2021 NCAA Tournament

[Mr3Putt]

I’m not sure why anyone thought Delaware was getting in.

They’re a tremendous team, in a conference that is consistently overlooked by the NCAA,

if the NCAA was applying an “eye test” then they blew that criteria in assessing the Blue Hens.

Its more likely, they barely watched this team,
and merely applied the weak, oh, they lost to Hofstra argument - not realizing that Hofstra is a good team as well as being one of a very few teams that understand Delaware’s tendencies very well. Hofstra happened to exploit those tendencies in the CAA semifinals, playing one of their best games in a while.

If the NCAA really wanted a deserving team that would perform well in the NCAAs, a team deserving of a bid, then Delaware should have been one of their choices for at large.

Again, not ripping Delaware. Your entire post is proving my point. There was no way Delaware was getting in and anyone who thought they had a chance has not paid attention to college sports the last 30 years. Army was first out, almost certainly Nova after them, then maybe the Hens. It is easy to predict that consistently overlook conferences will be, you know, overlooked.

It looks like,
if Delaware wasn’t even under consideration for at large,
then there really was no “eyeball test”, and they stuck with, for them, the tried and true safe call choices.

The CAA was most definitely overlooked once again.
Which the discussion on those threads consistently was,
well, the NCAA will do what the NCAA always does.

No one is at all surprised.
For the last ten years or so, its expected.
The NCAA arbitrarily overlooks the CAA.
I’m just calling that out,
again,
for the umpteenth time.

Towson got a 6 seed in 2019 because there was no way to
overlook them, they were number one, beat the number one team, and had one of the top most dynamic players in
the country.

The NCAA makes the safe calls because they don’t want to get shredded by the larger conferences fandom.

Delaware’s OOC schedule does them no favors. You could mention 2021, but there OOC is always a little soft.

[Mr3Putt]

Vermont playing Syracuse early season at the Dome is good experience, will help playing Maryland. The Cats are a good the dot. I’d like to see a couple of diaper changes by the Terps.

[Mr3Putt]

Drexel has won like 9 straight. I think they got hosed a little facing ND. Faceoffs, close D, goalie for ND too much for the Dragons. Matchups vs Lehigh, Rutgers even GT would have been more suitable for Drexel. When you win that many in a row, it should be recognized.

[bearlaxfan]

If Delaware had made it to the CAA final and lost in a close game, do they get in over one of the unseeded non-AQs?

[HopFan16]

what unseeded auto bid conference teams have the best shot to pull an upset?

Realistically, none, but gun to my head I'd say Vermont vs. Maryland because there's some weird Bernhardt family stuff going on there and Vermont has a very good FOGO who might be able to give the Catamounts enough possessions to make it interesting.

I don't see a path for Monmouth, High Point, or Bryant.

Drexel is hot and could make it a game against ND but that game is in South Bend....would be the upset of the century if Notre Dame didn't win. Rooting for the Voelker-Durkin-Boyle Blue Jay triumverate though.

obviously, things could go chalk, but i'd say the o/u on upsets is 1 1/2 or 2 and i'd take the over on 1 1/2 all day.

You’re taking the over on 1.5 upsets in just those four games? There’s no way. We were talking about just the games with unseeded autobid teams. If you’re talking all 8 games then, yeah, maybe the over on 1.5.

[head73]

Drexel-ND game will be played in Denver, I believe.

[Peter Brown]

Tough draw for Georgetown

Why? Notre Dame could have dropped 30 on Cuse if they’d wanted. Gtown got the easiest first round opponent I can think of.

[kramerica.inc]

Drexel has won like 9 straight. I think they got hosed a little facing ND. Faceoffs, close D, goalie for ND too much for the Dragons. Matchups vs Lehigh, Rutgers even GT would have been more suitable for Drexel. When you win that many in a row, it should be recognized.

UMD has won a couple in a row too.
Where do you think Drexel should have been put?
No matchup is ideal. Gotta play tough teams in the NCAAs.

[Farfromgeneva]

It’s just seeding. MD is going to get a 2 or 3 so they can split Duke and UNC I would be pretty sure of so who cares between 2 & 3? Notre Dame is probably going to be 4 so you’re looking at the top 4 seeds being three ACC teams and MD. Kind of doesn’t matter. That 5 seed could be valuable vs the 6 seed in Rd 1 opponent, less because of the challenge of winning that game for a 5 or 6 but rather the impact of a relatively tougher vs slightly easier matchup in further rounds form being banged up or a little more spent in a short one and done tourney.

There’s no chance the committee is going to care about splitting up Duke and UNC in a potential SEMIFINAL matchup. Are you serious? Their job isn’t to try and arrange a championship matchup, and as you say 3 of the top 4 (probably 4 of the top 5) will all be ACC so there’s no way to avoid a potential semifinal conflict. It’s one thing to try and avoid conference matchups when slotting in the unseeded teams, but the top seed isn’t picked based off of that nonsense.

