NFT: NCAABB: President's Day Weekend Slate

that Grayson Allen traveled last year at CIS.

He's still at UVA. Rumor has been that Tony will still take him back next season if he's cleaned himself up. At that point, though, it'll be two years since he's played, other than one game this season. Still, beggars can't be choosers and we need posts in the worst way.

Seriously doing an Indiana game tonight?

ESPN continues to be a clownshow.

They'd no longer be the Waaaaahoos if they couldn't complain about the refs.

Bottom line:

Baylor sucks

Syracuse has the talent but the basketball players shouldn't be any where near a college.

UNC will be completely irrelevant once the litigation is over. Fake classes? Not even Dean Smith's ghost can save them from that.

Virginia never had an offense and defense doesn't win championships, guard play does.

Notre Dame's introduction into the ACC, how about completely dominating and winning it the first year? We're established.

Bunch of wannabe's complaining about the referees doesn't change the fact that Mike Brey is the top coach in the conference.

Duke is always a contender. Coach K is arguably the best ever in the history of the game. Mike Brey is the disciple that can out coach the master.

There really isn't anyone else in the conversation since Dean Smith is about to be publicly erased and anyone after him at UNC will not matter.

The ACC, yeah, we saw, we came, we conquered. All without compromising acedemic integrity. It's ours to take in the tourney again, riding a 4 game win streak.

I'm wishing the best for 'Cuse tomorrow night, a loss and it's "there's no shame being invited to the NIT" but realistically, Coach K needs this win, the voters know this, a Syracuse win when Coach K means business is a quality win come tourney voting.

Good luck, your season comes down to beating Duke. I'd love to see you in the tourney knocking off The Waaaaahoos again.

In comment 13367303 B in ALB said:

Quote:

Seriously doing an Indiana game tonight? ESPN continues to be a clownshow.

Dakich was really critical of Indiana last night and with good reason - their players are really dumb especially the backcourt. Injuries is one thing, but stupidity is another. And lest we forget that Dakich regularly calls Michigan games where his kid was a walk-on and now on scholarship.

And it's not like Bob Griese didn't call his kid's games and those of Purdue for years.

Peter Jok shot TWENTY-THREE free throws. Indiana as a team shot 19. Guess where the game was played?

In comment 13367409 Cruzin said:

Quote:

They'd no longer be the Waaaaahoos if they couldn't complain about the refs.

1/24/17, @ND: UVA 71, ND 54
1/6/16, @UVA: UVA 77, ND 66
1/10/15, @ND: UVA 62, ND 56
2/18/14, @UVA: UVA 70, ND 49
1/28/14, @ ND: UVA 68, ND 53

In comment 13367486 Bobby Humphrey's Earpad said:

Quote:

In comment 13367303 B in ALB said: Quote: Seriously doing an Indiana game tonight? ESPN continues to be a clownshow. Dakich was really critical of Indiana last night and with good reason - their players are really dumb especially the backcourt. Injuries is one thing, but stupidity is another. And lest we forget that Dakich regularly calls Michigan games where his kid was a walk-on and now on scholarship. And it's not like Bob Griese didn't call his kid's games and those of Purdue for years.

Was he? I didn't bother watching the game once I heard him announcing. And I try to stay away from any game of his.

And the whole deal with Izzo was ridiculous too. The guy is a turd. He and Walton are the absolute worst. I'd actually take Vitale over both of them.

In comment 13367670 Greg from LI said:

Quote:

In comment 13367409 Cruzin said: Quote: They'd no longer be the Waaaaahoos if they couldn't complain about the refs. 1/24/17, @ND: UVA 71, ND 54 1/6/16, @UVA: UVA 77, ND 66 1/10/15, @ND: UVA 62, ND 56 2/18/14, @UVA: UVA 70, ND 49 1/28/14, @ ND: UVA 68, ND 53

Solid response, but the rest of us chose to ignore that senseless diarrhea of the keyboard above. For starters, Notre Dame went 6-12 in conference its first year in the ACC. Second, the team has never finished higher than 3rd in the standings - so I'm guessing the troll is talking about an ACC tournament weekend against other teams already ticketed for their 2-4 seeds in respective regions.

Oh and of course as far as "future Coach K" goes - 16 years into his tenure i still dont see a final 4 appearance... did it read wikipedia wrong?

In comment 13367670 Greg from LI said:

Quote:

In comment 13367409 Cruzin said: Quote: They'd no longer be the Waaaaahoos if they couldn't complain about the refs. 1/24/17, @ND: UVA 71, ND 54 1/6/16, @UVA: UVA 77, ND 66 1/10/15, @ND: UVA 62, ND 56 2/18/14, @UVA: UVA 70, ND 49 1/28/14, @ ND: UVA 68, ND 53

Anyone else hear that Bennett is going to Indiana after this year?

If we start with the 14-15 season, ND has 6 NCAA tourney wins to UVA's 4. ND also has an ACC championship while UVA has underachieved in both the ACC conference and NCAA tourney. ND is also highly likely to finish higher in the ACC than UVA this year and UVA is trending down big time.

