Midwest Regional Discussion and Analysis

shawnrbu · Mar 16, 2014

Wichita got a brutal region. Michigan, Duke and Louisville.

Dan to Theo to Ben · Mar 16, 2014

F the NCAA. They hate the mid-majors.

W St gets top 2 seed, top 3 seed and top 4 seed that should be a 3, maybe a 2.

If They go 40-0 they will have earned it.

shawnrbu · Mar 16, 2014

Did SMU get bumped out by NC State?

Plantiers Wart · Mar 16, 2014

Toss in Kentucky in the second round, potentially. Group of death.

tims4wins · Mar 16, 2014

Duke-Michigan should be a classic

Dgilpin · Mar 16, 2014

Wow ... So many surprises in this region. NC state , Tennessee as play in , Louisville a 4 seed , UMass a 6 seed

Plantiers Wart · Mar 16, 2014

I think SMU has to be in, in the East with UConn and Cinci.

mabrowndog · Mar 16, 2014

Stunned that Duke dropped to a 3 seed.

Even more stunned that UMass is a 6. I had them as a 9, with no other A-10 school higher than a 7 (VCU & St. Louis are both 5s). Amazing.

Dan to Theo to Ben · Mar 16, 2014

Plantiers Wart said:
Toss in Kentucky in the second round, potentially. Group of death.

yup and even if Kentucky loses, K State has the (slightly) closer commute, too.

You're going to have a mid major team that makes #1, but still the home court disadvantage.

mabrowndog · Mar 16, 2014

I realize this has been done before, but having one play-in for a 12 seed and the other for an 11-seed is bullshit, no? If they're the last 4 teams in, shouldn't they all be vying for a chance to play a 5-seed and not a #6?

ekim colorwaterpit · Mar 16, 2014

Ron Wellman is a complete fuck stick. He has fucked up Wake basketball for the last 4 years, and now he is completely screwing up these brackets. (angry Wake fan)

FYI- Greg Marshall also took a few shots at wake forest last week in an interview, and its probably just a coincidence, but they then get pretty screwed here by Wake's AD.

mabrowndog · Mar 16, 2014

Oh, and halle-fucking-lujah for Louisville only being a #4 seed. Schedule strength rules, bitches. Kudos to the committee.

mabrowndog · Mar 16, 2014

RedOctober3829 said:
No way. No way should they be a 4.

Their non-conference schedule beyond UNC & Kentucky was a PILE OF CRAP. Hell, I'll even be generous and throw them a bone on Southern Miss. Here's the rest of their oh-so-challenging slate:

LA-Lafayette, Missouri St, Western Kentucky, Florida International, Hartford, Charleston, UMKC, Hofstra, Fairfield & Cornell.

What, did Pitino suddenly become coach at Tulane or something? Kansas manages to schedule Florida, Villanova, Duke, New Mexico, San Diego St, Georgetown & Colorado, and all Louisville can play outside the AAC is that agglomeration of dogshit?

They beat UConn three times. They beat Cincinnati once. They were swept by Memphis. That's a 4-3 record against the 2nd, 3rd & 4th place teams in their own conference. And there's really no need to go into how awful the bottom half of the AAC is.

Please. Show me what else they did to merit anything higher than the 4 line.

They got exactly what they deserved.

Deathofthebambino · Mar 16, 2014

No surprise to see the committee put Duke in Wichita State's region, but I'm shocked and stunned that they threw Lousville and Michigan in there with the Dukies too. Stunned and happy.

twothousandone · Mar 16, 2014

BigSoxFan said:
Wichita State really did get screwed by this seeding. . . and a potentially-dangerous 2nd round matchup with a raw Kentucky team that has like 4 or 5 future NBA players. Basically seems like the NCAA is sending a message that they didn't play anyone in the regular season so now prove it to us.

Or maybe it's the luck of the draw. If Oregon, UConn, Texas or New Mexico slip to 8, they have a complaint that they should be above Kentucky. If Wisconsin or Kansas (likely with Embiid back for the regional) are the #2, instead of Michigan, is the complaint still valid? Michigan is a tougher opponent than Wisconsin? Wisconsin was ranked higher until their season-ending loss to Nebraska, and were in the top five for 5+ weeks. Michigan has never been in the top 5. Swap Michigan and Wisconsin (or Kansas), and then swap Louisville and Michigan State. Is Wichita State still screwed?
Virginia has to get by MSU, and then some combination of 'Nova. Iowa State, UNC, UConn, maybe even St. Joe's. They don't have a waltz to the final four. If St, Joe's ends up in the regional final, that's a tougher game than Arizona State, isn't it?

ivanvamp · Mar 17, 2014

This is a brutal region. Obviously Wichita State is a terrific team. Kentucky has the talent to do something special (though they could also flame out early). Duke, Michigan, and Louisville all have the ability to win the whole thing. Would love to see Duke-Michigan and Louisville-Wichita State in the regionals.

