The Season is Clearly Over.... (latest bracketology)

[Muskie]

Link (http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology)

For all those calling this a bubble team.

[xufan2434]

I think it's just the different perspectives compared to this year from last and the expectations coming into the year. I'm not going to lie, Lunardi and a couple others have defended X quite a bit and I've been surprised. Not that I'm mad about it, I just still don't think they're playing that well. The resume isn't all that great by any means right now. Clemson is not helping. Would be big if Wake were to beat Duke this weekend.

And at this point, yeah they're in. But if they continue to go the entire year without any marquee wins, then it's gonna be a stressful Sunday. Having said that, X has historically done well as a 6 seed and it's one of the better ones to have in order to advance to the 2nd weekend so I wouldn't be upset with it. But anything less than that and having to play a Top 2 in the 2nd round would be wildly disappointing for this year again

[Xavier]

If they continue down the path, they are fine. Wouldn't be worried at all about making the tournament....but, continue the path and throw in 2-3 bad losses and they'd be in trouble.

[Wheelhouse]

It's been a rocky season so far but this team has enough talent to do some damage in March. Survive the Big East gauntlet, get into the dance and see what kind of run they can put together. That's the thing with the NCAA Tourney - if you get the right draw a deep run is quite feasible.

[THRILLHOUSE]

I don't think we'll be sweating a bid on Selection Sunday. But if we don't pick up some more quality wins I'd be concerned about falling to the 8/9 seed line.

[X-band '01]

Link (http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology)

For all those calling this a bubble team.

DC Muskie's favorite team would be facing Xavier.

Oh wait, wrong Miami.

[bleedXblue]

I don't think we'll be sweating a bid on Selection Sunday. But if we don't pick up some more quality wins I'd be concerned about falling to the 8/9 seed line.

Well, we have no shortage of opportunities starting with Thursday night. Time for the team to make some things happen.

[bobbiemcgee]

Clearly, this team has not reached it's potential but I think Mack will bring them around. Playing in the BE is like running a gauntlet. Tough, brutal realities.No off days allowed.

[xubrew]

Link (http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology)

For all those calling this a bubble team.

Looks about right.

[xubrew]

Not to go off on a tangent, but could someone explain Arkansas to me? I get that he's trying to guess the selection committee, so this isn't so much what he thinks, but rather what he thinks other people are going to think. That being said, how could anyone think, or think that someone else will think, that Arkansas is good??

Everyone seems to love them. They have a win at home against Houston who's likely an NIT team and that's basically their entire profile.

[vee4xu]

It'll be a huge help to beat UC for that signature "road" win versus a ranked team. Top that off with a win at home vs. either Butler and/or Villanova and hold serve at home vs rest of BE and all should be fine.

[THRILLHOUSE]

Not to go off on a tangent, but could someone explain Arkansas to me? I get that he's trying to guess the selection committee, so this isn't so much what he thinks, but rather what he thinks other people are going to think. That being said, how could anyone think, or think that someone else will think, that Arkansas is good??

Everyone seems to love them. They have a win at home against Houston who's likely an NIT team and that's basically their entire profile.

I guess they have avoided really bad losses. Worst loss is vs Mississippi State. Other loses are UK, Florida and Minnesota. So as of now, I could see them as a tourney team, not sure I'd have them as a 9 seed.

[xu82]

It'll be a huge help to beat UC for that signature "road" win versus a ranked team. Top that off with a win at home vs. either Butler and/or Villanova and hold serve at home vs rest of BE and all should be fine.

That's a plan I can get behind. Colorado still stings. The other 4 losses are disappointing, but not embarrassing in any way. That's what happens when your play good teams. It also gets you ready for March, when the stakes go up.

[X-band '01]

Not to go off on a tangent, but could someone explain Arkansas to me? I get that he's trying to guess the selection committee, so this isn't so much what he thinks, but rather what he thinks other people are going to think. That being said, how could anyone think, or think that someone else will think, that Arkansas is good??

Everyone seems to love them. They have a win at home against Houston who's likely an NIT team and that's basically their entire profile.

Part of it is that Arkansas actually scheduled some decent buy games that were wins - Sam Houston State, North Dakota State and Texas-Arlington are a few examples. I'd mention Fort Wayne, but they now have a losing record in the Summit League.

Other wins against major programs that have somewhat of a pulse - Houston, Texas (played in Houston), at Tennessee and at Texas A&M. They don't have a win against a team that's a surefire NCAA Tournament team yet, but only the loss at home against Mississippi State smells like goblin piss. Compared to other teams that are around the bubble right now, that's not terribly bad.

[paulxu]

We were unranked in 2004 before the run.

[GoMuskies]

We were unranked in 2004 before the run.

Snuck up on them.

Louisville was ranked #2 at one point that season.

I prefer how our season turned out.

[xubrew]

Snuck up on them.

Louisville was ranked #2 at one point that season.

I prefer how our season turned out.

To this day that was one of the most feel good wins I've ever experienced as a fan of a team in any sport. It felt so good that I remember thinking going into Mississippi State that I wanted to win, but if we didn't then beating Louisville was good enough. Of course the rest of the week was great too.

