NCAA Tournament Thread

[lukethedrifter]

I wouldn't be shocked to see Belmont take out the Badgers.

[Radio_Bugtussle]

Kansas is over in Illini corner. Bill Self goes against either Lon Krueger or Illinois and Bruce Weber.

This assumes that the Selection Committee has finally succeeded in finding a BU that Kansas can beat in the first round.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I wouldn't be shocked to see Belmont take out the Badgers.

There's been a lot of talk about that, but I don't see it. Belmont lost to Tennessee twice and also to Vanderbilt, and there's only one other team(East Tenn. St, twice) they played in the KenPom Top 150. To compare, Wisconsin played 24 games against the Top 100. Plus, Belmont wants to speed up the pace and force a ton of turnovers, and Wisconsin never turns the ball over and plays glacially slow. Wisconsin wins that one comfortably, IMO.

[Radbird]

No GRB brackets this year? I'm fully prepared to cellar dwell again...

[cardsfansince82]

The Big 10 is the number 1 conference (Pomeroy)

Any rating system that concludes this is inherently flawed and not worth mentioning.

I, on the other hand, am very familiar with KenPom and Sagarin's rating systems. I think they currently do the best job of judging a team's true talent. At worst, the Big Ten was second behind the Big East. I'm not sure who else you could put up there this year. If you're thinking Big 12, you've got a bias.

The Big East is easily the best conference in basketball. I would have the Big XII and Big Ten a coinflip for second and third. I don't really care to know what computer ratings say when they produce plenty of flawed rankings and aren't appreciably better than human polls. Anyone that has a clue about college basketball would not rate Illinois the 20th best team in the country.

[slide_into_first]

VCU 3- USC 2 in the 3rd inning.

[Faceman]

Let the big ten hate begin.

They earned it. The Big Ten has the best team in the country and two other pretty good teams. But there's a lot of junk after that. I've never understood why selection committees feel like the Michigan States -- big-time programs having mediocre seasons -- need to be represented over the small schools. If I were a Southwest Missouri State fan, I'd be posting all kinds of Gene Smith conspiracies right now.

Go Blue!

Jim Delaney beats the hell out of whoever the dope who runs the big Texas conference is

How's that Face?

Fixed that for you there AW. You can hate the big ten, but nobody does a better job than delany. It's not close.

As for the big ten, you gotta wonder why everyone hates the conference so much. Must mean something. I mean, nobody hates the valley.

[Faceman]

Let the big ten hate begin.

They earned it. The Big Ten has the best team in the country and two other pretty good teams. But there's a lot of junk after that. I've never understood why selection committees feel like the Michigan States -- big-time programs having mediocre seasons -- need to be represented over the small schools. If I were a Southwest Missouri State fan, I'd be posting all kinds of Gene Smith conspiracies right now.

Go Blue!

My guess is TV ratings.

How about because Michigan state delivers every year? If anyone has earned the love of the committee, its msu. 6 final fours in 12 years will do that sort of thing.

[vinsanity]

Let the big ten hate begin.

They earned it. The Big Ten has the best team in the country and two other pretty good teams. But there's a lot of junk after that. I've never understood why selection committees feel like the Michigan States -- big-time programs having mediocre seasons -- need to be represented over the small schools. If I were a Southwest Missouri State fan, I'd be posting all kinds of Gene Smith conspiracies right now.

Go Blue!

My guess is TV ratings.

How about because Michigan state delivers every year? If anyone has earned the love of the committee, its msu. 6 final fours in 12 years will do that sort of thing.

No kidding. You're upset that MSU, who ran with some pretty good teams this year got in ahead of Missouri State? If they played a home and home and neutral, I'd take MSU at least 2/3 times.

The Big East is much deeper than the Big Ten, but I'd take OSU, Purdue, Wisconsin against just about any other top three. And I bet MSU, Illinois, PSU, Mich maybe even Northwestern are splitting home and homes with the middle part o most other conferences. That said, I have two Big 12 teams in my Final Four.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

No kidding. You're upset that MSU, who ran with some pretty good teams this year got in ahead of Missouri State? If they played a home and home and neutral, I'd take MSU at least 2/3 times.

In a Missouri State/Michigan State matchup, I'd probably take MSU every time, but that's just me.


It boils down to who is deserving. It sucks for the mid majors that their margin for error is so slim, but they just don't have the resume. Mo State went 2-3 against the KenPom Top 100 with 5 other losses. Michigan State went 13-14 against the Top 100 with no 100+ team losses.