(Updated) NCAA Day One Open Thread; Barnes vs Tubby in NC; Tubby emerges as UVA’s #1

General NCS Basketball95

Evening Sessions
Maryland’s win over California today was really big for the conference. Gary Williams has now won his first round game in nine consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Wow! (And you were told how you should be happy with four first round NCAA Tournament wins in a decade.)

How tough is playing basketball in the ACC? Cal hasn’t had to worry about an NCAA Tournament bid since January. The Bears tied Arizona State for third place in the weak Pac-10 with an 11-7 conference record and 22-10 overall record. As you remember, Maryland entered the ACC Tournament needing to win games to earn a bid to the Big Dance. (…but, not needing to advance to the ACC Championship game as ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes confidently proclaimed multiple times during Maryland’s first round win over NC State).

If Clemson & Florida State can pull through in their tough first round games then the ACC could go a fantastic 7-0 in first round games, further supporting the conference’s annual claim that our 6th-9th place teams should deserve more credit from the tournament committee than we seem to receive. ACCNow has a nice entry about the conference.

As opposed to this afternoon’s games, this evening’s slate may be the best of the four first round sessions. I’ve bolded the games that will be streaming on my computer at home. In fact, I picked the worse seed in each of these four games in one of my brackets.

7:10 – Texas vs. Minnesota
7:10 – Clemson vs. Michigan
7:20 – Villanova vs. American
7:25 – Gonzaga vs. Akron
9:40 – Duke vs. Binghamton
9:40 – Oklahoma vs Morgan State
9:50 – UCLA vs Virginia Commonwealth
9:55 – Illinois vs. Western Kentucky

I’m most interested in the Minnesota vs Texas game tonight in a battle of two coaches from North Carolina – Rick Barnes & Tubby Smith – playing in Greensboro. WOW! This is awesome! If I weren’t sick this week I would have hopped in the car and driven up. These gentlemen’s ties to the NC State job three years ago are well known; and now it appears there is a chance that we may see more of Tubby Smith in these parts as he has emerged as Virginia’s top choice to replace Dave Leitao.

“Nothing else will happen until we talk with Tubby, and he’s obviously busy right now,” one source close to the Virginia search said Thursday. “Obviously, in the meantime, there will be due diligence done on several other coaches.”

The Minnesota head coach gave Virginia serious consideration four years ago, before eventually electing to stay at Kentucky. The Cavaliers eventually hired Dave Leitao.

Both parties are in a different place now. Virginia is seeking to make a splash with a big name to replace Leitao, who resigned on Monday, while Smith is in his second season as the head coach at the University of Minnesota.

The Cavaliers’ strong interest in Smith indicates that the school is willing to spend big money on in its next coach.

It’s no secret that one Rick Barnes’ Texas Longhorns is one of our all-time favorite non-Wolfpack programs to support. Barnes has amazingly directed Texas to the NCAA Tournament in EACH of his eleven seasons in Austin. (Tell me more about how ‘great’ it was to go to ‘Five in a row’ and win a grand total of five NCAA Tournament games in those five years?)

This is one of the weaker Texas teams in recent years as the Longhorns are absorbing the premature departures of DJ Augustin and Kevin Durant. This link provides a quick look at this year’s Longhorns.

In an attempt to draw a quick line to NC State, I thought I would share the following quick video. In light of how NC State has stuggled the last few years with the effort and hustle of some players I found this interesting.

Afternoon Comments
It’s NCAA Tournament time, and we can all pull up a chair alongside our basketball team and watch the games on TV. (or with live online streaming on CBS’ website). Here’s a quick look at today’s schedule with my quick comments on each contest. You can click here to see which announcers will be calling today’s games. Discuss below.

BJD Insert – I wanted to give some free publicity to WRAL and Time Warner Cable, for showing HD broadcasts of every single NCAAT game, at no extra charge. WRAL’s broadcast schedule is here. God bless you, WRAL.

