NCAA Championship Week

[rockin500]

Why can't they just let Joe Lunardi come up with the NCAA tournament's bracket? He's the one doing all the research anyways. It'd be much simpler and there'd be far less controversy.

agreed. i was a bit surprised that arizona got in. cant believe that seth davis was surprised that maryland was in.

[cjkalt]

Why can't they just let Joe Lunardi come up with the NCAA tournament's bracket? He's the one doing all the research anyways. It'd be much simpler and there'd be far less controversy.

Joe Lunardi is actually one of the worst bracketologists in the past. This year he did pretty well but didn't get all 65 teams.

The Bracket Project - Ranking the Bracketologists

Joe is decent but there are a lot better guys out there, Arizona had the top notch wins to deserve an at large bid over the mid-majors that didn't have the top notch wins or even good wins to get in. I run RTS, and I had Zona in. I was confused as to why people thought they were out besides for the fact Lunardi said so

[rockin500]

Joe Lunardi is actually one of the worst bracketologists in the past. This year he did pretty well but didn't get all 65 teams.

The Bracket Project - Ranking the Bracketologists

Joe is decent but there are a lot better guys out there, Arizona had the top notch wins to deserve an at large bid over the mid-majors that didn't have the top notch wins or even good wins to get in. I run RTS, and I had Zona in. I was confused as to why people thought they were out besides for the fact Lunardi said so

most years he gets all the teams right or misses by one.

and losing 5 out of 6 at the end and being 19-13 isnt exactly something that says "IN!"

[DirtyKash]

Joe Lunardi is actually one of the worst bracketologists in the past. This year he did pretty well but didn't get all 65 teams.

The Bracket Project - Ranking the Bracketologists

That table only ranks who predicts the selection committee's bracket correctly. Just because the selection committee selects a school does not necessarily mean that they deserve to be in.

The point was: have Joe Lunardi determine who should be in.
Not: is Joe Lunardi good at predicting who the selection committee will put in.

Anyways. Not like that'll ever happen. It was a comment made in half-jest.

[love_that_reefer]

Louisville finishes the year at #1

[cjkalt]

Arizona beat Kansas, Washington and Gonzaga... SDSU had wins over Utah and BYU (but they went 1-2 vs. each of those teams) Why does that team deserve a bid over one that has proven that they can beat top level opposition.

Frankly I think Joe just went off his gut and not the resume's cause looking at them side-to-side, it was a really easy pick

[Porter]

Arizona beat Kansas, Washington and Gonzaga... SDSU had wins over Utah and BYU (but they went 1-2 vs. each of those teams) Why does that team deserve a bid over one that has proven that they can beat top level opposition.

Frankly I think Joe just went off his gut and not the resume's cause looking at them side-to-side, it was a really easy pick

Arizona was 3-8 vs USC, ASU, UW, CAL and UCLA (All at home at that)

They lost to ASU three ****ing times. They are not that good and very streaky. They do not deserve to get in and i'm a Pac-10 guy. They beat Zaga when they were struggling early in the year. Kansas wasn't near as good then as they are now. While Zona did beat SDSU at home, they got blown out by UNLV on the road.

[cjkalt]

Arizona was 3-8 vs USC, ASU, UW, CAL and UCLA (All at home at that)

They lost to ASU three ****ing times. They are not that good and very streaky. They do not deserve to get in and i'm a Pac-10 guy. They beat Zaga when they were struggling early in the year. Kansas wasn't near as good then as they are now. While Zona did beat SDSU at home, they got blown out by UNLV on the road.

Pac-10 does home and home so they weren't all at home...

The committee just looks at the quality of the wins, Gonzaga wasn't struggling that much, Arizona had the H2H win, they had the better RPI, Average RPI win, Average RPI loss

Record vs Tournament teams:

SDSU: 2-6 (Wins vs. Utah, BYU Losses: Utah x2, BYU x2, Arizona, Arizona State)

Arizona: 5-9 (Wins vs. Kansas, Gonzaga, Washington, USC, UCLA Losses: Cal x2, ASU x3, Washington, Texas A&M, UCLA, USC)

This is a tough call for sure, but Arizona has the top wins, and is a more feared team, in fact they are favored to beat Utah in Vegas. If I'm choosing the last at large I want a team that I'd be afraid to play. SDSU only has 2 big wins and has losing records vs those teams, and has the H2H loss with Arizona.

