Selection Sunday - Gotta Love it.

[ExPatriatePen]

I've always enjoyed March Madness.

The excitement of the 64+1 process at the college level really exlemplifies the definition of Fan.

Missouri Valley gives the most surprises this year.

I expect 8 from the Big East.

[pfim]

Pitt gets a 5 seed. A 5 seed.

[ExPatriatePen]

Pitt gets a 5 seed. A 5 seed.

Kent State...You heard it here, while there may not be an upset in this game, it'll be VERY VERY close if Kent State doesn't win it outright.

[pfim]

Pitt gets a 5 seed. A 5 seed.

Kent State...You heard it here, while there may not be an upset in this game, it'll be VERY VERY close if Kent State doesn't win it outright.

A 5 seed is ridiculous, they're saying at best that Pitt is the 17th best team in the country. No Cincy is ridiculous. GW at 8 is ridiculous (I expected 4-5). There are so many questionable seeds here. Tennessee as a no. 2 is ridiculous.

I guess Pitt has to recruit a bunch of white guys, join the Southwest New Mexico Conference, and beat a few mediocre large conference teams to get a decent seed.

[Goalie]

Pitt gets a 5 seed. A 5 seed.

I thought they should be a four but maybe their OOC schedule drug them down a line? I have been watching the WBC instead of the selection show so I have not seen the whole bracket to see which team(s) may have taken their spot.

[pfim]

Pitt gets a 5 seed. A 5 seed.

I thought they should be a four but maybe their OOC schedule drug them down a line? I have been watching the WBC instead of the selection show so I have not seen the whole bracket to see which team(s) may have taken their spot.

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasket ... ewable_men

The seed sucks, but you could make a case that Pitt is the second best team in their bracket.

[Goalie]

Pitt gets a 5 seed. A 5 seed.

I thought they should be a four but maybe their OOC schedule drug them down a line? I have been watching the WBC instead of the selection show so I have not seen the whole bracket to see which team(s) may have taken their spot.

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasket ... ewable_men

The seed sucks, but you could make a case that Pitt is the second best team in their bracket.

Their bracket is real soft on the 1 and 2 line. Gonzaga is for real, they have a point guard who can do it all, a big man in Batista who is one of the most underrated in the country and Morrison is one of the two best players in the country. They also went and played bigtime competition OOC like they always do. Kansas has come on very strong, they are 15-1 since January 21st so that is a hot basketball team. Looking at the 4 seeds its tough to say Pitt should have taken anyone's spot but LSU although with WVU being in that bracket its possible the committee had to adjust them down to comply with their rules. That has happened before although I really do not like those quirks in the selection process.

[ExPatriatePen]

I guess Pitt has to recruit a bunch of white guys, join the Southwest New Mexico Conference, and beat a few mediocre large conference teams to get a decent seed.

That's it. The NCAA selection process is racist.

Dear God.

[ExPatriatePen]

Gonzaga is for real, they have a point guard who can do it all, a big man in Batista who is one of the most underrated in the country and Morrison is one of the two best players in the country. They also went and played bigtime competition OOC like they always do.

And their in-conference schedule stunk. They beat these also rans by 2-3 points. Most of their victories were squeekers. The yalways play just good enough to win. That won;t get you far come tourney time.

Gonzaga is One and Done.

[Goalie]

Gonzaga is for real, they have a point guard who can do it all, a big man in Batista who is one of the most underrated in the country and Morrison is one of the two best players in the country. They also went and played bigtime competition OOC like they always do.

And their in-conference schedule stunk. They beat these also rans by 2-3 points. Most of their victories were squeekers. The yalways play just good enough to win. That won;t get you far come tourney time.

Gonzaga is One and Done.

Playing just well enough to win will get you very far in the tourney provided you keep winning.

In all seriousness Gonzaga gets everyone's best shot every night in their conference. Granted they are not elite teams by any stretch but they are the marquee opponent on everyone's schedule. To me Gonzaga faces a different set of challenges as they have to stay focused night in and night out playing teams they know they are better than. Its not hard to stay focused and excited in the Big East or the ACC.

Granted Gonzaga has struggled as the "favorite" in recent years in the tourney but they have had good teams and have another one this year.

[pfim]

I guess Pitt has to recruit a bunch of white guys, join the Southwest New Mexico Conference, and beat a few mediocre large conference teams to get a decent seed.

