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March Madness brackets: Toughest region

Don’t expect Kansas coach Bill Self to be sending bottles of wine to the selection committee anytime soon. Because while the defending NCAA champions earned a No. 1 seed for the second straight year, they got stuck in a West Region that is absolutely loaded.

On their side of the bracket alone, the Jayhawks have No. 4 seed UConn and No. 5 seed Saint Mary’s — two veteran clubs that get after it defensively. And that’s if Kansas gets past a tricky Round of 32 matchup against either No. 8 seed Arkansas or No. 9 seed Illinois — two talented 20-win teams that underachieved at times this season.

What waits on the other side of the West Region bracket for Self’s squad? No. 2 seed UCLA and No. 3 Gonzaga, plus two of the biggest surprise teams this season — No. 6 TCU and No. 7 Northwestern.

In all, nine squads ranked in the top 35 by KenPom are in the West. That includes five of the top 11: No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 UConn, No. 8 Gonzaga, No. 9 Kansas and No. 11 St. Mary’s.

If the Jayhawks survive this gauntlet and make it to consecutive Final Fours for the first time in exactly 20 years, they will have absolutely earned it. The same can be said for whichever team emerges from the brutal West Region.

March Madness brackets: Easiest region

Alabama leap-frogged Kansas and Houston for the No. 1 overall seed after the Crimson Tide rolled through the SEC Tournament with three double-digit victories and the Jayhawks and Cougars lost their respective conference tourney title games.

But that wasn’t the only favor the NCAA Tournament selection committee did for Alabama. The Crimson Tide landed in the South Region, which features just two teams seeded No. 11 or better that won either their regular season or conference tournament championship.

Those teams are No. 2 seed Arizona and No. 5 seed San Diego State.

The Wildcats needed a late basket to win Saturday’s Pac-12 Tournament title, beating a UCLA squad that didn’t have its second-leading scorer and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year (guard Jaylen Clark). Arizona also finished four games behind the Bruins in the regular season.

Meanwhile, the Aztecs won the Mountain West regular season and tournament crowns. However, they needed to overcome an 11-point deficit against Utah State — which is the No. 10 seed in the South — in Saturday’s tournament final.

Also, the Mountain West is just 5-17 in the NCAA Tournament since 2014, including 0-8 since 2018.

No. 3 seed Baylor has the talent to play with Alabama. However, the Bears stumbled down the stretch, losing four of their last six games (that includes getting bounced by Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals).

Baylor (No. 15) also joins Arizona (No. 10) and San Diego State (No. 14) as the only South Region teams ranked in the top 15 by analytics guru KenPom.

Interestingly, Alabama’s toughest game might be its Round of 32 contest against the winner of No. 8 Maryland vs. No. 9 West Virginia. If the Crimson Tide can navigate that, they should enjoy a fairly turbulent-free ride to their first-ever Final Four.

https://www.inquirer.com/sports/betting/march-madness-brackets-ncaa-tournament-predictions-upsets-sleepers-20230312.html

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5 minutes ago, Loop 1604 said:

Win the reg season conference and get a 1 seed. Conf tourney really doesn’t mean anything in committee’s eyes.

Perhaps, but losing the conference tourney likely cost KU the overall #1 seed and a virtual home game in the Sweet 16.

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Went to the open practice and had a good time - Arkansas, who went on right before us, seemed to be mainly dicking around - our guys were doing actual drills.

Aggies we’re on directly after us - I left just after they started and got hissed at by a group of those turds.

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20 minutes ago, KingBobo81 said:

2e513afc2bc13e25852a282e9f930bb4.jpg
cc66083d483834383475865c8e6db28c.jpg

Went to the open practice and had a good time - Arkansas, who went on right before us, seemed to be mainly dicking around - our guys were doing actual drills.

Aggies we’re on directly after us - I left just after they started and got hissed at by a group of those turds.

Was going to ask you what your thoughts were on the vibe of the team? 

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52 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

He shot 41% from 3 this year and had the most 3pt makes in the Pac 12. For comparison none of our guards shot above 36% from 3 this year.  

He also shot 39% from the field and 54% from the line. 
 

He’s a good player, and I like him a lot, but he did stuff just like in today’s game his entire time here under Shaka too, and I certainly don’t miss that part of his game. 

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I'm sure this isn't news to anybody but me, but I just realized that the top 6 D1 teams in terms of 3-pt shooting percentage are:

1.  Colgate

2.  Xavier

3.  Toledo

4.  Michigan State

5.  Pacific

6.  Penn State

 

That could be an interesting run, although it would be nice to see Kennesaw State take out Xavier just the same.  Up by 13 at the moment.

