Gonzaga been getting Baylord. Not enough $$$$ to
Participate anymore

IowaBear said:

---

Zags sucked this year if we're being honest. St Narys sucked as well. But they get rewarded every year for stacking wins in a crap conference.

---

Sucked is a massive exaggeration. They beat Alabama, Kentucky and UCLA by double digits this year.

This wasn't a vintage Gonzaga team offensively, but they were still a good team. Texas is just playing well right now.

Losing Huff destroyed Gonzaga. They basically ran the offense through him and he was solid with his shot selection. He's the guy who basically led them to all the early season wins against better competition. Ike is a good player, but not someone you can run the offense through. Gonzaga was technically overseeded because the big wins that drove the #3 seeding were largely all accomplished when Huff was still playing. Without him, they were a 6 or 7 at best.

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

Losing Huff destroyed Gonzaga. They basically ran the offense through him and he was solid with his shot selection. He's the guy who basically led them to all the early season wins against better competition. Ike is a good player, but not someone you can run the offense through. Gonzaga was technically overseeded because the big wins that drove the #3 seeding were largely all accomplished when Huff was still playing. Without him, they were a 6 or 7 at best.

---

I think this is fair. Their offense toward the end of the season was pretty labored. Very little came easy in either of their tournament games.

Texas entered the NCAAS on a 3 game skid. They weren't playing well entering the dance. They were however, a very talented team that under achieved. They got a wonderful draw getting 2 teams who were massively overseeded. Gonzaga did nothing imo to earn a 3 seed. Other than get by on their name.

And they barely survived the play in game

IowaBear said:

---

Texas entered the NCAAS on a 3 game skid. They weren't playing well entering the dance. They were however, a very talented team that under achieved. They got a wonderful draw getting 2 teams who were massively overseeded. Gonzaga did nothing imo to earn a 3 seed. Other than get by on their name.

---

I'm saying they're playing well right now. They finished well against NC State after an ugly first 30-plus minutes and played really good games against BYU and Gonzaga.

I don't really care what they did at the end of the regular season. They're playing objectively good basketball right now.

And Gonzaga earned their seed the same way everyone else did: with their resume, which features an 8-1 record against power conference competition.

I understand that. I'm simply saying they got a great draw. BYU simply isn't good defensively. They're Aj occasionally RW and literally 3 scrubs. And Gonzaga just isn't/wasn't a 3 seed. They got a wonderful draw like Quinton posted a day ago. Best case draw for Texas.
Your 8-1 record against power conference competition includes Maryland, Oregon, AZ St.. let's not kid ourselves here. They have a few nice wins no doubt about it. They didn't deserve a 3. And that played out exactly like I thought it would.

VCU falling apart. Coach t'ed up

IowaBear said:

---

I understand that. I'm simply saying they got a great draw. BYU simply isn't good defensively. They're Aj occasionally RW and literally 3 scrubs. And Gonzaga just isn't/wasn't a 3 seed. They got a wonderful draw like Quinton posted a day ago. Best case draw for Texas.
Your 8-1 record against power conference competition includes Maryland, Oregon, AZ St.. let's not kid ourselves here. They have a few nice wins no doubt about it. They didn't deserve a 3. And that played out exactly like I thought it would.

---

The biggest advantage they got is playing a WIll Wade-coached team in the play-in and two teams that weren't the same personnel-wise as the groups that earned their seeds.

BYU without Saunders isn't a six seed and Gonzaga without Huff isn't a three. But those are still good teams, and Texas deserves credit for playing well and beating them in tough, close games. There were lots of opportunities to fold in all three of their tournament wins, and they made some huge shots to win all of them.

El Oso said:

---

VCU falling apart. Coach t'ed up

---

They can't score against Illinois. They made a nice run to get back into it in the first half, but that's the only stretch of this entire game that they've scored with any consistency.

You're proving my entire point. Those teams got seeds based on what they were. Not who they currently are. BYU by my count beat 5 ncaa teams.. bama by far their best win imo. That's just not a 3 seed imo. Will have to agree to disagree. BYU was probably a 7-8 and Zags a 5-6 if we're going solely by what they were entering ncaas. I'm not bashing Gonzaga. They're a good program. But there weee several team who were more deserving of a 3 than them imo

IowaBear said:

---

Zags sucked this year if we're being honest. St Narys sucked as well. But they get rewarded every year for stacking wins in a crap conference.

