NCAA Tourney Thread

[Monster]

You don't win championships without good coaching especially at the college level period. If you want to give Bo Ryan his due that's awesome he absolutely sl deserves it but challenging whether coach K is a terrific coach seems odd. What was team USA before he took over? It was bordering on a joke. Colangelo also started putting things on track in other ways but coach K clearly made a big difference. There has been this discussion about coach K a couple times on this board but I just don't see how he isn't one of the best coaches of all time. He wins has successful players at the next level and coaches team USA to places they were not supposed to be. What more do you want him to do take some division II prospects and get to the final 4? :)

Also I agree that Jefferson and Plumlee playing minutes were probably just about as effective if not more so because their defense was better. Hats off to Okafor for making a couple plays down the stretch but those other guys put in solid work.

[TheGrey08]

Bo Ryan's a jackass for his comments last night, especially considering the two huge plays late that went Wisconsin's way against Kentucky.

The shotclock violation that went uncalled and resulted in two points.

The foul called on Harrison when he went straight up, very minimal contact. Not even remotely close to being a legit foul. Wisconsin got points from that as well.

Refs determined that game.

Wisconsin shouldn't have even been in the title game, but nonetheless, they lost because they gave up a 9-point lead to Grayson Allen off the bench.

Haha wow someone's a little bitter he didn't get to see Towns play one more game.

The shot clock violation happened almost right after Lyles "punched" a Wisconsin guy in the face that went uncalled. They were pretty bad but saying the refs determined that game is a bit of a stretch.

I agree with Cam. I missed the final so I'll take people's word for it that the officiating was poor all around and sure they missed 1 or 2 calls (depending on how you see stepping out of bounds vs being pushed) that gave Duke possession, but at the same time WI was literally handed 2 points and 2 FTs. That's even worse than giving someone possession b/c the D has a chance to stop them. WI got 2 free points due to getting an extra 1+ sec on their shot clock and they were handed a foul call when the D played it perfectly going straight up and there was literally no contact to the upper body to warrant a foul. That 4 point swing was the difference in the game and we don't know who would have won if the refs hadn't botched it. It sucks that the title game went that way too. I'd have preferred both games get called correctly on such blatant obvious calls.

[TheGrey08]

How are coach K & Duke able to recruit so well? It's simple really. He became a great coach that developed the program and that attracted better and better players. 5 national championships in 15 years which is impressive because the game has changed a lot over that time. Go look at his coaching record. His 4th year at Duke is when the program started to take off and they've been in the NCAA Tourney nearly every year since. That's great coaching.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I'll pile on here in giving Coach K his due.

LST, keep in mind that Duke was not a good defensive team to start the season. They literally did a 180 defensively and went from bad to pretty much the best defense in the country by the time the tournament got going. That is great coaching, pure and simple.