Brackets and Rankings: 2024-2025

[Xville]

To further your point, the SEC was 185-23 in OOC games, and if I counted right 31-17 against the top 50 of the NET out of conference. That's a 64.5% winning percentage in OOC games against the NET top 50, an average of 3 top 50 opponents per team, and basically 2 wins per team. I think literally every team had at least one.

No other conference did that. No other conference came anywhere close to doing that. That is STUPID good!!!

The SEC did a really good job of taking advantage of them being good, but also in competing against a historically bad ACC. In the challenge, the SEC went I believe 14-2 and they had a number of other conference wins against that particular conference. They were barely above .500 against the big ten, and just 5-4 against Big East. To sum it up, a majority of their OOC wins came against a very bad ACC...some luck involved there, but they did what they needed to do. They won the games in front of them.

[GoMuskies]

30-4 against the ACC is insane. But they got Louisville 4x and Duke once. 1-1 against Clemson, but notably that one win came from the worst team in the SEC: South Carolina. 14-2 against the Big XII is quite solid as well, including knocking off Houston twice.

The avoidance of losses against mid-majors was wild. 126-4. 3 of the losses were to Drake and Memphis meaning they went 126-1 against the cream puffs. One Vandy loss to North Florida.

[Xavier]

For awhile I thought it was just the best conference that we’ve seen. It didn’t (still doesn’t) feel like the old big east conference that was overrated. There’s a lot of great offense which tricks you a little. I won’t be surprised if none make the F4. Still a great conference and am interested to see how committee treats a 4-10 Oklahoma team with great wins.

[Xville]

For awhile I thought it was just the best conference that we’ve seen. It didn’t (still doesn’t) feel like the old big east conference that was overrated. There’s a lot of great offense which tricks you a little. I won’t be surprised if none make the F4. Still a great conference and am interested to see how committee treats a 4-10 Oklahoma team with great wins.

I watch the SEC a ton due to being a Mizzou fan as well. IMO, The top is extremely good...6 or so teams. The rest of the conference is just like every other conference in my view. Some average and some shit. The thing that kind of bugs me about this year, is that because the top is so good, the middle and bottom are getting the benefit of the doubt. I still think they are shit, but outside of LSU/South Carolina, no one is looking at them this way. Yes, the middle and bottom had some good wins in the non-con so is what it is, but teams are so different in November/December than they are now. For example, are we really to believe St. John's would lose to Georgia now? Not a chance in hell imo.

Anyways, just watching a lot of these "other" SEC teams, imo they all look like the middle to the bottom of every other power conference save for maybe the ACC who is just gawd awful this year.

[xubrew]

For awhile I thought it was just the best conference that we’ve seen. It didn’t (still doesn’t) feel like the old big east conference that was overrated. There’s a lot of great offense which tricks you a little. I won’t be surprised if none make the F4. Still a great conference and am interested to see how committee treats a 4-10 Oklahoma team with great wins.

I actually wouldn't be either, but at the same time I'm not about to make the prediction that none of them will make it. But, when you look at the Final Four caliber teams...

Alabama is a little too reliant on the 3, and if they have an off day they can be beaten

Tennessee, as good as they are, does sometimes go through scoring droughts.

Florida's ceiling is as high as anyone's, but they don't always play up to it.

Auburn....Okay, Auburn is fucking amazing. They look good even on an off night. When a team can have an off game and still beat a top 25 team, that's incredible. Auburn's defense is great, they can hit from the outside, they are a fantastic rebounding team, and they can score in the paint. They're built to where even if they're having an off night in one of those areas, they're good enough at everything else to compensate for it.

Houston was my pick to win it all before the season started, and while I'll still stick with that, they also go through offensive dry spells. They are an AMAZING defensive team and defensive rebounding team, and teams like that are better built to win games away from home because they can suck the energy out of the home crowd. Strangely enough, Houston is actually better in true road games than they are at home. But, they can be beaten if they face another good defensive team and have trouble scoring.

I hate Rick Pitino, but if there is a dark horse pick to make the Final Four, and perhaps knock off one of the top level SEC teams along the way, I think it's Saint John's. They wear teams out defensively. Things that teams typically take for granted like making the entry pass, or switching on the screen, or just basic ball movement, is more difficult against Saint John's than most of other teams. It just grinds and grinds and grinds. And by the end of the game, teams are tired. And, Saint John's is a pretty good defensive team and has some offensive weapons as well. If they played Alabama, or Tennessee, or Florida....in terms of strictly a match-up sense....I think the Johnnies beat them!

[Xavier]

Can you explain what happened to mizzou? Winless in SEC last year to top 20 team. I thought Gates was known to be a defense first coach (I think he was on a list if Miller didn’t come, and I wasn’t interested) but the offense is great.

Unfortunately they are also one of the sec teams I think will lose early in March.

[GoMuskies]

St. John's could certainly get to the Final Four, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them lose in the second round either. They're just such awful rock throwers on offense.

[Xville]

Can you explain what happened to mizzou? Winless in SEC last year to top 20 team. I thought Gates was known to be a defense first coach (I think he was on a list if Miller didn’t come, and I wasn’t interested) but the offense is great.

Unfortunately they are also one of the sec teams I think will lose early in March.

Grill injured last year, Tonje who was on the team last year and is now tearing it up at wisconsin was also injured. With that said, the pieces just didn't fit well together with who was left, and talent wasn't there. (Gates had a few Cleveland State guys left over along with guys that came from mid majors who were thrust into positions of trying to be THE guys in the SEC, not the role players they were expected to be).

Anyways, there is an abundance of talent on the team this year, and they have just about everything. The only possible blind spot is no traditional offensive big. They have Mitchell who is a damn good player, but he's not a back to the basket or mid range type guy, hes more of an athletic, get to the hoop kind of player. That works against smaller frontcourts, not against traditional big athletic teams.

As far as March, it all depends on matchups. If they face a big athletic frontcourt, that would be an issue for them. I could see them somewhere between an Elite Eight Experience and Round of 32. It all just depends, like most teams.

[Xville]

This is how I know the net is crap. Zags are #8 with 2 quad 1 wins and 11 q4 wins.

[MHettel]

30-4 against the ACC is insane. But they got Louisville 4x and Duke once. 1-1 against Clemson, but notably that one win came from the worst team in the SEC: South Carolina. 14-2 against the Big XII is quite solid as well, including knocking off Houston twice.

The avoidance of losses against mid-majors was wild. 126-4. 3 of the losses were to Drake and Memphis meaning they went 126-1 against the cream puffs. One Vandy loss to North Florida.

Yeah, 126 out of 185 wins were against the cream puffs. That’s my point. Did they get the job done against the cream puffs? For sure. But had they ONLY won those games, they would still have been 126-80, which is 61% which would have put them around 5-6 in non-con win %.

The philosophy was to schedule 10 wins and then 3 tough games with only upside. And it worked. But I I don’t look at Georgia beating Vandy or Texas as some great accomplishment. But mathematically it’s a pretty damn good win.

The SEC is good. Not taking that away. The top is great. But it’s the bottom that propelled them to this level this year. And it was enabled by just scheduling non-con wins.