*** Official Selection Sunday Thread 2023 ***
- Thread starter CoachHines3
- Start date
We have the 13th best odds in Vegas to make the Elite 8.
So really, the question is just how well Houston travels and gobbles up the tickets to that session. And, do they show up to the other game and make noise? Sometimes trying to get into a rhythm in a dead arena can be difficult. But I guess Iowa has an advantage their with the experience playing in Carver.
HoopsTournament
Well-Known Member
It’s going to be 97% auburn fans and 3% Iowa fans
SEC football and Big 12 basketball are completely different animals. SEC football has dominated by playing only 8 conference games and having weak low end schools to beat up on. The Big 12 in basketball plays a true round robin and every single team is good. SEC football has elite top end teams but the rest of the conference is overrated. Not the case for the Big 12 in basketball.
This is so true.
Invariably you have 7 and sometimes 8 SEC teams ranked in the preseason top 25. A few of those schools have tried to play legit OOC opponents (LSU has probably done the best job of this over the last 10-15 years) while a few others have traditional OOC rivals that ensure they get at least one good OOC game. But for several schools, and most other games for the above schools, they schedule absolute and complete ******* teams, something football SOS doesn't hammer hard enough.
Once the conference schedule kicks in you have some of the somewhat underrated SEC schools beat the overrateds (TAMU I'm talking about you), get credit for it early in the season, then become ranked. As the early season frauds like TAMU fall by the wayside, the winners of those games STILL get rewarded by getting the early season bump and it becomes a circle jerk of SEC beating other "rated" (sometimes fraudulently so) SEC teams.
With this model SEC teams routinely go 3-1 to 4-0 in OOC games, most of which are patsies at home. The legit to semi legit teams pick up wins against the bottom feeders of the conference (another 1-2 games...sometimes 3), then have to win 1-2 more against the good to great teams, often doing so at home. It's a recipe for several in the conference getting 8-9 wins and having inflated SOS's due to all of the preseason ******** hype and rankings. If the SOS and rankings would simply be done at the end of the year, after evaluating the body of work, a lot of the credit would evaporate.
Sadly the mirage and preseason hype is perpetuated by the largest sports media conglomerate in the US (ESPN) which also happens to be their television partner. They then publicize their championships, pretty much all of which are due to 3 coaches (Saban...who built LSU and Alabama, Meyer, and Smart...Auburns BS title should have never happened as Newton should have been ineligle).
What pisses me off is basketball is an entirely different animal. Whereas the SEC gets SOS credit WITHOUT proving so against OOC competition, the Big 12 did in basketball. Teams and the conference as a whole, performed amazingly in rugged OOC competition, something that almost every other conference and team would have been able to do. The Big 12 EARNED it's SOS ranking whereas the SEC is given it in football.
The gripe with selections is the Big 12 really wasn't rewarded for ANY of this in the seedings. While OSU lacked signature wins I kind of felt, if the committee was looking at them (at all) as a viable candidate, they should have got in due to the quality of the conference that was proven during the season. Can the committee argue Ms State, Arkansas, or Auburn are really any better? And what did the SEC do as a whole to earn that many berths? Not jack ****, IMO.
What's the point in having Quad games if that metric isn't really used to reward the schools or conferences that play them? I get teams can't win what they can't play, but the conference EARNED it's status and should have been rewarded. Doing so is not only fair, but it encourages teams to schedule tough games (in the future) which is better for college basketball, tv ($$$$$$), and it's fans. The committee's reluctance to reward on schedule merit (they also should consider it's tougher to win tough games when you are routinely playing tough competition and games without rest) only ensures teams will look to schedule "accordingly" in the future.
Sometimes teams earn their way in based on their own merit, sometimes it's a combination, and sometimes it's the conference. I really thought the Big 12 earned OSU a berth. Basically committee indicated strength of conference meant nothing in their considerations.
Because Iowa fans think they are on the same level as Alabama in football . . . . . so Alabama fans would essentially be cheering for "their" team
Rutgers only played 11 quad one games, Okie State played 18. If Rutgers had to play that many quad one games, they would not have a higher net.
Rutgers went 4-7 in Quad 1 wins vs 6-12 for OK state so technically they win a higher percentage so who knows the answer to that. Neither team has much to brag about. If you have a 33% winning percentage in quad 1 competition that isn’t great. You don’t get credit for just playing hard competition you actually need to win those games.
I’m worried that it’s just going to become a receptacle for shitting on our own team. By the end of the game we’ll be looking at playing the second coming of the ‘86 Lakers.
Maybe someone could launch a general ***Official NCAA Tournament Thread*** (I know many of us like to think of First Four as "not really the tournament" but ...)