Selection Sunday - General discussion (merged threads)

[triaddukefan]

An interesting chart comparing the budgets of the teams in the tournament. Some were a bit surprising to me. I would not have expected Iowa's to be higher than Texas' for example.

Bunch of greedy expletives at the top ... No offense intended to Texas, Lower Carolina, and Connecticut.

 

[Centerstream]

NCAA prioritizes teams that finish top 4 in the same conference being placed in different brackets. SC/Texas were both 1 seeds so they avoid putting Vandy/LSU in the same bracket with them, meaning UCONN was always going to get either Vandy or LSU. I think LSU is the more dangerous opponent.

And since the original PAC-12 dissolved and mostly joined the B1G and ACC and the top teams of the Big 12 moved to the SEC, this rule should be removed. The biggest conferences shouldn't be rewarded by the committee for having 20 teams (exaggeration).
Just wait until other teams move, ie Miami and FSU to the SEC???

 

[DRBackup]

Simply awful, especially focusing on the ACC. A P4 team that wins its conference and conference tournament titles--gets a 3 seed. An 11-loss team that got blown out by 35 by a Stanford team that wasn't even in the field gets an 8 seed ahead of two teams that beat them. A team that only beat one ranked team all year gets to host. Madness.


Because LSU and Vandy couldn't be placed in Texas' or South Carolina's bracket. Michigan and Iowa could not be placed in UCLA's bracket. This means that UConn could only face the SEC teams (because both Texas and South Carolina had to be paired with the Big Ten teams). The weaker of the two went to UConn, hence Vandy being paired with UConn and LSU being paired with UCLA.

South Carolina and Texas were paired with the Big Ten teams. Because Iowa was deemed to be stronger than Michigan, they were paired with the weaker 1 seed--South Carolina.

Besides, LSU is the toughest 2 seed.


This! The production was absolutely horrific.

Keep in mind that they will seed based on their S curve, but then any team can get moved up or down up to 2 seed lines to satisfy other criteria. Likely how Duke ended up a 3

 

[BRS24]

Oooh. I like who we got in Columbia. I was praying it wasn't Lobo because her UConn centric commentary gets annoying at times (I think she tries to not be biased but her commentary always goes back to a Geno quote or something UConn related). Peck's analysis is always off-center and I don't think she makes a great color analyst. Then Antonelli's ACC bias and general smugness about her own opinions always rubs me the wrong way. Anyways, I've always enjoyed Coach White's analysis the most so I'm glad they chose her for Columbia SC.

LOL. I agree somewhat on Lobo. However Antonelli, aka, I'm the savior and will save WBB just makes me wanna throw the remote at the tv, and I've been told that a new one is not in the budget this year. Peck is just Peck, a TN fan girl, and ... whatever.

 

[Phil]

I remember a few parties early on, but they are all choreographed by whoever is broadcasting the NCAAs or ESPN and they are monumentally cheesy and a waste of time for anyone who knows they are going to the Dance. But for whatever reason Conn may be the only school that doesn't do it, but I'm eternally grateful we don't engage in the silliness.

This might sound like I'm differing with you but we may be on at least a similar page. I enjoy watching the watch parties but mostly for schools that are new or relatively new or were on the cusp of getting in. Maybe even a team who gets a one seed for the first time in their history. But it is a little silly for some of the others and unhappy UConn took the lead on not doing it.

 

[Phil]

I’m sure they have their own private, low-key watch party

It might not have been low-key, but it wasn't public as is appropriate.

 

[Phil]

Yet another reason to discourage the formation of super conferences. Since a lot of this is driven by football, it’s worth considering decoupling the sports. Limit conferences to some smaller number and require home-and-home schedules, maybe encourage more OOC games. WCBB is beginning to be a competitive revenue source for some programs, which means this might be a moment for change.

This is one of my tilt at windmills positions. I suspect it's almost impossible to manage now that the damage has been done, but they should've decoupled football years ago. It is beyond idiotic that football decisions drive conference makeups for not just basketball but soccer, field hockey, volleyball, etc. etc. etc.

Conferences may make sense but make them regional possibly was some rivalry considerations for all sports other than football.

 

[fomalhaut]

Completely expected, but Connecticut officially passed Stanford for the second-longest streak of tournament appearances at 37. Still well behind Tennessee's 44, which covers the whole history of the NCAA tournament.

 

[Bone Dog]

This is one of my tilt at windmills positions. I suspect it's almost impossible to manage now that the damage has been done, but they should've decoupled football years ago. It is beyond idiotic that football decisions drive conference makeups for not just basketball but soccer, field hockey, volleyball, etc. etc. etc.

Conferences may make sense but make them regional possibly was some rivalry considerations for all sports other than football.

Yup. And one way we know it's actually possible to do this is the example of ND football from a few decades ago. They left their conference and went independent with some success. What I mean is, they had enough name recognition to attract their own TV contracts and their recruiting didn't suffer. WCBB, or W&MCBB, aren't the same as a a standalone football program. But the model could still fit the project of establishing a one-sport conference structure. And one way the NCAA as a whole could trigger it might begin with refusing to protect superconferences from adverse tournament scheduling. The super conferences were attracted by the lure of bigger payouts and didn't have to face the problem of tournament scheduling. That was an error on the part of the NCAA. And the geographical incoherence we see today is a symptom of the problem. Nothing links the schools in some conferences together besides the revenue sharing deals they've come up with.

I would also say they should get rid of the conference tournaments. It's another revenue source for the conferences and the networks. But they're bad for the sport. I'd think it would be worth exploring a flat distribution limited only to teams with a winning record in the new conferences. How winning could be determined year by year, and there could be a cap as well. No more than 'x' number of teams per conference. A typical conference has ~12 teams while the super conferences tend to be ~16-18. If the NCAA requires a home-and-home schedule and a cap of 13 teams, then conference schedules would yield 24 games. And additional 8-9 OOC games gives ~33 games per season. If the cutoff is teams with a >.500 record, that would yield ~130 teams. Make it .600 and you'll end up with something closer to 100 teams. And they could revive the idea of two tournaments. One rule I can imagine is that of the 5 or 6 teams in a conference with winning records, only the top 2 or 3 are eligible for the main tournament and the others are eligible for the second level tournament.

 

[BRS24]

Now that the bracket has dropped, here's a map look at where teams will have to travel. Red to pink, dark to light blue, and green for the final four.