NCAA Tourney Mock Selection 2011

[Old Style]

I went back and saw 5 people that posted their lists. Two had us at #3, two had us at #4, and then one at #12. Hmm, I must be way out of line here. All apologies.

 

Totally worth it though. We'll all think twice next time about having one person's list drop aTm 1 spot on a fictitious NCAA S-Curve.

Forgive me. I thought this process was about fostering discussions to come up with a bracket like the real committee does, not just submitting lists.

[SouthSideRyan]

Looking at the last 15 (potential) at-larges, I guess the bubble isn't as terrible as I thought. I was expecting a real WTF team to show up. BC kinda sucks though.

[Guest]

There's a pretty clear distinction between "fostering discussion" and picking out one team on one person's list that happens to be your favorite team and saying "really?" Like I said though, feel free to submit your own. Until then though, the pleas to have your favorite team put in a range you find acceptable by every last participant are a bit much.

[bukie]

BTW, the BYU rule: they can't play on Sundays, so they can't be in the Southwest (San Antonio) or East (Newark) regionals, and can't be placed in the Cleveland, Chicago, Tulsa, or Tampa pods.

[Old Style]

The Big Ten is ranked ahead of the Big XII in pretty much every ranking of any substance. I understand that you still play the north (once), but you also play Tech, OK, OK St, and Baylor twice each. Those are 4 teams roughly at or worse than the bottom of the Big Ten and you play half your games against them. Throw in a terrible Iowa State team, and a 500 record is damn near guaranteed for any halfway decent team.

Hold up a second. Are you saying that Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State are all worse than Iowa and Indiana?

[SouthSideRyan]

Texas Tech and Oklahoma for sure.

[Old Style]

Texas Tech and Oklahoma for sure.

I would agree to "as bad as" but not worse. And Oklahoma State and Baylor are at least in the same general area as Northwestern and Minnesota.

[bukie]

Texas Tech and Oklahoma for sure.

I would agree to "as bad as" but not worse. And Oklahoma State and Baylor are at least in the same general area as Northwestern and Minnesota.

Texas Tech and Oklahoma are much worse than Iowa, actually. Oklahoma State and Baylor are more between Iowa/Indiana and Minnesota/Northwestern. Nebraska is a team more in the MN/NW range.

[bukie]

First crack at pod placement...

 

1. Ohio State - Cleveland, OH

2. Kansas - Tulsa, OK

3. Pittsburgh - Cleveland, OH

4. Duke - Charlotte, NC

5. Notre Dame - Chicago, IL

6. Purdue - Chicago, IL

7. Texas - Tulsa, OK

8. BYU - Denver, CO

9. Wisconsin - Washington, DC

10. North Carolina - Charlotte, NC

11. Syracuse - Washington, DC

12. San Diego State - Tucson, AZ

13. Florida - Tampa, FL

14. Louisville - Tampa, FL

15. Connecticut - Denver, CO

16. Kentucky - Tucson, AZ

[Guest]

Welp, that was easy.

[bukie]

Nobody said everything involved in this process had to be complicated. :P

[bukie]

One thing I don't know since it's new this year: for the "First Four" at-large games, do the winners have to be placed in a Friday-Sunday pod, or is there no such stipulation? I only ask because then the pods may have to shift around a bit, so there is more than one 3-4-5-6 pod on Friday-Sunday.

[Guest]

One thing I don't know since it's new this year: for the "First Four" at-large games, do the winners have to be placed in a Friday-Sunday pod, or is there no such stipulation? I only ask because then the pods may have to shift around a bit, so there is more than one 3-4-5-6 pod on Friday-Sunday.

 

Aren't there 2 First 4 games on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday? I would assume it would be Tues-Thur-Sat and Wed-Fri-Sun.

[SouthSideRyan]

One thing I don't know since it's new this year: for the "First Four" at-large games, do the winners have to be placed in a Friday-Sunday pod, or is there no such stipulation? I only ask because then the pods may have to shift around a bit, so there is more than one 3-4-5-6 pod on Friday-Sunday.

