Let the Selection Show begin!!!
UPDATE, 6:06 PM: Florida the #1 overall seed, going to the Midwest Regional in St. Louis, where Becky and I will go to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. The other three #1 seeds: North Carolina (East), Ohio State (South) and Kansas (West).
I hope they send Texas A&M to the Midwest as either a #2 or #3 seed. I want to see Acie Law play!
UPDATE, 6:15 PM: Notre Dame against Winthrop in the first round (DAMMIT!) … in the Midwest Region. So, we might get to see the Irish… but they have to get past the Eagles (and then probably Oregon).
Bubble teams in so far: Old Dominion (who Lunardi didn’t have in) and Purdue.
UPDATE, 6:20 PM: An Indiana-Gonzaga rematch! Nick, you’re going down! Again! ;) And then if the Zags win, a rematch against UCLA!!
Lunardi has already made two mistakes: he had both Illinois and Old Dominion out.
UPDATE, 6:28 PM: A POTENTIAL USC-TEXAS SECOND-ROUND GAME!!! WOOO!!!! But first, beat the Razorbacks!!!!
Also, the bubble is tapped out. Unless either Syracuse or Xavier is left out, Drexel, Kansas State and the rest of the bubble teams aren’t going to the tournament.
UPDATE, 6:36 PM: Syracuse snubbed! (Notre Dame eliminated them!) But Stanford, not Drexel or Kansas State, gets the last bubble spot.
UPDATE, 6:45 PM: Will Nantz & Packer hold the committee chairman’s feet to the fire for leaving Drexel out? Heh. Somehow I doubt it. I’m sure they’ll be pretty upset about Syracuse, though. Hopefully Seth Davis gets a word in edgewise, so the Dragons get some love.
UPDATE, 6:49 PM: Ooh, Jim Nantz does ask the question! Sort of. He doesn’t exactly seem upset, though…
UPDATE, 6:51 PM: And Billy Packer asks why the number of mid-majors is fewer than last year…
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Categories: NCAA Basketball & Pools
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March 11th, 2007 at 6:09:12 pm
Duke Blue Devils - no lower than a 6 seed hoopefully
March 11th, 2007 at 6:22:27 pm
Good to see the committee doing its usual horrible job… let’s pack in as many Big 10 teams as possible! I figured Illinois or Purdue would make it, but for God’s sake, wouldn’t you rather see a good team from a mid-major, or the 5th and 6th best team from a two team conference.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:23:57 pm
Every Big 10 bubble team is in. Maybe they will take Iowa, too, just in case.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:25:37 pm
Hell, why not Northwestern? I mean, no one wants to see Drexel or App State when we can see Illinois….
March 11th, 2007 at 6:26:52 pm
I forgot about Michigan….
March 11th, 2007 at 6:30:37 pm
Syracuse must be nervous right now.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:31:13 pm
is it too late for Syracuse to join the Big 10?
March 11th, 2007 at 6:36:03 pm
I will be honest as Purdue alumnus, I am happy to see my team making it to the dance. I saw arguments on why the should and shouldn’t be in. Since it is my team, I guess I want to see the 5th or 6th best teams in the Big Ten… I can feel the love it is so warm I may need to get checked for Frost Bite…
March 11th, 2007 at 6:36:05 pm
Friggin BCS conferences clean up again. Billy Packer is zipping up afer a satisfactory session in Indy.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:37:38 pm
Wow no Syracuse of K-State. Both 10-6 in major conferences when 8-8 Big 10 and ACC teams made it.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:40:05 pm
only six bids for mid majors… well done NCAA committee!!! Thank god we had room for the 5th and 6th teams from the Big Ten, the 5th best conference in the country…
March 11th, 2007 at 6:41:50 pm
And they put Butler and ODU together to get rid of one of those pesky mid majors early… heaven forbid Illinois or Purdue have to play a tough mid major early…
March 11th, 2007 at 6:43:55 pm
Southern Illinois will wipe the floor with Illinois… if the Illini manage to beat Virginia Tech in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge Redux.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:44:00 pm
I am surprised that Illinois got in. Purdue, could have gone either way but from what I heard and saw from those who supposedly know more than me that Purdue was a team that should get in.
