Congrats to Bucky Badger - but this illustrates the flip side of the committee screwing someone
I agree completely. The mid-season swoon turned off many Badger faithful. And the grass is always greener elsewhere mentality can become metastatic within a fanbase very quickly.
That swoon kind of reminded me of when teams put their point guard on Stauskas and aggressively denied him the ball in 2014. We struggled with it for a few games and then adjusted and resumed just bombing people. Teams started doubling Happ aggressively and it took them a few games to figure out how to adjust.
I don't know how you can hate Beilein either, but there are plenty of them living on this board.
I don't know how you can hate Beilein either, but there are plenty of them living on this board.
March 19th, 2017 at 10:24 AM ^
This makes me even happier about Michigan's B1G tournament title.
(accidently) switched Wisconsin and Minnesota with each other and no one realized the mistake in time.
Nobody will obviously ever admit this to be the case but Wisconsin was ranked higher than Minnesota in most of the computer rankings, finished ahead of Minnesota in the conference standings, went 2-0 against them in head to head games this year, went further in the conference tourney and the Gophers also lost a starter to a season ending injury going into the NCAA tournament.
I doubt anyone would have thought anything looked wrong if it was Wisconsin that was listed as the #5 seed and Minnesota as the #8 seed but somehow it came the opposite of that making Minnesota one of the worst #5 seeds you will see.
It would be hilarious if some accounting firm exec ran onto the CBS Sports set some year and interrupted Greg Gumbel live as he is reading off the seeds yelling, "wait, Moonlight is the #6 seed!"
Minnesota RPI = 20.
Wisconsin RPI = T32.
To the analytics-averse group of old men on the selection committee, that's all that mattered (apparently).
had Wisconsin ahead. Like you said RPI must have carried unbelieveable weight is all that can explain it.
March 18th, 2017 at 10:32 PM ^
I can see how someone could swap them inadvertently.
March 18th, 2017 at 10:43 PM ^
March 18th, 2017 at 10:52 PM ^
you can't really go hatin on a badger and be a wolverine fan.
March 18th, 2017 at 11:10 PM ^
Wolverine's much better looking.
March 19th, 2017 at 10:40 AM ^
March 20th, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
The entirety of my comment was tongue in cheek, as a degree holder from a school represented by the greatest of rodents, the gulo gulo. Looks like some took it seriously.
My fault for not including the "/s".
March 19th, 2017 at 10:15 AM ^
I smell varmint poontang.
Manipulated.
Cursed? We just won a game in which our opponent shot an eFG% of over 60% and rebounded over half its shots.
Nonsense. Nobody is getting screwed. As a #1 seed, Villanova should be the better team against anyone in their region of the bracket. They weren't.
Look at this way: would you rather play Wisconsin or MSU (or Miami)? Villanova, the #1 overall seed, got the former, Kansas got the latter. The committee doing a bad job hurt Villanova. They still should have won, but the path was made harder than it should have been. The whole point of the #1 is to get rewarded with a weaker second and third round opponent.
Sort of true, sort of not. In sports, generally, the best team wins.
However, the best team doesn't always win, because even the best teams lose occasionally. Maybe they had an off day or the opponent matched up in a certain way or there was a bad bounce.
One of the reasons the seeding system in the NCAA Tournament works is because random stuff happens in the tournament. In one game, a 50-50 foul call (hey there again, Burke block) or a lucky shot or some other relatively random occurrence can flip a game and end a season. In a seven-game series these lucky events are supposed to even out, which is why the NBA almost never has crazy upsets and a true cinderella NBA champion is almost unheard of. But in a one-and-done tournament weird stuff happens.
This makes it more exciting. It also means that if a team plays a lot of close games the chances increase that some close break will go against them. It's part of the sport.
The seeding system helps protect top seeds from running afoul of this phenomenon too early. Not completely, but it helps. If you earn a #1 seed, you get a 100% game against a 16 seed and an 80% game against the 8-9 winner--your fans can buy tickets to the regionals right away.