[xu82]

To this day that was one of the most feel good wins I've ever experienced as a fan of a team in any sport. It felt so good that I remember thinking going into Mississippi State that I wanted to win, but if we didn't then beating Louisville was good enough. Of course the rest of the week was great too.

We were at those games. One of the best weekends of my life. The kids were still young enough to be cute, but old enough to know their sports. The boys still talk about the time I got into it with the Mississippi State Tuba Boy! (He had issues with "number zero!") The Louisville cheerleaders were having a serious discussion mid-court about something, then shifted about 20 feet toward our basket. I couldn't figure it out until they flung that gerbil sized cheerleader into the air. She might have hit the damn scoreboard above!

[scoscox]

We were at those games. One of the best weekends of my life. The kids were still young enough to be cute, but old enough to know their sports. The boys still talk about the time I got into it with the Mississippi State Tuba Boy! (He had issues with "number zero!") The Louisville cheerleaders were having a serious discussion mid-court about something, then shifted about 20 feet toward our basket. I couldn't figure it out until they flung that gerbil sized cheerleader into the air. She might have hit the damn scoreboard above!

Absolutely legendary game from Lionel. He was unstoppable.

[xu82]

Absolutely legendary game from Lionel. He was unstoppable.

Tuba Boy asked "who is you" for a couple hours beginning with shoot around. They must have made a special size tuba to fit this's guy. My last words out of the arena were right in his ear: "he's the guy who just kicked your ass!".


I'd love to see that replay now.

[XfansinKy]

It's been a rocky season so far but this team has enough talent to do some damage in March. Survive the Big East gauntlet, get into the dance and see what kind of run they can put together. That's the thing with the NCAA Tourney - if you get the right draw a deep run is quite feasible.

Simply put and 100% correct.

[muethibp]

This bubble team stuff is hilarious. Do you know how soft the bubble is since they expanded to 68 teams? It's a joke.

They've got 14 wins and 2 games left against Depaul. That's 16 wins.

They have seven games where they should be able to find 3, maybe 4 wins: @ UC, @ St. Johns, Seton Hall, @ Providence, @ Marquette, @ Seton Hall

So even assuming they lose again to Creighton, Butler, and Villanova (and they will be in all three games), they still should make it. This is not a bubble team, at least not yet.

[AviatorX]

This bubble team stuff is hilarious. Do you know how soft the bubble is since they expanded to 68 teams? It's a joke.

They've got 14 wins and 2 games left against Depaul. That's 16 wins.

They have seven games where they should be able to find 3, maybe 4 wins: @ UC, @ St. Johns, Seton Hall, @ Providence, @ Marquette, @ Seton Hall

So even assuming they lose again to Creighton, Butler, and Villanova (and they will be in all three games), they still should make it. This is not a bubble team, at least not yet.

Yeah, I mean at this point if Xavier is a bubble team Duke is as well.

[mirabilelectu]

This bubble team stuff is hilarious. Do you know how soft the bubble is since they expanded to 68 teams? It's a joke.

They've got 14 wins and 2 games left against Depaul. That's 16 wins.

They have seven games where they should be able to find 3, maybe 4 wins: @ UC, @ St. Johns, Seton Hall, @ Providence, @ Marquette, @ Seton Hall

So even assuming they lose again to Creighton, Butler, and Villanova (and they will be in all three games), they still should make it. This is not a bubble team, at least not yet.

I think it's very clear that our resume is not bubbly. I think what some people, at least I understand some people to be saying (maybe I'm giving them too much credit) is that this team will end up a bubble team if they don't eliminate some of the troubling trends. If we lose to Nova, CU, and Butler then we also have to hope we don't slip up against SJU or DePaul as we will have no opportunities for good wins and will have to start avoiding bad losses. Do you really feel comfortable predicting wins on the road even against those teams? I don't feel as comfortable as some with regards to chalking up wins; Butler has struggled with both DePaul and SJU, DePaul also played very well in Philly, Marquette just hung 100 in Omaha (we didn't even put up 70 in Cintas!). I agree, more likely than not we will pick up enough wins, but to just assume we will end up in the tournament because we are comfortably in now is shortsighted. We are in the driver's seat right now which is awesome, but they need to get the job done.

[GoMuskies]

I don't think we're likely to be bubbly. I'm just afraid we're going to end up with a shitty seed having not shown the ability to beat the kind of team we'd have to beat in the second round to get to the Sweet Sixteen. If we can get by what will likely be a difficult opening round opponent.

[THRILLHOUSE]

Looks like basketball is kind of following in football's steps - There is going to be an in-season unveiling of the Top 16 seeds on February 11th:

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-sports/releases/view?id=46919

[GoMuskies]

Looks like basketball is kind of following in football's steps - There is going to be an in-season unveiling of the Top 16 seeds on February 11th:

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-sports/releases/view?id=46919

That is really dumb.

[xufan2434]

That is really dumb.

I guess the point is to give teams falling in the 1-3 seed range more of an idea of where they are heading into the tournament? I'm not sure. Seems more to me that outside of just getting people to talk about college ball, it's more a way for the committee to be protected come S Sunday since people will know where they've been coming from for the last month.

