emy for what its worth, i think when you say duke should do more lately with the talent they have - you have got to mean the post season - right? these kind of upsets are becoming more normal for them, i was reluctant to bring them into the elite 8 on my bracket, but i thought this team was different (parker and hood i was really impressed with in the few games i saw). but their regular seasons are awesome. doesn't that kind of suggest i am right on this one? discipline, work ethic, and smart play bringing duke up to a 1st tier team even with not-quite 1st tier talent? (still far above average, however) - or if you'd rather, making them the clear #1 in the post season, despite not clear #1 talent? but then in the post season where you get most people's best shots, those advantages are somewhat neutralized?

sigh, i totally get what i deserve having my bracket busted, for picking the dookies =(

The only positive that can come out of this is a swift decision by Parker to return next season. 

midwest toughest bracket?? yup...didn't realize mercer was this good

Well there went my perfect bracket! Oh well. That game was great! Glad Mercer won it.

Posted by yanks250125 on 3/21/2014 2:37:00 PM (view original):
midwest toughest bracket?? yup...didn't realize mercer was this good

They were what I expected them to be. Duke had the ability to beat and lose to just about anyone this year (cliche I know). But anytime you are that bad defensively you're never safe. Mercer shot 20% better from the field. Thankfully Duke grabbed a bunch of offensive rebounds otherwise it wouldn't have even been close. Some of those were just byproducts of the 3 bal...but a lot of it was effort. This team is just about the opposite of everything Gillepsie has said in this thread - ha! I just can't believe they never figured it out. Hood and Parker never learned to play together. 

I hope Amile Jefferson gets the MVP award at the banquet. 

Posted by thinair on 3/21/2014 2:28:00 PM (view original):
The only positive that can come out of this is a swift decision by Parker to return next season. 

that would be awful, but luckily, theres no way :)

Posted by thinair on 3/21/2014 3:03:00 PM (view original):

Posted by yanks250125 on 3/21/2014 2:37:00 PM (view original):
midwest toughest bracket?? yup...didn't realize mercer was this good

They were what I expected them to be. Duke had the ability to beat and lose to just about anyone this year (cliche I know). But anytime you are that bad defensively you're never safe. Mercer shot 20% better from the field. Thankfully Duke grabbed a bunch of offensive rebounds otherwise it wouldn't have even been close. Some of those were just byproducts of the 3 bal...but a lot of it was effort. This team is just about the opposite of everything Gillepsie has said in this thread - ha! I just can't believe they never figured it out. Hood and Parker never learned to play together. 

I hope Amile Jefferson gets the MVP award at the banquet. 

i agree, this duke team was basically the opposite - thats why i had them going further. they weren't as disciplined, IMO, as previous duke teams. but they were highly talented i thought. 

uhg, new mexico... i believed the hype =( probably stupid, i was regretting not picking kansas into the elite 8, but they just weren't that good lately. it was my 1 long shot elite 8 pick and i got screwed, i suppose that should be expected... i was really torn between kansas, syracuse, and new mexico, so i figured it was the place to take a shot :O

Posted by gillispie1 on 3/21/2014 3:49:00 PM (view original):
uhg, new mexico... i believed the hype =( probably stupid, i was regretting not picking kansas into the elite 8, but they just weren't that good lately. it was my 1 long shot elite 8 pick and i got screwed, i suppose that should be expected... i was really torn between kansas, syracuse, and new mexico, so i figured it was the place to take a shot :O

Kansas with the injury created a very interested bracket for me. With Embiid I think they go far, but I took a shot with New Mexico beating them as well. 

yeah, i was thinking of syracuse, they obviously crumbled late but were so good early, its like, i dunno - that first game sure makes you think they are back in the list of teams with a real shot at the championship. i should have trusted in the quality of their coach to turn them around but that was such a bad finish... was one of the toughest sub-regions to pick from, IMO

also its interesting how broken the real life sim must be - yesterday i went 15/16, today, 0/4 already...

Posted by yanks250125 on 3/21/2014 2:37:00 PM (view original):
midwest toughest bracket?? yup...didn't realize mercer was this good

They beat the crap out of Tennessee in the NIT last year (admittedly, NIT, so not exactly big stage) and returned all their players. They could definitely play. I figured they could keep it close, but not that they'd win. 

As an aside, great afternoon session in Raleigh today! The place was electric! I've now been to six NCAA tournament games, and I have never been disappointed. Three major upsets (two 14 over 3, a 10 over 2) and three Tennessee wins. Hoping to see a fourth UT win on Sunday. Ticket prices suddenly dropped when Duke got eliminated. Who woulda thunk? 

As another aside, Mercer fans travel shockingly well. And they were LOUD. 

Posted by bk41129 on 3/21/2014 12:12:00 PM (view original):
I have a perfect bracket after day one. Does anyone else?

