(UConn is by far the worst 2 seed, that is an incredibly winnable game considering we beat a better team in Michigan State and hung with Purdue without our two best players just this week.)
Curious why you think UConn is the worst 2 seed when some were saying they were deserving of 1-seed had they beaten St. John's in the Big East conf championship game?
Their SOS was weak, but they beat Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and lost to Arizona by 4 points.
Seems kinda similar to us. We didn’t beat FL or KS but we did beat Illinois and also lost by 4 to Arizona. Idk if I would go as far to say UConn is worse than Purdue but we matched up very well against Purdue. I also have a much higher opinion for Hurley’s coaching skills than Matt Painter’s.
By both NET (10) and KenPom (11) they’re the worst of the 2 seeds, they didn’t win their conference’s regular season or tournament, and have looked pretty bad down the stretch (getting blown out by St John’s preceded a loss to a below-average Marquette team the week prior). The Big East in general was pretty bad, and there’s some injury concerns there.
The downside to all of that is that UCLA appears to be a trendy upset pick now. I’ve seen a few articles stating that UCLA was actually underseeded, with the committee not weighing injuries earlier in the season leading to some losses, and that the team at full strength is much better than a 7 seed would suggest. It means UConn might play with more of a chip on their shoulder, but we’ll see.
Very tough draw. Playing in Philly. If we get past UCF, we get a tough UConn team essentially playing a home game. Win that? Re-match against MSU. Tom Izzo is not losing a rematch to an inferior team.
It's a 4 and 1/2 hour drive from Storrs, CT to Philadelphia. That's hardly a home game.That's a little but farther drive than T-Mobile Arena in Vegas is from Westwood.
Will UConn fans show up? Probably, but it's not "essentially...a home game"
Hope the Bruins will have everyone healthy again---a comfortable win over UCF would allow the starters to get some rest (I would expect UConn to blow out Furman and rest their starters). UConn is the "weakest" 2-seed and I think they're ripe for a 2nd-round upset. If so, then if there's a rematch with MSU, I think that game could be a highly-contested one. Also need help from somebody on the other half of the East bracket to upset Duke if the Bruins are able to advance to the Elite-8 game. Two things that I hope don't happen are (1) losing a player to a catastrophic injury, and (2) losing a game by a buzzer-beating basket. Good luck to both the men's and women's teams.
I wouldn't be so sure---if not Gonzaga, another team will want to spoil the fun. If a game does come down to the final possession, hopefully the Bruins will have the ball.
The bracket committee is also saying UConn is the weakest 2 seed because they are in the same bracket as Duke who is the strongest 1 seed. By the same reasoning, Florida is weakest 1 seed and got the strongest 2 seed, Houston.
I don't know G2B......a team with the coach who has recently won back to back titles at that school, to me, is much more dangerous than others on the 2-seed line no matter what the stats may say leading up to the tourney.....There is no question that Hurley knows how to get his team to believe they can get to the Final Four and win it.
I get it G2B......I just have a strong belief in the "human element" of a coach who actually has shown, on multiple occasions, the ability to convince his team they can not only reach the Final Four but win it........As I mentioned to T in a different post, I have the same concern with Geno and UConn as a potential road block to the Lady Bruins completing their dominant season with a National Championship......
Geno is one of those intangibles that the committee took when picking UConn as the overall #1 seed and ignored their relatively week SOS. After you analyze all the stats, you still need to play the game.
It seems like based on the articles coming out about our team that UCLA is supremely confident going into the tournament. I'm starting to worry they might be overconfident and overlooking UCF. I hope they know that UCF played a Big 12 schedule, and that they're not in the AAC/American conference anymore.
Geez Chen, it took Mick 27 games, including that brutal Michigan weekend, to disabuse these guys from thinking that all they had to do was go out there and play to get a win......They found a formula both defensively and offensively that has created wins for them in high level games......I think Mick's head would literally explode if they reverted back to the old habits they demonstrated earlier in the season......