Greensboro, NC
Regions: South (afternoon) and East (evening)

#8 LSU vs. #9 Butler, 12:20 PM

SEC Coach of the Year Trent Johnson leading the regular season SEC champs LSU into Greensboro, making the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since their Final Four run in 2006.

#1 North Carolina vs. #16 Radford, 2:50 PM

I say UNC in a yawner. Radford says they “are ready for UNC” but I will go with the inimitable philosophical musings of Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan until I hit ’em in the mouth.” Lawson or no Lawson, expect Carolina to roll and for most Tar Heel fans to be unbearable until at least the weekend.

Kansas City, MO
Regions: West (afternoon) and South (evening)

#2 Memphis vs. #15 Cal State Northridge, 12:25 PM
The Memphis Tigers are probably the best defensive team in the country, and that’s bad news for CS Northridge. They lose in an earthquake.

#7 California vs. #10 Maryland, 2:55 PM
The Greivas Vasquez Show rolls into the NCAA. I’m torn on this one, but I think that Gary Williams sweats this one out.

Philadelphia, PA
Regions: West (afternoon) and East (evening)

#8 BYU vs. #9 Texas A&M, 12:30 PM
I have no real opinion on this game except for the fact that BYU is better at taking care of the ball and that usually makes the difference.

#1 Connecticut vs. #16 Chattanooga, 3:00 PM
Lookout Chatanooga, UConn will see your Rock City and blow you out…again. The Huskies eradicated the Mocs in 1995 by a 100-71 final, despite Chattanooga star Terrell Owens. Yes, THAT Terrell Owens.

Portland, OR
Regions: West (afternoon) and South (evening)

#5 Purdue vs. #12 Northern Iowa, 2:30 PM
This game will probably be a lot more entertaining than the UNC game. Both teams feature balanced attacks and defenses that are in the upper half of their respective leagues in field goal percentage defense…that sounds like runs in both directions, and a game I would rather see than UNC. Thanks, DirecTV!

#4 Washington vs. #13 Mississippi State, 5:00 PM
Don’t sleep on the Bulldogs. Despite a low seeding, this is a team that can and I think will take down the Huskies. First of all, Miss State is a hot team, they played their way in by winning the SEC tournament. Look for Jarvis Varnado (13.1 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 4.7 bpg) to have a big game.

As you gear up for today’s games we thought you would find this article interesting to read. What does one have to look forward to if they own March Madness? Perhaps they could become a used car salesman in Las Vegas:

Ed O’Bannon, who not long ago owned March Madness and won just about every college basketball award imaginable following a dream senior season at UCLA, is now a car salesman in Las Vegas. He works for Findlay Toyota, whose founder, Cliff Findlay, just so happens to be a former UNLV player and a huge supporter of the Runnin’ Rebels program. It’s the same program that O’Bannon committed to coming out of Artesia High near Los Angeles in 1990. And before and during halftime of most UNLV home games, you can find O’Bannon, whose No. 31 is retired by UCLA, here on the Thomas & Mack Center concourse, hawking “the official vehicle of the Runnin’ Rebels.”

General NCS Basketball

95 Responses to (Updated) NCAA Day One Open Thread; Barnes vs Tubby in NC; Tubby emerges as UVA’s #1

  1. phillypacker 03/19/2009 at 6:46 PM #

    Sorry for the tangent, but packpride sounds like Jordan Vandenberg may be committing to State soon. Do you guys have any sense of what he might add to the equation? Any chance of a thread on that?

  2. MrPlywood 03/19/2009 at 7:00 PM #

    Alpha: “I’m honor-bound by the wife to never pull for Duke…”

    —-

    Since the early matchups for Dook and UNX are usually patsies, I don’t have to pull for them yet I can be happy if the ACC in general has put on a good showing. Watching Clemson now. Wow – that was MD’s 9th straight first round game win.

    American up 10 on Villanova.

  3. Noah 03/19/2009 at 7:14 PM #

    How’s ther picture quality?

    Very high quality. I have an entire season (four, I think) in HD. Each ep is about a gig. The other seasons are about 350 meg an ep.

