Selection Sunday

[Jet915]

I agree, the committee favored major teams this year. UCLA, Indiana and Texas really shouldn't be in....

[XUFan09]

I agree, the committee favored major teams this year. UCLA, Indiana and Texas really shouldn't be in....

Yup, they favored them in seeding too.

[whiteandblue77]

The majority of deserving MidMajors for sure get hosed but there are definitely a several Mid Major Cinderella geographic gifts, and two are at the hands of Big East teams. Providence has to play (assuming they win at home) Dayton in Columbus and Georgetown has to play Eastern Washington in Portland...

others (less blatant) include Northeastern (Boston) getting N.D. in Pittsburgh, Wofford (South Carolina) getting Arkansas in Jacksonville and Georgia State getting Baylor in Jacksonville

[XUFan09]

The majority of deserving MidMajors for sure get hosed but there are definitely a several Mid Major Cinderella geographic gifts, and two are at the hands of Big East teams. Providence has to play (assuming they win at home) Dayton in Columbus and Georgetown has to play Eastern Washington in Portland...

others (less blatant) include Northeastern (Boston) getting N.D. in Pittsburgh, Wofford (South Carolina) getting Arkansas in Jacksonville and Georgia State getting Baylor in Jacksonville

Pittsburgh is about 200 miles closer to South Bend than it is to Boston.

[cu blujs]

As a fan of a former mid-major, I can say that I do not for a second miss the days of getting hosed over by committee after committee in favor of some traditional power conference team whose record in no way justifies its inclusion in the field. I feel for the mid-majors that get screwed, and my blood still boils when a Texas or UCLA gets in despite having sucky seasons. But at least I know that if Creighton gets to 20 wins and goes .500 or better in conference there is a pretty good chance we will be in, rather than needing more like 27 or 28 wins to not have to sweat it out.

Did I mention I love the Big East.

[NJRedman]

Appox. starting times Thurs. : Butler 2:40
Xavier 4:15
Villanova 6:50
G'town 10:00
Fri. : St. John's 9:30
Providence 10:00
All the late games suck.

Not for the Johnny living in LA! haha

[hoyahooligan]

I think the BE teams all got difficult draws.

That being said I think the teams have the potential to get 5 teams into the sweet 16. I'll hedge my bets and say 4 make it. If we can pull that off our reputation will be solidified as long as Nova makes it to at least the elite 8.

[stever20]

I think the BE teams all got difficult draws.

That being said I think the teams have the potential to get 5 teams into the sweet 16. I'll hedge my bets and say 4 make it. If we can pull that off our reputation will be solidified as long as Nova makes it to at least the elite 8.

I think the magic number isn't 4, but rather 3. If we can get Nova and 2 other sweet 16 teams, and Nova into the elite 8, our reputation is solidified. It won't be easy.

Just looking-
Butler is 1.5 dog to Texas
Nova 22.5 favorite to Lafayette
Georgetown 7 favorite to E Washington

not seeing line for St John's/SDSU
or of course the 2 PIG games that Xavier and Providence.

My hunch is the strongest cases are Nova obviously, Georgetown, and Providence. Butler with a brutal draw- 2 underdog games(of course, it's Butler so who know), and Xavier as well with a tough one- Baylor in the 2nd round isn't easy as we all remember.

[stever20]

Just saw the final 2015 bracket matrix ratings posted tonight.
Joe Lunardi was the 4th most accurate bracketologist this year with a 343 score.
Stevens was way down there with a 336.
Palm even further down at 328

The matrix as a whole got a 338. That's up from 336 last year.

Lunardi had 66/68 teams correct, and 42 teams seeded correctly, 61 within 1 seed.

[stever20]

looking a bit more-
Lunardi last 2 years is tied for 6th best. Last 3 years tied for 12th. He's a good 8 spots higher than Patrick Stevens last 2 years(6 to 14) and even more last 3 years. 12th to 25th.

Palm is tied for 69th last 3 years and 70th last 2 years.

so ignoring Lunardi because you don't think he's accurate isn't all that smart.