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Screw the news out of Lexington. Jay Wright is leaving Villanova.

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Exactly what will likely happen. You didn't even have Oscar on your most impactful center poll over the summer. Guys will break out, others will take a step back. Though not sure the freshman class this year is as good as last year's.

That poll was released in September. My preseason top 150 was a month later. I ended having Oscar at #33 - higher than Bacot, Duren, and Mitchell, which were all in that top 10 center poll. Yes, Oscar still surprised me a bit, but anyone in the top 50 is a serious All-American contender.

Last year, sure. The Big Ten pretty much played to their seeds this year, and that’s the expectation they should be measured against…?

3 Wisconsin lost to 11 Iowa State (in Milwaukee)
3 Purdue lost to 15 Saint Peter's
5 Iowa lost to 12 Richmond

The showing wasn't quite as bad as last year, that part is true. But, three of your top four schools still lost to a school that was seeded 7+ spots lower.
 
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Ohhh, pre-tournament tournaments... I like it! "Earn your seed" tournaments.

I think it would be fun. Tournaments would be 4-8 teams, all from different conferences. Either the week before the final week of the regular season - or perhaps the week before the conference tournaments. Between the OOC February tournament and the conference tournament, we should have a much better feel of where teams should be properly seeded.
 
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That poll was released in September. My preseason top 150 was a month later. I ended having Oscar at #33 - higher than Bacot, Duren, and Mitchell, which were all in that top 10 center poll. Yes, Oscar still surprised me a bit, but anyone in the top 50 is a serious All-American contender.



3 Wisconsin lost to 11 Iowa State (in Milwaukee)
3 Purdue lost to 15 Saint Peter's
5 Iowa lost to 12 Richmond

The showing wasn't quite as bad as last year, that part is true. But, three of your top four schools still lost to a school that was seeded 7+ spots lower.
I guess I meant the end result - we had no schools seeded 2 or higher (and the bozos here probably still got off on saying how overrated we were), and accordingly had zero teams in the Elite Eight. True, Purdue and Wisconsin got upset in their specific matchups (though let’s not forget Michigan outplayed its seed), but the end results weren’t that out of line. Theoretically, for example, a 3-seed Purdue “should” lose in the Sweet Sixteen. I’ll give you the specific matchup was a disappointment.

My main point is that people here got so much enjoyment out of the “Big Ten is overrated” circle jerk last year that they likely beat it to death and then some … nobody was really saying the 2022 Big Ten was this amazing conference. I find this board’s attitude toward the Big Ten bizarre, as no one is really hyping it much anymore, and a conference like the Pac-12 (with a longer title drought and way fewer title game/Final Four appearances in between) never draws the same ire.
 
I guess I meant the end result - we had no schools seeded 2 or higher (and the bozos here probably still got off on saying how overrated we were), and accordingly had zero teams in the Elite Eight. True, Purdue and Wisconsin got upset in their specific matchups (though let’s not forget Michigan outplayed its seed), but the end results weren’t that out of line. Theoretically, for example, a 3-seed Purdue “should” lose in the Sweet Sixteen. I’ll give you the specific matchup was a disappointment.

My main point is that people here got so much enjoyment out of the “Big Ten is overrated” circle jerk last year that they likely beat it to death and then some … nobody was really saying the 2022 Big Ten was this amazing conference. I find this board’s attitude toward the Big Ten bizarre, as no one is really hyping it much anymore, and a conference like the Pac-12 (with a longer title drought and way fewer title game/Final Four appearances in between) never draws the same ire.
You don't need to be defensive. It is a fact that the B1G was overrated. The SEC was overrated. It is simply a fact.

We on this board are not bozos, we are basketball fans who know that year after year the B1G is grossly over rated. The last two years the SEC has been grossly over rated. The ACC, until this year, has been over rated.

What we want in an honest evaluation of the teams in the selection process.

Your wonder on the absence of ire on the Pac-12 is that there are very few fans of that conference on this board. But year after year the B1G folks tell us of the many, many B1G teams that are going to shred out teams from other conferences in the NCAA tourney. Yet they fail.

So we are not bozos across the board, except for me.

Maybe the B1G fans need to check into the meaning of "bozos" to see if they are. Maybe they should watch intersectional ball games and see the difference.
 
I guess I meant the end result - we had no schools seeded 2 or higher (and the bozos here probably still got off on saying how overrated we were), and accordingly had zero teams in the Elite Eight. True, Purdue and Wisconsin got upset in their specific matchups (though let’s not forget Michigan outplayed its seed), but the end results weren’t that out of line. Theoretically, for example, a 3-seed Purdue “should” lose in the Sweet Sixteen. I’ll give you the specific matchup was a disappointment.

