down goes Bama!

[DINGO Joe]

UCLA and Alabama scored almost as many points in a 5-minute overtime as Loyola and Oregon State did in an entire half.

Well, Alabama wouldn't stop fouling, and UCLA made almost all of their free throws.

[Donerail]

The teams I've been rooting for in the Sweet Sixteen games are 0-7 so far...

You need to stop rooting for truck stop teams and join us in the Conference of Champions.

[Aliens]

UCLA is gonna be in there, I want a Cali team to make it, but I know Baylor can beat any team but Zags

Good so far with UCLA and USC

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

The teams I've been rooting for in the Sweet Sixteen games are 0-7 so far...

You need to stop rooting for truck stop teams and join us in the Conference of Champions.

You ever notice how Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi are ranked 48, 49 and 50 in every category of human decency?

And Tennessee is still in the SEC, right? Last time I checked, Tennessee was in the south and the east - geography was one of my three majors - but with conferences always changing, who can keep up? Apparently Clueless Joe Lunardi who said Oregon State wouldn't even be in the tournament. Tennessee and Oklahoma salute those other three states for keeping them from the bottom. No match for the Beavers, which are found in the wild in all 50 states by the way.

[GeorgiaModerate]

According to the oddsmakers, this is one of the most lopsided Elite Eights ever.  Gonzaga is a 9-point favorite, while Baylor, Michigan, and Houston are each favored by 7.5.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Zags and Baylor and Zags will win, whom would of gotten that bracket correct

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Wayne Tinkle - his dad died when he was ten years old. Excuse me, his dad dropped out of school when he was ten years old. The media - whoever that is - picked him to finish 12th place in the Pac-12 this season. That's out of 12 teams total. Joe Lunardi had to practically be forced to put them as the 12th best team in the Midwest region, however that works - since when has Oregon been in the Midwest? His team comes out like they were playing in the native frigid tundra ecosystem, spotting double digits to one of the few teams to ever beat Kareem. Well at halftime Wayne Tinkle fed all that negativity to his Beavers and let the dam burst! Coach Tinkle and Coach Thompson, the ultimate fathers and teachers on-and-off the court, but ultimately just short of achieving the magical dream - a feeling I know all too well - but Dam Nation has so much to be take from this year, I knew it was special from the first time I saw this team play. Now go build on it so we can finally go back to Corvallis!

[Ancestral Republican]

Wayne Tinkle - his dad died when he was ten years old. Excuse me, his dad dropped out of school when he was ten years old. The media - whoever that is - picked him to finish 12th place in the Pac-12 this season. That's out of 12 teams total. Joe Lunardi had to practically be forced to put them as the 12th best team in the Midwest region, however that works - since when has Oregon been in the Midwest? His team comes out like they were playing in the tundra, spotting double digits to one of the few teams to ever beat Kareem. Well at halftime Wayne Tinkle fed all that negativity to his Beavers and let the dam burst! Coach Tinkle and Coach Thompson, the ultimate fathers and teachers on-and-off the court, but ultimately just short of achieving the magical dream - a feeling I know all too well - but Dam Nation has so much to be take from this year, I knew it was special from the first time I saw this team play. Now go build on it so we can finally go back to Corvallis!

Was cheering for OSU. I've never rated Houston at all - glorified community college in a truck stop city. Hope they get slaughtered in the Final Four.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Wayne Tinkle - his dad died when he was ten years old. Excuse me, his dad dropped out of school when he was ten years old. The media - whoever that is - picked him to finish 12th place in the Pac-12 this season. That's out of 12 teams total. Joe Lunardi had to practically be forced to put them as the 12th best team in the Midwest region, however that works - since when has Oregon been in the Midwest? His team comes out like they were playing in the tundra, spotting double digits to one of the few teams to ever beat Kareem. Well at halftime Wayne Tinkle fed all that negativity to his Beavers and let the dam burst! Coach Tinkle and Coach Thompson, the ultimate fathers and teachers on-and-off the court, but ultimately just short of achieving the magical dream - a feeling I know all too well - but Dam Nation has so much to be take from this year, I knew it was special from the first time I saw this team play. Now go build on it so we can finally go back to Corvallis!

Was cheering for OSU. I've never rated Houston at all - glorified community college in a truck stop city. Hope they get slaughtered in the Final Four.

Assuming Houston get Baylor next, they'll need to play like they did in tonight's first half to hang with the Bears, otherwise they'll get slaughtered. And even at their best they're no match for Gonzaga.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

For as crazy as the first weekend was, it's starting to feel like we will have a remarkably chalky Final Four of three 1's and a 2.

[Senator Spark]

My bracket has already been hopelessly BUSTED.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Houston is the first team ever to make the Final Four without facing a single digit seed along the way

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Many users got Baylor and Zags right which is a shame if you didn't pick them since they were the preseason favs

That's what the media wanted, tell me that wasn't fixed, when you had Oral Roberts beating Ozhio state, yep it was

[GeorgiaModerate]

So far the Gonzaga-USC game looks like it was in doubt all the way up to the opening tip.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

The Definitive Ranking on Who To Cheer For in one of the worst Final Four Groupings Ever

1. Gonzaga - Mark Few is one of the finest quality coaches without a title, the most complete team without simply just recruiting the highest rated high schoolers and throwing a team of stars together. Catholic. Not ecstatic about them joining the ranks of champions, but it is deserved and so is the undefeated season, so I'll give them this one. Already a permanent superpower. Hopefully they don't make a habit of it.

2. UCLA - What's one more championship for them. Tyger Campbell has been fun to watch almost every game for two years. On the downside, an 11 seed champion would be atrocious. Mick Cronin deserves to be nowhere near a championship. So let's try to avoid this.

3. Baylor - The Drew family could use a win, but the last thing we need is these fundies becoming a perennial power. It would be awful if we avoided Texas Tech etching its name in glory only for Baylor to take the mantle.

4. Houston - The Kelvin Sampson redemption arc is the story absolutely nobody asked for. A glorified community college has no business being a power team. Any team in Texas being successful in basketball is painful enough. A mid-major city college dethroned from its ancient glory rising again over its in-state superiors makes me want to vomit. We didn't slay Phi Slamma Jamma only for them to win a title a quarter of a century later (following a period of zero NCAA wins).

I did not grow up liking Gonzaga, but there is only one team that can save us from an awfully painful fate. Go Zags!

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Zags are gonna win the whole thing anyways

[Drew]

My brackets held up fairly well this year.  On the women’s side I still have my two finalists South Carolina and UConn, while on the men’s side I have 3 of the 4 Final Four teams with UCLA being the exception.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Baylor is a 5-point favorite over Houston, while Gonzaga is a 14-point favorite over UCLA.  I believe the latter equals the largest point spread in Final Four history, Kentucky -14 over Syracuse in the 1996 final.  (Note: in the 1990 final, UNLV was such an overwhelming favorite over Duke that there was no line AFAICT.)

[GeorgiaModerate]

As of yesterday, the transfer portal had over 1100 entries, which is an average of over 3 for every Division I school!

[GeorgiaModerate]

Roy Williams is retiring from coaching (not an April Fool's joke).

[GeorgiaModerate]

Texas is hiring Chris Beard away from Texas Tech.  I wonder if Tech might try to go after Kelvin Sampson following Houston's success.