That's it. The NCAA selection process is racist.

Dear God.

Nice sense of humor you got there.

[pfim]

Gonzaga is for real, they have a point guard who can do it all, a big man in Batista who is one of the most underrated in the country and Morrison is one of the two best players in the country. They also went and played bigtime competition OOC like they always do.

And their in-conference schedule stunk. They beat these also rans by 2-3 points. Most of their victories were squeekers. The yalways play just good enough to win. That won;t get you far come tourney time.

Gonzaga is One and Done.

Playing just well enough to win will get you very far in the tourney provided you keep winning.

In all seriousness Gonzaga gets everyone's best shot every night in their conference. Granted they are not elite teams by any stretch but they are the marquee opponent on everyone's schedule. To me Gonzaga faces a different set of challenges as they have to stay focused night in and night out playing teams they know they are better than. Its not hard to stay focused and excited in the Big East or the ACC.

Granted Gonzaga has struggled as the "favorite" in recent years in the tourney but they have had good teams and have another one this year.

Gonzaga beat one tournament team this year. One.

[Goalie]

Gonzaga beat one tournament team this year. One.

That is true, they went and played teams though, including Memphis in their building, lost to UConn at the buzzer in Maui, beat Maryland, Michigan State, played Washington, beat Oklahoma State.

There is nothing they can do about their conference schedule but they scheduled like an elite team, played well in their OOC games, they belong where they are.

Pitt may have recieved a bad deal in their seed but its not because of Gonzaga.

[Ben Klingston]

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/mayhem/brackets/viewable_men

The seed sucks, but you could make a case that Pitt is the second best team in their bracket.

C'mon. Bucknell isn't THAT good.



They set up BU to play against a former upset, if they can pull off a win in the opening round then shock the world against Memphis. BU has beat Pitt and Kansas in the last year.

Seriously, as hot as Kansas has been, it wouldn't suprise me to see them come out of this pod.

[pfim]

Gonzaga beat one tournament team this year. One.

That is true, they went and played teams though, including Memphis in their building, lost to UConn at the buzzer in Maui, beat Maryland, Michigan State, played Washington, beat Oklahoma State.

There is nothing they can do about their conference schedule but they scheduled like an elite team, played well in their OOC games, they belong where they are.

Pitt may have recieved a bad deal in their seed but its not because of Gonzaga.

Gonzaga is the poster child for the overrated. Pitt went to Gampel and almost beat UConn, that didn't seem to help them.

The division between the OOC and in conference schedule is arbitrary. Gonzaga's SOS was in the 90s even with their "play anyone anywhere" attitude. They've been in that conference long enough, they could do something about it if they really wanted to, but why would they? All they have to do is beat MSU and stroll through their conference and they get a 3 seed. Why does what Pitt does, scheduling some lesser competition at the beginning before their brutal conference schedule, any worse than what Gonzaga does?

[Goalie]

Gonzaga beat one tournament team this year. One.

That is true, they went and played teams though, including Memphis in their building, lost to UConn at the buzzer in Maui, beat Maryland, Michigan State, played Washington, beat Oklahoma State.

There is nothing they can do about their conference schedule but they scheduled like an elite team, played well in their OOC games, they belong where they are.

Pitt may have recieved a bad deal in their seed but its not because of Gonzaga.

Gonzaga is the poster child for the overrated. Pitt went to Gampel and almost beat UConn, that didn't seem to help them.

The division between the OOC and in conference schedule is arbitrary. Gonzaga's SOS was in the 90s even with their "play anyone anywhere" attitude. They've been in that conference long enough, they could do something about it if they really wanted to, but why would they? All they have to do is beat MSU and stroll through their conference and they get a 3 seed. Why does what Pitt does, scheduling some lesser competition at the beginning before their brutal conference schedule, any worse than what Gonzaga does?

I really do not think it is but the committee values the OOC schedule, at least they say they do, and everyone knows it going in so teams can either choose to schedule well OOC or not. They also did not lose to any 12-15 teams either which helps the cause.

Just out of curiosity, where would you put Gonzaga?

GW was probably dropped due to the injury status of a guy who I wont even take the risk of trying to type his name other than calling him Pops.

