Please don't take this an insult as it not meant to be one; moreover just a question:
Does four #1 seeds make this the best NCAA tournament, or does it show that teams that are weak #2's (Tennessee, Duke) do not belong in the final four making this a weak year for the Tournament?
Thoughts?
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I think this is a pretty average tournament as a whole but the Final 4 field could be considered the most talented EVER.
* All four are #1 seeds
* They Final 4 teams held 4 out of the 5 spots in the next to last AP poll.
* There are probably 5 or 6 lottery picks amongst the four teams (Love, Rose, Rush, Tyler, Lawson?)
* You have three of the four best programs in the history of college basketball represented (KY being the fourth).
So is this the best Final four field ever???????????//
Tourney was mostly boring with few story line outside of Davidson. I will be very excited on F4 Saturday to see 2 good matchups. And there will be no possibility of bummer games no matter how the matchups fall
(KY being the fourth)?
Nice try
BTW, the most talented ever was probably either 1983 (or 84 or whatever UNC over G'town was) or 1993 with the clear exception of one of the four which had no real NBA talent.
Nate, don't kid yourself....Duke is not one of the four best college basketball programs of all time. Your are delusional if you believe that they belong ahead of; UCLA, NC, KU or Kentucky.
I would probably rate the top 4 minus KU with:
1. UCLA
2. Kentucky (Rupp Factor)
3. Indiana
4. North Carolina
Duke was a good program before Coach K, but not top tier; the aforementioned were.
Kansas has a storied program in conference play but mostly wasted talent and one home-court advantage championship in the last 50 years.
Loyola has as many championships as Kansas in the last 50 years.
Well I guess we are talking about Duke now, so lets see:
I think the easiest to concede by all is that UCLA has the most storied history albeit with one national championship in the past 30 years, but hard to argue with numbers.
UCLA has 11 titles and 18 Final Fours
Next we have Kentucky, whom I don't think anyone is going to argue with that they should be considered the second greatest program.
Kentucky has 7 titles and 13 Final Fours
North Carolina has 4 titles and 17 Final Fours
Duke has 3 titles and 14 Final Fours
Kansas has 2 titles and 13 Final Fours
Indiana has 5 titles and 8 Final Fours
We could also look at most all time wins:
1. Kentucky - 1948
2. NC - 1914
3. KU - 1906
4. Duke - 1818
9. UCLA - 1611
10. Indidana - 1610
Since ripping on Duke seems to be the popular thing to do, here's some fuel to the fire:
Top 7 Annoying Duke Players
By Jason Major March 28, 2008
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The day that Duke loses in the NCAA Tournament is fast becoming a national holiday. Nothing else in the sports world can bring together fans like the Blue Devils going down. And since no one probably minds to extend the holiday to a week, the Top 7 this week looks at the most annoying players of the Coach K era.
7. Thomas Hill
Only because the only time he is ever shown on TV, his hands are on top of his head and he’s crying.
6. Danny Ferry
This guy used to be the poster boy for hated Duke players until the next guy came along.
5. Christian Laettner
His accomplishments clearly make him one of the best college basketball players of all-time: four Final Fours, legendary buzzer beaters, and possibly the single-best game ever played in the NCAA Tournament (10 for 10 from the floor, 10 for 10 from the line in the Kentucky game). Perhaps if he weren’t a Dukie he wouldn’t have been as annoying. He did annoy many by taking Shaq’s spot on the 1992 Dream Team, a decision that made a lot more sense then than it does looking back on it now.
4. Chris Collins
I’m not saying that the next four guys on the list are the exact same person, but it’s close. They are all Ecksteinian creations, except David Eckstein is actually a pretty likable player…and he is not from Duke.
3. Greg Paulus
In the new tradition of incorporating soccer and basketball, Paulus has one of the most ridiculous flops in the history of hoops that you can find on You Tube.
2. Steve Wojciechowski
Wojo sounds like the name of a child’s blanket, which reminds one of the horrendous Fergie line “I’m gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket,” which makes him even worse. His hugs of Coach K on the sidelines were Full House-level bad too.
1. J.J. Redick
When the next ungodly hated Duke player comes along, let us not forget how hard it will be to top the hatred that was had for Redick. Too often, we are quick to label someone else as the greatest at what they do without considering how difficult it is to top the previous king. This must be the case here, although probably could have cut it down by about 45% had he just called himself “Jon” Redick. Instead, he consistently had chants thrown at him containing f-bombs.
Jason Major writes the Top 7 for Inside STL. E-mail him at jason.major@yahoo.com.
Quality list there; pretty on par for St. Louis level of reading and writing. I can't say that I disagree that J.J. Reddick is the most hated Duke alum but Collins, Wojo and Thomas Hill? Come on. If for no other nothing reason, Duke haters should have rejoiced at Wojo's and Collins run as it was not Duke's best years.
I'm guessing that there were no national holidays in 91,92 and 01?
Can I add Dr Quin Medicine Woman at #1 who singlehandedly ruined all that Stormin Normin created? Lets not forget Christian's stepping on a UK player in that same game.
While laying around last week sick, I watched Glory Road. Anyone see it? It chronicles Don Haskins and his Texas Western (later UTEP) Team in 1966. The first team to start all blacks in an NCAA game. During the season a few whites started and others played. In the championship game, Haskins to prove a point, for the first time had 5 blacks start and told his white players they wouldn't even get into the game.
In the Midwest Finals they beat KU who featured All American, and black, Jo Jo White. In the championship game they defeated Rupp's UK team featuring sharp shooting Pat Riley. UK didn't recruit blacks for another 5-7 years. It was a nice basketball flick. I have never found myself rooting for the blacks to beat the white's as much as I did in that film. IN that film Duke made the final 4. So in my little story I have included Duke and KU.
I'm surprised the guy from St. Louis knew any sports players besides Eckstein, Rolen or Pusjols?
He must have a friend who is a sports fan.
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