Feb 28 Committee Rankings

[FormerCTrez]

Crime has been wrong many times over the years.

Of course "Crime" has been wrong many times over the years

 

[FridaFriend]

The lowest seed to win the women's NCAA tournament is a 3 seed. It happened twice, North Carolina in 1994 and Tennessee in 1997 (the 10 loss team). North Carolina defeated a 30-2 UCONN team (#1 seed) in the Piscataway regional final and Tennessee defeated a 33-0 UCONN team (#1 seed) in the Iowa City regional final. It might be nice to be the third #3 seed to win it all this year, taking down #1 seed South Carolina in the regional final.

 

[hoophuskee]

The people who think there is a UConn bias, point to the fact that they get to play 4 games within 140 miles of their campus (except for last year) to get to the Final Four. Half the time within 90 miles of campus without having to leave the state of Conn.

Stanford made the Final Four in 2017 as a two seed and played the first two rounds in Kansas and the regionals in Lexington, Kentucky-- when there was a regionals in Stockton, CA, less than 100 miles from Stanford's campus. South Carolina won the Final Four that year playing in the Stockton, CA regionals.

Is it "fair" to any of the #1 seeds to have to play UConn as a #2 or #3 seed less than 90 miles from Storrs? Excluding last year for Covid, the last time UConn had to get on a plane before the Final Four was 2015.

Can't there be other reasons for bias though? That's not the only reason that UCONN fans say there is bias, right?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Which is UConn's secret weapon. Money still is the most important thing so they'll get them to Bridgeport so everyone cashes in.

I have believed this for years. But with going to only 2 Super Regional sites the next 4 years (1 in the east and 1 in the west) and only one of the 8 sites being anywhere near the northeast (Albany in 2024) UConn is simply not going to be local much going forward.

I truthfully think UConn "should" be in Bridgeport as I understand the general rules, but I know, as others have said, that the multiple teams from certain conferences are messing it up.

As to whatever the final seeding number is - it is always based on past performance. The performance of UConn this season is what it was. They will not base it on the fact that UConn - regardless of seeding - is the favorite to make it to the final four for almost everyone.

 

[BlueSkyGLW]

IS he following the S-Curve with Indiana? He disagreed with the committee, didn't he? Or am I wrong about that?

Yes, he is.....and yes, he was surprised re: what the Committee did. Also, thought Tenn should have moved down farther but did concede its strength of schedule may have kept them where they were placed. I guess he will publish his own updated bracketology. Oh, he already did....he dropped Indiana to 5 seed, out of the top 16; he also dropped Tenn to 5 seed.

 

[TB12]

Plus the illogic of missing out on revenue among other things.

Only a few tickets left...they made their money, and we made a costly assumption

 

[TB12]

What is the SC board saying??
Dawn may have a few choice words about this placement, she seldom holds back what she thinks....

 

[jchusky]

if people think Dawn Staley is scared of having Uconn in her bracket they don't know her. She could care less if they are in it, if they have to face off in the elite 8 then so be it, but people better not start overlooking Baylor. This team is on fire and Nalyssa Smith is one of the most unstoppable players in Wcbb.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Who cares if it's fair to South Carolina? Every single tournament since the beginning of time has had unfair seedings. It's just the reality of the seeding process which is just a big optimization problem, and there are always going to be solutions that compromise in one area to gain a bigger (perceived) advantage elsewhere.

 

[ConnMotors]

And there is a tendency to minimize major factors, right? In choosing seedings it clearly states "injuries" are taken into account, doesn't it?

This is NOT the same team (UCONN). And this is NOT fair to South Carolina. Not one iota fair.

As a UCONN fan I'm okay wherever they go- but I'm trying to be fair and wearing SC shoes. They were dominant all year- busted their hump being super -- and then you pit them against the preseason number 2 now back to full strength playing lights out and it's somehow that has logic?

In the history of WCBB, what team has lost what UCONN has and then regained it? Who loses the NPOY for nearly the whole season and 5 other core players? I mean c'mon it's laughable, isn't it? There was a line in a very good movie in which one person trying to convince to another that the computer was wrong and to stop acting like one. And there a business looking for revenue to boot.

You are going to pit two GIANTS before the FF when both are at full strength before the final week of the season? Aren't they playing some of their best basketball and highest revenue generators too? They put teams in regions in order to get fans in seats so to generate excitement and revenue. Yet they aren't going to do it here?

It's not one thing above - it's the combination.

