2013-14 Bracketology

mabrowndog

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I may as well just get this out of the way right now, but I absolutely loathe the "On Shining Moment" song.
 

Dgilpin

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My Final S-Curve for the top 16 :
 
1 seeds - 1: Florida 2: Wichita St. 3: Arizona. 4: Virginia
2 seeds - 5:Michigan  6:Iowa St. 7:Louisville 8: Duke
3 seeds - 9: Kansas 10: Wisconsin. 11:Villanova 12: Syracuse 
4 seeds - 13:Michigan St.  14:San Diego St. 15: Creighton 16: UCLA
 
I'm confident the committee will feel differently on (Nova, and Iowa St.)
 
 
 
 

mabrowndog

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Just realized my first fuck-up in my brackets: I had Dayton in the play-in game... on their home court, which can't and ain't gonna happen.
 

mabrowndog

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Last 4 out per CBS:
 
SMU, Florida St, Green Bay, Georgetown
 
The mealy-mouthed dipshit on CBS whose name escapes me voiced shock and outrage over Louisville not being a #1 or at least a 2, but he chastises SMU for not playing anyone out of conference. What a fucking double-speaking douche.
 

mabrowndog

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Dgilpin said:
Some really interesting seeding to say the least ...
 
Yup. Lots of head-scratchers. I had 63 of the 64 teams right (missed NC State in lieu of SMU), but yeah the placements are mind-boggling. Clearly RPI is what's driving the committee, evidenced by how highly some of the A-10 members are ranked. Then again, NC State's RPI was 53 heading into today, and I doubt it moved much.
 

mabrowndog

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Dan to Theo to Ben said:
I am surprised you had that. Did you not see their respective SOS's?
 
I'll admit I really didn't think things through on SMU. I even lost track of the fact that they finished losing their last 3, and 4 of their last 7.
 
But there were also other teams I had above NC State that didn't get in (Minnesota, Florida St, LA Tech). So I clearly dropped the ball there as well.
 

redsahx

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Dan to Theo to Ben said:
I am surprised you had that. Did you not see their respective SOS's?
 
I think NC State gets too much credit here though. They didn't beat any of the top 4 ACC teams during the regular season, and the only strong non-conference win is Tennessee. They lost by 31 to Virginia, and by 35 to Duke earlier in the year. They beat Syracuse in the ACC tournament, but the Orange have lost 5 of their last 7, including a home loss to Georgia Tech and a loss to BC, so they caught them at a good time I guess.
 
Dec 10, 2012
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WayBackVazquez said:
I don't see NC State as a justifiable pick at all.
They got in based on their 2 performances v. Syracuse.
 
I would have picked UW-GB, but I don't really see anyone else
 
Edit: Oh that's right, thanks for the reminder, DukeSox.
 

DukeSox

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You figure the head of USA basketball with multiple gold medals weighs in and suggests NC State should be included, then they should probably be included.
 

WayBackVazquez

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mabrowndog said:
 
I appreciate the explanation, and the math makes sense even if I still see it as conceptually misapplied. My answer to Pomeroy and Sagarin is that it's easy to be dominant when you're rarely tested. It's also easy to be dominant when you run up the score against weaklings, which Pitino does any chance he gets unless it's one of his buddies or coaching progeny. Had Louisville lined up 2 or 3 more upper-tier non-conference programs instead of the parade of dreck they faced aside from UNC, KY and S. Miss, I'd be far more agreeable with the "they blew everyone out, never got blown out themselves, and only lost close games" argument. And I'm not just talking about national powers. Give me a George Washington, an Arkansas, an Oregon, a Toledo. Anything other than the tripe Pitino passed off. Because absent that, no matter how they slice it, Louisville went 4-3 against the next best three teams in its conference, including beating the same team 3 times, and failed to beat either of the only two Top 50 non-AAC squads on their slate. And that's the entirety of the extent to which they were tested this season.
 
FWIW, Vegas bookmakers are flummoxed by Louisville's seeding.
 
 
The bookmakers’ first fix to this field would be making defending champion Louisville a No. 1 seed. [Wynn Sportsbook Director] Avello expected to find the Cardinals on the No. 2 line Sunday, but called even that placement “a really big stretch.”
He would currently favor Louisville in a game against any other team in the country, and said the Cardinals were assured to give points in every contest on their way to the Final Four. [LVH Sportsbook Director] Salmons indicated just two teams Louisville would post as an underdog against in the whole tournament — Florida, the overall No. 1 seed, and Michigan State, another No. 4 seed.
 

redsahx

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DukeSox said:
You figure the head of USA basketball with multiple gold medals weighs in and suggests NC State should be included, then they should probably be included.
 
 
Dan to Theo to Ben said:
They got in based on their 2 performances v. Syracuse.
 
I would have picked UW-GB, but I don't really see anyone else
 
Edit: Oh that's right, thanks for the reminder, DukeSox.
 
So we've got
A) A coach in their conference was lobbying for them as a means of playing up his conference strength while angling for a shot at a #1 seed
B) They matched up well with the team that is currently ranked #14 and has lost 5 of it's last 7 games
 
I'm still not sold personally, but every team in that bubble discussion has warts. If I wanted to make a case for them, I would point to the win at Pitt coming during the same stretch as the two Syracuse games, and the fact that they have Warren. I just don't want to give them that much credit for the schedule, because they don't have many good wins to show for it.