My main point is that people here got so much enjoyment out of the “Big Ten is overrated” circle jerk last year that they likely beat it to death and then some … nobody was really saying the 2022 Big Ten was this amazing conference. I find this board’s attitude toward the Big Ten bizarre, as no one is really hyping it much anymore, and a conference like the Pac-12 (with a longer title drought and way fewer title game/Final Four appearances in between) never draws the same ire.

Nobody says much about the Pac-12 being overhyped or overrated because nobody talks them up much, at least collectively.
 
You don't need to be defensive. It is a fact that the B1G was overrated. The SEC was overrated. It is simply a fact.

We on this board are not bozos, we are basketball fans who know that year after year the B1G is grossly over rated. The last two years the SEC has been grossly over rated. The ACC, until this year, has been over rated.

What we want in an honest evaluation of the teams in the selection process.

Your wonder on the absence of ire on the Pac-12 is that there are very few fans of that conference on this board. But year after year the B1G folks tell us of the many, many B1G teams that are going to shred out teams from other conferences in the NCAA tourney. Yet they fail.

So we are not bozos across the board, except for me.

Maybe the B1G fans need to check into the meaning of "bozos" to see if they are. Maybe they should watch intersectional ball games and see the difference.
I’ll gladly be proven wrong, but my point is B1G fans WEREN’T doing that this year and the other posters here clung to a belief that B1G fans were puffing our chests so you could continue to shlt on us. There is WAY more making fun of how we aren’t actually very good in the Big Ten thread than the other way around, and it was that way before Selection Sunday.
 
Not sure I buy that NIL pushed them out. UNC and Duke can afford more $$$ than anyone. Nova? Maybe I guess. But Wright has also accomplished everything so going out on top so to speak gotta be nice.
His colleagues are saying the game wasn't nearly as fun for him as it used to be because of all the things coaches deal with now that didn't use to exist.

Name, image and likeness rights were long overdue. The one-time transfer waiver is fair. Alternative options for high school prospects are great. Social media is fun.

Even coaches that agree with all four of those sentences, and not many of them do, will admit the combination of them has made their job complex and unappealing. Jay Wright is 60 years old, has more money than he'll ever need. Why not get out of the 24/7/365 slog that is college coaching and spend time with family and friends?
 
His colleagues are saying the game wasn't nearly as fun for him as it used to be because of all the things coaches deal with now that didn't use to exist.

Name, image and likeness rights were long overdue. The one-time transfer waiver is fair. Alternative options for high school prospects are great. Social media is fun.

Even coaches that agree with all four of those sentences, and not many of them do, will admit the combination of them has made their job complex and unappealing. Jay Wright is 60 years old, has more money than he'll ever need. Why not get out of the 24/7/365 slog that is college coaching and spend time with family and friends?
Especially for a guy that is coming off the most dominant run of his career capped off with 2 titles. He's got nothing left to prove.
 
All u gotta do is watch the guy when jenkins made that shot. Dude didnt have nothinng to prove then without a title, despite what any of us think lol. Cool as the other side of the pillow
 
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Not sure I’d call him arch nemesis. They met 4 times in the tourney and each went 2-2. In 08 we were clearly the better team and we won, in 2018 they were the better team and beat us. This year we were the better team and we won. The only year that you could argue the better team didn’t win was 2016, however it was a 1 vs 2 matchup in the elite eight so both teams played to seed. So I’m not willing to call him coach self’s nemesis.
I consider recruiting Ws as .. well, Ws.
Jay def pulled some dudes Self would've loved.
 
Now he is talking about the NBA.

But I wanna do this cushy Nova front office job first for a while cuz I need a break from coaching right now.... blah, blah, blah.

As soon as he's offered a halfway decent NBA gig, he gone.
 
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Jay don't wanna be some 19 year old's uber driver, but that's all these HC's really are now. Gotta friend them up and stay solid. Can't throw 'em out of practice if they got a 400k NIL and the transfer option.

All these old school dudes will fade and you will see that new style coming in. If a HC can relate then they will do just fine. If that means throw some hands like Juwan or stand in the student section with faceprint like Pearl so be it.

EDIT - Calipari was ahead of the curve. He's probably at it again with that kid Sharpe. Tell them no matter what happens they will be taken care of. If it goes south like it did with Sharpe dive on the grenade take one for the system. It's like the perfect wing man at the dive bar. He's got your back no matter what.
 
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