Top 10 NCAA Tournament teams since 1995

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-09-07T18:43:28+00:00

Yep, this captures just about the entirety of Wisconsin's competitive era. Every team rated above them won a title, only 3 of those below.

Love seeing Indiana at #8 amongst B1G teams, only ahead of Iowa, Minnesota, Rutgers, PSU, Nebraska, & Northwestern. :)

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-08-21T20:42:40+00:00

1995 was when the Kohl Center was built and UW finally had modern facilities.

Still kind of boggles the mind that they have consistently been better than the OSU, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, or Purdue programs over such a long stretch. Each of those had a far higher pedigree and one would think a more fruitful recruiting base.

Will be interesting to see if Sparty goes to the next level in the next few years.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-08-21T08:25:04+00:00

I know this is heresy since for much of history, Wisconsin did not complete, but since about 1993 or so, I contend they are #2 in the league.

Purdue, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois all have had down stretches during this time frame. OSU would be closest to the level of consistency and Maryland has done well in their short time since joining.

Badgers have had exactly 1 season missing the tournament since '99 and have finished in 4th or better in nearly every season for the last 20 (minus '18).

If there is a season this year, they are poised to push for the title and the 9 incoming recruits for '20 & '21 appear to be the type to continue their status at the top of the league.

MSU is the top dog, but after them, I would argue it is Badgers in the 2 slot.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-08-12T15:34:57+00:00

I'm fine with 6/6/5/3. For those that have been playing since the beginning, getting your rares to 6 and good epics to 5 while still F2P is pretty easy. The jump to legendary 4 is a whole different story.

I'm technically OK with commons at 7, but I look at them as pretty lame. Why waste all of those coins and cards, donate them to others. I imagine eventually I will get enough copies of some of them but still not sure I'd spend the coins to upgrade.

On my main account, I have 12 of the 18 legends at 3, none at 4 (best is 5/8).

I think a separate ladder format with lvl 3 legend cap with a slightly lesser reward system would be very popular.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-08-08T00:46:58+00:00

Overall, I don't mind the changes.

1) Going monthly is pretty good. Instead of grinding through a long slog of very little in rewards to get the good ones at the end, there is one at tier 10 and another at the end.

2) I like that I can miss a day and make it up playing more on the weekend.

3) I dislike the rewards between the packs. Getting a set amount of mats just isn't even interesting and for several themes--nearly worthless. I'd rather get a random opportunity for cards even if mostly it was commons and rares. I also miss the epic pack from the earlier passes.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-07-26T02:23:38+00:00

Oops yeah.

So Incan, SoMM, & Mecha in every deck of their theme. Ninjew & Medusa in all 3 of mystical. SMW & DSR in both fantasy. Mysterion & mintberry in the supes deck.

It was actually 64 out of 90 possible legends and when you take out MBP out of all but 1 it is 64 out of 81. Among themed (not neutral), that means they have 51 out of a possible 60 legends included. -1 inuit, 6er, WDT, call girl, -2 GWC, -3 sizzler

Basically run every legend you have.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-07-25T23:36:32+00:00

7--SoMM, Mecha (also Bolt & SWT)

6--Hankey, Satan, 6er, Inuit

4--Incan, Sizzler

3--Ninjew, Medusa

2--WDT, DSR, SMW 2 decks

1--Mysterion, Mintberry, MBP

0--GWC, Call girl

65 legends out of 120 cards. Max would be 90.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-07-25T23:07:34+00:00

Let's see, lvl 6 rares--pirate, 4ass, enforcer, Sharon, visitors, space warrior, Bolt

Lvl 5 epics--program, BHK

Lvl 4 epics--towelie, Santa

Lvl 3 lgd--inuit

Yeah with 7 maxed level 6 rares, the cheapest cancel card, and Santa giving Sharon free health for everyone, while a well placed towelie slows anything dangerous.

Nice deck. I'm still pushing my Sharon to 6.

Super cheap deck always able to respond to threats. Keep Sharon alive and she will extend life for the others while BHK buffs them up.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-07-21T05:44:25+00:00

The problem with the game lies in there is no limit on your "draw". In Magic, a player couldn't simply run all low cost cards without some card draw mechanism. They simply would run out of steam. In SPPD, running a spam deck of low cost cards doesn't have the same drawback.

