Teams to root for in 2018 (to help Texas' SOS/RPI)

Obviously, we want to win the Big 12 tournament as that is the only thing in our control.

If Baylor wins the conference tourney, they are in position to move up to the #4 overall seed. If that happens, we cannot be placed in Baylor's regional since we are in the same conference. That limits our options to the other 3 regionals.

 

Other teams to root for:

-- SEC: Georgia and LSU for sure; but, not at Miss. State's expense. Tennessee to beat South Carolina for the third time, but then lose in the semi-finals.

-- ACC: Florida State. But, we don't want them to beat both Louisville and Notre Dame on their way to the conference championship as that could vault them above us in the rankings.

-- PAC: Anyone but Oregon and UCLA. Would be ideal if they got bounced earlier than the championship game.

 

Hard to fathom but I’d like the pairing with the Bulldogs. Mississippi St is tough but I think Texas matches up fairly well with them. Teira McCowan would be a rough matchup but the Longhorns have experience playing K Brown for 3 seasons and without a Lauren Cox type player beside her. I would pay money to see a one on one game of Ariel vs Victoria Vivians - I think Vivians is a bit better offensively but Ariel has the edge on D. The matchup at the ‘4’ would be interesting - either go for the size advantage over Roshunda Johnson or get Sug into the game as part of a 4 guard lineup. Tell Lashann to stay in Blair Schaefer’s hip pocket. Finally, Brooke vs Morgan William. About 10’ 6” of PG combined and finally a defender that Brooke isn’t at a size disadvantage against. MSU doesn’t have a lot of depth, they don’t bring much off the bench compared to Texas.

 

Any regional but Albany, NY is all I want for us. Tough enough to beat UConn as it is, but almost impossible when the location is pretty much a home game for them.

 

Well, South Carolina beat Tennessee. And Georgia and Mizzou is 12-10 IN THE 2ND QUARTER!!!!!

 

Georgia up 46-39 with a little over one minute left in the game. Mizzou is supposed to be very good offensively, but Georgia's defense was the story of the game. This is good for us.

In the ACC, Louisville, Notre Dame, and FSU all win. Personally, I want FSU to win the tourney, but that could help Baylor (move up to a #1 seed) more than it helps us (having beaten FSU earlier). So, gonna have to root against FSU on Saturday.

 

LSU lost to A&M in the SEC quarterfinals; obviously, LSU winning would have been better for us.

Georgia will play South Carolina in Saturday's semi-final. Would be good for all the way around if Georgia can win.

In the PAC, UCLA was down 2 to CAL at the end of the 3rd quarter, but ended up winning by 3 points.

 

ND 90 FSU 80 in ACC tourney.

 

Well, I don't think it's looking good for us to stay out of UConn's region:

- ACC: Notre Dame and Louisville both won in the semi-finals and will meet in the championship. To me, regardless of the outcome, they will both remain #1 seeds.

- PAC: Oregon beat UCLA in the semi-finals. They for sure are a #2 seed regardless of Sunday's championship outcome.

- SEC: Miss. State and South Carolina both won in the semi-finals and will meet n the championship. Regardless of the outcome, Miss. State is a #1 seed and South Carolina is a #2 seed.

But, if SC upsets Miss. State, that could move the Bulldogs down to the third #1 seed as the committee could move the ACC champ up to the second #1 seed, and the ACC tourney runner-up to the fourth #1 seed. I don't think South Carolina can move up to #6 above Oregon. I think Baylor is pretty much the overall #5 seed if they win the Big 12 tourney, and the overall #6 seed if they lose in OKC.

Pairings based on traditional S-curve (without adjustments for geography or conference conflicts):

Albany: #1 UConn / #8 Texas
Kansas City: #2 Miss. State / #7 South Carolina
Lexington: #3 Notre Dame or Louisville / #6 Oregon
Spokane: #4 Louisville or ND / #5 Baylor


Pairings if Miss. State wins the SEC tourney and Texas advances to Big 12 title game (and with adjustments for geography and conference conflicts):

Albany: #1 UConn / #8 South Carolina
Kansas City: #2 Miss. State / #7 Texas
Lexington: #3 Notre Dame or Louisville / #6 Baylor
Spokane: #4 Louisville or ND / #5 Oregon


Pairings if South Carolina wins the SEC tourney and Texas advances to Big 12 title game (and with adjustments for geography and conference conflicts):

Albany: #1 UConn / #8 Texas
Kansas City: #3 Miss. State / #6 Baylor
Lexington: #2 Notre Dame or Louisville / #7 South Carolina
Spokane: #4 Louisville or ND / #5 Oregon

The committee can pretty much "justify" there decisions very easily, such as:

- ACC is the strongest team conference in the country, so the tourney champ should be higher than SEC champ

- Wanted to keep a PAC team (Oregon) out in Spokane, WA

- Felt Wallace's injury at Baylor moved them down from being the highest #2 seed

Honestly, if both Texas and South Carolina win their conference titles, we aren't moving ahead of SC; and, committed not want to send SC to UConn's region. If we win our tourney (still have to get past WVU first), and SC does not, that's the only way I seeing us staying out of UConn's region.

 

Frankly, at this point, I don't really care about which number 1 we get send to face. They are all tough matchups for us. To reach the final four, we will have to go through one of them. To win the national championship, we will need to take down at least two. One game at a time.

