For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between Grambling and Texas Southern – CLICK HERE
It is Chad’s turn to put together the HoopsHD Staff Bracket this week. Below you will see his projections through games of Sunday, February 16, as well as his notes on the bracket. Below Chad’s Notes are the (totally inaccurate) responses by other members of the staff.
NOTES
– The Big Ten (10 teams) and Big East (7 teams) led the way. The last four teams in (as shown in the First Four matchups) were Florida, Richmond, Utah State and Cincinnati. The top four teams out were Purdue, South Carolina, Mississippi State and UNC-Greensboro. Also considered were Arkansas, Stanford, Syracuse, SMU, Utah and NC State.
– BYU is on the 6 line, but was actually an 8 seed on my Seed List. It was impossible to bracket BYU onto the 7, 8, 9 or 10 lines, so the only remaining solution was to move the Cougars a very rare two seed lines up. Houston and Michigan both fell down a seed line due to this move. The NCAA Principles and Procedures do allow for a two-line move if absolutely necessary, which was the case this week.
– I have two Big Ten teams on the 2 line, and I feel both clearly belong there. Penn State and Maryland are both on 8 game winning streaks and both have three Tier 1-A wins away from home. These teams are playing great basketball and both have a shot at the 1 line if someone ahead slips up.
– The Pac-12 placed three teams on the 5 line or higher, which is a sign of how much better the league has been this season after its struggles the last few years. On top of that, USC and Arizona State are both on the 9 line, with Arizona State playing its best basketball at the right time of the season.
– Georgetown is a new entrant this week after the Hoyas, who were more short-handed than ever on Saturday, picked up a huge road win at Butler. Patrick Ewing’s team now has four Tier 1 true road wins, and could seriously be on their way to a tourney bid.
– Northern Iowa and East Tennessee State were both ranked above the last of the at-large teams, and have outside shots at bids if they win out. Also, keep an eye on UNC-Greensboro, a team that is in the top 4 out. Both ETSU and UNCG have home tests left against a very tough Furman team plus the SoCon tournament ahead.
– A couple of fascinating rivalry match-ups showed up in the first round. In the South Region, Butler and Indiana are matching up in a 6/11 game in St. Louis, while in the West Region, Iowa and Northern Iowa are meeting in a 5/12 game in Albany. Neither match-up occurred during the regular season this year.
STAFF COMMENTS
COMMENTS FROM JOHN
– One thing I’ve been conditioned to look for since joining the Hoops HD staff is Creighton’s annual February collapse. I don’t think it’s coming anytime soon – the Bluejays had a monster week where they not only further enhanced their profile with a road win at Seton Hall, they also smashed DePaul at home. I’d even say that the Bluejays could be as high as a 3 this week.
– Personally, I thought I was going to be called out as nuts when I had Georgetown as the last team in my field after this weekend. But like Xavier who had a game-changing win at Seton Hall two weeks ago, the Hoyas got their season-defining win at Butler without the services of Mac McClung and Omer Yurtseven. Normally, what the Selection Committee does with injuries is consider a) how the team played when healthy and b) evaluate the length of injuries and whether or not the players will come back fully healthy. Georgetown is the complete opposite – do we have to excuse them for being fully healthy and intact back in November?
– Arizona, Arizona State and Stanford were all big movers in the Pac-12 last weekend. Arizona and Arizona State both picked up road sweeps in the Bay Area, and in the case of the Sun Devils, it was their first once since the league expanded to 12 teams. Stanford, on the other hand, is in deep trouble now that they’ve lost seven of eight and are running out of opportunities for any kind of wins, much less signature wins.
– I know we’re all tough on our own teams – I’d probably have Xavier in my final four byes (meaning a low 10 or high 11), but I’d still have Rutgers in 8/9 territory. Normally, the Selection Committee would heavily frown upon a team that only has a single road victory (Nebraska). But while Rutgers is 17-0 at home, look at who they’ve beaten in the RAC: Seton Hall, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue. Not everyone in the country would sweep that slate (two of which are protected seeds), and that HAS to count for something here.
– Purdue’s schizophrenic ways continued last week with losses against Penn State at home and a resurgent Ohio State team on the road; I would still personally have them in the field over a team like either Cincinnati or Utah State that doesn’t have nearly the quality of nice wins that Purdue does (nor does Purdue have ugly losses weighing them down like UC/USU). Oh, and I must applaud Chad for adding Angry Frank’s bunch to serious consideration (Boston U, Stetson, really?) for the field.