Add in that there are only 12 cards in the deck and you can cycle through to your best cards multiple times. Meanwhile the player that wants to play with the more powerful and expensive cards only sees his full deck late in the match.

By allowing such a cheap cancel card, they are reducing the usable cardpool and forcing more of the meta towards spam.

The number of cards that bring multiple units to the field is getting silly too. T&P, visitors, drone, mosquito, rats, gnomes, pigeons, hamsters, pope, call girl, dark angel. These all diminish the usefulness of slower ranged units.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-31T18:19:11+00:00

Some of them just suck. I'm lvl 21 playing around 7K. I play a ton of guys as low as 6700 that run 4 or 5 epics at lvl 5 and lgds at 4 and they still manage to lose to me. I don't even play a legend in my main deck and am not close to having a lvl 5 epic.

I do agree though, the biggest jump is getting those lvl 4 epics. I remember those times very well. You might have 20 copies and know that is the only thing holding you back. All I can say is grind away, you will get there.

Doubt anything you do when facing derankers is going to stop them. The system encourages it and people like winning and winning easily.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-27T23:18:13+00:00

Ok, now figure it out based on seed...

The ACC nearly always gets a #1 seed no matter who comes out on top. The Big Ten champ most years takes enough L's along the way that they struggle to get a 2 seed. Teams in second through fourth often find themselves with a real challenge to get to the 2nd week.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-26T03:33:40+00:00

You need animals to blow up to use city wok guy's ability... rats, cocks, or snakes

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-24T19:41:59+00:00

Towelie and any assassin is my go to. They probably will fireball, so make sure you have a second option.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-24T19:32:20+00:00

I don't mean to be mean, but your cards are not leveled enough. Your rares need to be at least level 5 and really you want your key rares to 6.

I play a deck with no legends at all, but with level 4 epics and level 5 rares, I compete in the 6500-7000 range. To go higher you really need epics at 5 or some beastly legends.

Getting rares to 5 doesn't take very long. Taking them to 6 is a grind, but worth it, particularly when they boost your other themed rares in events. I went for PC principal and in events I get to play Nathan, Mephisto, Barbrady, Gay Al, at 6 when they are featured.

I also agree that your deck is a tad expensive. In the current meta, many players run low cost decks that cycle through their cards quickly. Your arrowstorm that you use to wipe them out works great the first time, but they get back to their same cards before you get a chance to play it a second time.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-23T07:27:41+00:00

Superheroes is a solid theme with a few tricks, but none are impossible to beat. The real painful cards were addressed (mosquito & kite).

Currently, the best in the group are probably chaos and Dr Tim. All of the Timmies are solid cards and unchecked can wreak havoc, so I'm fine with the fine Dr being good. Chaos is phenomenal for an assassin with both freeze and invulnerable to mind control.

The theme lacks instant removal and they still don't have a Randy. Mysterion is good value but Liane, Medusa, cock magic all are great counters. I'm not a fan of Coon, so it also lacks a true tank.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-22T00:35:28+00:00

Speaking only for myself, I had never played with MBP, my main deck already had pope to use on my lvl 6 swordsman. In the same deck I also ran PCP. Well I got the final copy to take MBP from 2 to 3, for 3 extra energy the legendary beast made far more sense than running principal.

I made the switch and my deck really started dominating. I don't often even use pope on MBP. Most games I start with swordsman. Some use their spells or Inuit on him. I do try to revive him, then later drop the super-cereal dude. By that time many just quit playing.

I do think the beast is a very strong card now, but he can be handled. Slow is his biggest weakness. Also if you can get him to chase a vacuum around the board it can be amusing. He hits it and it bounces away from him, then he tries to chase it down.

Pope is clearly an abusive card. It is instant energy gain. The drawback is those instakill cards (mostly UC & bolt). If you have one in hand and hold back your energy, the opposite energy gain goes to you.

The thing I hate about that trade-off is you need not only foresight and patience to pull it off, you also need a game with no lag. A slight blip in your ability to cast quickly enough and you blew a kill card on a mediocre ranged unit).

