Bracketology 2016: March Madness Predictions (Version 10.6)

CLICK HERE for our latest Championship Week Video Notebook, where we recap one of the craziest days of the season and preview all of Saturday’s action

 

CLICK HERE for the Hoops HD Selection Committee Report

 

Today is Saturday which means tomorrow is Selection Sunday as we continue to make our NCAA tourney predictions. Last March HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel correctly picked 66 of the 68 teams that made the tourney, including 62 right on the money or within 1 spot of their actual seed. He will spend the next 24+ hours predicting which 68 teams will hear their names called tomorrow. See below for his list of who would make the cut if they picked the field today, and let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments section. To compare how we stack up with other websites, check out: www.bracketmatrix.com.

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SEED: TEAM (CONFERENCE)
1: Kansas (Big 12)
1: Villanova (Big East)
1: Virginia (ACC)
1: Michigan State (Big 10)

2: Oklahoma (Big 12)
2: North Carolina (ACC)
2: Oregon (Pac-12)
2: Xavier (Big East)

3: West Virginia (Big 12)
3: Miami Florida (ACC)
3: Utah (Pac-12)
3: Indiana (Big 10)

4: Kentucky (SEC)
4: Purdue (Big 10)
4: Texas A&M (SEC)
4: Duke (ACC)

5: Maryland (Big 10)
5: Arizona (Pac-12)
5: California (Pac-12)
5: Iowa State (Big 12)

6: Baylor (Big 12)
6: Texas (Big 12)
6: Iowa (Big 10)
6: Notre Dame (ACC)

7: Dayton (A-10)
7: Seton Hall (Big East)
7: Wisconsin (Big 10)
7: Providence (Big East)

8: Colorado (Pac-12)
8: Texas Tech (Big 12)
8: Oregon State (Pac-12)
8: USC (Pac-12)

9: St. Joseph’s (A-10)
9: Butler (Big East)
9: Cincinnati (AAC)
9: South Carolina (SEC)

10: Pitt (ACC)
10: Wichita State (MVC)
10: St. Bonaventure (A-10)
10: VCU (A-10)

11: Gonzaga (WCC) *AUTO-BID
11: St. Mary’s (WCC)
11: Connecticut (AAC)
11: Vanderbilt (SEC)
11: Temple (AAC)
11: San Diego State (MWC)

12: Arkansas Little-Rock (Sun Belt)
12: Akron (MAC)
12: Northern Iowa (MVC) *AUTO-BID
12: Yale (Ivy) *AUTO-BID

13: South Dakota State (Summit) *AUTO-BID
13: UNC Wilmington (CAA) *AUTO-BID
13: Chattanooga (SoCon) *AUTO-BID
13: Stony Brook (America East)

14: Stephen F. Austin (Southland)
14: Hawaii (Big West)
14: Iona (MAAC) *AUTO-BID
14: Middle Tennessee (CUSA)

15: Green Bay (Horizon) *AUTO-BID
15: New Mexico State (WAC)
15: Weber State (Big Sky)
15: UNC Asheville (Big South) *AUTO-BID

16: Florida Gulf Coast (Atlantic Sun) *AUTO-BID
16: Hampton (MEAC)
16: Holy Cross (Patriot) *AUTO-BID
16: Austin Peay (OVC) *AUTO-BID
16: Fairleigh Dickinson (NEC) *AUTO-BID
16: Jackson State (SWAC)

CONFERENCE: # OF TEAMS
AAC: 3
America East: 1
ACC: 6
Atlantic Sun: 1
A-10: 4
Big East: 5
Big Sky: 1
Big South: 1
Big 10: 6
Big 12: 7
Big West: 1
CAA: 1
CUSA: 1
Horizon: 1
Ivy: 1
MAAC: 1
MAC: 1
MEAC: 1
MVC: 2
MWC: 1
NEC: 1
OVC: 1
Pac-12: 7
Patriot: 1
SEC: 4
SoCon: 1
Southland: 1
SWAC: 1
Summit: 1
Sun Belt: 1
WCC: 2
WAC: 1

Posted in Bracketology | 1 Comment

Championship Week Video Notebook: Saturday, March 12th

Today was all kinds of insane!!  In the American Conference, we saw a quadruple overtime game between Cincinnati and Connecticut, both of whom were bubble teams and really needed the win.  We got to the fourth overtime after Cincinnati hit a last second shot to go up by 3 with less than a second left, but that was followed by a three-quarter courts heave by UConn that went in to force another overtime.

