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2023-2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Thread

Hey Pilch, what are some of your NCAA bracket winners and sleepers? Of course other than JMU getting to the elite 8. All the experts seem to be down on Houston, but I think they cruise to a tough elite 8 game against Kentucky. I like that UConn got maybe the toughest 2 and 4 seeds in Iowa St and Auburn, but the talking heads still like them to win it all. I'm in the Purdon't category but really don't like any other team in their region other than Tennessee. I'm liking Baylor in UNC's region. In terms of double digit seeds, I like Drake, GCU and Oregon.
 
Pilchard said:
I just don't get that argument at all. So, you don't want 2022 St. Peter's in the tournament or 2023 Farleigh Dickinson in the tournament? Their wins in the last two tournaments created the drama that made the NCAAT compelling.

As it is, there are 36 at large bids; so, a team essentially has to be top 40 to get an at large bid if they don't win the conference. I love WF basketball, but WF didn't deserve a bid this year. After being poised to get into the tournament, WF fell part the last three weeks of the season going 2-4 (being favored in every game). The NCAAT is not diminished at all by WF not getting a bid.

Oklahoma was the "first team out". They finished the year 2-6, and one of those two wins was in OT over a horrible OK State team. OU finished tied for 9th in the Big 12. They had every chance to play their way into the NCAAT, but TCU lead OU from start to finish in the Big 12 Tournament. Except for the few ardent OU basketball fans, no one is going to miss the 9th place Big 12 Sooners this week,

Power conference teams have every chance to play their way into the NCAAT; those that don't make it have no reason to blame the handful of smaller conference schools hat actually had to win a conference tournament to get into the dance. The best way to destroy the element that makes the NCAAT special and uniqure is to make it a 64 team playoff with just power conference teams. Do you really think a first round game between Utah and tOSU, instead of McNeese v. Gonzaga would make the NCAAT better?
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Huh? I feel like you are responding to an argument I'm not making.

Using FDU as an example could not make less sense - they were already a First Four team. I'm not arguing for anyone to be "out of the tournament." Ph and others seem to be arguing for the First Four to replace the 4 automatic bids with 4 more of the last at-large bids. That's not happening so who cares?

St. Peters wasn't a play-in, but if you're asking me whether a 100-something St. Peters should have to suffer the tragedy of beating a 200-something team in the First Four to earn their 15 seed, instead of a top 50 Indiana team having to beat a top 60 team? Absolutely.

Oklahoma didn't lose a quad 2, 3, or 4 game this year. Yes, I think they deserve a spot at the expense of Longwood and Long Beach playing in a play-in game.

Completely understand folks disagreeing, but no need to twist my argument or try to pretend the current 4 team auto-bid elimination in the First Four doesn't exist.
 
1710802984345.png

This randomly caught my eye. The team on the left has a better kenpom and net also. Both teams had trash OOC SOS. 343 on the left and 330 on the right.
 
If we were a better program, you’d care more about seeding.
 
cville deac said:
Hey Pilch, what are some of your NCAA bracket winners and sleepers? Of course other than JMU getting to the elite 8. All the experts seem to be down on Houston, but I think they cruise to a tough elite 8 game against Kentucky. I like that UConn got maybe the toughest 2 and 4 seeds in Iowa St and Auburn, but the talking heads still like them to win it all. I'm in the Purdon't category but really don't like any other team in their region other than Tennessee. I'm liking Baylor in UNC's region. In terms of double digit seeds, I like Drake, GCU and Oregon.
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@Pilchard I am going to second this request as well. Do we all love UVM, New Mexico and State, Drake and Nevada?
 
Working on my bracket this morning. Purdue has the easiest draw for a 1 seed and UConn has the toughest (by far). The top 4 seeds in UConn's region sum to 20 on KP ranks while none of the other three are lower than 40.
 
The Bracketology stuff is interesting to me because are you making a bracket based on how they SHOULD be seeded from your vantage point or are you making a bracket trying to guess what the committee is going to do?
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
Working on my bracket this morning. Purdue has the easiest draw for a 1 seed and UConn has the toughest (by far). The top 4 seeds in UConn's region sum to 20 on KP ranks while none of the other three are lower than 40.
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Honestly, what was the committee thinking here? It's not even close on paper.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
The Bracketology stuff is interesting to me because are you making a bracket based on how they SHOULD be seeded from your vantage point or are you making a bracket trying to guess what the committee is going to do?
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Trying to guess what the committee will do, which is harder than just putting down what it would look like if I got to play emperor for a day.

I think this will get me back on the Bracket Matrix during the season next year (if I bother). I finished 2nd overall in like 2013 or thereabouts, but took a 5ish year hiatus after my first kids were born (and during our time in the desert) so I didn't meet any qualifications this year.
 
Shooshmoo said:
Honestly, what was the committee thinking here? It's not even close on paper.
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It's not clear to me how on metrics, NET, or resume Auburn is a 4 seed. I guess they just docked them for only having 3 Q1 wins? I mean they went 24-0 against Q2 through 4.
 
Auburn is a weird team. I was ready to go in on them, but they have ONE WIN all year in single digits. That win came this past Saturday when Auburn beat Miss. State by 7 in the SEC Semis; even that game wasn't super-tight Auburn led the entire second half.

Also, as numbers noted the Tigers only have 3 Q1 wins (by comparison Houston has 16, UCONN has 12). So, Auburn is exceptional at blowing out decent and bad teams, but when they play good teams in close games they lose. They will play close games after the opening round. Despite being an analytics darling, not sure how anyone can count on Auburn winning a several (or any) close games.
 
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PhDeac said:
“I’m sure your Wake team would have loved to play in that tournament instead of the NCAA tournament.”
“Cmon man, we was already getting money. To get more money would have been…”
“The Real NIL”

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But there was no culture problems, right?
 
Sorry but I just can’t get into making brackets and stuff when we’re (once again) not even in the tournament. I’m honestly envious of those who can but it’s a legit great sporting event, but like I can’t get excited about watching programs like NC State, Northwestern, etc. play in it while we’re making roster prediction threads for next year.
 
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