concordtom;842671036 said:

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Grayson Allen is a punk.

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+1

concordtom;842671052 said:

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Compare Jordan bell tonight vs jaylen Brown's best game.

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Sorry Tom, but Bell is a Sophomore.. I'd love Jaylen to come back and let you roll that comparison out next year.

Villanova Kansas should be good.
Ill guess vilanova.

And Oregon Villanova semifinal would be a good game tempo wise.

petalumabear;842671056 said:

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Sorry Tom, but Bell is a Sophomore.. I'd love Jaylen to come back and let you roll that comparison out next year.

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right.
And it showed.

Villanova's Jenkins is 6'6" junior and he was such a damn good shooter. On no draft boards.
Other teams' bigs destroy ours.... Just watching these other games. I mean, DESTROY.

I have them going to the championship game in my NCAA bracket.

concordtom;842671051 said:

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Kobe looked thrilled to be in the stands and getting the attn.
What's he gonna do after retiring? He is not entirely loved, and I can't see him on tv, or as a coach, or as anything but a bitter old man...

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I think he's going to own a team, maybe get some management skills with the Lakers. As for not entirely loved...count me in that group as a Lakers fan. Lakers win 4-6 more championships if he doesn't throw a tantrum and get Shaq traded. Even rarer than individual talent is talent combinations. Kobe made watching the Lakers difficult for me. I will say, he has finally mellowed out. It's just too bad he didn't figure that out earlier.

I like Oregon style of play. Wished Cal could play like this...

beelzebear;842671067 said:

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I think he's going to own a team, maybe get some management skills with the Lakers. As for not entirely loved...count me in that group as a Lakers fan. Lakers win 4-6 more championships if he doesn't throw a tantrum and get Shaq traded. Even rarer than individual talent is talent combinations. Kobe made watching the Lakers difficult for me. I will say, he has finally mellowed out. It's just too bad he didn't figure that out earlier.

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Id hate to work for Jordan or Kobe!

GoCalBears;842671069 said:

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I like Oregon style of play. Wished Cal could play like this...

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Boucher is nit a classic forward, but can do other things to help them, and protect the rim when needed.
U2 are classic, but cannot do other things, or protect the rim very well.
Thus, Cal was never gonna advance far, as we have holes.
we would have needed brown, Ty, Jordan and bird playing well. Rabb was consistent all year, the others not as much. And still, no anchor down low.

Just saw an NCAA commercial on edication with "Shaquille O'Neil, B.A., M.B.A., Ed.D"

What a joke.
Like Shaq has a doctorate in education.
Or an MBA.

The guy is a good guy, but a bit of a mental midget.

this is the second year in a row that the ducks got an easy path in the tourney
that duke team was the weakest it's been in a decade, and probably one of the two worst teams in the sweet sixteen
duke played horrid defense, and had the worst zone I've seen any D1 team this year
Brandon Ingram is a talent however

Pretty depressed about this game. Altman just made it to the elite 8, with only one guy who will definitely be drafted (Dorsey - Brooks and Boucher are borderline). Meanwhile, Romar couldn't even make it to the tournament with two first round picks and one of the best scorers in the conference. Altman is a magician and will now likely get even better recruits to go to Wh*regon

I fully expect Wh*regon to lose to Oklahoma though - OU is a great team with arguably the best player in college basketball.

HoopDreams;842671086 said:

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this is the second year in a row that the ducks got an easy path in the tourney
that duke team was the weakest it's been in a decade, and probably one of the two worst teams in the sweet sixteen
duke played horrid defense, and had the worst zone I've seen any D1 team this year
Brandon Ingram is a talent however

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I wouldn't call it easy when you have to play a really good St Joe's team in the second round. And don't agree Duke is as bad as five or six others, including four playing tomorrow. Ingram is obviously one of the top few players in the country.

BowDowntoWashington;842671096 said:

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Pretty depressed about this game. Altman just made it to the elite 8, with only one guy who will definitely be drafted (Dorsey - Brooks and Boucher are borderline). Meanwhile, Romar couldn't even make it to the tournament with two first round picks and one of the best scorers in the conference. Altman is a magician and will now likely get even better recruits to go to Wh*regon

I fully expect Wh*regon to lose to Oklahoma though - OU is a great team with arguably the best player in college basketball.

