2025 March Madness

azgreg SEC

Quite the league this year!

B1G good showing in rd. 1 and hung.on in rd. 2.

azgreg
That one remaining ACC team is the best in the field.

azgreg

You and Sir Charles. I have no horse in the race. And, can’t stand Duke!

professor me neither although maybe a smidge more likable with the new coach

NIL Before NIL!
Although I do miss Bobby Knight!

professor I have no affiliation with Indiana, but have actively rooted against them ever since they sent Bobby Knight away.

azgreg Being more likeable than Coach K? There's an extremely low bar.

Fixed it.

Terps!

I heard a little "editorial" on sports talk radio about the NIL and money affecting NCAA basketball. It was hysterical! Why? Because big schools, with big programs have always had big Booster money anyhow. What's really the difference?

professor helps out those universities like Marquette and Creighton too that are small in comparison yet have big$ boosters. Creighton basically has a new team every year. I suspect there are quite a few universities with similar enrollment yet big$ boosters. SMU another one. It levels the playing field against the prior cheaters, but it still fucks those programs that like to develop players and have longevity.

ode Nobody keeps and develops players anymore. Every team is recruiting every season. This isn't all because of NIL; there used to be a rule that if you transferred schools you had to sit out an entire season. Now you can play right away.

There are now literally seniors who have played for four different schools in their four years.

rsvman2 Wisconsin does. Ironic however the guy they got, John Tonje, was a star, and without him they would have likely stunk. But then they lost two guys, Connor Essegian, he went to Nebraska; and Chucky Hepburn went to Louisville. I can't explain what happened to these guys in the 2023-24 season, but they were both dead weight, compared.to what they did in 2022-23, both showing tremendous upside. Chucky started and Essegian turned out.to be a key reserve. They both went on to have good seasons, Chucky making a pretty good splash in the ACC. Likely good for both of them that they left, but it definitely makes me wonder if they stay and pull their heads out of their asses, how good they would have been this year with Blackwell and Essegian coming off the bench. IMO with Gard's new approach to scoring those two staying put, would have been huge for depth and scoring. Wisconsin does not get blue chippers,literally EVERY in state blue chipper goes elsewhere. The list is mind numbing and makes me want to puke. But Bo Ryan came and changed the entire mindset with the program and they did it through development. In the Dekker/Kaminski era when they went to consecutive final 4s and to the final game the 2nd year. Those teams were amazing yet none.of those guys were highly sought after or MacD,s all Americans. NIL is making it.next to impossible to do that anymore because pieces would have been taken away. They would still have been good because of Dekker and Kaminski, but pieces would have been taken away, it's simply too tempting for some of these players. Where Kaminski started to where he ended was truly amazing. A note on Tonje, he didn't do much before coming to Wisconsin, but man he had a helluva year, so it's not as if we got a name, but he turned into that. I hope what this does is offer the in state phenoms a window into what they could do by staying home.

ode , but it still fucks those programs that like to develop players and have longevity.

Ah, and there’s the big rub for. I’m a Pitt alumni and I just loved the Jamie Dixon era. That guy would build teams - teams he’d keep together for squads of guys playing together for years. He’d only be able to secure 3 star recruits but, he’d mold them over time to become really solid and savvy players. Yeah…

ode
Oh such genuine passion and understanding in that post! Excellent!
However, now makes me wonder what level of understanding folks have from those kids’ perspective.
Do folks know how hard they work?! Know about AAU ball they’ve been playing since they were wee kids? Know about their own national social networks? All these guys cross paths, playing Club ball, going to Junior Nationals, play with and against each other, social internet network… Yeah, without that old year ineligibility, they have more agency now. No longer a one sided game. May be hard to adjust to the myth of “school loyalty” for we older fans. But they’re living it and no longer “meat on the hoof”.