What Were They Thinking?
March 12, 2007 9:02 pm by Big Willie StyleStanford? Illinois? Texas Tech? Arkansas? Freaking Arkansas!!??
The carnage that was Selection Sunday has many of us perplexed, and I challenge the committee to do better. Their job this year was done poorly. I realize that this is a Big East biased site, but this year, our league got the shaft.
But before I get into my gripe against the committee towards the Big East, I’d like to acknowledge the other schools that got rear-ended this season. First of all; Kansas State. K-State just beat down Texas Tech in their Conference Tournament, and who got in? That’s right, the team that lost. Stanford also showed up in the Pac-10 tournament. They went down in their first game to USC. Illinois did much better though, beating a juggernaut Penn State team. Then they did beat Indiana. Was that good enough to vault them over teams like Drexel, Syracuse and Kansas State? I don’t think so. Beating Indiana is impressive, but let’s not give them too much credit. It’s not like they beat one of the top teams in the country, say, like beating Georgetown. Wait, didn’t Syracuse do that recently? Aren’t they the only team in the last month and half to accomplish that? The Orangemen are a good team, and recent wins over Villanova, Georgetown and Marquette seemed impressive enough to me. Their loss in the tournament was to Notre Dame, who then got beat by Georgetown in the final seconds. Meanwhile, Arkansas was down in Atlanta beating South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. Then they lost to Florida. Had they beaten another good team along the way, maybe I can see them getting in. But I just don’t get this.
I know you’ve heard this all before, but the thing is, it’s not just Syracuse. I want you to look at some records of the teams that are seeded 1-6 in the brackets. All the teams are from BCS conferences (with the exception of Memphis, SIU and Butler), so I believe they should be compared equally. Now, I’m not implying that records should be the only measuring stick, but take a look at them, and see if there are any that stand out as being seeded too high, or too low. I’ll point out the Mid-Majors so that you’ll look at those records with an understanding that they don’t play as difficult a conference schedule.
1 Seeds : 30-3, 29-5, 28-6, 30-4
2 Seeds : 26-6, 26-5, 29-5, 30-3 (Memphis)
3 Seeds : 25-6, 26-7, 25-7, 27-7
4 Seeds : 24-9, 24-8, 20-10, 27-6 (SIU)
5 Seeds : 22-10, 21-11, 23-11, 27-6 (Butler)
6 Seeds : 22-10, 24-7, 20-11, 23-9
Any records look misplaced? I’ve got more if you click on comments.
Categories: Commentary
3 Responses to “What Were They Thinking?”
The 1’s, 2’s and 3’s all look good to me as well. The 4 seeds look pretty good, except there’s that 20-10 team. That team looks a little weaker than the rest right? Yea, I thought so too. That’s Virginia of the ACC by the way.
How about the 5 seeds? They look fairly accurate to me, except for one thing. Two of the 6 seeds have records better than all of the 5 seeds, and all of the 4 seeds even (except the mid-majors). Wow, these must be teams that weren’t seeded in the Top 25, and teams that did snuck up on the rest of the country? Wrong again! The two six seeds with the records that make them look like 3 seeds are Notre Dame and Louisville.
Once again, I’m not saying that records are everything. They’re not. But, when you compare the BCS conference teams, this looks really strange, especially since Notre Dame and Louiville finished right about 15th or so in the polls and neither did anything in the Big East tournament to hurt their standing.
I’m OK with where Georgetown, Pitt, Marquette and Villanova were seeded. I actually woudn’t have been surprised if Pitt dropped to a four, but Louisville and Notre Dame both got seeded way too low in this tournament. But, like I said in a previous post, a seed is just a seed. You still have to go out and win games. At least they’re in the tournament. The same can’t be said for Syracuse. One last question, if Arkansas played Syracuse in a head to head game, who do you think would be favored?
A good review. Your point on Cuse and Ark is dead on.
Louisville and ND were probably slighted a little bit but in the end, I wouldn’t make either team a 4 seed, which means they’re 5 seeds at best.
You’re definitely right though, seeds mean nothing, you’ve got to play the games.
Great analysis. ND got totally jobbed — they really were treated as if they came from a mid major, which makes absolutely no sense.
Care to comment?