Bracket Watch: February 26th, 2019

I’d trade a #2 seed for a #3 if it meant getting out of Duke’s region.

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Probably a lot of randomness there in terms of how all of the bracketing rules are applied. There isn’t a hard and fast rule that the top 3 seed goes with the bottom 1 seed or something. They try to keep teams as close to home and then apply some rules to “balance” things out but there’s no exact rule there.

For example, the top 2 seed could be sent to DC to be closest to home despite the top 1 seed playing there. Or the bottom 2 seed could be sent to DC to balance the bracket.

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South Carolina appears to be creeping up. That win may be a Q2 win soon.

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FYI, there is a rule that the top 1 and 2 seed cannot be in the same region.

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I much, much prefer this kind of discussion versus needing to beat a No. 1 seed in the B1G tournament on a last second shot from an under-performing bench player against a partisan Indiana crowd just to get into play-in game. Um, just for example.

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I also prefer it to watching a team squarely on the bubble having to play a morning game in their practice gear the day after their plane crashed off the end of the runway…Looking back that all seems so surreal.

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Yes, as magic as that journey was, it was touch and go that cardiac arrest didn’t ensue along the way, which it darn near did with the Purdue game.

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Forever grateful to PJ Thompson for missing that free throw.

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When I think of Zak Irvin, I always prefer to think of that game and the game against Northwestern (a year earlier maybe?) and let a great deal of the remaining residual frustration with him subside.

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Isn’t it normally that the top 1 seed gets the weakest 2 seed (#8 on the S curve), and the weakest 1 (#4 on the S curve) gets the strongest 2 (#5), and so forth?

There is a geographic factor too. I believe they try to balance it overall. Joseph wrote about it here:

COULD IT BE BENEFICIAL TO BE LOWER ON THE S-CURVE AS A 2-SEED IN ORDER TO AVOID ENDING UP IN DUKE’S (PRESUMED EAST) REGION?

This question really unveils the most perplexing thing to me in regards to the whole bracket preview process: how willing the committee appears to be when it comes to not having competitive balance throughout the regions.

As part of putting the top 16 teams into 4 regions, the committee is supposed to promote competitive balance by making sure the overall seeding of the top 4 teams in each region sums up to a similar total. According to their seeding procedures, “Generally, no more than five points should separate the lowest and highest total.” In the reveal, the totals were as follows: East – 32, South – 32, Midwest – 34, West – 37. Technically, that falls within the scope of their requirements, but they had an easy improvement opportunity. If they had swapped Michigan and Michigan State, all regions would’ve been within 3 points.

I’m assuming the committee’s theory is that they don’t want to punish a top 2-seed by putting them at such a large geographic disadvantage. However, I think it’s a much greater punishment to keep them close to home but put them in the same region as the #1 overall seed. Nevertheless, if the committee remains consistent with this methodology between now and Selection Sunday, then yes, it would be beneficial to fall a spot or two in true seeding if avoiding Duke is the endgame.

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Is a six loss Duke team still a #1 seed? That could be a very real scenario with one more loss and an ACC tourney loss.

Is this true? How do you compare a team that missed a player for half the season to a team that missed one for just a few games? It seems like a ridiculous notion.

52%20PM

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Bearing in mind that Duke just lost again! They’re the most vulnerable unbeatable team in recent memory.

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Does that mean UNC and VT’s wins are not included either? That’s the only way for that to be fair.

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Isn’t v tech missing Robinson still? Believe so, I get he is no Zion but he’s very important to what v tech does. There has to be a balance here on injured guys. Yea, you lost your best player but unc made them look terrible and you lost to a short handed v tech. So many lay ups and easy buckets in the Unc game too.

Duke is a great team but I’m not as scared of them as everyone else I guess. Personally I think last years duke team would almost certainly beat this one in a 7 game series and look what happened to them. The Top teams are weaker as a whole this year but I’m not crying if we draw dukes bracket.

I Still think if this Michigan team finds their way back into that zone they were in to start the year that it’s everyone else who needs to be worried. Sadly, that’s not looking likely.

I

Side note, LSU is a very good team.

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The Wolverines can still get that swag back. The loss to MSU was a tough one, but half of that loss was based on bad defensive coaching decisions. The sky isnt falling yet. The team needs to just tighten up mentally.

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It’s not that loss that has me worried per say. It happens, they just can’t seem to get in a groove and have a complete performance. Plus I thought the offense would become pretty damn good and it doesn’t look like it will ever come all together.

Still a good squad but I was feeling it was something special early.