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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm sure this isn't news to anybody but me, but I just realized that the top 6 D1 teams in terms of 3-pt shooting percentage are:

1.  Colgate

2.  Xavier

3.  Toledo

4.  Michigan State

5.  Pacific

6.  Penn State

 

That could be an interesting run, although it would be nice to see Kennesaw State take out Xavier just the same.  Up by 13 at the moment.

Oop 

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This team genuinely seems to like each other and straddle that line between finding joy in each win while keeping their eyes on the goal and not getting rattled in games.  It's likely a combination of the veteran makeup and the personalities of the players, Terry being a little less tightly wound than Beard, and the crucible that is the big 12.  I felt like we had a stretch at the end of the season where every game was versus a top 20 team, and the only one that wasn't beat us (tech). 

It's hard as fans not to love this team.  You could see it on the court today.  That was a team effort on defense and once they figured out Disu was on fire, they kept just feeding him the ball.  

End of the game, gonna savor this S16 and feel pretty good about our next game and hopefully 3 more.  

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Cross posting from another thread.....How Texas discovered Jabari Rice (from The Athletic)

Spoiler

Texas assistant coach Bob Donewald Jr. got a call last spring from an old coaching friend, who told him there was a player he needed to look at in the transfer portal: Sir’Jabari Rice, from New Mexico State.

Donewald had never heard of Rice, and he scoffed at the idea. “I got 100 guys I got to look at.”

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Donewald pulled up Rice’s stats from New Mexico State. They were good — 11.9 points, 3.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game for a No. 12 seed that won its first-round game — but nothing eye-catching.

“I don’t have time to look at everybody,” he told Casey Owens, who had been his assistant with China’s Shanghai Sharks in 2009-10 and worked with Rice at NMSU.

Five days later, Owens called again.

“You look at him?”

“Casey, come on,” Donewald shot back. “We need dudes.”

“He starts yelling at me on the phone,” Donewald said, relaying the story last week in Des Moines, Iowa, where Texas won a pair of games to advance to this week’s Sweet 16 as a No. 2 seed.

So, to satisfy his friend, Donewald asked Texas’ video guy to bring him two New Mexico State games. He watched those. Then he asked for three more. Then he called Owens back.

“Holy s—.”

“Man,” Owens said, “I told you! You should have listened to me.”

Donewald went straight to former Texas coach Chris Beard and told him he’d found them someone, and Beard, too, was skeptical that a player with those numbers from the WAC would translate to the Big 12.

“This kid’s different,” Donewald remembers telling Beard. “He’s a winner. He’s about winning. And his skill set is off the charts.”

Donewald could see that Rice made all the right basketball plays. His IQ popped off the screen. Donewald dug in. He read more about him and saw that he’d been an All-WAC selection three times, and in his final season at New Mexico State, his scoring average had ticked down because he’d sacrificed to get Teddy Allen his shots in his one season at New Mexico State.

Donewald called Rice, and his pitch was short and sweet: I’m recruiting you to come off the bench. If that’s a problem, then let’s just move on.

“Coach, I don’t care if I start or not,” Rice told him, “but you’re gonna have me on the floor at the end of the game if you want to win.”

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A few days later when Donewald and Beard visited, Rice looked Beard in the eyes and told him that he didn’t care if he started, and if he had seven or eight guys ahead of him, “then we’re really good.”

Boy, was he right.

Texas does not have seven or eight players better than him this season. Rice is the team’s second-leading scorer (12.9 PPG) and last week he made seven 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament win against Colgate. He has the most feared shot fake in college basketball, and he plays starters minutes while happily coming off the bench, which earned him Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors.

“He’s their best player,” Owens said.

Texas played 11 games decided by six points or fewer this season. Rice, as he predicted, was on the floor when the buzzer sounded in every one of those. The Longhorns won 10 of them, including Saturday’s Round of 32 win over Penn State that has Texas headed back to Kansas City, where two weeks ago Rice scored 17 points in a Big 12 tournament championship victory over Kansas.

Two more wins in Kansas City, and Rice will be headed to his hometown, Houston, for the Final Four.

Rice never played organized basketball until his sophomore year at Fort Bend Marshall High School. His first love was football, and he only gave it up for hoops for one reason. “Guys were getting bigger in the weight room,” he said. “And I didn’t want to work that hard in the weight room. So I just decided to play basketball. All the heavy lifting and stuff like that wasn’t for me at the time.”

This would be a point of contention a few years later when he got to New Mexico State. Rice had been a quick study on the hardwood. He played JV his sophomore high school year and then varsity as a junior, helping lead the team to a 25-11 record and regional quarterfinal appearance.

