All-in-all, hindsight being 20-20, I’d give Jimmy B. just that: a solid B for scheduling, but perhaps only a C or C- for dropping a number of those OOC tilts, especially at home.

Long-time readers know, however, that I have LONG held the ‘Cats up as a model for scheduling in a manner that benefits them most on Selection Sunday. Note the number of mentions of Lute Olson’s tactics in my article on “Scheduling 101″.

Fans scream every year about Arizona being overseeded with double-digit losses, but those in the know realize that this is exactly the kind of scheduling behavior the Committee rewards.

…but remember, I don’t actually have a vote on the Selection Committee

@scoot – I haven’t ignored Wisconsin’s start by any means, but as you say, the opponents haven’t been world-beaters, and they’ve all been home games. I seeded them one line below the Illini purely for neutral vs home reasons; I think the caliber of opponents beaten is the same.

The Badgers could definitely sneak up on a lot of teams in the Big Ten, not to mention Duke tonight. I did mistakenly leave them out of the ‘could make Final Four runs’ argument though. No question they should have been in there with Purdue and Illinois (see below)

@jameson – Notice that I didn’t give Boeheim an “F” this year–which he clearly earned for himself and his team by missing out on the NCAA Tournament last year. When you have to go out of your way to say how quality Siena and Cornell are, it’s obvious there’s just no meat. The road game at Virginia is a nice improvement, but what happens if the Orange lose that one? N-Washington and H-St Joe’s may not be enough to get into the Tournament without 11+ Big East wins…The Committee has no problem with scheduling lesser teams, as long as you play a few of them on the road. They also have no problem with playing a bunch of home opponents, as long as the caliber is higher.

Everyone gripes about how Arizona has made the Tournament the past couple of years with middling Pac-10 and Last-10 records. The reason is that Lute is a warrior when it comes to scheduling & there are ALWAYS one or two major scalps in the non-conference season, not to mention a perennial Top 5 SOS. I’m not saying Boeheim needs to schedule to that extreme, but he needs to spend more time studying how the Tournament is selected and seeded, rather than lobbying for its expansion.

@Nick – Yes, it’s a bit of a stretch to think that Illinois and Purdue (and Wisconsin) could make Final Four runs. But I think if you compare those teams to others similarly placed (4-5-6) in some other leagues (particularly the SEC and Big XII), the quality is noticeably higher, at least based on play to date.