The Holy Land of Hoops

Joe Lunardi: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

Seed - Team

1- Villanova
5 - Seton Hall
6 - Providence
6 - Butler
7 - Georgetown
10 - Xavier

Jerry Palm: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

Seed - Team

2 - Villanova#
5 - Butler
6 - Georgetown
6 - Seton Hall
7 - Providence
11 - Xavier (play-in game vs. Dayton at UD Arena)

Xavier vs Dayton in the first 4? Yes please. This board would be pretty entertaining during the buildup and aftermath of that game.

it would be entertaining but I think Palm is just having a little fun. Of the ranked bracketolgists 131 is the top bracketolgists reporting and he has the Flyers a #6, so 11 is a stretch. Of course anything can happen but the NCAA isn't going to put Xavier opposite UD on their home floor. That would be completely unfair, it's already borderline unfair for X to have to play in Dayton because the fans are, well, fanatics and don't like X and hate Chris Mack. There is no other venue with similar dynamics, the only other team that gets booed at UD Arena is Michigan. For me, if UD falls to an 11 they will have stumbled and will miss the cut line.

http://131sports.com/

If St. Johns can pull an upset on Duke then they are back in the running. Of course, they still would need to sweep Marquette and Creighton and win half of the remaining BE games.

Playing Dayton on their home court seems like a bad idea to me somehow. On a neutral court...fine.

BEwannabe wrote:it would be entertaining but I think Palm is just having a little fun. Of the ranked bracketolgists 131 is the top bracketolgists reporting and he has the Flyers a #6, so 11 is a stretch. Of course anything can happen but the NCAA isn't going to put Xavier opposite UD on their home floor. That would be completely unfair, it's already borderline unfair for X to have to play in Dayton because the fans are, well, fanatics and don't like X and hate Chris Mack. There is no other venue with similar dynamics, the only other team that gets booed at UD Arena is Michigan. For me, if UD falls to an 11 they will have stumbled and will miss the cut line.

http://131sports.com/

Right now I'd be inclined to split the difference on Dayton and agree with Lunardi- giving them a 9 seed. The gaudy 15-2 record appears worth of a 6 seed on the outside, but if you look into who they've beaten (nobody terribly impressive) you can understand the logic behind the 11 seed. Ole Miss and Texas A&M are both currently top 50 RPI teams, but I'm not sure either of them will hold on as it seems to be theirs SOS (both boosted by playing Kentucky) that's keeping them where they are. The Flyers could certainly play themselves up to a 6 seed or higher, but it would require avoiding any bad losses and winning at least 1 of @GW and @VCU (unfortunate for UD that they're both road games). Lose both of those games and 8 or 9 probably starts to look like the ceiling for them.

7 seed is the current consensus, but 9 is certainly possible if the Flyers play out the year as mapped by rpiforecast but there are so many variables. And we don't need to analyze variables any further than Ole Miss and A&M, both had the ball and the last possession with the chance to beat Kentucky. A&M played Big Blue minus their best player, Ole Miss just beat Arkansas so those wins are likely to continue to give the Flyers rpi thrusts. But my point is more I don't see the Flyers falling to #11, to get there will mean bad things have happened and the Flyers remaining schedule isn't going to react rpi favorably to bad things happening and I don't even think ISIS would think Xavier playing UD at the UD Arena in play in game was a good idea.

Although the A-10 sucks this year, Archie should be in the running for any Coach of the Year awards for what he is doing. If St. John's continues to sputter, they should consider taking a look at Archie.

DudeAnon wrote:Although the A-10 sucks this year, Archie should be in the running for any Coach of the Year awards for what he is doing. If St. John's continues to sputter, they should consider taking a look at Archie.

Dayton hasn't won a single game against a tournament team. How many Big East teams would be 15-2 against their schedule?

Omaha1 wrote:

DudeAnon wrote:Although the A-10 sucks this year, Archie should be in the running for any Coach of the Year awards for what he is doing. If St. John's continues to sputter, they should consider taking a look at Archie.

Dayton hasn't won a single game against a tournament team. How many Big East teams would be 15-2 against their schedule?

1) He doesn't have any players over 6 foot 6.
2) He did make Elite 8
3) Eyeball test. Dayton has been a night and day difference since he came on. They play a very fun and good game of basketball.
4) Who else is better for the Johnnies?