BuffOrange

Meh, Gugny just sounds like token Internet argue guy who afaik, doesn't really exist in real life. "See let me explain something to all you easily manipulated simpletons. Just because someone puts their name on something they didn't write doesn't make them a great person. What does make you a good person is those who "show the good side of themselves when the cameras are on - here are some examples". NotSureIfSerious.jpg. But seriously, Lebron was one of the most hyped up athletes ever when he was 16. Everyone telling him how great he was probably since he was 6. Pretty much impossible for anyone in those shoes to not be full of himself. The Decision was embarrassing but all in all, he seems about as level-headed and normal as you could reasonably expect someone with his cards in life.

20th of 28th based on what? How close of a relationship his mock is to the actual draft order (in which case who cares?)? Or how good the players actually turn out to be relative to his board? As for only allowing grades after the fact...nobody is stopping you from doing a write up of the 2008 draft. I'm sure everyone will be on pins & needles to learn that Glenn Dorsey & Vernon Gholston actually suck.

Are the Vikings/Packers games on CBS then? I guess they changed the "visiting team" criteria.

Now there is some cold hard empirical data for ya. The good reason is your selective memory in believing in stupid sayings. I'll wait for your inevitable cherrypicking and anecdotal examples t o prove your mythical point since no such data exists.

Holy cripes, so much this. The whining ITT is pathetic. I mean we already knew what the 16 games were. I don't know how important the order is but we should know by now frontloaded schedules usually mean we're talking draft before Thanksgiving. This one is backloaded, big deal.

Ha, Jordan Morgan with another pathetic flop against an orange team that the refs eat up. Unreal. Michigan is the new Duke.

Nice slate of games tonight. My Tennessee to Elite8 pick looks brilliant so far. Only a 2pt underdog vs Michigan. UVA-Sparty is a Final4 game.

Ha, my thoughts exactly. Second guessing wide open shots is as bad as ripping the football coach for not punting enough. It's like a thousand times harder to get to the rim and get a borderline whistle on a game-winning possession than it is down 4 w/ a minute left, or whatever. Can't win with zero capable shooters. I guess I talked myself into thinking they could overcome that in year with no great teams. But you know, scoring is sorta important in this game. All season long w/ this team you can just watch the first 10minutes of their games and know how it's going to end.

Haha Dook. GTFO losers. Been garbage all year outside of their gimmick gym where they play 8on5. My Tennessee to Elite8 pick is lookin pretty good.

Sounds like fun. Yuck, Thurs. afternoon tips are the worst. I guess I have to take off both days, ha. Oh well. I said during the Big10 Final I'm going to have to fade Sparty because they'll be the most fashionable 4seed pick ever. JFC I didn't know I'd be that right. Every single person on CBS/ESPN has them. I'll probably just pick Nova to come out of that region since UVA-Sparty is a coinflip game. Of course I used to do way better in these things when I just went by gut & didn't worry about what everyone else was picking. Meh. Ohio St could be a tough game for Cuse but we owe them a little something. Florida looks like the clear favorite there but maybe one of Pitt/UCLA/VCU will do us a favor and take them down - they're all pretty good and we're due for a break like that.

Agree totally. Go back & watch our big wins earlier. There's just more made shots, not more intensity. After the 1st Duke game our offensive efficiency was ranked higher than our defense as hard as they may be to believe. The offense has fallen off the cliff since. A crapload of stuff went against us in the NC St game. Their botched alley-oop goes off the backboard & right to their guy, they bank in a 3, we pick up 2 charging fouls in the closing minute... The bad news is it was NC freaking St and we should be able to overcome that stuff vs a bubble squad. But our margin for error is razor thin as we all know. Re: seeding - There's basically no difference between 4-13 overall on the S curve in terms of resumes. It's possible though unlikely that we get bypassed by all of those 4-12 teams; so my $ is on a 3seed.

Yes.

What? I was referring to UNC -1 vs Pitt.

Probably shouldn't be talking about a team that's a pick 'em in the quarterfinals playing in the finals.

Don't care too much but I'll take NIT St. They don't try as hard to bring the game to a snail's pace, Warren's all they got, they can't shoot 3's, and based on the spread today (and kenpom) Miami is actually a hair better. Plus it'd be pretty sweet to run thru an all Tobacco Road gauntlet to the title on their turf.

Langston Walker II. Anybody who doesn't work for the Bills, or a diehard Bills fan, or a C. Williams family member/agent think this guy doesn't stink?

Picking a team that's almost as good as everyone else that nobody else will pick is definitely a good strategy, especially for larger pools. I'm guessing your typical distribution in most office pools will be something like 35% Fla, 25% Kansas, 20% Arizona, 10% Michigan St/Duke and a 10% sprinkling of Witchita/Cuse/Michigan/Wisconsin. I think I'm going to roll with Louisville. 2nd in kenpom, good on both ends of the floor, good road wins lately vs Cincy & SMU, nobody else is going to pick them. The only other teams w/ a top 15 efficiency on both ends of the floor are Florida, Witchita & Nova. Duke, Creighton & Michigan don't guard anyone. Arizona & Cuse can obviously have problems scoring.

