Today has been dubbed ‘National Whining Day’ by fans and analysts of college basketball. As a casual fan of college hoops I’m less outraged than some of my friends, but I will admit that Selection Sunday got me a bit heated. My primary beef is with the incredibly favorable position Duke was placed in by the selection committee. Respected analyst debated whether the Dukies should even be a number one seed with the strong finishes by West Virginia and Ohio State. Not only was Duke a number one, but they were the third number one, beating out Syracuse. My next point of contention is with the draw that Duke received in the South Region. The number two in said region is Villanova, a team that faltered down the stretch. If Duke is the third best out of the one seeds, shouldn’t they have Ohio State in their region? How did WVU and Ohio State find themselves in a region with Kentucky and Kansas respectively? Furthermore, Baylor is the three seed in the South Region…Pitt and Georgetown are certainly both better choices to be in that position.
Another hot topic of discussion this morning is the expansion to a 96 team tournament. I realize that the sole driving force behind this is money, which is an extremely strong motivating factor. I’m convinced that logic will be thrown out the door and the tournament will needlessly be expanded to 96 teams…it’s just a matter of time. This will dilute the significance of the regular season and the overall accomplishment of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. The tournament is great the way it is, if anything I’m a subscriber to the Gordon Southard theory that the tourney should be downsized. Well maybe that’s a bit extreme, but I’d be in favor of contraction over an expansion. I would be open to Andy Katz’s idea of expanding to 68 to get those final three majors in the dance, but again, I don’t think it’s necessary.
That’s my take as a casual fan of college bball, weigh in with your biggest gripes about the bracket.
~ Pat Cary
Filed under: Basketball, College Hoops Tagged: | Duke, March Maddness, NCAA Basketball Tournament, Ohio State University, West Virginia University
I say reduce the number of teams (essentially eliminating the 15th & 16th seeds) in the tournament. These seeds NEVER have done anything of note. Sure it is exciting to be a part, but that lasts all of 4 days before the games start. I am in favor of taking those 15 & 16 seeds move them into a restructured NIT and making that more of mid-major championship. After a few years the culture of the NIT would change, excitement would build as mid-major schools would have a huge chance to win a championship.
If you want to get real crazy, have that tournament before the other one and allow the winner to play in the “big dance.”
I am just heated that Radford didn’t win their conference tournament. I wanted to see Artsiom ballin’ in the Big Dance!
I wish they had perimeter shooters, because with a front court like that they could have made some noise in an overall weak field.
If I had my druthers, Radford would be in the NIT. With better parameter shooting, we could have made a run that would have made Prefontaine jealous.
Long live Artisom.
What does parameter (a quantity that serves to relate functions and variables using a common variable (often t) when such a relationship would be difficult to explicate with an equation) have to do with Radford getting into the tournament?
You must not have understood. Our shooters couldnt arc the ball. They always shot too “flat.” The only way to correct that was to look at the parametric equation x=t t=y2. Think about it.
I agree with you completely on Duke Pat…there’s definitely some bias there but, I guess it is what it is. At the end of the day, this is one of those years where the separation between the top 8 teams is so minimal, I don’t think anyone is walking away with a clear cut advantage and, while I think you could have swapped a Duke w/a West Virginia or an Ohio State, I don’t think it’s going to make that much of a difference. Basically, I think the committee got the top 8 overall teams right, just not necessarily in the correct order.
As for Baylor’s positioning, I have no problem with it. I actually have these guys in one of my Final Fours as they played a pretty solid schedule and only lost 7 games. They are the real deal and while an argument could have been made for a Pitt or a Georgetown, you could also argue that those two teams were a little inconsistant at times over the last couple of months where Baylor just flat out kept winning until the conference semis.
All in all, I think the committee actually did a pretty good job. The only team I think got shafted was Virginia Tech. The schedule they played absolutely merritted a spot in the tourney. How do you have Wake Forest as a #9 seed when Va. Tech had a better in conference record, won 20+ games and beat Wake head to head?
I’m also a little surprised that Miss State didn’t get in over Florida. They are by far a better team and I think the tournament will demonstrate that when Florida gets bumped in round 1. To have Florida (a so called bubble team) receive a 10 seed is absolutely beyond me.
In the end, we’ll get what we wanted which is an exciting tournament.
I couldn’t agree more with Gordon either…my take is, why fix something that isn’t broken. This tournament and the Super Bowl are the two biggest events in American Sports right now yet, everyone always wants to talk about changing it up. What would a 96 team field really do for anyone other than make the colleges a little bit more money?
I guess Duke did win a share of the ACC regular season and the tournament, so that merits a 1 seed, I just don’t see how they get paired with Villanova.
I agree that there is a lot of parity in the field of 65 and that will make for an exciting tourney.
I think VTech high RPI is what ultimately did them in.
Yeah…I guess I just have a problem with the fact that they had a very similar record to Wake, a better in conference record and beat them head to head yet, Wake’s a 9 seed and Va. Tech is in the NIT.
If Tech had a better in conference record than Wake Forest, I don’t see how they don’t deserve a bid…those are the instances where I don’t agree with the RPI.
Who’s your final four? Like most people I’ve filled out multiple brackets…nothing ridiculous…three brackets to be exact. The final four option I like the best is Kansas, Pitt, WVU, and Duke. With Kansas beating Duke in the finals. I think Kentucky is too young and Calipari’s teams seem to have problems with free throws, so I’m predicting them to lose in the elite eight.
Tiger is coming back for the Masters
I have filled out a few but, my favorite one is either
Ohio State, Syracuse, Kentucky, Baylor w/Syracuse as eventual champs
or
Kansas, Syracuse, Marquette, Duke
…to be perfectly honest though, the NCAA is such a crapshoot this time around, with no clear cut powerhouse, I could see as far as an 8 or 9 going to the final four with a shot of winning…If I had to pick 3 sleepers, I’d say Temple, Louisville and Marquette are all capable of, not only making noise, but, actually being in the final 4.