I wanted to expand on some thoughts on how the NCAA selection incorrectly seeded and positioned teams for the NCAA tournament that I had yesterday in my impressions of the first 3 days of tourney post.
Let’s start with the Oregon seeding at 12. The Pac 12 tournament champion Ducks were underseeded by at least 5 spots, and now they are in the sweet 16. Please don’t say well sometimes 12 seeds get to the sweet 16. Oregon had 9 top 100 wins, and came in into the NCAA’s 26 win. Is that the profile of a 12 seed? They won both their games by double digits.
Now we go to West region where the errors in seeding are basically comical. I understand there are upsets in the tournament. It happens, but when your 1,3,4,5,7 are out of the Big Dance, before the first weekend is over is that college basketball parity or just poor seeding? I’m going with poor seeding. Most people felt before the NCAA’s started that the West region was the weakest starting at the top with Gonzaga.
Ohio State was a strong 2 seed, but arguably New Mexico and Kansas St. were the also weakest 3 and 4 seeds. New Mexico had a nice RPI, but didn’t play or beat a top 40 power conference team this year. Kansas St. had 1 top 25 RPI win, that being over Florida. Your other 3 and 4 seeds were Michigan St. Florida, Marquette, St. Louis, Michigan, and Syracuse. I challenge anyone to explain how New Mexico and Kansas St. would be in the upper end of that grouping of teams. Now am I saying the New Mexico and Kansas St. were not 3 and 4 seeds? No, but putting them in the bracket with a 1 seed in Gonzaga that hadn’t played a top 25 team in months created unbalanced regions and helped lead to the chaos in the West.
Here’s more mis-seeding and selection errors. The mid-majors are having a nightmare tourney. The A-10 with 6 bids, the MWC with 5 bids, and just LaSalle and San Diego St. are the only teams that remain. By tonight they may not be there either. 9 at-large bids for those two conference? That won’t be happening again.
How should the NCAA’s seeded teams? This is how we’d have ranked the top 4 seeds in region.
Midwest – This region was way too top heavy, given Louisville was considered the number 1 overall seed.
1) Louisville
2) Ohio State
3) New Mexico
4) Kansas St.
West – We’ve been through this already, mistakes here were obvious. Gonzaga wass really a 3 – 5 seed, but I can understand why they got a 1 out West.
1) Gonzaga
2) Duke
3) Florida
4) Michigan
South – I never agreed that Kansas should be a 1 seed.
1) Miami
2) Georgetown
3) Michigan St.
4) Marquette
East – The East bracket was actually reasonable, except that Miami was a 2 instead of a 1 elsewhere.
1) Indiana
2) Kansas
3) Syracuse
4) St. Louis
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