NCAA Basketball Tournament

Georgia Finally Hires a Coach

Chas Rich — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:52:00 EST

Georgia fired Dennis Felton in mid-season appeared to be thoroughly botching their coaching search. They targeted Missouri coach Mike Anderson, and had to wait until he finished a strong run to the Elite Eight. In doing so, Georgia missed out on other coaches like Anthony Grant. If not for the farce of a coaching search in Arizona overshadowing things, Georgia would have been receiving plenty of ridicule.

Anderson rebuffed Georgia and the reported $2 million plus offer to stay at Missouri for a nice raise, but not what Georgia was offering. Georgia's coaching search appeared to be in disarray. As if the program did not expect to be rejected by their first choice if they overwhelmed him with cash.
It was rumored that the Bulldogs were trying to get Jeff Capel from Oklahoma next, and failing that Frank Haith from Miami. Yet, nothing appeared to be happening. It got to the point where there was speculation that Georgia was considering Ed DeChellis at Penn State or Scott Drew at Baylor, and was waiting for the conclusion of the NIT.

Well the Bulldogs finally made their pick, and it is a bit of a surprise. Nevada coach Mark Fox will be the next coach at Georgia.

Fox is an excellent young coach who has been very successful with the Wolf Pack after succeeding Trent Johnson. He has recruited well at Nevada and developed players. He's been considered a hot, young coach for a couple years.

It was expected, though, that if a major conference came calling, it would be one in the Pac-10 or Big 12. He does not have any ties to the south or the east. The native of Kansas, went to school at Eastern New Mexico and got a graduate degree at Kansas. He has been an assistant at Kansas State and Washington.

Naturally, the lack of any connections to anywhere east of the Mississippi has created some immediate doubts.The doubters are probably going to outnumber the believers for a while.

Georgia Finally Hires a Coach originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:52:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seed-By-Conference Analysis: Committee Loves the Big East and ACC

Matt Snyder — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: A-10, ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, America East, A-Sun, Big South, BSC, BWC, CAA, C-USA, Great West, Horizon League, Ivy League, MAAC, MAC, MEAC, MVC, MWC, NEC, OVC, Pac-10, Patriot League, SEC, SoCon, Southland, SWAC, Sun Belt, The Summit, WCC, WAC, Big Sky, Big West, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

Among the big story lines from Sunday's filling out of the NCAA basketball tournament field, discussions of conferences who are "overrated" and "underrated" dominated the discussion. Specifically, fans of so-called mid-major teams cried foul, and the masses proclaimed the selection committee was biased in favor of the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences.

The biggest issue I have with this instant "analysis" is that it's not analysis at all. Saying the NCAA thought the Big Ten was on-level with the ACC and Big East simply because they were allotted the same number of teams is -- with apologies to Bob Knight -- just plain stupid.

You see, it's easy to just look at the number of bids and act like that's how the NCAA views individual conferences. It's simple, and people like simple. Thus, it's the approach simpletons take, because they aren't capable of more analytical thought. Dive deeper, though. Do you really think the committee thought the Big Ten was on-level with the Big East when the Big East got three number one seeds and the Big Ten only received one Sweet 16 seed? Does that really, honestly sound even to you?

So here we are, with your guide on judging how the selection committee seriously judged conference strength. I went through every game and just picked the favored seed to win. Meaning eight beats nine, but then loses to one. And so on. We'll call the figure the "expected record," and this will give us a gauge on how strong the selection committee truly felt a conference was.

Big East

Number of teams: 7
Seeds: 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 6, 6
Expected record: 20-6 (including three Final Four teams and one National Champion
Comments: See, this is far and away the strongest conference according to the committee. Look at those seeds. The seventh entrant from the league was awarded a six-seed. In fact, this has to be the best conference of all-time in terms of what they received from the committee -- as long as you don't get hung up on the number of bids. Their average seed is a three.

ACC

Number of teams: 7
Seeds: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 7, 10
Expected record: 13-7
Comments: Another conference that impressed the NCAA enough to get lots of favorable seeds. An interesting discrepancy -- which Seth Davis pointed out on the Selection Show -- is seeing Maryland receive a 10-seed while Wisconsin garnered a 12. How about Boston College landing a seven-seed despite an RPI of 60? These are just two illustrations of how highly the committee favored the ACC to other conferences (aside from the Big East, of course).

