Transcript of NCAA seeding discussion for UH

Basketball
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NCAA Data Scientists: Here it is, you wanted a program to provide a truly objective way of ranking the field. We have successfully completed the work. Here it is, we call it the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or the NET.

NCAA Selection Committee: Oh, Thank you, thank you, thank you. You don’t know how much we appreciate this. It is so hard for us not to let our historical or personal biases unintentionally and invisibly creep into our rankings. This solves that problem. We truly want to create the perfect brackets for everyone to enjoy. What does it say about the top seeds?

NCAA Data Scientists: Numbers 1 and 2 are Gonzaga and Arizona.

NCAA Selection Committee: Great! We are really cooking. This tool is awesome!

NCAA Data Scientists: Next, Houston.

NCAA Selection Committee: Wait, what?

NCAA Data Scientists: The University of Houston Cougars

NCAA Selection Committee: No, we heard that. That’s wrong. Check your work.

NCAA Data Scientists: We did. KenPom has them at 4…

NCAA Selection Committee: They lost to Memphis twice…

NCAA Data Scientists: Yeah, but Memphis is a good team. They are #31.

NCAA Selection Committee: WHAT? But they lost twice to SMU! We were going to give them a 12 so they could beat a 5.

NCAA Data Scientists: SMU is #45.

NCAA Selection Committee: You think we are going to let three (3!) American Conference teams into the tournament? We don’t have any room! There are usually going to be spoilers in the conference tournaments and we still have to get 9 Big Ten teams and 4 Mountain West teams in.

NCAA Data Scientists: …

NCAA Selection Committee: No to SMU. We can move Memphis up to a 9 at the most, but bury them in Gonzaga’s bracket.

NCAA Data Scientists: Are you maybe letting bias creep in?

NCAA Selection Committee: The American Conference is just no good. They don’t pass the eye test. We will put Houston at a 5. What are your rankings for our 12’s?

NCAA Data Scientists: Hmm, Lets see. NMSU 79, Indiana 39, UAB 46, Richmond 81

NCAA Selection Committee: OK. Great. Put them against UAB, We don’t want them to beat a Big Ten school in the first round if you happen to be right about all this.

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There is (I believe) a lot of truth in this.

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Each year, there is usually some level of disagreement about a few of the seedings the committee assigned.

This year, though, they were ridiculously lazy in their seedings and quite wrong on a higher number of assignments. The human factor continues to be a shortcoming in ratings regarding college sports.

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The good news is we don’t have to put up with t much longer……We know once we start the New Big 12 there will be plenty of quad 1 games.

What do we know regarding next years OOC? No news on what tournament yet?

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WRONG. We did not lose to SMU twice.

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That part was talking about Memphis, who lost twice to SMU.

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I was confused by this as well but realized he was referring to Memphis’ resume

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I’m sorry they were confusing. It’s a transcript, I cant change what they said

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Never mind.

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He said Memphis

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The NET ranking is still pretty iffy on rankings, which is why I hate all the talk about Q1 wins which uses that NET ranking. Not bad overall but still flawed.

Michigan was #34 in NET so why the controversy of them getting in? TCU should have been an 11 seed based on NET and USF a 6. Notre Dame (53) and Iowa St (49) should have not been in using NET.

Look how wild the “bubble” was based off NET:

  1. Seton Hall - 8 seed
  2. Indiana - 12 seed
  3. Oklahoma - Out
  4. Xavier - Out
  5. Davidson - 10 seed
  6. Marquette - 9 seed
  7. Texas A&M - Out
  8. TCU - 9 seed
  9. SMU - Out
  10. UAB - 12 seed
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Another reason the quadrant system sucks: Beating Gonzaga is the same as beating Toledo on the road! The positive for us going forward, in the Big 12 we should get like 15 Q1 games. We had the most Q2 wins this season and no body cares about those!

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You left off Rutgers (#77)

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That one made no sense. Also forgot Creighton who was #55. My guess with those two is that Creighton was 7-6 in Q1 games and Rutgers was 6-6. Its like the other games don’t matter.

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… And I fully expect the NCAA will take note and change the selection standards to remove the Quad system just in time for the 2023 basketball season. :joy::sob:

2 Likes