Kentucky lost. We can celebrate that fact. Are you rooting for Duke to represent the ACC or do you hate Duke? I Can respect and appreciate the greatness of Coach K. Are there "who succeeds Coach K" threads on the Duke sites?
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Well, since the only way i can lose my office pool is if Wisconsin beats Duke... I'm going to have to go with Duke winning.
ON WISCONSIN.
Didn't you hear? There was a football scrimmage in Blacksburg yesterday. It's football season!
I only have a few rules in life. One of them is never root for Duke. Ever. So sick of them being good at basketball. On Wisconsin indeed
edit: In cases of Duke vs UVA, I root for either a tie or the meteor, whichever is more possible
In high school band, our director was a Wisconsin fan and for our fight song, we played "On Wisconsin". I got so sick of hearing that song it still makes me a little grumpy to hear it.
That said, The Beard above speaketh the troot. Ya don't never ever root for dook. While I can always take pleasure from a UVA loss, Duke winning takes a bit of the luster off of the moment. Never thought about the meteor, though.
Where'd you go? Ours was On Wisconsin at Strasburg, and I remember at least one other school (maybe Manassass Park or Madison County) having the same fight song.
Great Bridge High from '64-68. Chesapeake, VA. Played french horn.
Flip the sixes...played trumpet 94-98 for the Rams of Strasburg, including a Group A Div. 1 state championship game vs. Bath County down in Covington where all the brass instruments froze up before the National Anthem (game was already delayed a day due to snow - it was cold).
Marched in the 1969 Presidential Inaugural Parade as a Highty Tighty, coldest band experience of my career.
The old Montevideo High school played On Wisconsin as well
Dook!
So I look at this championship as a win-win. Either we get more revenue from Dook winning, or we get to bask in the blue devil tears
I'll have the money with a side of tears please.
Hear hear!
Actually the revenue is paid per game played not per victory so the money's banked
New plan: ON WISCONSIN
Awesome.
I already have half of my order then. Hopefully, the championship will be like BK and I can have it my way.
I actually wanted Kentucky to win last night, but I'm definitely rooting for the Badgers tomorrow. They've played their butts off all tournament long, and had A LOT harder road to the Ship than the Dookies did. Frank the Tank is an absolute beast, and you can ask Andrew Harrison (NSFW language) about that. On Wisconsin
Right before tip off, the sideline reporter said that Kentucky hadn't watch any film of Wisconsin. She said Coach Cal wanted them to focus on themselves and themselves only. "Wisconsin," she continued, "has done extensive homework on Kentucky." I thought to myself right there that Wisconsin was going to win.
Callipari has said all season that he isn't worried about opponents, he's worried about his guys being the best they could be. Now I'm no expert on things like motivation and sports psychology, I'm just a dude who likes to drink beer and watch sports. John Callipari is a HOF coach who's team just went 38-1. That strategy however strikes me as a terribly arrogant, misguided approach. If I was Wisconsin I would have taken that as complete and utter act of dismissive disrespect.
If they didn't watch film all year and it got them to 38-0, then hats off, but somehow I doubt that's the case. I guess I'm just blown away by a HOF coach who was so blinded by his team's own abilities (and perhaps his own) to not even properly prepare for the game.
It's not that they didn't prepare for Wisconsin, their strategy is to dictate how the game was played. Wisconsin beat them at their own game.
#GoACC.
After all the Big 12 and Pac 12 talk I've been hearing on the radio all season, an ACC championship means all is right with the world again. Plus, NC born. Gotta rep the bloodline (although On Wisconsin is also my HS fight song, as mentioned above).
I was just sad to see how much the refs decided the Kentucky- Wisconsin game. The calls went in spurts but it definitely closed out in Whiskeys favor. Blown shot clock call plus the ghost foul on Harrison plus some of the.non calls as the Wildcats went to the rim as the shot clocks expired.....just too many one way inconsistencies.
This is new? I know it's hard to ref these games, but....
I agree with both points. Terrible officiating last night that separated a game where whoever had the ball last was going to win. And the call on Harrison at the end was garbage. Absolutely not a foul. But to your point, terrible calls are made all the time and simply a part of sports that we should be used to by now. I absolutely hate blaming refs when your team loses, but last night down the stretch was God awful from an officiating standpoint. I kinda stand on the fence on this one.
