Mock tournament selection

[RoyalShock]

I caught this on twitter late this afternoon. There's a 2-day mock selection process going on among sports media. My understanding is that it's guided by either the NCAA or those intimate with the process. The first set of teams included 20 that were considered locks. That set of teams included Creighton, not WSU. WSU was among the next four selected.

If this mock process is considered to be fairly reliable, and they think the Bluejays have a better resume than the Shocks, do NOT expect a favorable seed. This "committee" must be putting a lot of weight on CU's road win over SDSU versus our home win over UNLV and their win over Northwestern (RPI 44) versus WSU's win over Colorado (RPI 73).

The only thing I can conclude is that top 50 wins, especially on the road, are golden and make up for a multitude of sins, as it were.


This mock committee is now in the seeding process and will finish tomorrow.

[Anthroshock]

I'm guessing Creighton was given the "automatic" bid.

[RoyalShock]

I'm guessing Creighton was given the "automatic" bid.

Nope. The first 20 were considered locks, regardless of conference tournament outcomes.

[GOSHOX1]

Nope. The first 20 were considered locks, regardless of conference tournament outcomes.

Well that doesn't make any damn sense then!

[Capitol Shock II]

I'm already disappointed.

[RoyalShock]

If you're on the twitter, here's a guy you can follow who is part of the process. They're starting Day 2.

https://twitter.com/#!/BracketguyDave

[RoyalShock]

BracketGuyDave did a wrap-up on his Bracketville site yesterday. Some highlights:

Hathaway also stressed that the committee values a team’s non-conference schedule. These are games a team chooses to play. They have options as to who they play and where they play. They want teams to challenge themselves.

The RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) and other rankings are primarily used as a method to organize information. Although available team pages categorize wins and losses in RPI groups, we rarely referenced a team’s specific RPI during group discussions and/or voting. There was not one time during the day when someone said Team A should be included because of its RPI ranking.

Lots of good stuff in there. And the exercise is put on by the NCAA.

[Jeffrey Korchek]

Yeah, his blog post on the process is pretty interesting. It's also worth noting how much subjectivity goes into the selections, it seems like it's often easy to get too wrapped up in numbers and be angry that one team is seeded higher than another even though some numerical analysis says it should be otherwise. Also a good reason not to get too worked up if, say, Creighton is chosen in the first 20 and WSU has to wait for the next four.

[ShockTalk]

BracketGuyDave did a wrap-up on his Bracketville site yesterday. Some highlights:

"Hathaway also stressed that the committee values a team’s non-conference schedule. These are games a team chooses to play. They have options as to who they play and where they play. They want teams to challenge themselves."


Lots of good stuff in there. And the exercise is put on by the NCAA.

Well that's a loaded statement.

[WSUwatcher]

I don't have time to follow it, so I haven't tried to look up the answer to this question: were their first 20 chosen also the top 20 seeds? Or were some of those teams (Creighton could be a good example) thought to be locks but not necessarily top-5 seeds?

[RoyalShock]

Seeding comes after the team selection. I think they seeded the #1s yesterday and are just now getting back to seeding the rest of the field. Then they do the bracketing this afternoon.

[_kai_]

I blasted someone on Twitter yesterday who was apart of the discussion asking if they hadn't even paid attention to college basketball in the last 2 weeks. Because they obviously didn't pay attention the previous weekend that WSU throttled Creighton at home for it's 3rd straight loss, yet they get a lock before Wichita State?

Subjectivity on the matter is what hurts hoops. That's why 10 teams from the big east get in.

[rjl]

Could be marketing. Creighton gets a lot of press just because sports news gravitates towards players, not schools. McDermott constantly in rotation during player of the year discussions is a definite bonus for the Jays.

[Jeffrey Korchek]

Despite the way things may have started (Creighton in first 20 in, WSU not), they just seeded Wichita a 4 and what looks like Creighton at a 7.

http://twitter.com/#!/ericcrawford

[Jeffrey Korchek]

Which is probably also not ultimately very meaningful... they're moving through the process way more quickly than the actual committee will.