Post by Gooba on Mar 18, 2024 10:44:13 GMT -5
Men’s bubble teams got unlucky
Plenty of men’s teams are steaming this morning after being left out of the bracket. That includes Oklahoma, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Providence and Indiana State. Part of the reason those teams got excluded was because there were several so-called “bid thieves” this year. Duquesne, NC State and Oregon all unexpectedly won their conference tournaments to earn spots in the field, effectively reducing the number of at-large bids by three.
But it wasn’t just that there were fewer available spots for bubble teams. The committee also made some puzzling decisions in filling those spots. The inclusion of Virginia is the biggest head scratcher. The Cavaliers are 54th in the NCAA’s NET rankings and 69th in KenPom. They have a 2–7 record against Quad 1 opponents. St. John’s, by comparison, is ranked 32nd in NET and 25th in KenPom. Indiana State, ranked 28th in NET, became the highest-ranked team in that metric to ever be left out of the tournament.
Questionable men’s seeds
The controversy doesn’t end there. The committee is also drawing plenty of criticism for the way it seeded the men’s bracket. Was Duquesne, which went 10–8 in a not-so-good A-10 really deserving of an 11-seed? Why was Iowa State, considered by many to be a contender for a No. 1 seed, placed as a No. 2 seed in the same region as No. 1 overall seed UConn? Did Michigan State, with a 19–14 overall record, deserve to be solidly in the field as a No. 9 seed?
The most intriguing trend with the seeding, though, was how the committee treated the Mountain West Conference. The league got six teams into the tournament, tied for the third most of any conference, but only San Diego State (No. 5 seed) was seeded higher than eighth. Two MWC teams—Colorado State and Boise State—were among the last four teams into the field. Nevada, ranked 34th in NET and 36th in KenPom with a 6–6 record in Quad 1 games, got a No. 10 seed. How can the committee decide that the MWC is good enough to get more teams into the field of 68 than the ACC (five), Pac-12 (four) and Big East (three), and not reward its teams with seedings more reflective of the league’s strength?
Plenty of men’s teams are steaming this morning after being left out of the bracket. That includes Oklahoma, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Providence and Indiana State. Part of the reason those teams got excluded was because there were several so-called “bid thieves” this year. Duquesne, NC State and Oregon all unexpectedly won their conference tournaments to earn spots in the field, effectively reducing the number of at-large bids by three.
But it wasn’t just that there were fewer available spots for bubble teams. The committee also made some puzzling decisions in filling those spots. The inclusion of Virginia is the biggest head scratcher. The Cavaliers are 54th in the NCAA’s NET rankings and 69th in KenPom. They have a 2–7 record against Quad 1 opponents. St. John’s, by comparison, is ranked 32nd in NET and 25th in KenPom. Indiana State, ranked 28th in NET, became the highest-ranked team in that metric to ever be left out of the tournament.
Questionable men’s seeds
The controversy doesn’t end there. The committee is also drawing plenty of criticism for the way it seeded the men’s bracket. Was Duquesne, which went 10–8 in a not-so-good A-10 really deserving of an 11-seed? Why was Iowa State, considered by many to be a contender for a No. 1 seed, placed as a No. 2 seed in the same region as No. 1 overall seed UConn? Did Michigan State, with a 19–14 overall record, deserve to be solidly in the field as a No. 9 seed?
The most intriguing trend with the seeding, though, was how the committee treated the Mountain West Conference. The league got six teams into the tournament, tied for the third most of any conference, but only San Diego State (No. 5 seed) was seeded higher than eighth. Two MWC teams—Colorado State and Boise State—were among the last four teams into the field. Nevada, ranked 34th in NET and 36th in KenPom with a 6–6 record in Quad 1 games, got a No. 10 seed. How can the committee decide that the MWC is good enough to get more teams into the field of 68 than the ACC (five), Pac-12 (four) and Big East (three), and not reward its teams with seedings more reflective of the league’s strength?