I was totally all-in on caring about MSG because our margin for error is so thin & we need every little edge we can get. But man, the reg. season is over now & there isn't much evidence that this team plays better at home (same # of losses, more close calls, didn't play significantly better vs any of the 4 duplicate opponents). We're a weak charge from going 3-1 @Duke/Maryland/UVA/FSU which I think is the best anybody would ever do. So whatever, I'm not going to worry about it. I'd like to avoid a 7seed like VCU in the 2nd round, which the syracuse.com bracket has now. However, Duke on Saturday could be the 2nd biggest conf. semi's game we've ever had just 'cause it'd be great to beat those clowns 2 out of 3 in our 1st year - behind only G'town last yr who we could not lose to 3x in our last year in the BE. Ironically this win today sets up arguably a tougher quarterfinal game on Friday (likely NC St instead of Clemson). But nice to see them play a long overdue good game.

17-0 run by Wake?! Wow. That makes me feel marginally better.

I don't know why you're taking a "what would've happened w/ Grant" discussion and weaving in a "which team is better" layer. Obviously some fluke, unsustainable stuff has to happen for any basketball team to lose to an inferior team at home. I think that goes w/out saying. In this case it's a crappy 3pt shooter in Golden making a few or Ennis/Cooney/Fair missing FT's or whatever... I'm "ignoring" that stuff because I don't think Grant being in uniform really changes those things. Of course he would've made a difference elsewhere. I also think the above fluke stuff can be a valid excuse for getting upset by a mediocre NIT quality team (especially on the road). But not garbage teams at home. No National Champion in the last 12+ years has lost to a team as bad as BC anywhere, much less at home. I'm afraid to check if any champion has two home losses this bad. I seriously doubt it.

Right, like the home games vs ACC powerhouses BC, Miami & NC St. Merely adding his avg pts, which of course I wasn't doing - is no more naive than pretending the final 5pt margin was an accurate representation of the game. A double digit margin for this team this year which plays at one of the slowest paces in the country is like a 20pt deficit for your father's Orangemen. It only got as close as it did 'cause GT took some bad/hurried shots & missed the front end of some 1&1s. Basically their best NC St impression but the lead was too significant to blow. I think I'm being generous just by assuming the W.

Yep. Even if Grant makes the difference tonight in a narrow victory - a team who barely salvages a split vs two pathetic teams in their last 2 home games is going where exactly? What a dumpster fire. Maybe after 5 months we should come up with an offensive set other than the "Conney/Fair off a double screen" just for giggles? Nah.

I feel better coming out of this 3game trip than I felt going into it.* I don't think people realize either how laughably hard NC St tried to throw the game away, or how truly terrible BC is. And they were both at home. Those two games were practically a season killer for me. Of course people rationalized them the way fans rationalize things. "Hey Scrooge we find a way to WIN like always because we're WINNERS!" and then "well we weren't going undefeated so...". So naturally after a brutal 3game road trip where we basically win 1.5 of 3 with Grant useless in 2 of them, now there is panic setting in. Even yesterday isn't that terrible as I go back & watch it. It's a 3pt game when Ennis picks up his 4th and this Anderson kid who is a 29% 3pt shooter just drills 3 of 4 like it's nothing, including one he catches at his ankles in the deep corner....whatever. * Assuming Grant is back to form at some point, otherwise we're obviously going nowhere and there's nothing left to talk about. FWIW staying ahead of Duke is way more important than Kansas for MSG. So root for UNC to beat them again, otherwise the likely semi's matchup vs them in the ACCT is a big game.

Right. Your typical play in that situation is frequently an offensive player looking for contact & hoping to go to the line vs a defender who intends to flop for a call rather than make a play - it seems both sides are usually wrong and a debate about semantics ensues about slow-motion guarding position. But here CJ is legit trying to score rather than get a call and did make a tremendous shot in spite of the contact. That's what makes it so bad, imo. I don't think they really had much of a choice but to T him up to be honest & I think JB had every intention of getting tossed. I would've done the same thing during the Michigan screwjob last year but then I'm a hothead.

Good game, not too upset. I think you mean Gbinijie who took what looked like a clearer charge on Parker than Hood did on Fair (and I'm pretty sure that's why JB exploded). But also Grant got mugged a lot & doesn't get any calls on the road. College basketball ladies & gentlemen! Where 40-65yr old refs are intimidated by 18yr old dorks. It's why Buffalo & MSG is so important but we have some work to do now to get there (MSG anyway).