---

Completely agreed on St Mary's. Just a little athleticism from a scrub A&M squad and they completely crumbled

They need to quit rewarding SM seed wise every year. Good program all things considered. No way in hell were they a 7 seed

IowaBear said:

---

You're proving my entire point. Those teams got seeds based on what they were. Not who they currently are. BYU by my count beat 5 ncaa teams.. bama by far their best win imo. That's just not a 3 seed imo. Will have to agree to disagree. BYU was probably a 7-8 and Zags a 5-6 if we're going solely by what they were entering ncaas. I'm not bashing Gonzaga. They're a good program. But there weee several team who were more deserving of a 3 than them imo

---

Teams are always graded on their complete resumes, though.

It gets tricky when you have key injuries because you don't want to punish teams twice for those. You have to grade the resume, and Gonzaga's resume was pretty damn good. They were a top-eight team in the NET and a top-15 team in the KenPom rankings.

I think the Sweet 16 was probably their ceiling without Huff anyway, but I don't want to overreact to a close loss to a hot Texas team. If Heide doesn't make a tough corner 3, there's a good chance they advance.

I guess that's where we differ. They beat Oregon and Maryland from the B10. Two HORRENDOUS teams this year. Got drilled by 40 against Michigan (no shame there) did beat a solid UCLA team. Beat a good Bama team and a solid Kentucky team by 30! But they did very little else. Creighton and AZ St two more bad teams. Now in fairness those programs are typically good teams who has down years. But strictly looking at their resume that's not a 3 seed imo

IowaBear said:

---

They need to quit rewarding SM seed wise every year. Good program all things considered. No way in hell were they a 7 seed

---

A seven's better than the five seed they had been getting before this year.

I think Randy Bennett is a really good coach who has done a really nice job with that program. But they are painfully unathletic every year. They should be getting seven to nine seeds, not fives.

IowaBear said:

---

I guess that's where we differ. They beat Oregon and Maryland from the B10. Two HORRENDOUS teams this year. Got drilled by 40 against Michigan (no shame there) did beat a solid UCLA team. Beat a good Bama team and a solid Kentucky team by 30! But they did very little else. Creighton and AZ St two more bad teams. Now in fairness those programs are typically good teams who has down years. But strictly looking at their resume that's not a 3 seed imo

---

They were 7-2 in QUAD 1 games and 4-0 in QUAD 2, going 4-1 against top-25 teams. Love them or hate them, that's a good resume.

They had a lot of quality wins and one bad loss all year.

We're just gonna have to disagree. But at the end of the day it played out in a way that made them look overseeded. Struggled mightily against a bad kennesaw team and got eliminated the following game against a talented but inconsistent Texas team

By comparison, the other three seeds were ...

Michigan State -- 10-6 in QUAD 1, 4-1 in QUAD 2 and 6-4 against the top 25
Illinois -- 7-8 in QUAD 1, 5-0 in QUAD 2 and 5-6 against the top 25
Virginia -- 8-4 in QUAD 1, 9-1 in QUAD 2 and 1-3 against the top 25

The South region is really interesting. I've got Florida, Houston, and Illinois grouped together in that second tier, along with Iowa State and Purdue just a step below Arizona, Michigan, and Duke. All three are playing extremely well right now.

I still lean toward Florida but Houston's home-court advantage is a major factor that's hard to ignore.

Illinois, has more than enough offensive skill and rebounding to compete with anyone, but they're tough to fully trust. Their late game execution is some of the worst among the top few tiers.

I’m glad there’s an 11-seed in the Sweet 16, but I’m sorry - an SEC team coached by Sean Miller with the largest athletics department budget in the country CANNOT be a Cinderella

— Brian Rauf (@brauf33) March 22, 2026

Johnston's release for High Point is Curry-esque in its quickness. That dude gets his shot off in a flash.