 

The First Four games are on Tuesday/Wednesday, so 2 winners to Thursday, 2 to Friday.

[Guest]

I found one possible nitpick in the pods. If you send Pittsburgh to DC(further than Cleveland , but still <250 miles) you can put Wisconsin in Cleveland and nearly cut their distance in half.

[bukie]

I found one possible nitpick in the pods. If you send Pittsburgh to DC(further than Cleveland , but still <250 miles) you can put Wisconsin in Cleveland and nearly cut their distance in half.

Works for me. Increases Pitt's travel by about 100 miles, but reduces overall travel by quite a bit.

[bukie]

The other potential bump I could see is moving Texas to Tucson, which could put Kentucky in Tulsa, but that's a 400 mile bump instead of a 100 mile bump.

[SouthSideRyan]

The other potential bump I could see is moving Texas to Tucson, which could put Kentucky in Tulsa, but that's a 400 mile bump instead of a 100 mile bump.

 

Seems too much to accomadate the last 4 seed.

[Andy]

Here are my lists for now.

 

1)Rank the next set of S-Curve teams from 1-16:

 

1 - Georgetown

2 - Arizona

3 - West Virginia

4 - St. John's

5 - UNLV

6 - Xavier

7 - Temple

8 - Florida State

9 - Cincinnati

10 - Marquette

11 - Vanderbilt

12 - Kansas State

13 - Illinois

14 - Texas A&M

15 - Old Dominion

16 - UCLA

 

 

2) Rank the remaining 15 at-larges. In the case of bid theft by non-at-large candidates, the lowest in this list will get bumped off the board.

 

1 - Tennessee

2 - Washington

3 - Missouri

4 - Villanova

5 - Utah State

6 - George Mason

7 - Michigan

8 - Michigan State

9 - Boston College

10 - Georgia

11 - Richmond

12 - Colorado

13 - Virginia Tech

14 - Saint Mary's

15 - Clemson

 

 

3) Rank the bottom 12 auto-bids from the remaining unplaced bids, the aggregate bottom 8 of which will go into the bottom of the S-Curve.

 

12 - Morehead State (OVC)

11 - Wofford (SoCon)

10 - Oakland (Summit)

9 - MAC (Kent State)*

8 - Big West (Long Beach St)*

7 - Indiana State (Mo Valley)

6 - C-USA (UTEP)*

5 - Ivy (Harvard)*

4 - WAC (Utah State)*

3 - Butler (Horizon)

2 - Gonzaga (WCC)

1 - Belmont (A-Sun)

 

Edited March 11, 2011 by Andy

[Andy]

Does UNC drop on our S-curve if they lose to Miami here?

[bukie]

Does UNC drop on our S-curve if they lose to Miami here?

Eh, I'd hardly say they were too high on the S-Curve at this point.

[bukie]

Does UNC drop on our S-curve if they lose to Miami here?

Eh, I'd hardly say they were too high on the S-Curve at this point.

Plus apparently they won anyway. :P

[Exile on Waveland]

The Big Ten is ranked ahead of the Big XII in pretty much every ranking of any substance. I understand that you still play the north (once), but you also play Tech, OK, OK St, and Baylor twice each. Those are 4 teams roughly at or worse than the bottom of the Big Ten and you play half your games against them. Throw in a terrible Iowa State team, and a 500 record is damn near guaranteed for any halfway decent team.

Hold up a second. Are you saying that Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State are all worse than Iowa and Indiana?

 

Indiana is bad. They're the worst team in the Big Ten. That, however, does not mean they're the worst team in the Big 12. IU is No. 78 in Pomeroy, substantially better than both Texas Tech (107) and Oklahoma (134), and similar to Iowa State (77), Oklahoma State (75), and Baylor (72).

[bukie]

Alabama came back to beat Georgia in OT, in Georgia.

[Andy]

I just moved Georgia down a bit in my at-large rankings to account for that game. Michigan's been bumped down too for their showing thus far - I'll change that back if they come back and win, though.