BE, B10, SEC, and B12 tourney champs | The Boneyard

BE, B10, SEC, and B12 tourney champs

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Illinois doesn’t play any D- least of our worries. Auburn & Iowa St. playing the best basketball in the country- teams to watch out for. FAU has the shot makers, experience, & have a 7 footer to possibly make a deep run once again. Not the easiest bracket- 4 top 10 teams in Kenpom which seems strange- & as pronounce in caption a bunch of tournament winners playing their best basketball. UConn will have to beat the best to be the best.
 
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EBonz30 said:
Illinois doesn’t play any D- least of our worries. Auburn & Iowa St. playing the best basketball in the country- teams to watch out for. FAU has the shot makers, experience, & have a 7 footer to possibly make a deep run once again. Not the easiest bracket- 4 top 10 teams in Kenpom which seems strange- & as pronounce in caption a bunch of tournament winners playing their best basketball. UConn will have to beat the best to be the best.
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We'll hang 100 on Illinois. But they can also score 100. That said, I'd be a little surprised if they get all the way there.
 
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CTFAN4LIFE said:
Tourney champs don't mean as much as regular season champs; who'd you rather play: Auburn or TN, Illinois or Purdue and Iowa State or Houston??
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The teams that win the tourneys are typically the ones trending at the right time.

Look at Auburn for example.

They had to go play @ Florida and @ Tennessee with no return games.

There wasn't really much separation at the top of the SEC. Tennessee was 14-4 then 4 teams came in right behind them at 13-5.

I watched them destroy South Carolina. Win a terribly officiated wrestling match against Mississippi State lol, and pull away from Florida twice and end up blowing them out as well.

They are #5 in the net. They are literally 2 opponent rankings away from 5 Q1 wins. Mississippi State is #31 (need to be 30) and South Carolina is #51 (need to be 50). They were the only team in college basketball with a top 10 offense and top 10 defense. They are #7 in the latest coaches poll. They are #4 in Kenpom. They won 27 games and 26 of those wins were by double digits.

Don't even get me started on Iowa State who is right there with them.

There isn't a single thing that screams #15 (3rd 4 seed) in regards to Auburn. They should have been the #3 in UNCs bracket.

Don't even get me started with Iowa State lol. They beat Houston 2/3 times. Houston is also dealing with injury issues and are short handed.

I would much rather play Tennessee or Houston vs Auburn or Iowa State at this point. I know we're good enough to win it all and should win it all. I still think the path we gotta go through compared to everyone else is nonsense.
 
Mike9904111 said:
The teams that win the tourneys are typically the ones trending at the right time.

Look at Auburn for example.

They had to go play @ Florida and @ Tennessee with no return games.

There wasn't really much separation at the top of the SEC. Tennessee was 14-4 then 4 teams came in right behind them at 13-5.

I watched them destroy South Carolina. Win a terribly officiated wrestling match against Mississippi State lol, and pull away from Florida twice and end up blowing them out as well.

They are #5 in the net. They are literally 2 opponent rankings away from 5 Q1 wins. Mississippi State is #31 (need to be 30) and South Carolina is #51 (need to be 50). They were the only team in college basketball with a top 10 offense and top 10 defense. They are #7 in the latest coaches poll. They are #4 in Kenpom. They won 27 games and 26 of those wins were by double digits.

Don't even get me started on Iowa State who is right there with them.

There isn't a single thing that screams #15 (3rd 4 seed) in regards to Auburn. They should have been the #3 in UNCs bracket.

Don't even get me started with Iowa State lol. They beat Houston 2/3 times. Houston is also dealing with injury issues and are short handed.

I would much rather play Tennessee or Houston vs Auburn or Iowa State at this point. I know we're good enough to win it all and should win it all. I still think the path we gotta go through compared to everyone else is nonsense.
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Matchups matter more.
 
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Tenspro2002 said:
It's ludicrous that beating the #1 team by 30 had zero impact on Iowa State's placement on the S Curve.
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The Committee was dealt a tough hand: Houston, Purdue, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arizona ALL lost. Only North Carolina got to its tournament finals. Creighton, Kentucky, and Duke lost before their finals too.

