I've been saying this for more than a week now. Maybe people are finally starting to wake up to reality. The Link
again.......Dont get your panties in a wad here.. its a BLOG not yahoo sports (like that matters). Who wants to face Kansas twice with their depth? IF anybody raises their hands they dont know basketball. #1? I dont know. There are about 4 or 5 teams that can argue that.
Fine, it's a blog. It was linked on the Yahoo! Sports front page. I assumed it was one of their sports writers. Those guys have blogs too, you know. Whoever it is, he makes a good point that I've been making for a while now. As of this moment, Texas (at least arguably) deserves the #1 overall seed. The only other team with a case, imo, is Memphis.
I think the main point is this: If anyone can claim #1 in advance of the NCAA tourney, it is the Longhorns. No other team has performed against top ranked opponents as well. Plus the Horns have played shut-down ball in February, and in the past several games have shoved their opponents offensive output and shooting percentage right down the toilet. Texas has continued to improve. More than any of the top dogs.
What's wrong with a blog? How is the main stream media any more accurate than what a blog says? I'd venture to say that in some cases, the bloggers have seen more games and are more objective
If we continue to play at this level we will inevitably win out, whether we like it or not. I'm not so worried about having to play all those games b/c if we win out we'll be an overall # 1 AND in Houston! The fans will give the players all the pick up they need to carry the team to the Final Four. I'm not so sold on getting rest as a 'strategy' and taking a chance with a loss along the way, ya know? Just win baby!
If KU was in our position exactly, in other words, they beat us head to head, had our exact schedule and record, same wins and losses that we do, they would be an undisputable, without question, number one seed right now. They would only have to win out in the regular season to maintain it and could still get bounced in their first game of the conference tourney and be that number one. Does anyone dispute this ? Why should we not be in the same position ?
I referred to those loses as "ugly" not because of the opponent but because of the combination of score and the opponent. Losing to A&M isn't really significantly worse than losing to Miami or Maryland, for example. Losing by nearly 20 is. Again, I'm not saying Texas doesn't deserve a #1 seed. I'm just saying, and nearly everyone should agree with me, that it is still a debatable point. There really isn't a whole lot to separate the top 7 or 8 teams this year.
I don't think the committee ever looks at margin of victory so a 20 point loss does not make any difference. They might take it into consideration but I have never heard it mentioned during the selection process before.
That's a futile line of argument, imo. If you're going to go that route, you have to really punish Tennessee for losing to us by 20 and, likewise, reward Texas for beating them by 20. You would also be saying that UCLA's narrower margin of defeat to Washingon compared to ours against Missouri is just as important as our head-to-head win on UCLA's home floor. Or maybe you are suggesting margin of victory/defeat only matters in some games and not in others, in which case, that criteria is extremely subjective. I just don't think using margin of victory is much of a consideration for the committee.
Does margin of victory of a single game matter to the committee? Probably not, and certainly not much, but I suspect that each committee member, when asked to compare the merits of potential 1 seeds, will look at the pluses and minuses of all the teams, including how deep any minuses went. Again, I'm not saying that I come down on the side that UT is not yet deserving of a 1 seed. Just that someone can, and someone involved probably will, look at Texas's losses to Missouri and A&M as the worst pair of losses for any team in contention for a 1 seed. For those of you comparing the Missouri loss to UCLA's loss to Washington, I'd invite you to look back at both those games. UCLA was down 4 with 2 minutes to go and couldn't close. Texas was down at least 9 from the 14 minute mark on. UCLA's other conference loss was a game in which they were down by 1 with 2 minutes to go. Texas's other conference loss was a wipeout. Them's the facts, guys. Texas has the best wins. Texas has the worst losses. Texas has more losses, but Texas played more high quality teams. Ergo, deserving of a #1 seed, but not guaranteed it yet. Now, will you guys please join me in lobbying for the top seeded Big 12 team to get a more favorable location?
bierce, I think you make a lot of great points, but the overriding factor in favor of Texas isn't our "better wins", but the fact that those wins came against 3 of the other teams likely in competition for those top seeds. It's not like we beat Xavier, Drake, and Indiana, who are for the most part out of the discussion for #1 seeds. We actually have head-to-head on 3 very elite teams. That HAS to offset the "badness" of our 2 worst losses, in my opinion.
Interesting poll going on at a Memphis fan site about who they think deserve #1 seeds. While it should be expected they would tend to belittle Tennessee, the early returns show Memphis 18, UNC 16, Texas 12, UCLA and Kansas 8, Tennessee 7, Duke 0. I'm not sure exactly why Stanford is on the list. The Link On another thread, those guys were asked who they would want to see as a #2. The only reponse that referred to a region said "No Big 12 team in Houston."
Conspiracy theorist say, "Memphis fan vote for Texas and Kansas because they don't want those teams in Houston as a 2 seed." Really now, how in the world can someone rationally say KU deserves a 1 seed right now? I'm getting tired of these people who keep touting Kansas as the second coming. Are they talented? Yes. More talented than Texas? Sure. But they're not tough enough and, under Bill Self, that has consistently been their theme. So why think all of a sudden they're going to win six straight games (much less four straight) when the stakes are highest? And who have they beaten this year to even be considered for the top line?
There are a couple of people over there talking about how Kansas is the one team they don't want to face in a regional. Kansas is now dropping far back of UCLA and Tennessee. Memphis 49 (25.79%--two people voted for Memphis and no one else) UNC 42 Texas 34 UCLA 24 Tennessee 21 Kansas 14 Duke 4 Other 2 Stanford 0
Personally, I don't think KU's tendency to choke in the tournament should count against them when it comes time to set the seeds. The right thing to do is seed teams according to their performance this season, without any consideration of past tendencies in the post-season. In that light, KU still looks fairly strong.