The Sweet 16

NarrowJ said:

I cant even handle how good Purdue is going to be next year. They return everyone (I'm assuming no xfers out, of course).

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They might be great but for now I think they get pounded by Houston, which will make me feel really good. I find Loyer and Smith so unlikeable.

ChiefGritty said:

All power conference teams, 7 from the SEC, and the only seed above a 6 is John Calipari's Arkansas.

A disturbingly charmless tournament. I'm sure it's MOSTLY luck of the draw and future years will have more upsets, but to the extent NIL world bends in this direction it's horrible for the sport.

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Yep. The underdogs are what make March what it has been. Outside of IL being involved the sweet 16 and beyond often feel anticlimactic. If the little guy is being removed due to nil and portal it will cause long term damage to March madness imo.

People will still watch but I doubt millions are taking g 2 days off work to see if 12 seed Oklahoma can beat 5 seed Michigan. That just doesn’t hit like a Lehigh vs Duke, Princeton vs UCLA or any of the other classic upsets.

I suspect the upsets are gonna become much more rare as the mid majors are losing their seniority advantage as well as the random nba level talent that some of them have had in the past that could carry a team to a win or 2. Those guys are portaled out after freshman year these days. Steph Curry ain’t staying at Davidson for 3 or 4 years in the modern era.

ChiefGritty said:

All power conference teams, 7 from the SEC, and the only seed above a 6 is John Calipari's Arkansas.

A disturbingly charmless tournament. I'm sure it's MOSTLY luck of the draw and future years will have more upsets, but to the extent NIL world bends in this direction it's horrible for the sport.

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on this we agree

lstewart53x3 said:

By my count, there are 7 non-power conference teams in the top 50 in KenPom this year and there were 10 in the top 50 in 2015.

While I think it’s possible NIL kills Cinderella, I think a bigger sample size is needed to say for sure.

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Agree. I seem to recall last year's first round games to be some of the best in recent years.

BYU-Alabama is going to be an absolute track meet. Over/under on the game is 175.5. By comparison, Purdue/Houston O/U is 132.5.

Going by the point spreads, the two closest games appear to be Ole Miss/Sparty and UK/Tennessee. Michigan State is -3.5. Tennessee is -4.5.

I'm bitter that Purdue is still dancing and we're not. If there was one thing I was certain of in the offseason, it was that Purdue would come back down to earth this year like they had several times prior under Painter. But here we are.

NarrowJ said:

Scheyer as a coach is way more likeable than he was as a player imo

Not sure what it is... maybe he just makes less funny faces while coaching lol

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