NIT game- Wisconsin 81 Bradley 62

[Canton BU fan]

With more Division 1 teams seemingly every year maybe expanding the NCAA tournament again and auto bids for conference Champions while still auto for conference tournament Champions. Also, get rid of the play in games. I hate that. Either in the tournament or not.

[Da Coach]

Looks like plenty of tickets still available-

https://uwbadgers.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3AWISC%3AB22%3ANIT1%3A&linkID=wisc&shopperContext=&pc=&caller=&appCode=&groupCode=NIT&cgc=&dataAccId=987&locale=en_US&siteId=ev_wisc

[Classof77]

My cousin lives in a Madison suburb and offered me a place to stay if I wanted to come watch the game. She thought it would be a sell out. Looks like they have a ways to go. I'll just watch it on ESPN.

[houstonbrave]

Hopefully we get a good number of BU fans for the game

[formerlybis]

Hey, folks, I'm a badger fan checking in. My daughter graduated from Bradley, so I have a lot of fondness for the school, and a picture posing with Kaboom from her graduation. I'm amazed I still had an active account here from those days.

Whoever thought it'd be a sellout doesn't know much. The students are on spring break and it's a late Tuesday night tip-off that no one had on their schedule. Plus, the fanbase is just disappointed with the team, not just because of the record, but because their hearts have been ripped out by numerous close game losses. They actually have won some of those close games, but the losses sting way worse than the wins uplift.

I'd have been okay playing this in Peoria. The MVC is always a tough slog, but no longer a multi-bid league with the defections like Loyola. One-bid leagues suck for fans of those teams, especially one like Bradley that wins the regular season. You should have been rewarded with a home game, even if it wasn't against UW - Liberty got one.

The other Badger fan in this thread was accurate. Nearly every game UW plays is close, regardless of opponent, good or bad. It's really more of an 8-man rotation these days with the backup PG having played more lately (the other two are a big and a wing). While Hepburn may still be the leading scorer, Essegian has really been the primary scorer for the latter half of the B10 season. UW does like to post either Crowl or Wahl and have them back down the opponent near the rim, but with your interior defense, I suspect the Badgers might be more perimeter-oriented tonight.

Well, good luck. Feel free to hit me up with any questions.

[Stryker]

With more Division 1 teams seemingly every year maybe expanding the NCAA tournament again and auto bids for conference Champions while still auto for conference tournament Champions. Also, get rid of the play in games. I hate that. Either in the tournament or not.

I was kind of thinking along those lines as well. Maybe expand it, every conference gets two-auto bids, and have the regular season champs get some kind of bye or something. idk,

[Nashville Cat]

Hey, folks, I'm a badger fan checking in. My daughter graduated from Bradley, so I have a lot of fondness for the school, and a picture posing with Kaboom from her graduation. I'm amazed I still had an active account here from those days.

Whoever thought it'd be a sellout doesn't know much. The students are on spring break and it's a late Tuesday night tip-off that no one had on their schedule. Plus, the fanbase is just disappointed with the team, not just because of the record, but because their hearts have been ripped out by numerous close game losses. They actually have won some of those close games, but the losses sting way worse than the wins uplift.

I'd have been okay playing this in Peoria. The MVC is always a tough slog, but no longer a multi-bid league with the defections like Loyola. One-bid leagues suck for fans of those teams, especially one like Bradley that wins the regular season. You should have been rewarded with a home game, even if it wasn't against UW - Liberty got one.

The other Badger fan in this thread was accurate. Nearly every game UW plays is close, regardless of opponent, good or bad. It's really more of an 8-man rotation these days with the backup PG having played more lately (the other two are a big and a wing). While Hepburn may still be the leading scorer, Essegian has really been the primary scorer for the latter half of the B10 season. UW does like to post either Crowl or Wahl and have them back down the opponent near the rim, but with your interior defense, I suspect the Badgers might be more perimeter-oriented tonight.

Well, good luck. Feel free to hit me up with any questions.

Thanks for the objective thoughts. Don't be a stranger next year as we'll appreciate your input.

[Fan since 88]

I have not seen this yet, but maybe it is out there already. If so, feel free to disregard or delete this post.

Since we have two tournaments with 96 teams, why not just one tournament with 96 teams?

Top 32 seeds get a bye, bottom 64 play in. Why or why not?

[Da Coach]

I have not seen this yet, but maybe it is out there already. If so, feel free to disregard or delete this post.

Since we have two tournaments with 96 teams, why not just one tournament with 96 teams?

Top 32 seeds get a bye, bottom 64 play in. Why or why not?

