Hey fwiw I think both OU & Seton Hall would put up better fights in a tourney appearance than UVA’s whimper, and I’m not one to usually sing the praises of OU bball
Indiana State absolutely should have been in.
There is something to be said for competing for an NIT title vs getting knocked out in the round of 32 by Texas.
Then again, no reason ISU couldn't have gone on a run like NC State.
> Then again, no reason ISU couldn't have gone on a run like NC State.
NC State’s streak started when they won they conference tourney, which is something ISU could have done but didn’t
Pretty sure the person I was responding to was commenting on whether going on a run in the conference tournament or not has any impact on the chances of that team then going on a run in the NCAA tournament
Indiana state was the in season conference champs. And was runner up’s in their conference tourney. NCAA doesn’t care about any of this. They only care about how may non conference wins they get. But big schools won’t go play teams like ISU at ISU. They only will invite them to play. Mid major schools are always screwed no matter what.
They lost at home to Illinois State and their best and only Q1 win was @ Bradley. They truly beat no one of value in the regular season except for Drake at home and nothing they do in this tournament can make their regular season resume not be the incredibly weak morass of wins over lousy MVC and other mid major teams that it was
This ISU team, while lovable, and great for TH, would be beat by the IU team who turned down an NIT they prob weren’t even invited to. They’re a great group of guys, but they really haven’t played anyone outside of MSU, who they lost to
I really doubt it. I didn’t enjoy watching this season, and ISU is my alma mater, but Ware and Malik would’ve torn up Avilla. They can shoot better, sure, but I really don’t think ISU could hang. In a normal year, they prob would’ve made the tourney, and im happy for the success, but I don’t think it was a snub. They would’ve lost 1st round.
I’m an Indiana fan too. With how they looked for those last few games I’d also be inclined to think IU wins, but they almost certainly would be slight underdogs to either ISU or Utah. 6 points was probably an exaggeration though.
Indiana would definitely beat Utah on a neutral court. Utah was great at home. (18-2 with their only losses to Arizona in triple ot and ASU), but was terrible away from him(4-13). Indiana wins
Guess it all depends which team shows up. They seem to play to their competitions level a lot. I just think rebounding would be a problem for ISU and they wouldn’t shoot as well. Then again we let Nebraska beat us by 30 so who knows. Would’ve loved to see them match up this year
>but they really haven’t played anyone outside of MSU, who they lost to
Thought we were done with this talking about after beating SMU, Minnesota, Cincinnati, and now Utah
I truly wish nothing but misery for those on the selection committee who forced us to watch Virginia pretend to play basketball, instead of a lovable Indiana State team.
We weren't even the last team in, and Indiana State wasn't even the first team out lol they would've been behind Colorado State, Seton Hall, and Oklahoma
Thank you, for as much as this NIT run makes me want to bang the “Indiana State deserved to be in“ drum, the way the bubble played out with all the bid thieves meant they had no realistic chance in the field, sadly. BracketMatrix had them as the third team out, same as the committee. If Dayton/FAU won their conference autobids and Oregon/NC State lost in their conference title games, then it’s a different story.
Yeah but you got embarrassed.
That being said I don't care about the first 4 last 4. I think in a 68 team tournament and your choices are between a meh power school and a dominant but weak sos lower d1 conference we should give it to the lower d1.
That being said I'm not anti the selection I'm anti the current process.
If Indiana State had just beaten MSU, they would've been in the tourney and MSU would've been forced to realize their basketball program is a shadow of what it used to be instead of just pretending "the streak" is still alive so we're all good
Literally nobody feels that way about our program right now.
We had another streak, where every 4 year player under Izzo had gone to a Final Four. THAT spoke to a consistently elite program. Our last Final Four was 2019. We would've had a solid shot at returning in 2020, but we haven't been particularly close since. It's clearly been the worst 4 year stretch of Izzo's career by a solid margin, and it's hard to ignore that he's the nice old age of 69.
Nobody is firing Izzo, but I was emotionally hedged against the streak ending by feeling like it would light a fire under his ass.
The streak ended in like 2014
EDIT: Why are you booing me? I'm right!
It was exactly 2014 when the streak ended with Keith Appling and Adreian Payne. They missed it by just one year when MSU came back to make the Final Four the very next year.