I agree that the Illini probably shouldn’t be in and Syracuse should be, but I am happy Purdue is in.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:50:21 pm
Big10 basketball is garbage and ND got snubbed. There is no way that ND is deserving of a 6 seed…especially after it showed that it is a close second best team in the Big East.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:56:49 pm
biggest mistake: vandy a 6 seed? rpi 60, lost to arkansas twice late in the season. shouldn’t have been in. and neither should stanford. air force should’ve been in with top 30 rpi, and syracuse too. duke a 6 seed? shouldn’t have gotten better than an 8. ND should’ve been better than a 6, marquette better than 8, byu better than 8, virginia worse than 4, nv better than 7, il better than 12, ky better than 8, gt worse than 10, and usc worse than 5. at least they got the 1 and 2 seeds right, although wrong order. no way FL should be 1 overall.
March 11th, 2007 at 7:12:38 pm
USC-Texas in the second round? That’s what everyone at CBS thinks…but I hope Texas doesn’t make it. ;) Though we have a fight on our hands…
March 11th, 2007 at 7:15:07 pm
Drexel has some horrible losses that dwarf the wins over Nova and Syracuse…FSU should be in over drexel
March 11th, 2007 at 7:28:17 pm
Would’ve been better for USC to drop to #6. Shouldn’t get upset by Arkansas but would’ve rather have faced George Washington and certainly would’ve rather faced Washington St. (after the PAC 10 tourney) than Texas in the second round.
I think the eastern bracket is the toughest bracket. Such is unfortunate for USC.
That being said, beat the Razorbacks!
March 11th, 2007 at 8:33:33 pm
Here we go again: the brackets get announced, and everyone is crying like the results are the biggest injustice mankind has ever seen. We will always have disagreements with the seedings and who gets in; there will always be three to five teams people feel got snubbed, and a handful of teams that got seedings they didn’t deserve. At teh end of the day though, the first weekend will send 49 teams home, and everyone who remains will have proven themselves worthy of a title run by having to beat someone of significance.
March 11th, 2007 at 9:00:08 pm
Maybe, maybe not. I think if the “play-in game” as we know it should be scrapped and the Opening Round changed to a four-game system where the “Last Four In” and the “First Four Out” tangle for a bunch of double-digit seeds.
Now, yeah, there still will be controversy, but it will be tamped by the fact that anybody left out of my system can’t really make a strong argument considering they’d be considered the 69th team in a “64-team” field.
March 11th, 2007 at 9:15:38 pm
Incidentally, the ND-Winthrop game is the only first round game with two top 25 teams.
March 11th, 2007 at 9:51:39 pm
The Illini, Michigan State, and Purdue are all in, and rightfully so. The Big [Eleven] and the Pac-10 were neck-and-neck for being the third best conference this year, and all three of those teams had great SOS and OOC schedules.
At first glance, the omission of Syracuse is surprising, but if you take a look at the non-conference schedule, you can see why they got left out. Syracuse lost at home to Drexel and Wichita State, and at a neutral site to Oklahoma State — and those three teams were by far their toughest OOC foes, and none of them made the tournament.
Similarly, Drexel has no major wins to hang its hat on besides Villanova and Syracuse, while they got swept by Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion. Game, set, match.
The SEC teams are a tough case. Arkansas played itself into the tourney by making it to the SEC title game, while the rest of the SEC West was sorely mediocre. In the SEC East, what’s surprising is how poorly the committee treated the SEC teams. Kentucky is an 8 seed with an RPI in the teens? But then the Wildcats had a great SOS and proved they could not hang with UNC, fUTLA, Florida, or Memphis. Similarly, Vanderbilt swept Kentucky, played even with Tennessee, beat Georgia Tech, but had no business being on the same floor with Georgetown and Florida. With the season ending sweep at the hands of Arkansas, Vandy only hangs onto the 6 seed because of its strong SOS and good results against other bubble-like teams.
As for the ACC, like Clemson, Florida State simply played themselves out of the tourney. Yes they beat Florida and won a nailbiter at Duke (which looks more unimpressive by the minute), but outside of that, they lost 2 of 3 to Clemson and had a 3-7 record against all the ACC teams who made the tourney.
So how did Stanford get in? One could make a strong case that Missouri State or Air Force should have gotten in before the Cardinal. I am particularly impressed by Missouri State’s resume, with an RPI of 36, a SOS of 42, and that OOC win against Wisconsin. But they came up short against Creighton three times, also got swept by Southern Illinois, lost to Winthrop, and couldn’t beat Oklahoma State at a neutral venue. That’s puts them very clearly in the MVC pecking order at #3 and staying home for March.