Interesting. I missed it but did MD get the 1 seed?

[Farfromgeneva]

It’s just seeding. MD is going to get a 2 or 3 so they can split Duke and UNC I would be pretty sure of so who cares between 2 & 3? Notre Dame is probably going to be 4 so you’re looking at the top 4 seeds being three ACC teams and MD. Kind of doesn’t matter. That 5 seed could be valuable vs the 6 seed in Rd 1 opponent, less because of the challenge of winning that game for a 5 or 6 but rather the impact of a relatively tougher vs slightly easier matchup in further rounds form being banged up or a little more spent in a short one and done tourney.

There’s no chance the committee is going to care about splitting up Duke and UNC in a potential SEMIFINAL matchup. Are you serious? Their job isn’t to try and arrange a championship matchup, and as you say 3 of the top 4 (probably 4 of the top 5) will all be ACC so there’s no way to avoid a potential semifinal conflict. It’s one thing to try and avoid conference matchups when slotting in the unseeded teams, but the top seed isn’t picked based off of that nonsense.

Completely serious. It’s happened before and can happen again. If you think that sort of thing hasn’t or doesn’t happen in numerous NCAA sanctioned sports then I don’t k ow what to tell you.

And I think you’re missing the point. I never said avoiding any semifinal rematches I’m talking specifically about two schools. You’ve inferred too much outside of the words I used.

MD is doubtful to be #1 without any OOC wins. Blame the BigTen admin.

Except you're wrong. Maryland is the #1 seed. It's not even in doubt. And the great thing is it doesn't matter because the best team will win in the tournament. This is a lot more fun than 2020!

I guess I was wrong.

[wgdsr]

what unseeded auto bid conference teams have the best shot to pull an upset?

Realistically, none, but gun to my head I'd say Vermont vs. Maryland because there's some weird Bernhardt family stuff going on there and Vermont has a very good FOGO who might be able to give the Catamounts enough possessions to make it interesting.

I don't see a path for Monmouth, High Point, or Bryant.

Drexel is hot and could make it a game against ND but that game is in South Bend....would be the upset of the century if Notre Dame didn't win. Rooting for the Voelker-Durkin-Boyle Blue Jay triumverate though.

obviously, things could go chalk, but i'd say the o/u on upsets is 1 1/2 or 2 and i'd take the over on 1 1/2 all day.

You’re taking the over on 1.5 upsets in just those four games? There’s no way. We were talking about just the games with unseeded autobid teams. If you’re talking all 8 games then, yeah, maybe the over on 1.5.

i didn't take all of the quote in. meant of all 8 matchups.

only several where you can't see an upset as plausible. probably fewer than usual, and in a super team year. deep year for lax even with the ivies out.

[DU-fan]

I’m not sure why anyone thought Delaware was getting in.

They’re a tremendous team, in a conference that is consistently overlooked by the NCAA,

if the NCAA was applying an “eye test” then they blew that criteria in assessing the Blue Hens.

Its more likely, they barely watched this team,
and merely applied the weak, oh, they lost to Hofstra argument - not realizing that Hofstra is a good team as well as being one of a very few teams that understand Delaware’s tendencies very well. Hofstra happened to exploit those tendencies in the CAA semifinals, playing one of their best games in a while.

If the NCAA really wanted a deserving team that would perform well in the NCAAs, a team deserving of a bid, then Delaware should have been one of their choices for at large.

Again, not ripping Delaware. Your entire post is proving my point. There was no way Delaware was getting in and anyone who thought they had a chance has not paid attention to college sports the last 30 years. Army was first out, almost certainly Nova after them, then maybe the Hens. It is easy to predict that consistently overlook conferences will be, you know, overlooked.

It looks like,
if Delaware wasn’t even under consideration for at large,
then there really was no “eyeball test”, and they stuck with, for them, the tried and true safe call choices.

The CAA was most definitely overlooked once again.
Which the discussion on those threads consistently was,
well, the NCAA will do what the NCAA always does.

No one is at all surprised.
For the last ten years or so, its expected.
The NCAA arbitrarily overlooks the CAA.
I’m just calling that out,
again,
for the umpteenth time.

Towson got a 6 seed in 2019 because there was no way to
overlook them, they were number one, beat the number one team, and had one of the top most dynamic players in
the country.

The NCAA makes the safe calls because they don’t want to get shredded by the larger conferences fandom.

Delaware’s OOC schedule does them no favors. You could mention 2021, but there OOC is always a little soft.