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I think Oklahoma is a great shooting team and drives to the rim very well. They are not big though. They are going to have a tough time with Oregon's shot blockers. I think the game comes down to shots falling. If Oregon hits them..it will be a 50/50 game. If not, I think OU runs away with it. I think Oregon will play very similar defense to how they played Duke. They're gonna try to run their shooters off the line and force them into their gang of swat. How tight the game is called is also probably going to be a huge influence in the result imho.

I think Oregon has the team composition to really blow out anyone as long as they're playing their A game. Duke didn't play that badly and lost by 14. That last 3 was slightly a gimme but still from 30+ ft out.

HoopDreams;842671086 said:

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this is the second year in a row that the ducks got an easy path in the tourney
that duke team was the weakest it's been in a decade, and probably one of the two worst teams in the sweet sixteen
duke played horrid defense, and had the worst zone I've seen any D1 team this year
Brandon Ingram is a talent however

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Duke was dead in the water after Amile Jefferson got hurt. Lose Ingram, Plumlee, and perhaps Allen, but will be very good next season. OADs Giles and Tatum project as top three picks in 2017. Javin DeLaurier would have really helped the Bears, but will be a borderline rotation player (Domingo/RMB type mins) on a deep and talented Duke team.

K did a crappy job this year. Didn't play Thornton and Jeter enough early and played Kennard and Jones too much. Team didn't have any legs at the end of the season. Altman should have pushed the tempo more in the first half and completely blown them out.

MiltyBear;842671104 said:

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I think Oregon has the team composition to really blow out anyone as long as they're playing their A game. Duke didn't play that badly and lost by 14. That last 3 was slightly a gimme but still from 30+ ft out.

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I've seen Duke play every game this season and that was easily the 2-3 worst games theyve played all year. It was a mediocre team to begin with and they played with no energy. I'll bet if you asked coach K, he'd tell you it's his least favorite team in a long time. Duke will be loaded next year however.

TheSouseFamily;842671122 said:

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I've seen Duke play every game this season and that was easily the 2-3 worst games theyve played all year. It was a mediocre team to begin with and they played with no energy. I'll bet if you asked coach K, he'd tell you it's his least favorite team in a long time. Duke will be loaded next year however.

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Must be nice to be able to lose the #1/2 draft pick, a senior center, and possibly another starter in Allen, and know you're going to be loaded.
We had our banner year come and go. Sigh.

Oregon's success can be attributed in large part to the fact that the University doesn't even PRETEND to care about the academic side of the house. Cal's faculty would come unglued with an open admissions policy to its grad programs - essentially something that is clear the case for Woebegone.

Oh well. More money for the conference. Go Ducks.

I'm rooting for them only because every Oregon/p12 win nets Cal an extra $130k.

I'm torn just like everyone else. As the only remaining P12 team, I'd like to root for them. But it's hard to root for a coach who is basically turning his program into Lexington West. If there's not some reform soon in the graduate transfer and OAD rules, the NCAA is going to kill college basketball by making it simply NBA-light.

ColoradoBear1;842671154 said:

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I'm rooting for them only because every Oregon/p12 win nets Cal an extra $130k.

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Good angle!
That could pay for a few Louisville-style hooker parties, or YH's settlement package.

Nothing bad with Oregon tearing Duke a new one, what is wrong with you people?

Strykur;842671168 said:

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Nothing bad with Oregon tearing Duke a new one, what is wrong with you people?

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Exactly Stryker..... I love how folks here tear down the school without knowing anything other than "Cal is better"... OK so that is very obviously correct but denigrating the school and the students there is ridiculous. Many of you likely know many successful Oregon Grads... its just lazy to put down the school because they aren't Cal... very Shlocky-esque.

I'm not putting down the school, I'm putting down the basketball program in relation to the school. Do you really think Oregon has scholar-athletes? Based on the public evidence, I think not. Duke is much more of a peer school to Cal than Oregon. However, I acknowledge that Pac12 success helps Cal. Like I said, I'm torn. Other than Oregon and Arizona, I'd have no problem rooting for any other Pac12 program at this point in the tournament.

