Monday, March 6, 2023

If the NCAA Were Regions

Last one of these before the major conferences begin their tournaments.  The weakness in Regions 2 through 5 is just staggering to me.  Last year, three teams in the real-life Final Four came from Regions 5 and 3.

1st:  Connecticut (4)
2d:  Iona (78)
3d:  Rutgers (42)
4th:  Maryland (20)
5th:  Duke (31)
6th:  Alabama (3)
7th:  Arkansas (19)
8th:  Tennessee (5)
9th:  Xavier (16), W. Virginia (17)
10th:  Purdue (6)
11th:  Marquette (13)
12th:  Kansas (9), Creighton (12), Kansas St. (18)
13th:  Houston (1), Texas (8), Baylor (14)
14th:  Arizona (11)
15th:  Gonzaga (10)
16th:  UCLA (2), Saint Mary's (7), San Diego St. (15)

If chalk holds, the Sweet 16 would look like this (with AP top 20 rankings):

Wednesday games:
Duke (23-8) v. (11) Connecticut (24-7)
(4) Alabama (26-5) v. (17) Tennessee (24-7)
Maryland (20-11) v. (3) Kansas (25-6)
Rutgers (18-13) v. (2) UCLA (27-4)

Thursday games:
(6) Marquette (25-6) v. (9) Gonzaga (26-5)
Arkansas (19-12) v. (8) Arizona (25-6)
Iona (24-7) v. (15) Xavier (23-8)
(5) Purdue (26-5) v. (1) Houston (29-2)

2 comments:

  1. Ken Pom has Tennessee at number 5 in the country; he has Vandy at number 81. Both Tennessee and Vandy went 11-7 in the SEC this year.

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  2. According to Ken Pom, Vandy is number 40 in luck. Tennessee is number 322 in luck.

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