People really want to play this game. Things are bad for a lot of people in Alone, college sports and video games are recreational properties most everyone associates with a freer point of their lives. This video game let you control the destiny of your sports fandom and kill time during a period of your life when the former was the most serious concern you had, and the latter was to treat boredom, not fear.
You could heat on a pop-tart on it. The gaming industry also took a big hit. With the increased number of states legalizing sports betting over the past couple of years, to 25 states plus Washington, D. This year, 68 teams got an invitation to play in the tournament. For each game that a team plays, its conference gets a payout, which is based on their performance over a six-year rolling period. If a team makes it all the way to the championship game, then it can earn as many as five units.
If a team makes the championship game from the first-four bracket, then it could earn a total of six units. Of course, each conference wants to see as many of its member schools in the tournament as possible, to raise the payout that it receives. For a surprise team that is virtually unknown and makes it through multiple rounds, the payout can represent a much-needed cash injection for its conference. For larger conferences, however, such as the Atlantic Coast Conference ACC or the Big Ten, the basketball fund is more like financial icing on the cake than a major source of revenue.
The NCAA urges conferences to divide the money equally among their member schools. Smaller conferences, however, count on that money to cover their own expenses. The colleges see very little, while the players, who actually create the income, see none at all. National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Accessed March 9, American Gaming Association. Warren Buffett. Company Profiles. But they eked out an overtime victory to lock up a bid. Reason to Believe : If there's one thing Kansas State has done well over the past three seasons, it's creating steals.
That gets overlooked because the Wildcats share a conference with Press Virginia, but they are actually ahead of the Mountaineers in steal percentage this season. Even big man Dean Wade does a great job in this department, averaging 1. Reason to Worry : Kansas State is just an average three-point shooting team, and it gets out-rebounded in almost every game.
The Wildcats also did not win a single game against a KenPom top 20 team. March Madness Ceiling : Every year, there's one team that reaches the Sweet 16, even though hardly anyone outside of its own campus thinks it will win in the first round.
Kansas State might be that team. The Wildcats aren't sexy and they're probably the most forgotten about team in the Big 12, but they've got some dudes in Wade, Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Xavier Sneed. A win over a top-four seed would be their first of the season, but much stranger things have happened. Bonaventure lost four out of five games in January, I wrote , " The Bonnies might need to win every remaining regular-season game to get back into position for an at-large bid.
Prior to a tough loss to Davidson in the A semifinals, the Bonnies won 13 consecutive games, including a desperately needed home game against Rhode Island. The former scored 40 and 44 in back-to-back games in early February. The latter scored at least 24 in 13 games, including 29 on just 14 shots against Richmond in the A quarterfinals.
And Courtney Stockard has become one heck of a third option, scoring in double figures in 12 of 13 games in the aforementioned winning streak. Reason to Worry : The Bonnies give up a lot of three-pointers. In three games against Davidson, the Wildcats shot of from downtown.
Granted, that's one of the most trigger-happy teams in the country, but it was more than just those three contests that put St. Bonaventure outside the top in defensive three-point rate. Bonaventure has a chance to pull off a couple of upsets to reach the Sweet Lack of high-major talent, limited height and poor three-point defense will knock out the Bonnies sooner than later, but they could absolutely win at least one NCAA tournament game for the first time since The Aggies started before losing seven of their next nine.
After that, they won four in a row, lost three straight and then won three more. There were injuries and suspensions to blame for those swings, but this was quite the zigzag journey to the tourney. Plenty of teams have had a world of trouble trying to score in the paint against the Aggies.
They also have a solid three-point defense, though we have seen several opponents get hot from distance against this zone.
Reason to Worry : The Aggies simply don't have good shooters. Hogg and Admon Gilder are the only guys who make three-pointers with any sort of regularity, and neither junior is all that impressive from the perimeter. This is a dreadful free-throw shooting team, too. Good thing they are so tenacious on the offensive glass, because there are a lot of rebounds to be had when the Aggies are shooting.
