21 in the AP

[tzznandrew]

why would you much rather be a 4 seed than a 5 or 6? difference in championship/final four equity seems extremely negligible. 3 seed, sure

4 vs. 5 isn't quite negligible. 12 seeds tend to be last team in (major conference foes) or really good mid-majors--which is why 5 seeds lose a lot more than 4 seeds (33% to 21%). Also, the 4 seed technically gets a preferential location. You'd rather be the 4 with that, if possible, for those reasons. The advantage a 6 seed has is that you avoid the 1 seed until the E8--and 2 seeds are far more likely to lose in the second round than 1 seeds.

But you're playing a tougher second round matchup, and there is a much better chance of a 3 seed playing closer to home than a 4 seed.

Ideally, you want to be a 3 or higher, but given 4-6, you pick 4 every time. There's a reason 4 seeds tend to make the Final Fours more frequently than 5 seeds. Since the tournament expanded in 1985, 13 4-seeds made the Final Four compared to 6 5-seeds. While 3 4-seeds advanced and to 3 5-seeds advanced to the title game, 1 4-seeds won compared to no 5-seeds.

 

[msgordon]

well ya, 4 seeds tend to be better than 5 seeds who are better than 6 and so forth so the final four numbers dont mean much to me. i just think if you place this uconn team in a random 4-6 draw we advance at basically the same rate. 5-12 matchup is less of a factor now that 68 teams get in

 

[David 76]

Look at the resumes and tell me on what planet should UK be ranked ahead of UConn or Texas?

I feel that way with about 4 teams including Michigan. We almost weren't ahead of Memphis!

 

[Inyatkin]

The good thing about a 6 is it puts you in the bottom half of the bracket, and you avoid the top seeds for longer (and give them more of a chance to get knocked off). If it's a year with a clear delineation between a handful of teams and everyone else, that can be a huge plus.
Sort of like why you'd much rather be a 10-seed than an 8, in my view.

 

[storrsroars]

Lunardi has UConn as the top 6 seed right now, facing winner of a play-in and in the East. I'd take a 4 anywhere, but if UConn can play the 2nd weekend in NYC, I'd take that too.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

More then the Houston loss?

Because that loss hurt us the most imo!

Yes
The Houston loss can be written as a mid-term anomaly.
Stanford was a home game that we played awful in. Blew a double digit lead against a possession team with little scoring punch.
Cinn again was a double digit lead against a possession type team.
Those are like 2o point leads against Memphis.
Cinny caused us a shot at the regular season title
If we had won those two games we would be easily top ten and looking at a 2 or 3 seed.

 

[itgoeslike]

Duke almost, and probably should have, lost to Maryland, at home, yet they move up to number 5?! What crap. Talk about overrated. I guess they need absolutely every advantage come tournament time. Their average seeding over the past 10 years has been 1.9. While they did win 1 NC in that time span, they got no farther than the round of 64 twice, round of 32 once, and the sweet sixteen four times in other years. They rarely live up to their seeding. . .

 

[tzznandrew]

well ya, 4 seeds tend to be better than 5 seeds who are better than 6 and so forth so the final four numbers dont mean much to me. i just think if you place this uconn team in a random 4-6 draw we advance at basically the same rate. 5-12 matchup is less of a factor now that 68 teams get in

They aren't better by a significant factor--if they're better at all. Sure, 1s are usually better than 3s, but there's always enough fudging that 4s and 5s are, from a resume standpoint, pretty identical. But the advantages 4s get tends to pay off a lot more than 5s.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

How is Duke number 5 all of the suddent. Only a few weeks ago they were bearly ranked in the high teens... what a climb. these guys are so biased

 

[BUHusky]

Normally I would argue that polls don't matter that much, but they clearly do for seeding. I'd much rather be a 4 seed than a 5 or 6, and getting up to a 3 seed means we don't face a 1 seed till the elite 8. UCONN has 1 really bad loss (Houston) and one kinda bad loss (Stanford). Losing to SMU, Louisville, and Cinci are nothing to be ashamed of. But I'm kind of surprised Michigan (7 losses), Kentucky (6), Iowa (6), and 5 loss Texas and ISU are ranked ahead of us.

Hahaha. What?!? I think everyone should know by now that the polls don't affect NCAA seeding one iota. The NCAA committee has their own metrics and the polls are certainly not one of them. Ask the 2006 George Washington team how #11 and #14 rankings in the final polls before the tournament landed them a freaking 8 seed.

Polls are popularity contests. That is all. Just win and the appropriate seed will follow.

 

[patrick]

Yes
The Houston loss can be written as a mid-term anomaly.
Stanford was a home game that we played awful in. Blew a double digit lead against a possession team with little scoring punch.
Cinn again was a double digit lead against a possession type team.
Those are like 2o point leads against Memphis.
Cinny caused us a shot at the regular season title
If we had won those two games we would be easily top ten and looking at a 2 or 3 seed.

You think we would be a top ten even with that Houston loss?

 

[Migs]

Duke has beaten #18 and #22 . Lost to #5, #4, and #2. Yet they are #6 with bad losses to ND and Clemson as well. Please justify!

Big game coming up this weekend, #5 hosting #1 sounds better on promos.

 

[kobe]

Louisville's disparity in ranking in the AP vs Coaches has to be the largest spread for this time of the year. I think they are a very good team but #5 vs #11 is crazy. According to the Coaches Poll, the American will have it's first ever top 10 match up on Saturday when #5 Louisville takes on #9 Cincinnati.

 

[Jerry1714]

2 morons did not even rank UConn, one of the mouth breathers has Memphis 19, yes the same memphis we have now beaten twice

http://www.pollspeak.com/component/option,com_psreport/Itemid,3/lang,en/p,56/r,T/s,26/t1,23/v,/w,16/

 

[Jerry1714]

Hahaha. What?!? I think everyone should know by now that the polls don't affect NCAA seeding one iota. The NCAA committee has their own metrics and the polls are certainly not one of them. Ask the 2006 George Washington team how #11 and #14 rankings in the final polls before the tournament landed them a freaking 8 seed.

Polls are popularity contests. That is all. Just win and the appropriate seed will follow.

Murray State I think was in the top 10 2 years ago and was given a 6 seed.

The polls are nice for the press but do not mean much if anything for seeding.

 

[Strummer]

I hit it on the head. 21.

Were you worried that nobody was going to notice?

 

[ASweet3781]

2 morons did not even rank UConn, one of the mouth breathers has Memphis 19, yes the same memphis we have now beaten twice

http://www.pollspeak.com/component/option,com_psreport/Itemid,3/lang,en/p,56/r,T/s,26/t1,23/v,/w,16/

One of them John Feinstein currently of National Public Radio and formerly of the Washington Post. Duke graduate and covered Maryland and ACC basketball for the Post.

 

[itgoeslike]

The coaches poll is even a bigger sham. . . USA Today is losing credibility and should consider changing how it approaches its poll.

 

[DogMania]

I hit it on the head. 21.

I figured 21 as well passing OSU, Memphis and SMU, all teams within reach who lost last week. Really a no-brainer since all the other the other programs in the latter 3rd of the poll all won.

On a loosely related note, SMU's loss at Temple not only kicked their butt's out of the top 25, but also hurts the 4 ranked AAC teams. It's one example of how the bottom of the AAC can really impact the ranking's and RPI's of the top AAC teams when one or more of the top ones lose to the bottom feeders. From this point on, the top 5 can't afford any more losses to the bottom teams without potentially impacting all their NCAA Tournament seedings.

 

[HuskyBoi]

Anyone else see how Louisville is #5 in coaches poll?

LOL
WHAT.
They should be unranked if anything. Sorry.