A Sea Of Red

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑March 15th, 2021, 10:44 am PH, I don't have time to ciper the brackets and list the committee's mistakes.

But you were so bold and certain mistakes had been made. Sounds to me like you didn’t even look at them since you were unable to produce a single example

olldflame wrote: ↑March 15th, 2021, 11:35 am

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑March 15th, 2021, 10:44 am PH, I don't have time to ciper the brackets and list the committee's mistakes.

List one.

Virginia as a 4 seed, and VT a 10 seed. If my memory is correct VT beat Boohoos by 14.

ACC was down this year that's why. Plus tech has had some tough losses. However, I will be placing an investment on Tech this weekend.

24 hours after the announcement I'm a little more confident than I was yesterday. I was convinced we would beat Mississippi State two years ago. Don't have that feeling this year. I hope I'm wrong.

For those of you East Coasters who ignore anything west of the Appalachians, here's a bit of a primer on Cade Cunningham:

Since we are in a bracket with all orange teams I thought it'd be good to put Sparky in St. Patrick's green today.

(Full disclaimer...I downloaded a b&w sparky image from google and colored him in and added a green hat.)

That does hearken back to our founding days. Eh, flameshaw?

Sly Fox wrote: ↑March 17th, 2021, 3:13 am That does hearken back to our founding days. Eh, flameshaw?

Proud to have worn the green and gold.

stokesjokes wrote: ↑March 14th, 2021, 7:49 pm Rode does really well facilitating from the free throw line against a zone. He’s going to be very important in this one. He’s another that might see some time guarding Cunningham.

OSU Alum here. Should be a good game.

I agree. I consider Rode as one of Liberty's top 3 players and he has to be successful for Liberty to have a chance to win. Smooth shooter that can't be left open. The other 2 key players are McGhee (do everything) and Parker.

I expect to see Keylan on Rode quite a bit, but he comes off the bench. Keylan lacks offense but is very athletic long G/SF otherwise it will be MAM (M-A Moncrieffe) or Cade.

Rode is probably your best player to defend Cade. If Kalib and MAM play at the same time OR Ice (Isaac Likekele) is playing with Cade, that might be difficult unless Liberty goes with a big line-up. Ice has been injured a lot lately and has missed several games, but he is a stat sheet filler like McGhee.

Expect Cade to be lackadaisical with the ball and have about 4-5 turnovers by either steals or very bad passes.

If Cade doesn't do much in the 1st half, he will probably go off in the 2nd. The joke is that his middle name is Second Half.

Thanks for Poke perspective, Slurrrpup. I suspect Cuffee will probably get Cade duties for a good portion of the evening.

My hope is that Cunningham’s inexperience shows. If we can force some careless turnovers and if he has trouble figuring out the pack-line, he might be a bit neutralized. If he’s under 20 points, we have a shot.

I haven't seen enough to know anything about Cuffee. I've only watched the full version of the Purdue game and the cliff note's version of the N. Alabama championship game. Both games he was kind of quiet. Someone on this board mentioned Cuffee is more of a defensive player, so he definitely has a chance to pick Cade's pocket a few times.

Kalib and MAM play at the same time a lot, so that would force Rode inside and leave Cuffee to defend Cade. Does Liberty play very much with 3 bigs at the same time? Robinson seems pretty athletic. McDowell is a better shooter than inside guy, however he does fall over pretty easy and draws the charge (flop ).

Again my views are based off two games and then they are still wrong a lot times.

What happened to Abii? Played great against Purdue, then his PT just started dropping off after Christmas.

Not really sure. A lot of us have asked the same question. My guess is it had more to do with the players that passed him on the depth chart than on him. It is tough for a freshmen to jump right into Ritchie's system. I sure hope he sticks around though.

stokesjokes wrote: ↑March 18th, 2021, 1:02 pm My hope is that Cunningham’s inexperience shows. If we can force some careless turnovers and if he has trouble figuring out the pack-line, he might be a bit neutralized. If he’s under 20 points, we have a shot.

He actually averages 23.6pts in our losses and 18.9 pts in our wins. He will have about 4-5 turnovers like he does every game.

He doesn't have experience in the NCAA tournament, but he has other experiences that I think make up for it. Cade played on the U-19 USA FIBA world championship team. Has a 2 year old daughter (she is a cutie). Moved away from home and went to Florida to play at Monteverde Academy (one of those "high school" basketball super teams).

Cade plays with almost no outward emotion. He has gotten frustrated at himself a few times and makes a dumb foul, but then it is like he resets himself and his frustration is gone.

March 6th, we beat West Virginia in Morgantown without Cade and Ice. The other two games he missed was a Baylor loss and an Iowa State win.

Does anyone in the Big 12 play the pack line?

Tech comes closest but the answer is no.

The Purdue game was our season opener and really doesn't show much about who we are today for better or worse.