    This is also how I watch most of my football. I download a ton of games I don’t have a stake in and then watch them over the spring and summer during the dead period.

  4. Noah 03/19/2009 at 7:31 PM #

    Look at ‘merican taking it to Villanova! Go Jeff Jones.

  5. TOBtime 03/19/2009 at 7:38 PM #

    Clemson has looked VERY bad in the 2nd half against Mich. Sounds sort of familiar. They didn’t look good even before Oglesby got tossed

    Nice idea Noah. Dead time fill.

  6. MrPlywood 03/19/2009 at 7:42 PM #

    Villanova really steps up the D in the 2nd half yet they only have 2 team fouls… Total fouls: American – 14; Vill – 7

  7. Noah 03/19/2009 at 7:45 PM #

    I have a friend who works for the Univ. of Michigan, so they’re my adopted team this year.

  8. highstick 03/19/2009 at 8:04 PM #

    “f we don’t fire Lowe, can we at least fire Monty Towe? I think I’m more disappointed in him not being able to teach any college basketball fundamentals than I am Lowe.”

    Sounds like heresy, but sometimes I wonder myself what is going on with all of them. Seems like the overwhelming majority of the folks here think it’s all “about recruiting”. I disagree somewhat. Yea, recruit the kids who have already developed good fundamentals and you’re ok. Recruit the next level and you’d better be able to teach those things. I think that’s where the difference lies in some of our best ACC coaches. Times have changed, but if you can’t teach these things, then I doubt very seriously that you’re going to succeed in the long run.

    By the way, I haven’t watched a game yet and don’t intend on doing so. I’ll spend the next three days at an NCAA women’s golf tournament playing rules official.

    See Noah, there are some redeeming factors about golf! And please don’t tell me they are all gay! At my age, a hard body is a hard body!

  9. TOBtime 03/19/2009 at 8:12 PM #

    Annika apparently wasn’t. She’s pregnant..and with a guy.
    Maybe Clemson will make a game of this.

  10. Daily Update 03/19/2009 at 8:13 PM #

    Didn’t we win 5 NCAA tournament games?

    Mich St.(round of 64)
    Charlotte(round of 64)
    UConn(ROUND OF 32)

    and then 2 more 1st round games?

    SFN: Thanks for catching this. I was typing fast trying to get it on the site in sync with the time between the games. We lost to Cal in a first round. We beat Cal in a first round. And, we beat Louisiana Lafayette in the first round the year we crumbled to Vandy.

  11. Noah 03/19/2009 at 8:17 PM #

    Yay Blue! (ugh….that tasted horrible)

    Bad last shot for Clemson.

  12. Noah 03/19/2009 at 8:18 PM #

    And please don’t tell me they are all gay!

    No problem. I’ll just tell you that they are SERIOUS Indigo Girls fans. 🙂

  13. Greywolf 03/19/2009 at 8:26 PM #

    Thanks Noah. I guess I should have realized that when we bought the new flat screen for the LR and moved the LR FS to the bedroom and I got the BR FS for my office, there would be nothing I could hook to it. I am going to look at the one in the LR to see if perhaps I can watch that YouTube stuff in the LR — when the wife’s not home. You watch a lot of Home & Garden when Jane’s home, hockey being the exception.
    And like I said, thanks.

  14. Noah 03/19/2009 at 8:31 PM #

    My wife’s mac laptop has an S-Video port on it. My Dell doesn’t. But if you have a laptop with one, you can probably connect them that way. I’ve never done that…

    If you have the HDMI port, you’re basically just using your flatscreen as a great big monitor.

  15. Greywolf 03/19/2009 at 8:33 PM #

    “See Noah, there are some redeeming factors about golf! And please don’t tell me they are all gay! At my age, a hard body is a hard body!”
    `
    Noah, what highstick isn’t saying is that at our age, we’d rather THINK some hard body might give us some than actually get it. 😉

  16. LRM 03/19/2009 at 8:37 PM #

    Daily, we won five overall, but only four first round games. We lost to Cal in the first round in 2003. Otherwise, we beat Mich St (2002), Louisiana Monroe (2004), Charlotte and Connecticut (2005), and Cal (2006).

