MartintheMopMan

That's why I started with that note about the difference in defensive efficiency this year. That UNC team was ranked 49th in 2009, but would be ranked 14th this year. 4 Champs and 30% of Final Four teams have better AdjDE than the best AdjDE this year.   There are serious relative differences which make the stat less reliable.    Again, it shows the unreliability of these stats for predictive purposes. Our offense is currently better than every Final Four team but 3. Illinois 2005 (runner-up), UNC 2009 (champs), Kansas 2008 (champs).   I'd say the change in shot clock time makes a big difference for the stats themselves.

So, interesting note on the spreadsheet, defenses are universally worse this year. No team has won a championship with lower than a 94.25 adjusted D (UNC 2003) which was ranked 38th that year. That would be good for 14th this year.   4 of the last champions had a better adjusted D than Witchita State (best right now).   There have been 6 Final Four teams and 2 runners up ranked 67th or lower in Adjusted D (about 12%).   Of the 13 champs, 3 were ranked 1 overall, 5 ≤ 2, 6 ≤ 4, 10 ≤ 5. Then it immediately drops and the other 4 teams were 7, 13, 20, 25.   We always talk about how every team was top-40 in adjusted D, but more importantly, all but 3 (Duke 2005, Syracuse 2003, Connecticut 2011) were top 18. 6 were top 10.   On offense, Connecticut is the only team without a top-18 offense to win a championship. 6 were top 10.   Of the Final Four, only two champions had the top defense in their Four (Duke 2010 and Kentucky 2012).   If these stats held true, smart money all goes for: Virginia and Kansas followed by Villanova then Oklahoma. I’d focus on Kansas or Villanova in particular.

I'm torn between being happy we are getting started today and still hating that we have Wednesday games.   Plus, I can't get down for the early rounds. I've seen these teams play each other before and it was ugly, do I think it will be less ugly today?   Minnesota and Rutgers losing is such a foregone conclusion that it's not even a contest.

Nailed it.    

I forgot Oregon was a top 2-seed. I was hoping if we snuck onto the 2 line and they put us far from home we might end up in Spokane and at least I could go up and watch, but no way unless Oregon messes up bad in the Pac-12 tourney. They'll definitely be location favored up there. Oh well. Probably safe to take that time off my work calendar now that I realized it.

Someone posted a super cool spreadsheet of Ken Pom's pre-tourney data and how far each team went yesterday, but it was in some slightly random thread. So... whomever it was would you mind reposting it here? I can't seem to find it this morning.

On Seat geek promo code ASSEMBLY gets you $20 back.

He'll be back Sunday.

5 to 1 is 20% (1/5) in ratio odds or +500 in American odds. 4 to 1 is 25%. 16 to 1 is 25% of 25% or 6.25%. We are currently at 33 to 1 or 3%.   It's what MSU and Kansas are currently at right now. I expect they'll remain around there until it starts. There is always a lot of flux after Sunday because potential match-ups matter a lot and betting right now is pretty minimal so they aren't self-adjusting yet.

Ah yes, 92-93. I dated myself a lot back then.

FGCU will take care of them. Napes assures me they're back.

Seeing a lot of teams we've already played too. Iowa isn't a terrible drive from Indiana either.

The answer turns out, is "Yes"

Try this one on for size.   https://btownbanners.com/topic/8816-iu-vs-duke-post-game-thread/

I don't think they are adding any seats.

Odds Shark is better because they use real sites you can bet on right now.   http://www.oddsshark.com/ncaab/college-basketball-futures   We are +3300 (MSU and Kansas +500). Weirdly, we haven't moved all year.

If they did not have skeletons they would die because of their lungs not having room to inflate.

Looks like we beat Wisconsin twice after all.

And screw the haters who think we only won because our schedule was easy. Ask them how easy our games @Iowa and v. Maryland were to win the title by 2 games.   And while we're at it, screw Purdue fans who try and move the goalposts because "Well, we should really combine BTT titles and regular season titles because that's what sports almanacs will do in the future".   It's a great time to be a Hoosier... though it would have been much easier for me to watch our upcoming game if we were maybe the 4 seed instead. Thanks for nothing guys.

Indiana now ranked #10 in both polls.

Put all your COY and other awards in here. Merging everything here.   All right, should be right now. Did not realize it didn't ask you for a thread title and everything if you merged from the checkboxes instead of the thread.

Historically? It started after we were good (1998).   Since the start of the BTT, we've only been to the second weekend of the Tourney 3 times. We've missed it entirely 6 times. Our best tournament teams are 2002, 2012, 2013. 2002 we played it close on Saturday and lost by 2, so we didn't make it to the next level. We played like a Mike Davis team and it wasn't enough. 2012 and 2013 we hit kryptonite (Wisconsin) 

This will have an interesting effect on how history looks at this transition. Since it was successful, it's almost believable now that Bo quit mid-season for this exact result.

That I can believe. I don't have those numbers for pregame, though next year I will probably include them since they're interesting too. They're always so uninteresting at the beginning of the year when each game causes huge swings that I forget to go back and look at them later.   They are however, still number 2 in the conference on defense (MSU, Maryland, Us, Wisco).

19th. Not much of a drop at all. (For any team's pre-game KenPom numbers check the first post of the pre-game thread and I'll have posted the match-up numbers)