The 2023 March Madness “Other Games” Thread

#352
#352
CAVPUT said:
I can't imagine VN if Auburn takes down Houston and we lose to Duke. The Pearl vs Barnes wars will be reignited and burn for months.
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Anyone that actually gets upset about Auburn beating Houston is just looking to be miserable. Auburn is playing a de facto home game as a 9-seed against one of the weakest 1-seeds who will not have their best player, Marcus Sasser. Houston is a completely different team without Sasser, like us without ZZ. I think Auburn is going to win.
 
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#353
#353
TheMookieMonster said:
Anyone that actually gets upset about Auburn beating Houston is just looking to be miserable. Auburn is playing a de facto home game as a 9-seed against one of the weakest 1-seeds who will not have their best player, Marcus Sasser. Houston is a completely different team without Sasser, like us without ZZ. I think Auburn is going to win.
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Yep, and that whole scenario is why I love and absolutely hate March Madness. We get "rewarded" with a 4 seed and get to play a red hot Duke team; Auburn gets a 9 seed, gets to play pretty much home games and gets the weakest #1 seed with their best player hobbled.

If anything burns me up is that Pearl will have more luck in seeding and upsets at Auburn than Tennessee has EVER gotten period.
 
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#354
#354
Lankykong said:
Do you acknowledge that some refs call games tighter than others, or are they all the same? Everyone else has just been saying A&M got ref crews that call the game tight
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Regularly? C'mon. aTm is a nobody in basketball.

They don't pick their crews. They don't get special looks from the refs. Why the heck would they?

Blaming the refs for any "success" aTm had is as soft as it gets.
 
#355
#355
VolsSportsFan said:
Yep, and that whole scenario is why I love and absolutely hate March Madness. We get "rewarded" with a 4 seed and get to play a red hot Duke team; Auburn gets a 9 seed, gets to play pretty much home games and gets the weakest #1 seed with their best player hobbled.

If anything burns me up is that Pearl will have more luck in seeding and upsets at Auburn than Tennessee has EVER gotten period.
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Eh. I see what you’re saying, but I disagree to some degree. The 2017-2018 team had a yellow brick road to the Final Four and we choked to Loyola Chicago. Every high seed in our bracket lost before they would have played us that year. The “best” team we would have had to face was a 7-seed Nevada if I remember correctly.

Actually, yes I just looked it up. Our path that year as a 3-seed was #14 Wright State > #11 Loyola Chicago > 7 Nevada > #9 Kansas State. That was our final four path. You cannot possibly ask for a road any easier than that and we screwed it up. I’ll never get over it.
 
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#359
#359
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#360
#360
omghulkhands said:
Now I want you to think for a moment, if I agree with those 3 above statement, how might it be that this final statement you have made is a strawman?
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Wait? You're insisting aTm isn't a blue blood and doesn't get to pick their crews and wouldn't have any reason to get calls...... yet I still see people saying aTm "gets favorable calls."

All I'm saying is: they don't. They try to control the game inside, make it physical, and hope for the best. That's all. Did it work sometimes? Yeah. Did they get to the line a lot sometimes? Yeah. So did UT last night but that doesn't mean we got favorable calls, it means we attacked at will against La and it worked.

aTm got handed their butts by teams that could shoot their lights out and/or not get flustered by their aggressive play.

It has zero to do with the refs on a regular basis. It's a gameplan, not a "they give them calls" situation.
 
#361
#361
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Wait? You're insisting aTm isn't a blue blood and doesn't get to pick their crews and wouldn't have any reason to get calls...... yet I still see people saying aTm "gets favorable calls."
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Did you watch a single Texas A&M home game this year? They might not be a blue blood, but they 100% got a favorable whistle this season at home. Most of that can be chalked up to having a lucky year where the officials rewarded you in your house, but it’s one of the only thing that explains the free throw discrepancies in those games. And it’s a major reason why they got crushed last night, because they no longer could rely on their style of basketball drawing whistles on a neutral court. Same thing happened against Alabama.
 
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#362
#362
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Wait? You're insisting aTm isn't a blue blood and doesn't get to pick their crews and wouldn't have any reason to get calls...... yet I still see people saying aTm "gets favorable calls."
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What you are saying isn't really any different than anybody else. I think you are conflating "favorable" to mean bias intentionally towards helping A&M. As in, the refs want A&M to win and are colluding to make that happen. But I doubt a single person that has commented in this thread about this believes that, which is why I've said that is a strawman. What I and others are saying is in exact alignment with your statement here:


They try to control the game inside, make it physical, and hope for the best. That's all. Did it work sometimes? Yeah. Did they get to the line a lot sometimes? Yeah.
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Exactly. This is their style of play. A&M rarely won games where they don't get 20+ free throws. If they aren't getting calls, then they are just bricking a bunch of contested drives and interior shots.

Think of it this way. The refs don't help A&M. A&M tries to manipulate how the refs call the game. And that just doesn't work with every crew. If a ref swallows the whistle or doesn't buy into you free throw merchant antics, then they are just screwed.
 
#363
#363
omghulkhands said:
What you are saying isn't really any different than anybody else. I think you are conflating "favorable" to mean bias intentionally towards helping A&M. As in, the refs want A&M to win and are colluding to make that happen. But I doubt a single person that has commented in this thread about this believes that, which is why I've said that is a strawman.
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Just above your comment is someone saying they got favorable whistles, so........

Your own comment of "free throw merchants" implies the refs should ignore a strategy to go to the rim aggressively and try to draw fouls. It's a legitimate strategy in basketball and it's not new nor unique to aTm. It's not evil, wrong, nor should refs not call fouls when teams pound it down low. UT did it against La because it would work all night and free throws and +1's are good.

