The updated bracketology was released today by ESPN college basketball anlayst Joe Lunardi (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology). After reviewing his NCAA tournament picks, I was left feeling somewhat disappointed with the process by which he chose his teams to make the tournament. At the top he seemed to have things correct: Kentucky, Kansas, Villanova, and Syracuse all receiving #1 seeds. The Big East had 7 teams get in, with 6 of these teams earning a 5 seed or lower. The ACC and Big XII also had 7 teams in for a three way tie for the most teams qualified. My problem stems from the conferences lower on the list. The conference with the next highest amount of teams in Lunardi’s bracketology is…the A-10? The A-10 is a great conference, no question (See “What is the Sixth Best College Basketball Conference,” 12/20/09), but is it really warranted to be tied with the SEC for 4th in terms of teams qualifying for the tournament from said conference? Although the highest A-10 ranked team is a 4 seed, the rest of the teams are given anywhere from 8-12 seeds, and the SEC has each of its teams as 8 seeds or lower, it still is a problem in my eyes that these A-10 teams are getting in off the bubble instead of teams from bigger conferences that may have more losses.
I understand what Joe Lunardi is thinking. This year in college basketball, there seem to be so many losses by what appeared to be such great teams from major conferences initially, that many smaller conference teams are moving up in the rankings. One good example is Northern Iowa. After a loss this week to Wichita State, an 8 point loss earlier in the year to 8-11 Depaul, and exactly 0 wins against ranked teams, with the best win against Boston College, the Panthers still remained ranked in the AP Poll. In addition, BYU, who is 20-1 with a loss to Utah State and whose biggest win of the season was against Big XII bottomfeeder Nebraska, is ranked 12th in the AP Poll.
With these small teams from mid-major conferences earning high rankings in the AP Poll, Joe Lunardi appears to be giving these teams from small conferences too much credit. Consider his final four teams in; Cincinnati, Richmond, William and Mary, and Arizona State. His first four out are Florida, Seton Hall, Charlotte, and Louisville. My problem is that Richmond and William and Mary are ahead of Florida, Seton Hall, and Louisville. In addition, I find it insulting to major conference teams that Charlotte is even in the NCAA tournament discussion. Let me start with the resumes of Richmond and William and Mary. Richmond is 15-6, very vanilla, with losses to VCU, Charlotte, and Saint Louis, among others, with only 1 win over a projected NCAA tournament team. William and Mary is 14-5 and has a slightly more impressive resume than Richmond. With wins over Maryland, Wake Forest, and Richmond itself, the Tribe has several impressive wins on which to lean come Selection Sunday. However, with a current 2 game losing streak consisting of unimpressive consecutive losses to VCU and Old Dominion, as well as losses to UNC Wilmington and Harvard, and an overtime win against Delaware, the Tribe does not have a resume suitable for the NCAA tournament.
Consider the resumes of Louisville and Seton Hall, who are currently part of Lunardi’s first four out. Louisville has a 12-7 record. Yes, it is slightly worse than both William and Mary and Richmond, but consider the differences in schedule strength. Louisville has an infinitly more difficult schedule than these teams, including games against Kentucky, Villanova, and Pittsburgh to this point, with many more difficult games to come. William and Mary and Richmond are lucky if they play one team of the caliber of those teams listed above. In addition, Seton Hall has a 12-6 record, but has an even tougher schedule than Louisville. The Pirates have lost to Temple, West Virginia, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Connecticut, and Georgetown. Wow. Now that is a schedule. 5 of Seton Hall’s 6 losses are to ranked teams, and all losses are to teams currently projected to make the NCAA tournament. In addition, Seton Hall has beaten Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Cincinnati. With 2 wins over NCAA tournament teams and no bad losses (most of which were very close), the Pirates deserve a NCAA tournament bid much more than teams like William and Mary and Richmond.