Big 12

Number of teams: 6
Seeds: 2, 3, 3, 7, 8, 9
Expected record: 9-6
Comments: They received less teams than the Big Ten and equal to the Pac-10, but got much better bang for their buck with three Sweet 16 seeds and an Elite Eight.

Big Ten

Number of teams: 7
Seeds: 2, 5, 5, 8, 10, 10, 12
Expected record: 6-7
Comments: Seriously? This is an overrated conference? They finished 2nd in conference RPI, and only got one Sweet 16 seed. Three of their seeds are of the one-and-done variety. Knowing this, can you seriously tell me the committee had bias toward the conference? The strength of the conference this year was the depth, but there was an admitted lack of elite teams. The seedings accurately reflected this. By the way -- Minnesota (42), Michigan (44), and Wisconsin (45) were all a bit better than Maryland (55) in the RPI. They were all seeded equal to or worse than the Terrapins. If Penn State made the tourney, the Big Ten haters would have a case. Instead, they don't.

Pac-10

Number of teams: 6
Seeds: 4, 6, 6, 7, 10, 12
Expected record: 5-6
Comments: Arizona (62 RPI) is the one team in the whole tourney that seems egregiously invited. Other than that, though, the conference didn't get a ton of credit. Only one Sweet 16 seed, and a four at that.

Mountain West

Number of teams: 2
Seeds: 5, 8
Expected record: 2-2
Comments: Well, they liked the teams they allowed in the tourney. Obviously, it's tough to imagine San Diego State sporting a 34 RPI in a "major" conference and not making the Dance. I'm actually very surprised they gave BYU an eight and then dropped everyone else off the board. It's not like BYU and Utah were playing at such a different level than New Mexico, SDSU, and UNLV.

Atlantic 10

Number of teams: 3
Seeds: 4, 11, 11
Expected record: 2-3
Comments: Again, a head-scratcher. Was Xavier really seven whole seeds better than Dayton?

SEC

Number of teams: 3
Seeds: 8, 9, 13
Expected record: 1-3
Comments: Simply put: The committee believes the SEC sucks this year. In fact, had Butler won the Horizon League tourney, it's conceivable to think they would have flipped seeds with LSU and the SEC would have come away with zero expected wins. If you want to proclaim power conference bias, you better look elsewhere.

Everyone Else

There are only six wins left from teams not in the above eight conferences. Memphis, as a two-seed, is expected to win three games before bowing out. Gonzaga, a four, is slated to take two. The lone remaining win? Well, someone has to win the play-in game. Every other team in the field, 21 of them from non-"power" conferences, has a worse seed than their first-round foe.

And yes, though I'm a Big Ten fan, it's really easy for me to admit St. Mary's got jobbed. We're talking about a 48 RPI from a team who was missing their best player for a decent chunk of the season. He's healthy enough to play now, so they should have included them in the field. This is the type of error (Mary's and/or SDSU vs. 'Zona and/or Maryland) that makes people believe the committee is biased.

Final Thought

This is how you should judge conference performance in the tournament. Don't be a simpleton. To illustrate the point, here's an example: If the Big East goes 14-7 and the Big Ten goes 10-7, I'm guessing there will be a bunch of people hanging their hats on the superior performance by the Big East. In actuality, as outlined above, the Big Ten would be exceeding expectations with a 10-7 record. Thus, they were underrated. The Big East would have fallen short of the lofty expectations, which means they were overrated.

We'll see how everything shakes out, but just remember -- it's not all about the number of teams per conference, and it's not necessarily about the won-loss record when judging if the committee was biased or "overrated" someone. It's much more complicated than that.

Seed-By-Conference Analysis: Committee Loves the Big East and ACC originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Battle of the Aggies: Mascots Fight at WAC Tournament

Adam Papagiorgio — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:25:00 EST

Filed under: WAC

The mascots for Utah State and New Mexico State got into a tussle in the closing moments of the team's intense WAC tournament semifinal game on Friday night.

