Latest ESPN Bracketology
The most recent Bracketology from ESPN has us as a 2-seed in the West bracket. While I would always prefer being on the 1 line, to me, this is the best possible bracket for us. Assuming that all favorites win (never happens), Gonzaga is a weaker 1-seed than the others (UVA, UNC and the fighting Zions). Our trip to the final 4 would be Montana, Nova, Houston and Gonzaga.
Oh fun, Houston again.
Pros: Getting to watch The Shot, over and over again leading up to and during the game.
Cons: My heart.
I hear you, but once you get to the tourney and get past the first round, every match-up is potentially difficult. I am fine with playing Houston again.
At least Man Bun isn't there anymore.
That guy could sure play though - wow
Not gonna lie- I was a little happy to see how sad his man bun wearing little brother was after the game. Not because I wish the kid to be sad, but I think they showed him and man bun about 1,000 times that game
You're a mean person. Sure, be happy that man-bun was sad. But the little kid is just excited to be rooting for his big brother.
man-bun.....such an oxymoron.
That's not what she said.
So we would potentially play three of the six teams we faced last March. Interesting.
I'd still rather be in Duke's region. I'm betting Zion doesn't play again.
Kind of a "Catch 22" - If Zion doesn't play, Duke is not getting a #1 seed anyways, so there will be no "Zionless Duke at #1 Seed Region". If Zion out - question is would you rather play Virginia, Gonzaga, North Carolina, or the winner of Tennessee/Kentucky in the SEC tourney?
Out of those 5 - I would prefer Gonzaga. After playing the Dog Shit Tacos for three months, our defense will be a shock to their system. IF they even make it to the Elite Eight.
Living in Southern California, I love the idea of the West regional and repeating last year's fan experience at Staples Center!
Especially given that, besides Gonzaga, none of those other teams would show up well in Anaheim.
Being that I’ll be in LA that weekend, yes please.
I've been commuting (flying) to San Jose for a couple of months now and was hoping for the West to actually be the west -- not Des Moines (for the first weekend) or San Jose for the Midwest and South regions. :(
EDIT: Wrong thread (somehow...)
Yeah right. We would all follow Brian off a cliff. I am offended and demand an apology. I am perfectly capable of jumping off a cliff on my own.
EDIT. So Sydney deleted his earlier post. Well...I'm still offended.
/s
I meant for that reply to be in the thread about why everyone hates Delaney. I really don't know how I posted that here.
Surprised it didn’t become a diary post.
Good work.
Nice that ESPN lets Joe Lunardi out of mom's basement for a few weeks every March.
If Michigan were to win out (or even win one of the Big Ten regular season/tournament) and if Zion Williamson shut it down for the season, would Duke really get a one seed over Michigan? Let's say Duke doesn't win either the ACC regular season or ACC tournament in this scenario.
No...but Virginia or North Carolina would have that claim...both would probably have a claim to a #1...we would be fighting it out with the SEC Champion for that #1 seed....unless that champion happens to be LSU...
Gonzaga is the weakest 1 seed? I disagree with that.
Imo:
1. Duke (full strength)
2. Gonzaga
3. Tennessee
4. Virginia
Virginia is much better than Tennessee. If we got to pick the 1-seed in our region, Tennessee is the easy call. They are the only one below us in Kenpom. If I had to pick a region the West would be my choice because of last seasons turnout in LA.
Tennessee is one of the most overrated teams in basketball.
I've dislike UT-K since I read the following in 1998:
"Its not that Payton didn't deserve the Heisman, the Heisman didn't deserve Payton"
C wooooooood!!!!!!
I would take Duke minus Zion all day.
They really aren't that good without him.
He'll be back.
My thoughts exactly. If he was shutting it down for the year, we’d know by now. Coach K is just resting him up for the tournament. Everyone at Duke knows that the ACC title is small potatoes for their program. Coach K is not bringing Zion back early and risking injuring him again. They’re happy to concede the ACC to UNC to make sure Zion is healthy come tournament time.
Get Zion and the rest of their team to the tournament healthy, and Duke is head and shoulders above every other team in America.
And with him they lose at home to Syracuse. Remind me why Duke is supposed to be the best team of all time?