Oklahoma also hit a shot from beyond mid court against West Virginia which appeared to win them the game, but it was ultimately waved off.

We saw two overtime games in the Pac Twelve as well with Utah and Oregon both hanging on to win.

Michigan won on a last second shot against Indiana, which gave them one of their biggest wins of the season, if not the biggest win, and gives their profile a huge boost.

Tulane and Memphis pulled off upsets in the American and will face each other in the semis next year with the winner being just one game away from the NCAA Tournament.

All of that, plus all of the other action in all of the other conferences as we recap a crazy Friday, preview Saturday, and give an update of our Hoops HD Selection Committee.

 

CLICK HERE for John Stalica’s report on the Hoops HD Selection Committee

 

 

And for all you radio lovers, there is an mp3 version of the show at the bottom of the page

 

AMERICA EAST
Championship
11:00 AM – (3) Vermont at (1) Stony Brook, ESPN2

AMERICAN
Semifinals
3:00 PM – (1) Temple vs (5) Connecticut, ESPN2
5:30 PM – (6) Memphis vs (10) Tulane, ESPN2

ACC
Championship
9:00 PM – (1) North Carolina vs (2) Virginia, ESPN

ATLANTIC TEN
Semifinals
1:30 PM – (1) Dayton vs (4) St. Joseph’s, CBS Sports Network
4:00 PM – (2) VCU vs (6) Davidson, CBS Sports Network

BIG EAST
Championship
5:30 PM – (1) Villanova vs (3) Seton Hall, FOX

BIG SKY
Championship
8:45 PM – (1) Weber State vs (2) Montana, ESPNU

BIG TEN
Semifinals
1:00 PM – (4) Purdue vs (8) Michigan, CBS
3:30 PM – (2) Michigan State vs (3) Maryland, CBS

BIG 12
Championship
6:00 PM – (1) Kansas vs (2) West Virgnia, ESPN

BIG WEST
Championship
11:30 PM – (1) Hawai’i vs (3) Long Beach State, ESPN2

CONFERENCE USA
Championship
2:30 PM – (2) Middle Tennessee vs (5) Old Dominion, FS1

MID-AMERICAN
Championship
7:30 PM – (1) Akron vs (3) Buffalo, ESPN2

MEAC
Championship
1:00 PM – (1) Hampton vs (3) South Carolina State, ESPN2

MOUNTAIN WEST
Championship
6:00 PM – (1) San Diego State vs (2) Fresno State, CBS

PAC-12
Championship
10:00 PM – (1) Oregon vs (2) Utah, FS1

SEC
Semifinals
1:00 PM – (1) Texas A&M vs (4) LSU, ESPN
3:30 PM – (2) Kentucky vs (6) Georgia, ESPN

SOUTHLAND
Championship
9:30 PM – (1) Stephen F. Austin vs (2) Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, ESPN2

SWAC
Championship
6:30 PM – (3) Jackson State vs (4) Southern, ESPNU

SUN BELT
Semifinals
2:00 PM – (1) Arkansas-Little Rock vs (4) Louisiana-Lafayette, espn3
4:30 PM – (2) Louisiana-Monroe vs (3) Texas-Arlington, espn3

WAC
Championship
11:00 PM – (1) New Mexico State vs (2) Cal State Bakersfield, ESPNU

Posted in Bracketology, Championship Week Video Notebook, News and Notes, Podcasts, Videocasts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hoops HD Mock Committee Report – Friday, March 11

Click here for Jon Teitel’s interview with Holy Cross’s Eric Green; also click here for Jon’s daily NCAA bracket prediction AND bonus audio commentary with David Griggs.