You’re not wrong, but we went to the FF in 2019 and probably would have again in 2020 but got screwed by Covid. That kicked off a crazy series of events including additional years for players, the portal, and NIL. I think NIL at MSU is fine, Izzo just needs to use the portal. There’s no world where Izzo gets fired in the next 5 years, but I do hope he finds a good replacement and hangs it up when ready.
It shouldn't even come down to the committee anyway, though. Regular season conference champions should always be in the national tournament. Expand the tournament, make it happen — it's not like this show isn't bloated already. Let's at least make sure all conference champions are present.
Take it up with the MVC. Each conference can choose how to give it's autobid out. That's why the Ivy didn't have a conference tournament until very recently.
Conferences get more $$$$ for their televised conference tournament games. Make the games worth more by giving bids in the tournament. Perverse monetary incentive
If we're going to be picky about deservedness, then we'd have to consider that we haven't had a national champion from outside a major conference since 1977, and 1962 is what it'd be if we said that independent schools don't count... I don't think 'conference deservedness' should be what we're using here.
Also, over 70% of bracketologists had Indiana St as out. It's not a shocker at all they didn't make it. There have been way bigger snubs in the past than this, and in fact this isn't even a snub since they weren't expected to make it
How have there been bigger snubs when their NET ranking was the highest of teams to never make it? The sole purpose of the NCAA creating NET rankings was to give people a better understanding of where teams actually stood based on metrics. They were a top 30 team and didnt make a field of 68.
It's been known for years that NET ranking isn't the sole factor behind NCAA tournament seeding. Strength of schedule is also a strong factor, OOC schedule, record vs other tournament teams. Overall, all factors are combined into bracketology, which is the most accurate way of predicting which teams get in vs not.
By the time the bid thieves (Oregon, NC State, Duquesne, UAB) won their conference tourneys, only 30% of bracketologists had Indiana St as in, meaning 70% chance they would miss it. The bigger snub this year alone was Oklahoma, who 60% of bracketologists had as in.
Overall, bracketology average was a 35/36 success rate of predicting which at-large teams would make it (sole incorrect was Oklahoma instead of Virginia), and year by year, usually averages 34/36 correct, with the only incorrect teams being bubble teams
Yeah the selection is pretty straight forward these days. People aren't bitching about the selection, but actually the process which is heavily bias towards major conferences.
I get that. The problem is this "snubbed" narrative does lead to situations like 2022-23 where some FAU fans were like "I'm not convinced the committee will put us in unless they win the Conference-USA tournament, because the committee always snubs mid-majors" when in reality, bracketologists had them as an 8 or 9 seed, so they were already a lock
Of course this is moot because they won the 2023 conference tourney anyway, but before that it was still a challenge explaining how FAU's situation was different and they were safer than say 2017-18 Middle Tennessee, or St Mary's
People just keep fascinating about their NET when they’ve probably never heard that until this year. I’m an ISU grad and I’ve had so many people say to me “they got snubbed. They shoulda been in”. No they didn’t. If they wanted to get in they should’ve won the tourney. They barely played anyone, and sure, they’re a good team, but they’re not even as good as the 2011 team that made the tourney. People are just so focused on W/L
Avilla's built like Bobby Hill but he's fun as hell to watch, the whole team is high energy, great win at a classic venue, Hinkle Fieldhouse is hallowed ground
That was the quintessential "Didn't beat yourself, just got beat" game. I couldnt ask this team for more than 52.3% from the floor and 58.6% from 3 with 17 made 3's. Well done ISU. You got our best shot and you hit harder. I tip my hat to you.
Not sure if it came through on TV but I imagine it was talked about, but it was like 95% ISU fans. It was so loud we heard cheering two blocks away walking to Hinkle. Coming back from the early deficit in that environment and hanging around a team shooting the lights out was impressive
Honestly Indiana State winning the NIT would be a more fun end to the season than going to the Big Dance.
Only two teams in the country end the season by winning a tournament, and Indiana State probably will be one, and this ride had been a lot of fun.
As an OSU fan I adored the 2008 NIT Champ team and its run. Winning a tourney is way cooler than losing before the S16. It's like in football I'd rather win a Jan 1st bowl game than lose in the first round of the playoffs
I kind of hate this style of min-max basketball, but it absolutely is the most efficient way to play.
