IUHoosierJoe

Arizona had a strange year. Beat most of the top teams they played and most of their losses were to mediocre teams. They were prime first-round upset material.

Based on some tried and true historical metrics: Houston, Alabama, Connecticut, and Texas are in my inner circle. Close to the circle are UCLA, Kansas, Creighton, and a school I won't name in this sort of a conversation, lol.

They actually went 7-0 during that time period. But yes, 9 in a row overall.

Took my ratings and isolated just the past 3 weeks (Feb 20 - Mar 12) to see what level each team has played at during that period. Here are the top 25: 1 Gonzaga 2 Texas 3 Utah St 4 UCLA 5 FL Atlantic 6 Memphis 7 Connecticut 8 Clemson 9 Alabama 10 Kentucky 11 Houston 12 West Virginia 13 Duke 14 Tennessee 15 Arizona 16 VCU 17 Hofstra 18 Drake 19 Purdue 20 Xavier 21 BYU 22 USC 23 San Diego St 24 Texas A&M 25 Michigan

My final regular-season computer rankings: 1 Alabama 2 Houston 3 UCLA 4 Texas 5 Tennessee 6 Gonzaga 7 Kansas 8 Connecticut 9 Arizona 10 Purdue 11 St Mary's CA 12 Baylor 13 Marquette 14 San Diego St 15 FL Atlantic 16 Creighton 17 Xavier 18 Utah St 19 Kansas St 20 Arkansas 21 Duke 22 West Virginia 23 Iowa St 24 TCU 25 Indiana

If by "accept" you mean not go on a public message board and insult our players, then yeah, proudly me. Have a nice day. Hope you feel better soon.

Nah, but we have posters who break down.

Moot point now, but judging from where most have them on their seed lines (12 or 13), they wouldn’t have made it as an at large.

How does the committee balance a resume like Arizona’s, with a good record vs. teams in the field but questionable losses to teams outside the field? Does one side always outweigh the other, or are there additional factors that go into that determination?

Top 7 I would say for sure. I'm a little less certain about Marquette.

I'll throw in something else here...I saw somewhere that someone had posted a Top 25 for the past decade. I can't find where it is now, but just for discussion's sake, since the Big 10 is off for a couple days, I will post my computer ranking version of the Top 25 of the past decade. It just takes games played into account (no "extra points" for championships won). Indiana came in at #33. 1 Kansas 2 Gonzaga 3 Duke 4 Villanova 5 Kentucky 6 Virginia 7 North Carolina 8 Arizona 9 Michigan St 10 Baylor 11 Michigan 12 Louisville 13 Wisconsin 14 Florida 15 Oregon 16 Purdue 17 Wichita St 18 Ohio St 19 West Virginia 20 Creighton 21 Oklahoma 22 UCLA 23 Iowa 24 Xavier 25 Maryland

Unlike the NET and KenPom, Indiana hangs on in the Top 25. My computer-generated rankings through yesterday's games: 1 Alabama 2 Houston 3 UCLA 4 Kansas 5 Gonzaga 6 Tennessee 7 Purdue 8 Texas 9 Arizona 10 Connecticut 11 St Mary's CA 12 Baylor 13 San Diego St 14 FL Atlantic 15 Marquette 16 Kansas St 17 Utah St 18 Xavier 19 Creighton 20 Boise St 21 Texas A&M 22 Arkansas 23 Duke 24 Kentucky 25 Indiana

I heard him say that, and we actually beat both of them twice.

I don’t remember if I posted this here before or on another board, but one thing to note for people discussing how many ranking positions a team rises or drops, each team has a numerical rating value that the NET doesn’t publish. KenPom does publish his numerical ratings, so you can see the reason some teams ranked in the 20s and 30s take a big drop after a bad loss is because they’re so even and tightly packed together in terms of numerical rating values. It isn’t a conspiracy against certain teams, but just the way the math is going to work out.

I’ve talked to enough Iowa fans to conclude it’s the worst fan base in the country. And that’s saying a lot, given what I think of Purdue’s and Ohio State’s, lol.

My computer-generated Top 25 through yesterday's games (50% result-based/retrodictive, 50% score-based/predictive) 1 Alabama 2 Houston 3 Kansas 4 UCLA 5 Gonzaga 6 Tennessee 7 Purdue 8 Texas 9 Baylor 10 Arizona 11 St Mary's CA 12 San Diego St 13 Connecticut 14 Kansas St 15 Marquette 16 FL Atlantic 17 Arkansas 18 Indiana 19 Nevada 20 Utah St 21 Xavier 22 Boise St 23 Kentucky 24 Creighton 25 Virginia

UConn barely squeaked by DePaul this afternoon. Pretty confident if we beat Iowa, especially with a little bit of a margin, we’ll pass them both in the NET.

I get that Purdue fans and even some members of our own fan base like to take shots at us, but there’s one school that appears in the top 4 twice. It ain’t Duke, North Carolina, or Purdue. F8F54008-2EDC-4156-A7E5-DE9C5D5A7642.webp

You’ll have to speak for yourself on that one.

From everything I’ve seen, they have no chance unless they become the automatic qualifier.

We’re at least 3-0. Beat him twice while he was at Oklahoma and once while he was at Washington State that I remember.

Well, it’s no Helms Trophy, but still…

My computer-generated rankings through yesterday's games: 1 Alabama 2 Houston 3 Kansas 4 UCLA 5 Tennessee 6 Purdue 7 Gonzaga 8 Arizona 9 Texas 10 Baylor 11 St Mary's CA 12 San Diego St 13 Connecticut 14 Marquette 15 Kansas St 16 FL Atlantic 17 Virginia 18 Creighton 19 Xavier 20 Arkansas 21 Nevada 22 Boise St 23 Indiana 24 Utah St 25 Iowa St

Has to be between California and Louisville.

Yes, not arguing with any of that, just was providing additional info. Morehead State is playing better than they were earlier in the year, granted. But overall, they are not ranked as high as they usually are. The OVC’s ranking as a whole is lower, probably a lot of that has to do with Belmont leaving.