Why does it still feel good that Andy Enfield lost? Beside the one year of the Mobley brothers, dude never got out of the first round. Sure feels good.
On another note... Duke is a mess... The cupcake comment went viral on X yesterday. The lack of integrity in the Ref world is real... they handed that game to their darling blue devils 😡
Bilodeau is officially questionable which is surprising given how Tyler and Cronin both assured us of his availability. Dent is not on the injury report
Ugh. We drew the toughest region. Duke is the top overall seed, UConn probably the strongest 2 seed, Michigan State, Kansas all tough.
Even if we beat UCF… road beyond that every matchup is brutal.
We did beat Michigan State a few days ago but yes having Duke and UConn is a hard region :(
Kansas is having a down year by their standards though, they are 23-10
Maybe someone on TMB infected the NCAA tournament selection committee members with anti-Cronin fever...
well the anti-Cronin crowd was hoping we would totally miss the tournament to give a reason to fire him. now he ain't going anywhere.
"Good" news is that have a Friday game, so more time for bilodeau and dent to recover
We cannot, for my sanity, lose to UCF.
lol. Your Bruin gear is gonna stand out there this week.
Fuck UCF for what they did to me. Don't care how. We win, drone strike, COVID-26, don't care.
I'm afraid to ask what they did, but we got your back (probably) anyway. Revenge tour begins Friday!
my measure for success for Cronin is the sweet sixteen. unless Dent or Bilodeau can't play, then I'll give him a pass begrudgingly.
You seem to be a very generous person...;-)
Figures, worst TZ possible.
(UConn is by far the worst 2 seed, that is an incredibly winnable game considering we beat a better team in Michigan State and hung with Purdue without our two best players just this week.)
i think it would be more winnable if it were not on the East Coast.
Curious why you think UConn is the worst 2 seed when some were saying they were deserving of 1-seed had they beaten St. John's in the Big East conf championship game?
Their SOS was weak, but they beat Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and lost to Arizona by 4 points.
Seems kinda similar to us. We didn’t beat FL or KS but we did beat Illinois and also lost by 4 to Arizona. Idk if I would go as far to say UConn is worse than Purdue but we matched up very well against Purdue. I also have a much higher opinion for Hurley’s coaching skills than Matt Painter’s.
By both NET (10) and KenPom (11) they’re the worst of the 2 seeds, they didn’t win their conference’s regular season or tournament, and have looked pretty bad down the stretch (getting blown out by St John’s preceded a loss to a below-average Marquette team the week prior). The Big East in general was pretty bad, and there’s some injury concerns there.
The downside to all of that is that UCLA appears to be a trendy upset pick now. I’ve seen a few articles stating that UCLA was actually underseeded, with the committee not weighing injuries earlier in the season leading to some losses, and that the team at full strength is much better than a 7 seed would suggest. It means UConn might play with more of a chip on their shoulder, but we’ll see.
Very tough draw. Playing in Philly. If we get past UCF, we get a tough UConn team essentially playing a home game. Win that? Re-match against MSU. Tom Izzo is not losing a rematch to an inferior team.
I think it's very unfortunate for the Bruins that a rematch with MSU was made possible by the selection committee.
The Selection Committee always seems to have a sick sense of humor.
Funny, but not imaginative enough---if they wanted to be real cute, they should've put Gonzaga in MSU's 3-seed spot...
The selection committee's overall team rankings for the NCAA tournament:
https://x.com/MarchMadnessMBB/status/2033326005390025123/photo/1
It's a 4 and 1/2 hour drive from Storrs, CT to Philadelphia. That's hardly a home game.That's a little but farther drive than T-Mobile Arena in Vegas is from Westwood.
Will UConn fans show up? Probably, but it's not "essentially...a home game"
Hope the Bruins will have everyone healthy again---a comfortable win over UCF would allow the starters to get some rest (I would expect UConn to blow out Furman and rest their starters). UConn is the "weakest" 2-seed and I think they're ripe for a 2nd-round upset. If so, then if there's a rematch with MSU, I think that game could be a highly-contested one. Also need help from somebody on the other half of the East bracket to upset Duke if the Bruins are able to advance to the Elite-8 game. Two things that I hope don't happen are (1) losing a player to a catastrophic injury, and (2) losing a game by a buzzer-beating basket. Good luck to both the men's and women's teams.
