NCAA Tournament Scores and Discussion Thread

[Kung Wu]

I'm pulling for either Villanova or OU. I know, I know. Big 12 and all. However, it is real easy to pull for Buddy and given that we now going to be playing H/H with OU, I'm giving credit for that as well.

Since OU is showing the testicular fortitude that the chickenshits up North won't ... Go OU! They have a stud worth watching, good coach, and understand that WSU is an excellent game to put on their schedule. I can respect all of that.

[ShockerFever]

Syracuse winning almost cancelled out KU's loss last night.






ALMOST.

[shoxlax]

I'm pulling for either Villanova or OU. I know, I know. Big 12 and all. However, it is real easy to pull for Buddy and given that we now going to be playing H/H with OU, I'm giving credit for that as well.

Had Virginia won, there would've been three teams (OU, Nova and them) that I enjoy watching and could've stood winning it all. Now the ND-UNC winner vs Syracuse presents a no win no watch dilemma for me.

The only silver lining if UNC wins it all is that the knife goes a little farther in the back of the Phog worshipers

[wusphlash]

I can't pull for ND in nothin'; no way, no how. Buddy aside, can't pull for OU anytime, in anything, ever. This tournament is dead to me. Maybe Nova I guess. If it ends up as Jim against Ol' Roy it may be Criminal Minds reruns for me.

Criminal Minds or criminal minds, that's your choice.

[WuDrWu]

Pretty cool words from a grateful and tough as nails student athlete.

[giskard]

think I'll binge watch Game Of Thrones

And that is different than North Carolina versus Syracuse how????

[WuDrWu]

I think I can (at least) passively cheer for anyone from Silver Lake, KS.

[Wuchalk]

I will root for OU just because it will tweak the Jayhawks to see another Big 12 team advance, since they have won 12 championships and are clearly superior, in their little minds. And I do like Buddy.

[KC Shox]

I'll support the Sooners, they're representing the Midwest. To heck with those east coast programs.

[shocks771]

Pretty cool words from a grateful and tough as nails student athlete.

Pretty damn cool. Even though they have been a thorn in our side I have always respected UNI, Coach Jacobsen and their players. Good program with good kids and a great coach.

[ShockerFever]

Go Buddy Go.

I've been on the Buddy Bandwagon for a while now and I'm not stopping now.

[fansince80s]

I will root for OU just because it will tweak the Jayhawks to see another Big 12 team advance, since they have won 12 championships and are clearly superior, in their little minds. And I do like Buddy.

Roy winning his 3rd will really tweak them.

Actually any of these 4 that wins this will tweak them in one way or another.

[molly jabali]

About two months ago, I raised a hackle or two by stating that Bill Self is a very good but not great coach, and several here took me to task...perhaps correctly because KU did win their 12th straight title. But I think my statement is more relevant to post season...I think he panics and his kids panic. I'm no Williams fan AT ALL, but the difference in the two coaches is that one quality, which has to be galling to KU fan as UNC makes their run.

On the other hand, I think UNC and Syracuse are cheating scumbags and if both could lose, I'd love it.

[Eric]

I will root for whoever the almighty Jenn Bates tells me to. Bahahahaha!

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I wonder if the committee would have been allowed to give us that 10 seed and still have us in the play-in game? I really hope it's not allowed because the committee would have no other justification for not sticking us/Vanderbilt in St. Louis and Syracuse in Providence. Maybe @Jamar Howard 4 President knows.

There are a lot of pages of posts since this quoted post, and I haven't read them all, so maybe this has already been answered. I'll go ahead and answer it anyway.

The at-large play-in games go to the last 4 teams in the field. This year, the last 4 at-large teams were ranked by the committee's S-Curve as 41, 42, 43, and 45, with #44 Gonzaga falling in the middle of those ranks as an auto-bid, and #46 UNI falling right behind that group. Teams 37-40 already occupied the 10 seed line, so it was easy for the committee. Teams 41-46 all received 11 seeds with the knowledge that the group would be paired down to the necessary 4 teams following the play-in games.

The committee doesn't choose play-in game participants directly. It merely ranks the teams and whoever falls at the bottom of the list has to go play in those games. Of course, there is nothing stopping individual members from deciding they wanted WSU in the play-in game as some sort of "prove your worth" scenario, but that would require them specifically looking at where the cut line was going to fall and intentionally ranking WSU just ahead of it, rather than giving WSU a traditional "honest" ranking and allowing them to fall wherever they happened to fall. It is up to you I guess to decide for yourself how much of a conspiracy theorist you want to be. Personally, given where Monmouth, Valpo, etc. fell, I think the committee members simply undervalued all mid-majors this year. I don't think there was any special conspiracy to put WSU in the play-in games specifically.