The refs didn't hand Wisconsin the game though. Wisconsin out rebounded them 34-22 and controlled the whole game. There were a couple of questionable calls both ways but Wisconsin outplayed them and deserved to win. Period.
I completely agree Wisconsin deserved to win, I was just saying the officiating was awful but for both sides. If you take away the Hayes layup that should've been a SC violation, I thought UK got pretty much every call. And you're right about the rebounding effort, too. It had to have been only a few minutes before the end of the first half that UK got their first offensive board.
But there was also the charge call on Josh Gasser as he kicked it out to the top of the key, which would've been a made three. Whoever took the "charge" blatantly undercut him
There were terrible calls in both FF games yesterday. And i think in the UW-UK game, the bad calls evened out. UK should have been called for at least a flagrant 1 when the player was slapped in the face. There was no way that was a basketball play in what he was doing.
Refs had some questionable calls both way. How Lyles hitting Gasser in the face wasn't even a foul is mind boggling.
There were multiple b.s. defensive fouls against Wisconsin too. And how about the flagrant foul (slap to the face) that wasn't called even after a video review? That's at least 3 points taken away from Wisconsin.
Yep. This.
Bo Ryan is getting in eventually.
But you agree there's no way Ryan would trade the result for right now. I bet Cal wouldn't either, but that's just me
And to think we were a layup away from being transitive national champions in both revenue sports.
I was just going to ask when the "We took the national champions to OT" shirts would come out
Mission Nearly Accomplished
And there is this https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy/status/585283718215929856
I has a sad :'( first time I've ever had a team to root for in a championship and duke ruins my fun.... Well I have more of an excuse to hate them now.
What a game! Anybody think Bo Ryan is being a really sore loser? His interviews are just screaming cry baby to me.
Ugh, I was in the 99th percentile on Saturday afternoon and on top of the world. There was literally one way I could lose my office pool before the Elite 8. Then Kentucky had to ruin it all that evening. Oh well.
Poor guy cant catch a break
....Duke still sucks.
I honestly didn't give a crap who won it all last night but seeing the overwhelming bitterness from around the ACC, especially in Hooville has been fairly amusing. Over on TheSabre the continual meltdown had been especially funny. Spent the majority of the season at #2 and they don't have a single highlight in One Shining Moment. Ouch.
Yaay! Dook!
Even though it probably wouldn't have made a difference, I felt the Badgers got royally screwed in the anus by the stripes within the last two mins of the game when the Duke players brushed his finger against the ball just before it went out of bounds. But like I said, it wouldn't have made a difference.
"royally screwed in the anus by the stripes"
We saw your post-game interview, Bo. We hate Duke over here as well
do the refs get to see all of the angles shown on the TV replays? Only thing I can think of is that they didn't get shown the angle where it was obvious that Winson's finger deflects off the ball. The other angles made it a lot tougher to see if his finger actually made contact and in all of the angles the path of the ball didn't perceptibily change.
I completely agree with this in regards to Bo Ryan's comments after the game
Agreed. Bo Ryan has complained about the scheduling of his games, single-year meteoric players, and bad calls. I'm glad he lost more than Wisconsin lost (although I am very happy for that), because he is coming off as a crybaby in all respects.
I don't get it either. Serious sour grapes coming from him. It's not Coach K's (or Caliparis) rule that kids can't go right to the NBA. The NBA made that rule. Their job is to win basketball games and hopefully attempt to help young men be respectful, successful members of society. And Coach K said it best, these kids have a limited earning window.
Would it be better for these kids go pro in Europe right out of high school for a year? Should they be forced against their will to attend school for 4 years? I don't know about you, but I was not forced to go to Virginia Tech for longer than I wanted to (and I wish I could have stayed forever), so I don't think these kids should be just because they are awesome at basketball.
Yep. The opportunity cost of making millions is much higher than staying an extra year at college. Bo recruits a certain type of player and Coach K recruits another. But to be fair, it is kind of surprising how many one-and-dones have come out of Duke recently. That doesn't really seem very Coach K-like, but maybe he's just learning to adapt to the system.