Air Force, my, my, what happened to Air Force? That loss to Wyoming was a killer and an absolutely unacceptable result after a three game slide against UNLV, TCU (ugh!), and BYU. Three weeks ago this team was a lock, and then they played themselves right out of the tourney finishing an unimpressive 10-6 in the MWC and going nowhere in the conference tourney. I give them all the credit in the world for thrashing Stanford, Texas Tech, and George Washington, but does anyone really doubt that Air Force would lose all three games if they played again today?
As for Stanford, I think that, like Air Force last year, they caught a damn lucky break from the committee, if you consider playing Louisville on practically its home court a lucky break! If Stanford is the most undeserving bubble team, at least we can agree that the most undeserving bubble team has perhaps the worst opening matchup and venue, facing a very hot, young, well-coached Louisville team that has really come together nicely down the stretch. I personally think the world of Pitt and Marquette, and Louisville beat both back-to-back on the road, then won seven straight before losing a close battle with Pitt in the Big East tourney. But even though Stanford couldn’t crack 20 wins, they have a fantastic Away and Neutral RPI, and a SOS of 32. Their early schedule shows signs of youth and injury taking their toll, but when the Pac-10 schedule came about, they earned splits with fUTLA, USC, Oregon and Washington State — the top four Pac-10 tourney teams. Unlike Missouri State, Florida State, and Air Force, Stanford showed it was on par with its fellow conference big boys, and I think the committee was incredibly impressed by them winning across the country against a very good Virginia team playing in its brand new arena. All that aside, when you look at Stanford’s solid guards and the outstanding Lopez twins, they are a team that can undoubtedly do some damage in the NCAA tourney.
So that’s my analysis of who got in and why. But I quibble most with the seedings given by the committee.
First off, Florida may be the #1 seed, but UNC has the best home-court advantage by far, starting off at Winston-Salem, NC and then going up the road to East Rutheford, NJ.
Second, while the committee got the 1 and 2 seeds right, I think Texas got snubbed as a 4 — they are clearly more of a threat than Virginia, Maryland, and Southern Illinois, and belong ahead of Washington State. I would have had Oregon, Texas, Pitt, and Texas A&M as my 3 seeds.
USC should probably have been a 6 seed, but I think the committee gave us the benefit of the doubt not having Gabe Pruitt the first half of the year after Ryan Francis was killed over the summer, and for how close we came to knocking off both times.
Notre Dame seems low as a 6 seed, but it’s right in line with their poll rankings, and their dubious results away from South Bend probably doomed them from rising any higher.
I could quibble with other seeds as well, but at least this year there was no obvious braindead bracketing like last year with Tennessee getting a 2 seed.
Finally, my biggest impression of the seeding is how harsh the committtee was to the mid-majors. I don’t quibble with the mid-majors getting only six at-large bids — I said weeks ago that it was my impression this was a down year overall for mid-majors and a strong year for the power conferences. What I find a tad upsetting is how the committee seemed intent on matching mid-major vs. mid-major instead of giving them shots against the big boys: Butler vs. Old Dominion; Southern Illinois vs. Holy Cross; BYU vs. Xavier, Nevada vs. Creighton, and the Nevada-Creighton winner against Memphis. That’s a slap in the face especially to Xavier, BYU, Nevada, and Creighton, while Holy Cross and Old Dominion probably at least deserved a shot vs. a power conference team. The bright side: The Creighton-Nevada winner has an outstanding chance against Memphis; Southern Illinois will go on to give Kansas fitss, which is especially fitting given the odd coaching triangle that occurred between Illinois, Southern Illinois, and Kansas when Roy Williams left Kansas for UNC; and Maryland will be lucky to get by Davidson let alone Old Dominion or Butler. Bottom line: at first glance, I expect no more than two mid-majors in the Sweet 16, which is about average.
March 12th, 2007 at 1:05:01 am
As soon as i saw ND vs. Wintrhop i knew that would be your action, just ask mey brother, i told him it would be :)
March 12th, 2007 at 2:50:03 pm
Gonzaga is playing in Sacramento. Gonzaga is playing less than half an hour from where I live… and I’m scheduled to work until at least 7PM on Thursday. (What time are they playing, anyway? The website was unclear.)
That plus the fact that the cheapie tix are $80/per means I don’t think I get to go.
:(
At least it should be guaranteed to broadcast locally, unlike certain other games of NCAA past.