Early Release By Committee was a JOKE
For those of you who did not yet see the early seeding release by the NCAA Tournament committee, here are the 16 in order.
-Villanova, Kansas, Baylor Gonzaga
-North Carolina, Florida State, Louisville, Oregon
-Arizona, Virginia, Florida, Kentucky
-Butler, West Virginia, UCLA, Duke
Two Big East schools, Three Big 12 Schools, Five ACC Schools, Three Pac-12 Schools, Two SEC Schools and Gonzaga. Anybody notice a conference that is not in there, or a top five coaches poll team with the colors of cardinal in white, from a city of about 222,000 in the Badger state? Still not enough hints? Did the committee forget about the Big 10? Yeah, the team is the one on the cover photo, the Wisconsin Badgers. I even see the clear-cut solution, take out Florida and put in Wisconsin. I'd be fine with that.
What's honestly wrong with the Badgers resume that makes it so terrible? They have the fourth best defense in the nation (1st in the Big Ten), a 21-3 record and ZERO losses outside of the top 20. How many teams in that list have a loss outside of the top 20 RPI? Probably all of them. Yes, the RPI is very misleading, since Tennessee and Illinois are the second and third "best" wins, respectively, for the Badgers (Tennessee is NOT the fifth best team, or even the 15th best team, they played), but 12 of their 21 wins are against top 100 competition, and that doesn't include Power Five schools Rutgers and Oklahoma. They are 12-0 at home, and 9-3 on the road or in a neutral setting.
Yes, the Creighton loss will look worse and worse as time goes on, but that was a true road game back when they had Maurice Watson Jr. The Big 10 is very competitive, even Rutgers shows signs of life from time to time, and a road win over a full strength Indiana team is always impressive. Winning at Marquette, and vs. Syracuse looks better and better, and that blowout win over Ohio State looks better all the time as well. They can also add up to seven more top 100 wins in the Big Ten prior to the conference tournament. I don't get how you don't have them in your top 16.
For instance, Florida has only one win in the top 25 as well, at home against struggling Kentucky. They also have five total losses, and including a home loss to Vanderbilt. Sure, they beat Seton Hall and Miami in the non-conference, but are those wins THAT much better than at Marquette and vs. Syracuse, not even factoring in the bad loss? How about Butler, who has a great record against the top 25, but also has five losses, including three outside the top 50. RPI 65 Georgetown, 129 St. John's and 201 Indiana State (201!). 4-2 record outside the top 100.
West Virginia can hold onto their hat with wins over Kansas, Baylor and at Virginia, but they have five losses as well, all of them being outside the top 25, including a home loss vs. Oklahoma (who Wisconsin beat). Duke has a home loss to NC State, but I'm assuming it's because of Coach K being out, right? Florida State has many great wins, but they have three bad losses as well. Point being, Wisconsin has none. NONE.
It's not even like we have a weak schedule, as it is the 72nd ranked schedule in all of division one. We have a big three that can perform as well as most in the country, and likely have three of the top four candidates for Big 10 player of the year on the roster. There is a very real possibility that we will have at minimum 28 wins going into the tournament, and if that's not enough to get into the top 16 from a power conference, I don't know what is. The Badgers are on pace for the same record as the 36-4 Final Four team that beat 38-0 Kentucky. I'm not saying they are as good, but they were 21-3 once and in control of the Big Ten race. I just don't see how you can justify us being out of the top 16 because of no "great wins", although we could have 19 of them in the top 100 entering the tournament.
