Bracketology 2015

 

Well, I will be perfectly honest – I just have not been paying as much attention to college basketball as I normally do.  And I have really struggled because of that.   But this will be as telling, if I can get this all correct.  Normally, I am really confident with my top choices – but this year, I just don’t know.  Will the committee reward the regular seasons of Duke and Virginia more – or give the close nod to Arizona and Wisconsin for winning their conference championships as well (assuming that Wisconsin can catch the Spartans who have gone on a run).  Will schools like Colorado St and Boise St get a break for winning lots of games, or will schools like Indiana get credit for being close in a bunch of games and demonstrating the ability to be able to beat a top team.

 

So, lets move to the bubble:

 

I broke the bubble into the following: Colorado St, LSU, Boise St, Indiana, UCLA, Ole Miss, Temple, Murray St, and Miami FL.   So, I started removing teams to get to my final teams.

à        First took out Miami FL – they have those great wins against Duke and NC State, but they just don’t have a lot to go with it.  They also had one of the worst non-conference schedules of my bubble teams

à        Next came Murray St – they were tough for me, because I love the idea of rewarding a small conference, regular season champion – they went 27-5!!!!   But the games they played against tournament talent teams, they got crushed.  And the worst non-conference schedule (to go along with their own conference schedule) takes them out.

à        Temple came next – I struggled with them. They have big wins against Kansas and Cincinnati.  They also got blown out of the water by Duke, Villanova, Cincinnati, Tulsa and lost three times to SMU.  The others just had a few more wins against tourney-type teams

à        Finally, that left me with Ole Miss.  They felt like the next team because they had the most bad losses – including finishing the season losing at home to Vanderbilt and following it with a loss to South Carolina in the tournament.  It didn’t help them that LSU swept them – giving one of their fellow bubble teams an edge on them.

 

As for seeding, I always do horrible at this – but here we go (assuming Wisconsin hangs on in OT)

 

 

MIDWEST

WEST

EAST

SOUTH

1

Kentucky (SEC)

Wisconsin (Big 10)

Villanova (Big East)

Duke

16

Manhattan (MAAC) / Hampton (MEAC)

Texas Southern (SWAC)

Lafayette (Patriot) / Robert Morris (NEC)

Coastal Carolina (Big South)

8

Oregon

Providence

Cincinnati

Dayton

9

Iowa

North Carolina St

Xavier

Purdue

5

Louisville

SMU (American)

Michigan St

Utah

12

Valparaiso (Horizon)

Wyoming (Mt West)

Buffalo (MAC)

Stephen F Austin (Southland)

4

Baylor

North Carolina

Wichita St

Maryland

13

Wofford (Southern)

Eastern Washington (Big Sky)

Harvard (Ivy)

UAB (Conf USA)

6

West Virginia

Butler

Arkansas

Georgetown

11

Boise St / UCLA

Colorado St

LSU / Indiana

Texas

3

Notre Dame (ACC)

Kansas

Oklahoma

Northern Iowa (MVC)

14

Belmont (OVC)

New Mexico St (WAC)

Northeastern (Colonial)

Georgia St (Sun Belt)

7

Davidson

San Diego St

Ohio St

VCU (Atlantic 10)

10

Oklahoma St

St. John's

Georgia

BYU

2

Gonzaga (WCC)

Arizona (Pac 12)

Virginia

Iowa St (Big 12)

15

North Dakota St (Summit)

UC Irvine (Big West)

Albany (America East)

North Florida (Atlantic Sun)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boise St

LSU

Manhattan

Lafayette

 

UCLA

Indiana

Hampton

Robert Morris

FIRST FOUR OUT: Ole Miss, Temple, Murray St, Miami FL

NEXT FOUR OUT: Richmond, Texas A&M, Tulsa, Old Dominion

 

We will see how I do……  J

 

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Well – once again, I proved that I have no clue how to seed the teams.  But as I mentioned at the top, I am never good at that.     I should mention – of the top 16, I got 11 correct, swapped Iowa St and Kansas (apparently, the Cyclones winning 2 out of 3 didn’t matter), and had Baylor as a 4 since I figured they wouldn’t likely put three teams from the same conference at the same seed (and I felt that Northern Iowa was slightly better than Oklahoma and Baylor). 

Compared to the experts who get paid to this by the major sports sites – thanks to Bracket Matrix.

 

LUNATIC

LUNARDI (ESPN)

PALM (CBS)

EVANS (YAHOO)

FAGAN (SN)

BELLER (SI)

MANDEL (FOX)

Correct in the Field

67

66

67

66

66

65

66

Correct Seed

34

42

33

29

37

34

37

Correct +- 1 seed

55

61

61

59

60

60

65

TOTAL

324

343

328

315

332

323

337

 

Once again, if I could just come close to seeding teams correctly, I would be equal to the experts.  I actually tied CBS’s Jerry Palm with the most correct teams in the field at 67.  But because I can’t get the seeds of the middle teams correct, I eventually fall apart.  That being said, I still beat the bracketologist from Yahoo and Sports Illustrated, and was close to CBS – considering they likely get paid for this, and I did this as a sadistic hobby on a Sunday afternoon in a rushed fashion in order to try to prove a point, I feel pretty good about my performance.

 

Maybe one of these years, I will set up a more planned Bracketology so that I don’t start seeding teams 2 hours before the bracket is released.   Oh – who am I kidding – we all know I will never get that organized……

 

The Lunatic – master bracketologist (of selecting the right teams)