  17. 61Packer 03/19/2009 at 8:39 PM #

    FINALLY someone I pull for wins- Michigan. My son and money both go to UM, so I’m really glad to see a school I give money to finally win an NCAA game. And another coach who almost came here, John Beilein, advances. The difference between the coaches tonight was striking, to me anyway. And as bad as Clemson looks in big games, remember, they’re way better than we are.

  18. Greywolf 03/19/2009 at 8:40 PM #

    Noah, I had to read for an hour on the net to find out what an HDMI cable was. That (I can’t believe I was about to call a flat screen TV an antique) “older model” FS does not have HDMI but does have an “S” I’ll check on Jane’s laptop later. Again, thanks for the help.
    `
    I just glanced up at Gonzaga and thought I saw Ben McCauley playing for the Zags.

  19. packpowerfan 03/19/2009 at 8:47 PM #

    FUCKING A. Clemson shits on my bracket for the second straight year. I should have learned from my mistake the first time around…

  20. LRM 03/19/2009 at 8:52 PM #

    Rick B. is in Greensboro and all I can think is that I will go to my grave believing that he wanted to come here and Fowler is the reason he didn’t. Nothing anyone could possibly say will ever change that belief.

    Just wanted to make sure it’s clear that I remain a card-carrying member of both the lunatic fringe and the vocal minority.

  21. LRM 03/19/2009 at 9:00 PM #

    PackPowerfan –

    You don’t start a land war in Asia and you never, never pick Clemson in the NCAAT.

    Speaking of, that 1997 Rick Barnes Clemson team was one of my favorite adopted teams ever. They stood up to both K and to Dean, and they were every ounce the “motherf***ers” Rick was quoted as telling them to be. Their double-OT Sweet Sixteen loss to Minnesota (who eventually lost to Kentucky in the Final Four) was one of the most exciting basketball games I’ve ever seen.

    If we had held out one more year with Les, we likely could’ve gotten Barnes before Texas did, and that haunts me to this day. C’est la vie.

  22. wufpup76 03/19/2009 at 9:19 PM #

    Dammit Clemson … I mean … just really – dammit Clemson.

    FSU, it’s up to you for the ACC not to go 0-2 against the almighty Big Ten in the first round.

    Dammit Clemson.

  23. W0LFPack 03/19/2009 at 10:11 PM #

    You know…I’m in the rare, I never pull for the ACC except for NC State. If I have to then I’ll go for GT, Clemson, FSU, and that’s depending on who they’re playing (If it’s someone else I hate, which I hate a lot of teams so it happens). To get to my point, I want Duke to get their ass beat in the first round (as I’m typing it’s 60-36), I want UNC to get crushed, etc.

    Now to even further get to my point, typically the officiating in the NCAA tournament is much less favorable for Duke and UNC. Not today, not for Duke. They have shot 21 free throws and only fouled an amazing 8 times with 25 minutes played in the game. That’s not that bad. But then you look at poor Binghamton, and they’ve fouled 17 times and have shot 2, I REPEAT 2, FUCKING FREE THROWS? That’s completely ridiculous. I have nothing to say except that this is a load of…….well we all know.

    I refuse to watch another minute of this tournament, I honestly do not care about my brackets anymore.

    Hahahaha…And of course a touch foul called on Binghamton as I type this, CASE AND POINT. Let’s go Rick Barnes, beat the hell out of em Saturday.

  24. W0LFPack 03/19/2009 at 10:12 PM #

    Oh yeah…I remember, I said I wasn’t going to write on here anymore…But i had to vent about this to someone who would understand.

  25. ruffles31 03/19/2009 at 10:43 PM #

    Did anyone just see some guy from Morgan State flip and basically body slam Blake Griffin? Wow. Not surprisingly, he was ejected. Bush league move.

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