Coming Later Friday: Updated Bracketology. There was considerable movement in the field of 68 since our Monday update. Teams like Duke, Michigan St., and North Carolina St. are making late pushes to sneak into the field. The first conference tournament began last night, and more tourneys will commence in the next few days, as March Madness lite begins Monday.
The PiRates will be heading down to the galley to make a big bowl of stew and start crunching the numbers that will become Bracketnomics 2021. The recipe has changed–for the Bracketnomics, not the stew.
Comments Off on PiRate Ratings College Basketball Spreads
The Starting Lineups For Tonight’s Championship Game
North Carolina St. Wolf Pack
Center–Tom Burleson 7-2 Sr. from Newland, North Carolina
Forward–Tim Stoddard 6-7 Jr. from East Chicago, Indiana
Forward–David Thompson 6-4 Jr. from Shelby, North Carolina
Guard–Moe Rivers 6-1 Jr. from Brooklyn, New York
Guard–Monte Towe 5-7 Jr. from Converse, Indiana
The Wolf Pack are coached by Norm Sloan
UCLA Bruins
Center–Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 7-2 Jr. from New York, New York
Forward–Mike Lynn 6-7 Sr. from Covina, California
Forward–Lynn Shackelford 6-5 Jr. from Burbank, California
Guard–Lucius Allen 6-2 Jr. from Kansas City, Kansas
Guard–Michael Warren 5-11 Sr. from South Bend, Indiana
The Bruins are coached by John Wooden
And Your Winner is: UCLA
1968 UCLA
104
1974 North Carolina St.
77
Boxscore
1968 UCLA
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
C
13
20
0
0
4
6
6
14
20
3
0
7
3
3
30
Mike Lynn
F
4
10
0
0
1
2
2
12
14
1
2
2
1
4
9
Lynn Shackleford
F
4
11
0
2
2
2
1
6
7
2
1
0
2
3
10
Lucius Allen
G
7
16
3
9
3
5
0
3
3
5
3
0
2
2
20
Mike Warren
G
8
18
3
7
3
4
0
2
2
4
2
0
4
2
22
Jim Nielsen
1
2
0
0
0
0
1
2
3
1
0
1
0
2
2
Kenny Heitz
2
5
1
3
2
2
0
1
1
3
2
0
1
0
7
Bill Sweek
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
Gene Sutherland
1
2
0
1
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
2
Neville Saner
1
2
0
0
0
0
1
3
4
0
0
0
1
1
2
Team
3
Totals
41
87
7
22
15
21
11
44
58
20
11
10
15
19
104
North Carolina St.
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Tom Burleson
C
4
9
0
0
1
2
1
6
7
4
0
2
2
4
9
Tim Stoddard
F
5
14
0
0
0
0
2
8
10
0
0
0
4
5
10
David Thompson
F
7
17
3
8
4
5
2
10
12
3
2
1
5
3
21
Mo Rivers
G
3
11
2
7
2
3
1
4
5
2
1
0
3
1
10
Monte Towe
G
3
10
2
7
4
4
0
2
2
3
1
0
5
2
12
Phil Spence
2
4
0
0
1
2
1
3
4
0
0
0
1
3
5
Mark Moeller
2
5
1
3
2
4
0
1
1
0
0
0
1
1
7
Greg Hawkins
1
3
1
3
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
2
0
3
Steve Nuce
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
0
0
0
0
1
0
Dwight Johnson
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Team
4
Totals
27
76
9
29
14
20
7
36
47
13
5
3
23
20
77
Player of the Game
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Score By Halves
Team
1
2
Final
UCLA
50
54
104
N.C. State
38
39
77
This concludes the Greatest NCAA Tournament That Was Never Played. Our Congratulations go to the 1968 UCLA Bruins, the best college basketball team in the last 60 years, at least according to the tabletop basketball strategy board game.
The PiRates are now headed out to sea to find some remote Pacific Island until August. Hopefully, there will be a college and NFL football season that start as scheduled. If not, we will have alternate programming when we return to land.