SDSU is good, but they needed to schedule harder in the non conf to get in

[Porter]

They were 0-7 on the road vs those 5 teams.

And id make a better case for St Marys who were what 20-2 with Patty Mills and were better than Zaga before his injury.

[nyjunc]

St. Mary's deserved it over Arizona. It's strange how they penalize St. Mary's for an injury but not UConn. How does Uconn get a 1 when post Dyson they finished 3-3 in their last 6 w/ 1 quality win? and how does UL get the 1 overall? They only had to play the Pitt/UConn twice w/ both coming at home and they were thrashed by UConn, didn't fare well in non-conf, had a much easier BE sched and didn't have to face any of the top teams in the BE Tourney. UL should have been the 3rd or 4th #1.

[love_that_reefer]

Louisville won the regular season and conference Big East titles in the nation's top ranked conference. That's how you get a #1 seed.

[rockin500]

Louisville won the regular season and conference Big East titles in the nation's top ranked conference. That's how you get a #1 seed.

i actually agree with the #1 overall pick, because of what you mentioned. Had they fallen though in the BE tournament, I highly doubt they are the #1 overall.

[love_that_reefer]

Absolutely. UNC losing in the ACC tourney helped the overall #1 ranking as well.

[nyjunc]

Louisville won the regular season and conference Big East titles in the nation's top ranked conference. That's how you get a #1 seed.

The top ranked conf according to the RPi was the ACC. Putting that aside UL did win the BE reg and conf tourney titles BUT only played Pitt and UConn once each and both times at home. They had a much easier sched. In non-conf they lost to W. KY at home, UNLV(a non-Tourney team) who was w/o their best player and Minneosta, they also lost at ND by 33 points. They deserved a 1 but not 1 overall.

UL's conf wins in reg season:


USF twice
ND
RU
WVU twice- good wins
at 'Nova- 'Nova was struggling at the time.
SJU
Depaul
Pitt- good win
SU- when SU was struggling
Providence
Cincy
GU
Marquette- w/o Dominic James won by 4 at home.
SH

They were 16-2 in the BE, of those 16 wins only 6 came against Tourney bound teams and both SU & 'Nova were struggling at the time and Marquette was w/o Dominic James.

i actually agree with the #1 overall pick, because of what you mentioned. Had they fallen though in the BE tournament, I highly doubt they are the #1 overall.

If they fell in the BE Tourney they likely wouldn't have been a 1.

Absolutely. UNC losing in the ACC tourney helped the overall #1 ranking as well.

It shouldn't have mattered. The Heels won the ACC outright and were playing the ACC Tourney w/o the ACC Player of the year.

I don't care if the heels got #1 overall or not but I just don't think UL deserved the 1 overall and UConn didn't deserve a 1.

[love_that_reefer]

The top ranked conference according to the final rankings was the Big East. No need to go down this road again because its pointless and the Big East has three #1 seeds and the AP calls the Big East the top ranked. Since its their poll we go by, let's just call it that. Louisville shouldn't be punished because Uconn and Pitt lost in the Big East tourney and Louisville did their job by winning it outright. Louisville beat Pitt when they were #1 and did have a hard schedule in conference winning their last 10 to capture the Big East title. Louisville was 5th in RPI. If UNC would have won the ACC title, they would have been #1 but they didn;t so Louisville won by default.

Louisville beat SU (now #15) twice, both by 10 points.
Beat Pitt when they were #1 in the nation.
Beat Villanova (now #12) twice
Had two streaks of beating three ranked opponents in a row (one streak had four in a row)
Won 10 games in a row to close the season

Losses included thrashings by UConn and ND, a good W. KY team in the third game of the season, UNLV by 1 and a ranked Minnesota team.

If Memphis played in a good conference, they would be #1 and if UNC wins the ACC title outright, they are #1. Neither one happened so Louisville wins by default. You may not agree with it but that's the way it is as the stars aligned in the last week for this to happen.