On Day 2 of our Mock Selection Committee meetings at Hoops HD, we were able to accomplish 3 things today – the number of teams Under Consideration shrunk down to 18 (including Centenary Winner Chicago State), the top 8 seed lines were voted into the seed list, and 4 more teams were voted into the At-Large field.

After debating the merits of the top-ranked teams in the field, each of the committee members submitted their top 12 teams for consideration. (The real committee would submit 8 teams, but we did 12 teams as a time-saving measure.) The next step was to rank each of those teams 1 through 12 (the real Committee would seed the top 8 teams 1 through 8). The top 8 vote-getters (top 4 for the real committee) became the teams seeded 1 through 8 on the overall seed list. After more debate, our committee then individually submitted the next 8 teams for consideration (top 4 for the real committee). These teams, in addition to the 4 carryover teams from the prior step, were then ranked 1 through 12 (ranked 1 through 8 by the real Committee). The top 8 vote-getters (top 4 for the real committee) became the teams seeded 9 through 16 on the overall seed list. This process was repeated until we had 24 teams on the seed list.

Once we got final results from the evening games, we debated on 4 more teams to add to the at-large field. Using the same process that was used last night to vote in at-large teams, our committee added Connecticut, Cincinnati, Michigan and Saint Joseph’s to the field. With Michigan’s inclusion to the field (along with the 3 other remaining Big 10 teams already voted in), we are now assured of another at-large spot opening up courtesy of the Big 10. This leaves us with a minimum of 2 more at-large teams to vote into the field tomorrow night; there could be as many as 5 teams depending on who wins the SEC, Atlantic 10 and American conferences. However, since either Tulane or Memphis is guaranteed to be in the American championship game on Sunday, we are guaranteed at least one contingency team. Another potential contingency lies in the A-10 depending on whether Davidson or VCU get to their championship game. Another spot could open up if Texas A&M and Kentucky play each other for the championship on Sunday, although either Georgia or LSU can also play the role of bid thief.

After the 4 additional teams were added to the field, we added 8 more teams to the Master Seed list and finished our meeting with 32 teams seeded. You can view the list below:

3-11-16-2016-Selection-Committee-Board

Tomorrow night, we will begin scrubbing the seed list to adjust for additional game results through Saturday night. We will vote in the 2 remaining guaranteed at-large spots and also choose additional contingency teams as necessary. The two remaining Sun Belt teams will be included in the master seed list as well as part of any multiple contingencies that would arise on Sunday. The remaining teams will also be voted into the seed list as well.

Posted in Bracketology, CBB, Championship Week Video Notebook, Commentary, News and Notes | 1 Comment

Tourney Talk: HoopsHD interviews Holy Cross SR SG/SF Eric Green

CLICK HERE for Jon Teitel’s most recent Bracketology

CLICK HERE for the most recent Championship Week Video Notebook

If you do not like picking #1 seeds then you will LOVE Holy Cross.  They entered the Patriot League tourney as the #9-seed on March 1st, yet 8 days later they had a 3-PT win over Lehigh in the title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Crusaders became the 5th team to ever make the NCAA tourney with 19+ losses, but hearing your name called this Sunday is the only thing that matters.  Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Eric Green about coming back from an ACL tear and how his 1st-year coach was able to lead his team to victory when it mattered the most.

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You were among the conference leaders in SPG during your 1st 2 years on the court: what is the secret to being a good defender? You need to have anticipation, both in seeing where the pass is going and watching how the play develops. You have to look ahead to your opponent’s next pass.

In the 2014 CIT you scored 14 PTS in a win over Brown before losing to Yale: what did you learn from that experience that you think will help you in the postseason this year? We learned that you we have to stay loose when playing in March, even though the NCAA tourney is new to us. Since we played in March before, that should help us out a little bit.

