CMJ

Since I figured he was gone, the fact that he won't be here doesn't bother me. Of course I thought he was going to Europe or somewhere else overseas. Now that he's transferring it does hurt some.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure we linked to, and discussed, Johnny Jones' press conference when he went to LSU.

He also got Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to come to Denton.

I figured Perry was gone, I just thought it would be to playing overseas.

I believe the accomplishments are roughly equal. Winning four games in four days including defeating WKU (a historical nemesis) in overtime and then taking out a top 15-20 ranked Purdue in the NCAA Tournament (again in OT) is tremendous and won't be forgotten. We had a better regular season this year in a better CUSA. We also won five straight postseason games, one on the road at a Power League team (a former NCAA Champion at that), two on a neutral site (with one against a Power league school with two Final Fours in the last decade or so) and another avenging a loss that knocked us out of our Conference Tournament. Again, I feel like the two accomplishments are roughly equal. The 2021 team was on the bigger stage, but I think this was the tougher task. I give a slight edge to this year's team and season.

If it had happened to us, I'm sure we'd never get over it either. To be a championship team though, sometimes you have to overcome bad calls. While they were more aggressive driving to the basket and probably deserved to be rewarded accordingly, they also racked up 3 times more free throw shots than us, which I felt was more than merited. We overcame it though.

I live out of state, so I'm not attending any sort of celebration. That said, this was a big deal for our athletic department and something more than a meet and greet attaboy after a press conference should have been done. It is what it is though. Do we still have basketball banquets where we honor the team? I know we used to. If nothing else, do something bigger there.

To be fair, Arizona State had more than a single quality win. They defeated Creighton, which as the tournament showed, was also a very good victory. That said, they did have a lack of eye popping wins.

I figured Perry would be trying to find a place to play in some overseas league. Not gonna lie, if he really is going to Lubbock, that would kinda suck.

A lot of the Power conference schools started complaining about the RPI once the Missouri Valley started doing so well in it about 15-20 years ago. The MVC figured out how to schedule in a way to boost their RPIs, the way a lot of the "big" schools did...and so the Big 10 and Big East, etc. schools complained. One year the MVC got four teams in. I'd say the move toward using something other than the RPI started about that time. Once systems like the one Ken Pomeroy started became so good at analyzing teams (the first year Butler made the final, KenPom had them rated top 8 in the country from what I remember...they were a 5 seed), many thought those should be the kind of metrics that more accurately judged teams. Of course people still complain about those! Some in this very thread.

I never asked for a parade. More like the party that Wichita State had. And if you are scared no one shows up, have it in the central Mall behind the Administration Building and Willis Library late on a school day (3pm?). If nothing else students will stop by as they're going home. But that's easily walkable by basically everyone who lives on campus.

Well, it's a bit weird to make a video about team and not include the architect in the victory celebration. In the moment I understand not featuring McCasland, but if we watch the video five years from now, it will seem strange. It's like, if I watched a historical retrospective about the Dickey conference champ years and the video not showing DD...I mean it'd be bizarre, right? Anyway, here is the evidence that Mac did cut nets down.

He was the last guy to cut the nets and remove it from the rim -- the honored spot. I noticed that the video dropped him as well.

Well, metrics like the RPI are completely out of human hands (yes I know the RPI isn't used any more, but the Big 10 was also the #3 ranked conference according to their standard as well). The RPI is your win percentage, your opponents win percentage and your opponents opponents win percentage. Everyone knows how that one works (unlike new ones like the NET which we still are figuring out). It's worked that way for over a generation. The Big 10 still was in the top 3. Sometimes the tournament just has years when everything falls apart. That's what makes it great.

How our soon to be conference mates celebrated their NIT Title back in 2011.

It really does seem like a poor decision. I was thinking a party by McConnell Tower somewhere in the late afternoon/early evening, or yes at the Super Pit at night. Not a reception after a press conference

My wife took a bunch of pictures from the game and aftermath. Now that we've gotten back to Los Angeles, I've finally had a chance to go through them all. This one was one of my favorites of a few of the guys examining the hardware. I will say that I liked the old NIT trophy much better than the new one (and even the one they used the last few years was better too). C'est la vie. Original NIT trophy that they used up until a half dozen or so years ago.

I don't think they deserved that many in, but they didn't get that many in because of name recognition. They have a huge conference which helps because the sheer amount of teams. When the Big East had 16 members there was one year they got at least nine in. The Big 10 was also the #3 league according to most of the metrics. So a high ranked league, with a bunch of teams...is gonna get a lot of bids. If they were going purely on name recognition and money, UNC would have gotten in.

Would you not have made Texas Southern a 16 seed with their losing record? They were a conference champion. Making the last at-larges 16 seeds doesn't make sense either. Their resumes are way better than the bottom conferences. Let's say we had been lucky enough to get an at-large this season, with our 38 NET, etc.. Meanwhile the at-larges that got in a bit more comfortably (not the last 4 in, but the previous four), with resumes that are incrementally better than ours get a 10 seed. There's also the 1 seeds to consider. They get punished in this scenario too. They get to draw a UNT in the round of 64 instead of a Texas A&M Corpus. Meanwhile the 2 seed gets a significantly easier game than the 1 seed does.

It's both easier and harder to get in the NCAAs when you're in a league like that. Easier because you have more chances against Quad 1 competition. Harder because it's easier to rack up a lot of losses in a league like that.

Play Texas Southern. Bring JJ in to the Super Pit, give him a standing ovation and maybe a trinket, and then beat his ass.

Your two points contradict each other. The 16 seeds are always tournament winner/auto bids. When the discussion began as far as increasing the field a dozen or so years ago some argued all of the First Four should be the last at-larges in as not to penalize conference champs and some thought it should just be the all the 16s playing each other. The NCAA did some of both.

SDSU shot way worse from the FT line. One could say if they'd shot better, they win with much less drama.

Like I said, FAU wants to play fast and obviously they thought taking the foot of the pedal would get their guys to play tight. Personally, I didn't really think they looked tight at all. Once SDSU made their push to get close with...what 10 minutes or so...they tenaciously kept their nose in front. They were a gritty bunch and led literally the entire 20 minutes of the second half. The winning shot went through the nets after the buzzer. Tough way to lose.

Fantastic game. FAU was true to who they were and played fast. However, they really should have started to slow the game down MUCH earlier than they did.