Utah State's mascot Big Blue ripped the fake ~~porn~~ mustache off Pistol Pete to start the melee. (After all, you can't steal a fake mustache and expect to get away with it.)

You know how the rest of this goes.

Mascots Behaving Badly

One pull of the mustache turns into a fight between New Mexico State mascot Pistol Pete, pictured, and Utah State's Big Blue the bull mascot. After Big Blue ripped off Pistol Pete's fake mustache, the cowboy chased the bull down and tried to choke his rival during conference tournament play. Click through for other cases of mascot misconduct.

New Mexico State University Athletics, AP

Rice University mascot Sammy the Owl was ejected from one of the team's games in late January after getting physical with a referee.

Nelson Chenault, US PRESSWIRE

An actor who played the Diamondbacks' mascot, Baxter, was recently fired after he was pulled over on an Arizona highway and accused of having a blood-alcohol content of nearly twice the legal limit - with the costume in the back seat. Police say he also admitted smoking marijuana earlier in the day.

Nick Doan, WireImage

The Penn State senior who plays the Nittany Lion mascot was suspended after being hit with a DUI charge in November was forced to miss the Rose Bowl.

Elsa, Getty Images

One of the actors who dresses up as the Pittsburgh Steelers' team mascot, Steely McBeam, was arrested and accused of driving under the influence in April.

Michael Fabus, Getty Images

Last March, there was a spectacular brawl between Oral Roberts' Eli the Eagle and IUPUI's Jawz the Jaguar. Watch the Fight

YouTube.com

The Oregon Duck got into a fight with Houston's Cougar in 2007, and earned himself him a suspension and a spot in the YouTube Hall of Fame. Watch the Battle

Rick Bowmer, AP

In August 2007, the Mariners' Moose drew the ire of Boston fans when he hit former Red Sox outfielder Coco Crisp with his ATV during a game in Seattle.

Elaine Thompson, AP

The Dodgers-Giants rivalry is fierce, and that spreads even to San Francisco's mascot Lou Seal. He was caught on tape in 2007 challenging an unruly Dodgers fan to fisticuffs.

Eric Risberg, AP

Benny the Bull got in hot water for shooting a T-shirt gun at two Celtics during an April 2008 game.

Gary Dineen, NBAE / Getty Images

Pistol Pete tracked down Big Blue and attempted to choke out its rival, according to the AP report. And we will be treated with video of this on sports blooper shows for some time. (For the love of the Internets, somebody better have gotten video of this.)

You know who is to blame here? The Western Athletic Conference itself. You can't have two teams in one conference with the same nickname, Aggies (So consider yourself on notice twice, SEC). It was only a matter of time before they were going to fight. At some point, the mascots were going to go alpha-dog on each other. After years of sniffing around each other, it was time to throw down.

Big Blue was apparently set up by a Utah State fan who offered $100 for the mustache. And in this economy, that is a deal you can't pass up. But why is it not surprising that Utah State fans were involved here?

Utah State has one of the most loyal, traveling fan bases around. The Big West tournament in Anaheim has suffered since the team left to join the WAC. But there are times when the fans can be a little juvenile.

The Utah State fans once held up $1 bills when the Cal State Fullerton dance team performed during a timeout at the Big West tournament. Not only was the move low-class (only a $1 for those hotties), it was also ignorant. Everybody knows that it's the Cal State Fullerton track team that works in the adult entertainment industry. That night, however, resulted in Utah State fans and Cal State Fullerton fans getting into a scuffle and some Utah State fans being detained by police.

Utah State fans again gained exposure when their fans oiled up and mocked then New Mexico State coach Reggie "Hang Time" Theus.

Big Blue has worked quickly to gain a "fan club" in his short time in the WAC. So this isn't out of character for Utah State fans.

The most amusing part of Friday's incident is that it occurred during the closing moments of a hotly contested game -- one that Utah State needed to win in order to keep its dream alive for the dance. Instead of mascot pranks, how about paying attention to the game Utah State fans? I hope you don't think you are a lock for the tournament.

While Utah State might be a bubble team on the court, if there was a tournament for troublemaking fans, Utah State would be a No. 1 seed.

Battle of the Aggies: Mascots Fight at WAC Tournament originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:25:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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