HPU started cold from 3...but they are starting to drop now

This High Point team plays with a ton of confidence. Arkansas is going to have to put them away because that team isn't going to just go away.

Apples to Iranges considering the comp. I assume Santa Clara and St Mary's were considered Q1 wins for the Zags right?

Illinois is flat out better than Gonzaga and I don't think it's very close. Open to arguments but man the difference watching those teams is stark.

Baylor needs a benefactor like
houston has in Fertitta. Sadly the Baylor leadership ran off all the momey and here we are.

IowaBear said:

---

Apples to Iranges considering the comp. I assume Santa Clara and St Mary's were considered Q1 wins for the Zags right?

---

And why shouldn't they be? Both were better than a lot of the teams that contributed to those other teams' QUAD 1 and 2 win totals. I mean we were a QUAD 1 win for every team that beat us on a neutral site or in Waco.

But the most telling stat is the record against top-25 competition because that doesn't have to be parsed. You know those games are being played against quality competition. And Gonzaga performed better than any of the other three seeds in those games.

Are they though? At Mary's got their asses whipped last night by an OK Tx AM team. That game was never I. Doubt. SC I thought showed really well. But the reality is 3 of the Zags 7 Q1 wins are from SM and Santa Clara who imo wouldn't be anywhere near Q1 wins if they reed P5 members. ST Mary's has mastered gaming the NET and all of these other metrics. And come March they normally get their asses kicked
4-1 against the Top 25 is good I'm not going to deny that. Is that end of season rankings or at the time if the game? I'd have to look but Creighton was ranked early and we all know how that turned out.

IowaBear said:

---

Are they though? At Mary's got their asses whipped last night by an OK Tx AM team. That game was never I. Doubt. SC I thought showed really well. But the reality is 3 of the Zags 7 Q1 wins are from SM and Santa Clara who imo wouldn't be anywhere near Q1 wins if they reed P5 members. ST Mary's has mastered gaming the NET and all of these other metrics. And come March they normally get their asses kicked

---

Yes, they are.

We were a QUAD 1 win for every team that beat us at a neutral site or in Waco, and I would take Saint Mary's or Santa Clara over us on a neutral court.

You don't have to like Gonzaga to admit that their resume was solid. Certainly as solid as the other teams on their seed line.

I never said the recent solid. I said imo it's not a 3 seed. But again we could argue you this all night. You saw them this weekend. And I seriously doubt you thought they were a 3 seed. I know I didn't. And 2 of the other 3 seeds have looked miiles ahead of Gonzaga. UVA looked mid imo against wright St and I think (hope) Tenn beats them tomm

IowaBear said:

---

I never said the recent solid. I said imo it's not a 3 seed. But again we could argue you this all night. You saw them this weekend. And I seriously doubt you thought they were a 3 seed. I know I didn't. And 2 of the other 3 seeds have looked miiles ahead of Gonzaga. UVA looked mid imo against wright St and I think (hope) Tenn beats them tomm

---

The problem is we're talking about resumes, and once you look at all the three seeds, you realize they all have warts. There are about five teams in college basketball this year that are better than everyone else.

After Arizona, Michigan, Duke, Florida and Houston, you can find reasons to nitpick just about everyone else.

Go Panthers!

bear2be2 said:

---

IowaBear said:

---

I never said the recent solid. I said imo it's not a 3 seed. But again we could argue you this all night. You saw them this weekend. And I seriously doubt you thought they were a 3 seed. I know I didn't. And 2 of the other 3 seeds have looked miiles ahead of Gonzaga. UVA looked mid imo against wright St and I think (hope) Tenn beats them tomm

---

The problem is we're talking about resumes, and once you look at all the three seeds, you realize they all have warts. There are about five teams in college basketball this year that are better than everyone else.

After Arizona, Michigan, Duke, Florida and Houston, you can find reasons to nitpick just about everyone else.

---

I don't really see that. Three separated themselves. Az pretty much dominated the league and controlled Houston wire to wire in both games. I think they're clearly a tier above.


Az/Michigan/Duke
Small gap
Florida then
Houston/Iowa St

I like Illinois and Purdue as well and could argue lumping them with the two big 12 teams.. but I agree they have more flaws.