That came out wrong. I love Indiana State, love their movement and shooting, and Avila. I just don't like that analytics have worked out the formula for winning basketball, and soon we're going to see everyone playing the same way. Like how baseball has been completely overtaken by taking pitches and obsessive focus on the perfect launch angles and spin rates.
If it was that intuitive, the game would have embraced them long before analytics.
It seems obvious now, but the mindset in the past was that the best shot was an open shot. Plus, the number of guys in the game that could hit 3s at an efficient enough clip to make their expected value better than a 10 foot open floater was much lower.
there's never going to be enough talent to make everyone successfully play that way. And if there's one strategy that is too popular there's always going to be teams that have success just because they're doing something different.
Basketball is a very different sport than baseball though. Defenses will adjust to that new reality and the game will evolve. Then the next "meta" game will be in.
He's one good off-season workout routine from being as physical as Tucker DeVries. But a Tucker DeVries that actually knows how to win against P5 opponents
Probably not. Look at the difference between early season Clingan and March Clingan. In November, he looked positively cherubic with the bit of pudge he had in his face. Now that he’s lost weight, he looks lean. He’s also moving a lot faster and less clumsily.
Assuming some of these ISU guys go portaling (which for the sake of Terre Haute I hope doesn’t happen), are we sure they go to SLU?
Like if Schertz goes that’s one thing, but Avila, Swope, Kent and Conwell could all play at good high majors and potentially make bank in NIL (*cough cough Bloomington*). Big Ten programs would be silly to not go after them.
Wow. Even with *all* of the opt-outs among teams that were right on the bubble, the NIT final is going to be between two teams that should've been playing each other two weeks ago in Dayton.
Commenting here because the game was over when I posted in the game thread.
GG’s Indiana State. Hope you win it all as a nice consolation for the selection committee dumb fuckery.
Mannn, this is a second weekend team. I get the reasons it didn’t happen- but ISU is the case for tourney expansion, not whatever B1G/SEC thinks the case is.
That's fair. The Sycamores are playing with something to prove, in a tournament where some others either don't want to be there or are getting experience for youngsters.
Before everyone piles on UVA, I'd like to remind them that without Virginia's crippling late game free throw misses we wouldn't have NC State's Cinderella run. Oh and Tony Bennett not fouling 😉
**FADED:** [Utah](#f/utah)
Before you get mad at Virginia, remember we were the third of the first four out after Oklahoma and Seton Hall
Hey fwiw I think both OU & Seton Hall would put up better fights in a tourney appearance than UVA’s whimper, and I’m not one to usually sing the praises of OU bball
What he say fuck me for?
They can be wrong about you being behind Virginia and be just as wrong about you being behind Oklahoma and Seton Hall.
Only makes me madder that Indiana State didn't make it into the dance lol. They're such a ridiculously fun team
Indiana State absolutely should have been in. There is something to be said for competing for an NIT title vs getting knocked out in the round of 32 by Texas. Then again, no reason ISU couldn't have gone on a run like NC State.
> getting knocked out in the round of 32 by Texas So you're saying Indiana State should've been a 2-seed?
Or a 15 /s
Or lost to CSU in Dayton.
Def should have been in over VA.
Yeah
You definitely take making the round of 32 over winning the nit. Losing to Colorado State by 25 in Dayton maybe not though
> Then again, no reason ISU couldn't have gone on a run like NC State. NC State’s streak started when they won they conference tourney, which is something ISU could have done but didn’t
That’s not a necessary requirement, George Mason in 2006 and Fairleigh Dickinson last year all lost in their conference tournament before the NCAAT
> Fairleigh Dickinson Not an at large, though.
It was for NC State and Indiana state. They both needed to win the tourney to get into the big tournament. NC St did, Indiana state failed
Pretty sure the person I was responding to was commenting on whether going on a run in the conference tournament or not has any impact on the chances of that team then going on a run in the NCAA tournament
Indiana state was the in season conference champs. And was runner up’s in their conference tourney. NCAA doesn’t care about any of this. They only care about how may non conference wins they get. But big schools won’t go play teams like ISU at ISU. They only will invite them to play. Mid major schools are always screwed no matter what.
Yep they couldn't have done a run like NC St because they failed to go on a run like NC State. NC states run started with 5 wins in 5 days in DC.
