FanNation - The Republic of Sport

WVU all the way! Don't sleep on em

once again Kansas is waaaaay over rated...we've seen this year in and year out and we'll see the same in the tourney...gone b4 the sweet 16

Duke does not deserve a #2 seed.....gone also b4 the sweet 16

How in the world did Miami (FL) make the field?? They haven't even cracked the rankings in any big way since the beginning of the season when they had a soft schedule. Expect them to duck out in the first round to St. Mary's.

How about the fact that Indiana got jobbed. How does a top 20 team end up being an 8 seed based on a miracle shot?

@muopsies: the lack of Kelvin Sampson on the sideline/the fact that the NCAA wanted to punish *him* and Indiana got there first. My Bulldogs (this year's pre-Dance Cinderella) got similarly jobbed when Jim Harrick pulled his stunt in 2003.

They always hurt the kids even when the coach is @ fault.

**Which team(s) got the biggest snub? Who got the most surprising invitation to the Dance?

The Flyers from Dayton, Ohio. People are talking about ASU and the strengh of five relatively decent wins, but a NonConf SOS in the 300's, poor road record and going 5-10 in their last fifteen games just isn't good enough. The Flyers had good wins, no bad losses in a conference plagued by its own parity, and a very tough NonConf SOS. VA Tech gets a nod, but who did they beat?

**Which team got booted from the tournament after Georgia pulled off the improbable SEC tourney championship?

Arizona State. Even though Va Tech and Dayton deserved a bid based on numbers, ASU was a media darling for the past week and definitely had their bid stolen


**Are North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA and Kansas the rightful owners of the No. 1 seeds?

NO NO NO. UT loses one really close game and gets snubbed bigtime. They are 1 in RPI, 1 in SOS, beat Memphis AT Memphis and played a much tougher NonConf schedule. Arkansas is a really solid team and UT shouldn't have been punished for losing to them even though they won the SEC regular season crown convincingly. They have ZERO bad losses. All four losses came against tournament teams. Kansas lost to OK State who didn't make the dance by a long shot. Their SOS was 50

**What's your favorite first-round matchup?

Kansas State versus USC. This is going to be epic. I take Beasley and his ragtags over USC on a buzzer beater.

**What's the strongest region? The weakest?

Hard to say with how much talent there is in the top 16 seeds. I'd say the East regional with UNC, UT, L'ville and a SNUBBED Butler is the toughest, though Wazzu is a weak 4. The South is pretty close second, with five teams that could make the final four in Memphis, Texas, Stanford, Pitt and Michigan State.

Although I picked UCLA to win it all, I think the West is the weakest, but just barely. Duke is a suspect #2 seed and I'm not even sure Xavier deserves a #3 seed after losing in their conference tournament. UConn may falter due to inexperience. Drake is a solid team and I expect them to challenge UCLA in the second round, but that's it. While the other three regions have teams that can challenge the #1 seed, the West doesn't pose any threat to the Bruins making the final four.

**Is it fair that North Carolina doesn't have to leave its own state (Raleigh, then Charlotte) to earn a Final Four berth in San Antonio?

They earned it. Going 32-2, winning the regular season without their star point guard and then meshing in time to win the conference tournament convincingly is quite a feat. Upon reaching the sweet sixteen, homecourt advantage is relatively nullified by equal ticket sales, but they will be well rested due to zero travel time. To balance out the advantages they have a tough road ahead, as TenneKEY should be a #1 seed and Wazzu could pose problems to UNCs transition game and tendency to rely on points off turnovers. Wazzu doesn't committ too many of those.


**What's your Final Four? Who's your national champion?

TenneKEY, Kansas, UCLA and Stanford. I have UCLA defeating TenneKEY by a score of 77-74. TenneKEY will come out guns blazing after an upset of UNC, but Kevin Love will be too physically imposing down low while freak athletes like Westbrook and Collison are going to be too much for TenneKEY's perimeter defense. It might come down to free throws, where TenneKEY only had one guy who can hit them (Lofton).

The "rankings" have nothing to do with the seedings or the selection for the tournament. If you assume Indiana is the best 8 seed, the committee is saying they are about the 29th best team in the country. Being ranked 22nd and 20th in the polls respectively, with losses to Penn St, Minnesota and a beatdown by Mich State in 3 of the last 4 games, and the best non-conf win being Kentucky, I don't think an 8 seed is really a big slight.

How does Indiana go from number 17 to 32 with one miracle shot? NCAA obviously has it out for the Hoosiers. Look at the other 8 seeds. Hell look at Purdue(6) and Michigan St.(5) seeding. Ok, we beat Purdue and Michigan st, Have a better overall record then both. Purdue losing to Illinois is a better lose then us losing to Minny. CONSPIRACY!!!

I will say Indiana has no business being seeded an 8 while Miami is a 7 though. Miami is a real headscratcher.

Regardless, I will enjoy Indiana/Arkansas.

