Thoughts and Opinions on the NCAA Tournament Bracket/Field

[4chs]

Duke may have the easiest road of all the #2 seeds to the Sweet 16, but after that it gets a lot tougher for the Blue Devils. The West appears to be the weakest region.

[futurecoach]

I think if you look at the top 3 seeds in each bracket, the South probably has the toughest. Outside of that, the South region is pretty weak IMO.

 

I agree the South as a whole is not crazy tough. As i think UNC has a pretty easy path to the elite 8 in that region. Just so happens the path for UK may be one of the hardest paths.

 

Getting past a dayton or Wichita st in the second round is very tough. Then 2 teams people seem to love to win this tournament is UCLA and UNC. UK has to beat both of them to get to the final four.

 

So the region as a whole may not be to tough. Just the path UK has to take I do think is one of the toughest paths.

[sweet16]

Duke may have the easiest road of all the #2 seeds to the Sweet 16, but after that it gets a lot tougher for the Blue Devils. The West appears to be the weakest region.

 

Arizona I think has the easiest for a 2

[Jumper_Dad]

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=18893631

[sweet16]

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=18893631

 

I hope he is right

[ColonelCrazy]

They can't say either of those things most years, but they do.

 

So you agree it happens every once in a while?

[MentschTrachtGottLacht]

A) The complaining about Wichita State's seed is laugh-out-loud funny. I swear, I think the talking heads get together before the show, decide what issue they are all going to universally rail on, and then wait and see how quickly it becomes a national narrative. The Shockers have ZERO Top 50 wins. They played 3 tourney teams, lost them all, and one of them was a 17 point loss to a 10 seed AT HOME. I don't think they would have received an at-large selection had they lost to Illinois State...and can you imagine the outrage then? The rankings have ZERO to do with seeding and / or inclusion. They aren't even in the room. The committee could care less where the media would rank someone, nor would they care about where some random Director of Basketball Operations folks rank teams for their bosses that their boss has never seen. I am a KenPom guy, to be sure, but playing in a HORRIBLE league and curb-stomping one team after another tends to help your average points per possession, as well as your average points allowed per possession. Their SOS is 140. ZERO Top 50 wins. 0-3 against tourney teams. They are where they belong.

 

B) In my personal opinion, the most egregious seeding came with Minnesota and Wisconsin. However, the committee was at least consistent in punishing teams for playing really bad non-conference schedules (Wisconsin's non-conf SOS was 276), but I think they made the point too decisively in this case. Minnesota as a 5 is just funny, but with an RPI of 20, it certainly reinforces what I've always heard, that in spite of what you hear from the media, the RPI is a big factor in that room.

[UKMustangFan]

A) The complaining about Wichita State's seed is laugh-out-loud funny. I swear, I think the talking heads get together before the show, decide what issue they are all going to universally rail on, and then wait and see how quickly it becomes a national narrative. The Shockers have ZERO Top 50 wins. They played 3 tourney teams, lost them all, and one of them was a 17 point loss to a 10 seed AT HOME. I don't think they would have received an at-large selection had they lost to Illinois State...and can you imagine the outrage then? The rankings have ZERO to do with seeding and / or inclusion. They aren't even in the room. The committee could care less where the media would rank someone, nor would they care about where some random Director of Basketball Operations folks rank teams for their bosses that their boss has never seen. I am a KenPom guy, to be sure, but playing in a HORRIBLE league and curb-stomping one team after another tends to help your average points per possession, as well as your average points allowed per possession. Their SOS is 140. ZERO Top 50 wins. 0-3 against tourney teams. They are where they belong.

 

 

Thank you. They've beaten NO ONE. The MVC was terrible this season. I'd be much more concerned about Dayton than the Shockers if I was going to worry about either team.

[MJAlltheWay24]

Sold...going Dayton lol

[SnottieDrippen]

It's really difficult filling out a bracket as a UK fan.

[Earth's Savior]

It's really difficult filling out a bracket as a UK fan.

 

As other fans have an easier time filling them out? Let's remember there has never been a perfect bracket.

[MentschTrachtGottLacht]

Let's remember there has never been a perfect bracket.

My favorite stat on the topic:

 

There are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 ways to fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket -- that’s 9.2 quintillion. Each of the sixty-three games have two possible outcomes, and each different outcome creates its own alternate bracket. So, 2^63. Nine point two quintillion.

For perspective, scientists at the University of Hawaii estimate that there are around 7.5 quintillion grains of sand on planet earth. If you filled out your bracket randomly, by flipping a coin to choose the winner of each game, the odds of your bracket surviving to April 6 without a blemish worse than the odds of you choosing a particular grain of sand from all the beaches on earth.

[Wireman]

My favorite stat on the topic:

 

There are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 ways to fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket -- that’s 9.2 quintillion. Each of the sixty-three games have two possible outcomes, and each different outcome creates its own alternate bracket. So, 2^63. Nine point two quintillion.

For perspective, scientists at the University of Hawaii estimate that there are around 7.5 quintillion grains of sand on planet earth. If you filled out your bracket randomly, by flipping a coin to choose the winner of each game, the odds of your bracket surviving to April 6 without a blemish worse than the odds of you choosing a particular grain of sand from all the beaches on earth.

 

If you filled out a bracket EVERY second, it would take you 2.9 billion years to complete all possible scenarios.

[SnottieDrippen]

As other fans have an easier time filling them out? Let's remember there has never been a perfect bracket.

 

Yes. Kansas St. fans don't have the same difficulty picking against their team when they meet up with that UK/Duke/UNC/UL two-seed, because Jacob Pullen's not walking through that door. Michael Beasley is not walking through that door. Mitch Richmond is not walking through that door. They don't have the team this season, or historically, to feel confident picking them.

 

UK fans, however, will struggle mightily to pick UK over UCLA or UNC because they do have a talented enough team to beat them, but mental breakdowns, bad bounces, and uncharacteristically good shooting nights happen.

[THE SHERIFF]

Yes. Kansas St. fans don't have the same difficulty picking against their team when they meet up with that UK/Duke/UNC/UL two-seed, because Jacob Pullen's not walking through that door. Michael Beasley is not walking through that door. Mitch Richmond is not walking through that door. They don't have the team this season, or historically, to feel confident picking them.

 

UK fans, however, will struggle mightily to pick UK over UCLA or UNC because they do have a talented enough team to beat them, but mental breakdowns, bad bounces, and uncharacteristically good shooting nights happen.

 

Well said Snottie, well said!