2/4 Bracketology....

[HuskerNKingwood]

Texas a #4 in the dreaded Duke bracket.

Big 12 gets six, once again.
The Link

 

[naked_bongo]

I was worried about this in 2006 when Duke was in our Atlanta Regional, but in typical Duke fashion, they got exposed by LSU and made an early exit.

 

[DieUCLA98]

Kansas State, Drake, and Xavier as a #3?

Thats... interesting.

Edit: Of the 4 #2 seeds, we've played 3 of them... Crazy.

 

[Stormspencer]

Baylor a 6 seed and K-State a 3? Both of those seem a bit high to me.....but at least there is finally some respect for this conference.

If I were Duke, I would want no part of Syracuse in the 2nd round with the way the Orange are playing right now.

The best team you might not have seen yet is South Alabama...although they have been a frequent visitor to the tournament the last several years. Their game with Wazzu would be a toss-up on a neutral floor.

North Carolina appears to have the easiest road this week, although playing UCLA in Phoenix wouldn't be a cakewalk.

 

[Bob in Houston]

Lunardi dealt with the K-State issue directly on his chat today.

Stephanie (Salt Lake City): I'm no Gator lover, but you can explain the rationale for placing Florida as an 8 at 18-4 while seeding Kansas St. as a 3 seed at 14-5?

Joe Lunardi: (2:37 PM ET ) That's an easy one. K-State has beaten Kansas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma (on the road). The Gators have beaten a fading Vanderbilt team and that's about it.

 

[Bob in Houston]

Oh, and there was an internet beatdown on the first question:

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[KosherHorn]

Typical Aggie-type question from Mike. Geez... I guess Missouri should be in the tourney and even at that a higher seed than KSU and Texas.

I love the mid-majors, but Drake is simply not a 3 seed. They have a grand total of one Top 50 win, and that is not enough to get that high a seed. BTW, that one Top 50 win is against Illinois State, who hosts Drake tomorrow.

If UT can win both their games this week (a tall order), they should be a Top 3 seed, for sure, if they aren't already. It would also give them leeway to lose to KU and not lose the 3 seed. If they lose one game this week and then lose to KU, then they'll definitely have some work to do to get a protected seed (or as protected as a trip to Little Rock can be).

 

[Stormspencer]

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[Bob in Houston]

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[Beau Vine]

I normally ignore these projections, but...

Does Lunardi intentionally throw at least one ridiculous seeding in there just to generate discussion?

As in... 8-seed Miss State, which is 14-7, is 1-5 vs. Top 50 and 2-7 vs. Top 100, and has an RPI of 60.

That 8-seed is flamebait, right?

 

[JJxvi]

Whats Lunardi's rationale for Baylor seeded higher than A&M then???

 

[TomTerrific]

There is no doubt that we are a three seed right now.

We have a very strong RPI vs. the other top 12 teams.

 

[Stormspencer]

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[HuskerNKingwood]

I'm not Bob, but I'll try to answer for him as best I can, since I live in Lincoln and follow Creighton casually.

First of all, Creighton does have a Korver, Storm. Just the thing is, their Korver isn't as good as Drake's.

I think the biggest reason for Creighton's success, or lack thereof, this year is the loss of their two best players, Tolliver and Funk. Maybe Bob can expound or give me another reason, but to me Funk and Tolliver were their whole team last year, at least in the times I watched them.

And by the way, Creighton's not exactly a horrible team. Third in an underrated conference, with one of the two teams above them, being a surprising Drake, is not exactly terrible.

 

[Stormspencer]

Fair enough Husker. Living in Dallas, I don't get alot of Mo Valley exposure and I didn't know their story. However, they are only 2-5 (one of those wins against #99 Northern Iowa) against top 100rpi teams and they also have a sub-100 rpi loss as well.

I will disagree with you on the level of the Valley this year. Drake is good, and Illinois St. is okay, but Southern Illinois, Wichita State, and Indiana State are all down.....which makes for a surprisingly weak conference this year

 

[KosherHorn]

I love me some Mo Valley! All I know is that all other bubble teams are going to watch that conference tournament closely and become huge Drake supporters. Drake is a great story. I believe Tom Davis's son is the head coach? Hmmm... Isn't is interesting that coach's sons are doing so well, and what does that mean for Tech?

Regarding RPI and the seeding it gives, just look back at 2000 when UT was a 5 seed despite having an RPI of 8. Saying UT is a 3 seed now strictly because of their RPI doesn't take into account other factors that go into determining seeding. UT is a 3 seed now IMO because of their non-conf wins and because they only have one really bad loss. Drake isn't a 3 IMO because, while they don't have a bad loss, they don't have any great wins (even though winning at Creighton is hard as hell to do, no matter what their record).

I think Lunardi's flaw is that he puts too much emphasis on what has happened in the recent past. I think he'd do a better job is he took into account the obvious fact that the UT loss at A&M isn't going to hurt the Horns come selection time as much as the sting of the loss today. That's why he has Drake as a 3 seed since they haven't lost to anyone recently, but if you took a more global view of things, it's really hard to argue for Drake over Texas. And if UT somehow wins both games this week, if he doesn't put them back as a 3, I'd love to read his explanation.

 

[Bob in Houston]

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[Wildcat0206]

2 seed in the South at Bracketography, in Memphis' regionwww.bracketography.com/