NCAA, plus other tournaments- NIT, CBI, and CIT

[tornado]

Wichita had a nice run late in the season - McDuffie finally showing what they've been telling us for four years about him..
..now Gregg Marshall loses his top two players again plus someone else will be leaving since he's oversigned - but he brings back a fair
amount of talent.

[Da Coach]

The only game Wednesday, April 3 is the 2nd game of the best-of-three seasies between DePaul and South Florida in the CBI.
The game is in Chicago, and DePaul is a 6 point favorite.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/55/date/20190403

South Florida leads the series 1 game to 0. The game is on ESPNU.

This final series really isn't helping the prestige of the CBI much with 2 perennial bottom dwellers fighting for the championship.
DePaul finished the 2018-19 season tied for LAST PLACE in the Big East, and South Florida finished tied for 7th in the American Athletic Conference.
DePaul has finished either dead last or tied for last in the Big East in 10 of the last 11 seasons, and since joining the Big East in 2005, they have had a ,500 or better record only once (9-7 in 2006-07).
South Florida, has had a winning conference record in only one of their last 17 seasons and only twice in the last 27 seasons spanning the AAC, Big East, CUSA, and Metro conferences!

[tornado]

maybe so but they were much better this year - their 7-11 record in the Big East was just two games out of 3rd place

[Da Coach]

Maybe a little, but the Big East was a far weaker conference this year, and DePaul still finished tied for last place with the worst RPI and NET by far of any team in the Big East. I doubt there are many DePaul fans encouraged by that.
And they lose their top 3 scorers, so the future doesn't look much better.

The Big East was gifted with 4 NCAA bids. But they probably deserved 2. Here is how the 4 Big East teams did in the NCAA Tournament.
Did any conference do worse?-
Villanova, the best team in the Big East, and which deserved to be in the NCAA, though they were barely in the top 25. They only got a #5 seed and lost in the 2nd round.
Marquette, the 2nd place team, finished the regular season with 4 straight losses and fell completely out of the top 25. Then they were knocked out of the Big East tournament and got a #5 seed, but lost in the first round to a #12 seed.
Seton Hall, finished 9-9 in the conference, had a NET of 57. They received a #10 seed, and were clobbered by a #7 seed Wofford in their first NCAA Tournament game and quickly eliminated.
St. John's, which finished in 7th place in the Big East with a losing record (8-10) and had a NET of 73. Why they got a bid is a mystery to everyone. Their seed was #11 and they played in the First Four and were quickly eliminated.

[Da Coach]

The only game Wednesday, April 3 is the 2nd game of the best-of-three seasies between DePaul and South Florida in the CBI.
The game is in Chicago, and DePaul is a 6 point favorite.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/55/date/20190403

South Florida leads the series 1 game to 0. The game is on ESPNU.

The CBI games at DePaul are being played at their small on-campus arena (McGrath-Phillips Arena) instead of the nice new Wintrust Arena that the city of Chicago built for them on the south side of Chicago. The Wintrust Arena has a capacity of 10,400, but the announced average attendance was only 3,998 per game. But the actual attendance was way lower than that. So even though they have free use of Wintrust, they prefer to play the 2 home CBI games on campus. Tonight will be the first game played there since they began playing their home games at the Wintrust Arena. Oddly, the McGrath-Phillips Arena holds fewer than 3,000, and students get in free. So apparently they are not expecting to sell many tickets.

[tornado]

well, DePaul has more trouble getting their student to Wintrust than Bradley has getting theirs downtown...
They predicted - even PROMISED they would draw 1,500 students to games there - LOL - in reality you can count them on one hand...
moving to the on-campus arena makes sense if they want some home court advantage

[Da Coach]

The city and taxpayers should have never have paid for that arena in the first place. What a fraud and a joke.
As we reported in the past, the city of Chicago sold the arena project with outrageous claims that they expected the average attendance to be 9,500 per game or more. However, it has hovered around 3,000 announced per game, but in reality, the real attendance was somewhere between 1,500-2,000-

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/taxpayer-funded-wintrust-arena-falls-short-of-attendance-projections/

That "real attendance" is important because they needed the larger number of actual attendees coming into that area and spending money to revive the economy in the impoverished south-side area. But we criticized that absurd 9,500 prediction from the start, even though the mayor, the city aldermen, the media, and most taxpayers fell for the fraud. Now taxpayers are on the hook for years to come, and they will have to pick up even more costs because of the huge shortfall of predicted revenue that won't be coming into that area, and for the failure of the arena project to spur development that now isn't likely to happen.

[Da Coach]

The only game Wednesday, April 3 is the 2nd game of the best-of-three seasies between DePaul and South Florida in the CBI.
The game is in Chicago, and DePaul is a 6 point favorite.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas.../date/20190403

South Florida leads the series 1 game to 0. The game is on ESPNU.

DePaul had the final possession with the game tied 82-82. They in-bounded the ball and got it to Max Strus for a planned play. But USF coach Brian Gregory was ready for it. They double-teamed Strus, and he fumbled the ball away and never got a shot.
So the game is headed to overtime tied 82-82. DePaul needs to win to to prolong the series to a 3rd game.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...meId=401125415

[Da Coach]

DePaul pulled ahead in the overtime and lead by 8 with 44 seconds left. But then South Florida pulled back to 99-96, but they were not able to score again.
Final score- DePaul 100 USF 96
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...meId=401125415

So the best-of-three final series is tied at 1-1, and the final game will be played Friday at DePaul.

From the view available on TV, the side of the arena that was visible appeared full. But that was deceptive, maybe intentionally?
The official attendance was only 1,704 in the campus arena that holds 3,000. They must have sold out as many tickets on the visible side as possible before selling tickets on the other side, which gave the appearance of a completely full arena. Yet in fact, the arena was barely half full.

[tornado]

the side with the press table is full - https://depaulbluedemons.com/galleries/?image=12078
the side with the team benches is about half full - https://depaulbluedemons.com/galleries/?image=12082

That's almost exactly what Bradley drew in the two CIT games that were held on campus - and they probably didn't have to give away free food to get people there - https://bradleybraves.com/documents/...21/1720285.pdf

[Da Coach]

Games tonight-

Championship game of the NIT between Lipscomb and Texas-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/98/date/20190404

Championship of the CIT between UW-Green Bay and Marshall-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/56/date/20190404

[Da Coach]

One Game Friday 4/5-
Championship of the CBI between South Florida and DePaul at DePaul-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/55/date/20190405

Game is on ESPNU at 6 pm Central

[Da Coach]

The CBI was won by the University of South Florida over DePaul 77-65
It is the first time in 4 years that the visiting team has won. DePaul played only 7 players because of their short bench, and they shot poorly. Their scoring leader Max Strus was only 2-16 in the game and 1-10 from three. As a team, DePaul shot just 32.1%.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=401125416

[Da Coach]

The two NCAA Final Four semifinal games are today (Sat. 4/6) at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/date/20190406

The first game is shortly after 5 pm Central, and they are on CBS.
Virginia is a 6 point favorite over Auburn, and Michigan State is a 2½ point favorite over Texas Tech.

[wizard1]

Wichita......Too Bad!! Take the long bus ride home and wait 'til next year. Your coach is also probably moving on after leaving a pile of NCAA "debris" for you to clean up.
Wizard