2004 NCAA Basketball "March Madness"Thread (1 Viewer)

Well its b-ball season again. lets hope its full of great games and great teams, not like last year where the coaches and their mishaps were more in the headlines than the players and the teams. i.e. Larry Eustacy!!!!!!

My hope is that the Kansas Jayhawks will make it back to the championship and win this year. The last time KU won it all, Bill Self was the assistant Coach under Larry Brown, and Danny Manning was a player. Now Bill is the head coach and Danny is the assistant. If KU can win the year befor Roy Williams came to KU AND win the year AFTER Roy left KU, that would just be beautiful!!!!!

Rock Chalk!

I also am pumped to get this season started. However, I hope Kansas does not even make the tournament. I'm dreaming of another Arizona run through the bracket. We've got two solid big men (Channing Frye and Isaiah Fox), two of the most athletic wings in the country (Hassan Adams and Andre Iguodala), a lights out shooter (Salim Stoudamire) and an frosh point guard (Mustafa Shakur) who should be one of the best additions in the country. Here's hoping he can lead them to the title like Mike Bibby did his first year running the team.

I think it will be interesting to see what Roy Williams does at North Carolina. Didn't KU lose a lot of seniors this year?

Well, I ordered my ESPN college basketball package so I'm set for the season.

All I have to say is:

See below!

I am an alum of a mid-major. The Ivy League is shaping up to be the most wide open in years. It was 1986 since a team other than Penn or Princeton represented the league in the NCAA tournament. This year any of 4 teams and maybe 5 have a shot at the title. I went to Penn and they lost 3 of their top 4 players. I saw their intrasquad scrimmage last weekend and playing time is wide open. The start with a very tough schedule so it will be interesting to see how they develop when conference play starts and with no tourney that is all that matters.

As for major basketball, I am interested in how Pitt does without Ben Howland and Brevin Knight. They have a solid group of returnees including Julius Page and Chevy Troutman. Also Ed Krauser is an exciting NYC playground point guard.

My third team is Maryland. Very young with 9 fresham or sophomores. The first year without any major contributors from the 2 Final Four teams.

Todd

Tonight my once-mighty, but coming off a 10-19 season, UCLA Bruins take the court with their new coach, Ben Howland (formerly of Pitt). Ironically, we take on an EA Sports team with more than a few former Bruin players.

I am excited. For seven years we have labored under Steve Lavin, who was such a poor coach, but whose teams' talent would rise above his ineptitude for 2 games in the tournament, and then ass-out to a well-coached team. But of course, winning 2 games gets you to the Sweet 16, and thus kept him employed. What it seems like people didn't notice are that the talent on the teams was good enough to get to the Sweet 16 IN SPITE of Lavin, not because of him. Lavin's had: Baron Davis, Earl Watson, Jerome Moiso, Dan Gadzuric, Jelani McCoy & Jason Kapono (all in the NBA). Plus a host of solid college players like Matt Barnes, Charles O'Bannon, Toby Bailey, JR Henderson, etc. And it's not like we got to the Sweet 16 and just barely lost - we liked to get whomped on by another team that may be high ranked (Duke one year) or is just decent (Missouri another year).

Last year was the first where he didn't have a true leader commanding the floor (Baron Davis, Earl Watson, Kapono & Barnes) so the team had to rely on his coaching. The result? 10-19, and finally the pink slip we've all been waiting for!

So hopefully Coach Howland will do well. We know the cupboard is bare from Lavin's declination (is that a word?) of the program. We're prepared to give him several years of leeway. But I think it's great that Howland's first recruiting class (2004) already has 4 top-100 players (2 are top-25 if you believe those recruiting sites). So hopefully the rebuilding won't take too long.

Jeremy, sheesh, you had to mention Bibby didnt you, well at least KU beat AU [& Duke ]this year. Actually I was on vacation in Phoenix during march and saw KU beat ASU and AU while there. I was afraid for my life watching the AU game until I realized people didnt like AU either cause its closer to ASU.

yes KU lost 2 great seniors to graduation and the NBA but the most dominant player on KU didnt play squat last year, wayne Simien, "big dub". he's looking gooooood this year

The Big 12 is looking tough this year with OU, Kansas, OSU, Missouri, Texas, Colorado and Texas Tech all with great athletes. I wouldn't be completely surprised to see the Big 12 get 6-8 teams in.

On a side note, there are 2 local teams Tulsa and Oral Roberts , which should if they play like they did last year make the tournament. I'm just not excited to hear Dick Vitale..

For all you North Carolina fans, I went down to the triangle, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the hell Tobacco Road is.

BTW, really beautiful campus on UNC.

And I like Church's Fried Chicken better than Bojangles.

Mike,
Just for future reference it is the University of Arizona, or UA (no biggie). I actually got to see the Sweet 16 games at the Anaheim Pond last year when we beat ND and Kansas beat Duke. I was hoping you would both lose that game, but I settled for seeing those damn Dukies lose. I'm finishing up college this semester and will probably be moving back home to Phoenix who just happens to be hosting the West Regional, so hopefully the Cats will make it there so I can see them again.

Duke grad / fan here. I can feel the love It was nice to finally win an ACC football game, but I'm definitely looking forward to basketball getting back into full swing. Both men and women ranked #2 (and both behind UConn.....). I'm also interested in seeing what Roy can do at UNC. The rivalry is much more exciting when we're both doing well

Dome,

Tobacco Road typically refers to Hwy 15-501 which more or less runs between the two schools. It can also refer to I-40 if you throw NC State and Wake Forest into the picture.

Kevin

Well, color me shocked to find out that Georgia Tech bumped off #1 UConn tonight in the preseason NIT by a decent margin, helped out greatly by the lack of 3-point shooting and horrendous free throw shooting as well by UConn. UConn's Okafor had a bad back too.

I think GT is help more with the international basketball lanes (trapezoidal), and they are mainly a run-n-gun style of team early on this season.

Way to go, Jackets, way to go!

Ralph?

The UCONN victory would go very well with a pigskin victory over the flea-bitten, stray mutts this weekend.

So is GT gonna get ranked after going 5-0 and winning the preseason NIT by smothering Texas Tech defensively and running away with a 20 point victory tonight?

Loved that Florida/Arizona game.

And Matt Walsh is getting laid tonight!

I can't believe he's going out with hottie Lauren Anderson.

WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1 WE'RE #1

GT's looking pretty strong against Ohio St. tonight.

Where here's a good one, Duke vs. Mich St.