If roundball is your blood, this is the place to discuss the Flames as they move into the Ritchie McKay era for the 2nd time.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#620844
Will be at Jacksonville and North Florida. Not great venues, but better than high seed host format.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#620852
Here are the details:
ASUN News Release wrote:ATLANTA, Ga. - The ASUN Conference announced format changes to the 2021 Men's and Women's Basketball Championships on Friday following unanimous approval of the ASUN Presidents' Council. Both championships will move to a single-site format, instead of being hosted at multiple campus venues, in the interest of student-athlete health and safety. In the new format, the Men's Championship will take place March 3-7 in Jacksonville, Fla., while the Women's Championship heads to Kennesaw, Ga., from March 10-14.

All nine league teams will qualify for the championships with the No. 8 vs. No. 9 seeds facing off on Wednesday (March 3, Men | March 10, Women). Four quarterfinal contests will be conducted on Thursday (March 4, Men | March 11, Women) with Semifinal games on Friday (March 5, Men | March 12, Women). Following an off day on Saturday, the Championship Final tips off on Sunday (March 7, Men | March 14, Women). A complete bracket with game times will be released at a later date.
Click Here for Full News Release
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#620896
Unless I somehow missed it, that press release does not even actually specify the venue for the tournament, just that it will be in Jacksonville, FL. That could mean Jacksonville's "historic" Swisher Gymnasium (cap. 1300). It also could mean N. Florida's 6300 seat arena or another venue in the city. I suppose it doesn't really matter, since they will likely either do it in a total bubble or at least have a low maximum attendance, which might actually make Swisher a good choice.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#620903
ballcoach15 wrote: January 15th, 2021, 3:05 pm Will be at Jacksonville and North Florida. Not great venues, but better than high seed host format.
I'm going to hold off til I have confirmation from a more reliable source before buying that they will be using 2 venues. No real reason to do so, and setting up for 2 would be more work and more personnel to man it. Women are in Kennesaw at one site.

On further review, I am even more skeptical, since the release specifies it will be a "single site" tournament. 2 sites are 2 sites, whether they are in the same town or not.
By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#620904
Article in Naples Daily News, by a reporter from Florida Times Union, says tournament will be at JU & North Florida University.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#620931
flamehunter wrote: January 16th, 2021, 10:06 pm https://www.jacksonville.com/story/spor ... 176651001/

Ballcoach has this one right.
The ASUN Conference is moving its men’s basketball tournament March 3-7 to Jacksonville, with games to be played at the on-campus arenas at the University of North Florida and Jacksonville University.
A saying about blind squirrels and acorns comes to mind. 8)
The ASUN needs to clarify this, and stop referring to it as a "single site" tournament. Trying to think of a single valid reason not to hold the whole thing at N Florida, and I got nothin. They are doing it with the women at KSU. If having 2 sites close together is such a great thing, why not have the ladies tourney in J'ville too? Protocols will allow only 180 fans at Swisher vs 1200 at UNF Arena, and as the article pointed out, deciding who plays where could be tricky.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#621586
The ASUN's "elephant in the room". 2 teams who are not eligible for the NCAA tournament are in a 3 way tie for first place. As things stand currently they will however both participate in the conference tournament, where they would be highly seeded. If one of them were to win the tournament, theoretically, the loser of the championship would represent the conference in the dance but ............................ what if they both make the final? As far as I know, there has been no announcement as to what would happen in that situation. IMHO, the best option would be to have the semifinal losers play for 3rd place and the conference bid. Does ESPN broadcast that game, or the meaningless final? I really think they need to reconsider things.
By BuryYourDuke
Registration Days Posts
#621587
I’m not a rules expert, but if memory serves me correctly, should a non-eligible team win the tournament the conference forfeits their auto-bid.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#621588
BuryYourDuke wrote: January 31st, 2021, 8:24 am I’m not a rules expert, but if memory serves me correctly, should a non-eligible team win the tournament the conference forfeits their auto-bid.
I'm not either, but I'm pretty sure that is not the case. Regardless of how you may feel overall about the intelligence of the ASUN administration, I don't think they are stupid enough to put the conference's auto-bid at risk in that way. I'm hoping they are also smart enough to realize that even if it does not mean forfeiting the bid, the participation of these teams is probably not worth the potential problems it could cause.
By rogers3
Registration Days Posts
#622054
olldflame wrote: January 31st, 2021, 8:21 am The ASUN's "elephant in the room". 2 teams who are not eligible for the NCAA tournament are in a 3 way tie for first place. As things stand currently they will however both participate in the conference tournament, where they would be highly seeded. If one of them were to win the tournament, theoretically, the loser of the championship would represent the conference in the dance but ............................ what if they both make the final? As far as I know, there has been no announcement as to what would happen in that situation. IMHO, the best option would be to have the semifinal losers play for 3rd place and the conference bid. Does ESPN broadcast that game, or the meaningless final? I really think they need to reconsider things.
...or we could simply take care of business. We've been hampered by odd breaks in the schedule and I really think Ritchie's energy level has been impacted from his run-in with Covid. I hope we come back playing well, but I wouldn't be surprised to see if we have to wait until next year to see this team play a complete game night in and night out..
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#622055
rogers3 wrote: February 10th, 2021, 1:47 pm
olldflame wrote: January 31st, 2021, 8:21 am The ASUN's "elephant in the room". 2 teams who are not eligible for the NCAA tournament are in a 3 way tie for first place. As things stand currently they will however both participate in the conference tournament, where they would be highly seeded. If one of them were to win the tournament, theoretically, the loser of the championship would represent the conference in the dance but ............................ what if they both make the final? As far as I know, there has been no announcement as to what would happen in that situation. IMHO, the best option would be to have the semifinal losers play for 3rd place and the conference bid. Does ESPN broadcast that game, or the meaningless final? I really think they need to reconsider things.
...or we could simply take care of business. We've been hampered by odd breaks in the schedule and I really think Ritchie's energy level has been impacted from his run-in with Covid. I hope we come back playing well, but I wouldn't be surprised to see if we have to wait until next year to see this team play a complete game night in and night out..
Of course, I would love to see us make it a moot point with a dominating performance in Jacksonville, but the scenario I described has nothing to do with our team. I have no reason to believe they will not bring their best effort to the table. The ASUN has brought in 2 new teams with strong histories as D2 powerhouses, and both have made a rapid adjustment to be highly competitive in the conference. This is a good thing overall, but to allow them to compete in the post season tournament when they are not eligible for the bid is asking for trouble, and it is totally unnecessary. The conference even has the perfect excuse with Covid. They can just say it would unnecessarily increase the risk to everyone to inject teams that are not eligible into the tournament environment.
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By PAmedic
Registration Days Posts
#622064
If we can’t beat a bunch of division 2 schools we probably shouldn’t go to the dance
By LU Grad 11
Registration Days Posts
#622068
Don't whine; just win. Need to get the confidence and unselfishness back that we had at the beginning of the season. Planning on making the trek to Jacksonville for the tournament. Hopefully, there will be enough tickets available. Go Flames! #lightemup
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By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#622132
LU Grad 11 wrote: February 10th, 2021, 10:55 pm Don't whine; just win. Need to get the confidence and unselfishness back that we had at the beginning of the season. Planning on making the trek to Jacksonville for the tournament. Hopefully, there will be enough tickets available. Go Flames! #lightemup
I fail to see any selfishness or lack of confidence in this team. Conference wins on the road are hard to come by, which is why as fans, we have every right to point out the inequities in our having to play more than our share of road games. If our team and coaches were "whining", that would be counterproductive. They are not.