Go Bruins!
As long as we don't see the Zags, your second thing shouldn't happen.
I wouldn't be so sure---if not Gonzaga, another team will want to spoil the fun. If a game does come down to the final possession, hopefully the Bruins will have the ball.
The bracket committee is also saying UConn is the weakest 2 seed because they are in the same bracket as Duke who is the strongest 1 seed. By the same reasoning, Florida is weakest 1 seed and got the strongest 2 seed, Houston.
I don't know G2B......a team with the coach who has recently won back to back titles at that school, to me, is much more dangerous than others on the 2-seed line no matter what the stats may say leading up to the tourney.....There is no question that Hurley knows how to get his team to believe they can get to the Final Four and win it.
I didn't say the committee was smart but that is how they set the brackets.
I get it G2B......I just have a strong belief in the "human element" of a coach who actually has shown, on multiple occasions, the ability to convince his team they can not only reach the Final Four but win it........As I mentioned to T in a different post, I have the same concern with Geno and UConn as a potential road block to the Lady Bruins completing their dominant season with a National Championship......
Geno is one of those intangibles that the committee took when picking UConn as the overall #1 seed and ignored their relatively week SOS. After you analyze all the stats, you still need to play the game.
Exactly......well said.
It seems like based on the articles coming out about our team that UCLA is supremely confident going into the tournament. I'm starting to worry they might be overconfident and overlooking UCF. I hope they know that UCF played a Big 12 schedule, and that they're not in the AAC/American conference anymore.
Geez Chen, it took Mick 27 games, including that brutal Michigan weekend, to disabuse these guys from thinking that all they had to do was go out there and play to get a win......They found a formula both defensively and offensively that has created wins for them in high level games......I think Mick's head would literally explode if they reverted back to the old habits they demonstrated earlier in the season......
My head would explode too
As would many in Bruin Nation.......kind of like the Kingsman: Secret Service finale......
Why does it still feel good that Andy Enfield lost? Beside the one year of the Mobley brothers, dude never got out of the first round. Sure feels good.
Well, Wisconsin lost to High Point, and Duke is losing by 11 to Siena at halftime, so there's that!
The Madness is alive and well!
Ohio state lost too. Is the B10 not as strong as it seemed?
Well TCU is pretty good but perhaps the NIL hasn't fully destroyed mid majors after all.
We had better be ready to play 40 minutes of our best basketball as UCF is a pretty darn good team with a great point guard.
I definitely agree. Can’t be looking ahead to UConn
But we can attack the rim because there's no Tacko Fall in the key.
The High Point guards were extremely quick. Lookin' like 8 seconds or less Steve Nash Suns.
We are so lucky to have Dent... just pray he is 💯🙏💙💛
Dent is playing so good in these last games since beating Illinois. This is what Cronin saw in him and he's finally living up to the expectations.
After last year's game on Pauley, I can't say I'm broken hearted that Wisconsin lost!
I agree.
On another note... Duke is a mess... The cupcake comment went viral on X yesterday. The lack of integrity in the Ref world is real... they handed that game to their darling blue devils 😡
Cam Boozer is getting away with walking to the basket every time he has the ball
Duke as a whole seems to be worshipped. So perhaps the refs wilted under pressure.
yeah i saw many bunny hops in the pea patch.
Bilodeau is officially questionable which is surprising given how Tyler and Cronin both assured us of his availability. Dent is not on the injury report
Hopefully it's just gamesmanship and bilo is cleared to play
Well, someone believes in us!
https://athlonsports.com/college-basketball/metallica-releases-2026-ncaa-tournament-bracket?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=athlon_thearena&utm_content=&hashed_email=17f647fa87c1cdaae82d7fa26827f3af9d6babf399be7466f6695b7359158