Selection Sunday

[hoosiers]

Thanks to a lane violation? LOL

You're the first person I've seen that thinks that Maryland didn't get hosed. It's not just Maryland fans. National media members have been saying the same thing. MD was in the hunt for a 2 seed until the final weekend and then all of the sudden they're a 4 and in Kentucky's bracket. But the Indiana fan thinks MD didn't get hosed. Big surprise.

I guess you're still mad about 2002.

I only watched the first eight minutes of the IU Maryland game as my daughter had a soccer game. I was under the impression the game was a 2 point game in the last minute when Maryland missed a free throw that would have given IU the ball with a chance to win. Seems like it could have gone either way - like the College Park game where IU was up in the last 90 seconds and shooting a 3 pointer for the win in the last 10 seconds. Perhaps I'm misinformed or mistaken or both.

Congrats on 2002. Not mad at all - IU had a great run beating Duke and Oklahoma and having the lead around the under 8 minute time out against Maryland in the finals before Maryland's class showed through. Stay classy.

[Munson]

I must say I re-read my post and am trying to understand your conclusion. My posts includes mentions of IU playing Maryland (3X), GTown, Northwestern plus MSU playing Maryland. It must be a thing of mathematical beauty to conclude I am referencing two games! Good lord.

Didn't you say,"I don't think Maryland beating Indiana (a 10 seed whose only recent win is Northwestern) in the last minute thanks to a lane violation and losing in the conference semis to MichState is indicative of a 3 seed.

That sounds like two games to me.

So what you really mean is that MD shouldn't be a 3 seed because:

1. Indiana's only recent win is against Northwestern.

2. MD won 2 close games against Indiana and lost one fairly big.

3. MD lost to a top 25 Michigan State team that took Wisconsin to OT.(Despite MD beating them twice)

4. Indiana took Georgetown to OT on a neutral court.

Okay, Gotcha.

[hoosiers]

Let's look at those last 7 games.

Maryland beats Nebraska by 3 at home and 4 on the road. Nebraska lost to EVERY OTHER B1G team on the road by double digits including non NCAA tourney teams Penn St, Illinois, Minn and Mich! Nebraska beat Ill, Minn and MSU at home, but Maryland was the closest home B1G loss with larger losses to IU (5), Iowa (28) and Wisconsin (10). Go ahead, brother VT, and beat your chest about those impressive Maryland performances against Nebraska.

Wins at Rutgers by 10. IU won in New Jersey by 30, MichSt by 20, Ohio State by 19, Purdue by 10. Out of conference, George Washington won at Rutgers by 19, Virginia won by 19 and St. Peter's Peacocks (no joke) beat Rutgers in NJ by 19! Go ahead, brother VT, and crow about the impressive Maryland showing in Rutgers!

Beats Indiana at home by 2. Among IU's last 6 road games, there were losses at OSU by 12, loss at Wisconsin by 14, loss at Purdue by 16, win at Rutgers by 30, loss at Northwestern by 7. Go ahead and crow about that close game at home versus IU, brother VT! If we re-visit that Indiana blowout at Assembly Hall in defeating Maryland by 19, Indiana had tougher games at home v Penn State (3 pt win), Ohio State (3 point win), Rutgers (8 point win), Michigan (3 point win), loss to Purdue by 4 at home, loss to Iowa by 14 and a loss to MichSt by 2. In conference, at home, IU beat Minn by 19 - the only result similar to Maryland's. Very distinguishable relative efforts by Maryland against IU - NOT!

Wins at Penn State by 3. PSU's home B1G slate included a 13 point win over Nebraska, five point win over Minn, there is a loss to Wisconsin by 8, loss to Iowa by 4 in double OT, loss to Ohio State by 10, loss to Mich by 11, loss to Purdue by 7 in OT and beat Rutgers by 18. This is a PSU team that only beat Duquesne at home by 2 and VaTech by 3. Go ahead and crow about that close win at PSU, VT!

Beat Michigan at home by 10. Michigan also lost in OT on the road at Northwestern, Illinois and MSU, lost at IU by 3, lost at Ohio State by 19, lost at Purdue by 13. Non conference, Michigan lost at Arizona by 27. Michigan's only road wins this entire season were at Penn State and at Rutgers. Super statement win against the Wolverines in Maryland, VT!

Great win against Wisconsin - a number 1 seed!

Before those great last 7 wins, Maryland had lost 3 of five including all three road games at Indiana by 19, at Iowa by 16 and at OSU by 24! Go ahead and ask for that 3 seed, VT! After those great last 7 wins, Maryland beat Indiana (10 seed) by 6 on a neutral site. IU's neutral site efforts include an OT loss to GTown, a 20 point loss to Louisville and a 9 point win against Butler. Maryland lost on a neutral court to MichSt (7 seed). MichSt played neutral site games including losses to Duke by 10, Kansas by 5 and Wisconsin by 11 and victories against Rider, Marquette (11), OSU (9).

Among these last 14 games, Maryland beat Northwestern at home by 1. Northwestern's road slate this year includes losses to Iowa by 17, Illinois by 26, Wisconsin by 15, Nebraska by 16, Butler by 10, Michigan by 2. NW lost at MichSt in OT. Northwestern's only road victories were against Brown, Rutgers by 4, Minn by 6. Great one point victory, Maryland!

The final game among these final 14 was a six point home victory against Penn State. Penn State lost at Wisconsin by 17, lost by 4 at Rutgers, by 3 at IU, by 6 at MSU, by 2 at Illinois, by 20 at OhioSt, by 21 at Northwestern. PSU only beat Minn, Bucknell and Marshall on the road.