It will get to a point as to is the selection committee is going to piss off. Will it be NC State having to possibly UConn in Bridgeport if it ends that way. Or are they going to piss of Dawn Staley by placing UConn in her bracket. We all know that Dawn is not a quiet person. She will make her comments known. Some of you might dislike her but I don't. She brings what the game needs. A women's side to Geno.

Plus, didn't Iowa State get their butts kicked last night at home by Baylor.

Come on committee get your act together here.

 

[Bald Husky]

Our job right now is to win the BET, but because of the seeding ramifications, we really need to win big. I don't want to embarrass our fellow conference foes, but we have to prove how strong we are, even if we have to blow them away. Most people acknowledged last year that the UConn- Baylor matchup belonged at the final 4, and a game between the preseason number 1 and 2, now at full strength, is a matchup that should occur at the Final 4, not in the regional. They use computers, but some common sense should be figured into the selections. No matter how it turns out, we will be tough to beat, so lets hope for the best, and let the chips fall as they will.

 

[BRS24]

That would've locked out the 2011 UConn men.

UCMBB was 21-9 and 9-9, so it technically met the .500 threshold, and even so, as the BE tourney champ is the auto qualifier, they got in.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Every year and as certain as death and taxes, the committee makes decisions that inevitably irritate someone. I hope the players aren't as riled as fans about the current reveal or potential seeding. At this time of the year, and having been battle-tested most of the season, I hope that their state of mind is...We're ready to beat anyone. anywhere and anytime. The rest of the field should be more concerned where UCONN is seated than UCONN is concerned.

 

[FairView]

I wouldn't mind keeping South Carolina out of the final four.

 

[jchusky]

Our job right now is to win the BET, but because of the seeding ramifications, we really need to win big. I don't want to embarrass our fellow conference foes, but we have to prove how strong we are, even if we have to blow them away. Most people acknowledged last year that the UConn- Baylor matchup belonged at the final 4, and a game between the preseason number 1 and 2, now at full strength, is a matchup that should occur at the Final 4, not in the regional. They use computers, but some common sense should be figured into the selections. No matter how it turns out, we will be tough to beat, so lets hope for the best, and let the chips fall as they will.

beating teams by 100 won't do anything if they are bad teams. Quad 1 wins are what move you up, the only team that UConn beat that was a quad 1 win was Tenn.

 

[RedStickHusky]

UCMBB was 21-9 and 9-9, so it technically met the .500 threshold, and even so, as the BE tourney champ is the auto qualifier, they got in.

Post said "winning record", the .500 was inre FBS bowl requirements. Fair dinkum on them winning the conference tourney AQ bid though.

 

[meyers7]

If I'm UCONN....I'm telling my kids, pack your bags, we're healthy and we're off to win six games.

Let's win 3 games first. Then we can talk about winning 6 games.

 

[Forego]

Do any of the rules experts know the origin and reasoning behind the bracketing criteria that requires teams from the same conference to be placed in different brackets? I am guessing that it may have been that teams and the selection committee did not want teams like North Carolina and Duke (on the men’s side) or UConn and Notre Dame (on the women’s side) eliminating one another too early in the tournament which could adversely affect fan interest. Or that is was considered unfair for such teams to play each other a third or fourth time before the final four. It may be time to rethink the value of this bracket criteria. As the power five conferences continue to expand their empires this bracket criteria becomes increasingly unfair to non-power five teams with regard to their seedlings. For example, soon the SEC will have two more tournament caliber teams that will need to be thrown into seeding process. Should conference affiliation take precedence over any other team’s season long performance when it comes to a team’s seeding?

 

[HuskyNan]

I hope I am wrong, but I think we will not be a Bridgeport. The NCAA has made up their mind and doesn't want to hear complaints about a 2 or 3 seed having home court and ousting a 1 seed.

It’s happened before

 

[Rb335]

The issue for me is that we really don’t know how good this team is actually playing. It’s just difficult to evaluate against subpar talent. It looks great but our last two opponents don’t provide much challenge. (Quad 3 and Quad 4 games)

My hope is that we get to face DePaul and then Creighton in the conference tournament, which will give the committee two Quad 1 games to evaluate our fully healthy roster. From the viewpoint of the committee evaluation process, that’s the best we can hope for. If we come out and steamroll those two opponents, I think it will give some evidence of our improvement from mid season, and show the committee that a 2 seed could be reasonable.

 

[Zinethar]

Why do none of the computers agree with you about Marquette? Do they have P-5 bias built into their algorithms?

