Running 2018 college rings postseason thread

There was a dustup with the Virginia Tech women's lacrosse team shown on video singing a song with n***a in it.

Maybe this is worth it's own thread, since it keeps coming up. But does Kanye not market to white people? Does Jay-Z not market to white people? Are white people not allowed to sing along with those lyrics because of that word? That word, used in that context, is not about white people calling black people n****rs. It's used, as A Tribe Called Quest once famously rapped, as a term of endearment. I can't feign any anger for a white person singing along to a song that is presumably marketed toward people of all races.

 

Greg Olsen a few years ago, too, right?

And, of course, it triggers a few people here when posters use it.

 

Are there really people here who think last night's game was ugly and painful to watch?

Holy shit, DiVincenzo was a joy to watch. His two blocked shots alone were worth staying up for. Villanova played beautiful basketball. I found that game very entertaining.

Full disclosure (including brag): I had Villanova beating Michigan on my bracket, which finished in the 98th percentile of the ESPN contest.

 

Thanks again, AP!

 

UConn's Azura Stevens is leaving early for the WNBA. This doesn't happen very often in women's hoops.

 

I'm a Michigan fan (full disclosure I had Michigan beating Villanova in my bracket) and I didn't think the game was ugly. Was it painful? Yeah, as a Michigan fan it was, but it's not like Michigan was overly inept. I enjoyed watching Villanova and especially that little racist guard's performance.

Villanova is just a pretty good team and has a knack for making a run when the other team makes a run. Michigan got it down to 12 at one point, had a chance to make it a single-digit deficit going into the TV timeout and I think DiVincenzo hit a 3-pointer, then a layup to put it back to 17 in a heartbeat.

I don't mind blowouts, especially when it's a game like last night when one team is just that much better and seems to have an answer for everything.

 

I'm not sure "leaving early" is the right phrase when she has been in school for four years. She's leaving with eligibility remaining thanks to sitting out the transfer year.

 

Interesting - the WNBA minimum is more than the G-league average, and is usually augmented with a six-figure deal to play overseas.

 

Conference USA says, "Oh what the hell," and totally revamps its scheduling format for 2018-19 from a traditional model to something no one has ever seen before -- a sort of pre-tournament for the last four games.
Amazingly, early feedback seems to be positive.

Conference USA ready to shake up scheduling in men's basketball with NCAA tourney in mind

 

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out, but conceptually it seems like a pretty good idea for a second tier conference to get more bids.

 

I won't pick a side until @Neutral Corner corner weighs in.

 

I'd thought about posting about it and hadn't. It's basically a last ditch effort to find a way to get two teams into the NCAA. The bottom third of C-USA basketball is so bad that top league teams win on the road there and their RPI drops because their opponent has a 300+ RPI - but they're league games, and you have no choice but to play them. The league did something similar when Calipari was still at Memphis, for similar reasons. So they'll split the league into thirds based on the record two thirds of the way through the conference season and run a round robin mini tournament within those groups.

It's worth a try. C-USA tourney winners get underseeded as it is, in part because of RPI (and the old eye test, although I tend to think that some ACC graduate writers and commentators badly need an eye exam). Hell, at least they're trying something.