March Madness 2019

StudentPilot wrote:

Dean Murdoch wrote:That knocks Gonzaga out of any discussion for the #1 overall seed and quite possibly drops them to a #2 seed. That loss killed them...a 5-2 Q1 record obviously would have looked a hell of a lot better than the 4-3 they'll go into Selection Sunday with.

Another 1 bites the dust! Florida St 69 - Virginia 59

There were a lot of upsets today that will affect selection Sunday. #5 Duke beat #3 North Carolina 74-73. Florida beat #9 LSU 76-73. Minnesota beat #13 Purdue 75-73. San Diego St. beat #14 Nevada 65-56. Iowa St. beat #15 Kansas St. 63-59. Seton Hall beat #23 Marquette 81-79. If all these Power 5 teams that finished in the middle of their conference improve their position enough to get off the bubble, a lot of mid-majors will be left out (again). Good thing the WCC has secured two slots.

What's behind all the March Madness "Family" warm-up shirts all the college players are wearing in the conference tournaments, and will apparently wear in the NCAA Tournament?

I haven't heard anything from the TV commentators.

StudentPilot wrote:What's behind all the March Madness "Family" warm-up shirts all the college players are wearing in the conference tournaments, and will apparently wear in the NCAA Tournament?

I haven't heard anything from the TV commentators.

The shirts are worn by teams that are Nike sponsored. I think Nike comes up with a brand t shirt every NCAA

JimmAlacki wrote:

StudentPilot wrote:What's behind all the March Madness "Family" warm-up shirts all the college players are wearing in the conference tournaments, and will apparently wear in the NCAA Tournament?

The shirts are worn by teams that are Nike sponsored. I think Nike comes up with a brand t shirt every NCAA

Ah, one of those families where the kids (the players) do all the work and the parents/grandparents (athletic departments/schools) get all the money...

I know, I know, GU beat Duke in Hawaii, but after winning the ACC Tournament, and the return of Zion Williamson, shouldn't Duke be the overall #1?

No worries for WCC fans, GU will still be one of the #1's...

Gonzaga got their #1 seed in the West, the ACC got all the other #1 seeds.  The Zags open on Thursday against a play-in winner.  SMC got an #11 seed, and open against Villanova (25-9), winner of the Big East regular season and tournament.

From the "Conference of Champions"*, regular season champion Washington got a #9 seed and plays MWC champion Utah State.  Oregon got a #12 seed and plays Wisconsin.  Arizona St. is in a play-in game.

Nevada (and Jazz) got a #7 and play Florida, a team in danger of being left out until they beat Tennessee in their tourney.  UC Irvine dominated the Big West, went 30-5, and were given a #13 seed against Kansas St.  Big Sky champ Montana got a #15 seed and Michigan.

No WCC teams made the NIT.  I guess in the quest to get better, too many teams got better at the same time, and they beat each other up too much.  But it's all good, because they were just good enough to help GU get their precious.

*trademark Bill Walton phrase, if you watched the Pac-12 tourney games.

up7587 wrote:No WCC teams made the NIT.  I guess in the quest to get better, too many teams got better at the same time, and they beat each other up too much.  But it's all good, because they were just good enough to help GU get their precious.

San Diego got in! I think they got pretty much the last at-large bid into the NIT and head to Memphis as a #6 seed.

It shocked me at first, but then I realized USF lost each of their last four and it would be kind of hard to argue for BYU over USD after the Toreros mollywhopped them in Vegas.

Dean Murdoch wrote:The NET isn't the be-all and end-all of seeding, just like RPI wasn't. Metrics are certainly a big part of it (these will favour Gonzaga) but who you've beaten is just as important or importanter (this is where Duke, Kentucky, Tennessee, UNC, Michigan St will all look better than Gonzaga). I think they'll come in as a solid 2 seed, and that's fair.

Well, as StudentPilot predicted Duke is the overall #1 and Gonzaga is also a #1, but as Deaner wrote, "the NET isn't the be-all and end-all of seeding..."

