Probably doesn’t mean all that much but that 3 and 7 both just got bounced as double digit favorites in their conference tourneys. Shows their floors.
KenPom has both Louisville and Wofford rated higher than Nevada.
If we are being honest, I haven’t seen Nevada this season, but I have watched a decent amount of Florida. I’d prefer to not play Florida. They play at a super slow tempo and play great defense. Could be a low possession, low scoring game that lends itself to an upset.
Oh wow. I somehow completely missed that. My fault.
Best case scenario imo.
MSU got absolutely, completely, utterly screwed by the committee. As bad as I’ve ever seen.
Beilein is 19-11 in NCAA Tournament games, taking Michigan to the National Championship game in 2013 and 2018. He is 18-8 in tournament play during his tenure at Michigan.
Actually he’s 24-12 all-time in the tourney. He’s won one tourney game at Richmond, five at WVU and 18 at Michigan.
I’m just wondering what the justification is for their placement in Duke’s region? Has their been a reasoning stated? Is there some bracketing rule that came into play?
I’m not complaining about our draw but its just curious. And as ESPN starts their show and Bilas starts with this complaint…
Why didn’t the committee just flip Michigan and MSU? Didn’t really make sense to me even though it looks like worked in our favor on paper. We’ll see how the games go.
I don’t think the Michigan draw is necesarily bad.
Nevada is an experienced team, but has struggled on defense lately. Their roster is older than the Phoenix Suns roster.
Florida will pose athletes, but they would have to adapt to our tendenies as well.
Its not a bad bracket. We can hold most of those teams to under 70 points. A matchup w/Texas Tech would be a rock fight. And we really dont know how elite Gonzaga is, being that they havent played a Power 5 side in months. GU also is susceptible to an upset to Cuse.
The committee did us a favor, pitting MSU in Duke’s bracket.
It’s truly baffling. The committee guy’s explanation was that MSU jumped Kentucky as a #2 by winning the tourney … but, man, look at where UK is. I’d take that slot a million times over where MSU landed. Seeing some talk that seeding is based on geographical location, rather than, you know, who you’re matched up against … which makes about as much sense as any other decision by the NCAA.
Battle would need to be healthy but that was my thought as well.
I agree but Syracuse can be freaky one way or the other. Even for 35 mins.
Also there is a blue print on the Zags w how St. Mary’s held them to 47 points in the WCC Final.
I really hope we’re the afternoon session in Des Moines.
My impression is that in recent years there has been a unnatural notion that the NCAA thinks teams favor playing closer to home over playing supposed weaker competition.
The committee previewed this when they put us as #2 in Duke’s bracket in the initial seeding. Wonder if something like that happened here. It’s so so dumb, but since it helped us and hurt MSU this year, I guess I’ll take it. I’m sure it will screw us down the line.
Michigan was assigned, initially, to the closest available site, which is Louisville. That, however, changed later in the bracketing process, thanks to a unique set of circumstances. With four ACC teams in the field of 16, those schools had to go to separate regions. Duke and Virginia were already assigned to the East and Midwest regions, and Louisville is not permitted to play on its home court, meaning the fourth-seeded Cardinals would have to go West and North Carolina had to go to the South. That movement led Michigan going to the East region, while Michigan State was assigned to the West.
They need to re-visit that thinking then. Because it could just as easily be us in State’s shoes I would rather we travel West to Gonzaga’s region then stay close in Duke’s region.
Any draw in the first 2 games was going be similar, the big win with this draw is getting the west brackets where um should have 80% of the crowd for both games in Anaheim.
Totally agree with you.