Posted by gillispie1 on 10/30/2013 9:34:00 AM (view original):
Posted by dan2044 on 10/29/2013 11:13:00 PM (view original):
Posted by dcy0827 on 10/29/2013 10:56:00 PM (view original):
Posted by dan2044 on 10/29/2013 9:18:00 PM (view original):
After seeing these other amazing runs, I would put jsa's on par with most of them, just because of consistency. Anyone who gets to the elite 8 is usually a championship contender at least, which is not so for anyone who get knocked out before then.
But that run by rails is head and shoulders above the rest. that's just insane.
Just so I'm sure I'm reading that right, are you saying that any team that gets/got knocked out before the Elite Eight is not/was not a championship contender?
Obviously there are teams that are contenders who get upset early, I more meant it in the opposite way, that any team that makes the elite 8 has a chance to win the title,
i dont know, as the guy who held the longest elite 8 streak in HD for years, ive got to disagree. its really not that hard to luck into an elite 8 with a borderline top 25 team. you of course have a statistically significant chance to win at that point, with 3 games to go, but thats not really the point. ive never actually had one of the teams i considered really really good not win a championship, but ive had loads of garbage teams make the final four and championship game, and a handful of title favorites who never made the elite 8. i suspect many other long time coaches can say the same.
My last two D2 tournament teams are a pretty nice example of this. My Kentucky Wesleyan team in Allen last season was a legit title contender, going 15-1 in a conference that contained one of the title game participants (who finished 11-5), finishing in the top five, and earning a one-seed. We bombed out in the second round. My Alaska-Anchorage team in Knight had an absolutely elite frontcourt but had a marginal sophomore PG (he'll be solid eventually, but this season he was marginal), a slow (but great shooter) SG, and a SF with marginal defense and athleticism (in the 50s on both, for a D2 m2m team). We were not in the top 25, earned a nine-seed, and made the final four.
I haven't had a ton of favorites bombing out early or mediocre teams making the Elite Eight (my second lowest-seeded Elite Eight team was a four), but I've only been here a year and I've had both happen to me at least once.