Selection Sunday thread

[Pringle]

Seeing Stacey King on the NIT selection show made me realize we've run out of sports broadcasters.

He does color for Bulls games. I think he's actually pretty good. Really knows the game.

 

[Pringle]

Digger Phelps sucks.

His whole argument regarding Kansas State and Arkansas was their performances against Texas Tech. Ditto Vitale. These old dudes can't stop screaming coaches' names when making picks. You can tell the actual former players in the studio are doing their best to stomach their "This team is good because I am friends with their coach!" stupidity.

Also, if Drexel wanted to get in, then perhaps they should not have finished fourth in a mid-major conference.

That's my least favorite thing about college basketball - college sports in general. All anybody cares about and talks about is the stupid coaches. It's like the kids are just background actors in the drama. I hate that.

 

[farmerjerome]

Arkansas in is flat-out ridiculous, so is Drexel being out.

All the national pundits are peeing their collective pants over Sycacuse not making with a 10-6 Big East record, blah, blah, blah. Here's Syracuse's Big East wins (including its one Big East tourney victory over UConn) with NCAA tourney teams bolded.

Wins: at Marquette, at Rutgers, Villanova, Cincinnati, DePaul, St. John's, at South Florida, Connecticut, at Providence, Georgetown, Connecticut.

Not impressive, not one little bit, especially when the only nonconference win worth half a shred of a darn is Holy Cross.

That unbalanced Big East schedule is a bench isn't it?

The committee got that omission right. Sorry farmerjerome, et al.

Yeah, wins at Marquette and against Georgetown and 10 wins in one of the toughest conferences in the country isn't anything. You're right, Syracuse sucked.

Look at Duke. Lost to Marquette, beat Georgetown. Two wins against Boston college to not cancel out two loss to NC.
I believe that the Blue Devils had 10 losses, virtually identical to the Orange. And they're a six seed.

At least Syracuse made it past the first round of its tournament.

 

[beefncheddar]

I'm ashuming they're still using this, though it's hard to say with some of the decisions they made:

Conference RPI

1. ACC, .5817. Non-conference SOS rank: 8. Non-conference RPI: 2. Average RPI: 55. Median RPI: 43
2. SEC, .5814. Non-conference SOS rank: 2. Non-conference RPI: 1. Average RPI: 55. Median RPI: 53
...
...
5. Big East, .5589. Non-conference SOS rank: 14. Non-conference RPI: 7. Average RPI: 84. Median RPI: 62

 

[Flying Headbutt]

Digger Phelps sucks.

His whole argument regarding Kansas State and Arkansas was their performances against Texas Tech. Ditto Vitale. These old dudes can't stop screaming coaches' names when making picks. You can tell the actual former players in the studio are doing their best to stomach their "This team is good because I am friends with their coach!" stupidity.

Also, if Drexel wanted to get in, then perhaps they should not have finished fourth in a mid-major conference.

That's my least favorite thing about college basketball - college sports in general. All anybody cares about and talks about is the stupid coaches. It's like the kids are just background actors in the drama. I hate that.

Well the kids are there 1-4 years, the coaches are there in some cases forever. Makes it easy to figure out who the hypsters will hype, since they need to maintain connections.

 

[JayFarrar]

It was widely reported that if Arkansas didn't make the tournament, then the coach would get fired. I wonder if that played a part in the decision to let the piggies in?

 

[Pringle]

Digger Phelps sucks.

His whole argument regarding Kansas State and Arkansas was their performances against Texas Tech. Ditto Vitale. These old dudes can't stop screaming coaches' names when making picks. You can tell the actual former players in the studio are doing their best to stomach their "This team is good because I am friends with their coach!" stupidity.

Also, if Drexel wanted to get in, then perhaps they should not have finished fourth in a mid-major conference.

That's my least favorite thing about college basketball - college sports in general. All anybody cares about and talks about is the stupid coaches. It's like the kids are just background actors in the drama. I hate that.

Well the kids are there 1-4 years, the coaches are there in some cases forever. Makes it easy to figure out who the hypsters will hype, since they need to maintain connections.

Oh, I understand why. I just think it's the easy way out of 1. actually learning the teams on a year-to-year basis and 2. Having to make the effort to develop relationship with aloof college kids when it's so much easier to chat up Lute Olson, Jim Boeheim and Thad Matta.

 

[Bubbler]

Arkansas in is flat-out ridiculous, so is Drexel being out.

All the national pundits are peeing their collective pants over Sycacuse not making with a 10-6 Big East record, blah, blah, blah. Here's Syracuse's Big East wins (including its one Big East tourney victory over UConn) with NCAA tourney teams bolded.

Wins: at Marquette, at Rutgers, Villanova, Cincinnati, DePaul, St. John's, at South Florida, Connecticut, at Providence, Georgetown, Connecticut.

Not impressive, not one little bit, especially when the only nonconference win worth half a shred of a darn is Holy Cross.

That unbalanced Big East schedule is a bench isn't it?

The committee got that omission right. Sorry farmerjerome, et al.

Yeah, wins at Marquette and against Georgetown and 10 wins in one of the toughest conferences in the country isn't anything. You're right, Syracuse sucked.

Look at Duke. Lost to Marquette, beat Georgetown. Two wins against Boston college to not cancel out two loss to NC.
I believe that the Blue Devils had 10 losses, virtually identical to the Orange. And they're a six seed.

At least Syracuse made it past the first round of its tournament.

FJ, you're my gal and all, but you're going pure fanboy route here.

You're pointing out a paucity of good: wins over Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova versus ignoring a whole lot of mediocre, i.e., all of Syracuse's other Big East wins and its non-descript nonconference schedule. I know you're a Syracuse fan, but if you separate yourself from that, I think you can see my point.

It's a similar argument Valley fans in my neck of the woods made about Missouri State. They beat Wisconsin! They beat Wisconsin! Ignoring the fact that they lost in every other game of consequence they played.

The Big East was the sixth-best conference in the RPI (realtimerpi has them there). Why? Because it's too big for its own good. Just because a team goes 10-6 doesn't mean it's a legit 10-6. The bottom six of the Big East -- all of the teams below 100 in the RPI -- are absolute ship. Seven of Sycacuse's 10 wins were against the bottom eight of the league in a 16-team conference. That's nothing to write home about.

Syracuse is a function of a friendly schedule creating an overinflated resume. The truth of the matter is that the committee called them (or more accurately, the Big East itself) on it and Syracuse was justifiably left out.

That Big East unbalanced schedule screws up everything when it comes to fairly ashessing teams. So blame that, not me or the committee.

The numbers don't add up to Sycacuse getting screwed. Of course Digger Phelps, et al, will think they did because Jim Boeheim was at their roast or something.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Now, thanks to rudimentary-at-best Photoshop skills, I don't have to choose between my two favorite children!

 

[expendable]

Attention *microphone feedback*:

The NCAA and NIT selection committees can suck my left testicle...






That is all. *click*

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

It was widely reported that if Arkansas didn't make the tournament, then the coach would get fired. I wonder if that played a part in the decision to let the piggies in?

I would doubt it. Just as I would doubt that Packer's anti-mid major rant last year had anything to do with what the committee did this year.

THose people operate in a vacuum, with numbers and yes, possible great TV matchups considered (I'm still waiting for that Texas Tech-Indiana clash, darn it). If they do take into consideration things like this coach might be fired!" and "what will Packer say?!?!?" then it's time to televise their meetings.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Illinois and Indiana being in is ridiculous. Davidson could pull off the upset.