You missed the 1st half of this season with a knee injury: how bad was it, and how were you able to get back on the court? It was pretty bad: I actually injured it in the conference tourney last year when I tore my ACL. I spent all summer rehabbing my leg, which was hard. I had some doubts that I would play this season, especially at the start of the school year. I tried to work hard in my final year here and my teammates/trainers helped me out a lot.

Your team had a 33-PT loss at Kansas back on December 9th: I know you did not play but how impressed were you by the Jayhawks? I traveled with the team to the game even though I did not play. It was a great experience to be in their arena and Kansas is 1 of the top teams in the country for a reason.

You were winless on the road in conference play this year: how were you able to win 4 straight on the road in March to clinch the Patriot League title? As the #9-seed we just came together and figured that after a tough season we would just give it everything we got. It actually helped us to be on the road because it was just the guys on the team who had to lean on each other and we just kept making big-time plays at the end of close games.

You did not start a single game during the regular season but started each of the 4 postseason games: what is the biggest difference between being a sub and being a starter? The only difference is that as a starter you have to set the tone so I just tried to play as hard as I could. It is important to stop the other team when you are on defense so that you do not fall behind early.

You ended up making the conference All-Tourney team: could you have ever imagined that happening a couple of months ago or even a couple of weeks ago? No way! When somebody told me that after the game it was unbelievable: it was a major accomplishment for me this season.

You play for Coach Bill Carmody, who was 2004 Big 10 COY at Northwestern and whose 78.6 W-L% as coach at Princeton remains #1 in Ivy League history: what makes him such a good coach, and how was he able to come in and lead you to the NCAA tourney in his very 1st season as head coach in Worcester? We have come a long way after learning how to run the Princeton offense and have gotten better and better at it. Coach is big on patience and spends plenty of time at practice working on the little things.  Paying attention to the details was a big part of our success last week, especially in close games.

You are 1 of only 2 seniors among the top-10 scorers on your team: how much pressure has there been on you to be a leader this season? I do not feel that much pressure. I am not very vocal but try to lead by example. The juniors know what we have been through and we all keep each other in check rather than having our younger players only looking up to the older guys.

What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? I think we will end up with a #16-seed but we shall see.

Posted in Interviews | 1 Comment

Bracketology 2016: March Madness Predictions (Version 10.5)

CLICK HERE for our most recent Championship Week Video Notebook, where we recap all the games from Thursday, as well as preview all of Friday’s action.  We also update you on the Hoops HD Selection Committee

David and Jon discuss the bracket and seed list in the audio podcast at the bottom of the page.

We are only 2 days away from Selection Sunday as we continue to make our NCAA tourney predictions. Last March HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel correctly picked 66 of the 68 teams that made the tourney, including 62 right on the money or within 1 spot of their actual seed. He will spend the weekend predicting which 68 teams will hear their names called on Selection Sunday, with updates each day. See below for his list of who would make the cut if they picked the field today, and let us know if you agree or disagree in the comments section. To compare how we stack up with other websites, check out: www.bracketmatrix.com.

68 logo

 

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SEED: TEAM (CONFERENCE)
1: Kansas (Big 12)
1: Villanova (Big East)
1: Virginia (ACC)
1: Michigan State (Big 10)

2: Oklahoma (Big 12)
2: North Carolina (ACC)
2: Oregon (Pac-12)
2: Xavier (Big East)

3: Miami Florida (ACC)
3: West Virginia (Big 12)
3: Utah (Pac-12)
3: Indiana (Big 10)

4: Kentucky (SEC)
4: Duke (ACC)
4: Purdue (Big 10)
4: Maryland (Big 10)

5: Texas A&M (SEC)
5: Iowa State (Big 12)
5: Arizona (Pac-12)
5: California (Pac-12)