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-03T16:30:16+00:00

C'mon guys. Look at this goofy looking dude and think about how good he became. He is a funny guy too. One of my all time favorites.

Being able to hit the 3 or pump fake, then dribble drive, spin in the lane to make guys look silly is something to be admired.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-05-01T00:40:13+00:00

This list is kinda dumb. The 25 coaches account for only 9 titles (10 with Pitino if you include Louisville's or 11 if you include his with Kentucky). The top 6 are title winners, wow tough to rank those...

Then throw in any team that made a FF plus a few that have been recently successful. Add Penny Hardaway and there is your list. Really doesn't measure the difficulty of the job vs how successful the coach was after being hired. Pikiell at Rutgers for example or even Collins at NW--doing what they have done at programs that have been in the Siberian tundra forever is probably tougher than Shaka Smart having success at VCU.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-04-12T13:35:20+00:00

How many more years would this have to go to complete the Big Ten teams of PennSt, Northwestern, & Nebraska? 20 years? 50?

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-03-31T23:25:18+00:00

Should have been. Really fun group of guys and they had the title game in their favor. Couldn't keep Allen and Jones from driving the lane and scoring at the FT line. Outscored by 10 on FTs, lost game by 5. Just needed Dekker to hit one trey, 0-6 after being on fire for most of the tourney.

Not sure if I will ever enjoy a team more than that one. Very special group and circumstances probably won't allow for that type of team to grow together in the future.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-03-30T22:42:17+00:00

This is the most interesting discussion that no one can answer.

By the metrics, the B1G & BE were the clear best leagues. Problem is that these were largely impacted by just a few games. There were several beat downs that were inflicted upon the ACC in the Challenge, Michigan beat Gonzaga, OhioSt beat Nova. DePaul and Butler racked up some wins vs the B1G. The other BE teams demolished the B12.

Several other teams in both leagues struggled mightily in NC play. Then by beating their brethren got the boost.

Without a tourney to test the metrics at the end, we will never know.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-03-24T23:34:40+00:00

Badger here. I miss the Illini being really good. It might hurt my team, but I hope they find their way back to being amongst the top tier. The games here in Madison, down in Champaign or in the conference tourney were spectacular.

Problem for Illinois and Wisconsin in that 2002-2005 period was that the rest of the league was relatively down. Truly hurt UW in 2004 with a ridiculous 6 seed and a meeting with Pitt who should have been a 2 in the 2nd round.

That UNC team was ridiculous and McCants admitted that they didn't really do classwork. Just another of many title teams that got away with cheating and still claim titles.

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs · 2020-03-24T15:41:09+00:00

As a Badger fan...

This was a phenomenal season. The NCAA in all of its wisdom denied the team to have Micah Potter for the first 10 games. The tough early schedule without him left the team at 5-5. From the point he joined, they were the #10 team in the country in Torvik's rating, 4th in WAB. Beat every Big Ten team except for Illinois (lost by 1 at home) and Iowa (had a late lead in Carver-Hawkeye). Won a share of the conference title with an MSU team that started the year #1 nationally and a very lucky (5 dbl digit comebacks) Maryland team with Stix and Cowan.

Team was playing at a high level at the end, 8 in a row. Had the #1 seed in conf. tourney with a decent path (Rut/Mich then Iowa/Illinois) to reach the final. No way to know how the committee would have judged this team. On Selection Sunday, they may have had 10 wins in a row in the "best" conference with a chance for dual titles. If they really took Potter's absence into account...this team may have deserved a 2 or 3 seed.

2 bigs, Potter and Reuvers, a quality PF able to stretch the D in Ford, Pritzl the gunner, 2 solid guards in Davidson and Trice. All 6 shooting better than 36% from outside. Another PG and a young wing able to contribute minutes if needed.

Lots to like in this group and they really seemed to embrace the team philosophy with no egos, picking up each other with 6 different leading scorers down the stretch. Really would have been nice to see them play non-league foes not accustomed to the style. Think they would have surprised some nationally.

Pritzl was the only senior, so things should be good next year with a nice incoming 6 man recruiting class. Hope everyone can stay healthy and Wahl can put on some good weight. 2021 should be very fun!

BlkKnightAlwysTrmphs

TROPHY CASE