Villanova lost. it's over. They have a legit beef about the situation, but remember, that's all it is: A legit beef. Just like we have a legit beef about the reffing in the OSU game this year, there is a valid complaint for the loser. But Nova still lost a game they had every opportunity to win. And so did we.
...and by pressuring the ball prevented Villanova from even sniffing a chance at a miracle shot at the end of the game.
As great a coach as Beilein is he usually (always?) takes guys away from the lane in similar situations, which I find...problematic.
I don't think I've seen that play much, and it's a risky strategy because someone is uncovered up the court. Anyone know how often that gets called? It worked brilliantly.
My guess is that they were only to make that play if the FT missed, because if it's made the game is out of reach and the rebounder can run the baseline before the clock starts. But the FT followed by a running clock means that the rebounder has to dribble if the trap is set properly, bleeding critical time and preventing Nova from setting a play.
Of course, Nova has a history of making those long-range plays, so I wonder if Wisconsin was prepared for exactly that kind of moment.
I thought that was interesting. There are potential downsides: you risk committing a foul on the rebound, and if the rebounder is able to pass it out, then they've got a 4 on 3 advantage. But with only 3 seconds left and a 3-point lead, it seems pretty safe.
Surprise probably helps here. If a team has reason to expect they'll be doubled, they can plan for a quick outlet to get the ball moving with that 4-on-3 advantage and suddenly the defenders are in big trouble. An instantaneous outlet to a guard on the sideline, say.
But if the man under the basket is just thinking about how to set up a play down the court, the intrusion of two massive defenders causes shock, delay, and disaster. I don't know enough about basketball to know how often this has been used, but on the surface it looked like a brilliant change-up.
March 22nd, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^
They did come frighteningly close to committing a foul...but it worked perfectly.
I will not lay this all at the feet of Mark Hollis(although his contributions are noted) , and to be fair, there are sometimes years where the Committee seems to get it right more often than not, but this year.....this year is not such a year. In fact, this year is a real head-scratcher if you like to talk seeding like I do. A lot of matchups where I am thinking, "I honestly think there is serious underseeding / overseeding going on here...", but it has made for some interesting basketball regardless.
but so many mis-seedings has the potential to really skew the later round matchups. Villanova/Wisconsin and Michigan/Louisville are great games but they shouldn't happen until the 3rd round or later not the 2nd round. There are many other such examples this year. I have to blame it on Hollis because nothing else makes sense. His department is on fire and this is his parting shot for the NCAA before he gets the boot
WD just got bodied on twitter lmao
is a joke. Games that go on outside conference play in November and December don't correlate with how strong teams will be in March.
When you screw someone with a lower seed, there are two participants in the games/path that result.
The directly screwed lower seeded team playing way-tougher competition than it should out of the gate, and the indirectly screwed higher seeded team that gets rewarded for a great season with an early unnecessarily tough game.
screw Villanova?
Wins a few early season games against FLA, Minny, IL and all the sudden they're a good team??? Then they lay an egg and lose by 25 to Xavier?? I ain't seeing it. Hollis, you suck.
not Big Ten.
The sex scandle at MSU will blow up in his face by the ed of this year. Heads will roll just like Penn State and Baylor. Smaller fry are already gone.
March 18th, 2017 at 11:02 PM ^
All the Clone fans in my family are tripping out. I have kept my yap shut.
March 18th, 2017 at 11:13 PM ^
These mis-seedings wind up screwing two teams.
March 19th, 2017 at 10:48 AM ^
Villanova lost. They didn't deserve a second round win served on a silver platter. They have to earn it every time out, just like everyone else.
I guarantee that no matter what seeding all of the whiners think should have been used, if the committee had used that one instead, there would still be plenty of results in the first two rounds that "proved" some of those seeds were wrong.
Once again the effin committee gift wrapping Duke into the final four. Seeding all sorts of screwed up. Good job Hollis. There's obviously a problem if there is immediate consistent media backlash after you release your tournament seeding.