That is a good thought. I have seen a few other similar suggestions in the last several years (see articles below). In fact, the NCAA seriously considered expanding the field to 96 teams in 2010, exactly like you described, with the 32 top teams receiving a bye. However, they eventually settled on the expansion to 68 teams instead, and it has remained that way since 2011.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2010/news/story?id=5047800

https://caneswarning.com/2022/03/24/jim-larranaga-proposal-96-team-ncaa-tournament/

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/366880-expansion-to-96-teams-is-real-march-madness

https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/more-of-a-great-thing-expansion-to-96-teams-in-the-ncaa-basketball-tournament/

https://www.si.com/college/2023/03/14/ncaa-tournament-march-madness-expanded-bracket-daily-cover

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/383645-ncaa-tournament-expansion-why-96-teams-would-have-been-a-good-thing

https://mwwire.com/2020/08/16/field-of-96-a-proposal-for-an-expanded-ncaa-tournament/

[Tommy]

I have not seen this yet, but maybe it is out there already. If so, feel free to disregard or delete this post.

Since we have two tournaments with 96 teams, why not just one tournament with 96 teams?

Top 32 seeds get a bye, bottom 64 play in. Why or why not?

Because that makes too much sense 88. Don't bring your crazy talk here! (honestly though, they'd just fill it with the rest of the power conference teams that weren't in the first 64!).

[Bball31]

The more I think about it the more I am in favor of getting rid of the conference tournaments or reducing their impact on the post season tournaments.

Lets be real here. The conference tournaments mean basically nothing for the power5 teams. The selection committee already knows 95% of the power teams that will get in before the conference tournament and barring an extreme run like Uconn in 2011 it won't change the comittee's thoughts on which power5 teams are in the ncaa tournament. The only thing it may effect is the seeding.

Then we get everyone else. In the MVC, the regular season conference champ has had a 38% chance of winning the conference tournament over the past 20 seasons. So more likely than not, unless the regular season champ has a great non-conference performance, the MVC is one bid league and the conference champ is left out of the ncaa tournament just like this year. Either way more often than not the best team in the league all year misses the tournament because of the conference tournament. This leads to fewer expected wins from the mid-major/low-major teams in the ncaa tournament since their best conference team is missing.

To me it makes more sense for the regular season champion to get the auto-bid. However, that makes the conference tournament meaningless and the regular season champ wouldn't participate most likely. So yeah. I don't know what the solution is here, but the current system just isn't great. Mid major conferences also have the ability to get two teams if they have a team with an at-large resume and that team doesn't get the auto-bid.

If the NCAA included all teams in the tournament, they wouldn’t have to pay all of the teams. They could start paying the final 68 teams or whatever. However, this is nothing but a pipe dream. In addition, if conferences such as the MVC, make money on their post season tournaments, there is no way they’d give up the cash cow, to enable all conference member schools to be in the Big Dance. In my opinion the NCAA only cares about revenue. If they really cared about the so called “student athlete”, I prefer to call them a student employee, they would let them hire an agent, enter a professional draft and if they don’t get drafted, enable them to return to their college, finish their education and let them play.

[Canton BU fan]

That is a good thought. I have seen a few other similar suggestions in the last several years (see articles below). In fact, the NCAA seriously considered expanding the field to 96 teams in 2010, exactly like you described, with the 32 top teams receiving a bye. However, they eventually settled on the expansion to 68 teams instead, and it has remained that way since 2011.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2010/news/story?id=5047800

https://caneswarning.com/2022/03/24/jim-larranaga-proposal-96-team-ncaa-tournament/

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/366880-expansion-to-96-teams-is-real-march-madness

https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/more-of-a-great-thing-expansion-to-96-teams-in-the-ncaa-basketball-tournament/

https://www.si.com/college/2023/03/14/ncaa-tournament-march-madness-expanded-bracket-daily-cover

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/383645-ncaa-tournament-expansion-why-96-teams-would-have-been-a-good-thing

https://mwwire.com/2020/08/16/field-...aa-tournament/

I don't like the idea of a bye because as we all know there's too much bias involved here already.

[PattonMD]

I live in Madison and I'll be at the game with my buddy whose a Marquette alum from the Wardle days. So we'll have two voices rooting on the Braves! Go BU!

[Tommy]

Hofstra takes down 1 seed Rutgers! Yes!

[bradleyfan124]

I am boycotting Jim Mattson on Channel 25 sports. On his show he talked about Illinois in the tournament. Not once did he mention Bradley was playing tonight