It was like that week when everybody in the top 10 lost to an unranked team. The losses went further into the Top 25. Pretty much only UConn and Duke won during that episode

Just as the weekly poll voters were getting pretty much forced to choose UConn then, the Committee similarly had to make UConn the overall #1 seed for the Tournament after this weekend's games

Unless UConn collapsed, the Committee had already been
shoehorned into placing UConn into Brooklyn, with a path to Boston. What a mess. This waa already going to be uncomfortable, somewhat like having Jeff Emmert congratulate the 2024 "hungry Huskies," as labeled by Shabazz Napier

The only way out of this mess would be to give them the 2nd best Big 12, Big 10, and SEC teams (as the 2-4 seeds), and spice it up further with last year's runner-up as the 5, and the team SDSU had beaten in the Final 4 game to get the Championship.

And then all the 1 seeds lost.

The computers knew what to do; the poor human beings were stuck in a very hard place. So what did they do? Nothing. They slapped Overall #1 on UConn, and left things as they were.

They kept the most dubious P4 teams (Michigan State, Virginia, Mississippi State, and TCU) in the field; decided not to choose between the half-dozen Mountain West peers (drawing the line at UNLV, which stalled at 19 wins, though one was against Creighton) by inviting them all in a demonstrated show of respect for a non-major conference that had developed a reputation for late night entertainment; and, in the interest of keeping things simple, correspondingly decided against choosing between SHU, PC, and Seton Hall by just saying No to all three.

Let's face, it wasn't the Committee's fault that two of the solid #1s, and every other contender for the fourth spot faltered. And UConn got its two-pack of friendly locations and the prestige of being the top seed for only the small cost of having to blatantly lie in assigning questionable numeric rankings to the other teams in the East Region to make the narrative 'fit.'

Remember, UConn will still be favored in all of the games. And its top potential foes will remain hubris, distraction, dissension, and injury. We as fans can make a difference by not contributing to the first three of these risk factors, by not accepting any invitations to organize & grow negative energy around them.

Last year's West region was top-heavy with highly-rated KenPom teams, and UConn emerged as the 4-seed.

This year's team will play its games one-at-a-time, and the team is currently playing well. Prepare for a successful weekend in Brooklyn, and see where that leads.

Go UConn!
 
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Val Ackerman basically puts the retiring Butler guy on the Selection Committee as a departing feather in his cap - however efffectively he retires early (lol) and doesn’t do () on committtee and sells the league down the toilet.
Time to clean house and that starts at the top (Val).
 
Hans Sprungfeld said:
The Committee was dealt a tough hand: Houston, Purdue, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arizona ALL lost. Only North Carolina got to its tournament finals. Creighton, Kentucky, and Duke lost before their finals too.

It was like that week when everybody in the top 10 lost to an unranked team. The losses went further into the Top 25. Pretty much only UConn and Duke win.

Just as the weekly poll voters were pretty much forced to choose UConn then, the Committee similarly had to make UConn the overall #1 seed.

They'd already been pretty much shoehorned into placing UConn into Brooklyn, with a path to Boston. What a mess. This waa already going to be as uncomfortable as having Jeff Emmert congratulate the 2024 "hungry Huskies," as labeled by Shabazz Napier

The only way out of this mess would be to give them the 2nd best Big 10, Big 12, and SEC teams, and spice it up with last year's runner-up, and the team they'd beaten in the Final 4 to get the Championship game.

And then all the 1 seeds lost. The computers knew what to do; the poor human beings were stuck in a very hard place. So what did they do? Nothing. They slapped Overall #1 on UConn, and left things as they were.

They kept the most dubious P4 teams (Michigan State, Virginia, Mississippi State, and TCU) in the field; decided not to choose between the half-dozen Mountain West peers (drawing the line at UNLV, which stalled at 19 wins, though one was against Creighton) by inviting them all in a demonstrated show of respect for respect for the non-major conference that developed a reputation for late night entertainment; and, in the interest of keeping things simple, comparably decided against choosing between SHU, PC, and Seton Hall and just said No to all three.

