March Madness Game 1 - Saint John's - March 20

[orangetennis]

Time for a mid major national championship tournament. NIL and transfer rules have made it impossible for the small schools to compete.

Anyone who knows ball can tell these two teams are not on the same level. There have been a handful of smaller schools who hung around today and yesterday, but only High Point was able to pull it out. The NCAA tournament is just not the same as it was the last time we were in it.

[QCPanther05]

Time for a mid major national championship tournament. NIL and transfer rules have made it impossible for the small schools to compete.

Anyone who knows ball can tell these two teams are not on the same level. There have been a handful of smaller schools who hung around today and yesterday, but only High Point was able to pull it out. The NCAA tournament is just not the same as it was the last time we were in it.

It’s a 68-team tournament. A lot of teams aren’t going to be able to hang. The blue bloods have always advanced the furthest, even before the portal and NIL. I don’t think the answer is to have a separate tournament. Football has that and nobody cares about it. The point for us mid-majors is just to be here and give it a shot. Once in awhile someone will make a run, and that’s incredibly exciting. I am *super* proud of this team for just being here because, to me, that’s the prize itself. Millions of people filled out their brackets with UNI’s name in it. And millions are watching them on CBS right now. We’re on the biggest stage in college sports as we speak.

[vbfan19]

I don’t think the answer is to have a separate tournament. Football has that and nobody cares about it.

and even with the separate tournament, people still complained that the Dakota schools had made it impossible for other schools to compete

[Stebs Amusements]

Lots of time left.

[Username]

There’s no doubt we could have competed, we just completely crapped our pants the first 10 minutes

[1994grad]

For months people have said it all comes down to March. We won four days in a row to win our conference tournament we are in the big dance for the first time in ten years. I am very proud of this team!

[Mudrafan]

Smith driving me nuts tonight

[havok58]

Time for a mid major national championship tournament. NIL and transfer rules have made it impossible for the small schools to compete.

There is a technically a mid major national tournament, it’s called the NIT. And who watches that?

I think the opportunity to see an underdog beat a top school is one of the reasons that so many people tune into March Madness. Taking out the mid majors from the tournament hurts those schools. If UNI had won tonight and was then going to play Kansas, can you imagine how much hype nationally that would have gotten for UNI? CBS probably would have a done a where are they now story.

[Mudrafan]

Add weisbrah

[CletusCat]

I'm proud of this program. Jake is a great coach and even better person. We have great guys representing us on the floor.

I could throw shade at their sideline, but it's well documented what kind of character their head coach has.

[Stebs Amusements]

There is a technically a mid major national tournament, it’s called the NIT. And who watches that?

I think the opportunity to see an underdog beat a top school is one of the reasons that so many people tune into March Madness. Taking out the mid majors from the tournament hurts those schools. If UNI had won tonight and was then going to play Kansas, can you imagine how much hype nationally that would have gotten for UNI? CBS probably would have a done a where are they now story.

No question millions are watching to see the upsets and buzzer beaters, or they have money on the games. However, you can’t let that moment be your high water mark. Fans want to see movement deeper into the tournament but it’s less likely if your school doesn’t have the NIL dough to be at another level.

[Mudrafan]

For months people have said it all comes down to March. We won four days in a row to win our conference tournament we are in the big dance for the first time in ten years. I am very proud of this team!

If we wouldn’t have way underachieved in the regular season, we wouldn’t have been a 12 seed & that would have made a major difference tonight. We were up against it. Although, the awful start completely changed the narrative

[MVCBeat]

Never quit.

If you ask me, winning the MVC is the most we can realistically ask for in this day and age. These Panthers are champions in mt book.

I said it before and I believe it more strongly now. If you aren’t part of the power conferences, the NCAA Tournament should no longer factor in to your goals or what constitutes a good season. Win your league. The league tournament is your playoffs. If you win the league you’ve done the thing.

And from there you get sent to play a professional basketball team and maybe you can do something really cool.

In my book we already did the thing. Great season Panthers.

[MVCBeat]

Time for a mid major national championship tournament. NIL and transfer rules have made it impossible for the small schools to compete.

Anyone who knows ball can tell these two teams are not on the same level. There have been a handful of smaller schools who hung around today and yesterday, but only High Point was able to pull it out. The NCAA tournament is just not the same as it was the last time we were in it.

I ran some numbers. I looked at this year’s tournament and the tournament from 2019 because it was the last pre covid (and I believe pre NIL) tournament.

I threw out the 1-16 and 2-15 games because those have never been historically competitive. I looked at where the top mid major teams typically fall and counted up P5 vs mid major games in the 3-14, 4-13, 5-12, and 6-11 games.

This year (before Cal Baptist/KU and during our game….we were down 20 at the time) the P5’s margin of victory was +17 points on average with one mid major win (High Point). In 2019 the P5’s margin of victory was 5.3 on average with four mid major wins. Only two games were worse than a 15 point spread in 2019. Eight this year, quite possibly nine after KU.

Might as well make our own tournament. The magic is mostly gone anyway. Most of these games are college kids/semi pros vs fully professional teams.

[orangetennis]

Never quit.

If you ask me, winning the MVC is the most we can realistically ask for in this day and age. These Panthers are champions in mt book.

I said it before and I believe it more strongly now. If you aren’t part of the power conferences, the NCAA Tournament should no longer factor in to your goals or what constitutes a good season. Win your league. The league tournament is your playoffs. If you win the league you’ve done the thing.

And from there you get sent to play a professional basketball team and maybe you can do something really cool.

In my book we already did the thing. Great season Panthers.

This is how I feel. We had our March Madness in St. Louis, and we finally did it again. Tonight was what it was, but I never expected a tight game.
Proud of our Panthers for being Valley Champs! That is now the ultimate goal, and we achieved it!