Comments on: NCAA Tournament Bubble Watch: 1/29/08

By: JAY BIRD - HOG FAN

JAY BIRD - HOG FAN — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:34:13 +0000

The Hogs should get in because they beat Baylor in Texas, VCU on a nuetral court, Missouri before they had the player problems and they also beat Mississippi State by 20 and Florida by 19.
They did loose to Kentucky at Lexington but the refs were really up for that one and so “they played” a great game.

By: Dex

Dex — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:09:34 +0000

@ Scott Swanson,

Richmond at 12-9 overall, their best wins being against either Dayton or Virginia Tech at home, and with losses to La Salle and Norfolk State. UMass, Dayton, St. Joe’s, Charlotte, and Duquesne are all more qualified. I don’t think they have a chance.

By: Scott Swanson

Scott Swanson — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:32:50 +0000

Any Love For the Richmond Spiders if we finsh 4th in the A-10? Lots of bad losses but we are starting to play strong. Now if we beat Xavier….

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:15:47 +0000

If this were to work, I’d have to say the Horizon would have to be bumped up to the 2-3 category. They constantly have Sweet 16 teams, and are competing for multiple teams every other year, so they are a lot like the WAC, Colonial and MAC.

By: Dex

Dex — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:37:10 +0000

@ John,

There are obviously some problems with the idea and I definitely don’t think that it would solve every problem. My suggestions for the match-ups would probably be to do some kind of random seeding process since most of the teams are going to be on about the same level, and there will be no clear cut 1 or 16 seeds, for example. I think that by inviting multiple teams from most, if not every conference, would help to deal with situations such as with Drake or Xavier. Of course, there would be some surprises, since projections, especially with smaller conferences, are rarely right on. But I think that for the most part, the teams that would be invited would be the teams that will need a solid victory on their resume around selection sunday.

My best suggestion for teams/conferences that wouldn’t want to participate because of travel would be to hold the tournaments at centralized locations, such as Kansas City, St. Louis, or Indianapolis. But if a team/conference does not want to participate, then they should not be required to. I think that if they did not though, it would only put them at a disadvantage.

I also think that there would need to be a consolation bracket set up so that teams that lose in the first or second round would still have a chance to prove themselves.

There are my suggestions. Tell me what you think.

By: John

John — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:20:46 +0000

@ Dex. That’s the best idea i’ve heard so far. My only questions are:

How do you determine matchups, considering projections based on preseason polls can sometimes be dangerous? (See the Missouri Valley, Drake picked near the bottom, now the runaway favorite?)

What about a league like the Sun Belt, trying to convince them to play in this, when they won’t participate in the BracketBusters, because of travel?

By: Dex

Dex — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:01:58 +0000

To follow up on my previous comment, here’s what I would do:
I would invite 2-4 teams from the A10, Missouri Valley, Conf. USA, and Mountain West. Invite 2-3 teams from the WAC, Sun Belt, Colonial, and MAC. Invite 1-2 teams from the American East, Atl. Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Horizon, Ivy, MAAC, MEAC, NEC, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Summit, Southland, SWAC, and WCC. I would probably divide this up into two tournaments. Doing this would give these teams the opportunity to play several opponents at or around their own talent levels and would help decide who really deserves a bid in March.

By: Dex

Dex — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:43:29 +0000

I think one option that could be helpful to mid-majors would be to set up a pre-season tournament(or more than one) for teams projected to finish at the top of their conferences. This obviously wouldn’t always be beneficial to every team since being projected to finish well doesn’t mean that they would. But I think that you could invite 16-32 teams in one or more tournaments and it would be very helpful to several of those teams. It may be too big of a hastle or it may not work out, but I think that it is worth giving it a shot.

By: John

John — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:55:42 +0000

@ Dex. Nice job, but with George Mason at Ohio in a BracketBusters game, that might get the winner off the bad side of the bubble.

By: Jameson

Jameson — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:51:00 +0000

Good article, you do a better job with the bubble watch than ESPN, but Lunardi had ya on Villanova. Man can they be in a bigger free fall right now? As a fan of the Orange, it’s kind of enjoyable.