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2017 NCAA Tournament

mtgrizrule

Well-known member
My Final Four picks, based on a new 10 year trend I am experimenting with this year.

Gonzaga (yes, I actually feel they are finally for real, this season), Duke (they have been through a ton of adversity this season, and looked great in the ACC Tournament), Oregon (I think they can overcome the loss of Boucher (sp?)) and Kentucky (they caught fire at the perfect time).

Gonzaga/UK Championship- KY's talent wins out.

#another crapshoot bracket
 
Already “March Madness” has been wild and crazy … and fun to watch. While we have not had any overtime games, we have had a bunch of other drama: Close scores down to the end, a good-sized come from behind win, and one “classic” #12 seed beats #5 upset. That was Middle Tennessee over Minnesota, which ended at 81-72, but -- except for a late run -- was never all that close. (Lot’s of people picked this one as an upset, including us.)

Providence vs USC was the big comeback. The Trojans were down by 16 points at the 17:25 min point in the second half and still down by 12 points at 13 min. They finally took the lead at 6:48 min, but could never stretch it. They led briefly by 7 at one point but ended up winning by only 4, 75-71

We’ve had three super-close endings, one being the Northwest-Vanderbilt game extolled by Silvertip, where the lead went back and forth for the last 2 min or so, with NW finally pulling it out 68-66.

Mt St. Mary’s vs New Orleans was also amazing. The teams were tied a 9 min left in the second half. Then MSM took a slight lead, but NO took it back, with a 1-point lead with 1:48 left. MSM got it back, by 1 point, 20 seconds later and ended up winning 67-66.

The UC-Davis vs NC Central play-in game was equally exciting. UCD and NCC were never separated by more than 4 points (and more usually 1-2) for the last four minutes of the game. No buzzer-beater, but a nail-biter right down to the end.
 
UND actually led Zona for all of, oh maybe 90 sec, but now it's getting ugly in a hurry.

Nevada getting thumped by Iowa State, 37-24 with about 1:20 left in the first half.
 
that Iowa State Nevada game was actually pretty entertaining. Cant believe the gasbags trying to sell the idea that UND is hanging with Arizona
 
Overall really a pretty nice showing by UND. Much bettter than our last performance in the NCAA. Next year I hope we can represent the conference and do even better.
 
IdaGriz01 said:
UND actually led Zona for all of, oh maybe 90 sec, but now it's getting ugly in a hurry.

Nevada getting thumped by Iowa State, 37-24 with about 1:20 left in the first half.
IdaGriz01 said:
Already “March Madness” has been wild and crazy … and fun to watch. While we have not had any overtime games, we have had a bunch of other drama: Close scores down to the end, a good-sized come from behind win, and one “classic” #12 seed beats #5 upset. That was Middle Tennessee over Minnesota, which ended at 81-72, but -- except for a late run -- was never all that close. (Lot’s of people picked this one as an upset, including us.)

Providence vs USC was the big comeback. The Trojans were down by 16 points at the 17:25 min point in the second half and still down by 12 points at 13 min. They finally took the lead at 6:48 min, but could never stretch it. They led briefly by 7 at one point but ended up winning by only 4, 75-71

We’ve had three super-close endings, one being the Northwest-Vanderbilt game extolled by Silvertip, where the lead went back and forth for the last 2 min or so, with NW finally pulling it out 68-66.

Mt St. Mary’s vs New Orleans was also amazing. The teams were tied a 9 min left in the second half. Then MSM took a slight lead, but NO took it back, with a 1-point lead with 1:48 left. MSM got it back, by 1 point, 20 seconds later and ended up winning 67-66.

The UC-Davis vs NC Central play-in game was equally exciting. UCD and NCC were never separated by more than 4 points (and more usually 1-2) for the last four minutes of the game. No buzzer-beater, but a nail-biter right down to the end.
Thx for the great info. Had to work today so I only got to watch the Arizona game.
I picked Nevada for the upset on my bracket, after spending the weekend in Reno. Their fans were Up-beat, so I went with it. Big sky fans were almost nonexistent. Oh well, my bracket is sitting over at the neighborhood brewery, maybe I'll win a beer or two.
 
