Monday News and Notes
By Jeff
For those of you who thought Utah State would get into the tournament as an at-large if they did not win the WAC Tournament, think again. Utah State is a 12 seed. That means it would not not have been selected as an at-large. And no WAC team made the NIT, not even Boise. That's how weak a conference the WAC was this year. Having said that, I give the Aggies a decent shot at a first round upset over Kansas State.
The Portland Pilots come into town tomorrow night as Hawaii's first round opponent in the Riley Wallace Invitational ( ok, the CIT). Its the third appearance for the Pilots who have yet to win, having lost at Pacific and Northern Colorado. Portland finished the season with a 20-11 record and lost in the first round of the WCC Tournament. They are lead by all West Coast Conference forward Luke Sikma and three time all WCC honorable mention selection Jared Stohl who lead the WCC in rebounding. There are 8 teams in the tournament with 20 or more wins. Seeding will take place after round 1. I like the home team tomorrow.
The NCAA field has again generated much controversy with the last teams in and out. Who cares. None of these teams seeded 11 and above have any chance . I do however, think Harvard, St Mary's, Colorado and Virgina Tech got shafted, while VCU and UAB must know someone on the Committee. I agree with the top seedings however. I will give you my picks later this week, but i think Ohio State and Kansas are playing as well as anybody right now, although my heart says its Pittsburgh's year.
Dont forget the special two hour edition of Hoopstalk this weds at 6 on ESPN 1420. We will go thru the entire tournament game by game for those of you who do not have to have your picks in before then.
Hoops Talk
March 14th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
looking forward to 2 hour hoopstalk
March 14th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Wiped my brow after finally seeing St. John(nies) get into the brackets.
How 'bout another St. . . . St. Mary's, though; no slot for them in NCAA
.
March 14th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Although one view is to invite the best at-large teams, I subscribe to the view that teams finishing under .500 in their conference or not finishing in the top half of their conference should NOT get the chance to compete for a national championship. This means that three Big East teams should have been dropped from the field to make room for Colorado, Harvard, St Mary's, or Virginia Tech (and I too wonder how UAB and VCU made it). (Knock out UAB and VCU--then maybe Utah State could make it as an at-large, if judged better than let's say Alabama).
But it will never happen--the BCS conference schools are too interested in hogging the tournament and the money that comes with it.
March 14th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Is Luke Sikma related to Jack Sikma? I remember Jack in college in the NAIA. I think he played against Hilo but it could have been HPU.
March 14th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
papajoe, yes, it is jack sikma's son. Jack played 14 years in the NBA and was a 7 time all-star
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March 15th, 2011 at 9:38 am
The whole NCAA organization should be investigated. Everything they do is in conjuction
with the networks. Funny once March comes around no one talks about lost school time,
travel distance or cost anymore.
March 16th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Jack Sikma played center for Illinois Weslayan and his team knocked off UH Hilo Vulcans (Jay the Bird Bartholomew, Bill O'Rear, Mark Lovelace and company) in the NAIA regionals in l975 or 1976. He was domineering and could not be stopped. He was like a one man wrecking crew.