To me, there's so much that can change between 3-6 seeds in the last couple weeks. You can go from a 6 to 3/4 just by winning your conference tournament in some cases. So kind of seems stupid to do prior to March

[JTG]

I guess the point is to give teams falling in the 1-3 seed range more of an idea of where they are heading into the tournament? I'm not sure. Seems more to me that outside of just getting people to talk about college ball, it's more a way for the committee to be protected come S Sunday since people will know where they've been coming from for the last month.

To me, there's so much that can change between 3-6 seeds in the last couple weeks. You can go from a 6 to 3/4 just by winning your conference tournament in some cases. So kind of seems stupid to do prior to March

It's marketing: Get people talking about college basketball. What dominates sports media for 2 days after selection Sunday, who is slotted where. Strictly a marketing ploy, and a smart one at that

[xubrew]

Looks like basketball is kind of following in football's steps - There is going to be an in-season unveiling of the Top 16 seeds on February 11th:

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-sports/releases/view?id=46919


That is really dumb.

From a programming perspective, it's ingenious.

There is some sort of intrinsic excitement when it comes to brackets, even among people that are just casual fans at best. I can't really explain why, but I can't really explain Christmas either. There is something intrinsic about it and when see the lights and the decorations they kind of get caught up in it. I've thought for a long time that a really easy way for CBS/Turner, or ESPN, or both to create a show that's unbelievably easy to produce and that tons of people would watch is to have a half hour every Sunday night where they reveal that week's bracket projections before they just post it online. That's basically what this is, only the real selection committee is coming up with the top four lines.

I kind of like it. Tons of people will watch this half hour show, and it gives us a pretty good checkpoint of where teams currently stand, at least when it comes to the top four seeds.

[X-band '01]

Thankfully they don't need a 2-hour show to release a 16-team list.

[xufan2434]

From a programming perspective, it's ingenious.

There is some sort of intrinsic excitement when it comes to brackets, even among people that are just casual fans at best. I can't really explain why, but I can't really explain Christmas either. There is something intrinsic about it and when see the lights and the decorations they kind of get caught up in it. I've thought for a long time that a really easy way for CBS/Turner, or ESPN, or both to create a show that's unbelievably easy to produce and that tons of people would watch is to have a half hour every Sunday night where they reveal that week's bracket projections before they just post it online. That's basically what this is, only the real selection committee is coming up with the top four lines.

I kind of like it. Tons of people will watch this half hour show, and it gives us a pretty good checkpoint of where teams currently stand, at least when it comes to the top four seeds.

And I agree with all of that. And especially from a corporate stand point, it's a good move. Basketball is light years behind football in terms of marketing. I just selfishly love the originality of Selection Sunday. X needs to get some wins here so they make the cut and I'm not bummed out every time they do this

[GoMuskies]

From a programming perspective, it's ingenious.


So is Keeping Up With the Kardashians. It's still dumb.

[xubrew]

So is Keeping Up With the Kardashians. It's still dumb.

Well, don't watch it then. Tons of other people will watch. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets higher ratings than the actual games do that day.

[GoMuskies]

Well, don't watch it then. Tons of other people will watch. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets higher ratings than the actual games do that day.

I won't. And I agree on the ratings. It will still probably lose to four different versions of Real Housewives that day.

[D-West & PO-Z]

To me the committee will really regret this (if they had a choice) because there are going to be some many more questions and second guessing about why this team moved this far or this team didnt from thew Feb bracket. They will need to give a lot more insight into what moves teams and how much conference tourneys really mean etc. Might be good for fans and teams because sometimes it seems their reasoning's and the things they look at arent really all that understood. Maybe they don't care about the extra questions or criticisms.

I think it is dumb from the stand point that so much will change but I get that it will probably create more buzz and get more eyeballs on college bball for a time.

[xubrew]

To be fair, if I were on the committee I'd be against releasing it. But I'm not, so therefore I am for releasing it.

Every year they go through the exercise of coming up with a seed list right about at that point anyway. In the past people have complained about how they did not release it. Now that they are releasing it people are complaining that they shouldn't release it. Others will also undoubtedly complain about how they're only releasing the top sixteen. I really don't think it matters either way, nor do I think it changes anything. Why do it?? Well, my answer to that is why not do it?? It doesn't really matter either way.

They meet every week from the first week of the season on (albeit online) and give reports on the leagues that they're in charge of monitoring, and answer questions from the other members. Some in the media have said they want them to release what they talked about in those meetings. But, if they did that other people will say they shouldn't be doing that. I guess they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

[Drew]

This is dumb.

I'll be watching.

[xufan2434]

This is dumb.

I'll be watching.

Hahaha exactly my stance

[American X]

I can't really explain Christmas either.

Baby Jesus was born. What are you, a heathen Bearcat fan?

[muskieindent]

Lunardi has been posting the field of 68 since last season ended and he's usually pretty close to the committees picks.If they are only going to release the top 16 teams,I don't think there's going to be anything ground breaking but yeah I'll watch it.

[X-band '01]

Not only will Chris Mack not be watching, he is apparently a big fan of cheese squares.