Comments Off on The Greatest NCAA Tournament That Never Was–National Championship Game
It is hard to believe that this would be the day of the National Semifinals of the Final Four in Atlanta. Somehow, it feels like the end of the college basketball season was several months ago. Thursday, March 12, 2020, was the day that a Big East Conference Tournament game between Creighton and St. John’s played the first half and went to the locker rooms never to be seen again, well at least not to finish the game at Madison Square Garden.
In the 23 days since, so much has happened globally that all cancelled sports seem to be just a speck of dust in the importance of every day life. Most of us are now on house arrest for a crime that somebody else committed. The punishment for violating this arrest could be death, to us or somebody we care about. Basketball, and all other sports, doesn’t really seem to matter that much.
We thought about suspending this tournament, as it would be apropos. We even thought about turning this entire site into a “how to grow a quick vegetable garden” with the most nutrient dense foods you can grow in your yard or patio. But, we figured that if you have suddenly changed careers to small farmer, you probably already have done hours of research; the majority of you reading this site are analytical in nature. That’s the perfect general description, and analytical people, like all of us on the PiRate ship, study and study and study before undertaking new endeavors.
Truth be told, our Captain, and his lady have been “farming” for 40 years. The real reason this conclusion to this simulation almost didn’t happen was that the Captain was busy planting kale, collards, kohlrabi, lettuce, radishes, and several other early Spring crops in the ground while the monsoonal rains took a short hiatus. These two games were just played early this morning, so the results are delayed being uploaded.
If this is your first time to this site, what you see here is a tabletop board game simulation of the Greatest Teams in College Basketball between 1960 and 2019. We put them in a standard 68-team tournament just like the current March Madness. All teams in this tournament received 3-point shooting ratings, even if they played in an era without the 3-point shot. Outside shooting range was used to estimate the percentage of made shots and frequency taken of players from pre-1987. For example, had we made a 1966 Kentucky Wildcats team, Louie Dampier’s 3-point shooting percentage would have been about 48%, and his frequency of 3-point shot attempts to 2-point shot attempts would have been about 40% to 60%.
What type of board game was used for this simulation? The Captain is a wizard at code-breaking. As early as the late 1960’s, he was buying tabletop games like Strat-o-Matic Baseball and cracking the codes and making his own teams.
In the late 1970’s, The Avalon Hill Company put out a new game called, “Statis-Pro Basketball.” This was an NBA strategy game, and the Captain, now in college, quickly cracked the codes that rated the players. Soon, he began making college basketball teams. It wasn’t so easy then to do this, because the Internet did not exist, and there were no periodicals that printed the statistics of the players. He had to spend hours in a large university library looking at microfilmed old copies of multiple newspapers to get the stats he needed. It wasn’t 100% accurate, as he had to do a lot of estimating, but it was close enough.
When the Internet brought sites like Sports-reference to peoples’ desktop computers, the Captain spend a lot of his hard-earned money on printing cartridges and created his own printed depository of statistics. He was able to modify the ratings on all the players that played college basketball and were represented in his team cards, and the game became more accurate.
So, that’s where we are today. There are four teams remaining, Here are our Final Four participants.
East Region Champion: 1974 North Carolina State Wolf Pack
South Region Champion: 2018 Villanova Wildcats
Midwest Region Champion: 1968 UCLA Bruins
West Region Champion: 1972 UCLA Bruins
Note: You see two different shades of pale blue for UCLA above. Between 1968 and 1972, the Bruins slightly darkened this blue color.
Here are the results of the Final Four Games:
Tiny Towe Towers over ‘Nova
1974 North Carolina St.
97
2018 Villanova
75
Monte Towe scored 20 points along with 8 assists and 6 steals, as the 1974 national champion Wolf Pack pulled away from the 2018 national champions in the second half. Leading 60-56, North Carolina State scored 11 consecutive points to open a 71-56 lead. Villanova never cut the lead to single digits, and after the Wildcats began to foul, NC State extended the lead past 20 points by connecting on 14 of their final 16 foul shots.
