2017 NCAA Tournament

Jack Lambert

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Is it just me, or does the white guy on an all black team always seem to have a good game when playing a majority white team? DiVincenzo is killing the Badgers right now.
 

Riggins44

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Happ is a great player but he really needs to work on his free throws. He could score 3-4 more points a game if he was an 80% shooter instead of 50%.

Wisconsin is a surprisingly bad free throw shooting team. Probably why they lost so many games in the second half of the season.
 

Jack Lambert

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Wisconsin hanging tough - only down three now with under four minutes to go! I hope Koenig, Hayes, and Happ are able to pull this one out. I've been as critical of Hayes on this board as anybody, but he's been playing really well today, and keeping Wisconsin within striking distance when Happ and Koenig have been on the bench.
 

Riggins44

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HO-LEE SH#$!!!!!!! For the second time in three years, Wisconsin has knocked the #1 overall seed out of the tournament! The Badgers are true giant killers. I must admit I didn't think there was any way they were going to win this game. Very happy to be wrong! What an amazing victory.
 

Jack Lambert

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The Northwestern/Gonzaga game is pretty much a wash from our perspective, with both teams playing the same amount of white guys.

However, Xavier (which gives two white guys good minutes) is in a good matchup against all-black Florida State. Hopefully, the Musketeers are able to upset the Seminoles. It'll take another all-black team out, plus make the potential path for St.Mary's/Arizona easier.
 

The Hock

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St. Mary's coming on very soon. Pleasant surprise, although they're an underdog. Still, an opportunity to watch some old school basketball. You don't see a lot of that nowadays.
 

celticdb15

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Landale already has 10pts and 5 boards against good competition in Arizona's bigs!!
 

Jack Lambert

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St. Mary's currently up 22-12 with 6:57 left in the 1st!! Chrabascz and Lewis looking good for Butler, up 12 on Middle Tennessee in the 2nd half.
 

Jack Lambert

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Butler holds off all-black Middle Tennessee State! Take that "experts"! Andrew Chrabascz led the Bulldogs with 15 points, and Tyler Lewis was big down the stretch, finishing with 7 points and 4 assists, with NO turnovers.
 

referendum

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Forgot Xavier's win, make that 12-5 against the all blacks. I'm rooting for St Mary's of course, but wouldn't be too sad if Arizona wins as they seem like they could go far in the tourney as well.
 

Riggins44

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This has been an outstanding day for us. Just Wisconsin's takedown of Villanova would make for a great day, but we also got Butler taking down all black MTSU, and Xavier eliminating all black Florida State. Saint Mary's could beat Arizona, though Arizona winning would not be all bad. Notre Dame losing to West Virginia was a defeat, but Gonzaga beating Northwestern was good I think since the Zags have more potential to go far and they have roughly the same number of white players. Still have a good caste matchup with Purdue vs. Iowa State.
 

DixieDestroyer

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My oldest son & I grabbed some Italian grub out (while the Mrs. & other kids went to the picture show). On the restaurant TV, I saw UVA playing 2-3 Whites against FLA (who played 1). UVA kept it close in the 1st half, but I see the "Flowerida G@yturds" are (now) pulling away. :-(

T'was awesome to see "Whiteconsin", Gonzaga & Butler advance. :)
 

Jack Lambert

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This has been an outstanding day for us. Just Wisconsin's takedown of Villanova would make for a great day, but we also got Butler taking down all black MTSU, and Xavier eliminating all black Florida State. Saint Mary's could beat Arizona, though Arizona winning would not be all bad. Notre Dame losing to West Virginia was a defeat, but Gonzaga beating Northwestern was good I think since the Zags have more potential to go far and they have roughly the same number of white players. Still have a good caste matchup with Purdue vs. Iowa State.

Agreed!! Even though St. Mary's losing sucks, Arizona (with Markkanen and Ristic among two of their best players) isn't a bad consolation. Purdue was playing four whites in the 1st half against Iowa State. Isaac Haas leads the Boilermakers with 11 points at the half. The much smaller Cyclones simply have no answer for him and Swanigan.

And @ Dixie, UVA losing is unfortunate, but all of their white players are underclassmen, so they should be a great team to support for the next 2-3 years.
 

Phall

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Illinois just hired Brad Underwood from under the nose of Oklahoma State. Apparently, Underwood is tripling his salary, so good for him. OK State is still paying a million per year through 2019 to their last head coach with a huge buyout. Great hire for Illinois and the Big Ten.

It will be very interesting to see how Underwood recruits. The boilerplate chatter is about how well he'll recruit the "hotbed" of Chicago. The Chicago AAU circuit is notoriously one of the dirtiest money-funnels in the country, so I wouldn't count on Underwood diving in there. Of course, I would LIKE him to bring one of his Stephen F Austin rosters to the Illini, but an overhaul like that will take a couple of recruiting cycles at least.
 

Riggins44

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Watching Michigan-Louisville now. Like Phall said in his write-up for the region, Moe Wagner really has some Nowitzki-like skills for a big man. He is really good off the dribble. He's had 3 buckets off drives to the basket. The Michigan offense should go through him every possession. However Walton and Wilson throw up horrible shots constantly, which they usually miss, and Michigan is down 8 at the half.

Wagner got a textbook "defending while white" foul right before the half. A black Louisville guard or forward had the ball on a fastbreak near midcourt. Wagner was standing right in front of him and reached out and with a very quick reaction move, cleanly slapped the ball away to another Michigan player. The ref must not have believed his eyes that a big white player could slap the ball away cleanly from a small supa-afflete, and called Wagner for the foul. The refs brain told him "only black players can make plays like that!" The announcers, I think Rafftery is one of them, were going on about how it was a clean play. They played the replay and it was obviously clean. But, in the caste system defending while white is walking a fine line. No hacking, grabbing, holding, or stealing the ball from a black player is allowed.
 
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