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Are we caught in the 8-9 trap?


slu72

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No matter what happens in the A-10 tourney from here on out, I'm thinking we're caught in the jaws of the 8-9 seed. And assuming we win that game, we'd the get the privilege of facing the 1 seed in whatever region they slot us. For the Wiz and Kwijibo, if we do win it all in AC would the numbers project us as a 7 seed? Or if we lose to X, will we fall to a 10 or 11? Today, we know 2 locks for the number 1 would be KY and Cuse. Definitely wouldn't want to face either of them in a 2nd rd game. The other two # ones are still open and likely will come from KS, UNC, Duke, Mizzery, MSU or OSU. Out of that bunch, guess I'd prefer MO, Duke, and OSU. But all of them are pretty formidable.

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Hey, you have to beat them sometime. Cuse didn't exactly look unbeatable last night; neither did UK. It's time to stop all the teeth gnashing and smell the roses. We're finally good and we're only going to get better. There won't be enough room on the bandwagon for all the late jumpers pretty soon.

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It is hard to figure what the NCAA knuckleheads will do, but I think maybe if we lose today we could be a 10 or 11, if we win today but lose tomorrow we could be the dreaded 8 or 9, and if we win today and tomorrow we could get to 7, even 6.

Hard to know.

But you don't want 8 or 9, you can't judge teams like Cuse that know they are #1 or # 2 seeds, they are not up for these tourney games, are looking ahead to the NCAA's. Then they will be frightening to play.

Same thing with Temple, they were "in" and the kids do not care that much if they are a 6 seed or a 7 seed or whatever. Happens every yr in conference tournaments.

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Well Lunardi had Temple as high as a 4 a week ago. 6 or 7 would be great. I wonder if RM's using that as a motivational tool? Probably not, as he's sticking with one game at a time. Win... move on.... win again.... and the W's take care of all concerns.

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No matter what happens in the A-10 tourney from here on out, I'm thinking we're caught in the jaws of the 8-9 seed. And assuming we win that game, we'd the get the privilege of facing the 1 seed in whatever region they slot us. For the Wiz and Kwijibo, if we do win it all in AC would the numbers project us as a 7 seed? Or if we lose to X, will we fall to a 10 or 11? Today, we know 2 locks for the number 1 would be KY and Cuse. Definitely wouldn't want to face either of them in a 2nd rd game. The other two # ones are still open and likely will come from KS, UNC, Duke, Mizzery, MSU or OSU. Out of that bunch, guess I'd prefer MO, Duke, and OSU. But all of them are pretty formidable.

This whole "avoid the 8-9 game" argument is a bit much. It assumes the first game is an automatic win. Dangerous assumption. Can't wait until next year when people don't want the 4 seed because they'll have to play the 1 in the Sweet 16.

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I don't believe 7 is the best we can do. Consider:

- If we win the tourney we will have an RPI of around ~12 and similar rankings in computer models that include margin of victory.

- We will have a 2nd place regular season and conference tourney championship in the 7th best conference.

- We may be as good as 6-2 in games against NCAA tourney teams (3 vs. X, UW, Vermont and Texas Southern are all possible tourney teams at this point).

- The top 12 RPI suggests a 3 seed. I get that we will be penalized for lack of signature wins, but penalizing a team by moving them from a 3 seed to 7. Seems ridiculous.

A 5 seed would be appropriate in my mind (yes I'm biased) but I'd expect a 6. I'd be real upset with a 7.

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