What you're seeming to argue is: I don't like this strategy. Tough. Coaching should deal with it.
 
#364
#364
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Just above your comment is someone saying they got favorable whistles, so........

Your own comment of "free throw merchants" implies the refs should ignore a strategy to go to the rim aggressively and try to draw fouls. It's a legitimate strategy in basketball and it's not new nor unique to aTm. It's not evil, wrong, nor should refs not call fouls when teams pound it down low. UT did it against La because it would work all night and free throws and +1's are good.

What you're seeming to argue is: I don't like this strategy. Tough. Coaching should deal with it.
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Getting a favorable whistle is kind of a necessary component to being a free throw merchant. You literally have to hope the officials blow the whistle for your style of play to work. Blue bloods aren’t the only teams that get favorable whistles.
 
#365
#365
TheMookieMonster said:
Getting a favorable whistle is kind of a necessary component to being a free throw merchant. You literally have to hope the officials blow the whistle for your style of play to work. Blue bloods aren’t the only teams that get favorable whistles.
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It's a gameplan. Force it low, drive it, and try to get the +1.

That's not a favorable whistle. That's called an aggressive gameplan that tries to draw fouls.

The implication you guys want to spew is that the refs are "favorable" to that. That's not the case. It's simple: more drives, more dumps down low = more chances for fouls.

It's not the refs. It's the gameplan that gives more opportunities for fouls so there's nothing "favorable" about it.
 
#367
#367
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
It's a gameplan. Force it low, drive it, and try to get the +1.

That's not a favorable whistle. That's called an aggressive gameplan that tries to draw fouls.

The implication you guys want to spew is that the refs are "favorable" to that. That's not the case. It's simple: more drives, more dumps down low = more chances for fouls.

It's not the refs. It's the gameplan that gives more opportunities for fouls so there's nothing "favorable" about it.
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Again, is this your first time watching basketball? The concept of a home whistle is a real thing. It’s not a fairytale. Texas A&M’s “strategy” might be to be aggressive and draw fouls, but that is not a “strategy” that produces in March. They were shooting roughly 20-30 free throws every game at home. Pretty sure if I remember right there was one game they shot close to 40. Their game plan is not one that produces in March on a neutral court. It just doesn’t! It requires officials to blow their whistles and in post-season and tournament play, officials swallow their whistles pretty often. Texas A&M wasn’t getting 30 free throws in the big dance. Officials were never going to let that happen, but their strategy all year long has been to try and goad officials into blowing their whistle and when they couldn’t get officials to do so last night they were cooked from the start.
 
#368
#368
TheMookieMonster said:
Again, is this your first time watching basketball? The concept of a home whistle is a real thing. It’s not a fairytale. Texas A&M’s “strategy” might be to be aggressive and draw fouls, but that is not a “strategy” that produces in March. They were shooting roughly 20-30 free throws every game at home. Pretty sure if I remember right there was one game they shot close to 40. Their game plan is not one that produces in March on a neutral court. It just doesn’t! It requires officials to blow their whistles and in post-season and tournament play, officials swallow their whistles pretty often. Texas A&M wasn’t getting 30 free throws in the big dance. Officials were never going to let that happen, but their strategy all year long has been to try and goad officials into blowing their whistle and when they couldn’t get officials to do so last night they were cooked from the start.
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It's all a conspiracy at home. Sure. That makes perfect sense.

They don't pick the crews. They don't have the legacy of a blueblood. But sure, aTm gets to home cook and nobody else does.
 
#369
#369
Just went and looked:

AT HOME:

- Alabama, 28 Free Throws
-Arkansas, 22 Free Throws
- Tennessee, 34 Free Throws
- Auburn, 39 Free Throws
- Vandy, 36 Free Throws
- Mizzou, 32 Free Throws

LAST NIGHT
- Penn State, 12 Free Throws

Texas A&M lost by 17 last night.
 
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#371
#371
TheMookieMonster said:
Just went and looked:

AT HOME:

- Alabama, 28 Free Throws
-Arkansas, 22 Free Throws
- Tennessee, 34 Free Throws
- Auburn, 39 Free Throws
- Vandy, 36 Free Throws
- Mizzou, 32 Free Throws

LAST NIGHT
- Penn State, 12 Free Throws

Texas A&M lost by 17 last night.
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Yeah, as I said, Penn State bombed them from outside after the first about 5 minutes of the game and then pushing it inside was no longer an option that could work. They had to get out of their gameplan (get to the line) and shoot. They SUCK at shooting.

In the season, those that didn't counter the aTm strategy, let them get to the line.

Again, that's not the refs..... that's a gameplan. Want to beat aTm? Make them shoot outside by jumping out on them. YOU have to take it away from them or they'll pound it and get to the line.

The refs aren't in that equation. Any team that pounds it inside will go to the line more.
 
#374
#374
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Yeah, as I said, Penn State bombed them from outside after the first about 5 minutes of the game and then pushing it inside was no longer an option that could work. They had to get out of their gameplan (get to the line) and shoot. They SUCK at shooting.

In the season, those that didn't counter the aTm strategy, let them get to the line.

Again, that's not the refs..... that's a gameplan. Want to beat aTm? Make them shoot outside by jumping out on them. YOU have to take it away from them or they'll pound it and get to the line.

The refs aren't in that equation. Any team that pounds it inside will go to the line more.
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Penn State did not start draining 3s until about 6mins left in the 1st half to build the lead. It was still a close game so A&M ran their offense like normal but did not get the whistle like they did during the season. That is everybody’s point. Keep going though it is fun reading.
 
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