– Theoretically, I’d also love to know if a Seton Hall-Hofstra matchup would be permissible in the first round. I don’t know Chad’s seed list, but I don’t think there would be any home-court disadvantage for the Pirates here since they’re actually closer to Albany than Hofstra would be.
COMMENTS FROM DAVID
-I’m starting to warm up to Maryland. Winning at Michigan State, and winning the way that they did against a team that played well, had a late lead, and had all the momentum going their way, is a sign that Maryland can answer the bell when they need to. Having said that, I still don’t understand putting them ahead of Penn State, and Florida State, and Seton Hall, who have all won even bigger road games and even more of them. I like Maryland a lot more than I did this past Thursday, but still not as much as some of the teams that Chad (and to be fair, everybody else) continues to put Maryland ahead of.
-Arizona State on the 9 line?? Wow! I guess beating a Stanford team that’s outside the bubble, and beating a Cal team that may be good enough to earn a bye in the Mountain West Tournament (brought to you boy CONEXPO CON/AGG) REALLY impressed the counselor this week!
-I’m really not big on Indiana. In comparing them to, say, Northern Iowa (who Chad did select, but seeded behind Indiana) I see an IU team that’s beaten good teams at home, but none of those good teams are particularly good in true road games, and who’s only true win is at Northwestern. I know Northern Iowa just lost at Loyola Chicago, and that does have me holding my nose some, but Indiana hasn’t beaten a team on the road as good as Loyola CHI, so I’d still have them below UNI.
-I don’t understand Saint Mary’s. I mean…everyone he considered except for Utah looks better to me than Saint Mary’s. They’ve beaten BYU at home, the win against Wisconsin came during a stretch when the Badgers, and although Arizona State had an AMAZING week in Chad’s mind with their win over a team outside the bubble and another team that’s a thousand miles away from the bubble, that hardly seems like enough to select them, especially when you look at some of their losses.
-All and all, Chad tries really hard, and I guess we should applaud the effort, but he clearly does not know what he’s doing!!!!
Staff Bracket – February 17, 2020
For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between Grambling and Texas Southern – CLICK HERE
It is Chad’s turn to put together the HoopsHD Staff Bracket this week. Below you will see his projections through games of Sunday, February 16, as well as his notes on the bracket. Below Chad’s Notes are the (totally inaccurate) responses by other members of the staff.
NOTES
– The Big Ten (10 teams) and Big East (7 teams) led the way. The last four teams in (as shown in the First Four matchups) were Florida, Richmond, Utah State and Cincinnati. The top four teams out were Purdue, South Carolina, Mississippi State and UNC-Greensboro. Also considered were Arkansas, Stanford, Syracuse, SMU, Utah and NC State.
– BYU is on the 6 line, but was actually an 8 seed on my Seed List. It was impossible to bracket BYU onto the 7, 8, 9 or 10 lines, so the only remaining solution was to move the Cougars a very rare two seed lines up. Houston and Michigan both fell down a seed line due to this move. The NCAA Principles and Procedures do allow for a two-line move if absolutely necessary, which was the case this week.
– I have two Big Ten teams on the 2 line, and I feel both clearly belong there. Penn State and Maryland are both on 8 game winning streaks and both have three Tier 1-A wins away from home. These teams are playing great basketball and both have a shot at the 1 line if someone ahead slips up.
– The Pac-12 placed three teams on the 5 line or higher, which is a sign of how much better the league has been this season after its struggles the last few years. On top of that, USC and Arizona State are both on the 9 line, with Arizona State playing its best basketball at the right time of the season.
– Georgetown is a new entrant this week after the Hoyas, who were more short-handed than ever on Saturday, picked up a huge road win at Butler. Patrick Ewing’s team now has four Tier 1 true road wins, and could seriously be on their way to a tourney bid.
– Northern Iowa and East Tennessee State were both ranked above the last of the at-large teams, and have outside shots at bids if they win out. Also, keep an eye on UNC-Greensboro, a team that is in the top 4 out. Both ETSU and UNCG have home tests left against a very tough Furman team plus the SoCon tournament ahead.