'68griz said:
I went 16-0. After listening to some folks on ESPN, I picked both 12-5 upsets.
Nice ... but hmmm. I know of only one 12-5 upset, and that was Middle Tennessee over Minnesota, which a lot of people picked. The others: #5 Virginia had to come from behind but led most of the second half to win over #12 UNC Wilmington, 76-71. #5 Notre Dame got a scare from #12 Princeton, but won 60-58. And #5 Iowa State thumped #12 Nevada 84-73.

Perhaps you were thinking of the win by #11 Xavier over #6 Maryland, 76-65. A lot of people also thought that might happen.
 
Holy Cow! USC did it again. :eek: Down by 8 points at half time against SMU (having trailed by as much as 12). Then they were down by 9 in the second half (12:21 left), and did not take a lead (by 1 point) until 2:10 left. Then lost the lead again at 1:33 and did not regain it until there were only 36 seconds left. From there they held on to win 66-65. Incredible! Considered an upset since USC is an 11 seed while SMU was 6.

The Oklahoma State - Michigan games was equally close. The score went back and forth and the biggest separation was just 7 points by Oklahoma State in the first half. Not sure how much time they spent tied or trading a 1-point lead back and forth, but it was a lot. Michigan finally held a 4-6 point lead for like five minutes late, but OSU closed to within 1 point right at the end. Michigan 92-91, but one hope shot goes the other way and OK-State wins instead.


For Seton Hall vs Arkansas, the biggest lead in the first half, after 12-13 minutes, was only 4 points … and they were tied at halftime. More of the same in the second half, going plus or minus 4 points or less, with I don’t know how many ties along the way. The last tie was at about 3 min left, being 68-68. There were three lead changes during those final three minutes, and they were 1 point apart until Arkansas “stretched” it to 2 points with 18 seconds left. Razorbacks won the foul-shooting contest to finally win 77-71. Hell of a game!


The rest of the games were mostly blowouts, but we’re not done yet.

For those who missed it: Weber beat CSU-Fullerton, 80-76, in the CIT.
 
EverettGriz said:
Largely a yawner tournament so far.
I would not go quite that far, but I can't disagree that much. Not many upsets, and the two "big" ones were widely predicted. There have been a half dozen or so close, hard-fought games, but the rest have been easy to blowout wins for the low-number seed teams.
 
IdaGriz01 said:
'68griz said:
I went 16-0. After listening to some folks on ESPN, I picked both 12-5 upsets.
Nice ... but hmmm. I know of only one 12-5 upset, and that was Middle Tennessee over Minnesota, which a lot of people picked. The others: #5 Virginia had to come from behind but led most of the second half to win over #12 UNC Wilmington, 76-71. #5 Notre Dame got a scare from #12 Princeton, but won 60-58. And #5 Iowa State thumped #12 Nevada 84-73.

Perhaps you were thinking of the win by #11 Xavier over #6 Maryland, 76-65. A lot of people also thought that might happen.

You are right. Today, on the other hand, none of my upsets have held up.
 
'68griz said:
... Today, on the other hand, none of my upsets have held up.
Well, we did not like the looks of the matchups today and only picked one upset. That was #10 Wichita State over #7 Dayton. It's amazing to me how -- despite all their success in recent years -- Wichita "can't get no respect." So, while I like Dayton, I still thought the Shockers would win -- it was close, but they pulled if off.

Of course, with that as our only upset pick, we missed two that were: USC over SMU and #11 Rhode Island over #6 Creighton. The sad thing is, we almost picked the Rhodie win. They have really been on a roll, starting with the conference tournament (they were the 4th seed and won it all). And Creighton had not been too impressive toward the end of the season. Sigh. ;)
 
So far, I went 13-3 each day, for a 26-6 record overall. I have not lost any Sweet 16 teams going into the round of 32.
 
I'm 29-3 for the first round, with all my Sweet 16 teams remaining. We'll see how the next two days go....
 
We've now had are first really big upset. #8 seed Wisconsin knocked out #1 Villanova ... the "defending national champion." Went right down to the wire, final score 65-62.

Seems like the "experts" considered 'Nova to be the least likely to get knocked out first -- most expected Gonzaga or Kansas (which has had its troubles lately). So much for that.
 
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