Wins over St Louis, Iowa, Ohio State and Michigan all by healthy margins… losses to top 15 teams on the road.
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Bama’s turnaround has been wildly impressive. They went from losing at home WKU and almost losing at home to Furman to this stretch you’re showing.
The big caveat for them is just playing in the SEC. According to Torvik they play one game against a top 25 team the rest of the way and none inside the top 20 (Michigan has 4 for comparison). The only team inside the top 20 they’ve played all season is Tennessee at #10 to Torvik, but they might be overrated after seeing their game last night.
There’s a real chance they establish themselves as the clear best team in the SEC if they haven’t already. I wish the SEC was better so we could get a better gauge for how good they actually are.
It seems like the only way the rest of the SEC can catch them is to hope they go cold from 3 for a few games. They’re 2-3 when they make under 10 3’s and are shooting 17/77 from 3 in their losses. Compare that to their current 8 game win streak where their worst performance is 10/32.
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I’ve always thought there was a space for AL to become a perennial power. During the Horry, Sprewell years they threatened to attain such a place, then fell off. . .
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beating #4 and #6 on the list certainly helps
I think this went unnoticed yesterday. Or nobody cares…
But the format has changed from Thur/Fri and Sat/Sun to Fri/Sat and Sun/Mon for the first four rounds. Plus the sweet 16 games all have their own time slots with no overlap.
Looks like I’m taking a few long weekends, wraparound style!
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I wonder what the justification is for that change… I assume as with most things related to the NCAA that it somehow ties back to money or TV…
Does this mean I only get to skip work one day instead of two?
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Instead of taking Thursday and Friday off, take Friday and Monday!
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Well, I’m assuming that with fewer games Monday that they will all be later in the day. Whereas the old schedule meant that games started before lunch on Th/Fr.
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I assumed it was to get another day for teams to “quarantine” before entering the bubble. The first four games are all on Thursday as well for presumably the same reason instead of Tue/Wed like previous formats.
Edit: The round of 32 will still have 8 games on Monday so still plenty of reason to skip work.
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This (paywalled) article about succession plans at Syracuse, Duke, and NC brought me back to our conversation about “blue blood” programs of the other day, offering further food for thought.
Highly subjective, but I’d class North Carolina in that group of schools that I’d consider top-tier, but conjecture that Syracuse and Duke are really tied to the image of their current coaches. Just as the U of Connecticut has fallen off of the map without Jim Calhoun (another man of questionable scruples), I’d say that Syracuse and Duke may be particularly nervous about who mans the helm next. Which brings me to my point: I think that the term blue blood best applies to programs that have had more than one venerated coach and been strong during long periods. In this way, Michigan probably really doesn’t yet qualify, but could be on the way with Juwan Howard.
Basketball just may be corrupt from top to bottom, but it’s also worth noting that all of these programs have dabbled in at least a little of the slimy over the last decades. The NCAA tournament may be the greatest spectacle in American sport, but the game has suffered.
It’s definitely interesting how quickly the traditional powers can fade away, much more quickly than in football. Syracuse, UConn, Georgetown, and UCLA are all pretty far from being relevant. Gonzaga, Creighton, Butler, and VCU are all probably more relevant in terms of results, which would have been an insane thing to say 15 years ago. Like you say, Duke and UNC in particular need to be careful (or lucky) with who they hire next. I don’t really see what either of them offer other than dirty money and their coaches’ record of getting players into the NBA.
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The Flexin’ Friars taking it to Creighton early. I still can’t watch for long stretches.
Clemson has fallen off a cliff for some reason
UNC must be careful they don’t hire the wrong guy like Doherty, or they’ll never be relevant again.
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Never is pretty strong language for a blue blood!
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I mean especially when they did hire Doherty and almost immediately bounced back in a big way with Williams.
UNC has such prolonged sustained success and recruiting cache (hello Michael Jordan) that they will have an easy time attracting almost any coach they want.
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I’m guessing that’s sarcasm, since they’re always one hire away from being relevant
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A little of the shine has come off lately (thanks NCAA for not taking more off). But I do think that Coach Roy has, to now, succeeded in keeping UNC relevant.
Getting run out of the gym by Josh Pastner is not recommended.
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