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NIT Tournament Thread

Threw a block party and Lammers was invited for the second half.

Cougars played a little cottonelle defense, soft for a babies' bottom. We wiped 'em up!
 
15 of the 16 higher seeded teams won 1st round games. Only 1-seed St. Bonnie was upset on its home floor last night by Wagner.
 
If the Jackets can get the win at Columbia Monday night, the quarterfinal game will be on the Left Coast 2 days later on Wednesday at either San Diego or Seattle. That's a very quick turnaround I'd love to see. Win in SC late Monday night, board a plane to fly out west all day Tuesday for a game out there on Wednesday and not getting back until sometime Thursday. Sounds like an interesting way to spend spring break.
 
Speaking of heading out west, Round 2 games...

Virginia Tech at BYU, Friday, March 18, 9:30pmET, ESPN-U
Cesspool at St. Mary's (CA), Sunday, March 20, 7:30pmET, ESPN-U

Florida State travels up to Indiana to face Valpo tonight at 7pm on ESPNews.
 
FWIW, one of my associates, Guido, advises me that Tech will open around 3 pt underdogs at South Carolina when the spreads are released on Sunday.

(Noles are getting 4 tonight at Valpo)
 
Threw a block party and Lammers was invited for the second half.

Cougars played a little cottonelle defense, soft for a babies' bottom. We wiped 'em up!
He had a great second half. I think he's progressing well. He will need to really step it up next season. These are good minutes for him. I hope he gets some more minutes against uSC
 
If the Jackets can get the win at Columbia Monday night, the quarterfinal game will be on the Left Coast 2 days later on Wednesday at either San Diego or Seattle. That's a very quick turnaround I'd love to see. Win in SC late Monday night, board a plane to fly out west all day Tuesday for a game out there on Wednesday and not getting back until sometime Thursday. Sounds like an interesting way to spend spring break.
Sounds like NBA training to me.

I am hopeful they make the trip. And are celebrating on Thursday.
 
Tech is 24-18 all time over USCe. 10-8 on the road.

Last meeting was 1984 when Tech won at home in Cremins' early years. We lost at his alma mater the year before when Price & Salley were freshmen.

Tech played South Carolina in the late 70's a few times when we were in the Metro Conference and USCe was an independent - having just departed the ACC earlier in the decade. USCe eventually joined the Metro Conference in 1983 a few years after Tech departed for the ACC.
 
GT MBB trivia nugget...

Tech has had 4 head coaches in MBB in the last 43 years. 2 of the 4 call South Carolina as their alma mater. They are Dwane Morrison and Bobby Cremins.
 
MGH is now at 1,696 pts...that's now 40 pts shy of Malcolm Mackey's 10th place spot in career scoring at 1,736 pts. Would love to see MGH get into the top 10. It means we have to win Monday night to give him a shot. Even more incentive.
 
An international flavor to Frank Martin's top 5 Gamecocks players...(and like Tech, they are an experienced bunch as well)

6'5" Sr. Forward (from Venezuela) Michael Carrera - leads team in scoring (14.5) and rebounding (7.7) and is hitting 42% of his 3-point shots

6'5" Jr. Guard Sindarius Thornwell - 13.1 ppg scoring

6'2" Jr. Guard Duane Notice - 11.2 ppg scoring - also hitting a solid 42% from behind the arc

6'7" Sr. Forward (from Lithuania) Mindaugus Kacinas - 10.1 ppg

6'11" Sr. Center (from Lithuania) Laimonas Chatkevicius - 9.5 ppg

USCe is 10-0 on their home floor against non-SEC opponents this year. They are 13-0 vs non-SEC opponents this season. Their non-conference RPI SOS is rated #263 in the nation.
 
Valpo up 13 with under 2 minutes to play. FSU underachieved in a huge way this year. They have a lot of talent, but play very undisciplined.
 
Gamecocks open as 4.5 pt favorites Monday night. On the other side, for the 11:30pmET Monday night game, San Diego State is laying 5 pts at home versus Washington.
 
