Questions For The Competition is a weekly column that addresses our issues with the brackets of other bracketology "experts." This week's questions - the first we've posed to the competition this season - are reserved for ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi. As the season goes on, and more major sports websites (CBS, CNNSI.com, etc.) consistently post weekly brackets, we will ask questions to them as well.Keep in mind that these questions are about Lunardi's latest bracket, which was released before Monday's games.
Joe Lunardi (ESPN.com) - Jan. 12 Bracket
If the season ended today, would the committee really give two Big East and two ACC teams the one seeds? No other conference would be represented?
We understand why San Diego State is in the field (as the MWC automatic, because they are in first place), but the rest of your MWC seeding is a mess. How is BYU a 6 seed and UNLV is out when UNLV has much better wins (at Louisville, Arizona) than BYU (Utah State, Boise State)? And what's the love affair with six-loss Utah?
How is Louisville a 3 seed and Minnesota an 8 seed when the Minnesota beat Louisville on a neutral court and has about the same RPI? Does it have anything to do with the fact that you had Louisville so high in your now-meaningless preseason bracket?
How in the world does Illinois State, with zero Top 100 RPI wins, deserve an at-large?
Isn't Memphis (with no OOC resume) a little high at a 5? Isn't Michigan (with a great OOC resume) a little low at a 9?
Florida State isn't even in your First Four Out? How are they not in over Missouri, whose only big win is a team (Cal), that FSU beat too?
8 comments:
Thank you for existing! As an FSU fan I greatly appreciate your defense of our resume. Obviously we have to "close the deal" to get to the tourney (i.e. probably win 8-9 conference games). However, at this stage in the game, it just boggles me at how some sources (Lombardi) can afford to leave us out after we've beaten so many good OOC teams (UNLV, Cal, UF, WKU, etc).
FSU aside, the reason I love this site and check it regularly now is because whoever bracketology101 is, they obviously know what their talking about. I wish CBS or someone would sponsor your predictions/analysis, because it's dead on.
Thanks for posting, mom...
Seriously, though, you're welcome for existing and thank you for the kind words. When CBS calls and offers us a million-dollar Bracketology deal, we'll bring you aboard as our publicist. Deal?
As far as FSU goes, we have no idea why so many people are ignoring their resume, and it's particularly terrible for Lunardi to exclude the 'Noles because of the way he selects his teams. If "the season ended today," there would be no way FSU wouldn't be included, especially in favor of teams like Missouri and, even worse, Illinois State. Their resume is light years better.
We have the 'Noles in our field not only because we love their OOC results (whenwas the last time you could say that about FSU?) but also because we think they're talented enought to get to 9-7 in the ACC, which will make them a shoo-in for a bid. Hopefully the 'Noles will make us look good and continue to play well; we've defended them more than once in the past only to see them fade late in the season.
As a Memphis fan, I agree it's a bit high for Memphis as a 5 right now, but what if they run the table through the C-USA tournament? Will that get them up to a 3 or 4?
Assuming no missteps in their conference play, does Davidson have a chance to climb back into 5-6 range, or are they probably set as an 8-10 seed? They've got three losses to ranked teams, all away...but their best win is WVU on a neutral court. Other than a BracketBuster game, they'll have no chance to improve on that. Do they get a bump for having Curry (more TV time, more subconsciously impressive than, say, last year)? I can't figure them out...
Hey, another FSU fan on here, glad to see I'm not the only one! Here's another interesting thing about Lunardi's bracket involving FSU. If you look at ESPN's insideRPI, FSU stands at 25, but in Lunardi's "Preferred RPI formula" (whatever the heck THAT is), he ranks FSU as #9, and they still don't make it in his bracket?? Stop the insanity!!!
Quick hits...
It's a little hard to imagine Memphis running the table the rest of the way (games left @ Gonzaga and @ Tennessee). After their struggles at Tulsa it's tough to imagine that they will even be able to get through another C-USA season undefeated with games remaining at UAB, UTEP and Houston. Their RPI is very solid but they still don't have any worthwile wins. If they can get through the conference schedule with only 1 or 2 losses and pick up a win against either Tennessee or Gonzaga (which is possible) then they can end up with a top 5 seed.
If Davidson can win out in conference (which they should) they will see their seed rise significantly. Then they have a chance to take on Butler at home in the BracketBuster game if they can jump St. Mary's in the RPI. That may be difficult to do though since half the Southern conference
teams have RPIs higher then 200. Butler at Davidson is the BracketBuster game that everyone will want to see but it will take a few slip ups by St. Marys to make that happen. If that happens and Davidson is able to pick up a win over Butler then they will be no worse than a 6 seed.
The importantcheap Diablo iii gold group problem here's what about Ok whenever they shed. Do they stick to normally the one collection, or maybe receive shoved in favorGW2 Cd key of UConn as well as Mi Talk about (or another person)?
oh I have some of those questions you posted on here and I have a lot more if you are interested, just let me know please!
Post a Comment