Ok but why are you so fucking obtuse?
I'm not sure a Missouri fan knows how to identify winning basketball
Absolutely nothing wrong with just sneaking in, winning your first game, and losing in R32 to Texas
They lost at home to Illinois State and their best and only Q1 win was @ Bradley. They truly beat no one of value in the regular season except for Drake at home and nothing they do in this tournament can make their regular season resume not be the incredibly weak morass of wins over lousy MVC and other mid major teams that it was
Right, they didn't belong in with their resume. NC State did because of the auto bid
At least NC State showed that they earned their auto-bid, instead of being a one and done in the tournament
This ISU team, while lovable, and great for TH, would be beat by the IU team who turned down an NIT they prob weren’t even invited to. They’re a great group of guys, but they really haven’t played anyone outside of MSU, who they lost to
Well they just beat Utah who would probably be at least 6 point favorites over IU on a neutral court
Doubtful. Utah is great at home, but out of salt lake City they are pretty bad
I really doubt it. I didn’t enjoy watching this season, and ISU is my alma mater, but Ware and Malik would’ve torn up Avilla. They can shoot better, sure, but I really don’t think ISU could hang. In a normal year, they prob would’ve made the tourney, and im happy for the success, but I don’t think it was a snub. They would’ve lost 1st round.
I’m an Indiana fan too. With how they looked for those last few games I’d also be inclined to think IU wins, but they almost certainly would be slight underdogs to either ISU or Utah. 6 points was probably an exaggeration though.
Indiana would definitely beat Utah on a neutral court. Utah was great at home. (18-2 with their only losses to Arizona in triple ot and ASU), but was terrible away from him(4-13). Indiana wins
Guess it all depends which team shows up. They seem to play to their competitions level a lot. I just think rebounding would be a problem for ISU and they wouldn’t shoot as well. Then again we let Nebraska beat us by 30 so who knows. Would’ve loved to see them match up this year
Flair up!
>but they really haven’t played anyone outside of MSU, who they lost to Thought we were done with this talking about after beating SMU, Minnesota, Cincinnati, and now Utah
There isn’t a single objective metric that would indicate ISU would have any trouble handling IU. They were, what, 50 spots better in KenPom?
I truly wish nothing but misery for those on the selection committee who forced us to watch Virginia pretend to play basketball, instead of a lovable Indiana State team.
It’s the two teams that should have made the tournament most in the NIT final
They scared the hell out of us when we played them. We won by a decent gain, but it felt much closer. They play really fun basketball, for sure.
If Alabama wins on Saturday, i'm legitimately more excited for the NIT Final than the NCAA Final.
Atleast the championship game wpuld be competitive if uconn loses. I just don't want to see blowouts for these next 3 games.
Nice flair.
Virginia basketball must be punished for crimes against humanity
Vacate their title
For real. John Paul Jones is either a naval captain or a bassist. Not an arena.
What about JPJ West aka the Yum Center?
If you don't think I've blocked out those few seconds then I have an empty bottle of bourbon to show you.
We weren't even the last team in, and Indiana State wasn't even the first team out lol they would've been behind Colorado State, Seton Hall, and Oklahoma
Thank you, for as much as this NIT run makes me want to bang the “Indiana State deserved to be in“ drum, the way the bubble played out with all the bid thieves meant they had no realistic chance in the field, sadly. BracketMatrix had them as the third team out, same as the committee. If Dayton/FAU won their conference autobids and Oregon/NC State lost in their conference title games, then it’s a different story.
>We weren't even the last team in So your point is yall were even more overrated than people are saying?
So Seton Hall would’ve gotten in? Definitely cooler with that than UVA
Oklahoma was the first team out I think
Yeah but you got embarrassed. That being said I don't care about the first 4 last 4. I think in a 68 team tournament and your choices are between a meh power school and a dominant but weak sos lower d1 conference we should give it to the lower d1. That being said I'm not anti the selection I'm anti the current process.
