Monday, March 16, 2015

Actual CBI/CIT brackets (and analysis)

Just a quick look at the selections here, and if they make sense.

CIT:
New Hampshire at NJIT - Good for independent NJIT getting a bid.  UNH was 11-5 in A-East, 4th place, reasonable selection.
Eastern Illinois at Oakland - Oakland was part of the 4-way battle for the Horizon title.  EIU faded to 9-7 in the down OVC, questionable selection perhaps.
James Madison at USC Upstate - Upstate had 23 wins on the year, but only 8-6 in the A-Sun...I'd select them.  JMU was part of the 4-way tie for the CAA crown and an obvious selection.
Bowling Green at St Francis(PA) - BGU was in contention for the MAC title until the end.  St Francis was a .500 team in the NEC and 1 game above .500 overall.  Meh.
Norfolk St at Eastern Kentucky - Norfolk was 2nd to NCCU in the MEAC.  EKU tied for the East division in the OVC, with Belmont.  Both solid selections.
Louisiana-Lafayette at Incarnate Word - ULL was in 4th in the Sun Belt, just 2 games back of the title.  IWU was 10-8 in the Southland, but this is their first postseason as a D1.  I'm ok with that.
Maryland-Eastern Shore at High Point - UMES finished 3rd in the MEAC...borderline selection but at 3rd place, I'm fine with it.  High Point was part of that 7-way race in the Big South.
Dartmouth at Canisius - Dartmouth was a .500 Ivy team.  Canisius was 11-9, 5th in the MAAC.  Both feel on the edge of being reasonable selections.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at FGCU - FGCU lost the A-Sun title on the final week.  TAMU-CC was T3 in the Southland.  I approve.
Cleveland St at Western Michigan - Both were contenders for the league title in the final week in the Horizon and MAC, respectively.
Kent St at Middle Tennessee - Kent St was another one of those 6 MAC teams in contention late for that title.  MTSU was 6th in CUSA, at .500 in conference.  Given the top of CUSA was pretty good, .500 is deserving of a postseason, IMO.
UNC-Wilmington at Sam Houston St - UNCW was part of the 4-way CAA tie, and Sam Houston St was a bubble NIT team.  Very solid matchup.
Northern Arizona at Grand Canyon - NAU was part of the 4-way race for the Big Sky title; GCU finished tied for 2nd in the WAC, so I guess they earned their spot.  But 2nd in that conference was 8-6.  Ew.
IPFW at Evansville - IPFW was 9-7 in the Summit, and might be borderline.  Evansville was .500 in the MVC, which isn't borderline.
Sacramento St at Portland - Sac State was another part of the 4-way race in the Big Sky.  Portland was above .500 overall, but just 7-11 in the WCC.  Borderline.
Tennessee-Martin at Northwestern St - NW State was T3 in the Southland, UT-M was 10-6 in the OVC, T4.  Both kind of on the edge, but okay.

By my non-expert eye:
Teams who didn't earn a bid that got it:  St Francis(PA), Eastern Illinois
Borderline teams that I don't mind getting a bid, but I hope they didn't get in ahead of more deserving teams:  UMES, Dartmouth, Canisius, IPFW, Portland, Tennessee-Martin

CBI:
Gardner-Webb at Colorado - Colorado, 7-11 and 15-17, in the CBI.  Yuck.  Awful.  G-Dub was one of the 7 Big South teams.
Pepperdine at Seattle - Pepperdine was 4th behind the big 3 in the WCC.  Seattle was .500 in the awful WAC.
Vermont at Hofstra - Hofstra was 5th in the 4-team CAA race, but did deserve a postseason.  Vermont was 2nd in A-East.
Radford at Delaware St - Radford, another team part of the Big South zaniness.  DSU, 9-7 in MEAC play, seems aggressively in.  4th MEAC postseason team!
Stony Brook at Mercer - 2nd in A-East for Stony Brook.  Mercer was 3rd in the SoCon, at 12-6, so it is a good bid for them despite their RPI.
Eastern Michigan at Louisiana-Monroe - ULM was part of the 4-way race in the Sun Belt.  EMU had 21 wins on the year but just 8-10 in the MAC.  I guess they have to be in the postseason with 21 wins, to be fair.
Rider at Loyola(Chi) - Loyola was a sub .500 team, but in the MVC.  Rider was 2nd in the MAAC.  2 checkmarks from me.
UC Santa Barbara at Oral Roberts - UCSB was T2 in the Big West.  Oral Bob was 3rd solo in the Summit.  Ok.

By my non-expert eye:
Teams who didn't earn a bid that got it:  Colorado, Seattle, Delaware St
Borderline teams that I don't mind getting a bid, but I hope they didn't get in ahead of more deserving teams:  none, the other 13 I'm okay with

So with that out of the way, I've got 5 very questionable selections and 6 marginally questionable selections.  In another post I'll look at who's sitting out of the postseason, to see if these selections really are questionable.

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