6: Texas (Big 12)
6: Iowa (Big 10)
6: Baylor (Big 12)
6: Dayton (A-10)

7: Wisconsin (Big 10)
7: Notre Dame (ACC)
7: Seton Hall (Big East)
7: Colorado (Pac-12)

8: Texas Tech (Big 12)
8: Providence (Big East)
8: USC (Pac-12)
8: Oregon State (Pac-12)

9: Butler (Big East)
9: St. Joseph’s (A-10)
9: South Carolina (SEC)
9: Cincinnati (AAC)

10: Pitt (ACC)
10: Vanderbilt (SEC)
10: Wichita State (MVC)
10: St. Bonaventure (A-10)

11: VCU (A-10)
11: St. Mary’s (WCC)
11: Gonzaga (WCC) *AUTO-BID
11: Connecticut (AAC)
11: Temple (AAC)
11: San Diego State (MWC)

12: Arkansas Little-Rock (Sun Belt)
12: Akron (MAC)
12: Northern Iowa (MVC) *AUTO-BID
12: Yale (Ivy) *AUTO-BID

13: South Dakota State (Summit) *AUTO-BID
13: UNC Wilmington (CAA) *AUTO-BID
13: Chattanooga (SoCon) *AUTO-BID
13: Stony Brook (America East)

14: Hawaii (Big West)
14: Iona (MAAC) *AUTO-BID
14: Stephen F. Austin (Southland)
14: Middle Tennessee (CUSA)

15: Green Bay (Horizon) *AUTO-BID
15: New Mexico State (WAC)
15: Weber State (Big Sky)
15: UNC Asheville (Big South) *AUTO-BID

16: Florida Gulf Coast (Atlantic Sun) *AUTO-BID
16: Holy Cross (Patriot) *AUTO-BID
16: Hampton (MEAC)
16: Fairleigh Dickinson (NEC) *AUTO-BID
16: Texas Southern (SWAC)
16: Austin Peay (OVC) *AUTO-BID

CONFERENCE: # OF TEAMS
AAC: 3
America East: 1
ACC: 6
Atlantic Sun: 1
A-10: 4
Big East: 5
Big Sky: 1
Big South: 1
Big 10: 6
Big 12: 7
Big West: 1
CAA: 1
CUSA: 1
Horizon: 1
Ivy: 1
MAAC: 1
MAC: 1
MEAC: 1
MVC: 2
MWC: 1
NEC: 1
OVC: 1
Pac-12: 7
Patriot: 1
SEC: 4
SoCon: 1
Southland: 1
SWAC: 1
Summit: 1
Sun Belt: 1
WCC: 2
WAC: 1

Posted in News and Notes | 1 Comment

Championship Week Video Notebook: Friday, March 11th

Thursday of Championship Week!  One of the busiest days of the year!  Chad, David, and John look back on all the action as all of the power conferences are now underway.  We saw a couple of big upsets in the Big Ten as Illinois knocked off Iowa and Nebraska took down Wisconsin.  Vanderbilt also lost to Tennessee in a very surprising result in the SEC.  Other than that, for all the upsets we’ve seen in some of the smaller conferences, including Conference USA where top seeded UAB went down in the quarterfinals today, chalk has pretty much held in the power conferences.

We recap all of the action, and preview all of the games tomorrow, including a hugely important game in the American between Cincinnati and UConn where the winner will be in good shape, and the loser may be out.

 

CLICK HERE for John Stalica’s report on the Hoops HD Selection Committee

 

 

And for all you radio lovers, there is an mp3 version of the show at the bottom of the page…

 

AMERICAN
Quarterfinals
12:00 PM – (1) Temple vs (9) South Florida, ESPN2
2:30 PM – (4) Cincinnati vs (5) Connecticut, ESPN2
7:00 PM – (2) Houston vs (10) Tulane, ESPNU
9:30 PM – (3) Tulsa vs (6) Memphis, ESPNU

