College Basketball is a Cruel Mistress

[Muskie]

Stealing part of this message from GG:

FSU, Michigan, Kansas St., or Loyola will be in the Championship Game.

[mistabeecee41]

Stealing part of this message from GG:

FSU, Michigan, Kansas St., or Loyola will be in the Championship Game.

https://imgflip.com/i/26zasm

[dubbledxu]

Michigan is good tho...

[Muskie]

Michigan is good tho...

I mean all of these teams are "good".

[jhelmes37]

Yeah, the last game of the year blows (unless you win a title), but this one blows extra hard:

> 1 seed, get bounced by an inferior (on paper) team after easily the best regular season in team's history.
> Watch inferior (on paper) team handle Gonzaga, who I desperately wanted payback from.
> Have to watch inferior (on paper) team get to play UM, my second favorite team, for a trip to the Final 4.

And to top it all off, sit back and watch another team poach our Coach.

Eff this season............well, at least the last week of it.

[GoMuskies]

Michigan is good tho...

They were good yesterday. I watched them twice in Wichita, and they were gawdawful and needed a miracle (including some major Houston incompetence) to advance.

[dethwing]

Stealing part of this message from GG:

FSU, Michigan, Kansas St., or Loyola will be in the Championship Game.

I desperately hope it's Loyola. Honestly, I don't see a reason why it can't happen. They look very much like they could beat any of those other 3 teams.

[muethibp]

This is why - as I've said repeatedly over the years - it is generally pointless to be obsessed with tournament success or judge the success of the season on advancing in the tournament. Build the best team you can, win as many games in the regular season as you can, then just hope the madness breaks your way.

[whopper]

This is why - as I've said repeatedly over the years - it is generally pointless to be obsessed with tournament success or judge the success of the season on advancing in the tournament. Build the best team you can, win as many games in the regular season as you can, then just hope the madness breaks your way.. You are correct, this was a blessed team to watch. I joked to my hoop friends earlier that we were too "white" to win and it would catch up to us(ha ha). Macura's two bogus fouls (4 made FT for FSU and a missed run out on the steal). may have been a result of the referee anticipating that a US born caucasian could not possibly pin a ball or strip a ball. Maybe my joke was not off base. Maybe the FSU intensity of fouls (including off ball) forces a team to miss foul shots. I recall them fouling Tre off the ball but stopped once it was in the bonus.

[pimpinthebox]

Lest we forget. We were the "cruel mistress" last season in March and many seasons prior.

Look, I've gone to damn near every tournament game the since 2006/2007 season. I've witnessed some great moments and have been kicked in the nuts about as hard as you can be kicked. This was the first time I've taken all three of my kids to these games. It certainly gives you some perspective when you have to explain it to them. I was the guy holding the crying child in the stands (no she wasn't shown crying on TV). It's not easy to take, but as I said, the shoe has been on the other foot plenty of times. As I told our girls, Xavier basketball has been so good to us over the years and has consistently over-delivered. With all of the wins, upsets, and tourney runs, there's going to be a downside. I think it's important that we all realize how good we have it. X is a great program and will continue to be just that.

[XU 87]

I was the guy holding the crying child in the stands (no she wasn't shown crying on TV).

I had a similar experience. My son was the guy holding his crying father in the stands. (I wasn't shown on tv either.)

[HenryMuto]

Stealing part of this message from GG:

FSU, Michigan, Kansas St., or Loyola will be in the Championship Game.

...and Michigan is only still alive because of 2 missed FT's and a miracle shot after not guarding the inbounds passer.

We could be sitting here looking at a #11, #9, #9 and a #7/#6 seed left.

It sucks the door was wide open for Xavier and they couldn't walk through it.

[drudy23]

Go Loyola...what the hell.

[whopper]

I feel like the ad in a horror movie "Don't go in the basement". Whatever you do, don't revisit a DVR of the game. I did. It is going along swimmingly until the second Macura bogus foul(the strip) where he leaves the game(instead of a run out) and the announcer says Blueitt is a guard with Scruggs without mentioning that he has not played one minute of guard this season. Also say Kanter/Jones duo on court against a team relying on quickness. Because of the endless fouls the clock crawls from 12 to 8 minutes(Macura foul). We should have hit the foul shots though. It was actually an enjoyable game until the 8 minute mark.

[xu koop scoop]

We will advance in this tourney in any close games because of our ability to hit free throws. Hell, we're #6 in the country & even better in the Final 4 minutes." Oh, that was the other 30 plus games we played. We actually weren't that good in the 1st round vs Texas Southern either.

[Emp]

As Joe Montagna famously put it, "May I have another, sir?"