CMJ

I had an old friend from Talons who closed down Bourbon Street the night before the game. I think he dropped like 900 bucks. He didn't know our room number and he had to try practically every room on our wing of the hotel before he found the right one. He got in as the other three of us were waking up.

LOL, it won't ever be MSG. However, considering that's Gonzaga's second home I'm not gonna turn my nose up at it either.

I meant in video form. I've seen stills of the arena before, but it's a different feel when people are there moving. Plus you can see how they painted the court.

Video of Wisconsin shooting at the Orleans Arena yesterday. I mostly post this so we can see what the arena looks like. https://madison.com/sports/college/basketball/men/wisconsin-mens-basketball-practices-before-nit-semifinal-matchup-with-north-texas/video_98723002-6ca6-516b-9dbd-0ea3c54aff53.html

I was talking about arrival at the games, in which the players still wore them. That lasted until fairly recently - but I'm not sure exactly when it ended. Most coaches dropped the suits look during the pandemic (dry cleaning reasons?). Some basketball coaches do actually still wear them to games. Jerry Stackhouse at Vanderbilt, Mick Cronin at UCLA, and the coach at Yale whose name escapes me are some that do. I know I've seen a few others, but it isn't many.

Roughly 16 hours away....

Didn't see this posted. https://247sports.com/LongFormArticle/North-Texas-basketball-Grant-McCasland-Mean-Green-players-preview-Wisconsin-matchup-in-NIT-semifinals-207426290/#207426290_1

I know they do. That's why I said I didn't know when the older way went out of fashion.

I'm trying to remember when the suit and tie thing went out of fashion. I feel like even 15-20 years ago you'd still see a Michigan State get off the bus wearing them before a game. The TV camera would show the squad as they entered the arenas all decked out.

On paper this appears to be a tremendous hire.

It was posted in another thread a week or so ago. It's not much in actual cash, I think the number was maybe 50K bucks after all expenses. That said, I think it's worth about about 100 times that in making the program relevant. Look at the former winners of this tournament. If we win on Tuesday and Thursday we really can call ourselves a basketball school.

Larranaga is 73, so that might not be far fetched. However, I tend to think he'll coach another couple of years. He seems to be having the time of his life right now. Of course, if they win it all -- maybe Larranaga would step down. Tough to win at Miami historically (even he was struggling a few years back when he had a string of losing seasons), might as well go out on top.

Not sure something like this will be in Las Vegas, but I found this a few minutes ago. https://luxurioushirt.com/product/official-north-texas-mean-green-2023-nit-division-i-mens-basketball-shirt/

It seems Texas Tech is waiting on someone given that most of the Power Schools with open jobs have filled them. The only question is WHO are they waiting on. Likely it's our guy, but perhaps not!

They've lost three games total (the most they could lose is four) - and could win a national championship. Mac is an amazing coach, but no, this is better than anything he's done.

This was off a site run by USC fans (well, yahoo re-published it), but it sticks up for FAU and schools like them. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/florida-atlantic-success-no-fluke-173602929.html

I've always liked that they put the logo on the court and the basketball.

Thanks for all three of these the last day or so. Should we win Tuesday, I'll try and introduce myself Thursday night at the Final when I get to Vegas.

I think the last couple of teams in the NCAA Tournament think they should have too (and really so do Memphis and FDU as well). At a certain point, winning a lot of games that they maybe should have lost points to how good they are.

I tend to view the Sweet 16 as the round where you sorta judge conference strength and Elite 8 going forward it's just about matchups and all. That said all those Big Ten and Big 12 teams in the tourney this year. Zero in the Final Four.

I know FAU can win low scoring games...but they're not gonna out ugly SDSU, at least not in my opinion. This is how the Aztecs have been playing for about the last dozen years and have institutional memory of how to do it. FAU needs to get some pace injected. And not just for one half. Both Alabama and Creighton had stretches where they got some flow going and in each game I expected the Aztecs to fold. That's how you have to beat them. But in each of the last two games SDSU really ratcheted up their D and slowed the game down.

I think FAU matched up better with Creighton, but the Owls can totally win. It really will depend on if SDSU can turn it into a ugly wrestling match like they usually do. If they can force their style of play, advantage Aztecs. If FAU can get the game into the mid 60s or higher -- they'll be playing for it all on Monday night.

If I did my math right, our all-time record is 1259-1345 which is a 48.3% winning percentage. We've only had about three periods of sustained success (3+ years in a row) over the last 70 years. If Mac stays, he'd be a living legend within the next few seasons. If he doesn't, whoever replaces him will have the chance to be that immortal figure...on the foundation McCasland built. Does he leave? Probably. But that has to give him pause.

I think we're just more sensitive to it since we're perceiving slights. It was little different when previous runs like FAU's happened (George Mason, VCU. Wichita State, etc.).

Not major pub, but on the rivals message board they were really complimentary about FAU (and there's a couple of posts about CUSA being underrated). https://forums.rivals.com/threads/fau-ksu-uconn-zaga-game-thread.1093454/