Selection Sunday

[EM_Puma]

By all accounts, BYU is in. It's just a matter of seeding.

Someone though just got bounced, as Georgetown at 13-12 somehow won the Big East. I don't believe they have been in any projections for the NCAA tournament.

[EM_Puma]

Georgia Tech won the ACC. They were projected as "Last Four Byes", so that doesn't disrupt anything. Lunardi's last projection had them as a 10 seed. I'm sure they'll move up a bit, but be the lowest seed there has been in some time for the winner of the ACC tournament.

[EM_Puma]

Oregon state is trying to join the field and beat Colorado. They're up in a close one, but their win too would knock someone off the bubble as at 17-12, if they win, they were not projected into the tournament.

[EM_Puma]

Memphis came very close (2 points) to knocking another team off the bubble, but they aren't in Lunardi's projection, but making it to the final, and losing by only 2 to top 10 ranked Houston could change that.

[EM_Puma]

North Texas just upset Western Kentucky, who had been projected as the AQ from the C-USA. I don't think Western Kentucky makes it. They only have an 80 NET ranking, so I don't think they knock off any bubble teams. Too bad for them.

[EM_Puma]

Oregon state is trying to join the field and beat Colorado. They're up in a close one, but their win too would knock someone off the bubble as at 17-12, if they win, they were not projected into the tournament.

Wow. Oregon St takes PAC-12. This is more evidence why I don't like conference tournaments. Another bubble team takes a bounce. They ought to penalize conferences that allow teams that are "unworthy" by their body of work for the season to drop other deserving teams out of the NCAA tournament. Some people like that a David can knock off a Goliath, but to me it cheapens the regular season. OSU was one game above 500 in a suspect conference and now they're heading to the Dance.

[EM_Puma]

Wow, so much comment on this topic.

[byufan4ever]

Oregon state is trying to join the field and beat Colorado. They're up in a close one, but their win too would knock someone off the bubble as at 17-12, if they win, they were not projected into the tournament.

Wow. Oregon St takes PAC-12. This is more evidence why I don't like conference tournaments. Another bubble team takes a bounce. They ought to penalize conferences that allow teams that are "unworthy" by their body of work for the season to drop other deserving teams out of the NCAA tournament. Some people like that a David can knock off a Goliath, but to me it cheapens the regular season. OSU was one game above 500 in a suspect conference and now they're heading to the Dance.

There needs to be some way to punch an automatic bid so that we're not at the mercy of a committee picking 64+ at large bids (most of which would end up being P5 schools). I hate college football's post season and besides BYU don't really watch any bowl games. Maybe it should be the conference regular season champion instead. But yes, I do like the idea of a David at least being given the chance to defeat Goliath. Most conference tournaments heavily reward the top teams by giving them multiple byes. A team like Georgetown or Oregon St. has to win several games in a row sometimes 3+ days in a row. If they can do that, put them in over some bubble team who doesn't have a strong enough resume to be a lock. If we really don't want to cheapen the regular season why even have March Madness? Just declare Gonzaga champions right now! No, I love me some March and some Madness.

My only gripe is let's keep it to 64 teams and not keep expanding it so that everyone gets a medal. Gripe #2: let the seeding be done by the NET ranking. I'd maybe even say let the at large bids be filled strictly by NET ranking. No bias involved. Sure, no computer ranking is perfect, but it's probably better than letting biased humans decide.

[EM_Puma]

So, BYU ends up with a 6 seed. I'm impressed. Many thought we deserved a 6 seed, but that meant we'd probably fall off to an 8 seed (based on historical BYU bias), so this is good.

I don't like playing the winner of Michigan St/UCLA. UCLA coming off 4 losses in a row and I think we can match up well against them. MSU is bi-polar and has wins vs 2 #1 top seeds in Illinois and Michigan, as well as another over 2nd seed Ohio State! Now how both of those teams are considered on the same level as 11 seeds makes no sense to me whatsoever. Weird too that with such wins MSU is 70/56 in NET/KenPom. That shows you how much of a Dr. Jeckle/Mr. Hyde team they are and those are the scariest teams to face.

[Jarhead]

I think BYU historical bias for tournament seeding pretty much ended about the same time BYU joined the WCC.