***Men's Final Four Thread***

[madguy30]

Since we're doing thought experiment ... If we can imagine our Omaha bracket feeding into any of the other 3 regions, with all other details of bracket being identical (and relax the rules to allow being in South w/ Houston) ... here are the Sweet 16 paths:

SOUTH (Dallas):
(11) N.C. State
(4) Duke

MIDWEST (Detroit):
(3) Creighton
(1) Purdue

WEST (Los Angeles)
(6) Clemson
(4) Alabama

I'd be fairly confident ISU reaches Elite 8 in at South or West. In Midwest, Creighton might closer to 50-50, but still like our chances.

For Elite 8, I'd say Alabama's length + ability to drain 3's isn't our most favorable scenario. I wouldn't be scared of Duke ... Purdue, if we don't get into a big hole early, it'd be competitive.

Yeah I said in this thread that I could see ISU having a chance against the early game's teams.

But you still need to play well no matter who it is and ISU didn't do that against a real beatable Illinois team.

 

[HoopsTournament]

How many of the 13 didn’t even reach the Final Four?

Examples (please verify) … several of these didn’t get out of the first weekend (I didn’t go back all the way):
2023 Alabama
2022 Gonzaga
2019 Duke
2018 Virginia
2017 Villanova
…
2010 Kansas

Champions in Bold
Teams that didn't get out of First Weekend in Italics

Year	Team	Score	Opponent	Opponent Score	Rnd
2004​	Kentucky	75​	UAB	76​	Round of 32
2005​	Illinois	70​	North Carolina	75​	National Championship
2006​	Duke	54​	Louisiana State	62​	Sweet Sixteen
2007​	Florida	84​	Ohio State	75​	National Championship
2008​	Memphis	68​	Kansas	75​	National Championship
2009​	Louisville	52​	Michigan State	64​	Elite Eight
2010​	Kansas	67​	Northern Iowa	69​	Round of 32
2011​	Ohio State	60​	Kentucky	62​	Sweet Sixteen
2012​	Kentucky	67​	Kansas	59​	National Championship
2013​	Louisville	82​	Michigan	76​	National Championship
2014​	Florida	53​	Connecticut	63​	National Semifinals
2015​	Kentucky	64​	Wisconsin	71​	National Semifinals
2016​	Kansas	59​	Villanova	64​	Elite Eight
2017​	Villanova	62​	Wisconsin	65​	Round of 32
2018​	Virginia	54​	UMBC	74​	Round of 64
2019​	Duke	67​	Michigan State	68​	Elite Eight
2021​	Gonzaga	70​	Baylor	86​	National Championship
2022​	Gonzaga	68​	Arkansas	74​	Sweet Sixteen
2023​	Alabama	64​	San Diego State	71​	Sweet Sixteen

 

[jctisu]

Yeah I said in this thread that I could see ISU having a chance against the early game's teams.

But you still need to play well no matter who it is and ISU didn't do that against a real beatable Illinois team.

Yep. Illinois was not some juggernaut. Good team for sure, but they were very beatable but we didn’t make the plays and spent a quarter of the game looking like ****. UConn (yes we aren’t UConn I get it) made Illinois look like a complete joke because their offense took advantage of the bad Illinois defense that we couldn’t until late in the second half.