Let's face, it wasn't the Committee's fault that two of the solid #1s, and every other contender for the fourth spot faltered. And UConn got its two-pack of friendly locations and the prestige of being the top seed for the small cost of having to blatantly lie in assigning questionable numeric rankings to the other teams in the East Region.

UConn will still be favored in all of the games. And its top potential foes will remain hubris, distraction, dissension, and injury. We as fans can make a difference by not contributing to the first three of these risks, by not accepting any invitations to organize & grow negative energy around them. Last year's West region was top-heavy with KenPom high-scorers, and UConn had to prevail as the 4-seed.

This team will play its games one-at-a-time, and the team is currently playing well. Prepare for a successful weekend in Brooklyn, and see where that leads.

Go UConn!
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How about putting the best teams and league champs in - that’s it - no other political BS criteria.
 
Apollo said:
ISU is a 2 seed
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He meant the #8 overall seed in the tournament. The 2nd seeds in the regionals are supposed to be the 5th through 8th best teams and the S curve relationship says the overall #1 seed should get the weakest (#8) 2nd seed.
 
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UConn being put in such a loaded bracket does not seem accidental. But at least we can all take comfort in that the top seeded ACC team North Carolina doesn't have to face such a gauntlet.
 
The conspiracy theories about the politics are dumb, most of the issues with the strength of the region is explained by 2 things:

1) Iowa St and Auburn were forced into our region by bracket principles. The only way to have Iowa St not be in our region was if they were 5th overall on the seedlist and could pick Midwest, because Marquette could not in the East. As long as Tennessee and/or Marquette was ahead of them, we were getting Iowa St in the East. I posted about this several times before the bracket. Similarly Auburn being behind Tenn and Kentucky meant they could not be slotted into South or Midwest, their 2 preferred locales, so East was always next for them.

2) Auburn and Iowa St. were underrated due to the typical committee seedling voting shenanigans. They decide on the seedlist early on every year for the top seeds and then don't adjust enough for the last few days and conference tournaments. Auburn always had the predictive profile of a top 3 seed, but lacked the resume strength due to unbalanced SEC schedule and some close losses. They improved from 16th to 9th in WAB (a large shift) and notched 3 strong wins from their tournament run (the main thing lacking from their resume), and that was not reflected in them being the 15th overall team in the seedlist. But even if they had been 13th, they'd still be in the East. They had to get to the 3 line ahead of Kentucky for us to not have them in our region, and I believe they should have been. But the only way that's possible is if you seriously re-evaluated their resume on Sunday.

I posted in early February that Auburn was the team I most didn't want to see in the tournament. We'll be only like 2.5-3.5 point favorites over them (they're stronger in metrics than Marquette or North Carolina) and the matchup is tougher than most teams. Jaylin Williams is a physical 4 who can stretch the floor. Johni Broome is a 5 who draws a ton of fouls and can also stretch the floor and protects the paint. They have shooting at all 5 spots and mix of talent and experience up the lineup (Chad Baker-Mazara is a future 1st round pick, Aden Holloway is a 5*, KD Johnson is a menace, Denver Jones and Tre Donaldson shoot 40% from 3).
auror said:
The keys to beating us in my mind:

Defense - You gotta be able to switch 1-4. We don't attack mismatches much, so it's less about physical profile and more about team communication and discipline. You need to be able to team rebound and probably have at least one bigger body to not get overwhelmed by Clingan. It does help if your guards can play aggressive and physical D as well, especially against Spencer.

Offense - Strong and athletic 4 man and center that can stretch the floor help. More shooters to stretch us out and then strong or skilled players capable of driving. 4 or 5-out offense (Nova, Creighton) has killed us for years. We got a little fortunate last year that we played all teams with traditional centers in March. Nova has a terrible coach and still almost beat us this year. Marquette beat us 2/3 last year because they had a 4 who could shoot and attack the paint and a mobile 5. A 5 that can get DC in foul trouble also makes things easier for opponents.

Auburn is the team I don't want to see.
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Hans Sprungfeld said:
The Committee was dealt a tough hand: Houston, Purdue, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arizona ALL lost. Only North Carolina got to its tournament finals. Creighton, Kentucky, and Duke lost before their finals too.

It was like that week when everybody in the top 10 lost to an unranked team. The losses went further into the Top 25. Pretty much only UConn and Duke won during that episode

Just as the weekly poll voters were getting pretty much forced to choose UConn then, the Committee similarly had to make UConn the overall #1 seed for the Tournament after this weekend's games

Unless UConn collapsed, the Committee had already been
shoehorned into placing UConn into Brooklyn, with a path to Boston. What a mess. This waa already going to be uncomfortable, somewhat like having Jeff Emmert congratulate the 2024 "hungry Huskies," as labeled by Shabazz Napier

The only way out of this mess would be to give them the 2nd best Big 12, Big 10, and SEC teams (as the 2-4 seeds), and spice it up further with last year's runner-up as the 5, and the team SDSU had beaten in the Final 4 game to get the Championship.

And then all the 1 seeds lost.

The computers knew what to do; the poor human beings were stuck in a very hard place. So what did they do? Nothing. They slapped Overall #1 on UConn, and left things as they were.

They kept the most dubious P4 teams (Michigan State, Virginia, Mississippi State, and TCU) in the field; decided not to choose between the half-dozen Mountain West peers (drawing the line at UNLV, which stalled at 19 wins, though one was against Creighton) by inviting them all in a demonstrated show of respect for a non-major conference that had developed a reputation for late night entertainment; and, in the interest of keeping things simple, correspondingly decided against choosing between SHU, PC, and Seton Hall by just saying No to all three.

Let's face, it wasn't the Committee's fault that two of the solid #1s, and every other contender for the fourth spot faltered. And UConn got its two-pack of friendly locations and the prestige of being the top seed for only the small cost of having to blatantly lie in assigning questionable numeric rankings to the other teams in the East Region to make the narrative 'fit.'

Remember, UConn will still be favored in all of the games. And its top potential foes will remain hubris, distraction, dissension, and injury. We as fans can make a difference by not contributing to the first three of these risk factors, by not accepting any invitations to organize & grow negative energy around them.

Last year's West region was top-heavy with highly-rated KenPom teams, and UConn emerged as the 4-seed.

This year's team will play its games one-at-a-time, and the team is currently playing well. Prepare for a successful weekend in Brooklyn, and see where that leads.

Go UConn!
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It may not be the committees fault but it's their job to be able to adjust on the fly and make the most equitable and competive tournament possible. They have all these bigwigs watching ganes and having countless meetings for them to just throw their hands up in the air and say we didn't expect "that" to happen so we will just freeze up, and leave things as is so we don't have to make any hard decisions? I would rather them just have a computer decide. At least it would be a set formula and the same for everyone. They like to keep the citeria ambiguous. It allows them the wiggle room to do what they want for their own respective agendas. If they were serious about any of this, they would start by making a rule that all conference championships be finished by end of day Saturday. No more lame excuses about how they didn't have time to factor in the results of Sunday's results. The brackets will never be perfect and that's ok but this year they are indefensible. They parade some suit in front of the tv and he acts like he was just part of a 6 month think tank. They expect fans to be dopes and just assume their motives are pure and that their only agenda was to create a fair, deserving bracket of the best teams. It's a farce and should be treated as such. When this much money is involved, everyone always has an agenda.
 
If this was any of all but a couple of our prior teams I would be a little angry with how this fell out but this year, with this year's team, it doesn't bother me at all. If anyone should be complaining about how things fell out with arguably the best second, third and fourth seed in the same bracket as the overall number, it should be the schools that are argualy the best second, third and fourth seeds as their paths have a massive road block (us).

The one thing that has angered me a bit about this is the location of the first two rounds. It's irritating as hell that where they are playing is geographically so close to where I live but also such a pain in the backside to get to.
 
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