I understand they wanted this to come off as elitist, but just seems cowardly after this year, and that they're afraid to be further embarassed.There apparently was some confusion on the board (not really) about what a "trainwreck" season is.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the preseason #1 UNC Tarheels.
Ranking Every Team in Men’s College Basketball, From UNC (No. 1) to Hartford (No. 363)
North Carolina rejects NIT invite and ends season
North Carolina rejects NIT invite and ends season
The UNC basketball program has turned down the invite to the NIT and has ended its season.www.yahoo.com
NCAA Tournament 2023 Thread
My opinion is that the ACC was bailed out by the committee on history and reputation vs metrics. ACC should've had 3 teams total (Duke, Miami, Virginia). If you ignore the overall W/L record Oklahoma (yes, Oklahoma) had a better resume than both NC State and Pitt. Wisconsin has a better resume than Pitt, and probably NC State too. The ACC was 7th or 8th ranked conference by most metrics this year. The committee threw them a bone and it cost Oklahoma St and Rutgers.
I also suspect some attempts to balance the regions was in effect. Without NC State, Pitt, and Providence making it as 3 of the last 6 teams in the only meaningful east coast teams would be:
UConn, Miami, Duke, Virginia, FAU, Maryland, Penn State (? are they "east coast"), and all others 13 seed or greater.
Obviously, if Rutgers were in then they'd be another east cost team, but my point remains.
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I've personally never been a fan of using injury to a key player as reasoning for not giving a bid or giving lower seeding than the overall body of work and resume would dictate. And my reasoning is that tournament seeding or bowl/playoff seeding should be based on a team's accomplishments, not the projected team they are able to field. While I do realize that not doing this theoretically "dilutes" the field and allows for a heavily unbalanced draw in extreme circumstances I also don't think it's fair or right to punish a team for something out of their control. Even in an extreme example where say a P5 team starts the season something like 29-0 with an amazing resume then has all 5 starters get injuries that make them out for the season and proceeds to lose their next 3 games via extreme blowout obviously unable to compete, I still think that if their 29-3 resume is one of the four best in the nation, they should get a 1 seed, regardless of how weak the team they would be able to field is. As such, I think Rutgers got screwed. They should be in if this was based on resume alone.
The most underseeded team in the field I think is FAU. Yes, they had a weaker schedule, but no really bad losses and they have winning records against both Q1 and Q2 opponents with their 31-3 record. They should be at worst a 7 seed in my opinion and probably a 6.
The most underseeded team in the field I think is FAU. Yes, they had a weaker schedule, but no really bad losses and they have winning records against both Q1 and Q2 opponents with their 31-3 record. They should be at worst a 7 seed in my opinion and probably a 6.
On one hand, I'm in agreement . . . the team's body of work has to mean something. However, I can also see a scenario in which, let's say Purdue's Zach Edey fractures his elbow during a situation in which he gave a concussion to three of the opposing team's players in a "basketball play" and is out indefinitely. Given that without Edey, Purdue probably wouldn't have finished in the top half of the B1G, would they warrant a #1 seed knowing Edey would miss the tourney?
From Peoria if I am not mistaken.
Might lose the first gameVitale picking Duke in the Final Four
Kent St over Indiana?
Actually happened before. Kenyon Martin, best player that year, broke his leg in conference tourney. cincy penalized to 2 seed based after being AP #1 most of season.
Twenty years later, Kenyon Martin's injury remains college basketball's biggest 'what if'
Twenty years ago, Cincinnati had one of the best and most intimidating teams in college basketball. Players and coaches from that 2000 team are still adamant they would've won it all, if not for a fateful injury to the country's best player.
For me, the answer would always be yes, Purdue is still a 1 seed. I know many others would disagree as Purdue obviously would be much much worse without Edey and probably not a tourney team, but I think seeding really needs to be based on your season accomplishments and resume and reward you solely for that.
More simply put, I believe the name on the front of the jersey gets rewarded for it's accomplishments regardless of what names on the back of the jersey are available to play. It's an easier to see argument to make in football as there are so few teams that make the playoffs, but imagine the metrics were to suggest our Illini have the 4th best resume in the country and should get that college football playoff spot, however we unfortunately had our star players go down in the Big 10 Title game and we are a shell of our former self without them. Would we deserve to get bounced from the CFP and replaced by a team that accomplished less and is in theory less deserving? Not even giving us our chance to try to win a Natty? It just never has sat right with me, but that's how it pretty much is. Just feels too subjective for my liking
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Super unrealistic. ILL can't beat PSU.
