I would appreciate someone explaining to me how Tulane got in,

[boontonbomber]

and a couple of Big East teams, St. John's and Villanova, did not. As far as I can see Tulane's only big win was against LSU way back in November. St. John's looked like a much better team than Tulane when UConn played them. They finished 21-10, and had wins over USF, Seton Hall, and Marist. Villanova started 3-7, but won 16 of their last 22, with 5 of those last 6 losses by a total of 15 points. And they had a win over Depaul. I know just playing in the same league as UConn carries weight, but......

 

[Orangutan]

and a couple of Big East teams, St. John's and Villanova, did not. As far as I can see Tulane's only big win was against LSU way back in November. St. John's looked like a much better team than Tulane when UConn played them. They finished 21-10, and had wins over USF, Seton Hall, and Marist. Villanova started 3-7, but won 16 of their last 22, losing 5 of those games by a total of 15 points. And they had a win over Depaul.

Looking at their selection sheets on WBB State...my assessment in bold)

Tulane was 22-10, St. John's 21-10, Villanova 19-13 (advantage Tulane)

RPI - Tulane 50, Villanova 72, St. John's 86. (advantage Tulane)

SOS - Tulane 70, Villanova 71, St. John's 121. (advantage Tulane)

Villanova's 6 top 100 wins are DePaul (RPI 38), Penn (51), NC State (75), St. John's (86), 2x Creighton (87)
Tulane's 5 top 100 wins are AR-Little Rock (32), LSU (55), Miami (62), East Carolina (65), and NC State (75)
St John's 5 top 100 wins are South Florida (26), Seton Hall (40), Villanova (72), 2x Creighton (87).

St. John's has the best win, and two nice top 50 wins but the profiles are all similar...and Tulane didn't get to play Creighton twice.

Tulane has 2 losses to sub-100 teams - Tulsa (111) and Temple (136)
St. John's has 3 losses to sub-100 teams - Butler (141), Indiana State (170), and Xavier (187).
Villanova has 3 losses to sub-100 teams - Butler (141), Sacred Heart (215), and Providence (262).

Villanova has by far the worst losses - to Providence and to Sacred Heart by 23 (at home!)

Overall, I think it's close - the wins and losses don't look that much different to me, but if there's only 1 spot for the three of them, I think Tulane's the logical choice based on RPI and SOS. For the computer lovers (myself included), the Sagarin Ratings are Tulane - 51, Villanova - 59, St. John's 74.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Tulane has a RPI Rating of 52, while Nova is 76 and St John's 85.

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d1/ncaa-womens-basketball-rpi

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Comparatively, Orang.. has it right.

That said, I don't think Tulane is an "impressive" choice, the later teams into the tournament seem very much like making the best of a bad situation. Some years there are a lot of really good candidates and someone gets left out. This year, a lot of mediocre candidates and someone got in.

 

[DobbsRover2]

O-tang summed it up. Both St. John's and Nova were also a ways behind Tulane in Sagarin and Massey. Tulane was straddling the border fence trying to get into the Tourney on an ehhh profile, but both St. Johns and Nova still had a distance to go to get to the border. Yes, St. Johns' season seems great when you look at the great road win over USF and a closer than normal loss to UConn, but you also have to factor in those bad losses to an Xavier team rated #152 in Sagarin and a very bad home loss to Butler. You just can't do that and expect to get an at-large ticket.

 

[grumpert]

and a couple of Big East teams, St. John's and Villanova, did not. As far as I can see Tulane's only big win was against LSU way back in November. St. John's looked like a much better team than Tulane when UConn played them. They finished 21-10, and had wins over USF, Seton Hall, and Marist. Villanova started 3-7, but won 16 of their last 22, with 5 of those last 6 losses by a total of 15 points. And they had a win over Depaul. I know just playing in the same league as UConn carries weight, but.

I have been a UConn fan since 1998 I feel Tulane is a good team.

 

[slug25]

Male coaches.

 

[triaddukefan]

I will be pulling for Tulane on Friday

 

[DobbsRover2]

Male coaches.

Yep, since almost 60% of the teams in the Tourney have male head coaches, that's gotta be the reason. Committee was definitely out to get'em this year.

 

[HuskiesU]

That's good for the AAC

 

[j66kicker]

Yep, since almost 60% of the teams in the Tourney have male head coaches, that's gotta be the reason. Committee was definitely out to get'em this year.

Just to cause trouble.... I guess, if the committee has no gender bias, and 60% is significantly higher than the % of male coaches at all D1 schools, then would that indicate that male coaches perform better? (Maybe for this to be the case,"performing better" would have to include winning their conference championships in lieu of other selection criteria for some coaches of automatic qualifiers.)

 

[Huskies Rule]

Tulane got in because my buddy's a huge Green Wave fan, lives in N.O., and gave the French Quarter's voodoo priestess some cash [for the bid plus one win]. Simple.

