2015 Bracketology

[Play Angry]

Was there a sudden onslaught of brackets projecting us as an 8 seed beyond the thoroughly thrashed Palm atrocity as discussed above?

Links please.

[ShockerFever]

Can we just put Jerry Palm's "projections" in another thread? His **** is so far off and always wrong that it's an insult to put his stuff in this thread. It's just laughable we're on the same line as Dayton, Iowa, and San Diego State.

What a clown show.

[ShockerHoops]

Was there a sudden onslaught of brackets projecting us as an 8 seed beyond the thoroughly thrashed Palm atrocity as discussed above?

Links please.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

[ShockerHoops]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

Also, Utah a 5 seed. Strange.

[Play Angry]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

See post #132 of this thread and the following discussion. He is (a) a horrible bracketologist, and (b) an extreme outlier.

Don't sweat it. He sucks.

[KBShocker]

Get ready for the biggest corrupt tournament selections in history. Sports media has been falsely promoting big conferences all year. Mid majors have been having too much success in recent years and now they are going to snuff it out.

[ShockerHoops]

See post #132 of this thread and the following discussion. He is (a) a horrible bracketologist, and (b) an extreme outlier.

Don't sweat it. He sucks.

I feel a "What's Making You Angry" segment coming based on this??

[ShockerHoops]

Get ready for the biggest corrupt tournament selections in history. Sports media has been falsely promoting big conferences all year. Mid majors have been having too much success in recent years and now they are going to snuff it out.

Proof? Links?

[KBShocker]

Proof? Links?

Joe Linardi's bracketology with Iowa, Xavier, LSU, Georgia, Ol MIss, UCLA, Standford.

[Play Angry]

Mid-majors this year are really, really horrible. They really don't deserve many bids.

If you disagree, I'd encourage trying to find five teams outside the P-5/A10/AAC/MWC/Big Priest not named Gonzaga, WSU, Northern Iowa, or BYU who deserve at-large bids. Post their nitty gritty sheets and compare them against bubble teams from the aforementioned leagues.

There have been past seasons where middling conference had a legit gripe re: at-large bids. This won't be one of them.

[Cdizzle]

In past years we didn't include AAC/MWS/A10/Big East and the other 5 good non-P5 teams under this definition.

This is a lot like saying, this year, outside of the good teams, there really aren't very many good teams.

[Play Angry]

Eh, disagree. The better teams left conferences like the CAA, Horizon, CUSA, etc. and leagues like the MAC which sometimes produced at-large quality teams a decade ago aren't showing up this year.

Just because leagues featuring 200 of the shittiest teams in the country lost their best half-dozen horses doesn't mean you can't say the group sucks as a whole. 3 or so at-large bids from the bottom 20+ conferences is positively atrocious by any historical metric.

I guess a person could try to nit pick over the labeling of the AAC but the rest were never labeled as midmajor.

[Dave Stalwart]

Eh, disagree. The better teams left conferences like the CAA, Horizon, CUSA, etc. and leagues like the MAC which sometimes produced at-large quality teams a decade ago aren't showing up this year.

Just because leagues featuring 200 of the shittiest teams in the country lost their best half-dozen horses doesn't mean you can't say the group sucks as a whole. 3 or so at-large bids from the bottom 20+ conferences is positively atrocious by any historical metric.

I guess a person could try to nit pick over the labeling of the AAC but the rest were never labeled as midmajor.

I would definitely say that realignment has to do with what things look like now. I feel like all the P5 schools have tons of losses, and the mid major conferences look bad. Well, if you put all the good schools in one conference, that conference will go 500 across the board and no mid majors will win any non conference games against the teams in it. Maybe that's what we have going on now.

Another thing that interests me is that there seem to be about 10 really awesome teams and about 30 other teams capable of winning it all or at least going deep. It's a dangerous year. If Kentucky gets knocked out, I think anyone can win it.

[CBB_Fan]

Well, I guess I will explain, then. The 12 seed is the most likely upset in the tournament, even more frequent than a 6-11 upset. And WSU was the victim of just such an upset a few years ago, so I can completely understand wanting to avoid that seed.

Kentucky is very skilled and dangerous team, but even recently they have lacked focus and discipline and have shown holes against teams willing to move the ball and force their defense to shift. Last year almost all of the Shocker's close calls came earlier in the season. As the season wore on it seemed like the players got more focused. Kentucky has not shown that as much this year. I still think they will drop a game. And if somebody in the SEC can beat them, I think WSU can beat them.

We probably will end up in the Midwest regional unless there are too many teams on the s-curve with us that are trying to get the same seed. As long as we avoid getting a team like Kentucky or Virginia in the first weekend, then I can see WSU having a lot of swagger going into a game with any top opponent the second weekend.

The thing with UK is that they are head and shoulders over each team they've played in the SEC, and frankly they play bored. Disinterested. Much like they did at times last season. But they are still more disciplined than the team they had last year, and even more talented. And frankly, they may drop a game to playing down to the competition but only 2-3 teams in the country can keep up with UK when they play 100%.

More to the point, Wichita State this year struggles with size. As long as we have either Morris or Carter in we can win with our guardplay (which IMHO is the best in the country), but UK is just the type of team that could put those two in foul trouble. In fact I'd say UK is our scariest matchup, not just because they are the best team but because their PG is taller than our starting PF and they play what feels like a half dozen seven footers. They'll send waves of seven footers at us, and we don't have the depth at post to handle that. A few years ago I thought Syracuse was the silver bullet matchup because we sometimes struggled against strong zone teams, this year UK has the team I would design in a lab to beat us.

The other aspect is that I think UK would bring their A+ game against us, not the C- **** they've shown in the SEC. Their team is young and emotional, and it seems like they buy into story lines. There isn't another S16 matchup that would fire UK up like a 4/5 seed Wichita State would; the storylines are obvious. Good guys come back for revenge and redemption against the team that wants to break the good guys record and knocked them out last year. Just like last year, they'd inexplicably play better. Unfortunately, the same storylines that would motivate UK to go 100% also make it pretty likely we'd be matched up against them.

I am not nearly as scared of Virginia, Arizona, Gonzaga, Wisconsin, or Duke. Those are all good teams, but they aren't perfectly set-up to beat us. And UK is flat-out better than each and every one of them, exactly as strong as you'd expect from a team returning from a title game with a #1 type of recruiting class. A rematch would play out completely differently than last year's game, and not for the better. I think we can upset any other 1-2 seed, and I'd rather take that chance even if it means a tougher round 1 matchup. I absolutely do not want to play the strongest team of the decade, especially considering they are practically built to take advantage of our weaknesses.

[Dave Stalwart]

But how glorious would it be to end THEIR undefeated season? I know it would take the perfect game, but good grief, that would be the best storyline ever.