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
Agree.
But historically, NCAA refereeing crews do not let B1G teams play D like they’re allowed to do in conference. The teams that can adjust to the change, like the fighting Izzos (historically), do well.
It will be interesting to see how Edey will be called. Will he draw more fouls than he does in conference, or will more be called against him?
I always root for a strong showing for our B1G brethren. Except for Indinia, of course…
Maybe this year will be our time to pull an upset or two in the tournament - amazingly, I believe we've only beaten a higher seed one time in the history of the tournament and that was a 4/5 game. But if you are going to beat a one seed, the second round is the best time to do it (just ask us), the one seed doesn't have much time to prepare for you and they are usually overconfident in getting past the 8/9 seed.
In a way it's kind of nice not to be an upset target for once - we literally have no downside this tournament - we're not even favored to win one game! Let's go win 6 of them!
In a way it's kind of nice not to be an upset target for once - we literally have no downside this tournament - we're not even favored to win one game! Let's go win 6 of them!
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
CNN sports guy (who knew?) points out that since 2002 every NCAA champion has had a KenPom ranking of both top-40 offensively and top-22 defensively.
This year’s teams that meet that standard are:
UCLA
UCONN
Kansas
Creighton
Alabama
Houston
Texas
Teams that are close:
Saint Mary’s
Tennessee
Duke
Purdue
Now, go forth and bracket-fill, boys & girls…
This year’s teams that meet that standard are:
UCLA
UCONN
Kansas
Creighton
Alabama
Houston
Texas
Teams that are close:
Saint Mary’s
Tennessee
Duke
Purdue
Now, go forth and bracket-fill, boys & girls…
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Of course the committee pairs ILL & PSU in the F4. It’s all about storylines.
From 247sports.com (Isaac Trotter):
NCAA Tournament 2023: Coaches with most on the line in March Madness
(List includes...)
BRAD UNDERWOOD, ILLINOIS
“A devastating second-round loss to Loyola-Chicago still lingers like an elephant in the room over Brad Underwood and the Illinois program. Porter Moser and the Ramblers butchered what was supposed to be a 2021 Final Four run. Advancing to the Sweet 16 has been a complicated riddle Underwood has somehow not been able to crack despite boatloads of regular-season wins and talent-laden rosters. It's second weekend or bust for Illinois, yet again. As opposed to each of the last two years, Illinois enters the Big Dance freefalling instead of surging. Underwood has preached all year that his team is built for March. It's time to back it up.”
NCAA Tournament 2023: Coaches with most on the line in March Madness
(List includes...)
BRAD UNDERWOOD, ILLINOIS
“A devastating second-round loss to Loyola-Chicago still lingers like an elephant in the room over Brad Underwood and the Illinois program. Porter Moser and the Ramblers butchered what was supposed to be a 2021 Final Four run. Advancing to the Sweet 16 has been a complicated riddle Underwood has somehow not been able to crack despite boatloads of regular-season wins and talent-laden rosters. It's second weekend or bust for Illinois, yet again. As opposed to each of the last two years, Illinois enters the Big Dance freefalling instead of surging. Underwood has preached all year that his team is built for March. It's time to back it up.”
who are the refs?
No Gus Johnson?
For me it's Iowa! I will root for any Big 10 team in the NCAA except Iowa.
AyoDos11
- Southern Illinois
Most tourney referees will have no clue how to officiate him because he is so huge. The B1G officiating tends to lean towards the side of allowing Edey to do whatever he wants (as we all have seen many times). These refs will most likely call him more strictly, and he will be in serious foul trouble causing them to lose in the 2nd round.
Agree. Years ago, Cincinnati was ranked #1 in the country going into their conference tournament. Kenyon Martin got hurt. With him out, those were two totally different teams and it played out that way. If Purdue lost Edey in the conference tournament, there's no way they're a #1 seed. Now, how far they would have dropped....who knows.
In Rutgers case, they flat out stunk the last month of the season. You can't go to Minnesota, lose, then expect to have a good outcome.
Bigtex
- DFW
I find this simply amazing (in a bad way). Maybe we win the 8/9 game for 2nd time in history then take down Kansas for 3rd time......
I think that Gus works for Fox now, not CBS/TBS. I'm not sure if they has anything to do with it? I see Jim Jackson on there....he's Fox too, so not sure.
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
I'll have what you're having...