Now let me examine Charlotte, which is with Louisville, Florida, and Seton Hall on the first four out list. The 49ers are 14-5 this year, but their big wins, losses, and schedule strength are simply ridiculous. The 49ers have a 42 point loss to Duke, a 33 point loss to Old Dominion, a 9 point loss to Georgia Tech, a 17 point loss to Tennessee, and a 12 point loss to Xavier. If you are counting, that means a mid-major team with 5 losses before January has even ended, and an average point differential of -22.6 in losses. The only noteworthy win for Charlotte was a win over Louisville, which occurred in the midst of a 1-3 stretch for Louisville, before the Cardinals completely turned around their season. Therefore, the 49ers have 5 losses in a non-major conference and only 1 noteworthy win, although at this point Louisville isn’t even projected to be a tournament team.
These are just a few of the problems that I have with Joe Lunardi’s bracketology for this week. However, my complaints stem from Lunardi’s attitude towards mid-major conferences. Although there are some teams from mid-major conferences that deserve to be in the tournament, the fact that the Big 10 does not have as many teams projected in the tournament of the A-10 does is an example of why Lunardi’s bracketology is not acceptable to me as a college basketball analyst.
One most biased pieces of literature that I have ever read in my life.
Why even let small conference teams into the tournament?
It makes perfect sense when a middle of the pack “power” conference team gets into the tournament because they lost to a bunch of good teams but a smaller school that, you know, actually WINS their games doesn’t. /sarcasm
The seventh best team in a conference shouldn’t be able to play for the National Championship, I don’t care how good a conference is. I’d rather see the second or third best A-10 team get in then a .500 power conference team. You want to cut down the nets when all is said and done? Take care of your business all season long.
I love how ignorant goons like you throw around the term “mid major” to describe a major conference like the A-10. The A-10 is easily the 6th best conference, and most likely the 4th or 5th best conference in the nation – out of 31. If you had done your homework on Charlotte you would realize that the team has been improving the entire season, the Ls have only been against tournament quality teams and they have become closer as the season has gone on. The 49ers still have great matchups left beginning with #15 Temple on Wednesday and continuing with Rhode Island, Dayton, and rematches with Xavier and Richmond. Winning 2 of these games and not losing to bottom feeders should easily put Charlotte in the tournament.
most years the A10 is not a major conference, but its 6th in the RPI pal, our of 34 leagues.
The A10 also has 17 BCS victories, so your logic is flawed.
Charlotte? 5 losses to 5 potential sweet 16 teams. You failed to mention Charlotte was missing a starter for 7 games, and you failed to mention they have a nearly brand new team, its going to take them 15 games to gel- which you see happening now.
easy on your love affair with BCS leagues
The A-10 this year is a very good league and actually is better than the Southeast Conference and actually rivals the Big Ten . I don’t think there is any question that Temple , Dayton and Xavier are in . It all comes down to Charlotte , Richmond and Rhode Island having some good wins down the stretch . Remember this is now if the season were to end now . Teams from BCS conferences have a good chance to get some big wins like Seton Hall , Louisville etc . The A-10 played the hardest out of conference schedule of any conference so as of right now they are benefitting from that schedule and good wins . We will see as it all plays out thru February .
Wow, this reasoning absolutely sucked.
Well, when you’re done blowing the power conferences and actually sit down and look at how college basketball as a whole works, let me know.
Until then, you are nothing more than a talking head who allows good-by-association into your reasoning over on the court proof as to who is actually a deserving team for bids in March.
First of all, thank you for reading the blog. Second, I do think that the A-10 is a great conference, and I think it is the 6th best in the country (See my 12/20 entry “What is the Sixth Best College Basketball Conference). It is a solid conference and should get a few bids to the tournament. My only contention is that teams from the Big East (the best conference in college basketball) have to play Villanova, Syracuse, Georgetown, West Virginia, etc, and that they get snubbed in the end by teams such as Richmond and William and Mary. The Spiders and Tribe are solid teams, no argument, but the fact is that they do not have to play teams ranked in the Top 10 on a weekly basis like Seton Hall does, for example. That is my only point. I have no problem with Richmond and William and Mary being on the bubble, but they do not deserve to get in over Seton Hall.
To Charlotte: While the 49ers have played slightly better recently, that still does not take a 42 point loss to Duke off their record. In addition, and I know Old Dominion has played well, but a 33 point loss to Old Dominion right before Christmas cannot be excused. Again, the only big win is Louisville, who at this point is projected to be out of the tournament. Therefore, by objectively looking at Charlotte’s resume, the team does not deserve an NCAA tournament bid at this point.
To the point made by John: I get what you are thinking. Small schools win their games, so put them in. However, that is why schedule strength is so important. To make an analogy, consider a high school student. He goes to the most difficult school in the area and works really hard to get all B+’s. Then a student goes to the local public school, works the least he possibly has to, and gets straight A’s. Who is the better student and gets to go to the good college? Now I am not saying that non-major conferences like the A-10 are equivalent to an easier public school, but my point is that Richmond does not play double digit ranked teams in a year. They just don’t. So to say that because Richmond has won its games is a little shortsighted, considering who they have played. Seton Hall’s 6 losses have all come to projected tournament teams, and 5 of which were to ranked teams. That is the big difference between Seton Hall’s losses and Richmond’s losses. Not to mention Seton Hall has 2 wins against projected tournament teams at this point.
Finally, to Tim’s point, it is not referred to as the BCS in college basketball. The BCS is simply the Bowl Championship Series and pertains solely to football, as it is the governing body for the postseason in the FBS.
Thanks for reading everyone.
Bob Long
If you are going to use SOS as a determinant of who gets in the tournament and who doesn’t, here’s a thought; let’s look at the data. Here are the current rpi/sos of Lunardi’s last 4 in – richmond: 41/68, William & Mary 42/75, Cincinnati 49/18, Airzona State 82/100. My vote for least deserving is ASU. What is your’s?
Of course, I think Lunardi is correct to have ASU in there. Assuming Cal get’s the auto-bid, the next best tournament eligible team in the Pac-10, no matter how mediocre it may be, will get an at-large. Why? Because it is improbable that the committee is going to allow a Power Six (since you don’t approve of using BCS) conference to have a single representative in the tournament. The NCAA tournament isn’t just an athletic contest. It operates, as most things do, according to the Golden Rule. Since in this case it’s the Power Six that have the gold, they rule.
You also seem to overlook the fact that not all Power Six confrences are equally demanding in a given season. I think your point about Seton Hall (54/15) is valid. The Big East is objectively the most challenging conference overall. It has the highest avg. rpi and highest avg. sos. The gap between it and the SEC and Big Ten for those measures is actually larger than the gap betwen either of those conferences and the A-10. However, your argument doesn’t seem to be much more than the Power Six conferences “are just tougher”. On average for the group that’s true, but in any one season, for any paticular conference, and depending on the entire schedule for a any given team (unbalanced schedules), it isn’t always true. This happens to be one of those seasons.
So let’s look at Florida, a team that lost to Richmond in a game played in Forida. Their rpi/sos – 68/93. So at the moment they ought to be in ahead of Richmond because …?
Lastly, I wouldn’t be too concerned either about Lundari’s projections or the probability that the A-10 or other “undeserving” mid-majors are going to take berths from “deserving” Power Six teams. Lunardi’s projections are just a snapshot in time and he appears to rely a lot on RPI, something the commitee doesn’t do. I don’t expect the A-10 to actually get 5 teams in the tournament this year and I doubt Lundari does either. But putting 5 A-10 teams in a projection does draw attention, especialy since he is viewed by many as biased toward mid-majors and the A-10 in particular. Seems like a smart move to me since it both creates interest and allows him to stand on his soapbox and point out what he thinks are the injustices done to mid-major teams in tournament selections.
One other point and I know it’s nitpicking, but it is something that drives me nuts. You repeatedly refer to “small schools” when wrtiting about mid-majors and you certainly aren’t alone. I’ve always wondered, is it because the teams’ players are generally diminutive, their enrollment typically limited, or both? I know that was snarky, but last I checked Old Dominion has a much larger enrollment than Villanova and Villanova has often employed a smallish, gaurd-oriented lineup in recent years.