I "had" a perfect bracket after the first day....then the Duke game happened.  So much for that.  Ended the first two days 29-32.

Posted by gillispie1 on 3/21/2014 2:27:00 PM (view original):
emy for what its worth, i think when you say duke should do more lately with the talent they have - you have got to mean the post season - right? these kind of upsets are becoming more normal for them, i was reluctant to bring them into the elite 8 on my bracket, but i thought this team was different (parker and hood i was really impressed with in the few games i saw). but their regular seasons are awesome. doesn't that kind of suggest i am right on this one? discipline, work ethic, and smart play bringing duke up to a 1st tier team even with not-quite 1st tier talent? (still far above average, however) - or if you'd rather, making them the clear #1 in the post season, despite not clear #1 talent? but then in the post season where you get most people's best shots, those advantages are somewhat neutralized?

sigh, i totally get what i deserve having my bracket busted, for picking the dookies =(

I hate that you feel like I was being "aggressive" towards you in this thread, if you do feel that way I don't know how you'd react if there WAS real aggression.

Kind of silly to imply that Duke doesn't get every team's best shot in the regular season, only in the postseason.  But I bet you feel like UK takes everyone's best shot all year, every game, huh?  Hate to break this to you, but teams like Duke, UK, UNC, Kansas, etc. (the blue bloods of college basketball) take every team's best shot every game, all season.  So if Duke is having these awesome regular seasons as you claim (and they are good, but I wouldn't call them awesome by any means) and is doing it despite taking other team's best shots during these regular season games, then what's the difference between taking a team's best shot during the postseason?  Answer:  nothing.  So, no, that doesn't "kind of suggest " you're right on this one.  Far from it actually.  They lose earlier than they should in the NT because although the man is one of the best recruiters ever, and one of the best motivators ever, Coach K is NOT a good in-game coach.  He gets outcoached ALL the time.  When he's losing to an inferior team, his primary coaching move is to sit on his chair, hand on chin, face scrunched up so that he looks like a little weasel, and turn red in the face.  Then during a timeout, his best coaching move is to scream at the players until he turns beet red and scrunch up his face even more until he looks like a little rat.  Great recruiter?  Check.  Great motivator?  Check.  Great X and O's coach?  Not by a long shot.  A good one, sure, but he gets out done consistently by the opposition coach.  Duke wins all those regular season games you're talking about, not because they are this highly disclipined, hard working, intelligent team (although they do have those traits, that's not why they win though).  They win them because they are simply more talented than the teams they are playing.

You said earlier that they don't get "first class talent".  Sorry but to me that insinuates just above average players.  To me first class talent is four and five star players, the elite, the "burger boys" as you call them.  So I'd love to hear your rationale about why you think Duke's talent isn't "1st tier".  I'm open to all suggestions on this one.  Oh, and me having Duke blinders on?  Sure, that's why I didn't have them going past the Sweet Sixteen on any of my brackets.  Why?  Because I'm a realist when it comes to things like that.

Duke gets mad help from the refs in ACC play in the regular season. That's the difference, and most non-Duke people associated with the ACC know it. Sometimes they're legitimately good, sometimes they're not; but you'd hardly know the difference from ACC play.

Swofford plays favorites more than any other conference commissioner. 

I'm sure that guy that learned everything he knows from Bob Knight is a bad Xs and Os coach though? Ell oh ell. 

Coach K is an outstanding coach of the game. This just wasn't his best team, or close to it.

Posted by ettaexpress on 3/22/2014 3:02:00 AM (view original):
Duke gets mad help from the refs in ACC play in the regular season. That's the difference, and most non-Duke people associated with the ACC know it. Sometimes they're legitimately good, sometimes they're not; but you'd hardly know the difference from ACC play.

Swofford plays favorites more than any other conference commissioner. 

I'm sure that guy that learned everything he knows from Bob Knight is a bad Xs and Os coach though? Ell oh ell. 

Coach K is an outstanding coach of the game. This just wasn't his best team, or close to it.

You've got your opinion on his X and O coaching prowess, I've got mine.  One thing we can agree on though is the referee favoritism.  Sometimes it's so blatant, it's embarrassing.  Another agreeable point is that this Duke team, while sporting a pretty nice record, was not even in the same zip code as some of his best teams.  Not sure why he stopped recruiting a dominant big man the last few seasons, maybe this kid out of Chicago can provide some help down low.  Still not sure why Plumlee didn't see more floor time today.  Maybe he could have negated the Coursey kid from Mercer.  Hell, he couldn't have done any worse than anyone else out there.

Duke's infatuation with the three is getting to the point where they are all-or-nothing.  Hit, they win.  Go cold, they lose.  There's no back-up plan either (i.e., a big man to post up to switch things up a little). It's threes for the win or bust, no contingency plan.  You'd think that the man who learned everything he knows from Bobby Knight would have one of those, huh?   Ell oh ell.