SLAG-91

NC State keeping it rolling through 20...a 13-point lead having committed more turnovers than Marquette. Marquette has a run in them, I figure. Can NC State respond when/if it happens?

In the last 45-50 years, the coaches that have taken us to NCAA tournaments have, to this point, had fairly similar tenures in terms of length. Strictly looking at time at Auburn: Sonny Smith--11 seasons, five NCAAs, one Sweet 16 and one Elite 8 Cliff Ellis--10 seasons, three NCAAs, two Sweet 16s Bruce Pearl--10 seasons, six* NCAAs, one Final Four (asterisk is giving credit for the 2019-20 team that would have been in the NCAAs had there been a tournament) Our limited NCAA tournament history has largely been one of at least performing to the level our seed line (did so in 4 of 5 tournament appearances under Sonny and 2 of 3 under Ellis...have done so in 2 of 5 appearances under Pearl (2019, 2023)), and in a few cases performing at least two rounds beyond our seed line (1985, 1986, 2003, 2019). Two of our last three tournament appearances have ended with losses to teams that were at least 8 seed lines below us, which is where the frustration sets in. The 2022 team going out early wasn't quite as much of a surprise, honestly, because that team started taking on water toward the end of the season and ran into a Miami team that was significantly better than us re: guard play. This year's loss is the first time we've been the victim of one of those "Cinderella"-type upsets. We've watched it happen to other name programs (Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Purdue, Virginia, Arizona, UNC have all lost first-round games as a 1,2 or 3 seed, and some of them have done it multiple times) that have a lot more skins on the wall in basketball than we do, but it's different when it's your school. Time will tell if our 2019 Final Four was a nice anomaly or not. Getting this back on topic, Iowa State joins Texas A&M in lamenting their poor FT shooting in a close loss. Clemson basketball is an easy bunch to want to see do well, so hopefully they can beat Alabama again.

The pill we're swallowing just gets more bitter by the day. I think I'll be doing some yardwork Saturday.

ACC didn't get a whole lot of respect coming into the tournament, but they've showed up big to this point. UConn is like a metronome. Maybe Illinois or Iowa State can give them a run in their next game, but I don't think I'd bet against UConn right now.

We're playing in the Maui Invitational in November. Dayton Colorado UConn Michigan State UNC Memphis Iowa State There will be the opportunity to play a lot of tough games early next year.

Held on to that one with scotch tape and baling wire...UH got off to a good start in OT and that was enough. They're a mentally tough bunch.

A&M drew a lot of fouls in the first half, but missed 11 FTs. Houston isn't real deep, so the foul trouble could catch up with them. They have a lot of dawg in them and I figure they'll make enough shots to pull through.

Looking pretty chalky for the most part...was a little surprised to see Clemson beat Baylor. ACC didn't get a whole lot of love during the regular season, but they've shown well in the tournament. 1 seeds pretty much playing like 1 seeds should so far. A&M could continue to make UH sweat, but I figure Houston will end up getting that one.

We played in Gainesville not too many years ago (2019), but yeah, it's been over a decade since we've played in Knoxville (2013), and even longer than that since we've hosted Florida (2011). I guess the rotation will start in '26, and there is some discussion out there about a 9-game conference schedule starting that year, which I'd be OK with. There were some anomalies schedule-wise during the 2012-2023 14 team era. We only played Florida once in that time, A&M only played Kentucky and Georgia once each, there are probably others that I'm too lazy to look up. None of those matchups will occur in '24 or '25 either, so we'll go a minimum of 15 years between home games against Florida.

This is the first time in 40 years that we've had to deal with the sting of losing our first NCAA tournament game, and it definitely made the rest of the day yesterday unpleasant. I'll watch matchups that may be interesting, but will go into neutral observer mode. Sunday will be the toughest day as a hoops fan, because we won't be playing when we figured we would be.

That was a no-doubt-about-it clean block. Samford player had the ball cleanly after the block, and they would have been heading the other way for a potential game-winning shot. Ref anticipated contact, and the KU player hitting the ground like he did probably sold the call...but damn, that's a terrible time to blow a call.

Biggest story so far is probably Nevada hacking up a major hairball in their game against Dayton. Those are the kind of games that stick around for a long time if you're on the wrong end of it.

No guarantees that this continues because the NCAA tournament is, well, the NCAA tournament...expect the unexpected and all...but we have won at least one game in each of our last 11 tournament appearances. Several of those first wins have been white-knuckle rides, whether we were a high seed or not. I won't be terribly surprised if tomorrow is more of a grind than maybe we think it'll be. I will hope the last few minutes tomorrow are garbage time in our favor. This team seems to be hitting its stride, and hopefully we've got a few more game threads to go back and forth on!

That's why Febreze was invented...just spray it on the pits of the shirt and you're good to go.

Alabama got sent to Spokane with us, along with UAB. 5 of the 8 teams in Spokane are from east of the Mississippi River. I'm OK with bashing on ua at any time, though, so I'm on board with the general disdain of the post.

Times of games are out. Tip is at 3 PM CDT on Friday. Bleah...will have to track on my phone.

Bump for the women getting a bid. 👍 Play-in vs. Arizona, so I guess were one of the last 4 in.

From what I just saw on TV, we were actually closer to being a 5 seed than a 3 seed. Just go beat the hell out of everybody. We started our two best runs ever in the tournament out West (1986 Elite 8--rounds 1, 2 in Long Beach; 2019 Final 4--rounds 1,2 in Salt Lake City).

Lovely...we have to deal with Bammers in the PNW. Barf.

Virginia in the play-in...wow.

Looks that way for other conferences, too. FAU as an 8 seed means their loss to Temple meant nothing. Winning a conference tournament seems to not mean a damn thing unless you actually have to win it to get in. Florida is a bit lower at 7 than I thought.

Kentucky as a 3 seed...

UConn was the 1 seed I was hoping not to see in our region, but whatever...we ran a gauntlet in 2019. Go get 'em.

4 seed...bull****.