An Observation

[vivid_red]

As of this moment there haven't been any major upsets, I guess Clemson's loss could be considered one but 12's have often beaten 5's. I am beginning to wonder if the portal era is impacting the tournament. Small colleges talent is being poached by the big schools preventing the opportunity for a 2 beating a 15 etc. Kind of a shame, that is one thing I thought made March Madness so special and entertaining. Truth be told I have been rather bored with the games so far. Bring on the upsets!

 

[LeFors4Ever]

As of this moment there haven't been any major upsets, I guess Clemson's loss could be considered one but 12's have often beaten 5's. I am beginning to wonder if the portal era is impacting the tournament. Small colleges talent is being poached by the big schools preventing the opportunity for a 2 beating a 15 etc. Kind of a shame, that is one thing I thought made March Madness so special and entertaining. Truth be told I have been rather bored with the games so far. Bring on the upsets!

I think the opposite effect of guys from Power programs sitting on the bench will get a chance to shine at a smaller school and such. You'll have lower paid guys that are working harder at smaller schools and they'll play a lot more like teams.

 

[KozmasAgain]

You might find a couple of smaller schools be competitive but never a champion.

 

[KenSucky]

Thursdays average margin was 15.68 and Fridays was 18.125. There's only been 5/32 upsets so far. So no it's not been good so far. Unless you have a Melo, AD, or Never Nervous Pervis, freshmen are not that impactful. So yes the portal is definitely impacting this tournament in a negative way.

 

[2330859]

Aside from the few elite SEC teams like Florida and Tennessee, the conference has failed to live up to the those lofty expectations that we have been forced to listen to from ESPN and the rest of the talking heads. I am not going to stick my neck out and predict a Creighton win over Auburn, particularly given the Tigers open up as an 8.5 point favorite, but if the Blue Jays execute their half court offense anywhere close to as effective as they did against the Cards …… they have a fair shot at an upset.

Texas, Missouri, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, and Oklahoma represent 6 of the 14 who lost their first game, and Arkansas was very fortunate to have advanced, after witnessing the late 2nd half substitution decisions that Bill Self made. 2 seed Alabama was also most fortunate to sneak past 15 seed RMU, and there are many observers who believe the Tide is the most vulnerable of SEC elite to fall next.

I am not picking on the SEC, as I do believe that from top to bottom they are a very strong 18 team conference. However, the early OOC record that was used by Lunardi and advanced by every ESPN talking head to set the stage for 14 invitations was at the expense of a lot of other teams from conferences that were never given any respect. Today’s games are most interesting!

 

[jalovell23]

Could you imagine if UK had to play Creighton and UoL played Troy in the first round. Troy doesn't have a player taller then 6'9 on their team.

 

[vivid_red]

Could you imagine if UK had to play Creighton and UoL played Troy in the first round. Troy doesn't have a player taller then 6'9 on their team.

Many on this board said it and I agreed, it was all about who we matched up with. Teams that had a defensively good big man caused us problems. Love Scott, but he gave us very little offense in the middle