bukie

NUCFC held on (barely) to advance to the CCL semis. Three other second legs today and tomorrow between MLS teams and Liga MX teams. How many MLS teams advance?

Yeah, that midwest bracket might be the weakest bracket in recent memory. Kansas solid, sure, but not the best 1 seed. 2 seed Auburn struggled a ton to end the year and is probably overseeded (should be Tennessee), Wisconsin just lost at home to Nebraska and then to MSU, don't have Johnny Davis healthy, and apparently the committee stopped paying attention to them last Wednesday. Providence may be the most overseeded 4 seed in history, LSU hasn't looked like a tourney team since the first week of January, USC has two total wins against tourney teams, Creighton has a NET in the 50s, Miami has one good win, Iowa State, again , looked a lot better in January, Richmond isn't in the tournament without an auto-bid this week and is overseeded due to the timing of their championship game. You could just call this bracket the "this looked a lot tougher in January" bracket.

Schedule for first four/first round: Key times: Indiana-Wyoming is the late game Tuesday Rutgers-Notre Dame is the late game Wednesday Colorado State-Michigan kicks off the tournament on Thursday Richmond-Iowa at 3:10pm Eastern on Thursday IU/WY winner plays St. Mary's at 7:20pm Thursday, less than 2 days after their first game Loyola-Ohio State kicks off Friday's action at 12:15pm Eastern Chattanooga-Illinois gets the primetime slot Friday at 6:50 pm Eastern Colgate-Wisconsin and Davidson-Michigan State finish off the first round late Friday. Yale-Purdue is the late early game Friday at 2pm Eastern Looks like Illinois will get the A announcing team of Harlan-Bonner-Miller (probably because CBS found that pod to be the most potentially exciting). Nantz/Raftery team gets Duke, which is predictable.

Arkansas went 3-0 vs LSU this season and has a much better record, yet is 5 NET spots behind them. It's not just wins and losses that go into NET, it's efficiency within those wins and losses, adjusted for schedule. They were effectively the same team overall, with LSU doing it against a tougher schedule and more efficiently (though it bore itself out much earlier in the season in general...basically after January 8 they were a below .500 team that had just 2 good wins, but the whole season counts). They were just fortunate not to free fall as hard as Iowa State, Xavier and Marquette.

My biggest gripe with the bracket was Richmond knocking Dayton out of the chance to play a First Four game at home. How often do these chances come around? It's like a solar eclipse.

NET isn't put together on results, that would make it RPI. It's more of an efficiency metric, and Houston has rolled the schedule they've had. So the message is play a horsefeathers schedule and dominate? No? Because the efficiency numbers are adjusted for schedule. Houston was just a lot better than A&M this season.

NET isn't put together on results, that would make it RPI. It's more of an efficiency metric, and Houston has rolled the schedule they've had.

Missed on Oklahoma (like I figured) and A&M (who I took from way out of the bracket to well in the bracket, maybe too hasty), instead the committee went with Wyoming (who I had in until Richmond won) and Rutgers (who I continue not to understand and expect them to lose Tuesday). Feels like the committee had no idea what to do with Rutgers' strange resume and figured the best place to put them was Dayton where they could prove their way in. Of course I thought the same thing would happen with Michigan's strange resume, though probably a little less strange as they limited their bad losses and their mediocre record is directly tied to the number 7 SOS in the country. they played 15 Q1 games vs. 3 Q4 games. You take 3 of those Q1 games and make them Q4 instead and Michigan's record is a lot more reasonable and their metrics don't suffer a ton, just a bit. My sneaking suspicion was that Rutgers, Indiana AND Michigan were among the last 4 in, and to avoid a conference rematch in the first round, someone had to be move into that last 11 spot. So I'm guessing Michigan got the benefit and Notre Dame took the loss.

Illinois is 0-2 all time against Chattanooga, famously losing to them in 1997 when they were a 14 seed. Which I'm sure means nothing to this Illini team, since none of them were alive when that happened. Fans never forget, however. Their biggest player is a 6-9 foul prone senior that is about 50 pounds lighter than Kofi. So, that should be fun.

Super on point with several of these but missed on the First Four games, though I agree with your seedings there more than the committee's. San Diego St/Michigan as a 6/11 was a good call but that would have been a rematch of a regular season game which I'm pretty sure isn't allowed in the 1st round. Instead they got another MWC team. Missed on Oklahoma (like I figured) and A&M (who I took from way out of the bracket to well in the bracket, maybe too hasty), instead the committee went with Wyoming (who I had in until Richmond won) and Rutgers (who I continue not to understand and expect them to lose Tuesday).

I would argue that every Big East team got over seeded. I think Wisconsin got a gift bracket, but if Davis isn't healthy it won't matter. I'm ready for a potential Illinois-Arizona round 7.

Easy 11 seed swap for that one. I do think Oklahoma is the shakiest team in the bracket right now though.

