"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Thursday, December 30, 2021

The Return of Team Bubble Watch

Shaka Smart is no stranger to the NCAA bubble

Photo by Morry Gash (AP Sports)

When Andy Glockner wrote Bubble Watch for Sports Illustrated, Marquette was dubbed "Team Bubble Watch" in 2009-10 as they rallied from an 11-8 start to an eventual 6-seed before returning to the NCAA Bubble the next year as an 11-seed and one of the last teams in the field. Interestingly, that 2011 season was also when Shaka Smart brought VCU to Dayton as another of the last teams in. This year's Marquette team looks to be right back in that bubble mix based on early returns.

Marquette debuts in the first Cracked Sidewalks S-Curve of the year as an 11-seed that would be playing in Dayton. The real killer for this team are their computer numbers. They are currently 75th in the NET and 83rd in kenpom. They do have a decent Strength of Record at 54th which helped their case. The real positives, however, are the big wins they have. Marquette is 2-4 in Quadrant 1, including wins over Illinois and West Virginia. Four of their five losses come to teams on the top-6 seed lines, with the St. Bonaventure loss being the biggest anchor to their resume.

Looking at teams in their range (10-seed to NIT 2-seed) Marquette's two Quadrant 1 wins were only equaled by Creighton and Monmouth. Marquette and Oklahoma were the only two teams with three Quadrant 1+2 wins. The Selection Committee has shown they value proven wins, and of the teams considered for the field but left out, none had a single Quadrant 1A win (like MU's win over Illinois) and only Memphis had as many Q1+2 wins as Marquette. Before digging into the full S-Curve, a few thoughts on the field:

Non-Baylor Texas teams drove me nuts: Ignoring the single-bid conferences, the state of Texas had four at-large worthy teams aside from Baylor. Those were Houston, Texas Tech, Texas, and TCU. Those teams went a COMBINED 1-6 in Quadrant 1 games. That's right, Marquette has twice as many Q1 wins as those four teams combined. They are also a combined 36-0 against Q3+4 opponents. Apparently, the way to schedule in Texas is to only play and beat up on crap teams. Because of that, they are generally seeded lower here than they are elsewhere. If you want to be seeded as highly as your computer numbers say you deserve, beat someone of note. There's no other way to convince the Selection Committee you aren't a fraud.

The Pac-12 outside of Arizona, USC, and UCLA is awful: I didn't end up seriously considering any Pac-12 teams for inclusion other than those three. That isn't to say I didn't look at their resumes, I did, but they are ghastly. The other 9 teams are a combined 2-18 against Q1. The only three top-100 NET teams (Utah, Washington State, Oregon) outside that top three each have more Q3+4 losses than Q1 wins. And aside from one of those teams getting multiple wins against the top-3, it's virtually impossible to see any other at-large candidates emerging because the quality win opportunities simply aren't there.

The WCC isn't just Gonzaga: The Pac-12's woes open up the door for other teams because you have to put 68 teams in the field. San Francisco and St. Mary's have both picked up Q1 wins in non-con and while BYU hasn't done that, their 5 Q2 wins are enough that only two teams (Auburn and Michigan State) have more Q1+2 wins than the Cougars. If those three teams can keep their losses in league amongst themselves, there's a real chance the WCC could be a 4-bid league.

1-Seeds: 1-BAYLOR 2-ARIZONA 3-Auburn 4-DUKE

2-Seeds: 8-Michigan St 7-Kansas 6-PURDUE 5-GONZAGA

3-Seeds: 9-Iowa State 10-LSU 11-Usc 12-Alabama

4-Seeds: 16-Providence 15-VILLANOVA 14-Tennessee 13-Ucla

5-Seeds: 17-Minnesota 18-Seton Hall 19-Wisconsin 20-Connecticut

6-Seeds: 24-West Virginia 23-Ohio State 22-Xavier 21-COLORADO ST

7-Seeds: 25-HOUSTON 26-San Francisco 27-LOYOLA CHICAGO 28-Illinois

8-Seeds: 32-Wake Forest 31-Byu 30-Kentucky 29-Texas Tech

9-Seeds: 33-Iowa 34-North Carolina 35-St. Mary's 36-Texas

10-Seeds: 40-Creighton 39-Tcu 38-Virginia Tech 37-Oklahoma

11-Seeds: 41-Cincinnati 42-San Diego State 43-Florida 44-Marquette 45-Michigan 46-Mississippi State

12-Seeds: 50-WAGNER 49-IONA 48-BELMONT 47-DAVIDSON

13-Seeds: 51-UAB 42-CHATTANOOGA 53-OAKLAND 54-TOLEDO

14-Seeds: 58-NAVY 57-VERMONT 56-TOWSON 55-UTAH VALLEY

15-Seeds: 59-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 60-TEXAS STATE 61-PRINCETON 62-SOUTHERN UTAH

16-Seeds: 68-HOWARD 67-NICHOLLS STATE 66-TEXAS SOUTHERN 65-CAMPBELL 64-UC IRVINE 63-LIBERTY

 

Last Four Byes: TCU, Creighton, Cincinnati, San Diego State

Last Four In: Florida, Marquette, Michigan, Mississippi State

First Four Out: Murray State, Arkansas, Clemson, UCF

Next Four Out: Indiana, Northwestern, Wyoming, Monmouth


Multibid Leagues

Big 12: 8

Big 10: 8

Big East: 7

SEC: 7

WCC: 4

ACC: 4

Pac-12: 3

AAC: 2

Mountain West: 2

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Post hoiday basketball is getting weird

Hope everyone enjoyed their time with family at Christmas, we certainly did. We came back to the pod ostensibly to talk UConn vs #mubb game result and preview the St John's game.....welp, the St John's game isn't happening. So we talk about the UConn game and then pivot to what the next couple of weeks could look like generally. Then to lighten the mood we turn to your questions, which were fantastic. Enjoy! https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/fik3py/ScrambledEggs_Editted_122821.mp3

Monday, December 20, 2021

Conference season opens with a not unexpected loss

Welcome to Big East conference season, glad you could join us! #mubb had a single game this week against Xavier. Team started well for once but couldn't sustain. We talk about the game and what it might mean going forward. We also talk about the only game this week, a match-up against UConn at home. We close out the pod with an unplanned topic. We hope everyone has a merry Christmas. Enjoy! https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/na57dt/ScrambledEggs_Editted_121921.mp3

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Non-conference is done, and its time to look back at it

Welcome to a new episode of Scrambled Eggs! We are hear to talk about the week that was in #mubb and the non-conference experience overall. First we talk about the take away from MU going 1-1 this week (and avoiding the December 0-fer we feared) and then get into the details of the K-State and UCLA results. We then ask, what have we learned as a result of this non-conference season and how do we apply those learnings to the conference season. We then preview the first Big East game of the season on the road against a tough Xavier team. We close out the pod with everyone's favorite bit, #mubbTMM. Enjoy! https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/6yttc2/ScrambledEggs_Editted_121321.mp3

Monday, December 06, 2021

Not what you want in a rivalry game, does Shaka have a bounce back?

Well, this was the first truly disappointing loss for #mubb in the young Shaka era. Marquette not only loses to noted rival, Wisconsin Badgers, but let's the second half get away from them. We talk about the Wisconsin game, what went wrong and what went not so wrong. We also make a compliment sandwich involving the team before pivoting to the week ahead. We review the KSU game and whether MU can get a win in December before talking about any lane to success for MU against UCLA. Let's hope we go 1-1 this week. Enjoy! https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/5rzf9e/ScrambledEggs_Editted_120521.mp3