Seth's 2023 Bracket Assist Tool
[Hey, today's the last day of College Football Risk. Go show the other schools why MGoBlog's community is so unfairly large they need to keep making rules to nerf us.]
Every year I go way overboard in bracket prep. The result is all the data on all the tournament teams all laid out before out thusly:
For those of you who still have Excel, you get to automatically create YOUR VERY OWN SETHCHART IN EXCEL. That's a download link to the above. Put in the name of the team you want to look at, and it’ll show you the lineups and injuries and player data including the shot charts.
There's also a DUMBED DOWN GOOGLE SHEET VERSION I'm still working on if you can't get Excel to work and a simplified text only TEAM COMPARISON tool.
Those links allow you to download your own copy. FAQ for these graphics.
[After THE JUMP: how to use it and one or two findings.]
How to Use It
The box in the upper left is where you put the name of the team. It's a dropdown—the fastest way to go through them is to use Alt-Down arrow then scroll. By default I have them in order of when you'd come upon them while filling out a bracket.
If you look at only two things it's the usage bubbles (which don't work on Goggle Sheets yet).
If most of the bubble is filled in, that player is using a huge number of his team's possessions. When comparing teams, my favorite way to find upsets is to look for usage and then see if there's a defensive stopper at that position, or some other way to neutralize that player. Or vice versa, if there's a dude at a spot that's given their opponent trouble before.
Many of those I've noted in the This win told us: and This loss told us: boxes. Keep in mind everything is relative, because it's easy to take knowledge too far. For example, West Virginia gets a ton of their scoring from pullups in the backcourt, the one thing that Bama and their hugeness 3-5 doesn't really defend against as much. Buuuut….
…keep your eye on the chalk and ask yourself how many points of relevance that is going to be. Also ask yourself if a 9-seed that can't take advantage of small centers is getting past an 8-seed with a small center and lots of length outside (Maryland) before you take them to upset the #1.
Most of the data are from Kenpom and Torvik, with the injuries from a combination of lists, my favorite being covers.com, but they miss lower seed things and recent things. Kenpom is good at highlighting a player who missed a game. Distance factor was calculated by putting the schools' addresses into Google Maps (I have a tool). The shot charts are data from Hoop-Math. The last piece then is playing around a ton on Synergy to understand what kinds of shots and plays each player makes. Knowing how much their shots are contested is a big deal, especially because teams lie with assists.
Last year's version of this has the latest list of sites I recommend.
Who do you like this year?
I've got KSU in the Final 4.
I believe in guard play in the Tournament, and Nowell is what we're all hoping Dug will grow into someday: a 40 assist rate bug who's too small for the NBA but makes everything operate smoothly and annoys the hell out of you on defense. Tennessee just lost their star PG, and Purdue's a pretty iffy 1-seed that hasn't been playing well. So it's between the 2 and 3 seeds, and I've been siding with Big 12 teams when it's close because their conference schedule was even more brutal than the Tourney. And they're adding Houston!
I don't think I've ever had less of a clue as to who to pick for the national champions. Purdue seems to be a decent choice and I don't think I've ever seen them make it past the first weekend.
Purdue still doesn't seem like much more than Edey and the Edettes.
Most of them are perfectly fine D1 players, talented and hard working, but I don't see them as good enough individually or collectively to make it to the championship game, much less win it.
I hope I'm wrong. I like their team, and Painter seems like one of the good guys, that is a good coach and not a whiner. (Not mentioning any names such as Izzhit.)
I think the Big Ten was just bad and Purdue was a good team that looked great bc of the competition. They also got a bad draw. Any team with a big who can move their feet and/or shoot is going to give them fits. And Purdue doesn't have the most athletic squad. Having teams like Duke and Memphis possibly meeting them pre-Sweet16, that's a rough road.
Where's the NIT tool, Seth?
Or, does this work for the NIT, too?
There's always someone nit picking.
Take your thumbs up, damn you!
I considered editing "nit" to capitalize it.
It would be a service to this blog's lurkers from other fan bases, who might need the joke explained to them.
But I thought, Nah, it already takes time to explain spelling, grammar, and thought to them..
Never mind, Seth. I found one. And it is high-quality, too.
Cheers to you, Seth!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go Cats
Have literally not even looked at the bracket.
You are the best Seth!
A hint for those of us doing this at the last minute. Unhide the "team sheets" tab and sort the teams by name and it will be much easier to find each team in the list.
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