Virginia Tech travels to BYU tonight. Cougs are 7 pt favorites. With an O/U of 162.5, the linesmaker is expecting a high-scoring game. Makes sense. BYU is 8th in the nation in scoring ppg at 83.6 and the Hokies like to get up and down the court.

BYU likes playing on Fridays and will of course not consider playing any games on Sundays.
 
Great insight. I totally forgot about the Mormon thing. Big with the milkman, not the Barista. Is Stech81 part of the John Smith circle? How many wives do you need? How many headaches can one man take? Setting you up, brother!

No wonder most teams are Sunday or Monday, and they got a waiver.

Imagine VPI if they got Adam Smith to do Grad. studies or another Bachelor's there for another year?
 
The Hokies with Adam Smith and a healthy Ahmed Hill this year would likely have been a NCAAT. Just reinforces what a great job Buzz Williams did. They have basically everybody back next year...plus, a healthy Ahmed Hill and a 7-foot center coming in that CBG wanted.
 
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FWIW, one of my associates, Guido, advises me that Tech will open around 3 pt underdogs at South Carolina when the spreads are released on Sunday.

(Noles are getting 4 tonight at Valpo)

Good to see you GTJT.

Guido knows that the Cocks bench is short for this one and the Jackets will try to run them. I predict a 10-point Jackets win in Cola Monday night.
 
I watched the last 5 mins of VT's loss at BYU last night. Gotta hand it to the Morons. They had a great crowd that might have been the difference down the stretch as the Hokies choked down the stretch.
 
Mutt-ations go down. However, unfortunately the slippery Fox now has 3 straight 20 win seasons.
He has just one win over Gregory and so many people think that's just too many.

Look at how the SEC has played in the post season, pretty poorly except for a couple games and Kentucky. Those 20 win seasons are against bad schedules.
 
He has just one win over Gregory and so many people think that's just too many.

Look at how the SEC has played in the post season, pretty poorly except for a couple games and Kentucky. Those 20 win seasons are against bad schedules.
I agree with you, however, he is getting better talent and we are in "rebuild mode" again. His sales ability is much better than ours. When you see what he has coming back, with the recruits, we are not as relevant in our home state. True our record is 20-14(best one in years), but we play some softees within a majority of home games. Not taking away that we did win 8 of 18 in what has turned out to be a "great A C C" this season. Perception, continual winning is huge with recruits.
 
A few thoughts...

1. The Cesspool got a really tough draw having to head out to a very good St. Mary's team...a lot of folks thought the Gaels should've been in the NCAAT. I doubt the Jackets go out there and win on their home floor...along with most all of the NIT field.

2. While the SEC was painfully weak this year - if not for Northern Iowa choking, they'd be done in the NCAAT - to Fox and the Cesspool's credit, they have played the #2 rated strength of schedule out-of-conference per current Live RPI.

3. Considering how weak the SEC was and Fox returning two seniors in Gaines and Mann along with the best player in the state of Georgia (JJ Frazier), I think pretty much everyone would rate Fox this particular season as having underachieved significantly.

4. I'm not convinced he (Fox) is out-recruiting CBG and that is with him (Fox) having a nice contract extension and a far warmer seat than CBG. The 2 guards he is bringing in could be pretty good. But, he will lose a ton in Gaines and Mann. CBG actually did a surprisingly solid job getting the 3 guys we signed back in November.

Tech is a sleeping dog (no pun intended). Just ripe for a big time HC to come in and make GT the priority destination for in-state kids like we used to be...i.e., Fox has had it pretty good during tepid times for the in-state rival, yet he still isn't taking over or anything near it like he could be. If there was ever a time for the Cesspool to step up and take over in the state, it has been the last 5+ years of turmoil at the NATS. They had their chance. They may have missed that chance.
 
Maten is a player coming back. They have a better roster. As it pains me to say this, they have a way better shot at Carter and future stars. Agree that CBG did a nice job getting any A C C caliber talent, including Matthews out of the D.C. area.