UVA has had great head to head success versus ND, but I'd take ND's past few years (and current season outlook) over there's.

No disrespect meant to UVA though, I think Bennett and Brey are the two best in-game coaches (i.e., recruiting not factored) in the ACC and love seeing UVA beat the UNC/Duke types of teams. Just need to respond to people shitting on ND basketball program for no reason.

how random. Was it because Notre Dame was dreadful in 13-14 and UVA went 16-2 in the ACC that year?

take so much pride in a major conference end-of-season tournament than Notre Dames. A tournament that most coaches are just trying to protect their players from injury for the real tournament that starts four days later...

Give me regular season ACC CHAMPIONSHIPS over 4 day tournament ones any day of the week.

all you want but he's sort of worked miracles at ND. The ND student body and alumni don't give a shit about basketball and have treated that program as a red headed step child for decades.

The basketball team's practice facility is worse than ~98% of "power" conference teams and more akin to a cheap mid-major program. Add in the academic restrictions (which of course are tougher than for the ND football team) and it's a really tough place to recruit to.

I'd love to see what Brey can do in the last 10 years of his career with a real ACC facility and some support from the admin, but no work has even started on a new faciilty. The back to back elite 8s and ACC title should've helped recruiting but the gains have been modest.

I'll be mostly OK with watching an ND that makes the tournament 80% of the time, upsets a few of the big boys every year, makes it to the second weekend of the tourney in good years, and maybe can be a final four contender if everything breaks right. I just feel bad for Brey because he's such a good basketball mind that I'd love to see what he can do with consistent top 25 recruiting classes.

In comment 13368026 MetsAreBack said:

Quote:

how random. Was it because Notre Dame was dreadful in 13-14 and UVA went 16-2 in the ACC that year?

Because it's the 3 most recent seasons?

In comment 13368029 MetsAreBack said:

Quote:

take so much pride in a major conference end-of-season tournament than Notre Dames. A tournament that most coaches are just trying to protect their players from injury for the real tournament that starts four days later... Give me regular season ACC CHAMPIONSHIPS over 4 day tournament ones any day of the week.

I guess I'm still a Big East guy where the conference tournament really was a goal in and of itself.

and the only material difference i see is that UVA was upset in the 2nd round one year while Notre Dame made it to the elite 8 ... and lost... twice.

Congrats?

I actually like Notre Dame athletics - pull for the football team like Mook - but how proud everyone wears one ACC weekend tournament is a little odd.

In comment 13368032 Metnut said:

Quote:

In comment 13368026 MetsAreBack said: Quote: how random. Was it because Notre Dame was dreadful in 13-14 and UVA went 16-2 in the ACC that year? Because it's the 3 most recent seasons?

And yes, of course it's a 100% super convenient anchor but not completely arbitrary.

In comment 13368035 Metnut said:

Quote:

I guess I'm still a Big East guy where the conference tournament really was a goal in and of itself.

I respect that. But you dont mention UVA's regular season dominance/titles anywhere in your comparison which i think really discredits your "analysis"

seems to me the obvious comparison is the last 4 years... which is A) a full education cycle and B) the number of years Notre Dame has been the in ACC.

In comment 13368036 MetsAreBack said:

Quote:

and the only material difference i see is that UVA was upset in the 2nd round one year while Notre Dame made it to the elite 8 ... and lost... twice. Congrats? I actually like Notre Dame athletics - pull for the football team like Mook - but how proud everyone wears one ACC weekend tournament is a little odd.

How is making the elite 8 twice not a significant accomplishment? ND basketball isn't on the same playing field as UNC, Duke, KU, UK, etc.

If you can't be proud (even if of course wondering would would've happened if you won) with two elite 8s and winning the conference tourney for the best conference in the country, then why follow the sport? Should only UNC, Duke, UK, and fans 5 or so other teams get to be happy?

In comment 13368041 MetsAreBack said:

Quote:

In comment 13368035 Metnut said: Quote: I respect that. But you dont mention UVA's regular season dominance/titles anywhere in your comparison which i think really discredits your "analysis"

It wasn't intended to be an objective "analysis." Greg just posted a list of head to head results so I responded with similarly limited facts.

I started with 13-14 because it was ND's first season in the ACC and the first time the schools had played in many years. Also, considering we won the '14 tournament, lost in the semifinal in '15, and lost in the final last year, not really seeing how we've underachieved there. And hey, maybe we could have beaten Carolina in the final last year if Notre Dame didn't lay down and die by 31, giving the Carolina starters lots of rest in the second half.


MAB - Tony already turned Indiana down once - he was offered the job before they hired Crean. They screwed his sister over when she coached there.

