It drove the media crazy

[coolerifyoudid]

I realize it's been beaten to death by now, but while the PAC 12 was undervalued this year, the fact remains that UCLA was 4-6 in the last 10 games before the tourney, with their 4 wins all against unranked teams. Their ranking wasn't really that surprising without the advantage of hindsight.

Even taking that all into account, there are always teams that gets hot in the tournament and others that have an off night and get bounced. It's the nature of the tourney.

Like other posters have said, not having interconference match-ups meant a lot of uneducated guesswork to determine the strength of the conferences. Hopefully, the selection committee takes that into account next year.

 

[HFCS]

Especially this year with no real noncon. Just a tough year to seed.

They seeded exactly opposite of what logic would dictate given that fact.

Lesd non-conf games is the last year they should have given half of the top 8 seeds to one conference.

It was a year they should have given more weight to regular season conference champs from all of the leagues. Instead they thought a 12-8 team must be one of the greatest teams ever for no reason other than big ten boner.

 

[HFCS]

I realize it's been beaten to death by now, but while the PAC 12 was undervalued this year, the fact remains that UCLA was 4-6 in the last 10 games before the tourney, with their 4 wins all against unranked teams. Their ranking wasn't really that surprising without the advantage of hindsight.

Even taking that all into account, there are always teams that gets hot in the tournament and others that have an off night and get bounced. It's the nature of the tourney.

Like other posters have said, not having interconference match-ups meant a lot of uneducated guesswork to determine the strength of the conferences. Hopefully, the selection committee takes that into account next year.

A team that finished 4-5 over 9 games got a 2 seed. A team that finished 12-8 in conference got a 2 seed. A 14-4 Pac 12 regular season champ got a 7 seed.

 

[Halincandenza]

UCLA wasn't the team that was misseeded that badly. USC and Oregon were. UCLA just went on a magical run because they fully bought in to Cronin's style all of the sudden and Juzang was in a zone.

 

[BoxsterCy]

You can argue that Baylor has very much looked the other way regarding the criminal behavior of some of their athletes. (You can also argue that's simply human nature, flawed as it is.) But I can't find anything bad to say about what Drew has done with this program. He inherited a smoking crater, and with a definite plan and all kinds of positive thinking has gotten to the pinnacle.

I can't say enough good things about Scott Drew, a man I used to laugh at because he was kinda goofy and had pi$$ poor TO management. He deserves every accolade.

Been more than okay with Drew since a NCAA Hoiberg presser and Drew stuck his head into the interview room with a "Go Cyclones!" Likeable guy, not all coach talk, slogans and platitudes.

 

[dahliaclone]

I might be wrong. But once Baylor got up ten points early (16-4) the lead was never under ten the rest of the game. Not once.

 

[cyclonedave25]

I don't know about "the media"...and idgaf if they're complimentary to Rapelor or not...because **** them...

...but Grant Hill's **** sucking of Gonzaga in the first half was embarrassing last night. Did I hear him say "They're right back in it"! when they pulled it to down ten at the half...jfc Grant, you know they weren't.

“These early game leads are always deceiving!”
Said for the third time in the first half after Gonzaga makes a basket and cuts the lead to only 15. Lol
Only to have Baylor come right back down and hit back to back threes.

 

[heitclone]

, I don't get why its a travesty that the P12 teams were seeded lower? No one is talking up the Summitt because Oral Roberts won some games. It's the NCAA tourney, matchups take precedent over your resume, **** happens. People can complain all they want but I can't remember many other years we 100% got the best two teams playing in the final, that's the goal right?

 

[coolerifyoudid]

A team that finished 4-5 over 9 games got a 2 seed. A team that finished 12-8 in conference got a 2 seed. A 14-4 Pac 12 regular season champ got a 7 seed.

Not contesting this at all nor was I remotely defending the Big 10. I even stated the Pac 12 was undervalued.

I was just saying that UCLA's seed wasn't a huge oversight when you look at how they ended their season.

 

[BoxsterCy]

I realize it's been beaten to death by now, but while the PAC 12 was undervalued this year, the fact remains that UCLA was 4-6 in the last 10 games before the tourney, with their 4 wins all against unranked teams. Their ranking wasn't really that surprising without the advantage of hindsight.

Even taking that all into account, there are always teams that gets hot in the tournament and others that have an off night and get bounced. It's the nature of the tourney.

Like other posters have said, not having interconference match-ups meant a lot of uneducated guesswork to determine the strength of the conferences. Hopefully, the selection committee takes that into account next year.

Big 10 especially. With only conference (and some disruption for teams like Michigan) the old standby "they are just knocking each other off, it's so tough!" played way too strong. Even that is kinda bullcrappy since they don't all play each other twice because they have like a hundred teams in their league.

Men's seedings, ranking and NET did seem a lot more messed up than did the WBB's equivalent near seasons end IMHO.

 

[HFCS]

Not contesting this at all nor was I remotely defending the Big 10. I even stated the Pac 12 was undervalued.

I was just saying that UCLA's seed wasn't a huge oversight when you look at how they ended their season.

UCLA obviously has very good players and a good coach but example of a team that caught fire.

Top finishers in pac 12 clearly undervalued. Non Michigan teams in big ten clearly over valued. If 12-8 Ohio State gets a 2 because they are #8 in net ranking, #10 net ranking Loyola can't get an 8 seed in the same seeding criteria.