Coach K used to be very much against the one and done guys as well.
But he is also a brilliant basketball coach and realized he needed to adapt to the game as it is, not as he would probably prefer it to be. He also found himself in the position to be able to land these guys. I wonder if all of his work for the U.S. team changed his views somewhat.
A philosophy I wish our football coaches would adopt.
Some of the guys that are supposedly one and dones this year need a lot of help if they decide to turn pro. Winslow is a freak athlete and great on defense, but he's really overrated IMO. People are already comparing him to the likes of Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, and Draymond Green. It's like, really? What am I not seeing here? Last night and most of the games that I've watched him this season, he just plays completely out of control. He's not scared to take it to the rack, but he just throws up prayers once he gets there. He can't finish in traffic at all. Tyus Jones is good, but he's pretty dinky and he won't be able to get to the basket nearly as easy as he can now once he's going against the trees. A bit of captain obvious here, but Okafor would be without a doubt my number 1 pick. He didn't look amazing last night, but he's by far the best offensive big man I've seen in probably 5 years at the collegiate level.
Most of what you posted is almost verbatim what NBA Commissioner Silver has put out for why he wants to raise the minimum playing age to equal three years in college. It would allow the NBA teams to have a better understanding of the total player they are getting rather than shooting in the dark at freshmen with obvious flaws right now.
I don't know if it changed his philosophy, but I would imagine having Lebron and Kobe publicly proclaim how awesome it is to play for you helps matters immensely in the living rooms of top flight high school talent.
Coach K this morning on The Dan Patrick Show said, "I have always like freshman, but I like them even better as sophmores."
Brandon Jennings would say no.
The example that I often think of in these instances is the GT Football player that left early for a job at Microsoft. The purpose that most students have in attending college is to gain the education, skills, and/or credentials they need to obtain a higher paying job. If an opportunity comes along for any student to make a 6+ figure income right away, but it necesitates leaving school early, they should usually take it. As many pro athletes like Kevin Jones and David Wilson have shown. You can always come back to school later, when your playing days are over.
SEVEN Kentucky basketball players are leaving early for the draft. How will this effect wildcat salary cap? Jokes aside, THIS is why I dislike the NBA rules and NCAA rules. It's clear several of these kids had no intention of staying in school to earn a degree, why the NBA won't just let them come right after high school is beyond me. Why the NCAA allows one and done is beyond me. How can this not effect UK graduation rates?
If it were up to the NCAA, these kids would be allowed to jump ship to the NBA out of high school. All the blame in this situation goes to the NBA, who is the one with the restriction in place.
I don't advocate punishing the kids, I am for schools and coaches being held accountable.
At least Tyler Ulis is coming back. Kid is stupid fast and really entertaining to watch. He could easily be player of the year next year
This doesn't affect UK's APR because the players leave school in good academic standing. They continue to attend and pass their spring semester classes even after they declare for the draft. The UK basketball team actually has a pretty high APR and usually has above a 3.0 gpa. In fact only one one-and-done has skipped out on the rest of his spring classes since Calipari has been there (Daniel Orton 2010). You can argue the APR system is flawed if you want but that's how it works.
Another thing -
Bo "We Don't Do Rent-A-Player" Ryan's school has one of the worst graduation rates among the Div-1 schools.
I laughed when I heard this.
Maybe he should shut his mouth more.
I saw that he by far had the worst graduation rate for players among the Final Four.
I believe it went:
Duke
Kentucky
Michigan State
Wisconsin
Because a college scholarship isn't indentured servitude. The NCAA can's force a student to stay in school instead of going to a pro league any more than they would be able to force them to stay in school for any other reason.
On a related sidenote, Kentucky is the frontrunner to land 5 of the nation's top 13 b-ball prospects for the coming season.
To answer your last question, a student leaving school voluntarily and in good academic standing is not considered when calculating graduation rates. Otherwise, schools in general (and not just their athletic teams) would see significant decreases in their graduation stats as people in good academic standing leave universities all the time for lots of reasons.
In any other profession you can drop out of college and become a "pro", or not attend college at all, with the exception of professional designations. How does the NBA and NFL get away dictating who can play and who can't play it seems to me that it should be litigated to the highest level. Isn't it age discrimination? This seems very anti-American and anti-capitalist at its core to be honest.