 

I don't care what region we go to in tourny. It's March. Time to put up or shut up. GO out there and it get it done. It beast mode time.
I understand the selection committee and placing the teams in the brackets. I get it. But sometimes I wish they would put all the teams in a hat and start drawing teams to set up the brackets. Or maybe put the top 12 in one hat and draw teams for the 1 thru 4 spots. And then put the remaining 52 teams in a hat a start drawing for the remaining spots.

Like I said any team that claims to be the best get out there and win, you live to see another day. Kick butt and take names. I'm ole school. Win or go home.

 

I am among those who doesn't care which bracket, just hoping we win today and tomorrow. We're getting used to the UConn bracket. I don't think UConn would be thrilled to see us coming to Albany. They know we have come closer than anyone else to beating them this year, and were ahead the majority of the game. Of course, many people on their board say we were playing "over our heads" and they were having a very "off" game. (After all, many of their posters say the only team that can beat UConn is UConn ---- such a cliche.) I think it would be a fun challenge. I'm more worried about not letting WVU slip up on us, and dealing with Baylor again. As I suspected, Baylor really doesn't lose anything with Wallace out. Morris, Landrum, and Richards are very good. Of course, we're very good, too, so it should be interesting tomorrow night, if we get there.

 

well, Louisville won over ND as their rankings would have indicated. Miss State fell to S. Carolina. Don't know if that game will drop Miss State to a #2 and move S. Carolina to a #1. I don't expect any change in ND and Louisville's projected #1 seeds. But just guessing here.

 

I think the only chance today for a #1 seed to fall to a #2 seed would have been if Notre Dame would have beaten Louisville as the Cardinals had an RPI of #5 last I checked. Notre Dame went into today with the #1 RPI in the country; so, don't see a 2 point loss hurting them at all.

South Carolina had a great 3-day stretch in defeating Tennessee, Georgia, and Miss. State. We can't combat that with the Big 12 being so weak the season our victories over ISU and WVU probably lowered our RPI.

 

Well, I guess I am in the minority as far as not wanting our team to be sent to Albany to potentially meet UConn in front of a partisan Husky fan base. We have not played well on the road this season and we have losses at Tennessee, TCU, and Baylor to prove it. Yes, we played UConn tough in Austin; but, we haven't matched that intensity, effort, and execution since against a quality opponent.

Regardless, we aren't moving ahead of South Carolina or Oregon; so, rankings-wise we will stay at #8, even with a win over Baylor. Slight chance we could move ahead of Oregon if they lose against Stanford; but, the committee seems to want to place Oregon in the Spokane regional to help sell tickets.

Can't imagine the committee will place South Carolina in Albany after their last 3 wins. So, that leaves us to go to Albany.

 

Not so much as not caring about going to Albany as much as if that is where the Horns are sent, we need to deal with it. All of the number 1s will tough and unless we go to Spokane or Kansas City, both Albany and Lexington will provide UConn and Louisville, respectively, with home crowds. Ideally, we are assigned to the Kansas City regional.

 

If the committee worries about placement, crowd attendance, and making money, who would they send to Kansas City as a 2 seed other than Texas? Unless Baylor is bumped down to go there, I don't know what else they could consider. JMO, and I don't fully understand the bumps, but there's that.

 

Mooooooo, I don't mean to say I'm thrilled to go to Albany. But if that is what is to be, might as well make the best of it and see what we can do. I don't think we would be as scared of UConn as in the past. I do think it is messed up that we would have to go to the UConn bracket 3 out of 4 years, but, then again, it would be more fun to beat them than anyone else. If I had my druthers, I think it would be most fun to play someone we haven't played before, such as Oregon or Louisville. It's been ages since we played Notre Dame. I have a memory of them beating us in Austin years ago, keeping us from going to the final 4 (or maybe it was to regionals). Anyway, I know none of those are likely to happen. I prefer not to get N.C. State in Austin next weekend -- That was a pretty close call last year.

 

Just throwing this out there, I HATE injuries for any team/player, not sure where else to put this post but, ESPN kept showing an injury to Gabby Williams of Uconn in their game against Tulane today. Looked like a knee injury, and Gabby was shown on the sideline in tears. Auriemma said in the post game press conference that she had tweaked her hip though. Guess we will see. Hope she is okay!!

 

Apparently she’s been dealing with a hip injury for a portion of the season if I heard correctly.

 

Bottom line is that we have no argument to be higher than the 8/9 seed based on our body of work compared to the other #2 seeds. Part of that is due to the weak Big 12, part of it us our non-conference schedule, and a big part of that is the loss at TCU (heard Fran Harris say the same thing on the radio).

So, the chips will fall where they may. What I'm expecting:

UConn/Texas
Louisville/South Carolina
Miss. State/Baylor
Notre Dame/Oregon

I want to win the Big 12 tourney on Monday night. But, if we lose to Baylor, and get bumped down to like the #10 seed (regardless of the reason), that could be a blessing in disguise.

 

Doubtful that will move either team. USC likely headed to Albany still

 

With only one loss, I think MS stays a 1 seed. No question in my mind.

 

Creme's latest bracketology remains pretty much the same as last week; we are still a #2 seed in Kansas City opposite Miss. State, and South Carolina going to Albany, NY opposite UConn.

Would love for that to be true come next week's official bracket announcement, but I have my doubts.

http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/bracketology


And, we moved down in RPI from 11 to 12, but SC has vaulted up from like 17 to 11 since the Feb 19 reveal.

http://warrennolan.com/basketballw/2018/rpi-live

 

Likewise, I would really like to see us in the Kansas City Regional. But, ranked against the other number twos, I do think we are the last number two and most likely end up in UConn's regional. Well, we have to beat a number one at some point.