Hey guys. OSU fan here. I live about a mile from the Oral Roberts University campus and I've alway enjoyed pulling for your university, especially in football. I thoroughly enjoyed what you did to the Baylor Bears a few years back. What saddens me is, I probably would've been cheering for you in every game you played in this tournament, if you hadn't been paired with us.

Please note that anything I say here shouldn't be taken as an arrogant belief that we will beat you no matter what. As you're undoubtedly aware, they don't call it March Madness for nothing. I too have watched most of the Purdue game and the Readers Digest version of your tournament final and I don't think we're going to have too much trouble with your defense.

Our last win was against Baylor, who had three starters who were named to the All Big 12 Defensive team. Cunningham had 25 in that game. We run a lot of ball screens to try to get Cade in a one-on-one mismatch with a shorter guard. Problem for you guys is all of your guards are short. Not only is Cade 6'8" tall, but he has a 7'1" wingspan. I'm pretty confident he's going to get his points.

The secret for you guys is going to be stopping our next six guys from getting their averages. Cuffee may be a lock down defender, but if Likekele is back to 100%, which he surely will be close to that recovery level, then he will be running the point. Sluppup mentioned that Cunningham got a gold medal in the U19 World Championships, but neglected to mention that Isaac "Ice" Likelele was also on that team. Fran Frachilla refers to him as a linebacker on a basketball courts. He excels at driving into the paint and scoring "and-ones." My guess is Cuffee will be on him.

If you really want to get a sense of our other players, you should watch the game at West Virginia a couple of weeks ago, where we went into Morgantown and beat the Mountaineers on Senior Day, when they were the #6 team in the nation. We did so without both Cunningham and Likekele. I know you guys don't like to give up the baseline, but Avery Anderson (#0) is every bit as quick as Darius McGhee, if not faster AND he's six inches taller. You'll have to put McGhee on Anderson, or you'll be in a serious mismatch defensively. He took over the West Virginia game, scoring 31. Here is a 24 minute highlight video of that game.



I'll be happy to try to answer any questions you guys have, as I have time.

There are very few teams that haven't seen the pack line that don't have at least some trouble with it. It is just a different beast. It is why we see very few blowouts when we lose.

With that said, OK State is really good and probably under seeded. It will take a nearly perfect game for us to win.

But @South Tulsa Poke welcome to the board. I always enjoy hearing from the opposition. Can't wait for tomorrow night!

Who let the guy in with the WVU heartbreak video?

If it triggered you, I'm on board

thepostman wrote: ↑March 18th, 2021, 7:05 pm If it triggered you, I'm on board

Shut up. No one likes you either

I'll be watching tomorrow from the exact same place I did for the Mississippi State game in 2019. An unnamed Atlantic City sportsbook where I will be spending the next two and a half days. It all comes down to Cade imo. I've also been watching highlights from 2019 so I think the goal here is to repeat that when it comes to game flow. Keep it a ball game and get on a run at the right time. Can't peak too early.

Last year's team with Homesley and James (30-4) would have given this year's OSU a run for their money. This year's team is just too young and a little less talented and experienced Oh, and by the way, OSU should be a 3 seed. I'm still planning on making popcorn and watching and cheering on the Flames with my equally, enthusiastic wife.

Chippy wrote:Last year's team with Homesley and James (30-4) would have given this year's OSU a run for their money. This year's team is just too young and a little less talented and experienced Oh, and by the way, OSU should be a 3 seed. I'm still planning on making popcorn and watching and cheering on the Flames with my equally, enthusiastic wife.

Last year's team goes to the Sweet 16 you'll never convince me otherwise.

Just heard Alan York in my car talking with state sports radio peeps...Sam Mayes is one of the personalities - All American O Lineman who went on to NFL from OKie State. - he wasn’t buying what York was selling after York finished and had said we can upset them....ha. He a few years ago said LU Football was horrible program with no ballers when we beat Baylor ( didn’t get to hear him after we beat CCU ) he is pretty fair and honest and I like him - OSU fans really dislike him because he is always complaining about Gundy and praising OU football...pretty cool to get the Voice if the Flames here.

Just thought about this last night. Food for thought. Liberty has only played this season against a single team that is in this year's March Madness. That was in a double digit loss to Purdue of the Big 10.

Oklahoma State has victories over Texas Southern, Oral Roberts, Wichita State, Texas, Texas Tech (2), West Virginia (2), Oklahoma (2), Kansas, Arkansas and Baylor.

One of the things I'll be watching for in today's game is how well the Flames are able to get back on defense after a missed shot and an Oklahoma State rebound. The Pokes like to run and run fast in transition. Can Liberty maintain their intensity on both ends of the court if OSU is able to push down court and score before Liberty can get into they're base defense? How good is the Flame's conditioning? How deep is their bench?

Basically, I believe Liberty's success in this game will come down to shooting percentage, because they're not likely to have success on the offensive glass. And when the Cowboys get a defensive board, they're going to make you run.

Hope today's game is injury free.