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“He had a great motor,” said Gary Nichols, his coach at Fort Bend Marshall. “He could run all day without getting tired. Listened. He followed directions well. Young, eager kid. Understood the game. He was one that I thought had a chance if he kept improving.”

Sir’Jabari Rice has made 36.4 percent of his 3-point attempts on the season. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

The next season, starring alongside John Walker III, Rice helped lead Fort Bend Marshall to the 5A state championship game. The parallels to this year are pretty wild. Rice got hurt midway through that season and came off the bench when he returned. His team was on a hot streak, and he was the leading scorer his first few games back. Nichols didn’t want to mess with what was working.

“He really didn’t care,” Nichols said. “He just wanted to win.”

Walker was a high-major prospect and eventually signed with Texas A&M. He had plenty of other suitors come through Houston to see him play. Nichols would try to get coaches to take a look at Rice as well, but the interest was minimal. He looked too skinny, and he also wasn’t a qualifier.

Still unsigned, he played that spring and summer with the Houston Defenders on the Under Armour circuit. That’s when New Mexico State spotted him.

Rice redshirted as a freshman and admits he didn’t take advantage of that year like he should have. He was only 140 pounds when he showed up on campus, and while he put on some weight, he still wasn’t quite ready the next season to be a contributor on a veteran team. You just couldn’t convince him.

“They had two players who played in the NBA in Zach Lofton and Jemerrio Jones during his redshirt year, and Jabari thought he was better than those guys right from the get-go,” Owens said. “It wasn’t an arrogant thing; it was a ‘I’m going to prove it’ thing.”

New Mexico State went 30-5 and made the NCAA Tournament in his first season of eligibility in 2018-19, but Rice was just on the fringe of the rotation — he played in 31 games and averaged 10.9 minutes — and he took a DNP in a one-point Round of 64 loss to Auburn.

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“He was wild, but he was relentless,” Owens said. “He didn’t have a lot in his bag, so to speak. He could drive the ball a little bit, but he would put his body on the line — diving on the floor, taking charges, going in and offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding with big guys. He’d get knocked on his ass constantly because he’s 150 pounds, but he just wouldn’t stop. He’d keep coming.”

All he needed was a little refinement, and Rice was in the gym every night, even when he barely played. Gradually his body improved and so did his game. After making 15.7 percent of his 3s as a redshirt freshman, he made 38.8 percent as a sophomore and averaged 12.8 points per game. He also became a great defender, because not only did he have the length and quickness, he was so competitive that he’d will himself to be great on that end.

“I’ve never been around anybody that hated to lose that much and wanted to be great,” Owens said.

“He’d get so upset when his team didn’t win or he didn’t get the call in a practice scrimmage and it was like, come on, man, we’re all competitive. It’s practice,’” former New Mexico State coach Chris Jans said. “He’d get so mad at me because I was one of the officials and didn’t call many fouls. Deep down I really didn’t care who won or lost a five-on-five drill in a practice situation in October, but he did.”

Rice made the All-WAC first team and led the Aggies to a perfect 16-0 league record during his redshirt sophomore season. The next season (2020-21) New Mexico State was allowed to play only four nonconference games — and only one against a Division I opponent — and had a down year for its standards, ultimately losing in the WAC finals to Grand Canyon. That offseason Jans landed a prized transfer to pair with Rice in Allen, who had already been to West Virginia and Nebraska as part of a circuitous college career.

Rice had heard about Allen’s reputation as a scorer — his nickname is “Teddy Buckets” — so in his first pickup game with the Aggies, Rice made sure to get on the other team and picked Allen up full court and was jawing back and forth.

“He’s not afraid,” said Allen, who respected Rice right away after that day. “Just a competitor. Ready to step up to anybody. You don’t want to have a losing record against Bari on a practice day because you won’t stop hearing about it until you win.”

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Rice sacrificed his scoring so Allen could thrive and slid over to point guard even though that wasn’t his ideal position. When Jans left for Mississippi State last spring, Rice went into the transfer portal and Texas showed interest, Rice said some people were in his ear telling him he shouldn’t go to Texas. But Allen, the brother of Texas wing Timmy Allen, was convinced that’s where Rice should go and put him on the phone with his brother.

Rice had been roommates on the road with Teddy and says he’s like family, and he hit it off right away with Timmy.

“Once we showed him what we’re about,” Timmy Allen said, “then it was wraps.”