Worth repeating: Oregon goes to the Final Four for P12 pride/rep..then loses. Cake and eat it...

Jeff82;842671186 said:

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I'm not putting down the school, I'm putting down the basketball program in relation to the school. Do you really think Oregon has scholar-athletes? Based on the public evidence, I think not. Duke is much more of a peer school to Cal than Oregon. However, I acknowledge that Pac12 success helps Cal. Like I said, I'm torn. Other than Oregon and Arizona, I'd have no problem rooting for any other Pac12 program at this point in the tournament.

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Please show me where I said that....
What I'm saying is I can't understand why Cal grads feel the need to put down other schools. Isn't it good enough to be a graduate from the #1 public school? For me it is.

petalumabear;842671172 said:

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Exactly Stryker..... I love how folks here tear down the school without knowing anything other than "Cal is better"... OK so that is very obviously correct but denigrating the school and the students there is ridiculous. Many of you likely know many successful Oregon Grads... its just lazy to put down the school because they aren't Cal... very Shlocky-esque.

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I think a fair "observation" is that Altman understands and leverages a relatively unique situation even among the rest of the Pac-12. I would argue that EVERY other Pac-12 school (I would not defend Wazzu or Oregon State as I don't know that much about them) has faculty that would die on the hill to defend their grad programs. As my father used to say (sorry alums), Cal faculty tolerates the undergrads. But they REALLY care, especially the PhD granting departments, about the quality of those grad students. So a LOT of Pac-12 programs just could never take the "students" altman admits. (As we have seen, Dwight T. is a very special kid - and his success has hopefully paved the way for some other grad admits to cal.)

By specializing in Grad transfers/older students Altman smartly gets that he can put up physically more mature guys against "kids" like Young Ivee. Smart. Add in a couple of good frosh and it is a solid system for success. Can't be replicated at many schools - because the faculty actually matters at these as opposed to Nike's Marketing department.

socaltownie;842671198 said:

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I think a fair "observation" is that Altman understands and leverages a relatively unique situation even among the rest of the Pac-12. I would argue that EVERY other Pac-12 school (I would not defend Wazzu or Oregon State as I don't know that much about them) has faculty that would die on the hill to defend their grad programs. As my father used to say (sorry alums), Cal faculty tolerates the undergrads. But they REALLY care, especially the PhD granting departments, about the quality of those grad students. So a LOT of Pac-12 programs just could never take the "students" altman admits. (As we have seen, Dwight T. is a very special kid - and his success has hopefully paved the way for some other grad admits to cal.)

By specializing in Grad transfers/older students Altman smartly gets that he can put up physically more mature guys against "kids" like Young Ivee. Smart. Add in a couple of good frosh and it is a solid system for success. Can't be replicated at many schools - because the faculty actually matters at these as opposed to Nike's Marketing department.

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Old guys rule. Having talented, experienced seniors is huge. Just look at the all pac-12 squad this year. All 5 of the all-defensive team were seniors and 6 of the 10 first teamers were seniors.

petalumabear;842671172 said:

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Exactly Stryker..... I love how folks here tear down the school without knowing anything other than "Cal is better"... OK so that is very obviously correct but denigrating the school and the students there is ridiculous. Many of you likely know many successful Oregon Grads... its just lazy to put down the school because they aren't Cal... very Shlocky-esque.

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Well I had a run in with one during a game on Twitter (it was that Toshgate game so a lot of emotions since their perfect season could have been ruined). OK it's a one-off, but I see traces of this in their fans esp. in football -- this kind of everything else besides football is secondary, including ethics, morals and academics. I got into with this guy (well probably a student or recent alum) and being that he didn't have much of a wit, I think some of my comebacks got to him (it was purely about football and OK maybe about their academics). So he took down a pic of my kids (they were like 5 and 3 in the pic) that you can access on Twitter, then manipulated them. Then he created a spoof account and tried to harass me that way. It was beyond shocking, and beyond trash talking in sports. I knew then and there these guys are just amoral/immoral and nothing is going to stop them from their pursuit of a national championship. I told them I would report him to the FBI and he started taking things down, and it stopped. But then I saw him posting about football analysis and life like nothing happened. Seriously sick. It's a helpless kind of feeling when you deal with people who have no conscience -- there are no boundaries.