ACC
Semifinals
7:00 PM – (1) North Carolina vs (4) Notre Dame, ESPN
9:30 PM – (2) Virginia vs (3) Miami, ESPN

ATLANTIC TEN
Quarterfinals
12:00 PM – (1) Dayton vs (9) Richmond, NBC Sports Network
2:30 PM – (4) St. Joseph’s vs (5) George Washington, NBC Sports Network
6:30 PM – (2) VCU vs (10) Massachusetts, NBC Sports Network
9:00 PM – (3) St. Bonaventure vs (6) Davidson, NBC Sports Network

BIG EAST
Semifinals
6:30 PM – (1) Villanova vs (4) Providence, FS1
9:00 PM – (2) Xavier vs (3) Seton Hall, FS1
Saturday, March 12 – Championship

BIG SKY
Semifinals
8:30 PM – (1) Weber State vs (5) North Dakota, watchbigsky.com
11:00 PM – (2) Montana vs (3) Idaho, watchbigsky.com

BIG TEN
Quarterfinals
12:00 PM – (1) Indiana vs (8) Michigan, ESPN
2:30 PM – (4) Purdue vs (12) Illinois, ESPN
6:30 PM – (2) Michigan State vs (7) Ohio State, BTN
9:00 PM – (3) Maryland vs (11) Nebraska, BTN

BIG 12
Semifinals
7:00 PM – (1) Kansas vs (5) Baylor, ESPN2
9:30 PM – (2) West Virginia vs (3) Oklahoma, ESPN2

BIG WEST
Semifinals
9:30 PM – (1) Hawai’i vs (4) UC-Santa Barbara, espn3
12:00 AM – (2) UC-Irvine vs (3) Long Beach State, ESPNU

CONFERENCE USA
Semifinals
4:00 PM – (5) Old Dominion vs (8) Western Kentucky, CBS Sports Network
6:30 PM – (2) Middle Tennessee vs (3) Marshall, CBS Sports Network

MID-AMERICAN
Semifinals
6:30 PM – (1) Akron vs (12) Bowling Green, Regional TV/espn3
9:00 PM – (2) Ohio University vs (3) Buffalo, Regional TV/espn3

MEAC
Semifinals
6:00 PM – (1) Hampton vs (5) Savannah State, espn3
8:30 PM – (2) Norfolk State vs (3) South Carolina State, espn3

MOUNTAIN WEST
Semifinals
9:00 PM – (1) San Diego State vs (5) Nevada, CBS Sports Network
11:30 PM – (2) Fresno State vs (6) Colorado State, CBS Sports Network

PAC-12
Semifinals
9:00 PM – (1) Oregon vs (4) Arizona, Pac-12 Network
11:30 PM – (2) Utah vs (3) California, FS1

SEC
Quarterfinals
1:00 PM – (1) Texas A&M vs (8) Florida, SEC Network
3:30 PM – (4) LSU vs (12) Tennessee, SEC Network
7:00 PM – (2) Kentucky vs (10) Alabama, SEC Network
9:30 PM – (3) South Carolina vs (6) Georgia, SEC Network

SOUTHLAND
Semifinals
6:00 PM – (1) Stephen F. Austin vs (4) Houston Baptist, espn3
8:30 PM – (2) Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs (3) Sam Houston State, espn3

SWAC
Semifinals
3:30 PM – (3) Jackson State vs (7) Mississippi Valley State, No live video
9:30 PM – (1) Texas Southern vs (4) Texas Southern, No live video

SUN BELT
Quarterfinals
6:00 PM – (4) Louisiana-Lafayette vs (8) South Alabama, espn3
8:30 PM – (3) Texas-Arlington vs (7) Texas State, espn3

WAC
Semifinals
9:00 PM – (1) New Mexico State vs (5) UMKC, wacsports.com
11:30 PM – (2) Cal State Bakersfield vs (3) Seattle, wacsports.com

Posted in Bracketology, Championship Week Video Notebook, News and Notes, Podcasts, Videocasts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment