I did a post today for AOL about the NCAA letting 20 writers take a crack at putting together a mock bracket based on all the information the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has. It really was a good idea.
Now, let me just add that I am now pissed at the writers. They put Pitt as a #3 seed. Seems Kansas and A&M were both given #2 seeds.
If I understand how it worked, in their mock-up Pitt ended up losing the Big East Tournament to Marquette (and it would appear that Pitt was swept by Marquette in the regular season). So Marquette was a #2 seed. Naturally Marquette was the lowest #2 seed and Pitt was the highest #3 seed. And since they are the same conference, Pitt got bumped lower in the brackets. Geez, even in the mock Tournament selection, Pitt gets slammed.
That said, it seems like an interesting experiment. And actually damn smart move by the NCAA.
Mike DeCourcy has a really good timeline of the thing.
link to sportingnews.com
12:20 a.m.: We begin the process of determining where teams will play their opening games, and the Buckeyes get their break by getting sent to Lexington, less than three hours away by car. Pittsburgh could go to either Buffalo or Columbus, but there are fewer true Eastern teams at the top of our bracket and plenty from the Midwest, so they’re headed for Lake Erie.
But if Pitt can defeat Marquette in either game (assuming they get them again in the tourney, which is a big assumption), and only finish with five losses, then we should probably get a 1 or 2.
And if the RPI is such a strong factor with the selection committee, even if Pitt lost to Marquette in the reg. season and won a game or two in the Big East tournament, then they still should get at least a 2. But all of this is dependent on how they finish out the season – still have a tough game at Georgetown.
not looking for hate mail, just calling how I see it right now.
I am not rooting against us, I just really like how Marquette plays and hoops (as you know) is more about matchups than football.
Play Pacific, then GW/FSU winner, and THEN Kansas in a location much closer to Pitt. I wouldn’t be unhappy with that.
From reading Katz’ article on ESPN.com, it’s clear that the committee was INTENTIONALLY showing upsets in conference championship games to disrupt the process mid-stream. Marquette over Pitt was one of many examples of this, meant to change seedings on the fly as the committee must do when actually performing this task.
Link: ESPN.com Katz Article
As far as the tournament, guys, face it, we have to show better than we have to warrant respect in seeding. RPI will be used against us rather than in our favor. Plus, CBS doesn’t want us to be on TV, nobody likes our style.