March Madness Ceiling : There is just no telling what we're going to get from this team. Proceed with caution. How They Got Here : Arkansas picked up three of its four best wins of the season in its final six games.
The Razorbacks won at Alabama and knocked off Auburn three days later. They also picked up a key win over Florida in the SEC quarterfinals.
Reason to Believe : Though the Razorbacks struggle from the free-throw line as a team, this is one of the best shooting groups we've ever seen at Arkansas. Both Daryl Macon and Jaylen Barford have made at least 75 triples and shoot well above 40 percent from beyond the arc. Jones has also been known to get warm from downtown. Reason to Worry : As seems to be the case every season under Mike Anderson, Arkansas has struggled away from home. They were also blown out by Houston and North Carolina in nonconference play.
March Madness Ceiling : Arkansas has five seniors among its six leaders in minutes played. So if you're big on veteran leadership and the sense of urgency that comes from guys not wanting to lose their final collegiate game, here's a team that should get a little boost from those factors. But Arkansas is not a great defensive team, and it relies almost exclusively on three guys — Macon, Barford and Daniel Gafford — to shoulder the load on offense.
Coupled with well-documented problems playing outside Bud Walton Arena, that tightrope walk will likely result in a loss before the end of the first weekend. The two exceptions were a home game against Rutgers and a double-overtime game against Indiana. But this is still one of the biggest surprise success stories of the season, as they won 24 games in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.
Reason to Believe : Keita Bates-Diop is one of the most valuable and versatile players in the tournament. And it doesn't much matter who he's facing. He lit up North Carolina for 26 points just two weeks before dropping 32 on Michigan State.
KBD has scored at least 17 points in 25 of 32 games, and he should be trusted to at least give the Buckeyes a fighting chance in any game. Reason to Worry : For starters, Ohio State lost not one, not two, but three games against Penn State in the past two months.
The Buckeyes don't have any terrible losses; however, they went just against the KenPom top 40 , which isn't a ringing endorsement for a deep run. Their best nonconference win was a neutral-court game against Stanford when the Cardinal were at their worst.
March Madness Ceiling : Ohio State is one of many teams that could at least reach the second weekend on the shoulders of its star player, but it doesn't appear to have enough for a trip to the Final Four. The big question is the supporting cast for Bates-Diop.
Jae'Sean Tate, C. But the Buckeyes might reach the Sweet 16 before that bites them. The Friars had two great wins, three terrible losses and a just-OK record. But they won an overtime game against Creighton on Thursday, won an overtime game against Xavier on Friday and fell just short in OT against Villanova on Saturday. Reason to Believe : Statistically, there's no great reason to buy stock in this team.
The only areas where the Friars are considerably above the national average are free-throw rate and three-point field-goal defense. But Ed Cooley is no stranger to turning water into wine, taking an average team to the NCAA tournament for a fifth straight year. Plus, the Friars won a home game against Villanova and two games against Xavier, so they're clearly doing something right.
Reason to Worry : There are valid excuses for all three of their awful losses, but the fact remains that the Friars dropped games against Minnesota, Massachusetts and DePaul. It's hard to trust this team away from the Dunkin' Donuts Center. March Madness Ceiling : Before the season, I was practically driving the Providence bandwagon, even looking seriously at this team's odds to win the national championship.
But that was before we knew Emmitt Holt was going to miss the season with an abdominal injury, and back when everyone thought Makai Ashton-Langford was going to be a major contributor as a freshman.
Given the current state of the team, anything more than two wins in the tournament would have to be considered a Cinderella story. How They Got Here : The Hurricanes opened the season , but it wasn't until Christmas that they finally started beating quality opponents.
In the final 16 games of the regular season, Miami played in 15 decided by a single-digit margin, going in those contests.
