NCAA Multiple Bid Conference performance

[im4wsu]

im4wsu,

I will ignore UConn's run in the Big East Tournament for the time being. Consider it having one hand tied behind my back... just to make it fair. Including their tournament wins would only make these numbers speak even louder.

Regular season only...

vs teams 101-200
Connecticut: 4-0
Missouri St: 11-2

vs teams 51-100
Connecticut: 3-1
Missouri St: 3-5

vs teams 26-50
Connecticut: 5-1
Missouri St: 0-1

vs teams 1-25
Connecticut: 3-7
Missouri State: 0-0

If you want to use an extremely small sample size and say that UConn didn't win by enough vs WSU, fine. There is no arguing with that kind of logic.

Now, I have a question. Including conference tournament games, when did the 8th best conference record ever earn a team a 5 seed?

Is this a trick question? Conference rankings always EXCLUDE conference tournament games. The conference race is already decided and OVER by the time the conference tournaments begin.

But unless I'm reading this incorrectly, as of now, 3/12/11 1:42 AM, UConn which tied for 8th with Villanova and Marquette in the regular season conference, is projected to be a #4 in the Dance. Now, it is not worth my time to go back over the years, but #4 is higher than #5,so even allowing for slippage, you have your example.

http://bracketproject.50webs.com/matrix.htm

[hamshock]

At the end of the day if we win the games that are "opportunity" games, we don't have to worry about it.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

im4wsu,

Fine, call them 8th place. You are correct that that is where they finished in the regular season. I just wanted to point out that they are much, much higher than 8th when you look at all conference games. I'm going to drop this side issue since I feel like any furher discussion on this point will be distracting us from the real issue.

Help me understand where you are coming from. What seed should UConn be since you obviously think 4 or 5 is too high?

[Kung Wu]

Either of you two know how many times in the past ten years has the team that finished 8th in the Big East conference made it to the Sweet Sixteen? What seed were they?

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Kung WU, I can't answer your question, although I can tell you that no team has ever won the Big East Tourney by playing 5 games in 5 days. UConn is a very unique case this year, so comparing them to past years may or may not be helpful. Calling them 8th place is technically correct yet completely deceiving.

[im4wsu]

Kung WU, I can't answer your question, although I can tell you that no team has ever won the Big East Tourney by playing 5 games in 5 days. UConn is a very unique case this year, so comparing them to past years may or may not be helpful. Calling them 8th place is technically correct yet completely deceiving.

See, you're hung up on UConn and I'm hung up on 8th place. Consider the season three toournaments. The first, OOC. BCS teams (a) don'tplay away from home and (b) don't usually play anybody. The second, the conference. This is a half-season long tournament where everybody plays nearly everybody else (or int heory,substantially equal schedules) and the 8th place team RARELY has a record above .500. Breaking down that .500 record usually is .250 agains teams 1-8 and .750 teams 9-whatever. Either can't, or at least DON'T beat the big guys. The third, the conference tournament. What will be will be, whoever gets hot and stays healthy, perhaps. Three-five days.


Assuming the 8th place team doesn't win the conference tournament, they will have had two clean slates and 2/3 of their games to show what they can do against NCAA tournament=type teams. DIDN'T get the job done.

My simple question is why should they get another opporunity to be defeated? There are usually several teams that are quality teams that can and have advanced as far as these 8th place teams in tournaments despite tougher seeding. But these teams are doomed to their place because of the first "tournament," OOC games, scheduling.

These other teams do not have the opportunity to show their stuff, and on the slim chance that they do, the playing field (seeding) is so far tilted as to almost eliminate anything other than a Cinderella performance.