Boxscore
North Carolina St.
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Tom Burleson
C
7
13
0
0
4
6
3
6
9
1
0
4
4
3
18
Tim Stoddard
F
6
10
0
0
3
4
2
8
10
0
1
1
2
1
15
David Thompson
F
7
14
2
5
5
7
3
5
8
2
2
2
3
2
21
Mo Rivers
G
4
11
2
7
3
5
1
3
4
3
2
0
1
3
13
Monte Towe
G
5
9
3
6
7
9
0
2
2
8
6
0
2
1
20
Phil Spence
1
2
0
0
2
2
1
3
4
1
0
0
0
3
4
Mark Moeller
1
3
0
1
1
2
0
2
2
2
0
0
1
1
3
Steve Nuce
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
0
1
1
0
Greg Hawkins
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
3
Team
4
Totals
32
64
8
20
25
35
10
30
44
18
12
7
14
15
97
Villanova
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Omari Spellman
C
2
5
1
3
1
2
2
5
7
0
0
2
4
5
6
Eric Paschall
F
5
14
1
4
0
0
2
3
5
2
0
0
3
5
11
Michael Bridges
F
5
11
2
5
2
3
2
7
9
3
2
0
5
4
14
Phil Booth
G
4
11
2
7
4
5
1
4
5
3
1
0
1
4
14
Jalen Brunson
G
4
10
2
6
3
4
0
3
3
4
1
0
5
3
13
Donte DiVincenzo
4
8
2
5
2
2
0
2
2
1
1
0
2
2
12
Collin Gillespie
2
5
1
3
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
1
5
5
Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
Tim Delaney
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
0
0
2
0
Jermaine Samuels
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
Team
3
Totals
26
65
11
33
12
16
8
26
37
13
6
2
21
32
75
Player of the Game
Monte Towe
Score By Halves
Team
1
2
Final
N. C. State
51
46
97
Villanova
44
31
75
68 Bruins Kareem 72 Bruins
1968 UCLA
95
1972 UCLA
92
In a game that had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra, the 1968 UCLA Bruins took the lead late and kept it over their four year later counterpart. The game was fast-paced and exciting with neither team enjoying a lead of more than eight points.
In the first half, the 1972 Bruins took an early 9-4 lead on baskets by Greg Lee and Larry Farmer. The 1968 squad staged a comeback following a Lucius Allen made three-pointer, and then after a block by Kareem Abdul Jabbar on a shot attempt by Jamaal Wilkes, Mike Warren retrieved the rebound and found Mike Lynn open for a basket. Lynn was fouled and made the foul shot to tie the game at 9-9.
The remainder of the first half was close with the lead changing hands six times. On the last possession of the half, 1972’s Tommy Curtis sunk a three-point shot at the buzzer (the last card in the deck), as the 72’s took a 49-46 lead into the locker.
The 1968 Bruins grabbed the lead at 59-58, and then the 1972 team went on a 10-2 run to take a 68-61 lead, their biggest lead of the day. At that point, the 1968 team, not noted for pressing like many other John Wooden-coached teams, decided to press full court, and they forced the 1972 Bruins into 6 turnovers in the next 9 possessions. This allowed the 1968 team to make a 14-3 run to take a 75-71 lead.
The 1972 team was not done. The 1968 team went cold at this point and missed five consecutive shots. Bill Walton rebounded four of these missed shots, and the 1972 Bruins’ fast break produced eight points off the misses. The 1972 team ran off 10 consecutive points to go ahead 81-75.
At this point, the 1968 team decided to sink or swim with its big star, the hero that won three national championship in three years in real life. Jabbar took the 1968 team’s next five shots, hitting four, while the 1972 team committed three turnovers. The 1972 Bruins enjoyed a 13-4 run to go ahead 88-85, and they held on to the lead for the remainder of the game.
Boxscore
1968 UCLA
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
C
8
15
0
0
4
7
5
14
19
1
1
5
2
3
20
Mike Lynn
F
6
13
1
2
3
4
1
8
9
2
3
0
5
2
16
Lynn Shackleford
F
4
11
1
4
2
2
0
5
5
0
2
0
4
4
11
Lucius Allen
G
6
14
2
5
3
5
1
4
5
5
4
0
3
4
17
Mike Warren
G
6
14
3
7
5
6
0
2
2
6
2
0
2
1
20
Jim Nielsen
2
5
0
0
0
0
2
4
6
1
0
1
2
3
4
Kenny Heitz
3
8
1
3
0
0
1
2
3
2
1
0
3
4
7
Team
3
Totals
35
80
8
21
17
24
10
39
52
17
13
6
21
21
95
1972 UCLA
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Bill Walton
C
7
13
0
0
3
5
4
11
15
3
2
3
4
5
17
Jamaal Wilkes
F
5
11
2
5
3
4
3
9
12
1
1
1
2
3
15
Larry Farmer
F
4
9
1
3
0
0
1
5
6
0
0
0
6
2
9
Greg Lee
G
4
14
2
8
4
5
1
4
5
2
3
0
3
2
14
Henry Bibby
G
5
12
2
6
5
6
0
3
3
4
2
0
5
3
17
Tommy Curtis
4
11
2
7
3
4
0
1
1
3
2
0
2
2
13
Larry Hollyfield
2
5
1
3
0
0
1
2
3
2
1
0
2
3
5
Swen Nater
1
2
0
0
0
0
1
2
3
0
0
1
1
2
2
Team
3
Totals
32
77
10
32
18
24
11
37
51
15
11
5
25
22
92
Player of the Game
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Score By Halves
Team
1
2
Final
1968 UCLA
46
49
95
1972 UCLA
49
43
92
National Championship Game Monday Night
1974 North Carolina State Wolf Pack vs. 1968 UCLA Bruins
Comments Off on The Greatest NCAA Tournament That Never Was–Final Four Saturday
We are down to the Elite 8, and after today’s East and South Regional Finals, there will be six teams left in the field. We’re just 24 hours away from knowing which of these best teams of all time (1960-2019) will make the Final Four.
If you haven’t been following this simulation since its beginning, we took 68 of the best NCAA basketball teams between 1960 and 2019. No school could have teams from consecutive seasons, or else this would have been the UCLA Invitational.
The games were simulated by actually playing the college made version of Statis-Pro Basketball, a game made by Avalon Hill and Sports Illustrated between the 1970’s and 1980’s. Our Captain solved the codes for that game and applied them to college.
Here are the results for the East and South Region Championships.
EAST REGION
Wolf Pack Dominates On Boards/Towe Magnificent
1974 North Carolina St.
75
2019 Virginia
64
In it’s first three games in this tournament, Virginia had been able to limit turnovers and force the opponent into bad shots. In the Elite 8, the Cavaliers committed just seven turnovers, but they could not prevent North Carolina State from getting open shots. Thanks to point guard Monte Towe’s excellent passing, the Wolf Pack shooters were open more often than a normal UVa opponent.
Towe dished out 10 assists in the game, five in both halves. Towe also contributed 22 points, hitting all eight of his foul shots in the second half when North Carolina State increased their lead from five to 11 points.
Boxscore
North Carolina St.
