Running 2022-23 NCAA Basketball Thread

With Santa Clara and LMU a tick behind the big two, does the West Coast Conference deserve as many bids this year as the Pac-12? Think about it ... is USC really better than Santa Clara?

 

If Santa Clara makes a run into the WCC title game, maybe they have a chance. It would mean beating either Gonzaga or Saint Mary’s — something they couldn’t do. Loyola Marymount beat both of those teams but lost a lot to other WCC teams, so they have no chance of an at large bid.

Santa Clara’s best NC win was over Boise State, so if both teams are battling for a bid, the California Broncos should have the edge over the Idaho Broncos.

 

The problem at the mid-major level is leagues have convinced themselves these things are money-makers, even though they absolutely are not. Somewhat ironically, the last tournament holdout, the Ivy League, probably does pretty well for itself with that four-team format at one site played over two days. The bigger issue is coaches look at it as their last lifeline. A coach that's 12-18 for the fourth straight season will always think he can save his job with a Cinderella run to the NCAA Tournament. My guess is these tales are even rarer than Saint Peter's run to the Elite 8, but you'll never convince coaches of that.

 

You guess is not correct.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketbal...tory-teams-worst-records-make-ncaa-tournament

I looked this up because it seems to me that every year when I’m doing research for my tournament bracket I’ll see some low-major team that’s under or right around .500 that got in as a conference tournament champion. Turns out it’s not every year — but it’s not far off.

 

Actually, that proves my point. Twenty-four teams with a .500 or worse record (and I don't really count Penn's two .500 teams, b/c the Ivy is such a different beast) have made the NCAA Tournament in the 37 tourneys since the field expanded to 64. Fewer than one per year. That's a whole lot of coaches at mids (and everywhere else) who don't get the job-saving Cinderella finish following a sub-.500 regular season and instead quietly exit their conference tourneys.

 

Yes.

 

I know this isn’t a women’s basketball thread, but another great finish in Carver Hawkeye Arena today as Caitlin Clark’s buzzer beater leads Iowa past No. 2 Indiana.

She might be the best to ever wear black and gold — of either gender.

 

Wisky-Michigan is a good game. Michigan tied it on a prayer 3-pointer at the buzzer after getting about 10 seconds to in-bound the ball. Not a Juwan Howard fan so pulling for the Badgers.

Michigan wins, dang.

 

Most of them do terrible at the gate, but doesn’t whatever pittance they make in TV money come from ESPN owning the rights to Championship Week?

 

I believe so. Which really makes you wonder how much the leagues that aren't on ESPN are running in the red for their tourneys.

 

Your guess was that it’s rarer than a St. Peter’s-type final-eight run by a 15 seed. It is MUCH more common than that.

 

I was writing in the spirit of Micro's post, in which he noted Saint Peter's didn't finish with the MAAC's best record last year but made a Cinderella run that earned the league valuable units. I was grouping all Cinderellas (1985 Villanova, 1986 LSU, 1988 Kansas, 1998 Rhode Island, 2006 George Mason, 2011 VCU, 2011 Richmond, 2013 La Salle, etc) who at least got to the Sweet 16 after not finishing first in their regular season. I can probably scroll thru Wiki and find another 17. Even if I can't, the fact that just 24 of the 2,412 teams to qualify for the NCAA Tournament since 1985 have done so with a .500 or worse record means it's much rarer to do that than for a random at-large to win a couple games or more. How many teams have finished the regular season under .500 and then not mounted a miracle run in their conference tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament? Thousands.