– A couple of fascinating rivalry match-ups showed up in the first round. In the South Region, Butler and Indiana are matching up in a 6/11 game in St. Louis, while in the West Region, Iowa and Northern Iowa are meeting in a 5/12 game in Albany. Neither match-up occurred during the regular season this year.
STAFF COMMENTS
COMMENTS FROM JOHN
– One thing I’ve been conditioned to look for since joining the Hoops HD staff is Creighton’s annual February collapse. I don’t think it’s coming anytime soon – the Bluejays had a monster week where they not only further enhanced their profile with a road win at Seton Hall, they also smashed DePaul at home. I’d even say that the Bluejays could be as high as a 3 this week.
– Personally, I thought I was going to be called out as nuts when I had Georgetown as the last team in my field after this weekend. But like Xavier who had a game-changing win at Seton Hall two weeks ago, the Hoyas got their season-defining win at Butler without the services of Mac McClung and Omer Yurtseven. Normally, what the Selection Committee does with injuries is consider a) how the team played when healthy and b) evaluate the length of injuries and whether or not the players will come back fully healthy. Georgetown is the complete opposite – do we have to excuse them for being fully healthy and intact back in November?
– Arizona, Arizona State and Stanford were all big movers in the Pac-12 last weekend. Arizona and Arizona State both picked up road sweeps in the Bay Area, and in the case of the Sun Devils, it was their first once since the league expanded to 12 teams. Stanford, on the other hand, is in deep trouble now that they’ve lost seven of eight and are running out of opportunities for any kind of wins, much less signature wins.
– I know we’re all tough on our own teams – I’d probably have Xavier in my final four byes (meaning a low 10 or high 11), but I’d still have Rutgers in 8/9 territory. Normally, the Selection Committee would heavily frown upon a team that only has a single road victory (Nebraska). But while Rutgers is 17-0 at home, look at who they’ve beaten in the RAC: Seton Hall, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue. Not everyone in the country would sweep that slate (two of which are protected seeds), and that HAS to count for something here.
– Purdue’s schizophrenic ways continued last week with losses against Penn State at home and a resurgent Ohio State team on the road; I would still personally have them in the field over a team like either Cincinnati or Utah State that doesn’t have nearly the quality of nice wins that Purdue does (nor does Purdue have ugly losses weighing them down like UC/USU). Oh, and I must applaud Chad for adding Angry Frank’s bunch to serious consideration (Boston U, Stetson, really?) for the field.
– Theoretically, I’d also love to know if a Seton Hall-Hofstra matchup would be permissible in the first round. I don’t know Chad’s seed list, but I don’t think there would be any home-court disadvantage for the Pirates here since they’re actually closer to Albany than Hofstra would be.
COMMENTS FROM DAVID
-I’m starting to warm up to Maryland. Winning at Michigan State, and winning the way that they did against a team that played well, had a late lead, and had all the momentum going their way, is a sign that Maryland can answer the bell when they need to. Having said that, I still don’t understand putting them ahead of Penn State, and Florida State, and Seton Hall, who have all won even bigger road games and even more of them. I like Maryland a lot more than I did this past Thursday, but still not as much as some of the teams that Chad (and to be fair, everybody else) continues to put Maryland ahead of.
-Arizona State on the 9 line?? Wow! I guess beating a Stanford team that’s outside the bubble, and beating a Cal team that may be good enough to earn a bye in the Mountain West Tournament (brought to you boy CONEXPO CON/AGG) REALLY impressed the counselor this week!
-I’m really not big on Indiana. In comparing them to, say, Northern Iowa (who Chad did select, but seeded behind Indiana) I see an IU team that’s beaten good teams at home, but none of those good teams are particularly good in true road games, and who’s only true win is at Northwestern. I know Northern Iowa just lost at Loyola Chicago, and that does have me holding my nose some, but Indiana hasn’t beaten a team on the road as good as Loyola CHI, so I’d still have them below UNI.
-I don’t understand Saint Mary’s. I mean…everyone he considered except for Utah looks better to me than Saint Mary’s. They’ve beaten BYU at home, the win against Wisconsin came during a stretch when the Badgers, and although Arizona State had an AMAZING week in Chad’s mind with their win over a team outside the bubble and another team that’s a thousand miles away from the bubble, that hardly seems like enough to select them, especially when you look at some of their losses.
-All and all, Chad tries really hard, and I guess we should applaud the effort, but he clearly does not know what he’s doing!!!!