Admitting my own biases....I honestly don't see him leaving for another college job, only if the NBA ever came calling. Paul Tudor Jones will make sure he never leaves for financial reasons. He isn't the kind of guy who wants to deal with pushy boosters and ADs. He will do things his way, which is often idiosyncratic. He doesn't cater to HS kids, which is a big reason why we haven't landed a real blue chipper despite the success of the past few seasons. They absolutely have to give max effort on defense or they won't play, simple as that. Players have to be unselfish - there's no hero ball at UVA, which isn't something a lot of huge recruits wants to hear. As he showed with Austin Nichols, he will run a kid who breaks the rules even if it significantly impacts the team. He doesn't blow off academics either - in his first season as coach, he kicked Sylven Landesberg off the team for poor grades when he was the only good player we had.

Tony's a great fit for UVA and UVA is a great fit for him. I don't think he'd be as successful or happy at a blueblood where winning is absolutely everything. He's a fierce competitor who wants to win, of course, but he's committed to doing it his way.

with 2014-2015 so that he could say that Notre Dame has an ACC tournament title and 6 tournament wins whereas Virginia "underachieved" and only had 4 tournament wins.

Yet, if he started with 2013-2014, when Notre Dame entered the conference and a natural four-year cycle, he would have to include Virginia's 16-2 run in the ACC, a regular season ACC "title", an ACC tournament title, and two additional NCAA tourney wins.

The last four years, Virginia has had the 1, 1, and 2 seeds in the ACC tournament.

Trending in the wrong direction? We are having a down-season after graduating a lot of talent and then kicking off the best (or perhaps most important) player on our team. This year's freshman class (two of the players are red-shirting), is the highest-rated class Bennett has ever had on paper.

Even with that down-season, we are still #9 in KenPom, #10 in Sagarin and are playing efficiently. Our defense is still rated #1. We are just severely limited offensively right now because we lack interior scoring. And our team looks even worse because we are in a dreadful shooting slump having played four tough games in nine days against tough teams and three overtime periods.

Also our team looks worse because we are in a funk and have been on the wrong end of every buzzer-beater, tip-in, and overtime game this season. Some bad luck and some lack of composure closing out games.

But rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

To a grossly underseeded Michigan State, who ended up in the Final Four. Oh, and Justin Anderson was coming off a broken finger requiring surgery and an emergency appendectomy in the month before the tournament. Kind of hurt us a bit.

In comment 13368056 Greg from LI said:

Quote:

MAB - Tony already turned Indiana down once - he was offered the job before they hired Crean. They screwed his sister over when she coached there.

Metnut threw that one out there, not me. Seems to me Bennett is building a nice program at UVA... money always talks, but not sure why he'd leave if UVA continues to treat his family well.

Even when I expected Nichols on the team, this was going to be a tough season because we were replacing 3 of the 4 leading scorers on last year's team. Take him away, and it got that much tougher. We were overachieving earlier in the season and underachieving now.

I'll say this much - all the assholes at the Sabre who complained about Tobey for four years because he didn't become the dominant center they expected sure have changed their tune now that we have no inside scoring whatsoever.

Tobey was frustrating for sure because he had so much potential that he didn't unleash until Tony told him to play with reckless abandon. But he was always smooth around the rim, as was Gill.

The drop-off has been tremendous. Salt and Diakite are just incredibly raw players without any refinement in their offensive game.

Once Nichols went down, we overperformed because we were one of the best shooting teams in the country. Now teams are scheming us better and our legs are also getting tired. They are chasing us off the perimeter, unconcerned about our interior players, we don't have the guards to penetrate and draw fouls.

Right now, this team is completely one-dimensional.

As I've stated before, we are like the Giants. Teams now know to completely ignore the run game or tight end and sit in deep safety coverage and we are not able to overcome it yet.

But if shots start falling again, things will look a whole lot different. We still play excellent defense even during this brutal stretch of offensive stagnation.

Money will never be the reason he leaves - like I said, Paul Tudor Jones is the program's big booster. A)he's a damn billionaire who bankrolled our arena, which is named for his dad B)he absolutely loves Bennett and has protected him from any interference from Reverse King Midas himself, assistant AD Jon Oliver. When Oliver tried to stick his nose into the BB program so he could ruin it the way the way he ruined football, PTJ told him to get lost or he'd put his checkbook away.

So finances won't drive him away. By all accounts, he and his family are very happy living in Charlottesville. At this time, the school has been very hands off and given him total control of the program, and he's built up an enormous amount of credibility and goodwill. So long as that continues, I don't see him leaving.

One thing someone pointed out to me and it was a kind of eureka moment - watch our wings coming off of screens. Harris and Brogdon would run off a screen so tightly that they'd scrape shoulders with the screener. Defenders had absolutely nowhere to go. This year, they're not doing that and defenders are getting through the screens effectively. Guy in particular is struggling with that.

yeah I hear ya, but that's only one of our many issues. It's something to improve, but fundamentally that's not the main problem. It would definitely help someone like Guy, though, who is undersized.

going to try and take a day off in two weeks and do an ACC and Big East tournament doubleheader?

that was an awesome ending.