 

[candg4ever]

I am not a big BU fan, there whole athletic dept. lack morals and standards, IMO.

At least they brought home a championship for the Big12!!

 

[charlie_B]

I might be wrong. But once Baylor got up ten points early (16-4) the lead was never under ten the rest of the game. Not once.

You are close. Gonzaga got it to nine at one point in the second half and then like 30 seconds later it was 16 or 17 again.

 

[AuH2O]

“These early game leads are always deceiving!”
Said for the third time in the first half after Gonzaga makes a basket and cuts the lead to only 15. Lol
Only to have Baylor come right back down and hit back to back threes.

Well, you know their job is to make the game entertaining so viewers want to watch. Saying it's clear that one team is going to pound the other one at the 8:00 minute mark in the first half doesn't exactly do that.

And I definitely think the general national fan not tied to either school or conference was likely to be pulling for Gonzaga and Few to get over the hump and get a national title. They are probably the only elite program in college sports that doesn't have a "love or hate" status.

Oh, and a huge portion of Baylor's fanbase wanted to keep Briles, so even though it has nothing to do with Drew or the basketball program, it's reasonable to root against anything good happening to their POS fans.

 

[cyclonedave25]

Well, you know their job is to make the game entertaining so viewers want to watch. Saying it's clear that one team is going to pound the other one at the 8:00 minute mark in the first half doesn't exactly do that.

And I definitely think the general national fan not tied to either school or conference was likely to be pulling for Gonzaga and Few to get over the hump and get a national title. They are probably the only elite program in college sports that doesn't have a "love or hate" status.

Oh, and a huge portion of Baylor's fanbase wanted to keep Briles, so even though it has nothing to do with Drew or the basketball program, it's reasonable to root against anything good happening to their POS fans.

I know exactly what they were trying to do, which makes it even more funny to me. If they want to keep me tuned in for a blowout, spend less time switching camera angles of views nobody ever wants to see during a basketball game. Baylor is winning by 20, I don’t need to watch the game from behind the basket. Gonzaga makes a basket, I don’t need to watch the game from court level and then magically floating above the ball handlers head so I can see their hair thinning.

 

[AuH2O]

Usually the great thing about basketball is there are enough non-con data points and enough qualitative systems in use that preseason notions are well wiped out by the time the selection committee does it's thing. Regardless of media bloviating, the selection committee largely does a good job.

This year was a whole different animal, and the lack of interconference games really made the qualitative systems useless in comparing teams across conferences.

We can point to matchups, unpredictability of the NCAA tournament, etc. all we want, but with so many inter-conference games between power conferences in this tournament, and the overwhelming results both in W/L considering seeds and the dominance within some of those games it is clear that the Big 10 was dramatically overseeded. Not marginally, not a team or two, but the top end of the league wasn't even close.

But I'm not sure why I'm surprised. Somehow people thought an Iowa was going to jump from a #7 seed (give or take) and become a legit top 10 team by basically bringing the same team back, and additions being a healthy Bohannon and role player freshman in Murray. College basketball hasn't worked that way for 30 years. You don't make big jumps by bringing back the same guys, especially when your team is largely guys that have got to where they are by maximizing their talent.

This year allowed the teams with stable rosters to spend most of the season with a huge advantage. Some of what we saw in the Big 10 was more veteran teams making hay early in the season and bolstering their resumes while teams with roster turnover were still spending a majority of the year trying to figure things out.

 

[AuH2O]

I know exactly what they were trying to do, which makes it even more funny to me. If they want to keep me tuned in for a blowout, spend less time switching camera angles of views nobody ever wants to see during a basketball game. Baylor is winning by 20, I don’t need to watch the game from behind the basket. Gonzaga makes a basket, I don’t need to watch the game from court level and then magically floating above the ball handlers head so I can see their hair thinning.

I guess I don't know the demos that watch a game like that anymore. I suppose it used to attract a very broad audience where the tactic of telling the viewer that "no lead is safe with team X." But I suspect now viewers are mostly bball fans, and I agree it was very obvious fairly early in that game to a marginally educated fan that one team was clearly better and could ratchet up the pressure and make a run whenever they needed to.

 

[SCyclone]

I might be wrong. But once Baylor got up ten points early (16-4) the lead was never under ten the rest of the game. Not once.

I think the Zags had it down to 9 a couple times, but not for very long. (Sorry to pick nits.)

 

[AuH2O]

UCLA obviously has very good players and a good coach but example of a team that caught fire.

Top finishers in pac 12 clearly undervalued. Non Michigan teams in big ten clearly over valued. If 12-8 Ohio State gets a 2 because they are #8 in net ranking, #10 net ranking Loyola can't get an 8 seed in the same seeding criteria.

It makes sense for UCLA, though. They had a key opt out and had been planning on a 5 star that ended up heading to the G-League. They starting getting stuff figured out then lost one of their best players to injury in January. He was not the scorer Juzang was, but was maybe a better all around wing.

Basically for UCLA they had to adjust roles at the start of the season, then do it all over again starting in January. Not really a surprise that they had the up and down season. I don't think you can say they were under seeded all that much. They just hit some bad luck and the timing worked out for them to figure things out in March.

 

[Mr.G.Spot]

Err, that’s not an example. It’s a really dumb opinion. Do you even know what bias is?

And you absolutely are claiming they are the victim of bias. How can you say you aren’t? Why not just celebrate the win instead of coming on here to cry about the “media”?

Pointing out facts. Something u fail to recognize.