Since then, it has been hard for me to like anything about the University of Oregon. I know he's responsible for his own actions and doesn't necessarily represent his school, but then when I see Oregon games on TV and the masses of students and alums weeping and looking like the world has ended when Furd beats them, it makes it easy for me to put these people in the same category (yes, perhaps unreasonable, but that's where my mind goes after what happened). Sure I have lots of friends who are Oregon alums, but that just left an imprint.

It actually gave me a lot of respect for Furd fans and my Furd friends, because while they are super annoying (and we are to them), it never devolves into anything too base or beyond the line. There is definitely a mutual respect for each other that allows us to have restraint.

Also this reminded me to be careful who you smack talk to on the internet, and do not let any of your family pics be exposed for the public to see. There are some really sick SOBs out there.

socaltownie;842671198 said:

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I think a fair "observation" is that Altman understands and leverages a relatively unique situation even among the rest of the Pac-12. I would argue that EVERY other Pac-12 school (I would not defend Wazzu or Oregon State as I don't know that much about them) has faculty that would die on the hill to defend their grad programs. As my father used to say (sorry alums), Cal faculty tolerates the undergrads. But they REALLY care, especially the PhD granting departments, about the quality of those grad students. So a LOT of Pac-12 programs just could never take the "students" altman admits. (As we have seen, Dwight T. is a very special kid - and his success has hopefully paved the way for some other grad admits to cal.)

By specializing in Grad transfers...

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Everything you said may be true, but does the grad transfer advantage have anything to do with Oregon's success this year? Looking at their 7 player rotation (Killer Bs Benson, Bell, Brooks, Boucher, Benjamin, Dorsey, Cook), I don't believe any of them are grad transfers.

KoreAmBear;842671216 said:

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Well I had a run in with one during a game on Twitter (it was that Toshgate game so a lot of emotions since their perfect season could have been ruined). OK it's a one-off, but I see traces of this in their fans esp. in football -- this kind of everything else besides football is secondary, including ethics, morals and academics. I got into with this guy (well probably a student or recent alum) and being that he didn't have much of a wit, I think some of my comebacks got to him. So he took down a pic of my kids (they were like 5 and 3 in the pic) that you can access on Twitter, then manipulated them. Then he created a spoof account and tried to harass me that way. It was beyond shocking, and beyond trash talking in sports. I knew then and there these guys are just amoral/immoral and nothing is going to stop them from their pursuit of a national championship. I told them I would report him to the FBI and he started taking thing down and it stopped. But then I saw him posting about football analysis like nothing happened. Seriously sick.

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that's a messed up story. Was it actually an ore alum? Ore doesn't have a pro team so there's lots of non alum locals that are fans, like UH.

watermelon;842671218 said:

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that's a messed up story. Was it actually an ore alum? Ore doesn't have a pro team so there's lots of non alum locals that are fans, like UH.

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Who knows, but he had Oregon all over his Twitter account, and I believe the profile said he was an alum. It's been a while.

Double edged sword for Cal in the Pac and NCAAs. ASU regularly admits non-athletes with academic profiles below NCAA mins. When Calipari was at Memphis, his 40% grad rate was higher than the school's overall grad rate.

Calipari, K, Roy, and Self all need extraordinary talent to win big. No shame in lumping Cuonzo in with that crew. The only recent coach who won consistently without mega talent is Brad Stevens. Balance the need for more talent against increased admissions standards and Cal has to win more recruiting battles against Duke, UCLA, and UVa than against Kentucky and Kansas. Losing recruiting battles for guys like Welsh and DeLaurier who value education and would start hurts the program more than losing guys like Dorsey, Dillard, and Jolly. There are a limited number of Shareefs and Jaylens out there. There are also going to be academically inclined guys like Jayce Johnson or Dejan who choose Utah or Miami over Cal or Stanford for basketball reasons. Cal can't thrive in the PAC as a pure academic play and isn't a pure basketball play yet. Consequently staff has to do a better job of pre-qualifying recruits and selling the academic/athletic combo better.