It seems pretty clear that if a team did not make it to the finals in their conference they got bumped down in their league ranking which seems very fair. The committee also decided that the B1G, BE, and Patriot leagues would get 2 teams in and the ACC would get everyone one in. All other conference would only get the AQ. I think this was communicated or at least commonly understood.
- Army lost to Loyola, so Loyola got in and Army did not
- Delaware lost to Hofstra, so Delaware is out and Drexel is in because they one the CAA
- If Johns Hopkins won, Rutgers was out. JHU could not get in because they are under .500
- Villanova lost to Georgetown so they are out and Denver is in

I find it a little surprising that the committee put ND behind Virginia, but their win over UNC and ND was the reason and it makes sense.

I think minimizing travel distance and scheduling great and/or interesting match ups took precedence over the actual ranking post #8.

1 UNC
2 Duke
3 Maryland
4 Virginia
5 Georgetown
6 Notre Dame
7 Denver
8 Lehigh
9 Rutgers
10 Loyola
11 Drexel
12 Syracuse
13 Bryant
14 Vermont
15 Highpoint
16 Monmouth

[wgdsr]

while they may have done this and it looks like they did, running selections based on conferences and not teams is antithetical.

it's also expressly against selection rules (which we all know were thrown out the window). of it was ever communicated, i'd like to see it. time of year for wins and losses is also a no no.

of course, every year we get the committee head showing what a gummed up process it is from what's supposed to happen. this year, they take a small cowpie of a mess and make it worse, track it inside.

[Wheels]

The only way the Top 4 ACC teams can play each other is if they make the Final 4. That's all you need to know about how the committee balanced the bracket.

Had ND been the 5-seed, which is where most people thought they'd be, we'd have gotten UVA-ND in South Bend for the QF (a rematch at the same location of UVA's 12-11 win). So the committee flipped ND and Georgetown.

Hence Leonard's inability to articulate MD's and ND's seeds. Both were under-seeded by one.

The committee's travel and cost concerns, factors that usually alter the final seeding, didn't matter this time. I think Patrick Stevens said 6 teams have flights year. The rule normally is that the committee keeps flights in the first round to just 2 teams.

[FMUBart]

Tough draw for Georgetown

Why? Notre Dame could have dropped 30 on Cuse if they’d wanted. Gtown got the easiest first round opponent I can think of.

Careful what you wish for...Cuse by 3, IMHO...

[Peter Brown]

Tough draw for Georgetown

Why? Notre Dame could have dropped 30 on Cuse if they’d wanted. Gtown got the easiest first round opponent I can think of.

Careful what you wish for...Cuse by 3, IMHO...

Maybe you’re correct, but another way to look at the game is this:

Cuse possibly wins but at best won’t be more than by a couple

Georgetown likely wins and it very possibly could be a blowout

[FMUBart]

Tough draw for Georgetown

Why? Notre Dame could have dropped 30 on Cuse if they’d wanted. Gtown got the easiest first round opponent I can think of.

Careful what you wish for...Cuse by 3, IMHO...

Maybe you’re correct, but another way to look at the game is this:

Cuse possibly wins but at best won’t be more than by a couple

Georgetown likely wins and it very possibly could be a blowout

That's why they play the games Historically, you don't wanna see Cuse in May, but times, they are a changin'

[DU-fan]

while they may have done this and it looks like they did, running selections based on conferences and not teams is antithetical.

it's also expressly against selection rules (which we all know were thrown out the window). of it was ever communicated, i'd like to see it. time of year for wins and losses is also a no no.

of course, every year we get the committee head showing what a gummed up process it is from what's supposed to happen. this year, they take a small cowpie of a mess and make it worse, track it inside.

With limited inter conference play, I am not sure the committee had much of an option this year. People can complain about the ACC getting all the teams in, but this was obvious after SU beat Virginia and had a winning record. That only leaves 3 other AL bids, which everyone knows. They committee did not have that many options.

I like Tim Leonard's transparency, but it invites even more criticism.

I wish the number of D1 teams would support a 24 team bracket with first round byes. But, that is the role that the conference championships play. And when teams don't make the championship finals, it hurts the team's chances of getting an AL.

The ACC needs to pick up another team or get a waiver to have a 4 team playoff bracket in my opinion.

[DU-fan]

The only way the Top 4 ACC teams can play each other is if they make the Final 4. That's all you need to know about how the committee balanced the bracket.

Had ND been the 5-seed, which is where most people thought they'd be, we'd have gotten UVA-ND in South Bend for the QF (a rematch at the same location of UVA's 12-11 win). So the committee flipped ND and Georgetown.

Hence Leonard's inability to articulate MD's and ND's seeds. Both were under-seeded by one.

Makes perfect sense. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Wheels]

Good questions in this Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/PGPcommenter/status ... 0564365313