The Hurricanes went in games decided by six points or fewer, including four consecutive one-possession wins heading into the ACC tournament. Reason to Worry : At times, this offense is just plain awful — and that was true long before Miami lost Bruce Brown to a foot injury.
Lonnie Walker IV and Chris Lykes have been shouldering the scoring load for a couple of months, but there's no one on this team who you can just hand the ball and say, "Here, go get us some points. March Madness Ceiling : Tough call here, since Miami is competitive in every game it plays. This is the type of team that could absolutely upset a No. I'll put the ceiling at Elite Eight, because it's unlikely the Hurricanes knock off both a No. One big upset is possible, though.
They weren't quite able to get a second win over Arizona in the Pac tournament, falling to the Wildcats in overtime. But at least they got to that game with a win over Stanford, securing their spot in the NCAA tournament field. Reason to Believe : Aaron Holiday is on the short list of guys who could single-handedly will his team to multiple victories.
The junior combo guard scored at least 17 points in 11 consecutive games from late January through early March, including back-to-back point performances in the season finale and the Pac quarterfinal. And he's no one-man show. Thomas Welsh is a double-double machine, and both Kris Wilkes and Jaylen Hands have averaged better than 10 points per game as freshmen.
The Bruins only play three guys shorter than 6'8", and none of them has good defensive metrics. UCLA is among the worst in the nation in turnover percentage , and it allows a lot of open looks at three-pointers. That's a combination that has resulted in 10 games with at least 80 points allowed, including three that got into triple digits. March Madness Ceiling : The Bruins don't look like a Final Four team, but are you prepared to say they can't get there?
There were some ugly losses along the way, but they won at Arizona and almost beat the Wildcats a second time. They did beat Kentucky. They forced overtime in a road loss against Michigan. This team has held its own against the type of opposition it'll face in the second weekend. UCLA probably isn't consistent enough to win four in a row, but it does have the talent. How They Got Here : Though the final few weeks were disappointing, what an incredible season for a team that was forced to play without both Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy for the entire year.
Auburn was a sleeper team during the offseason, but the Tigers dropped to near the bottom of the projected SEC standings when we found out those two starters were out indefinitely.
Nevertheless, they won more than 24 games for the first time since Reason to Believe : The Tigers thrive in physical games, getting to and converting from the free-throw line at a high rate. Mustapha Heron, Jared Harper and DeSean Murray each shoots better than 80 percent and has gotten to the charity stripe more than times.
Auburn is also an above-average three-point shooting team. Eight of the nine primary players averages at least one three-point attempt per game and makes better than 30 percent of them. And the reason those games are important is because defensive star and arguably most valuable player, Anfernee McLemore, suffered a season-ending ankle injury during the South Carolina game. Horace Spencer has been OK in his stead, but losing that shot-blocking presence has had an obvious impact on Auburn's defense.
There was plenty of amazement at what they were accomplishing, but all that praise came with at least a hint of skepticism that it would last. And after dropping four games in February, it feels like the ceiling on Auburn's tournament has also fallen. Despite a strong seed, if the Tigers were to reach the Final Four, it would be almost as improbable as South Carolina's run last year. The Rams got destroyed at home by Saint Joseph's, lost once to St. Bonaventure and lost twice to Davidson en route to a finish.
Reason to Believe : Rhode Island has one of the best turnover margins in the nation. That pressure along the perimeter has resulted in stingy three-point defense. In fact, the Rams have not yet allowed an opponent to make 10 or more three-pointers in a game this season. It pays to have senior guards like E. Robinson is the de facto power forward, even though he's just 6'4".
Andre Berry and Cyril Langevine share the center duties but are both 6'8". March Madness Ceiling : Rhode Island came one possession from reaching the Sweet 16 last year, and this veteran-laden team is at least as good as that one was, if not better. The Rams have definite second-weekend potential, but lack of frontcourt prowess will likely keep them from reaching the Final Four.
How They Got Here : Alabama finished the regular season on a five-game losing streak and entered the SEC tournament needing at least one win to remain in the field. It was just the third time since Thanksgiving that they won consecutive games. Reason to Believe : Avery Johnson has these guys playing excellent defense. Alabama doesn't force many turnovers, but this is a long, athletic bunch that can close out and contest a shot in a heartbeat.
Even the shots that aren't blocked are often altered or forced. Reason to Worry : Collin Sexton is probably going to be a lottery pick. You'd think the offense that point guard is leading would be considerably above average. But Alabama is a mess on offense. John Petty is the only somewhat reliable three-point shooter, and even he is well below 40 percent.
And with the exception of Donta Hall 72 percent , none of the primary players for the Crimson Tide shoots better than 52 percent on two-point attempts. The free-throw line is also an adventure for basically the entire team. Add it all up, and you have a team that has been held to 66 points or fewer nine times all losses. March Madness Ceiling : There are an awful lot of inconsistent teams in the tournament, but Alabama takes the cake.
Alabama might dominate in the first round, but because of its season-long inconsistency, the ceiling is probably the round of Reason to Believe : Though this wasn't anything close to the type of great season a lot of people were expecting from Seton Hall, there's still a ton of veteran talent on this roster that can compete with anyone.
Angel Delgado remains a double-double machine, and he's only the fourth-leading scorer for the Pirates. Reason to Worry : There's nothing this team does particularly well. It's just kind of average across the board. And with both Rodriguez and Ismael Sanogo battling ankle injuries, we're talking about an average team that might not even be at percent.
Moreover, there was a stretch of 10 games earlier this season in which Seton Hall went at full strength. March Madness Ceiling : Despite the aforementioned injuries and midseason struggles, Seton Hall finished strong, winning four of its final five regular-season games, with an overtime game against Villanova serving as the lone loss.
If the Pirates can get healthy and carry that momentum into the Big Dance, there's more than enough skill and experience here for this team to reach the Elite Eight. Three of those four wins have occurred since the start of February, so there's a case to be made that — despite the loss to Georgia in the second round of the SEC tournament — they are playing their best basketball right now.
They hit And now that Michael Porter Jr. Reason to Worry : Missouri's turnover margin is awful. This team committed more turnovers than it forced this season. Good things happen when the Tigers are aggressive on defense, as they are when forcing at least 10 turnovers. It just doesn't happen nearly enough. March Madness Ceiling : Insert "shrug emoji" here. Porter played just two minutes during the regular season before finally making a legitimate debut in the SEC tournament. But because of the immediate loss to Georgia, we only got to see him in action for 23 minutes.
If he starts playing up to his immense potential right away, Missouri could be a Final Four team. If his return screws up their chemistry or he struggles, the Tigers could get blasted in the first round. They oscillated between red-hot and ice-cold throughout the season, but that was a much-needed hot streak to secure a strong seed in the NCAA tournament. Reason to Believe : We spent a ton of time talking about Quadrant 1 wins in the past few months, and Florida accumulated more of them than just about any other team.
Quite a few were borderline, but neutral-court wins over Gonzaga and Cincinnati and a season sweep of Kentucky tell the story of a team that can beat anyone. The Gators also came within one possession of marquee wins over Duke and Clemson, for what it's worth. Reason to Worry : As good as Florida can be, it also went through some brutal cold spells. The home loss to Loyola-Chicago doesn't look so bad now, but it's still a game the Gators should have won.
Florida is usually solid on defense, but there's no telling what you'll get from this offense. The next day, they look hopelessly lost as a team. Florida has the talent to reach the Final Four, but the unlikelihood of the "Good Gators" showing up for more than two straight games probably puts their ceiling at the Sweet But it has been a different story for the past month.
The Tigers lost five of their final eight games and have only won one game against a tournament team vs. Florida State since the beginning of February. Reason to Believe : Losing Donte Grantham to a season-ending knee injury had an unavoidable negative effect on this team, but Clemson still has one of the stingiest defenses in the country.
Anchored by Elijah Thomas in the paint, the Tigers block a ton of shots and almost never allow open looks at the rim.
Their final five regular-season opponents shot a combined of Reason to Worry : Despite that great defense, Clemson lost three of those five games because it failed to score 60 points in those losses. Shelton Mitchell missed two of those games and was held scoreless for 40 minutes in the third. Gabe DeVoe combined for 15 points in those three losses.
There isn't enough offense on this roster to survive a poor performance from any of its four main scorers, let alone more than one of them. March Madness Ceiling : Clemson isn't a "Just happy to be there" team, but regardless of what happens, the Tigers have to be proud of a season that almost certainly saved Brad Brownell's job as head coach.
If they're able to add a win or two in the NCAA tournament, even better. But save for one emotional win over North Carolina — in which they shot of from three-point range — they have not been the same without Grantham. The ceiling is probably the Sweet 16, and a first-round upset loss wouldn't be that surprising.
The Shockers finished in second place in their first AAC season, which included a road win over Cincinnati. But they did stumble a bit down the stretch, losing at home to Cincinnati in the regular-season finale before scraping by against Temple and losing to Houston in the conference tournament.
Reason to Believe : Wichita State ranks top-five in the nation in rebound margin , and if this were a statistic, it would have to be top 10 in assist margin, too. Per KenPom , the Shockers register an assist on Faring so well in those "other" categories allows them to win the points battle more often than not, too. Reason to Worry : Perimeter defense is a major red flag for Wichita State. Opponents shoot better than 36 percent from downtown and take more than 40 percent of their shots from three-point range.
In both regards, Wichita State is well below the national average. The Shockers also have one of the worst steal rates in the country, so it's not like they're giving up open looks because they're too aggressive in trying to jump passing lanes. They just can't stay with guards on defense.
March Madness Ceiling : Wichita State never goes quietly into the night. This team is in the last five NCAA tournaments. Three of the losses were by four points or fewer. Four of the losses were to teams that received a No. Good luck putting a ceiling on what this team can accomplish, but a trip to the Final Four seems unlikely at best.
The Shockers never quite lived up to the lofty preseason expectations. It's probably the worst loss suffered by any at-large team.
But the Cougars rallied in a big way, knocking off Cincinnati, Arkansas and Wichita State twice en route to its first win season since reaching the national championship. They fell just short of winning the AAC tournament, but the Cougars opened up a lot of eyes just by getting to the championship game. Reason to Believe : Rob Gray Jr.
The senior leads the team in both points and assists. He is surrounded by a pair of great three-point shooters in Corey Davis Jr. Houston hasn't had a group this talented in many moons.
Reason to Worry : Prior to the AAC tournament, Houston did not play well away from home this season, suffering losses to LSU, Tulane, Memphis and Drexel with little more than a neutral-court win over Providence to show for their troubles. The Cougars went at home, but some lot of good that will do them in the tournament.
The Cougars are undersized, but they crash the glass well and defend the paint about as well as any team in the country. And I can't be the only one who thinks Gray is going to capitalize on this opportunity to finally play in the national spotlight.
The Red Raiders dropped three of their first four games after losing Zach Smith for a while in January. They then lost four straight games at the end of February while Keenan Evans battled a toe injury. As a result, they have lost five of their last seven, but they still feel like a team that can make a deep run at full strength. Reason to Believe : Texas Tech is elite on defense.
The Red Raiders aren't quite on the same level as a Virginia or Cincinnati, but they're best among the rest. They also have one of the best bucket-getters in the nation in Evans. He's almost unguardable when he's healthy.
Dating back to the start of Big 12 play, the Red Raiders were when he was held to 14 points or fewer, and they averaged just If multiple top seeds advance to the Final Four, your chances are even better. On average, almost 1. While the most common occurrence is only one No. For that reason, it's better to error on the side of picking perhaps one too many No. So, if choosing two No.
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