NCAA selections: Creighton is a 7-seed, WSU a 9-seed

[tornado]

just that Iowa fans will be upset...

anyway - everyone's buzzing that mid-major fans HAVE TO BE HAPPY...

WHY??? Gonzaga's #1 ranked yet got the 4th #1 seed -
Saint Louis should be a Top 10...and all the other mid-majors like Creighton, Butler etc...got hosed with seeds of 6, 7, 8...

answer me this...
Wichita beats VCU and has a better SOS with pretty much equal RPI & overall record..
But VCU gets a 5-seed - Wichita gets a 9..
Trust me - I am happy ANY mid-major ever gets a bid because it does happen fairly enough - especially when every single year one or two of them come from horrible seeds
and make the Sweet Sixteen, Final Four, or Championship game!! but....

most mid-majors other than the one who is ranked #1 overall and the few from out east that are media darlings - got little favors here...
a couple of 27-5 & 25-6 teams got double-digit seeds


One more - St. Mary's has a 32 RPI , a great record, they beat Creighton, they beat BYU, they beat Drake & UNI, and not only get a bad seed but have to win the play-in game just to get in the round of 64!!!

and Southern Miss - not that I am fan of theirs - have RPI 28, 25 wins, almost all their losses were to ranked teams, and going to the NIT

One of the gurus during the selection show said it best...
if those mid-majors are upset let 'em go join a major conference and play tougher competition ....
I knew that's what it has always been all about - the GREEDY major conferences simply don't want to see a single smaller school ever get in if they had their way...they are ultra miffed that teams like VCU, Butler, MVC schools, etc... have shown 'em up big time recently...

[BSSFan#1]

I don't think rational Iowa fans will be upset, even with Iowa beating Illinois in their only head-to-head match. Iowa got the home game advantage in that match up.

Illinois rpi 42
Iowa rpi 78

Illinois 4-5 vs rpi top 25, Iowa 0-6 vs rpi top 25
Illinois SOS 9, Iowa SOS 103
In conference play Iowa played 5 games vs rpi top 25 and 8 vs 101+ while Illinois played 6 vs rpi top 25 and 7 vs 101+

Iowa's avg rpi win was 182 and avg rpi loss was 48
Illinois' avg rpi win was 122 and avg rpi loss was 48

With 12 teams one thing that is missing is a full home-and-home with every team. Iowa finished one game ahead but they got a game against 188 rpi in place of a top 25 rpi team. Iowa played Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State just once each during conference regular season.

[Tulsa Brave]

Illinois at 8-10 in Big Ten finished a full game behind Iowa - but Iowa's going to the NIT...

we all know that the size of Kentucky's arena will guarantee them some NIT home games

and with all the talk all season long of 3 or 4 bids for the Valley and UNI, Indiana State, ISU, even Evansville being a bubble team - not a mention of anyone else from the Valley any more..

Pretty easy to figure out why that is. Take one look at the non-conference schedules of the two teams. Also remember the unbalanced conference schedule that also favored Iowa. Iowa also won only 2 road games...even Bradley beat that. Illinois not only went 5-6 on the road, but one of those wins was at Gonzaga by double digits. Iowa maybe could have snuck into a 76 team field, but even 72 wouldn't have been enough for them. Kemtucky would have gotten plenty of home games because they may have made it into a 72 team field. Don't know anyone who ever thought the MVC was going to get 4 teams in, but they would have had 3 had Indiana State been able to beat the bad teams on the road.

[Tulsa Brave]

just that Iowa fans will be upset...

anyway - everyone's buzzing that mid-major fans HAVE TO BE HAPPY...

WHY??? Gonzaga's #1 ranked yet got the 4th #1 seed -
Saint Louis should be a Top 10...and all the other mid-majors like Creighton, Butler etc...got hosed with seeds of 6, 7, 8...

answer me this...
Wichita beats VCU and has a better SOS with pretty much equal RPI & overall record..
But VCU gets a 5-seed - Wichita gets a 9..
Trust me - I am happy ANY mid-major ever gets a bid because it does happen fairly enough - especially when every single year one or two of them come from horrible seeds
and make the Sweet Sixteen, Final Four, or Championship game!! but....

most mid-majors other than the one who is ranked #1 overall and the few from out east that are media darlings - got little favors here...
a couple of 27-5 & 25-6 teams got double-digit seeds


One more - St. Mary's has a 32 RPI , a great record, they beat Creighton, they beat BYU, they beat Drake & UNI, and not only get a bad seed but have to win the play-in game just to get in the round of 64!!!

and Southern Miss - not that I am fan of theirs - have RPI 28, 25 wins, almost all their losses were to ranked teams, and going to the NIT

One of the gurus during the selection show said it best...
if those mid-majors are upset let 'em go join a major conference and play tougher competition ....
I knew that's what it has always been all about - the GREEDY major conferences simply don't want to see a single smaller school ever get in if they had their way...they are ultra miffed that teams like VCU, Butler, MVC schools, etc... have shown 'em up big time recently...

Southern Miss 0-6 against the top 50. That won't get Duke in the tourney or anybody else. Creighton and WSU both got seeded BETTER than I expected based on their resumes. Butler deserved no better than what they got. St. Mary's beat Creighton and no one else. Very similar resume to Middle Tennessee who they now get to play. They both got what they deserved.

[LittleBrave]

I don't think rational Iowa fans will be upset, even with Iowa beating Illinois in their only head-to-head match. Iowa got the home game advantage in that match up.

Illinois rpi 42
Iowa rpi 78

Illinois 4-5 vs rpi top 25, Iowa 0-6 vs rpi top 25
Illinois SOS 9, Iowa SOS 103
In conference play Iowa played 5 games vs rpi top 25 and 8 vs 101+ while Illinois played 6 vs rpi top 25 and 7 vs 101+

Iowa's avg rpi win was 182 and avg rpi loss was 48
Illinois' avg rpi win was 122 and avg rpi loss was 48

With 12 teams one thing that is missing is a full home-and-home with every team. Iowa finished one game ahead but they got a game against 188 rpi in place of a top 25 rpi team. Iowa played Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State just once each during conference regular season.

One of my best friends is a big Hawkeye fan and he feels that Illinois far and away deserved to get in over Iowa. Iowa didn't beat anyone good in their non-conf. schedule, and Illinois did. And Iowa only had 1 great win that stood out in the B-10.
Maybe they felt they should get a #2 seed so they can get a guaranteed home game in the 2nd round, but I think most are satisfied with their #3 seed in the NIT.

[tsguthrie]

Is someone setting up a tournament group on ESPN this year?

[tornado]

Wichita's Gregg Marshall playing mind games and trying to dupe Pitt into complacency...?

"I don't want to say it's the varsity against the jayvee, but there's a pretty high
level of athlete over there and they have great size," Marshall said. "We play
very similar styles.
...Jamie Dixon is one of the finest coaches in the country. They're known as one
of the toughest teams in the country.."

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/pitt-big-east/wichita-state-found-dance-mix-despite-modest-goals-679922/

[mrcoachdude]

we know valley teams have and can beat pitt. Go wsu

truth