Massey 65
NET 70
RPI 75
N Warren ELO 58

Your eyeball test is what you accuse the two “ biased” human polls of doing

I freely admit that I have a UConn bias (this is a UConn board). I try not to let that affect my "eyeball" test but I'm sure it does. Those algorithms are usually generated using past results which means that if conference x was good one year it is often assumed they still were and that isn't always the case. I've likely watch over a 100 women's games this year and know what I see. Marquette, that you mentioned, is an above average team but I would consider borderline NCAAT and certainly could be left off. The other 4 BE teams (UConn, DePaul, Creighton, Villanova) are the ones I believe are being slighted (possibly partially due to poor OOC scheduling). There is no way the SEC has 9 teams that should be in the tourney. Same for Big10 or ACC. 4-5 for sure. I think the Pac12 is down this year just as the Big 12 appears up. After watching Iowa State lose badly to Baylor yesterday there is no way they should be seeded as high as they are IMHO.

 

[HuskyNan]

Which is UConn's secret weapon. Money still is the most important thing so they'll get them to Bridgeport so everyone cashes in.

Bridgeport has already sold the tickets and so the NCAA already has its money. If no one shows up, the arena loses concession money and the local economy will suffer but the NCAA will be unaffected. Fans of the teams that do get sent to Bridgeport will get cheap seats on Stubhub, though.

 

[JoePgh]

Do any of the rules experts know the origin and reasoning behind the bracketing criteria that requires teams from the same conference to be placed in different brackets? I am guessing that it may have been that teams and the selection committee did not want teams like North Carolina and Duke (on the men’s side) or UConn and Notre Dame (on the women’s side) eliminating one another too early in the tournament which could adversely affect fan interest. Or that is was considered unfair for such teams to play each other a third or fourth time before the final four. It may be time to rethink the value of this bracket criteria. As the power five conferences continue to expand their empires this bracket criteria becomes increasingly unfair to non-power five teams with regard to their seedlings. For example, soon the SEC will have two more tournament caliber teams that will need to be thrown into seeding process. Should conference affiliation take precedence over any other team’s season long performance when it comes to a team’s seeding?

I remember this issue rather clearly. There was a year (maybe 2008 or 2009) when UConn and Rutgers were both considered Top 5 teams, and they had already played each other three times (2 in the regular season and 1 in the Big East tournament) and had split the games. However, the Committee in its infinite wisdom placed them in the same region, to near-universal condemnation. The teams didn't want to play each other a fourth time before the Final Four, and the TV audience did not want to see a repeat of that game.

Then, a year or two later, the same situation arose with Baylor and Texas A&M, which was then in the Big 12. They had already played three times, and had to play a fourth time in the regional final. No one liked that either.

A few years after that, there was a situation where, if the Committee strictly followed its own rules regarding geographical proximity, UConn and Louisville would have been in the same Region and would probably have played each other for a fourth time. The Committee broke its rules and sent UConn to a Regional in Lincoln, Nebraska to avoid that outcome.

The general feeling was that in a national tournament, teams should play opponents from other conferences and other parts of the country, and should not be playing very familiar opponents whom they have already played multiple times. Obviously, if two or three teams from the same conference get to the Final Four, that can't be avoided, but (it was felt) it should be postponed as long as possible.

I completely agree with that thought. It is a sound policy not to allow teams from the same conference to meet before the Final Four if that is at all possible.

 

[ConnMotors]

I remember this issue rather clearly. There was a year (maybe 2008 or 2009) when UConn and Rutgers were both considered Top 5 teams, and they had already played each other three times (2 in the regular season and 1 in the Big East tournament) and had split the games. However, the Committee in its infinite wisdom placed them in the same region, to near-universal condemnation. The teams didn't want to play each other a fourth time before the Final Four, and the TV audience did not want to see a repeat of that game.

Then, a year or two later, the same situation arose with Baylor and Texas A&M, which was then in the Big 12. They had already played three times, and had to play a fourth time in the regional final. No one liked that either.

A few years after that, there was a situation where, if the Committee strictly followed its own rules regarding geographical proximity, UConn and Louisville would have been in the same Region and would probably have played each other for a fourth time. The Committee broke its rules and sent UConn to a Regional in Lincoln, Nebraska to avoid that outcome.

The general feeling was that in a national tournament, teams should play opponents from other conferences and other parts of the country, and should not be playing very familiar opponents whom they have already played multiple times. Obviously, if two or three teams from the same conference get to the Final Four, that can't be avoided, but (it was felt) it should be postponed as long as possible.

I completely agree with that thought. It is a sound policy not to allow teams from the same conference to meet before the Final Four if that is at all possible.

So we should be playing in Stanford's Region?

 

[CajunHusky]

Do you think Dawn would rather get UConn in Greenville? Do you think UConn might be playing on a home court in Minneapolis (Bueckers effect)?