Dust settling...NCAA resume

[barfolomew]

Look at their non-conference schedule, through which they went undefeated. They also had zero losses to non tournament teams. They were also ranked all year (including going into the tournament). I don't think the Big East run really moved their seed. They were always going to be a high seed.

Joey Brackets' latest picks have Michigan, Pitt, and Wisc all in, so it's still possible that MU will not have any losses to non-tourney teams this year.

[bilsu]

St Mary's and San Diego state didn't string together back to back top 20 wins either. Big difference.

Generally I agree that conf  tourneys don't make a huge difference, but they can help, and the examples you picked weren't great.

Unless you actually win one, conference tourneys only matter for the teams on the bubble going into the conference tournaments. You see the projected last four in/ first four out change with every unexpected tournament win. The debate here has pretty much centered around MU being a bubble team, which they certainly would be at 9-9. In that case how we fare in the Big East tournament really matters. It matters very little to Villanova. The worse a first round loss for them could be is dropping them to a two seed. Now if MU finishes 9-9 they are not likely to be in the bottom four of the Big East tournament, which means two Big East tournament wins would come against NCAA tournament teams and the loss would be against the Big East tournament champion. Last year we were 8-10 and beat St. John's in a bottom four game. Beating a bottom feeder does not help your resume. The real key is to get out of the bottom four and then hope your shooters are hot.

[4th and State]

UCONN went from a .500 BE bubble team (most likely in the Tourney) to a 3 seed because of the BET (and then to a National Title) in 2010-2011.

This is not accurate.  UCONN was ranked entering the BET that year.

[Lennys Tap]

This is not accurate.  UCONN was ranked entering the BET that year.

Correct. UCONN began the season unranked, went 10-0 in the pre conference (beating #2 MSU and #9 Kentucky among others) and started the Big East season #4. Went 9-9 in conference, fell to #21 before the conference tourney but were never lower than that. Won conference tourney, entered NCAA tourney #9.

[wadesworld]

My fault.  For some reason I thought I remembered UConn being on the bubble and then jumping to a 3 seed.  Were they on the bubble when Napier turned into Kemba and led them to a National Title?  If so maybe I'm just mashing up the 2 situations.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

What about the year Cuse won the BET behind Gerry McNamara?  7-9 in BE but went from out of the field to a 5 seed.  I'm guessing the committee wasn't going to omit them had they lost the BET title game.

Granted I thought the committee vastly overrated them, so I picked TAMU for one of the easier 5-12 upsets I've had.

[wadesworld]

What about the year Cuse won the BET behind Gerry McNamara?  7-9 in BE but went from out of the field to a 5 seed.  I'm guessing the committee wasn't going to omit them had they lost the BET title game.

Granted I thought the committee vastly overrated them, so I picked TAMU for one of the easier 5-12 upsets I've had.

Maybe that was the case I was thinking of.  I have no idea now.

[BM1090]

Maybe that was the case I was thinking of.  I have no idea now.

Honestly, I think you were thinking of the Kemba Walker team that you initially mentioned. They weren't a bubble team, but once they made the final four a lot of national outlets seemed to run with that line of thinking to enhance the story.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

What about the year Cuse won the BET behind Gerry McNamara?  7-9 in BE but went from out of the field to a 5 seed.  I'm guessing the committee wasn't going to omit them had they lost the BET title game.

Granted I thought the committee vastly overrated them, so I picked TAMU for one of the easier 5-12 upsets I've had.

Thank you but I didn't beat the Orange by myself!

[bilsu]

Honestly, I think you were thinking of the Kemba Walker team that you initially mentioned. They weren't a bubble team, but once they made the final four a lot of national outlets seemed to run with that line of thinking to enhance the story.

I believe they won 5 games to win the Big East tournament title. Were they a bubble team? They might of been, if they lost the first game of the Big East tournament, which would of been to a team that was not very good.