JUSTgottaBELIEVE

I remember posters ranting on Moncada for his defense. And, quite frankly, his first two seasons were awful defensively. But he improved even after moving to a more difficult defensive position. I still believe Madrigal will improve considerably defensively despite what we’ve seen so far in 33 career big league games.

It was before my time and I had heard that Hawk’s tenure at GM was bad but my God did he do a ton of damage in less than a year. Imagine a modern day Sox GM doing what he did. This board might take decades to recover.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.si.com/.amp/college/2021/03/23/march-madness-sweet-16-pac-12-ncaa-tournament The lordly Big Ten, universally considered the premier conference in the country, advanced exactly one of its nine teams, in what has to be the most embarrassing performance by a league in NCAA history.

Big Ten advances one team to the Sweet Sixteen lol. Outside of Michigan, they weren’t even competitive this round.

PAC-12 is still undefeated and I think they’ve won all but one game by double digits (UCLA play in game vs MSU).

This defensive effort by Iowa is pathetic. Oregon is dunking on them every other possession. It’s like they’re being taught the anti-Moser style of defense. Yeesh

USC beat Oregon by 14 points a few weeks ago and has a top 5 draft prospect. They’re no pushover. Kansas is streaky. Depends which team shows up.

Yep. And every year they’re surprised when a Valley team goes on a run by knocking off a couple power conference teams and then dismisses it as a “fluke.” Whatever

The entire PAC-12 plays with this kind of speed. It’s really impressive. I didn’t see much of the PAC-12 during the regular season but I’ve watched UCLA, OSU, Colorado and now Oregon in the tourney and the pace is simply too much for most teams to handle.

What did the Big Ten do to earn all those very high preseason rankings? Are you watching the games this tournament? This isn’t some fluky/random thing. Big Ten teams are getting rolled defensively. PAC-12 has done nothing but impress, especially offensively. Why was their conference’s highest seed a #5? There’s no logical explanation for that.

Don’t get me wrong, Iowa is a good team. But they also benefitted from the inflated Big Ten preseason rankings while PAC-12 teams didn’t. So Oregon’s strong conference record was unjustifiably diminished as a result. Were Oregon’s non-conference results any worse than Illinois?

It’s readily apparent the Big Ten was overrated this year and it all stems from the preseason rankings where a number of Big Ten teams were placed inside the top 25 and top 10. Those high preseason ranks stayed with the conference all season so even when a team like Iowa loses to a top 10 team like Illinois they don’t fall much in the rankings because they lost to a “top” team. But let’s take a quick look at Illinois’ non-conference schedule. Beat two doormats to start the season, barely survived Ohio U, beat a mediocre Duke team, lost decidedly to a very good Baylor team, and lost a close game to a good but not great Missouri team. That’s not overly impressive for a team that finished the season ranked #2 in the country despite 6 losses. It’s also apparent the PAC-12 was vastly underrated. I mean 21-8 Iowa gets a #2 seed while regular season PAC-12 champ 20-6 Oregon gets a #7 seed? Makes no sense. Today’s game is a toss up and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Oregon won. Ditto for seeding on the rest of the Big Ten and PAC-12.

People should take 10 minutes to watch that video I posted to understand what Loyola is doing defensively and what makes them so effective. Hell, if Underwood had taken 10 minutes to watch that video, Illinois would have been much better prepared yesterday than they were ?

He last coached at ISU 15 years ago when he was in his mid 30s. If anything, landing an MVC head coaching job that early in your career would be a plus not a minus imo.

I didn’t realize until yesterday that Custer is on his staff. Could definitely see him as the heir apparent.

MVC moves to 3-1 in the NCAA Tournament this year and 22-14 since 2010. Time to start paying respect to mid-major conferences like the MVC.

Moser is the hottest name to come out of a mid major program since Brad Stevens at Butler. To think he won’t have (and likely already has previously) multiple offers from power conference teams and possibly even an NBA team in the near future is shortsighted. If Underwood can get a solid Big Ten offer, people don’t think Moser can land an even better offer? LOL

You’re still not giving Loyola the credit they deserve. Watch this video and you will have a better appreciation for the brilliance of Moser and Loyola’s D. And Krut stripping the ball from opposing guards isn’t anything new. Been doing it his entire college career.

Curbelo is impressive but the guard that’s impressed me the most this tournament is the kid from Ohio U, Preston. Holy smokes, that kid can handle the rock. I didn’t see the game when they played Illinois earlier this season but apparently he was the best player on the court in that game too.

It had nothing to do with a lack of intensity. Did they lack intensity against a bad Drexel team? Great defensive teams (like Loyola) tend to make good offensive teams look lethargic. No different than what a great pitcher does to a great lineup in baseball.

Big Ten was overrated this year. Very good conference but people were talking about them like they were peak ACC. Not even close. There’s a bunch of really good teams in the conference but no dominant team.

Agreed. Loyola got no respect from the committee. Among my friends, no one gave them a chance in this game except me. I’ve seen them play 5 or 6 times this year. They play incredible team defense, keeps them in every game. Moser is the truth. Gets more out of his players than any coach in college. I also happen to be a bit biased because I’m an alum of an MVC school ha

This Illinois-Loyola game is going to be a war. Mid majors showing up big time so far this tourney. First time ever four 13 seeds or worse have advanced to the second round.

Sox offense is going to be ridiculous this year if they stay healthy. Should be the best offense in the history of the franchise.

Exactly what this team needs. Lynn and Eaton will definitely shake things up and remove any sense of complacency that may have existed last season.