2/5 Games

#101      
Duke taking it to UNC 85-57 with 3 to play, trying their hardest to convince the committee that the ACC is a one bid league this season.
Seriously. Look at UNC's resume right now: They're 16-7 overall; 0-7 in Q1 games and 12 of their wins are against Q3-Q4. They also only have 2 more Q1 games left and 1 more Q2. Take away their name and they should be outside looking in right now.
 
#102      
well well well, I see Sean May is now on the UNC staff in some capacity.
 
#109      
Johnny Davis in the last two games has gone 7-32 from the field. I really don't want to hear anything else about him in the POY conversation. He's a good player and a nice story, but he's absolutely not in Kofi's league.
Seth Davis had him ranked number 1 for POY this week lol
 
#111      
So Jeremy Werner mentioned this on his twitter feed and it is rather noteworthy. After their blowout loss to Rutgers today, Michigan State starts to enter a rough stretch in their schedule the rest of the season. Here's what their remaining schedule looks like:

vs. Wisconsin
vs. Indiana
at Penn State
vs. Illinois
at Iowa
vs. Purdue
at Michigan
at Ohio State
vs. Maryland
 
#115      
There is really no reason to watch them once their conference season starts. It's like watching Purdue play Valpo over and over..
I just don't see how you can fairly evaluate them as a seeding committee. I also don't see how playing for them is so appealing to players given that they play a bunch of uninteresting games against no name opponents except for the early portion of the season.
 
#116      
I just don't see how you can fairly evaluate them as a seeding committee. I also don't see how playing for them is so appealing to players given that they play a bunch of uninteresting games against no name opponents except for the early portion of the season.
Just because Gonzaga's winning by 30 doesn't mean they aren't playing anybody. This is a Q1 game, which would give them 4 Q1 victories, and they have 3 left on the schedule. Their conference is slightly better than the Atlantic 10, and slightly worse than the American this season.
 
#119      
If you want to look at a team that hasn't played anybody but has good metrics, check out Houston. Thus far, they lost their only two Q1 games (Wisconsin and Alabama), and finally play their 3rd tomorrow (@ Cincinnati). Nobody else in their conference is at-large worthy this season (SMU is the closest, Cincy and Memphis are both disappointments this season, and 6 teams in their conference are cupcakes).
 
#120      
Just because Gonzaga's winning by 30 doesn't mean they aren't playing anybody. This is a Q1 game, which would give them 4 Q1 victories, and they have 3 left on the schedule. Their conference is slightly better than the Atlantic 10, and slightly worse than the American this season.
BYU is a Q1 game. But almost the entire rest of their conference slate is not. They are 11-0 in Q4 games, so I will give them that.
 
#121      
They played three top 5 teams plus two more top 25’s in the non-con. Short of leaving their conference, they’ve tried their best.
Sure, they do a good job of scheduling their non-con to make up for their cushy conference season. That still doesn't change the fact that they play a lot fewer compelling opponents than other perennial contenders.
 
#122      
On the subject of the WCC, earlier today, San Francisco (KP #28, at-large hopeful) was playing an awful Portland (KP #226) team away, and struggled. However, with 10 seconds left, up 2, and Portland having the ball, they opted to intentionally foul a Portland player to give them a 1 and 1. Portland made the first and missed the second, USF player was fouled and hit 2 shots with 2 seconds left, and the game was over.

Interesting strategy that worked out for them. Fouling up 2 with limited time remaining potentially guarantees you the ball with either the lead or the chance at the last shot, whereas letting them shoot gives them the last shot with a chance to hit a 3 and win it. Risk of fouling gives them the opportunity to get their own rebound off a FT miss, steal the inbounds off a FT make in a tie game, or any host of other smaller likelihood events. Not sure I'd ever suggest it, but it was a textbook scenario of that strategy working in the winning team's favor.
 
#123      
BYU is a Q1 game. But almost the entire rest of their conference slate is not. They are 11-0 in Q4 games, so I will give them that.
BYU, St. Mary's and San Francisco are Q1 games. Santa Clara is a Q2 game, San Diego is Q3, and the other 4 teams are Q4.

In the American, SMU is borderline Q1, Cincy, Memphis and Wichita State are Q2, Temple is Q3 and the other teams are Q4.

In the ACC, UNC and Wake Forest are Q1, Miami, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Clemson are Q2, and everyone else is Q3.

It's not a major conference, but it's not the SWAC or anything close to that.
 
#124      
So Jeremy Werner mentioned this on his twitter feed and it is rather noteworthy. After their blowout loss to Rutgers today, Michigan State starts to enter a rough stretch in their schedule the rest of the season. Here's what their remaining schedule looks like:

vs. Wisconsin
vs. Indiana
at Penn State
vs. Illinois
at Iowa
vs. Purdue
at Michigan
at Ohio State
vs. Maryland
No big ten schedule is easy. That doesn't look that ominous to me. We seem to be finding a great groove. Purdue as well. The rest of the top tier in the league is pretty inconsistent.
 
#125      
BYU, St. Mary's and San Francisco are Q1 games. Santa Clara is a Q2 game, San Diego is Q3, and the other 4 teams are Q4.

In the American, SMU is borderline Q1, Cincy, Memphis and Wichita State are Q2, Temple is Q3 and the other teams are Q4.

In the ACC, UNC and Wake Forest are Q1, Miami, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Clemson are Q2, and everyone else is Q3.

It's not a major conference, but it's not the SWAC or anything close to that.
In an typical year the AAC is nowhere near as bad as it is this year. But even if the WCC is better than the AAC this year, that doesn't somehow make it good. It's still a lot of uncompelling games and I legitimately think that makes it difficult to fairly evaluate a team like Gonzaga. And I also legitimately find it odd that so many great recruits would choose Gonzaga over similarly high-level programs that play in more big games throughout the season for the sake of exposure.
 
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