What I want more than any matchup is a night game, preferably a Friday night game, and this is not unveiled until a few hours after the selection show ( I believe around 9PM). Realize we are locked into a 6:30 play in if we are put in the play in, but let's make it Wednesday and then follow up with a night game on Friday so I don't have to dig through my excuses for days off list. After 3 straight afternoon games this is getting difficult. The play in winner is supposed to play no earlier than 2:30 two days later, really it should be an automatic night game 2 days later.
There should be a ballsy Bracketologist who predicts the time slots, there is an art to this, I start trying to figure out the likelihood after the pairings are announced.
I know Bracket Matrix has been shared out here as a great site to see all the projected brackets, but link below to their page that actually ranks the accuracy over the years of these sites. Interesting that the two that are mostly widely known, Lunardi and Palm, don't really perform anywhere near as well in projecting teams and seeds as some of the lesser known ones.
Here are the NET rankings of all 15 & 16 seeds as of now. Stars indicate conference tourneys that are still waiting to be finished.
As of now, looks like the final non-PIG 16 will come down to how the committee views us against FDU and Prairie View. If we get some help in the other tourneys below we could be safely on the non-PIG 16 line.
Potential Seed Jumpers: Big West: 5 seed or below would need to win tourney (LBST, CS Northridge, UC Davis, etc.) Big Sky: 3 seed or below would need to win tourney (EWU, Portland, Montana St, etc.) Southland: 3 seed or below would need to win tourney (Lamar, New Orleans, SELA, etc.) SWAC: 2 seed or below would need to win tourney (Texas Southern, Grambling, Jackson St, etc.). We could still be seeded ahead of #1 seed Prairie View, but this would ensure that.
Thanks for compiling.
I have some paranoia nitpicking, all with the same theme: some teams that you suggest we should root for could pass us (or at least pull even with us) in NET and KenPom if they go on to win their tournaments. I would including rooting against Lamar in the Southland, Texas Southern in the SWAC, and the 4 seed in Big Sky, Weber St (the 3 seed, EWash, has terrible NET and KenPoms, OK to root for them).
Got it. Updated list below with your edits:
Big West: 5 seed or below would need to win tourney (LBST, CS Northridge, UC Davis, etc.) Big Sky: Root against Montana, No Colorado and Weber St. Southland: 4 seed or below would need to win tourney (New Orleans, SELA, etc.) SWAC: 3 seed or below would need to win tourney (Grambling, Jackson St, etc.).
I don't think any 1/16 matchup for us this year could be worse than the 2/15 matchup we had last year against Duke in Pittsburgh. Forget about the seeds, it's all about the matchups. We are going to be a 20 point underdog no matter who we play.
What I want more than any matchup is a night game, preferably a Friday night game, and this is not unveiled until a few hours after the selection show ( I believe around 9PM). Realize we are locked into a 6:30 play in if we are put in the play in, but let's make it Wednesday and then follow up with a night game on Friday so I don't have to dig through my excuses for days off list. After 3 straight afternoon games this is getting difficult. The play in winner is supposed to play no earlier than 2:30 two days later, really it should be an automatic night game 2 days later.
There should be a ballsy Bracketologist who predicts the time slots, there is an art to this, I start trying to figure out the likelihood after the pairings are announced.
If it's Gonzaga in the West, it will for sure be the last game of the night. It will be a Thursday in SLC if that happens.
As we all know #1's are no picnic. My desire is to avoid Duke (faced them last year and hopefully not two in a row), Virginia, NC, and Michigan.
I guess the three that we could live with are Kentucky, Tenn, and Gonzaga.
We know TC will have our team prepared. Just need some basketball luck!
I don't think any 1/16 matchup for us this year could be worse than the 2/15 matchup we had last year against Duke in Pittsburgh. Forget about the seeds, it's all about the matchups. We are going to be a 20 point underdog no matter who we play.
More like 30.
The greatest poster in the history of the MAAC as determined by THREE separate polls.
Let's assume the four teams are Iona, FDU, Prairie View, and Norfolk State.
Is it guaranteed that PV or NS would be our opponent? Is there some geographical thing that would exclude us from playing FDU?
tia
Not officially, but since the SWAC and MEAC tend to be in the First Four every year (and because they are the two historically black conferences that are always at or near the bottom of the computer ratings), they try to avoid them playing each other.
The greatest poster in the history of the MAAC as determined by THREE separate polls.
I don't think any 1/16 matchup for us this year could be worse than the 2/15 matchup we had last year against Duke in Pittsburgh. Forget about the seeds, it's all about the matchups. We are going to be a 20 point underdog no matter who we play.
Using KenPom and Haslametrics, the spread that we would see against any of the projected 1s or 2s would be more than 25. Against Virginia or Gonzaga, it would be more than 30.
The greatest poster in the history of the MAAC as determined by THREE separate polls.
Let's assume the four teams are Iona, FDU, Prairie View, and Norfolk State.
Is it guaranteed that PV or NS would be our opponent? Is there some geographical thing that would exclude us from playing FDU?
tia
Not officially, but since the SWAC and MEAC tend to be in the First Four every year (and because they are the two historically black conferences that are always at or near the bottom of the computer ratings), they try to avoid them playing each other.
Good point. also, there have been "complaints" over the years of always having them in the PIG, so if it's close I can see the NCAA throwing them a bone and placing Iona in the PIG. For the record I want Iona in the PIG