Category Archives: NCAA

Tournament Thoughts

Filed Under: '09 - '10 Season, NCAA by KraverWP — Leave a comment
03/20/2010

A great couple of days of hoops.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to watch nearly as much as I would have liked.  Some thoughts:

  1. Has anyone ever seen Cole Aldrich and Eric Montross in the same room?  Just curious.
  2. With all due respect to Northern Iowa, I can’t think of a single reason why a recruit would choose Northern Iowa over UNLV. (Let me remind you: the “LV” in UNLV stands for Las Vegas.  Yes.  Las-friggin’-Vegas.  And the “Northern Iowa” in Northern Iowa stands for, yes, NORTHERN-FRIGGIN’-IOWA.)  I have no idea why anyone would choose to go to school in Northern Iowa who could go to school in Las-friggin’-Vegas.  Yet, Northern Iowa beat UNLV.  College hoops is a grazy game.
  3. College hoops is a crazy game.  Have I mentioned that already?  On January 18, the Texas Longhorns – then 17-0 and ranked #1 in the country – lost to Kansas State.  Exactly two months later, on March 18, the Texas Longhorns – then 23-8 and seeded #8 in their region – had their season ended by a lousy Wake Forest team.  If anyone has a sensible explanation for what happened to Texas, I’m interested to hear it.
  4. Even as crazy as college hoops is, one would think that someone who pays for the domain name hoopservations.com, just so he can blog about basketball for the entertainment of all 4 of his friends that read the blog, would be able to make some sensible predictions about what would happen in the tournament.  One would think that if his kept his predictions conservative and predicted, for example, simply that Big East teams would do well in the tournament, he would walk away from the endeavor with some dignity intact.  Well, you’d be wrong.  Thursday was just a disaster for the Big East, with Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Marquette all losing to lower-seeded teams, and Villanova nearly losing to Robert Morris.  (I don’t know who Robert Morris is, but I think he used to go to my camp.  He had two brothers, and a wicked temper, if I recall.  I didn’t realize he started a university.)  Syracuse, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh helped turn things around on Friday, but it’s still shaping up to be a bad year for the Big East.
  5. At one point during yesterday’s Oklahoma State – Georgia Tech game, the announcers referred to “Oliver” and “Miller” from Oklahoma State within a few moments of each other, and, from that point forward, every time I heard one of their names, I remembered this dude.
  6. Interesting article here.
  7. Before this tournament started, there was already writing on the wall telling us that the end of the college basketball world as we know it is here.  North Carolina, UCLA, Indiana, Arizona, and UCONN are all not in it.
  8. At this time every year, I get nostalgic for Harold “The Show” Arceneaux.  If you’re wondering where he’s been since he set the tournament on fire, wikipedia has it covered (of course).  Whenever I think of Harold “The Show” Arceneaux, it reminds me that I know nothing about how NBA GM’s scout talent; Darko Milicic is still in the league, and so is Kwame Brown, but Harold “The Show” Arceneaux never got a real shot.
  9. Whenever I think of Harold “The Show” Arceneaux, it also reminds me that I know almost nothing about the way this country’s system of higher education is set up.   I know that some states have state schools in multiple places.  Usually, those schools are identified by where they are.  For example, in New York, SUNY Binghamton is in Binghamton, SUNY Albany is in Albany, etc.  In California, UCLA is in LA, UC Santa Barbara is in Santa Barbara, etc.  Ok.  So far, so good.  Then, though, I think of Weber State.  I know that there is no “state” named “Weber,” and nothing about the name “Weber State” tells me which “state” it refers to.  I looked it up, and learned that Weber State is in a city (city?  town?  village?) named Ogden, in Utah.  If anyone can explain how a school in Ogden, Utah winds up with the name Weber State, I’m interested in hearing from you.
  10. At this time of year, I feel like we should have a national holiday so people can stop what they’re doing and watch hoops.  If I had a vote, I’d vote to call it Harold “The Show” Arceneaux Day.
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Determining Which Bubble Teams Get In

Filed Under: NCAA by KraverWP — Leave a comment
03/14/2010

Over the last few days, I’ve been listening plenty to “experts” talking about which teams are on the bubble, and which of those teams should get in.  They talk endlessly about RPI rankings, strength of schedule, wins against the RPI top-50, and the “eye-test,” which is basically their way of saying that nothing else matters if you look at 2 teams and feel strongly that one is better.

For what it’s worth, if I’m ever on the committee, here’s how I’ll decide:

  1. The teams’ records.  For whatever reason, this stat seems to get overlooked.  Of course, a team that plays in a lousy conference and puts up, say, 25 wins, has not accomplished as much as a team that plays in an excellent conference and puts up, say, 23 wins.  But, when talking about bubble teams, the record says a lot.  If a team puts up 23 wins in an excellent conference, that team probably isn’t on the bubble; it’s already in.  Thus, if we’re comparing 2 bubble teams, we don’t have to worry about an excellent team from an excellent conference getting bounced.  Once you take those teams out of consideration, the record is the best indicator of who should go.  If I’m choosing between 2 bubble teams, and one of them has 3 or more wins than the other, my analysis is just about over.
  2. Wins over RPI top-50.  Assuming that the teams have similar records, wins over the RPI top-50 is, in my opinion, the only other measurement that matters.  The team with more wins over the RPI top-50 should be in, assuming that the records are comparable.  I don’t care how many games they played against the RPI top-50, I care about the win total.  If the teams did not play the same number of games against the RPI top-50, that fact will be reflected in the records, which I would have already made the most important factor.  For example, if 1 team played 10 games against the RPI top-50, and the other only played 5, that fact would be reflected in their records.  In other words, if two teams have similar records, and one team is 3-7 against the RPI top 50 while the other is 1-2, I’m going with the team that is 3-7.
  3. The “eye test.”  When all else fails, go to the eye test.

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