2008 College Basketball Season [Winner: lardass76]

[lostatlimbo]

Xavier barely holds off conference caboose St. Joseph's to win its 2nd straight game. Coach Limbo had very little to say after the game.

"St. Joseph's started off with a good lead (secured a 2nd round bonus...) and was hitting 3's right away (...and cashed his first 3 cards), but our guys hung in there and slowly chipped away at their lead. It wasn't a decisive win, but it was progress."

[flexmaster33]

photobucket maintenance means updated standings will have to go up sometime Thursday (evening most likely)...still some games going on, so the conference brackets aren't completely set yet...should be another day or two and we'll get those started.

[plash.ricrem]

Unlike the real Vermont team who Plash Ricrem watched in horror blow a 23 point half time lead last night in a loss to SUNY Binghamton, Coach Ricrem's squad was able to end the regular season with a decisive 8 round home victory over St. Bonnies (4172594). Ricrem noted after the game that, "Our outside shooting (mixed sets) and stingy defense were able to lead the way to victory. I'm glad we were able to lock up the 3 seed in the conference tourney, it's a shame we got swept by UMass, otherwise the 2 was probably right within our reach. Hopefully this will shut up those haters who had both Dequense and the Bonnies higher than us in bracketology. Now we have to get ready for the conference tourney, as I'd like to win another game or two (or hopefully the entire thing) to really lock up a seed for the big dance."

[lostatlimbo]

After a seemingly endless losing streak mid-season, A10 bottom-feeders Xavier have clawed their way to the middle of the pack with a 4 game win streak to finish the regular season - beating St. Bonnies and George Washington in its final 2 games. Coach Limbo spoke to a side-line reporter in the waning minutes of a home win vs St. Bonnies.

"Coach - what has been the difference in these last few wins."

"A cool head. We haven't been panicking when the game starts to slip away and that's made all the difference. These last two we were able to jump out to a small lead and hold on to it. Even when St. Bonnie's started to rally late in the game, we managed to hold them off and finish it. I think we've finally found some balance to our game."

"Will Xavier's late surge make a difference heading into the conference tourney?"

"Well, of course any coach likes to have some momentum heading into the tournament, but at the same time, I don't want the players to relax too much and coast through the next game. There's a lot of talent in this division and its not going to be a cake walk. We need to continue playing smart, steady basketball and not let the nerves get to us and implode like we did earlier this season. But right now, the guys feel good and confident and most of all, hungry and we're going to take it to the A10 every which way but down."

[Evilpmpkinhedman]

Nebraska caps off its season with a W over Baylor in a very close game: http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=4172446

Should head into the conference tourney as one of the better seeds! : )

[Hath]

Tennessee remains squarely on the bubble.

Solid road win vs. South Carolina about to be followed up by a disappointing crushing by Alabama (great drop + dice for him) at home.

Going to need 2 for sure...probably 3 conference tourney wins to make it...

[flexmaster33]

Still too many open games to put out the conference tourney brackets, but we're getting close. Hold tight...another day or two and we should have it.

[LSU Tiger Josh]

LSU clinched 2nd place in the SEC West by virtue of winning at Auburn to get a season sweep.

[denominator]

The Aggies continue to roll, ending the season on an impressive winning streak with a final victory in 4172449.

[flexmaster33]

All right everyone...I'll try to make updates over the weekend with a post of the conference brackets. They are starting to take shape and I've sent out all of the first-round conference tourney matchups that can be played at this point.

Again...look for further and hopefully final regular-season updates through the weekend.

[jgazaille]

4207878 jgazaille over slax_fan

[cazmart]

http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=4207915

Texas wins the First Conference tourney game of the season. Defeating A&M with a consistent press and steady shooting. Texas looking to continue their late season run.

[pimphawks70]

Air force finishes 18-11 and wraps up the first seed in the conference tournament.

[Wendt100]

Ohio State defeats Northwestern

[muy_thaiguy]

Boise State at Wyoming. He stopped taking his turns. So, victory for Wyoming I guess.

Game 4172590

[flexmaster33]

Hi everyone...the conference tourney brackets are up...just under the newsletter. Several games remain open, so where it is undecided the seed number only is listed.

I will update the next batch of tourney games Sunday night, including quarterfinal matchups, so those with first-round byes will get into the action shortly.

[LSU Tiger Josh]

Don't forget to update the standings page as well since I am disappointed still looking up at auburn when I got the 2nd place tiebreaker on them hehe. thanks for the tournament

[flexmaster33]

Yes, I was going to post an update several days ago, but photobucket was down...now those images are far outdated, so I figure I'll just wait until the regular season is complete (hopefully soon) and post the final standings.

[lardass76]

Bruins come out on top with an end of year run to overtake Harry's Beavers. Winning the toughest division should get a #1 seed in the New World

[thisboy]

Portland won his game against Santa Clara in Bif Sky / WCC Tourney:

http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=4209862

[flexmaster33]

Brackets have been updated and all available tourney matchups have been sent out, including any available quarterfinal games.

The MAC and the CUSA/Valley are each waiting on regular season matchups to finish up before I can get too far into their tournaments.

good luck everyone.

[cougfan82]

Washington State moves on to meet the #1 seed in the P-X tourney...hopes his late season run can keep going!

[cazmart]

UPSET ALERT!!!!

Texas upsets #1 Kansas St. in the Big 12 Tourney. Texas used good shooting early to jump to an early lead. Texas then used some defensive strategy when K-State made their run. Texas quickly used the bonus to push them back and run away with the win. Texas is trying to repeat last season's heroic run.

http://www.conquerclub.com/game.php?game=4221600

[muy_thaiguy]

Fresno State @ Wyoming. Cowboys win.

Game 4214626

[flexmaster33]

I've been getting a lot of questions about how the tourneys work and how the season ends, so here's an attempt to clear things up...I'll add a more detailed post later tonight somewhere in the opening thread.

These conference tourneys take place at the end of the season to give every team a chance to gain an automatic spot into the NCAA tournament no matter how poorly their regular season went. The conference tourneys can also boost a team's seeding for the Big Dance...winning the regular season title and the conference tourney makes for a strong resume.

• All conference tourney games are single elimination played on the home settings of the lower seeded team.

After we finish the conference tournament phase, the top 65 teams will qualify for the NCAA tournament (the championship event for this CC tourney), while the next 32-best teams will play in the NIT. The remaining teams will be finished for the year.

The selection committee (me) will make up those final brackets and reveal them during a live selection show to be announced via pms once we get closer to the end of these conference tourneys.

I've devised a scoring formula for the NCAA tourney in which each matchup will consist of three maps...basically making each battle a best 2-of-3 battle. I added this format this year to make teams earn their NCAA upsets, so that a simple bad drop didn't kill off all of our top teams. Also, this will allow me to bring fun score updates to spice up the drama and reality of the tournament phase.

The 1st and 3rd maps will be played on neutral sites (announced earlier in this thread), while the middle map will be played on the lower seed's settings. The winner of the NCAA tourney is champion of this CC tourney.

The NIT tournament is just for fun and will be played as single elimination on the lower seeded team's settings. That will be the case until the Final Four (Madison Square Garden), which will then move to the best of 3 format with each team's map in play along with the NYC map used as a neutral map.

Hope that makes sense...I plan to publish the scoring formula tonight, but it's undergone extensive testing. It's basically designed to give us realistic basketball scores, but in reality if you win 2 of the 3 maps you will 99.999999 percent advance to the next round