My least deserving team is absolutely Arizona State of that list you made, no question. The Pac-10 stinks and ASU hasn’t played anyone. But I do think that Cincinnati should get in over Richmond and William and Mary.
To this point in time, I do believe that the Pac-10 deserves only 1 team in the tournament, which is Washington. The conference has looked so poor that if the status quo doesn’t change too much, the committee would have no problem putting only one team in from the Pac-10 considering the fact that mid-major teams are getting much more respect and the amount of these teams that enter the tournament has become a hot-button issue in recent years.
To your next point, while I believe that the A-10 is more difficult than the Pac-10 this year, it is not true that the A-10 is comparable to the SEC and Big 10. For example, while the SEC and A-10 both have 5 projected tournament teams, the SEC’s teams are seeded anywhere from 1-8, while the A-10’s teams were put as 8-12 seeds, barring Temple who was 4. There needs to be some recognition by A-10 fans of that fact as well. SEC teams are high seeds on the whole, whereas A-10 teams are some of the last at-larges in the tournament.
To your Florida point, I am actually more concerned with Seton Hall and Louisville, which is way I gave more detailed explanations about those teams. Florida is a team that has shown flashes but on the whole does not have a stellar resume, so at this point I would have no problem with Richmond getting in over Florida.
To your final point: That is a good point, I never really gave it a second thought, and your comment made me chuckle. You are right, I should have referred to these teams not as “small schools,” but as “small conference schools.” Thank you for that and I will try to avoid that common practice.
Bob Long
Charlotte was missing key starter Anjuan Wilderness during the beginning of the season. He wasn’t completely recovered until recently. Additionally, our top 3 scorers were not on last year’s team, we are a very new team and have needed time to learn to play together. That doesn’t mean we’d win against Duke or ODU, but we have come a long way in my mind.
In those games we got behind early and couldn’t put together a comeback run to save our lives. Against Georgia Tech and Tennessee on the road there were come back runs and we went down fighting. Learning to play together, having Anjuan back, and becoming feistier have allowed to come from behind to beat Richmond on the road and then Temple tonight. I see us as a 3rd or 4th place team in the A10 with a 12th seed in the tournament.
Believe me, I’m not the biggest fan of the A10, I miss the CUSA days where we played Cincinnati, Memphis, Louisville, etc. regularly, but not having football (until 2013) killed us and we got skipped by the Big East (who I have great respect for) so now we are in the A10 and it is what it is. I do think the A10 is solid though, and it looks like the Niners are back.
Temple is a big win no doubt, which honestly I did not think the 49ers would get tonight. However, I still think a big run is needed, as I would say no less than 22 wins get Charlotte in given the amount of major conference teams that will have 20 wins given the parity that exists in college basketball this year (the amount of ranked teams with 5 and 6 losses is very high this year, and the resumes of non-ranked vs. ranked teams are less spread out than most years). So Temple was a good win, and believe me, I wasn’t trying to knock your Niners, I just think there is still a good deal of work to do before a bid can be earned. No reason it can’t be done though.
Bob Long
I just think its funny how people are arguing logic. I agree with Bob completely..haha you stick Charlotte in the Big East they wouldnt have a shot in hell at making the tournament so Ben Hemmingway you can go jack off to your wins against temple and louisville but two good wins doesnt change the fact that they play in the A-10 and its easier to win big games when you have time to focus on them, in the big east every game is a tough game do you dont get to focus on one team for longer than another. Another thing tim, 5 potential sweet 16 teams? I dont know which Old Dominion team your looking at but i dont think the one that just lost to Northeastern is making the sweet 16, just cause they beat Charlotte by 33 doesnt make them a sweet 16 team. Ryan I would criticize your retarded statement but you didnt even bother to argue for a team, just strictly said you didnt agree..good point i guess, i loved the facts to back it up