Remember, it's the perception of the overall programs. I agree that our conference sends more studs to the pro. game. Our league is better top to bottom. The sad fact is, Ga. Tech is viewed as one of the lesser teams. The kids in state are considering Fox, whether we like it or not.
 
Maten is a player coming back. They have a better roster. As it pains me to say this, they have a way better shot at Carter and future stars. Agree that CBG did a nice job getting any A C C caliber talent, including Matthews out of the D.C. area.

Remember, it's the perception of the overall programs. I agree that our conference sends more studs to the pro. game. Our league is better top to bottom. The sad fact is, Ga. Tech is viewed as one of the lesser teams. The kids in state are considering Fox, whether we like it or not.

UGA has not excelled in Fox's tenure. Most UGA fans I know are not energized about basketball and are not big Mark Fox fans. They are 1-4 against CBG in one of the worst stretches of GA Tech basketball since the late 70's.

I think that CBG has recruited well enough to win more than he has, and his glaring weakness has been recruiting a PG. Still, far below where we need to be.
 
UGA has not excelled in Fox's tenure. Most UGA fans I know are not energized about basketball and are not big Mark Fox fans. They are 1-4 against CBG in one of the worst stretches of GA Tech basketball since the late 70's.

I think that CBG has recruited well enough to win more than he has, and his glaring weakness has been recruiting a PG. Still, far below where we need to be.
If you can look at his record and blame it on not recruiting a PG as the reason for being in one of the worst stretches since the late 70's...1)You missed the 1-27 conference spell in the early 80's; 2)You convienently left out the salary restrictions in hiring an A C C caliber coach.

Look at their program when Fox started. He has actually improved them. We have gone down further from Hewitt, as difficult it is to say, it is in the records. Most of our coaches have a winning record against Ga.(look at the all-time winning %). So, 4-1 is not that impressive, when they have made it to the Big Dance and we are 0-5 in that category. Ga. fans have never supported hoops much, other than Tubby Smith's second year.
 
Laying a unit tonight on each of:

7pm Monmouth -2 over GW
9pm Ga Tech +4 over USCe

GLA!
 
If you can look at his record and blame it on not recruiting a PG as the reason for being in one of the worst stretches since the late 70's...1)You missed the 1-27 conference spell in the early 80's; 2)You convienently left out the salary restrictions in hiring an A C C caliber coach.

Look at their program when Fox started. He has actually improved them. We have gone down further from Hewitt, as difficult it is to say, it is in the records. Most of our coaches have a winning record against Ga.(look at the all-time winning %). So, 4-1 is not that impressive, when they have made it to the Big Dance and we are 0-5 in that category. Ga. fans have never supported hoops much, other than Tubby Smith's second year.

Just said it was his glaring weakness, not his only one. I do think that with a Jack/Bynum type PG, This team would have accomplished a lot more. Yes, Fox improved the mutts, but they still did not surpass us in that time. Yes, they made it to the Dance, albeit in a very weak basketball conference. Other than a year or two under Tubby, that team has done nothing in hoops.

OTOH, with such a PG plus Carter, MGH, Q, Lammers, and Tadric together with Critt, Miller, and the transfers, I do believe that this program could have won significantly more.
 
Javaris Crittenton never played under Gregory. Miller was recruited by the Hewitt regime. Quinton Stephens probably belongs at a mid-major. Carter left after his So. year, much better having sat out last year during his transfer to Myd. Lammers, Jackson are only starting to produce now as Sophs. The poor records are fairly indicative of the talent on board.

Tech, Ga. about the same this year in wins/losses. The four years we beat them, they DID surpass us in wins. Since winning over 20 is greater than 16-15 in comparing 2014 teams(our other winning season). But don't let your delusion get in the way of the facts.
 
I liked GT on the ML tonight but I didn't see this coming! The good guys are doing it on both ends of the court!!!
 
So do we want SD State or Washington? Knowing nothing about either I'll go with the Pac12 team.
 
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