In my opinion, it is. Between the pros and the NCAA, legal adults are prevented from working at the top of their field (ie, not Canada or China) in the name of amateurism or minimizing risk. Let the kids go when they think their reward is the highest. If they aren't a Kobe or Lebron talent, they'll be better off going to college to mature. If NBA teams are really that worried about drafting young kids, it will be reflected naturally and more players will go to/stay in college. If you're a freshman running back who runs for 1300 yards, you should be able to try and get a paycheck ASAP if a team will take you high enough.
If professional teams are really so worried about players not being ready and are apparently unwilling to take on the risk to develop them, then STOP DRAFTING THEM SO EARLY AND THEY'LL STAY IN SCHOOL LONGER. But the desire to have the wonder talents, developed or not, is obviously there. Forcing the athletes to play for free after showing your hand is a dick move.
Also I think players should be able to make money off being good at sports while in school, but that's a slightly different argument.
Tl;dr once athletes are adults they should be given work based on merit, not age
No one is making them go to school. Basketball players can play in the D-League or Internationally. Football players don't have as many options though, they may be able to more convincingly make that argument. The age rules are those of private entities who whether you agree with it or not can kind of do whatever they want when it comes to things like this. Personally, I think if a kid is ready, let him play. Most aren't though and I guess they're the ones the rules are aimed at.
That's why I made the "top of their field" distinction. Basketball is becoming more open: there's a guy in this years draft who decided to play in China that might go pretty high. I think the NFL is pretty much a no if you're trying to come in after they CFL or Arena league, and I don't know if they have there own restrictions.
I think more sports should use the baseball method, where you can be eligible for the draft right out of high school and through college, but if you're drafted and don't sign you can keep playing college ball
Yup, baseball model is very logical to me.
It helps (from one perspective) that the baseball players union is the strongest of the major sports. The players have a lot of agency
The college system has become a de facto minor leagues. And yes "no one is making them go to school" but they are preventing them from earning a living in the US, as adults, in their chosen profession. I don't agree with the baseball limit either it is an artificially generated standard taking away freedom of choices by the individuals being dictated by corporations/teams.
You are correct. The NBA is a private entity that is allowed to make whichever rules it wants. Which is what makes it so odd that some people (not you from what I can tell, but a good number of people) seem to have a huge problem with the KIDS choosing to be one and done.
Name any other person in any other profession that would choose to defer prime earning potential if they were not otherwise required to. Playing in the D-league or going overseas is in no way a comparable replacement for the level of pay, level of competition, or otherwise to going into the NBA.
Dont tell Malcolm Delaney that since he is making $6.4 mil this year in Russia in the top Euro league compared to the $300k a year the Rockets were going to give him.
For the NBA the biggest reason Silver wants to prevent younger players in is the length of careers compared to veteran guarantees later in careers. If they cut two years of service off all players it significantly lowers the money spent across the nba on the bench of every team. It also lowers the risk on big busts by getting more developed talent coming in at the draft.
Perhaps, but wouldn't it be more accurate to compare his $300k offer from the Rockets his rookie year vs his $130k he made that year by playing in Europe?
And his current salary is very nice, but a one year deal. Part of the NBA appeal for kids good enough to be lottery picks is they make significantly more than that guaranteed over multiple years even if they bust hard.
Don't get my wrong, I am very happy to see Malcolm getting bank, but I don't knownif that really refutes the point as it took him 4 seasons to land that 1 year deal.
Man, $6.4 million. I wonder how many Rubles that is. I would imagine a lot.
I picked Duke in the work bracket. But I know very little about basketball outside of schools from NC usually do well. The one guy at work that actually follows basketball and knows what's going on picked TJ's Mistake to win it all, so we were all laughing the entire tournament. Everyone else picked Kentucky, so I locked in my victory during the final four game. When it got to the championship, it was just a matter of how big my victory was going to be.
I didn't pick Kentucky because there was a guy on my Facebook feed that was a UK fan. From about the 20th game, he would post "20-0!" "21-0!", etc. I really didn't want to see "40-0!"