"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

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Bracketology: Selection Sunday Morning

 I'll have one final post with a final S-Curve and bracket, but this is where we stand. First, a few thoughts:

  • Final 1-seed: Iowa State was considered ahead of North Carolina, but the Cyclones terrible NCSOS isn't something the Selection Committee typically rewards and UNC gaining a Q1A win with Pitt moving up to #40 in the NET is worth noting. We're keeping UNC here, but Iowa State moved to the top of the 2-line.
  • Marquette: Despite the loss to UConn, they remain on the 2-line and at the #8 overall position. There's a good chance this impacts their destination for the second weekend, but they should be locked into Indianapolis.
  • Bid Thieves: A insane four bid thieves took the Big East bubble teams all out of consideration. This moved the teams in the mix for the last two bids to Michigan State, Texas A&M, Indiana State, Oklahoma, and Virginia. Ultimately, Michigan State's metrics, Texas A&M's Q1+2 performance, and Indiana State's across the board metrics and NCSOS earned them bids. Oklahoma looked safe, but when they were in the mix for the last four, their 2-11 record against the field and #274 NCSOS was prohibitive, while Virginia was knocked out because more often than not, when they played a team in contention for the tourney, they lost by double-digits.
Here's the current S-Curve. Final S-Curve and bracket to come:





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