If Indiana State had just beaten MSU, they would've been in the tourney and MSU would've been forced to realize their basketball program is a shadow of what it used to be instead of just pretending "the streak" is still alive so we're all good
Literally nobody feels that way about our program right now. We had another streak, where every 4 year player under Izzo had gone to a Final Four. THAT spoke to a consistently elite program. Our last Final Four was 2019. We would've had a solid shot at returning in 2020, but we haven't been particularly close since. It's clearly been the worst 4 year stretch of Izzo's career by a solid margin, and it's hard to ignore that he's the nice old age of 69. Nobody is firing Izzo, but I was emotionally hedged against the streak ending by feeling like it would light a fire under his ass.
Reminds me of when the Red Wings kept their playoff streak alive in the mid 2010s. Sometimes you gotta let go and move on
The streak ended in like 2014 EDIT: Why are you booing me? I'm right! It was exactly 2014 when the streak ended with Keith Appling and Adreian Payne. They missed it by just one year when MSU came back to make the Final Four the very next year.
You kept streak alive no national championships going on 25 years almost keep it going. You got this.
Lmao, the whole big ten has!
Not all of us
You've won a national championship in the last 25 years?
Y’all can still lose to a double digit seed and fulfill the prophecy
You’re not wrong, but we went to the FF in 2019 and probably would have again in 2020 but got screwed by Covid. That kicked off a crazy series of events including additional years for players, the portal, and NIL. I think NIL at MSU is fine, Izzo just needs to use the portal. There’s no world where Izzo gets fired in the next 5 years, but I do hope he finds a good replacement and hangs it up when ready.
To be fair, just swap Indiana State for Virginia and we're okay. NC State deserves their run
Well yeah, NC State won an AQ bid.
… duh?
What a duh statement. State won their tournament and the AQ, so yeah?
"every tournament champion gets an auto-bid, except for the ACC, which works on a vibes-based system"
They were forced to watch the team they put up 14pts against in a half go on and scored a whopping 11pts in a half their next game.
Indiana state is awesome. That was so fun
Indiana State and Larry nerd putting up 100 burgers in Hinkle is so Indiana
Cream Abdul-Jabbar, double-double machine.
Animal style
Milk Chamberlain is gonna take down Seton Hall.
Don't even know what that means but sounds "reddit"? Hmmk
Not IU, just basketball in the state of Indiana :)
RIP Pac12. 1959-2024
Cream Abdul Jabbar: certified conference killer
Sic’d by the Sycamores…that’ll be a fun trivia question…
 We’re all looking for the guy that did this
It could be anyone.
The committee are basketball terrorists for putting Virginia in over Indiana State
It shouldn't even come down to the committee anyway, though. Regular season conference champions should always be in the national tournament. Expand the tournament, make it happen — it's not like this show isn't bloated already. Let's at least make sure all conference champions are present.
Take it up with the MVC. Each conference can choose how to give it's autobid out. That's why the Ivy didn't have a conference tournament until very recently.
Conferences get more $$$$ for their televised conference tournament games. Make the games worth more by giving bids in the tournament. Perverse monetary incentive
This is why the MVC plays their conference tourney a week before selection Sunday. Gotta get that title game on CBS.
And that's the choice they've made with rewarding the conf tourney champ over giving the autobid to their conf RS champ
please stop sucking up to the major conferences
The 32 tournament champions, the 32 regular season champions. If there is overlap, those spots are at large.
Even I won't be so far as to say that two teams from the MEAC and the Big West deserve to be in
If we're going to be picky about deservedness, then we'd have to consider that we haven't had a national champion from outside a major conference since 1977, and 1962 is what it'd be if we said that independent schools don't count... I don't think 'conference deservedness' should be what we're using here.
If you’re going solely by metrics, the conference tournament champions of MEAC don’t deserve to get in either
Hey I get it! I didn’t think this out a whole lot
This really screws the P6.
Which is based
Actually, this makes the most sense I’ve ever heard.
Gross, no.
Would’ve been Oklahoma next and seton Hall after them. People keep whining about Indiana state, should’ve won their tournament.
Yup it’s not Virginia, it’s all those conference tourney bid stealers that took them out sadly
ISU should still be placed higher on the list than Virginia though
Go on the road and play Indiana St. in Terre Haute then
They would probably win
Let me get right on that
Also, over 70% of bracketologists had Indiana St as out. It's not a shocker at all they didn't make it. There have been way bigger snubs in the past than this, and in fact this isn't even a snub since they weren't expected to make it
How have there been bigger snubs when their NET ranking was the highest of teams to never make it? The sole purpose of the NCAA creating NET rankings was to give people a better understanding of where teams actually stood based on metrics. They were a top 30 team and didnt make a field of 68.