That's why it seemed like I was missing someone.

Here are my predictions: West bracket: - Portland, OR -- 1 Gonzaga (WCC) v 16 Wright State (Horizon)/TAMU-CC (Southland) -- 8 TCU v 9 Loyola IL (MVC) - Buffalo, NY -- 4 Iowa v 13 New Mexico State -- 5 Houston (AAC) v 12 Vermont (AE) - Pittsburgh, PA -- 2 Villanova (BE) v 15 Colgate (Pat) -- 7 Murray State (OVC) v 10 Indiana - San Diego, CA -- 3 Texas Tech v 14 Jacksonville State (ASUN) -- 6 LSU v 11 USC Midwest bracket: - Fort Worth, TX -- 1 Kansas (B12) v 16 Montana State (BSky) -- 8 Alabama v 9 Virginia Tech (ACC) - Milwaukee, WI -- 4 Wisconsin v13 UAB (CUSA( -- 5 St. Mary's v 12 Richmond (A10) - Indianapolis, IN -- 2 Purdue (B1G) v 15 Norfolk State (MEAC) -- 7 Providence v 10 Notre Dame - Greenville, SC -- 3 Auburn v 14 Yale -- 6 North Carolina v11 Oklahoma/Marquette South bracket: - San Diego, CA -- 1 Arizona (P12) v 16 TX Southern (SWAC)/St. Peter's (MAAC) -- 8 Memphis v 9 Ohio State - Buffalo, NY -- 4 Arkansas v 13 Chattanooga (Southern) -- 5 Texas v 12 Davidson/Miami - Greenville, SC -- 2 Tennessee v 15 Delaware (CAA) -- 7 Colorado State v 10 Seton Hall - Pittsburgh, PA -- 3 Duke v 14 Georgia State (SB) -- 6 Boise State (MVC) v 11 Iowa State East bracket: - Fort Worth, TX -- 1 Baylor v 16 16 Cal State Fullerton (BW) -- 8 San Francisco v 9 Texas A&M - Milwaukee, WI -- 4 Illinois v 13 Akron (MAC) -- 5 Connecticut v 12 South Dakota St (Summit) - Indianapolis, IN -- 2 Kentucky v 15 Bryant (NEC) -- 7 Michigan State v 10 Creighton - Portland, OR -- 3 UCLA v 14 Longwood (BSth) -- 6 San Diego State v 11 Michigan Just missed: Miami FL, SMU, Wake Forest, Wyoming, North Texas, Dayton, VCU, Rutgers, Xavier, Florida EDIT: I tossed Richmond in and flaked between Miami and ND, but then forgot to rearrange seeds to include Michigan on the 11 line to make sure the reworked bracket still worked. EDIT 2: OH that's why I felt like I was eliminating too many teams. I tossed Miami in there instead of A&M twice and bubbled everything up to maintain a legal bracket. EDIT 3: Swapped 11 seeds to make a more legal bracket for Oklahoma, who to me is the likeliest team to be not in this bracket.

I'm not doing the mock bracket this year, but someone is still going to have to explain to me how Rutgers has a chance at an at large bid, other than "Remember that week where they had their 3 best wins of the season?" KP in the 70s, NET in the 80s, TRank in the 80s, WAB in the 70s, SOR in the 70s, 2-4 in their last 6 games, 5-5 in their last 10, non-conference schedule strength in the 300s, during which they went 6-4.

42 points allowed in the first half is the fewest since January 3rd against the Magic, which the roster was a bit healthier.

Lakers lose at Houston to fall 9 games under .500. If they were in the East they'd be 12th, but in the West they're still 9th because the West has 8 decent teams.

Today New England beat UNAM 3-0, which means that's 3 MLS teams with 3 goals each in the first legs of their quarterfinals. I can't wait to see how they blow this. The last QF is between Montreal and Cruz Azul, first leg in Mexico.

Where did you see Grandison is out for the season? I just saw an article today where he wasn't in practice today because he was being fitted for a brace like Trent wears.

Two good CCL home legs for Seattle (3-0) and NYC (3-1). Both have to advance after those showings, which would guarantee one of them in the finals this year.

Source?

I disagree, I think the only way Illinois' draw could have been better would be if Iowa got bumped to the 6 seed. Otherwise, Wisconsin, Purdue, OSU, MSU and Maryland (not a good team, but a terrible matchup for IL) are all on the opposite side.

Holy horsefeathers. Illinois won the Big Ten.

Wisconsin falls to 15-2 this season in games decided by 5 points or less. Setting up Illinois to have their biggest win or most crushing loss in a decade tonight.

Yes, give it to Keegan!! :D He or Kofi are the only acceptable answers. Liddell also has a case, though OSU's game yesterday probably dampened that quite a bit. First team B1G is insane this year, though. Kofi Cockburn Keegan Murray Johnny Davis EJ Liddell Jaden Ivey/Zack Edey