And the Bubble Team NET Rankings do indicate that's true:

NC State: #33 OUT
Clemson: #35 OUT
Belmont: #47 IN
TCU: #52 OUT
Indiana: #54 OUT
Temple: #56 IN
Alabama: #59 OUT
UNC Greensboro: 60 OUT
Arizona State: #63 IN
St. John’s: #73 IN

True, the NET isn't the definitive ranking of how teams are seeded in the tournament, but the NCAA said it would be "the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams" during the season. It's a little difficult, therefore, to make sense of why the No. 33 team doesn't make it in while the No. 73 team does....Go Johnnies!

******* I haven't seen it noted elsewhere, so here's a shoutout to our illustrious and much appreciated PilotNation Administrator, PilotNut, on his 46th birthday!   *******

46!

Jeez, I remember him as a snot nosed college punk.

Happy birthday, old man.

Thank you for the wishes... and please note that i didnt go edit the age in DD's post...

Happy St Paddys Day!

up7587 wrote:Gonzaga got their #1 seed in the West, the ACC got all the other #1 seeds.  The Zags open on Thursday against a play-in winner.  SMC got an #11 seed, and open against Villanova (25-9), winner of the Big East regular season and tournament.

From the "Conference of Champions"*, regular season champion Washington got a #9 seed and plays MWC champion Utah State.  Oregon got a #12 seed and plays Wisconsin.  Arizona St. is in a play-in game.

Nevada (and Jazz) got a #7 and play Florida, a team in danger of being left out until they beat Tennessee in their tourney.  UC Irvine dominated the Big West, went 30-5, and were given a #13 seed against Kansas St.  Big Sky champ Montana got a #15 seed and Michigan.

No WCC teams made the NIT.  I guess in the quest to get better, too many teams got better at the same time, and they beat each other up too much.  But it's all good, because they were just good enough to help GU get their precious.

*trademark Bill Walton phrase, if you watched the Pac-12 tourney games.

Actually, “Conference of Champions” is a trademark PAC-12 thing. Walton just parrots  the phrase the PAC-12 uses to describe itself.

To aid you in filling-out your bracket, the list below is the order in which the NCAA Selection Committee ranked the 68 teams in this year’s tournament and the relationship between the committee’s ranking and the NCAA’s NET ranking.

Obviously, there could be a big disparity between the ranking of team with an automatic bid and the NET, but the committee rankings and NET for at-large teams are reasonably close except in a few cases, like Ohio St., Arizona St., Washington, Minnesota, Seton Hall, and especially St. John’s.

Rank/NET/School
1/3 Duke **
2/1 Virginia
3/7 North Carolina
4/2 Gonzaga
5/5 Tennessee
6/8 Michigan State **
7/6 Kentucky
8/9 Michigan
9/4 Houston
10/10 Texas Tech
11/14 LSU
12/12 Purdue
13/20 Kansas
14/16 Florida State
15/24 Kansas State
16/11 Virginia Tech
17/28 Marquette
18/18 Auburn **
19/17 Wisconsin
20/19 Mississippi State
21/26 Villanova **
22/27 Maryland
23/15 Buffalo **
24/21 Iowa State **
25/22 Louisville
26/23 Nevada
27/25 Cincinnati **
28/13 Wofford **
29/34 VCU
30/42 Syracuse
31/36 Ole Miss
32/29 Utah State **
33/45 Washington
34/30 UCF
35/39 Baylor
36/37 Oklahoma
37/43 Iowa
38/57 Seton Hall
39/61 Minnesota
40/31 Florida
41/55 Ohio State
42/47 Belmont
43/56 Temple
44/32 Saint Mary’s **
45/63 Arizona State
46/44 Murray State **
47/73 St. John’s
48/51 Oregon **
49/40 New Mexico State **
50/58 Liberty **
51/68 UC Irvine **
52/71 Vermont **
53/103 Saint Louis **
54/78 Northeastern **
55/86 Yale **
56/100 Old Dominion **
57/121 Georgia State **
58/115 Northern Kentucky **
59/124 Montana **
60/132 Colgate **
61/176 Bradley **
62/154 Abilene Christian **
63/173 Gardner-Webb **
64/202 Iona **
65/205 Prairie View **
66/203 Fairleigh Dickinson **
67/222 North Dakota State **
68/302 N.C. Central **

** One of 32 teams earning an automatic bid after winning their conference tournament.

WCC NET rankings
4/2 GU
44/32 SMC
--/74 USF
--/85 BYU
--/97 USD
--/142 LMU
--/166 PU
--/181 SCU
--/210 UOP
--/327 UP

Redshirt seniors Isaiah Pineiro and Isaiah Wright closed-out their college careers on a sour note tonight as they combined for 15 points and 13 turnovers in USD's first-round NIT loss in Memphis, 74-60.