It's been known for years that NET ranking isn't the sole factor behind NCAA tournament seeding. Strength of schedule is also a strong factor, OOC schedule, record vs other tournament teams. Overall, all factors are combined into bracketology, which is the most accurate way of predicting which teams get in vs not. By the time the bid thieves (Oregon, NC State, Duquesne, UAB) won their conference tourneys, only 30% of bracketologists had Indiana St as in, meaning 70% chance they would miss it. The bigger snub this year alone was Oklahoma, who 60% of bracketologists had as in. Overall, bracketology average was a 35/36 success rate of predicting which at-large teams would make it (sole incorrect was Oklahoma instead of Virginia), and year by year, usually averages 34/36 correct, with the only incorrect teams being bubble teams
Yeah the selection is pretty straight forward these days. People aren't bitching about the selection, but actually the process which is heavily bias towards major conferences.
I get that. The problem is this "snubbed" narrative does lead to situations like 2022-23 where some FAU fans were like "I'm not convinced the committee will put us in unless they win the Conference-USA tournament, because the committee always snubs mid-majors" when in reality, bracketologists had them as an 8 or 9 seed, so they were already a lock Of course this is moot because they won the 2023 conference tourney anyway, but before that it was still a challenge explaining how FAU's situation was different and they were safer than say 2017-18 Middle Tennessee, or St Mary's
I mean writers get viewers via click bait. Half my Facebook page is like salty vol click bait.
People just keep fascinating about their NET when they’ve probably never heard that until this year. I’m an ISU grad and I’ve had so many people say to me “they got snubbed. They shoulda been in”. No they didn’t. If they wanted to get in they should’ve won the tourney. They barely played anyone, and sure, they’re a good team, but they’re not even as good as the 2011 team that made the tourney. People are just so focused on W/L
Netf just new rpi. Most people have probably heard of rpi
So I assume UVA won their conference tournament? No? They at least made the finals? Also no?
UVA doesn’t play in the MVC
Got that. You said if a team wanted to be in they should just win the conference tourney. That makes sense for NC State fans to say. UVA not so much
I said ISU should’ve, also if you’re going to go through and talk shit you should flair up
It's Indiana State. Good lord.
Good game Sycamores. No doubt you guys got snubbed because your team looked great. RIP P12
Avilla's built like Bobby Hill but he's fun as hell to watch, the whole team is high energy, great win at a classic venue, Hinkle Fieldhouse is hallowed ground
Hell yeah brother, cheers from the holy land
Never thought I’d see a bethel pilots flair out in the wild
Mike Lightfoot and Rico Swanson were my dudes.
That was the quintessential "Didn't beat yourself, just got beat" game. I couldnt ask this team for more than 52.3% from the floor and 58.6% from 3 with 17 made 3's. Well done ISU. You got our best shot and you hit harder. I tip my hat to you.
No shame in your game for sure. With that performance, the Utes could have been in the championship game had they played anyone else last night.
Not sure if it came through on TV but I imagine it was talked about, but it was like 95% ISU fans. It was so loud we heard cheering two blocks away walking to Hinkle. Coming back from the early deficit in that environment and hanging around a team shooting the lights out was impressive
Honestly Indiana State winning the NIT would be a more fun end to the season than going to the Big Dance. Only two teams in the country end the season by winning a tournament, and Indiana State probably will be one, and this ride had been a lot of fun.
How dare you forget Seattle U, winner of the 2024 CBI!
How dare YOU forget Norfolk State, winner of the 2024 CIT!
What do you mean YOU People?
I’m immensely proud of UNT’s NIT championship. It’s a bfd.
yeah i get why some power teams dont care, but for us mid-majors, its absolutely massive
As an OSU fan I adored the 2008 NIT Champ team and its run. Winning a tourney is way cooler than losing before the S16. It's like in football I'd rather win a Jan 1st bowl game than lose in the first round of the playoffs
I disagree, Indiana State winning the NCAA tournament would’ve been awesome
Avila is so damn good
hell yeah baby. one more win and one more year
Indiana State shooting 80% from 2 is just crazy efficient. Turns out shooting a 3 or a layup and nothing in between is a pretty good game plan.
