You have got to be kidding me

[Jmsdawg]

I bet there will be quite a few fans at the Regional in Portland if the Ducks are playing.

I expect MSST fans to be there! I no longer can travel long distance but my heart will be there!

 

[DefenseBB]

During the Stewie years, did we even look at the bracket ?

Stewie’s first year was absolutely not a guarantee. Given our losses to ND, there were legitimate concerns and teams were not dreading us. Year 2, given what Stewie did in the Tournament we were viewed a bit differently but we lost Stephanie as a great center presence, a great passer and a strong leader. We also lost Bria and weren’t sure Mo would be Mo. Again, NO Guarantee of a title but we showed glimpses. But yes, years 3 and 4 were an academic exercise and those 2 years I blame for the entitlement I see on this thread and the overly harsh criticism at the following teams that weren’t Stewie led. Stewie/Mo/Morgan jaded our perspective more than Bird/Cash/Williams and Taurasi ever did on the expectations and why I feel Stewie is our greatest college player ever.

 

[LoTrader]

I expect MSST fans to be there! I no longer can travel long distance but my heart will be there!

I will be at the "Rose Garden" for the Portland Regional, unless Oregon State happens to be playing during the Portland Regional Games. If OSU makes it to the Sweet 16, I am hoping that being in the Albany Regional, there won't be a conflict between the Albany Regional games and the Portland Regional Games.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Stewie’s first year was absolutely not a guarantee. Given our losses to ND, there were legitimate concerns and teams were not dreading us. Year 2, given what Stewie did in the Tournament we were viewed a bit differently but we lost Stephanie as a great center presence, a great passer and a strong leader. We also lost Bria and weren’t sure Mo would be Mo. Again, NO Guarantee of a title but we showed glimpses. But yes, years 3 and 4 were an academic exercise and those 2 years I blame for the entitlement I see on this thread and the overly harsh criticism at the following teams that weren’t Stewie led. Stewie/Mo/Morgan jaded our perspective more than Bird/Cash/Williams and Taurasi ever did on the expectations and why I feel Stewie is our greatest college player ever.

Year 2 of Stewie was Stef and Bria's senior season. The year of the great Stewie-Stef high-low. That was the 40-0 season where we beat an Achonwa-less ND in the title game. Year 3 was KML and Kiah's senior season which had that loss to Stanford thanks to Amber Orrange.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I expect MSST fans to be there! I no longer can travel long distance but my heart will be there!

Mississippi St. fans may be there doing a good job of supporting their team, but I think they will be outnumbered by green and yellow by a healthy margin.

 

[PacoBlaze]

Basically you and @CTBballfan243 are saying all the metrics and design for the tournament is driven by the P5 and the rest are essential mid majors. After rewarding the conference champion a slot in the tournament the committees intention is to invite the next BEST 30 teams. They have a predescribed set of formulas, metrics and logics to use for selecting and placing teams in regions.

The other thing to consider is this tournament does not make money for the NCAA. That is why the top 16 schools host. This generates larger fan attendance, cuts down on travel and hotel fees. Other than Albany/Bridgeport, all the other Regional sites are not well attended.

But hey who am I to disagree with a conspiracy theory...

I am going to state my conspiracy theory once more and really am not looking to know (for the fifth or sixth time) how the selections are made.

After watching quite a few of the mid-major tournaments last week, I just felt that I saw a lot of teams that were well coached and the teams played good basketball. In fact I thought some played better than some SEC, Big10 and Big12 football games where they wore basketball unis and used a basketball. So, I wondered why were the lower half teams in the P5 conferences selected and not some more of the top 3 or 4 teams in the mid majors.
At the beginning of the season, all teams are 0-0 and all the "facts" used in the Committee's selection criteria are at the same point. But then after the season starts, theses factors tend to be skewed in favor of the P5 teams. I was hoping to find out what skewed the factors?
Ok, now someone is going to say "but mid major teams are selected"...but it seems to me that the at-large selections are skewed towards the P5 conferences. IMO.
And I don't think that TN should have received an at-large bid. Period. IMO.

 

[npignatjr]

Do you want an honest answer or rah rah?

Honestly, if UConn played like they did at Oklahoma, they would have likely lost to a number of SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12 or ACC teams on the road. Even great teams have bad nights. A weak conference means those nights basically never turn into losses. Not so in somewhat better leagues.

Honestly they played down to Oklahoma, which played out of their minds, but they won. No loss.

 

[Plebe]

I am going to state my conspiracy theory once more and really am not looking to know (for the fifth or sixth time) how the selections are made.

After watching quite a few of the mid-major tournaments last week, I just felt that I saw a lot of teams that were well coached and the teams played good basketball. In fact I thought some played better than some SEC, Big10 and Big12 football games where they wore basketball unis and used a basketball. So, I wondered why were the lower half teams in the P5 conferences selected and not some more of the top 3 or 4 teams in the mid majors.
At the beginning of the season, all teams are 0-0 and all the "facts" used in the Committee's selection criteria are at the same point. But then after the season starts, theses factors tend to be skewed in favor of the P5 teams. I was hoping to find out what skewed the factors?
Ok, now someone is going to say "but mid major teams are selected"...but it seems to me that the at-large selections are skewed towards the P5 conferences. IMO.
And I don't think that TN should have received an at-large bid. Period. IMO.

Tell ya what. Let's make this more concrete. Who were the specific mid-major teams you watched that, according to you, should've been selected but were undone by the allegedly "skewed factors"?

 

[willtalk]

Lots of teams get screwed every year. Being placed #2 close to home is not a real screwing except for prestige purposes. Most other years most fans of other teams complained that Uconn always got the easiest path to the final four. Much like Baylor did this year. I think some Uconn fans just got used to that and this is the first year that they were not given that easy road so they feel they got screwed.

Frankly I think the selection process could be improved. To begin with the people they pick more than likely do not have much knowledge in respect to WCBB. That is why they are still using the RPI as a criteria. They sort of have too because I believe most come into their meeting with very little real knowledge of what has happened in WCBB this season. There are probably more fans on the Boneyard who are more capable of picking the brackets because they follow WCBB throughout the year and do not have to rely on the RPI to fill in their lack of knowledge.

The very fact that they felt it was necessary to include UCF just because of their #15 RPI ranking speaks to their ignorance. UCF played Uconn 3 times. Play a top 5 team once and it boosts your RPI even if you get destroyed. Relying on the RPI metric is just plain lazy, but I suppose the people on the committee don't feel that they need to put in too much effort into making sure they get it right.

Certainly it is difficult to put together a bracket. But using a flawed metric does not make it easier. All metrics are flawed to some degree, but why use an obviously flawed one. There are better metrics available.