Big East Tournament bracket update
by Mike Rutherford on Mar 3, 2009 9:49 AM EST
in Basketball
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PrintSyracuse or Notre Dame? Thanks, but we're gonna hold out for something better.
Notes:
--Louisville, Connecticut and Pittsburgh are the only three teams with a shot at the top seed. UConn earns it with a win over Pitt on Saturday. Louisville needs to beat Seton Hall on Wednesday, West Virginia on Saturday and have the Panthers knock off the Huskies. And Pitt needs to beat Marquette and Connecticut, and have the Cardinals lose both of their two games.
--If Marquette loses either of its games this week and Villanova defeats Providence, then the Wildcats will earn the fourth double-bye by virtue of the second two-way tie tiebreaker rule.
--Providence owns a half-game advantage over West Virginia and Syracuse for the No. 6 seed. The three all own 1-1 records against one another, thus the result of the Mountaineers' regular season finale against Louisville would have a large impact on the potential tiebreaker.
--Seton Hall owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with Georgetown for the No. 11 seed.
--Depaul must win its final two games and have Rutgers lose its last two in order to avoid finishing in last.
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Looking at that bracket...
I’d rather be the 3 seed than the 2 seed.
Stuff
1. I’ll run a BET pool once everything is established.
2. There ain’t nobody (BET or NCAA) that wants to play Syracuse. I have a feeling that those guys could potentially make a deep run in either tournament. Plus, as time has gone on, those guys have the best pair of non-conference victories (Memphis and Kansas) of anybody in the country. If Syracuse enters the NCAA as a #5 and gets lined up with a #4 Xavier and a #1 Oklahoma, who would you have your money on?
the only thing...
about Syracuse is that their lack of depth really plays into Louisville’s hands. We have been successful all year with wearing teams down and Syracuse’s depth creates a huge matchup problem for them. I would much rather play a lot of other teams, but I think we definitely hold that advantage that many other teams do not.
Another thing about Syracuse
is that they still have a guy named Dievendorf or however you spell it. And you never know whether he’s going to be out of his mind and shooting the lights out, or out of his mind crazy and careless because he’s in one of his “I could really care less, where’s another coed for me to slap” moods. Granted he has talent, but that stuff between his ears causes him all kinds of problems.
theoldman
I prefer Syracuse
to ND, even though they’d be fresher. We just don’t play as well against the Irish. Probably a matchup issue. But we can take Syracuse on any court. I do think #3 definitely has an easier trip, as someone above me mentioned. But really, a lot of it is matchups. A lower seed can be a tougher out if they matchup better. I love this s*hit!
I don't like this double-bye setup
Half the conference is faced with the necessity of winning five games in five days in order to win the tourney. That’s beyond inequitable, it’s impossible – especially with the well-rested likes of UConn, Louisville and Pitt waiting in the quarter-finals.
Besides, this year in particular, it doesn’t really favor us. The more grueling the schedule, the better chance for our depth to be a major factor. I’d much rather we face Pitt and UConn on the third and fourth days of the tourney than the second and third.
That said, I’d love to see us exact revenge on both ND and UConn in the league tourney. Bring ’em on, says I!
Double Bye
[I posted this a few weeks ago]
I’ve already heard about this about 10x, but it’s only going to get worse over the next several weeks. I’m talking about announcers referring to the fact that the Top 4 seeds in this year’s Big East tournament get a huge advantage with a “Double Bye.” In fact, there has been no change with the Top 4 seeds as they have historically gotten a bye into the quarterfinals. Further, the new bracket setup actually benefits 3 of the 4 seed groups, but is hugely negative for 1 of the 4 groups.
1. Seeds 1-4: Slight benefit with new bracket setup as they potentially could be playing a more tired team that has played two consecutive games.
2. Seeds 5-8: Big benefit with new bracket setup as their opponent will have just played a game the previous day.
3. Seeds 9-12: HUGELY negatively affected by new bracket setup as they are the ones that have to play an extra game.
4. Seeds 13-16: HUGE benefit with new bracket setup as they now have a chance to win.
Pitt can win the 1 seed...
with us only losing ONE game, as long as they beat UConn (obviously). That would put all 3 of us at 3 losses. Pitt would be 2-1, we would be 1-1 and UConn would be 1-2 in our mini-conference tie breaker.
In the Big East's tiebreaker rules
2-1 doesn’t beat 1-1, so it would go to step two where our win over Villanova would give us the edge.
by Mike Rutherford on Mar 3, 2009 1:17 PM EST up reply actions
I think Jerb is right
See the 3-way tie procedure…
A) Teams are viewed as a "mini-conference" when comparing head-to-head results. The team with the
best record (as determined by winning percentage, even if unequal games) vs. the other teams in the miniconference
gains the advantage.
2-1 doesn’t beat 1-1 when you start comparing against other teams, but it does inside the miniconference
I'll add a little mud to the water, I think Mike is right
From the PDF
Most wins do prevail only if the team with fewer wins could not equal that win total if they played the same number of games.
Pitt would be 2-1 in our “mini-conference” but because we only played each team once. We didn’t have the opportunity to advance to 2-1. Therefore most wins, in this case, do not prevail and we move on to other conference games with the Nova.
proofreading
The first sentence in the second paragraph should read:
Pitt would be 2-1 in our "mini-conference" but because we only played each team once, we didn’t have the opportunity to advance to 2-1.
At first i thought Mike was right, but now i think Phauz is right becasue of this:
The team with the best record (as determined by winning percentage, even if unequal games) vs. the other teams in the miniconference gains the advantage. If only two teams have the same best winning percentage in the miniconference, the higher seed goes to the team winning the head-to-head series. If the two teams split their two games, then proceed to Step 2 under Two-Way ties.
I dont think the number of wins matter in the mini conference tie breaker, just the winning percentage. But i could be wrong and will admit it if i am. This stuff gives me headache. Basically, if we win the rest of our games this year, i’m happy
This is Phauz's area of expertise
so I’m inclined to side with him over myself.
Go Cards, go Panthers.
by Mike Rutherford on Mar 3, 2009 2:00 PM EST up reply actions
We can guarantee no worse than a 2 seed
With one more victory
Syracuse / ND
Hey, it’s just my opinion. I know Syracuse is down but they have the ability to go on a run. Teams with weak interiors like ND, Nova and Marquette do not have that ability. Those guys will likely get bounced in the round of 32 IMO.
ND = weak interior & run-handicapped? I respectfully disagree
I wouldn’t necessarily want my daughter to mate w/ Harangody but I wouldn’t dare say he’s part of a weak interior on any college basketball team. And if a team can go on a run, it’s a team with multiple “lights out”-ability shooters with nothing to lose…and that pretty much defines ND right now.
ND destroyed UL 3 wks ago & they either had the interior to get the job done then or they just plain had our number.
Either way, I’ll take Syracuse as well.
by UL is my hot hot sex on Mar 4, 2009 9:05 AM EST up reply actions
Syracuse and Pitt are always tough outs in the BET.
If there is one thing I have learned in 3 years of watching the BET closely… it is an entire different animal then the regular season Big East race. The regular season is a slug fest, but it is a marathon. Teams go into the BET with a fresh slate and play with desperation and the refs have notoriously let the slugfest turn into all out brawls. Thus far, Louisville has not adjusted well to this and until we figure out how to adjust to the style of play in the BET, I won’t hold out hope of winning it.
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