 

[boontonbomber]

Looking at their selection sheets on WBB State...my assessment in bold)

Tulane was 22-10, St. John's 21-10, Villanova 19-13 (advantage Tulane)

RPI - Tulane 50, Villanova 72, St. John's 86. (advantage Tulane)

SOS - Tulane 70, Villanova 71, St. John's 121. (advantage Tulane)

Villanova's 6 top 100 wins are DePaul (RPI 38), Penn (51), NC State (75), St. John's (86), 2x Creighton (87)
Tulane's 5 top 100 wins are AR-Little Rock (32), LSU (55), Miami (62), East Carolina (65), and NC State (75)
St John's 5 top 100 wins are South Florida (26), Seton Hall (40), Villanova (72), 2x Creighton (87).

St. John's has the best win, and two nice top 50 wins but the profiles are all similar...and Tulane didn't get to play Creighton twice.

Tulane has 2 losses to sub-100 teams - Tulsa (111) and Temple (136)
St. John's has 3 losses to sub-100 teams - Butler (141), Indiana State (170), and Xavier (187).
Villanova has 3 losses to sub-100 teams - Butler (141), Sacred Heart (215), and Providence (262).

Villanova has by far the worst losses - to Providence and to Sacred Heart by 23 (at home!)

Overall, I think it's close - the wins and losses don't look that much different to me, but if there's only 1 spot for the three of them, I think Tulane's the logical choice based on RPI and SOS. For the computer lovers (myself included), the Sagarin Ratings are Tulane - 51, Villanova - 59, St. John's 74.

I do realize that the NCAA must have an objective method of selecting and seeding teams, and, based upon all of the ratings methods ,Tulane would deserve strong consideration. But I have to say that I like St. John's 2 victories over teams that were not just "rated" in the top 50, but also were in the coaches poll of top 25 teams much of the season. Most importantly, using the BET(Bomber Eye Test), the Tulane team that was embarrassed by UConn just did not look to be in the same ballpark( or gym, if you prefer) as the St. John's team that was playing tough against UConn's starters right up until the last couple of minutes of the game.
Remember what Disraeli once said: "There are 3 kinds of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics".

 

[DobbsRover2]

Just to cause trouble.... I guess, if the committee has no gender bias, and 60% is significantly higher than the % of male coaches at all D1 schools, then would that indicate that male coaches perform better? (Maybe for this to be the case,"performing better" would have to include winning their conference championships in lieu of other selection criteria for some coaches of automatic qualifiers.)

You really want to cause trouble, don't you? Not sure anyone can win on an issue like this, because yes there are a huge amount of factors that go into the gender issues swirling around it.

First, this could be an unusual year. But the percentage of WCBB schools with male head coaches has risen to a reported 40%, and if that is true, then indeed the male coached teams do seem to have a very high success rate this year for getting into the Tourney. Only 12 of the 32 P5 teams in the NCAAT have male coaches, but the big bulge is with the "big mid-majors," as 6 of the 7 teams from the AAC, Atlantic 10, and Big East (all except Tulane) are led by guys. More than 3/4 of the small mid majors also have women's coaches.

What you want to make of the 37.5% for P5 schools and the 78.1% for the rest of the schools ratio and all the other averages is up to you, but personally I'm not sure I'd say much other than that the opportunities for head coaching jobs will vary according to the level of the school, and that the job of coaching teams has generally been considered to put more stresses on mothers than fathers for coaches with young families, though I certainly have known fathers who have quit head coaching jobs too because of the travel and time demands.

 

[lanieer]

Makes sense to me. I guess the complaint is from a Big East fan. Close but Tulane was deserving.

 

[DobbsRover2]

I do realize that the NCAA must have an objective method of selecting and seeding teams, and, based upon all of the ratings methods ,Tulane would deserve strong consideration. But I have to say that I like St. John's 2 victories over teams that were not just "rated" in the top 50, but also were in the coaches poll of top 25 teams much of the season. Most importantly, using the BET(Bomber Eye Test), the Tulane team that was embarrassed by UConn just did not look to be in the same ballpark( or gym, if you prefer) as the St. John's team that was playing tough against UConn's starters right up until the last couple of minutes of the game.
Remember what Disraeli said: "There are 3 kinds of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics".

But using a performance against UConn as the measure for getting into a tournament illustrates the dictum, "There are 3 kinds of absurdities; absurbities, damned irrelevant absurdities, and silliness." Neither Tulane nor St. Johns if they had made the Tourney is playing UConn. They are playing Mississippi State, which Tulane could do well against after picking up wins over Tourney teams Miami, LSU, and Arkansas-Little Rock and a decently close 11-point loss to #2 seed FSU. Again, if St. Johns can lose to the #152 rated Xavier, you have to balance that with any good wins.

 

[hoophuskee]

I do realize that the NCAA must have an objective method of selecting and seeding teams, and, based upon all of the ratings methods ,Tulane would deserve strong consideration. But I have to say that I like St. John's 2 victories over teams that were not just "rated" in the top 50, but also were in the coaches poll of top 25 teams much of the season. Most importantly, using the BET(Bomber Eye Test), the Tulane team that was embarrassed by UConn just did not look to be in the same ballpark( or gym, if you prefer) as the St. John's team that was playing tough against UConn's starters right up until the last couple of minutes of the game.
Remember what Disraeli once said: "There are 3 kinds of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics".

I wonder how the BET Thermometer would have reacted after witnessing St Johns getting dumped by Butler, Indiana State and Xavier.