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2018 NCAA Tournament Thread


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5 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

The two games all over the news are the wins by Buffalo and Loyola.  The P5 wins are all afterthoughts.  The public wants to see these upsets.  The NCAA needs to fix their 'fix' and insure the smaller conferences are well represented.  Middle Tennessee, St. Mary's, both should have been in the tourney.

I read that Larry Bird's Indiana State University NCAA runner up team (which did win the Valley that year) wouldn't have qualified as an At-Large team for this year's tourney.

I love the upsets no matter what, but I think for the casual fans this is only true up to a certain point.  You get too many upsets and the casual fans stop watching as their brackets are busted.  A lot people who wouldn't watch games normally will tune in when they think they have a chance to win money.

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1 hour ago, HoosierPal said:

Didn't there used to be a selection criteria that a team had to play .500 in their conference in order to be eligible for an At Large bid?  If so, why did they dump it, beyond the obvious reason of being allowed to select more P5 schools?

I don't care what your RPI, Kenpom, Sagarin, Tier I, II or III wins, or your % saturated fat, if you can't play 50/50 in your league, you don't deserve a chance at the National Title. 

I don't believe there has ever been a formal selection criteria that says that. In fact, they go out of their way to say they look at the entire body of work and games in November and December are treated as important as the ones in February and March.

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2 hours ago, cheeseman said:

That was my point when I earlier posted that it seems odd that 19 and 20 win teams are getting invites and not high seeds now.  As Roy pointed out it is all about the RPI and while I understand that the problem is you can only play the teams that are on your schedule - if you do not play in a P5 conference and you can not get higher rated teams to play you what are you suppose to do.  Now I know some might say well take those games with no return or the 2 for 1 series but you should not have to be placed in a big disadvantage all the time.  While Lundardi  says he was being sarcastic sometimes what is said tongue in cheek may be closer to the truth.  

There is no doubt that being in a smaller conference makes it harder to get in the dance than ever before. The bias is there and the new quadrant 1 metric where it seems like you can lose as much as you want and as long as you win a few quadrant 1 games you are fine, makes it even worse. The reason you are seeing more 20 win teams getting in now, compared to before, is the power conferences have increased their schedules form 16 to 18 games and many are going to 20. Every time they increase by 2 it decreases the number of wins for the average team in the conference (assuming the other two games were against patsies it would decrease it by 1 on average).

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What a great win by Buff over Ariz.   So was this an upset....many would call it that  especially considering the win margin.  The "U" word is overused especial;ly at this time of year.  Is a 9 seed  beating an 8 an upset....what about 10 beating 7 ? Surely a 13 beating a 4 would be? My number say no....It was a great win...an outstanding performance but not an upset.  I had Buff graded as a B ...as in Buffalo...and Ariz at A...as in Arizona.. So a  B beats an A....usually a true upset is a 2 letter jump. To me the amazing thing about this game is Buff slashed at 191....above the magic 180.....55/50/86....and this was done by the underdog.  Can Buff beat Ky? Depends if they can hit another 180.

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Goodbye Wichita State. 

 

Hilarious that Bruce Rasmussen and the selection committee wants to tarnish the credibility of these lower conference teams that were more qualified to be in the tournament than underachieving Power 5 teams...  People watch the tournament for the underdogs, not to see the brackets loaded with the same teams year after year. Just expand to 128 teams already. 

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17 minutes ago, Spoon-Balls said:

Goodbye Wichita State. 

 

Hilarious that Bruce Rasmussen and the selection committee wants to tarnish the credibility of these lower conference teams that were more qualified to be in the tournament than underachieving Power 5 teams...  People watch the tournament for the underdogs, not to see the brackets loaded with the same teams year after year. Just expand to 128 teams already. 

Well, I think they want to see the "little" schools pull off some "upsets" in the first round (or two), but in general they still want the traditional powers to win the Tournament and compose the majority of the Final Four and Sweet Sixteen.

Let the National Championship game be between two non-Power 5 (or 6 or 7) teams and watch the ratings plummet!

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4 minutes ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

Well, I think they want to see the "little" schools pull off some "upsets" in the first round (or two), but in general they still want the traditional powers to win the Tournament and compose the majority of the Final Four and Sweet Sixteen.

Let the National Championship game be between two non-Power 5 (or 6 or 7) teams and watch the ratings plummet!

Not to be a purist but who cares if ratings plummet. Screw the casual fan. If the product is not attracting more people it just may be that most folks don't care. We don't need to add celebrity refs, jello wrestling pits in the lobby. Chess more popular than ever and it ain't changed a thing.

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6 minutes ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

Well, I think they want to see the "little" schools pull off some "upsets" in the first round (or two), but in general they still want the traditional powers to win the Tournament and compose the majority of the Final Four and Sweet Sixteen.

Let the National Championship game be between two non-Power 5 (or 6 or 7) teams and watch the ratings plummet!

Gonzaga v UNC was a 21% increase in ratings over the 2016 game.  It had the 3rd highest ratings since 2005.  

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5 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Gonzaga v UNC was a 21% increase in ratings over the 2016 game.  It had the 3rd highest ratings since 2005.  

But what would it have been had it been Gonzaga against Rhode Island?  Diehards would watch it, but not the casual sports fan.  Also, Gonzaga is a pretty well-known commodity by now.

Besides, wasn't the 2016 game on cable while last year's game was on CBS?  That makes a difference, too.

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2 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Gonzaga v UNC was a 21% increase in ratings over the 2016 game.  It had the 3rd highest ratings since 2005.  

The reason I watch more on the first weekend the entire tournament is for teams like Buffalo, Loyola, Marshall etc...

I watch with more enthusiasm when Butler and Gonzaga are in the final four versus 4 teams from the biggest conferences.

Could it be that the big conferences bring in the most money during the season and that is why the selections are made for the tournament instead of concern for the tournament ratings?

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Hamdy formerly of VCU plays for TCU was he a grad transfer?

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