The Texas coaches fell in love right away because his competitiveness was obvious from the jump. He also worked on his body like never before, finally convinced it was important to add weight to be able to bang with the players in the Big 12. He arrived at 152 pounds and is now 172.

“Now I love the weight room,” he said.

What the Texas coaches had to work on next was changing his mindset. “He was almost unselfish to a fault,” Donewald said. “Early on, it was like, dude, you’re passing up shots. We were on his ass. Shoot the ball. He’s like, no, I want to move it. No dude, we need a shooter off this bench.”

Rice has been that, knocking down 36.4 percent of his 3s. Where he’s improved is in his ability to get to the bucket, using a shot fake that he’s always had but never used like he’s using now. He learned it from Walker, his high school teammate, and it has become a talking point on Texas’ television broadcasts. Donewald believes the praise he’s received for it has made him use it even more.

“It’s literally the best pump fake I’ve ever seen,” Texas big man Christian Bishop said. “Every single day I still fall for it. When we play other teams, it’s really funny because like, if he goes up and pump fakes, if we just look at the basket, our defenders look and start boxing out and he gets a wide open lane, easy layup. It’s literally a strategy for us that only we know.”

There’s plenty of video evidence. On Saturday, Rice faked out Penn State star Jalen Pickett so bad that he turned and looked up for the ball.

Rice has scored 44 baskets this season set up by his shot fake. Rice is a good enough shooter that opposing defenders should hard close on closeouts, but some end up short closing just so they don’t get embarrassed and now he’s able to take advantage of that with easier spot-up jumpers.

Rice has a sense for how teams will guard him because he’s a film junkie. After Texas beat Colgate, Longhorns point guard Tyrese Hunter said Rice was already informing him what he knew about Penn State and Texas A&M because he’d already watched tape the possible second-round opponents.

On the day of the Colgate game, he came to Donewald and asked him if he thought Colgate would short close, which is what he saw on tape. Donewald asked him how many games he’d watched. Four, he said. His plan was to shot fake the first time he got the ball and then let it fly. A few hours later he buried a career-high seven 3s.

“That’s how pros are,” Donewald said of Rice’s preparation.

Rice reminds him of Chicago Bulls guard Patrick Beverly, who Donewald coached in Ukraine 15 years ago. Beverly also hated losing practice drills and would yap after winning anything in practice. But it’s endearing to those who get to know him. Owens watches every Texas game and believes Rice will make it in the NBA if a team gives him a shot. “It’s exciting to see a kid that really nobody had ever heard of on the cusp of being able to make a career out of playing basketball,” Owens said.

Jans still keeps in touch. At Rice’s graduation last spring, Jans’ wife Sheri told Rice she would come to one of his games wherever he ended up. She lived up to her promise, spending several days in Austin and attending the Creighton game at the Moody Center on Dec. 1.

“I gave him a hard time, I’m spending (money on) hotel, tickets and food for her to go to the game,” Jans said, “and she already watched you play for four years.”

Rice told Jans before Selection Sunday he was looking forward to hearing Mississippi State’s name called and was hoping they were in the same region.

“I’m thinking, well, I’m not sure I necessarily want to play him,” Jans said. “Jabari is one of those guys that you love playing with; you just hate playing against. He’s just got that edge and he’s gonna fight ya until there’s zero on the clock. He feels like he’s gonna win every time, and the only times he doesn’t is when time runs out.”

Nichols, his high school coach, went to watch Texas beat Oklahoma State on Jan. 24, and he told Rice after that he wouldn’t see him again the rest of the regular season but that he wanted to see him in April in Houston.

Rice looked at him confused, then it dawned on him. The Final Four is in Houston. Rice lit up. “Oh yeah, Coach!”

And that’s why he picked Texas. He heard the doubters, but says he wanted to win a national title and cut down nets, and he’s done whatever he could to make that happen.

“He bet on himself,” Donewald said. “Thank God.”

 

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Shitty way to end an otherwise incredible run. Injury luck--and maybe a few other things--weren't in Texas' favor since the postseason began, but the 'Horns kept their heads up and put on a great show.

Thanks to those we'll be losing (Allen, Carr, Rice, et al.). So glad to see Texas winning games in the tournament again and hope the trend continues.

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Cross posting from the Terry thread......Gerry Hamilton with some comments on the roster moving forward.

Spoiler

Congrats to the staff on a very good season. Team went through an extremely difficult situation, and the staff and players stayed together. Tip of the cap.

Rodney Terry is expected be the next head coach. The staff will very largely stay in tact, should RT want it to. And I think he will.