The fun of the NCAA tournament is in this debate we are having. It brings together the teams from all over college basketball and sometimes the teams have common opponents and sometimes they do not which makes it even tougher to try and compare them. All that being said teams will beat teams they have no business beating but some teams are truly underseeded and it shows itself out in the tournament.

Sometimes though teams get a real bad deal which Pitt probably got this year. Not only are they seeded a spot too low at least they are going to draw an extremely tough second round game with Kansas.

[fourtKNOX]

how does Tenn. become a number 2 when they were not the best team in their own conference in that Florida was... yea yea they won the sec season because of the stupid division in it... 21-7 should never be better than 27-4 or 3 or what ever that is... and Floriday won the SEC tourny...

I do not believe Florida deserved a 2 seed over, Gonzaga, UNC but come on now how did they even managed to get a higher seed then Florida...

have def seen better brackets...

and the number 1 top seed in Duke has by far the toughest road to hoe in my opinion!

tis tis... ahhhh its college basketball... let the games begin!

[Rocco]

The big question- who's setting up the Yahoo Tourney Pool? I'm still cranky about last year (although winning my cash pool at school softened the blow).

[pfim]

I really do not think it is but the committee values the OOC schedule, at least they say they do, and everyone knows it going in so teams can either choose to schedule well OOC or not. They also did not lose to any 12-15 teams either which helps the cause.

Just out of curiosity, where would you put Gonzaga?

GW was probably dropped due to the injury status of a guy who I wont even take the risk of trying to type his name other than calling him Pops.

The fun of the NCAA tournament is in this debate we are having. It brings together the teams from all over college basketball and sometimes the teams have common opponents and sometimes they do not which makes it even tougher to try and compare them. All that being said teams will beat teams they have no business beating but some teams are truly underseeded and it shows itself out in the tournament.

Sometimes though teams get a real bad deal which Pitt probably got this year. Not only are they seeded a spot too low at least they are going to draw an extremely tough second round game with Kansas.

I thought at best Gonzaga would get a 4. I know GW had Pops injured and they lost in the A-10 tournament, but if you have that record you should have a better fate than seeing the top seed in the second round.

Kansas is probably their toughest matchup of the teams seeded ahead of them in the Oakland. I like the matchups against the top 3 seeds, just need to get there...

[Draftnik]

Pitt may be seeded a bit low, but they were gifted into an incredibly soft region.

This is probably the most wide open March Madness I can remember. There are probably 20 teams IMO that have a legitimate chance to win this year. I can't remember a season like this with no great teams.

[rasbatch]

Pitt may be seeded a bit low, but they were gifted into an incredibly soft region.

I could see them have a stroll to the sweet 16, beyond will take some doing but they are playing well enough to dump kent st and kansas.

[ExPatriatePen]

I can't remember a season like this with no great teams.

While I agree with your premise, I think it's also interesting that I can't remember anytime in the last 30 years where I've seen a single conference emerge that could dominate the brackets.

It's totally possible that the Big East could have 30-40% of the spots in the sweet 16 and half the spots in the Elite Eight, and Final Four.

[Draftnik]

Pitt may be seeded a bit low, but they were gifted into an incredibly soft region.

I could see them have a stroll to the sweet 16, beyond will take some doing but they are playing well enough to dump kent st and kansas.

The top 3 are much weaker IMO than any other region. Memphis and Gonzaga will be hurt by not playing good teams for the past month. UCLA is talented but young, and the Pac 10 was soft this season.

[passmaster16]

Pitt may be seeded a bit low, but they were gifted into an incredibly soft region.

This is probably the most wide open March Madness I can remember. There are probably 20 teams IMO that have a legitimate chance to win this year. I can't remember a season like this with no great teams.

I agree. At first I was down on the 5 seeding. But you have to consider they play a weak nonconference schedule. They probably should have been at least a 4 anyway. But I feel that in this bracket, they can play with any of these teams. They certainly didn't want to have to face a team like Duke early in the tourney. I'd rather be a 5 in a potentially easier bracket than a 3 or 4 in a tough bracket. If they can't beat a team like Kent State, which I'm sure will give them a good game, then they don't deserve to go any further anyway.

[ExPatriatePen]

The biggest surprise / ommision may have been George Mason getting in and Hofstra being left out. Hofstra (24-6) beat George Mason(23-7) twice in the last couple of weeks. Both Air Force and Utah State had worse records against similar quality opponents.

Not happy at all with the selection comittee this year.