MBBALL March Madness In Progress

[IdaGriz01]

Plenty of blowouts so far, but also some really competitive games ... and three upsets.

It was nice to see Oregon (#11 seed) knock off South Carolina (#6), but we don't consider that much of an upset. Oregon went on a hot streak in the Pac-12 tournament and we figured they might keep that up.

Another #11 (Duquesne) also knock off #6 BYU in a much closer game. An upset, but BYU has been like that all year, it seems ... trounce a pretty good opponent, then struggle in a game they should have no trouble with.

But the banner so far is Oakland (#14) putting "mighty" Kentucky (#3) out. Calipara's recruitment of likely NBA early-out players wins a lot of games, but they do not necessarily come through as a team at crunch time.

 

[IdaGriz01]

Plenty of blowouts so far, but also some really competitive games ... and three upsets.

It was nice to see Oregon (#11 seed) knock off South Carolina (#6), but we don't consider that much of an upset. Oregon went on a hot streak in the Pac-12 tournament and we figured they might keep that up.

Another #11 (Duquesne) also knock off #6 BYU in a much closer game. An upset, but BYU has been like that all year, it seems ... trounce a pretty good opponent, then struggle in a game they should have no trouble with.

But the banner so far is Oakland (#14) putting "mighty" Kentucky (#3) out. Calipara's recruitment of likely NBA early-out players wins a lot of games, but they do not necessarily come through as a team at crunch time.

Wow! Even Calipara is having second thoughts about his recruiting approach. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...changes-kentucky-ncaa-tournament-loss-oakland

His concerns about having a largely freshman team against opponents with many upper classmen may be an over-reaction: As the COVID-era long-timers clear the system, the difference may not be so drastic. Still, it's obviously something that has to be considered going forward.