I agree the world is not ending and those wins against Wisconsin and Iowa State were very impressive, but I disagree that Maryland got hosed. There's not a lot to distinguish Maryland performance down the stretch these last 14 games where Maryland went 10-4 except for the all important Wins. Save for Wisconsin, nearly all of those wins were relatively unimpressive efforts as shown above AND as demonstrated by the fact that Maryland's total points over those 14 games was less than its opponents! How does that fact group you, VT?

Is this an analysis that looks at results?

[Frobby]

Jeff Sagarin's ratings have Maryland at 25. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/sagarin/ Ken Pomeroy has them at 33. http://kenpom.com/ The RPI has them at 13 (still would be a 4 seed). http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-rpi

At the end of the day, Maryland still has to win six games to win a national championship. It's a tough break to have a likely matchup with Kentucky in the Round of 16, but the road to a national championship is likely to go through Kentucky no matter where you are seeded or which bracket you are in. It's just a matter of when. Maryland is just as likely to beat Kentucky in the round of 16 as they'd be in the national championship game.

[Satyr3206]

Jeff Sagarin's ratings have Maryland at 25. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/sagarin/ Ken Pomeroy has them at 33. http://kenpom.com/ The RPI has them at 13 (still would be a 4 seed). http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-rpi

At the end of the day, Maryland still has to win six games to win a national championship. It's a tough break to have a likely matchup with Kentucky in the Round of 16, but the road to a national championship is likely to go through Kentucky no matter where you are seeded or which bracket you are in. It's just a matter of when. Maryland is just as likely to beat Kentucky in the round of 16 as they'd be in the national championship game.

Seeding aside I would have to strongly disagree with an analysis that says Maryland is the 25th or 33rd best team in the Country.

[Number5]

This rewarding teams that run up the score on lesser teams sends the wrong message. Big mistake. Teams will now have no choice but to pour it on when up by a comfortable margin late in the game, lest the selection committee screw them as they did Maryland this year. Tempers will, no doubt, flare and there will be some ugly scenes. Giving point differential more weight that the truly important factors borders on the nonsensical, IMO. Margin of victory should be a low-level factor - pretty much used only as a tiebreaker for otherwise evenly matched teams.

[Can_of_corn]

This rewarding teams that run up the score on lesser teams sends the wrong message. Big mistake. Teams will now have no choice but to pour it on when up by a comfortable margin late in the game, lest the selection committee screw them as they did Maryland this year. Tempers will, no doubt, flare and there will be some ugly scenes. Giving point differential more weight that the truly important factors borders on the nonsensical, IMO. Margin of victory should be a low-level factor - pretty much used only as a tiebreaker for otherwise evenly matched teams.

And it will also increase the injury risk for elite players. Who doesn't like seeing them go down with injuries?

[Satyr3206]

This rewarding teams that run up the score on lesser teams sends the wrong message. Big mistake. Teams will now have no choice but to pour it on when up by a comfortable margin late in the game, lest the selection committee screw them as they did Maryland this year. Tempers will, no doubt, flare and there will be some ugly scenes. Giving point differential more weight that the truly important factors borders on the nonsensical, IMO. Margin of victory should be a low-level factor - pretty much used only as a tiebreaker for otherwise evenly matched teams.

I agree. It used to be that a teams non conference strength of schedule factored into tournament seeding. Since now it's point differential I guess all the teams will start scheduling cupcakes so they can run up the score and get a better seed.

[ArtVanDelay]

Maryland is basically the basketball equivalent of the 2012 Orioles.

[Frobby]

And both polls have them at #12 this week after #8/9 last week. I was actually surprised they dropped all the way to #12, but I digress.

I don't want to put words in your mouth but it appears that you're advocating the position that NCAA tourney result is binary - in other words, you win the wholetournament or you don't and it doesn't matter if you're in the finals or go out in the first round. Surely you don't think that?

I'm sure we can agree that being able to tout an elite 8 or final 4 to future recruits helps recruiting and to boosters helps fundraising. Not to mention that viewership will be higher in the 3rd and 4th rounds because there won't be as many games on at the same time which helps marketing of the team. Plus the revenue the school receives increases with each round.

From a completely different perspective, the 2nd game is significantly harder too. ISU at #3 is facing SMU in the second round. Oklahoma at #3 is facing Providence in the second round. I'd much rather face either of those schools than WVU. If you look at their bracketology information, I think you'd quickly agree.

It also matters how tough each opponent is over time. There is a definite cumulative effect to having tougher matchups than your future opponent. Much like there is in a tennis tourney. From that perspective, I'd be really upset if I was Kentucky. Their deck was clearly stacked in front of them.

I can think of a lot of reasons why it matters who MD faces when during the tournament for both this year and future years. So, I can't agree with your line of thinking.

Your points are fair enough. On the bright side, beating Kentucky would be epic, no matter what happened after that.

[ArtVanDelay]

Iowa State just lost to 14 seed UAB. Good call tournament committee.............................

[Finisher]

Another No. 3 goes down. Hysterical.

[Can_of_corn]

Another No. 3 goes down. Hysterical.

I guess the Terps dodged a bullet getting the four seed!

[ArtVanDelay]

Looks like the Big 12 stinks after all.

[Three Run Homer]

The selection committee bought into the idea that the Big 12 is a great conference. They gave the Big 12 a number two seed and three number 3's. The selection committee's high opinion of the Big 12 is the reason that the Terps got a number 4 seed.

I'd say the selection committee looks pretty stupid today.