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Showing posts from November, 2019

Selection Sunday Thoughts

Wisconsin or Pitt for the #4 seed? I probably should have seen this coming a bit more than I actually did, but about one-third of all responses boiled down to essentially this question. Last year, with a weak ACC and only one loss, Pitt was the #11 seed. But that should only be a minor indicator rather than direct evidence, because 2019 Pitt is a lot better than 2018 Pitt, both in terms of skill and resume. 2 018 Pitt beat Cal Poly (home), Washington (home), Pepperdine (home), and VCU (home). Cal Poly was nearly a host. Washington was extremely young and still working things out – especially in week 3 – and went on to the program’s worst year in a long time (but put things together late and made the Sweet 16 anyway). Pepperdine and VCU were both tourney teams. Pitt’s only loss came in a pretty tight 3-1 loss at a mediocre Duke team that went 16-12 and did not sniff the NCAA tournament. 2019 Pitt beat Penn State (road), Utah (neutral), Cal Poly (neutral), Cincinnati (hom
With just a week and a half until Selection Sunday, a overview of where teams are relative to the cut line for NCAA at-large bids. Records and ( unofficial ) RPI current through Wednesday, 11/20. Questions/Comments? Tweet me @NCAAVBscores. Lock: I feel 100% confident this team will make the NCAA tournament even if they were to lose every remaining match. Just avoid disaster: Pretty self-explanatory, I think. It varies what exactly that means, though. For teams in power conference, this means just don't lose out, but for a few teams that are large favorites multiple times (such as Cal Poly and UCSB), it means just don't suffer a major upset. Right side of the bubble: If the season ended now, I would have this team in, but they're far from safe. Wrong side of the bubble: If the season ended now, I would have this team out, but getting there is quite reasonable. Need wins: An uphill climb to a bid. Primarily used for teams with a tough schedule remaining -w