68 TEAMS REMAIN!!! The Big Ten Championship game will have no impact on what we think the final bracket will look like. The link is below.
http://www.crimsoncast.com/2013/03/bracket-report-final-edition/
NOTES
-We think Indiana is more accomplished than Louisville. They won at Michigan, at Michigan State and at Ohio State. Louisville doesn’t have one win as good as that away from home, let alone three. I can see them giving the #1 overall to Louisville and sending them to Indianapolis instead of Indiana simply because Louisville finished first in the Big East and won the conference tournament. They went for the double, so to speak, and the committee has valued that in the past.
-We think Kansas has a far better team than both Duke and Miami, FL. However, profile wise, Duke’s is very good. Miami finished ahead of them, and beat them during the year, and won at NC State and Maryland, which are two places Duke didn’t win, and then went for the double when they won the conference tournament. It’s not unanimous, but the consensus was that we just don’t think they can justify putting Duke ahead of Miami, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kansas ahead of both. They can only take one, though, and I’m guessing it will be Miami.
-Tennessee would have been the last team in, but we took them out when Ole Miss won the SEC. La Salle was another team we were undecided on, but decided the committee wouldn’t value them as much.
-We think Middle Tennessee is a solid selection as an outright first place finisher with a solid RPI. Boise has a good profile, and is looks pretty good on the court as well.
-We’re not a huge fan of Saint Mary’s, but after looking at them closely I can see the committee valuing their road record, and they did beat Creighton and had a win against BYU on the road, who isn’t a tournament team, but is tough to beat at home.
-Kentucky is a very tough call. They were the last team in. They do have the injury, but two of their best wins came after they lost Noel. Most of their good wins came at home against teams that did not play well on the road, but we just had a feeling the committee would give them credit for those anyway. I will not be disappointed if they’re left out. I’d like to see La Salle in instead, but we just have a feeling that the committee will take them.
-North Carolina is grossly overseeded in this projection. We just have a feeling that the committee will overvalue them.
Projections are just that. Projections. I’m not a fortune teller. There is no science to it. If you look at all the people that project brackets, and there are a few hundred people who do this, not one of them was ever actually on the selection committee. They’ll be the first ones to tell you that it just can’t be predicted. It’s not a science. It’s a subjective process that’s done by a committee. If you’ve ever been on any sort of committee before, you know that there is nothing scientific about how they work.
Good luck to your teams!!!
Griggs