Part of the role of commentators is to keep the audience engaged. Things like teams making a run to get the game close are some of the most entertaining sequences in sports, so yes the crew is going to focus on those possibilities. It always makes me laugh when people "see" commentators rooting against their team.
It drove the media crazy
- Thread starter Mr.G.Spot
- Start date
Never saw it as rooting against B. I heard one guy - greg Gumbel, I think, say the better team won.
I think it was a positive feedback loop of the Big 10. Happened in football too. They didn't play many people outside of conference so when they beat each other it was "WOW THE B1G IS SO GOOD AND DEEP". The exact opposite happened in the PAC-12. A negative feedback loop because the "weaker" teams beat up on the good ones fairly regularly. Not sure why they didn't also call the PAC-12 deep but that happens with the Big 12 all the time.
Then you need to get your hearing checked. Not sure why you are so hell bent on this. There were many positive things said about Baylor during and after the game. Chuck for sure talked about how they showed they were the best team in CBB or something like that
One thing that was exposed this year is the bias toward and against certain conferences in the opening assumptions of these data sets.
In hindsight it does seem like a thumb on the scale based on where you play.
One of my kids joked that the seeding was skewed because east coast media doesn’t stay up late enough to watch west coast games. Maybe that are just too lazy to at least watch games the next day.
One thing I'll say about B1G performance in the tournament - in a lot of previous years the B1G has overperformed. At least relative to my expectations. There were a lot of years I'd pick against them in my bracket and was burned by it. It seemed like throughout a lot of the 2010's they would perform to seed expectation or better, especially in the days when the B12's style of basketball was more oriented towards free flowing offense. The B1G tended to do better because their grind it out defensive style was favored by officiating in the tournament where they tended to let fouls go. In a regular season non-conference game I think you would tend to see the B1G lose to free flowing offensive teams because officials called a tighter game, but the results were reversed in the tournament.
Now that the B12 and other conferences have adjusted to a more defensive style of basketball, the B1G seems to be dropping off in tournament performance again.
Now that the B12 and other conferences have adjusted to a more defensive style of basketball, the B1G seems to be dropping off in tournament performance again.
Barkley was pretty complimentary of Baylor after the game and said they were clearly the best team.
When everybody was gushing over how Gonzaga had cut it to 10, Chuck's comment was that Baylor should be up by more.
My bracket was in the top 99% on ESPN, as if it matters.
My guiding principles were to have Big 10 lose early and often and pick Baylor to win.
I did have Michigan roll through to Elite Eight.
I resisted urge to pick Grand Canyon but Hawks out after that.
I heard the same thing this week about the old Big East. No, the teams that get the highest seeds, are the teams that get the most press, or at least there is a direct correlation. My data of course is my opinion. It works that way for the Heisman, and rankings, surely it works that way for seeding.
Rinse and repeat.
ESPN's way too early...50% of top 6 are Big Ten teams that just got smoked in the tournament by double digit seeds.
www.espn.com
ESPN's way too early...50% of top 6 are Big Ten teams that just got smoked in the tournament by double digit seeds.
Gonzaga, UCLA 1-2 in Way-Too-Early Top 25 college basketball rankings for 2021-22
Gonzaga fell short after an epic run, but should have the returning talent to compete for a national championship again next season.
Rinse and repeat.
ESPN's way too early...50% of top 6 are Big Ten teams that just got smoked in the tournament by double digit seeds.
Gonzaga, UCLA 1-2 in Way-Too-Early Top 25 college basketball rankings for 2021-22
Gonzaga fell short after an epic run, but should have the returning talent to compete for a national championship again next season.
Not always a bad thing.
One of the more enjoyable parts of this season was seeing the hok fans and media puff themselves up all year only to have it all come crashing down.
This was their age old football argument too. Meanwhile, B12 plays everyone and twice in MBB.
That's what I heard......Chucky after the game and Greg Gumbel toward the end of the broadcast said "they were the better team."
Oh I remember. Some of the older Hawkeye fans have a hard time letting that one go. I had one older guy arguing that with me in a year that Iowa dodged almost every heavy hitter in the conference as to why they looked rough near the end of the season. With guys like that I just usually agree and change the subject. Not worth the argument.
I also think seeding this year was not as important this year with all the games in one location. Playing close to home helps the top seeds with more fan support. This also means the BIG really sucked, because all the games were in Indianapolis-a BIG city and tournament sight.
I would have liked more of a discussion about how the WCC does Gonzaga a disservice. I didn't hear much on that during the broadcast or after.
It's really pretty unique to sports to have a team that much better than their in-conference competition. I just question if they can ever really reach their full potential with playing 2 months worth of meaningless games. It was clear they were overwhelmed by Baylor's aggression and athleticism, as they hadn't see anything like it in the past 3 months.
It's really pretty unique to sports to have a team that much better than their in-conference competition. I just question if they can ever really reach their full potential with playing 2 months worth of meaningless games. It was clear they were overwhelmed by Baylor's aggression and athleticism, as they hadn't see anything like it in the past 3 months.
I heart Chuck. Before one of the Syracuse games everyone was kissing Boeheim's kids ass...they get to Barkley and he says. "He always goes to his right, never to his left. If I'm (insert opponent), I'm making him go to his left".
Lolz, that was it.
My takeaways from tournament: Big 12 is a smaller league amongst the P5 but has some of the best basketball in the country, I never thought I’d see the day UCLA is dominant again (wasn’t alive during John wooden), but they may be building something big with mick Cronin, Illinois was my pick to win it showing me they were overrated and so was the entire big ten