Hoops HD Mock Selection Committee Report: Sunday, March 15th

Bracket Below Updated at 4pm, est

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Last night, the committee selected the entire field, seeded the entire field, scrubbed the entire field, and set up contingency plans for the games today.  UConn was not selected as an at-large, but if they win they will land at #47 on the seed list, which places them on the #12 line.  If they lose, then another spot in the field will open up, and Temple will make the field as our final at-large selection.  The fact that they are in the same conference as UConn is a coincidence.  That did not factor in to the decision.

As you can see below, the teams that were considered but did not make the field as at-larges are Colorado State, UConn (who is still playing), Georgia, Illinois, Murray State, Texas A&M, Tulsa and UCLA.

I realize that many bracketology sites are projecting that Georgia is not only in the field, but safely in the field.  Quite frankly, we don’t care.  If the actual committee takes them it would not surprise me because I see how a case can be made, and I see how they’ve done things that this committee has a tendency to like.  Same with Colorado State and Tulsa.  Our committee did not like them.  Although we go through the same process the real committee does and use the same procedures and information, we really aren’t all that concerned with guessing what a committee of people we don’t really know are going to do.  We are more into analysis than we are fortune telling, and aren’t really worried too much about what our final “score” is when it comes to matching what the real committee does.

Having said that, I do think Wisconsin will get a #1 seed from the real committee if they win today, and perhaps even if they don’t.  I also think that Colorado State will make the real committee’s field.  We are going to scrub our bracket one more time, and we make one or both of those changes ourselves, but I’d venture to say that Colorado State probably will not be voted in to ours.

Below is what our board looked like after we finished last night.  Below that is a preliminary bracket based on our seed list, but it is not the final bracket.  I checked it and I don’t think there are any mistakes, but it was 4am, I don’t have the software that our chairman has that immediately point out errors, so if there are any, a thousand pardons.  I realize Butler v Indiana is a rematch, and that the committee likes to avoid those, but in this case I felt I had to move too much around to avoid it.  That, and who the hell wouldn’t want to see those two go at it again??

Georgia Southern and Georgia State are also accounted for.  Georgia State will be a #14 seed, whereas Georgia Southern would be a #15 seed.

THE BOARD

THIS IS OUR FINAL BRACKET IF SMU BEATS UCONN.  We had to move BYU v Miami from the #11 down to the #12 line, and Wofford up to the #11 line to meet bracketing rules

THIS IS OUR BRACKET IF UCONN BEATS SMU.  No teams had to be moved off their natural seed lines

NOTES ON THE BRACKET

-The biggest teams we had disagreements on were Butler, Louisville and SMU.  Some of us felt that Butler was clearly better than Louisville, and made several motions to get the two switch, but by that point we needed seven out of ten committee members to agree with the motion and it could not pass.

-Kyle Lamb and Lee Delvecchio were very much against SMU, and they ended up motioning several times to move them down.  Some were against it, but they were able to convince the majority, so the teams were moved.

-We do feel that the real selection committee will give Wisconsin a #1 seed, and that they will either replace Duke or Virginia.  Some of us feel Colorado State is getting in to the real tournament, but not everyone.  Many of us also feel Georgia is getting in to the real tournament, but that they do not belong in.  We feel they will replace either BYU or Temple, most likely BYU.

It’s up to the committee now.  It’s called Bracketology, but I actually hate that term.  It’s a qualitative process that basically consists of ten individuals conducting a year long examination.  You can quantify what it will approximately look like, but you cannot quantify the entire thing.