Senior Olin Carter led the Toreros with 17 points as 6 seniors played their last college contest for USD.

Wow.

Only three of the selection committee’s top 20 teams got automatic bids?

After USD was knocked out of the NIT last night, the only WCC teams left in the posteeason are SMC and GU in the NCAA, and LMU in the CBI.

Tonight first-year D1 team, Cal Baptist, held LMU's James Batemon to just 6 points, but the Lions still prevailed on the road, 56-55.

Geezaldinho wrote:Wow.

Only three of the selection committee’s top 20 teams got automatic bids?

For the #1 seeds, with three ACC schools and GU, only one conference winner.
The #2 seeds are two Big-10 and two SEC teams. And neither SEC school was the auto bid; only one conference winner.
The #3 seeds are two more SEC schools that didn't win their tourney, an AAC school that lost the tourney final, and a Big-12 school that lost their first game in their tourney.
The #4 seeds are two more ACC schools and two more Big-12 teams that lost in their tourney.
The #5 seeds are two more SEC schools, including the tourney winner, a Big 10 school, and a Big East school that lost in their semi-final game.
So the top 20 auto bid teams are Duke, Michigan State, and Auburn. Big East winner Villanova is a #6 seed, as is Big-12 winner Iowa St. AAC winner Cincinnati is a #7 seed. The other power conference auto bid is Oregon, a #12 seed. And MWC winner Utah St. got an #8 seed.

GU and SMC playing at the same time? Guess they aren't worried about splitting the WCC viewing audience.

Nevada is a big mid-major stumble. They were a #7 seed, and highly ranked all year, but a furious 2nd half comeback could not overcome a poor first half, and they lost to Florida, the 8th place team in the SEC with a .500 record in conference. In other words, exactly the type of power conference team I'd like to see left out. Too bad.

Nevada was a senior laden team, I think Jazz Johnson is the only returning player with significant playing time. This is a big face plant for that program.

At least Wofford came through as another #7 mid-major, beating a middling power conference team (Seton Hall, 9-9 Big East). Beat Kentucky!

Congrats to the Anteaters of UC Irvine, a #13 seed who beat Kansas St. 70-64.

My bracket had Kentucky beating Wofford, but I am not happy about it happening. The "S-E-C" chants at the end were classless.

From Facebook and Matthew Berry (ESPN Fantasy guru), there are no perfect brackets left out of the 17.2 million entries in ESPN's site. There was one after 37 games, but the Villanova defeat knocked it out on the 38th game. According to the Yahoo site, out of 3.077 million members, there are still two perfect brackets after 39 games. Guess we Yahoo players are smarter than the ESPN nerds. Of course, the best PilotNation brackets are only 31 of 39 so far.

Duke fans and over 50% of the bracket holders in America thought it was all over when those two last-ditch shots by UCF rolled around the rim, but the Blue Devlis prevailed, 77-76, and the Knights made believers out of a lot of fans.

Many who don't have Duke in their bracket as the ultimate winner, have Tennessee, and the Volunteers looked like they were sure to make it to the Sweet 16 while rolling over Iowa with a 25 point lead, but the Hawkeyes came all the way back to take the game to the first OT of the Tournament before Tennessee prevailed, 83-77.

It's been a fun weekend of basketball, especially for those who don't have to worry about bracket busters...

Actually a great opening week for chalk.  Sweet 16 consists of four #1 seeds, four #2 seeds, four #3 seeds. two #4 seeds, a #5 and a #12.

The two teams that were not in the seeded top sixteen are both teams that got hot in their conference tournament, Auburn and Oregon.

GU is into the Sweet 16 against Florida State on Thursday, and LMU also plays on Thursday, at South Florida in the CBI.

Tonight in LA, LMU beat Brown on the strength of James Batemon's 21 points, 81-63.