NCAAT

[Chicagojayfan]

The committee has a very difficult job this year. But it turns out the BEast is very top and bottom heavy, with the middle 5 going to the crappy NIT. Just a weird year in CBKB overall.

I was thinking about this. As much as we need doormats and "get right" games in conference play, the Big East CAN NOT let DePaul and Georgetown be as bad as they were this year. It ultimately brings the rest of the conference down. Not sure if they can withhold tournament credits, but there has to be some sort of disincentive to the athletic department to suck that bad. Once in a while down years are one thing. 3 and whatever DePaul was is absolutely unacceptable.

I don't blame it on them. Yes, they have to get better, but with the portal and new players coming in, teams are going to be forced to play doormats up in the Non-Conference season to rack up enough wins to meet the threshold.

Can't afford to drop any stupid early games when you have a lineup that's not familiar playing together - get to 20 wins is the starting point for any team that is looking to be in the middle of a league like the BE

[DC_JAY]

When/if the Big East ends up getting the fewest bids of any high-major conference, it will be difficult to point to any one single reason. Instead, I think this was a perfect storm where a number of factors game together:

1) "Hacking" the NET: The NET puts a premium on efficiency. The Big 12 teams collectively played a putrid non-conference schedule, but they slaughtered lesser teams and boosted their NET rankings while holding their own in the games against quality competition. The Big 12 won 81 percent of its non-conference games as a conference. The Big East won 69 percent. I do think the Big 12 is the best conference this year, but its middling teams generally have better metrics. Its bottom feeders have much better metrics.

2) Parity in the Middle:. The Big East's #4-9 teams all had paths to an at-large at one point or another and beat the crap out of each other. This made for exciting games down the stretch, but it would have been better for a couple of those contenders (like Xavier and Butler) to melt away.

3) UConn Dominance: UConn was so dominant that it took off the table 2-3 probable wins that would have been otherwise distributed to the other teams, strengthening their bids. For the champion to go 18-2 in such a good conference is just filthy. Kudos to UConn, but distributing 2-3 losses to the middle of the pack would likely have put a couple more Big East teams over the cut line.

4) DePaul and Georgetown:. They stunk on ice. No other way to put it. DePaul ended up 320 in NET, and Georgetown was 205. The Big 12's worst team (W Virginia) was 156. MIchigan, which had a historically terrible season and went 3-17 in conference, managed to remain 133. Our bottom feeders were exponentially worse than other conference's bottom feeders, and they pulled down the entire conference.

[jayc13]

Very well stated DC!

[Jayday]

When you put it like that it kind of makes sense how they could end up getting 3 teams in. I agree the Big 12 is the best and deepest conference this season. I do not think it is worthy of 9 teams to the BE 4 though. 8-4 would still be ridiculous disparity even at that it sounds horrible. No way the big 12 is that much better.

[Realhoops]

I do not think it is worthy of 9 teams to the BE 4 though.

Will be a bit of a surprise if the BE gets four.

[LJay]

I remember chuckling when Georgetown took a dump against Holy Cross and thinking what a screw job they had against TCU. Losing all their conference games wasn’t an issue at all. Losing these non-con games months ago was a big reason the league will get 3 this year instead of sneaking a fourth in.

There was no hope for DePaul. How they could be that bad at this level is staggering.

[GWJay]

Don't think Auburn jumps us on the 3 line even with a win here, but will be slightly nervous if they pull this out and Illinois gets by Wisconsin. We should be squarely ahead of Duke even in that situation, but could see the committee giving that brand a nod over us for some reason.

Would actually like to draw Florida in the 3/6 as their 7 footer unfortunately went down with an injury today and they now look pretty vulnerable at the 5.

Edit: I think we ultimately get matched up with Utah State in the 3/6 pod due to the story line involved.

[DC_JAY]

Don't think Auburn jumps us on the 3 line even with a win here, but will be slightly nervous if they pull this out and Illinois gets by Wisconsin. We should be squarely ahead of Duke even in that situation, but could see the committee giving that brand a nod over us for some reason.

Would actually like to draw Florida in the 3/6 as their 7 footer unfortunately went down with an injury today and they now look pretty vulnerable at the 5.

Edit: I think we ultimately get matched up with Utah State in the 3/6 pod due to the story line involved.

Even if Auburn wins, they would only have 3 Q1 wins. Would be pretty bold to argue their complete resume trumps Creighton's. But the Committee always has a few head-scratchers each year.

[Realhoops]

Don't think Auburn jumps us on the 3 line even with a win here, but will be slightly nervous if they pull this out and Illinois gets by Wisconsin. We should be squarely ahead of Duke even in that situation, but could see the committee giving that brand a nod over us for some reason.

Would actually like to draw Florida in the 3/6 as their 7 footer unfortunately went down with an injury today and they now look pretty vulnerable at the 5.

Edit: I think we ultimately get matched up with Utah State in the 3/6 pod due to the story line involved.

Even if Auburn wins, they would only have 3 Q1 wins. Would be pretty bold to argue their complete resume trumps Creighton's. But the Committee always has a few head-scratchers each year.

A representative of the Committee was interviewed by Katz yesterday morning and indicated that the committee had already seeded the top four lines as of yesterday morning. I think Creighton was locked into a three and doubt anything that happens today in any game will change that.

The committee also repeatedly stresses that they don't do seedings or matchups based on storylines. On the one hand it's impossible to avoid it looking that way sometimes because the teams in the tourney simply have enough "connections" that it is bound to happen sometimes, but on the other hand if they made that a part of the process it would be really increasingly difficult to put the bracket together. Not sure who to believe there, but that's the committee's consistent line about it.

[Altmanforprez]

I have never bought the “the committee did it for the storyline” conspiracies for a couple of reasons.

1. The college basketball world isn’t that big, especially among the teams that normally make the tournament. Of course there’s going to be storylines every tournament. You could take the 68 teams and generate random matchups and you’d find plenty of storylines every time.

2. The media members who have been through the seeding process have said afterwards how you are way more restricted on movements than you realize once the bracket starts coming together. It’s not as simple as “oh we’ll move this team over to another site for a more interesting matchup”. A one team change has serious down stream affects most of the time.

That’s also why I don’t think the results matter that much today. Unless the committee had a really easy switch on the same seed line they usually don’t adjust anything at the top from today’s results. The only time you do see movement on Sunday is if you get a bid thief from the SEC or B1G (or A10/AAC)