I'm not really going to go over the game. One, Texas had rough injury luck at the worst time. Disu out. Rice clearly hobbled, which took away his ability to cut and handle the ball against pressure, and Carr's injury did some of the same. It affected Texas defensively. And it affected how Texas attacked offensively. With all the said, not making Jordan Miller take one 18-19 footer for a 40 minute game was a mistake. And it was a bad mistake.

The future of Texas basketball has a lot of momentum. This season provides Terry and staff a real chance moving forward. The story a few days ago is a starter for those that didn't see it. https://www.on3.com/teams/texas-longhorns/news/texas-hoops-recruiting-new-targets-in-2023/

Texas has a lot of portal and high school interest right now, as expected. The Longhorns are working from a position of strength.

And here is why:
Texas transfers have improved as players at Texas, and have had the opportunity on a very big stage.

The Moody Center is a top notch facility in college basketball.

Texas high school basketball is extremely talent rich. Texas high school basketball is actually more talented than football in the state, but it's not a true basketball state and it's not publicized the same way. And a lot of kids are transferring out to national teams more and more., and that affects the national coverage somewhat. Texas will attract high-end talent. Then it comes down to evaluation, and fitting into a roster that will be experienced driven.

There is a very positive foundation in the program. The former players are invested publicly, with their time helping and supporting the brand. But Texas will need to produce a next wave of players in the coming years to continue that.

Portal recruiting in many ways will come down to NIL. It's just reality. No reason to run from it. That will be huge moving forward. NIL in portal recruiting is getting more aggressive.

For Rodney Terry and staff, it comes down to roster building. Always being experienced, but also developing high school prospects long term. There will not be great college teams anymore due to the NBA G-league and Overtime Elite leagues. And the next CBA will very likely take away the current age limit. It's very important to not always recruit the highest ranked prospects that are going to college. Those players will come with some unrealistic expectations due to the new found portal experience of college basketball teams. Finding the right fits, that are talented enough with the mindset on development is going to be key.

Texas will have some different recruiting and roster building goals moving forward. Texas will sign a 6-8/6-9 skilled big from high school every year that can develop with the developmental mindset. That will start in the 2024 class, unless a late 2023 becomes a reality. But it will be bigs with skill. Texas wants to play an inviting and exciting style of ball. That happens with four skilled players on the floor, and enough rebounding and rim protection. Texas will desire to have the ability to space the floor, and shoot the ball from multiple spots on the perimeter.

Texas players out of eligibility:
G Marcus Carr
G Sir'Jabari Rice
F Timmy Allen
PF Christian Bishop

Texas players for sure expected back:
F Brock Cunningham
SF Alex Anamekwe

Texas players that can return:
PG Tyrese Hunter
PF Dylan Disu
CG Arterio Morris
F Dillon Mitchell
G Rowan Brumbaugh

How many of those players will return, there is not a definitive answer there right now. It's not as easy as has eligibility and will or should return.

2023 Prospects signed:
5-star F Ronald Holland
5-star PG A.J. Johnson

I expect Texas to sign at least one more 2023 high school prospect. That could be a skilled PF, or a lengthy guard with ability off the bounce. Or both dependent on who returns.

The portal needs will be one big, should Disu return. But he can't stay healthy, so Texas may need to address that further. Texas will look for one experienced guard that is a shot maker. Where the staff fully goes in the portal will be largely dependent on who returns next season. That should play itself out in the next 2-3 weeks.

Congrats to the 2022-23 Texas team on a very good season!

 

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I had held it together these past few hours but I just swapped texts with my dad and texted him "they get to hang 2 banners" and that got the tears rolling.

What a fucking season. They should have won the B12, didn't, and then went and whipped everyone's asses in the conference tourney. 

Then they whipped Colgate's ass, closed out a nasty Penn State team after giving up the lead, whipped Xavier's ass, and almost beat a Miami team playing some insane basketball right now - despite being hobbled and undermanned. It took injuries to all 3 of our 3 best players to knock us out. And we were still a motherfucker to beat. 

They virtually went wire to wire in the AP top 10, tied the mark for the highest final AP ranking in program history, earned the 4th top 2 seed in program history, won the 3rd most games in program history, made the program's first sweet sixteen and elite eight in 15 years and became the 5th team in (modern) program history to make the elite eight. 

And all of that was after losing their head coach 10 games into the season in ugly fashion.

What a special group of guys. I'm not sure it was the best team Texas has ever had and if it was I hope it isn't the best team that Texas ever has but there will never be a locker room like that or a season like that again. It was truly program defining.

CDC needs to do everything in his power to keep this staff intact and let RT reload. Maybe we won't go 15 fucking years again between meaningful tourney runs. 

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