REPOST - NCAA Bracket SIGNUP HERE!!

It's coming down to the final weekend for most of us.  The 8 of us who picked UF can be free and clear if they keep rolling.  And it looks like 6 people are guaranteed a spot in the bottom half.

Glad I didn't play. This has been one of the best tournaments in a long time. 8 overtimes?

Foghorn said:

MaskedMarvel said:

This tournament has been a disaster.

Yes it has.  As a basketball fan I have to commend the UK kids for finally putting it together and learning to play team ball.  As a cynic I have to think that it is easier to pull your kids together when there is no expecation that they actually go to class after the fall semester because they are planning on going pro after the freshman year.  I realize that no competitive college coach would turn down talent just on the basis that the player won't actually stay in school (i.e. "he's too good") so Kentucky is only doing what most programs wish they could. 

I have actually spoken with some of the higher ups in the Duke Alumni Association and suggested that we pressure Coach K to not recruit players that plan to be "one and done" as I would rather see the team lose basketball games than have players at Duke that aren't truly students.  The feedback I get suggests that about 90% of alums agree with me, but that's not enough to overcome the small percentage who make major contributions for athletics. 

But with that said, I'll get off my soapbox and just say "congrats" to any fans of the teams that survived this far.  The games have been very exciting and largely well-played.

It's hopefully just a matter of time before Calipari's Faustian deal catches up with him and he gets a show-cause penalty. After all, this is only his 2nd Final Four. Kudos to him by gaming the system into being able to recruit blue chips that turn into lottery picks every year because he can guarantee they will play pro.

NCAA athletes are cash cows for American universities.  Only a small percent (unless you look at programs like KY BB, which is in a very exclusive minority) of those athletes have professional careers outside of coaching.  These guys and gals are giving up their bodies, many with life long damage and pain.  Plenty of super smart, successful pro athletes that never got a degree.  What's a degree?  A way for a regular person to "prove" they can muster up enough fortitude to be a good employee.  And you become enlightened.  If you can survive the instant fame at the elite level of college athletes without waking up dead in a hotel room or with a crack addiction, that helps prove you can do the job you'll be hired for.

I'd love for everyone to be college educated.  If for nothing else, so they aren't ignorant voters.

That said, I support giving some of that money back into a system that takes care of injuries sustained playing the game.  Seems fair.

Foghorn said:

I'd be a lot more bothered by Kentucky if I were confident that Jabari Parker is doing well in school - or that Corey Maggette did.
We could do like the entire rest of the world and separate professional athletics from education. I'm just not sure which system is better. It would be interesting to see what happens to the average group of 16 year old European soccer players who sign to train with a big club - and compare that to a similar cohort of US football and basketball players.

I'm much more confident that Coach K does not purely recruit to win at all costs. Maybe he's changed in the last few years. I can just about count his one and dones on one hand - Rivers, Deng, Magette, Irving, probably Parker. Avery and Brand were sophomores, no?

Gary Williams was heavily criticized for "losing" local talent (Durant, Anthony, Beasley) but never recruited the players due to the BS that is local AAU.

1310monster said:

I don't know why you crybabies are throwing off on Kentucky. They are an 8 seed. Everybody else is favored ahead of them right?! I see no Kentucky cheerleading on this site. Yet when you google the most hated team in NCAA basketball...it isn't UK that come up...is it...Duke?

I'm a Kentucky fan.  Went to the sweet 16 and final 4 here in New Orleans to watch them.

This is all fixed for the most part if the kids could go straight to the NBA or the D-League.  That way they're not forced to attend a university for the one year.

YEMTrey said:

This is all fixed for the most part if the kids could go straight to the NBA or the D-League.  That way they're not forced to attend a university for the one year.

The student will decide whether or not he wants to get an education, or if he is going to try and prove his talent is worthy of being paid.

College athletics have become the "minor leagues" for the major sports. Something they were never intended to do.  If I'm the NCAA, I wholeheartedly stand behind not paying student athletes.  They are there to get an education.  If a professional sports career is what they're after, then go talk to the NFL.

And let's not cry for these major college football players.  MOST ARE GETTING PAID.  It's just now some of the lesser talent wants a cut of the pie as well and this is their way of going about it.

If the NCAA is dissolved as a money making entity, I wholeheartedly agree. However, if they remain a multi-billion dollar industry all athletes deserve a cut. The money is earned on their backs. The scholarship and promise of a free education is no longer enough to justify the monster that this industry has become. 

@foghorn

Eggcelsior said:

nolaegghead said:

I'm not saying they need to be paid by the system, rather let them have the freedom to make money outside of school and get the system to give them medical insurance.

This is what is fascinating with the Northwestern unionization fight and O'Bannon vs. NCAA. They want the medical care and ability to earn royalties, as opposed to getting paid straight-up.

Yeah, I'm totally on their side.  F the man and all that.

Just do away with college athletics.

The Duke haters I know list Wojo at the top, largely because of the floor slapping. And none of them hated Jason Williams.

You may not be old enough to remember the early 80's in the ACC.  Maryland's team of Albert King, Buck Williams, Ernest Graham, etc was as much fun to watch as UNC's team with Jordan, Worthy, Perkins, etc.  It was a good time to have free seats at Cameron.