Manson pointed out something that had not occurred to me. While I still think it is stupid and totally unnecessary, there are scenarios where N Bama and Bellarmine being in the tournament could play out in our favor. In the unlikely (but far from impossible) event that they end up playing each other in the final, because we are a lock to have the highest NET ranking, all we would need to do is make the semis to gain the automatic bid. As Liberty fans, we basically should be pulling for those 2 teams any time they are not playing us. It would still be an embarrassment for the conference, and they would be far better off to just not include teams in the tournament who are not eligible for the bid.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#622315
ASOR projection for ASUN tournament bracket.



He has us as the 2 seed, playing 7 seed N Florida. That game would of course be played on the Osprey's home court, which would be pretty much par for the course as far as how our scheduling has gone this year. :roll:
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By prototype
Registration Days Posts
#622323
why in the world didn't the ASUN even try to reschedule the games we missed? We missed playing the easier teams and now we are getting penalized for it.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#622326
prototype wrote: February 18th, 2021, 10:57 am why in the world didn't the ASUN even try to reschedule the games we missed? We missed playing the easier teams and now we are getting penalized for it.
It's impossible to know if they "tried". We actually only missed the 2 games against FGCU, which looks to be a mid-pack team (although it's hard to tell with how few games they have played.) The inequity is not so much there as it is in who we had to play on the road as opposed to at home.
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By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#622708
So, J'Ville is out of the tournament with ongoing Covid issues, but will still be one of the host schools. KSU is the 8th seed, and the winner Saturday will play them in the opening round, which sounds like an easy W.

Not so fast my friend.
The Owls are up on FGCU 47-27 at the half. I remember saying way back in January when we played them that we were better off getting them early than later in the season because they are young and have upgraded their talent and will probably get better as the season goes on.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#622733
FGCU may not be able to play in the tournament. If so, the #1 seed gets a bye. This actually all plays in our favor, especially if we win today.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#622734
If we get the #1 seed and FGCU is out, then N Alabama moves up to the 5 seed and would face #4 N Florida. If the Lions win that, we would face them in the semis. The bizarre truth is that once we reach that point, if Bellarmine advances to the finals on the other side of the bracket, it doesn't matter if we beat N Bama or not.
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By stokesjokes
Registration Days Posts
#622735
This is a wild year. Hopefully we can just take care of business and win the whole dang thing either way.
By rogers3
Registration Days Posts
#622864
Win the tourney, maybe a 13 seed. Lose to anyone, and end up as a 15 at best.
Hope we crush all comers.
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