2024-25 College Basketball Thread

[dixiehack]

And how many times did the Pac-6-8-10-12 send multiple teams to the Final Four? That would be zero.

And between 2001 and 2024, only one non-UCLA Pac-12 team made a Final Four. Thanks for playing, 2017 Oregon.

That's some seriously consistently "ship the bed in the NCAA Tournament" basketball for a conference that touted itself as the "conference of champions."

Good thing you waited until you were off probation before choosing violence.

 

[swingline]

I believe that name was changed to the "conference of Charmions."

Fixed!

 

[micropolitan guy]

And how many times did the Pac-6-8-10-12 send multiple teams to the Final Four? That would be zero.

And between 2001 and 2024, only one non-UCLA Pac-12 team made a Final Four. Thanks for playing, 2017 Oregon.

That's some seriously consistently "ship the bed in the NCAA Tournament" basketball for a conference that touted itself as the "conference of champions."

Nowhere did I ever claim the country "had never seen a league like the SEC in 2024-25" with reference to the Pac/8/10/12. No where.

The SEC is very good this year. It's up to the NCAA tournament to determine if it is one of the all-time bests. We all heard how good SEC men's basketball was last year, too. Then it fell on its face in the tournament.

The PCC/Pac-8/Pac-10/Pac-12 won 514 NCAA championships in its history, probably in every single sport except men's and women's hockey. No other conference comes close. That's why it was known as the Conference of Champions.

 

[tapintoamerica]

The Big East, which had THREE Final Four teams in 1985, says hold my beer.

Let's see if the SEC crashes and burns again in the NCAA tournament before anointing them.

I was referring to play before the NCAA tournament— I.e. the body of work that a league's teams submitted to the selection committee.
The SEC's non conference W% this year is .889. The ACC of 1983-84 holds the record at .893.
The Big East of 1984-85 was also outstanding at .820.
The reason the committee has never seen anything like the current SEC is twofold: excellence and size.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I was referring to play before the NCAA tournament— I.e. the body of work that a league's teams submitted to the selection committee.
The SEC's non conference W% this year is .889. The ACC of 1983-84 holds the record at .893.
The Big East of 1984-85 was also outstanding at .820.
The reason the committee has never seen anything like the current SEC is twofold: excellence and size.

Yes, great regular season. The tournament awaits.

 

[dixiehack]

OK, but how do you select teams on the basis of "Well they've been excellent all year but what if they face plant later?"

The best teams are wherever they happen to be. Nobody thought the Packers or Broncos should be excluded from the NFL playoffs because it wasn't fair for their divisions to achieve have three teams in.

 

[dixiehack]

You Omaha Mavericks are the No. 1 overall seed in the Summit League and in postgame celebrations.

 

[tapintoamerica]

You Omaha Mavericks are the No. 1 overall seed in the Summit League and in postgame celebrations.

That's really dumb. Imagine if somebody tears up a knee jumping off a soda machine.

 

[micropolitan guy]

OK, but how do you select teams on the basis of "Well they've been excellent all year but what if they face plant later?"

The best teams are wherever they happen to be. Nobody thought the Packers or Broncos should be excluded from the NFL playoffs because it wasn't fair for their divisions to achieve have three teams in.

There are clear, predetermined criteria for selecting NFL playoff teams. Selection Sunday is totally different.

There are 330+ teams in DI men's basketball, and more than 300+ possible at-large selections after the AQs are determined, for about 32 at-large spots. I simply don't think 20 or 22 of those possible at-large picks are in two conferences. No matter how good your league is, if you finish 11th or 12th or 13th you're just not good enough to unseat a team that might have had a superb regular season (like VCU, Drake, UCSD) only to stumble in a one-off conference tournament.

 

[ChrisLong]

You Omaha Mavericks are the No. 1 overall seed in the Summit League and in postgame celebrations.

There's an Astros joke in there somewhere.

 

[Della9250]

I'm surprised they don't make this a weekly update like football

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

Sounds good in theory, but if that were a rule, the committee would not have been able to find enough teams to fill out a bracket in 2018-19.
The 2020-21 season was stupid because of the remnants of COVID.
In 2021-22, the policy you propose would have removed 10 teams. Their final NET rankings were 16, 31, 34, 37, 38, 42, 44, 49, 53 and 77. They played from 13 to 21 games vs. Q1-22 opponents. Collectively 84-109 vs. Q1-2 for an average of ~ 8-11 record.
In their place would have gone 45, 47, 48, 58, 72, 105, 165, 171, 186, 218. Collectively, those teams went 33-28 vs. Q1-2 for an average record of six games played.
Story is comparable in 2023 and 2024.
Nice idea but practically unworkable.

Pretty easy fix. You take the above .500 Q1-2s first for at-larges - I don't care if they're 1-0 - and once they're exhausted, then you consider the next best teams, in order, based on their Q1-2 winning percentages.

No bullship where some team gets an inflated NET ranking for beating their tomato cans or four on their schedule by 40 instead of the predicted 20 only to find their level in conference play where they're mediocre against their peers. Kenpom/NET, etc., are flawed as fork in that regard.