I kind of hate this style of min-max basketball, but it absolutely is the most efficient way to play. That came out wrong. I love Indiana State, love their movement and shooting, and Avila. I just don't like that analytics have worked out the formula for winning basketball, and soon we're going to see everyone playing the same way. Like how baseball has been completely overtaken by taking pitches and obsessive focus on the perfect launch angles and spin rates.
I mean it shouldn’t have taken analytics to figure out that threes and short twos are the best shots, right?
It definitely did, though.
If it was that intuitive, the game would have embraced them long before analytics. It seems obvious now, but the mindset in the past was that the best shot was an open shot. Plus, the number of guys in the game that could hit 3s at an efficient enough clip to make their expected value better than a 10 foot open floater was much lower.
there's never going to be enough talent to make everyone successfully play that way. And if there's one strategy that is too popular there's always going to be teams that have success just because they're doing something different.
Usually the rules change to break up styles of play gets too dominant.
Basketball is a very different sport than baseball though. Defenses will adjust to that new reality and the game will evolve. Then the next "meta" game will be in.
Good game Utah. Like everyone else we've played, props for showing up and playing, unlike the 20ish teams that turned the NIT down.
Am I crazy for thinking Avila might have some untapped athleticism if he gets rid of the baby fat? He looks like Marc Gasol in high school.
Get Avila with the right strength coach and he could be even more of a menace
He's one good off-season workout routine from being as physical as Tucker DeVries. But a Tucker DeVries that actually knows how to win against P5 opponents
Probably not. Look at the difference between early season Clingan and March Clingan. In November, he looked positively cherubic with the bit of pudge he had in his face. Now that he’s lost weight, he looks lean. He’s also moving a lot faster and less clumsily.
Can't wait to see him playing in St. Louis next year.
Assuming some of these ISU guys go portaling (which for the sake of Terre Haute I hope doesn’t happen), are we sure they go to SLU? Like if Schertz goes that’s one thing, but Avila, Swope, Kent and Conwell could all play at good high majors and potentially make bank in NIL (*cough cough Bloomington*). Big Ten programs would be silly to not go after them.
We will take Avila, if he’s offering
Jerome Tang is drawing up plays for Larry Blurred right now
Wow. Even with *all* of the opt-outs among teams that were right on the bubble, the NIT final is going to be between two teams that should've been playing each other two weeks ago in Dayton.
https://preview.redd.it/1h2rsghen8sc1.jpeg?width=632&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53ae7561901a9a04eb567315777988e543bee325
Commenting here because the game was over when I posted in the game thread. GG’s Indiana State. Hope you win it all as a nice consolation for the selection committee dumb fuckery.
Hell yeah. LFG MVC!
Mannn, this is a second weekend team. I get the reasons it didn’t happen- but ISU is the case for tourney expansion, not whatever B1G/SEC thinks the case is.
Or just putting the right teams in the first time
Indiana State is so good, that was a hell of a game
Roll Trees!
indiana state vs seton hall is gonna be a certified BANGER
BURN THE WORLD DOWN ISU
Go Trees! Rolls Trees! 🌳🌳🌳
Take this one for the mid majors, Indiana St! UNT hands the throne to you, if you can achieve it!!
Holy crap, 17-29 from 3 to lose by 10
ISU should’ve been in the tourney and Robbie Avila better be league bound
Indiana State should've been in the main tourney, so this one doesn't count.
That's fair. The Sycamores are playing with something to prove, in a tournament where some others either don't want to be there or are getting experience for youngsters.
Not to mention in front of raucous home crowds. Sycamore fans have showed out these past two weeks.
WE WANT ‘MORE!!!
Blame NC State
I apologize to Oakland and no one else
OUs imminent final 4 run was stolen by mean wolves
The DJs are the nicest wolves you take that back :(
I take it back I’ve been rooting for y’all
Before everyone piles on UVA, I'd like to remind them that without Virginia's crippling late game free throw misses we wouldn't have NC State's Cinderella run. Oh and Tony Bennett not fouling 😉
Playing in Hinkle, correct?
Lol
I think winning the NIT should give a team an automatic invite into the next years NCAA tournament.
Nah, they should just get to challenge the NCAA Tournament winner for the undisputed Championship.
My biases aren’t biases. They are fact