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Tom Burleson
C
8
13
0
0
4
6
4
6
10
0
0
3
2
2
20
Tim Stoddard
F
2
5
0
0
2
3
1
7
8
1
0
1
1
2
6
David Thompson
F
5
11
1
3
6
8
3
7
10
2
1
2
2
2
17
Mo Rivers
G
2
7
1
4
1
2
0
3
3
1
1
0
2
3
6
Monte Towe
G
5
12
4
9
8
9
0
1
1
10
2
0
3
0
22
Phil Spence
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
0
0
1
0
1
2
Greg Hawkins
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
2
3
0
0
0
1
0
0
Steve Nuce
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
2
2
Mark Moeller
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
Team
3
Totals
24
52
6
16
21
28
9
30
39
14
4
7
11
13
75
Virginia
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Mamadi Diakete
C
1
3
0
0
0
0
2
2
4
0
0
1
0
5
2
De’Andre Hunter
F
2
7
0
3
3
4
1
4
5
1
0
0
2
4
7
Ty Jerome
F
5
12
2
6
3
4
0
4
4
6
1
0
2
5
15
Kyle Guy
G
6
14
3
8
3
3
0
4
4
2
0
0
1
4
18
Kihei Clark
G
2
5
1
2
0
0
0
1
1
3
1
0
1
3
5
Braxton Key
5
9
1
2
1
2
1
4
5
0
1
0
1
2
12
Jack Salt
2
5
0
0
1
2
0
3
3
1
0
0
0
2
5
Jay Huff
0
2
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
Team
2
Totals
23
57
7
22
11
15
4
22
28
13
3
1
7
26
64
Player of the Game
Monte Towe
Score By Halves
Team
1
2
Final
N. C. State
34
41
75
Virginia
31
33
64
WEST REGION
Brunson and Bridges Bring Back The Wildcats
2018 Villanova
75
1970 UCLA
69
Trailing by six points eight minutes into the final half, Villanova’s Jalen Brunson and Michael Bridges scored a combined 19 points to bring the Wildcats back into the lead at 68-67 with less than two minutes remaining. Foul shooting and multiple missed three point shots sent the Bruins back to Westwood.
Boxscore
Villanova
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Omari Spellman
C
0
2
0
1
0
0
2
4
6
0
0
1
1
5
0
Eric Paschall
F
2
5
1
3
6
6
1
5
6
0
0
2
0
2
11
Michael Bridges
F
7
12
3
5
5
5
1
7
8
0
0
0
2
1
22
Phil Booth
G
2
4
2
3
4
6
0
2
2
3
1
1
2
2
10
Jalen Brunson
G
7
17
3
5
6
8
0
1
1
6
2
0
2
3
23
Donte DiVincenzo
2
6
1
4
2
3
0
2
2
3
1
0
3
1
7
Collin Gillespie
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree
1
4
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
0
0
1
2
Team
3
Totals
21
50
10
21
23
28
4
22
29
12
5
4
10
15
75
UCLA
Start
FG
FGA
3P
3PA
FT
FTA
ORB
DRB
TRB
AST
STL
BLK
TOV
PF
PTS
Steve Patterson
C
5
11
0
0
2
2
2
7
9
1
0
1
2
4
12
Sidney Wicks
F
7
15
0
2
3
5
4
8
12
3
1
2
5
4
17
Curtis Rowe
F
6
12
1
3
2
3
2
8
10
1
2
0
2
4
15
John Vallely
G
4
8
2
6
3
4
0
2
2
5
1
0
3
3
13
Henry Bibby
G
4
10
2
7
2
2
1
1
2
2
1
0
2
4
12
John Ecker
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
0
Jon Chapman
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
Bill Seibert
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
0
Team
3
Totals
26
56
5
18
12
16
9
26
38
12
5
3
15
26
69
Player of the Game
Jalen Brunson
Score By Halves
Team
1
2
Final
Villanova
40
35
75
UCLA
41
28
69
Coming Tomorrow: The Midwest and West Region Finals
Midwest Region Championship: 1968 UCLA vs. 1968 Houston
West Region Championship: 1972 UCLA vs. 1982 North Carolina
Comments Off on The Greatest NCAA Tournament That Never Was–Elite 8 Saturday
* When we refer to these as key games, this is when both teams are fighting for a conference championship or contending for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
Coming Monday–Updated Ratings, Monday’s Games, and New Bracketology.
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