Talking points: meandering thoughts on seeding and . . . where was I?

by Joel Hollingsworth on Mar 18, 2008 7:55 AM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

Photo credit: emdot

A Sea of Blue continues to set the standard for basketball blogging, this time by charting out each team's odds to make it to each stage of the NCAA Tournament. I'm working on something sorta kinda quasi-similar, but it will most certainly be less impressive and fraught with errors, miscalculations, and outright stupidity to boot. Beat that, aSoB! (At least we have a better acronym!)
Fulmer's Belly has unearthed American University's top-secret game plan against the Volunteers. That's what I think it is, anyway. It could also just be nervous fingers and a trigger-happy publisher launching a test post into RSS space from which it can never be retrieved. Wait-listed at American, my Jackson.
We got a No. 1 seed after all. Oh, wait, them's the Ladies. The men finished the season 5th in the final poll of the season. Like it matters. What matters is that we're a No. 2 seed in the Big Dance and widely regarded as the last No. 2 seed despite the argument that all No. 2 seeds were essentially equal and that our resume was rewarded with a game close to home despite the fact that it put us in a bracket with the announced overall No. 1 seed in its home state, even though that might not matter because we still have to get by American, either Butler (probably) or South Alabama (in Birmingham), and then Louisville (probably) before we can even think about that, and, my, this sentence reminds of that law school professor who shall remain anonymous who felt compelled to define every word over five letters long in the middle of whatever thought he was exploring, the problem being that he was also compelled to define every word in the definition and so on ad nauseum, yet he somehow always wormed his way back to his original thought and the joke emerged that in order to excel at second-semester-contracts all you really had to remember was one very long sentence and now I am marveling at how he did it because there is no way in Hades I'm finding my way back to the whole seeding thing.
Okay, then.
So the seeding may actually work for us, as it puts the team in a bit of an underdog, chip-on-the-shoulder role. Yay for expectations management! Also, the BruceBall Blog actually looks at the numbers and has a couple of enlightening posts concluding that our No. 2 seed might not be as bad as it first felt. The Power T helps us to focus on the task at hand, taking a look at the first weekend's opponents.

All for now. Keep an eye out for the "something sorta kinda quasi-similar" I mentioned above. Somebody go ahead and put 911 on speed dial, because playing with pythag is like juggling ginsu knives for me. Also, a preview of American coming soon, provided I don't slice off too many of my fingers.

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Question

because I'm too lazy to research it...

Has any team that has had the #1 RPI AND the #1 SOS not been a #1 seed in the tournament? Prior to this Tennessee team of course.

Don't get me wrong, playing with that underdog, chip on their shoulder mentality is what has transformed Tennessee from a joke to a national power (that and the guidance of one Bruce Pearl), so this might actually help them.

And now... the BasketVols!

by Volorado on Mar 18, 2008 10:14 AM EDT reply actions

I'd guess not

However, to be fair, the Vols' RPI has slipped to #2, behind UNC by a mere two-ten thousanths of a point.

RPI ranks #1, #3, #4, and #5 were awarded #1 seeds...but each was also their respective conference tournament champion. Fair or not, it's hard to argue against. Had we just taken care of business on the court, there would be no argument.

I'll dig into the question this evening though.

by Aerobab on Mar 18, 2008 10:48 AM EDT up reply actions

Thanks

and like I said, I really don't care. A 2 seed is nothing to be ashamed of, they get to play pretty close to Knoxville, and while the region is tough, the Vols are the most battle tested team in the tournament (12-4 against tournament teams). Hopefully, this only motivates the Vols. I know I'm pumped for Friday!

Friday: American Hate Day! Oooh, that came out wrong...

by Volorado on Mar 18, 2008 12:11 PM EDT up reply actions

On College Gamenight

last night, I'm pretty sure they said that in the last 15 seasons that something like 11-12 seasons where number 1 seeds have had the number 1 SOS and/or RPI. So that leaves those 3-4 seasons where a number 2 seed has had one of those.

Dustin

by volfan5216 on Mar 18, 2008 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions