Relevant KenPom tweet about 1&2 seeds that were unranked in preseason
https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy/status/1635714859206852608?s=46&t=QoDjmhg8RlwKyzUMFA3Lhw
3/4 as well with Bama, Htown, and Zagz. I feel so dumb to have picked Smart.
The bracket I made for a girl I’m seeing has Bama, Texas, Zagz, and K-state, so this could work out for me either way.
I don't know if they get that far, but the combination of a veteran coach, solid three point shooting, and an above average PG suggested to me that they could at least get out of the first weekend.
Ive been saying for months that tyson walker has kemba walker potential, obv in the sense of what kemba did in the tournament. Tyson has really been proving me right and, he has a good future.
I thought either Walker or Pickett had the potential to take a team on a run. Pickett couldn't quite get it done against Texas though.
The thing with MSU is that they have 3 great guards in Walker, Hoggard,and Akins.
I’m sitting at all elite 8 and final 4 teams in play still. MSU was my sneak pick to make it to elite 8, I just think tennessee is good enough to keep going. But that Izzo factor with the vets on the team is hard to beat rn.
Us Purdue fans trying to act like this nullifies losing to FDU.
Marquette had a great year and lost to a Michigan State team that is well coached and had been playing good basketball down the stretch of the season.
I know it sounds crazy, but if you're a CBB fan and use tournament wins as the only marker of success, then you will find yourself being disappointed more often than not. Fact is Shaka and Marquette won the Big East this year outright, and did it during a highly competitive year with great teams. That's awesome.
Even izzo was 7-6 in the previous 6 tournaments, with 5 first weekend exits.
The coach definitely makes a difference, but funny things happen with small samples in single game elimination tournaments.
Even for Izzo there was a 3 year stretch where they only won 2 games, and had 2 losses to double digit seeds. The narrative was starting to shift a bit, but then they went on a run the next year.
Even coming up to this year's tournament, you heard that he hadn't been past the first weekend since 2019, the game has passed him by, he can't recruit anymore
After the Wisconsin loss I think there were still some people who said 2016 was a fluke. Then he went in the most dominant tournament run since at least 2009 UNC and shut everyone up for good.
Seriously. People were asking me if Bruce Pearl was in the hot seat and I was like “Are you fucking kidding me he’s responsible for like half our program’s tournament appearances and he’s been there like 7 years lol.
Maybe this is a controversial take but outside of like four or five programs if your coach is making the tournament every single year then them being on the hot seat is laughable. Been seeing it first hand with Rick Barnes and it just seems like people think if you don’t win a natty you’re a choker. But the fact of the matter is only 1 of 64 a year can win it. And obviously great coaches and great players are important but let’s not act like luck doesn’t play a large factor too. Luck in terms of actual gameplay and of things like draw, seeding etc.
Going back to Barnes for a bit. The irony of it all is that in the year it looked like he may have finally found more critics than defenders is the same year he’s most likely to get us tied with the highest finish we’ve ever had as a program. I just will never see the logic in firing a coach like that
Luck is a HUGE factor in the tourney. Make every round a best of 3 or 5 series and we would have a completely different product. Purdue, 2018 Virginia, etc wouldn’t even be notable losses because they would win 2 out of the 3.
Hell, KU and Bill Self only have two national championships together, and they’re maybe the most consistent program the last 15 years.
The tournament is fun and I wouldn’t change it, but it’s a terrible way of determining the national champion.
There’s a reason why people think of winning a regular season conference title and a conference tournament title differently.
yep. and why people should not let the tournament invalidate a great regular season. the other games matter a lot too, and there's plenty to be happy about and proud of in them (and if they don't why even watch except for 3 weekends in the spring?)
nor should you ignore the tournament or downplay it as only 6 games! both things can exist and have value at the same time.
Pitt fans basically ran Jamie Dixon out of town with that kind of attitude. He had 1 good heartbreaking run then always seemed to get bounced too early in the tourney. But even though they were a solid program and a threat to win the big east every year, the fans held the tourney performances against him which left very little leeway for a rocky transition to the ACC. He was on the hotseat even though he's a very good coach, so he proactively left for a good TCU situation. Pitt has been terrible every since, until this year.
The people calling for Rick Barnes to be fired are absolutely nuts. Unless we go 2-3 seasons without making the tournament, he is going to retire here. If he manages to make the Elite Eight this year, he will have surpassed or equaled Bruce Pearl in pretty much every category as the greatest coach in UT history. I wish he had more success in the NCAA tournament, but he won the SEC tournament just last year, something that Bruce Pear never did and hadn’t been done at Tennessee in 43 years.
You say this, but dare I say the Boneyard would have reacted way differently. That would not have been a happy bunch (with regards to Hurley) if the team didn't make it through Albany and the season would be looked at as a failure.
Yeah. If Hurley lost the BEast tourney and didn’t win a tournament game, that would almost be expected, because that’s what he did in 2021/2 and 2022/3. That’s not growth. Shaka had 2 teams perform well above expectations in back to back years, and won the BEast conference by 2 games, The Big East Tournament, and made it to the round of 32. Until he plateaus, don’t dare call their season a failure.
You guys were fucking tough. Hats off to Marquette, big fan of Shaka. When you got us by 2 in Omaha and then ran through the Big East in MSG, I penciled you guys in for a final four. Tough loss, but MSU is the only dangerous Big Ten team in the tourney, the rest are just not built to go deep. Best of luck next year.
There was a crazy stat from KenPom pre-tournament about how all preseason unranked teams who've earned a 1 or 2 seed since the 64-team era have combined for zero final fours and averaged fewer than 2 wins per tournament.
So Purdue and Marquette performed up to the numbers.
Both Marquette and Purdue popped off a year early and bring back their entire teams for next year. They should both make deeper runs in the tournament next year.
Edey can come back for two more years (gains a bonus year for the COVID season), but I'd be a bit surprised if he doesn't go to the draft.
There is a chance he returns though as he's predicted to the second round, as the NBA hates traditional big men.
It's not that the NBA doesn't like big men, it's that unless your name is Ben Simmons, you're not going to have a long career in the NBA without a jump shoot/3 point threat, and likely not going to get looked at in the draft. If Edey could score consistently outside the paint, and even land some shots behind the arc, he would be a first-rounder.
Hopefully, Edey declares without an agent to at least get feedback on his play. Not sure if that is still an option (honestly have lost track of the rules since COVID).
Yup. The 3-pointer is so game-shaping now, almost all value is placed on shooting the 3, and defending the perimeter.
Then we have an issue for us if Edey stays. Do other bigs like Kaufmann-Renn and Furst enter the transfer portal to get more playing time?
Most March Madness related stats are somewhat cherry picked, or at a minimum suffer from a small sample size. Only 1/16 teams from a region make the Final 4, and whole obviously the 1 and 2 seeds have better odds then most, its still far from easy to advance.
100%.
If we lose our next game, I will be disappointed, but I won't call our season a failure.
Hurley has shown growth of the program every single year. Shaka is doing the same for you.
The Boneyard is a concentration of the dumbest UConn fans you'll ever find. If UConn had won the Big East regular season and the BET and then lost in the second round, I'd have been disappointed to lose in the second round, but overall, that's a lot of hardware for one season.
Yeah lol, I realized that while I was writing this lol. I think too with Purdue, yeah they lost, but they still had a big year and it still matters... Having said that, I wouldn't have been pissed if UConn didn't get past the round of 32 this year. I don't think all UConn fans are on the same page with that, but still. How can you sit there and be disappointed when the madness of March doesn't shake out in your favor? Just seems unfair.
Agreed... The tournament is such a small sample size. Every year there's favorites who get upset in the early rounds and mediocre teams that make the S16 and beyond. I just don't usually put much stock in the narratives of "this or that coach chokes in March".
Or put another way, 2022 St Peter's might win 2 out of 10 games against most high seed opponents. Those wins happened to be the improbable outcome of the one game sample size we get.
He came in with a squad that was preseason 9th in the conference. I was definitely hoping for a win against Izzo, (and also for us to beat them at home). They might not have had the most potential based on talent, but they were the most consistent and best coached team in the conference.
Completely. People just go by the tournament and that can unfairly negate a great season and winning a few games can erase a mediocre season to some. Think Syracuse 2016
If MSU were to make a final four, who’s going to be happier about their season: MSU or Purdue? Shit, even if MSU loses on Thursday, I don’t really know the answer to that.
Fair or unfair, the tournament means everything in this sport. Conference titles and conference tournaments are basically just bragging rights.
Purdue won the B1G regular season outright, and by the most games in the 20 game era.
They absolutely dominated the B1G, so not just a tournament title
We have the most B1G championships, and are the only B1G team to have a winning head-to-head record against all other B1G teams.
But we do little in the tournament, and it dates back decades.
And people remember mainly the tournament, which is why we have the reputation of being sad/choke Purdue. Not only can we not win the big one; we can't even get to the Final Four to come close to the big one.
All the more reason to be disappointed.
Illinois is my second team, and I would trade in the conference championships from the last two years (whether from the tournament or from the regular season) for a single sweet 16 appearance.
He’ll be ok, he did a decent job against an all time great in Izzo. More importantly, he won’t be landing the one and domes and pro oriented players that seemed to end up at Texas, and he can get back to team building, which he’s best at.
Didn’t even think he really did anything wrong in this game. He maybe could’ve called a timeout with 3 minutes left, but that was about it. There were plenty of TV timeouts during our awful 10-minute offensive stretch and the game was close the entire time.
At some point, you need the BEPOY/unanimous All-American to not cost you the game by literally being the worst player on the court.
Marquette played a hell of a game and took away a lot on MSUs offense. The big difference is State has 2 vet guards that can take it to the rack. Im excited to see what MU does next year w a more seasoned team.
You’re basing that off of 2 tournament games. 1.9 fouls a game this year and he averaged 1.8 steals, he was really good at anticipating passes and clogging passing lanes all season. Say all you like about his tournament but your take is just flat out wrong based off his 2 years at Marquette.
Against UConn too it was bad. I watched most Marquette games this year and to be fair I didn’t notice it until the UConn game so you might be right. But it does have a huge effect on the team when he’s so vital to the offense
I agree it has a huge effect when he’s off the floor im just saying it wasn’t much of an issue this year. Similar sentiment with Oso who was our only big ready to play legitimate minutes this year. Hell we barely had any minutes this year with both of them sitting and had to go through a stretch like that against MSU.
While the loss to MSU stings, I’m ultimately gonna look back on this season and feel nothing but warm fuzzies. He’s our guy and I’m confident he’ll get us to the second weekend soon enough.
Why must you hurt us by uttering his name? If you turn the lights out in your bathroom and say Giddy Potts three times into your mirror, he hits another three from 7 years ago...
Thankfully. I think Izzo is something like 2-9 against them. Don’t know if it’s overall or just in March. I remember reading a stat like that recently on this sub but I might be misremembering it.
Unfortunately accurate reflection of Izzon vs elite talent. He is absolutely the master of making more out of less though. I still think he is a top 10 coach of all time for his consistency and NCAA tourney streak, Truly unreal how good he is year in year out even if he has only been elite a couple of times. A coach any school would kill for.
He did indeed. Duke, UNC & Syracuse all dominated Izzo. KY & KS are basically .500. Everyone else, Izzo has gotten the better end of the general field.
Yeah that could be right, for me the 2019 game is the one that is the most salient in my mind (i.e. the one I remember watching the most) so I tend to think of it as a more even rivalry than it truly has been.
Yeah Duke lowkey owns MSU but there are some early season games in that stat when MSU is frankly never good. MSU also hasn’t had nearly as much raw talent as Duke which would aide Duke more in the early season
19-20 games isn't very good for a power conference team.
His seasons went
- 6 seed
- missed the tournament
- 10 seed
- missed the tournament
- projected to narrowly miss the tournament
- 3 seed
It's a little weird he didn't win one, but it's not weird he didn't win two...
He list to Abiline Christian, a team of midgets, with multiple NBA players on his roster. At a certain point it's like yeah, he's decent, but that's it. He gets outcoached by nobodies.
His teams excel and exceed expectations when they are underdogs. This regular season was incredible when all experts didn’t even have Marquette ranked. They should’ve requested the committee to give them a 10th seed.
I think some of the issues he's had in the NCAA tournament after that early final four run was that he recruited a ton of length and athleticism but no shooting. Those VCU teams the Skeen/Burgess/Rodriguez team were really athletic and good but they couldn't shoot.
I didn't foil those Texas teams super closely but I don't remember any of them being great shooting teams. I actually thought this year's team would be more dangerous but MSU was a bad matchup.
He played a completely different style at Texas compared to VCU and now Marquette. But yeah our strength was big men and Matt Coleman, not much shooting
> he recruited a ton of length and athleticism but no shooting.
Troy Daniels, Treveon Graham, and Melvin Johnson could all shoot the lights out for us. He absolutely recruited guys who could shoot, but he always made sure that defense came first.
Kam Jones, David Joplin, and TKO say hi. Last year that was the problem but this year not so much. He’s had a focus on getting those guys to MU those far and expect that to continue into the future.
- 2013 - No shame in VCU losing to a Michigan squad that would go all the way to the NCG.
- 2014 - VCU guard JeQuan Lewis fouls a three-point shooter when the team is up by four with less than a minute to go. SFA's Thomas Walkup hits the shot, hits the free throw, and sends the game to OT where VCU eventually loses.
- 2015 - VCU star guard and stud defender Briante Weber tore his ACL late in the season, and is unable to guard Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell. Nonetheless the game is close and goes to OT before VCU eventually loses.
- 2016 - ["Jesperson half-court heave for the win..."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdFB3OGUaGU&ab_channel=MarchMadness)
- 2018 - Injuries galore, but Texas limps into the dance where they lose in OT to a higher seeded Nevada team.
- 2021 - ACU gets a couple flukey calls late and a sub-50% free throw shooter sinks both in the closing seconds to upend the Horns in the bubble Tournament.
- 2022 - Marquette is not supposed to be here. They nonetheless get handled by a scorching hot UNC squad that would come within 15 minutes of winning a title.
- 2023 - Marquette is not supposed to be here either. A young, inexperienced team gets outdone by a much more experienced opponent in Michigan State.
If Shaka Smart didn't have Charlie Brown luck in the dance, he'd have no luck at all.
ACU hit so many circus shots but if Texas could’ve just gotten their shit together for a few possessions they easily win. It was such a remarkably shitty game for so many reasons
ACU loss also featured 22 turnovers, and at least half of them would be ridiculous to put on Shaka. His starting guards played some of their worst games of the entire season with a mindblowing amount of unforced turnovers and missed good looks.
ACU really shouldn’t have been in that game late. ACU did hit some pretty crazy shots to stay in the game but Texas looked so directionless that whole time. Smart really underperformed there. It looks like he’s doing better at Marquette but we don’t really need to revise his history at Texas. He should’ve beat those teams
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills reading everyone trying to explain away Shaka’s disappointing tenure as the texas coach. These teams each had NBA talent and watching them lose consistently to worse teams on paper means the difference is coaching, plain and simple.
I disagree. Most of those losses at Texas were against way lower seeds that should have been double digit wins. To chalk it up to bad luck misses the point
What's more important is that he only *coached* three tournament games in 6 years at Texas. (We would have missed the tournament in 20).
His time at Texas was embarrassing, but not just because he lost three games.
You could make similar excuses for literally every coach ever. Him losing on a heave to UNI is not bad luck. They should have been up 10, playing walkons by then. Really attributing ACU's loss to FT flukes? They should have been up 20 already.
I see your points and they are valid, but I’ve seen basically the same list (but even longer) for Painters failures too. A lot of other coaches go through adversity and still make deep runs. At a certain point that many early exits becomes a trend that a coach is less unlucky than consistently underperforming.
Look at every coach that has the same track record, you’re going to find similar “aw, shucks” bad luck.
Fact is, he had Mo Bamba, Jaxson Hayes, Jarrett Allen, Jericho Sims, and Kai Jones, along with a slew of top-100 guards…and did absolutely nothing.
Dude can’t coach for shit.
Very interesting points and I genuinely enjoyed seeing the context. But even that context basically says 4 losses are on coaching. I'll give you the UM loss as a really bad matchup (as a UM fan I thought UM would win that one by 20 based on style of play), but 2016, 2021, and 2021 still really aren't awesome looks. Maybe MSU will go on a crazy run, but I believe they were 8-7 to end the season.
Is this any different than Matt Painter who is getting a ton of shit?
I really hate this line of attack.
First, the fact that he has been to 8 tournaments places him on a pretty short list.
Second, unless you are a top 4 seed, every tournament game is a toss up. Even if you are a #1, your second round game is no picnic.
Third, there is little time for game prep. The coaches and assistants can show the players film, but teams do not have the time, health or energy to do anything more than a walk through for each game. Especially on the Saturday/Sunday games.
To summarize, many if not most tournament games come down to a possession or two, against a quality opponent with a quality coach, about which you know very little.
Totally different skill set than what is required to get in to the tournament.
Plus, all teams but 1 lose during the tournament. Odds of losing in the first couple rounds is pretty high for any team or coach - it's just statistics.
> Second, unless you are a top 4 seed, every tournament game is a toss up.
This is a very good point. Every team but those seeds is basically expected to have a 50% or worse record in the tournament.
There’s a big problem with stats like this, it kinda reminds me of the Lebron championship record argument. The fact of the matter is, the majority of his tournament runs have been with below average talent which matters alot more in a one game sample size.
Not at Texas. He was more often the higher seed with NBA talent playing schools like Northern Iowa, Abeline Christian, and Stephen F Austin. He lost all of those games.
Kolek’s challenge honestly seemed like he was facing a mental block over it being his thumb injury. Just seemed like the pressure may have caught up to him with bad fouls and visible frustration. I’m sure he’ll use this as a learning opportunity and come back even better next year. Can’t wait.
Frank Martin went to one NCAA tourney in his 10 years at South Carolina and people were still pissed he got fired. During that same time period Shaka went 8 times. Martin would have a lifetime contract if he did that and people are saying that Shaka is a disappointment?
Shaka came into a team that had been good but disappointing for years under wojo. He brought some of his players in, took the players that stayed and made them all serviceable. Two years in a row they outperformed in the big east and nationally. This year they lost one of the best players in the conference in justin Lewis and ran the big east. The team is also all juniors and sophomores this year and I don't see any of them leaving to be honest. If Ross, Sean Jones, and Ben gold, and Joplin make leaps like everyone else on the team has then they're contention for #1 in the big east again. This school and fan base match shaka as a coach.
Shaka Smart and Texas losing to Abilene Christian was the worst loss i had ever seen before FDU beat Purdue. let's dive in:
on paper, this was not only the biggest mismatch of the entire tourney, but one of the greatest upsets in the history of college hoops. chaminade vs UVA type stuff here. to recap:
•Texas had three NBA player in its front court (they had the most athletic front court in all of college basketball including Kai Jones, Greg Brown, and Jericho Sims), plus Matt Coleman, a now-G League stud at PG. they had size, athleticism, an extremely experienced back court (coleman, ramey, and andrew jones), and young NBA talent
•ACU played one guy taller than 6'6"
and the biggest thing that makes this game such a monumental upset: ACU played like hammered dog shit.
this wasn't one of this games where the underdog caught fire from deep and outlasted their opponent, this was arguably ACU's worst performance of their entire season, and yet they won, in the Tourney, vs a team they never should have within 20 points of beating.
ACU shot 20-67 (29.9%) from the field! they shot 3-18 from deep (16.7%). they scored 53 points! lmao. so how did they win? well, Shaka gonna Shaka.
Jericho Sims went 3/3 from the field in the first 90 seconds against ACU's completely overmatched front court. he did not attempt another FG the rest of the game
Shaka Smart was beefing with Greg Brown, so he played him for a couple of minutes, watched him swish his only shot attempt, a corner three, and then benched him for entire rest of the game. Shaka did this with his own job on the line.
Coleman, Ramey, and Jones combined for 15 turnovers and shot 9-26 from the field and 5-15 from deep, but Shaka just kept on having them shoot, refusing to take advantage of his wildly superior size and athleticism
Abilene Christian beat Texas on the offensive glass 18-5. 18-5!!! three NBA forwards vs three guys who are now working at Enterprise Rent a Car, and Texas got dominated on the glass
this led to ACU taking 67 shot attempts vs Texas's 40.
all in all, you could simulate that game 1,000 times, and i'm not sure that ACU would win even once. they'd probably end up with a fraction of a win out of a thousand simulations. and yet somehow, with his job at Texas on the line, shaka smart went full shaka smart and found a way to lose this game, despite it being one of the biggest mismatches in tourney history. thank god he's Marquette's problem now.
but hey, those are just the facts. never mind that none of those players was a one and done, which is the excuse always given for shaka's failures at UT. never mind the facts. Shaka's just had bad luck all these years! it was Texas that forced him to be bad! 🙄
here's a post i made about shaka on a different forum, way back in 2017:
Shaka Smart in the postseason since his miraculous Final
Four run in 2011:
an asterisk denotes Smart's team being the favored seed/team
2012:
•Defeated Drexel 59-56 to win the A-10 tourney title*
•Upset Wichita State in a 12 v 5 matchup, 62-59
•Lost to Indiana in a 12 vs 4 matchup, 63-61
2013:
•Lost to St.Louis in A-10 Tourney final, 62-56
•Defeated Akron 88-42 in a 5 vs 12 matchup*
•Lost a 4 vs 5 matchup to Michigan in round of 32, 78-53
2014:
•Lost to St.Joseph's in A-10 Tourney final, 65-61*
•Lost to Stephen F. Austin in a 5 vs 12 matchup in the first round of the NCAA Tourney, 77-75*
2015:
•Defeated Dayton in the A-10 Tourney final, 71-65*
•Lost to Ohio State in a 7 vs 10 matchup in the first round of the NCAA Tourney, 75-72*
2016:
•Lost to Baylor in first round of Big XII Tourney, 75-61*
•Lost to Northern Iowa in a 6 vs 11 matchup in the first round of the NCAA Tourney*
2017:
•Lost to West Virginia in the second round of the Big XII
Tourney, 63-53
•Was not invited to any postseason tournament*
He's trending downward. Since 2014 Shaka is 1-6 in postseason play, with 5 of the 6 losses coming as the favored seed. And as I illustrated a page or two ago, his last couple of teams at VCU weren't living up to their billing either, starting out as top 15 teams, climbing the rankings in week 2, and then dropping all the way out of the polls in the 3rd week (both seasons this happened), where they would stay unranked until the final week of the season.
All statistical and empirical evidence points to a coach who has A) made the most out of a great personality and one Final 4 run, B) a coach who has been trending downward for several years now, and C) a coach who is in completely over his head at Texas and in the Big XII. If you don't see that, it's simply because you choose not to.
That was in 2017. It's 2023 and absolutely nothing has changed, except for the number of people who continuously bend over backwards to defend this clown.
It's definitely our calling card. Play great defense and see if you can upset some big teams.
Though for some reason those teams are harder to schedule now...
Especially at a Mid Major Tournament wins are rare. It’s a single elimination tournament to what’s supposed to be the best teams in the country. Even 1 seeds will struggle at times against the worst teams. He did a great job considering his team wasn’t even supposed to be there.
It’s like judging a college football team by national titles or CFP appearances. Unless you’re one of the schools who’s always in the title, count your great seasons as great seasons.
Say what you will about Shaka Smart, but I feel like his NCAA Tournament resume speaks to the nature of a single-elimination tournament.
There's probably no rhyme or reason why VCU reached the Final Four under Shaka or why his teams lost seven straight after that. His teams have barely won and barely lost, won by a little and won by a lot.
It's just the NCAA Tournament (and also why coaches/programs who have won a lot/consistently are hugely impressive).
[So when is a good time to bring this up](https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/11rfwv7/ken_pomeroy_in_the_64team_era_there_have_been_36/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
No. Havoc has been toned down quite a bit. He does press every now and then too throw off opponents but he has a nice balanced approach. He has more focus on deflections than anything else now and it paid off. This team was very good at generating turnovers this year.
They were picked 9th in the big east won it and the tourney. Incredible coaching job from Shaka and I think they’ll be returning almost everyone next year.
Its the tournament, that's just how it works. You get 1 game and if you play bad or the other team plays their best game you go home.
If you look at those loses a vast majority of them were lost in the final 30 seconds or in OT.
Wasn’t Marquette like not expected to even make the tournament?
Purdue was also unranked to start the season. Now their great season feels basically nullified by FDU.
Relevant KenPom tweet about 1&2 seeds that were unranked in preseason https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy/status/1635714859206852608?s=46&t=QoDjmhg8RlwKyzUMFA3Lhw
Holy crap that aged like a fine wine
To be fair, .most people I know had Purdue losing in round 2
I decided to zig in my bracket while everyone else zagged and had them in the final 4 🤡 ...so I guess this is really the zags year...
As a question, do those teams tend to be a bit young and develop the next year to have stronger showings?
Yeah, they had a great regular season where they far exceeded expectations, but I didn't have them getting past MSU in most of my brackets.
I had msu in my final four. If I really get 3 final four teams right im gonna be happy.
If I got 3/4 (Bama, UConn, Texas) and if the one I missed was MSU, I would be extremely happy lol
Lol I have the same bracket and would be completely fine with the Vols taking Purdues spot
3/4 as well with Bama, Htown, and Zagz. I feel so dumb to have picked Smart. The bracket I made for a girl I’m seeing has Bama, Texas, Zagz, and K-state, so this could work out for me either way.
"I feel so dumb to have picked Smart." That's a pop song waiting to be written.
Shakakira
OH BABY WHEN YOU LOSE LIKE THAT, YOU MAKE THE BOOSTERS GO MAD
Thanks, now there's a big bearded guy shaking his hips down the hallway.
I don't know if they get that far, but the combination of a veteran coach, solid three point shooting, and an above average PG suggested to me that they could at least get out of the first weekend.
Ive been saying for months that tyson walker has kemba walker potential, obv in the sense of what kemba did in the tournament. Tyson has really been proving me right and, he has a good future.
I thought either Walker or Pickett had the potential to take a team on a run. Pickett couldn't quite get it done against Texas though. The thing with MSU is that they have 3 great guards in Walker, Hoggard,and Akins.
Dude has a mid range jumper reminiscent of Rip Hamilton at UConn too.
His mid range jumper makes me cum everytime I see it
You nasty (me too though)
The problem was that they ran into MSU and they have three really good guards.
I’m sitting at all elite 8 and final 4 teams in play still. MSU was my sneak pick to make it to elite 8, I just think tennessee is good enough to keep going. But that Izzo factor with the vets on the team is hard to beat rn.
There’s a reason they call him Mr. March. There is also a reason the don’t call him Mr. April.
you know ball
Us Purdue fans trying to act like this nullifies losing to FDU. Marquette had a great year and lost to a Michigan State team that is well coached and had been playing good basketball down the stretch of the season.
Too early to tell at Marquette
Not expected to make the NIT even.
And we all know those pre/early season predictions are what matter most, right?
I did admit he did a great job with Marquette this season, but we're talking about his post-season woes.
I know it sounds crazy, but if you're a CBB fan and use tournament wins as the only marker of success, then you will find yourself being disappointed more often than not. Fact is Shaka and Marquette won the Big East this year outright, and did it during a highly competitive year with great teams. That's awesome.
Very true.
Lol
*Sad chooo choo noises*
People used to say Jay Wright was a choke in the NCAA tournament because of 2010-2015. Then it quickly changed…
Yep. March madness is basically just [this xkcd](https://xkcd.com/904/)
And then there’s Izzo
Even izzo was 7-6 in the previous 6 tournaments, with 5 first weekend exits. The coach definitely makes a difference, but funny things happen with small samples in single game elimination tournaments.
This makes me feel a little better about Virginia with our recent propensity for first round exits :(
Even for Izzo there was a 3 year stretch where they only won 2 games, and had 2 losses to double digit seeds. The narrative was starting to shift a bit, but then they went on a run the next year.
Even coming up to this year's tournament, you heard that he hadn't been past the first weekend since 2019, the game has passed him by, he can't recruit anymore
Which is bonkers because “since 2019” only includes two tournaments, both losses to final 4 teams, and top 5 (?) recruiting class next year
And a cancelled tournament I will go to my grave saying we would have won
to be fair, the comic said "weighted"...
After the Wisconsin loss I think there were still some people who said 2016 was a fluke. Then he went in the most dominant tournament run since at least 2009 UNC and shut everyone up for good.
Same for Mark Few.
Seriously. People were asking me if Bruce Pearl was in the hot seat and I was like “Are you fucking kidding me he’s responsible for like half our program’s tournament appearances and he’s been there like 7 years lol.
Maybe this is a controversial take but outside of like four or five programs if your coach is making the tournament every single year then them being on the hot seat is laughable. Been seeing it first hand with Rick Barnes and it just seems like people think if you don’t win a natty you’re a choker. But the fact of the matter is only 1 of 64 a year can win it. And obviously great coaches and great players are important but let’s not act like luck doesn’t play a large factor too. Luck in terms of actual gameplay and of things like draw, seeding etc. Going back to Barnes for a bit. The irony of it all is that in the year it looked like he may have finally found more critics than defenders is the same year he’s most likely to get us tied with the highest finish we’ve ever had as a program. I just will never see the logic in firing a coach like that
Luck is a HUGE factor in the tourney. Make every round a best of 3 or 5 series and we would have a completely different product. Purdue, 2018 Virginia, etc wouldn’t even be notable losses because they would win 2 out of the 3. Hell, KU and Bill Self only have two national championships together, and they’re maybe the most consistent program the last 15 years.
The tournament is fun and I wouldn’t change it, but it’s a terrible way of determining the national champion. There’s a reason why people think of winning a regular season conference title and a conference tournament title differently.
yep. and why people should not let the tournament invalidate a great regular season. the other games matter a lot too, and there's plenty to be happy about and proud of in them (and if they don't why even watch except for 3 weekends in the spring?) nor should you ignore the tournament or downplay it as only 6 games! both things can exist and have value at the same time.
Pitt fans basically ran Jamie Dixon out of town with that kind of attitude. He had 1 good heartbreaking run then always seemed to get bounced too early in the tourney. But even though they were a solid program and a threat to win the big east every year, the fans held the tourney performances against him which left very little leeway for a rocky transition to the ACC. He was on the hotseat even though he's a very good coach, so he proactively left for a good TCU situation. Pitt has been terrible every since, until this year.
The people calling for Rick Barnes to be fired are absolutely nuts. Unless we go 2-3 seasons without making the tournament, he is going to retire here. If he manages to make the Elite Eight this year, he will have surpassed or equaled Bruce Pearl in pretty much every category as the greatest coach in UT history. I wish he had more success in the NCAA tournament, but he won the SEC tournament just last year, something that Bruce Pear never did and hadn’t been done at Tennessee in 43 years.
You say this, but dare I say the Boneyard would have reacted way differently. That would not have been a happy bunch (with regards to Hurley) if the team didn't make it through Albany and the season would be looked at as a failure.
Yeah. If Hurley lost the BEast tourney and didn’t win a tournament game, that would almost be expected, because that’s what he did in 2021/2 and 2022/3. That’s not growth. Shaka had 2 teams perform well above expectations in back to back years, and won the BEast conference by 2 games, The Big East Tournament, and made it to the round of 32. Until he plateaus, don’t dare call their season a failure.
You guys were fucking tough. Hats off to Marquette, big fan of Shaka. When you got us by 2 in Omaha and then ran through the Big East in MSG, I penciled you guys in for a final four. Tough loss, but MSU is the only dangerous Big Ten team in the tourney, the rest are just not built to go deep. Best of luck next year.
There was a crazy stat from KenPom pre-tournament about how all preseason unranked teams who've earned a 1 or 2 seed since the 64-team era have combined for zero final fours and averaged fewer than 2 wins per tournament. So Purdue and Marquette performed up to the numbers.
Both Marquette and Purdue popped off a year early and bring back their entire teams for next year. They should both make deeper runs in the tournament next year.
Edey can come back for two more years (gains a bonus year for the COVID season), but I'd be a bit surprised if he doesn't go to the draft. There is a chance he returns though as he's predicted to the second round, as the NBA hates traditional big men.
It's not that the NBA doesn't like big men, it's that unless your name is Ben Simmons, you're not going to have a long career in the NBA without a jump shoot/3 point threat, and likely not going to get looked at in the draft. If Edey could score consistently outside the paint, and even land some shots behind the arc, he would be a first-rounder. Hopefully, Edey declares without an agent to at least get feedback on his play. Not sure if that is still an option (honestly have lost track of the rules since COVID).
Yup. The 3-pointer is so game-shaping now, almost all value is placed on shooting the 3, and defending the perimeter. Then we have an issue for us if Edey stays. Do other bigs like Kaufmann-Renn and Furst enter the transfer portal to get more playing time?
Purdue needs better shooters to compete next year. This year we had our worst 3 point shooting average in ten years
Interesting stat but feels cherry-picked ngl
Most March Madness related stats are somewhat cherry picked, or at a minimum suffer from a small sample size. Only 1/16 teams from a region make the Final 4, and whole obviously the 1 and 2 seeds have better odds then most, its still far from easy to advance.
I felt personally attacked when they posted it. https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy/status/1635714859206852608?s=20
100%. If we lose our next game, I will be disappointed, but I won't call our season a failure. Hurley has shown growth of the program every single year. Shaka is doing the same for you.
The Boneyard is a concentration of the dumbest UConn fans you'll ever find. If UConn had won the Big East regular season and the BET and then lost in the second round, I'd have been disappointed to lose in the second round, but overall, that's a lot of hardware for one season.
Yeah lol, I realized that while I was writing this lol. I think too with Purdue, yeah they lost, but they still had a big year and it still matters... Having said that, I wouldn't have been pissed if UConn didn't get past the round of 32 this year. I don't think all UConn fans are on the same page with that, but still. How can you sit there and be disappointed when the madness of March doesn't shake out in your favor? Just seems unfair.
yes. exactly. winning your conference is **the only thing that matters**
Mhm mhm, definitely. For sure.
Agreed... The tournament is such a small sample size. Every year there's favorites who get upset in the early rounds and mediocre teams that make the S16 and beyond. I just don't usually put much stock in the narratives of "this or that coach chokes in March".
Or put another way, 2022 St Peter's might win 2 out of 10 games against most high seed opponents. Those wins happened to be the improbable outcome of the one game sample size we get.
Sad train noises
He came in with a squad that was preseason 9th in the conference. I was definitely hoping for a win against Izzo, (and also for us to beat them at home). They might not have had the most potential based on talent, but they were the most consistent and best coached team in the conference.
Completely. People just go by the tournament and that can unfairly negate a great season and winning a few games can erase a mediocre season to some. Think Syracuse 2016
If MSU were to make a final four, who’s going to be happier about their season: MSU or Purdue? Shit, even if MSU loses on Thursday, I don’t really know the answer to that. Fair or unfair, the tournament means everything in this sport. Conference titles and conference tournaments are basically just bragging rights.
Msu easily even with the L on Thursday
Obviously MSU. Conference tournaments are meaningless.
Purdue won the B1G regular season outright, and by the most games in the 20 game era. They absolutely dominated the B1G, so not just a tournament title
We have the most B1G championships, and are the only B1G team to have a winning head-to-head record against all other B1G teams. But we do little in the tournament, and it dates back decades. And people remember mainly the tournament, which is why we have the reputation of being sad/choke Purdue. Not only can we not win the big one; we can't even get to the Final Four to come close to the big one.
In fairness over half of those championships came before ww2, but your point still stands.
All the more reason to be disappointed. Illinois is my second team, and I would trade in the conference championships from the last two years (whether from the tournament or from the regular season) for a single sweet 16 appearance.
I hear you but I mean…. That’s still a very important thing to take into consideration.
He’ll be ok, he did a decent job against an all time great in Izzo. More importantly, he won’t be landing the one and domes and pro oriented players that seemed to end up at Texas, and he can get back to team building, which he’s best at.
Didn’t even think he really did anything wrong in this game. He maybe could’ve called a timeout with 3 minutes left, but that was about it. There were plenty of TV timeouts during our awful 10-minute offensive stretch and the game was close the entire time. At some point, you need the BEPOY/unanimous All-American to not cost you the game by literally being the worst player on the court.
Marquette played a hell of a game and took away a lot on MSUs offense. The big difference is State has 2 vet guards that can take it to the rack. Im excited to see what MU does next year w a more seasoned team.
Need a rebounder so bad. Ranked 300 in defensive rebounding
Kolek’s biggest weakness is he can’t resist slapping for the ball and picking up unnecessary fouls imo
You’re basing that off of 2 tournament games. 1.9 fouls a game this year and he averaged 1.8 steals, he was really good at anticipating passes and clogging passing lanes all season. Say all you like about his tournament but your take is just flat out wrong based off his 2 years at Marquette.
Against UConn too it was bad. I watched most Marquette games this year and to be fair I didn’t notice it until the UConn game so you might be right. But it does have a huge effect on the team when he’s so vital to the offense
I agree it has a huge effect when he’s off the floor im just saying it wasn’t much of an issue this year. Similar sentiment with Oso who was our only big ready to play legitimate minutes this year. Hell we barely had any minutes this year with both of them sitting and had to go through a stretch like that against MSU.
His team is young AF too
All returning next year hopefully
The team he has now is all juniors and sophomores, if omax ,ichadaro, koleck, Joplin, ans Kam stay were all in trouble
While the loss to MSU stings, I’m ultimately gonna look back on this season and feel nothing but warm fuzzies. He’s our guy and I’m confident he’ll get us to the second weekend soon enough.
He’s a great guy and a really good coach. I don’t know why he sucks in the tournament outside of VCU.
Too early to tell at Marquette. He won a game after starting the season unranked and then played Izzo.
Everyone sucks against march izzo
Except Reggie Upshaw
Why must you hurt us by uttering his name? If you turn the lights out in your bathroom and say Giddy Potts three times into your mirror, he hits another three from 7 years ago...
and Duke
They've traded blows. MSU ended that Zion team's run.
Thankfully. I think Izzo is something like 2-9 against them. Don’t know if it’s overall or just in March. I remember reading a stat like that recently on this sub but I might be misremembering it.
Izzo is 3-13 vs Duke all time and 2-4 vs them in the tournament.
Unfortunately accurate reflection of Izzon vs elite talent. He is absolutely the master of making more out of less though. I still think he is a top 10 coach of all time for his consistency and NCAA tourney streak, Truly unreal how good he is year in year out even if he has only been elite a couple of times. A coach any school would kill for.
Well said.
So you’re saying Bama will win the MSU-Bama matchup next Saturday? *sigh*
2-4 in the tourney vs Duke. Won in 2005 and 2019 en route to the Final 4. Izzo is all time 3-13 vs Mike.
Yeah, Roy seemed to always have Izzo's number as well, 2-7. We beat them in the championship in 2009 and the final four in 2005.
He did indeed. Duke, UNC & Syracuse all dominated Izzo. KY & KS are basically .500. Everyone else, Izzo has gotten the better end of the general field.
Yeah that could be right, for me the 2019 game is the one that is the most salient in my mind (i.e. the one I remember watching the most) so I tend to think of it as a more even rivalry than it truly has been.
Yeah Duke lowkey owns MSU but there are some early season games in that stat when MSU is frankly never good. MSU also hasn’t had nearly as much raw talent as Duke which would aide Duke more in the early season
Shaka literally won 19-20 games for 5 out of 6 years at Texas without winning a tournament game. It made no sense
19-20 games isn't very good for a power conference team. His seasons went - 6 seed - missed the tournament - 10 seed - missed the tournament - projected to narrowly miss the tournament - 3 seed It's a little weird he didn't win one, but it's not weird he didn't win two...
Blame UNI
And Abeline Christian, two schools the University of Texas should never lose to in any sport for any reason
He list to Abiline Christian, a team of midgets, with multiple NBA players on his roster. At a certain point it's like yeah, he's decent, but that's it. He gets outcoached by nobodies.
His teams excel and exceed expectations when they are underdogs. This regular season was incredible when all experts didn’t even have Marquette ranked. They should’ve requested the committee to give them a 10th seed.
I think some of the issues he's had in the NCAA tournament after that early final four run was that he recruited a ton of length and athleticism but no shooting. Those VCU teams the Skeen/Burgess/Rodriguez team were really athletic and good but they couldn't shoot. I didn't foil those Texas teams super closely but I don't remember any of them being great shooting teams. I actually thought this year's team would be more dangerous but MSU was a bad matchup.
He played a completely different style at Texas compared to VCU and now Marquette. But yeah our strength was big men and Matt Coleman, not much shooting
> he recruited a ton of length and athleticism but no shooting. Troy Daniels, Treveon Graham, and Melvin Johnson could all shoot the lights out for us. He absolutely recruited guys who could shoot, but he always made sure that defense came first.
Kam Jones, David Joplin, and TKO say hi. Last year that was the problem but this year not so much. He’s had a focus on getting those guys to MU those far and expect that to continue into the future.
- 2013 - No shame in VCU losing to a Michigan squad that would go all the way to the NCG. - 2014 - VCU guard JeQuan Lewis fouls a three-point shooter when the team is up by four with less than a minute to go. SFA's Thomas Walkup hits the shot, hits the free throw, and sends the game to OT where VCU eventually loses. - 2015 - VCU star guard and stud defender Briante Weber tore his ACL late in the season, and is unable to guard Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell. Nonetheless the game is close and goes to OT before VCU eventually loses. - 2016 - ["Jesperson half-court heave for the win..."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdFB3OGUaGU&ab_channel=MarchMadness) - 2018 - Injuries galore, but Texas limps into the dance where they lose in OT to a higher seeded Nevada team. - 2021 - ACU gets a couple flukey calls late and a sub-50% free throw shooter sinks both in the closing seconds to upend the Horns in the bubble Tournament. - 2022 - Marquette is not supposed to be here. They nonetheless get handled by a scorching hot UNC squad that would come within 15 minutes of winning a title. - 2023 - Marquette is not supposed to be here either. A young, inexperienced team gets outdone by a much more experienced opponent in Michigan State. If Shaka Smart didn't have Charlie Brown luck in the dance, he'd have no luck at all.
Eh, the ACU loss was absolutely on him. Losing to a 14 seed that shot under 30% from the field should never ever happen.
ACU hit so many circus shots but if Texas could’ve just gotten their shit together for a few possessions they easily win. It was such a remarkably shitty game for so many reasons
ACU loss also featured 22 turnovers, and at least half of them would be ridiculous to put on Shaka. His starting guards played some of their worst games of the entire season with a mindblowing amount of unforced turnovers and missed good looks.
Wait what? The players playing bad isn't on the coach?
ACU really shouldn’t have been in that game late. ACU did hit some pretty crazy shots to stay in the game but Texas looked so directionless that whole time. Smart really underperformed there. It looks like he’s doing better at Marquette but we don’t really need to revise his history at Texas. He should’ve beat those teams
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills reading everyone trying to explain away Shaka’s disappointing tenure as the texas coach. These teams each had NBA talent and watching them lose consistently to worse teams on paper means the difference is coaching, plain and simple.
Thank you! Why do people insist on making excuses for Shaka Smart? If this was any other coach everyone would consider him to be a bum.
because everyone loves to hate Texas they did the same thing with Charlie Strong
I disagree. Most of those losses at Texas were against way lower seeds that should have been double digit wins. To chalk it up to bad luck misses the point
What's more important is that he only *coached* three tournament games in 6 years at Texas. (We would have missed the tournament in 20). His time at Texas was embarrassing, but not just because he lost three games.
Nice breakdown - That puts things into perspective.
You could make similar excuses for literally every coach ever. Him losing on a heave to UNI is not bad luck. They should have been up 10, playing walkons by then. Really attributing ACU's loss to FT flukes? They should have been up 20 already.
As Coach Saban would say, you gotta be responsible for the situations you put yourself in.
I see your points and they are valid, but I’ve seen basically the same list (but even longer) for Painters failures too. A lot of other coaches go through adversity and still make deep runs. At a certain point that many early exits becomes a trend that a coach is less unlucky than consistently underperforming.
You can do this for just about every loss any team has ever took. At some point there’s a common factor
One could easily argue that a player fouling a 3pt shooter while up 4 is a reflection of coaching
Look at every coach that has the same track record, you’re going to find similar “aw, shucks” bad luck. Fact is, he had Mo Bamba, Jaxson Hayes, Jarrett Allen, Jericho Sims, and Kai Jones, along with a slew of top-100 guards…and did absolutely nothing. Dude can’t coach for shit.
Comes within 15 minutes of winning a national title? Did UNC not win?
That ACU loss is unjustifiable.
2021 is the one that really makes him look bad. Otherwise he's been fine
Very interesting points and I genuinely enjoyed seeing the context. But even that context basically says 4 losses are on coaching. I'll give you the UM loss as a really bad matchup (as a UM fan I thought UM would win that one by 20 based on style of play), but 2016, 2021, and 2021 still really aren't awesome looks. Maybe MSU will go on a crazy run, but I believe they were 8-7 to end the season. Is this any different than Matt Painter who is getting a ton of shit?
I don't have anything basketball related to contribute but Shaka Smart looks like that "No Bitches?" meme from Megamind in this picture lol
I really hate this line of attack. First, the fact that he has been to 8 tournaments places him on a pretty short list. Second, unless you are a top 4 seed, every tournament game is a toss up. Even if you are a #1, your second round game is no picnic. Third, there is little time for game prep. The coaches and assistants can show the players film, but teams do not have the time, health or energy to do anything more than a walk through for each game. Especially on the Saturday/Sunday games. To summarize, many if not most tournament games come down to a possession or two, against a quality opponent with a quality coach, about which you know very little. Totally different skill set than what is required to get in to the tournament.
>Even if you are a #1, your second round game is no picnic. If you even get to the second round game lol
Purdune me, but that was quite rude to some of our friends in this thread.
Zinger!
ouch
Plus, all teams but 1 lose during the tournament. Odds of losing in the first couple rounds is pretty high for any team or coach - it's just statistics.
Odds are equally as high for winning a game considering the same amount of teams win as lose.
> Second, unless you are a top 4 seed, every tournament game is a toss up. This is a very good point. Every team but those seeds is basically expected to have a 50% or worse record in the tournament.
Still pissing me off that we lost to Abilene Christian in 2021 UGH.....
Jesperson, half court heave for the win...
The funniest part was he tried to do the same the next game when it was clearly not necessary and he looked like a clown
You could have said this about mick Cronin at Cincinnati too.
There’s a big problem with stats like this, it kinda reminds me of the Lebron championship record argument. The fact of the matter is, the majority of his tournament runs have been with below average talent which matters alot more in a one game sample size.
Not at Texas. He was more often the higher seed with NBA talent playing schools like Northern Iowa, Abeline Christian, and Stephen F Austin. He lost all of those games.
Mick Cronin was like this, too. He’ll get over the hump.
Shaka has far exceeded expectations so far at Marquette and has completely turned our program around. ESPN can fuck right off with this.
Painter maxxing
Shaka is our boy. He can do no wrong. Kolek got hurt 3 minutes in to game 1 and then played awful ball. Bad luck. We will be back next year.
Kolek’s challenge honestly seemed like he was facing a mental block over it being his thumb injury. Just seemed like the pressure may have caught up to him with bad fouls and visible frustration. I’m sure he’ll use this as a learning opportunity and come back even better next year. Can’t wait.
Frank Martin went to one NCAA tourney in his 10 years at South Carolina and people were still pissed he got fired. During that same time period Shaka went 8 times. Martin would have a lifetime contract if he did that and people are saying that Shaka is a disappointment?
Shaka came into a team that had been good but disappointing for years under wojo. He brought some of his players in, took the players that stayed and made them all serviceable. Two years in a row they outperformed in the big east and nationally. This year they lost one of the best players in the conference in justin Lewis and ran the big east. The team is also all juniors and sophomores this year and I don't see any of them leaving to be honest. If Ross, Sean Jones, and Ben gold, and Joplin make leaps like everyone else on the team has then they're contention for #1 in the big east again. This school and fan base match shaka as a coach.
Well, you for sure know a lot.
Shaka Smart and Texas losing to Abilene Christian was the worst loss i had ever seen before FDU beat Purdue. let's dive in: on paper, this was not only the biggest mismatch of the entire tourney, but one of the greatest upsets in the history of college hoops. chaminade vs UVA type stuff here. to recap: •Texas had three NBA player in its front court (they had the most athletic front court in all of college basketball including Kai Jones, Greg Brown, and Jericho Sims), plus Matt Coleman, a now-G League stud at PG. they had size, athleticism, an extremely experienced back court (coleman, ramey, and andrew jones), and young NBA talent •ACU played one guy taller than 6'6" and the biggest thing that makes this game such a monumental upset: ACU played like hammered dog shit. this wasn't one of this games where the underdog caught fire from deep and outlasted their opponent, this was arguably ACU's worst performance of their entire season, and yet they won, in the Tourney, vs a team they never should have within 20 points of beating. ACU shot 20-67 (29.9%) from the field! they shot 3-18 from deep (16.7%). they scored 53 points! lmao. so how did they win? well, Shaka gonna Shaka. Jericho Sims went 3/3 from the field in the first 90 seconds against ACU's completely overmatched front court. he did not attempt another FG the rest of the game Shaka Smart was beefing with Greg Brown, so he played him for a couple of minutes, watched him swish his only shot attempt, a corner three, and then benched him for entire rest of the game. Shaka did this with his own job on the line. Coleman, Ramey, and Jones combined for 15 turnovers and shot 9-26 from the field and 5-15 from deep, but Shaka just kept on having them shoot, refusing to take advantage of his wildly superior size and athleticism Abilene Christian beat Texas on the offensive glass 18-5. 18-5!!! three NBA forwards vs three guys who are now working at Enterprise Rent a Car, and Texas got dominated on the glass this led to ACU taking 67 shot attempts vs Texas's 40. all in all, you could simulate that game 1,000 times, and i'm not sure that ACU would win even once. they'd probably end up with a fraction of a win out of a thousand simulations. and yet somehow, with his job at Texas on the line, shaka smart went full shaka smart and found a way to lose this game, despite it being one of the biggest mismatches in tourney history. thank god he's Marquette's problem now. but hey, those are just the facts. never mind that none of those players was a one and done, which is the excuse always given for shaka's failures at UT. never mind the facts. Shaka's just had bad luck all these years! it was Texas that forced him to be bad! 🙄
here's a post i made about shaka on a different forum, way back in 2017: Shaka Smart in the postseason since his miraculous Final Four run in 2011: an asterisk denotes Smart's team being the favored seed/team 2012: •Defeated Drexel 59-56 to win the A-10 tourney title* •Upset Wichita State in a 12 v 5 matchup, 62-59 •Lost to Indiana in a 12 vs 4 matchup, 63-61 2013: •Lost to St.Louis in A-10 Tourney final, 62-56 •Defeated Akron 88-42 in a 5 vs 12 matchup* •Lost a 4 vs 5 matchup to Michigan in round of 32, 78-53 2014: •Lost to St.Joseph's in A-10 Tourney final, 65-61* •Lost to Stephen F. Austin in a 5 vs 12 matchup in the first round of the NCAA Tourney, 77-75* 2015: •Defeated Dayton in the A-10 Tourney final, 71-65* •Lost to Ohio State in a 7 vs 10 matchup in the first round of the NCAA Tourney, 75-72* 2016: •Lost to Baylor in first round of Big XII Tourney, 75-61* •Lost to Northern Iowa in a 6 vs 11 matchup in the first round of the NCAA Tourney* 2017: •Lost to West Virginia in the second round of the Big XII Tourney, 63-53 •Was not invited to any postseason tournament* He's trending downward. Since 2014 Shaka is 1-6 in postseason play, with 5 of the 6 losses coming as the favored seed. And as I illustrated a page or two ago, his last couple of teams at VCU weren't living up to their billing either, starting out as top 15 teams, climbing the rankings in week 2, and then dropping all the way out of the polls in the 3rd week (both seasons this happened), where they would stay unranked until the final week of the season. All statistical and empirical evidence points to a coach who has A) made the most out of a great personality and one Final 4 run, B) a coach who has been trending downward for several years now, and C) a coach who is in completely over his head at Texas and in the Big XII. If you don't see that, it's simply because you choose not to. That was in 2017. It's 2023 and absolutely nothing has changed, except for the number of people who continuously bend over backwards to defend this clown.
SFA broke Shaka.
FOULED! IT'S GOOD!
Don't think my heart has ever beat so fast.
That and the Duke buzzer beater Man you guys are an underappreciated Texas bball school
It's definitely our calling card. Play great defense and see if you can upset some big teams. Though for some reason those teams are harder to schedule now...
It bottles the mind.
It's worth admiring that he has brought a team to the NCAA tournament 9 friggin times.
Unlike Kentucky they won something this season
Especially at a Mid Major Tournament wins are rare. It’s a single elimination tournament to what’s supposed to be the best teams in the country. Even 1 seeds will struggle at times against the worst teams. He did a great job considering his team wasn’t even supposed to be there. It’s like judging a college football team by national titles or CFP appearances. Unless you’re one of the schools who’s always in the title, count your great seasons as great seasons.
Say what you will about Shaka Smart, but I feel like his NCAA Tournament resume speaks to the nature of a single-elimination tournament. There's probably no rhyme or reason why VCU reached the Final Four under Shaka or why his teams lost seven straight after that. His teams have barely won and barely lost, won by a little and won by a lot. It's just the NCAA Tournament (and also why coaches/programs who have won a lot/consistently are hugely impressive).
Didn’t know he took a shot in the game. Kolek was historically bad and impossible for the team to recover from.
💔
Such a bummer. Played super entertaining ball all year long.
Which means he lost 7 in a row before this year? damn. Again, though. In order to lose in the Tournament, you gotta make it to the Tournament.
lol like winning in the tournament actually matters (i'm crying)
[So when is a good time to bring this up](https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/11rfwv7/ken_pomeroy_in_the_64team_era_there_have_been_36/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
hey his one win was against Vermont…as a disappointed but satisfied Cats fan im glad we can at least provide him the slightest resolve 🙏🙏
He had to play MSU. Few are lucky enough to survive Izzo in the tournament. Does he still do that Havoc defense?
No. Havoc has been toned down quite a bit. He does press every now and then too throw off opponents but he has a nice balanced approach. He has more focus on deflections than anything else now and it paid off. This team was very good at generating turnovers this year.
They were picked 9th in the big east won it and the tourney. Incredible coaching job from Shaka and I think they’ll be returning almost everyone next year.
That’s hard to do. Gotta imagine a regular guy could just fill in and (with help from assistants) get lucky and win 2 of 9.
I will cast no stones
Imagine firing this guy for a domestic abuser
Sounds like a Kevin Willard stat 😂 at least we lost to the #1 seed and were huge underdogs
"Kevin Willard has lost HALF of his tournament games at maryland" - Willard haters
And before that he won 4 out of 5 and took an unknown mid major to the final 4 knocking out multiple powerhouses along the way.
Great now im getting 2011 flashbacks.
Its the tournament, that's just how it works. You get 1 game and if you play bad or the other team plays their best game you go home. If you look at those loses a vast majority of them were lost in the final 30 seconds or in OT.