Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Bubble watch: everyone else

Gonzaga (20-1) (6-0) NET 4 SoS 232
Vital signs:  8-1 R/N, non-con SoS 282, 3-1 vs. Q1, 2-0 vs. Q2
Signature wins:  @Arizona, N-Oregon, @Washington?
Bad losses:  none

Um, can a team be a 1 seed with those SoS numbers?  We're going to need to monitor this situation.  The good news for them is they have a strong position against the Pac-12 at least.  Home win over UNC has disintegrated into nothing.

St Mary's (15-4) (3-2) NET 41 SoS 95
Vital signs:  7-2 R/N, non-con SoS 180, 1-1 vs. Q1, 3-1 vs. Q2
Signature wins:  N-Wisky, BYU
Bad losses:  Santa Clara and Winthrop are on the ledger as Q3s

Not a bulletproof resume.  Merely a good resume instead of a great one.  Some solid Q2 wins to try and mask those Q3 losses.  I do worry that they burned some of their margin of error already.

BYU (13-6) (3-2) NET 38 SoS 29
Vital signs:  5-5 R/N, non-con SoS 13, 2-4 vs. Q1, 1-2 vs. Q2
Signature wins:  @Houston, N-Va Tech
Bad losses:  @Boise St I suppose

The strong SoS numbers have given them some buffer.  3 of their losses are Q1-A, so I'm not as worried as you'd think I'd be about 6 losses already.  Whiffing those signature win chances may be costly though.  Still in a decent position, maybe a better one that St Mary's.

San Diego St (19-0) (9-0) NET 2 SoS 179
Vital signs:  9-0 R/N, non-con SoS 109, 3-0 vs. Q1, 3-0 vs. Q2
Signature wins:  @BYU, N-Iowa, N-Creighton
Bad losses:  lol

A case where the Mountain West is starting to drag their numbers down.  Utah St going in the toilet doesn't help their cause (I can't even list USU in this section anymore).  Still, those 3 Q1 wins are gold, since they're all of the R/N variety.

Northern Iowa (14-3) (5-2) NET 35 SoS 111
Vital signs:  6-3 R/N, non-con SoS 118, 1-1 vs. Q1, 2-0 vs. Q2
Signature wins:  @Colorado and a lot of marginal ones after that
Bad losses:  @SIU, @Illinois St

2 Q3 losses this early mean the margin of error is dangerously thin.  The other loss is Q1-A, so there's still room before they drop out of the at-large pool, but still.

East Tennessee St (14-3) (6-1) NET 50 SoS 138
Vital signs:  6-3 R/N, non-con SoS 129, 2-1 vs. Q1, 1-1 vs. Q2
Signature wins:  @LSU, @UNCG
Bad losses:  @NDSU

With a NET of 50, they're the one SoCon team within hailing distance of the bubble (I'm tempted to list out UNCG as well, but they have a Q4 loss).  Strengths are obvious in the resume above, and the SoCon is strong enough to not hurt the profile significantly.  Furman, UNCG, and ETSU will provide quality win chances to each other.

Liberty (17-1) (5-0) NET 25 SoS 281 - mentioning them out of obligation.  A top 25 NET is legitimate business...but that SoS, and only 1 win in the top 2 quadrants (N-Akron) with no hope of another one in conference play is going to kill this resume.  A win at Vandy has turned into a nothingburger.

1 comment:

HenryMuto said...

Now that we are getting the NCAA committee February reveals each year about 5 weeks before selection Sunday they take a lot of the mystery out of it for bracket people. We will know what they think of Gonzaga's SOS and how that will affect them as a 1 seed.

I had my worst year ever last year compared to the masses on bracket matrix for the first time in like 18 years. I think the committee reveal has something to do with it. Everyone now gets a free look at the top 16 teams and if someone is making a mistake on a few teams they can fix that where as in the past before these reveals they would never get a chance to know they were screwing up their bracket.