Because ESPN says so and LeBron goes to their games.
It seems really unlikely that they would match UM and Montana up again in the first round. It's just not necessary. Same thing with having Villanova as the 7 in Michigan's pod while Louisville is the 7 in MSU's pod. Both are in Des Moines, so why wouldn't they just swap the two sevens to avoid both teams having in season rematches?
I guess it's a reason to not take these things too seriously.
You're exactly right, they would 100% swap Louisville and Villanova in that scenario.
I think that's one of the things that frustrates me most about these "mock brackets" (especially Lunardi): they don't even pretend to follow the stated rules the committee uses for seeding. So even if we ignore them being largely useless for predictive purposes, they aren't representative of an accurate picture if they picked today.
From the NCAA website:
1. If possible, rematches of non-conference regular-season games should be avoided in the First Four and first round.
3. If possible, rematches from the previous two tournaments should be avoided in the first round.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2018-10-19/how-field-6…
What the hell is Lunardi doing if his only job is to rank these 68 teams and he doesn't use the committee guidelines for the rankings....?
Maybe I'm totally missing it but which guidelines is he violating? The one about sending Michigan out of its natural region two years in a row if they're in Des Moines?
Michigan-Montana would be a rematch of last year's ro64 matchup (rule: avoiding rematches of previous two tournaments), then Villanova would be a repeat of a non-conference matchup from this year (supposed to be avoided in the first two rounds, though the rule above says first round).
It's great to deserve a 1 seed, but being a 2 has its advantages. The main advantage is that you play the 1 seed as an underdog and use the disrespect card. As a 1, you could play the same team you are playing, but they are the 2 and use the disrespect card. We need guys like Jordan Poole to be motivated.
I don't see this at all. 1 and 2 seeds are damn near interchangeable. There have been quite a few years where 2 seeds were considered the front runners to win it all. By the time you get to the Elite 8, except in the case of real Cinderella teams, most people don't even pay attention to seeds. If Michigan were a two seed playing against Gonzaga or Tennessee or somebody, there would be no "disrespect" angle to play. Michigan would likely be favored in the game.
The "disrespect" angle would be the #1 seed is an underdog. In the era of Dantonio, you can always play the disrespect card.
Can’t see us being matched up with Nova in the second round. Committee would work to make sure that doesn’t happen. A healthy Duke and Virginia are the two teams I do not want in our region. The only plus to UVA is that under Bennett they have had a knack for having complete offensive duds early in the tournament but if they made it to the elite eight I would not want to see them. Give us Tennessee and I would be happy.
Not sure the Committee would make sure that doesn't happen. I can see them actually going out of their way to make Michigan v Villanova, then Michigan v Houston happen. They love those emotional year over year rematches. Whether the fact that we have played them twice already within a calendar year would make a difference - don't know.
But we already got some partial revenge on Villanova earlier this year, and would prefer to leave it at that. As Apollo Creed once mumbled: "Don't want no rematch..."
That's the most Michigan State tournament seeding I've ever seen.
The chance of this being the actual tournament seeding is the same as someone correctly getting their entire bracket pool correct
Of course that is true. Nobody is saying that this is the final seeding. It is just a prediction by one national media guy, and it gets updated almost daily. That said, it's still fun to talk about, especially this time of year when the Board is pretty much dead.
Perfect timing for Bracketology, right before the biggest NCAA basketball weekend of the year!
Shirley nothing will change between now and then.
obligatory, particularly because of how you spelled it
It had to be done, thank you... I will throw in one of my faves from that movie:
"Joey have you ever been to a Turkish prison?"
No reason we shouldn't wipe the Breslin with sparty jerseys this weekend with ther 3 personnel losses - hang the banner and play a strong b10 tourney and we would be on the cusp of #1 seed.
Hanging our banner from the rafters at Breslin Saturday night if we win? I think the young kids would call that savage.
Three ACC 1 seeds
Lmaoooooooooooo the bias is so real. The two teams tied for first place in the ACC barely won at 5th place Maryland (UVA) and got their teeth kicked in at Michigan (UNC). The echo chamber is so real it hurts.