DJnVa · Mar 17, 2014

mabrowndog said:
Oh, and halle-fucking-lujah for Louisville only being a #4 seed. Schedule strength rules, bitches. Kudos to the committee.

Which is why SMU didn't make it. OOC SOS was something like 290, and they lost their last 3.

Infield Infidel · Mar 17, 2014

mabrowndog said:
Their non-conference schedule beyond UNC & Kentucky was a PILE OF CRAP. Hell, I'll even be generous and throw them a bone on Southern Miss. Here's the rest of their oh-so-challenging slate:

LA-Lafayette, Missouri St, Western Kentucky, Florida International, Hartford, Charleston, UMKC, Hofstra, Fairfield & Cornell.

What, did Pitino suddenly become coach at Tulane or something? Kansas manages to schedule Florida, Villanova, Duke, New Mexico, San Diego St, Georgetown & Colorado, and all Louisville can play outside the AAC is that agglomeration of dogshit?

They beat UConn three times. They beat Cincinnati once. They were swept by Memphis. That's a 4-3 record against the 2nd, 3rd & 4th place teams in their own conference. And there's really no need to go into how awful the bottom half of the AAC is.

Please. Show me what else they did to merit anything higher than the 4 line.

They got exactly what they deserved.

Nate Silver disagrees http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nate-silvers-ncaa-basketball-predictions/

Louisville is the defending national champion, was ranked third in the preseason, was ranked fifth in the AP poll last week, won its conference championship in dominant fashion, and ranks between first and fourth nationally in each of the five computer systems. The team’s strength of schedule wasn’t great, but its five losses came against ranked opponents by single-digit margins. So how were the Cardinals a No. 4 seed?
The answer, almost certainly, is the selection committee’s attachment to Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), which somehow evaluates Louisville as only the 18th-best team in the country. RPI, as I’ve written previously, was “developed in 1981 in the era of the DOS prompt and the Commodore 64.”
There’s room to debate whether today’s computer systems give Louisville too much credit for blowout wins (such as its 61-point victory against Rutgers on Thursday). But it’s not as though the Cardinals are lacking in other credentials. The debate ought to have been about whether Louisville was a No. 1 seed or a No. 2.
That’s why they play the games, of course. But the problem with so badly mis-seeding a team is that it penalizes those that stand in its way. In this case, that means Wichita State, which will potentially face Louisville in the regional semifinals. Nor did the selection committee do the Shockers any favors: Kentucky is exceptionally talented for a No. 8 seed, as Duke is for a No. 3.
RPI is the Dick Morris of algorithms. Maybe I should challenge it to a bet.

Average Reds · Mar 17, 2014

Can't for the life of me understand why people are whining that Wichita St. got screwed. They're a number 1 seed. If the region is unfair to them it's unfair to all of the teams in the region.

Sounds to me like a lot of fans know that the Shockers aren't a legitimate number 1 and are making pre-emptive excuses for their second round loss to Kentucky.

Edit: or KSU

WayBackVazquez · Mar 17, 2014

Infield Infidel said:
Nate Silver disagrees http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nate-silvers-ncaa-basketball-predictions/

Yeah, as do Vegas bookmakers.

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.

sachmoney · Mar 20, 2014

I'm stunned that they threw Duke and Louisville into Michigan's region. We could see Michigan get rematches against Duke (defeated them at Cameron earlier this year), Louisville (last year's final), Arizona (beat them in Ann Arbor early in the season), and Michigan State (B1G Tournament final). An ideal scenario for me would be a Term of Enrampagement style run, but it would take years off of my life.

It's a tough region because there are a lot of names and I think Louisville benefits here from being seeded lower due to being against a weaker #1 seed in my eyes instead of a stronger #1 (or whatever they'd face if they had been higher) seed in the Elite Eight. Michigan and Duke are extremely flawed (and similar) in being offensively minded. A more balanced team like Louisville has a good chance against them.

Average Reds · Mar 20, 2014

As it relates to Louisville, I knew that Rick Pitino was a whiny bitch, but I didn't know he was this whiny.

Here he is speaking about his first round match up against Manhattan, coached by longtime Pitino assistant Steve Masiello:

"We press like him, we trap like him, his offensive sets are just like ours," Pitino said of Masiello. "That's why I don't like the game. I don't think it's fair. I don't like it. I don't know why they would do it.

"I just don't like the game at all, for either one of us. We won the national championship and obviously we're more heralded, but this is anybody's game. This is not a 1-16."

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2014/story/_/id/10637550/rick-pitino-louisville-cardinals-blasts-ncaa-matchup-vs-manhattan-jaspers

Midwest Regional Discussion and Analysis

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