If the surge of the so called mid majors has done anything, it is that we are getting to see early round matchups of big programs.

How does Oklahoma get the 6 seed in the east with that record?? Oklahoma is not 2 seeds better then IU. Look at overall record RPI and SOS. We got hosed!

"Wisconsin deserves a No. 2 seed over Duke. The Badgers lost -- by a lot -- to the Blue Devils at Cameron in November, but the selection committee simply cannot deny a team that won the Big Ten regular season title and (most likely) the Big Ten tourney a top-two seed. Especially when stacked up against a Duke team that won neither its conference or nor its postseason tourney."
.....thank you Luke Winn

The Wisconsin #2 seed argument has merit, but the loss to Duke was really convincing and as we all know, the Big Ten isn't nearly as strong top to bottom as the ACC. Duke played a tougher non conference schedule and beat the tournament overall #1 seed. I think the top eight seeds are pretty much as they should be, with my only gripe being Tennessee not rewarded a #1 seed (see my comment above). The real snub against Wisconsin is being the #3 seed in #2 Georgetown's half of the bracket. Some may argue this should be a switcheroo. Could be a really great sweet 16 matchup.

Indiana is playing with zero chemistry right now and doesn't deserve anything higher than a seven seed. They received a slight snub and with the #8 and an impossible second round matchup against UNC (if they can beat Arkansas), They didn't have a great SOS. I'm moreso surprised that Miami is a #7 and that Oregon is a #9. They deserve worse. Butler deserves better!!!!!!!!!!

How is Uconn a 4 seed and Notre Dame a 5 seed, They split the regular season and Uconn lost to PC at the end of the year and lost to WV in the BE tourn. The irish lost to Louisville and Marquette in the BE tourn. also the Irish had a better conf record

How does Tennessee go from a probable #1 seed to the weakest #2 seed, having the #1 RPI and #1 SOS, with road wins at Memphis, at Xavier, at Gonzaga (almost home court), at Miss. State, only losses to 4 tournament teams, just because of a one point last second shot in the meaningless SEC tournament? Only thing I can figure is they took into account the geographic closeness. Makes little sense to me. They should have at least been #2 in the Midwest, so Texas doesn't get home games in the sweet 16.

This is easy. ASU had a better record in the PAC10 than UA and beat them head to head twice. Ridiculous for the mildcats to be playing instead. There has to be a better way (how about as a minimum, using conference records?).

*Which team(s) got the biggest snub? Who got the most surprising invitation to the Dance?

Biggest snub: Arizona State, I guess. I don't really have a problem with any of the snubs. Win more than one game against the top 50 and maybe I'll take your side. I'm not a big fan of the mid-majors in general, but Dayton may have the best case.

Most surprising invite: South Alabama. That said, they could beat Butler if Butler isn't careful.


*Which team got booted from the tournament after Georgia pulled off the improbable SEC tourney championship?

Arizona State. The media (read: ESPN) loves the PAC-10 this year. They would have been in the field.


**Are North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA and Kansas the rightful owners of the No. 1 seeds?

Everyone in the country (Kansas residents not living in Manhattan excluded) knows Tennessee earned the fourth (or maybe even third) No. 1 seed.


*What's your favorite first-round matchup?

Arkansas/Indiana may be the best game, but I'm looking forward to USC/K-Sate, for obvious reasons.

*What's the strongest region? The weakest?

Strongest: East. Two one seeds (including the top overall) and a 3 that should have had Duke's 2 seed.

Weakest: West. Me, Hubie Brown, Pee Wee Herman, Queen Latifah, and Cookie Monster would be the 3 if we were seeded in that region.


*Is it fair that North Carolina doesn't have to leave its own state (Raleigh, then Charlotte) to earn a Final Four berth in San Antonio?

Nope. But college basketball has always been very Carolina-centric. Look at ESPN's Bracketology crew: Bob Knight (who, btw, is a nut job--Did you hear his 128-team bracket idea?!) is joined by a Dookie (Bilas) and two UNC guys (Digger and Hubert). That's not to mention Dickie V, the biggest Dookie this side of Coach K. (Of course, all of that stems from decades of college basketball greatness--still, not fair.)

*What's your Final Four? Who's your national champion?

UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA. UNC eeks by Kansas, UCLA crumbles against the first real competition they've played all year, and UNC administers an Anderson Silva-like beating to Texas--it's over by the under 8 media timeout.

My vote for the biggest snub of all has to go to Butler University. A SEVEN seed for a team ranked twelfth, sporting an RPI of 17, who won both their conference regular season and tournament simply baffles me. To add insult to injury, they must play 10 seed South Alabama in BIRMINGHAM? The ten seed gets a home game? This has to be the worst seeding of all.

My question: How come the Butler seeding isn't being discussed more? Has any #10/#12 team (more specifically #17 rpi team been given a lower seeding in the history of the tournament? Especially given that this same team was a sweet 16 team last year....

West Virginia the most underated team in the bracket. Elite Eight or better this year.